In this sermon, Pastor Dave Capoccia examines John 6:1-15 and John’s account of Jesus feeding a massive crowd that included five-thousand men. John presents this sign miracle so that you will not come to Jesus to fulfill your own agenda for temporal blessing but to find eternal life in Jesus.
The passage can be divided under four narrative headings:
1. A Massive, Expectant Crowd (vv. 1-4)
2. An Impossible Food Problem (vv. 5-9)
3. The Miraculous, Satisfying Feast (vv. 10-13)
4. The Disappointing, Unbelieving Conclusion (vv. 14-15)
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Summary
This passage from John 6:1-15 teaches us the true lesson of Jesus feeding the massive crowd. We are reminded that Jesus’s miraculous signs point not to temporal blessing and earthly comfort, but to Jesus himself as the bread of life. The crowd witnessed an extraordinary miracle—the feeding of perhaps 20,000 people from five loaves and two fish—yet they learned the wrong lesson, seeking to make Jesus king so he would serve their agenda for prosperity and power. We are called to examine whether we follow Jesus for Jesus himself, or for what we think he can give us.
Key Lessons:
- Jesus’s miracles are signs pointing to his identity as the Son of God, not merely demonstrations of power meant to provide earthly comfort.
- It is possible to witness God’s mercy and grace yet learn the wrong lesson—seeking to manipulate God into fulfilling our own agenda rather than worshiping him in repentance and faith.
- Jesus is the true bread of life who alone can satisfy the deepest hunger of the human soul; all other “food” perishes and leaves us wanting more.
- Coming to Jesus means surrendering our own agenda and embracing his purposes for our lives, even when that includes trials and suffering.
Application: We are called to examine our hearts and ask whether we follow Jesus for who he is or for what we hope he will give us. We must repent of treating Jesus like a means to our own ends and instead pursue him as the true treasure, giving up whatever distractions or sins keep us from feeding on the real bread of life.
Discussion Questions:
- In what ways might we, like the crowd, be following Jesus primarily for the blessings he provides rather than for who he is?
- How does the distinction between the crowd’s enthusiastic response in verse 14 and Jesus’s withdrawal in verse 15 challenge our understanding of what genuine faith looks like?
- What specific “food that perishes”—comforts, ambitions, or habits—might be keeping you from deeper satisfaction in Christ as the bread of life?
Scripture Focus: John 6:1-15 records the feeding of the massive crowd, while John 6:27 and 6:35 provide Jesus’s own interpretation: “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life” and “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger.” Deuteronomy 18:18-19 provides the Old Testament background of the promised prophet like Moses.
Outline
- Introduction
- The True Lesson of the Miracle
- Reading John 6:1-15
- The Biggest Miracle Jesus Ever Did
- The Sign Is Misunderstood
- John 5 and John 6 in Parallel
- Jewish Rejection Despite Miracles
- John’s Main Idea
- A Massive, Expectant Crowd (vv. 1-4)
- The Setting: Other Side of the Sea
- The Crowd Follows for Signs
- Believing but Not Saving Faith
- Jesus on the Mountain
- The Passover Connection
- An Impossible Food Problem (vv. 5-9)
- The Miraculous, Satisfying Feast (vv. 10-13)
- The Disappointing, Unbelieving Conclusion (vv. 14-15)
- The Crowd Misidentifies Jesus
- Jesus Withdraws from the Crowd
- The True Meaning: I Am the Bread of Life
- Application: Which Jesus Do You Want?
Introduction
Let’s pray.
Lord God, we thank you for your word and we thank you for Jesus Christ. We do pray, Lord, all glory be to Christ as we go to your word now and we hear more about Christ. We want it to be so that Christ is lifted up in our minds, in our hearts, that we can testify truly with the words of the songs we’ve just sung that it’s all about Jesus Christ.
And if we lose everything else but still have Christ, that’s okay, because he is our life, Lord. We can easily move away from that. I pray that with this sermon you’d bring us back. You’d bring us right back to where we need to be, centered on Christ, living for him and nothing else.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
The True Lesson of the Miracle
Well, thinking about today’s passage, I was reminded this past week about a certain notorious incident that took place in the Kosha household growing up. You see, we had a dog, a Papillon named Jedadiah, whom we called Jetty or Jed for short.
I don’t know if you know what a Papillon is. Just imagine a long-haired Chihuahua with a slightly longer snout, butterfly-shaped ears, and an extra fluffy tail, and you’ve got a Papillon. Jetty was not a good dog. He was cute, but he was also a depraved, food-worshiping creature.
One day we found Jetty limping around the house, staying off his back right leg. My siblings and I were immediately filled with compassion toward our dog. We said, “Oh, poor Jetty! Did you hurt yourself?” We started to baby him, gave him extra pets, extra treats, and made sure he was comfortable. After all, the little dog looked so distressed.
However, later that same day, my siblings and I happened upon Jetty again, walking around without his limp. We said to him, “Oh, Jetty, are you feeling all better?” And what he did—as soon as he heard our voices—the back leg sprung right back into the limp position. Except there was a problem: it was the wrong leg. He lifted his back left foot instead of the originally injured back right foot.
