The Feeding of the Multitude Study Outline – Grace Bible Chapel John’s Gospel Study - John 6:1-15 Sunday – March 29th, 2009 CONTEXT: John as a personal witness is taking readers on a journey to show them the glory of Christ (John 1:14). After using the healing of the paralytic in chapter 5 to stir controversy with the Jewish leaders, and engaging in irrefutable dialogue concerning His authority and witness, Christ now continues to perform miracles and follow this with teaching. His audience is now broader. He has moved beyond the Jewish leaders. His process is to show who He is by His miracles, and then bring claims and clarity to His Person as the Messiah. Despite the supernatural and visible nature of His miracles and His profound teaching, He continues to be misinterpreted, misunderstood, and irrationally rejected. In the section before us (John 6:1- 15), Christ will perform a very visible miracle again demonstrating in the most magnanimous manner His sovereignty by suspending natural laws and bountifully feeding the multitude by supernaturally expanding resources equivalent to one person. In the process of setting the stage for this miracle, he will put his disciples to a test of their focus and faith. The multitude will recognize Christ as a prophet, but the context will show this is a superficial and misguided recognition. In studying this passage there is much to learn about Christ, His followers, about mankind in general, and there is application for the Christian today. Broad outline of the Gospel of John (underlined portion is the immediate context). I. The Prologue concerning Christ (1:1-18) II. The Presentation of Christ (1:19-51) Key Words (6:1 -15) III. The Power of Christ Demonstrated (2:1-4:54) • Jesus (6) IV. The Paralytic Healing Stirs Controversy (5:1-18) • disciples (3) V. The Perfection of Christ’s Authority (5:19-29) VI. The Perfection of Christ’s Witness (5:30-47) • loaves (3) VII. The Performance of Christ followed by irrational rejection (6:1-12:50) • people (3) A. The Control over natural laws (6:1-21) • crowd (2) 1. The Sign of Christ feeding the multitude (6:1-15) • filled (2) Introduction: 1. The Sign of Christ feeding the multitude (6:1-15) a. The Setting (6:1-4) b. The Situation used for testing (6:5-9) c. The Super-natural feeding (6:10-13) d. The Superficial and misguided response (6:14-15) Conclusion / Application: .