Seeking once again the help of
God, I would like us to turn together to the chapter that
we read together, the Gospel according to John chapter 6,
and the text you'll find in verse 9. There is a lad here which hath
five barley loaves, and two small fishes, but what are they among
so many? Over the past weeks on the Lord's
Day, we've been looking at the I Am's of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first one that we looked
at is contained in this chapter, which I am the bread of life,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the true bread that came down from heaven.
He says that your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and are
dead. But those who eat of me, who
believe in me, who trust in me will have everlasting life. And we see at the beginning of
this chapter, the account is taken near the near the time
of the Passover. The Passover was a time when
the Jewish people looked back to their great deliverance in
Egypt when the Lord passed over their houses and they were spared
the death of the firstborn. Through the sacrifice of the
firstborn lamb, they placed the blood upon the lintels and upon
the doorposts. And when the angel passed over,
he says, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. At this
time of the year, they were remembering that great deliverance. that
time of year also it was the time of the barley harvest and
there was the gathering in of the crops and here in our account
there is a lad who has five barley loaves and two small fishes. Now this text I don't normally
say anything about how texts come On Sunday night I was thinking
about what took place on the Lord's Day. We had four visitors,
five visitors in the morning. Four of them stayed behind for
lunch. A big Dutchman. Obviously no
one was prepared for them to come. there was sacrifice made and
they were fed they were filled and everyone was satisfied. As I thought over that Sunday
night this text is what came to my mind. Sacrifice. The Christian pathway is a life
of sacrifice. By our nature we are selfish. One of the first things that
children learn is to say it's mine. And in our culture because
we have enough money we encourage that type of behaviour because
we buy each child their own individual things. And because we live in
big houses, we have enough. Children tend to have their own
bedroom, their own bicycle, their own bed, their own things. And so we grow up with this mentality
of, it's mine. The scripture says, greater love
has no man than this and a man lay down his life for his friends.
The Christian life is a life that has been wrought because
of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. The only reason
there is spiritual life is because Christ laid down his life. He
gave what was most precious to him so that others may live.
And if you go through the book of Acts, you see how that manifested
itself, that love to Christ manifested itself in the lives of the early
believers, the early church. They said each one didn't count
anything of his own. No one had any need for they
all looked after each other. They laid everything at the feet
of the apostles who distributed it to everybody that had need. So what took place as people
distributed what they had to assist those who did not have
was biblical and Christian. The scripture says we are to
love each other as we love ourselves. The whole law is summed up in
these two things Jesus says. To love the Lord your God with
all of your heart, soul and mind and to love your neighbour as
yourself. And so the Christian ethos is
you go without so that another may be filled. To look out for others rather
than look out for ourselves. This is something we learnt in
Kenya. You give a bag of sweets or you give a banana or a mango
to the children of Kenya and they won't say it's mine. The
older ones will make sure that the little ones have. And so
everybody has a little. Everybody has a taste. They will
pass one sweet round, one will have a suck, another one will
have a suck, another one will have a suck. Each gets to taste. And here we have a little lad who gave all that he had to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ took
all that he had and he distributed it to over 5,000 men beside women
and children? Do we have a lad who was willing
to give? We don't know whether he was
selling these five loaves or fish. Whether it was his lunch. Whatever it was and whatever
reason he had it, They were his. But he gave them to the Lord
Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ performed a great miracle
and there was a great blessing that took place. And so the miracles of the Lord
Jesus Christ point us to who he is and what he can do. They prove that it was not word
only but it was action. Those who listened to him they
were not just hearers of the word but they were doers also. And that's how it should be in
the life of every single person who professes faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. They're not just hearers of the
word they are doers also that the love of Christ is to manifest
itself in the way that they live, the way that they talk, the way
that they deal with other people. It should be said of a Christian
that he loves others more than he loves himself. He's willing
to give rather than to receive. And so the actions of Christ... prove the reality of the word
of Christ. The miracles of Christ put a
stamp of authority upon the word of Christ and our lives as Christians,
the way that we live as Christians put a stamp of authority upon
the word that we speak. There's no point being a preacher
of the word or a Christian of the word and it not manifesting
itself in the way that we live. No point in preaching water and
then drinking wine for it will destroy the message that you
preach or that you say. And so Christ as he proclaimed
the word of God he also went about doing good. He also went
about proving the reality of the message that he was ministering. In Matthew chapter 9, the Lord Jesus Christ heals and
forgives the man who was paralysed. He immediately begins with his
sin. forgiveness of sin. Son be of
good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. Now the forgiveness of
sin of itself is not seen and the Pharisees round about him
understood that it's only God who can forgive sin. Some people
go to priests and the priest says to them that your sins are
forgiven. Some people can go to the Pope
and the Pope can declare sin forgiven but those words can
never be proved. Anybody can say to somebody that
your sins are forgiven but that doesn't actually remove the sin
itself. Christ said to this young man,
this man, son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven. And Jesus
says, obviously they then rise up and say that he's blaspheming.
