Sermon: Sunday, 11th October, 2026
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: John 6
What is the greatest need that we have as human beings? Some people might think it’s to live a life where we are happy, at least most of the time. For others, it’s about being part of a loving family. Perhaps you’re driven and want a successful life or a life of financial security. All of these things have their own place, but they are not our greatest need. Nor is good health, or freedom to do what we want or experiencing as many different things as possible. Our greatest need is eternal life.
‘God has also set eternity in the human heart.’ (Ecclesiastes 3:11) This means that human beings have an innate sense that death is not natural and that we have been made for something more. The Christian writer C. S. Lewis expressed this in a memorable sentence: ‘If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.’ The Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, wrote about how we instinctively resist death, as though life is too precious to be extinguished, saying: ‘Rage, rage against the dying of the light.’
I go to the gym at the leisure centre on the esplanade to try and keep my body fit. However, next to the leisure centre is the Co-op funeral home. This reminds me that each one of us is heading in the direction of death, and so our greatest need is to find the gift of God, eternal life, before it is too late. This is what the feeing of the 5000 is all about. The miracle is a sign and it points us to Jesus and it says to us: ‘Eternal life is found through a relationship with Jesus and there is no other way to get it.’ Jesus asks: ‘What does it profit a person to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?’ (Mark 8:36) In other words, your greatest need is eternal life. How do we get that life? Keep reading!
1. The miracle itself
In verse 2, John relates that a great crowd has gathered on the mountainside, probably the area we now call the Golan Heights. Verse 10 tells us 5000 men were there, so including women and children, we should envision a crowd of around 20,000. This crowd is not following Jesus for his teaching about the Kingdom of God, but because he has been healing the sick. They are attracted by what physical benefits they might be able to receive from Jesus. It is Passover time, the time when Jews recalled being set free from slavery in Egypt in the days of Moses.
Jesus and his disciples had come to this area for a retreat. However, when Jesus sees the physical and spiritual needs of the crowd, he has compassion on them. He cares about them. This miracle appears in all four gospels. Looking at them all, we see that Jesus healed the sick and taught the people. He also wants to provide for their physical needs. And so Jesus cares for the whole person – body and soul. Jesus is the same today. He is never inconvenienced by your needs but will seek to meet them if you come to him in prayer. His love and compassion and sympathy extends to you too! In another gospel, we are told the disciples want to send the crowd away to fend for themselves. What a contrast – the disciples do not want to try and help whilst Jesus is motivated by compassion.
I love the question Jesus asks Philip in order to test how much he understands about Jesus’ ability. Verse 5: ‘Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?’ Philip can only think in financial terms, and concludes they just don’t have the money to feed 20,000 people. They cannot cope with this kind of catering problem. Even after Jesus had turned water into wine, Philip is not yet instinctively factoring in Jesus’ power to the situation. Nevertheless, Jesus’ question drives home the point that there is no human solution to this problem. It requires a supernatural one. Andrew (verse 8) considers their current material resources (one packed lunch!), and also concludes that they just cannot help the crowd.
Jesus looks out at the 20,000 or so and is completely undaunted. He knows he has the resources within himself to provide for each and every person in the crowd. He is not limited as we are but is able to meet all of our needs, physical and spiritual. He cares about your empty stomach. But he cares infinitely more about your empty soul.
Imagine you were part of that vast crowd. You would have had plenty of bread and fish. Jesus supernaturally extends a boy’s packed lunch of five small loaves and 2 fish. The fact that 12 basketfuls of food are left over just underlines the astonishing ability of Jesus to provide us with all that we need and more.
The response of the crowd in verse 14 might sound promising at first: ‘Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.’ But when we take a closer look, their estimation of Jesus is totally wrong. They want Jesus to be their king (verse 15) but in a political sense and not a spiritual one. The crowd are more interested in Israel’s political freedom from the Romans and in Jesus’ ability to provide food and to heal the sick than they are to find in Jesus forgiveness from sin and eternal life. The crowd just see the sign, but they do not see what the sign is pointing to. Let’s not be like the crowd! May each of us consider this sign and understand what it teaches us about who Jesus really is and why he left Heaven, coming to earth. May we see Jesus, who can provide us with living bread for eternal life.
What lessons can we learn from this wonderful passage?
