Introduction: When was the last time that you found yourself standing at the dead end road of life wondering how you had got there and where God was? Have you stood on the edge of possibility, looking at the vast expanse before you and feeling utterly inferior or incompetent for the task? Have you ever wished that you had more to offer? Maybe that’s how the disciples felt as evening fell on the grassy plains of Fisherville to the East of the Sea of Galilee.
I. Faith Can Feed Us: Jesus Showed Compassion
i. Jesus was taking a break with his disciples
ii. A sample of the times – Passover; the mission trip; John the Headless
iii. The crowds were already there
iv. Define compassion
v. Appl.: Sometimes the path to the soul is through the stomach. Perhaps this is why we gather canned goods and clothing – to meet the felt needs so people might listen to their spiritual need.
II. Faith Can Test Us: Jesus Question to the Disciples
i. God did it with Abraham.
ii. God did it with Moses
iii. God did it with Joshua
iv. God loves to meet us on dead end roads in life, carrying not an answer, but a question: What are you going to do next?
v. Illus.: Micah gets frustrated sometimes – he can’t do all the things that he wishes he could. Sometimes he gets stuck, and when he does I like to ask him if he’s tried everything. Usually he says yes, at which point I reply that he hasn’t, because he hasn’t asked his dad.
vi. Appl.: The test of faith is always meant to produce the same result, increased faith.
III. Faith Can Make Little, Much: They Were Satisfied
i. Someone had to make a sacrifice, in this case it was a little boy who had to give up his lunch.
ii. The disciples presented it to Jesus with a grain of faith – that although microscopic in the face of the problem, it was all they had, and they were willing that the Lord should use it.
iii. The Lord blessed the little offering and then broke it, as he doled out the food it miraculously became sufficient, more than sufficient. It satisfied.
iv. Appl.: In God’s hands our little sacrifice willingly made can be made more than sufficient. Our sacrifice can bring satisfaction.
Conclusion: Some of you are hungry; hungry for God, maybe hungry for food. You ask the question, does God care that my family is in need and I haven’t got the funds to cover the rent? The answer is yes. God is concerned about every aspect of your life; why God allows things to occur in the way they do is often beyond me, but it is impressed on us that we ought to bring these needs to our compassionate God and wait in faith for his provision.
It is in the darkest times that God’s light shines the brightest. Some of you are standing at the dead end right now wondering where God is. He is there with you, and he has a question for you. His question is, what are you going to do now?
Some of you have looked around your little corner of the world and seen a world of hurt, pain and need, you’ve found yourself wondering where God is, and why he doesn’t do something. He is there with you, and he is saying, ‘Will you sacrifice all you have, never mind that it is nowhere near sufficient, in my hands it will more than satisfy?’
An Intimate Meal for a Multitude
Subject: Faith
Theme: Faith Makes All Things Possible
Portion: Luke 9:10-17
Process: Inductive
When was the last time that you found yourself standing at the dead end road of life wondering how you had got there and where God was? Have you stood on the edge of possibility, looking at the vast expanse before you and feeling utterly inferior or incompetent for the task? Have you ever wished that you had more to offer? Maybe that’s how the disciples felt as evening fell on the grassy plains of Fisherville to the East of the Sea of Galilee.
The week leading up to the trip to ‘Fisherville’ or Bethsaida, as it was pronounced in the Galilean dialect had been both exhausting, triumphant and painful. Jesus had sent the disciples out in teams of two with the power and authority to act and teach in his name. He had told them to go with almost nothing to their name and simply to trust that God would provide for their needs.
Was Thomas doubtful before as the departure drew near? Was Peter overconfident in himself? Did Judas find it hard to relinquish the communal purse and trust that God was really going to take care of their needs?
No matter what their feelings before the trip the disciples had returned triumphantly. They had experienced the first taste of what it was to be apostles, those sent out with the express purpose of proclaiming the coming of the kingdom of God.
But the victory was fringed with news of tragedy. The cousin of Jesus, John the Baptizer, who had been living in Herod’s prison for some time, had quite unexpectedly been executed as a party favour for one of Herod’s drunken dinner fetes. Although Jesus was pleased with the success of his little band, there was the sense of weariness about him, exhaustion with the wickedness of the world.
So he had suggested a little retreat. A short boat journey to Bethsaida on the East of the Sea of Galilee where they could get away from the weight of the world and have some time for renewal and fellowship. Perhaps there was also the expediency of avoiding the overzealous authorities who may have thought of Jesus as the next target for their little vendetta.
