Sermon
Jesus Christ - The Miracle Worker, part II
February 20, 2005
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'm going to ask you to take your notes today from your bulletin and my thoughts today are on a tremendously interesting subject, and that is the multiplication of the fish and the bread in the feeding of the 5000.

If you're new this today, we have spent the last number of weeks talking about Jesus. And what our concern is is that the heretics and those who produce all the heresy and these various cults, the first thing that they attack in the Christian faith is the person of Jesus Christ, and they make Him less than what the Bible describes Him to be or declares Him to be and that is the divine Son of God; God in human flesh.

So what we did, we spent our first four or five weeks going through the various passages that discuss the deity of Christ. And we came across the interview that Christ was having with Philip, and Philip asked the question concerning Christ, we'd like to see the Father. And Jesus answered, if you have seen Me, you have seen the father. And then Jesus went on to suggest that if it were is difficult to believe what He said, then consider the evidence of the miracles that He did as an evidence to His deity.

So we considered that a real invitation and last week we went to one of His miracles, and this week we want to consider the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 and how this miracle proves the deity of Jesus Christ. So in your notes I have given you the record there in Matthew. It's Matthew 14:15 - "When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food."

But Jesus said to them, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." And they said to Him, "We have here only five loaves and two fish." He said, "Bring them here to Me." Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children."

Now there's another record of Him feeding 4000 and that follows in the following chapter in Matthew, Matthew 15, "Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way. Then His disciples said to Him, "Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?"

Jesus said to them, "How many loaves do you have?" And they said, "seven, and few little fish." So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left. Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. And He sent away the multitude, got into the boat, and came to the region of Magdala."

We contend that the Person and the work of Christ indeed is the very foundation of our Christian faith. In the first four lessons, as I have noted, we have talked about the deity of Christ.

Page 2. Christ's claim to deity brought about the wrath of the religious leaders that demanded Him to be crucified. Now the reason I have included these two various portions of Scripture is because those who teach the heresy that Christ was not divine will also tell you that He never claimed deity. Yes He did. Let's read the passages.

"As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw Him, they shouted, "Crucify! Crucify!" But Pilate answered, "You take Him and crucify Him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against Him." The Jews insisted, "We have a law, and according to that law He must die, because He claimed to be the Son of God."" A direct claim to deity.

Then in John 10 we have this passage: "Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon's Colonnade. The Jews gathered around Him, saying, "How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly." Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in My Father's name speak for Me, but you do not believe because you are not My sheep. My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand; My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and the Father are One."" That is a claim to deity.

"Again the Jews picked up stones to stone Him, but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone Me?" We are not stoning You for any of these, replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because You, a mere man, claim to be God."" They recognized His claim to deity.

"Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods'? If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came-and the Scripture cannot be broken- what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son'? Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."

In other words, consider My miracles. Look down at the bottom of the page and again I reference the conversation that Jesus had with Philip. "Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves." And thus, that's the invitation that we accept this morning, to consider the evidence of the miracles and the miracle under consideration is the feeding of the 5000. There's something very interesting about this miracle. It's the only miracle that appears on record in the four Gospels. Plus, it's referenced in Matthew and Mark a second time, so we have six references to the miracle that we're discussing this morning - the feeding of the 5000.

Now while many people have tried to explain away the event, it's clear that all the gospel writers saw it as a very important miracle. It's very interesting folks. As I approach this subject of the miracles to find material and research on the subject of miracles is very, very scant.

There's a great old classic that was written over a hundred years ago by a professor named Professor Trench, and he wrote and exposition, I think about 11 or 1200 pages, on the miracles. But in present-day Christian literature you will find very, very little written on the matter of miracles. And why? Because basically in Christendom today there is a belief in what is known as the Cessationist Theory. What does it mean, Cessationist Theory?

The teaching simply is this, that all miracles ceased at the close of the apostolic age, and therefore much material, very little material is available on the subject of miracles. But it's interesting to read those, the skeptics, who try to show why they disbelieve in miracles. One writer says really what happened is that Jesus had baked all of this bread and there was a cave behind the place where He was preaching, and so when He came to the time of feeding He just pulled the bread out of the cave.

That's harder to believe than the miracle itself. I'll tell you why. Did you notice that in the record it says that there were 5000 men or 4000 men. Do you know why? Because according to Jewish custom the men always apart from the family, the wives and the children eat apart. So the men were set aside and counted, but not the wives and the children.

Now let's do some assuming here. In Judaism the place of bachelorhood was not popular because under Judaistic teaching all the males were to marry, so most likely if there were 5000 men there were maybe 5000 wives. Now also in the Jewish home children were considered a blessing, and so the larger family that you had the greater the proof of God's blessing upon your family. Even in the family of Jesus we have the record that after Mary and Joseph had Jesus they had six other children at least. We have their names twice in the Gospels. Four boys and it says the sisters, so that's a family of seven children.

So now we've got 5000 men, possibly 5000 wives, and even if we reduce it down to two children per family, boy folks, we've got a lot of folks for supper. That's 20,000 people. And to try to explain away a miracle that big takes a great big imagination. And thus, we find that in this miracle, as I have noted, it's recorded in all the Gospels.

