In the feeding of the five thousand, Andrew mentions that the boy had barley loaves. Dr. Sproul ties this in with Elisha in 2 Kings 4:42-44 and then proceeds to a discussion of the miracle itself and suggesting the crowd could have been significantly larger. Dr. Sproul notes at the end that the men wanted to force Jesus to make him king.

We continue with our study of the gospel according to Saint John, and this morning we will begin our study of the sixth chapter, which is one of the most important chapters in the entire gospel. Our lesson is from John 6:1–15, and here we have John’s record of the feeding of the five thousand:

After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.

Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.

Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.”

One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?”

Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.

He who has ears to hear the Word of God, let him hear it. Let us pray.

Our Father, as we turn our attention to this extraordinary sign given by Jesus during His earthly ministry, we ask that we may see its significance for His people and for us today. For we ask these things in His name, that the same Spirit who first inspired this text may now illumine its application to our lives. For we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Multitude Follows Jesus

In this portion of John’s gospel that I have just read, we have a record of a miracle of Jesus, which is the only miracle reported in all four Gospels. That in itself should call attention to the miracle’s importance for us. Of course, one of the reasons for that is that John spends most of his time focused on Jesus’ ministry in Judea.

This event occurs in Galilee, in the northern part of the nation, along the shores of Lake Tiberias—or the Sea of Galilee, or Gennesaret—whatever you find it called at various times and in various places in the Scriptures. The lake was renamed early in the first century, when Herod Antipas dedicated a city on its shores to the reigning emperor of the time, Tiberius Caesar. When John writes his recollection of these events, he refers to the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.

There are some details that one might consider minor, included in John’s record of this event, that we do not find in the other Gospels. I will mention them when we come to them. We are told here, as in the other Gospels, that a great multitude was following Jesus after He went over the Sea of Galilee. They were following Him because they saw the signs He had performed on those who were sick and afflicted. They had witnessed His miracles, and that attracted this great crowd.

Now, we read that the Passover was near. There are several times in John’s gospel when John indicates that what he is reporting takes place during various feasts of the Jews. Three times, I believe, he makes reference to the Passover. That becomes significant, as we will see in a few moments.

The Disciples Fail the Test

It was near the time of the Passover, and Jesus went up onto the mountain and sat there with His disciples. He looked up, and He saw the tremendous multitude that was following Him. When He saw the crowd approaching, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?”

This is one of those times where the Scriptures tell us that Jesus was putting His disciples to the test. There is a logistical problem here, a serious problem similar to that which the steward of the feast faced at the wedding at Cana, where Jesus performed His first miracle when they were running out of wine. There was a huge throng of people pressing toward Jesus, and presumably, Jesus had instructed them for quite some time. Now they were hungry, and they had no food to eat. So, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we going to buy enough bread to feed all these people?”

We are also told that Jesus knew exactly what He planned to do, and He was not worried about coming up with enough money to buy provisions for the huge multitude. But listen to Philip’s great response of faith. Philip, who had been present for the other miracles of Christ, said, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.”

The denarius was the standard, daily wage for a laborer in Israel at this time, and so what Philip is saying is, “Eight months’ salary for a normal employee will not be enough money to buy enough food so that each person here can get a little taste.” Philip flunks the test. Jesus says, “Where are we going to get the provisions to feed these people?” Philip says: “I don’t’ know. It’s going to cost more than two hundred denarii to feed this mass of humanity. I have no idea where we’re going to get that kind of money.”

Now into the picture comes another disciple, the one for whom our church is named, Andrew. Andrew, who was Simon’s brother, says to Jesus, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish.” Now, if it stopped there, we would be excited about this projection of faith by Andrew, who is always found bringing someone to Jesus.

Jesus is looking around for provisions for the multitude, and Andrew says: “I’ve spied out the land, and I found one little boy here. He’s got five barley loaves and a couple of fish.” If he stopped there, then you could say that he is indicating, “I know, Jesus, that You can take this and make more than enough for everyone.” But instead, he says, “But what is that among so many?” His faith is not any greater than Philip’s at this point.

Meager Provisions

Here is one of those details I mentioned earlier. John is the only one who tells us that they are barley loaves. The other gospels leave out that particular detail, so we have to ask, why barley loaves? What is the significance of that?

Some people say, “This draws attention to a smaller miracle that is recorded in the book of Kings, where Elisha multiplied the loaves that a servant boy brought to him in order to feed many people—not nearly as many people as were assembled here—and there is a connection because that boy had barley loaves.” Whether that is in John’s mind or not is pure speculation. One thing we can learn from the fact that they were barley loaves is that this boy was carrying the lowest quality of bread available at the time. For the most part, only those who were living in poverty would eat bread made from barley.