And Jesus says to him, what is easier to say, thy sins be forgiven
thee or to say, rise up and walk. And so obviously to say your
sins are forgiven is easy. but actually to have the ability
to remove sin is impossible unless you are God himself. And so Jesus
to authenticate the statement of your sins are forgiven says
to the man, get up, take up thy bed and go
to thine house. And so the miracles that the
Lord Jesus Christ did proved the reality of the word that
he spoke. They were a visual stamp of authority
that people could see. And it's the same with our lives.
What people see is what they will declare about us. They may
say oh he says this, this and this but his life is inconsistent
with the words that he speaks. And so the words and the lifestyle
have to be compatible, have to flow together. We say this and
we do this. We declare we love the Lord Jesus
Christ and yet we don't behave as though we love the Lord Jesus
Christ. The world will pick up on that. The word and the action
must fit together as Christ's message fitted together. Not only was he proving the reality
of his message but he was fulfilling the prophecy about him that was
prophesied about him years ago. In the book of Isaiah we read,
Isaiah 29, we read about the coming prophet that in those days, Isaiah
29 verse 18, and in that day shall the deaf hear the words
of the book and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity
and out of darkness. The meek also shall increase
in their joy in the Lord and the poor among men shall rejoice
in the Holy One of Israel. also in chapter 35 and from verse 3 it says strengthen
ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees say to them
that are of a fearful heart be strong fear not behold your God
will come with vengeance even God with a recompense he will
come and save you The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and
the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame
man leap as a heart, and the tongue of the dumb sing. For
in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the
desert, and the parched ground shall become a pool, and the
thirsty land springs of water, and the inhabitants of dragons,
where each lay, shall be a grass with reeds and rushes, and on
highway shall we there. and a way, and it shall be called
the way of holiness, and the unclean shall not pass over it,
but it shall be for those, the wayfaring men, though fools shall
not err therein. And so the miracles of Christ
are proving that he was the one that was going to come, the opening
of the eyes of the blind, enabling the dumb to speak and the lame
men to walk. And so as Christ went about ministering
the Word of God and fulfilling all righteousness and healing
those people, he was fulfilling the prophecy and stamping the
mark of God upon his ministry but also He was declaring things
that only God could do. The miracles of Christ declare that He is God manifested
in the flesh. take five barley loaves and these
two small fishes and to distribute them to five thousand people
then to go from there and to walk upon the water to his disciples
and to still the storm and to bring that boat to land immediately
is no other than the work of God, God himself. You'll remember in the Old Testament
there were things that God did to his people. We saw how he
provided for them in the wilderness. He gave them everything that
they needed for every single day. Throughout the times of
the kings we see him appearing and healing people. We see him
providing for people. And so Christ carries on that
work of God into the New Testament era. 1 Kings chapter 10 verse 17 we
have the account of the lady where she gave Elijah the cake. She had to act first, to obey
the word of God first and take that meal and make a cake for
the Lord's servant. It was not until she had done
that that the Lord blessed that act of faith and continued to
supply her daily need. She says, as the Lord thy God
liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel
and a little oil in a cruz. And behold, I'm gathering two
sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and for my son, that
we may eat it and die. That was it. I don't know if
any of us have ever come to that position, our last meal. This
is it. And then comes along somebody
and says, well, first give it to me. What would we say? Would we be
able to take God at his word and say, love your neighbor as
yourself. This person needs it more than
me. And then to unload our last meal
and give it to that person. Elijah says, go and do as I have
said, but make me thereof a little cake first and bring it to me. and after make for thee and for
thy son. And thus saith the Lord God of
Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall a cruise
of all fail until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the
earth. There it was. Trust in the word
of God and do what God has said. That is faith. Taking God at
his word. He has said, if you do this,
then I will honor that act of faith and you will never run
out of food or oil. And it says and the barrel of
meal wasted not neither did the cruise of oil fail according
to the word of the Lord which was spake by Elijah. God is faithful to his people if they act in accordance to
his word as to what he has said and they trust him he will provide,
he will help, he will assist. In my bible I had a reference
to 2nd Kings chapter 4 again Elijah another miracle of God. And there came a man from, in
verse 42, and there came a man from Baal Shalisha and brought
the man of God bread of the first fruits, 20 loaves of barley and
full ears of corn in the husks thereof. And he said, give unto
the people that they may eat. And his serviteer said, what
should I set before an hundred men? he said again give the people
that they may eat for thus saith the lord they shall eat and leave
thereof so he set it before them and they did eat and left off
left thereof according to the word of the lord he's wondering what am i going
to do we don't have enough there's a hundred people here we don't
have enough And the prophet says, give them. God is able, he's
able to multiply it and he's able to make them have enough
so that there will be enough, there will be food left over. And I have proved this in my
life. You know, in Kenya, people just
used to turn up. And else they would say, well,
we don't have enough food. The Bible says, do good to all
men. People need to eat. And so she would begin finding
some beans there and beans here and scratch together a meal.