I'm now at the bottom of the page. And if we were reading the miracle in the context of what's in the Scriptures, it follows that moment when Jesus has been informed that His cousin John has been beheaded. John is dead. And Jesus just wants to get away to spend some time...John was the one that introduced Him in the wilderness. Now John is dead and Jesus just would like to have some time to be alone with His disciples, but the crowd followed Him and when He landed His heart went out to them in compassion even though He was hurting inside because he was feeling the pain of the loss of His cousin...and He opened up His heart.

Look at what it says in the middle of the page 4 in Mark 6:34 - "And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things." So not only did He heal on this occasion, but He took time to, even with a heart that was tender with pain.

As the day wore on the disciples suggested to Jesus that the hungry multitude should be dispersed to seek necessary food in the nearest towns and villages. This He would not permit. He had already asked Philip how the people should be fed. In this testing of the measure of Philip's faith, we have a striking evidence of omniscience, for we read that He knew in Himself what He would do.

Omniscience - when we talk about God we often speak of Him in terms of His attributes, and His attributes one would be His omnipotence - omni is all, nipotence would be all power - so we describe Him in His all powerfulness as His omnipotence. Niscience has to do with knowledge so all knowledge. We say when God is omniscient that means that He has all knowledge.

And I suggest here that the omniscience of Jesus, which is a characteristic or an attribute of deity that's being evidenced in this particular miracle, is demonstrated in His knowing people's thoughts and in seeing Nathaniel under the fig tree from far, far away, and knowing from the first those who would...those who did not believe and those who would, and the one who would betray Him.

He knew those who would not believe thus implying that He knew the belief or unbelief that was in the hearts of all men. In fact, John says explicitly that Jesus knew all men and needed no one to bear witness of men. The disciples could later say to Him, "Now we know that You know all things." And these statements say much more than what could be said of any great prophet or apostle of the Old Testament or New Testament, for they imply omniscience on the part of Jesus, which is an attribute of deity.

Now omniscience as I note here is an attribute of deity and God's knowledge may be defined as follows: God fully knows Himself and all things actual and possible in one single eternal act. Now you say, Pastor, what does that mean?

What I'm saying and what the theologians say is that God knows everything from eternity past to eternity future, everything (claps hands) in a moment. I mean He does it in a matter of comprehending (claps hands) He knows it all right here. Everything (claps hands), in an actual moment.

Now that's impossible because we learn and we grow in knowledge through graduation, or we learn things and facts upon facts, but God knows everything now, the eternal now. He sees it. That's His knowledge. Read on with me.

God knows all things actual which means all things that exist and all things that happen. Now this applies to creation, for God is the One before whom "no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." That's the Hebrews passage. God knows the very tiny details about our lives. Jesus says the Father knows what you have need of before you ask Him, and He also tells us even the hairs of your head are all numbered. God knows everything.

You know some years ago as I was reading at, I was thinking about that in terms of prayer. I asked myself the question, you know, usually our prayer is made up of a lot of please do this, please do that, God I need this, and God I need that. When I read that I thought to myself now this is foolish -here I'm telling God something He already knows, and why should I waste my time doing that? Because if He already knows what I have need of I could just simply say, God, You know me and You know all about me and You know my needs now I want to spend the rest of the time just worshiping You and enjoying Your presence. And ladies and gentlemen, it absolutely transformed my prayer life because I realized...sure there are times when my heart is really burdened and I come to God in those times, but when I pray I just say, God, You know all about it. We've got 15 minutes here God, and I just want to worship You. I just want to tell You how much I love You. And I'll tell you, it changes your relationship in terms of your pray if He knows everything. He knows all of your needs. He knows what's on your heart, and He really does care.

Back to our notes. In the Scriptural record of the miracle of the feeding of the multitude, Jesus demonstrated this attribute of deity in His knowledge of Philip's reply. "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."

Dropping down, another passage - In our Matthew passage, we read: "And when it was evening the disciples came to Him and said, 'This is a lonely place, and it is already late in the day; dismiss the crowds, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.' But Jesus said to them, "They do not need to go away; you give them to eat.""

Now I suggest that this demand baffles the disciples. Does He mean that their very limited material resources will suffice to feed such a vast multitude? And I have already numbered them for you. What does the Master mean when He tells the disciples that they must supply food for this vast multitude? Well here might be one suggestion.

They were often ready to do this very thing, and to say, "Dismiss the crowds." Remember when the mother of the demon possessed girl came, the Syrophenician woman, and she wanted Jesus to heal her daughter and they said, you know, send her away. The parents would bring their little children for Jesus to bless them, and those disciples wanted to chase away the parents with the children. Don't bother the Master was their slogan, and don't bother us.

You know, when I read through the Gospels I get a little agitated at those disciples. They acted like they were just trying to defend Jesus, put a wall around Him. Don't you bother the Master, and don't you bother us.

Back to our notes. I think that what Jesus wants to remind those disciples - I'm at the top of page 6 - of the fact that simply trying to get rid of people in need is really not the solution to the problem. It is certainly not God's way of doing things.