Well, you can imagine we did not feel the same compassion for Jetty the second time as we did the first time. Rather, we marveled at the selfish lesson that our little dog learned. Instead of learning that his owners truly care about him and that maybe in return he should become a more loyal and well-behaved dog, Jetty learned that he could manipulate his owners into giving him what he wanted if he simply pretended to be injured and in distress.
But that was the wrong lesson to learn. As proved when his owner’s compassion evaporated when Jetty’s efforts to manipulate them were exposed for what they were. Now, Jetty was just a dog. We might excuse his learning the wrong lesson in the face of compassion. But what about people?
“Is it possible for people in selfish pride to learn the wrong lesson from God’s acts of mercy?”
What about people with God? Is it possible for people in selfish pride to learn the wrong lesson from God’s acts of mercy? Instead of, after receiving undeserved kindness from God, worshiping God in true repentance and faith for who he has demonstrated himself to be, a person might actually try to manipulate God, to force God to continually give them what they really want—not God himself, but some of the things of this world.
In our next passage in the Gospel of John, we’re going to look at one of Jesus’s most famous sign miracles. A miracle born from compassion and demonstrating Jesus’s divine power and Messianic authority. Yet it’s a miracle that, for most of its witnesses, led to the wrong lesson being learned.
Our author John tells us about this miracle so that we might not be like the original misunderstanding crowd, but might learn the true lesson taught by the miracle. Even so that we will believe in Jesus and find eternal life in him, and not in the gifts that he can give us.
“Believe in Jesus and find eternal life in him, and not in the gifts that he can give us.”
Please open your Bibles to John 6. We’re looking at verses 1 to 15 today. The sermon title is “Jesus Feeds a Massive Crowd.”
Reading John 6:1-15
Jesus feeds a massive crowd. John 6:1-15 is on page 1065 if you’re using the Bibles that we’ve provided. Let’s read the passage. John 6:1-15.
After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, or Tiberias. A large crowd followed him because they saw the signs which he was performing on those who were sick. Then Jesus went up on the mountain and there he sat down with his disciples.
John 6:2: “A large crowd followed him because they saw the signs which he was performing on those who were sick.”
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, said to Philip, “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.
Philip answered him, “Two hundred 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 lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish. 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 to those who were seated. Likewise also of the fish, as much as they wanted.
When they were filled, he said to his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.
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.” 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.
The Biggest Miracle Jesus Ever Did
The account that we just read is of the biggest miracle Jesus ever did. Yes, Jesus did other more powerful, more poignant miracles besides this one, like raising Lazarus from the dead, or certainly raising himself from the dead. But in terms of the largest miracle—the miracle directly affecting the most amount of people—this is it.
Commonly, this miracle is called “The Feeding of the 5,000” since the text tells us specifically that there were 5,000 men present. But Matthew’s gospel tells us that there were also women and children present, and they also ate. So really, this is not a feeding of only 5,000, but perhaps as many as 20,000 or 25,000.
And how many is 20,000? I know when we start talking about thousands of people, it’s hard to visualize. But 20,000 is about the number of seats in an NBA basketball arena. Imagine all those seats filled. That’s how many people were there, or maybe even more, with Jesus.
This is a lot of people. And they not only were there, but they ate. And they not only ate, but the text says they ate as much as they wanted. So Jesus didn’t just provide food for these people. He provided an all-you-can-eat feast.
“Jesus didn’t just provide food for these people. He provided an all-you-can-eat feast.”
And then notice there was plenty of food left over too. So this is a huge miracle. No wonder that this miracle is the only miracle that appears in all four gospels apart from Jesus’s resurrection. You see it also in Matthew 14, Mark 6, and Luke 9.
The Sign Is Misunderstood
Clearly, the miracle made a significant impression upon the people and upon Jesus’s disciples who were there. Yet, as we can tell from our reading all the way down to verse 15, even this great sign miracle is significantly misunderstood.
If you just read down to verse 14, we might think that the crowd witnessing the miracle grasps the proper lesson and came to the proper conclusion that Jesus is the long-awaited prophet and Messiah. But verse 15 reveals that Jesus knew the Jews didn’t understand the sign, and that he could not go along with their seemingly pious plan to install him right then and there as their Messiah King.
“Verse 15 reveals that Jesus knew the Jews didn’t understand the sign.”
Really, to understand the significance of the sign of Jesus feeding this massive crowd, we cannot simply look at verses 1 to 15. For the narrative is immediately tied to the explanatory discourse that comes later in this chapter.
John 5 and John 6 in Parallel
We read part of that earlier in our service today, actually. John 5 and John 6 parallel each other significantly when it comes to their structure and even to the events that occur. In John 5, we had a sign miracle followed by an extended speech from Jesus explaining the true significance of that sign.
Notably, that explanation was ultimately rejected by the Jews. They hated Jesus for what he claimed on the basis of that sign. We have basically the same setup here in John 6. We have a sign. We have Jesus’s later explanation of that sign. And then we have the Jews rejecting Jesus on the basis of that explanation.
“We have a sign, Jesus’s explanation of that sign, and then the Jews rejecting Jesus.”
Jewish Rejection Despite Miracles
Why does John show us these two situations that are so similar, based on two miracles back to back? Well, this is part of John showing us the Jewish nation turning against Jesus, turning in opposition to Jesus, despite his miracle ministry.
