Turn in your Bibles to John 6 as we look into the Word this morning. We just read this passage. I'm sure this is a very familiar story to all of you, commonly known as the feeding of the 5,000. So I do not intend to teach you anything excitingly profound this morning because it is such a familiar account, but I do believe that there are some applications to be made from this story that I would like for us to consider. By this time in Jesus' ministry, the Jewish religious leaders, as well as most of the Jewish people, have rejected Him. In fact, they have decided that He is the most blatant blasphemer possible because He claimed to be God, and besides that, He had the gall to break their legalistic Sabbath rituals. And so the combination of alleged blasphemy and Sabbath-breaking caused them to reject Him, but those were merely the circumstances. The real reason was the hardness of their hearts and the wickedness of their sin. So as we come to this passage, Jesus has left Jerusalem and Judea, and the reason He did so is reported for us in chapter 7, verse 1, where it says that after these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. So Christ has been rejected. And Jerusalem, down in the southern part of the nation, in the region of Judea, the religious leaders are plotting His murder. Because of the hatred and the Jews' desire to murder Him, Jesus left Jerusalem And Judea went north to Galilee, but interestingly that did not stop him from making his claims. He just continues on doing what he was doing and claiming what he claimed. And while he was there, he performs this miracle. Now this incident is not some kind of random event that took place. No, Jesus performs this miracle because it leads to a tremendous discourse on His deity that focuses on the words, the bread of life. He asserts in verse 41 that He is the bread that came down out of heaven. He calls Himself the bread of life in verses 35 and 48, and in verse 51 He says that if anyone eats of this bread, he'll live forever. So this miracle that we will study today is merely the illustration of his claim to be the bread of life. It is somewhat unusual that John even includes this miracle in his gospel. The reason I say that is because this is the only miracle in all of John's gospel that is also included in all of the other three gospels. John's pattern is normally to tell us about events that the other Gospel writers omitted. From time to time he does record certain miracles or events that are included in one of the other Gospels, but this is the only time he includes a miracle that is found in all three of the other Gospels. What that tells us is that there must be tremendous importance attached to this miracle. Thus, we have to consider it as perhaps one of his paramount miracles, because it's the only one in all four Gospels. And I would suggest to you two primary reasons why I think John includes it. First, it shows the creative character of Christ's miracles more clearly than any other miracle. Now, of course, all of Jesus' miracles reveal to some degree His power as the Creator. When He healed a blind man, or a lame man, or a deaf man, or raised someone from the dead, He was recreating bodily functions. But in each of those miracles, there was an equality to the outcome. When He made wine out of water, He started with water and transformed it into an equal amount of wine. When He healed a single withered arm, the result was a single healthy arm. When he healed two blind eyes, the result was two seeing eyes. So while those miracles were creative and transformative, there was also an equality in a quantitative sense. But in this miracle, it is a purely creative act in which he simply created food for 15,000 or so people from nothing more than a young boy's lunch In terms of volume, this is the greatest miracle Christ ever did. It is vast in its scope, involving a large number of people, and it demonstrated Jesus' absolute creative power, power that only God would have. Second, I believe John includes this miracle because John's purpose in his gospel is to present Jesus' deity. And nothing would show his deity any better than a creative miracle because that's God in action. Also, as I said, this miracle is the occasion for the tremendous discourse later in the chapter where Christ claimed deity is the bread of life. So John includes the miracle because it sets the stage for the claims of Jesus that He is God in flesh, which is John's constant, relentless, never-ending message. And in his discourse, Jesus presents himself as the bread, which is the sole answer for the hunger in the hearts of men. Now think about this. In the two miracles in which Jesus created food for people, what did he create? Wine and bread. He created wine at the wedding in Cana back in chapter 2, and he creates bread in this miracle here in chapter 6. The fish are merely incidental to the bread. Later on in the story, down in verse 13 where it talks about the disciples gathering up the fragments, it doesn't even mention the fish, only the bread. So I think it's very interesting that the two miracles in which Jesus created food for others speak to us symbolically of his body and blood which were given for us. Even in these two miracles, Jesus is presenting himself as the crucified Christ. Every time we celebrate communion, we take the wine which speaks of his blood and we take the bread which speaks of his body. Now in case you think that this is just conjecture on my part, look over a page or two to verses 53 and 54 in this