John 6
McGeeCHAPTER 6THEME: Jesus feeds five thousand near Sea of Galilee (fourth work and word)We come now to the miraculous feeding of the five thousanda miracle recorded in all four Gospels. In the Gospel of John, Jesus follows this miracle with a discourse on the Bread of Life. John records only certain miracles, and he calls the miracles signs because signs are for a purpose. You will remember that he said, “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (Joh_20:30-31). This is an important verse because it is actually the key to this entire Gospel. Now we find Jesus feeding the five thousand, and out of this grows His great discourse on the fact that He is the true Bread of God.
John 6:1
JESUS FEEDS THE FIVE THOUSAND (Fourth Work and Word)After what things? Well, the things that were recorded back in the fifth chapter. He had left Jerusalem and probably had come up on the east side of the Jordan River. Now He crosses over the Sea of Galilee and, apparently, comes to the north section. This took place about six months to a year after the events of chapter 5. It was about one year before His crucifixion, by the way. The way the events are dated is by the feasts that John mentions. As we have said, John ties his Gospel down to a calendar and to a map. The One who came out of heaven’s glory, the Word who was made flesh, the One who pitched His tent here among us, that One walked by the Sea of Galilee, went to Cana and to Nazareth, Capernaum, Bethsaida, Jerusalem, Decapolis, etc. So we read that “after these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee.” John says, “And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh” (v. Joh_6:4). So apparently He had been back in the land of Galilee, because in chapter 5 He had been in Jerusalem and had gone in the sheep gate. This indicates a time lapse between chapters 5 and 6 when He went over the Sea of Galilee.
John 6:2
The tense of the verb would be more accurate if it were translated, “And a great multitude was following Him” and “because they were seeing His miracles.” This great multitude didn’t actually believe in Him in a saving way. They didn’t trust Him. They were interested in His miracles. They wanted Him because He could make them well. Friend, the mission of Jesus was not to restore our physical bodies. He wants to be Lord of our hearts. This is why John had said at the very beginning that He “needed not that any should testify of man; for he knew what was in man” (Joh_2:25). He didn’t commit Himself to that crowd back there at Jerusalem, and He’s not about to commit Himself to this crowd that is gathering around now. They simply want to see the miracles that He can perform.
John 6:3
The place that is pointed out to tourists visiting Israel is not what we would call a mountain. Actually, in that land three thousand feet is about as high as they go, but the hills are very rugged. The one they point out is a very lovely spot and could well be the place where He fed the five thousand. It’s near Capernaum, by the way. Jesus went up into the mountain and sat there with His disciples. The Passover was near.
John 6:5
Philip was the quiet one; he never had much to say. Our Lord was drawing him out at this particular time. You will find in verse Joh_6:8 that Philip and Andrew seem to have gotten together. Andrew and Philip evidently were quite active men, very busy, but just not speakers. You don’t hear either one of them. Yet Andrew is the one who brought Simon Peter to the Lord, and the Greeks came to Philip and Andrew when they wanted to see Jesus. Philip got together with Andrew to find out what to do. So we find them together here. Is our Lord asking for advice in His question to Philip? May I say to you, He never asked for advice. Then why did He ask Philip the question?
John 6:6
He was testing Philip. Philip looked over that crowd that was comingfive thousand men besides women and children. I estimate it must have been at least fifteen thousand people. Friend, that’s a pretty good-sized crowd, especially for that land and in that day. When Philip saw them coming, he wasn’t thinking of a miracle at all.
