Introduction
The news of John’s death and the way in which he died stung like a sharp knife, piercing Jesus’ soul. Grieving, Jesus retreats to the comfort of the Father and the silence of the Sea of Galilee. He tells His disciples to come with Him and He escapes to a secluded place. People were coming from everywhere after hearing the news about John’s death (Mark 6:31). Some feel that this crowd is angry and ready for a revolution and a new king (John 6:15)! What is going to happen?
Reading [You can read as much as you can, depending on your availability]
Luke 9:12-17
(or)
Matthew 14:15-21
(or)
Mark 6:35-44
(or)
John 6:1-14
Meditating [Use these questions to start your thinking]
- Why were the crowds following Jesus?
- What did the twelve want to do with these crowds?
- What lessons do you think God the Father wanted the disciples to learn during this experience?
- What/who made this miracle possible?
- What other questions do you still have?
Sharing: Text ONE of your answers to the questions above to your team. Each team should post a sharing from a team member in the comments below.
It is abundantly clear that Jesus had every intention of crossing the Sea of Galilee to Bethsaida and retreating with His disciples to a quiet place to grieve (Luke 9:10). But the Father had a different plan, a lesson in leadership through times of personal loss and deep personal pain. From the boat, Jesus sees that the crowd is already beginning to gather and decides to dock close by. The crowd is forming for a variety of reasons. Some want to avenge John’s death and make Jesus the new king (John 6:15). Others were drawn to the many miracles the disciples and Jesus were doing (John 6:2). As the crowd begins to form, Jesus takes His disciples quickly and escapes to a mountain ledge nearby, overlooking Bethsaida and the Sea of Galilee. I imagine Jesus, angry and frustrated over the seemingly senseless death of His best friend, laying prostrate on the ground, begging the Father to do something, anything. It is in this position that the Father must have said, “Son, lift up your eyes!” We do read in John 6:5 that Jesus looked and saw the incredible number of people marching toward Him. Mark 6:34 says that Jesus sees this massive crowd assembling below Him and He is moved with compassion for them, because they looked to Him like sheep without a shepherd.
As Jesus and His leaders descend the mountain to the crowd of people below, Jesus turns to Philip and asks him “‘Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?’” Surely Philip will respond in faith, believing God will provide a miracle. Andrew, however, who had just returned from his mission trip having seen God provide supernaturally, does some quick math, checks with Judas to see how much is in the money bag he was carrying and tells Jesus that it would take way too much money to feed the crowd. As the day wears on, Jesus teaches and ministers to the huge crowd — 5,000 men, plus women and children. Some calculate as many as 20,000 people. Wow! Now it is late and everyone is starting to get hungry. Jesus tells the twelve leaders to give the people something to eat. They ask if they should spend the 200 denarii that they obviously had to buy the bread. At this point Jesus says, “Go, collect what you can from the people and bring it here.”
In this case, the only person who had something to give was a young man whom Andrew found. This guy was willing to give all he had — 5 barley biscuits and 2 small, sardine-size fish. With this meager offering, Jesus then has His largest outreach event, and some would argue His biggest miracle, feeding 5,000 men, plus the women and children, and having twelve baskets left over after everyone had eaten their fill. Let me unwrap the lessons of multiplication that I think Jesus is teaching His leaders:
Jesus divided the five biscuits and the two fish among the twelve, giving each leader some. I can only imagine the faces of these leaders as Jesus tells them to turn and distribute the food among the people. The looks had to have been priceless. But note carefully when multiplication begins. It began when the disciples obeyed and not before. As they distributed the food in faith, believing God, the miracle started happening. Think about it.
Multiplication will happen in your life the same way as it did for Jesus and His early leaders. Lift up your eyes, see the need, be filled with compassion, assemble the resources, organize your life for the miracle, offer up the resources you have in faith with thanksgiving and then, most importantly, take a step of obedience. Spend some time today discussing Jesus’ principles of multiplication with the people you are investing in.
Hope you guys are attending service somewhere for GF tonight!
What did the twelve want to do with these crowds? –> In Luke passage, the 12 came to Jesus and wanted to disperse the crowd simply because there’s just too many of them and they probably don’t think they could handle all 5,000 men at once. Could be a logistical issue (no place to sleep, no food to eat), or it could be the crowd could get rowdy disturbing Jesus’ mourning period after JB’s death. I understand where the disciples are coming from, it was with the best intentions.
I think I could use what Jesus gave me with greater impact this weekend. I invited a couple of my co-workers to our Night Market so praying that God would be at work in their hearts this Sunday.
What did the twelve want to do with these crowds?
The twelve wanted to send the crowds away to find food & shelter elsewhere because they were at a desolate place. They doubted Jesus & underestimated that he can perform a miracle and feed everyone.
I hope that we have more hope in Jesus and believe that He can use us to spiritually feed those around us with our resources.
In the midst of difficult and tiring times for Jesus and the disciples, life still happens and people were still in need. Jesus was teaching the disciples to love and care for people, especially when their needs were present at hand. He was showing them He can take what we have and literally multiply it. May we be encouraged to do the same and bring what we have to offer and trust that He will multiply it for others and for His glory.
So the crowds were trying to see Jesus for healing and teaching, and he delivers, even in light of JBs death. Even as he’s grieving, he puts others first. And of course, after a message, people wanna eat. And with a crowd of 5000+, it makes it really hard to provide food. It’s only logical that the disciples wouldnt want to feed the crowd. And I’d be scared if Jesus said to feed that many people. And this is after the disciples have already seen Gods provision helping them on their missions. I think Jesus is showing them that there’s no limit to Gods provision. They’ve seen God provide for 1 or 2 people on mission, now they get to see God immediately provide for thousands.