An English teacher and her class were studying well known Proverbs.
One day she gave them a test to see how well they were understanding what she taught.
She would state the first half of a proverb and then asked the students to come up with the rest of what it said. These were some of the answers that the teacher got from her students on that quiz:
It’s always darkest before... Daylight Savings Time.
Never underestimate the power of… termites.
Don’t bite the hand that … looks dirty.
If you lie down with dogs, you’ll… stink in the morning.
An idle mind is… the best way to relax.
A penny saved is… not much.
Two’s company, three’s… the Musketeers.
Children should be seen and not… spanked or grounded.
If at first you don’t succeed… get new batteries.
When the blind leads the blind… get out of the way.
Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and… you have to blow your nose.
These students had studied those parables for several days but they still had trouble with the right answers.
Jesus’ disciples had been with Him for several months they still kept tripping over the right answers.
While they had been with Jesus, His disciples had watched Him as He had…
• healed a Leper – Mat 8:1
• healed the servant of a Roman centurion– Mat 8:5
• healed Peter’s mother in law – Mat 8:14
• and He’d also healed numerous people who’d evil spirits and various diseases – Mt 8:16
and they had even seen him
• raise a girl from the dead – Mat 9:25
They had witnessed His power up close and personal.
But here we find them and surely they are tired, it’s late in the day. They’re on a hill out in the middle of nowhere and they’ve got a bunch of hungry people on their hands.
Being practical men, the disciples suggest that Jesus send the people home so they can get something to eat.
At this point, Jesus says one of the most unusual things He’s ever said to them:
He says in Matthew 14:16 "They do not need to go away. YOU give them something to eat."
Well, that wouldn’t seem too crazy… except for two things
1. There are 5000 MEN (not counting the women and children) in this crowd
2. And they don’t have any KFC’s or MickyD’s, no King of Burgers to get enough food for that many people
The Gospel of Mark tells us that when Jesus says that they should feed the crowd, they immediately began complaining.
Mark 6:37“they said to him, ‘That would take eight months of a man’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?"
In John’s account, we see that Jesus had been talking to Philip when he was telling them that they should feed the crowds. And John 6:6 says “He asked this only to TEST him [Philip], for He [Jesus] already had in mind what he was going to do.”
There is something we need to think about here;
When you look at all the miracles that had done up to this point you can clearly see that Jesus had been doing all the work.
He taught the people
He healed people
He raised people from the dead
And the disciples pretty much were along for the ride.
Just like every good teacher…there’s always a test.
Just like that teacher setting the stage, by citing the first part of the parables to her class, and then expected them to fill in the blanks. Jesus has set the stage for His disciples.
He’s given them an impossible situation
He has set before them approximately 15,000 hungry people (5000 men, plus women and children) and He says “You feed them.”
How do they answer Jesus?
We don’t have enough money AND we don’t have enough food
These were not the answers Jesus was looking for…But you have to admit… it was the truth.
If these are the wrong answers what’s the right answer? give Jesus what you have and let Him deal with the solution
Hebrews 11:6 says “But without faith [it is] impossible to please [Him], for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and [that] He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Even when we have nothing much to bring to the table, He will make it work. His strength makes up for our weaknesses. That is the essence of faith.
3 things I want you to see from this passage.
1. The first thing I want you see is: God wants to stretch our faith.
God wants to do things in and through us that can only be done in His power. He wants us to do things that WE can’t do on our own.
That’s what Jesus is doing with the Disciples in this feeding of the 5000. He had put them into a situation they could only be accomplished if God did a miracle.
Hudson Taylor said,
"Unless there is an element of risk in our exploits for God, there is no need for faith."
If we could do it all by ourselves… what need would we have for God?
When most people look at Elim Bible they say our church is too little to do big things.
I say If God is in it then why not set impossible goals.
After all isn’t that what faith is all about - trusting God to do something we can’t do on our own.
So we’re going to stretch our faith. Because unless there’s an element of risk in what we do, there’s no need for faith.
2. The second thing in this story: Jesus’ objective was not to feed the 5000...
He could have sent them home to get food. In all honesty, they didn’t really need Jesus to get food.