John 6:7
Why did Philip light upon that fixed sum of two hundred denarii? I think that is what they had in the treasury at that time. Probably Judas had made a treasurer’s report that morning, and that was the total. Philip looked at the crowd, then thought of what they had in the treasury bag, and said that two hundred pennyworth of bread would not be sufficient for them. The “penny” was the Roman coin denarius. One denarius represented a day’s wages for a common laborer. The other Gospel writers tell us that the disciples advised the Lord Jesus. They wanted to be on the board of directors. They said, “Why don’t You send the multitude away?” Our Lord answered, “We’re not going to send them away. We’re going to have them sit down and we’re going to feed them” (cf. Luk_9:12-15). These men who had elected themselves to the board of directors found themselves waiters, serving the crowd. And that is what they should have been doing all the time. By the way, this leads me to say that there are too many men in the church today who want position. They want to have an office; they want to be on the board of directors. They like to tell the preacher what to do. Yet they do not have all the necessary information to begin with, nor do they have spiritual discernment. They don’t realize that they are the ones who ought to be out doing the work of the ministry. They ought to be out witnessing for the Lordpassing the bread to the hungry multitudes. But generally they would rather advise the pastor how to do it. So here our Lord is drawing out Philip, and Philip says they don’t have enough money to buy sufficient bread. Since Philip and Andrew are together, Andrew speaks up.
John 6:9
Andrew, you see, had been circulating around through the crowd, making a survey. Surveys are important, I guess, but they are seldom very helpful. You can see Andrew and Philip there together. Philip says the money in the treasury won’t feed them. Andrew says all he’s found is a little lad with five barley loaves and two small fish. Remember, these five barley loaves were not big commercial loaves of bread or family loaves. They were more like a hamburger bun. They were just big enough to put with the fish. That’s all this man Andrew could produce. It was a hopeless project"What are they among so many?"
John 6:10
I would call your attention to the fact that there were five thousand men. I think a woman and one child with each man would be a reasonable estimate of the crowd, which would be fifteen thousand people. Now the Lord Jesus is going to feed that multitude. Here is something, I think, that is interesting to note. If you have fifteen thousand people to feed, that is certainly a liability. If you have five loaves and two fish and also the two hundred denarii, then, friend, these are your total assets.
May I say that if a committee would have handed in a report with those assets and those liabilities, they would have said, “There’s nothing you can do about it.” Someone has called a committee a group of people who individually can do nothing, and collectively they can decide that nothing can be done. Or, a committee is a group of people who take down minutes and waste hours. So here is the committee report: to feed them would be impossible. You see, what you need in this equation is what I call the mathematics of a miracle. You need Jesus. I tell you, if you have the five loaves plus the two fishes plus Jesus, then you’ve got something, friend. Without Him, you don’t have anything at all. Jesus told them to make the men sit down, and they sat down. Mark emphasizes the fact that they sat down by companies; that is, each of the groups of people which had come from a certain section sat down together. They may have been distinguished by robes of a certain color from their area. Everything that our Lord did was done decently and in order. Each little group was color on the background of green grass. I am of the opinion that if you could have been on the hill on the opposite side from where these people were sitting, you would have seen something that would have been as beautiful as a patchwork quilt. It would have been very orderly, because our Lord was doing it.
John 6:11
As a student in a liberal college, I never shall forget how the professor explained away this miracle. What he said was that the disciples had gathered together these loaves and fishes ahead of time and had stored them up in a cave. Then the Lord Jesus just backed up to that cave, and the disciples just sort of slipped them out under His arm, concealed by a flowing robe! It was sort of like hocus-pocus, abracadabra. The only thing wrong with that explanation is that it won’t work. You would have to have more faith to believe that than to believe it just like it is, my friend.
To begin with, where would they find a bakery in that area that could provide that many loaves? And where would they get that many fish for this particular occasion at this time? We have no record that Andrew and Peter had been out fishing! This explanation is utterly preposterous and ridiculous, as you can see. The obvious explanation is that a miracle was performed here. When you add Jesus to the side of the assets, you have more than enough. In fact, you have twelve baskets of leftovers. That doesn’t mean they were scraps. I used to think that a fellow would bite on a sandwich, then when he would see a bigger one, he would put the first one down and reach over and get the new sandwich so that the fragments were that which had been partially eaten. That’s not true.
There were twelve baskets of sandwiches that weren’t even touched, my friend. Do you know what this means? It means that the crowd got all they wanted to eat. And people in that land and in that day were often hungry. There were many people in the crowd there that day who for the first time in their lives had their tummies filled. You see, when the Lord Jesus does anything, He does a good job of it.
