This miracle of the feeding of the five thousand is probably one of the best known miracles in the Bible. Perhaps that’s because it is the only miracle that is presented in all four gospels. And as such it is perhaps difficult to provide new insight that hasn’t already been presented elsewhere at some point in the past. But that’s not really my job anyway. A preacher’s job is not to try to find out new information, or a new perspective and show everyone how clever he is because he has something different. But the preacher’s job is just to present the old, old story - to a new audience. So I probably won’t have anything new to say this morning, but I do hope that God will provide the impetus of the Holy Spirit through the Word, so that it will become real to you in a practical way.
The danger of familiarity is that we can lose sight of the practicality and the purpose, and think we already know the answers. It’s like the little boy who was asked what his favorite Bible story was. He said, "I like the one where everyone loafs and fishes.” He was familiar with the story, but he misunderstood the meaning. Maybe some of you may have that kind of familiarity. I know I do. I grew up in the church. Literally. My dad was a pastor. I was born while he was at Bible college. I grew up attending church about 4 times a week. Back in those days, they used to give you a little pin for attending Sunday School if you attended every Sunday during the year without missing one. And each year thereafter you got another pin that hung off the bottom of the primary pin. It was like a medal, that had a ribbon added every year that you were in attendance every Sunday. By the time I was a teenager, I had about 13 little ribbons on my pin. I was like a Sunday School hero.
But growing up in the church has it’s downside. One was I knew all the songs in the hymnbook by heart. But the downside was I learned them before I could read. So in later years I discovered that some of the lyrics to songs were quite a bit different than what I thought they were. For instance, it was a few years before I realized it was “blessed assurance, Jesus is mine” and not “blessed insurance, Jesus is mine.” I had heard what I thought were the words, but turns out I was substituting another word that sounded like it, but had a different meaning.
Maybe that illustrates the difficulty in coming to familiar passages of scripture. We are familiar with the words, but we may have missed the meaning. So rather than give you some new geography insights, or historical insights, or even theological insights, I want to just focus on the purpose of the miracle this morning, and make sure that we all have the right message.
This is the fourth miracle that John presents in his gospel. And yet at this point in Christ’s life, Jesus has been in public ministry about 2 years. So John leaves a lot out. In fact, since the end of chapter five, it’s probably been at least 6 months to a year that has elapsed. But the miracles that John does give us are strategically presented in order to illustrate his stated purpose found in the 20th chapter, verses 30-31 “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”
So that’s the purpose of this miracle. It’s to teach us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And that if you believe in Him, receive Him, then you will have life though Him. That is the summary of John’s opening thesis of chapter one where he sets forth the theology and doctrine of Christ whom he calls the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And then he says that in Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
You should know by now the principle that I state almost every week - that every physical miracle presented in the gospel is given to illustrate a spiritual principle. And that is especially true of this event. There have been many misinterpretations of this miracle over the centuries. Not the least of which is that it teaches a social gospel - the idea that this presents a template for what the church is to be about; feeding the hungry. Or another favorite interpretation of Sunday school teachers, that it teaches little boys that we need to share, and if we share, then we contribute to the accomplishment of the purpose for which Christ came; to make us nicer, more gentle, loving people, and to make the world a better place.
But the fact is, that Jesus took care of natural needs only as a means to take care of spiritual needs. I have to be constantly reminded of this myself as I go through life. I tend to focus on the physical, on the immediate, and I lose sight of the spiritual. But what this miracle illustrates is that Jesus did not come to set up a physical kingdom on earth, where peace and goodwill would prevail. That is exactly what He took great pains to avoid, as you can see in the last section of this passage. Look at vs.15, “So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.”
Jesus didn’t come to set up a physical kingdom, where He would provide universal health care, and universal welfare. People will vote for that kind of king. But Jesus didn’t come to establish an earthly kingdom, or overthrow a tyrannical empire. Jesus came to establish a spiritual kingdom. So whatever He did in the physical realm, was designed to serve that purpose, and no other.
And as Christians, we need to be reminded of that. Christ always sought to expound the spiritual principle through the physical illustration, and not vice a versa. So when Christ works in our lives, it’s to promote spiritual growth, not physical growth. There may be times when He works in the physical, but it’s to bring about a spiritual transformation. It’s not just for physical comfort or success or profit, or just to make life more enjoyable. That’s how we get the cart before the horse.
