The Sign of His Provision

Hymn:  God will. Take Care of You

For many people, Jesus is relegated only to the realm of mythology, the religious realm, or the spiritual world.  It is as if the spiritual life of Jesus is separate from all of the other areas of life.  We often forget that Jesus WAS a human man, with human desires and needs.  By submitting himself WHOLLY to the guidance of his Spiritual nature, Jesus is the Christ that we venerate today. The point is that many people only perceive a part of Jesus, his spiritual part, and fail to perceive how ALL of the parts of Jesus fit together to provide the perfect exemplar for our physical and spiritual lives.

The salvation offered by Christ is for the WHOLE PERSON and not just our physical selves or spiritual selves.  He seeks to help and sustain us in every area of life, and we can trust him to do so.  Just as Jesus meets our every need, we can be a conduit of His care in the lives of others and that is the point of this study:  Jesus meets the needs in our lives.

We look at John 6:1 -15.  The last study looked at Jesus' healing of a disabled main at the pool of Bethesda and the religious leaders overlooking the miracle to instead focus on the violation of the law of which they saw themselves the enforcers.  They believed that Jesus' act of mercy at the pool of the House of Mercy (Bethesda) was a violation of the law, illegal to do on the Sabbath.  But they overlooked their act of vengeance against him on the Sabbath.  So we see Jesus chiding the leaders for their unbelief and he foretells of the resurrection of the dead at the end of the age.

Since Mike brought it up in the newsletter, let’s open with the question: What might motivate you to pull something out of the trash?  Someone tell us the story of what happened when a garbage truck driver pulled a soft drink cup out of a garbage container. [Page 49].

So sometime after the healing at Bethesda Jesus was returning to the region of the Galilee.  Let's see what he begins to do as he teaches and ministers.

John 6:1-5

1 After this, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). 2 A huge crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was performing by healing the sick. 3 Jesus went up a mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, a Jewish festival, was near. 5 So when Jesus looked up and noticed a huge crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where will we buy bread so that these people can eat?”

A crowd of 10,000 at a concert

Jesus was aware of the needs of the people as they were traveling near the time of Passover.  A crowd was following Jesus because of his celebrity. So Jesus and the disciples, and presumably the crowd, went up on a mountain, or hill. 
Jesus sat down, demonstrating His authority as a teacher.  
Jesus planned to feed the people who were coming to listenbut he also wanted to involve His disciples in what He was about to do. So, He asked Philip, "Where will we buy bread so these people can eat?" Jesus asked Philip this question because in addition to the physical needs of the crowd, he saw the need of His disciples to understand that He could do great things with small resources. 

The Sea of Galilee was also known as the Sea of Tiberias named after the second emperor who was on the Roman throne at the time. Luke called the body of water the Lake of Gennesaret (Garden of riches, because of it fertile nature).  This sea is about eight by 13 miles in size and the Jordan river flows into it and then out from it to the Dead Sea. A fishing industry flourished in the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee nestles between three mountain ranges. Jesus went to one of the mountains to teach His disciples in what we call the Sermon on the Mount. But this private time was interrupted. As Jesus taught, the crowds discovered where He was and began to filter in and to listen.

The Passover commemorates the deliverance of the Hebrew slaves from the terrors of the tenth plague—the death of the firstborn in Egypt. John's reference that the Passover was near may indicate why the crowds were so intent on finding Jesus. With the approaching holy season, they were more eager than usual to see His 
miracles and to hear His teaching. 

Philip was from Bethsaida, another coastal town bordering the Sea of Galilee. Jesus invited Philip to follow Him. Philip did, and found his friend, Nathanael, and told him to “come and see” the prophet Moses foretold. While Judas is identified later as keeping the apostles’ money, Philip might have held that role at some point. If so, it would have been natural for Jesus to approach the treasurer when money was needed to buy bread. Bread in Scripture often includes foodstuffs other than bread.  Jesus noticed the crowd and basically asked his students" how are we going to feed all of these people?"

The disciples, focusing only on their own energies, asked Jesus to send the people away so they could find food for themselves. Their logic was that the area was deserted, and the hour was late.  Jesus already knew what he wanted to do, he just wanted to get his student's perspective on record.  Let's see what they said.

