The Feeding of the 5000
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Intro:The title of today’s sermon is “Small Thoughts, Small Results”. Now Last week we finished this account of Jesus sending out his disciples and teaching them how they should expect to be treated. Jesus also gave them an image of the results of saving faith in their life. They will stand with Him.
Now almost a year later we come to this account of the feeding of the 5000.
1 After this, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias).
2 A huge crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was performing by healing the sick.
3 Jesus went up a mountain and sat down there with his disciples.
4 Now the Passover, a Jewish festival, was near.
5 So when Jesus looked up and noticed a huge crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where will we buy bread so that these people can eat?”
6 He asked this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.
7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread wouldn’t be enough for each of them to have a little.”
8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him,
9 “There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish—but what are they for so many?”
10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place; so they sat down. The men numbered about five thousand.
11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and after giving thanks he distributed them to those who were seated—so also with the fish, as much as they wanted.
12 When they were full, he told his disciples, “Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted.”
13 So they collected them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves that were left over by those who had eaten.
14 When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
15 Therefore, when Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
I. Jesus Point His Disciples to an overwhelming Need.
I. Jesus Point His Disciples to an overwhelming Need.
5 So when Jesus looked up and noticed a huge crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where will we buy bread so that these people can eat?”
The other Gospels state it this way.
34 When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd and had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he began to teach them many things.
Because need is everywhere we often fail to see it. Because need is so common we have become calloused to it. It isn’t that we don’t know that it is there, but rather we don’t recognize the part that we are to play in it. I mean lostness and rebellion is everywhere we look. It’s overwhelming.
From time to time my kids will do what kids do and trash their rooms. A child’s room can go from spotless to destroyed in an afternoon.
Sometimes they will have made it so messy, that it isn't that they don’t want a clean room, but it becomes so overwhelming to them they don’t know where to begin. So the easiest thing is to walk by the mess as if it doesn’t exist.
However, once I or Hope assign them a starting point the job becomes less overwhelming and they can manage to pick up the room themselves.
I believe over time this is what has happened to the church. The thought of meeting the need and evangelizing the lost is such a great task that we have become overwhelmed. We walk right by it day after day. Choosing not to notice because it is overwhelming to even know where to begin.
II. Reactions to the Need
II. Reactions to the Need
#1 Place the responsibility on those that are in need.
#1 Place the responsibility on those that are in need.
15 When evening came, the disciples approached him and said, “This place is deserted, and it is already late. Send the crowds away so that they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”
How often do we refuse to take responsibility for the needs and lostness around us?
#2 Limit the work based upon our perceived ability or resources
#2 Limit the work based upon our perceived ability or resources
37 “You give them something to eat,” he responded. They said to him, “Should we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?”
In other words, we only attempt what is possible through our current assets or perceived human ability
#3 - Turn to Christ with the need and let him magnify Himself through us.
#3 - Turn to Christ with the need and let him magnify Himself through us.
10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place; so they sat down. The men numbered about five thousand.
11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and after giving thanks he distributed them to those who were seated—so also with the fish, as much as they wanted.
12 When they were full, he told his disciples, “Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted.”
13 So they collected them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves that were left over by those who had eaten.
14 When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
In What way was Jesus limited by circumstance or resource?
I want you to look around, we are a small church. One of the mistakes small churches make is that we can become convinced that our impact is limited by our size.
In what why is Jesus limited by circumstance or resources? We will never be big enough to reach the entire world. We will never be big enough to even reach greater Charleston.
Yet we have a savior that is limited by nothing and if we wait as a church to until we are “big enough” that day may never come. Yet Christ is calling us to look at the world around us, be moved with compassion ,step into the brokenness and let him be magnified through our weakness.
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.
We see this example in the story of account of Gideon. God told Gideon he had to many men. So God paired it down to 300 to go against the Midian Hordes. Size and resources have little to do with impact.
Trans : I am not talking about just doing good,
III. Jesus Purpose was not to only make the World a Better Place
III. Jesus Purpose was not to only make the World a Better Place
15 Therefore, when Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
If it was his intent, He would have become king. Jesus was not a provider of Goods and services, He the savior proclaiming the Goodness of God both by proclamation, but also in His visible form.
Conclusion:
What need(s) are you ignoring simply because you are overwhelmed by its scope?