Feeding 5000 AM Sermon 2.20.11

Feeding of the 5000
A five-year-old was sitting with her grandfather in her room one day, and she asked him, “Grandpa, did God make you?”

“Yes, child,” came the reply. “God made me.” The child paused for a moment, and then asked, “And Grandpa, did God make me too?” Again the reply came back in the affirmative.

The 5-yr.-old looked in the mirror on her dresser for a while, and then looked her Grandpa in the face: “You know, Grandpa, God is doing a whole lot better work lately.” INDEED, LIFE CAN HUMBLING SOMETIME.

Children have a knack of cutting to the chase and telling you exactly what they think.
When you teach school you get used to this. I taught middle school when I first started teaching and you notice with middle schoolers that they will tell you quick if your clothes don’t match or if you have something on you shirt.

I have told people that if you have an unhealthy high self esteem just teach school for awhile and kids will take care of it for you.

If you have ever felt insignificant before or you have been humbled you will really get today’s story in John’s Gospel.

If you have ever felt like the little man that doesn’t mean much in the big picture of things then you will identify with the story today.

Today’s story is one that is so familiar to us all. We come to a story where Jesus feeds 5000 people. Jesus will work one of His Greatest miracles by multiplying 5 loaves and 2 fish.

This is the only miracle mentioned in all four of the Gospels.

This story is found in John’s Gospel and I hope as we go through this gospel you are developing a love and appreciation for this book.
We began with the prologue – the miracle at Cana – Nicodemus – the Woman at the Well, the Man that was lame for 38 years and the discussion of the Sabbath – now we go into Chapter 6 and pick up with the Passover feast.

John 6: 1-14
1 After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias ). 2 A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the signs which He was performing on those who were sick. 3 Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. 5 Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat ?" 6 This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. 7 Philip answered Him, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little." 8 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, 9 "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people ?" 10 Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated ; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted. 12 When they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost." 13 So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. 14 Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, "This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world."

In this story two things will stand out – Geography and the Jewish Feast at hand.
I would propose that to understand this story you need to understand the Jewish festival that is being celebrated at this time.

The figure of Moses also adds some background to this story.

John tells us twice that Jesus goes on the Mountain. Any Jew that has read Deut 18 and is looking for the PROPHET or the New Moses they will see something that will get their attention.

Jesus asks where they will get bread for all of this multitude. We see Jesus almost echo the question that Moses asked about feeding the multitude of Israelites in Numbers 11:13

Jesus is almost asking the same question but Jesus knows the answer to this question.

He knows that He is going to work a miracle.


Phillip responds that 200 denarii would not be enough to feed the multitude.
1 Denarius was the typical soldier’s wage for one day.
If you remember in the story of the Good Samaritan the Samaritan paid 2 denarii to the innkeeper to take care of the man on the road.

This was the coin used to pay the Roman tax.
The people see the miracle or more specifically the sign that Jesus works and they proclaim Him to be a prophet.

Just as Moses was able to bring bread to the people from Heaven now Jesus multiplies the loaves and brings food to the people.

Contrast Jesus and Moses and you will see a big difference.

Moses begged for God to feed the complaining Israelites for them to be fed and fattened. They died in the wilderness.

Jesus will eventually teach in this story found in chapter 6 that He is the true food. Jesus will feed us with His Body and Blood and we will never hunger again and we will live forever.

The Jews got the Manna from Moses and died in the wilderness, we get the Bread of Life – Jesus and we will live forever.

Application:

1) God Provides a Super Abundance of His Grace and Favor –
One of John’s Themes has been Grace upon Grace and he continues to provide illustrations as to how this works with Jesus.

Jesus continues to provide superabundance.

Just like the wine that was given in excess in John 2 at the marriage supper at Cana – Jesus provides extra abundance in this story of the multiplying of the loaves.

Consider how Jesus is the loving true King versus the kings of their world.

The number 5000 is important in this area of the Sea of Galilee. Just a few short years before there were 5000 people involved in an event that would have been fresh in their memory.

Herod the Great was King in Israel when Jesus was an infant. Herod the Great was crazy.

Prior to his death, Herod ordered his guards to kill 5,000 fathers in the land on the day he was to die so that the people would remember the day of his death through the wailing tears across the land.

Herod got very sick and they though he had died but he really didn’t. He was only in a coma. His soldiers started rounding up the 5000 men and had them executed.

