Good Morning!
Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21 (NIV)
Matthew 14:13-21 (HCSB)
As we start our 2nd month together, I’d like us to pray together for a moment. You’ll find this prayer in your bulletin:
Father God,
Thank you for allowing us to meet together. We know that you must have been angry at the people who have ignored you, focusing upon their lives rather than your will. Guide us as we strive to follow Your will, worshiping You and leading other people to You, through Your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.
Last week, we talked about praising God each week to the twelve people on our list we’ve made of people who give no evidence of being active followers of Jesus Christ. We talked about giving God credit for the things God has done, like giving us pleasant weather, or teaching us how to bake a good lemon meringue pie, or given us the talent to do something or the teacher who taught us a valuable lesson.
This week, our reading is a familiar reading, the feeding of the five thousand, a time when God stepped into the world in an unmistakable way. Let’s look at it:
In the Gospel of Matthew, our reading from Chapter 14 follows the episode where John the Baptist, Jesus’ friend and cousin, was beheaded by King Herod. Furthermore, Jesus’ disciples Peter, Andrew, John, and James had previously been disciples of John the Baptist, so when word of this action reached Jesus and His followers while they were near Nazareth, the group quietly got on a boat and sailed around the Lake of Galilee to a deserted area. Jesus was tired, perhaps He was stressed, He needed a vacation, for He needed to re-evaluate His methods and mission after losing His cousin. His disciples needed time to grieve John, their former teacher.
But Jesus was popular. Very popular. Word quickly spread about where He was headed to and a crowd gathered on that beach like folks at a park when Alan Jackson walks in with a guitar. So Jesus had compassion on them and began to heal them – and the crowd continued to grow.
Evening approached. The disciples grew nervous. They told Jesus – "There are too many people here, we’re in the middle of nowhere, there’s no food, they’ll be getting hungry! Send these people away to the villages to buy food!"
Jesus was having none of it. For Jesus was trying to teach His disciples that day, as well as heal all the people in the crowd.
Jesus turned to the disciples and said, “No, these people don’t need to go away. YOU feed them.”
“But, but, but we’ve only got five loaves of bread and two fish! But, But, But!”
What went on in their minds? "Five loaves and two fish? Maybe a half loaf for each of us disciples and a bit of fish? But that’s OUR food! We’ll get hungry, too!"
One of them may have begun calculating. A crowd of 5000 men plus women and children – let's call it 20,000 people. One 4 oz McDonald’s fish sandwich apiece – that's 5000 pounds of fish we need, and two slices of bread per person is 40,000 slices of bread, and at 20 slices per standard loaf of bread, that’s two thousand loaves of bread we need. 5000 pounds of fish and 2000 loaves of bread. And we need to start feeding people in an hour! Patty – I understand that you could organize that here today, right? You’d just need a little bit of help slicing the bread, right?
There are people who say that there wasn’t a miracle there that day. There are people who say that the loaves and the fish were simply stretched out, that everyone was satisfied with a little bite. But those folks haven’t done the math. Even today, how could you organize that meal, even given a day to plan it? Where would you get 5000 pounds of fish? Where would you get two thousand loaves of bread?
After Jesus picked the disciples up off the ground and closed their mouths, Jesus asked for the five loaves and the two fish to be brought to Him. He had the crowd sit down on the ground. He took the five loaves and the two fish in his hands – proving the loaves and fish weren’t that big. He looked toward Heaven, gave thanks to God and broke the loaves. Then He gave them to the disciples and they passed them out to the people. Everybody ate and was satisfied, and the disciples collected twelve baskets full of broken pieces.
It must have been the sort of sight that puts shivers down your spine. Especially, when you remember a story from Jewish history, a story from the Old Testament, a story of Elisha the student of Elijah, the man who picked up Elijah’s mantle when Elijah went to heaven in the fiery chariot. Elisha was the man who received a double portion of the Holy Spirit from God when Elijah left the earth.
