Chapter 1: What miracle does Jesus perform in the feeding of the five thousand?
every gospel writer in the New Testament attests that Jesus miraculously fed this huge multitude. And this miracle reveals to the masses that he is sent from the one who provides our daily bread.
During the months of October and November, several countries around the world celebrate a holiday in which people give thanks. So over the next few Sundays on Renewing Your Mind, we'll hear from R.C. Sproul on the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. Be reminded that Jesus is the bread of life, the true bread from heaven.
Hi, I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and thank you for joining us for today's edition of Renewing Your Mind. We'll be in John's gospel over the next three weeks, but you can take the time to study all of John when you request R.C. Sproul's commentary on John. Learn how to receive a copy when you visit renewingyourmind.org before midnight tonight.
Chapter 2: How does this miracle reveal Jesus' divine identity?
Well, to begin this short series, here's Dr. Sproul, the founder of Ligonier Ministries, in John chapter 6.
So our lesson this morning is from John chapter 6, verses 1 through 14. And here we have John's record of the feeding of the 5,000. 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 and 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. And 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.
Chapter 3: What significance does the Passover hold in this narrative?
But this he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. And 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?
And 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.
Chapter 4: What challenges do the disciples face when feeding the crowd?
And therefore they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which are 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 has come into the world.
In this portion of John's gospel that I've just read, we have a record of a miracle of Jesus, which is the only miracle that is reported in all four of the gospels. That in itself should call attention to its importance for us.
And of course, one of the reasons for that is that John spends most of his time focusing attention on Jesus' ministry in Judea, and this event occurs in Galilee, in the northern part of the nation, along the shores of the Lake of Tiberias, or the Sea of Galilee, or Kenareth. You find it called various times 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. And so when John is writing his recollection of these events, he makes reference to the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberius.
There are some details that one might consider minor that are included in John's record of this event that we don't find in the other gospels.
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Chapter 5: How does Jesus test Philip's faith in this situation?
I'll mention them when we come to them. But we're told here, as in the other gospels, that a great multitude was following Jesus after He went over the Sea of Galilee. And the reason they were following Him was because they saw the signs that He had performed on those who were sick and afflicted. They had witnessed His miracles. And so 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, and three times, I believe, he makes reference to the Passover, and that becomes significant in a few moments as we will see.
So in any case, it was near to the time of the Passover, and Jesus went up onto this mountain and sat there with His disciples, and He looked up and He saw this tremendous multitude that was following after Him. And when He sees this crowd approaching, He says to Philip, "'Where will we buy bread that these people may eat?'
This is one of those times where the Scriptures tell us that Jesus was putting His own disciples to the test.
Chapter 6: What role does Andrew play in the feeding miracle?
There's a logistical problem that they're encountering here, and a serious problem similar to that which the steward of the feast faced at the wedding feast of Canaan when Jesus performed His first miracle when they were running out of wine.
Here you have this huge throng of people pressing up towards Jesus, and presumably Jesus instructed them for quite some time, and now they're hungry and they have no food to eat. So Jesus says to Philip, where are we going to buy enough bread to feed all of these people?
We're also told that Jesus knew exactly what He planned to do, and He really wasn't worried about coming up with enough money to buy provisions for this huge multitude. But listen to Philip's great response of faith. Philip, who had been present in the other miracles of Christ, He said their 200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them might have a little.
Now, denarius was the standard daily wage for a laborer in Israel at this time. And so what Philip is saying is eight months' salary of a normal employee is not going to be enough money
Chapter 7: Why are the barley loaves mentioned specifically in the story?
to buy enough food so that each person assembled here can just get a little taste. And so Philip flunks the test. Jesus said, where are we going to get the provisions to feed these people? And what's Philip saying? Beats me. I mean, it's going to cost more than 200 denarii in order to feed this mass of humanity. I have no idea where we're going to get that kind of money.
into the picture comes another of the disciples, the one for whom our church is named, Andrew. And Andrew, who's Simon's brother, said to Jesus, there's a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish.
Now, if it stopped right there, we would be excited about this projection of faith by Andrew, Andrew who's always found bringing somebody to Jesus, and Jesus is looking around for provisions for the multitude.
Chapter 8: What is the crowd's reaction to the miracle performed by Jesus?
Andrew says, well, 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 stops right there, then you could say, well, that he's indicating, well, I know, Jesus, you could take of this and make more than enough for everybody, but instead he says, what is that among so many? His faith isn't any greater than Philip's at this point.
Now, here's one of those details. John's the only one that tells us that they're barley loaves. other gospels leave out that particular descriptive term. So we have to ask, why barley loaves? What's the significance of that? Some people say, well, this draws attention to a smaller miracle that is recorded in the book of Kings that was performed by Elisha in the Old Testament where he multiplied
the loaves of a servant boy that brought to him in order to feed a lot of people, not nearly as many people as assembled here, and that there's a connection there because that boy had barley loaves. Whether that's in John's mind or not is pure speculation, but one thing we can learn from the significance of the fact that they were barley loaves was that this boy was carrying
the lowest quality of bread available to people at the time. Only those who were living in poverty for the most part would eat bread made from barley. Now also, just another little detail to get it straight. It's not like Andrew goes over and finds this little boy with five big loaves of bread and some fish.
You may not have a knapsack or a bushel basket to be carrying around five loaves of bread and these fish. No, no, no. These barley loaves were small cakes, almost like a Twinkie, if you were, made out of barley. And the fish were small fish, that were used just to give some flavor to the barley cake, sort of like sardines or smoked herring or something of that size.
So really, it's not even five big loaves of bread and a boatload of salmon here. The provisions are more meager than we would assume just by reading the words here in the text. Jesus said, make the people sit down.
Another detail, there's much grass in the place, which squares with the description that this was near the time of Passover, because they're situated in what would today be described as the Golan Heights. And when summer comes, it burns away the grass, and the thing is the scorched earth. But here it's still grassy. Jesus makes them comfortable, sitting them all down in the grass.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, it says there were 5,000 men, not 5,000 people. It's 5,000 men, not counting the women and children. and estimates have ranged anywhere from a total crowd of 10,000 to 15,000 people who were assembled on this place that Jesus is about to feed. 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 to 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."
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