THE BREAD OF LIFE

Sermon of the Week #200919-May 31, 2009

The miracle of the feeding of the 5000 was a very unusual miracle for several reasons. For one thing, more people saw it than any other miracle the Lord ever worked; at least five thousand men not counting the women and the children. Then also it is unusual because it is the only miracle, aside from the resurrection of Jesus that is recorded by all four of the gospel writers. It seems the Holy Spirit has something important He wants to emphasize to us in this miracle.

Jesus had gone across the Sea of Galilee into a mountain and sat with His Apostles and a great multitude had followed Him because they beheld the signs He did on them that were sick.

This great number that followed Him was a fulfillment of the prophecy of Jacob as he blessed his twelve sons in Genesis 49:9, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah till Shiloh come, and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be.”

That prophecy has been filled many times including this event when the great multitude followed Him. Today, it also continues to be fulfilled every Sunday when millions of Christians all over the world in every generation assemble every Lord’s Day, to eat of the bread and drink of the cup, “And unto Him shall the gathering of the people be.” And then the final fulfillment of that prophecy will be on that day when that great number that no man can number, out of every tribe and tongue and nation, hears the sound of the trumpet, the voice of the archangel, and the victorious shout of the Lord as He descends, and they are caught up to meet the Lord in the air; and then shall the gathering of all the people be.

So Jesus lifted up His eyes and beheld the large crowd. Mark says, “Jesus looked upon them with compassion because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and He began to teach them many things.” If He taught them many things we wonder, “What did He teach them?” Mark does not say, but Luke fills in the rest.

Luke says that He spake unto them many things about the Kingdom of God. It would be hard to find any subject where Jesus had more to say about than the Kingdom of God. Many times we read where Jesus said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto, Thou art not far from the Kingdom, Seek ye first His Kingdom and His righteousness, I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, It is hard for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven, and Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.”

If Jesus had so much to say about the Kingdom, should we not also spend much time teaching the things concerning the Kingdom, spend much time telling how to be members of the Kingdom, the work of the Kingdom, the officers of the Kingdom, faithfulness to the ordinances of the Kingdom? He taught them many things.

It must have been a long message because it lasted until evening was come. But no one complained even though they were hungry. Many churches today have put God on the clock, I have asked several preachers how long I had to speak, and they say, “We are on a tight schedule; twenty minutes is enough.” It seems the preaching of the Word is the least important thing on the program. Surely there must be some extra significance to this miracle since the Holy Spirit saw fit to list it four times. Here is a partial list of some of the reasons why this miracle was so important.

SEND THEM AWAY

For one thing, toward the end of the day the Apostles advised the Lord to get rid of this crowd, “Send them away that they may go and buy themselves food. They are hungry, Lord, but this is no concern of ours.” This is the way many Churches handle the situation today. People are hungry for the Bread of Life all over the world, but this is no concern of ours. The vision of the average Church has been narrowed down to the confines of the church lot; if we can take in enough to pay the bills that is sufficient. Let us ignore the problem of preaching the gospel to every creature; a world without Christ is really no concern of ours. Actually, the major concern of any congregation should be the evangelism of the world. Jesus had said in the Great Commission, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature”, and that is the work He assigned for the Church to do.

GIVE YE THEM TO EAT

Secondly note that the Lord said, “Give ye them to eat, they have no need to go away.” This was apparently an impossible task, so when Jesus said, “Give ye them to eat,” He said to Philip, “Whence should we buy bread that these may eat?” Obviously there was no place to buy provisions, so Philip looked over the crowd, and came up with an estimation of two hundred shillings, just enough to give everyone a little; that would be about eight month’s wages for everyone to have a bite. How could they do it? They had forgotten to count on Jesus. Always remember in any phase of the Lord’s work to spread the gospel, don’t forget to count on Jesus; He is always in on the deal.

The great commission seems impossible. How can we as a New Testament Church carry the gospel to the entire world, to every creature? Never overlook the fact that the Great Commission includes the statement of Jesus, “I am with you always even unto the end of the world.” We don’t need to look beyond our local congregation for the answer to the conversion of the world to Jesus.

THE LEAGUE OF ANDREW

Then consider the League of Andrew. He reported, “There is a lad here with five loaves and two fishes. Jesus said, "Bring them to Me.” Andrew is mentioned as doing something three times, and every time he is doing the same thing. Andrew and John were the first of the future Apostles to meet the Lord in the first chapter of John. As soon as Andrew met Jesus he went and told his brother Simon, “We have found the Messiah”, and brought Peter to Jesus. In John 12 some Greeks came to Philip and said, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” Philip was not sure the Lord would want to see Gentiles, and told Andrew. Both Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus. Andrew brought his brother Peter to the Lord, then he brought the boy with the five loaves and two fishes to the Lord, and then he brought the delegation of Greeks to the Lord. Andrew had a talent for leading people into the presence of the Lord. There are many who are not able to teach, or sing, or organize, but many of us can lead others into the presence of the Lord Jesus as members of the League of Andrew.