Remember John 1:4? We had Jesus presented as the Son of God to Israel. And Israel didn’t quite know what to make of Jesus’s presentation to them in the beginning. But starting in John 5, and it’s going to extend all the way to John 12, the Jews are going to increasingly reject Jesus.
They’re going to say, “Now we know what you’re really about. We don’t want you.” In John 5, we saw it begin to happen to Jesus in Judea. Jesus had gone south to attend one of the feasts in Jerusalem, one of the religious feasts, and he was rejected there. But now we see the rejection happening in the north, in Galilee, in Jesus’s home region. The Jews are turning against him there too.
The Jews love Jesus’s miracles. They can’t get enough of them. But increasingly, they cannot stomach the teaching that goes along with the miracles—teaching that proclaims Jesus to be the Son of God and that eternal life is only in him.
“The Jews love Jesus’s miracles but cannot stomach the teaching that proclaims Jesus to be the Son of God.”
John’s Main Idea
Considering then the fuller context of this miracle, we can summarize John’s main idea here in this way: In John 6:1-15, John presents the sign miracle of Jesus feeding the massive crowd so that you will not come to Jesus to fulfill your agenda for temporal blessing, but instead come to find eternal life in it.
John wants you to see by this sign miracle that you should not come to Jesus to fulfill your own agenda for temporal blessing, just prosperity in this world, but instead find eternal life in Jesus himself.
“Do not come to Jesus to fulfill your agenda for temporal blessing, but instead find eternal life in Jesus himself.”
The narrative is pretty straightforward. We can describe the unfolding events under four main headings, and those would be the points of my sermon outline.
Let’s look at those as we follow the verses more closely.
A Massive, Expectant Crowd (vv. 1-4)
The first heading covers verses 1 to 4, in which we see number one: a massive, expectant crowd.
A massive, expectant crowd. Look at verse 1 again. It says, “After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, or Tiberias.”
The Setting: Other Side of the Sea
Now notice that first phrase: “After these things.” What are these things? Well, they would be what was just mentioned in the Book of John—the events in Jerusalem reported in John 5. Remember, Jesus healed a sick man on the Sabbath, and then he used that occasion to declare his own divine sonship to the Jews.
After those things, we get what’s coming next. But how long after those things? Well, we don’t know. The phrase is vague enough that it could be a short time or a long time. Likely, the events in chapter 6 take place six to 12 months after the events of chapter 5.
A feast was mentioned in Jerusalem—maybe it was the Feast of Booths, maybe it was Passover. We have Passover coming up again soon according to John 6. So this is 6 to 12 months later.
This means that Jesus has been ministering in the north for a while, in the region of Galilee. In fact, if we bring in some information from the other gospel accounts on this feeding of the 5,000, we learn that right before this instance, Jesus has received word that John the Baptist has been beheaded.
Jesus’s 12 disciples have also just returned from ministering around Israel in Jesus’s power and in his name. They’ve likely gathered again in Jesus’s main base of ministry, which is the town of Capernaum, that bustling town on the northwest side of the Sea of Galilee.
But now the rest of verse 1 says that here in John, Jesus and his disciples go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, to the northeast side, a more rural and empty area. Why journey to the other side? Why go to a desolate place?
Well, for a kind of ministry retreat. Jesus has been affected by John the Baptist’s death, and he and his disciples are exhausted from the ministry they’ve done lately. Jesus knows that he and his disciples could use a break to recharge for further ministry. So he takes his disciples to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, with the Sea of Tiberias—those are interchangeable terms.
“Jesus knows that he and his disciples could use a break to recharge for further ministry.”
The Crowd Follows for Signs
But verse 2: “A large crowd followed him because they saw the signs which he was performing on those who were sick.”
Despite Jesus’s efforts to get away for a short while, a large crowd—thousands of people—keep coming after Jesus to seek him out. Apparently, people saw Jesus get into a boat with his disciples, and they noticed the direction in which he was going. So they tried to meet him there.
People trudged along the north shore of the Sea of Galilee to where they thought Jesus would land. Why are they following Jesus? It’s because they love him, they believe in him, they can’t get enough of his teaching. Well, verse 2 says, “Because the signs which he was performing on those who were sick.”
John tells us the people are impressed by Jesus’s signs, especially his healing miracles. And they are impressive. They want to see more, especially on behalf of their friends and relatives who were still sick. According to the other gospels, the people aren’t just traveling by themselves to see Jesus, but they’re bringing their sick. They’re bringing people to be healed by Jesus too.
Now, is it good to seek after Jesus because of his healing signs? Kind of. After all, what have we seen so far in this gospel? It’s true that Jesus’s miracles, his signs, they are meant to point people to who Jesus really is so that they will believe in him. Jesus said that in John 5:36: “The works that I do, they are the Father’s testimony on my behalf, so that you will believe.”
“Jesus’s signs are meant to point people to who Jesus really is so that they will believe in him.”
Believing but Not Saving Faith
But all too often, the Jews stop short of full belief in Jesus as their real Lord and Savior. They embrace him only as a miracle worker. They have a lot of enthusiasm for his miracles and believe in him to that degree. But they don’t believe in him in a saving way.
