Jesus did many amazing things while He was on Earth—so many, in fact, that the Bible says they are innumerable (John 21:25). Jesus did not come just to show He is the great physician. He did not come just to show He is the provider. Jesus came to make a way for you to be with Him. He came to tear the veil of the Holy of Holies so you can enter into God’s presence.
“Jesus is the Savior!” What would you do if you had unlimited power? Jesus is the God of power and glory. He has limitless power and could have done anything He wanted to. But instead of using His power to show off or make Himself famous, He chose to use His power to save people from sin. Say with me, “Jesus is the Savior!” When Jesus did awesome things, people were very impressed. He could have easily become a famous king or the most popular person on Earth. But that’s not why He came to Earth. He came to save people from sin. Say with me, “Jesus is the Savior!”
Jesus was so amazing that many people wanted to see Him, but Jesus and His disciples had been very busy and they were tired. Can you pretend to be tired? They needed to rest but so many people were coming and going they couldn’t rest or even eat. Jesus knew His disciples needed some rest so He told them to come with Him.
Jesus was so amazing that many people wanted to see Him, but Jesus and His disciples had been very busy and they were tired. Can you pretend to be tired? They needed to rest but so many people were coming and going they couldn’t rest or even eat. Jesus knew His disciples needed some rest so He told them to come with Him.
No, thousands of people followed them. They were still not able to rest. How would that make you feel if you were very tired? Instead of being angry or annoyed because the people wouldn’t let Him rest, Jesus cared for the people. He knew they needed help so He began teaching them. He taught for a long time.
Finally the disciples came to Jesus and told Him it was late and the people were hungry. (Read Mark 6:35-36.) Jesus told the disciples to give the people something to eat. Perhaps the disciples quickly talked together to figure out how to do this. Let’s imagine what they might have said.
If you have trusted Jesus as your Savior, God wants you to trust Him for everything. When you trust God, you believe He is who He says He is. You believe He will do what He says He will do. God might teach you to trust Him by letting you go through hard times or by helping you do something very difficult. Maybe you will pray about something for a very long time and never get to see the answer to your prayer. These things are not easy but they help you learn to trust God. They teach you that you are not in control. They give you the opportunity to watch God do things you cannot do. The Bible says, (read 2 Samuel 22:31). You can trust that God’s way is perfect and He knows what He is doing. You can look to Him as your refuge. God often answers our prayers in ways we don’t expect. Sometimes He uses other people. If you are going through a difficult time, talk to an adult you trust about it. God might use that person to help, but even if He doesn’t, you can still trust God. Ask God to help you learn to trust Him.
Jesus wanted to teach the disciples to trust Him. He had a plan! He thanked God for the food they did have and began to divide it up for the people. How much food did they start with? How many people do you think that would feed? Five loaves and two fish certainly wasn’t enough to feed this huge, hungry crowd of over 5,000! But Jesus told the disciples to give the food to the people.
They gave food to thousands of people, but the food didn’t run out! They continued to pass out food while everyone ate until they were full. Then Jesus told the disciples to gather the leftovers. Pretend to hand your leftover food back to the disciples. (Do with children.) There was enough leftover food to fill 12 baskets! Jesus fed thousands of people and they ended up with way more food than they started with. Jesus did a miracle! He could do this because He is God and He has the same great power as God the Father.
Read Psalm 147:5. God is so great that we can’t even measure or understand how powerful and wise He is! God is stronger than we can imagine. That’s why God is able to do things we can’t explain. God made you and loves you very much. He has given you the Bible so you can know Him and enjoy being with Him forever. God’s home is perfect just like He is, and He wants you to be there with Him. God is so great no one else can completely understand or measure how wise and powerful He is. Jesus showed God’s great power when He fed the crowd. The huge crowd couldn’t explain how Jesus did this miracle, but over 5,000 people had seen it and eaten the food He gave them. The people believed Jesus had great power. They wanted Him to do more things for them.
The people thought if Jesus could feed all of them, He could also fix all the problems in their country. They wanted to force Jesus to be their king. They wanted to be saved from the problems in their country, but Jesus had come to save them from their biggest problem of all—their sin.
Sin is thinking, saying, or doing things your way instead of God’s way. Making up stories to make yourself look good or complaining about not getting your own way are sins. Planning to get even with someone else is also a sin—even if they were mean to you first. Do you remember when sin entered the world? Ever since the very first people sinned, all people have been born wanting to sin against God. (Read Romans 5:12.)
Sin is a huge problem because it keeps you from having a relationship with God. It keeps you from ever knowing the goodness of a friendship with God. God wants you to know how terrible your sin is and that He is the only one who can save you. Sin is the most terrible problem in the world!
The people weren’t focused on their problem of sin. Instead they thought Jesus should fix the problems with their country.
They found Jesus in Capernaum (kuh-PURR-nay-um) and hoped He would continue to feed them. Jesus knew what they wanted but He knew what they really needed was to be saved from their sin.
“Jesus is the Savior!”
Jesus came to make the way for you to have eternal life too! There is no way you can save yourself from sin. Jesus is God and He is the only way you can be saved.
Jesus told them they were too worried about getting more food. What they really needed was someone who could give them eternal life. Jesus told them amazing things about Himself to help them understand that He was the one who could give them what they really needed. Jesus said, (read John 6:38). He was telling them He had come from Heaven to complete God’s plan to save people. God’s plan wasn’t to make sure they had lots of food but to make a way for them to have everlasting life. Jesus told them, (read John 6:40). Jesus was saying that He is the Son of God who came to make a way for them to have eternal life.
Because Jesus is God, He never sinned. He had no sin of His own to be punished for, but He willingly took the punishment for your sin. Jesus gave His life’s blood for you when He suffered and died on the cross. Now you don’t have to be separated from God. (Read Ephesians 2:13.) Because Jesus bled and died, you can come near to God; you can have eternal life with Him! Jesus said He had power to save people from sin and give them eternal life. He proved this by coming back to life. Only God’s power could do that! Hundreds of people saw Jesus alive before He left Earth to return to Heaven. Today Jesus is the King in Heaven and He has power to save you from sin and give you eternal life with God.
Jesus told the people He had come from Heaven to give eternal life. But that wasn’t what they wanted to hear. Many of the people stopped following Jesus that day. (Read John 6:66.) Jesus asked the 12 disciples if they were going to stop following Him too.
The disciples still had a lot to learn about Jesus, but they were beginning to realize that Jesus didn’t just come to feed people. He was showing His power and glory to help people believe He had the power to save them from sin and give them eternal life.
Jesus came to make the way for you to have eternal life!
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