Now we have to remember, men who are used to doing heavy manual labor, men who work in the fields, men who are soldiers don’t get by on the 2000 calories a day that we strive to stay under. No, they needed 5000 calories a day because they worked hard. Have you ever tried pulling a plow or digging a field with a wooden shovel? Have you ever practiced fighting for four hours with a staff, spear, or sword? When was the last time you walked ten miles? It makes you hungry, like football players during twice a day practices, or swimmers training for a meet by swimming 5000 yards a day or marathon runners training for a race.
In 2 Kings Chapter 4, Elisha fed a hundred soldiers with twenty barley loaves. His servant was incredible – how can I put just twenty loaves in front of a hundred men? Elisha said, God said it would work. And the men ate the loaves, and some was left over. It was a story that amazed everyone, because those loaves were small and those men were hungry.
Partially because of this story, Elisha became known as one of the greatest prophets of ancient Israel, because he had fed a hundred full-grown men with only twenty loaves of barley bread. Now, Jesus had just skunked Elisha, for Jesus had fed 5000 men with five loaves.
We Christians also recognize Elisha as a great prophet. But today we also recognize Jesus as the Son of God on earth, not only a prophet, but our high priest and king. The purpose of this story is to get our attention, the way it got the attention of the people of Israel who were there that day – and the way it got the attention of the people of Israel who heard the story. Jesus isn’t just a good teacher. He isn't just a good man. There is something much more to Him which we have to recognize, something supernatural.
But this story also reminds us that we still serve Jesus, and when we can’t handle it, He is ready to step in and make it happen.
Jesus is Ready
A few years ago, my wife was leading a small church. The senior member of a key family died and Saundra was to do the funeral and burial services. Now this family was a large family, and the members of that family were also individually large people. There were only two women in the church able to help with the funeral dinner, which would be held at the church. So Saundra, who loves to cook, jumped in to help. But first she prayed for everything to work out.
The afternoon and evening before the funeral, Saundra made green beans, she made two casseroles, she made three cakes and a pie, she made cookies, she made something else and carried some of the stuff down to the church at 10 pm that evening and kept the cakes in our frig. That morning, she awoke early, made a couple other dishes and realized that she did not have time to take the stuff to the church and still get to the funeral home on time, so she called up one of the other women, asking her if she could come by and take the rest of the stuff to the church – I had to be still another place or I would have taken it over. Even with all her work, though, Saundra was worried that there would not be enough food – especially when she found out what the other two women had made, which was their normal contribution of a couple dishes each.
The woman said she’d be happy to pick up Saundra’s dishes on the way to the church, and then called back five minutes later. It seems like a member of the family was close to the Minard’s family who owned Minard’s Italian Restaurant in Clarksburg, WV. It seems that Minard’s had volunteered to cater enough food for 75 people, including dessert. They had just called and needed directions to the church. There was food left over that day. Saundra gave thanks to God and praised God to everyone who would listen.
Jesus is still ready to help out when needed. He likes to work through people, though, because that is how we grow! He asks us to start the work, to pray for help as needed, and then to do what we are able to do. Saundra and the other two women were trying, but they weren’t humanly enough. So Jesus, working through the Holy Spirit. speaking to someone at Minard’s, had brought in help.
The afternoon and evening before the funeral, Saundra made green beans, she made two casseroles, she made three cakes and a pie, she made cookies, she made something else and carried some of the stuff down to the church at 10 pm that evening and kept the cakes in our frig. That morning, she awoke early, made a couple other dishes and realized that she did not have time to take the stuff to the church and still get to the funeral home on time, so she called up one of the other women, asking her if she could come by and take the rest of the stuff to the church – I had to be still another place or I would have taken it over. Even with all her work, though, Saundra was worried that there would not be enough food – especially when she found out what the other two women had made, which was their normal contribution of a couple dishes each.
The woman said she’d be happy to pick up Saundra’s dishes on the way to the church, and then called back five minutes later. It seems like a member of the family was close to the Minard’s family who owned Minard’s Italian Restaurant in Clarksburg, WV. It seems that Minard’s had volunteered to cater enough food for 75 people, including dessert. They had just called and needed directions to the church. There was food left over that day. Saundra gave thanks to God and praised God to everyone who would listen.
