Scripture Introduction
Only one of Jesus’ miracles is recorded by all four evangelists — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. God chose to describe the person and work of his Son from four different angles, four perspectives. Each author brings a unique point of view to his account as each writes for a different audience. Some events in Jesus’ life are described by two or three of the men; sometimes a particular account will be included by only one of the authors. But today’s story, the miracle of the multiplication of five small loaves and two fish into a feast for thousands, is retold by all four gospel writers.
In the last 50 years or so, it has become popular to claim that this was no miracle at all, but rather a study in peer pressure. Thousands of men were hording food under their tunics (as the claim goes), when they saw a little boy give his food to Jesus. This act of generosity shamed them into opening their hearts and sharing what they brought. As a result, every person received a little food.
That’s cute, but utter nonsense. In fact, one reason every writer includes this miracle is that it was so public and so powerful as to make an undeniable and irrefutable statement about Jesus’ person and ministry. Please listen as I read John 6.1-15. [Pray.]
Introduction
John does not say that women and children were present in addition to the men; Matthew adds that detail. Matthew 14.21: “And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.” We do not know how many besides, but it is easy to imagine another 5000 hungry people, or 10,000—probably more.
If you have never attended an event where ten to fifteen thousand people have to be fed, it is hard to imagine the difficulty of the problem facing the disciples. Stan and I have attended a Biblical Counseling Training Course in Lafayette for several years where 1500 people are fed each day. You cannot simply say, “Here is the food; come and get it.” In the chaos people would be trampled and many would go without. At Lafayette, they divide us into groups, send us through various stations and monitor us to make sure we stay in single file lines.
To make the situation harder, this is not a worship service or a compliant church group. The crowds following Jesus are not a calm and orderly bunch looking for a bottled water. They are tired and hungry, and they want a display of power.
Pastor Tim Keller compares the “large crowd” to an audience at a rock concert. A bit unruly, maybe close to a mob.
Pastor John MacArthur writes: “This crowd was not motivated by faith, repentance, or genuine love for Jesus. On the contrary, they followed the Lord ‘because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.’ They were thrill seekers who failed to grasp the true significance of Jesus’ miraculous signs—which pointed unmistakably to Him as the Son of God and the Messiah. They flocked to see his works, but ultimately refused to accept his words. They sought the benefit of His power in their physical lives, but not in their spiritual lives.”
All of this sets the scene. The disciples are anxious: “What are we going to do?” Maybe they fear for their safety, or at least the safety of Jesus. Pressure is mounting, palms are sweating, some are spying out paths of escape if they must make a run for it.
A huge and hungry crowd; tired and with tempers growing short. Thrill seekers wanting power and freedom—wanting a king who will take back what the tyrannical government has wrongfully stolen. It is a powder keg needing only a spark to explode.
So how does the Master respond? He asks a question designed, not to alleviate pressure, but to increase it: “Phillip, where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”
Do not overlook the wisdom of this teaching technique. Jesus does not immediately give the answer; he asks a hard question. Jesus does not calm their concerns; he cranks up the heat by clarifying the problem. Here is guidance for all who would teach and lead, whether in your homes or when sharing your faith in an evangelistic opportunity. Often people are looking for the ease of the “right” answer. Jesus asks a better question. He is about to show that, as God in human flesh, he provides for our every need. But to get there, he begins with a question which exposes our shortcomings.
1. God Provides for Every Need by Showing Us Our Inadequacies (John 6.5-9)
Philip looks over the crowd, quickly estimates the number, and takes a guess at what would be required to feed so many: “Two hundred denarii. Why even discuss where to purchase the bread needed, we don’t have the kind of money necessary.”
A denarius was a day’s wage; Philip may be exaggerating, but he is saying that eight months worth of pay would not begin to feed this crowd.
Andrew seems to have a better attitude; at least he looks around for a solution. Of course, his answer is totally inadequate — five barley loaves and two small fish — “but what are they for so many?”