John 6:14
You see, they are following Him because He’s a miracle worker. And I’m almost sure that He had to perform another miracle to get free from the crowd. The reason He got free from them was because they wanted to make Him a king. “Well,” someone says, “isn’t He a King?” Yes, it is true that He was born a King. But this is not the route by which He is coming to kingship.
John 6:16
JESUS WALKS ON THE WATERThe other Gospels tell us that He hurried the disciples down to the Sea of Galilee and put them on a boat to go across while He went up into the mountain to pray. Since those mountains are about three thousand feet high, a storm from them will break suddenly upon the Sea of Galileeand this was a real storm! When they were twenty-five or thirty furlongs out on the sea, they were halfway across. It was in the middle of this inland sea that they saw Jesus walking on the water. They were afraid because they didn’t recognize Him. The same liberal professor who explained away the feeding of the five thousand tried to explain away this miracle too. He said the ship was at the land, so Jesus was actually walking on the shorebut the disciples thought that He was walking on the water. May I say that John had been a fisherman on this Sea of Galilee, and he knew it well. He specifically mentions their position in the lake so we would know they were not at the shore. Jesus came to them in the storm. And that is a time He comes to His own today. He makes Himself more real to us in a time of trouble and sorrow. I don’t know why He waits until midnight, until the waves are rolling, but perhaps that is the only time we will listen to Him. When the storms of life are beating upon our little bark, our hearts are ready for His presence. “Immediately the ship was at the land whither they went.” This may be another miracle, or John may mean that with no delay they reached the other side since the water was now calm. Or it may be the language of lovewith Him in the boat it didn’t seem far to the other side.
John 6:22
JESUS GIVES A DISCOURSE ON THE BREAD OF LIFEWe find now that the crowd is beginning to look for Him, and they are disappointed. They discover that both the Lord Jesus and the disciples are gone. They apparently had come up from the southern part of the Sea of Galilee, and He had fed them there. Then they had come on by boat to Capernaum. That seems to be the way we have it here. This is the first time John used the title Lord"After that the Lord had given thanks." As we have seen, the common name John uses for Him is Jesus because He is “the Word …made flesh” (Joh_1:14). Who is that Word? It is Jesus. “…thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Mat_1:21). The crowd was really wanting to know how He had been able to get away as He did.
John 6:25
Jesus doesn’t really answer their question directly. He penetrated beneath the surface to their motive for seeking Him. Actually, the word He used was not literally “loaves” but a word that means fodder. You ate the fodder and were filled. Your only interest was that your tummies were full.
John 6:27
Let me put this into our language of today (this is not a translation but only an attempt to bring out the meaning): stop working for food that perishes, but work for food that endures for everlasting life, which food the Son of Man will give you, for on Him, God the Father has set His seal. You will recall that this is the same approach which our Lord made to the woman at the well. For her it was water that she wanted; for these folk it is bread. These are two essential things. Bread and water are very important to maintain life. Jesus is both Bread and Water. Notice that He uses these commonplace symbols. He is the Word, and the Word became flesh. How can we explain that? Jesus, the Word, is reaching down and communicating where we can understand it. He said that He is Water and that He gives Living Water. He said that He is Bread. We know what water is and we know what bread is.
John 6:28
In other words, they are asking what they can do to be saved. Man has always felt that if he could just work at it, he could be saved. Man feels thoroughly capable of working out his own salvation. He feels competent to do it, and he feels that God must accept his works. Notice carefully what the work of God is.
John 6:29
You see, the work of God is not that which is commanded by God, but it is that which has been wrought by God. In other words, it is what God has done and not what you do. It is the work of God and not the works of man. “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” He is saying that God provided food. He is the One who has provided that for us today, and we are to partake of it. The invitation He gives is to a banquet. Go out on the byways and highways and tell them they are invited to come. It is a free meal, by the way, but it happens to be spiritual food.
