of the Spirit of God, I'd like you to turn with me to the chapter that we read together, the Gospel according to John, chapter six, and the text that you'll find in verse nine. There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what are they among so many?

So we move on to the next miracle of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a miracle which almost mirrors the first miracle that the Lord Jesus did as he turned the water into wine. as he takes control of the matter, of the elements and he is able to use his almighty power as God to accomplish his will through those things that are before him. That there is nothing that can hinder or stop his work.

And as his first miracle was to turn the water into wine, an impossibility takes place but we know that God is the God of the impossible. We believe that the scripture is true, that all things were made by him and without him was not anything made. The world came into existence by the voice of God himself and as in the beginning it was spoken and the world came into being and it was indeed good and so as Christ is God and all things were made by him we can expect to see the power of God in him and we see that as he manifests these miracles throughout the New Testament who were the seal of his ministry and so as he takes things and he does things which only God can do and which declares the statements that he says to be true.

And so here we have the Lord Jesus Christ. We see his humanity. We see him having compassion upon the multitude. We see a multitude that had followed him. and he is now concerned about their physical needs and something that we need to remember in our lives that God not only deals with the spiritual needs of his people but he deals with the physical needs and we saw as we looked at the church order a few weeks ago that there is that instalment in place for both the body and the soul that he has placed men over the church to feed the sheep, to proclaim the truth, to rightly divide the word, the spiritual needs of the people but then he has given those deacons to take care of the physical needs of the people and we see in Christ Jesus here taking care and having concern for the physical needs of those who were following and do not think then that the Lord would lead you and abandon you in the wilderness. Do not think that the Lord Jesus would lead you out to forget you. Do not think that he doesn't concern himself with the physical needs that you have. He understands very well the needs of the human body. He understands very well the needs that we have day by day and he has promised to be able to deal with those physical needs that the Lord has.

And as the Lord Jesus sees this multitude that have walked out into the wilderness, to sit under his ministry. He knows full well what he is going to do and how he is going to provide for them. And so we see in this miracle that Christ is the master of the matter. He's able to take these five loaves and these two small fish and he's able to feed a multitude of people. The scripture tells us that there's the feeding of the 5,000 beside women and children. There is more people here than is actually written down. And the reason why there is so many people following the Lord Jesus, not just because of the miracles, but because the scripture tells us it was near the time of the Passover. Those of you who have been in the Bible studies will remember that we've been going through the various feasts of the Jewish calendar. And there is the feast of the Passover, the day by which they remember their deliverance from Egypt, that the angel passed over their houses in the land of Egypt. And there was to be that specific way that salvation could occur. It was only through the shedding of blood, the Passover lamb. When the angel saw the blood upon the lintels and upon the doorposts he would pass over that house and the institution of the Passover was to be remembered for generations to come.

And so at this time it is near the time of the Passover. All the Jewish men especially were descending upon Jerusalem so that they could remember this feast. They could do their sacrifice. They could have their Passover lamb and they could look back and see the deliverance of their people many, many years ago. And so it was this time.

But not only is it the time of the Passover but also it is the time just after the Passover it is the time of the first fruit. The offerings of the festival of the first fruits. And the first fruit of the harvest was the barley harvest. Barley was the ripened before the wheat. And so the first offering to be given was this barley harvest. And so this sheds light upon why this young boy is carrying five barley loaves. Because the harvest had already begun. Although the day for bringing those offerings to the temple had not yet took place that there is barley in the field.

Now barley was the crop for the poor people. It was a hard grain that didn't grind very nice and produced quite a coarse hard loaf. Then in your minds if you think of this young boy with these five loaves you may think of lovely fluffy rolls that you get from Tesco's and this nice bread that Jesus just broke up It was a hard loaf. A loaf which was normally eaten by the poor people.

