Today, in John 6: 1-15 we will talk about Jesus feeding the 5,000+. So, let’s open our Bibles OR click on the link.
Well, as chapter six begins Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee also known as the Sea of Tiberias. Because of the miracles HE had done a crowd was following Him. Jesus went to a hill, sat down with His disciples around Him and this time of year the Passover was almost there. The setting is close to Bethsaida, a town only about 9 miles away and where Philip was from.
As the crowd approached Jesus asked, ” Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?“ By asking this Jesus already knew the answer, but He is testing His disciples to see how strong their faith was. Philip looks up, and basically says if we had a over a half a years wages each person would only get a little to eat.
By asking this Jesus will be able to accentuate the power of his next coming miracle. Philip looked at this situation and addressed it from a man’s standpoint, not from a spiritual advantage point. Jesus is probably trying to teach His disciples that we may limit what God does by assuming what is and is not possible.
Then Andrew speaks up, maybe he had a little more insight, who knows?? He says, here is a boy with 5 barley loafs and 2 fish. Now from a man’s standpoint, from a merely human position this is just plain ignorant to think this would be enough. Now, maybe this little boy with the fish and barley brought all he had believing, who knows? (yes, God knows) But he was there for the upcoming miracle.
Once Andrew says this what does Jesus do? Jesus says, ” Make the men sit down.” So, 5,000 men sat down, not counting women and children. What does Jesus do next, say come and get it? No, no, no! Jesus knows of the miracle that is about to happen and does what we all should do daily and each time we sup. He broke the bread and gave thanks to God; then He did likewise with the fish. There was no doubt in Jesus’ mind this would feed everyone as God would not let the bread or fish run out until all were fed.
After everyone ate, no, NO, the Bible does not say this. The Bible tells us that after everyone was FULL, not just a snack, or a little bit, but all were FULL. Different translations will say filled, all they could eat, etc. but it all means FULL.
Okay, now pay attention to this. From 5 barley loafs and 2 fish the disciples picked up 12 baskets of leftovers. What? All of this from so little? YES, when God is involved we should expect to see more. As Sid Roth says, with God the supernatural is natural. Oh, so true!
A couple of lessons here. One the young boy with the barley loafs and fish. We are never too young or too old to be used by God, we just need to be available.
Lesson number two, God gives in abundance. Whatever we give Him, time, ability, or resources, HE multiplies its effectiveness beyond our wildest expectation.
We have to take the first step, the step in making ourselves available to God. Then HE will show you how greatly you can be used to advance the work of his Kingdom.
The people said this is the Prophet we have been expecting (Moses prophesied this in Deuteronomy 18: — 15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.
Jesus could see that the people were ready to take Him by force and make Him king, the time was yet to come, so He slipped away to a mountain alone. Another lesson here, sometimes we need to get away, be alone, and just have a conversation with God.
Hey, I thought this was a great lesson today and looking forward to tomorrow when Peter identifies Jesus as the Christ.