30
John 6:1-13 THE MIRACULOUS FEEDING OF A
MULTITUDE
Introduction:
During
the ministry of Jesus there were actually two
miraculous
feedings of a multitude. This is the
more
spectacular
of the two.
I.
Things which happened between chapter five and chapter
six
V.
1, "After these things Jesus went over the sea of
these
things" refers back to the events of chapter five.
Jesus and His disciples were in
of one of the national
religious feasts. John does not tell
us which feast. While there, Jesus healed a man on the
sabbath
day and the Jewish leaders charged Him with breaking
the law of the sabbath. This was a
charge which carried the
penalty
of death by stoning if found guilty.
John
does not tell us the outcome of the trial.
He just
closed
out the record of that event without telling us how
the Jews disposed of the
charge. However, since the
miraculous
feeding of the multitude took place afterwards,
we know that they did not find
Him guilty. I cannot believe
that they would ever pronounce
Jesus "Not guilty."
Therefore, I think they just dropped the
charge on the
grounds
of insufficient evidence.
However,
I personally think that they really dropped the
charges
because they were afraid of what the masses of
people
would do if they were to try to stone Jesus to death.
I know that later they were afraid of the
multitude and I
think
that was the reason they dropped this charge against
Him.
At
any rate, Jesus is no longer in
events
of this text are said to take place at a later time.
So for whatever the reason, they did
release Him and He
returned
to
There
must have been numerous things which took place
between
chapter five and chapter six. From the
writings of
Matthew, Mark and Luke we can name some of
the more
important
events. For one thing, Jesus sent the
twelve
apostles
out on a preaching campaign throughout the land of
told to preach the gospel
message to the lost sheep of the
house
of
Those
apostles had completed their preaching campaign
and had returned to
overjoyed
at the results of their campaign. They
said,
"Even the devils are subject to
us."
Another
momentous event that took place during this time
was that Herod Antipas, the
Roman ruler of
John the Baptist. When Jesus was told this news, He became
very sad and went into a period
of mourning for John. Jesus
was of a mind to get off
somewhere alone and grieve for His
faithful
servant John.
However,
when the people in and around
out that Jesus and His
disciples had returned to
they thronged in around Him
before He could get away.
According to Mark, they brought so many
sick people to Jesus
that day that Jesus and His
disciples had no time to eat the
So
Jesus took His disciples and entered into a boat and
headed
out for the eastern shores of the
Our text calls attention that this sea was
also called "The
that name.
II. The great multitude which followed
V.
2, "And a great multitude followed him, because they
saw his miracles which he did
on them that were diseased."
John says a great multitude of people
followed Him. Mark
says they followed on foot. They saw Jesus and His
disciples
go across the sea or lake in a boat and they
headed
out on foot around the shores of the lake.
John said
that the thing which excited
them and caused them to follow
was that they had seen how He
healed the sick and afflicted.
Mark says also that the crowd began to
grow. That is, other
people
from all the villages on that north side of the lake
thronged
out to see what all the excitement was about.
V.
3, "And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he
sat with his
disciples." Jesus and His disciples
arrived
first. Jesus had led His disciples up one of the
mountains
in the area and were about to
get some much needed rest. No
doubt,
they were all mourning the death of John the Baptist.
III. The nearness of the Jewish Passover
In
verse 4 John makes a statement that seems almost out
of place in this record. V. 4, "And the passover, a feast
of the Jews, was
nigh." If the feast which Jesus
attended
back in chapter four was the passover, then this means that
this event is taking place about
a year later. If the
former
feast was not the passover, then it was a much
shorter
period of time.
But
the point is: Why did John mention the passover in
connection
with this miracle? I am not
certain. I think
that it might be to help explain
why so many people were in
this great multitude. A lot of people had apparently
already
traveled from the outlying areas of the nation on
their
way toward
numbers
being in
crowd
in this gathering.
IV. The problem of trying to feed such a
large multitude
V.
5, "When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a
great
company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence
shall
we buy bread, that these may eat?"
From John's
writing
we might get the idea that Jesus spoke this to
Philip when they first saw the crowd
coming. According to
other
gospel writers, this conversation did not take place
until
late in the evening when it was about time for them to
leave. Jesus actually spent the afternoon and the
early
part of the evening ministering
to the great crowd of
people. He preached to them and healed numerous sick
folk.
