John 6:1-30 – Whence Shall We Buy Bread?

Read John 6:1-30

1) Compare verses 1 and 4 with John 5:1. What place and time information does John want us to take note of?

2) What reason does John give for why the multitude is following Jesus?

3) Compare John’s account of the miracle in verses 5-14, with the accounts of the other Gospel writers (Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:32-44, Luke 9:11-17. What similarities and differences do you note in the four accounts? (Note: Besides the resurrection, the feeding of the 5000 is the only miracle of Jesus that is mentioned in all four Gospels.)

4) What facts would account for the differences that you noted in the previous question?

5) We know that 5,000 is the number of men present and that there were also women and children not numbered. According to your best estimate, how many people were there?

6) What was Jesus proving in verses 6:5-6? What does Philip’s response in verse 7 tell you about what was proved?

7) Andrew’s contribution in verses 6:8-9 provides additional information about the mindset of the disciples. What is that mindset?

8 ) According to Mark 6:7-13 and Luke 9:1-6 what kinds of ministry had these disciples already been involved with?

9) At what point in the story were the loaves and fishes actually multiplied?

10) How much food did the people receive? How much was left over?

11) Read 1 Kings 17:8-16 and 2 Kings 4:42-44. What strikes you as significant in comparing these three miracles?

12) Looking back at this incident in the lives of the disciples, what can we learn as we follow Jesus ourselves?

13) What did the crowd see in Jesus’ feeding of the multitude lead to their conclusion that He was the prophet spoken of by Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15-19)? How is Jesus “like unto” Moses? How is he different?

14) Why did they want to make him a king? What did Jesus do instead? (Also include the information from Matthew 14:22 for this and the next question.)

15) Why did the disciples set off in the boat without Jesus?

16) What were they afraid of in John 6:19? Why?

17) There are actually two miracles recorded in verses 19-21. What are they?

18) John records quite a detective process in 6:22-24. Why were the people seeking Jesus in verse 24? (See verse 26)

19) How does their response to Jesus at this point in the chapter compare to others we have observed in this study?

20) Is the “meat” that Jesus is speaking of in John 6:27 different than the “meat” in 4:34? Explain.

21) What is the work of God? How can Jesus say that this is work?

22) What does the question in 6:28 tell you about the questioners? The question in 6:30?

23) Why did these people fail to make the connection between everything they had already seen, especially the healings and being fed by Jesus the previous day, and the need they had to believe on Jesus? In what ways do we today repeat their failure?