Well, turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. weekly study of the gospel of John, but it’s been a month or so since we’ve been in John. And last time, if you remember, we finished off by finishing chapter five. And as we come to chapter six, this is one of those places in the Bible that happens a lot, where we’re reminded that chapter divisions were not original to the Bible. John did not write this gospel with chapters. For John, this is one long continuous story and the chapters and verses were added later to help us study the Bible and help us find our way in the Bible, but as John wrote this gospel Chapter six is a continuation of what was said in chapter five.

And it’s important for us to remember where we are in John’s account of who Jesus is, because a lot happened in chapter five. A lot happened that really affects the rest of John’s account, really affects the rest of Jesus’s ministry in John’s gospel. And as we come to chapter six, we really need to remember where we were. in chapter five and what was happening there.

And as you remember, it starts in chapter five with Jesus healing the man at the pool of Bethesda, the man who had been laying there or who at least had been sick for 38 years. And what did the man do in return for Jesus healing him and removing the ailment that he had for his whole life? Well, he turned Jesus in to the Jews. who were offended that somebody would break their Sabbath laws. And so in response to this, Jesus went on to explain in great detail who he was and why he had authority to do what he did on the Sabbath.

And you read in verses 16 and 17 of chapter five, for this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But he answered them, my father is working until now and I myself am working. Jesus identifies himself with the father, as equal with the father in his works. And the Jews understood exactly what he was saying. They understood exactly what he meant by that because in the next verse, verse 18, we see for this reason, Therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, he was also calling God his own father and making himself equal with God. He was saying that he was equal with God. They understood that much, though he wasn’t making himself anything. He was equal with God because he is God, as John started off the whole gospel. John 1 verses 1 and 2, in the beginning was the word, Jesus. And the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

So chapter 5 is just an outworking or an explanation of what John starts the gospel with. He was with God and he was God. That’s who he is and that’s who he is revealing himself to be here to these Jewish leaders. He goes on to explain his equality with the Father in verse 23. He says, he who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. And Jesus goes on to talk about the authority he’s been given because of who he is. And he says in verses 28 and 29, do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming. in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come forth, those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life and those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

” And as you continue in the flow of the dialogue here in chapter 5, Jesus knew they wouldn’t take his word for it. So he gave them evidence that this is true. He gave them witnesses. And he talked about John the Baptist and how they accepted him for a little while. But then he moves on to the very works that he does, the very miracles he’s performing in front of them. He just healed a man who had been sick for 38 years. And he says, is that not enough? What more proof do you need but the very works that he does?

And then Jesus told them that God himself bears witness to who he is in his word. And specifically, he points to Moses. Moses is one who bears witness to him in scripture, but Jesus tells them, it’s very clear, you don’t believe Moses. You don’t believe what Moses said. They clearly don’t understand scripture because they refuse to see their need to come to him. They don’t have the love of God in them, that was obvious, since they’re trying to kill him. And they refuse to glorify God because they were more worried about their own glory.

Lastly, if he hadn’t offended them enough, he comes right out and says, If you’d believe Moses, you’d believe me. In verses 46 and 47, if you believed Moses, you would believe me for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? And that is where chapter five leaves off. A very purposeful cliffhanger. There is no answer to Jesus’ question here. John just moves on and we see the very first words of chapter 6 after these things. So he’s referring back to the things in chapter 5.

After those things happened, next comes what happens in chapter 6. And so we see chapter five just builds and builds the tension and the drama of what’s going on there. And it builds to this crescendo of this reference to Moses. And Jesus over and over challenges these Jews and their rejection of him in the last rebuke he gives them, is you don’t even believe Moses. You don’t even believe the one whom you claim to follow, the one who is their hero. And so that’s the framing of chapter six. And we’ll cover all of this as we work our way through chapter six, but just to give you a little bit of a sneak peek of what John then reveals to us after Jesus builds to this accusation of not believing Moses.

John chapter six is all about showing how Jesus is greater than Moses. Because what we see is after leaving this reference, think about what Moses did for Israel. Israel, wandering in the wilderness, complaining because they’re hungry. They have no food. Moses prays for food and God delivers manna or bread from heaven. Jesus creates bread himself. And he did this just before the Passover, which was instituted through Moses, but ultimately pointed to Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. And the people recognize this.