John 2:23-25 was a sobering example of this. This was when Jesus began his ministry in Jerusalem at Passover. It says, “Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name, observing his signs which he was doing.” Great!
But Jesus, on his part, was not entrusting himself to them, for he knew all men. And because he did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for he himself knew what was in man. They believed, but it wasn’t saving faith. They stopped short at just the miracles.
“They believed, but it wasn’t saving faith. They stopped short at just the miracles.”
Is the crowd doing the same thing here? Well, while the people are on their way, verse 3 tells us where Jesus settles down.
Jesus on the Mountain
Verse 3: “Then Jesus went up on the mountain and there he sat down with his disciples.”
Now, on what mountain or hill did Jesus set up with his disciples? We can’t say for sure. He could have gone as far as the Golan Heights, which are in the northeast of Israel. But more likely, he stayed closer to the sea, since he and his disciples are going to be using the sea again shortly.
The Sea of Galilee has a number of hills and mountains all around it, because the sea is actually very low itself. It’s 700 feet below sea level. So if you’re sitting on the Sea of Galilee, you can actually see hills and mountains basically all around you.
It’s possible that Jesus—it’s actually quite likely that Jesus—found a hillside with a U-shaped bend in it. If he sets himself up in this bend, then he’s basically created a natural amphitheater. When people are there with him, he can speak to them. He can speak to even thousands of them, and they can all hear him.
“Jesus found a hillside creating a natural amphitheater where thousands could hear him speak.”
This is likely where Jesus sets up, though we don’t know what particular hill it was.
Well, the crowds are about to show up. But before they do, John gives us one more background detail in verse 4.
The Passover Connection
Verse 4 says: “Now the Passover, the Feast of the Jews, was near.”
Why is that detail mentioned? Well, this could simply be an eyewitness time detail that’s part of establishing historical authenticity. After all, this was a real miracle, part of a real event that happened with real people in a real time. And it happened to be a day close to the celebration of the Jewish Passover, which is prescribed in the law of Moses.
But there’s probably more to why John mentions this detail. For one thing, the timing of the Passover explains why the people were in a heightened state of Messianic expectation, even ready to proclaim a new king in verse 15.
Why would that be? Well, as one commentator of the passage notes, Passover was for the Jews a bit like the Fourth of July is for us. It’s basically a commemoration of the date of establishment of the Israelite nation. How appropriate would it be then, in this kind of patriotic day, for God to reveal his promised Messiah and have him set up his kingdom?
“The timing of the Passover explains why the people were in a heightened state of Messianic expectation.”
So the Jews are extra ready for their Messiah at Passover.
Something else significant about the mentioning of Passover is that it means more prominent in people’s minds is the wilderness experience and the one who led them through it. I’m not talking about God. I’m talking about the man who led them through it—who led Israel through the wilderness. It was Moses, that great, that special prophet of God.
And what was one thing that Moses provided the people with while they traveled through a desolate place? Food. It was through Moses—really God, as Jesus explains later—but it was through Moses the Jews remembered that Israel was fed, that bread from heaven, manna. And they were even given quail.
So as the people journeyed to Jesus and his disciples in this more out-of-the-way place, kind of like the wilderness, if they suddenly get a whole bunch of food, what are they going to be thinking about? They’re going to be thinking about Moses. They’re going to be thinking about that manna in the wilderness. Because, after all, Passover of the Jews is near.
But what does Jesus do when he notices this massive crowd crashing his ministry retreat with his disciples?
An Impossible Food Problem (vv. 5-9)
We go to our second heading now, covering verses 5 to 9. Number two: we discover an impossible food problem.
An impossible food problem. Let’s reread verses 5 and 6. It says, “Therefore, Jesus, lifting up his eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to him, said to Philip, ‘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, because it’s not important for John’s purpose here, John doesn’t mention that when Jesus sees the crowd showing up, Jesus is moved in kindness to spend the rest of the day ministering to the people, despite his plans for downtime with his disciples. And those were good plans—that the disciples and Jesus could really have used.
Jesus changes course. He decides he’s going to teach the people and miraculously heal many of their sick for pretty much the rest of the day.
What a kind Lord!
“Jesus is moved in kindness to spend the rest of the day ministering to the people. What a kind Lord!”
But as the day draws to a close, the disciples get Jesus’s attention. They say, “Hey, Jesus, don’t you think we should send the people away to go to the villages and buy food? We’re in a desolate place. There’s no food here for them. Send them away.”
But Jesus, as we see here directly in John, he’s not interested in sending the crowds away, not yet. Rather, in compassion, he suggests to his disciples that they should provide food for the crowd.
Jesus and the disciples will feed these people. And he asked Philip, “Where could we buy bread to feed these 20,000, 25,000 people?”
Jesus Tests Philip
Now, why ask Philip? We actually haven’t seen Philip featured in the narrative since Andrew called him back in John 1. Why does Philip suddenly get name-dropped here?
We can’t say for sure, but perhaps Jesus asks Philip because Philip, as we’re told pretty much every time he appears in the narrative, is from the nearby town of Bethsaida. So he knows the area. If anyone knew where someone could buy bread or find bread in this area, Philip would know.