Jesus is still ready to help out when needed. He likes to work through people, though, because that is how we grow! He asks us to start the work, to pray for help as needed, and then to do what we are able to do. Saundra and the other two women were trying, but they weren’t humanly enough. So Jesus, working through the Holy Spirit. speaking to someone at Minard’s, had brought in help.
Jesus Knows
When you are looking at your list of twelve people who will become the disciples you teach, and wondering what you are going to say to them, remember to pray for help. Not only should you be praying that they be open to hearing about Jesus – but pray for the words to say. All you really have to do after that is pick up the phone and call our friend and ask them how they are doing in this time of COVID. And at some point in the conversation, you might want to mention how knowing that Jesus is still there, loving us as He always does, how that idea has kept you going through the rough times.
And you know... that was an important part of what the feeding of the five thousand taught the disciples. They were reminded that the same God who had been with Elijah and Elisha a thousand years before was still keeping an eye on them. And two thousand years after the Son of God fed five thousand people on a hill beside the Lake of Galilee, Jesus is still keeping an eye on us.
If you are lonely – Jesus knows this.
If you are sad – Jesus knows this.
If you are frightened of COVID – Jesus knows this.
If you are grieving a lost loved one – Jesus knows this.
If you are concerned about the future – Jesus even knows this.
Worry is no stranger to the disciples of Christ. That afternoon, realizing that there was no food, the disciples had come to Jesus, for they had checked around, they had looked around, and their best efforts had only come up with five loaves and two fish and that worried them, for in that day a crowd of hungry, angry people could be very dangerous. So they went to Jesus, and then he told them, as the Holy Spirit has told so many caring people, so many worried Christians, so many disciples over the centuries – “No. Don’t send them home. You feed them.” And the disciples must have thought Jesus was totally off the deep end.
But Jesus knew that God, His Father – and OUR Father – was always listening to Him. Jesus knew that God, His Father – and OUR Father – was always ready to do what needed to be done. And Jesus prayed to God, His Father – and OUR Father – that there would be enough food – and there was. And there is always enough food, there is always enough help, there is always enough money, there is always enough time if what we are doing is what God wants done. Our God is the God of always enough!
If you are lonely – other people are lonely, too. Make phone calls.
If you are sad – other people are sad, too. Find someone else who is sad and cheer each other up.
If you are frightened of COVID – sew masks, pray that people wear masks, pray for the vaccines that are being tested will work, pray for the sick people.
If you are grieving a lost loved one – find someone else who is grieving and take them a meal or call them. Turn your grief into ministry for others.
If you are concerned about the future – Begin posting loving, caring posts on Facebook, write devotionals, develop art or stories or wood carvings that will lead people to Christ, for the only way to help our world is to bring the world to Christ – one person at a time.
I had a dear friend at another church. She was a retired school teacher. Our church had a handful of children, but had lost several young families because there was not much of a program for children. After worrying about this for several months and praying as to what needed done, she came to me and said she’d lead a children’s ministry if I could help her with a course to run on. I agreed, and six weeks later we launched Pioneer Clubs, which is best thought of as VBS every Wednesday evening. She had two other helpers – we launched with fifteen children and rapidly grew to two dozen.
After a year, a group of women visited us from another church, more centrally located in town and learned what we were doing. They launched with 40 children and grew to 60.
The next year, another church from another town visited, learned, and launched with 90 children and grew to over a hundred children every Wednesday evening. It was that year that my friend found out she had cancer. She spent much of her time training up her replacements, and then she passed away.
It would have been easy to say that she made a flash in a pan worth of difference, for the original program was shut down about a year after she passed on. But during those years, we claimed in our church about 20 children baptized, and the other two programs continue to operate. And one day, those children will get to Heaven and meet my friend again. They will be in Heaven because my friend, over 70 years old at the time she started the Pioneer Clubs, had decided that she would start things rolling and let God handle the rest. She is still making a difference through those baptized children and the other programs that copied her program.