If you've ever read the book of William Huntingdon you will know that he was a minister who was from a very poor background. And as he was in the ministry he was a coal heaver. He used to carry coal. He was also a preacher of the word and his family lived off this barley, barley bread. One day he felt really sad that he had left these hard loaves with his children and his wife while he had gone to work and he felt discouraged that his pathway was so difficult and he's having to leave this horrible bread behind with his family to sustain them through the day.

And so he prays to the Lord on his way to work and on his way to work he crosses a bridge And as he's crossing the bridge he looks down into the mud by the side of the river and there he sees an eel. And he's unsure if this eel is alive or if it's dead. So he goes and finds that it's alive and so he kills it. and takes it back to his family so that they can have some flesh with their hard barley loaves.

And so the Lord declares to us here, it's specifically labelled as barley because the Lord wants us to know that this is just a poor boy. He's a poor boy and maybe he's come to sell these barley loaves to try and make some money or maybe it's his lunch that he's put together but he's a poor boy. and he's got five barley loaves. But God is going to do something wonderful. He's going to take what this poor boy has. He's going to take these hard loaves and he's going to distribute all of these loaves to feed over 5,000 people for their physical good and for the spiritual good of his disciples as they look on.

So in this chapter there are three types of bread being spoken about. We have the barley loaves that are brought to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the Lord Jesus Christ speaking of himself as the bread that came down from heaven. And we have the manna that was given to the children of Israel in the wilderness to sustain them in their pilgrimage journey.

Verse 31 the Jews as they're reasoning with the Lord Jesus Christ they cannot comprehend that he is saying that he is the bread that came down from heaven and they say to him that our fathers did eat manna in the desert as it is written he gave them bread from heaven to eat and Jesus said unto them verily verily i say unto you moses gave them not that bread from heaven but my father giveth you the true bread from heaven

And the Jews were constantly looking back to the way in which the Lord dealt with them through Moses. And as they are remembering the Passover, as they're remembering the Feast of the First Fruits, they also look back and see the provisions of God. And they said, Moses gave us this bread. Jesus says, no, my father gave you that bread. And that bread was a type of me. That bread was a type. I am the true bread that came down from heaven.

In Exodus chapter 16 verse 15 you remember the children of Israel were grumbling and complaining and longing to go back to the land of Egypt and God provides them with the quails but also he promises to sustain them in their pilgrimage journey and when the children of israel sorry verse 14 and when the dew lay upon the ground was gone up behold upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing a small as small as the hoarfrost upon the ground

So what they are seeing if you remember in a cold winter's morning you have the hoarfrost which is a frost which the air freezes upon the trees and they go all white and upon the grass it goes all white and so they are seeing something like the hoarfrost clinging to the vegetation on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, it is manna, for they wist not, or they did not know what it was. And Moses said unto them, this is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. And so the name manna means what is it? We don't know what it is. But it was the way that the Lord was going to provide for them as his people.

Not only was he leading them, As Jesus led the people into the wilderness they came to him to hear his word but he was also going to provide for them. He led them out of Egypt and he was going to provide for them on their journey. So he was teaching them dependence. Dependence upon him for their daily need. They were in a lifeless wilderness. no food, no water but they had God and God was going to give them everything that they needed for their physical bodies and he was going to provide for them in miraculous ways.

This manna came to them every single morning it was there apart from the Sabbath day. He also provided for them water out of the rock which followed them which they could drink and wash their bodies. And so do not think that the Lord has forgotten about you. Do not think that the Lord has led you into a specific place to abandon you and to leave you there. He has led you there and he will provide for your every need. As he has provided for you spiritually in Christ Jesus, he will provide for you physically in your body.

He is teaching you. as you walk through this lifeless spiritually dead wilderness he's teaching you dependence upon him you are to depend upon him for your daily needs It does not mean that you just abandon all work as the children of Israel had to go out and gather the manna every single day. So the Lord's people are to go out and they're to labour with their hands to provide for their families. But the Lord has promised to provide and uphold and to sustain us in this wilderness below.