But Jesus’s question of Philip is only half serious. Jesus isn’t really intending to buy bread. He’s testing Philip. What would Philip think of Jesus’s expressed intent to feed all these people? Would Philip conclude that the idea is impossible? Or would Philip manifest faith in his Rabbi, the Son of God?
“Would Philip conclude that the idea is impossible? Or would Philip manifest faith in his Rabbi, the Son of God?”
Well, we see Philip’s reply in verse 7.
Philip Fails the Test
“Philip answered him, ‘Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.’”
Does Philip pass the test? No. Because, forgetting who Jesus actually is, Philip plainly indicates that feeding this many people at this point in the day is impossible.
“Forgetting who Jesus actually is, Philip plainly indicates that feeding this many people is impossible.”
Philip’s quick number crunch reveals that 200 denarii worth of bread—about eight months’ wages for a day laborer—wouldn’t be enough to give everybody there a bite, let alone satisfy them.
Now, I’m not exactly sure what eight months’ wages of a day laborer is equivalent to today. But if you calculate minimum wage in the United States right now, eight months’ wages is about $10,000. This should provide a single meal for this crowd of people.
Do you imagine spending $10,000 on a meal? That’s an expensive dinner. That’s because there are so many people.
Well, probably Jesus’s group doesn’t have $10,000, doesn’t have 200 denarii, eight months’ wages. But even if they did, where would they find that much bread to buy it? And if they somehow did find bread, it still wouldn’t do any good, because you’re only giving everybody a tiny piece of food, a tiny piece of bread, that won’t satisfy them.
Unsure, Philip expresses that Jesus’s intent to feed the people is impossible. “It’s a nice sentiment, Jesus, but we just can’t do it. Sorry.”
Andrew’s Discovery
Philip’s friend Andrew chimes in verses 8 and 9 with some additional information that he thinks Jesus should know.
Verse 8: “One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ‘There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are these for so many people?’”
Here’s another testimony basically declaring the goal of feeding the crowd to be impossible.
You might be wondering, where did Andrew find this lad? And why is he stealing his food? Well, we don’t get the full story here. In his accounts of this miracle, Jesus specifically told his disciples to find out how much food they already had. It’s there, like here, that Jesus learns, “Oh, there’s a lad here who has these loaves and fish.”
This lad probably was a servant boy or a young man who was traveling with Jesus’s group of disciples. This wasn’t some random boy in the crowd. Probably this is somebody part of Jesus’s group who had some provisions for the disciples, had some still left. He’s carrying food, but it’s not that much.
Five Loaves and Two Fish
And when you read “barley loaves” here, think disc-shaped bread cakes. Kind of flat disc-shaped with a hole in the middle, so that you could tear off pieces of it. The Jews didn’t cut bread. They just tore it off.
So you’ve got five of these bread cakes, and then you have these fish. These would have been small, pickled fish that kind of serves as a side dish to the main meal of bread.
By the way, barley bread was considered poor people’s food. If you were well-to-do, you ate wheat bread. But we’ve got barley bread here.
Now, on the surface, this discovery of bread and fish seems helpful. “Hey, we don’t have zero food. Look, we’ve got five loaves and two fish. We’re not stuck at square one.”
But even Andrew asks rhetorically, “But what are these for so many people?” Translation: This doesn’t really change the situation in a significant way. Feeding the people is still impossible.
“Andrew asks, ‘What are these for so many people?’ Feeding the people is still impossible.”
This takeout dinner wouldn’t even feed the 12 disciples, let alone 20,000 people.
By presenting the testimonies of Philip and Andrew, John establishes for us—just as those disciples established for Jesus—that naturally speaking, feeding this crowd is impossible. You can’t do it.
But do not the scriptures say, “What is impossible with man is possible with God?”
Luke 18:27: “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
The Miraculous, Satisfying Feast (vv. 10-13)
We come now to the third section of the narrative in verses 10 to 13, where we see number three: the miraculous, satisfying feast.
Look at verses 10 and 11.
“Jesus said, ‘Have the people sit down.’ Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, and number about 5,000. Jesus then took the loaves and, having given thanks, he distributed to those who were seated. Likewise also the fish, as much as they wanted.”
You have to love the confidence of our Lord Jesus, right? He’s not disturbed at all by the impossibility of this situation or the lack of faith of his disciples.
Jesus simply—as the disciples tell the people—sit down. Literally, to recline. Which I think is interesting. Reclining for a meal? That’s the preferred posture of the Jews. That means it’s going to be a relaxing dinner.
Jesus says, “Have the people recline.” And it turns out that reclining—laying down, propping yourself up on one arm—it wasn’t uncomfortable in that environment, because we’re told there was much grass in the place. This is a nice place for a reclining picnic, even though there’s not food there. At least it’s comfortable.
“Reclining for a meal is the preferred posture of the Jews—it’s going to be a relaxing dinner.”
We’ve got these 5,000 men, probably plus another 15, 20,000 women and children, that are being organized into groups and now reclining on the mountainside before Jesus.
Jesus then does what is customary for any rabbi or head of a Jewish household to do when entertaining guests for a meal. He offers a prayer of thanks and blessing to God. The typical prayer for the period went as follows. It’s short: “Blessed be the Lord, our God, the king of the universe, who has caused bread to spring out of the earth.” To which the rest of the participants at such a prayer would respond, “Amen.”