You might not notice it at first because barley is just another grain to us. But the food which this boy has is of the poorest and worst kind. Barley is specifically prescribed in the Mishnah (a Jewish law book) as the bread which is to be used by an adulteress when she makes offering for sin. Barley was the grain of the poorest and the despised; in fact, it was considered fit only for animals. Those with any means whatsoever would look down their noses at these five, hard, dry biscuits and two sardines.
Do not miss what Jesus is doing. He brings his disciples through this living parable and careful questions, to the point where they must confess that the resources they have are incomparably small compared to the need which they face. Every one of us here has already come to that point or soon will.
You began your marriage thinking that you could live in harmony and peace; you would give your spouse what was wanted and get the good you deserved. But your resources are inadequate for the demands of living with a sinful and selfish person.
You thought you could raise your children to be self-sufficient, happy, self-confident and safe. But try as you might, your resources are incomparably small compared to the needs which parenting demands.
The emotional stress of life — you thought you were strong and stable and could handle the pressure, but circumstances have brought you to the end of your rope. Maybe it is spiritually that you have discovered your inadequacies — you wonder what you are living for, “What is my purpose?” The questions are too hard—the only rest seems to come from remaining so busy that you do not have to think.
Even if you have not felt it yet, it will catch you. My mom had hip replacement surgery Thursday. When I talked to her yesterday, she was lamenting the pain of arthritis and saying how she wanted to get back in shape. She wants to be able to make a bed and get a drink of water for herself. A few years ago she was playing tennis; now she wants to be able to make her bed. Age will steal the illusion of self-sufficiency if nothing else will. You may feel strong and invincible today, but we all be brought face-to-face with our limits. We will soon arrive at a place where we will not be able to fix the problems; our resources cannot suffice.
Jesus exposes this truth to the disciples. Not to hurt or to be cruel—Jesus’ ministry is different from the way we sometimes counsel or preach or evangelize. He cuts only to heal. He is the good shepherd; his powerful provision begins only when we recognize our limits.
2. God Provides for Every Need When We Place Our Inadequacies in His Hands (John 6.10-11a)
The boy with five loaves and two pickled fish was the poorest of the poor. By any standard we could imagine, he is completely insignificant. We are not even told his name. He has hard-tack biscuits made from the grain usually given horses and two fish. Like having a thimble of grape juice to share with the congregation — why bother?
Have not some of you felt just that insignificant? All you have is so far below the bare minimum of what is needed as to be nothing. Maybe some of us have sensed it, but are afraid to admit just how small we feel facing the giants of our lives.
But watch this: the boy who has so little, gives his insufficient “nothing” to Jesus. What little he has he places into the hands of God.
It is not so hard to give up our strengths to God, is it? We feel some sense of pride about giving our best, about giving up what is really quite valuable, what “God needs.”
Jesus taught us this in reference to giving money to the church. He was at the temple, when he “looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins, [equivalent to a penny]. And he said, ‘Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.’ (Luke 21.1-4).
When we give out of abundance, we are tempted to imagine that we have enriched God. But God does not need our gifts; he is after our faith in his goodness. It is when we give out of our poverty, when all we have to give is totally inadequate, a mere penny, then we realize that God is enriching us.
Elizabeth Elliot: “If the only thing you have to offer is a broken heart, you offer a broken heart. So in a time of grief, the recognition that this is material for sacrifice has been a very great strength for me. Realizing that nothing I have, nothing I am will be refused on the part of Christ, I simply give it to Him as the little boy gave Jesus his five loaves and two small fishes—with the same feeling of the disciples when they said, ‘What is the good of that for such a crowd?’ Naturally, in almost anything I offer to Christ, my reaction would be, ‘What is the good of that?’ The point is, the use He makes of it is none of my business; it is His business, it is His blessing. So this grief, this loss, this suffering, this pain—whatever it is, which at the moment is God’s means of testing my faith and bringing me to the recognition of who He is—that is the thing I can offer.” (Worldwide Challenge, January 1978, pp. 39-40.)
