Transcript

The Family Feud, as most of you know, is a game show in which two families compete against each other in a competition to name the most popular responses to a survey question posed to 100 people.

Since 2010, the show has been hosted by comedian and actor Steve Harvey. On one episode Steve Harvey asked this survey question: “When someone mentions ‘the King,’ to whom might he or she be referring?”

The number one answer with 81 giving this answer out of 100 people was “Elvis Presley.”

The contestant who uncovered the #2 answer, that should have been #1 to us, did so by saying, “I’m going to go with the King of kings, Jesus Christ” to which Steve Harvey nodded approvingly.” 7 out of 100 people in the survey gave this answer.

The number 3 answer in the survey, with 3 out of 100 giving this response, was “Martin Luther King, Jr.” And rounding out the list, the number 4 answer in the survey for someone mentioning who is “the King”, was “Burger King.”

The Lord Jesus Christ is “the King of kings.” The Apostle Paul refers to Christ as the “only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” in 1 Timothy 6:15.

Within both of God’s programs, for the earthly program with Israel, and the heavenly program with the Body of Christ, Christ is King and God and Ruler over all.

However, today under grace, Christ’s office as the Head of the Church, the Body of Christ, is primarily in view.

Within Israel’s program and her earthly kingdom hope, Israel was looking for the King and Messiah who would establish a Kingdom and rule from David’s Throne in Jerusalem, and would vanquish their enemies and bring peace to Israel and the world under His reign. And thus, Christ’s office within her program is primarily as Israel’s King.

And you find in the account of Christ feeding the 5000, that following this miracle this is what Israel anticipated, and thus they tried to take Him by force and make Him King.

The feeding of the 5000 did demonstrate that Christ is Israel’s Messiah and King. But it was not yet time for His kingdom, as Christ knew there could be no earthly kingdom of peace, righteousness, and joy for Israel without the payment for sin at the Cross first.

In the next couple episodes, we’ll take a look at the feeding of the 5000 and then the 4000 and see the truths for Israel and the principles for the Body of Christ found in each of these two separate miracles.

John 6:1-4: “After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased.

“And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.”

The feeding of the 5000 was of such significance in Christ’s earthly ministry, that other than the Christ’s resurrection, it is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospel records.

At this time in Christ’s ministry, there was a tidal wave of interest sweeping across the region of Galilee concerning Him. Christ reaches the height of His popularity here, but after His discourse on “the Bread of life” and when the people realize that His ministry was focused on spiritual needs, they began turning away and rejecting Him.

Thus, in verse 15 of this chapter we read of the people’s excitement about Christ and how they sought to make Him a King by force. But then by verse 66, we read, “From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.”

Christ demonstrated His power in His miracles to reveal His deity, that He is God and Israel’s Messiah, so they would listen to and heed His words from the Father.

But the people came for temporal miracles, not the eternal words. They were drawn by His miracles and sent away by His words because of their unbelief.

While in Galilee, verse 1 teaches that Christ went “over” or across the Sea of Galilee.

According to the other Gospel records, Mark 6:35 says He went to “a desert place.” Luke adds that it was “a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida” (9:10).

Bethsaida was located on the NE shore of the Sea of Galilee. John 1:44 says “Now Philip was of Bethsaida,” and that comes into play here as we go along.

Verse 2 says that a great number of people followed the Lord to this remote place.

While Christ was going across the northern edge of the Sea in a boat with His disciples, a massive crowd coming out of the towns and villages began gathering and walking along on the north shore, following Him.

Matthew 14:13 says, “He departed thence by ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed Him on foot out of the cities.”

Verse 2 here in John tells us what drew the people: the crowd followed Him because of the miracles of healings of the sick and diseased, which they “saw” with their own eyes.

The other gospels tell us that the Lord and the disciples had just completed an extensive preaching tour, that had left the disciples exhausted.

Christ and the twelve had come here to try to withdraw and get away for a time to rest. The Lord told them at this time: “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while” (Mark 6:41).

