6:1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii1 worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.”13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
6:1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii1 worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.”13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:
Invite you to open your Bibles to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. We're actually going to be looking, at the first Bible story I ever told my children. I think I can't remember how old Caroline was, but I knew it was time for me to to start giving at least a Bible story before she went to bed. And I decided to go here first, because I think it's one of the most important passages we have in the bible.
Joel Brooks:
It tells us a lot about who Jesus is and who we are and what our calling is as a church. John chapter 6, we'll begin reading in verse 1. After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following Him because they saw signs that He was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain and there he sat down with his disciples.
Joel Brooks:
Now the passover, the feast of the Jews was at hand. Lifting up his eyes then and seeing the large that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread? So that these people may eat. He said this to test Him, for He Himself knew what He would do. Philip answered Him, 200 denarii would would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.
Joel Brooks:
One of the disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother said to him, and there is a boy here who has 5 barley loaves and 2 fish, but what are they for so many? Jesus said, have the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down about 5,000 in number. Jesus then took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed them to those who were seated.
Joel Brooks:
So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, He told His disciples, gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost. So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the 5 barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, this indeed is the prophet who is to come into the world. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:
Father, we ask that in this moment through your spirit, you would open up dull minds and hardened hearts to receive what you would have for us. Jesus, we ask that you would speak life to us in this place, that you would draw us to yourself. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
Amen. Something you have probably noticed as we've been going through the gospel of John these last few months, is just how different this gospel is from the other 3. This gospel was written much later than Matthew, Mark or Luke. So when John wrote this, he obviously wanted to include, new stories about Jesus. New miracles that Jesus did.
Joel Brooks:
New teachings that Jesus gave, so He wouldn't repeat what had already been said. Why write a new gospel if all you're going to do is repeat what people already knew? However here, John includes a story that all three other gospels included. As a matter of fact, outside of the resurrection of Jesus, this is the only miracle that occurs in all 4 gospels. This is somewhat surprising when you consider the stories and the miracles that these writers had to draw from.
Joel Brooks:
I mean they had Lazarus being raised from the dead, and actually that's only in John. They had Jesus calming the wind and the waves, or Jesus walking on water. They had some pretty spectacular miracles, but but for some reason, all 4 gospel writers decided to include this one story and only this story about Jesus. And so you have to ask yourself, what was it about Jesus feeding 5,000 people that left such an impression on these gospel writers? Well, in order to understand this story better, you really need to know the back story.
Joel Brooks:
Everything that is leading up to this moment. All the other gospels directly link this story with the death of John the Baptist. John the Baptist who was immensely popular with the Jewish people. He had been put in prison by King Herod. And because King Herod got drunk, because he was highly entertained by some woman dancer who requested that he he cut off John the Baptist head.
Joel Brooks:
Because of that, we lost the greatest person who ever lived according to Jesus. Just like that. John the Baptist's death would have, it would have been a shock. It would have sent shock waves throughout Israel. I mean this was the prophet.
Joel Brooks:
The the prophet that was saying the kingdom of heaven is is imminent, indeed it's actually at hand. And this death hit all of people hard, but it especially hit Jesus hard because Jesus, he didn't just lose a figure head. Jesus lost a friend and his own relative. John was his first cousin. And when Jesus heard the news, not just about John's death, but the the humiliating way in which he died this pointless death.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus just had to get away. And says that, he he left the crowds and he got in a boat and he went across the sea to to get away. To spend some time in prayer, some time to think. But the people actually ran and they beat Jesus there. They ran around the lake and they beat Jesus there.
Joel Brooks:
So then Jesus goes up on the mountain to be alone, but then the people come up on the mountain. And now Jesus is thinking, what do I do with all these people? You might be wondering how exactly does does the death of John the Baptist connect? Why is it so important to understand that when looking at this story of Jesus feeding 5,000? It's because of this, John the Baptist was a man who knew without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus was the Messiah, that Jesus was the son of God.
Joel Brooks:
He knew it without a doubt, but then, Herod had him arrested. He was thrown into prison. And the other gospels tell us that he actually began to doubt, his faith began to waver at that moment. He even sent his disciples to Jesus asking, are you really the Messiah? And he did this because the kingdom of God was not advancing how he thought the kingdom was supposed to advance.
