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Proverbs 15:1-11
1 A soft answer turns away wrath, But a harsh
word stirs up anger.
2 The tongue of the wise uses knowledge
rightly, But the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness.
3 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, Keeping watch on the evil and the good.
4 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, But perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
5 A fool despises his father's instruction, But
he who receives correction is prudent.
6 In
the house of the righteous there is
much treasure, But in the revenue of the wicked is trouble.
7 The lips of the wise disperse knowledge, But
the heart of the fool does not do so.
8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, But
the prayer of the upright is
His delight.
9 The way of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, But He loves him who follows
righteousness.
10 Harsh discipline is for him who forsakes the way, And he who hates correction will die.
11 Hell and Destruction are before the LORD; So how much more the hearts of the sons of
men.
Father God, help us to portray your goodness in all that we
say and do. Bless us and our loved ones in our daily walk. In Jesus name we pray, Amen!
Gospel of John 6:1-15 NKJV
This week’s lesson is about the feeding
of the multitude with two fish and five loaves of bread which is one of the
greatest miracles Jesus performed. There are hidden messages in these
scriptures that we as Christians are to live by. Let’s see what they are.
1 After these things Jesus went over the Sea of
Galilee, which is the Sea of
Tiberias.
After these things; This phrase is referring to the recent
trip to Jerusalem and the great exchange of religious customs and doctrine that
took place between Jesus and the Jewish Leaders. From what we read in the
scriptures, Jesus did not visit Jerusalem except for the Feasts that occurred.
Jesus would do this in obedience to the Law of Moses. With the hostile
environment in Jerusalem toward Jesus, He avoided Jerusalem as much as He could
because His time had not yet come.
Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee,
which is the Sea of Tiberias; This sea is referred to by many names,
“Chinnereth” (Numbers 34:11),
“Chinneroth” (Joshua 12:3),
“Lake of Gennesaret” (Luke 5:1), as well as the “Sea of Tiberias,” and
“Sea of Galilee.” Around this sea there were many small communities and the people
communicated and traded with each other.
2
Then a
great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on
those who were diseased.
Then a great multitude followed Him; This multitude could have been 15,000 or
more people. We know that there were about 5,000 men based on verse ten and if
each man was married and each couple had children it could have easily been
over 15,000.
Because they saw His signs which He
performed on those who were diseased; Jesus
came as a bearer of Grace meaning all that came to Him be healed. The sick,
diseased, lame, blind, deaf, dumb, the withered, etc. The afflicted for miles
around were coming to Jesus to be healed and those healed no doubt was
spreading the word to go see Jesus the healer of all times. Jesus power was
being displayed in a fashion that had never been known in all of history. Jesus
was the topic of all conversations, and probably the last and first thought
when falling to sleep and awakening in the morning.
Just
think there is a day coming when there will be no more sickness or hunger as it
is foretold by the early prophets and the wolf will dwell with the lamb; the
leopard will lie down with the young goat; the calf and the young lion and the
fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. Isaiah 11:3–10; 9:6–7
3 And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there
He sat with His disciples.
This
verse implies that Jesus went up on the mountain to an isolated type of place
to teach His disciples.
4 Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was
near.
With
this mention of the Passover coming up, it indicates that Jesus was nearing the
end of His second year of ministry. So with His second year coming to a close,
and there was still a multitude of people seeking Him out; tells us what a
great time it was on earth during Jesus ministry.
5
Then Jesus
lifted up His eyes, and seeing
a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?"
Hmmm,
why do you suppose Jesus directed this question to Philip? Was it because he was
from Bethsaida, a town about nine miles away and he might know where to obtain
food? (John 1:44).
Was Philip lacking something spiritual?
Jesus
was testing Philip’s faith as we see in the next verse. This is a prime example
for us to learn from that when the impossible seems apparent, we need to seek
God for a solution through prayer, and not turn to man or mans way of reasoning
to solve the problem. We may not get the issue solved the way we like, but it
is the best solution. God can solve all problems if our faith is where it is
supposed to be.
6 But
this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.
Here
we find the answer and it was definitely to test Philip’s faith. Evidently
Philip needed his faith boosted up to a higher level. Jesus knew what He was
going to do to feed the crowd, but he seized this opportunity to help Philip.
At
what level is your faith? Is it where it should be that when issues arise you
turn immediately to Jesus for the answer or try to solve it on your own? I must
admit at times I fall short in faith also. Jesus always has the answer and
consequently, that is why we must always seek His Face for leading and guidance.
7 Philip
answered Him, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for
them, that every one of them may have a little."
Philip
answers with a carnal answer which is all too often the way the world would
respond, but it should not be the response of a child of God. Don’t let money
or earthly things limit what is possible through God!
In
reading the other Gospels we see it was also a lesson for the other Disciples
to think spiritually and not carnally. They wanted to send the multitude away
so they could go buy food for themselves. Matthew 14:15 When it was
evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, "This is a deserted place, and
the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the
villages and buy themselves food."
8
One of His
disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him,
9
"There is a lad here who has five barley
loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?"
We
see here that Philip isn’t the only one thinking carnally. I wonder if the rest
of the Apostles were also thinking carnally.
