FEEDING THE FIVE THOUSAND

READ JOHN 6:1-15
The theme of this chapter is that Jesus is the Bread of Life. First we will look at the feeding of the 5,000.

1-9) SETTING: Answer the question below.
Where are they?
What was the time period?
Who was there?
Why was the great multitdue there?
What is Jesus' test for the disciples?
What was the disciples answer to the problem?
10) JESUS SOLUTION:
Jesus has the people sit down (people here is the GK word "anthropos" designating "human beings", male and female), but then it says the men (GK word "aner" designating "a male")sat down. We know from this narrative that there were 5,000 men who had followed Jesus to this Galilean setting. How many women and children is unknown. It is a blessing that Jesus recognized that there were woman and children there and included them in the blessing of the food. He had all the people sit down, it was the custom of those days for the men to sit first and eat and the women served, then ate, but Jesus served them all with the help of His disciples. What a glorious Saviour we have!
11-13) MIRACLE:
Jesus gives thanks for the loaves and fishes and they are distributed so that all could eat as much as they wanted and were filled.
How many baskets were left over? 12 baskets filled with fragments. God the Father does not hold back in giving abundantly. Look up the following verses, what do you learn? Exodus 34:6-7; Isaiah 55:6-12; Jeremiah 33:6-9; Eph. 3:20-21; I Tim. 1:12-15; I Peter 1:3-5.
14-15) REACTION OF THE CROWD:
They called Him a prophet who was to come into the world. The belief in the Prophet comes from Deut. 18:15 and was a popular eschatological personage, but they were believing in Him as a deliverer, but in the wrong way. They wanted a physcial king who would overthrow the Roman Government, in like manner that Moses delivered the Jewish people from the Egyptian Government, not a Savior who would save them from their sins.
FATHER, THANK YOU FOR YOU ABUNDANT GIVING. NOT ONLY IS JESUS THE WATER OF LIFE WHERE OUR SPIRITUAL THIRST IS QUENCHED FOR ALL TIMES, BUT HIS IS ALSO THE BREAD OF LIFE AND OUR SPIRITUAL HUNGER IS ALSO QUENCHED FOR ALL TIMES. AMEN