"Problems or Possibilities"

Galatians 6: 1 -10; I John 3: 16 – 24; Matthew 14: 13 – 21 (Sermon)

The miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 is a very familiar account to most of us. The fact that this miracle is the only miracle that is recorded in all four Gospels shows us how important it is for the church to learn the lessons Jesus is teaching.

However since miracle is familiar we might miss some of the details if we are not careful. Foe example in verse 21 we read "The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children". If that crowd was anything like today’s church crowd there would have been twice as many women as men and since large families were very common in that day we can conservatively estimate there were two children with each woman. So that means that there could have easily been over 35, 000 people in the crowd that day.

In verse 13 we are told that Jesus was saddened by the news of Herod beheading John The Baptist, and Jesus wanted some time alone. However the crowds followed Jesus. Jesus knew that these people were in need, and Jesus knew there is no end to human needs. Jesus could have told the crowd I am tired leave me alone. But Jesus didn’t. Jesus chose to be compassionate. That is the first lesson for us today. Jesus is never too tired or too busy for us.

Jesus had compassion on the crowd and Jesus met their need. That is the second lesson for us today. If we are to be Jesus disciples we must open up our eyes to the needs of the people around us and then we must address those needs.

In verse 15 we see the disciples recognized that the crowd was hungry, but the disciples’ approach to meeting the needs of the crowd was to send them away. The disciples implied these people should have planned ahead.

But notice Jesus’ reply to His disciples; "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." Jesus’ immediately turned His Compassion into a Commission for all of His Disciples.

The disciples responded by saying, "We have only five loaves of bread and two fish". The disciples emphasized what they did not have not what they did have. They could not see the possibilities for the problems!

The disciples must have thought "Jesus you have got to be kidding"! You see the disciples had already made the computations in their head 5 loves and two fish; 35, 000 people and concluded, Jesus the numbers just do not add up; Besides even if we had enough food we can not handle the distribution problem. No Jesus we can’t do it. In these verses the disciples expressed the human impossibility of meeting the needs of the crowd.

There were a number of ways Jesus could have fed this multitude:

• Jesus could have miraculously made the people’s hunger pains disappear.
• Jesus could have rained food down from heaven like God fed the children of Israel in the wilderness
• Jesus could have waved his hand and said the magic words, "Colonel Sanders," and every family would have had their own bucket of chicken right in front of them.
  

Certainly Jesus could have used any of these ways of feeding the hungry crowd but Jesus chose to work through His disciples. Jesus chose to feed the multitude with human hands. The bread did not come from the sky, but through the work and kindness of some human hand. The source of the feeding was God but the resources were human.

While it is obvious that the five loaves and two fish in the disciples’ hands were totally inadequate to meet the need … when the disciples brought what they had to Jesus … and after Jesus blessed what they brought to Him, there was more than enough food. What happened was truly a miracle!

However, if we limit our thinking to feeding the hungry we will miss out on the important principles that Jesus is trying to teach us!

There will always be the hungry, the sick, the sad, the hurting, and the lonely. There are many times when the problems seem so overwhelming, our first respond to Jesus might be to say, look God, I am aware of this problem, and when we do Jesus turns it around to use our problem as a faith lesson. A lesson in trusting in Him; Jesus waits for teachable moments. Don’t you think that Jesus knew what resources the disciples had? Don’t you think that Jesus is waiting to see how we will respond when an overwhelming situation arises?

The key to meeting the needs of the crowd is in verse 18, when Jesus said "Bring them here to Me." We will never have the resources, we will never have the skills, we will never have the wisdom to correct the problems before us BUT when we bring what we have to Jesus and when we trust in Jesus Problems are turned into Opportunities!

The disciples gave what they had to Jesus and then Jesus gave to the disciples. As the disciples began to share what the Lord had given them with the people around them the miracle unfolded!

If we give God what we have in obedience even though we know it is not enough then, God will take it and then we will be surprised to see what will be accomplished with what He gives back to us.

The disciples were just people like you and me. They could not feed the 5000 men with what they had, but … God certainly could. The disciples were obedient and God used them to accomplish the very thing that was impossible for them to do alone.

The lesson for every Christian is that, no matter how impossible the problem seems, with divine help the problem can be turned into an opportunity to share Jesus Christ. We must never forget the promise recorded in Luke 1:37 "nothing is impossible with God." Our source of strength and blessing come from God. The blessing is for the person we minister to, for the people who witness the blessing and the blessing is for us. Notice in verse 20 "they all ate and were satisfied and the disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over". The lesson is that when we give our resources to God, God blesses them, and God always provides more than enough.
There is no telling how many miracles each one of us have missed out on because we have only seen the problem, we felt we were inadequate; or we concluded that we were unqualified. Not only have we missed out on seeing God come through but the person or persons that God had intended to bless through us missed out because of our disobedience.

God has chosen to work through people. God wants to use each one of us. And when we bring to Him what we have and depend upon God’s grace; God will do great things through us for Him. We just need to give Him the opportunity to use us in ways that we could never dream of.

We will never be good enough nor will we have enough … but Jesus’ charge to his disciples still speaks to us today "You give them something to eat"’

"You give them something to eat," continues to challenge Christians today. The principles are this:

• We are to be sensitive to the needs of those around us …
• Christians are to be compassionate people.
• Next we are to bring our skills, our talents, and our faith to Jesus and ask Him to bless what we have.
• Then we are to take what Jesus gives back to us and we are to share that with those in need.

When we do God will provide in ways we do not expect. He always has and He always will. This Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Jesus continues to be The One who will more than meet the needs we have and the needs of the ones around us.

This miracle is much more than about alleviating physical hunger. If we limit our thinking to feeding the poor we have missed the principles Jesus was teaching his disciples. Jesus’ teaching applies to spiritual needs, emotional needs, and relational needs. You see the principles contained in the account of Jesus feeding the 5000 men are what the Steven Ministry is all about. There are people all around us with emotional needs, relational needs and spiritual needs. As Christians we are to bring what we have to Jesus,

• Ask Him to bless what we bring,
• We are to take what Jesus gives back to us and
• We are to share that with those who are in need.
• We are to believe that Jesus will provide.
• We are to trust that Jesus will use us to provide a miracle in other people’s lives.

If we limit our thinking to helping others again we will miss out. How do you think the disciples felt after they saw everybody was fed and that they had plenty of food left over?

Who really was blessed? The people who ate or the disciples who experienced Jesus using them to perform a miracle? AMEN