<\/p>\n
After this\u00a0Jesus went away to the other side of\u00a0the Sea of Galilee, which is\u00a0the Sea of Tiberias.<\/span>\u00a02\u00a0<\/sup>And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.<\/span>\u00a03\u00a0<\/sup>Jesus went up on\u00a0the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.<\/span>\u00a04\u00a0<\/sup>Now\u00a0the Passover, the\u00a0feast of the Jews, was at hand.<\/span>\u00a05\u00a0<\/sup>Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to\u00a0Philip,\u00a0\u201cWhere are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a06\u00a0<\/sup>He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.<\/span>\u00a07\u00a0<\/sup>Philip answered him, \u201cTwo hundred denarii[a<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.\u201d<\/span>\u00a08\u00a0<\/sup>One of his disciples,\u00a0Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him,<\/span>\u00a09\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cThere is a boy here who has five\u00a0barley loaves and two fish, but\u00a0what are they for so many?\u201d<\/span>\u00a010\u00a0<\/sup>Jesus said,\u00a0\u201cHave the people sit down.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.<\/span>\u00a011\u00a0<\/sup>Jesus then took the loaves, and\u00a0when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted.<\/span>\u00a012\u00a0<\/sup>And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples,\u00a0\u201cGather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a013\u00a0<\/sup>So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.<\/span>\u00a014\u00a0<\/sup>When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said,\u00a0\u201cThis is indeed\u00a0the Prophet\u00a0who is to come into the world!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Introduction<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jesus leaves Jerusalem and passes over to the other side of the sea of Galilee, the portion known as the sea of Tiberias. There Jesus is on a mountain with His disciples, seeing before Him a large crowd of people following after Him, after seeing the signs Jesus was doing for the sick. We also see that the Passover was near at hand. Because of this, some people say that this was a year after chapter 5, as Jesus was just in Jerusalem during the Passover. Whatever the case may be, this gospel writer does not take a strict chronological approach, but a thematic approach, such as what we will concern ourselves with today.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n How does this Miracle Show Jesus as our Prophet?<\/em> This is what we will seek to answer. The reason that I take this approach is because I am working back from the conclusion that the people come to in verse 14<\/span>.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n These people of course, especially as we will see next week, had wrong conceptions of what they wanted the Messiah to be. Nevertheless they are right in that Jesus is The Prophet (and that\u2019s the knowledge they gained from the sign Jesus performed, so I wish us to see how they came to that conclusion).<\/span><\/p>\n This is of course a declaration by the people who are looking for the promise by Moses in Deuteronomy 18 where it says, \u201cThe LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers – it is to him you shall listen\u2026 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n To be sure, by calling Jesus \u201cprophet\u201d we of course do not mean that He is merely <\/span>a<\/span><\/i> prophet; but that He is our True Prophet in the sense that He fulfills His three-fold office of Mediator as our Prophet, Priest, and King. That is the sense in which we are to see Jesus as our Prophet.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jesus\u2019 Question of Testing, v. 5-6<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jesus tests Phillip, asking from where they will get food for the crowds? Why would Jesus ask His disciples such a question when He already knows the answer? To test them. Jesus asks them, because, with impossible circumstances, Jesus wants His disciples to learn that it will come from Him. Jesus provides. He wants them to learn to go to Him.<\/span><\/p>\n Likewise, our Lord tests us. He often gives us impossible circumstances so that we would learn to go to Him. He often gives us circumstances where only He could possibly be the remedy so that we would learn that He is the remedy, and our great provider of all things, physical and spiritual alike.<\/span><\/p>\n This is walking by faith in the Christian life. We don\u2019t know the plans God has for us; but we know the commands God has for us. We are just to obey. We are just to be faithful. This is part of what it means to be a kid. A child doesn’t know all the reasons why their parents do what they do. But they do know that God commands them to obey their parents in the Lord. That is the job that God has given children. One of the reasons God gives parents little children is to remind them what they are to be like if they are to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.