About this sermon
With a Passover crowd of five thousand men coming toward him, Jesus tested Philip by asking where they could buy bread. Philip counted denarii and Andrew counted five barley loaves and two fish, and both measured the task against their own resources instead of looking to the Lord who had fed Israel with manna. Moved with compassion for sheep without a shepherd, Jesus fed them all until they had eaten their fill and gathered twelve baskets of fragments, yet the crowd wanted a king who would fill their stomachs and free them from Rome. Every meal still comes from the Father’s hand, so believers rest their peace in the good shepherd who provides all they need, rather than in savings or a career.
Sermon transcript
This morning’s sermon text comes from John chapter 6. John chapter 6, we will be reading from verses 1 through 15. Verses 1 through 15, if you would open in your Bibles to page 1059 to the Pew Bible. John chapter 6, we will be reading from verses 1 through 15. Hear now God’s word. After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover feast of the Jews was at hand, and lifting up his eyes, Then, in 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?
He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. And Philip answered him, 200 denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little. And one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, there is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many? And Jesus said to him, have the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down about 5,000 in number. 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. And 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 12 baskets with fragments from the barley loaves left by those who had eaten. And when the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, this is indeed the prophet who has come into the world. And 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. Let’s pray for God’s blessing on the word exposited. Heavenly Father, we thank you, O Lord, that you are a God who abundantly provides for his children. O Lord, you know each and every need that we have, both small and great. You know both our physical needs and also our spiritual needs. O Lord, you have abundantly provided for us so much more than we can ever imagine.
We thank you, O Lord, for what you do for us on a daily basis. We pray, O Lord, that as we read your word, as we hear your word exposited, that you would work in our hearts through your Holy Spirit. that you would cause us, O Lord, to see the goodness and the greatness and the glory of who you are and what you do for us. We pray, O Lord, that that would in turn turn our hearts towards praising you in thankfulness, O Lord, for what you have provided for us. And we pray all this in your son’s name. Amen. Please be seated. Well, brothers and sisters, where does your bread come from? Where does your daily provision come from? I mean, ultimately, where do these things come from? Does it come from the fruit of your labor?
In former times, the majority of people put food on the table by means of farming for themselves, meaning that if the average person wanted to eat, he would have to go plant the seed, water that seed, and harvest the fruit of his labor. And for someone in the old days who would subsistence farm, the reality that he is not the one who is ultimately in control of his labor would have been extremely clear to him. He could prepare the soil to the best of his ability. He could carefully plant the seed. He could water the plants the exact amount that they needed. But the factors that go into a successful crop yield are far more than those that the farmer can actually control. Will there be enough rain this season? Will there be enough sunshine?
Will the temperatures be warm enough? Will there be disease or insects that eat the crop? Will animals come and destroy what I have planted? All these and many more, I’m sure that I am unaware of, are questions which the majority of mankind has had to ask themselves throughout the history of the world. In our culture today, much of the obvious risk that existed in that context has been covered over by the manner in which we work. It is easy for us in our modern day to think that our job security, our financial security is tied to our manager’s view of our work and possibly the overall health of the company. But that same reality that existed 300 years ago for a Christian man or woman in America is the same reality that exists for us today.
Things may feel more secure because of the complex economic society that we live in and structures that we live in. The reality still remains that if God were not sustaining and maintaining and providing everything that we need today, we would indeed not be able to put food on our table. Despite the security that we may feel and thousands of dollars saved up in the bank account or a good job or decorated resume that we have, we are indeed as reliant on our Father in heaven today as they were hundreds of years ago. Despite the security that we feel from a human perspective, from the financial decisions that we have made, the reality still exists that if God in his good pleasure and in his good purposes decided tomorrow to prevent all the riches that we had stored up on this earth and to take them away, there is nothing that we could do to stop it.
And this is the reality that we live in. Whether we acknowledge it or not, whether we live like it or not, nothing that we have currently is guaranteed to remain even for tomorrow. And all that we have gained and all that we will gain is because of the gracious provision of our Father in heaven. And the Israelites of old forgot this reality. The people of Jesus’ day forgot this truth. And we today, as modern men and women especially, because of the abundant provision and the abundance of what we have, we indeed forget this truth easily. we as faithful believers are called indeed to work diligently and to act wisely in using the good gifts that our Father has given us. But that reality must not discourage us, must not keep us from placing our trust and our peace in God’s provision.
