John 6:1-15 | Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
Let’s open the Bible now to John 6:1-15, the feeding of the five thousand.
John chapter 6 is the longest and one of the most important chapters in the New Testament. We’re only going to look at the opening portion today, where we’ll see another one of Jesus’s signs.
This is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In John’s gospel, this miracle helps us connect the dots between God’s provision to Israel in the Old Testament and Jesus as the Bread of Life in the New Testament. We will see that more clearly in the coming weeks, but today, we are going to look at the miracle that sets the scene in John 6:1-15.
Let’s read it now.
JESUS FEEDS THE FIVE THOUSAND (JOHN 6:1-15)
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 denarii 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.
INTRODUCTION
In the Old Testament, God took his people into the wilderness and provided bread from heaven for them. Here in John 6, Jesus takes his people into the wilderness to provide bread again. It’s a story about how Jesus cares for his people—not just to care for them for a day but as a sign of how he cares for them for eternity. It’s a story about an insignificant little boy that loses his lunch to feed a city, about a couple of disciples who have no answers through whom Jesus provides for a multitude.
This is a story about a power from heaven that can not only fill you but can sustain you, that not only satisfies you but uses you for God's glory, that not only settles you in the deepest possible comfort in this word but resettles you inside the heart of Christ your Savior.
It’s a story about the super-abundance of God, about how we can entrust it all to Jesus, how we can boldly believe that with him, all things are possible and that he is all we need. It’s a story about the all-sufficiency of Jesus in the face of our all-insufficiency. Those are our two points today.
Our insufficiency
Jesus’s all-sufficiency
OUR INSUFFICIENCY
In the Christian life, there is no other place to start than with our own insufficiency—to see our weakness and powerlessness. That’s not easy. We like to deny it. We cover it up. But the whole thrust of this story is to take us right to the idea of our powerlessness. Everything Jesus does takes us to that low place because that low place is where the blessing is.
Jesus and his disciples were in Galilee, where Philip and Andrew were from and where he had been healing sick people. A large crowd followed them, eager for more. So, Jesus took them on a field trip outside the city and taught them all day. They went up a mountain. It was springtime, and the grass was green. But that doesn’t mean it was a well-manicured place. It wasn’t a city park. It was a wilderness. And he was about to teach something important to this crowd, to his disciples, and to the world.
According to Verse 4, he performed this act during the Passover festivities, which was an important time for Israel, harkening back to the time of the Exodus from slavery in Egypt. It was a time of great nationalism, kind of like the 4th of July or something for us. It was their celebration of freedom.
Remember what happened after the Exodus. They went into the desert, and what happened? They started to get hungry, and they started to complain. What did God do? He sent them bread from heaven. He sent manna, this flaky bread that literally fell from heaven every night like the dew, and the Israelites could go out each morning and eat it. That was a sign of God’s powerful provision. He could feed his people when it looked like no food was available anywhere—when there was no food available anywhere.
Fast forward thousands of years later, and here is Jesus, the Lamb of God, soon to be slain to bring his people out in a new kind of Exodus, and he’s taking them out into the wilderness. He’s taking this massive group of people and providing enough bread for all of them to eat. Do you see what’s happening? Jesus is filling the role of God in the Old Testament. Jesus is doing what God always does. He’s providing when there is no one else to do so.
In verse 5, we see how Jesus is going to do this. He saw a crowd coming toward him. By the way, we know this crowd was huge because John says in verse 10 that it was five thousand men. Do you see that there? Now, it was surely greater than just five thousand. That numbered only the men. There were women and children in this crowd too. We know that because of the little boy that shows up in the story. D.A. Carson says in his commentary on this passage that the total number may have been twenty thousand or more. That’s an unbelievably big crowd that witnessed this miracle. It’s the kind of crowd that, if it didn’t happen, I don’t think it would have made it into four separate gospels.
Think about it this way. Paul says in 1 Corinthians that up to 500 people saw the resurrected Jesus, and that is considered a huge number of eyewitnesses. This is a crowd 40 times that size. It’s a huge number. I’m not saying this is a miracle greater than the resurrection—there isn’t one greater—but this was an important miracle. Jesus made sure there was a big crowd for this one.
