The Sign of the Loaves and Fishes
John 6:1-14
The miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 is a very familiar passage to most of us.
This is the 4th sign (1. water to wine, 2. healing Nobleman’s son from afar, 3. healing lame man at Bethesda)
V. 2...Jesus had returned to Galilee and many people were following His every move because of the healing miracles He did.
It was a large crowd. 5,000 men. If just half of the men were married, and had one child along the number shoots up to 10,000.
Jesus decided to put Philip to the test.
How are we going to afford to feed these people?
(Jesus knew what He would do...remember God is always “previous”).
Philip answered, Eight months pay would not be enough to feed all these people. (Wrong answer)
We don’t have enough food and we don’t have enough money, but we have you, Lord. (Right answer)
Well, how much food would it take? God can make a little bit go a long way.
5 loaves and 2 fishes was more than enough.
It wasn’t much, but he gave it all to Jesus
The Lord blessed it, then gave it to the disciples to distribute.
Our Lord wants us all to be involved sharing the Bread of Life to those who don’t have it.
After everyone ate all they wanted, they gathered up all the leftovers and had much more than they began with, 12 baskets which were full.
A peculiar thing about this miracle is that it is the only miracle of Jesus’ that is recorded in all four gospels.
There must be a reason for this. To what does this sign point?
It may be because this passage, more than any other, causes us to consider our personal relationship with Christ
It is more than just going to church every once in a while.
It is more than ceremonies and rituals
It is more than just singing hymns and doing Christian stuff
This relationship is so close and intimate that Jesus chose to define it in terms of eating and drinking; as a partaking into oneself.
This relationship is as important to us spiritually as the very nourishment that keeps us alive physically.
The miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 is a very familiar passage to most of us.
This is the 4th sign (1. water to wine, 2. healing Nobleman’s son from afar, 3. healing lame man at Bethesda)
V. 2...Jesus had returned to Galilee and many people were following His every move because of the healing miracles He did.
It was a large crowd. 5,000 men. If just half of the men were married, and had one child along the number shoots up to 10,000.
Jesus decided to put Philip to the test.
How are we going to afford to feed these people?
(Jesus knew what He would do...remember God is always “previous”).
Philip answered, Eight months pay would not be enough to feed all these people. (Wrong answer)
We don’t have enough food and we don’t have enough money, but we have you, Lord. (Right answer)
Well, how much food would it take? God can make a little bit go a long way.
5 loaves and 2 fishes was more than enough.
It wasn’t much, but he gave it all to Jesus
The Lord blessed it, then gave it to the disciples to distribute.
Our Lord wants us all to be involved sharing the Bread of Life to those who don’t have it.
After everyone ate all they wanted, they gathered up all the leftovers and had much more than they began with, 12 baskets which were full.
A peculiar thing about this miracle is that it is the only miracle of Jesus’ that is recorded in all four gospels.
There must be a reason for this. To what does this sign point?
It may be because this passage, more than any other, causes us to consider our personal relationship with Christ
It is more than just going to church every once in a while.
It is more than ceremonies and rituals
It is more than just singing hymns and doing Christian stuff
This relationship is so close and intimate that Jesus chose to define it in terms of eating and drinking; as a partaking into oneself.
This relationship is as important to us spiritually as the very nourishment that keeps us alive physically.
Let’s suppose you were very hungry and you were invited to a banquet. The food was brought out and set before you. There is plenty and it is all good.
You could sit there and admire the beauty of the food,
You could even talk about how pretty the prepared table is and how good it all smelled,
You could talk about how blessed you were to be there.
You could even talk about inviting other people to come to the banquet,...but until you actually ate the food, it would do you no good.
By the same token, we must receive Christ into our very life and soul until He becomes a part of us,...the strengthening, nourishing part.
In other words, we must have a spiritual appetite.
- Many people have no appetite for spiritual food
- Many people exist on spiritual junk food with empty calories,...energy with no nutrition, vitamins, minerals.
- And others get spiritual indigestion whenever the things of the Lord are brought up, and want nothing to do with Him,...and all the while they are starving and thirsting and trying to fill that hunger and thirst with the wrong things.
V. 14, 15...Tells us the crowd was half right:
Jesus was that prophet Moses spoke of in Deut. 18:15
but they wanted to make Him their king so He could heal all their diseases and give them bread every day.
The Kingdom of God was finally present, but not the kind they expected.
The Kingdom of God is the rule of God in the hearts of men, women, boys, and girls.
It is not geographical in nature, but spiritual.
And it is for everyone who will come into it.
Everyone there that day ate the same food.
There is only one Savior in the world and one plan of salvation.
There are not many roads to God, there aren’t even two, there is one way to God and that is by Jesus Christ.
He alone is the Bread of Life that gives spiritual strength and nourishment.
Everyone ate as much as they wanted.
The old saying “You only get out what you put in” is true. You can cheat your way through high school and college and even hang a diploma on your wall. But education doesn’t hang a wall, it’s in your brain.
By the same token, every Christian is just as spiritual as they want to be., and your faith will only be as strong .
The table of the Lord is spread before you, but you must partake,...no one can do that for you. Every Believer is just as close to the Lord as they desire to be.
A hunger for the Word and things of God,...do you have it? Spirituality is not automatic.
You could sit there and admire the beauty of the food,
You could even talk about how pretty the prepared table is and how good it all smelled,
You could talk about how blessed you were to be there.
You could even talk about inviting other people to come to the banquet,...but until you actually ate the food, it would do you no good.
By the same token, we must receive Christ into our very life and soul until He becomes a part of us,...the strengthening, nourishing part.
In other words, we must have a spiritual appetite.
- Many people have no appetite for spiritual food
- Many people exist on spiritual junk food with empty calories,...energy with no nutrition, vitamins, minerals.
- And others get spiritual indigestion whenever the things of the Lord are brought up, and want nothing to do with Him,...and all the while they are starving and thirsting and trying to fill that hunger and thirst with the wrong things.
V. 14, 15...Tells us the crowd was half right:
Jesus was that prophet Moses spoke of in Deut. 18:15
but they wanted to make Him their king so He could heal all their diseases and give them bread every day.
The Kingdom of God was finally present, but not the kind they expected.
The Kingdom of God is the rule of God in the hearts of men, women, boys, and girls.
It is not geographical in nature, but spiritual.
And it is for everyone who will come into it.
Everyone there that day ate the same food.
There is only one Savior in the world and one plan of salvation.
There are not many roads to God, there aren’t even two, there is one way to God and that is by Jesus Christ.
He alone is the Bread of Life that gives spiritual strength and nourishment.
Everyone ate as much as they wanted.
The old saying “You only get out what you put in” is true. You can cheat your way through high school and college and even hang a diploma on your wall. But education doesn’t hang a wall, it’s in your brain.
By the same token, every Christian is just as spiritual as they want to be., and your faith will only be as strong .
The table of the Lord is spread before you, but you must partake,...no one can do that for you. Every Believer is just as close to the Lord as they desire to be.
A hunger for the Word and things of God,...do you have it? Spirituality is not automatic.
“A bible that is falling apart from constant use belongs to a Believer who isn’t.”
