Sermon
The Breaking Of The Bread
November 18, 2001
Pastor Donald Sheley

Let's take our Bibles, and if you're using the pew Bible today I think it's around page 717. It's John's gospel chapter 6. I trust that you all have notes. If you don't have notes would you raise your hand and let's pass out all the remaining notes that are there. We'll only get to about page 3 today, but there are 12 pages of notes so you don't have to get a newspaper when you go to lunch today; just read pastor's sermon that he didn't get preached.

We're going to learn as much as we can in the brief time that's ours. We'll use the notes just for a moment or two to start with, but then we'll use our Bible, so if you didn't get notes just raise your hands because we want everybody to have the notes. Here's the lessons today: chapter 6 of John.

After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do. Philip answered Him, "Two hundred denarii worth the bread is not sufficient for them, that everyone of them may have a little." One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?" Then Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost." Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, "This is truly the Prophet who is come into the world."

Now let's take our notes just for a minute or two and then we're going to come back to the Scriptures. In our notes at the bottom of page one we open with this comment: apart from the resurrection, this is the only miracle found recorded in all four Gospels. It's important not just because it's recorded in each of the Gospels, but because of all that it signifies. Fortunately, the significance of the feeding of the multitude is spelled out far more clearly by John than by any of the other writers. And of all the wonderful works which our Saviour did none was quite so public as this, and none other was performed before so many witnesses. And in healing the sick and in raising the dead something was amended or restored which already existed, but here, was an absolute creation. Our Lord is here seen supplying the bodily needs of a great crowd by means of five loaves and two small fishes. Food was called into existence which did not exist before. Only one other miracle in any wise resembles it -- His first -- that is when He made wine out of water.

Now, the question could be asked: Why then was this particular miracle singled out for special prominence in all four of the Gospels? That's a good question. Well there are three possible answers. First, the evidential value. That is, some of the Lord's miracles were wrought in private or in the presence of only a small group of people. Others were of a nature that made it difficult, in some cases impossible, for skeptics to examine them. But here was a miracle performed in the open before a crowd of witnesses, which were to be numbered by the thousands.

And then there's the second value, the intrinsic nature of the miracle. It was a creation, which we've already observed, the calling into existence of what before had no existence. Now the third reason could be because of the typical import of the miracle. It spoke directly of the person of Christ. Matthew's mention of it suggests to us that it foreshadows Christ in a coming day feeding Israel's poor. And I've inserted the passage in Psalm 132. And if we read that passage it would read like this: I will abundantly bless her provision; and I will satisfy her poor with bread. That's Psalm 132.

Now Mark's mention of it teaches us what is the chief duty of God's servant, that is, to break the bread of life to the starving. Luke's mention of it announces the sufficiency of Christ to meet the needs of all men, and John's mention of it tells us that Christ is the food of God's people. Now as we go through chapter 6 we're going to come to that great sermon where Jesus says, I am the bread of life. He that eats of me will never hunger. So that's why I put that last line. John's mention of it tells us that Christ is the food of God's people.

Now because of its prominence many have tried to explain away this miracle. Some hold that a miracle took place in men's hearts and Christ induced the selfish to share their provisions. And thus, when this was done, there proved more than enough for them all. He shamed them all and they all got out their lunch pail and emptied it out. That's some explanation.

Others, I'm on the top of page 3 now. Others think the feeding should be understood as a sacramental meal, rather like holy communion wherein each received a tiny fragment. And as I studied the many manuscripts, I was amazed as to how many theologians buy that line. They think this was just a great big communion service and everybody got just a little tiny flick. That's their explanation.

Old Matthew Arnold, the agnostic, speaking of miracles, he says, they do not happen. A lot of ignorance and a lot of arrogance and that answer. Sir Julian Huxley, the great agnostic, said there's no longer either a need nor room for supernatural beings capable of affecting the course of the events in the evolutionary pattern of thought. Evolutionary man can no longer take refuge from his loneliness by creeping for shelter into the arms of a divine Father figure whom he himself has created. Then there's old Strass, the rationalist, and this is what he says: The water was not turned into wine. A new supply of wine was simply brought in. There was no miracle of the loaves. Christ and the disciples gave their provisions for the meal and that excited generosity in the crowd and so everybody shared and the need was met.

At the top of the page I said, but the view held by believing Christians is that it was a miracle--exactly as described in our Bible--and there is no reason to try to explain it some other way. That's our position. So now let's take our Bible, shall we? And our Bible lesson starts with the observation 'after these things'. What things? Well many things have been taking place. Jesus, of course, has preached that great sermon on His deity. He's healed the man by the pool. I mean miracle after miracle has taken place, but if we could read the other Gospels 'after these things', Jesus has just got word that His cousin John had his head taken off. And Jesus wants to go away for awhile. He just wants to get away from the crowd. He wants to take a little vacation. The pressure of the crowd; John's funeral, the one who introduced Him to His ministry. They were taking a toll. This is the human side of Christ.

