Celebrate God’s Greatness
John 6:1-13
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - Nov. 15, 2009
*Many people in our church have dreamed of a new children’s building for almost 20 years, and this year our dream has come to life! We are here today to celebrate this dream, and the fruit it is already bearing for the Lord.
*But most of all, we are here to celebrate the greatness of our God, because this blessing has come from Him. We are here to celebrate God’s greatness, and this story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 will help do it.
1. First: Celebrate Christ’s great sympathy toward us.
*We see several signs of the Lord’s sympathy in this story.
A. For example, Jesus cares about hurting people. Vs. 1&2 tell us that:
1. After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.
2. Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased.
*Jesus had healed those hurting people, because He cared for them. Matt 14:14 says, “When Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.” Jesus cares about hurting people.
B. But He also cares about hungry people. We see this care in vs. 5&6:
5. 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?''
6. But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.
*Jesus knew that before the end of the day He would feed all 5,000 of those hungry men, plus all of the women and children who were with them, possibly up to 15 or 20 thousand people. Jesus cares about hungry people.
C. But He also cares about hell-bound people. Mark 6:34 described the scene this way: “When Jesus came out, He saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things.”
*Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd who cares about lost sheep. Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep.
-This is what Jesus did when He died on the cross for our sins.
-But He rose from the dead!
-And the Risen Lord will save you if you will trust in Him.
-Jesus Christ cares about lost sheep. He cares about your soul.
*Author Stephen Ambrose told the story of an American paratrooper unit in World War II. Some of you probably read the book, “Band of Brothers.” This book includes the story of one of the lost sheep from my parents’ generation. His name was Sgt. Skinny Sisk, and he was one of the few men to survive from beginning to end.
*After the war, Sisk had a hard time shaking his memories. In July 1991, he wrote a letter to explain to his old Captain, Dick Winters. Skinny said:
“My career after the war was trying to drink away the truckload of Krauts that I stopped in Holland and the die-hard Nazi that I went up into the Bavarian Alps and killed. Old Moe Alley made a statement that all the killings that I did was going to jump into the bed with me one of these days and they surely did. I have a lot of flash backs after the war and I started drinking. Ha! Ha!
“Then my sister’s little daughter, four years old, came into my bedroom (I was too unbearable to the rest of the family, either hung over or drunk) and she told me that Jesus loved me and she loved me and if I would repent God would forgive me for all the men I kept trying to kill all over again.
“That little girl got to me. I put her out of my room, told her to go to her Mommy. There and then I bowed my head on my Mother’s old feather bed and repented and God forgave me for the war and all the other bad things I had done down through the years. I was ordained in the latter part of 1949 into the ministry and believe me, Dick, I haven’t whipped but one man since and he needed it. I have four children, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
“The Lord willing and Jesus tarrys I hope to see you all at the next reunion. If not I’ll see you at the Last Jump.” (1)
*I love that story because it shows us how the Lord can save any soul. It shows how even a 4-year-old child can be part of the process, because Jesus Christ cares about people: hurting people, hungry people, hell-bound people. Nobody cares like Jesus cares!
*Celebrate Christ’s great sympathy toward us.
2. And celebrate Christ’s great opportunity for us.
*In this story God gave a little boy the opportunity to give. Listen to it again starting in vs. 5:
5. 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?''
6. But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.
7. Philip answered Him, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.''
*Remember that one silver denarius coin was a whole day’s pay for a working man. So 200 denarii was over 6 months’ wages! That was an expensive meal.
8. One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him,
9. "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?''
10. 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.
11. 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.
*Jesus fed 15 to 20 thousand people with 5 little loaves of bread and 2 small fish!
*But I want you to notice that He didn’t have to use that little boy’s lunch to feed those people. They were right by the Sea of Galilee. Jesus could have caused fish to start flapping up on the shore if He wanted to. Jesus could have rained Chicken McNuggets from the sky if He wanted to! But He gave this little boy the opportunity to give.
*He might also have sent that little boy home with 12 baskets full of leftovers!
-We can’t say for sure, but I believe the boy went home with more than he brought, because you really can’t out-give God.
*God gave this little boy the opportunity to give, and now God gives us the opportunity to give. God has always planned for His Kingdom work to be financed by the tithes and offerings of His people. So the basic gift is the tithe or 10% of our income.
*It’s very simple and fair.
-If you make $200 a week, God wants you to give 20.
-If you make $900 a week, God wants you to give 90.
*On top of our tithe, God wants us to give special offerings. Sometimes they are relatively small, like the Operation Christmas Child Boxes we dedicate today. But your small gift can change someone’s life forever.
*Sometimes our special offerings are large, like the Giving to Grow offerings for our new Children’s Building. So far, the people of our church have given over one million dollars toward this great cause! If you are giving: Thank You.
*Now, we still have a long way to go. So I want to urge everyone to give as the Lord leads you.