This little boy lost his lunch; but what is the result? He ends up eating more than his fill. He gave everything and ended up with more. Math in the kingdom is different than we expect!
It is common to be paralyzed by inadequacy. We want much to offer before we offer anything. In a futile effort to get much, we grow discouraged and miss the joy of living for God. Unfortunately, many Christians and many churches miss the great workings of God because we are unwilling to accept the humility of giving what little we have. We hoard, hoping for enough to attempt a great work for God. But as William Carey, the great missionary to India reminds us, the attempting comes before the receiving: “Attempt Great Things for God and Expect Great Things from God.”
Let’s no longer wait until we have enough to give; let’s give what little we have knowing that it is not what we give but God’s miracle which changes the world. When our denominational church planting ministry (MNA) teaches young pastors, they are given the slogan: “Vision precedes resources.” We must learn not to wait on enough to do real ministry — we must go in faith, asking God to multiply and supply. This is a principle for all kingdom ministry, and it is taught us by this boy’s gift: begin where we are and give what we have. God provides when we place our inadequacies in his hands.
3. God Provides for Every Need In Overflowing Abundance (John 6.11b-14)
When God brought Israel out of Egypt, they wandered in the desert with no apparent hope of survival. It was a barren land, a dead place. And yet God did a great miracle by providing bread from heaven where, humanly speaking, there was no hope.
Jesus reenacts that miracle here. There is a multitude, just as during the Exodus. There are no provisions, just as during the wilderness wanderings. The people are anxious, just as when they grumbled against Moses. And Jesus provides bread, just as God provided manna. But there is one striking difference. Whenever Israel gathered manna, you could only gather as much as was needed. There were never leftovers; God provided exactly and only what was required.
Jesus does something different. These people eat as much as they want — they ate their fill, they stuffed themselves — and twelve baskets are left over. There is more to eat after all have eaten than there was before the first bite!
Never doubt for a moment that the grace and gospel of Jesus is sufficient for every need for the whole world. Jesus does not perform this miracle to say that no one will ever starve. He multiples the food so that you will you know that he alone is the way to the God for whom you truly long.
4. Conclusion
The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements and to store his few possessions.
One day, after scavenging for food, he came back only to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky. Everything was lost. He was stunned with grief and anger. “God, how could you do this to me?” he cried. “I had so little and you took it all.”
Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that had come to rescue him. "How did you know I was here?" asked the weary man. "We saw your smoke signal," they replied.
It’s easy to get discouraged when our resources are inadequate. But God is at work in our lives, especially in the midst of fear and doubt.
• We say, “It’s impossible”; God says: “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”
• We say, “I’m too tired”; God says: “I will give you rest.”
• We say, “Nobody really loves me”; God says: “I love you.”
• We say: “I can’t go on.” God says: “My grace is sufficient; my power is made perfect in weakness.”
• We say, “I can’t figure things out.” God says: “I will direct your steps.”
• We say, “I can’t do it.” God says: "You can do all things through Christ, who strengthens you.”
• We say, “It’s not worth it.” God says: “I am working all things together for your good.”
• We say, “I can’t forgive myself.” God says: “I forgive you.”
• We say, “I can’t manage." God says: “I will supply every need according to my riches in glory.”
• We say, “I’m afraid.” God says: "Fear not, I am with you.”
• We say, “I’m worried.” God says: “Cast all your anxieties on me, for I care for you.”
• We say, “I’m not smart enough.” God says: “I give you the wisdom of my son, Jesus, and his righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”
• We say, “I feel all alone.” God says: “I will never leave you or forsake you.”
The only thing you need is need; few have that. You have a need you cannot meet; will you offer it to God for his good and generous provision? You think about that. Amen.