After he, we’ll see today, does this miracle of feeding the 5,000, they come to the conclusion that truly this is the prophet that’s coming into the world, the one who Moses told us about. They saw it. They saw what Moses was saying. Moses also parted the Red Sea. God, working through him, parts the Red Sea so that people can walk across on dry land. What comes next in chapter six, Jesus walks right over the water. He walks on the water. He’s greater than Moses in that miracle. And then later as Jesus begins to explain everything that’s happening and talking to them and teaching them, he reveals to them he is the bread of life from heaven. So not only does he provide bread for them, he is the bread of life. And so as we go through chapter six, we’ll see a main purpose and theme of what is being revealed is that Jesus is greater than Moses. If they don’t believe Moses, how could they believe in him? Let’s get started on chapter six this morning. We’ll be looking at the first 14 verses.

What we see here is the fourth sign that Jesus performs, at least that John records, that points to who he is. Turning the water into wine at the wedding at Cana was the first sign. Then the healing of the official’s son. And then we saw this man at the pool of Bethesda that Jesus healed. And today we come to the fourth sign that John records, the feeding of the 5,000.

And while this all is one story and one episode here that John is relaying to us, we do see four different scenes in this story. And that’s how we’ll divide up this passage this morning. You see, first of all, the seekers that come to him. And then there’s a suggestion that Jesus makes. And thirdly, the solution he gives. And then last, we’ll look at the saying that the people have because of this miracle.

So allow me to read John’s account of the feeding of the 5,000. John chapter 6, verses 1 through 14. This is the word of the Lord.

After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, or Tiberias. Now a large crowd was following him because they were seeking the signs which he was doing on those who were sick. Then Jesus went up on the mountain there and he was sitting down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near.

Therefore Jesus, lifting up his eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, where should we buy bread so that these people may eat? And he was saying this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, 200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, there is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?

Jesus said, have the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down in number, about 5,000. Jesus then took the loaves and having given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. Likewise, also of the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they were filled, he said to his disciples, gather up the leftover pieces so that nothing will be lost. So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

Therefore, when the people saw the sign which he had done, they were saying, this is truly the prophet who is to come into the world.

That is the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, the fourth sign that Jesus performs here. We see the first scene that we’re given is these seekers, these ones who were coming to him. Verse one, as we saw already, says, after these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, or Tiberias. This is the very same phrase that John started chapter five with, after these things. And this is how John moves the narrative along. After something is finished, he says, after these things, and moves on to the next thing he wants to reveal to us. But notice it doesn’t say immediately. after these things, or then Jesus went away, there had been some time that passed. Remember, a lot of things happen that John doesn’t record, but he records certain things so that we get a picture of who Jesus is.

A lot of time had passed, and we know this because the things that happen in chapter five, he tells us they happen at a feast of the Jews, but he doesn’t say which feast. But in verse one of chapter five, this feast could have been the Feast of Tabernacles. And if that’s the feast John’s talking about, it had been about six months before chapter six happens. It could have been another feast. If it was the Passover, it would have been a year, but it probably wasn’t the Passover in chapter five. But either way, some time had passed because now we are at the time where the Passover is near once again.

Jesus had been ministering in Galilee during that time, as we see from the other gospels. But he comes to, John says, the other side of the Sea of Galilee. And then you see in parentheses there, or Tiberias. And John does that because in Jesus’ day, it was called the Sea of Galilee. But by the time John wrote the gospel, Herod Antipas had renamed this sea, the Sea of Tiberias, so he wants his people that are reading to know what he’s talking about, know where he’s talking about.

And he says, at this place, a large crowd was following him because they were seeing the signs which he was doing on those who were sick. And you notice in the other gospel accounts, This is one of the few miracles or things that happens in all four gospels. So we have a lot of information to kind of compare and contrast with each other.

But the other gospel accounts say that they had gotten into a boat and the people knew where they were going, so they went around the long way to meet them at this other side of the Sea of Galilee. So as Jesus and his disciples were trying to get away to some seclusion and some privacy, they get there and the crowds are here again.

I read Mark’s account earlier in the service, but Mark tells us they crossed on a boat, and the people from the surrounding cities were gathering on foot. Again, they get there and there’s this crowd, but this crowd is not motivated by faith in who Jesus is, or by repentance, or by genuine love and adoration for Jesus. John says they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. They were seeking the signs. They were seeking the things that they could see. They wanted to see some more neat tricks that Jesus could do for them.

We’ve seen this consistently through John’s gospel. The people want the signs, but not the sign giver. So they come to where Jesus is, And they come in crowds. But even though they’re coming for what he can do, because they’re not coming for the right reasons, later on we see that they leave him. They leave him. They don’t come for his words, because his words offend them.