So after these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. Now, you say, pastor, why did the sea have two names? Well it really had more names than that. If you open up the back of your Bible, some of you have maps, and you look at some of the maps that show the wanderings of the children of Israel during the Old Testament, you'll find that the sea is known as the Sea of Chinnereth or Gennesaret. That's the ancient name. During the times of Christ, it was called the Sea of Galilee. And now John writes his gospel about 65 years to 70 years after Christ has ascended back into glory. Rome has ruled, Tiberias has sat on the throne in Rome, and so they built a city to honor him on the Sea of Galilee and renamed the sea the Sea of Tiberias. So you see it changed names as history changed and as personalities came on the scene and left the scene. So that's the reason why we have two different names listed here, but it's the same sea.

It's a sea that's thirteen miles long, and only at the widest point, it's only about eight miles. It's a very, very narrow body of water. You can stand on one side on a clear day and watch the little ships sail all the way to the other side.

So it says, then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. See, you could stand on this side and if you saw the little boat and you wanted to beat him, you could run around the top of the lake; and by the time his little boat got to the other side, you'd be there. It says, a great multitude followed him because they saw His signs which He performed. Look down at verse 26 of the same chapter. Look at what it says: Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Jesus knew that for most of them they just wanted to be a part of the excitement, but besides that, they expected something out of it. Selfish reasons for following Jesus.

So Jesus went up on the mountain. There He sat with His disciples. Now the Passover, a feast, a feast of the Jews, was near. John records for us three different occasions when Jesus attends a feast of Passover. So that's why we conclude that Jesus' ministry, public ministry, was at least three years-3 1/2 years long-because John tells us of three different feasts that He attended; important feasts. And most likely many of those folks that formed that crowd they would often go around the upper side of the lake and then down the eastern side of the Jordan River. And the reason being is if they went down this side they'd have to go through Samaria, and when in Samaria they were unwanted. You see, the Samaritans and the Jews had no fellowship. So the best thing to do instead of creating a conflict, you just go up on the top of the lake and come down the eastern side of the Jordan River to Jericho, cross to Jericho, and head up towards Jerusalem.

So many of these that were a part of the crowd most likely were on their way to the Passover. That's why, I'm sure, that John mentions it here. And Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing this great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" And you say, well why did He talk to Philip? He's got twelve of them there. Why didn't He say Peter or by didn't He say... Because Mark tells us that Philip probably was from the city of Bethsaida, so this is familiar territory to Philip, I mean, it's his hometown. And not only that, this event, this miracle is taking place near the city of Bethsaida. So it's like saying to Philip; Philip, you know this area, where's the closest Safeway? Or where's the closest farmer that we can find some food for all of these folks that are out here. He addresses the question to Philip because Philip knew the location and knew the territory.

Now this is where the story really gets interesting and this is where I want the story to really get practical. If we just preach sermons to give you a lot of history and a lot of facts, it doesn't have much value. What I try to do is I try to live these stories out and place them within the context of our life and make some application for the truths of these stories as they relate to us. And that's what we're going to do.

There are three different reactions to what seemed to be an improbable challenge. Five thousand people for supper, plus the rest of the families. It could have numbered way, way beyond that. That's the challenge. And the heart of this story is found in verse six. Do you see it there? Jesus said this to him. It says, but this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do. What He wanted was to give Philip an opportunity to express his faith. Philip had been with Him. He had watched all these miracles. He had seen that he was with the Christ, and he could have simply said; Jesus, thank you for asking me. I've been with You for a number of months and I saw what You did to that water. You turned in to wine, and he could have gone on and said, Jesus, You can do anything You want to. Just go ahead and do it. But he didn't.

Old Philip got out his calculator, his bean counter, and he's said now two hundred denarii. Well what's a denarii? That was a wage that was paid to a working man for twelve hours of work in the vineyards--hard work--one denarii. So two hundred denarii would be the equivalent of two hundred days work. Old Phillip he adds it all up and simply said, Jesus, it can't happen. You can't do it. It's impossible. I call this pessimistic faith. Maybe I shouldn't even at faith to it. He a pessimistic. He's a bean counter.