John 6:6-11

6 He asked this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread wouldn’t be enough for each of them to have a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There’s 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.” There was plenty of grass in that place; so they sat down. The men numbered about five thousand. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and after giving thanks he distributed them to those who were seated—so also with the fish, as much as they wanted.

From Philip's perspective, the ability to feed the masses didn't make sense in time or money. A denarius was a typical day’s wage. Philip’s objection was that it would take more than six months of labor to earn enough to feed this multitude. The disciples may have had some money, but hardly this amount.

From Andrew's perspective, the ability to feed was due to a lack of resources, but by asking around and finding a boy with two fish and 5 barley biscuits, at least he could make sure his Master would be able to eat. Yet, once Jesus saw the boy turn over his food to the disciples, He was going to demonstrate how what seems to be a little is actually much when God is in it. 

Barley was commonly grown in Palestine and identified in the Old Testament as a food for the poor. Each barley seed is enclosed in such a strong hull that remains intact even during efforts to thresh or separate it. Because of it's rough and gritty texture, it was used to feed livestock. We might analogize it as "a handful of deer corn and a couple of crappie".

The point is the utter hopelessness of feeding anyone more than one individual with such a relative meager serving. But Jesus asked the disciples to arrange the people in an orderly fashion for serving, and perhaps for numbering. Mark and Luke mentioned specifically companies of fifty (and hundred for Mark). John just gave a total count of men. Matthew mentioned men “besides women and children”, so It is feasible that the entire  crowd may have been in excess of ten thousand.  Jesus gave thanks to God and then broke and had the disciples distribute the bread to the crowd. 

Next let's see how Jesus' picnic on the grounds went.

John 6:12-15

12 When they were full, he told his disciples, “Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted.” 13 So they collected them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves that were left over by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 Therefore, when Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

From five biscuits and two fish from one lunch, twelve baskets of leftovers from serving over 5000 people were collected. All the Gospels record the disciples collecting the remaining food—twelve baskets full — underscoring the awesome power of God on display in caring for the multitude and providing for them in abundance. Jesus commanded the disciples to gather the left overs pointing out that we must exercise care and not wantonly waste or abuse what God has given. We should honor God for all He’s given and strive to see that nothing is wasted.

The reference to the Prophet who is come into the world leads some Bible scholars to believe that this reference to the Prophet points back to the promise of Deuteronomy 18:15: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.” This was Philip’s explanation to Nathanael. Moses is remembered as the instrument God used to send bread (manna) to the wandering Hebrews in their long journey to the promised land. The next verse in John 6 shows that the people wanted to make Jesus their king immediately after this miracle, prompting His departure from them. The time for such a position had not yet come. 

Subsequent verses show the disciples spent the night crossing the Sea of Galilee in a boat. Jesus again encountered the multitudes the following day and chided them for their willingness to follow because He fed them. Some in the crowd accentuated the promise of Moses when they spoke about Moses providing manna in the same way Jesus provided bread. Jesus exhorted the multitude that their spiritual ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, but they still died. Physical bread can’t ensure life for more than a short time when compared to eternity. 

In the midst of his dialogue with the crowd, Jesus spoke another of the great “I am” statements recorded in John’s Gospel: “I am the bread of life”. Jesus’s teaching that day reminded all that life is more than the physical and temporal. Those who believe and trust in Him will have eternal life. The one who eats this spiritual bread “will live forever”. 

Perhaps the approaching Passover fanned the fervor of the people for the Messiah to appear. The multitudes, no doubt, believed Jesus’s miracles proved He came from God and were eager to join His army. In the final Passover Jesus spent in Jerusalem He was welcomed by crowds as Messiah with great adulation on Sunday, but then crowds, perhaps including some of the same people, shouted “crucify him” on Friday. In the end, Jesus had not fulfilled the common expectation of a military messiah. Independence from Rome might have been a worthy political goal, but Jesus had not come for political purposes. He came at this moment to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy of the Suffering Servant from Isaiah 53. 

The kind of king the Jews wanted wasn’t Jesus’s mission. He came, as John the Baptist announced, to be the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. He completed that mission and he shows us the way to allow him to meet our needs and the needs of those around us.