Herod’s son Archelaus saw that this killing was going to have a backlash on him becoming King. He knew it would be hard to be a new king and have all these people upset so he stopped the killing.

Herod came out of his coma and realized that his son had not carried out his orders and killed the 5000 men.

Herod brutally tortured and killed his son Archelaus for not carrying out the killing of the 5000 men.

Now in this very area where this story would have been recent in their memory Jesus now provides for these 5000 men and fathers of their households.

Contrast what type of King Jesus is compared to these pagan earthly kings. Jesus provides for his own and provides superabundance.

Also, consider the number of fragments left over. There were twelve baskets full of leftovers collected by the Apostles.

This miracle was done in the land of what was called the land of the 12. The very place where Orthodox Judaism was practiced.

12 Basketfulls collected in the Land of the 12. This is very symbolic – Jesus grace will reach the Jews first.

Paul tells us that the Gospel goes to the Jew first and then to the Greek. This miracle signifies that Jesus grace extends is superabundance to the Jewish nation.

Later in Mark’s Gospel we will read of a second feeding. This will be a feeding of 4000.

These 4000 will be fed and 7 baskets full will be collected.

The miracle of the feeding of the 4000 will happen in the land across the lake of the pagans called the land of the seven.

Seven different nationalities were represented. The seven basket fulls in that story shows God’s grace reaching out to the other nations.

God’s grace covers all men- Jew first and then to the Greek.

2) Jesus is revealing a little more about Who he is:
Also this story should bring to memory another story that we have heard in the Old Testament.
Elisha in the book of 2 Kings 4 takes 20 barley loaves and feeds 100 men.

Elisha was considered a great prophet. Elisha was so great that once a dead man came in contact with just the bones of Elisha and he was brought back from the dead.

In Elisha’s miracle he multiplies less loaves for less people.

Jesus is showing his superiority over this renowned prophet of old.

On early Christian minister saw this story in this way. He preached about the significance of the number of loaves and fish.

To the Jew the number 5 was very significant because of the number of the books of the Law. The 5 books of Moses.
The other parts of the Old Testament were two in number and were viewed as the Psalms and the Prophets.

To this early Christian preacher he saw that the five loaves signified the 5 books of Moses and the 2 fish signified the Psalms and Prophets.
His sermon focused on the fact that Jesus broke open the Old Testament and revealed its truth by multiplying that truth just like he did the bread and fish.

In other words Jesus brought the entire Law to its fruition and completion.

It is hard for us to read the bible this way but that is exactly how the earliest Christians viewed the Bible.

They saw truth and inspiration of God even in the minute numbers of the story.


3) The little Boy in this story seems so insignificant
To the world this boy seems so small and should really have no role to play.

He brings 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. The barley loaf was the bread of the poor person. This boy probably didn’t have much.

The boy gave all that he had to give. He didn’t give much but he gave everything.

The crowd is so large that 200 days worth of wages almost a years pay cannot feed them all but this boy is going to offer his meager lunch to Jesus.

I believe a lesson can be learned from this boy. Maybe out of everyone in this chapter of the Gospel of John, this boy may be an example we can look to.
‘Hell’s Kitchen’ is the name they use to refer to the part of New York City that has been rated the "most likely place to get killed." There is a Sunday School ministry there that involves the largest bus ministry in America.

One Puerto Rican lady, after getting saved in church, came to the pastor with an urgent request. She didn’t speak a word of English, so she told him through an interpreter, "I want to do something for God, please."

"I don’t know what you can do," he answered. "Please, let me do something," she said in Spanish. "Okay. I’ll put you on a bus. Ride a different bus every week and just love the kids."

So every week she rode a different bus -- they have 50 of them -- and loved the children. She would find the worst- looking kid on the bus, put him on her lap and whisper over and over the only words she had learned in English: "I love you. Jesus loves you."

After several months, she became attached to one little boy in particular. "I don’t want to change buses anymore. I want to stay on this one bus," she said.

The boy didn’t speak. He came to Sunday school every week with his sister and sat on the woman’s lap, but he never made a sound. And each week she would tell him all the way to Sunday school and all the way home, "I love you and Jesus loves you."

One day, to her amazement, the little boy turned around and stammered, "I-I love you, too." Then he put his arms around her and gave her a big hug.