same chapter. They say, So Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. That's the picture of communion, isn't it? And remember the context. The statement is found in the same chapter as the miracle of creating bread and the bread of life discourse. So there's no doubt that there is a connection between this miracle and the symbolism of communion. Jesus was presenting himself as the Messiah whose body was to be broken and whose blood was to be shed for those who hungered and thirsted after righteousness. Now this story breaks down into four parts that I want us to examine this morning. They are the fickle crowd, the faithless disciples, the fantastic feeding, and the false coronation. Let's begin with the fickle crowd in verses 1 to 4. Verse 1 begins with the words, after these things. That does not mean that the events of chapter 6 immediately followed the events of chapter 5. It simply indicates that what happened in chapter 6 occurred sometime after the events of chapter 5. In actuality, most Bible scholars believe that there was about a six-month interval between the events of chapter 5 and the events of chapter 6. That's because the feast that Jesus was at in Jerusalem in chapter 5 was probably the Feast of Tabernacles. And now in this story, the Passover is near, and that took place about six months after the Feast of Tabernacles. During that six-month period, Jesus ministered in Galilee, and those events are recorded for us in the Synoptic Gospels. It was during that six months that he gave the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew 5-7, that he gave most of the parables that are recorded in the Gospels, that he healed the demon-possessed man in the region of the Gadarenes and sent the demons into the herd of pigs, and that he sent out the twelve in pairs to have them minister in his name. So it was a very busy six months. But John just skips over that entire period and focuses our attention on the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, which as we shall see was actually about 15 to 20,000 people. It was also during that time that Herod had John the Baptist beheaded and Matthew records that when Jesus heard about it, He left to go to a secluded area on the other side of the Sea of Galilee for rest and solitude. Mark adds that Jesus took along the 12 disciples who had returned from their ministry and because there was so many people coming to Jesus for healing, they needed some time to escape and rest because they hadn't even had time to eat. So Jesus decided to get away for a time of rest, for a time with his disciples to teach them, to share with them, to instruct them, to be alone with them. And so they crossed over the Sea of Galilee, which really isn't a sea at all. It's a large freshwater lake. It's about 13 miles long and 8 miles wide and about 35 miles around. Herod Antipas had founded a city on the west side of the lake and named it Tiberius after the emperor Caesar Tiberius. And so by the time John is writing his gospel around AD 90, the lake was now commonly known as the Sea of Tiberius, which is why he says, or Tiberius. That's just another of John's explanatory notes that he sprinkles throughout the text of his gospel for the benefit of his readers. Now notice that it specifically mentions that Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Contrary to the traditional site which places this event on the northwest side of the lake, it is more likely that this means the eastern side of the lake near the Golan Heights. because the western side of the Sea of Galilee was by far a more populated area and both Mark and Luke say that this was a secluded, desolate place. Plus there is strong archaeological evidence just found within the past few years that indicate that this event actually took place on the eastern side of the lake in the area of the Golan Heights. However, Jesus and the disciples were not able to find the peaceful seclusion that they desired. Look at verse 2. It says, A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs which he was performing on those who were sick. According to Mark 6.32, they took a boat across the lake. But a large crowd from the surrounding cities followed them on foot along the shore. By the time they reached their destination, a mass of people was already waiting for them with more on the way. Now why did the crowd follow him? Was it because they loved him? Was it because they had repented of their sins? Was it because they believed he was the Son of God? No, it wasn't for any of those reasons. They followed him because they wanted to see more miracles. They were pure unadulterated thrill-seekers. That's all. The only reason they followed Jesus was to see the things that He did and get Him to do something for them. They wanted free medical care. They couldn't care less about repentance or anything else. They completely failed to grasp the true significance of Jesus' miraculous signs which pointed unmistakably to Him as the Son of God and the Messiah. You see, the power that Jesus had to do miracles had placed Him on the crest of a wave of popularity, and He was really riding that wave. But it was very temporary, and it wasn't very long until that wave flattened out. And all the acclaim and popularity that Jesus received from those people turned to scorn and hatred, and ultimately they were crying out for His crucifixion. They loved His miracles, But they killed him for his words. Look at verse 15. After they had experienced the feeding of all these people, they