It
began to be late in the evening when some of the
disciples
came to Him. They suggested that He send
the
multitude
away, lest they become weak and faint for lack of
nourishment. We know that Jesus and His disciples had
missed
their
likewise. Now it was time for the evening meal and it
was a
long way back to town. There was a very real danger that
some of them might become too
weak to make it back.
Apparently the Apostle Philip was among
the disciples who
came to Jesus with the
suggestion that He send them away.
Other
gospel writers tell us that Jesus said to the
disciples,
"You feed them." John tells us
that He
specifically
addressed the Apostle Philip and asked, "Where
can we buy bread for
them?" I can only imagine how
Philip
reacted
to this question. He must have been
bowled over by
the question. How in the world could they buy enough food
for all this crowd? It reminds me of the TV commercial
where
the baseball players start figuring how much it would
cost to buy pizzas for all the
crowd at the stadium.
At
any rate, Jesus was not serious about buying food for
all the crowd. He just wanted to use the occasion to help
Philip grow in
faith. He wanted Philip's faith to be
stronger. V. 6, "And this he said to prove him:
for he
himself
knew what he would do." I am quite
sure that He
wants
our's to be stronger also.
V.
7, "Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of
bread
is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may
take a little." Philip said, "Two hundred pennyworth
would
not buy enough to go around to
everybody even if we only
gave each one a tiny little
bit." In other words, "We just
do not have enough money to
buy food for all this crowd."
V.
8-9, "One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's
brother,
saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath
five barley loaves, and two
small fishes: but what are they
among
so many?" Andrew said, "We do
have a little lad who
has five barley loaves two
small fish."
V.
The solution to the problem
V.
10, "And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now
there
was much grass in the place..." We
are told by the
other
gospel writers that Jesus had them to sit in groups of
50s and 100s. If everybody was up milling about there would
be no way that everybody would
get fed. A lot of people
would
be missed.
(V.
10), "...So the men sat down, in number about five
thousand." John said there were about five thousand men.
Other gospel writers tell us that there
were about five
thousand
men plus the women and children. If they
averaged
only one woman and one child per
there was a total of about
15,000 people.
V.
11, "And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given
thanks,
he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples
to them that were set down;
and likewise of the fishes as
much as they would." Jesus used the twelve apostles as
waiters. Each man always carried a small basket which
would
serve
as a plate. So Jesus started breaking
off pieces of
bread
and fish into the baskets. The apostles,
in turn
served
the people and returned for more. They
kept this up
until
all of that great multitude of people was full and
said, "No thanks, we don't
want any more."
V.
12-13, "When they were filled, he said unto his
disciples,
Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing
be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and
filled
twelve
baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves,
which
remained over and above unto them that had eaten."
They had more left over than they had when
they started.
VI. Men's difficulty in believing this
miracle
Listen,
in out text last Sunday Jesus pointed out how
important
it is for us to believe the Scripture.
Now for
those
who believe the Scripture, there is no doubt about the
great
miracle of this event. Doubters and
skeptics try to
explain
away the miracle of it, but all who believe the
Bible recognize
that this miracle cannot be explained away.
It
really ought not be a problem for anybody who claims
to believe the Bible. In the first chapter of this book,
John told us that Jesus is the Word of
God. He said that
the Word was in the beginning
with A God and that the Word
was God. He said that all things were made by
Him. Now get
this scene! Picture Jesus in the beginning when He did
not
even have five loaves of bread
or two little fishes. He had
nothing
to break and multiply. He had nothing
but His
power. But He created all the heavens and the
earth. I
say, that if you believe the
Scripture, it ought not be hard
to believe that He broke those
five little loaves of bread
and those two little fish and
that He fed this great
multitude
of 5,000 men plus women and children --- about
15,000 people in all.
Furthermore,
picture this scene. Back in the
wilderness
Moses had about 10 million men and women
traveling through
the wilderness and they had no
food. How many penneyworth
would
it take to buy enough food for this crowd?
But the
Lord fed them. He fed them for forty years! Let me tell
you that anybody who believes
the Bible should have no
problem
believing that Jesus performed this miracle and fed
this great crowd of people with
only two loaves and two
fishes.
Let
me tell you something else. Jesus
promised that if
a lost, unworthy sinner will
trust in Him for salvation,
that sinner will be saved and
will go to heaven when he
dies. Romans
name of the Lord shall be
saved." Acts 16:31 says,
"Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved." I want
to repeat to you: Anybody who believes the Bible should
have no trouble believing that
Jesus saves.
Conclusion:
Come
and trust Him. Ask Him to save your
soul. Trust
Him to save your soul.