So arriving in the wilderness around Bethsaida, the Lord with His disciples went right up into a mountain for a time of rest and refreshment.

John dated the time of the miracle that the Passover was just around the corner. So it was springtime and getting near to the time that they had to go back to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover which was required of all Jewish males according to the Law.

John 6:5-9: “When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?

“And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.

“One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?”

When Christ was on the mountain He looked out over the great multitude of people and observed the crowd. This great number of people hadn’t all followed Him out of belief that He was the Messiah, but out of curiosity and their desire to see more miracles.

But in spite of their motivations for being there, Mark 6:34 says, “And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.”

Christ looked at people in light of their needs and He knew that what they needed most was the Word of God, so He taught them.

Moved with love and compassion, Christ taught God’s Word to the multitude. This teaches us to do the same, because God’s Word is what people need most of all.

And the teaching of the Word is to be done with Christ’s heart of love and compassion to help people understand it more clearly.

As Christ taught them, Luke 9:11 says He “spake unto them of the kingdom of God.” The Lord ministered the Word to Israel in accordance with the prophetic Scriptures, the law, and Israel’s earthly kingdom hope. This was God’s program Christ ministered under and He taught them the Word in light of these things.

However, with Israel’s program temporarily suspended, today, under grace, we teach the Word in light of God’s grace, the revelation of the mystery committed to Paul by Christ, and the heavenly hope that is ours in the Body of Christ.

The Lord looked at people in light of their needs BOTH spiritually and physically. He was well aware of their sufferings, and the need of healing of many who followed Him there.

Thus, Matthew 14:14 says that the Lord, Israel’s Messiah, went forth “and was moved with compassion toward them, and He healed their sick.”

The Lord also knew about their daily physical need of food and that they were hungry.

After traveling to this mountain, teaching the people, then healing the sick, according to Mark 6:35, “the day was now far spent.”

It’s at this point that the disciples came to the Lord and said in Matthew 14:15, “This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals [or food].”

The hour was late. The disciples asked the Lord to send all the people away because they needed time before dark to get to some town or village where they could buy food and eat.

But instead the Lord turned to Philip and said here in verse 5, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” The disciples are telling Him to send them away. And Christ asked, “Where can we go to get bread to feed them?”

Now Philip was from Bethsaida the nearby town and he would’ve known where to find bread.

If there was a Wal-Mart nearby, he would have known about it. We have Piggly Wiggly’s in Wisconsin, but there were definitely no Piggly Wiggly’s in Israel. That would not be kosher. Philip knew the area and grew up just down the road.

But verse 6 tells us that Christ was not really asking Philip to solve the problem, as Christ already knew what He was going to do. Rather He was testing his faith to refine and strengthen it, as He had a lesson to teach Philip and the other disciples.

One commentator stated, “Verse 6 reflects both Jesus’ omniscience and omnipotence. He had a complete knowledge of the situation and the power and authority to meet the need. God may place believers in seemingly impossible situations to teach them something about the greatness of His Person.”

This was a seemingly impossible situation in an impossible place. There were no resources. They were in a remote desolate place. There was nowhere to go to buy food for this many people. There was not enough money. Immediate food was just not possible.

In verse 7, Philip doesn’t answer the question about WHERE to get bread, he answered with HOW MUCH, and says it was simply out of range financially speaking for them to do or consider such a thing. And Philip does a quick assessment of what it might cost for each one to just have a bite or two of bread!

He says “Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.”

A “pennyworth” was a denarius. The denarius was a Roman coin, and one denarius was the wage of one day’s work for a soldier or common worker.

In the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, the Lord told about a landowner who made an agreement “with the labourers for a penny [or denarius] a day” (Matt 20:2).

So doing the math, with a worker working 6 days a week in that time, 200 denarii was the wages for a little over 33 weeks, or about 8 months’ wages.