Here is another little detail. It is not like Andrew finds this little boy with five big loaves of bread and some fish. He would have needed a knapsack or a bushel basket to carry around five loaves of bread and fish. No, these barley loaves were small cakes, almost like a Twinkie made out of barley. The fish were small fish that were used just to give some flavor to the barley cakes, sort of like sardines or smoked herring—something of that size. So it is not even five big loaves of bread and a boatload of salmon. The provisions are more meager than we would assume just by reading the text.

The God of Providence at Work

Jesus says, “Make the people sit down.” Another detail is that “there was much grass in the place.” This squares with the description that this happened near the time of Passover, because they are situated in what would today be described as the “Golan Heights.” When summer comes, it burns away the grass and leaves scorched earth. But here, it is still grassy. Jesus makes them comfortable, sitting them all down in the grass.

It says there were five thousand men, not five thousand people. It was five thousand men, not counting the women and children, and estimates range from a total crowd of ten to fifteen thousand people whom Jesus is about to feed.

John continues: “And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.’ Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.”

Jesus not only multiplies the barley cakes and fish brought by the little boy and feeds fifteen thousand people, but He feeds them to their full satisfaction. After the feast, there are twelve huge baskets that are filled with the leftover provisions.

Some think the reason for the number twelve is that it represents the twelve tribes of Israel and the complete way in which their covenant God meets their needs and provides for them. This is the God of providence at work, the God who provides for His people. It certainly echoes the wilderness experience of the Old Testament, when God’s people were nurtured daily by the manna, the bread that appeared from heaven.

We also see the strategic placement of this particular event. As we will see in the weeks to come, Jesus follows it up with His discourse on the bread of life and the bread of heaven. God miraculously meets the needs of His people through His appointed Son, who multiplies the loaves and the fishes.

Denying the Miraculous

What we have here is a narrative that, without ambiguity, purports to be a miracle. It is miracle accounts like this that vex higher critics of Scripture. In the nineteenth century, there developed an academic school called the Religious Historical School that sought to reinterpret the biblical record to strip it of all supernatural elements and reduce it to natural events around a man who distinguished himself as a great ethical teacher—namely, Jesus of Nazareth.

I grew up in a church where the minister was described by the dean of one seminary as “an unreconstructed nineteenth-century liberal,” and that was what I learned in Sunday school. I will never forget studying the feeding of the five thousand and how our minister dealt with that. The minister said: “Here’s how it really happened. This crowd of people obviously included thousands who had the foresight to pack lunches for themselves before they went out for the day. But there were also those who neglected to make provision for a long day on the mountain. So, when it’s time to eat, and people are hungry, what you have in that huge assembly are the haves and the have-nots. So, Jesus found a little boy who was willing to share his lunch with others. Using this little boy as an example, Jesus persuaded those who had brought provisions with them to share with those who hadn’t. The real miracle was an ethical miracle.”

Other interpretations were even less sanguine. One of the scholars of the nineteenth century, trying to understand what really happened, came up with this scenario: Prior to the event, Jesus and His disciples found a cave nearby, and they stored a huge cache of bread and fish in the cave. You have seen magicians on television who wear robes like mine, and they pull sausages or scarves endlessly out of their sleeves. What happened according to this scholar was that Jesus had His disciples lined up, forming a bucket brigade of sorts in the cave. Jesus stood out there, and they shoveled all this bread and fish into His robe from behind, and He pulled it out of His sleeve until He fed all the people.

Do you know how many loaves and fishes a magician would need to have up his sleeve to feed fifteen thousand people? That was the most prodigious magical act in the history of the world if that is actually what happened.

I also noticed a little detail: In the narrative, when Jesus distributes the food, He distributes it first to the disciples, and then the disciples distribute it to the people. I do not know where He found enough extra disciples to hide in the cave. But this is the extent to which people like the Jesus Seminar folks and the higher critics go to remove the miraculous from Scripture.

The Goliath Text

As an example of the lengths people go to remove the miraculous from Scripture, there is one event in the Old Testament—I was reading about it this week—that is not given to us as a miracle story, but it is extraordinary. Those who were in Sunday school this morning know that we spent an entire hour on the life of David, and we referenced his battle with Goliath. The Bible says that Goliath was a giant and that he was nine feet, nine inches tall.

That in itself stirs the bile of critical scholars. They say: “There cannot be anyone who is that tall. We certainly can’t believe that. This is an exaggerated account of battle.” A young boy, without armor, comes out and hurls a stone at the giant’s head, and with one fell swoop, knocks him down and kills him. Then he takes the giant’s sword and cuts off his head. Someone reads that and says, “See, the Bible’s filled with fairytales.”