John 6:30
May I say that this reveals the hardness of the human heart. Here are the men who had been fed miraculously by our Lord when He fed the five thousand and they say, “Show us a sign. What dost Thou work?” In other words, they did not want to believe at all. And they take their conversation right back to the dinner table.
John 6:31
They are still thinking of physical food, and say, “Moses gave our people manna.” Actually it wasn’t Moses who gave the manna; God did that. And it wasn’t a one-time deal. God fed them every day for forty years. They want to be fed, and that is what they are after. Manna gave life in that day, and it was a gift from God. The manna gave physical life to them out there in the wilderness, but the Lord Jesus gives spiritual life. “My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.”
John 6:34
They are just like the woman at the well who asked for water but was thinking of physical water so she wouldn’t need to come and draw water at the well anymore. It took our Lord quite a while to lift her thinking out of that well to the spiritual Water. And it takes Him a long time to get these folk away from the dinner table and get them to see the spiritual Bread that gives spiritual life.
John 6:35
He joins the two together. Christ is the manna. He is the One who came down from heaven and gave His life for the world that we might have life. That is salvation. We will also see that He is the Bread that we are to feed upon constantly so that we might grow spiritually. After all, manna was miracle food, and it was thrilling. When the children of Israel got into the Promised Land, they were given the “old corn of the land” which symbolizes the Word of God. Believe me, lots of people don’t like the “old corn.”
John 6:36
“You want bread? Well, I am the Bread of Life. But you have seen Me, and you do not believe. All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me; and him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out.” This thirty-seventh verse is a very important verse. There is a theological argument that rages today on election or free will. There are some people who put all their eggs in the basket of election. There are others who put all their eggs in the basket of free will. I’m not proposing to reconcile the two because I have discovered that I cannot. If you had met me the year that I entered seminary, or the year I graduated, I could have reconciled them for you. I never have been as smart as I was my first year and my last year in seminary. I knew it all then. I could reconcile election and free will, and it was a marvelous explanation. Now I’ve even forgotten what it was. It was pretty silly, if you want to know the truth. Election and free will are both in this verse. “All that the father giveth me shall come to me” states a truth, and that is election. But wait a minute! “And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” is also true, and “him that cometh to me” is free will. I don’t know how to reconcile them, but they are both true. The Father gives men to Christ, but men have to come. And the ones that come are the ones, apparently, whom the Father gives to Him. You and I are down here, and we don’t see into the machinery of heaven. I don’t know how God runs that computer of election, but I know that He has given to you and to me a free will and we have to exercise it. Because Spurgeon preached a “whosoever will” gospel, someone said to him, “If I believed like you do about election, I wouldn’t preach like you do.” Spurgeon’s answer was something like this, “If the Lord had put a yellow stripe down the backs of the elect, I’d go up and down the street lifting up shirttails, finding out who had the yellow stripe, and then I’d give them the gospel. But God didn’t do it that way. He told me to preach the gospel to every creature that ‘whosoever will may come.’” Jesus says, “…and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” So, my friend, you can argue about election all you want to, but you can come. And if you come, He’ll not cast you out. Someone may ask, “You mean that if I’m not the elect I can still come?” My friend, if you come, you will be the elect. How tremendous this is!
John 6:38
How wonderful it is that the will of God is for you to come to Him. Jesus came down from heaven because “the Son of man must be lifted up.” He came to do the Father’s will in that, and it is the Father’s will that you be born again. But you will have to come to Him, friend; that is the only way. You must come to the Lord Jesus by faith.
John 6:39
The term predestination applies only to the saved. It means just exactly what He is saying here. When a person accepts Christ, he is justified; and just as surely as he is justified, he is going to be glorified. When Jesus starts out with one hundred sheep, He’s going to come through with one hundred sheep. He will not lose one. That is what this means. Everyone who believes and receives Christ has everlasting life and will be raised up again at the last day.
