Good morning Church! We are glad to see you back in the house of God.
Let us begin with an illustrative dialogue between two gentlemen, relevant to today’s message. Let us call them Shawn and Ethan and it goes like this:
Shawn: “Are you a believer?’
Ethan: “Yes!”
Shawn: “So you must be a member of one of the Churches?”
Ethan: “Well, that’s quite unnecessary in my opinion!” He continued … “look at the dying thief on the Cross, he wasn’t a member of any Church or was he?”
Shawn: “Alright, tell me if you have been baptized?”
Ethan: “Likewise, the thief was never baptized”
Shawn: “You aren’t joining church neither getting baptized, how do you acknowledge your faith? Via good works?”
Ethan: “No Nothing, dying thief never did any good work, rather did everything that was unacceptable in the sight of God”.
Shawn: (After hearing all this) “Well, before you further go and talk anything, you seem to be quite intimidated with the dying thief on the cross. Ethan, you need to be careful, there is a deep difference between you and the thief. He was dying and you are living!”
Because we believe in Christ, doesn’t necessarily mean that we can be like the thief on the Cross. He had no choice, wherein we have a great responsibility, the most important among all is to win hearts for Christ.
Today we will talk about a miracle performed by Jesus and let us call it, “A generous giving!”
One of the very interesting yet mesmerizing miracles of Christ about feeding the multitude with a mere quantity of two fishes and five loaves of bread can be found in all the books of Gospel.
Matthew 14:13-21
Mark 6:31-44
Luke 9:12-17
John 6:1-14
Let us read from the gospel of John.
After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias. A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went, because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick. Then Jesus climbed a hill and sat down with his disciples around him. (It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.) Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do. Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!” Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?” “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves. When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, “Surely, he is the Prophet we have been expecting!”
John 6:1-14
John relates the miracle of feeding the multitude, for its reference to the following discourse. Observe the effect this miracle had upon the people. Even the common Jews expected the Messiah to come into the world, and to be a great Prophet. The Pharisees despised them as not knowing the law; but they knew most of Him who is the end of the law. Yet men may acknowledge Christ as that Prophet, and still turn a deaf ear to him.
Let us see what we understand from this message. In simple words, “A generous giving!” But how does this help us to change our perspective of prosperity and the comforts.
The question here was “How?” Jesus was testing Philip as well as the other disciples, whether or not they believed in Jesus. This is somehow a picture of Church where we at times doubt if miracles happen. Millions are coming to know Christ however conventional Christians are being comfortable in staying back.
But then, Simon Peter’s brother, Andrew, informed that there is a young boy among this crowd who has five barley loves and two fishes.
Well the four principles we can learn from this story:
1: God doesn’t want extra-ordinary, but ordinary.
Whatever boy had, he offered. That was not just ordinary. It is likely that there must be many people who had kept food, but there was one child. Nevertheless, God doesn’t need extra ordinary, He needs ordinary, i.e. simple faith. He want you and I to stand like a man Moses was. God needs you so do not sit back and say I cannot pray, or I cannot do something big. Give in the hands of God and say “God I am ready!” and trust that His return will be extra ordinary.
Even though, God doesn’t need our ‘things’, He wants us to be the part of a bigger plan. He isn’t interested in how much you give, rather, how much is the authenticity in your giving.
2: Jesus fed the crowd on the generosity of ordinary boy.
Whatever you give to God, He will bless many people just because of your generosity. He will take a very little from you and bless it. More importantly, its not just money, it could be your talent as well. Giving is simply is not a part of our sinful nature.
We extensively saw this similar situation in Ruth’s life. What a privilege!
When we started the Church, we had nothing. God blessed you (the members), and now we are blessed to support so many pastors. Your ordinary giving has been blessing and this is a great testimony as how God can use your generosity.
3: Because of the generosity of this ordinary boy, his name is in the story.
– Who is he? An ordinary boy.
– What he had? Five Loaves of bread and two fishes.
– How many people where present? Five Thousand?
– How many people are specifically mentioned among the crowd? None but the boy.
If we remember the story of the poor lady, who gave very little as compared to what people among that group were giving. She quietly gave a little, which was more than she could even afford, but did it with love and faith. God blessed her ordinary giving by assuring her salvation.
Likewise, there are many stories throughout the word of God. That’s because of their generous giving.
With your generous giving, God can write your name in His book. Like I said before, your giving could be your talent as well.
4: When you give to God, it will come back to you.
What happened to the leftovers? Many scholars said that the leftovers were given to the boy. Which implies, he received more than what he had to offer.
Martin Luther once said, “I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.”
John Piper once said, “The more sacrificially generous you are on earth, the greater will be your enjoyment of heaven. Therefore, since Jesus loves us and summons us to maximize our eternal joy in heaven, he demands radical freedom from the love of money and radical generosity, especially toward the poor . . . The reason money is so crucial for Jesus is that across all cultures and all ages it represents the alternative to God as the treasure of our hearts, and therefore the object of our worship . . . There are two things being said here. One is that a selfish spirit will keep us out of heaven. And the other is that there are degrees of reward, or degrees of joy, in heaven, depending on how sacrificially generous we were on earth.”
It is not a story about food or miracles. It is a story about generosity.
The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.
Psalms 23:1-6
What happened to the young boy, only Jesus can do such thing? Jesus says, “Whatever you give, will be given back to you!” There are two kinds of people, the receivers and the givers. Pray that you become a giver. Out of five loaves of bread and two fishes, twelve baskets were left after feeding thousands.
Do you want such miracles to be witnessed by your own eyes? Do you want your name to be written by God? If your answer is yes, then you need to seriously pray and submit to God. Trust me, you will see the power of God, results to your generosity, miracles that God will perform through your ordinary contributions.
We hope you are encouraged with today’s service. We would love to see you again next Sunday. God bless you, your family and beloved ones, abundantly!