<\/span><\/p>\n I see an interesting parallel between the miracle before us today and the miracle at the wedding in Cana in John chapter 2. At the wedding in Cana Jesus provides an overflowing amount of the best wine, out of water, fulfilling the role of the bridegroom, providing what the bridegroom was responsible for providing. This was to show us that we fail and fall short of fulfilling the tasks and responsibilities that we are given, and it is Christ who fulfills and does for us what we should\u2019ve, but did not and could not do. Likewise here in John 6, we have a crowd of 5,000 men who have utterly and embarrassingly failed in their duty as men to provide for themselves and their households. Why did not all these men take responsibility and come prepared to provide for themselves and their homes? But like in Cana, Jesus here takes upon Himself the role of provider, showing us that we ourselves are utter and embarrassing failures, yet Christ, graciously, without shaming us, provides for us, doing for us what we ought to have done, but did not and indeed could not do for ourselves. He is husband; He is provider; and His storehouses are full, and without lack. Of course we are thinking spiritually here, first and foremost. We fail to provide atonement for sins and the righteousness necessary to make us right before God. Therein Christ provides. As A. W. Pink says, \u201chow thankful we should be that God\u2019s blessings are dispensed according to the riches of His grace, and not according to the poverty of our faith.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Disciples\u2019 Ignorance, v. 7-9<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n As we see in verse 7, Phillip\u2019s objection is that 200 denarii would not be enough to purchase bread sufficient for the whole crowd to even get a little. A denarii was one days\u2019 wages for a laborer of that time. In this we see both the vast size of the crowd, and the utter lack of sufficiency therein. Furthermore, we know this was simply 5,000 men in the crowd, we don\u2019t know how many women and children were also there.<\/span><\/p>\n We then see Andrew speak up and say that there is a boy with five loaves of bread and two fish, but how in the world is that going to feed the massive crowd? Some commentators harp on the disciples\u2019 lack of faith here, and there may be an element of that present. But I think there is another angle to this that helps us see Jesus as prophet. That is that the disciples are ignorant. They are ignorant as to what Jesus can and is going to do.<\/span><\/p>\n In the 1689 London Baptist Confession<\/a>, in the chapter on Christ as Mediator, it speaks of Christ\u2019s three-fold office (Prophet, Priest, and King), and says this, \u201cIn respect of ignorance we stand in need of Christ\u2019s prophetical office.\u201d A prophet speaks revelation from God, thus enlightening the ignorance of men. Jesus is the ultimate prophet, as He is the ultimate revelation of God, as the Word made flesh.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Disciples Obey in Faith<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Phillip and Andrew did not show miraculous faith in that they looked around them and saw not where food would come from. Nevertheless, the disciples obeyed Christ\u2019s command to have the crowd sit down, without knowing where the food would come from.<\/span><\/p>\n This is the great lesson of faith we see in so many instances throughout the Bible – a lack of faith looks around at the circumstances and doesn\u2019t know how it will be possible; but Faith sees Christ there and obeys, even if it doesn\u2019t know or see how it will be done.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Crowds<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Even though the people had impure motives for coming to Christ, they nevertheless model something important to us. They come to Christ with nothing, and they come to Christ ready to receive from Him. This is how we must come to Christ in faith. “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling.”<\/a><\/em> We have nothing to offer Him, but our sin.<\/span><\/p>\n On a practical level, this is how we should come to corporate worship on the Lord\u2019s Day. We should think of coming to worship not primarily as a time where we serve Christ or give Him (though there is an element of that); but we should think of it as a time where we primarily come to be served by Christ, and to receive from Christ\u2019s hand, in the means of grace, the receiving of the Word and the Lord\u2019s Supper. We shouldn’t think of it in a consumeristic sense, but in the sense that we are coming to receive what God says is good for us and that we need, whether we like it or not.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jesus, Greater Prophet than Elisha<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Consider the parallel between the feeding of the five thousand and 2 Kings 4:42-44:<\/p>\n