It taught them a daily looking to the Lord. Now if you gather up everything on one day then you know you've got to look to the Lord to provide for you the next day. And these as they gathered up the manna they couldn't keep it until the following day. They had to wait upon the Lord for the next day. And so it taught them that daily looking to the Lord for that provision and for that strength.

In our lives if we're employed or if we have a lot of work before us or we have a pension it doesn't maybe concern us that daily living. But How often it is that we forget that the Lord is in control even of our health. And when we become unwell it's then that we realise that the Lord The Lord gives us our health and the Lord gives us our sickness and how we realize how dependent we are upon him even in our daily health that it's him that gives us the strength to go to work or the strength to go about our daily lives. Him that gives us the intellect and the ability that we have.

And so it teaches us daily dependence that we are fragile. that we need him, we need his strength, we need to daily look up to him in the mornings as we get out of bed to look to the Lord and ask for strength and provision to be kept for the day.

And as they looked at this manna they said, what is it? And as we look at it we can say what is it? Well it is a type, a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible study this morning we saw those types and shadows of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. Christ is the fulfillment of many of the things of the Old Testament and here Christ is the fulfillment of the manna that came down from heaven.

He says I am the true bread that came down from heaven. He says, your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness which you speak so highly about, but they're dead. They're not here anymore, they've gone. That sustained them for one day. But I am the true manna that came down from heaven and I give eternal life. If you eat of me, if you believe in me, you will never thirst, you will never hunger. because he comes to give eternal life and so the second bread that is spoken about is Jesus Christ Jesus Christ the bread that came down from heaven as eating gives us or gives our bodies that daily strength that keeps us alive so that eating of Christ that believing in Christ gives us spiritual life eternal life.

Jesus says, I am come that they may have life, that they may have it more abundantly. I am the bread of life. He that cometh unto me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Do we have a hunger for the Lord Jesus Christ? No doubt it's near 12 o'clock, maybe our stomachs are beginning to feel ready for some lunch. We have that natural hunger. But do we have that spiritual hunger? Do we have that appetite for spiritual things? Do we want to feed off the Lord Jesus Christ, off his word? Do we benefit from sitting under the ministry of the word? Do we come in spiritually hungry and then are fed a spiritual food? Is our appetite satisfied after meditating upon the word or being with the Lord's people or being with Christ in prayer? Those that are hungry are those that are satisfied.

As Andrew says to Jesus, what are they among so many? We take of the Lord Jesus Christ as the bread that came down from heaven. The scripture says that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus says that he is that bread that came down from heaven and that as we look at the Lord Jesus Christ typified as that bread, he says in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, He says that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he break it and said, take each. This is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me.

And so as Andrew says to Jesus, this bread, this bread, what is this bread amongst so many? How can these five loaves feed such a multitude of people? but in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ they are able and maybe you look at the Lord Jesus Christ and you see well this one man how can this one man provide a sacrifice for so many how can he be the bread that came down from heaven to sustain and give eternal life for so many. He says this bread is my body, he brought in this new covenant which is remembered at the Lord's Supper by the breaking of bread and the drinking of the wine for this one man the Lord Jesus Christ is the God-man.

We know that he is perfect and without sin We know that his perfect life fulfilled the whole law of God, living in complete obedience unto the Father, loving God and loving his neighbor as himself, fulfilling the whole law of God, which no other man, woman, boy or girl could ever do. So this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, this one bread that came down from heaven is able to sustain millions and millions and millions of people. to give eternal life to millions of people. A number that no man can number. The Lord Jesus Christ knows the number. God the Father knows the number. God the Holy Spirit knows the number. But no man knows the number. And he is the bread that came down from heaven.

And so we see in this miracle of Christ As he takes these five loaves and feeds over 5,000 people, we also see the work that Christ accomplished in salvation, that he is that bread, that bread that came down from heaven, crucified upon the cross, gives his life for the people that they may live. One man provided eternal life for untold millions of people. as here he demonstrates his power by taking five loaves and two fish and feeding a multitude.