I was reading some literature about that recently. One of the articles was about some of the contents of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Much of the information in the scrolls has been kept secret for many decades, and now it is being revealed. One of the texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls has an account of the confrontation between David and Goliath.

This account, which dates from more than one hundred years before Christ, and about a thousand years earlier than the Masoretic text—which is the surviving Hebrew text that we have for Old Testament records—has a different number for describing the size of Goliath. Instead of describing him as nine feet, nine inches tall, this ancient text describes Goliath as six feet, nine inches. Six foot nine, you can believe. Nine foot nine makes Andre the Giant seem like a shrimp by comparison, and Goliath would tower over Shaquille O’Neal if he were nine foot nine.

It may disturb you to have a discrepancy between an ancient first-century text and an eighth-century text, but one of the most common forms of discrepancies in the copies of the ancient Scriptures is errors in numbers. As meticulous and careful as the scribes were, even they would make mistakes copying from time to time, such as you might do when you incorrectly write down someone’s telephone number or address. I would give anything to find Hebrew scribes to work at Ligonier Ministries so we would not have any customer complaints about getting the wrong order. Every organization struggles with that. How easy it is to make a mistake with a number.

If that text is correct, then Goliath is only six-foot-nine. He has just shrunk by three feet. That is a yard. I have a little problem with that. Remember that Saul, who is the commander-in-chief and the king of the Israelite forces that were challenged by Goliath, is himself “head and shoulders” above everyone else in the community. It makes his cowardice all the more severe if Saul—let us say he is six-three, six-four, maybe six-five—is frightened by a man who is four or five inches taller.

But again, what about nine-foot-nine? A few weeks ago, I was watching one of the history channels on television, and they had a special report on twentieth-century giants. These were men who had an anomaly in their brains that caused their development to run amok. Two of the men shown on television were over nine feet tall.

I mean, you think of the Tutsi in Africa as being seven feet tall—that is tall. But over nine feet tall? Most of these men lived until their early twenties and then would die from complications. But it is a reality documented in our world today—the strange, extraordinary, but not miraculous reality of men who grew over nine feet tall.

I do not have any problems with the Bible teaching that Goliath was nine-foot-nine. Maybe there is a textual variant that makes him six-foot-nine. Either way, I am comfortable with it, and I do not have to try to find a way to escape the sober teaching and declaration of holy Scripture.

Every gospel writer in the New Testament attests that Jesus miraculously fed a huge multitude. This miracle reveals to the masses that He is sent from the One who provides our daily bread, who provided the manna for the people of Israel in the Old Testament.

The Wrong Kind of King

Quickly, let me finish by looking at the reaction of the crowd. In the first instance, when they saw this, they said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Now, we look to verse 15: “Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.” Is not Jesus the anointed King of kings? Is He not the King of the Jews? Why would He leave when, after this miracle, these people want to take Him and make Him their king?

Here, perhaps, is another reason that John mentions this took place near the time of the Passover. Remember that at this time in Jewish history, the Passover was not just an exciting and important religious festival, but it was the supreme celebration of national pride during the occupation of Israel. Our celebration of July 4th is not worthy of being compared with the excitement the Jews experienced on Passover, when they reaffirmed their hope that God would deliver them from the tyranny of Rome.

While this frenzy is going on, while the people are looking desperately for someone who would rescue them from the yoke of Roman tyranny, now the perfect political candidate appears on the scene. This is the kind of thing that wins political votes everywhere: a chicken in every pot, and a loaf and a fish in every lunch. It does not get any better than that. They must have been thinking, “This is the kind of king we want, one that will care for us from the cradle to the grave.”

Jesus read the people’s hearts, and He knew that the kind of king they were looking for had nothing to do with the kingdom He had come to inaugurate. They were looking for the kingdom of man, and He came to bring the kingdom of God. The spiritual import of that event becomes central to the subsequent discourse, which we will look at in the weeks to come.

For now, let us celebrate the providence of God. Remember that the word providence means “the one who provides.” Christ is our provider. He is the One who is the bread of heaven. He is the One who more than duplicates the manna that is spread in the wilderness. This is our King, who gives us all that we need and enough left over to fill a multitude of baskets. Let us pray.

We thank you, O God, for the lavish way in which You provide for Your people: Where we are uncomfortable You give us comfort; where we are hungry You fill us; and where we are thirsty, You give us drink. You give us food we have never paid for, by which we are sustained. We thank You for this event that so clearly bears witness to the superiority of Jesus, this sign that signifies He is our Messiah. In Him do we trust. Amen.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.