Philip looked at the crowd and told the Lord it would cost a fortune, that they would need the equivalent of 200 days wages and even that would only be enough for people to take a little, and not provide enough to satisfy the hunger of all the men, women and children.

Philip looked at the problem in terms of meeting the minimum requirement. If a little for each person was impossible, then having more than enough wasn’t even worth considering. But God is a God of abundance, and meets needs abundantly as we see here.

Philip’s answer showed that he failed the test the Lord gave him.

It would have been a different story, if Philip had said, “Lord, what are You, why are You asking me? You made everything. Without You was not anything made that was made. You are Lord and the Creator. Surely, if You can do all these miracles, You can make dinner for everybody and give them more than enough.”

If he had said that he would have passed the test by putting his trust in the power which he had seen displayed time and again, day after day in the Lord’s earthly ministry.

But he first thought of and looked at only the practicality of it all and the things he could control and see and the mathematics of it all.

It’s been said that “Philip was a matter-of-fact person, a quick reckoner and good man of business, and therefore more ready to rely on his own shrewd calculations than on unseen resources.” Like Philip, we too often fail the test when the Lord wants us to just trust Him.

Next, according to Mark 6:38, the Lord told the disciples to go into the crowd and search to see what might be available for food among them.

After doing so, Andrew, Peter’s brother, tells the Lord that all they could find was a “lad” or young boy who was willing to share his 5 barley loaves and 2 small fishes.

The barley loaves would’ve been leavened a little, formed into little disks about four or five inches in diameter, then baked. The small fishes were small, seasoned, sardine-like fish, included for the sake of flavor.

Barley was cheaper than wheat, and these “barley loaves,” or small, flat barley cakes were generally food for the poor. Yet this boy willingly gave his food sacrificially!

Andrew recognized that obviously this was not enough to go around, “but what are they among so many?” But in the hands of God, Andrew was about to find out that this was more than enough.

John 6:10-15: “And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.

“And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.

“Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.

“Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.

“When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.”

The Lord had the disciples where He wanted them: recognizing their own insufficiency and inability, their recognition of an impossible situation, and their need to depend on Him. Christ then takes control and goes about His work in an orderly way.

The disciples told the Lord “Send them away,” Christ told them, “Have them sit down, it’s time to eat.” There was a large grassy area, and He has everyone sit down and recline in the grass in order to stabilize the crowd and so there’d be no rush for the food.

Having them sit was a symbol of rest and points to the rest of the Kingdom. And in the kingdom, Christ will provide for the people and their needs. That will be a time when “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” and those at that time will be made “to lie down in green pastures” as Psalm 23 states.

John records that the number of “men” present were about 5000. That’s only the men, not including the women and children, and it is estimated that there could have been as many as 20,000 people total present.

In Matthew’s account, he referred to the women and children: “And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children” (14:21).

And so of all the miracles that Christ ever did, this is the most massive miracle in sheer number at one time.

Mark records that Christ “commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass, and they sat down…by hundreds, and by fifties” (6:39,40).

And so the Lord segmented them, and had them sit in groups of 50 and 100 all over the grassy hillside. Having the people grouped this way made it easier to distribute the food.

After the people were organized, Christ took those 5 small baked barley loaves in His hands and gave thanks. Matthew 14:19 says He prayed, “looking up to heaven,” blessing the food and giving thanks to His Father for the meal they were all about to eat.

And then with no fanfare, no voice from heaven, no lightning, no thunder, He gave the loaves and fishes to the disciples and they suddenly became waiters and servers and carried the loaves and fishes and distributed the miraculous work of Christ to the crowd.

And one lunch became two, then three, then again and again and again, and He kept handing the loaves and fishes to the disciples over and over. It was a supersized meal!

How the miraculous multiplication of the food took place we are not told. Christ did not create a mound of loaves and fishes, it just says He handed the loaves and fishes to the disciples and they gave it to the people seated in the grass.

The miracle likely just took place in His hands. And there was just a continual creation of more loaves and fishes enough to feed more than twenty-five thousand people.