But the fact that Jesus is also compassionate towards our physical needs goes without saying. These people were hungry and so Jesus is concerned about that and wants to provide for their needs. But there is a big difference between God supplying our needs and supplying our wants. Our wants never get satisfied. And God will not serve our wants. But He does promise to provide for our needs.
John says the multitude were only following Jesus because of the miracles He was doing, but He was still compassionate towards them, and so He feeds them physically, but as a means of feeding them spiritually. That’s what we really see going on here. It says in Luke 9:11, that when Jesus saw the crowds following Him, “He began speaking to them about the kingdom of God and curing those who had need of healing.” In effect, His miracles were designed to teach them that He was the source of all life, even the Son of God. That’s what it means to teach them about the nature of the kingdom of God. But as is often the case, the people were a little short sighted. Most of them really only cared about the immediacy of the miracles and the signs that He was doing.
But it shows the mercy and compassion of God towards sinners that Christ does not rebuke them, knowing their lack of spiritual insight. But rather He continues to be gracious to sinners, in order to open their eyes to the truth. Romans 2:4 says that the kindness of God is designed to lead us to repentance. God is gracious and compassionate and kind, even towards sinners who are selfish, or motivated by self serving reasons. Paul said in Titus 3:4 “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.”
So Jesus has already determined that He is going to feed the multitude, but He’s going to do it in such a way as to teach some important spiritual lessons. And so He turns His attention first to His disciples. That’s the first principle. That if we are going to change the world, it starts with us that are saved. It starts with the church. God wants to employ us in the building of the kingdom of God.
Jesus turns to Philip in vs.5 and says, “‘Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?’ This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do.” Now when it says that Jesus said this to test him, it doesn’t mean He was trying to trick him, or to embarrass him by asking him a question that he knew he would get wrong. Jesus isn’t like our old school teachers who liked to ask us questions when they knew we hadn’t done our homework. The idea of testing is to prove something. To prove that something works as it was designed to work. David, you will remember, said about Saul’s armor that he had not tested it, or proven it. That means he had not tried it out and knew that he could depend on it in a fight. Jesus wants to prove or test Philip’s faith. And maybe sometimes that means He has to stretch our faith. He presents an obstacle, and gives us the leeway to tackle that obstacle, not to watch us fail, but to show us the way that He wants us to overcome it. At the time, it may seem impossible, and we might not handle it right, but the divine purpose is to teach us to be overcomers, and that nothing is impossible with God, when it is God’s will.
Philip though pulls out his calculator. He is a practical guy. Maybe he was an accountant in his previous life. But irregardless, he is practical. He does the math, and says, “Listen Lord, if we had 200 days worth of wages, we couldn’t buy enough bread to give everyone here even a snack.” By the way, Matthew says in Matt.14:19, that there were 5000 men, not including women and children. So there were probably 15000 people in attendance. And a denarius was a day’s wage for a Roman soldier, so we could estimate that equates to about $20,000 by today’s standards. Philip says we don’t have nearly enough money to feed these people. He was practical, but he was missing the point.
But that’s exactly the point Jesus wanted to make - that it was impossible! Not practical, nor possible, but impossible. That’s the whole point of the gospel. It’s impossible for us to be reconciled to Christ. Our sins have created a chasm between us and God that cannot be jumped across. God gave us the law to show us that it was impossible to achieve God’s standard of righteousness. So God made the impossible possible through the impractical; holy, righteous God became sin for us, that we might be made righteous through Him.
Now in Mark’s gospel, chapter 6 we read that Jesus tells the disciples to go into the crowd and see if they could find some food. And when they come back Andrew reports that there is only one boy’s lunch, which is five barley loaves and two fish. But that only further emphasizes the impossibility of the situation. “What is that for so many people?”
Now a lot of commentators want to disparage the disciples for their lack of spiritual comprehension. Personally, I cringe whenever I hear preachers disparage the disciples, as if to say if they were there, they would have had all spiritual discernment. They wouldn’t have been like those knucklehead disciples who couldn’t see the forest for the trees. But I think we should give the disciples the benefit of the doubt. If Andrew didn’t have any faith, then I don’t think that he would have offered Jesus the boy’s lunch. I think he would have looked at that lunch and said, “there is no point to bring this to Jesus.” But I think there is a hint of a little faith here.
And let me tell you some good news. God can use even a little faith. In Zechariah 4, God tells Zerubbabel that the rebuilding of the temple will not be accomplished by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord. And then the Lord goes on to say that he is not to despise the day of small things, but He will make this great mountain into a plain. Now I don’t want to go off on a tangent on that passage, but the point that I want to make is that God doesn’t despise small things, and He can use small things to move impossible mountains. Not by might, not by power, but by His Spirit.