were intending to come and take him by force to make him king. They're saying, this guy's great. Anyone who can provide more food than we can eat, let's make him king. And free medical care to boot. We've got all of our problems solved. But then he starts in verse 26 to tell them who he is and what his demands are. And by the time you get to verse 66, look what happens to all of these would-be disciples who were going to make Him king. It says, as a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. They loved Him for His miracles, but they didn't want to hear His words. So here they were, thrill-seekers, following His miracles. And so they ran around the edge of the lake to get where He was going. And so shortly after Jesus and the disciples arrived, a large crowd interrupted Jesus' planned period of rest. Now think about the situation. Jesus has just left these people because he and his disciples are tired and exhausted from ministry. In fact, they haven't even had time to stop and eat. He's received terrible news about John the Baptist's execution, and knowing how important John was to Jesus, I'm sure that Jesus grieved over his death. Now he's tried to get away with his disciples for a little R&R, but this group of people won't let him, and they won't leave him alone. They just follow him around the lake so they can get more out of him. If this was you or me, we saw a large crowd headed our way, interrupting our peace, rest, and solitude. We would probably try to find a way to escape. We would try to hide and slip away unseen and then head off to some other place further away to try to get away from them. Or we would angrily yell at them to get lost and go away. But that wasn't Jesus' response. Mark tells us in his gospel that when Jesus saw the crowd, he felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. even though He knew their hearts, that they were just following Him for what He could do for them and not because they believed what He was teaching them, He still felt compassion for them. That really speaks to the heart of God. What about you? When you're ministering to others, particularly in some kind of outreach to the community, such as the Wood Valley Outreach Ministry here at Lakeside, It becomes obvious after a while that some of those who show up to hear you don't care a thing about the gospel message that you're sharing with them. All they want is the free food that you're giving out. But you need to guard your heart against those feelings of resentment that well up inside. Remember how your Lord felt towards such people. He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Those people who show up for the free food at Wood Valley are sheep without a shepherd also. And your job is to introduce them to the Good Shepherd. Look next at verse 3. Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples. The Golan Heights rise along the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee to form a plateau about 3,300 feet in elevation overlooking the lake. So when it says that Jesus went up on the mountain, it is probable that he and the disciples went up somewhere along the slopes of the Golan Heights, because at the base of those slopes are large, wide, open, grassy areas where a large crowd could sit down. So Jesus arrives there, goes up on the side of the mountain, sat down with the disciples. He still wanted to get away for some seclusion and rest with his men. I'm sure he was interacting with them and teaching them, reflecting on the ministry of John the Baptist, helping them to gain an understanding of what took place in their own ministry because Luke tells us they had returned from going out in pairs, healing the sick and casting out demons. And then in verse four, John adds a time note for us. It says, now the Passover, the feast of the Jews was near. You say, well, why does he tell us that? So that we'll know the time of the year that this took place. And also since the Passover was the commemoration of the nation's deliverance from Egypt, the people's nationalistic feelings about their freedom would reach their peak. That may help explain why they were so zealous to make Jesus their king. They could coronate him king and take him along with them to Jerusalem as they went there for the Passover celebration. And so we see the fickle crowd. No extended rest for Jesus, even though he wanted to spend time with his disciples, he knew the crowd was coming. And even though one might consider them to be an intrusion, Jesus stopped what He was doing with His disciples and went and ministered to them. Next, let's look at the faithless disciples in verses 5 to 9. Beginning of verse 5 says, Therefore Jesus lifting up His eyes and seeing a large crowd was coming to Him. Evidently, Jesus was teaching His disciples when He looks up and He sees this large crowd coming toward Him. Now we aren't told that Jesus and the disciples went down to meet the crowd, but in verse 15 we learn that he went back up the mountain so that they must have done that. Now apparently John skips over some of the chronology here because Mark tells us that Jesus began to teach them many things. Matthew and Luke add that he cured all the sick and healed all those in need of healing. taught them about the kingdom of God. So he not only met their physical needs, but he proclaimed spiritual truth to them as well. So Jesus had compassion on these people, despite their wrong motives for seeking him out, and he spent the whole day healing the infirm, curing the sick, and teaching them about the kingdom of God. Jesus always gave himself to everyone who ever came to him. Whenever anyone came to him, he had time for them. And so he came down and ministered to the people. From our perspective, it's disappointing to think about the fact that they're nothing more than thrill-seekers looking for what they could get out of him. And he knew that was what they were after. He knew their hearts. But his love was so great that in spite of their motives, he met their needs. What a wonderful example for us. That's the way God is. Generous, kind, and compassionate, even to those who don't deserve it. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell us in their accounts that it was evening, which means late afternoon between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. And Mark records that the disciples said, this place is desolate and it's already late. Send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat. In other words, Lord, look, it's late. We better get rid of this crowd because they're going to get hungry. So the disciples suggested they get rid of the crowd. But that wasn't Jesus' way. He never got rid of anybody. So Matthew tells us that Jesus replied, They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat. So evidently there was this discussion going on between Jesus and the disciples about how to provide for this crowd. And the disciples wanted to get rid of the problem of having no food by sending them away, and Jesus wants to demonstrate to the disciples and the crowd that he is God in flesh. So he engages the disciples in a conversation which sets them up to realize how big the problem is and that their resources are totally inadequate to solve the problem. And then we pick up a detail in the middle of verse 5. After the disciples had evidently said, let's get rid of them, let's kick them out of here, Verse 5 records that Jesus said to Philip, where are we to buy bread so that these may eat? Jesus has absolutely no plans to send this crowd away. Instead, he's going to meet the need of this crowd. He knows that, but Philip doesn't. And so he asked Philip this question all along knowing that he is going to provide food for the crowd. Now you might wonder, why did he specifically ask Philip this question? Well, there are several possibilities. Philip may have been the primary guy who said, let's get rid of the crowd. Or he may have asked Philip, because according to chapter 1 verse 44, Philip was from Bethsaida, which was the closest town to that area. So he would have known the area. And so Jesus may have been saying to Philip, Philip, you know the area around here. You know where available food is. So where do we go to get some bread? Or it may have been that Philip was the logistics man for the disciples. The guy who handled all the arrangements for food and supplies for the group whenever they traveled. But those are just possibilities. The real reason he asked Philip this is given to us in verse 6. It says, this he was saying to test him, for he himself knew what he was intending to do. So why did he ask Philip? because Philip needed a test so that he would grow in his understanding of who Jesus was. You see, God often brings things into the lives of his children just for the sake of testing them and for no other reason. The purpose of a test is to prove something and he wants to prove something to Philip. He doesn't need to prove it to himself, He knows what his plans are, but he wants Philip to grow in his understanding and faith. And so he's going to test him. Jesus knew he was going to feed that multitude. He knew he wasn't going to go buy bread, but he said this to test Philip. In other words, he's trying to test whether Philip really believed in his power. Whether Philip had gotten anything from seeing the majesty and glory and power of Jesus and all the miracles that had been done up to this point. And did Philip remember that it was God who, through Moses, provided manna to the Israelites in the wilderness? Moses was considered to be Israel's greatest prophet, so Jesus was testing Philip to see where his faith was. Did he recognize that Jesus was greater than Moses? Did he understand that Jesus was God in flesh? You know, there are often tests like this. They are tests of trust, and they come into everybody's life. God brings them to us. Sometimes things happen in our lives for no other reason than to test our faith. Remember back in Genesis 22 when God tested Abraham's faith by telling him to sacrifice his son Isaac? God tests our trust. And it's interesting to me that God always gives us a test which goes just beyond our current level of trust. Did you ever think about that? If God only trusted me as far as I already trust Him, I'd never get anywhere, would I? Let's say you're at a certain level in terms of trusting God. You say, God, I can trust you this far. Now, if God only kept testing you up to that level, what good would that do? Pretty soon you'd be saying, oh man, am I really super special. I am really spiritual. I trust God constantly. So do you know what he does? He always tests you just beyond your current level of trust. Why? Because then he can take your trust and move it up to the level of that test. The next time you get tested, you get tested a little past that level of trust. And you can move up a little further. So because Jesus knows the character of Philip's trust, he tests him just past his level of trust because he wants to move him further up the scale. in terms of how much trust