They could have gotten their groceries somewhere else.
When Churches miss this, they struggle with understanding why they exist.
From the early 1900’s through the 1960’s there was a powerful church in Manhattan. It was called Broadway Presbyterian Church and they were committed to reaching out to people for Christ, and they used every tool they could to get that done… including food kitchens.
But from the 60’s to the 1990’s a subtle change began to take place.
In the soup kitchens, prayers were not offered over meals because they were afraid that they’d offend the poor. They no longer tried to convince the homeless to turn to God and to repent of their past sins.
Over time they found that the same people were coming through the lines year after year and there was no change taking place in their lives. The church gradually slipped from a membership of 1000 people down to 120 and a once mighty congregation sat with a nearly empty building.
Now listen to me carefully because I don’t want you to miss this:
The church does not exist to feed the poor, or to take care of the needy
The church exists to serve Jesus Christ and bring people to salvation
BUT if the church serves Jesus Christ, IT WILL feed the poor and take care of the needy.
If I asked you…“Is your church focused on feeding the hungry?” What would your answer be?
The correct answer should be “no”
We DO feed the hungry… we DO reach out to people who are struggling, but our FOCUS is to be on serving Jesus Christ
Jeff Strite tells this in his sermon: “The Food of Faith”
“The last congregation I served was in a community where the local hospital was struggling financially. In a Board Meeting it was suggested that we take some of the church’s tithe and give it to the hospital.
I said “no.”
I said that if they wanted to put offering plates out in the foyer and ask the congregation to voluntarily give money toward this cause, that would be ok. But to take money dedicated to the cause of Jesus Christ and give it to even a worthy social cause was not why we existed (it made a few on the Board fairly upset).
But that’s what’s happened to the Red Cross and the YMCA. They’re both great organizations, but they started out as Christian outreaches and have devolved into social groups. They lost their focus and thus they lost their original reason to exist.
If our center of attention ever gets off of Jesus and becomes focused on good works without Him being at the center, we’ll have lost our very reason to exist. We exist as a church to serve Jesus Christ and to give Him glory.
That was the purpose of the miracle of the feeding of the 5000: to glorify Jesus and build faith in God.”
3. The third thing in this story is this: Jesus asked His disciples to partner with Him in this miracle.
Remember – up until this time – Jesus had been doing all the work. But now He tells His disciples: YOU do it – YOU give them something to eat.
The disciples tried on their own but all they could come up with was 5 loaves, 2 fishes…
It wasn’t even their food. It was the lunch of a small boy in the crowd! and they hand a Jesus a sack lunch!
Most people would be upset with such a pitiful attempt But Jesus didn’t say “Is that all you can come up with?! What do you expect me to do with this!?
He takes what they give Him … and He blesses it. And He uses it to do a great work…
Matthew 14:19 says that “He directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he GAVE THANKS and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.”
When everybody was stuffed, the disciples collected the fragments and they ended up with 12 baskets full of food. [not bushel baskets…personal baskets]
Jesus took what the disciples gave Him and He multiplied it.
Why did He do that? Why did He ask the disciples to come up with the food?
He didn’t need their food. He didn’t need the 5 loaves or the 2 fish. He was Jesus!
All He needed to speak and the food would have fallen from the sky…
What Jesus wanted was to show the disciples that all they had to do was partner with Him and even the smallest investment would have huge returns.
A Godly faith should challenge us to do as much as we can for Jesus, not focus on what we don‘t have or can‘t do.
Are you investing yourself in ministry for Jesus. Are you partnering with Him on something that’s bigger than anything you can do, on your own?
I want us to realize the privilege God has given us as He allows us to be His partners.
Now, understand that you will never mature in your faith until you find ways of ministering for Him inside or outside the church building.
Bill Hybels once said “I would never want to reach out someday with a soft, uncallused hand -- a hand never dirtied by serving and shake the nail-pierced hand of Jesus.”
One last thing:
When God tests your faith...
When He challenges you to do more than you’ve ever done with your life... I want you to see what a great opportunity He’s given you.
I believe that our greatest work is just around the corner…
