We have looked at some of the purposes of the miracle, but there were others also. Like all the miracles, it was to demonstrate the divinity of Christ. It was in this case, a creation miracle. This multiplying of the bread and the fishes. How it endorses Christ as God and Messiah! The one who created all things in the beginning now creates a tremendous quantity of food to feed upwards of five thousand people. He is God; he creates, he makes.
The it is a miracle to show that he is the fulfilment of the type of the manna. He is the true bread that comes from God to feed spiritually the needs of men and women, the needs of the world. Why, this is not just a human observation; in John 6 we read about the feeding of the five thousand and it leads straight into Christ’s statement about this. The people say, ‘What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work? 31 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat’, and he answers, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world … I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst’ (John 6:32-35). So the Gospel of John links this miracle with the whole discussion of Christ as the bread of life. In detail this miracle shows him to be the fulfilment of the type, the great promise of God that the bread which they fed on which depicts the word of God, the message of the gospel.
Obviously an aim of the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand is to increase the disciples’ faith. It is especially given to build and increase their faith. How do we know that? Not only is it obvious, but a little later on Christ reproves them for their hardness of heart, and their lack of faith, because they have forgotten the feeding of the five thousand and also – which happened later – the feeding of the four thousand. So both of these feeding miracles were given to be a bulwark and strengthener to faith. Christ indicates that when he reproves the disciples for forgetting it.
In this miracle there is also a perfect illustration of the message of the gospel. There was a great need – a need for food. Nobody had eaten since breakfast. They had been listening all day. They had walked for miles, and they had yet to return home. This realisation of our need is the first phase of conversion, when God deals with us, and we feel our sinfulness, and spiritual bankruptcy, and our need of life. There is no solution in sight. The world can't help you or cheer you up. Once you know you need your sins forgiving and spiritual life in the soul, there is no man-made religion can help you. You are in a barren, desert place. But there is one, who can help you: the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to make an atonement to suffer and to die, to give new life and to transform people who believe in him. We hear his call: ‘Come and sit down.’ It was like an act of faith. They have to wait in expectancy upon God for new life and the blessing. God causes us to be born again, and gives us a living soul and a conscience, and enlivens heart, mind, and will, and transforms us.
Every great answer to prayer that you've ever had was not just meant for the time when you received it – ‘That’s it; I’ve had a wonderful answer to prayer.’ Now it is forgotten. No, it was meant for you to store it up in your memory store, to strengthen you for the next trial, for the next difficulty, so that you’ve got in your mind a wonderful record as life goes by of your greatest answers to prayer. They're designed to strengthen your faith for the next trial, and that's established by the Lord in his using this need to train the disciples.