In our passage this morning that we read, as recorded to us, for us, by the Apostle John, we see once again this reality, underscored for us and emphasized over and over again throughout the Old Testament, and that is that God is the one who provides all that we need. Jesus wants us to see that God sees our needs, He understands man’s plight, and he understands man’s weaknesses and his needs. And God is willing and able to meet these needs, and he does so in an abundant manner. And thus, we must place our trust in him daily. And Jesus draws this out in our passage this morning first. in verses one through nine. First, by testing Philip in verses one through nine, and secondly, by abundantly providing for the crowd in verses 10 through 15. Let’s turn now to Philip’s test in verses one through nine.
The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle that Christ performed, which is recorded in all four Gospels for us. Different reasons have been given for why it is that this particular miracle has been chosen by all four gospel writers. But the most plausible explanation is simply that among all the miracles that Christ did, it was the most public and most confirmable miracle that he performed. There were thousands of witnesses, and it was indeed a miracle that clearly established not only the divine origin of clear connection between Jesus Christ and His provision with the provision of the Father of God in the Old Testament. Whatever the reason, all four Gospels record for us this glorious event when Jesus Christ provided for the people. The Gospel of John only records for us in our passage only a few of the details that led up to this miracle.
But we learn from the other Gospels that Jesus and his disciples had retreated to a secluded place to rest from their ministry. However, the crowds somehow figured out where they were going, and they followed them there and gathered them, preventing them from resting. It was over 5,000 people that were following Him. And John in verse 2 gives us the reason why it was that the crowds followed Him. John says that they followed Him because they saw the signs that He was doing on the sick. In other words, the crowd formed and followed Him because they had seen the miracles that Jesus was doing and they were seeking to be healed themselves or they were seeking to once They had not understood the true significance of the signs. Their eyes, like many of the other characters that we have met so far in the Gospel of John, were focused on earthly realities, the physical reality of healing.
And they did not see the spiritual realities to which these signs point into. That was who Christ is. And Christ says to the crowds later in the chapter in verse 26, if you look down with me at verse 26, Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. In other words, the crowds who had seen with their eyes the miracles taking place were not there because they were focused on what the miracles pointed to, but because of the physical nourishment that they had received. The nourishment of their stomachs, of the healing of their ailments, was their focus rather than what Christ was teaching and who he was. And John continues in verses three through four, Jesus went up on the mountain and there he sat down with his disciples.
Now the Passover feast of the Jews. What is the significance of John pointing out was at hand. Only John points this out. The other gospel writers don’t bring this point up. So why does John point out that the feast of the Passover was at hand? Well, the crowds, who consisted of Jewish men and women, would have been anticipating this big festival, the biggest festival of the year. Their minds and their hearts would have been thinking about and meditating on the history of Israel and God’s redeeming the people of Israel from the land of Egypt. They would have been considering the significance of the Passover lamb and how God had provided manna for the people in the wilderness where there was no food. And so they were drawing near to this festival, and their celebration, and their hearts and minds would have been preparing to hear the word of Jesus.
And likewise, John clues us, the readers, in on this fact to help us connect this story with the Old Testament backdrop. And John continues. 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? And he said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Here Jesus asks Philip a question, but not because he was truly curious about where the food would come from, because as John points out, Jesus already knew what was going to happen. He asked this question because he was trying to test Philip. He wanted to test him to see if he indeed had understood the signs. He wanted to know if Philip had understood what was being signified, that is, who Jesus is.
And he wanted to see if Philip, having seen the signs and understood them, would look to Christ to provide for their needs. And Jesus’ question here, in some ways, is similar to the question that the Jews asked God in the desert when they had grown tired of the manna in Numbers 11, verse 18. This is God speaking to Moses. And say to the people, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat. For you have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, who will give us meat to eat? For it is far better for us in Egypt. And God answered their question. The Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. And indeed, God was the one who had provided the manna and then the meat from heaven to feed their bodies. And this allowed them to live.
The people of Israel in the wilderness, like the people in Jesus’ day, did not see the spiritual reality of what God had done for them. They did not put their trust in God even out of the house of bondage and had saved them from the mighty army of Pharaoh. And because they had not truly set their trust in the Lord, they had easily forgotten his wondrous works that he had done for them. They began to complain and to grumble about not having meat, rather than with faith and confidence in the one who had saved him, going before God and praying to him and asking him to provide in thankfulness for what he had done for them. Likewise, if Philip had fully understood the signs and the words of Jesus until this point, that Jesus was indeed the Messiah sent from God, indeed the very Son of God, he would have noticed that the lack of money, that they lacked money and they lacked food, and he would have looked to Jesus, the same God who had provided the manna and the meat in the times of Israel in the Old Testament.