So Jesus saw this crowd coming toward him, and he said something to Philip. Look at verse 5. “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” Notice Jesus said this to Philip. It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t as if Jesus was wondering what he was going to do, and he was buying time to search for an answer. No, that’s not it at all. We know that because of verse 6. “He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.”
What’s going on here? What is Jesus doing? I’ll tell you what he’s doing. He’s getting Philip desperate. He’s revealing a need to Philip that Philip can’t possibly meet, and Jesus knows that. But Philip doesn’t yet. He doesn’t even yet see the need. So Jesus showed him the need and then made him feel how insufficient he was to meet it.
Now, why did Jesus do that? Was Jesus just a practical joker? Was he just trying to have a little fun at poor Philip’s expense? I don’t think so. That doesn’t make sense to me. Jesus was teaching his disciple something here, and through him, he’s teaching all his disciples, and the first lesson is a lesson in insufficiency.
Do you see how powerless Philip must have felt? All those people, and no bread, and Jesus asked where to get some. What would you do? What would you say?
Philip was in an incredibly difficult situation, and it was right where Jesus wanted him. He wanted him to feel the powerlessness. Jesus is teaching Philip about ministry. In ministry, there are always needs, and the needs are always beyond our human capabilities. He wanted all of his disciples to learn that.
In fact, Mark places this story right after the disciples return from their missionary journey, paired up two by two to preach the gospel and cast out demons, and heal. They took nothing with them but the power of Jesus and came back utterly exhausted. When they got back, Jesus said, “Let’s go away to rest.” But when they get out to the mountain, this huge crowd came, and Jesus told the disciples to serve them.
You can kind of imagine how that feels, can’t you? We’ve all had time when we’re just absolutely beat, totally sapped, absolutely exhausted, and we get home thinking we’re finally going to get some rest, and then the phone rings, and more need just comes pouring into our lap. We can’t rest. We have to keep going. And in those moments, we feel so powerless, don’t we? When we are full of strength, we might start thinking life is manageable, but when everything is falling apart around us, we start to understand we have no power at all. Our power is a facade. It’s a mirage. It’s not real at all. We don’t have any power. When life gets real real, we realize how insufficient we truly are.
We are all like Philip in those moments. We’re facing utter need and zero resources, and everyone is looking to us for answers. What do we say? What did Philip say? Look at verse 7. He said, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” In other words, “Jesus, you’re crazy. There’s nothing to do. We can’t possibly buy enough bread for them. Eight months’ salary wouldn’t be enough to pay for it. We don’t have enough money to give everyone even just a slice. Forget about it.”
Now, what’s wrong with his statement? Wasn’t it true? Do you see anything wrong with it? Here’s what’s wrong with it. It’s what’s wrong with so many of our reactions to the seeming impossibilities of life. We don’t factor Jesus in. Philip didn’t factor Jesus in. He looked at the situation and looked at the resources he had, and he said, “Nope. Can’t do it.”
Remember, verse 6 tells us this was a test. What was the test? It was this. Jesus is saying to Philip, “Philip, do you remember how God gave the bread from heaven in the desert? Do you remember how God provided when there were no earthly answers? The Israelites had to learn to factor God into their lives. Will you factor me into your life? Will you think of what I can do in you and through you by faith in me? Will you trust me when there are no worldly answers? Or will you rely only on yourself and what you can see?” That’s the test. It’s the same for each of us. Will we factor Jesus into our life or not?
It’s a perfect way to test him, isn’t it? Take him out in the wilderness away from all resources, present a need so great he can’t possibly meet it, and then ask him what to do. What if Philip had turned to Jesus with a smile and just said, “Jesus, I don’t know where to get that bread, and even if I did, we couldn’t afford it, but I have a hunch you have an idea up your sleeve. I think maybe you have a plan, and I’m just wondering what that is and how I can be a part of it.”
What if Philip had said that? What if you said that to Jesus the next time you’re confronted with a need for which you have no answers? That’s what faith looks like.
The raw facts are that we are totally insufficient in ourselves. We simply do not have what it takes, and the sooner we realize that the sooner we get traction in our Christian lives. The Christian life is not about coming to Jesus to let him give you some new tools to live better. Christianity is not about God sprinkling his wisdom on our little brains to help us through our days. Christianity is about reality with Jesus. It’s about factoring Jesus into every situation. It is about coming to God through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit to live a life fully open to him such that the impossibilities of life are no longer threats to us but opportunities for us.