That was 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon. At 6:30 that night, the boy was found dead in a garbage bag under a fire escape. His mother had beaten him to death and thrown his body in the trash.

"I love you and Jesus loves you." Those were some of the last words he heard in his short life -- from the lips of a Puerto Rican woman who could barely speak English. Dear friends – little is much when God is in it.

Jesus wants to use every person in Christian ministry, including you. Are you qualified? Of course not, but neither am I, and neither was that woman who could barely speak English. But she gave God what little English she knew, and made an eternal difference in the tragic life of that little boy.

This lady didn’t think she had much to offer but he had more than you could ever imagine.

Just the gift of her not even knowing English but letting that boy know that someone loved him was so important to his short life.

God calls us to do something amazing – Just do the best we can for Him.

Whatever we can do for the Kingdom God wants us to do. He wants us to sacrifice for His cause and He will do great things through us.

You may have heard the story of Teddy Stallard and his teacher, Miss Thompson. Teddy’s mother died while he was still young, and his father just didn’t quite know how to take an interest in Teddy and in Teddy and in his schoolwork.

Teddy’s grades suffered terribly, he was never quite able to understand his homework, and Miss Thompson began to look on him as simply one of those children who won’t make it.

One day the class was having a Christmas party, all the students had brought their beautiful store-bought gifts for Miss Thompson, and she had oohed and aahed over them, and then it was Teddy’s turn.

Teddy couldn’t afford to buy anything, and as he walked up to Miss Thompson’s desk, he clutched a wrinkled, dirty paper bag. He pulled out of this paper bag 2 items, on old rhinestone bracelet with most of the rhinestones missing, and a bottle of used perfume.

Miss Thompson heard the other children beginning to snicker and laugh at Teddy’s pitiful gifts, and she wisely placed the bracelet on her wrist and dabbed a little perfume behind her ear, and then said loudly enough for all them to hear, “Thank you, Teddy, the bracelet is absolutely gorgeous, and this is my favorite perfume.”

Teddy said “You’re welcome, Miss Thompson, those were my mother’s favorites, and whenever you wear them, you’ll remind me of her.” Something happened to Teddy Stallard and to Miss Thompson that day.

She started treating Teddy like a human being, like a child with true potential, like someone with dignity and worth. And Teddy responded quickly. His grades improved dramatically, his classmates began to like him, and he began to respect himself.

As naturally happens in a teacher’s life, Miss Thompson lost track of Teddy after he left her class, but years later she received a note from him upon his graduation from high school. The note read, “Dear Miss Thompson, I wanted you to be the first to know. I will be graduating second in my class. Love, Teddy Stallard.”

Four years later, another note came: “Dear Miss Thompson: they just told me I will be graduating first in my class. I wanted you to be the first to know. The university has not been easy, but I liked it. Love, Teddy Stallard.

And four years after that, “Dear Miss Thompson, as of today, I am Theodore Stallard, M.D. How about that? I wanted you to be the first to know. I am getting married next month, the 27th to be exact. I want you to come and sit where my mother would sit if she were alive. You are the only family I have now; Dad died last year. Love, Teddy Stallard.

That teacher cared to do the best she could for that little boy by just being there for him and saying thank you to his gift.

Just by doing her best she transformed her life and that boy’s life.

Now go back to our story – the 5000 people are standing in the crowd – no one has a solution to the quandary as to how they will get bread for all those people.

Out steps this boy and offers up all that he has to give. It is not a rational choice but it is a choice based on an act of faith.

He knows that his personal lunch will not feed 5000 people but he acts on faith. He goes to Jesus – who can supply all we need and offers him all we have to give.

We as a church are in a similar situation.

Church members – We need teachers for our classes – we have teachers now that would love to have help – something as small as being here once per week early before worship and spending time with kids.

Families – something as simple as bringing your children to Sunday School – what if they hear something that will totally transform their life that day? You never know when a Sunday school lesson or teacher may totally change the course of their lives.

Men – we are told in the Bible that it is a noble thing to want to shepherd God’s people. We have men in this church that should be considering allowing their lives to be shaped so they can serve as elders.

Young men we need deacons, we need men that want to serve the church in the ministry of the deaconate.

We need involved members. The church will not survive and flourish if we don’t get involved.

We can be like the 5000 and stand and wait or we can come forward and offer all that we have to give – ourselves.