Feeding 5000

Pat Steeves · Tidal Church Moncton · April 12, 2026 · The Chosen series

Pat Steeves explores the feeding of the 5,000 in John 6, showing that Jesus wants a real relationship with us, not just to meet our needs. When we trust Him as our source and give Him what little we have, He satisfies our deepest hunger as the bread of life.

More from Pat Steeves · The The Chosen series

Topics: Faith, Relationships, Discipleship

Transcript

[0:01] Anybody else fired up for this upcoming season? I'm not talking about spring. I'm not even talking about summer. I'm talking about barbecue season. Come on, somebody. I don't know about you, whether it's growing up or even as adults, some of our most favorite times and memories and moments is when we have people around us for just a good meal, isn't it? I love having people over because that's where we have our best food, right? We even get dessert. The house is the cleanest. The kids are playing, having fun. Moms are having conversations about whatever it is that moms talk about.

[0:51] Dads are in the kitchen talking about the lawnmower and how many times they've mowed the grass, and all the important stuff. Which leads me to a story about a time when I recently had a barbecue with some friends. They had come to church, and so we invited them over. And there's always that nervousness and that hosting and all the things. And so, me being the dad, being the barbecue guy, it's like, we're going to fire up the grill. We're going to cook some burgers. And so, for most of you, you'd feel very confident. It's an easy task. But for me, barbecuing, I'm not your typical barbecue dad. As much as I want to be, I'm not.

[1:38] And so I've got to impress and all this stuff. And so we fire up the grill, and everyone's having a great time. Kids are playing, all the things. And I'm out just cooking burgers. And I see off in the distance, my neighbor is, he's mowing the field out back. And to this day, I don't know why, but I felt like I needed to go talk to him. And so off I go across the field, and we're talking tractors, I don't know, grass. I'm not sure what we were talking about. But this look of concern comes over his face, and he goes, "Pat, I think your wife is waving and motioning to you."

[2:23] I turn around, and there is smoke coming off the deck. The barbecue is on fire, and my wife is waving. And guys, I don't know if you've ever had one of these experiences, but it is literally the walk of shame as you go back, right? I open up the grill. The burgers are the size of hockey pucks. And my wife says, "Everybody is hungry. What are we going to feed them?" Which is going to lead us into our conversation today, as we're going to talk about the feeding of the 5,000. We just showed a video behind me of a story of thousands of people that were hungry. Jesus performed a miracle.

[3:08] I, on the other hand, wasn't so miraculous. Luckily, I had four burgers left that weren't cooked, and the rest of us ate peanut butter and jam sandwiches. But it was memorable. It was great. But we're going to set this up in a series that we're going to be going through for several weeks, of the story of Jesus that's going to highlight who He is. And I hope that as we go through this, that I know that for some of us, no hands need to be raised for this, but for some of us, we get binge-watching different shows. And that's okay, all right? But I'm hoping over the next several weeks, maybe we'll start binge-watching "The Chosen." And Jesus won't just become a character, but He'll take on a whole new meaning, and there'll be just something stirred in us that we want to follow Him and want to be more like Him through this series. And so, I want to direct your attention.

[4:04] We're going to show a clip of the feeding of the 5,000. I want to give you guys a picture of just what it looked like, and then we're going to jump into Scripture, and we're going to learn some things together. So if you guys want to hit play on the feeding of the 5,000, as we check out "The Chosen." This is wonderful bread, Telemachus. I know it's not enough. Oh, it's enough for me. I can do a lot with this. Thank you. Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth. Did they find some bread?

[4:55] If they've got bread, be ready. We'll probably be first. Feed them. What has changed? Are we... Organize the people into groups of 50 and 100. Gather up 12 baskets to distribute the loaves and fish. Was I unclear? Ah, no. This feels familiar. Maybe. Let's go. Does anyone have a basket? Please borrow a basket. Anyone? Please. Oh, you. Please. Yes, yes, it's important. Yes, over here. Feed them.