Now here's my point, when we become children of God's kingdom we should learn to think like King's kids. Because when we do, if we love Christ with all of our hearts and we're face to face with whatever that multitude is before us, whatever the challenge, whatever seems to be a problem that's unsolvable, our natural reaction is to react with our human minds and to try to think it through from a human standpoint. I find myself frequently doing that. But if I learn to think as I should think as a Christian, the Bible tells me that He will never leave me nor forsake me. So in the midst of my multitude whatever that problem is, I know this, it says in the Bible that the steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord.

What does that say? There are no chances in my life. Everything that happens God has allowed it or arranged it for a purpose, to test me or to help me to grow. And yet my reaction is often to observe it as a problem and not as an opportunity for God to demonstrate His power in the situation. And I wonder after living 70 years how many miracles I've missed because I've walked away from opportunities in unbelief, and God never had the opportunity to do a miracle. Because I looked at it has a problem: unsolvable, too big, it can't be done. I took the Phillip approach, and all of us have experienced that.

Well, there's old Andrew. I think I can relate to Andrew just a little bit, because as soon as he sees the problem he starts doing something about it. Jesus in the other Gospels tells us how you set them out fifties and a hundreds, so they've got a lot of aisle ways. Can't you see old Andrew running up and down those aisles looking and seeking if anybody's got something to eat. I mean, he's busy trying to find an answer, but he's mixed it with an awful lot of skepticism. Even though, he finds this little boy with one little lunch pail. He brings it back and says, well I've got a guy with a lunch pail, but what's that among so many?

And the reason why I can relate to Andrew is because my natural tendency is when I come face-to-face with a situation, I immediately start thinking, now how can I solve this thing. And usually when I've got it all figured out, I've solved it and left God out of it. And that's why many times my solution never was the solution God wanted to bring in the first place. Because with all my efforts I added my skepticism and my doubt, and I can see Andrew standing there -- well, I brought this little guy, but all he's got is a lunch pail.

Now can't you see? You've got to put yourself in the picture. You're sitting there on the grass in this lovely area, and you're sitting in groups of hundreds and fifties, and here comes this great big guy and here's this little boy with a lunch pail. It says it's got five little loaves. Now those are not Wonder Bread loaves. They're little flat cakes like English muffins, just little flat cakes. And the Bible makes it very, very clear that they were made of barley. Now that was a poor man's food. That was the cheapest food you could buy, so he came from a very poor home.

So his barley loaves, and John tells us, two small-most fishermen will tell you how big it is--but John says these were little, small fish. And old Andrew comes up to him and says, hey, can I have your lunch? No! You can't have my lunch. My mother fixed that for me, and that's for me. So I was trying to think, now how could Andrew get that little guy to change his mind? He must have said to him, hey, do you want to meet that Man up there? Do you want to see Him? I'll introduce Him to you. The little guy said, sure, sure I'd like to meet Him.

I'm sure that when that little lad walked up to Jesus, and Jesus is there, the magnetism, the love, because children were attracted to Christ, he must have responded: 'Jesus, here's my lunch pail. Will this help?' Can't you see Him? Here's old Philip standing in the back. He said it can't be done--filled with unbelief. Here's old Andrew standing back and saying, well at least I tried, but all he has is a lunch pail. And little boy says, Jesus, here's my lunch pail. That's all He wants, is our lunch pail. That's all he had, and that's all Jesus needs.

Now there are some tremendous lessons to learn from this. We, weekly, daily, sometimes hourly, as Christians are confronted with what we think are problems, but what God put there as an opportunity to demonstrate His power. And ladies and gentlemen, if we go through life looking at things as problems, those problems intensify. They get bigger and bigger, and all of a sudden we don't make God a part of the solution. We just walk away in unbelief. I'm suggesting that we not see the issues before us as problems, but as challenges wherein God wants to do something wonderful in our lives.

In one of the services this morning I had a lovely lady sitting here and she was crying. And I was talking about looking at life's, what we call problems, look at them as opportunities for God to do something wonderful. And she came up and she said, Pastor, she gave me a hug and she said the reason why I'm crying is because I lost my job Wednesday. I said, you know, I had a man come up to me sometime ago and said, Pastor, I lost my job. And I said praise God. What do you mean? Because I said, I know you love God and I know you poured out your life. I said, you're going to be amazed at what God's going to do for you. Here comes an opportunity for Him now to really show the miraculous. He came to me the other day and said, Pastor, I retired, got my retirement and now my contract -- they want to hire me back. So my salary, you can figure it out, increases about 50 percent.

I'm not saying it always happens that way. Folks please don't...(Congregation laughs) But, you know, what I'm saying is I saw that man look at this. I said, let's just ask God to use this as an opportunity in your life where He's going to demonstrate His glory. So we look at it that way.