When
they went to get the fish and loaves from this young lad he could have refused
to give what he had. He could have said this is for me to eat and if I give it
up I won’t have anything to eat, go find your own food, or maybe you should
have thought about what you would eat a long time before this and prepared
yourself for the journey, but he didn’t and gave freely what he had. This young
lad probably had been present and witnessed the healings that Jesus performed
and knew Jesus was someone special and therefore gave freely what he had. It is
very possible he had accepted Jesus as the Messiah, his Saviour, already.
There
is a valuable lesson here being taught by Jesus, we need to have our faith in
Jesus Christ for all things and always turn to Him first with our problems and
also be willing to give freely what we have to Christ. We aren’t to be like Ananias
and Sapphira that sold their land and then held back part of the proceeds, but
give it all to Jesus. (Acts 5:1-10) If we give all to Jesus, He will give
us all in return. We can’t out give Jesus!
10 Then Jesus said, "Make
the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place. So the
men sat down, in number about five thousand.
When
Jesus said, “Make the people sit down”, the light bulb probably then came on in
the minds of the disciples that Jesus was about to feed the multitude. As with
the disciple, we also seldom learn the things of God easily or quickly. I also
at time and more times that I like to count have not fully trusted Him. In
fact, I have given the wrong answer to Jesus many times, but yet He did not
lose patience and continue to work with me, just as He does with everyone.
Looking back in my life I now see things that should have been really plain to
me, yet I failed to see.
So
we want to scold the Disciples for their spiritual dullness, but yet most of us
probably did not learn as quickly as they did. Maybe we are really scolding
ourselves, because we see ourselves in them.
Have
you thought about why Jesus had the people sit down? By sitting down the people
would be in a teaching posture and they were about to experience one of the
greatest lessons of Jesus ministry, faith in what Jesus could do for them if
they believe.
11
And Jesus
took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the
disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they
wanted.
And Jesus took the loaves, and when He
had given thanks; This
represents the beginning of this Miracle. Jesus giving thanks to His Father for
the food that they were provided from above is an example for us to always give
thanks for the food we have to eat whether at home or in a restaurant.
The
type of “loaves” mentioned here, were “barley loaves,” which were the most
coarse and therefore, the most humble type of food. These five loaves represent
Jesus not only humbly but also by the number five. Five is the number of God’s
gift to us. Jesus had five parts to His Name, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) and suffered five wounds at Calvary,
whip, thorns, nails, spear, and beard plucked all for us.
He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; The bread and fish were given to the
disciples to distribute. Just as Jesus commissioned the disciples to distribute
the Gospel, in a like manner they are distributing manna from Jesus.
And likewise of the fish, as much as
they wanted; Some say
the fish represent the souls of mankind, and if so, then the 5 loaves and 2
fish add up to 7 which is Gods number of completion. When a person comes to
Jesus their life is complete.
12 So when
they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather
up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost."
What
this verse is telling us by Jesus is that we are not to be wasteful. Jesus
could produce food many times and in abundance, but we aren’t to misuse what we
have or what has been provided to us.
13 Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the
five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.
How
can one begin with five loaves and two fishes, feed fifteen to twenty thousand
people, giving them as much as they desired, and then finish up with twelve
basketfuls of leftovers?
This
is what makes living for Jesus light years ahead of any of the religions in the
world. There is Miracle Working Power attached to Christ, when one lives for
Jesus and His will.
God
gives in abundance. He takes whatever we can offer him in time, ability, or
resources and multiplies its effectiveness beyond our wildest expectations. If
you take the first step in making yourself available to God, he will show you
how greatly you can be used to advance the work of his Kingdom.
14 Then those men, when they had seen the sign that
Jesus did, said, "This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the
world."
This
verse seems innocent by itself, but in reading the next verse we see that those
making this statement may have had evil in their hearts and thinking how they
could use Jesus as their king for their gain and not what Jesus was on earth to
do. Little did they know that if they repented and accepted Jesus into their
heart they would have had all they needed for the rest of their life on earth
and for all of eternity.
15 Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were
about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the
mountain by Himself alone.
Jesus
perceived what was in the hearts of those men which was all about worldly
things; therefore He vanished again from the crowd. His mission was about
salvation by faith and nothing about worldly kingship.
Next week’s lesson will be about the
miracle of walking on water.
Colossians 1:16 For by Him all things were created that
are in heaven and that are on earth,
visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All
things were created through Him and for Him.
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God,
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless one is born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God."
The Lighthouse
Full Gospel Church
Sinners Prayer; Pray this, and if you
believe it with your heart, Jesus will save you!
“Lord Jesus I know I am a
sinner. I confess my sins to you; I am
sorry for my sins; I repent (Meaning, desiring to turn from a sinful
lifestyle.) of all my sins, and I am asking for your forgiveness. I believe that only you can forgive sin. I commit my life to you and ask you to come
into my heart, direct, and take charge of my life. I believe that you died to set me free from
my sinful lifestyle and you rose from the dead to give me eternal life, and
right now you are seated at the Right Hand of God Almighty. I believe you are
the Son of God; the only Way, the only Truth, the only Life, and my
Savior.” I believe this and have faith
you will make a new person out of me, by sending the Holy Spirit to dwell in my
heart and lead me in a new life. In Jesus name I pray Amen.”
(John
3:16,17; Romans 3:23; 6:23; 5:8;
10:9-13; Ephesians 2:8-10;
1 John 5:11-14; 1:6-10) (Sin: Rom. 1:22-32; Gal.
5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-7)
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