Later on, verse 66 of John chapter 6, after all of these things happen, John says, as a result of this, as a result of what he says. Many of his disciples went away. We’re not walking with him anymore. So there’s great crowds when it’s all about what Jesus can do and the cool things that they can see, but when he starts to teach them, when they start to hear his words, well, they don’t want so much of that anymore, and so they go away from him.

But in the beginning of the chapter here, verse three, Jesus goes up on the mountain, and there he was sitting with his disciples. So despite this crowd, Jesus still wants to get his disciples away and have some time with them. He was trying to get some quiet time away from the crowds. They’d been around the crowds a lot and he wants to now get away by themselves and have some quiet. And I can relate to that. Sometimes you’re around a lot of crowds, that’s enough. Jesus is human and he needed to get away from them for a bit.

But what we see here first is these seekers that are coming to him because of the signs. Next we see a suggestion. Verse four continues, now the Passover, the feast of the Jews was near. And now we know why the crowds were so big. There were so many people in this area. And verse five says, therefore, Jesus lifting up his eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to him. He said to Philip, where should we buy bread so that these people may eat?

Jesus sees this problem coming, this dilemma that’s about to face them. Jesus can see what’s going to happen. And so he turns to Philip, well, what do we do now? What are we supposed to do, Philip? Where are we going to buy bread to feed these people? The other accounts say the disciples said, well, maybe we should just send them away and they can buy their own food. They can get their own dinner tonight. The other gospel accounts say it was getting late in the day and in Matthew 14 verse 15, the disciples came to him and said, this place is desolate. The hour is already late. So send the crowds away that they may go into the villages and buy food.

But Jesus has another idea. Jesus has another idea for them, and he asks Philip, no, no, where are we going to buy bread for these people? How are we going to feed them? Why Jesus singled out Philip, we don’t really know. Maybe he was the one who organized things for them, or the one who covered the logistics for this group as they traveled around, but the question was intended to show the impossibility of this. Where are we going to buy food for this many people? There wasn’t any place where this much bread could be purchased at this time of day. And he knew that Philip didn’t know of any place to buy bread or that he had no plan to provide all of this.

We see in the next verse, verse six, this he was saying to test him. for he himself knew what he was going to do. This verse is profound. This is the key verse to this passage. This is a great verse for those of us worriers. In Sunday school this morning, Craig confessed that he is a worrier, and he just said it out loud because the rest of us are too. We worry about things. How are we supposed to know what’s gonna happen next? This would be a good verse to highlight in your Bible.

As usual, Jesus knows what’s going to happen. He wasn’t figuring this out as he went along. He himself knew what he was going to do. He not only was going to perform a miracle, But he was using this moment to teach his disciples. He could have seen the crowds coming to him and just stood up and boom, here’s some food. But no, he’s taking the time to teach his disciples. He was strengthening their faith in him.

Remember James chapter one. Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials or tests. knowing that the testing of your faith brings about perseverance. And let perseverance have its perfect work so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. He didn’t just want them to see another sign, to see another trick that he could do. He wanted them to see that he was in control of the whole situation. And this is how we should view every test and trial in our lives. Yes, there’s a test. There’s a trial. Jesus intentionally puts this test before them, but He knows what He’s going to do. Nothing surprises our Lord. So as we all face tests and trials and difficulties in our life, remember John 6 verse 6. This he was saying to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. He was putting him in this trial, but he knew what to do. He always does.

And Jesus not only knows your circumstances, he not only knows what you’re going through, and the trials you’re facing, he not only knows about them, he knows what he’s doing in them, in you. Jesus is in complete control of this situation. And he’s in complete control of your situation as well. Don’t forget this. He himself knows what he’s going to do.

While Philip doesn’t yet see this, And he doesn’t have an answer for Jesus either. Because he says in verse 7, Philip answered him, 200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them. For everyone to even receive a little. Now a denarii was about a day’s wage. So 200 denarii was about a little more than seven months wages. So there’s a lot of math you can do on this, but depending on whatever the average day’s wage is today, you can figure this could be at least $30,000 or more that he suggests. And Philip says, even if we had this much money, we couldn’t feed all these people with that.

Philip only sees the impossibility of the situation. There’s no way. It’s impossible. What are we supposed to do? And while Jesus singles out Philip here with the question, it isn’t like the other disciples had it figured out, because you don’t hear any answers from them either. And in fact, in Mark, what I read before, his disciples come to him and begin saying, this place is desolate and it’s already quite late. Why don’t we just send them away? Their solution is, not my problem. They can go figure this out.