[5:43] Anyone? Yes. Anyone have a basket? Anyone? The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. Anyone have a basket? It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown... Here. ... it is larger than all the garden plants. Becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air can come and make their nests in its branches. David, I've got one. Okay. There is just... He must, we break up the bread. No need, we have. All right. I don't know how this is going to work. There, you take some too. There. This is small. Just eat some. Give me some of that. You got enough? Just like that. Yeah. There. There. Anyone need some? Oh, here. Here.

[6:28] More bread. Thank you. It's better than the tail. That's the last of it. Yeah. That's the last of it. All right. Marcus. You can have your basket back. What the... What? Oh, I was... Oh, no. I don't understand. The basket, look.

[7:19] Is your basket full? Did you see this? You see all this? How? How did they find this? Some just walked off. I've kept you here all this time giving you spiritual food. But you clearly need actual food now, so let's eat. My wife says that my love language is food, and so it's only fitting that we're going to talk about this today.

[8:11] But we're going to go into John 6. We're going to spend the rest of our time going through this, even though, whether you've been in church, around church, oftentimes we've heard metaphors of the feeding of the 5,000. We've heard different things on that. But I hope today that we understand that there's some powerful truths that will speak to us right now for the moment that we're in. Because I believe that we are all hungry for something. We don't really use those kinds of words, but we're all looking for things, and we have a certain emptiness on the inside that we're trying to fill. And so I hope that in the next few minutes, we're going to hear from Scripture, but my prayer is that the Holy Spirit is going to speak directly to you. I want to welcome those that are joining us online, wherever you're watching from today. Let's jump in. Are you guys ready?

[9:08] Yes. Let's try that again. Are you guys ready? Yes. There we go. Let's go to John chapter 6, verse 1. And we're going to pick up this story with Jesus, and He is gaining a lot of influence. And if you read the first parts of John chapters 1, 2, 3, you're going to read stories that Jesus was performing miracles. This was unheard of. He was healing sick people. He was turning water into wine. Like, if that's not a party trick, right? People are just blown away by this guy, and they're like, "Who is He?" And so naturally, just like our culture today, when people gain success, we tend to follow them. And so this is exactly what was happening to Jesus.

[10:07] Wherever He went, people tended to show up. And so, here's where we're going to start here. You guys got me all excited. I can't even find the verse that I'm in. Verse... There we go. There. So Jesus, there's a great crowd of people following Him. Here's what's important to note. We know that people were following Him, but here's why. It says in verse 2, "Because they saw the signs that He had performed." Because of what was happening, that's why people were following Him. And why does that matter?

[10:52] Because if we're not careful as Christians, we can take on that same relationship with Jesus, where we only go to God when we need something. When we're in trouble, who's the first person we turn to? We turn to God. And do you know what? What's interesting is that's not a relationship, and what we're going to learn as we go through this story is Jesus is always wanting us to have relationship with Him. He's wanting us to trust Him. He's wanting us to believe in Him. And so He's all about meeting our needs. He's all about feeding, providing whatever it is that we need.

[11:41] But through the course of this entire chapter, He's trying to understand that there's something so much bigger than just meeting your needs, and He's all about building a relationship with us. You see, if you're a parent here, as a dad, I have four kids, and I enjoy spending time with them. Like I really do. It's like one of the highlights, okay? And often as much as I can, I love driving my kids to school because we just hang out. We talk about hockey, we talk about whatever it is, and it's that relationship part that I enjoy. Now, I'm not naive enough to believe that I know that my kids have two options to get to school.

[12:34] They can either take the bus or they can go with dad, and it's typically always going to end up with us stopping at Tim Horton's. So I know that maybe there is an ulterior motive for them to hang out with me, but as a dad, it's my joy to be able to have relationship with them. And that's what I want us to see about Jesus is, yeah, He will provide some really cool things for us, but He's always about the relationship. But as Christians, it's easy for us, for our relationship with God and our church attendance to become about, well, I'll worship God if they sing my favorite song.