Now in my notes I have underlined this as one of the two main thoughts about this miracle. Follow along with me. Often God puts us in situations in which He would like to demonstrate His power and His glory, and often our response is to dismiss or avoid the opportunity or the challenge and we miss the possibility of a miracle.

Now think with me. I'm suggesting, here is an opportunity, here's a challenge, and the first thing those disciples want to do is to get rid of it, send them away. Send them to the village. Send them to buy food. And yet Jesus said don't send them away.

And I think of this, and I was meditating on it this week, I think that there are times in our lives where in the pathway of life God sets a challenge before us. We immediately evaluate our resources, whether we can handle it emotionally, whether we can handle it, whatever it might be, and first thing we reason out is all we've got is five loaves and two fish, and I can't handle this situation.

And the first thing we do, and I know this is the way my mind works, here's the challenge, and I'm trying to work out a way to circumvent the challenge and go on. I think we're all that way. We see oft time situations that are beyond us and the thing we do is to try to circumvent. When we do that I believe that we miss the opportunity of a miracle.

Let me explain. Here's an example. I have couples that come and their marriage has come to that moment where the challenge is let's just get a divorce. Instead of resolving the matter, let's just circumvent it, and that often becomes the most tragic decision. And yet I've had the joy of time and time and time again saying, now couple, look at, you are Christians. We understand the commitment of marriage and let's put our hearts to this and let's work on it, and let's let God take what could be a tragedy into a marvelous triumph. Let's not try to get around the issue. Let's face it straight on.

Ladies and gentlemen, over the years I have seen miracle after miracle where two people decide we're not going to circumvent this problem, the easy way, the human side of the divorce. We're going to ask God to help us turn this into a miracle. And I look across my congregation service after service, and I see family after family that came to that challenge in their marriage and they took the issue not to circumvent it, but to ask God to help the miracle.

Let me tell you that what really fascinates me about this miracle...not, I mean can you imagine it says that He set them down in groups of 50s and 100s. Now He's got 5000 over here and He's got the children and the moms over here, and he's got 12 doubting disciples around Him, and they are all standing there. They are already ready to eat. They are sitting down ready to eat.

The disciples say what's He going to do now? Notice the first thing He does. He says let's pray, and He blesses the food in the Jewish custom, and on page 7 I give you the little prayer that He prayed there, because it was always said at every Jewish meal. And then those disciples they got baskets.

One writer said, what happened? Did He keep multiplying those fish, their heads, their fins - and they are just little sardines. This usually was the size of the little fish that they had. How did He do it?

I don't know, but the disciples are there and He fills up Peter's basket and Thaddeus' basket and Bartholomew's basket, I mean, and those guys are standing there. They are amazed. Here's the creative power of deity at work creating all of this food and then they start passing it out. And notice, he says, He gave it to the disciples and the disciples then gave it to the multitude. Now that to me is really interesting, because all they could have done is say, now look at folks, you're all seated here; I want you to close your eyes and just cup your hands, and I'm going to pray, and when I finish praying your hands are going to be full of food. And when He prays...

I mean it could have been that simple, because all He had to do was speak the word. That's all He had to do, but He had these doubting disciples around Him. They get involved and they become the participants, because it's in the handing out that the miracle is taking place. Again, can you imagine those guys after they have fed about 10,000 and their baskets are still full? What they're thinking?

Here is what I want you to catch. In most of the miracles when you read them God always, Christ always, involved human beings. He let them be the participants.

I mean He walks up to old Lazarus' tomb and He could have said to that stone (pastor blows hard) and it would have blown away. But He didn't. He said, hey you guys, roll away the stone. Can you see them? He wants us to...that guy's been dead four days and he stinks. Those guys start rolling away that stone; they are participants in the miracle. He walks up to the open sepulcher and says Lazarus, come forth.

Here's my point. I believe that we miss a great dimension of our Christian faith because we miss this truth: He wants to do through us that which brings glory and honor to His name in the world around us. He just needs us to be available. He wants us to be involved in that miracle that's going to take place, and oft times we don't see those opportunities. We simply try to get around them.

What I've done in recent, as I've been thinking about this in recent days, I said, Lord, if we could live each day and say, God, now here's a situation and it comes and I face it instead of trying to get around it, and say, Jesus, how can You use me? What can I do? How do You want me to share in this so that when it's all finished something brings honor and glory to Your wonderful name? And I'll tell you folks, if we confronted life and life's challenges from that perspective, I believe the excitement dimension to our Christian faith would absolutely be astounding, because all He needs is us, and He'll do the rest.

A marvelous display of omniscience; a marvelous display of creative power by deity, but it teaches me some very practical lessons: don't run from life's challenges. Let Him use me to turn this thing into a miracle - all of us. Have you got it? Let's pray.

Father, it's so true. We're just like those disciples. We're confronted in life with challenges and opportunities, and we see them as something we want to get rid of, something we want to bypass, and something we want to get out of the way. Would You help us this week to see the challenges before us as opportunities wherein by You working through us in love and in compassion, however You want to work through us, whatever resources we have, help us to be the participant in bringing glory to Your wonderful name. Please help us Jesus. Amen?