John 6:1-14
Feeding the Hungry Soul
\\#John 6:1\\ Note the Location - Jesus is in Galilee, crossing the
Sea of Galilee. In \\#John 5:2\\, Jesus was in Jerusalem. As far as
we can determine, everything done and taught in that chapter were at
the same time and He has now moved on.
\\#3\\ Jesus goes to a mountain to teach the crowds. The Greek word
used for "mountain" can be either a hill or a mountain. It means to
rise above the plain.
The traditional site for this miracle is on the north side of sea.
That site is not what I would call a mountain. There are some areas
around the sea where the land rises much higher but the traditional
area was, to me, more of a hill which ran down into the sea.
\\#2\\ Note the Crowd - Because of the many miracles that Jesus is
doing, great multitudes are following Him.
\\#4\\ Note also the Passover. I mentioned before that John gives us
a chronological layout of Jesus’ life by the Passover. The Passover
is mentioned in \\#John 2:13, 6:4, 11:55\\. It is also possible that
\\#John 5:1\\ is a reference to the Passover. If so, almost one year
has passed since John 5.
I. There were problems.
A. \\#5\\ There were some hungry people there.
1. We have talked about why Jesus did the miracles.
a. The most obvious reason is because there was a need.
b. Here, the people were hungry and our Lord was
interested in feeding the people.
2. Hunger is a need we can all identify with, not so much
because we are starving but because we all experience it.
a. And that brings us to a second reason why Jesus did
miracles; namely, to teach us spiritual truths.
b. One of the images that Jesus often used to describe
His work and the salvation that He offered was that
He was the Bread of Life.
1. Twice in this chapter…
John 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the
bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never
hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never
thirst.
John 6:48 I am that bread of life.
2. And He will do it more often than that.
3. Indeed, that might be part of the reason why Jesus
feed the multitudes more than once. (Partly
because they were always hungry but also because
it made such a good picture of salvation.)
c. Remember the picture teaches us more than the
statement.
1. Being lost, like being hungry, is a problem we all
experience.
2. Being lost like being hungry causes death if not
remedied.
3. Being lost can be satisfied, like being hungry, if
you will partake of the Bread of Life.
B. \\#10\\ There were A LOT of hungry people there.
1. It is one thing to have a need.
a. It is another to have a great need.
b. You can feed an extra person or two, but 5,000!
2. One of the things that makes reaching the world for Christ
so difficult is the enormity of the task.
3. If I understood from missionary, Mark Brown
(firstbible.net)
a. More than 1/2 of the world’s people have never heard
of Jesus.
b. Somewhere between 40to 50% are presently totally
unreachable:
(1) Not one single missionary in their entire nation.
(2) No Bible in their language.
(3) And in most of those cases, no written language!
4. \\#6\\ But JESUS knew what He would do!
a. I was much impressed to hear the missionary say that
he believed it is possible to reach the world for
Jesus in our life time!
b. It is no more trouble for Jesus to feed 5,000 (or
25,000) than for Him to feed 5 and it is no more
trouble for Him to get the Word to 6.6 billion people
than to 6!
C. No one was prepared to help.
1. I have no idea what it was like to travel with Jesus.
a. Were there stores? shops? markets?
b. Probably so since that was major area of commerce.
2. Even so, it surprises me that, apparently, no one was
prepared for lunch.
a. Everyone knew they were going to have to eat.
b. There were 12 disciples who had traveled with Jesus
enough to anticipate the need that was going to
occur.
3. Not only was no prepared to feed the crowds, but they
don’t seem prepared to feed themselves!
a. ALL they had was what the boy brought.
b. If they had brought anything to eat, I’m sure they
would have added to what the boy brought.
4. The sad thing is that even though Jesus is well into His
ministry, and these disciples have been with Him since
the beginning, they are still just spectators in the work
of Christ!
5. If you are saved, it is time for you to get involved in
getting others to Jesus.
a. Give of yourself, your money, your time, your talents!
b. Go into all of the world!
c. Get some sheaves!
D. What they did have was insufficient for the task.
1. Whether we are winning our community or winning the world,
our resources are insufficient.
2. Our resources are insufficient, but God’s is not.
a. Our limits open the doors for God’s surplus.
b. We don’t have enough for a new building, but I believe
God is going to teach us a great lesson!
c. Whatever we dare to believe God for we open the
possibilities of His power.
E. The mind of the disciples was very limited in what they
thought they could do.
1. ALL they could think of was money and buying lunch.
2. I understand. \\#5\\ Jesus actually pointed their
thinking in that direction.
