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Jesus
Feeds the Five Thousand

John 6:1-21

Good News Translation (GNT)

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  1  After this, Jesus went across Lake Galilee
   (or, Lake Tiberias, as it is also called).
  2  A large crowd followed him, because they
   had seen his miracles of healing the sick.
  3  Jesus went up a hill and sat down with his
   disciples.
  4  The time for the Passover Festival was near.
  5  Jesus looked around and saw that a large
   crowd was coming to him, so he asked Philip,
   "Where can we buy enough food to feed all
   these people?"
   (  6  He said this to test Philip; actually he
   already knew what he would do.)
  7  Philip answered, "For everyone to have even
   a little, it would take more than two hundred
   silver coins (a) to buy enough bread."
  8  Another one of his disciples, Andrew, who
   was Simon Peter's brother, said,
  9  "There is a boy here who has five loaves of
   barley bread and two fish. But they will
   certainly not be enough for all these people."
10  "Make the people sit down," Jesus told them.
   (There was a lot of grass there.) So all the
   people sat down; there were about five
   thousand men.
11  Jesus took the bread, gave thanks to God,
   and distributed it to the people who were
   sitting there. He did the same with the fish,
   and they all had as much as they wanted.
12  When they were all full, he said to his
   disciples, "Gather the pieces left over; let us
   not waste a bit."
13  So they gathered them all and filled twelve
   baskets with the pieces left over from the five
   barley loaves which the people had eaten.
14  Seeing this miracle that Jesus had performed,
   the people there said, "Surely this is the
   Prophet who was to come into the world!"
15  Jesus knew that they were about to come
   and seize him in order to make him king by
   force; so he went off again to the hills by
   himself.

   Jesus Walks on the Water
16  When evening came, Jesus' disciples went
   down to the lake,
17  got into a boat, and went back across the lake
   toward Capernaum. Night came on, and Jesus
   still had not come to them.
18  By then a strong wind was blowing and stirring
   up the water.
19  The disciples had rowed about three or four
   miles when they saw Jesus walking on the
   water, coming near the boat, and they were
   terrified.
20  "Don't be afraid," Jesus told them, "it is I!"
21  Then they willingly took him into the boat,
   and immediately the boat reached land at the
   place they were heading for.

   Footnotes
   John 6:7 A silver coin was the daily wage of
   a rural worker (see Mt 20.2).

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Commentary taken from
'The Applied New Testament Commentary'
(Kingsway)

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

     John 6:1-15

The twelve disciples returned from their preaching journey and reported to Jesus all that had happened. Then, because they were tired, they crossed the sea by boat, hoping to find a solitary place.

But Jesus did not say, "I am tired." He did not send the crowd away. The disciples began to worry about how all the people gathered there were going to find food in such a remote place. Then Jesus asked how much food they had with them.

Five loaves and two fish that belonged to a small boy whom Andrew had found in the crowd. So they gave the loaves and the fish to Jesus. That was the boy's Supper - hardly enough to feed one adult, let alone thousands.

Then Jesus performed one of His greatest miracles. There were five thousand men there, and besides the men, there were women and children as well. They all ate and were satisfied.

Out of those loaves and fish, Jesus, the living God, created enough food to feed the entire crowd. With God nothing is impossible. In the same way, Jesus also asks us to give Him what we have. Just as Jesus gave the crowd physical food, so He also gives people spiritual food.

He offers us living water, and when we have drunk it we shall never thirst again. He offers us the bread of life, and when we have eaten it we shall never hunger again.

The feeding of the five thousand is not only a tremendous miracle; it is also an illustration of how the kingdom of God grows. It is a parable of missions. Jesus, the Son of God, with whom is all authority in heaven and on earth, has chosen us to help Him feed the multitudes.

He could do it by Himself, but He has chosen not to. He has chosen, instead, to use us. And as we give to Him our resources, our time, our skills, ourselves, He will use us to reach the hungry multitudes, and in the process He will enrich us beyond all imagining.

Jesus Walks on the Water

     (John 6:16-21)

According to John's Gospel, the people said among themselves, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world."

John says that the people wanted to make Jesus their king by force. But Jesus didn't let them. He dismissed the people and withdrew by Himself to pray.

Jesus didn't want His disciples to remain in that place and listen to the crowd talk about making Him a king. So He immediately sent them away from there.

Jesus then dismissed the crowd, and went into the hills to pray. His disciples, meanwhile, were in a boat trying to row toward Bethsaida. But the wind was blowing against them, and they were blown off course toward the middle of the lake.

Jesus came to them, walking on the water. The disciples were terrified because they thought they were seeing a ghost. But Jesus told them not to be afraid. "It is I."
The disciples were amazed. They had seen Jesus feed the multitude. They had just seen Him walk on water. But even having seen all this, they still did not understand who Jesus really was.

If they had known that Jesus was God, they would not have been amazed at these miracles. They would not have been terrified. They didn't know who Jesus was because their hearts were hardened. They did not fully believe in Jesus.

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