he has in Jesus. And the neat thing is that he never tests you so strongly that you're going to blow your mind and explode. Never. He even promises not to. You remember what 1 Corinthians 10.13 says? No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, But with the temptation will provide the way of escape also so that you will be able to endure it. You say, but that's talking about temptation to sin. Yes, but God uses even those temptations as a test of our faith in Him. And He promises to never give us more than we can handle because He will provide the way of escape so that we can endure it. So He tests you just beyond the current level of your trust. Why? so that you learn to trust Him more and more, and before you know it, you're way up there in terms of your ability to trust God. Now someone might say, well then, you can't blame Christians for getting angry with God for constantly testing them. I mean, what kind of father continually tests his children's trust in them? But does testing upset the believer, make him angry with God? No. It may be hard, and it certainly isn't fun, But the genuine believer doesn't become embittered and angry at God. How can I say that? Because James 1.3 tells us that the testing of our faith produces endurance. That word endurance doesn't mean that you grit your teeth and just hang on until the trial passes. It means to patiently endure with a steadfast loyalty and faith in Jesus Christ despite the greatest trials and suffering. So God's testing doesn't upset you. You know what God is doing because you find that you're learning to trust Him more and more. That's how you know you're growing, when you have to reach for your faith. You go through the trial, and as you do, you look back on how God has proven Himself faithful in the past, and you simply trust that He is sovereign over your current circumstances, and so you stretch out towards a new level of faith and trust in Him. And so Philip needs a little test of trust here. And just like everyone else, the first thing Philip does is run a calculation. For those of you here who are engineers and accountants, you ought to be able to identify with Philip very easily. He sizes up the situation, runs a mathematical calculation, and determines that it's impossible to do what the Lord is asking him to do. Look at verse 7. Philip answered him, 200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them for everyone to receive a little. Philip does a little mental arithmetic and concludes, nope, we can't be done that way. And that illustrates that the first thing we do in a test is fall back on our own resources. We figure out the statistical impossibility of our situation. And then finally, in desperation, we pray, right? It's always that way. First you look at the impossibility, and you look at the inadequacy of your own resources, then you decide that it can't be done, so then you get upset, and then when you're really upset, you pray. And then all of a sudden you remember, oh yeah, isn't there a verse in the Bible somewhere that says God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus? So Philip, being no different than any of us, forsakes his faith and substitutes mathematics. And he goes through mental calculations to decide that everything is hopeless. He's thinking statistically, and instead of saying, Lord, you can provide, he says, it's an impossible situation. I know the area, Lord. Let's see, 200 denarii. Nope, it's not going to work. I know where we can buy bread. It's going to cost too much. In fact, for 200 denarii, we wouldn't even have enough for everyone to even get a bite. After all, there's 15,000 people here. And so Philip concludes, Lord, it can't be done with what we've got. And so Philip demonstrates his lack of faith. He's been tested beyond the limits of his faith. And he's failed the test. He may have believed that Jesus could create enough wine for a wedding feast, but to create enough food to feed 15,000 people? No, he doesn't believe that's possible. That's pushing it too far. And then we come to verses 8 and 9, and evidently the other disciples must have heard the conversation between Philip and Jesus. Because another one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, there's a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people? What we see here is that some dear Jewish mother made her son a brown bag lunch, and she put in five barley loaves. Now that tells us something about this young lad's family. They were poor. You see, barley was the cheapest, most inexpensive grain. And bread made from it was common to the lower, poorer class, but it was considered undesirable by the wealthy or upper class. They considered barley to be animal food rather than human food. Only the poor people made bread from it. And these five loaves of bread were not some kind of huge loaves that he had tucked under his arm. These loaves were not bread loaves like we're familiar with. This is a word that means little cakes. They were like a biscuit, a small round flat thing, kind of like a silver dollar pancake. And the fish was probably either the tiny little sardine that's common in the lake, or it was the Galilean tilapia, a small fish known today as St. Peter's fish. To preserve them, they would either pickle them or smoke them to dry them out, and both of these items were ordinary, everyday food for the common people of Galilee. Now, Jesus can do one of two things. There's a test of trust here. Jesus could scold and reprimand them for not having enough