Good morning. As we continue in our series of Gone Fishin’, we come to our next text this morning. Now with our message this morning, I can relate to the fishermen and their disappointment. This morning we are going to look at an account in Matthew that shows Jesus taking a little bit of food, and feeding many people. Now the reason that I can relate to this story is because of some of my early fishing days and the fish that I would catch. See these pictures show some of my big catches as a kid, and I am pretty sure that these fish would not have fed me, let alone over 5 thousand people.

Let’s go ahead and look at our text for today. Turn with me to Matthew 14:13-21. Here in this passage we will see the miracle that Jesus performs. Here in Matthew 14:13-21 it says, “1”

1 Saturday, as is the custom at the Erickson house in Peoria, IL, Ken Erickson’s wife cleaned out leftovers from the refrigerator. She gave the 1 remaining portion of tortellini to their 6-year-old son, Jeremy. Their 8-year-old son, Matthew, also wanted some, so bickering began. After several unsuccessful attempts to stop the dispute, the father decided on a theological approach. Hoping to convince Jeremy to share his portion with Matthew, he said, “Jeremy, what would Jesus do in this situation?” Jeremy immediately responded, “Oh, Dad, He would just make

more!”

Well, that is what we will be looking at this morning. Before we begin, Let’s Pray

The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle of Christ’ that appears in all 4 Gospels. Therefore we can conclude that this is a very important occurrence, and that I really did happen.

It would have occurred during the Passover season about 1 year before Christ’s death. It gets its name from the fact that Jesus fed people and from the mention of the number 5,000. However, in the text for today, Matthew says that there were about 5,000 men, besides women and children. But, He says that everyone ate not just the men. And, so the number of people who were fed that day would have been at least 10,000, and perhaps as high as 20,000 people.

Now, because the feeding of the 5000 is recorded in more than just Matthew, I have decided that I would like for us to follow along with John’s version of this story. So if you will turn with me, we will be looking at John 6:1-15. Here is John’s account of this same story. In John 6:1-15 John writes, “2”

When I hold a basketball in my hands, it’s just a basketball. But when you place that same basketball in the hands of Michael Jordan, it turns into collegiate and professional championships. Put a paintbrush in any my hands, and it’s just a paintbrush. But put a paintbrush in the hands of Picasso, and you get priceless works of art. If you put a golf club in my hands, you will be chasing golf balls all day. But if you put that same golf club in the hands of Tiger Woods, you’ll get Golfing championships. The bottom line is that if you put what you have in the right hands, you will get amazing results.

So why can’t we do that with God? Imagine what could happen if you put your limited resources into HIS hands? Think for a moment what you could do for the Lord if you decided to give Him everything you’ve got? Even if it’s not much? Even if it’s just a little bit?

“A man was packing a shipment of food contributed by a school for the poor people of Appalachia. He was separating beans from powdered milk, and canned vegetables from canned meats. Reaching into a box filled with various cans, he pulled out a little brown paper sack. Apparently one of the pupils had brought something different from the items on the suggested list. Out of the paper bag fell a peanut butter sandwich, an apple, and a cookie. Crayoned in large letters was a little girl’s name, ’Christy -- Room 104’. She had given up her lunch for some hungry person.”

One little lunch made a difference. One little lunch touched the lives of others. Small things in the hands of Christ can accomplish amazing things.

That’s what we’re going to find out in today’s Bible lesson. In this story, Philip is going to be asked to do something that he thinks is not possible. But he’ll find out that when you let Jesus use what you do have, things can happen that we never thought possible. Let’s pick up the action in the first 4 verses. Jesus has just finished explaining to the Jewish community in Jerusalem why He chose to heal a man on the Sabbath. And verse 1 tells us that “Some time after this, Jesus gets on a boat and takes the 13 mile trip north across the Sea of Galilee.” And then He heads for the hills behind the town of Bethsaida, and He sits down with the disciples.