And you would wonder, how has this food been able to feed this
amount of people? They're all full and there's
some left. when you originally thought you
don't even have enough. God does things that you can't
even imagine. But you have to step out. You see we live in a society
that's so wealthy. Very rarely do people step out
of their comfort zone and come to this point of handing over
everything to God and saying here it is, this is it. I don't
have any more left. My five barley loaves and two
small fish, they're gone. I don't have anything else. We've always got a reserve. And so we never truly see the
great hand of God in how he has worked in times gone by, in healing
and providing. Here is a lad, five barley loaves, two small
fishes. And Andrew says, what are they
among so many? or five barley loaves and two
small fish in the hand of God. He's everything. He's the God
that created the world out of nothing. He's the God that caused the
barley to give ear and to be able to be used to make bread.
He is the one that controlled the seasons. He is the one that
caused the fish to swim into the net. enable the little boy
to have fish to sell. He is the god of the impossible. That is what a miracle is. A
miracle is something which defies the ordinary, which is unexplainable. It cannot be comprehended with
the human mind. It is only to be done by God
himself. And the impossibility of the
situation highlights the greatness of God and the greatness
of the need. And notice that it's Jesus himself who says, He tested his disciples. When
Jesus lifted up his eyes and saw a great company come unto
him, he said unto Philip, When shall we buy bread that these
may eat? The question came from the Lord
Jesus Christ. He highlighted the difficulty
of the situation, the impossibility of the situation. There's over
five thousand men here who need to eat something what are we
going to do? Why he did it to test them. They witnessed him turning water
into wine you would have thought they would have said ah you turned
water into wine a year or so ago Surely you can deal with
this. But no they look at it in a material
way, with human eyes. We say he failed the test. How often have we failed the
test? Jesus has said What are you going
to do here? How are you going to deal with
this? And we say, oh, I don't know. We begin to work out all
these schemes and things by how this is all going to work out. And we've been put into a test. When shall we buy bread for these
to eat? He said this to prove him, to test him. In the Old Testament in Malachi
it says, prove me now, saith the Lord, that I will not open
the windows of heaven and let there down a blessing that there
will not be room enough to contain it. Why did he say that? Because
they were offering the blind and the lame sacrifices. And God said, you just do what
I have told you to do. and you will see there will be
a blessing. Be obedient to me and you will
see that I will bless you. What are these among so many? When actually speaking was an
impossibility, but in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ, He
was able to distribute those five loaves and those two fish
to feed the 5,000 people and to have 12 baskets full of fragments
left over. But also there had to be sacrifice.
There had to be sacrifice. Now however this young man whatever
reason he had these five barley loaves and two small fish they were his. Maybe his mum gave them to him
in the morning and said go and sell them get us a little money. Maybe it was his dinner or his
lunch but whatever it was He had to sacrifice, he had to give
it to the Lord Jesus Christ. He had to give it all. The scripture says, deny yourself,
take up your cross and follow me. You've got to give it all. We
cannot half-heartedly follow the Lord Jesus Christ. If he has redeemed us with his
precious blood, he hasn't redeemed half of our life. He hasn't redeemed just 80%. He's redeemed us whole. He's
cleansed us from all of our sin and he desires that we wholly
follow him. There's sacrifice. Jesus himself
says to consider the cost. If you're not willing to wholeheartedly
follow Christ then you're not worthy to follow the Lord Jesus
Christ. You cannot have your foot in
the world. You can't have your foot on the
broad road and the foot on the narrow and follow the Lord Jesus. You're either on one or you're
on the other. You cannot serve God and mammon
or material wealth or the material things of this world. You serve
God or you serve the other. There was sacrifice from this
little boy. He gave his all to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And often we do, don't we, have
to give our all. We have to be brought to nothing before God moves. He had to hand over everything.
