John 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.
Throughout His three years of ministry JESUS was pushing the disciples to grow and learn the lessons of the Kingdom.
Now, he asks them to sort out this difficult situation. I don’t think He had much expectation that they would get the right answer at first, but I do think He wanted them to learn the right answer through the experience.
What can we learn from their experience? We will be put in situations by Jesus that will test us too. He is far more interested in our growth than in our comfort.
? THERE ARE GENUINE NEEDS.
There is a huge crowd here. They’ve been traveling with Jesus for a while now. They are hungry.
Jesus wants to work through us. One of the reasons He wants to do that is because there are so many genuine needs in the world.
• There are people struggling with depression.
• There are people who don’t know where their next meal is coming from.
• There are people who see no point to their existence.
• There are people who need practical wisdom to live well.
All around us there are people with genuine needs. And we have not been called to stay inside the safe, secure walls of the church and tell each other how God thinks we’re great. We have been called to go out into enemy’s territory and rescue as many POWs as we can. We have been called to proclaim hope in a desolate land.
But like Philip, we think that WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TO MEET THOSE NEEDS.
As a matter of fact, there are many instances in the bible where people though they didn’t have enough but were wrong… 1 kings 17:12 the widow of Zarephath told prophet Elijah… “As the LORD your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” …. but in verse 16 And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by Elijah.
2kings 4:2 the Shunammite woman said to Elisha … “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”…. But in verse 6 And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.
John 2:3 Mary said to Jesus…And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine”… But in verse water turned into wine 8 And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it
And the disciples said where would we get enough bread to feed them?… we don’t have enough, but they got 12 baskets extra after feeding the 20,000 people…
Philip is worried about the expense; it would be enormous. Andrew and the rest were right that there was a little there, but that concern was a drop in the bucket compared to the need.
We are often overwhelmed by the breadth and depth of the problems around us. We are all painfully aware of the societal problems we face right now. The drugs crisis, The bitter political divisions, The depression and loneliness, the wars, and rumors of wars…etc.
We are also aware of the problems of the church. So many who have an empty “belief” that doesn’t change their behavior, confusion of religious belief with political allegiance… yes, the global church is so off-track… but What’s our response?
Generally it is to shrink our vision of what we can do and settle for less. We understand how little we have in our hands and so we expect a small impact.
Just to use the example of baptisms, most churches have come to accept as normal that they will have only a handful of baptisms a year. In fact, even among mega churches, there is no expectations of dozens of baptisms. And so we don’t pray for that. We just decided and therefore know it’s not going to happen.
BUT WE HAVE FORGOTTEN THAT LITTLE IS MUCH WHEN JESUS HAS IT…
This is, I believe, a major problem for the church…
First of all, we are so impressed with what we do have in the way of resources that we feel like we can handle it on our own. The church has decided that we are wealthy and so we’re used to being able to do it on our own.
Second, because of the first point, we generally take the limit of our resources as the limit of what God can do. In the economy of the Kingdom of God, that’s a pretty small vision. And so we see a pretty limited move of God within the church.
What we must learn from this story is that we give what little we have to Jesus and ask Him to do greater things with it. Jesus can do so much with so little. But we have to bring it to Him. We have to come with faith in His power.
We need to have a bigger vision. On how many can be saved. On the impact of our ministries. On our growth in Christlikeness. On the impact of our church in this community. But that starts with taking what we have to Jesus and asking Him to multiply it.
Listen, we are highly favored, and he cares for us so much so… that Ex28:12 And you shall put the two stones on the shoulders of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. So Aaron shall bear their names before the LORD on his two shoulders as a memorial. … that resembles God’s power!
Verse 29 “So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel on the breastplate of judgment over his heart, when he goes into the holy place, as a memorial before the LORD continually… that resembles God’s heart/ he feels us!
Verse 38 So it shall be on Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel hallow in all their holy gifts; and it shall always be on his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD… that resembles God’s thought toward us!
Is 40: He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, that resembles God’s compassion and trust!
Is 49:16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me…that resembles safety in God’s hand!
Ex19: 4 ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself…. It resembles authority and splinter!
Duet 33:27 The eternal God is your refuge, And underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you… this is His provision!
So, he gives us all His power, heart, thought, compassion, trust, safety, protection, authority, honour, glory, and anointing to do what he called us to do…what is our excuse?
JESUS USED THE DISCIPLES TO PULL THIS MIRACLE OFF… Jesus could have just made the food magically appear in front of the crowd. Jesus could have just made their bellies full. There are numerous ways He could have done the miracle… But Jesus chose to use the disciples for the distribution.
That is fitting, because it’s a picture of the way that He uses the church today. Jesus has chosen that we would be His representatives in this world. He uses us to tell people about the bread of life. He uses us to show His compassion and healing touch.
The main point to draw out of what we’ve looked at today is that Jesus will put us in situations where we don’t have the ability to solve problems and fix situations without His help. Those are moments when He wants us to rely on His power using our Faith and trust in him… Our tendency instead is to just expect less.
We are not seeing God do great miracles because we don’t have the faith that He can bring it about… and we run like Jonah to Tarshish instead to our destiny and purpose… this needs to change tonight if you want the move of God in your life.