*And remember that it all came from Him in the first place. That little boy’s meal came from Jesus. He created the fish. And He gave life to the grain. Every good thing we have came from God. And God gives all of us opportunities, just like He gave this little boy.
*Celebrate those opportunities.
3. And celebrate Christ’s great ability to help us.
*Just think what the Lord can do.
A. Jesus can heal our hurts. That’s why all of these people had rushed into the countryside to be with Jesus. Vs. 2 tells us that it was because they had seen the Lord’s miracles.
*Many people had been healed, even people who were paralyzed, blind and sick with leprosy. Demons had been cast out. People had even been raised from the dead!
*Jesus Christ is able to heal our broken bodies. He is able to heal our broken hearts. And we can always trust Him to do the right thing at the right time.
*Jesus is able to heal our hurts.
B. And He is able to do great things with our gifts.
*God is able to multiply your gifts, just like He multiplied that little boy’s lunch. That little boy was willing to give his lunch to the Lord, and Jesus multiplied it for the glory of God.
*We may not seem to have much or be able to see how the Lord can use it.
-But if we submit our little bit to God, he will multiply it and use it for His glory.
*Many times the need will seem bigger than us. And the need is bigger than us.
-But it’s never bigger than the Lord, because all things are possible with God!
*So we should put everything in His control: Our money, our possessions, our time, our talents. Put everything in the Lord’s Hands, knowing that He will multiply it all for His glory.
*I like the way David Washburn explained it.
-“When I hold a basketball in my hands, it’s merely a basketball, but when you place that same ball in the hands of Michael Jordan, it turns into pro championships.
-Put a golf club in any of our hands, and it’s merely a golf club, but when you place that same golf club in the hands of Tiger Woods, it turns him into the best golfer in the world.
-A paintbrush in my hands might result in a pretty good picture if it’s paint by numbers, but when a paintbrush was placed in the hands of DaVinci, it turned into incredible works of art.
-A gun in the hands of a hunter is a tool used for sport or obtaining food, but when placed in the hands of a terrorist, that same gun becomes a weapon of destruction.
*How is it that the same instruments and the same tools can bring about such differing degrees of results? -- Quite simply, it depends upon who is holding them and how they’re being used. And when we put our lives in Jesus’ hands, He can do miraculous things with us! (2)
*God is able to multiply your gifts, just like He multiplied that little boy’s lunch.
-Boy did that kid go home with a story to tell!
-He went home with a story he remembered for the rest of his life.
-He went home with a story that has fed people’s faith all over the world.
-He went home with a story that will glorify God for all eternity.
*The boy gave a handful of food and thousands were fed. There is no telling what God will do with your faithful gift. But one day you will know, and you will be amazed at what God has done.
*Jesus is able to do great things with our gifts.
C. And He is able to save our souls.
*Vs. 4 gives us an unexpected detail that almost seems out of place. It simply says: “Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.”
*This was the feast that God instituted when He set the Children of Israel free from their slave masters in Egypt. Because of Pharaoh’s rebellion, the Lord was going to kill all of the first-born in Egypt. And the only way to escape was through the blood of the Passover Lamb.
*That was about 1450 BC. And down through the centuries untold millions of lambs were sacrificed as a symbol of Jesus Christ and what He would do on the cross. Every Passover lamb was pointing ahead to Jesus Christ, the true Lamb of God who died on the cross to take away our sins. His blood is the only blood that can wash away my sins.
*And God has Good News for you today!
-He loves you in spite of your ungodly, selfish, sinful ways.
-Jesus Christ died on the cross to take the punishment for your sins.
-And rose again to give eternal, abundant life to all who will turn to Him in faith.
*The Risen Lord will save you if you will trust in Him. Jesus Christ can save any soul. He can change any life. And the Good News is, He will, if you will receive Christ as your Savior and Lord.
*Larry Jacobs tells about a pastor friend in California who gave an invitation one Sunday morning, and a 5 year old boy came down. The preacher didn’t know if the little boy was old enough to understand salvation. So He took him back to his office to ask him some theological questions. But the more he questioned the little boy the more confused the boy got.
*Finally the little boy said, "Bro. Patterson, in your message this morning you said that if I would come and trust Jesus to save me -- HE WOULD. Did you really mean that?"
*Bro. Patterson said, "I did not ask him any more questions after that." (3)
*That little boy knew that he needed to trust Jesus for salvation. And he did trust in the Lord. That’s what you need to do right now, if you haven’t done it already. Then you can join us in celebrating our great God.
*Closing prayer.
1. KERUX ILLUSTRATION COLLECTION - ID Number: 20439 - SOURCE: Book: Band Of Brothers, Touchstone: 2001 - TITLE: Forgive Me For All The Men I Kept Trying To Kill - AUTHOR: Stephen E. Ambrose - DATE: 2001
2. SermonCentral sermon “In The Hands of God” by David Washburn - John 6:1-13
3. SermonCentral illustration contributed by Larry Jacobs