faith, or He can forget about the reprimand and take their trust and move it up a notch. which is what he does. He doesn't say, oh, you people don't have any faith. Instead, he just takes them where they are and moves their trust up. And we see that in the fantastic feeding discussed in verses 10 to 13. With the disciples at a standstill, Jesus took charge of the situation. Instead of reprimanding them for their weak faith, he puts them to work, instructing them to have the people sit down. Their faith may have failed, but their obedience did not. And despite their doubts, they followed Jesus' instructions. How thankful we should be that the grace of God is not dependent upon the poverty of our faith. The disciples didn't have the faith to believe that it was possible to feed that many people. But they trusted Jesus enough to obediently seat the crowd. That's a very fortunate thing. Because if you've lost your faith and you fail to obey, you're done for spiritually. Because the only way God can ever take you to the point of deeper trust and deeper faith is for you to obey what He tells you to do. Obedience is always the channel through which faith comes. Your faith will never grow unless you're obeying the Lord. You see, the plan to meet the need was already in the mind and sovereign will of Jesus. But it was going to flow through the obedience of these twelve disciples. That miracle wouldn't have happened if they hadn't obeyed Him. So you see, faith grows through obedience. Obedience is the channel of blessing. Jesus said in John 14, 21, He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will disclose myself to him. So faith and trust grow through obedience. and the disciples' faith was weak, but their obedience was right on schedule. John's personal recollection in verse 10 that there was much grass in the place is interesting, because that helps solidify that this incident took place in the area known today as the Golan Heights. If you've been to Israel, there's not a lot of areas where there's a lot of grass around the Sea of Galilee. There is grass, but it tends to be field grass with a lot of rocks in it. But in the Golan Heights area, along the northeast shore of the lake, there are several places with large open areas of regular grass without a lot of rocks on which a large group of people could easily sit down. John tells us that the men sat down and number about 5,000. Mark's Gospel adds the detail that they seated the people in groups of 50 and 100, no doubt to make it easier to distribute the food. All four Gospels specify that there were about 5,000 men present. But Matthew specifies for us that that didn't include the women and children who were also there. So allowing for a reasonable number of women and children, the total number of people was probably somewhere between 15,000 to 20,000 people. Remember, they had large families in those days. In fact, We know that Jesus' own family included at least seven children. Because Mark 6 3 names Jesus' four brothers and says that he also had sisters, plural. So that would be at least two sisters. That's five sons and at least two daughters that Joseph and Mary had. And their family was not unusual for that time. So it's easy to see how this crowd could reach such a high number of people. Verse 11 tells us that simply and without fanfare, Jesus then took the loaves and having given thanks, he distributed those who were seated, likewise also the fish as much as they wanted. Now, isn't that something? Jesus didn't just wave his hand over the little boy's lunch and turn it into a monstrous feast all at once. Rather, he just kept breaking the loaves and the fish and kept giving them to the disciples to give to the people. He just kept creating bread and fish and giving them to the disciples to pass it out. Now let me ask you a question. For whose benefit was this miracle intended? Was it for the crowd so they would have a nice meal and then recognize Jesus as the creator? Who is it for? Well, let me just say this miracle is not primarily for the crowd. Yes, there's a sense in which it was intended for everyone, and it would have been nice if the crowd had looked at what took place and said, wow, this guy is much more than a mere man. He must be the creator God. But that wasn't the case, as Jesus states later on in verse 26. No, this sign was primarily for the disciples. It was intended as a test of their trust in Him. Jesus took their trust from where it was, and by this miracle, He moved them up the scale of their faith and trust in Him. Jesus knew what the crowd would get out of this incident, but He primarily wanted to focus on those who were His chosen men, to build up their trust in Him and their recognition of who He was. Now notice verses 12 and 13 again. When they were filled, he said to his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost. So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. Jesus didn't want the disciples to waste the leftover food. But interestingly, none of the Gospels tell us what was done with the leftovers, only that Jesus had them gather up the leftovers together so they wouldn't be wasted. And when they did so, they had 12 baskets of fragments left over. And the Greek word used here refers to a large basket that was used to carry items, not a small basket that you might use to store a few things. You say, wow, all that food from a boy's lunch. But why does John mention that there were 12 baskets left over? That's easy, because there were 12 disciples. Each one has his own basket of leftover food staring him in the face, a visible illustration of who it was they were dealing with in the person of Jesus. So while we don't know what they did with all the leftovers, there's a principle that we can draw from this. Jesus, who is God in flesh, graciously provided a meal for all of those people, and when they were done, there was still an abundance of His grace left over. I hope you realize that not only does God provide all the grace you will ever need, but there is always more grace left over at the end. When you think you've exhausted all of God's grace, there's always more left, isn't there? Some people think they're at the limits of God's grace already. Listen, there are baskets full left over and you haven't even gotten to the end yet. That's the principle we can draw from the abundance of leftovers that were there that day. Let me show you something else that should have gone off in the minds of the disciples and the people in the crowd. I'm not sure how often people today recognize how all of the events of Jesus' ministry were fulfillments of Old Testament prophecy or that some event in the Old Testament was a foreshadowing of Christ. In this case, it was the latter. I want to show you an event in the Old Testament that foreshadowed this miracle by Jesus. Turn with me back to 2 Kings 4. 2 Kings 4. In 2 Kings 4, verses 42 to 44, we have an incident in which a man came to the prophet Elisha. And he brought 20 loaves of barley bread and some fresh years of grain. And Elisha told him to give it to the 100 student prophets who were with him so they could eat. And Elisha's servant questioned doing such because he recognized that there wasn't even enough food to feed 100 men. After all, there were just 20 of those small biscuit-like loaves and some fresh years of grain. But Elisha commanded him to give the food to the people, and he says, verse 43, Give them to the people that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, they shall eat and have some left over. And then verse 44 says, So he set it before them, and they ate, and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord. Now who was it that caused those barley loaves and grain to be sufficient to feed a much larger crowd than one would think was possible? Yahweh. That's the proper translation of the word Lord in those two verses. So when the disciples saw this same kind of miracle take place on that hillside that day, who should they have recognized Jesus to be? Yahweh in the flesh. And so should have the crowd. You see, you have to remember that every Jewish boy grew up studying the Old Testament Scriptures. And they specially loved the stories of the miracles of Moses and Elijah and Elisha. So they should have been familiar with this story, even though I'm guessing most of you were not. And they should have immediately thought, wait a minute! Yahweh told Elisha to tell his attendants to give 20 loaves to 100 people, knowing it was an inadequate amount of food for that number of people. And he said it would be sufficient, and they would even have food left over. Now an even greater thing has happened here. Instead of 20 loaves for 100 people, this is 5 loaves for 15,000 people, and we have 12 baskets of food left over. There's only one person who could perform such a miracle, and that's Yahweh. The disciples and the crowd should have looked at Jesus and said, this is Yahweh in human flesh. He's worthy of all our worship and praise. But let's see what actually happened. So far we've seen the fickle crowd, the faithless disciples, and the fantastic feeding. There's one more, and it's the false coronation in verses 14 and 15. Verse 14 says, Therefore, when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, This is truly the prophet who has come into the world. That refers back to Moses' prophecy in Deuteronomy 18 about the coming Messiah. No doubt, Jesus' miraculous provision reminded the crowd of Moses and the man of God provided for Israel in the wilderness. And you might look at that statement and think, Bruce, it looks like they did recognize Him as the Messiah. Yes, it's true that they correctly recognized that the miracle was supernatural and proved that Jesus was the Messiah, but the response gives us a perfect indication of what kind of Messiah they wanted. They wanted a Messiah who healed them. A Messiah who fed them and was a political Messiah. They had no concept of repentance at all. They wanted a Messiah who came and did everything for them and didn't demand anything from them. That was the kind of Messiah they wanted. They didn't think of spiritual revival or repentance. They're too self-righteous. They just wanted a king to come in and throw off the Roman oppression and feed them. They're looking for the ultimate social welfare state. That was their idea of what the Messiah should be like. So the beginning of verse 15 tells us of Jesus perceiving that they were intending to come and take him by force to make him king. Now you might think, well, how wonderful, that's why he came. To be the Messiah and establish his kingdom. But they're trying to take him and make him king on their terms. When Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is at hand, what was the one word he said right before that? Repent. He didn't want to be crowned king until there had been a spiritual revival in Israel. And that didn't happen. So he postponed the kingdom. And he would not be made king by force on their terms. He would only become king on his terms. In