But Jesus, again, has other ideas. He has other intentions in all of this. And he sets it all up with this question to Philip. And next we see his solution. The solution Jesus has for the problem. We do hear from another disciple, unlike Philip, Andrew at least tries to come up with something. And we see in verse 8 and 9. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, well, there’s a boy who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what is that? What is that for so many people?

So while Andrew found something, he has no confidence in it at all. And just like Philip, Andrew’s faith wavered as he considered the problem. Has he considered all the details in front of him? He finds this boy with five loaves of bread and two fish. What is that? What is that for this problem we face? How often do we look at God’s provision like that? What is that for the problem that I’m facing? Do you understand what I’m facing here? Do you understand the problem before me?

The problem that these disciples had is what they were focusing on. They’re focusing on the dilemma, the problem, the challenge in front of them. They’re focusing all their attention on what’s wrong here. We can’t do it. It’s impossible. Look at this problem.” And they missed the provider standing in front of them. They’d already seen him heal the sick and heal the lame, give sight to the blind, turn water into wine. And if they had thought about those things, they probably would have come to the right and trusted that Jesus could do this too.

But in this moment, they’re too distracted by the problem to see the solution that God could provide. And again, we do this too. We do this too. It’s really easy to become focused on our problems. And sometimes we have really, really big problems. We live in a very fallen and broken world. And we face things every day that we can’t do. And that’s true. But if our only scale for our problems is ourselves, of course it’s too big for me. Of course my problem is so big.

But if we shift our focus, from the problem in front of us to the God who stands behind it, well, maybe our problem isn’t quite so big. When we see our problem in light of who God is, the problems begin to shrink back down to size. And we begin to realize that not only is God bigger than our problem, God is the one who ordained our problem, and he placed it in our lives in the first place. So not only is he able to solve our problems, he’s able to use them to make us more like Christ, to strengthen our faith in him.

And that’s what’s about to happen with these disciples. He puts an impossible problem in front of them. But Jesus is in control of the whole situation, and they’re about to see that. But Andrew’s response shows that like Philip and the rest of the disciples, their faith isn’t quite there yet. It’s not where it needs to be yet.

So, in verse 10, Jesus says, have the people sit down. Apparently, they didn’t have the right answer yet. So Jesus’ response to them is, sit down. Have the people sit down and watch. And it goes on, now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down and number about 5,000. That’s an interesting comment. But there’s much grass in the place. Mark, in his A count I read earlier in verse 39 of chapter 6, he adds that he commanded them to sit down in groups on the green grass. It’s an odd detail to provide. Why tell us about the grass and the green grass? What does that have to do with Jesus feeding the 5,000? Some people, some commenters said, well, he was talking about what time of year it was. But he already told us it was Passover time. So why the comment of the grass? And I think Mark’s account has the clue for us. Because what was Jesus’ reaction when he saw the crowds? He saw a sheep without a shepherd. And when he tells them to sit down or recline or lie down in green grass, what does that sound like? What does that sound like? When you start to hear echoes in Scripture, when you start to read Scripture in light of other Scripture, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. Jesus is showing them, your sheep without a shepherd, who’s the good shepherd? Sit down in the grass and I’ll fulfill your needs so that you do not want.” Needs like food for 5,000 people. Isn’t the Bible cool?

Well, in any case, Jesus had them sit back on this grass and there was about 5,000 men. But Matthew adds, besides women and children. So there’s 5,000 men and figuring on a wife and 1.5 children per, it’s so weird when they do that. Who has half a child? Why don’t they just say one to two children? But figuring on a wife and one to two children, you could figure 15 to 20,000 people is a pretty safe estimate. And then in verse 11, Jesus took the loaves. The five loaves. And having given thanks, he distributed it to them who were seated. Likewise, also the fish, as much as they wanted. These were probably not big, huge loaves of bread. They were probably five pieces of bread. You remember, a little boy is carrying this lunch. But he took the five loaves and two fish And he gave thanks, and he handed it out, and he handed it out, and he handed it out. It takes a while to feed 20,000 people, but he kept handing out the food. We don’t get a lot of detail about that either. It’s just he distributed it.

Moving on. What do you mean he distributed five loaves and two fish to 20,000 people? He just distributed it. But the simplicity of it highlights the miracle. Just like turning the water into wine. Jesus just did it. He did it. He can do it. No flash, no thrills, no smoke and lights. He just distributed it. And he provides as much as they wanted.