I had a young leader at a church come to me one day, saying she thought God was telling her to start a dance ministry at the church. I said, “that sounds great. Go back, pray some more, research and give me a plan.” About 6 weeks later, she came to me, said she’d found Christian aerobic dance ministry in NC that offered training. She needed $250 for the leader’s course. I told her to pitch it to the church on Sunday morning. They gave her over $500 to start it through individual donations and when she launched a couple months later, it became a wonderful worship service – prayer, 45 minutes of aerobic dance to upbeat Christian music, scripture, a devotional, and prayer. We had about 20 people from 5 year olds through 85 year olds, because it was designed for any physical ability. And several new families joined the church because of this Refit ministry that reached them twice a week.
We don’t need to know every answer to every question that every person might ask us about Jesus. We only need to know that Jesus wants us to go to all people and teach them about Him, and so we just need to begin making our phone calls, to begin making our Facebook posts, to begin writing our letters, our emails, to begin visiting people and talking to them about what we already know about God and Jesus –
· that He claimed He was God walking upon the earth in a way no one really understands,
· that He taught us a better way of living and promised that people who follow Him will have eternal, abundant life, right with God.
· that He was killed on a cross for the crime of claiming to be God, and then
· that He rose from the dead and talked and walked and ate and cooked with over 500 witnesses who saw Him after He was killed – and this proves that his claims to be God on the earth were true.
Four key points – and this is the Gospel, which Jesus wants us to tell to everyone.
And so, is it enough to know that Jesus wants the Gospel told? Is it enough to know, deep in your heart, that Jesus will complete the job if you’ll start the ball rolling with your friends, your neighbors, and your family? Would Jesus put you in a situation that would lead you to permanent harm?
Of course not. Follow Jesus. Do as He asks. Tell others about Him.
Next week, we’ll learn more.
Father, I pray for these people in these churches. Feed them with Your bread, teach them Your ways, help them bring the Gospel into their hearts so that they may feed others with that Gospel – their friends, their neighbors, their relatives. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Remember: Turn your worries into ministry. Tell people the Gospel – Jesus claimed to be God, He taught us a better way to live and how to have eternal life, He was killed on the cross for claiming to be God, and He rose from the dead and appeared to many witnesses.
And you know... that was an important part of what the feeding of the five thousand taught the disciples. They were reminded that the same God who had been with Elijah and Elisha a thousand years before was still keeping an eye on them. And two thousand years after the Son of God fed five thousand people on a hill beside the Lake of Galilee, Jesus is still keeping an eye on us.
If you are lonely – Jesus knows this.
If you are sad – Jesus knows this.
If you are frightened of COVID – Jesus knows this.
If you are grieving a lost loved one – Jesus knows this.
If you are concerned about the future – Jesus even knows this.
Worry is no stranger to the disciples of Christ. That afternoon, realizing that there was no food, the disciples had come to Jesus, for they had checked around, they had looked around, and their best efforts had only come up with five loaves and two fish and that worried them, for in that day a crowd of hungry, angry people could be very dangerous. So they went to Jesus, and then he told them, as the Holy Spirit has told so many caring people, so many worried Christians, so many disciples over the centuries – “No. Don’t send them home. You feed them.” And the disciples must have thought Jesus was totally off the deep end.
But Jesus knew that God, His Father – and OUR Father – was always listening to Him. Jesus knew that God, His Father – and OUR Father – was always ready to do what needed to be done. And Jesus prayed to God, His Father – and OUR Father – that there would be enough food – and there was. And there is always enough food, there is always enough help, there is always enough money, there is always enough time if what we are doing is what God wants done. Our God is the God of always enough!
Turn Worry into Ministry
Today, in the world, you have worries. The right answer to worry for a mature Christian is to turn worry into ministry. When we are worried, other people will have the same worries, so we, as the people of Christ, we are to act.If you are lonely – other people are lonely, too. Make phone calls.
If you are sad – other people are sad, too. Find someone else who is sad and cheer each other up.
If you are frightened of COVID – sew masks, pray that people wear masks, pray for the vaccines that are being tested will work, pray for the sick people.
If you are grieving a lost loved one – find someone else who is grieving and take them a meal or call them. Turn your grief into ministry for others.
If you are concerned about the future – Begin posting loving, caring posts on Facebook, write devotionals, develop art or stories or wood carvings that will lead people to Christ, for the only way to help our world is to bring the world to Christ – one person at a time.