John 6:41
You see, He taught that He was God and that He came down from heaven. May I say to you, in this section here He is teaching His virgin birth. There are those who say the Lord Jesus never taught that He was virgin born. What do you think He is saying here, friend? The Jews understood what He was saying. They asked how this could be when they knew His father and His mother.
Well, it’s by the virgin birth. As the angel told Mary, it was the Holy Spirit who conceived that “holy thing” in Mary (see Luk_1:35). This section right here (beginning with v. Joh_6:38) is a complement or a counterpart of the virgin birth and needs to be added to the other portions of Scripture which deal with it. “I came down from heaven"that’s the Christmas story. “Out of the ivory palaces into a world of woe.” He came down from heaven’s glory; He stepped down from the throne to ascend the Cross for you and for me. He did it by way of the virgin birth. You can have the jingle of bells and all the Ho, Ho, Hosbut that is not Christmas.
The virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Christmas story. They got the message immediately and asked, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph?” They thought they knew His father and His mother, but He is not the son of Joseph. He came down from heaven.
John 6:43
Actually, the word translated “draw” is drag. That is divine election. You ask me to explain it? I can’t explain it at all, friend; I just know that you have a free will, and you can exercise it. God holds you responsible for it, and you know you are responsible. You know right now you can come or not come. It’s up to you.
John 6:45
There is Scripture after Scripture in the Old Testament that refers to this. For instance, Isa_54:13: “And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.” Isa_60:2-3: “For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” There are these statements that they will come to Him, and you can come to Him. These things are made so wonderfully clear. There are many references to it. Mal_4:2 is another: “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall to forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.” Every man that listens to the Father and learns of Him will come to Me is what He is saying.
You see, if you listen to the Word of God, then you’ll come to Christ. That is where the great emphasis is being placed here.
John 6:46
The One who has seen the Father is the Lord Jesus Christ. “He who believes on Me has everlasting life.” It can’t be said any more clearly.
John 6:48
He came down to this earth: “the Word was made flesh” (Joh_1:14). He is going to the Cross to lay that human life down there as a sacrifice to pay for your sins and my sins. Friend, when you partake of that, that is, when you accept that, you are saved. Someone may say, “Oh, that’s so vivid and so strong.” That’s what they said in that day, too.
John 6:52
They were thinking of His literal flesh, of course.
John 6:53
That means to partake of Him spiritually, which is more real than a physical partaking.
John 6:54
Friend, this is an amazing statement. Our Lord is preparing these men for that Last Supper and the institution of the Lord’s Supper. This, obviously, is something that is not to be taken literally because He was right there before them. He is not saying for them to begin to eat Him and to drink His blood! What He is saying is that He is going to give His life. In that Upper Room He made it very clear that the blood is the symbol of life. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood …(Lev_17:11).
God had taught the Israelites that truth from the very beginning when He called them out of the land of Egypt. There at Mount Sinai Moses gives them this great axiom, “the life of the flesh is in the blood,” which is also medically true, by the way. The life of the flesh is in the blood. And Jesus is giving His life. He will shed His blood upon the Cross and give His life. Salvation is by accepting and receiving Him in a most intimate way. This is the basis for the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Friend, there has been just as much disagreement among believers in the churches down through the ages over the interpretation of the Lord’s Supper as there has been over baptism. I don’t think they have fought over it quite as much, but the disagreement is there. Hoc est meus corpus"This is my body.” When He gave them the bread at the supper in the Upper Room, He said, “…This is my body …” (Luk_22:19). Now there have been different emphases put on that. The Roman Catholic Church puts the emphasis upon this. This is My body. They say that transubstantiation takes place, that the bread becomes the flesh of Christ. Well, I don’t think our Lord taught cannibalism in any form, shape, or fashion. I think, of course, that it is a wrong emphasis. Then there are those who have taken the position of the Lutheran church, which is consubstantiation.
This means that by, with, in, through, and under the bread you get the body of Christ. Again, may I say, I think that falls short of what our Lord really means. Then there are those who take Zwingli’s position. He was the Swiss Reformation leader who gave it a spiritual interpretation. He felt it was just a symbol, just a religious ritual, and that is all. I think that is probably the interpretation that most of Protestantism gives to it today.
Frankly, I feel that falls as far short of the interpretation of the Lord’s Supper as the other two do. Calvin put the emphasis on is"This is my body.” The Reformed faith has always put the emphasis there, and the early church put the emphasis there. The bread is bread, and it always will be bread. It cannot be changed. The wine is always just what it is, and there is no miracle that takes place there. You don’t get the body of Christ by going through the ritual.
And yet, it is more than a ritual. I had a seminary professor who taught us that in the Lord’s Supper it is bread in your mouth, but it is Christ in your heart. Friend, I believe that there is a spiritual blessing that comes in observing the Lord’s Supper. I think that He ministers to you spiritually through your obedience in observing the Lord’s Supper. There is no such thing as a hocus-pocus there. Nor is it just an idle ritual that we go through.
It is meaningful, and it has a spiritual blessing for the heart. I think that is what our Lord is saying to them here. An intimate, real relationship with Him is the important thing. When they ate manna in the wilderness, it was only a temporary thing. Jesus has something that is eternallife which is eternal. We are told that at the beginning of this Gospel, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (Joh_1:4).
John 6:59
There was definite reaction to what Jesus had said and differences of opinion. Jesus tells them that they are not going to eat Him literally because He is going back to heaven. It is the Spirit that makes alive; the flesh profits nothing. So obviously, friend, He is not talking about His literal body. We are to appropriate the Lord’s Supper by faith. The juice in the cup is sweet, and I always taste the sweetness, remembering that He bore the bitter cup for me on the Cross so that I might have this sweet cup. That sweet cup is to remind me that He shed His blood for me, and there is a spiritual blessing there. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” During my ministry, I have always read to the congregation from the Word of God during the Lord’s Supper. I find that the Word of God ministers to the hearts of the people. Why? Because the words of the Lord Jesus are spirit and they are life.
John 6:64
But remember now, you have to put with that “whosoever will may come.” It’s up to you, you see.
John 6:66
You can see that in the group there that day were the hostile leaders, the religious leaders. Also there was an undesignated number of disciples in addition to the Twelve. And in the twelve was Judas. So you actually find four opinions concerning Him at this time. Many of these disciplesnot the Twelvebut many of the other disciples turned and went back.
John 6:67
This is a marvelous statement on the part of Simon Peter. And the question he asks is pertinent to us today. If you say that the Lord Jesus is not a Savior to you and that He doesn’t meet your needs at all, then may I ask you where you are going? I saw a group of young people on the island of Maui, out in the Hawaiian Islands. They had a picture of Krishna in front of them, and they were going over and over a monotonous song. Poor little folk! They weren’t finding any satisfaction in that. What disillusionment is coming to so many today! There are those who are turning in every direction for light. Let me ask you the question of Simon Peter: “To whom shall we go?” The Lord Jesus is the One, and the only One, who has the Words of eternal life.
John 6:69
This man, Judas Iscariot, is really a great mystery. Here our Lord numbers him with the twelve, and He said that He had chosen him. Yet he was a demon, which probably means demon-possessed, and this is the man who is going to betray Him. All the way through our Lord gave him every opportunity to make a decision for Him. It is difficult to interpret evil like this, friend. It is one of the mysteries. Evil is always a mystery, which is one of the things that makes it so attractive. Suppose right now I would say to you that I am holding two sticks. One stick is perfectly straight because it is a ruler. You can easily imagine how that ruler looks because it can be straight only one way. Then suppose that I say that I am also holding in my hand a crooked stick. I’m of the opinion that if each of you drew a picture of how you think that stick looks, everyone would draw it differently. That’s because it can be crooked in a million different ways. You see, evil has a mystery to it. I must confess that, as this man Judas Iscariot walks across the pages of Scripture, it’s difficult to interpret him. And here our Lord says this amazing thing about him: he is a demon! What a contrast is the testimony of Simon Peter"we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God."