If Philip had only remembered what Jesus initially said to him way back in John 1:43—remember what he said?—“Follow me.” Maybe if he remembered that he would have turned to Jesus in a different way that day on the mountainside. Well, you can. Jesus has called you to follow him. He’s in charge. He knows you don’t have the answers. He’s not asking you to figure it out. He already has the plan ready. Your part is only to follow. He’s inviting you to be involved with him, to let him work through you, to understand your total insufficiency so that you can receive the totality of his sufficiency.
So that’s the first thing we need to see—our insufficiency.
JESUS’S ALL-SUFFICIENCY
Let’s turn now from our insufficiency to Christ’s sufficiency. Look at verses 8 and 9.
After Jesus asked Philip what to do, and after Philip had no answers, Andrew piped up. Andrew was another of Jesus’s disciples, and he was there with Jesus, overhearing the conversation, and he noticed something. How he noticed it, we’re not told. He saw a little boy who had five barley loaves and two fish. But then Andrew, like Philip, failed the test in the same way. He followed up his observation with a question, “What are they for so many?” Andrew saw some food, but he knew it wasn’t enough. Oh well.
You know, Andrew was right. It wasn’t much at all, especially for so many. He didn’t have good bread. Barley loaves were poor people’s bread. It wasn’t the nice bread you eat. You probably wouldn’t like it. And the two fish weren’t much either. They were small, like sardines, that were mostly to help flavor the bread. So, it wasn’t much, but it was something, and Jesus created the world out of nothing, so something small like this is just perfect for him. He can do a lot with nothing. He can do a lot with just a little bit. He doesn’t need much.
What Jesus did next is so amazing. In verse 10, he told his disciples to have the people sit down. He organized them. He settled them. He seated them at the table, as it were. And then Jesus did the most amazing thing. He took the little boy’s lunch! Isn’t that amazing? I mean, imagine the scene! This is so incredibly fascinating to me. I wonder what that interaction was like.
You know, I bet that little boy was probably really looking forward to eating that bread and fish. But this little boy is a lesson to us all. He gave a small gift to Jesus, and it was all he had, but in the hands of Jesus, it was more than enough. Jesus used that little boy to feed twenty thousand people! But because he lost control of his lunch and gave that control to Jesus, he had far more of it than he could have ever possibly had.
Jesus used that little boy to teach a lesson to his disciples. He used him to teach a lesson to the crowd. But even more than that, Jesus loved that little boy. He taught that little boy to trust him. He took what was his, and maybe that even hurt the little boy’s feelings at first, but then Jesus gave back far more than what he originally took. Look at verses 11-13. Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to the crowd. Then he did the same to the fish. And—look at the end of verse 11—it was as much fish as they wanted. 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 twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.
The little boy gave his lunch to Jesus, and Jesus gave him back a feast. What was once so little that he might have even still been hungry afterward is now so much food he can eat as much as he wants and still have leftovers. Isn’t that just like Jesus? Isn’t that how he always works? So why don’t we trust him more? Why do we cling to things as we do? When we have this kind of God who does this kind of thing, why can we not let go of our little loaves and fish? Why can we not entrust to his mighty care all that we have and see what he can do with it?
A.W. Pink was an English pastor in the early 20th century. He made a profound observation about this very reality. Remember in 2 Kings when Elisha filled the widow’s jars with oil so that she might have provision after her husband’s death? The oil lasted as long as there were vessels. Probably if there were more vessels, the oil would have lasted.
The point is that we have an all-sufficient Jesus, one who can meet and super-meet your every need. He’s always been that way. This is not a one-time thing. It’s the way he rolls. Always has been. If there is truly a need, Jesus is there to meet it. Remember in Matthew 6 when Jesus said to consider the birds? His point was that God takes care of them, and they don’t have to worry about what to eat, they don’t have to worry about tomorrow, so we don’t either. There’s something like 50 billion birds in the world. Why? Partly because that gives us 50 billion reasons to trust him for our lives.