[13:27] I'll engage with the message if the pastor's funny and if he's not too long. And we kind of begin to build in all these little different criterias of like, I will follow You, I will go to church if. When the whole time is Jesus is just like, "I want a relationship with you." And we're going to see the benefit in why He wants this. We're going to go to verse 5. And it says here, it says, "When Jesus looked up and He saw a great crowd coming towards them, He said to Philip..." Philip was one of His disciples, okay? He had 12 disciples. He says to Philip, He says, "Where shall we buy bread to eat?"

[14:17] He said this only to test him. Now, I know for my kids, I like to test them every now and then, but I've been married long enough to know you don't test your wife, okay? But here's what Jesus is doing. He is testing them because He says this. He said, "For He already had in mind what He was going to do." And so Philip's answer to Him was this, "It would take more than half a year's wages to buy enough bread for each person just to have a bite." As I mentioned, I like to test my kids sometimes in high-pressure situations.

[15:09] And so as early as I can, I like to get them behind the wheel of my truck. And I'm still pushing the gas and the brake and all this stuff, but they're steering. Now, for those of you that are safety conscious and all that stuff, I appreciate that. This isn't on the road. We have maybe like a dirt road back country, and here's how it goes. They're driving and they feel like they're in control, okay? I as the dad, as the father, it's like I know where the road's going, I know what's coming, I know all the things, but they don't. And so this is kind of the test that once we get to a bumpy part in the road or a dip or maybe a washout, I can see that they start to get nervous and uncomfortable. And what I'm looking for in that moment is, do they trust me?

[16:07] Do they trust me enough? And so I will see that maybe they're looking at me and I'm not concerned because I know what's ahead. And that's all part of a relationship that Jesus was trying to teach His disciples. We're here. We've got a crowd of people, thousands of people. We now have a problem. They're hungry. If you're anything like me, when I get hungry, I get a little bit hangry. I get angry. I get upset easily. That's what's happening. There's becoming a tension and Jesus, He has a plan. He knows what He's going to do, but He's trying to teach His disciples something in this moment, so He asked Philip, "Where are we going to get enough to provide?"

[17:00] And did you notice Philip's response? His response was, "Do you know how much money it's going to take?" Now, I'm not going to test you this morning, but I want to remind you of this. The disciples have seen Jesus heal the sick, heal the blind, turn water into wine, and then they have this situation, and He looks at Philip and says, "Where do you think we're going to get our answer?" Do you know what the answer Jesus was looking for?

[17:46] The answer was Philip was to say, "I don't know, Jesus, but You're going to figure it out." That was the lesson. That was the principle. And as followers of Jesus, that needs to become how we begin to think, because I guarantee each one of you, me included, we have things that we're going through. We have things that seem impossible. We have disappointments. We have doubts. And It's natural in our mind to say, "How are we going to do this? I don't have enough. I don't know what's going to take place." And that all leads to pressure, and anxiety, and stress, doesn't it?

[18:36] And Jesus wants us to know that you don't need to have all the answers, you just need to know where to look. And so I want to encourage you and encourage me that we need to look to God for our answer. Is there anybody with me this morning? It is so simple, but it is not easy. And there are things that stare us down and try to cause us to not believe in God, to not trust in God, just like my daughter when she's driving and the road's getting rough and it's getting difficult. We just need to look to God and see the peace. Come on, somebody.

[19:23] See the comfort, see the faith, see the love, see the trust in His eyes and know that we're going to be okay. And this is the lesson that Jesus is trying to bring to His disciples in this moment. He's trying to teach them, "Look to Me." Psalms, David, if you've read the Bible at all, David was in a whole lot of trouble, and Psalm 121 says, "Well, where does my help come from?" David pleads out to God, "Where does my help come from?" My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and Earth.

[20:12] And that's one of the things I want us to know today is our help comes from God. Our mind will never be able to figure it out, but our heart, we can trust in God today. Where does my help come from? You see, I want to make sure I don't miss this. Jesus was trying to pull out of Philip not an answer, but a trust. He wasn't looking for Philip to give Him an answer, He was looking for trust in Him. Our mind is the calculator. If you stay in your head, you'll always come up short.