In Matthew 17:20, the disciples wanted to know why they could not cast out a demon, and Jesus said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.” The point is, a mustard seed is the smallest seed in the garden, and yet even faith of that small size, when it is faith in the right source, can move mountains. And nothing will be impossible with God.
Andrew had a little bit of faith. And the little boy had a little bit of lunch. But it was still an impossible situation. And Jesus wants to illustrate that even more. So He says, “have the people sit down.” It was a grassy knoll there, and the other gospels tell us that Jesus said to make the people sit in groups of 50 or 100. I like that. It shows that Jesus had a sense of humor. Tell 12 disciples to go into a crowd of 15000 people and get them to sit down in groups of 50 on the ground. That’s 300 blocks of 50 people. That’s like a miracle in of itself to get that many people organized and quieted down and seated in rows. I think that was another test of faith. But the disciples didn’t object, they didn’t complain, and they got it done. They had enough faith to be obedient, even when it didn’t make sense or they didn’t understand it or it wasn’t easy.
And that’s another important principle. When you are faced with an impossible situation, don’t start running around in circles like a chicken crying that the sky is falling. Go to God with what little faith you have, trust God to deal with the impossibility, and then just do what He tells you to do. Do what you know you are to do. Let me put that in practical terms for you. When your life is in crisis, don’t stop coming to church. Find your place in the congregation, sit down, and put yourself under subjection to God in spite of your fear. Be obedient to what God has already told you to do. Don’t stop praying, don’t stop reading your Bible. Order your life under the authority of God and make yourself ready to trust in God’s providence.
So Jesus takes the food in His hands and blesses it and breaks it and gives it to the disciples to distribute to the crowd. John doesn’t say that He gave it to the disciples, but the other gospels do. Again and again, you see Jesus using the disciples. But notice that He blesses the food, He gives thanks. He is giving thanks to illustrate that God is providing the miracle of feeding the multitude. Jesus isn’t doing this for His sake. If He were hungry He would not have created food for Himself. Satan tempted Him with that in the wilderness and Jesus rebuked him by saying, “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Jesus is doing this to glorify God, and to feed these people spiritually.
By the way, I hope you are in the habit of blessing your food before you eat. Jesus did it as an example to us, that we should give thanks in all things. Give thanks when you have but a little and God will multiply His blessings unto you. And don’t be ashamed to do it publicly as a testimony to others. That’s what Jesus was doing.
So how did Jesus feed 15000 people from 5 loaves and two fish? Well, he obviously created food already cooked and ready to be eaten. That’s what they call in the military MRE’s. Meals Ready to Eat. But I bet you Jesus’ meal tasted a whole lot better than the military version. Anyhow, the Bible doesn’t tell us exactly how the miracle happened. But what it does tells us is the result of the miracle. Everyone ate until they were full. And the disciples gathered up 12 baskets of leftovers. John 1 told us that Jesus made everything in creation. So that is exactly what is being illustrated here. Jesus is supplying cooked fish and baked bread out of His hands, and giving to the disciples and they give it to the people.
But the how of the miracle is not as important as the why of the miracle. One thing that was being taught was that someone greater than Moses was here. That is what they meant in vs.14 which says, “Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, ‘This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.’” What they are referring to is the prophecy made by Moses in Deut. 18:15 who said, ”The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.” Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt and fed them with manna and quail for 40 years. But of course, Moses didn’t feed them himself, God rained down manna from heaven. Now they see Jesus, manufacturing bread and fish out of His hands to feed 15000 people. The parallel was apparent. This was the prophet that Moses spoke of. This was the Messiah. So their impulse was to make Him their king, thinking that He would overthrow their oppressors the same way that Moses did.
But that was not God’s purpose in doing the miracle. Yes, it was to confirm that someone greater than Moses was here. The Messiah was here. The kingdom of God was at hand. But not a physical kingdom, but a spiritual kingdom. Jesus told Pilate in John 18:36 "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm."
So if Jesus did not come to establish a physical kingdom, then what was He coming to do? Jesus will say later in chapter 6 vs.35 "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” The real significance of the miracle is to illustrate that Jesus is the bread of life, the source of spiritual life. That is how He establishes a spiritual kingdom, by transferring sinners from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of God through the forgiveness of their sins. He is the bread of life that was given for us.