And verse 12 says, and when they were filled, he said to his disciples, gather up the leftover pieces so that nothing will be lost. Not only did he provide enough, he provided leftovers. And he tells the disciples to gather up the leftovers. In verse 13, so they gathered them up. And they filled 12 baskets with pieces of five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. They gather up the leftovers into 12 baskets. They didn’t have Tupperware yet. They gather it into baskets.

And some people try to figure out, why do they have 12? What are the allusions here to the 12 baskets? Maybe Jesus is saying he’s enough for the 12 tribes of Israel. Or 12 is the perfect number, so that’s what he provides. I mean, maybe, but it doesn’t say all that. Probably more like there were 12 disciples, and they each had a basket, and they filled it with leftovers. But the point is that Jesus provided more than enough. In this impossible situation, that there’s no way that we can have enough, Jesus provided more than enough. He didn’t just stretch this meal so that everybody could get a crumb. He provided, and He provided abundantly, as He does. That’s Jesus’ solution to this problem, much more than they could ask or think, literally.

And lastly, we see the saying. This miracle led people to say something. In verse 14, therefore, when the people saw the sign which he had done, they were saying, truly, this is the prophet who is to come into the world. Here we are back to Moses again. Remember, John frames this whole chapter with what Jesus says at the end of chapter five. And he told us the story for a reason. John includes what he does for a purpose. And he goes to this story next for a reason. And Jesus’ miraculous provision in this sign, this miracle, reminded the people of Moses and what Moses said. Jesus did feed the multitude with bread from heaven, just like Moses. And these people remembered that Moses said a prophet was coming. In Deuteronomy 18, verse 15, Moses says, Yahweh, your God, will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers. You shall listen to him. Jesus was the greater prophet that Moses spoke of. And the most important part of what Moses said, listen to him. The very thing that the Jews refused to do in chapter five, listen to him. If you believed Moses, you’d believe me for he spoke about me, but you do not believe his writings. So how will you believe my words?

And while these people did correctly realize the sign and what it pointed to, they drew wrong conclusions from it. Because as we see in the next verse, where we’ll start next week, verse 15, so Jesus, knowing they were going to come and take him by force to make him king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself alone. They wanted a political ruler. A king. They wanted what he could do for them, but they didn’t want him. If they wanted him, they would listen to him and believe in him.

But in a few more verses, look down to verse 26, the result of this miracle. Jesus answered and said to them, “‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me. Not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. At first they come because of the signs. The things he was doing. He was healing all the sick. So that’s why they come. Then he feeds them. And now he says, now all you want is the food. You’re still only following me for what I can do. Not for who he is.

As I mentioned earlier, later in verse 66, they go away, and they’re not walking with Him anymore. They saw, but they didn’t believe. They wanted His benefits, but not His rule over their life.

So as we see this sign, this miracle, This amazing revelation that Jesus gives them. As we see this in God’s word, what do you see? What does the sign point you to? Do you see him as Lord and Savior? Do you see him as the one who paid your penalty for your sin? and the one who rules and reigns over your life? Do you listen to Him? Do you believe Him?

If you do not yet know Christ, you need to come to know Him today. Not because of the things He can provide for you. Not because of the way He’ll make your life better. Not because it’s getting more and more popular to say that Christ is King. He is the Christ, and He is the Son of God. And by believing in Him, you can have life in His name. You need to come to Him today.

And if you do trust Christ as your Savior, remember that He is the Good Shepherd, and He provides for His sheep. And no matter the problem that you face in your life, no matter the impossibility that’s before you, whether it’s financial problems, health problems, family problems, infertility, death, cancer, no matter the problem, He is Lord over your problem too. He’s the one who stands on the other side. Don’t just look at your problem. Look to the one who is sovereign over your problems. Remember John chapter six, verse six, and this he was saying to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. He knows, and he knows what he’s doing, so trust him. Look beyond your problem to Him. He knows what He’s going to do.

Let’s stand and close in a word of prayer. Our God in heaven, we are so thankful. As we are reminded by a passage like this that You are sovereign and you’re sovereign over our problems. You’re sovereign over the trials and tests that we face. Not only do you understand them and see them, but you ordain them and you use them in our life to bring us closer to you, to turn us more into the image of Christ, to build our faith and our endurance and our trust in you. God, I pray that as we all face different challenges and trials and things that seem impossible, that we remember that you know what you’re doing and that we can trust you and that you are the one who can provide the solution to our problem and who can use the problem in our lives. God, we thank you for who you are. We praise and glorify you this morning. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.