Joel Brooks:
But but there couldn't have been any doubt here. Remember John the Baptist, when he saw Jesus for the first time, he said, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And right after he said this, a voice came from heaven, said, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Then he had the spirit of God descending like a dove and resting on Jesus. Pretty good signs indicating this is the Messiah.
Joel Brooks:
This is the Son of God. He should have known without a doubt, but he did doubt. Because the kingdom that God was bringing was coming in a way that he had not thought about. John was hoping for someone to come in, be a victorious king, for somebody to come in and lead a revolution, and overthrow Herod. Overthrow Rome.
Joel Brooks:
John was expecting a change in government. He he was expecting for those who actually loved God, for those who had faith, for them to be the ones with power. The ones who get to write the laws. The one who gets to set the agenda, the rules. The ones who get to Lord over the people.
Joel Brooks:
Neither He or His disciples were expecting to be thrown into prison. And this was the common sentiment of the time. John believed this, John's disciples believed this and all the people who listened to John, believed this, because he was enormously popular. And so when John was actually killed, it shocked them all and it sent these shock waves throughout Israel. And this shock moved to anger.
Joel Brooks:
It was like kicking a hornet's nest at this time. The people were about to explode in rage. Hatred against Rome is at a all time high at this period. More and more people are beginning to talk about a revolution. How they can be free from this.
Joel Brooks:
The gospel of John here says that this all happened during the time of the passover. The passover for these people is like the 4th July for Americans. It's when they would celebrate their freedom. Their freedom from oppression. It's when these people were the most patriotic.
Joel Brooks:
But now they're asking, where's just exactly where is our freedom? Where? When this can happen? And so these people are ready to revolt. It's kinda hard for us to understand, and so let me put this in contemporary setting, it would be something like if our president of the United States got drunk, had some party, on the 4th July, and decided to have Billy Graham publicly executed.
Joel Brooks:
We we wouldn't be able to believe it. That something like that could happen. We we would be going to the streets. We'd be picketing. Some people would be rioting And it's precisely at this time when everybody is so angry and this hornets nest has been kicked, that the person, the very person to whom John the Baptist pointed to and said, this is the king of Israel.
Joel Brooks:
This is the messiah. That this person goes out into the country, which is the center of Roman sentiment sentimentism. I got this from Lauren. Thank you. It was out in the country where one would find the extremist, one would find the zealots, the people who most hated Rome, the people who most wanted to do violence to Herod.
Joel Brooks:
The countryside was filled with people like this. People who wanted to be part of a revolution. And when these people heard that the one that John the Baptist had pointed to and said, This is the rightful King. This is the Messiah. When they heard that He was out there, they rushed to go and be with Him, because they are thinking this is when the revolt starts.
Joel Brooks:
They're in such a rush they don't even think to pack food. There's an urgency to this. And we're not just talking about a few people here, there are many people at this gathering. Every gospel writer says that there was 5,000 men. And it's a little unusual for somebody to only count the men.
Joel Brooks:
I mean, we have later in the book of acts. It's not just the men who were counted, yet here it's only the men. And the gospel writers are hinting at something. They're saying that this is not just a crowd. This very well could be considered a potential army.
Joel Brooks:
The beginnings of an army. 5,000 men strong. An army that could go and take Herod's throne by force. And sure enough, we read the end of the story that they actually tried to make Jesus King by force. This is what they wanted.
Joel Brooks:
And so you need to see this as the backdrop, what's going on here? These are people who want a revolution. They're sick of the way that the world has been operating and they wanna change. They're sick of being ruled by a pagan government. They're sick of being the moral minority.
Joel Brooks:
They're sick of losing power. They're longing to go back to the days of King David. Where they were respected. And they wanna see change. They want Jesus to change things.
Joel Brooks:
And hear me, Jesus wants to change things. He wants to change the world and he wants them to be a part of this movement. He wants us to be a part of this movement. The question is, how is this supposed to happen? If you wanna see God's kingdom truly breakthrough into this world, How how are we to do this?
Joel Brooks:
Let's look at what Jesus does. Jesus preaches the gospel and gives out bread. He preaches the gospel and he gives out bread. He doesn't go a brave heart on them. You know, everybody pick up your sword.