2. Jesus’ ability to help in every situation
When Philip looked out at the huge crowd, he sees the need but forgets all about Jesus’ power. He sees the situation from a human perspective only, forgetting God. So often, I am like Philip. Perhaps you are too. We might look at our small and fragile church, in a town of massive spiritual need. How can Kirkcaldy Free Church help? We don’t have the resources, do we? Should we even try to engage with people? What can we do? People don’t seem interested in the gospel. Who wants to hear about sin and the urgent need all people have for forgiveness?
Our resources seem so small. Like the 5 loaves and 2 fish, we have only 1 elder and 1 deacon and we are not financially viable at the moment. It’s easy to look at our own landscape in 2026 and conclude, there’s nothing we can do. However, what have we forgotten? We have forgotten that Jesus can take our little resources and do wonderful things with it. He wants us to see the poverty of our own resources – we cannot change a single heart. But he also wants us to trust that he is able to work in the lives of our families and communities and work places. The question is, will we continue sharing the gospel with others, believing God has the power to do what we cannot do?
This also applies to the problems of our own lives. We have problems in our families and in our own hearts too. The situation might seem bleak and hopeless. But is any situation hopeless as far as Jesus is concerned? In New Zealand, I met some Christian friends whose son ended up in a cult and marrying some from that cult. These parents carried the pain of that for 12 years. But in faith, they never stopped believing that Jesus could turn the situation around, and eventually he did.
We never know what the end of our story is going to be. But all the time, whilst we worry ourselves sick and doubt and fear, Jesus (just like in verse 6) already has in mind what he is going to do in these situations. None of our situations phase him. Nothing is beyond his help. No one is beyond his help. Keep on trusting and committing our lives to him in prayer, believing that that in him there is an astonishing abundance of resources. What a wonderful thing that is. Bring your troubles to Jesus in prayer.
3. The bread Jesus offers us
This miracle is about far more than physical bread. Actual bread, nourishes our body and gives energy and life but only for a time- then we become hungry again. What is the spiritual bread which gives eternal life? Not ‘what’ but ‘who’! Jesus himself is the bread: ‘Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’ (John 6:35)
‘I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live for ever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.’ Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’(John 6:48-52)
What does Jesus mean when he says we must ‘eat his flesh’? It means to trust in Jesus for ourselves in a personal way. It is more than believing facts about Jesus. You might have heard the fact that Jesus died on the cross for sinners. But to ‘eat Jesus’ flesh’ as the bread of life means to be able to say: ‘I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins so that I can be forgiven and have eternal life.’
The manna God sent to the Israelites in the desert was a blessing but gave only temporary physical life. Jesus is the true manna from Heaven and he gives us eternal life. ‘Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live for ever.’ (John 6:57-58)
John Calvin puts it beautifully: Christ is ‘eaten’ by believing because faith makes Christ ours and communicates the benefits of Christ to us. In other words, we must actively trust Jesus and as we do so, we are ‘eating his flesh’. This happens when we become Christians but as Christians we are meant to ‘feed upon’ Christ each and every day.
For example, you might be anxious about something: ‘What if everything goes wrong?’ The solution-feed on Christ. We say to ourselves, ‘Christ is my Shepherd. Christ has promised never to leave me. Christ is Lord over what I cannot control. Therefore, I can entrust myself to him’.
Here’s another example. You fall into the same old sin. It’s easy to instinctively respond: ‘I have failed again. I need to do better.’ But that’s not the answer! The solution is feeding on Christ, by saying: ‘Yes, my sin is real. But Christ’s righteousness is greater. Christ died for sinners. My acceptance before God is not resting on today’s performance but on Christ’s finished work.’
Here’s a challenging question – what are you feeding on? People typically feed on: approval, money, achievement, romance, entertainment, pornography, food, alcohol, social media, political causes, ministry success, people’s praise, control, and comfort. None of these things satisfy in a lasting way. None of them brings life.
What you really need to understand is that Jesus himself is the only bread that satisfies and that gives eternal life. We need a relationship with Jesus Christ, talking to him in prayer, listening to him as we read the Bible, and trusting him day by day.
The tragedy of the crowd was not that they wanted bread. The tragedy was that they had the Bread of Life standing in front of them and wanted something else. Feeding upon Christ is living upon him – his person, his promises, his righteousness, his cross, his resurrection and his grace.
If you feel hungry again today, then don’t be surprised. Go back to the Bread. If you’ve sinned again, then go back to the Bread. If you’re anxious again, then go back to the Bread. If you’re discouraged again, then go back to the Bread. And if you’re weary again, then go back to the Bread. You don’t need a new Saviour. You need to feed again on the Saviour you already have.