I had another mother come up to me at the last service and she was weeping, and she said, Pastor, you talked about a problem, but my marriage is on the rocks. And she said that's what I'm dealing with today and it really is a big problem. And I said to her, over the years I've watched God takes situations where it looked like there was no hope for a marriage, there was no hope for the salvation of the family, and I stand here Sunday after Sunday and preach to crowd after crowd and I can point out many, many dozens of people who sit in this congregation today who went through times when that breakage of the family was a problem. And they just backed away and said, God, this is Your problem. I'm going to work at this through Your eyes, through Your love, and I'm going to leave the results to You.

And I said to her let's not look at this as a problem today. You go home on your knees and just say, God, You show me what I'm to do, my part, my lunch pail, that I can contribute to the solution and I'll throw in the lunch pail.

You know, each of us have different lunch pails. Some of our little lunch pails are full of unforgiveness. And you maybe have wrestled with a relationship that you would love for that thing to heal, but as the weeks and the months have gone it gets worse. The opinions become more stayed and ugly, and you know you can't do anything about it; or at least you think. Why don't you give Him the lunch pail full of unforgiveness? Why don't you say, Jesus, I've carried this lunch pail too long and if it's giving You the lunch pail that's going to heal this relationship, I'm going to give it. I asked You to cleanse my heart. When you give Him the lunch pail He starts the miracle. It's amazing.

What is it that you're dealing with today that seems like a problem when God really is looking at it as a time for testing? And He wants you to see it that way, and if you'll see it that way, let Him guide you and let Him tell you what to do. Let Him tell you what the lunch pail is you need to throw into the solution.

You know, I've studied this all week and I said, dear God, now I've got some real challenges, now where's my lunch pail? Where's my resource that You've given me. What is it that I have that I can give to You so that You can go ahead and spread the banquet? So I'm running around now in life looking for lunch pails just like Andrew; because if I can find the lunch pail. What is it that God can use that I have? My time? My resources? What is it that He can use that I have to give to Him so He can turn the problem into a miracle?

Now I can't forget that little guy. I think as soon as Andrew brought him up to Jesus that little guy stood there, because this man had his lunch. And I think he kind of watched then he saw this: Jesus says, Father from the earth Thou hast given us these blessings. And the little boy watched. And you say, where did the miracle happen? Well, use a little logic. It couldn't have all turned into bread for 5000 right there. I mean, how you going to carry enough bread, 12 people, for 5000? And what He did was break off enough and gave the disciples each something, and it was as they were distributing it the miracle took place. It was in the act of participation.

Remember, we've observed something about these miracle that ought to teach us something. Almost every one of them Jesus involved human involvement. It's amazing. Take the jugs, fill them up. He didn't need to do that. He could just say (snaps fingers) fill with wine. He didn't do it. Those servants went out and filled up those... They were a part of the miracle.

That little boy is standing there and he's watching these guys go down the rows, and it doesn't change. And if he would have kept his lunch pail to himself, all he would have had is five little shriveled up pieces of bread and two small fish. I think he standing there and there's this multiplication, I mean it's five it's ten, I mean he's going to have a couple dozen pieces of bread today, and all the fish He wants. It says, when they were all full. I mean, that little guy he didn't have a lunch, he had a banquet.

And I think what he did is he probably filled up. Maybe when he got home, mom says, I only gave you five little loaves of bread and some fish, and here you bring home this whole basketful. I think he shared that. You say, you've got a great imagination pastor. We sometimes just make the Bible so historical, but this was a scene that really took place. And this was a little guy that watched Jesus take what he had and turned it into a banquet. And I don't think that little guy ever forgot that moment in the presence of Jesus.

Ladies and gentlemen, I've got to stop. We'll continue on our lesson next week. But I want you to leave this place, find a quiet place, whatever that thing is, that problem, that relationship, whatever the problem as you see it; say, God, I want You to change my focus and help me to see this event, this circumstance in my life as a time for You to test my faith. I'm going to throw in the lunch bucket, whatever's in it, and I'm going to give it to You and I'm going to let You take this, what I have, and do the miraculous. Will you try? Make sure you give Him the total lunch pail. Right? And when you give it all to Him, He gives it all back plus, plus, plus, plus, plus. Just a terrific story. I've got to quit.

Father, thank you for Your word. And some of us today sit here with tears, and I know that, because life has thrown to us what we have looked at as unsolvable problems. But we are Your children and You've told us You'll never leave us nor forsake us, and that our steps are ordered by You, and that all things will work together for good. That's true. Because that is true, the circumstances with which we are dealing are opportunities in which You can demonstrate Your glory. And help us to see it that way. And now help us to act upon the lesson we just learned, and I ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you all. God bless you.