Joel Brooks:
We're gonna storm the palace. He doesn't do that. Instead, he he feeds them. The other gospels say that he first taught them, then he healed them, and this happened all day, and at the end of the day he he fed them food. If you wanna change the world, this is what you're supposed to do.
Joel Brooks:
You are supposed to share the gospel and you're supposed to meet people's basic needs. Preach the gospel through both word and action. This is one of the reasons, if not the main reason, that this story is in all 4 gospels. It's the calling of the church. This is how Jesus comes into the world.
Joel Brooks:
He comes by teaching the gospel and by meeting the physical needs of the poor and the oppressed. Jesus didn't come as a general leading an army. He came as a shepherd, protecting and feeding his flock. I love the gospel of Mark's account of this story. Because Mark says that Jesus looked at the people with compassion, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Joel Brooks:
We then read in both Matthew and in Mark, and also here in John, that He has them sit down. But it says they don't just sit down, they're supposed to sit down in the grass. They all point out the fact that there is grass here. Mark, who almost never has an adjective in his gospel, actually says, Jesus had them lay down in the green grass. And what they want to do is they want to bring to mind a certain psalm as they are writing it this way.
Joel Brooks:
They want us to see Jesus as the shepherd in Psalm 23. So so think of think of everything that's happening at this moment. The the death of John the Baptist and knowing that things like that can happen to any of them at any moment. Food. They need all these things and hear these words.
Joel Brooks:
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me where? Into battle?
Joel Brooks:
No. He leads me besides still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His namesake. And even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
Joel Brooks:
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. In the presence of their enemies. Jesus is the shepherd to whom the Psalmist points. And now and now, everything that we have talked about in this story so far, you could actually glean from the other gospels account of this story.
Joel Brooks:
And so, besides just wanting to maybe reemphasize things, does John wanna teach us something new? Are there any new details that John includes? And the answer is, yes. John is the only gospel that tells us about Andrew, or tells us about Philip, tells us about Andrew, and tells us about the little boy. He adds those details.
Joel Brooks:
The the other writers just talk about the disciples in general, and they don't mention where Jesus got the 5 loaves and the 2 fish, but John puts faces to this. And the reason he highlights these people is because he wants to teach us something new. So let's read about Jesus' interaction with Philip. Look at verse 5. Lifting up his eyes then and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?
Joel Brooks:
I mean, you read this and you're like, Poor, poor Philip. I mean really poor poor Philip. Why does Jesus have to pick on him? The other gospels simply say that Jesus asked kind of a disciple about this, but but John is throwing Philip under the bus. And he says, Where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?
Joel Brooks:
And he said this to test Him, for He Himself knew what He would do. Philip answered Him, 200 denarii would not be enough to to buy enough bread for each of them to get a little. Jesus asked Philip a probing question here. Maybe it was just because Philip happened to be the closest disciple. We don't know why he asked Philip this, but the Philip is the one who got the question.
Joel Brooks:
And as they are both looking out at 5,000 hungry men, about 15 to 20000 people total, if you count the women and the children. Jesus asked Philip, where can you go to buy food for all of them? And Jesus isn't asking this question to be mean to Philip. That's that's not His point. He's He wants to teach Philip something.
Joel Brooks:
He already knows what he's going to do, but he wants to see if Philip actually knows what he's going to do. If Philip has eyes to see this yet. And you can almost see Philip, you know, starting to sweat and starting to panic, as he's going out, he's counting all the numbers and he's thinking about how far things are going. And he's like, you know, pulls out his wallet. And he's he's trying to figure everything out.
Joel Brooks:
And he realized that the logistics are a nightmare for this. They're in the middle of the nowhere. They nowhere. They don't have hardly any money. 200 days wages aren't gonna buy these people even even crackers, but he's gotta tell Jesus something.
Joel Brooks:
And so he says, well, you know, we could spend 200 days of our wages and buy these people little few morsels. We could empty our savings if that's what you want, and we could buy these people all maybe a little something. This is a good, honest evaluation by Philip, that helps no one. Philip, he takes inventory of everything around him. How far they are, how much money they have, how many people there are.
Joel Brooks:
He he takes inventory of everything except for Jesus. Jesus isn't part of his equation yet. The appropriate response to this should have been, Well Jesus we don't need to go anywhere. I mean I've seen what you can do. If you can heal entire villages, you can feed these people.