The Distribution of Food
Jesus prays something like this. In verse 11, it says Jesus—no doubt via his disciples—then distributed the bread and the fish to those who were reclining, as much as they wanted.
I’m sure the people wanted a lot. They had worked up quite an appetite, hoofing it all the way to the northeast side of the Sea of Galilee, then spending all day with Jesus. They were hungry at dinner time.
They got to chow down some nice bread and fish. And apparently, it’s a lot.
The Mystery of the Miracle
How is Jesus able to distribute so much? We’re not told the precise mechanism. But whatever Jesus did, it apparently wasn’t flashy. It’s not like his hands started glowing, heaven opened up, all these lights, there’s sounds, there’s music. Jesus isn’t saying some special formula words like “Abracadabra.” No, none of that.
Apparently, though, somehow between leaving Jesus’s hands and showing up before the people, the food—much food—miraculously appeared. It multiplied so that the people could eat as much as they wanted.
“Between leaving Jesus’s hands and showing up before the people, the food miraculously appeared and multiplied.”
Jesus makes sure that people don’t miss that Jesus is doing a sign. Because we read verses 12 to 13.
Twelve Baskets of Leftovers
“When they were filled, he said to his disciples, ‘Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.’ So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.”
Now notice the first part of verse 12. It says that the people were filled. They were satiated. They had eaten, and they were fully satisfied.
Then Jesus commands the disciples to gather up the meal’s leftovers. Why does he do that? Well, it could be partly to be responsible, not waste any food. That’s something that a Jewish host would typically do.
But more importantly, gathering up the fragments would make clear to everyone what just happened. This was no illusion. This wasn’t like, “I don’t know, where did the food come from? Did we even eat it?” This is going to become clear as the disciples gather up what is left of each tear and shred of loaf and what’s left of the fish.
The other gospels mention that. When they do, the disciples fill 12 baskets, 12 baskets, with the leftovers.
Notice John is emphatic in verse 13 that these leftovers came from the original food. They came from the five loaves and the two fish. Nobody else brought out secret stores of food. This wasn’t a big potluck where everybody’s like, “Oh, look, that kid is sharing his lunch. Let me get my food out too.” That is not what happened here.
“Nobody else brought out secret stores of food. It was from the five barley loaves.”
As we can tell from verse 13, it was from the five barley loaves. And again, the other gospels mentioned the two fish also. It was from the original food that the disciples gathered. In the end, 12 baskets full of leftovers.
This is after 20,000 people or so ate as much as they wanted.
Where did all that food come from? Why are there 12 baskets left? It’s clear to everyone now. Jesus has just performed a miracle. This is the powerful compassion of the Son of Man, Son of God, doing like he did in the beginning—creating out of nothing, multiplying food to meet the needs of the crowd.
“This is the powerful compassion of the Son of Man, creating out of nothing, multiplying food to meet the needs of the crowd.”
Did the crowd get this? And if so, what did it cause them to do?
The Disappointing, Unbelieving Conclusion (vv. 14-15)
Look at verse 14 as we come to our last heading, which covers verses 14 and 15. Number four: we see finally the disappointing, unbelieving conclusion.
The disappointing, unbelieving conclusion. Verse 14: “Therefore, when the people saw the sign which he had performed, they said, ‘This is truly the prophet who was to come into the world.’”
Now, at first glance, verse 14 sounds like wonderful news. This was exactly what Jesus was hoping for. The people realized that Jesus had performed a sign—a miraculous act pointing to his true identity—and they conclude he is definitely the special prophet foretold by Moses, even in Deuteronomy 18:18-19, where God said to Moses, “There, let me quote those verses for you.”
Deuteronomy 18:18-19: “I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will speak to them all that I command him. It shall come about that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I myself will require of him.”
That’s what God said to Moses. Jesus is a prophet like Moses. And could it be any more obvious to the crowd?
Moses was God’s chosen leader. He miraculously fed the people in the wilderness. Now Jesus is doing the same thing as Moses. He’s God’s chosen leader. He just miraculously fed us in this otherwise barren place.
The Crowd Misidentifies Jesus
They conclude he’s the prophet. He’s even the Messiah. Because verse 15 says that the people were even ready to make Jesus king. So they didn’t just see him as the promised prophet.
Jews at that time, some of them were like, “Oh, yeah, there’s the prophet, and then there’s the Messiah. They’re not the same.” But other Jews, they kind of saw it being together, which is actually the truth according to the scripture. Jesus is the promised prophet and the promised King.
Apparently, some of the Jews were making that same conclusion. They were concluding correctly in part who Jesus is.
“Jesus is the promised prophet and the promised King.”
So that’s perfect, right? The people get it. The sign worked. Jesus, they believe in you. Aren’t you pleased?
Jesus Withdraws from the Crowd
Verse 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.”
Does that surprise you?
Well, verse 15 shows us there’s more to the story than what was reported in verse 14. Jesus perceives—literally knows—something about this enthusiastic crowd.
How does he know? Is he just overhearing their conversations? Is he just a very observant person? Possibly. But we’ve seen already multiple times in the Gospel of John that Jesus has supernatural knowledge. He doesn’t have to overhear a conversation. He just knows all men. He knows what they’re thinking. He knows what they’re intending.