My wife is the baker around our house, I am not. But I do know that to make bread there are certain things you have to do. The grain that grows in the field must be cut down. The grain must be crushed under the grinding stone to make flour. And then that flour is mixed with oil, and then baked in an oven. And all of that pictures the life and suffering of our Lord Jesus. So when the Lord says, "I am the bread of God that comes down from heaven," or "I am the bread of life," we need to remember the process by which bread becomes bread. And Jesus becomes bread by virtue of the fact that he gives his life for us. So it is a lesson in the sufficiency of our Lord for salvation. In order for him to become bread He must be cut down and crushed, He had to be filled with the Spirit of God, and He also bore the punishment of God for sin -- the fire of God’s wrath on sin. He must be baked in the oven of God’s wrath, executing penalty upon Him for our sins.
Isaiah 53 records the beautiful prophecy concerning Jesus doing just that. It says “For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground….Surely our griefs He Himself bore,And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions,He was crushed for our iniquities;The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,And by His scourging we are healed.”
So the significance of the miracle was to show the impossibility of man’s situation; that man was without hope, cut off from God, cut off from the source of life, and unable to accomplish his own deliverance. There was no way to provide for what was lacking. Spiritually speaking, we were starving, facing an impossible barrier, an impossible mountain that we could not overcome. But God in His compassion and mercy sent Jesus to offer Himself as the bread of life, as our substitute, that by faith in Him, even a little faith, by believing in Him; believing what the Bible said about Him and what He was claiming to be, believing His teaching and His works, by even a little faith, we are able to partake of that bread and receive life.
Salvation, as I’ve said over and over again, is by repentance and faith. Repentance is simply acknowledging your sin, your inability to attain the righteousness that God requires. Repentance is coming face to face with the impossibility of your situation, and recognizing that Jesus is your only hope. And then the second step is faith. Your faith is just a willingness to believe that He is sufficient to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That He is God and the source of life eternal. By simple faith and repentance you receive Him, just as the multitude ate of the meal and were satisfied, Jesus is the bread of life that satisfies forever. You will never hunger for righteousness again. Because Jesus is the source of spiritual life.
Listen, there are a lot more applications that I could make from this miraculous event. Most of which I’m sure you probably have heard before. But what I want to express to you today above all else is that the gospel is for lost people. It is for broken people. The gospel is for destitute people, hopeless people. Jesus did a lot of things in that miracle to emphasize the hopelessness of their situation. I think He even planned it so that they would be far away from every source of food so that they would realize the hopelessness of the situation. Jesus came to save sinners. He came to seek and to save those that are lost. He did not come to make good people better. He came to make sinners righteous by the grace of God, because of the compassion of God towards man.
And that primary application demands a response from you. Have you received the bread of life? Have you tasted and seen that the Lord is good? Have you received the forgiveness of your sins and been clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ? Listen, no amount of money could purchase the bread that was needed to feed that multitude. Jesus gave it without charge, without cost, so that whoever would receive it might receive life, and be filled abundantly.
There is one other obvious application as well which must be made and that is the involvement of the disciples. When Jesus had witnessed to the woman at Samaria in chapter 4, He sent the disciples away to buy food in town. And when they came back, urging Him to eat, He told them that He had food to eat that they did not know about. He said in vs. 54, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”
And that principle is laid out for us here in this passage through the disciples. He wants them to do even as He did in Samaria. He wants them to find spiritual food in feeding others. And when they do that, they end up with 12 baskets left over. Twelve baskets for 12 disciples. That was the disciples’ spiritual food. In doing the will of God, God provided more than enough for their own needs. Each of them ended up with their own basket filled with provisions. So for us that are Christians, our job is to be obedient, even as the disciples were, and feed His sheep. And when we do that, we will find food for our souls, and life for our spirit.
I want to close this service today by asking you once again, have you eaten of the bread of life? Jesus was broken for you. God loved you so much that He sent Jesus to be broken and crushed, to bear your sins upon the cross so that you might know the forgiveness of sins and receive eternal life. Have your received Jesus as your Savior? He says, “eat, drink, this is My body, which is broken for you.” You can’t do anything to earn salvation, or buy it, or try to find it on your own. But what you can do is come in faith to Christ as your Savior and the source of all life, and you will find spiritual life in Him. Do it today. It’s already bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ, and He offers it to you as a free gift today. Receive Him, eat the bread of life that you might have eternal life.
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