Feeding the Five Thousand – John 6:1-15

The Story in a Nutshell

The story continues…

Large crowds followed Jesus wherever he went; they saw his miracles as he healed the sick. 

With all the crowds, Jesus needed a break, so he went up into the hills with his disciples.  But it wasn’t long before a great crowd began climbing the hills looking for him.

“When these people get here they’re going to be hungry,” thought Jesus.  Looking toward Philip, Jesus asked, “Do you know where we can by bread to feed all these people?”  Jesus was testing Philip; he already knew what he was going to do.

Philip answered, “I don’t know, and even if I did it would cost a fortune to feed such a big crowd.”  Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up.  “There’s a young boy right here with five loaves of bread and two fish, but it won’t feed a crowd this great.”

By now the crowd was at Jesus’ feet, so he told them, 5,000 men alone, to sit down.  Then Jesus took the five loaves of bread and two fish, thanked God, and passed the bread and fish out to the people. 

The people ate heartily.  When they finished Jesus told the disciple to collect the leftovers; he didn’t want anything to be wasted.  Although the meal started with only five loaves of bread, the disciples gathered twelve baskets of leftovers.  How could that be?

The people said, “This is a miracle.  Jesus surely is the prophet we have been waiting for.”  They were ready to grab him and make him their king, but Jesus saw this he sent them home..

To be continued….

What did you learn from the story?

If you want to gain a full understanding of the complete story, and for help in answering some of the questions below, you may want to have the following items as additional resources:  a Bible, a dictionary, and a Bible commentary on the Book of John (optional).

1. Why were large crowds following Jesus?
2. Why did Jesus go up into the hills?
3. What did Jesus see coming up the hills?
4. What was Jesus thinking and what did he ask Philip?
5. What did Andrew have to offer?
6. When the crowd arrived, what did Jesus do?
7. How big was the crowd?
8. When the crowd finished eating, what did Jesus have the disciples do?  Why?
9. How much leftover food did the disciples gather?
10.  What were the people thinking about the meal?
11. What were the people thinking and what did they want to do?
12. What was Jesus’ response to the people?
13. What did you learn about God, Jesus, and people from the story?

Have questions about God, Jesus, and the Bible? An excellent source for answers to your questions is gotquestions.org. Check it out. gotquestions.org.

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