BRING THEM TO ME

Now look again when Andrew said, “There are five loaves and two fishes, Jesus said, bring them hither to me.” It might not be much, but when what little we have is surrendered to the Lord, He can work a miracle with it. When David faced Goliath, if he had been like us he would have said, “Lord, I think I can do it if I only had a sawed-off shotgun.” David did not have a sawed-off shotgun; all he had was a sling. The Lord said, “I think we can work with that.” The definition of a modern-day miracle in four words is: Man’s Best, God Blest. If God has given you ability you also have responsibility, so bring Him what little you have, and God will say, “I think I can work with that, bring it to me.” It has been said the ten most important two-letter words in the English vocabulary are: If it is to be, it is up to me.

THE MENU

And now let us look at the menu. Then they were told to sit down in companies of hundreds and fifties. First, according to all four accounts, Jesus gave thanks for what they were about to receive. The ancient Jews had a prescribed way of giving thanks at the table, and perhaps the Lord used one of them that day, “Blessed art thou, O Lord God, King of the universe, who brought forth bread out of the earth.”

The Apostles were the waiters, and they gave everyone present the special of the day: Fish and a small loaf of barley bread. There is no hint that anyone called out to any of the Apostles as they served, and said, “Brother Philip, when you come back to section ‘D’, bring me a little tartar sauce. This fish is rather dry.” Did someone call out, “O brother Andrew, we need a little more hot coffee here in section ‘A’.” How about someone saying, “Hey brother Peter, is the Lord serving desserts today? If He is, I’ll take a double-order of strawberry pie, and I’d like a little whip cream on mine.” Nothing like this was said. When Jesus fed this crowd, He used the same old staple diet they had been eating every day: fish and bread; and the Lord did not even provide a tablecloth, or silverware. And worst of all, there were no chairs; they had to sit on the grass.

Sometimes today we like to have things fancy, and that is our culture. We have to have cushions on our seats, and air-conditioning, and fancy buildings. The 5,000 that day were told to sit down on the grass. Now today we like a little coffee and donuts, a dancing praise-team, and special entertainment. Now all of this may be helpful, but if the world is ever won to Christ, it will have to be because of the same old staple diet of the Word of God, replete with large servings of repentance in this permissive do-as-you-please world. All of the hoopla we have will be little comfort when they come to burn the church house down.

THE METHOD OF JESUS

Next we notice something about the method of Jesus in feeding. Please notice the Lord did not feed them cafeteria style, where some may say, “I’ll take a little of this, but I don’t like that. I believe what the Lord said about Heaven, but I don’t believe what He said about Hell. I will choose what I like in the Bible, and reject what I don’t like. Don’t tell me anything I do not want to hear; make me feel good and inspired.” He fed by breaking the loaves and fishes Himself, and gave to the Apostles, and the Apostles gave to the multitudes. Jesus was the chef and the Apostles were the waiters.

He is still feeding the Bread of Life the same way today. He does not feed us the Bread of Life personally; He feeds us through the Apostles. Even from the first when the Church was born, He fed the crowd through the Apostles as waiters. They spoke the Word of God as the Spirit gave them utterance. As Paul would say in 1st Corinthians 11:23, “I delivered unto you that which I received.”

It appears that Peter was the headwaiter on that day, and when he preached that sermon on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, they asked what they needed to do. What he told them to do was something he had received from the Holy Spirit. He had nothing else to give, but what he had received when he declared, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

It seems that many today do not like what the Apostles are serving. Peter would say, “I am not the chef, I am only the waiter; all I have to give is what I have received. I have to serve what the Master Chef has given me.” He gave to the Apostles and the Apostles to the multitude and they all ate and were filled.

THEY WERE ALL FILLED

The next day these same people came looking for Jesus on the other side of the sea, and He told them, “Ye seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Work not for the food that perishes but work for the food that abideth unto eternal life that the Son of man shall give you.” When they asked for some of that bread, Jesus told them, “I AM the bread of life: he that cometh unto Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.” Only in Christ can it be said, “They were all filled” as John said in Revelation 7:16, “They shall hunger and thirst no more.”

CONCLUSION

When the multitudes saw the sign that He did, there was a ground swell. At first a murmuring, then it grew louder and louder, “Jesus for King! Jesus for King! Jesus for King! What a thrill that must have been to the Apostles; but Jesus knew better; because the next day when He preached His great sermon on the bread of life, and said, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, ye have no life in yourselves, for my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day.”

His mission on earth was more than feeding the physically hungry. Jesus said in John 6:27, “Work not for the food that perishes, but for the food that abides unto eternal life which the Son of man shall give you: for Him the Father, even God, hath sealed.” Many of them said, “This is a hard saying who can hear it?” And many went back and walked with Him no more.

Jesus said unto the twelve, “Would you also go away?” Simon Peter answered for them all: “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and know that Thou art the Holy one of God.” Jesus said unto them, “Did I not choose you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” Now this He spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he it was that should betray Him, being one of the twelve.

And that is the way it is both then and now: Five thousand one day and eleven the next. It is true in every audience. Jesus said in Matthew 22:14, “Many are called, but few chosen.” In any congregation whether a hundred, or a thousand: all are called, but few chosen. If you subtract the indifferent, those who are there for the entertainment, the hypocritical, all are called, but few chosen.” All who are assembled for the services are called; the praise team, elders, deacons, and preacher; but only the ones who accept the message are chosen. There were five thousand on one day, and eleven the next. And that’s the way it goes; many are called but few chosen.