What does Jesus know about this well-fed, sign-witnessing, newly believing group of Jews?
Verse 15 says he knew they were about to come and seize Jesus so they might make him king.
That’s a very revealing statement, isn’t it? What does it reveal about these Galilean Jews? It reveals that the people don’t ultimately care what Jesus’s agenda is or even what God’s agenda is for Jesus. What they care about is what they can make Jesus do for them, how Jesus can serve their own agenda.
“The people don’t care what Jesus’s agenda is. They care about how Jesus can serve their own agenda.”
They’re learning a lesson from what Jesus just did. But it’s the wrong lesson.
Jesus has just shown them—they think—what life under his rule will be like: abundant food, freedom from disease. Look at this powerful miracle. This guy can overcome the Romans. Jesus, in short, can offer the prosperity and the power that the Jews have been wanting for centuries.
So what are we waiting for? They say. Let’s make this guy our King. And if he doesn’t want to be king, well, tough, because obviously this is what God would want for us. He would want to bless us, because we’re his holy people.
The intention of the crowd is flattering in a way. And if Jesus were seeking the approval of men, if he were seeking an earthly kingdom right then and there, he would not dissuade the Jews from their course.
Jesus told the Judeans in John 5:41, “I do not receive the glory of men.” He also told them, “I have come in my Father’s name. I’ve come to do his will, not your will, not even my own will.”
So Jesus knows what he must do. He must walk away from this unbelieving crowd—ultimately unbelieving crowd—who are ready to make him King.
“I have come in my Father’s name. I’ve come to do his will, not your will, not even my own will.”
The other gospels tell us that after this miracle, Jesus dismisses the crowds. He sends his disciples to sail across the lake without him, and he withdraws alone to the mountain to pray to his God.
Kind of a disappointing conclusion, isn’t it? Certainly, the people were disappointed. No doubt Jesus was disappointed. And you could say even we readers are disappointed. This wasn’t the conclusion we were looking for.
And yet it is a very instructive conclusion. Because, as I said to you at the beginning, we see clearly that we are not to be like the overzealous crowd whose mind was set on earthly things rather than the things of God.
The True Meaning: I Am the Bread of Life
Jesus is going to say more to the crowds later about this miracle he performed and why he didn’t go along with their efforts to make him King. Particularly in several statements that we see in John 6:27 and John 6:35. I’ll just read those to you. We’ll say much more about them later.
John 6:27: “Jesus tells the crowds, when they catch up with him, ‘Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on him the Father, God, has set his seal.’”
John 6:35: “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.’”
John 6:35: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.”
This is what the miracle is really about. This isn’t Jesus proving to you that he’s about making your life comfortable. He’ll give you the food that you want. He will heal all your diseases. He’ll deliver you from all your problems. He’ll make life easy for you. No, that’s the wrong lesson. That’s not what Jesus was saying with that miracle.
Rather, he was saying, “Look at how I’m able to provide this miraculous bread for you. I did this by the power and approval of God. But what I can give you—much better bread than this—what that bread is, it’s me. I’m the bread you should be looking for, because I will actually satisfy you.
I’ll be the bread that no matter how many pieces you tear off, there’s more, more there’s more to enjoy. You’ll never be hungry again. You’ll never be thirsty again.”
“Why seek after the bread that perishes? Why seek after the little comforts and blessings and provisions of this world with all your heart and might, when that’s ultimately going to fail? I will never fail. I am life, and myself, come to me. Feed on me, and you will be saved.”
“Why seek after the bread that perishes when I will never fail? I am life. Come to me, and you will be saved.”
That’s what this is really about.
The crowd doesn’t see it yet. When Jesus explains it to the crowd, they don’t like it, which is going to reveal something about their hearts. Despite what they say, despite what these religious, zealous, expectant of the Messiah Jews are demonstrating outwardly, they don’t really love God. They don’t really want God. They want what God can give them.
Application: Which Jesus Do You Want?
What about you? We got to bring this to a personal application, don’t we, brethren?
Why are you a Christian? Why do you follow Jesus? Is it because you think Jesus is the key to fulfilling your agenda in this world? Jesus will grant you health. He will grant you wealth. He will grant you success. He will deliver you from your problems. He will give you friends. He will give you a great marriage. He will give you perfectly obedient children. He will fulfill all your goals and dreams?
Isn’t that the Jesus who’s preached in many places? Jesus is all about you and what you want.
Is that why you are a Christian? Or is it because you recognize that Jesus—just as he declares—he is life in himself? And that you want to follow his agenda, whatever it is, for your life, because that means you can have him?
Jesus has already told you what part of that agenda includes: trials, persecution, rejection, suffering.
Why would anybody choose that? Because Jesus is true bread. “Yes, Jesus, I’ll take the suffering. I’ll accept that I’m not going to be able to fulfill my dreams in my life, because I’m giving all those up, Jesus. If you do fulfill some of those things, great. But if not, that’s also great, because I have you. You have the words of eternal life. You have the living water. You are the true bread. So if you don’t fulfill my agenda, that’s perfectly okay.”