Jesus might ask you to give something up, but if he does, he gives it back to you in more fullness than you could ever imagine. We might grumble and complain. We might not see the way forward. But if Jesus is there, what else do we need? We can trust him. The birds do.
Now, there is something else I want you to see. Not only did that little boy get back more than he gave up, he and the disciples both became more than they originally were. In other words, in the hands of Jesus, they were used by him to reveal his power. They became channels of his power. They became ministers under him, for him, with him.
Here’s Philip and Andrew, a couple of blockheads who can’t see the Creator of Heaven and the Earth right beside them, worrying about how they can buy bread. And here’s this little, poor boy with a little lunchbox of a very modest meal. Those people became the instruments through which Jesus worked his power. Isn’t that incredible?
Here’s the lesson. When Jesus calls us to follow him—and I hope you have heard that call. If not, I hope you hear it today—When Jesus calls us to follow him, he will take us to some tough places, maybe even into the desert. And he will take from us some very precious things, maybe all the food we have left. And he will ask of us some impossible things, maybe to feed more mouths than our bank accounts can afford. But he will be with us in those hard places. It will be his power coming through. He’s not asking for our power. He’s asking for our weakness. He’s using our insufficiency to prove his all-sufficiency. He’s taking our meager bread and giving back himself. He will always give back more than he takes. He will always answer our doubts with his grace. He will always fill us. He is a God of super-abundance. Maybe the wilderness is in our future, but so what. There’s always manna in the morning. And, better than all the bread in the world, there’s Jesus, the Bread of Life.
We have two options. We can be like Philip and Andrew, who looked at the situation before them and doubted anything could be done, or we can be like that little boy who handed Jesus his little lunch and watch Jesus feed a city. We can factor Jesus into our lives, or we can forget about him. We can be the channels through which Jesus works his power in this world, or we can close our lunchboxes and go home. We can starve a city, or we can feed one. Which life do you want to live?
When we start factoring Jesus into our lives, impossibilities become opportunities. Possessions become tools. We become channels of his power. Don’t you want that?
All you have to do is recognize your insufficiency and turn to Christ and his all-sufficiency. Who among us can’t do that? Who among us can’t just say, “I cannot figure this out! I have no answers. I have no strength left.” The bar is so low. It’s not as if Jesus is saying, “Come up to ‘Here,’ and then we’ll start talking.” No! He’s saying, “Admit you can’t do it. Admit your weakness. See your insufficiency. That’s where we’ll start. Because that’s where my power is seen most clearly.”
Only some of us can reach the heights of this world, but who among us can’t fall down? When we do, that’s where Jesus is. His grace lives there. That’s where we learn to take our hands off our own life and allow his mighty hand to take over. That’s where we become channels of his power, of his grace, of his mercy, messengers of his gospel.
There is right now a city that needs to be fed, and there is a Christ who can feed them. He wants to do it through you. Will you let him? Or do you have some really good objection to why it just can’t happen? Will you be Philip and Andrew? Or will you be the little boy?
CONCLUSION
Oh, what a life we could live if we just learned to factor Jesus into it!
But let me warn you. When you start to do that, I can’t say what he will do in your life. You can’t tame him. Look at verses 14 and 15. We’ll close with this.
When the people saw the sign, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Then they sought to make him king, and Jesus withdrew from them. Verse 26 helps us understand why. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you of your fill of the loaves.” In other words, they wanted him as king because of their full bellies. He was satisfying their worldly desires. But as John Piper said, “Jesus didn’t come into the world to lend his power to already existing appetites.”
If you want Jesus to be king over your preconceived plan, then I’m sorry, he just won’t do that. But if you want Jesus to be king over your failed life, over your wounded heart, over your wilderness wandering, he will be your king. He will walk away if, in the face of his miracles, you only want more miracles. But if you want him, he will draw you to his heart. Want miracles alone, and you’ll have none. Want him alone, and you’ll have all the miracles you can stand. He didn’t come to give you bread; he came to be your bread. How did he do that? Hear what he said in verse 51. “The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Jesus is the king who dies for his people, who gives his life on the cross for sinners insufficient enough to receive his sufficiency, weak enough to receive his power, hungry enough to eat his bread.
Let’s pray.