He’s been ministering in Jerusalem for weeks. He’s probably worn out. And according to Matthew 14:13, He just found out that His good friend John the Baptist was dead. And on top of all that, the Jewish Passover was just around the corner. So all things considered, I think Jesus just wanted some time to recharge his batteries and to be alone with His disciples before the busy holiday season.

But the people of Jerusalem don’t want Jesus to leave. He has been healing sick people left and right. People’s lives are being touched. And they’re so caught up with all of the miracles that they don’t want to be without Him. So thousands of people follow Jesus to the water. They get in their boats. And they follow Him all the way across the lake! And as they start climbing through the mountains, I’ll bet the disciples were looking down at all those people and saying, “AA.., when are they ever going to leave Jesus alone? Don’t they realize that He gets tired just like everyone else? Aren’t they sensitive to the fact that He needs some time off?”

But as tired and as somber as He must have been, Jesus never turned anyone away. As we look at verse 5, Jesus looks up at the great crowd coming toward Him, and He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?”

Why did He ask Philip this question? I think that is was because Philip grew up just a few miles away in the town of Bethsaida. He knows the north side of the lake as well as anyone. He knows where the bakers make their bread. He knows where they go to sell the bread. He’s the man.

But there’s an even more important reason why Jesus puts this question to Philip. Verse 6 says that Jesus “asked this only to test him, for He already had in mind what He was going to do.” He’s saying, “Philip, I know that feeding all these people looks impossible. But I want to see how you will respond to a humanly impossible situation. Will you trust me? Will you help me to help these people even if you don’t know how it’s going to get done?”

Does Jesus still test people with seemingly impossible situations today? Yes! Definitely! Maybe you’ve been through your share of impossible situations. Maybe you’ve said, “God, why are you testing me like this? How can you expect me to step out on faith and switch jobs without reassuring me that things are going to work out just fine?”

If you are the kind of person who has to know how everything’s going to turn out ahead of time before you get involved, you will never know the joy of living by faith. You’ll never know the excitement of what it’s like to completely depend on God.

On retrospect, what Philip should have said was, “Lord, I have no idea how we’re going to come up with the resources to feed 5000 people. But since you’re the Lord and I trust you completely, I’ll show you where we can go to find bread.”

That would have been the right answer. But instead, Philip said, “What do you mean, ’Where can we go to buy bread?’ Do you think we can afford to buy bread for 5000 people, besides women and children? That’s impossible! Eight months of a man’s wages wouldn’t be enough to feed this multitude! Just send these people home so that they can eat supper in their own houses.”

It’s easy to sit in judgment on Philip 2000 plus years later. It’s easy to say, “If I was in his sandals, I would never have said what he said. I would have trusted the Lord!”

But I’ll bet that if someone came up to you with a radical idea today, some of us would probably act just like Philip: “We can’t do that! It would be impossible! Do you have any idea how much money it would cost? Besides, we’ve never done anything like this before. It will never work!”

And as we read on, Andrew was no different. In verse 9, he says, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish.” “But how far will this go among so many?”

A barley loaf was about the size of one of those little cheddar bay biscuits you get at Red Lobster. And the barley loaf was the cheapest bread on the market. It was considered to be the food of choice for poor people. And the Greek word for fish used here actually refers to 2 little pieces of fish. So we’re not talking about a very big lunch. And Andrew is saying, “Lord, I’m bringing you everything we’ve got. But honestly, I can’t see how this is going to feed 5000 people. In fact, I could probably eat this food by myself and still be hungry! This is a little boy’s lunch! This isn’t going to feed people!”

That’s how I felt when I was preparing my sermon this week. The ideas weren’t coming to me. The thoughts weren’t generating in my mind. And I said, “I have no time, and I have no idea how to put this sermon together in a different way than people have already heard it.” And then, I found some ideas and my mind started running and hopefully we will all gain something new out of this message this morning.

But it’s not just ministers who work with barley loaves. Many Christians feel that they lack the resources that they need to serve the Lord.

They say, “Lord, there have been times when I thought about leading a Bible study, or going on a mission trip, or inviting a friend to church. But how am I supposed to do these things? My time is limited. My resources are limited. My experience is limited. All of my gifts and all of my talents and all of my abilities don’t amount to much more than a few barley loaves.”