Is that you? Does your heart testify to that? Because it’s only those, brethren, who come after Jesus for Jesus who really get Jesus. Everyone else who comes after Jesus for something else, they only get the Jesus of their imagination. They don’t really have God. God has withdrawn from them, just as Jesus has withdrawn from the crowds.
“Only those who come after Jesus for Jesus really get Jesus. Everyone else gets the Jesus of their imagination.”
It will be a rude awakening for many of those religious people when they meet the Lord Jesus. As Jesus testifies elsewhere, “Many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but I will say to them, ‘I don’t know you. Depart from me. You practice lawlessness. You never were my true disciple.’ You should have known. You believed in a different Jesus. You didn’t want me. You wanted what you thought that I would give you.”
Here’s the terrible irony: everyone who comes to Jesus to be their genie, to give them what they really want in this world, will never be satisfied. Ultimately, this crowd is going to prove that they just want Jesus’s food. But what they’re always going to want more, and they’re never going to have enough.
It’s the same with whatever it is that you want Jesus to give you instead of him. It’ll never be enough. Worse, it’ll keep you away from the real Jesus. It’ll keep you away from eternal life.
Which Jesus do you really want? Do you want the fake Jesus? Or do you want the real Jesus? Do you want the Jesus who satisfies and actually saves? Or do you want the Jesus that just soothes your lusts and feels good temporarily? It won’t feel good in the end if you’ve been pursuing the fake Jesus.
A Call to Repent and Pursue the True Jesus
It’s time to repent, because the real Jesus is speaking to you right now from his word. He’s saying, “Don’t be like this foolish, unbelieving crowd who learned the wrong lesson. Learn the true lesson and come to the true Jesus.
I will satisfy you. I will save you. But you got to give up your own agenda. You got to give up your sin. You got to give up your purposes for your life. You got to say, ‘Jesus, take it all. Whatever you want from me in my life, that’s what I want, because you’re the Lord.
You are life. You’re the true treasure. So whatever it costs me to have you, I’m willing. I’m willing to give, because I know that you will never fail.’
Come pursue the true Jesus today. Come feed on the true Jesus and feed on him more.
“Learn the true lesson and come to the true Jesus. He will satisfy you. He will save you.”
That’s what Jesus is also inviting each one of you to do today. Say, “Get to know me more. Walk with me more. That distracting thing you have in your life that’s keeping me away from you, get rid of that so that you can enjoy true food. That sin that you keep going back to for comfort, get rid of that. That’s food that perishes. That’s actually poisonous food. But I’m the true food. I will satisfy you.”
“Whatever’s keeping you away from the true Jesus this morning, give it up, because Jesus freely offers himself to you as the bread of life, the true bread from heaven.”
Now, we’ll have more to say about this miracle and the true interpretation of it in the coming weeks. But next time we’re back in John, we have a little aside, a little bonus miracle. We just looked at the fourth sign in the Gospel of John. The fifth sign with Jesus walking on the water. We’ll look at that together next time.
Let’s close in prayer.
Lord Jesus, it’s interesting how you have made us as humans. You are the Creator. You declare that in your word. We know it to be true. Nothing came into being that didn’t come into being through you.
One thing that’s so evident about the way you’ve made humans is that we are creatures who eat. We eat from the beginning. We’ve needed to eat. It’s part of enjoying life. It’s part of sustaining life.
And yet with the fall—which ironically also involved food—we got away from what is true food. Declaring we knew better, we said, “God, I don’t need your food. I want to get my own food. I’m going to get the food that’s wise and tasty to my own preferences.” But where did that get us? It got us death. It brought the curse. It brought vanity into this world. Vapor. Everything is vapor. Even food is vapor.
We have to keep on eating, but we’re never fully satisfied until we die, because even the food that sustains our lives, it doesn’t sustain us forever.
All those who eat physical food today—even those who amass mountains of food and whatever other treasures are there in this world—they will still die, because that food cannot sustain them eternally.
So what is to be done? It is to repent and to come back to the God whose food we rejected in the beginning and say, “No, God, you’ve had the true food all along. I was wicked and foolish to reject it. But Lord, you say to anyone who comes to me, who comes for this food which I freely offer, they can have it. They can receive it, and it will forever save. It will even deliver a person from death.”
This is food that brings about resurrection. We’ve never heard of such food in this world until Jesus declared it. Jesus says, “I’m the food that grants eternal life.”
Jesus, you said that to us. So God, I pray that would be the conviction of every person in this room and the person listening online as well, that we would say, “I’m done with the food that perishes. Seeking after that is my ultimate good. I want the true food.”
And you’re not just food who gives life, but like you designed food to be in the beginning, you are enjoyable food. You are satisfying food. The psalmist does declare correctly when he says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Jesus, you are sweet. You are, spiritually speaking, delicious to our taste.
But Lord, when we get distracted with fast food, poisonous sinful food, sometimes we think, “Nah, I don’t think I really want to feed on Jesus anymore. That’s not satisfying.” God, deliver us out of that broken kind of thinking.
Jesus, you are not only the food that gives life. You are the food that truly satisfies. I pray, God, that you would grant the gift of faith to everyone here today to say, “I believe that, and I’m going to follow Jesus like I believe that, because I do, Lord.”
Be pleased to glorify yourself in this way.
In Jesus’s name, amen.