For a few hours they were at rest. For a few hours they just reclined in the boat and watched as Peter, Andrew and the Zebedee boys deftly handled the rigging and rudder as the boat glided towards the opposite shore.
But when the destination drew near enough to be seen with the unaided eye it became apparent that there would be no rest. Already there were a hundred or more young men gathered on the shore, red faced and panting, they had ran all the way around the end of the lake to reach Jesus destination ahead of him, and all the way down the shoreline the disciples could make out a steady line of colour as people of various ages and dexterity were making there way towards Bethsaida. The word was out, Jesus, the healer was nearing shore.
What did John think of the crowds on the shore? What was the attitude of James as his expectation of rest evaporated? Jesus looked at the gathering crowd, and a look that was unique to that man came over his face. It was a love deeper than any that the disciples expected they would understand.
It was as if His heart broke for their pain, as if his mind was weighed down by their struggles, as if he had a knowledge that belonged to no one else, a desire to make life something more than anyone expected it to be.
The word that is used in a couple of the gospel of accounts is ‘Great Compassion’. The idea of the word tells us that Jesus was moved to the point of yearning to help these people. But it should be no surprise that a man who knew perfection would be broken by the plight of those who had never tasted the creation they had been meant to know.
Interestingly as the sun begins to drop low in the Western sky and the shadows grow long Jesus disciples’ begin to think about their own personal needs, but the Saviour of the World, the Friend of Sinners begins to think of the needs of these sheep without a shepherd.
What perhaps should amaze us most, is that Jesus (God wrapped in flesh) is so concerned about the physical condition of people. He heals and he teaches, and the two seem to be conjoined as part of the same project. Perhaps we see through Jesus actions and attitudes that the most effective path to a person’s soul may very well be through his stomach.
How often has the evangelical church failed to recognize this aspect in the ministry of Jesus and the practice of the early church? We are so quick to declare the importance of Gospel preaching, we are so quick to point out the weaknesses of the churches that focus on the ‘Social Gospel’ trying to reform society and make people’s lives better. We accuse them of putting a new coat of paint on a rotten barn – when in fact Jesus himself was willing, even eager to meet the felt needs of people – sometimes before they heard the message of the kingdom, sometimes even when he knew they would not understand or accept it.
Why are we collecting food over the next month for the local food bank? Is it so we can pat ourselves on the back and proclaim ourselves to be ‘good people’? Is it because the pastor put it in the bulletin and set out a box? Or is it because Jesus would be broken in compassion over the plight of 21st Century Canadians who didn’t have food to eat? Or clothes to wear?
II. Faith Can Test Us: Jesus Question to the Disciples
It isn’t the first time that God has put one of his faithful followers in the situation that Jesus is about to put the disciples in. To carry them right up to a seeming dead end road and then ask them what they will do next.
God did it to Abraham. After decades of waiting for a son to come in fulfillment of God’s promise, Isaac was born. What joy that little child had brought to Sarah and Abraham’s life. Surely the name Isaac, which means laughter, was well placed.
Surely Abraham had passed the test of faith, surely he was a man who had proven himself faithful. But then God carried him down that dead end road. “Abraham, take your son to Mt. Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice to me.” What a painful trek it must have been as father and son went up that mountain. As they built the altar and split wood together; as Abraham bound his laughter and lay him out on the altar. What tears of frustration must have clouded his sight as he neared the end of the road, then God stopped him… there caught by its horns was the substitute for Isaac, the one who would be the sacrifice. Abraham’s faith had opened the door for God’s blessing.
Moses had more than one dead end that God led him to. But the greatest was that road that ended at the Red Sea. There with an expanse of open water in front of him, a cloud of pursuing chariots behind him and surrounded by boatless bellyaching people.
“God, is this a dead end?” If he didn’t whisper it he must have thought it in some way. How will I get out of this. But with faith in God he raised up his rod over the sea and led the people forward. As they traveled over dry land Moses must have been in awe at the provision of blessing of God in this impossible situation.
Then there was Joshua, the one chosen to succeed Moses in the conquest of the promised land. Everything was going great until they ran into Jericho. Here was the great test of faith, did God really lead us to this dead end, and if he did, what does he want us to do now.
Joshua demonstrated that he was the right man for the job; going out into the wilderness alone he sought God’s wisdom, there the Lord sent the Commander of the Army of the Lord to lead him into victory. Once again an apparent dead end road opens the door for God’s power and blessing to be poured out over his people.