He would have looked to him to provide for the crowds all that they needed. But Philip, like the crowds, had not fully understood the spiritual implications of the signs. He clearly had more faith than the crowds did, but the reality of the identity of Jesus had yet to be fully understood by Philip. 200 denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little. Now, 200 denarii is not a small amount of money. It’s roughly two-thirds of an average man’s salary, a yearly salary. But to feed 5,000 men and their wives and children, it was not enough to feed them even a little. And if Philip had continued to say, we do not have enough money, but you, O Lord, can provide. You, O Lord, can feed all of these people.” Then Philip would have passed the test.
But instead, his response ends with, Lord, we do not have enough money to feed everyone here. And this shows that he had not fully understood the signs. And after considering the money that they had, The text records for us that Andrew, another one of the disciples, says to Jesus, there is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many? And once again, instead of looking to Jesus and saying, we don’t have enough money, we don’t have enough food to feed such a vast number, but you, oh Lord, are able. Please, Lord, provide for these people. Once again, the disciples conclude that it is impossible for them to feed the crowd. Both disciples failed the test. Both were looking at a giant impossible task that lay before them, that Jesus set before them.
And they were focusing on the impossibility of the task for man instead of looking to God who could provide all of these things. But Jesus does not leave the people in their hunger. He does not leave the disciples wondering about where the food would come from. He indeed, as he had planned from the beginning, would provide for all who were there. And this then brings us to Christ’s provision in verses 10 through 15. Christ’s provision in verses 10 through 15. Let’s read once again verses 10 through 15. Jesus said, have the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down about 5,000 in number. 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.
And 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 the 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. And when the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world. Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain. Now we call this miracle the feeding of the 5,000 because what is listed is 5,000 men, but we know from Matthew that this number does not include all of the women and children who were there. So in reality, Jesus fed much more than 5,000 people that day.
And Jesus had them all sit, perhaps so they could rest after a long day of walking, or perhaps so they could all see what was actually taking place above them on the hill. But whatever the case, imagine 5,000 people all standing up and surrounding Jesus. It would have been hard for them to actually see what Jesus was doing. So Jesus has them sit down and takes the five loaves of bread and two fish and he gives thanks and he distributed the food to the masses. And all who were there ate as much as they wanted and the text says that they were full until they were completely satisfied and everyone was completely full. Jesus ordered the disciples then afterwards to gather up the remaining food and it filled 12 baskets. Indeed, even after feeding 5,000 plus people who were there, there was more food left over from the sign that Jesus performed than there was in the food to begin with.
And there are some who try to explain the miracle away by saying that perhaps Jesus split the food up really, really small and he gave it to the 5,000. And there are other natural explanations that are given for what occurred here. But the gospel writer’s record for us is that they were all full and they ate as much as they needed. So such an interpretation cannot be accepted. And even after all of the people were full, were full. So no natural explanation can be given for this miracle. Further, any attempt to argue that the story was fabricated by the disciples would have been easily debunked by just interviewing the thousands of people who were there that day and saw what Jesus had done. Because verse 14 records for us, when the people saw the sign that he had done.
So the people that were there, that were watching, actually were watching what Jesus did. They saw the miracle. They were all witnesses to what he had done. And they said, this is indeed the prophet who has come into the world. So the crowds did not just receive the food and conclude that Jesus was a prophet because they were full. They concluded that he was a prophet because they actually saw the sign, they saw the miracle, and concluded that only a man from God could do such a thing. And there were thousands of witnesses to this undeniable miracle of God. Now, Jesus Christ is an abundant provider like his heavenly father was for Israel of old. The gospel of Mark records for us the motivation for Jesus’s actions towards the crowd. Gospel of Mark records for us that Jesus had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
This is the same crowd that Jesus knew their intentions about, that he knew that they were there, They wanted salvation from their sins. He knew that they were not there to repent of their sins against him and against a holy God. He knew that they were not there to worship him. He knew they were there only to satisfy their physical needs. Yet that same Jesus who could read their hearts, who knew their intentions, is the same Jesus who had compassion on them. and saw their needs and saw that they had no shepherd. So even knowing that they were there not for good reasons, Jesus had compassion on them. Why? It says, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And we find, of course, this prophesied of in Ezekiel, in the book of Ezekiel, in Ezekiel chapter 34.