[21:01] But here's the game changer that I hope this speaks to somebody here. When we live from our spirit, that God part of us, when we live from this part, live and direct our lives, we will understand that from here, God is our source. It doesn't make sense to our mind. Our mind can't comprehend it. We're feeling stressed. We're feeling all these things. But in the moments, we got to understand this, that we can look to God, and we can trust God. Here's something really important to know. God doesn't function on our time zone. He doesn't. He doesn't even operate on Newfoundland time zone or other time... He doesn't. He's timeless.

[21:53] Guess what another thing is? God doesn't function in Canadian or US currency. And a lot of our problems are tied to timelines. A lot of our problems are tied to not enough money. And I want us to know today that God just wants to be our source of our life. And if we can get comfortable in trusting Him, whether I get the promotion, I trust God. Whether He comes through the way that I wanted Him to, I have to decide to trust God. Are you guys with me this morning? Oftentimes, our relationship is, "God, I'll trust You if I get the girl." Come on, somebody.

[22:48] "God, I will trust You if..." Do you know what kind of relationship I would have with my kids if that's the way our relationship was? "Dad, if you, then I will spend time with you." That's not a relationship, but so many times we've deceived ourselves and convinced ourselves that we have a relationship with God, and when we think about it, we realize, "Oh, wait a minute, I only go to God when I need something." And God is trying to change us and get our attention to say, "Hey, you just seek Me first. You understand that I am your source for everything."

[23:35] And we're going to see the power that happens when we do that. Is there anybody with me this morning? You see, it's not what, it's where. When you shift to where our help comes from, naturally, we will look for opportunities. We'll look in different directions. And so we see that in verse 8 where the disciples come to Jesus and they're like, "Hey, guess what we found, Jesus? We found a little boy that's got five loaves and two fishes." Now, I don't know if they stole it from him. I don't know what they did.

[24:22] But they found a little bit of food. All right, now this is embarrassing. Like, really, when you think about it, it would be like us being at the Avenir Centre for one of the next playoff games. There's 7,000 people and let's say it's our responsibility to feed them and all I have is chicken strips and fries. Right? That's the equivalent of what was happening. Can you imagine how embarrassed the disciples would've been when they went to Jesus and was like, "Okay, here's what we have." Made no sense. And there's people looking at them. They're staring them down, watching what's going to happen.

[25:08] But Jesus kind of leans into that, and I believe that there's something important that we can take from this. That it doesn't matter your age, it doesn't matter your life stage, I believe we all have something that we can give back to God. I really do. And that's why I love ministry so much is because I like being able to look for the gift inside of people. It may be that you have a gift of just caring for people. It may be you financially have well off, whatever it is. Maybe you have just time.

[25:56] I believe that it may seem insignificant, but when we give it to God, He can multiply it and do something absolutely incredible. I can't help but think of this story and I don't know if Ethan's here on the... Ethan's here. But when I was thinking of this story of this, I thought of Ethan and he works at Sport Chek and he does a phenomenal job. Okay? So he's out back doing his job. Okay? It just feels mundane. I'm sure it's just repetitive, but he's doing it. And in comes the delivery guy bringing more stuff for him to do. Okay?

[26:47] And I'm talking about don't underestimate what you have in your hand. Okay? And so they get in a conversation with Dave, the delivery guy, and Dave is talking about Christmas, and somehow they made the connection that Dave came to the Christmas Eve service at Tidal Church, and Ethan's like, "Really? That's my church. That's where I go." And Ethan's like, "Actually, Dave, we do church every Sunday, and so you can come back." And so they had this little whatever, just back and forth, simple invitation, just doing his day, right?