fact, the only time that Jesus allowed anyone to proclaim Him King on their terms was when He was hanging on a cross with a sign above His head proclaiming Him to be the King of the Jews. But even then, it was done with His own sovereign permission because as He stated regarding His life, He had the authority to lay it down and the authority to take it up again. But on this occasion, the end of verse 15 says, He withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone. He knew the character of their hearts. He knew what they wanted from Him, and they didn't want Him to be their king on His terms. Later on in the chapter, after He gave the bread of life discourse, they're so troubled by His demands that, as we saw already, John tells us in verse 66, as a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. When He told them what He expected of them, When He made the demands, they turned around and walked away. You know, there are a lot of people in our world who want the same kind of Jesus that the Jews wanted. They want a Jesus who will do everything for them and make no demands. If that's the Jesus you want, then you don't want Jesus of the Bible. He said, if anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, Yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. And he said, whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. To follow Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible, will cost you everything, including your life. Jesus does not acquiesce to whims or fancies. He comes to no man on that man's terms. People cannot manipulate Him for their own selfish ends. Some modern evangelists and pastors, in an attempt to be seeker-friendly, present Jesus to unbelievers as a quick fix for all of their felt needs like health and wealth and self-esteem. Superficially marketing Him as providing everything unbelievers want, but that turns the Gospel message upside down. People do not come to Christ on their terms so that He can heal them of their broken relationships or make them successful in life and help them feel good about themselves. Instead, they come to Him on His terms. He demanded repentance from them, and He still does. He demanded a recognition of sin and a hunger for forgiveness, and He still does. He didn't get it from Israel, and He doesn't get it from our world today. But anyone who receives Jesus on his terms by faith and repentance for sin, they will experience a satisfaction of their soul like nothing else and they will have every need of their life met because that's the way He is. So we should never present the gospel to anyone in a way which lets them receive Jesus on their own terms. Every gospel presentation should include an explanation of every person's lost, hopeless, sinful condition and it should include both God's wrath towards sin and as well as his love for sinners. And we must not leave out the need for repentance from sin. That's missing in most gospel presentations. It must be included or you haven't presented the gospel. People must understand that they don't trust Jesus to save their bad marriage, or to help them get off drugs, or to provide all their physical needs and desires. They come to Him for salvation because they have committed cosmic treason against a holy God, they are enslaved to sin, they have no righteousness of their own, and they face eternal condemnation. They must understand and believe that or else the so-called gospel that they believe will not be the true gospel and they will not be genuinely saved even though they think they are. So be very careful about what gospel message you present. Show people the narrow path that leads to righteousness and not the broad road that leads to destruction. Now if you're here today, and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, but you recognize that you're a lost sinner, I appeal to you to come to Him today. Repent and trust Christ alone for eternal life. And if you would like to speak with one of our pastors about that, please come up after the service, and I will direct you to one of them who would love to speak to you and explain how you too can experience Christ's forgiveness of your sin. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for including this wonderful miracle in your Word, not once, but four times, so that we can see that Jesus Christ was the Creator God, Yahweh in human flesh. And Lord, we thank you for testing our faith, just as you did the disciples' faith, so that it will grow and be deepened. Help us not to substitute mathematics for faith. so that we always see the impossibility of a situation rather than seeing that with you, nothing is impossible. It isn't easy. We often struggle in these tests, but when we come through them, we rejoice at what you have done in our lives to strengthen our spiritual walk. Father, we pray for any here today who do not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Work in their hearts to bring conviction of their sin. Help them to come to Christ, but not like the crowd who sought Him only for what He could do for them in meeting their temporal needs, but rather to come to Him on His terms, in humble faith and repentance, seeking an eternal relationship with You. Let them see that Your grace is far greater than they can imagine. No sin they've ever committed is too great for you to forgive because your grace is still greater. Lord, thank you for your great love and mercy and grace. May our hope always be fixed on our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.