Sunday School John 6: 1-15

Intro quote, CHS “Jesus’ followers had looked at their little store of bread and fish and given up the task as hopeless; but Jesus, altogether unembarrassed, and in no perplexity, had already considered how he would banquet the thousands and make the fainting sing for joy.”

Read John 6: 1-15

After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. ²  And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. ³  Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. ⁴  Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. ⁵  Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” ⁶  He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. ⁷  Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii^[a] worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” ⁸  One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, ⁹  “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” ¹⁰  Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.”  Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. ¹¹  Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated.  So also the fish, as much as they wanted. ¹²  And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” ¹³  So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. ¹⁴  When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

¹⁵ Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Opening prayer & we’ll get started

Loving God, we give you thanks and praise that, through Jesus, you healed the sick and fed the hungry.  With a few paltry fish and loaves of bread, you fed a crowd of famished people, and with grace to spare.  We, too, long to be fed. We, too, clamor for your healing touch.  We come to you in prayer now, pressing in on you from all sides, with our needs and desires — some trivial, some profound — and through it all, you love us. You are attentive to the deepest yearnings and the most hidden wounds of our hearts.  Attend to us, once again, we pray.  Amen.

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So before we even get into the specifics of this miracle, I wanna hear from you guys on What is a Miracle?  And what is a miracle’s Purpose? Give me an example.

“A miracle is a less common kind of God’s activity in which he arouses people’s awe & wonder & bears witness to Himself.”  John Frame professor of systematic theology Westminster Theological Seminary

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According to RC Sproul the thing that makes this event 1 of the most important in Scripture its one of the few that is referenced in all 4 of the Gospels.  Also we should understand that the book of John is not written as a normal biography where 1 event leads to this, leads to that & so on.  John is a theological argument, like Romans.  In it John stresses 7 miracles prior to the death & resurrection of Jesus that he believes will convince you that Jesus is not only the promised Messiah but he is also God Himself clothed in flesh & walking among us.

In John’s argument we’re at miracle #4.  Can you guys name miracles #’s 1-3?

1-    Turning water to wine, Ch 2

2-    The healing of the official’s son, Ch 4

3-    The healing at the pool of Bethesda, Ch 5

A few points not to miss from this event:

            The men alone in the crowd numbered 5,000 - so the total number has been      estimated to be more like 10,000 to 20,000 people

            The crowds followed not out of faith in Him but out of curiosity concerning the wonders he could perform

            Our friend, “Practical Philip” states 200 denarii worth of bread wouldn’t be         enough to give the whole of the crowd a taste.  Since 1 denarius was a standard             day’s wage for a day laborer in Israel, then 200 denarii equals about 8 months salary  

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I want us to imagine some scenarios on HOW it was that Jesus was able to perform this miracle?  So I’m gonna give you 4 possible scenarios & let me know what you think of them.

1-    Generosity; in theologically liberal churches & seminaries this passage is described in this way…lets imagine that there were many in the crowd that packed lunches & many that forgot to pack lunches.  So Jesus looks out into the crowd & can tell many are hungry so he brings forward this example of generosity a small boy that is willing to give up his food to feed the hungry.  The crowd gets Jesus’ guilt trip & those with food share with those who have not & so everyone is able to eat, with leftovers.

2-    Las Vegas level illusion; others have posited that Jesus & his Apostles had stock-piled a hoard of food nearby in a cave so all Jesus had to do was sit at the mouth of the cave & his apostles would secretly slip him food & he would pass it around giving the illusion that he had a never ending supply of food at hand.  “There’s nothing up my sleeve, I promise.”  

3-    Star Trek; this option is for he Really real nerds but on Star Trek as they are passing through the vastness of space & are unable to pull into a drive through they had to create “food replicators” that could take existing matter pulverize it into subatomic particles & then refashion that matter & energy into new forms including food, this led to the idea on the show that the people’s waste product (you know #1 & #2) were being re-sequenced into usable material, like food.  Which would explain why the crew always complained that the “replicated” food was not as good tasting as the “real” thing.  Could Jesus have used available matter & just changed rocks & flowers to bread & fish?  

4-    Last option, Ex Nihilo.  This is the common idea of how God creates, Ex Nihilo is Latin & it means “out of nothing” meaning out of no pre-existing material.  If this is true then it implies that God rules over all things in the universe, things seen & unseen & nothing is too big or small for God to handle.  Verses Heb 11:3, Ps 33:6&9, Col 1:16.  This would also be a VERY big example of deity of Christ as he is able to create the miraculous food Ex Nihilo.

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Something that I find interesting is that the 2 miracles that involve food, parallel the Lord’s Supper well before he institutes it in the Upper Room – the water to wine & multiplication of bread.   MY views of communion.  Ask them about theirs?

              John MacArthur states that we can imagine that the bread in this miracle is small barley cakes which itself parallels an OT miracle of the prophet Elisha in 2 Kings 4: 42-44.  Read that passage.  RC Sproul goes on to say that only the poorest of the poor ate barley bread & that the barley cakes would have been similar in size to 5 Twinkies & the fish were probably small like sardines or smoked herrings that the boy brought for his own lunch.

So to wrap up – When you came to faith how did you see the “tales” of miracles in the Bible?  As truth, metaphor, symbolism?  Did these claims make coming to faith easier or harder?   End quote, “Those whom Christ feeds he fills; to whom he gives, he gives enough; as there is in him enough for all, so there is enough for each. He replenishes every hungry soul, abundantly satisfies it with the goodness of his house.” Matthew Henry