I had a dear friend at another church. She was a retired school teacher. Our church had a handful of children, but had lost several young families because there was not much of a program for children. After worrying about this for several months and praying as to what needed done, she came to me and said she’d lead a children’s ministry if I could help her with a course to run on. I agreed, and six weeks later we launched Pioneer Clubs, which is best thought of as VBS every Wednesday evening. She had two other helpers – we launched with fifteen children and rapidly grew to two dozen.
After a year, a group of women visited us from another church, more centrally located in town and learned what we were doing. They launched with 40 children and grew to 60.
The next year, another church from another town visited, learned, and launched with 90 children and grew to over a hundred children every Wednesday evening. It was that year that my friend found out she had cancer. She spent much of her time training up her replacements, and then she passed away.
It would have been easy to say that she made a flash in a pan worth of difference, for the original program was shut down about a year after she passed on. But during those years, we claimed in our church about 20 children baptized, and the other two programs continue to operate. And one day, those children will get to Heaven and meet my friend again. They will be in Heaven because my friend, over 70 years old at the time she started the Pioneer Clubs, had decided that she would start things rolling and let God handle the rest. She is still making a difference through those baptized children and the other programs that copied her program.
We Don't Need All the Answers
In a Universe that has God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in it, we don’t have to know how to feed the five thousand. We only need to know that Jesus said they are to be fed and to begin making our attempt. We don’t need to know how to run or operate a program to teach hundreds of children about Jesus – we only need to know that Jesus wants everyone to know about Him and begin making our attempt. We don’t need to worry about the costs of every program – we simply need to do what Jesus wants done and He will figure out a way to cover the costs.I had a young leader at a church come to me one day, saying she thought God was telling her to start a dance ministry at the church. I said, “that sounds great. Go back, pray some more, research and give me a plan.” About 6 weeks later, she came to me, said she’d found Christian aerobic dance ministry in NC that offered training. She needed $250 for the leader’s course. I told her to pitch it to the church on Sunday morning. They gave her over $500 to start it through individual donations and when she launched a couple months later, it became a wonderful worship service – prayer, 45 minutes of aerobic dance to upbeat Christian music, scripture, a devotional, and prayer. We had about 20 people from 5 year olds through 85 year olds, because it was designed for any physical ability. And several new families joined the church because of this Refit ministry that reached them twice a week.
We don’t need to know every answer to every question that every person might ask us about Jesus. We only need to know that Jesus wants us to go to all people and teach them about Him, and so we just need to begin making our phone calls, to begin making our Facebook posts, to begin writing our letters, our emails, to begin visiting people and talking to them about what we already know about God and Jesus –
· that He claimed He was God walking upon the earth in a way no one really understands,
· that He taught us a better way of living and promised that people who follow Him will have eternal, abundant life, right with God.
· that He was killed on a cross for the crime of claiming to be God, and then
· that He rose from the dead and talked and walked and ate and cooked with over 500 witnesses who saw Him after He was killed – and this proves that his claims to be God on the earth were true.
Four key points – and this is the Gospel, which Jesus wants us to tell to everyone.
And so, is it enough to know that Jesus wants the Gospel told? Is it enough to know, deep in your heart, that Jesus will complete the job if you’ll start the ball rolling with your friends, your neighbors, and your family? Would Jesus put you in a situation that would lead you to permanent harm?
Of course not. Follow Jesus. Do as He asks. Tell others about Him.
Next week, we’ll learn more.
Father, I pray for these people in these churches. Feed them with Your bread, teach them Your ways, help them bring the Gospel into their hearts so that they may feed others with that Gospel – their friends, their neighbors, their relatives. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Remember: Turn your worries into ministry. Tell people the Gospel – Jesus claimed to be God, He taught us a better way to live and how to have eternal life, He was killed on the cross for claiming to be God, and He rose from the dead and appeared to many witnesses.
Benediction
Now Go into the world, hearing the word and understanding it as it lights your path. May what is given to you by God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit produce a wonderful feast of blessings for you and the world around you. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment