Sarah Barry > Gospel and Acts > John 6:1-21

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

Question

John 6: 1-21 Lesson #15
Key Verse: 6:5

* Where Shall We Buy Bread (1-8)

1. Where did this event take place? Who participated? What time is mentioned? Why had the crowd followed Jesus? (What was the size of the crowd? [10])

2. On whom does Jesus focus his attention? (3) What did Jesus ask Philip? What was his reason for asking? What did Jesus have in mind to do? 

3. In what respect do you think he was testing Philip? How did Philip answer? Did Philip understand Jesus' mind? What kind of person was Philip?

* Here Is a Boy (8-15)

4. What did Andrew do and say? How was his attitude and way of thinking different from that of Philip? What can we learn from Andrew?

5. Did Jesus accept what Andrew brought? What did he tell the disciples to do? Why was it difficult to do this? Why was it necessary?

6. Read verse 11. Who did Jesus thank? Why? What shows the abundance of the bread and fish? How does this event reveal God's love and power? 

7. How did the people respond to this event? What did they believe about Jesus? What did they want him to do? 

8. Why did Jesus refuse to be king? What did he do?

9. What did Jesus want his disciples to learn from this event? 

10. Where did the disciples go after this? What happened to them? What was probably on their minds?

11. When and how did Jesus come to them? What happened? What did Jesus want them to learn?
 

File attachments:

Message

                                                       JESUS FEEDS 5000

 

John 6:1-21                                                                                                        Lesson #15

Key Verse: 6:5,8

 

            There are seven miracles or signs recorded in the Gospel of John. This reading contains two of them. Jesus' signs are not for the purpose of convincing unbelievers. They are given to teach believers. In this case, he teaches his disciples about his person and work and about his will for them.

 

            While most of the events in chapters 5-12 take place in Jerusalem, these two events, the feeding of the five thousand and Jesus' walking on water, take place in Galilee. The long discourse with the Jews who are only interested in getting more bread follows these two miracles. This discourse shows how the materialism and unbelief of the Jews who rejected Jesus contrasts with the growing faith of Jesus' disciples.

 

            When Jesus saw the large crowd coming to him, he asked Philip, "Where can we buy enough food to feed all these people?" The author tells us that Jesus was testing Philip. Philip's clever mind begins to turn. He quickly calculated how much bread would be needed. It amounted to a lot of money--probably more than they had ever had. Perhaps Philip intended to let the matter drop at this point. But Andrew spoke up, "There is a boy here who has five loaves of barley bread and two fish." Andrew thought about what he had rather than what he didn't have. He took stock of his resources and brought what he had to Jesus. Jesus said nothing to Philip, but he took what Andrew brought and fed the crowd. The disciples helped. They organized the crowd and they picked up the left over pieces.

 

            Jesus taught his disciples to share in his work, not with limited human reason and ability, but with faith. Men who look at God's work like Philip did are limited by their own clever minds and human ability. Men who act in faith like Andrew are the men through whom Jesus works today.

 

            Jesus was training his disciples for a bigger job. When he finished his work and left to return to God, he gave his disciples a very large task to do. He told them to go and make disciples of all people everywhere. They were few in number and limited in material resources but they accepted this task in the spirit of Andrew. This is still our task--to evangelize the world. We have no money or power--but when we bring to Jesus what we have, he will use us in his work.

 

            In the second miracle, Jesus walking on water, Jesus showed his disciples how difficult it is to be in a rough sea without Jesus in the boat. And he showed them how different the circumstances become when Jesus comes to join them. Jesus promised to be with us to the end of the age when we accept his command to do his work. He is with us in a dark and hostile world; he is with us in every changing scene of life; he is with us in the Christian fellowship; he is with us in the worldly environment of our class rooms or jobs. His presence makes a difference.

File attachments:
more resources