Home » Gospel of John Studies, Gospel of Luke Studies, Gospel of Mark Studies, Gospel of Matthew Studies, Gospels Studies, Jesus' Miracles Studies, New Testament Studies

Feeding the 5000 | Bible Study

7 October 2008

Bible Study Guide:

  • Luke 9:10-17
  • John 8:1-14
  • Matthew 14:13-21
  • Mark 6:32-44

Background of the Miracle:

  • “Feeding the 5000″ is the only miracle recorded by all four gospels.
  • Disciples came from their mission, they were tired and hungry, did not have time to eat. They needed rest.
  • Jesus just heard about the death of John the Baptist (Mat 14:13). (Ministry of John the Baptist)
  • Jesus wanted him and his disciples to withdraw from the crowd so that they can have some rest.
  • They headed to Bethesda, by boat to discourage crowd from following them. (Check, Jesus healed disable man at Pool of Bethesda)
  • They were trying to get away from them.

feed 220x300 Feeding the 5000 | Bible Study

Bethesda – Fisherman’s House:

  • Bethesda – meaning “Fisherman’s house”, it was home of Philip, Andrew and Peter.
  • Mini vacation on weekends!
  • Crowd was all in need, physical, emotional, spiritual. They sought teaching and healing, they were already gathered at the place, before Jesus arrived.
  • Mark 6:34 says that he had compassion on them because they were life sheep without shepherd.

How do we respond when they invade our privacy?

  • So many times, when we are tired and weary, under stress, and people come to us in need, and we try to avoid them. They come with hope of getting something, to share or to have fellowship. Are we available to their needs.
  • Jesus had compassion on them; he welcomed them not out of duty or obligation, but out of love and care.
  • Think of an incident, when you are so tired and need rest, and your friend comes and you start thinking “oh, no, how do I get rid of him?” you don’t have to go too far to find such situation.
  • Jesus as a caregiver, first to his disciples and then to the crowd.
  • Jesus taught them about the kingdom of God, healed them (for hours). (The Beatitudes – Poor in Spirit – Kingdom of Heaven)
  • Jesus must be teaching well, that crowd did not disperse in the evening; they were too engrossed into listening to Jesus.
  • Think of church meeting, when preacher goes little above time, and people start looking at their watch, start dispersing.

“Give them something to eat”

  • Crowd are not worried, disciples are. It’s like they come and tell Jesus, “its time to close, let them go.”
  • Jesus reply is startling, “give them something to eat.” – What!
  • Are you crazy, 5000 men, women, and children. We don’t have enough money to feed them. It is like a eight month’s wages, thousand of dollars, are we going to use all that for feeding them one meal?
  • Think practically, let them go. Jesus’ ways does not seem practical at times.
  • See, Judge 6-7: Gideon’s army of 300 men winning against 150,000 midianites.

“What do you have?”

  • Jesus asks another question, “What do you have, go and see?”
  • Boy with five loaves of bread and two fishes
  • How can few pieces of loaves, fishes feed the 5000?
  • Totally inadequate, impossible to feed, but this is all they had.
  • Jesus prepared them for Miracle – All were hungry, he didn’t want chaos, disorder, shoving, pushing. He wanted to organize, order.
  • Another example of miracles in orderly fashion, our God is organized.
  • Disciples don’t understand, why is he doing that? However, confused they are, they followed what he said.
  • So many times, he wants us to act in faith, though it may sound foolish or silly.
  • Jesus did not do miracle first and then told them about organizing crowd.
  • Prayer of thanksgiving – most important part of miracle
  • Giving thanks to father, not credit on himself, but exalting God the father. Thanking and blessing God.
  • He then broke them and distributed them.
  • Five thousand people, it must have taken few hours to do that.
  • All were fed and satisfied.

Jesus’ final assignment for his disciples:

  • Jesus’ final assignment for his disciples, “go and gather broken pieces.” To make them realize that God’s provision is more than adequate. (He in fact, later on reminds them about it in Mark 8:19)
  • Profound impact on disciples, all gospels have account of it.

Why this miracle?

“What do YOU have?”

  • Off course, our resources are way inadequate to the need of this world. But we are to bring what we have to him. And put it into his hands.
  • He will in turn, bless them and place them into your hands back, multiplied, more powerful than you can ever imagine.
  • Too often, we are overwhelmed by the need, and give up, questioning adequacy of God.
  • When we see the world, we are stunned by the need all around us and whole world, people are deserting God, so much of pain, and suffering, persecution, hurt, wars. And we realize that our resources are very limited. We can not help due to lack of resources.
  • Jesus is looking for people who are ready to believe, trust him, who are willing to bring whatever little they have. (instead of complaining or stepping back)
  • God’s provision is more than adequate. Are we ready to trust him, believe that though task is immense, Our God is more than sufficient.
  • All we need to do is to bring our resources, gifts, talents, time, energy, and he is going to bless them and multiply them. (Discover your spiritual gifts)

Also Check out: Against All Odds: God’s Math Doesn’t Need to Add Up

More Bible Study Lessons:

Stumble
Delicious
Technorati
Twitter
Facebook

To Get More Free Bible Studies by Email:

Enter Your Email Address Here:

Don't forget to Activate the email subscription from your Email Inbox. If you do not see an email in the Inbox, please check your Spam folder or Junk mail folder.

Learn More about 2 Ways to get the latest FREE bible studies from BibleSEO

3 Comments »

  • Doug said:

    This is one of the few NT lessons on giving I have. If only the rich youn ruler would have had the same attitude; who knows.
    Thanks

  • Eric said:

    Wow! I didn’t realize this was the only miracle recorded by all four gospels! Thanks for this. I work with needy people every day. Sometimes I think of ways to avoid their problems – but I know I need to engage them. Thanks for this reminder.

  • Bible SEO (author) said:

    Thanks Eric

Leave Your Comments

Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS.



Bible Study Topics

|

Free Bible Study Lessons & Guide