If you would turn there with me to Ezekiel chapter 34. Ezekiel chapter 34. And we’ll be reading several selections from throughout the chapter, but starting in verse 2, God says, Prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to them, even to the shepherds, thus says the Lord God, all the shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves, should not the shepherds feed the sheep? You shepherds hear the word of the Lord. Verse 10, thus says the Lord God, behold, I am against the shepherds and I will require my sheep at their hand. I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them. For thus says the Lord God, behold, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.
As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep and I will rescue them from all places that they have been scattered. So when Jesus saw his people coming to him, he saw that they had no shepherd because their shepherds had failed them. And so he had compassion on them. He loved them. And he chose to stay with his disciples there and teach them, heal them, and ultimately feed them with abundant food so that they would be nourished. He lavished so abundantly that the food that was left over was 12 baskets. It was God who called Noah to build the ark and save them from the waters of judgment. It was God who brought Abraham out of idolatry to worship the one true God.
It was God who brought Israel out of the land of Egypt and provided food and water and brought them into the land of flowing with milk and honey. But these physical provisions that God provided, Old Testament Israel, were meant as an added blessing to knowing and worshiping the one true God. But the people of God were repeatedly replacing their highest calling in life to trust God and worship Him with keeping their eyes on the physical reality of the world. The people that came to Jesus that day were no different. They too were motivated by physical needs and by physical desires. And yet Jesus, out of his love for his people, had compassion and met their physical needs. But the people once again misunderstood this sign. Look at verse 15 with me. I’m going back to John 6, verse 15.
Verse 15 states, perceiving that they were about to come and taken by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. People here in this story saw God’s glory. They saw Jesus’s power and his glory. But instead of repenting and believing in Jesus, they tried to make him king. They were focused on what Jesus could do to save them from and liberate them from the Roman rule rather than liberating them from their sin and death. And we too, brothers and sisters, like the Old Testament and New Testament saints, have abundant needs. We have physical needs, but we also have spiritual needs. And Christ is willing and he is able to fill all of these needs if we look to him. This doesn’t mean that he will give us everything that we want.
There is a distinction between what we want and what we truly need. And God knows what we need and he will indeed provide us with everything that we need. We start to worry and we start to question God when our eyes are focused and our hearts are looking towards the things of this world. We start to question whether God is truly good. We question whether God is truly able and willing to comfort us and to give us what we need when our eyes are focused on these earthly things that fill us. But Christ is calling us and he is showing us in that he is a shepherd who sees his sheep and loves them. He is willing and he is able to provide everything that we need, provide every provision that we need to live the godly life.
So do not look to the things of this world. Do not put your trust in your own abilities. or the goods that you have accumulated for yourself, but look to Christ. That is where our peace and our trust should be when we lay our heads down at night. We should not find peace in our 401k or whatever else that we have established. We should find our peace in knowing that Jesus is the good shepherd who will abundantly provide for all that we need. So look to him. Find your peace in Him, trust Him, and walk in faith knowing that He will provide everything that you need. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You, O Lord, that You, through Your Word, remind us over and over again that You are a powerful God, that you are not just able to provide for us, but you are willing and you desire to provide all that we need.
You, O Lord, are not a God who stands far off, judging your people for what they have done, but you, O Lord, are a God who has drawn near to us and who has given us a pathway to salvation. Indeed, you yourself have saved us by your blood. You, O Lord, love to provide. You indeed desire to provide all that we need. And we pray, O Lord, that we would not be fooled, we would not be led astray by the things of this world. We would not put our eyes and our trust on the things that we have done, that we would not put our trust in the things that we have saved up, in the riches that we have on this earth. We pray, O Lord, that our eyes and our hearts would fully rest on you, the only one who provides, the only one who sustains It is only because of you sustaining and providing, O Lord, that we have food today, that we will have food tomorrow, that we will have anything in this life.
And so we pray, O Lord, that you would protect us from the evil one who seeks to deceive us, who seeks to draw us away from Christ, who seeks to puff us up, who seeks to deceive us into believing that we are able to live our lives apart from you. We pray, O Lord, that we would day by day live in thankfulness, live in light of confessing this reality that everything that we have is from you. We pray that we would use it, O Lord, wisely, that we would use it, O Lord, for your glory and for your people. We pray all this in your son’s name. Amen. Let’s continue in worship by standing, rising, and singing hymn 196. Hymn 196, At the Lamb’s High Feast, we sing.
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