But look at verse 10 and see what happens when our limited resources get into the hands of God. In verse 10, Jesus says, “Have the people sit down.” And everyone sat down on the soft green grass. And then Jesus took the loaves, and He basically said “Thank you God for the bread.” And then he passed out the food and gave people as much as they wanted.

Liberals sometimes say that what really happened is that Jesus passed out the bread. And then at the same time, everyone else pulled out their lunch boxes, and that’s how everyone got fed. But I think it happened just the way the Bible says! Jesus passed out the bread. And every time He reached for more bread, there was more bread to pass out! Same thing with the fish. Every time He reached for the fish, there was more fish!

I want you to remember that this story is not about how we can make a little go a long way. This is about how JESUS can make a little go a long way! It’s about how He uses our gifts and our resources and makes them go a lot further than what we could do by ourselves.

And then after everyone had all the food they could eat, Jesus said “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” And when they had collected all the leftover food, there was enough to fill up twelve small wicker baskets. You know why they had so many leftovers? Because Jesus wanted them to see that God is a generous giver. He doesn’t give you just enough to scrape by. He gives you as much as you need and then some.

And then when the people saw what Jesus did, they said to themselves, “Moses did this same miracle a long time ago when he gave our forefathers manna from Heaven while they were wandering through the wilderness. And now Jesus has given US bread from Heaven! He must be the great prophet that Moses talked about in Deuteronomy 18! Praise God! We want Jesus to be our king.”

But there’s a problem with this: Just because Jesus wants to make the little that we have go a long way doesn’t mean that we have Him in our hip pocket. It doesn’t mean that we can automatically get Him to be whatever we want Him to be. And to do whatever we want Him to do. And yet that’s what the crowd is trying to do. They wanted to make Him king by force. They wanted a Jesus that they could manipulate. They wanted a Jesus they could control. They wanted Him to go back into Jerusalem and kill the Romans and bring in the kingdom.

But Jesus will say later on in John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom is not about war and bloodshed and force. It’s about peace and love and righteousness. So no, I’m not going to go along with this.” And He’s also going to say in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry. And he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

In other words, “If you thought that it was so wonderful that I gave you bread to eat, imagine what would happen if you ate the REAL bread! Imagine what would happen if you took ME into your life!”

And if you do take Jesus into your life, He will take the little bit that you do have and make it go further than you ever thought possible. Give Him your barley loaves. Give Him your time, your talents, and your treasures. Put your limited resources into the hands of Jesus Christ, and watch Him accomplish great things in your life and in your family and in your community.

I mean look at the passage. Jesus takes the 5 loaves of bread and the 2 fish, He stands looking to the Heavens, probably with His arms raised, blesses or gives thanks, and breaks the loaves and gives the food to the disciples and tells them to feed His people in Matthew. And that is exactly what they did and there was plenty for all.

Now no one had their choice of the buffet bar at Golden Coral, or a Quarter Pounder with cheese, fries and a chocolate shake but they were all satisfied. And when they were full the disciples gathered what was left and there were 12 baskets full. You see, there was more left over when Jesus finished than when He began. This just proves the old saying that says, “You can’t out give God.” Ironically, there was enough food left over to be able to have a basket for each of the unbelieving disciple.

The miracle is a spiritual lesson for disciples of every generation. The hungry multitude is always present. There is always a little band of disciples with seemingly pitiful resources. There will always be small churches, and there will always be people that feel too small to share with others. But there will also always be a compassionate and all-powerful Savior.

When disciples are willing to give Him their little, He multiplies it to feed thousands. The notable difference is that the thousands who were fed by Galilee that day had their hunger satisfied only for a short time; but those today that feed upon the living Christ are satisfied forever. In John 6:35 it says, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry. And he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Worry not about what little you have to give. Whatever it is, God will bless it and spread it to the glory of God’s kingdom. Don’t worry about the future anymore. You provide the bread, put it into His hands and let God take care of the miracle.