Let's open our Bibles to John
chapter 6, the book of the gospel according to John, and we're
going to chapter 6 this evening. This is a passage that, or story,
that each of you I'm sure is very you know it very well, you're
very familiar with it, where our Lord feeds the multitude.
He fed 5,000 men and then in addition the number of men or
women and children who were there. So estimates vary as to how many
He fed or many thousands that were fed by the Lord Jesus on
this day. And it is the only miracle that
each of the gospel writers records. Our Lord performed many miracles
during His public ministry. But this one, this one is, Matthew
writes of it, Mark writes of it, Luke writes of it because
you read to us from Luke's account and then of course this Apostle
John, he writes of it. So this is a passage that's well
known to each of us and you know one of the things about preaching
from scripture that everybody knows is that there may be people
who think, well, I've looked at this so many times. I've studied
this. I've heard so many messages on
this. Brother Mahan preached on this.
Brother Parker preached on this. We've heard this preached on
during Bible conferences. And we may be led to this conclusion. I don't think there's anything
new we can see out of it. And that may be that you won't
see anything new in this message tonight from John chapter 6,
but maybe it will be like the parable of the householder that
the Lord spoke of in Matthew chapter 13, where He said, The
kingdom of heaven is like unto a householder which bringeth
forth out of his treasure things new and old. So we'll bring out
of this things old, that's for sure, but maybe even things new. And maybe even the old things
will be like new things to us. Because that is the unique thing,
one of the many unique things about the Scriptures is though
we've looked at a passage lots of times, God the Spirit can
make it new to us and He can make it fresh to us. He can make
it refreshing to the heart and to the soul and make it to be
a blessing to us again this evening. This is the mighty Creator. He takes five barley cakes, just
little barley wafers, Takes a couple of fish, most likely pickled
fish, because that's what they usually did with it. And he fed
thousands upon thousands of people from this. This is a creative
miracle. We know that this has parallel
passages because I said Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all record
this. And if you're taking notes, if
you want to read these after a bit when you get home, it'd
be beneficial to you to read these. Matthew chapter 14, 13
to 21. And then Mark chapter 6, 34 through 44. And then as
was read to us earlier, Luke chapter 9 verses 10 through
17. And now down through the years
has been a lot of preaching on this, the feeding of the 5,000
or the feeding of the multitudes. And many preachers have given
it different applications, different things that have been stressed
in it. I read a message where this preacher
of years ago, he said, here is a good lesson on being generous. Here's a little boy who shares
his meal. Actually, he doesn't share his
meal. That's what this particular writer said. He was willing to
share his meal. He just gave it all. He gave
it all. And so this particular writer,
he said, It's good to share what we have with others, and that's
right. We ought to be generous people,
but there's got to be more to this story than just a lesson
in being generous and sharing what we have with others. There's
got to be more to it than that, though we can certainly take
that away from it. We take that lesson away from
it. Another writer said this is a lesson on believing the
Lord when our resources are low. And that's a valuable lesson
to be learned. All that was available for food,
food wise, was the five barley cakes and two fishes. resources were low. But the Lord can take a little
and make much out of it. Isn't that right? So don't despise
a day of little things, small things. That's why the prophet
said that. Don't despise a day of little
things, insignificant things. God can use and God does use
insignificant things. Hey, He uses us, doesn't He?
And we're insignificant. We're little. We're nobodies. We're nobodies in and of ourselves.
And yet, God uses us for His glory like He uses everybody
for His glory to fulfill His purpose. So, here's a lesson
on believing the Lord when our resources are low. Now that's a good lesson to learn. I think there's more to learn
here than just that. Certainly, we ask the Lord to
give us this day our daily bread. We're to rest in Him and trust
Him to meet our needs. That passage you read to us in
Luke chapter 9, the Lord sent His disciples out preaching.
He said, don't take anything with you. That's what He said.
Trust Me. You just rely on Me to meet your
needs. And it's obvious that neither
Philip nor Andrew or any of the other apostles really trusted
Him to supply the needs of themselves or all the other people as well.
They didn't do what the Lord told them to do. They didn't
trust in Him when their resources were low. We should do that,
but there's more to this story than just learning that lesson. Another lesson that can be taken
away from this is we ought to have compassion on the multitudes. Here are thousands of people
who were hungry. You know what the disciples said?
They said to the Lord, send them away. That's what they said. Read what it says in Matthew
and Mark. They said, send them away. Send
them away. But our Lord Jesus said, they
need not depart. He had compassion on those who
are hungry. We ought to be a compassionate
people. For those that have less, those
whose resources are really low, we ought to show compassion.
upon the needy. But there's more to this than
just learning that lesson. Though that's a good lesson that
we ought to learn. And then somebody else says,
well, here's a lesson on you ought not to waste what's been
given to you. Well, that's also to be learned
from this because after the Lord had fed them all and everybody
had eaten as much as they could eat, he said, you go collect
what's left over. And they collected 12 baskets
full. And I suspect those 12 baskets
full, each basket went to a disciple. And I bet you after they ate
leftovers for two or three days, they were wishing that that little
boy's lunch had been a more diverse lunch. Maybe that he had had
some other things as well in his lunch bag or whatever it
was, but they weren't to waste what was left over. We ought to be good stewards
of what God puts in our hands. And I'm not one of these that
goes nuts over I'm not a tree hugger and all that sort of thing. I have nicknames for people.
You know, people go crazy over, you know, we're going to take
care of Mother Earth and that kind of silly stuff. And we don't
go for that. I'll tell you this, the Earth
was just fine when we got here and it will be just fine when
we leave because God's preserving it. It's all in God's hands.
One of these days it's going to melt with fervent heat. Having
said that, we ought to endeavor to leave it like we found it,
or maybe in better shape. I do agree with that. I'm not
an ultra-liberal person. I'm a conservative thinker and
a conservative believer, and I don't go for all the foolishness
that people talk about, earth warming and all that kind of
stuff. People get all wrapped up in that. But I do believe
in this, you ought not waste what God gives you. That makes sense, doesn't it? Whatever God puts in your hands,
Use it for His glory and be generous with it. After all, God's been
generous to you. He's given to you. You should
give to the gospel, give to those who are in need, that sort of
thing. So here's, indeed there is a
lesson, a lesson that ought to be learned on don't waste what
you've been given. If those are the only lessons
that we take away from this miracle, we've really missed the meaning
of the miracle. And this is where the gospel
of John is greatly beneficial to us. Because you see, while
Matthew and Mark and Luke and John, all of them record this
miracle, it's only John who gives us the real meaning. It's only
John. And here's the real meaning.
And I'll read you one verse. Verse 35. John chapter 6. Here's the real meaning. This
is the lesson. This is THE lesson that ought
to be learned. Jesus said unto them, I am the
bread of life. That's what you got. That's really
what you got to take away from this. And I'm not saying these
other things that they're in the place for all of these other
things. And they are of some significance,
but only secondary significance. Here's the main thing. Is to
focus on the Lord Jesus. And to realize that this One
who came down from heaven, He's the bread of life. He's the bread
from God. He's the bread that God gave.
That bread that our Lord break and He gave to His disciples.
What a miracle! What a miracle! Two little fishes. Five little
barley cakes. Barley, that was the grain for
the poor. In fact, one of the old rabbis
said that barley was only for the horses and the asses. That's
all it was for. This was the grain for the poor.
So here's a lad that's poor. Well, our Lord takes that and
He multiplies it. It's a creative act. He breaks
it and He just keeps on breaking. Gives to His disciples, they
take it, He keeps on breaking. Keeps multiplying right out of
His hand. This is the great Creator. This
is the great Creator. And as the bread came forth from
Him, learn this, He is the bread. He is the bread come down from
heaven. That bread that if any man eat,
Oh, He's eaten of the very bread of life. He's eaten of the bread
of God. He's eaten of the bread that
came down from the Father. This is the real thing to take
away from this. It is, I think, noteworthy that
in John's gospel, he sets forth two miracles, two specific miracles,
that set forth our Lord's creative power. He changed the water to
wine. And He fed the multitudes with
five barley cakes, little bitty like, kind of like little thin
pancakes. Not big ones like you ate yesterday. Six of them He ate. He didn't
eat five, He ate six of them yesterday. Why, I won't call
him named Brother Ron. These were thin little wafers. Little barley cakes. And he multiplied it. He fed
all of these people. Changed the water to wine. Fed
the multitudes. In all of the other miracles
of our Lord, either something or somebody
was restored or they were healed, or something was changed. He
gave sight, that was for the blind, He gave hearing for the
deaf, purity of flesh for those who are leprous, the ability
to walk for the lame, relief for the demon-possessed, and
life for the dead. But these two miracles, water
to wine, chapter 2, and right here the miracle of feeding the
multitudes, these show His ability to create. And these are in a
classification by themselves. And these are very significant.
Because back in John chapter 2, the water, the wine, there
is His blood. There is His blood. And here
in John chapter 6, here is His flesh. He is the bread of life. The wine and the bread. That's
the emblems of the Lord's Supper. And these are that which we take
of to remember His death till it comes. You remember when Abraham,
he had conquered the kings, those heathen kings that took captive
Lot and the kings of Sodom and so forth, and he restored them
all, he got them all, and he was wore out. Abraham, he was
a bloody man bent in battle. He met Melchizedek! That's a
picture of our Lord Jesus. And you know what Melchizedek
gave to Abraham? Bread and wine. Bread and wine. Bread to strengthen him. And
wine to refresh him and give him joy in his heart. Our Lord's
blood. That's the wine. Oh, the richness
of it. The richness of this wine of
God. The blood of the Lord Jesus.
The blood that washed our sins away. Only His blood could do
this. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sins. Simon Peter said, you were redeemed. Not with corruptible things,
but with the precious blood of Christ. The blood, the blood,
the water, the wine, there's His blood. And now here in John
chapter 6, the feeding of the 5,000 with the bread, with the
bread. He is the bread of life. He is the bread of life. You see the changing of the water
to wine? That's what He did. The bread? That's who He is. That's who
He is. Who is He? Who is He? That passage
you read in Luke chapter 9, Herod said, Who is this? Who is this? He said, I took care of John
the Baptist. He's dead. Who is this? Who is this? Well, I'll tell you who he is.
He's the bread come down from heaven. He's the great I Am. He's the
Lord of glory. By the way, King Herod, he said,
I want to see him. And our Lord Jesus didn't see
him. He was a dangerous man, King
Herod was. as was his father. His father
was Herod the Great. When our Lord Jesus was born,
Herod the Great sent out a decree and he said, I want all male
babies two years old and under in the Jerusalem area and in
the Bethlehem area, I want them all killed. That was Herod's
daddy. And now here's King Herod He
said, I want to see him. No. You won't see him then, but
you'll see him a year later. This happened in the spring.
This miracle took place in the spring, most likely April of
29 AD. One year later, Herod will have
an opportunity to see him. He's going to stand before him
as his prisoner. And he's going to ask him something
and our Lord refuses to answer him. And then Herod began to
mock him. Make fun of him. Stripped him
of his clothes and put a purple robe on him. Sent him back to
Pilate. And then later Herod died and
went to hell. Who is this?" Herod said. Well,
listen, Mr. Herod, King Herod, his own words
are these, I am the bread of life. I'm the bread of life. You know, of all of our Lord's
miracles, this is the most public one of all. And maybe that's
the reason that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all record this. Some of our Lord's miracles were
wrought in private or in the presence of just a few people.
Others were of such a nature that made it difficult in some
cases for maybe even impossible for the skeptics to investigate
the miracle. But this miracle, it's performed
out in the open. There's no hocus pocus here now.
There's no deception. There's no sleight of hand like
the... Nancy and the kids watch some
of these programs where, you know, they have so-called magicians
come on. That's just sleight of hand.
Our Lord, He's This is not sleight of hand, this is not deceitfulness. Right there He is, right in front
of everybody, and in their presence and in their midst, as they strained
to look, the bread just kept coming forth from His amazing,
almighty, creative hands, and the fish just kept coming forth
from His hands, and don't you know it had to be the best barley
cakes that ever was made? And the best fish that anybody
ever tasted, because the Lord did it. Because whatever He gives
us is the best. Because He is the best. And if
we have Him, we have everything that we need for time and eternity. God has put all of His eggs in
one basket. He has given us His beloved Son. This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. I am the bread come down from
heaven. And in Him we have all we need.
Oh, we are well supplied. Now, when did this miracle take
place? Chapter 6 verse 1, after these
things. Chapter 6 of John, after these
things. After the healing of the impotent
man. After the Jews persecuted the
Lord for performing that miracle of healing the lame man. The
man had been lame 38 years. They got upset with him. They
began to persecute him. After their hatred and their,
they expressed the desire to kill him. After these things, after He
had set forth the various ways in which He was equal with God,
after He had preached to them about His deity, after these
things, after He had left Judea, gone over the Sea of Galilee,
after these things, He went over the Sea of Galilee, which is
the Sea of Tiberias. Look at verse 2, and a great
multitude followed Him. Because they saw the miracles
He did on them which were diseased." Now here's what John doesn't
tell us. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, each
of those gospel writers, we've already said those are the synoptic
gospels because they're so much alike. But Matthew, Mark, and
Luke, they all tell us that just before this was when John the
Baptist was beheaded. They all tell us that. And you
remember the story that John the Baptist, he knew that King
Herod, who was the monarch over the area of Galilee, he decided
he wanted his brother Philip's wife. And he took her. Her name was Herodias. And John
the Baptist just let him have it over it. I mean, this is an
ungodly thing. And that upset mainly Herodias. Now, King Herod, interesting
enough, and I won't spend much time on this, but he loved to
hear John preach. You can read about it. He didn't
believe what he preached. But he loved to hear him preach.
It reminds me of a story that is told, and I suppose it's true,
about Benjamin Franklin and George Whitefield. And Benjamin Franklin, of course,
had no interest in the gospel whatsoever. George Whitefield
was a gospel preacher. Benjamin Franklin told somebody
one day, he said, I'm going to hear George Whitefield preach.
And they said, well, why would you want to go hear George Whitefield
preach since you don't believe what he preaches? He said, I
don't believe what he preaches, but he sure believes what he
preaches. And I love to hear a man talk
about something he really believes in. So maybe that's why King
Herod went to hear John preach. I don't know. But he was kind
of taken up with John. And he had a birthday. King Herod
had a birthday. And they had a great feast in
his honor. And he invited the daughter of
Herodias to dance to entertain him and his guests at the party. And she must have been quite
the striking young lady and quite the entertainer. And he was so
smitten after she finished her performance, he said, anything
you want, I'll give it to you. Wow, what a performance. She
went back and asked her mother, she said, what should I ask for? King said, anything I wanted,
I could have it. Herodias said, tell him you want
the head of John the Baptist on a charger, on a platter. She went back and told him, and
boy, he didn't like that, but he had given his word. A man
of honor, you know. And he sends to the dungeon and
said, cut his head off. Cut his head off. Put it in a
platter. How barbaric is that? How vile
and how evil is that? Here's the forerunner of the
Lord of glory. Brought it to the daughter of
Herodias. She took it to her mother. The
disciples of our Lord were crushed. You know what he said? Let's
get away for a while. Let's get away for a while. I
tell you, sometimes you just need a break. They needed the
rest. They needed to recuperate. They
needed to be refreshed. They needed to be encouraged.
He said, let's get away. Let's take a ship and go across
the Sea of Galilee. And they did. They did. But the multitudes followed him. They followed him over to an
area near Bethsaida, which means a fishing village, just a little
fishing village. That was the home of Philip and
Simon, Peter, and Andrew, Peter and Andrew brothers. And they
found a desert place. And when it says desert, don't take that to mean, oh,
it's nothing but hot, hot, and sand and dry. That's not what
it means deserted place. This is in April of 29 AD on
most likely a lush grassy bank. They go across and they go up
there and then the Lord sees the masses come. Here come the
multitudes following. And I'll tell you this about
the Gospel of John chapter 6. There's no other chapter in the
gospel narratives that really sets forth the goal and the desires
of the Jewish population quite like John chapter 6. Because
this, it makes it really obvious, more so than any other chapter
that I can think of, what they were looking for in a Messiah.
They are not looking for a Savior from sin. They are not looking
for somebody to justify them by His righteousness. They are
not looking for a sacrifice to satisfy God's justice. They are
looking for a great Messiah who will deliver them from Rome's
oppression. That is what they are looking
for. And this chapter more than any other chapter brings that
out. They follow Him because of His
miracles. A lot of them out of curiosity,
a lot of them were just thrill seekers. Want to see another
miracle. And you know, there is so much
I could say. Of course, obviously we are going
to carry this over to next Wednesday easily. But look at verse 30
of John chapter 6. And these are the same people.
This is the next day. Okay? This is the next day. These
are the people who ate of the loaves and the fishes. These
were people who were eyewitnesses. They didn't get this information
second hand. They were eyewitnesses of the
miracle. They actually ate the bread and
the fishes that our Lord multiplied by His omnipotence. And in verse
number 30, these people said therefore unto him, What sign
showest thou then that we may see and believe thee? What dost
thou work? Hadn't they seen enough? Wow! Is that not an evidence of man's
depravity? Of the blindness of the soul
to the glories of God's salvation? Here is the Master, here is the
Creator, the Great I Am, and He multiplies His food. Thousands
upon thousands of people are fed. In fact, Philip said, Let me just read this, verse
7. Philip said, 200 penny worth
of bread is not sufficient to buy food that every one of them
might have just a little bit. We know a penny's worth, that
was equivalent to a day's wage. So he said, if we had, and he
must have checked with Judas who was the treasurer, How much
money we got, Judas? What's the checking account setting
at? How much do we have? And Judas
said, we ain't got enough to feed this crowd, I can tell you
that. We can't buy food for all this bunch. Why, if we bought,
we had 200 pennies worth. Everybody would only get just
a little morsel. Just a little bit. And here I heard the Lord multiplies
it from His hands. Oh, to have seen that! And then the next day, these
same people said, what sign do you show us? We need more evidence. Listen, it's not a lack of evidence. It's a lack of spiritual life. It's a lack of spiritual sight. It's a lack of a spiritual hunger
for this one who is the bread of life. And he alone can give
it. He said to Philip, he said, where
can we buy bread? Philip was from that area. Here's
what Philip and the rest of the disciples did. They looked at
the need, they looked at their lack of resources, and here's
what they concluded. It can't be done. It can't be
done. And in all of their calculating,
Well, I wonder how much... Let's see. How much is it going
to take to get my calculator out? How much is each person
going to eat? How many ounces of food? I figured
this out. It can't be done. In all of their
calculation, they left out one vital fact. They forgot the Creator
was right with them. The Creator! But the Lord graciously didn't
rebuke them. He said, make everybody sit down. And they did. Sit down by hundreds
and fifties. Be easier to serve them. Yeah. The Lord does things in an organized
way. He took the loaves. He gave thanks.
He distributed to the disciples, look at verse 11, He distributed
to the disciples and the disciples to them that were set down. And
likewise of the fishes as much as they would. And I got to close
this down, but let me give you this. The disciples, these are
preachers. They are preachers. And they
picture preachers. They couldn't make the bread.
They couldn't invent the bread. But when they were given the
bread, they had one job to do. Distribute the bread. And you
know what? That's what I'm doing tonight.
I'm distributing the bread. I can't make the bread. I didn't
make the bread. The bread is Him who came down
from heaven. And guess what? I can't make you eat either. I can't give you an appetite.
I can't force feed you. Plus the old saying, you can
lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink. I can
put the bread up to you and say, He is the bread of life. He's
the Lord of glory come down from heaven to save sinners. He is. But I can't give you an appetite
and I can't force feed you. But it is my responsibility to
put the bread before you. every time we meet. That's the preacher's duty. We trust God to cause people
to open their mouths and taste and see that the Lord is good. He's good. They were filled. He said, gather up the fragments. Verse 14, 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. Now look
at verse 15. When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come
and take him by force to make him a king. Because this is what
they are thinking. This is the one who can relieve
us of Rome's oppression. Right here he is. If he can do
this, he can run these Romans out of here. That's going to
force him to make him a king. And he departed to the mountains.
And we're going to have to depart for home. So we'll have to pick
it up next week. Right there. Okay? Well, I hope
that helped you. Maybe it's some old for sure,
but hopefully something new too. Maybe it's all new, fresh, the
Lord willing, hopefully.