Joel Brooks:
Certainly, you can make some bread. That would have been the appropriate response. And one of the reasons that John, he writes this about Philip, is because he wants us to identify with Philip here. He wants us to hear this question. For every person here in this room to hear Jesus pointedly asking the question, where are you gonna go to buy food for all these people?
Joel Brooks:
And I love it that Jesus doesn't ask Philip, How are you going to do this? He asked him, Where is he going to go? The question is not how. The question is, where will you go? And the answer is always, Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
We're to always go to Jesus. Where can you meet the physical needs of the poor in this community? Where can you go? You go to Jesus. Where can you go to meet your emotionally starving neighbor, their needs?
Joel Brooks:
You could go to Jesus. Where can you go to to meet the spiritual needs of all your coworkers? You can go to Jesus. When you're taking inventory of of the enormous problems that are before you, do not forget to take inventory of the one person who can actually solve the problem, Jesus. Listen, this world it needs for the church to do more than hand out crackers.
Joel Brooks:
It needs for the church to do more than just say, oh well here's a book and read it. It needs for the church to do more than just have another building campaign. Power of Jesus To go to Jesus, so Jesus can meet their needs. Next in this story, we are introduced to Andrew. Andrew does a little bit better than Philip.
Joel Brooks:
I mean, he at least finds a boy with a lunch, but then the very first thing he says is, But what is so little with so many? So Andrew fails. And then we have this little boy. I love it that John includes this detail of this this little boy and he offers Jesus his lunch. At least, I mean we assume he offers Jesus his lunch.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus doesn't say it, but Jesus didn't take it. That would radically change our view of Jesus. He offers Jesus his lunch. It's amazing. 15,000 people earlier, rushed to the other side of the lake.
Joel Brooks:
They all forgot their lunch. And I I can almost picture this little boy leaving and the nagging mom just like, don't forget your lunch. And 15,000 people are thankful for this mother. This boy, he offers Jesus his lunch. We know he was poor, because all he has are 2 sardines, and 5 little biscuits, some some barley bread.
Joel Brooks:
Barley was the poor man's bread. It wasn't the really nice wheat flour. It's what we would consider like a a really dry piece of corn bread. As the poor bread. And and the word here for fish is not the normal Greek word for fish.
Joel Brooks:
This is denoting something much smaller, like a, you know, a sardine, a dried sardine. This kid was poor and his lunch was small, but he offered it to Jesus. That's why John includes this in his story. He wants us to see that this is how Jesus works. I mean let me ask you, do you think Jesus actually needed this boy and his lunch to perform the miracle?
Joel Brooks:
Do you think he needed that? Jesus who spoke and trillions of stars, you know, just burst into existence from nothing that that Jesus actually somehow needed something that that that that Jesus actually somehow needed something to get this miracle going. Jesus didn't need this little boy's lunch at all, But he wanted to use it. He loves to do miracles this way. He loves to take these meager little gifts and to use them in extraordinary ways.
Joel Brooks:
Doing so gives Jesus incredible joy. And so the question we have before us is this, do you wanna be a person who actually changes the world? Does this church wanna change the world? And I hope the answer is yes. We want to do this.
Joel Brooks:
We see the brokenness of the world, we see the poverty, we see the injustice, we see the emptiness, we see the racism, we see the violence, and we think this has all got to end. I want to change this broken world. If if your answer is yes you wanna change this, you need to do this. You need to share the gospel and you need to meet people's needs. That's it.
Joel Brooks:
When you're overwhelmed by the enormous problems in front of you, what you need to do is take the meager gifts you have, and simply ask Jesus to use them. And Jesus will take these and He will feed everyone who He wants to feed. Pray with me. Our father, I ask that you would make us a people who do indeed change the world. That we would be fearless in the way that we present the gospel.
Joel Brooks:
And we would be resilient in the way that we pursue, the poor and the oppressed so that we might show compassion on them and meet their physical needs. May we preach the gospel in word and deed. And when the task overwhelms us, may we simply come to you with the little we have and say, Jesus, all of this is yours. Use it however you want. Jesus, you're enough.
Joel Brooks:
You're enough to use our meager gifts to feed 1,000. And we pray that you would do so. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.