[27:36] And so Ethan's hanging out at church the next Sunday with his friends, and he looks over, and guess who's at church on Sunday? Dave. And Ethan's like, "What are you doing here?" And he's like, "Well, you invited me to come." And what's so amazing is Dave and his wife have been coming. He was in the first service, actually. They've been coming every week. They've gone to membership class. He's gotten baptized a few weeks ago. God has flipped upside down their marriage, their life, their family, their priorities, and it's just offering just a little bit of time. And so I want us to learn today that God has given us something that we can give back to Him. We got to keep on moving here a little faster.

[28:30] So God can take something that seems insignificant and turn it into a miracle. We're going to jump into verse 10. Jesus said, so He's preparing this miracle, but they don't know it. "Have a seat. Sit on the grass." Gets them all seated. They pray over the fish and chips, the one. Can you imagine? The one. They're just like, "Okay, we're going to pray over this," right? And as you guys know the story, something miraculous begins to happen. It goes on to say, "When they've all had enough to eat, they gather the pieces that are left over so that nothing is wasted." I love how Jesus operates, right?

[29:22] Nothing is wasted. And do you know what is so fun as we talk about Jesus kind of testing the disciples and they're like, "Yeah, Jesus, this isn't going to work. Do you know how much this is going to cost?" And you know. Guess how many baskets were left over. 12. How many disciples are there? 12. And I just feel like it was an alpha Jesus move, where it's like, "You doubted Me? Boom. Here's your basket," right? "A basket for you." And so it's so cool how Jesus not only feeds everybody, but He's teaching a lesson. And so verse 14, after the people saw the sign Jesus performed, here's what they began to say, "Surely this is a prophet who has come to save the world."

[30:16] And I don't know if you guys think in pictures. I think in pictures. But can you imagine the excitement with that crowd? They're all eating. I don't know if they had iPods or music, but they're playing music, they're singing, they're dancing, they're eating food, they're doing all the things. They're just having a good time. I got some hecklers in the front that are making fun of me because I just said, like, iPods or something, and it's like, "Dad, you need to get with the times." But I'm working through it. So they're having a great time, and here's what is interesting to know. People wanted to make Him king. They thought that He had a political ambition and intention to take over. But what they didn't realize is He was interested not in a political takeover, but in a heart takeover.

[31:14] Amen. He was more interested in giving them what they need because He wanted to be able to earn their trust so that they would believe in Him. And I'm going to begin wrapping up with this, but the next couple minutes, I really want you to dial in and hear this, because it's really important to our walk with God and our journey of faith in what we're going to see happen in the rest of this story. So Jesus leaves the party. Okay? He leaves the crowd. He goes to get away, and we're going to pick up the story a little bit later in John 6:26. It says, "The people tracked Him down and they found Him on the other side of the lake."

[32:03] And they're like, "Where did You go? How'd You get here?" And Jesus says to them, "I tell you, you are looking for Me, not because you saw the signs I performed, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill." And so Jesus is kind of calling them out. He's basically saying, "You still don't believe in Me, even after you've seen this. You're coming after Me because you want Me to begin to just continue to feed you and give you what you need." And He goes on to say this: "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man can only give you."

[32:58] He starts to flip the script here, where they think that they are following Him and He's going to provide their daily needs. That He's going to be the guy that's going to give them exactly what they need when they need it. Jesus starts flipping the script on this, and He goes deeper, and He's like, "Actually, I want to give you something more. If you believe in Me, you can have eternal life." This is completely a different story in where He's going. And we can all relate to this, because deep down, that's one of our biggest fears in what's happened next, what happens in the afterlife, all those different things.

[33:47] So Jesus takes it from a physical need, and He's like, "I'm going to talk to them about a spiritual need." And so just like you, just like me, He's got their attention. And so they ask Him this question in verse 28. So the crowd, they're asking Jesus this question, "What must we do?" He has their attention. They want to know, how do we get this eternal life, Jesus, that You're talking about? Don't miss this. Jesus answered, "The work of God is this, to believe in the one He has sent."