3. He did so to help them to see that the normal and the
ordinary were not going to solve this need.
4. To win others to Christ, we must start thinking of Jesus’
abilities.
II. There was a solution.
A. The solution involved one boy giving what he had.
1. I do not mean to in anyway discredit the boy but he was
just a boy.
a. He doesn’t appear to be a theologian.
b. He doesn’t appear to be a prayer warrior.
c. He doesn’t appear to have any special earthly linage.
2. There is nothing special about the lunch.
3. What makes this boy is that he was WILLING.
4. What makes the lunch special is that it was COMMON.
5. The key to doing anything for God is that we be willing
to let God use the common.
B. The solution required the twelve to go to work.
1. Up to this point in the ministry of Jesus, the disciples
have been spectators. Now they become laborers.
a. \\#5\\ Jesus actually placed the responsibility of
feeding the multitude on them when He asked how to
feed them.
b. The disciples make plans…
(1) \\#7\\ They pool and count their money.
(2) \\#9\\ They search the crowd for food and find
the lad.
(3) \\#10\\ They organize the crowd into manageable
groups.
(4) \\#11\\ They distribute the bread and fish.
(5) \\#12\\ They gather the remains.
(6) Of course, all of this is done under the
direction of the Lord.
2. We must remember that Jesus did not come just to seek and
to save sinners.
a. He came to make disciples as well.
(1) Disciples are believers.
(2) Disciples are workers.
(3) Disciples form a team with all members giving
their all.
b. If there had been a boy willing to give and God able
to perform a miracle, there still would not been a
miracle if there had not been disciples willing to go
to work.
c. How many miracles have we deprived ourselves of
because the disciples were not willing to go to work?
C. The solution required God to do a work.
1. Even a willing boy with a good-sized meal is not going to
accomplish much with this large crowd.
a. Andrew saw this.
9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley
loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they
among so many?
b. God was going to have do something!
c. If a lost world or a lost person is ever going to be
saved, God is going to have to step in.
d. First and foremost, the battle is spiritual!
(1) We need physical Bibles and physical bodies to
take the gospel to the lost world.
(2) We need physical money to buy physical materials
to build our new building.
(3) Had we an army of bodies and a vault of money,
we could still do nothing of worth without God.
i. David fought Goliath with a sling and God.
ii. Gideon fought the Midianites and Amalekites
with 300 men and God.
iii. Abraham fought 4 kings and armies with 318
servants of his house and God.
2. How do we get God’s power?
a. Prayer
b. Seek what God wants.
(1) The key to prayer is not to convince God to do
what to do what we want.
(2) The key to prayer is to find out what God wants
and then pray that.
c. Live holy lives.
d. Keep your hands on the plow.
3. Remember that God is not going to reward you for what He
does or does not do, but what we do.
a. I know there have been times in our lives where we did
what we felt God wanted us to do and then we did not
see much from God.
b. However, regardless of God does or does not do with
our gift, God deals with us based on what WE do.
(1) I believe God rewarded this lad not for what God
did with his gift but according to his
willingness to give.
(2) 5,000 were fed, but if only 4,999 were fed, would
God have lessened his reward?
(3) 4,990? 4,500? 4,000? 3,000? 100?
(4) God rewards us based on what WE do, not on what
He does with it.
(5) We have the story of the widow who gave two
mites.
Mark 12:41 And Jesus sat over against the
treasury, and beheld how the people cast money
into the treasury: and many that were rich cast
in much.
42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she
threw in two mites, which make a farthing.
43 And he called unto him his disciples, and
saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this
poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which
have cast into the treasury:
44 For all they did cast in of their abundance;
but she of her want did cast in all that she had,
even all her living.
My House is Full, by Lanny Wolf
There is peace and contentment in my Father’s house today,
Lots of food on His table and no one is turned away.
There is singing and laughter as the hours pass by,
But a hush calms the singing as the Father sadly cries.
My house is full, but my field is empty,
Who will go and work for Me today?
It seems my children want to stay around my table,
But no one wants to work my fields.
No one wants to work my fields.
Push away from the table.
Look out through the windowpane.
Just beyond the house of plenty,
Lies a field of golden grain.
And it’s ripe unto harvest,
But the reapers, where are they?
In the house! Oh, can’t the children
hear he Father sadly say?
My house is full, but my field is empty,
Who will go and work for Me today.
It seems my children want to stay around my table,
But no one wants to work my fields,
No one wants to work my fields.
The end result is that the disciples took up more bread than they
distributed \\#13\\ and Jesus was glorified \\#14\\.
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