This is a staggering testimony to the identity of Jesus Christ as God and Creator. He kept passing out loaves and fish, because He kept creating it.

Talk about fresh bread and fresh fish, this was as fresh as it gets. And eating a perfect meal can lend itself to causing a person to eat a lot, and all did that day. It was an “all you can eat” meal.

And each person received more than “a little” as Philip said, they all received and ate “as much as they would” or wanted, and a lunch pail offering became a banquet feast in the hands of God, in the hands of the God of abundance, generosity, and all grace.

And all the people were “filled” or happily full and satisfied. There was no one left thinking, “another piece of bread would be nice” or “I could eat one more fish.”

After all ate and were satisfied, Christ then instructed the disciples to go gather up the leftovers. The leftovers speak to us that the crowd ate all they wanted to eat.

The Lord wanted the fragments gathered up among the crowd that were not eaten so that nothing was lost; there was to be no waste of the surplus. And the twelve disciples filled twelve baskets full of the uneaten fishes and loaves.

In verse 14, realizing that a miracle had taken place excitement grows among the people. And they make the connection between Christ and “that prophet that should come into the world” which Moses prophesied about.

In Deuteronomy 18:15 Moses said, “The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me.”

So their thought process was, wait a second, Moses was with Israel in the wilderness. Christ and we are in the wilderness. Moses had fed the people with miracle bread in the wilderness. Christ just fed the people with miracle bread in the wilderness.

Passover is when Moses had led the people out of bondage in Egypt. Passover is near, perhaps Christ was the One to lead the people out of the bondage of the Romans.

And they were right. He was “that prophet” that Moses spoke of. The excited and satisfied crowd then began to stir as they wanted to coronate and make Him King, by force if necessary.

Christ, who is all-knowing and knew all men and what was in man, knew of the movement to make Him King in light of His healing and feeding them. But He knew the people had felt prompted by their stomachs rather than their hearts.

Christ kingdom was not of this world. It was to be given to Him by the Father. There could be no kingdom without the Cross first. He knew His path to be the way of suffering in dying for the sins of the world, then glory to follow in the Kingdom.

Before He’d be the reigning Lion of the tribe of Judah, He must first be the Lamb who bore the sin of the world. Christ knew this fully and only did His Father’s will.

So Christ went into a mountain alone to spend time alone in prayer with the Father.

Interestingly, just prior to the Lord’s first Passover, He turned the water into wine. Here just before another Passover, He multiplied the bread. At His last Passover Christ instituted a remembrance of the Cross with these same elements, bread and wine.

The 12 full baskets collected were a witness to the abundance of the provision. Christ more than met their physical need of hunger, and this was a witness to how Christ can more than meet our spiritual need of our sin debt and the penalty of our sins by His Cross.

And Christ showed through the gathering of the leftovers, also that God’s blessings in our lives shouldn’t be wasted. And so the blessings of marriage, family, money, time, health, opportunity should never be wasted, and should be used for the Lord.

And we should not overlook how the Lord used that young man’s offering, though it was little. That little lunch from that young man meant much to the Lord. And He used it greatly to meet the needs of others. It shows how Christ uses anyone, of any age.

It’s been said well that “It’s never about how much we have to offer, but rather if we will offer whatever we have. Jesus had the power to create food out of thin air or from the rocks on the hillside. But He chose to work with a small gift from a little boy.

“Sometimes the greatest miracle happens when we let go of some little possession and put it into God’s hands. What God does with what we give Him becomes secondary to the delight of participating in His work in the world.”

Like that little boy we are called to give what we have. With our gifts of time, our talents, our resources, God wants us to give willingly and sacrificially of these things to Him.

We might wonder “What difference would I make if I give these things to the Lord?” but God multiplies the little things that we have and give and do for Him, and He uses them for His purposes and glory.

The things we have to give to the Lord may be like a young child’s small lunch offering, but they can be used miraculously in the hands of God.