Feeding the 5 thousand!
Ken’s message: Unlike Sam’s Club whose sole purpose is to profit from the sales they make despite them giving out food samples in the store, we as the disciples of Jesus don’t care about profit.
As we go out into the world, we need to have compassion, mercy, grace to those around us. Whether it’s our local/town community or county or state. We need to be not just teachers, but doers!
Through our generosity God blesses His people, He blesses them abundantly.
Reference: Dr. R.C. Sproul founder of Ligonier Ministries
This is one of the few miracles that is recorded in all four Gospels, and we have just heard it from Luke’s perspective.
Jesus withdrew from the city and went out into a desolate place. There, He was busy preaching the kingdom of God and healing multitudes who were brought to Him with various diseases and maladies.
As evening was approaching, the disciples had a sense of concern and compassion for the vast multitude that numbered five thousand men, not counting the women and children. There could have been easily twenty thousand people assembled in this spot listening to Jesus. So, the disciples said: “The people have been here for a while. It’s getting late. We must dismiss them so they can go into the villages, where they might find lodging and get food.”
It is interesting to me that, once again, the disciples were coming to Jesus and giving Him advice as though He needed it. How like the disciples we are in our prayers when we try to give counsel to God Almighty and be His instructors. In any case, Jesus did not debate with them. He said: “You feed them.”
You can read between the lines of what comes next. The disciples were saying: “We have five loaves and a few fish. That’s not enough to feed this multitude. What do You mean, ‘Go feed them’?” Jesus responded: “If you can’t feed them, at least you can organize them. Organize them in groups of fifty and tell them to sit down, and I’ll make sure they’re fed.”
The disciples responded back to Jesus: “We don’t have time. We don’t have the money to go to any store or any town that has a bazaar where we can buy enough to feed this multitude.” Jesus said, “Get them in groups of fifty, and let Me take care of the rest.”
Blessed Abundantly
Jesus took the five cakes and the fish and, by the power of God, multiplied them so that every person who was gathered there that day was not only fed, but fed to the point of satisfaction. One writer says they were “filled.”
What the crowd experienced was not like passing around a little piece of bread during communion. The people were filled to a sufficient level by the bread and fish that Jesus provided for them. Not only were they filled, but they were filled abundantly. When Jesus was finished, they gathered twelve baskets full of leftovers, so that Jesus provided more than what they needed.
Jesus did not just give them what they needed. He gave them way beyond their needs, which is one of the points Dr. Futato made recently at our missions conference: when God blesses His people, He blesses them abundantly.
Reference: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/teachers/rc-sproul