[34:44] Jesus' answer is simple. You've got to believe in Me, that I am the Son of God. I am the one that God has sent as the Savior of the world. He's trying to get their attention to realize that there is something so much bigger than the miracle of feeding of 5,000. He's beginning to understand that actually, He is the Savior of the world that people have been expecting. And He wants to do this all through relationship. And it's a great reminder for us, again, as I hit this theme, that church can sometimes feel like an obligation when our relationship with God isn't where it needs to be.

[35:37] Serving in church can really become a heavy weight and a drag and not something exciting that we want to do when our relationship with God is not where it needs to be. Giving into the work of the kingdom, giving into the work of God when there's no relationship. But when we do discover the relationship with God, it's amazing how much of an excitement it takes on, a new purpose. So here's where we're going to land. Jesus, again, I'm going to repeat it again one more time. Jesus challenged them, "You need to believe in Me, that I am the one that God has sent."

[36:22] So they ask Him, "What sign, then, will You give so that we might believe?" They're still not getting it. After everything that He has done, they're just like, "Okay, You're talking about eternal life now? What's a sign that we can know that we have this?" And Jesus answered in verse 35, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty." This is the sign.

[37:08] Whoever comes to Me, whoever believes in Jesus, you will not hunger anymore. He's not talking about physical, He's talking about spiritual. And again, we don't use these kind of terms in our culture today, but we're all hungry for something. We're all looking for acceptance. We're all looking for love, for purpose, aren't we? And Jesus is saying to them, He's saying to you, He's saying to me, we can actually have that hunger met when we believe in Jesus. You don't have to find purpose from anybody else anymore. Come on, somebody.

[37:54] Your purpose comes from Him. You don't need to seek influence out because you know who your source is. And Jesus is saying, "You're coming to Me for your daily," but He's like, "I want to be the bread of life." And so I want to challenge, maybe for some of you, you're newer to church, you're newer to this whole who is Jesus and how do I become a Jesus follower? And I want to just say to you, and maybe you're watching online, but Jesus wants to be the bread of life. Which, again, isn't a term that we use often, but a term that we do often use is we're all searching, we're all hungry, and we're trying to fill it with something.

[38:46] And God wants to say to you that if you believe in Me, He will fill that hunger, and that thirst that you've been trying to find in a relationship, in a career. You've been seeking it out, and Jesus wants to say to you today that you found it right here, and it's in Me. It's in Me. It really truly is. And for those of us that are Jesus followers, I want to remind us that our relationship isn't based on what He can do for you or for me. And I want to challenge us today that the daily bread is just that. That we have to choose to believe God daily.

[39:39] And some of you are maybe going through the most difficult times that you've maybe been in, and things aren't going the way that you had hoped. And you're struggling to believe in God. Can I say to you, that's okay? It's okay to have doubts. I want you to know that God will meet you in your doubt if you leave the door open to Him in that. He'll meet you there. He won't leave you there.

[40:24] And so for those of us that are followers of Jesus, I want to challenge us through this series, let's make this relationship with God a priority. Let's look to Him as our source, day in and day out, and let's see what God will do through the little bit that we give back to Him. Would you guys join me as I pray? God, we thank You for the Word of God, that it truly is life. It is the bread of life, and I pray that today, as we leave here, that an understanding and a revelation of who You are, God, would become so real in a personal way to each and every one of us.

[41:17] For those that are seeking, God, I pray that You'd make Yourself clear and known to them in a way that they would believe and trust in You. And for those of us, God, that are followers of Jesus, may we be reminded to trust in You daily, not for what You do, but for who You are. We love You, God. Thank You that we can come to You just as we are. In Jesus' name we pray, everybody said amen. Would you guys stand with me? As the worship team begins just to play one more last song, I want to invite our prayer team to come up, and I just want to give an opportunity. If you're saying, "You know what?

[42:03] I want to be a Jesus follower. I want to surrender my life to Jesus today," I want to invite you to come up and just as an act, say, "You know what? I'm making this my decision." And for others of you that you're saying, "You know what? I want to come up as a follower of Jesus," and just say, "You know what? I want to make this relationship an actual relationship based off of who He is, not for what He does." Let's just not miss this moment to spend some time in His presence.