And so the next bread then is this five barley loaves. This is the only miracle that is accounted in all four of the Gospels. All four of the Gospel writers moved by the Spirit of God lay down this miracle. demonstrates the power of the Lord Jesus Christ over all things as it points back to the transformation of the water into wine and as it demonstrates Christ's perfect sacrifice and the feeding and giving spiritual life to his people.

But also it is used as a test for his apostles. How quickly we forget all that the Lord can do and has done in our lives. when you young people when you are at school, university and college you have exams you get older you may have driving lessons and you have exams they put you to the test to see what you have learned if anything has been retained in your mind And they want to know that you can take what is in your mind and put it down on paper so they can examine you to see how you are. These men had been walking with the Lord Jesus. They had seen all his miracles. They'd seen him raising people from the dead. They'd seen the water into wine. They'd seen the blind and the deaf and the dumb and the lame walking. And so now he puts them to the test. He asks a question, Philip a question. He asks him, when, whence, or how shall we buy bread? From where shall we buy bread that these may eat? And this he said to prove him, or to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. was a test. Have all of these miracles that you have seen had any effect upon you in increasing your faith to believe and to trust in me?

I can say that he failed the exam. He should have immediately said, you are All things were made by you. Without you was not anything made. You are able to feed this multitude. You're able even to raise up from the ground manna like there was before to feed this multitude. But he comes up with a human answer. 200. Pennyworths of bread. 200 days wages is not enough to feed this amount of people.

How often it is in our lives that we just humanise these things. We come up with a human reason as to why these things can't take place when we forget the greatness of God, the power of God and our relationship with God in Christ Jesus. That he has done the greatest work. our lives he has brought us from spiritual deadness into eternal life into spiritual life and he's led us into a situation and now we look at physical ways by which this problem can be solved instead of going well lord you've led me here and you know what you are going to do but instead we start the sums or this and this and this.

Andrew says there is a lad here with five barley loaves and two small fish and what are they among so many? If any of you know what's going around at the moment with these young people, they talk about six and they talk about seven. If we add these two things up, five and two, seven. Seven is God's number. Seven is a perfect number. The number six is the number of man. Imperfect, incomplete. If you think of Satan's number is 666. It never obtains to seven because it's an incomplete number. Satan always falls short of the glory of God. He is cast out of God's presence.

And so we have these seven items which is the perfect number of God. And these seven items are placed into the perfect hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. He takes these items and he blesses these items. And then he gives them to his disciples and they distribute them among the people. This is why we always give thanks for our food because we follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ that he gave thanks for the food that had been provided even though the loaves were dry barley loaves. Yet he gave thanks to God because he knew what he was going to do. He gave thanks for the food and we should always give thanks for the food. We should never take our food for granted.

As Jesus Christ led these people into the wilderness he understood that they would become hungry. How dependent you and I are upon our food. If the food chain was to cease we wouldn't last very long but we are blessed in this country to be able to have meals whenever we like. And we should be thankful for our food. Our food comes from the goodness of God to this nation of ours. And Jesus took the loaves and took the fish and he gave thanks and he distributed them to his disciples who in turn distributed it to the people. If you go back to 2 Kings chapter 4 Elisha also does something similar. Verse 42, and they came after there was a famine and they went to gather some food to make a soup or a pottage and there was some poison, a poisonous herb was placed into the pot and it is dealt with, it's cleansed from its poison.

But from verse 42, It says, and there came a man from Bel Shalisha and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, 20 loaves of barley and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, give unto the people that they may eat.

You see that it's the same time of year. These things don't just happen to be, it is perfectly timed by the Lord Jesus Christ to mirror what took place in the Old Testament. The time of the first fruits, 20 barley loaves and full ears of corn.

and his servant said what should i set before and should i set before 100 men how am i going to 20 loaves how am i going to feed 100 men with 20 loaves and he said again give the people that they may eat for thus saith the lord they shall eat and shall leave thereof.

So he set it before them and they did eat and left off according to the word of the Lord. Elisha the prophet Thus saith the word of the Lord they're going to eat and there's going to be some left over. Thus saith the Lord Jesus Christ they're going to eat and there's going to be some left over.

Not only was there some but there is 12 baskets full that everybody ate as much as they possibly could and then when the apostles went round to gather they filled 12 12 baskets and the Lord provided. Seven, the perfect number, in the perfect hands of the Lord Jesus Christ, fed over 5,000 people.

What are they among so many? The Lord still tests his people. Our lives are like, as this is written, we are the light of the world, we are the salt of the earth. Our lives are living walking sermons and how we act portrays what we believe.

Philip and Andrew asked the question What are we going to do? How are we going to feed all these people? How they responded showed what they believed about the Lord Jesus Christ. They had forgotten past mercy. They had forgotten past miracles. And they were just looking as it were blankly at the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well I don't know. I don't know what's going to take place. It's impossible. Maybe that's how we've been. An impossibility presented before us. Do we throw our arms up in the air and say, well, I don't know what's going to happen. All hope is lost. I don't know how it's all going to be dealt with. We've forgotten past mercy. We've forgotten the goodness of God in our lives. We've forgotten that it is the Lord who has led us into this place and nothing takes place without him knowing.

For he himself knew what he was going to do. And how we react to these tests demonstrates what we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It demonstrates the the extent of our faith. So I've said to you before if we start running around like a headless chicken just because some problems come into our lives it demonstrates that we have no faith. It's like we believe that the Lord has lost control of everything.

So how we react is what people see. Our lives then are these walking sermons what people see. and take account of and how we react to situations they read. And the Bible tells us that by our good behaviour we may win people to the Lord Jesus Christ.

You may think that just like this young man, this little boy, what you have is not very much. You don't have great ability. You don't have great resources. Maybe you don't have great intellect. But you know the Lord is able to do a lot with a little. He takes the foolish things of this world to confound the wise and he takes these five loaves and two small fish and he feeds a multitude of people.

We're to look beyond. personal limitations, physical limitations and we're to see the greatness of God in all of our life's circumstances. We're to look beyond the impossibilities and see the greatness of Christ. As I've said He's done the greatest thing for you if you are one of His. He's saved you. He's plucked you as a brand from the burning and you are His. You have partaken of the bread of life and it is Him that dwells in you.

So it's nothing for Him to provide for you in your situation even if you have gone astray, even if that you have sinned against Him. through one of his he will receive you back to himself. Encourage yourself with past mercies. If the disciples were just to look back and remember the water into wine then they would have known exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ is going to do or was able to do.

There is a lad here which has five barley loaves and two small fish. But what are they among so many? Also I think it speaks to us of the Word of God. The Word of God, the bread of life. How it feeds multitudes. Those who come even today, come to places of worship, they've come hungry. And by this one word the Lord can satisfy many. It can feed the multitude as the word is rightly divided. The multitude are fed, they're strengthened and they are encouraged to press on in this wilderness journey.

If you are in the wilderness, if you are hungry, then come and feed of the Lord Jesus Christ for he is the bread that came down from heaven. More than five barley loaves and two small fish, he is the bread more than the manna that came down from heaven and those that ate of that they are dead. He is the bread, the bread of life. Believe in him and you will live.

And may the Lord add his blessing. Amen.

Let's sing our final hymn this morning from Gadsby's, hymn number 512.

512. Thy church, O Lord, that's planted here,
O make it to increase with numbers blessed with filial fear,
enjoying heavenly peace.

Hymn 512, tune 221. The church of old that founded there,
a rank it to increase,
with members blest with fiddle fair,
enjoyed as one, united ever be.

Rejoice in him, what Christ has done.
? To each other's burdens bear ?
? Be still, O hear our cry ?
? And hear us make our every step ?

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, with the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit, to be with you all now and for evermore. Amen.