to the Lord Jesus. Peter, when he was fishing, he
says to Jesus, Lord, we have toiled all night and we have
caught nothing. Brought to emptiness, brought
to nothing. But it's then in that extremity
of self-inability that God appears. that Christ appears, make the
men sit down, he says. As I was thinking of this, I
thought of the story that I read of Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor believed that God
was calling him into the missionary field, into China, and he left
all. And he got onto a boat and was
sailing there. On the way, there was a complete
calm. No wind. And they were being
taken by the currents to be smashed on the rocks on a reef. And Hudson Taylor said to the
captain, now go and pray. And you put the sails up. And
the captain said, no, no, you go and pray, and then when the
wind comes, I'll put the sails up. He says,
my God doesn't work like that. I'll pray, you put the sails
up, and God will bring the wind. The lad had to hand over his all to the Lord Jesus Christ
And then he saw God work. It wasn't the other way round. That's not faith. Faith is stepping
off the boat and walking on the water. Faith is stepping out,
trusting God completely in his word, believing that he is able
to do far more than we can even comprehend. He's resting solely
on his word. He gives his all. The servant
of Elijah obeys the lady, the widow lady, obeys the word of
the Lord and then she sees. You put the sail up and I will
pray and the Lord will bring the wind. There is a lad here
which has five barley loaves and two small fishes but what
are they among so many? And also I thought that this
lad may have been despised of his meagre offering. And I thought
of the Lord Jesus Christ as we read further on in the chapter
that he is the bread that came down from heaven. This has a
similarity to the Lord Jesus and the work that he did. There was an impossibility of
this multitude that needed feeding and there was no food. There was an impossibility. There
was a multitude of people who were lost in their sin and there
was no hope of them being saved. They were completely hungry and
thirsty and separated from any spirituality. They were dead
in trespasses and sins. It was an impossibility. We have the children's hymn says,
And for his people Jesus says, I'll bear the punishment. instead. So there was sacrifice, an impossibility. There was a sacrifice as this
lad gave the loaves to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus
Christ gave himself as the sacrifice for sin and there was a blessing. These
people were all fed, they were all satisfied those who believe in Christ they
are fed, they are satisfied, they are fed with the bread that
came down from heaven, they are cleansed from all of their sin
and absorbed as Christ is absorbed into by his spirit into them
as it were so this and nourishes every part of their body so So
as these partake of the five barley loaves and the two small
fishes so we partake of the bread that came down from heaven. And so his miracles stamped the
Lord's approval upon the word. And our lives are the visual
sign which stamp or authenticate the word which we hold within
our hearts. We can't say one thing and do
another. True faith steps out of the boat
and it's the stepping out. It's there that you see the blessing.
It's the giving of all. Then you see the blessing. You
don't expect God to work. behind you. There must be a stepping out.
There must be obedience. I was thinking also of the Sunday
school we've been going through once a month of the different
children in the Old Testament. And one thing that keeps coming
up time and time and time again is obedience. To obey is better
than sacrifice and to hearken and the fat of lambs and the
children that we see that God blesses in the Old Testament
are those that obey. hear his word and they obey it. May he
give us then ears that hear what the Spirit says to the churches
and help us to be like this young lad who gave his all to the Lord
Jesus Christ and saw great blessing, multitudes fed by his five barley
loaves and two small fishes. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen. Let's sing our final hymn from
Gatsby's 698, to the tune 671, 698. Pause my soul and ask the
question, are thou ready to meet God? Am I made a real Christian,
washed in the Redeemer's blood? Have I union, have I union to
the church's living head? 698. So I've asked the question, am
I ready to be told? Am I made a real Christian? Spirit, live a life of faith
and prayer. Trusting only in His Word, passing
on Him all my care. Daily panting, daily panting,
in His blinding ? Of this coming Christmas ? But on the brink of danger comes
the face Dear Lord and Heavenly Father,
we thank Thee for Thy holy word and the record of Thy Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, and we thank Thee for the record of Thy great
dealings with Thy people and even for the young lad who gave
his five loaves and two small fishes to the Lord Jesus Christ
and how he dealt with that multitude of people. We pray Lord that
our faith may be increased, that we may trust thee for time and
for eternity. We ask that we may be dismissed
with thy blessing and do return us here upon thy day and now
may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the
Father with the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with us each now and for evermore. Amen.