So in this story as the sun dipped deep in the West and the shadows grew long and the reminder that no one had eaten since breakfast became more evident that the disciples suggest to Jesus that it’s time for the people to head for home.
Jesus instead leads the disciples to the dead end road, and then asks them, “What are you going to do now.” Like the impossible question on an exam that you never studied for the disciples just shuffle there feet and swallow. Philip makes a lame comment about the cost of buying the whole crowd value meals from some non-existent restaurant, but concludes that the price would exceed 2/3 of a year’s salary and the people really wouldn’t be full. After a short survey of the crowd another of the disciples produced a little boys lunch, barley bread and little fish. But that didn’t seem any more promising.
I like to test my kids. I think it’s good for them. Once Micah was trying very hard to move a chair from the dining room to the kitchen so he could watch me cook supper. At first he managed without problem, but when he got to the place where the tile floor begins he couldn’t get the chair up high enough to allow him to continue. Quickly he became discouraged and angry at the chair for getting stuck. “Micah, I asked him, why are you crying.”
“I can’t move this chair,” he replied through tears.
“Have you tried everything?” I asked.
“Yes, I’ve tried everything,” came the response.
“No, son, you haven’t, you haven’t asked me to help yet.”
With a hopeful voice Micah says, “Dad, can you move this chair.”
Sure enough, with a quick lift the chair was through the door and in position.
How many Christian complains that they have tried everything and met only failure, when in fact they have yet to ask God to help.
So with us, as with the disciples, the test of faith is always designed with one purpose. To produce more faith. The only way to pass a test of faith is with faith, and the result of passing a test of faith is that our faith is made greater, but we should always anticipate that sometime in the future God will lead us to a seeming dead end road and then ask, “What are you going to do now?”
III. Faith Can Make Little, Much: They Were Satisfied
Don’t lose sight of the fact that in order for this miracle to take place someone had to make a sacrifice. According to the Gospel of John, the sacrifice came from a boy, apparently the only boy in the whole crowd who had thought to bring a lunch.
That would make him the only one in the crowd that really deserved to go home with a full stomach, but he was willing to give the little bit he had because the Lord had need of it.
Secondly it was presented to Jesus with at least some little grain of faith. The disciples took the lunch to Jesus, perhaps with at least some idea that he might be able to do something with the meagre offering. Can we summarize and say that the disciples were willing that the Lord should have all that they had to offer, even if it seemed of no significance.
If only more Christian’s were like that; willing to sacrifice and give all that they have because the Lord desired it. So often we cling to the things we have: whether it is time or money or freedom, and stipend off the little we feel we can afford for the Lord and his work. But God is seeking living sacrifices, those willing to lay their entire lives on the altar.
How many more look at the little gift they perceive they have and feel embarrassed to even mention it, let alone try to use it in the Lord’s service. If this describes you, then you have something to learn from the next few verses. For in the Lord’s hands even a little bit sacrificially given becomes more than enough to accomplish the task at hand.
Jesus took that little morsel and after the people were seated on the grass he gave thanks and broke it. As he broke it into pieces he handed pieces to the disciples to distribute among the groups of people. Before evening came the entire multitude had eaten their fill and a dozen baskets of left-overs had been collected.
None of the disciples forgot the scene, in fact it is one of the few miracles to be recorded in all of the gospels, pointing to its enduring significance.
Conclusion: Some of you are hungry; hungry for God, maybe hungry for food. You ask the question, does God care that my family is in need and I haven’t got the funds to cover the rent? The answer is yes. God is concerned about every aspect of your life; why God allows things to occur in the way they do is often beyond me, but it is impressed on us that we ought to bring these needs to our compassionate God and wait in faith for his provision.
It is in the darkest times that God’s light shines the brightest. Some of you are standing at the dead end right now wondering where God is. He is there with you, and he has a question for you. His question is, what are you going to do now?
Some of you have looked around your little corner of the world and seen a world of hurt, pain and need, you’ve found yourself wondering where God is, and why doesn’t He do something. He is there with you, and he is saying, ‘Will you sacrifice all you have, never mind that it is nowhere near sufficient, in my hands it will more than enough.’
In fact, every one of us sits in this church and looks at a world of need, and we hear the voice of the Saviour inviting us to bring our morsel and see it multiplied in his hands. What will you do with his invitation?a
