MULTIPLYING OUR MINISTRY

[Last Sunday morning I brought this message and God blessed it and touched lives. I share it in this form today, trusting God to do likewise with you, the reader. ~D.T.]

“Then Jesus said, ‘Have the people sit down.’
There was plenty of grass in that place, so they sat down. The men numbered about 5,000. Then Jesus took the loaves, and after giving thanks He distributed them to those who were seated — so also with the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were full, He told His disciples, ‘Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted.’ So they collected them and filled 12 baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves that were left over by those who had eaten.” (John 6:10-13 HCSB)

Are there times when there needs to be two of you, or you wish there were 48 hours in a day? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if money really did grow on trees?

If you add excessive demands to minimal resources it equals frustration. These frustrations are not limited to our personal, family and business environments—they can plague the church also.

It can show up in church as worker shortages or budget shortfalls. But, what we must never forget to do is to add God to the equation. When the power of God is added, the resources are multiplied! We have an illustration of that principle here.

Note THE POVERTY THE DISCIPLES FACED.

“After this, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee and a huge crowd was following Him because they saw the signs that He was performing by healing the sick. So Jesus went up a mountain and sat down there with His disciples.

Now the Passover, a Jewish festival, was near. Therefore, when Jesus looked up and noticed a huge crowd coming toward Him, He asked Philip, ‘Where will we buy bread so these people can eat?’ He asked this to test him, for He Himself knew what He was going to do.

Philip answered, ‘Two hundred denarii worth of bread wouldn’t be enough for each of them to have a little.’” (John 6:1-7).

All that was in abundance was poverty. There was plenty of that. Here’s your clue—in a crowd of 5000, there were only 5 barley loaves and a couple of fish. Barley was the bread of the poor, so even the meager resources available were of meaningless significance.

Here we see The Principle of Emptiness. The only people who experience a miracle are those who must have one.

Consider that THE POVERTY WAS FACED WITH AN AWARENESS OF HUNGER. (v.1-6)

Great crowds were following Christ at the time—and great numbers meant great needs. Wherever you find the masses of humanity you will find a mess of misery—whether in the streets of Calcutta, the ghettos of NY and LA or the slums of Sao Paolo. How do we respond to that reality?

Hopefully, we react like Christ and not like the Twelve. The disciples saw them as a nuisance, but Jesus saw their need. He always did—He saw the hunger of a Nicodemus, the thirst of a Samaritan Woman, the desperation of a blind man, the grief of Mary and Martha when their brother Lazarus had died.

Do we see the people as Jesus does? If we did, maybe we would see the provision that Jesus dispenses!

But, we learn that not only that the poverty was faced with an awareness of hunger, but THE POVERTY WAS FACED WITH AN ADMISSION OF HELPLESSNESS (v.7)

Philip took out his calculator and putting the figures in came to see that he was helpless to humanly meet the need. Philip was walking by sight and not by faith.

Jesus was putting Philip to the test—and he failed. Philip had been present when Christ turned twelve jars of water into wine at a wedding. Scant supplies created no shortages in such a scenario when the Savior is involved.

It could be that God is allowing us to face a season of barrenness, that we might experience a supply of blessedness that follows. The emptiness of life may be the avenue Christ travels to come to you with His provision.

This is a story concerning the poverty the disciples faced, and further about THE POTENTIAL THE DISCIPLES FOUND.

“One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, ‘There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish — but what are they for so many?’ (John 6:8-9)

Inventory is evaluated. Andrew finds precious little, but remember, “Little is much, when God is in it!”

This is The Principle of Yieldedness.

Think about WHAT WE SHOULD YIELD TO GOD.

This young fellow who brought five loaves and two fish was poor. He may have been sent with these meager morsels with the intent of selling them—a peddler of sorts. Imagine how he was expected to come home and support a widowed mother—and now he’s given everything. What would Mama say? How would they make it?

It all must have seemed so insignificant, anyway.

But, dust is insignificant and God made a man from it!

Think about the stick Moses carried around Sinai for forty years as a sheep herder. God told him to throw it down and it became a serpent. When Moses in yieldedness threw it down and then picked it back up, it became a staff again—and much more! It was from then on—the rod of God. He stretched it out over the Red Sea and the water opened into a highway of escape from Egypt. When thirsty, he struck a rock with it and water bursts forth. He lifts that rod above the battlefield and Israel’s warriors prevail. That rod represented the power of God in the hand of man, but the transformation from a mere stick into a miraculous staff came at the point of surrender to God.

Samson used a donkey’s jawbone to kill 1000 soldiers and David used a slingshot to slay a giant. Those were insignificant weapons, but not when surrendered to the Lord.

God isn’t looking for ability so much as availability! The evangelist of yesteryear, D.L. Moody, heard a man say, “The world has yet to see what God will do through one man surrendered to Him.” Moody replied, “By the grace of God, I am going to be that man!” The impact of a simple man’s surrender to the Lord abides a century after his death.

This leads us to reckon with WHY WE SHOULD YIELD TO GOD.

Had the boy been selfish, the food would only have lasted till supper. You would have never heard of him and the miracle would have been missed.

He didn’t lose by giving. He gained. God did exceeding, abundantly above all that he could ask or think! His wealth is available for our want, His plenty in our poverty—but only as we yield what we have in our hands to His hands.

Thus, we have seen the poverty the disciples faced, and the potential the disciples found. There is more. We witness THE PROVISION THE DISCIPLES FURNISHED.

“Then Jesus said, ‘Have the people sit down.’

There was plenty of grass in that place, so they sat down. The men numbered about 5,000. Then Jesus took the loaves, and after giving thanks He distributed them to those who were seated — so also with the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were full, He told His disciples, ‘Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted.’ So they collected them and filled 12 baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves that were left over by those who had eaten.

When the people saw the sign He had done, they said, ‘This really is the Prophet who was to come into the world!” (John 6:10-14)

This is The Principle of Fruitfulness.

Our chief purpose in life is to glorify God. Jesus said that the way we do that is by bearing much fruit.

Fruitfulness depends on SUBMISSION (v.10)

What Jesus was asking them to do didn’t make a lot of sense—but they obeyed anyway. Jesus asks, “Why do you call me Lord and do not do the things I say?”

His instructions don’t have to be understood as logical, they are to be followed as law.

How rational was it for God to tell Joshua that the strategy for conquering the citadel of Jericho was to just march around its massive walls in silence once a day and on the seventh day to do it seven times—then blow the trumpets and give a shout? What about siege ladders to scale the walls or battering rams to break the gates? But, no, God asked them to trust Him and do the unusual that He might do the unusual. The result was the walls fell flat—and victory was secured.

Fruitfulness is dependent on submission and also SERVICE (v.11).

They became the channels of God’s blessing to the masses. Jesus was the source, but the disciples were the distributors. When they ran out, they went back to Jesus and He replenished their supply. Apart from God, we cannot, and apart from us, He will not.
Ponder this passage:

“Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me.

I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.” (John 15:4-5)

Fruitfulness is a matter of submission, service and STEWARDSHIP (v.12-14)

Nothing would be wasted. Our gifts can be squandered. Jesus told of a man who buried his talent. Think of the opportunity Judas had and how he threw it away.

As we think about our needs and our lack of resources to meet those needs, we must say the greatest need we have, of course, is forgiveness of sin. We are spiritually bankrupt and on our way to hell. But God has ample supplies of grace and mercy.

For those who have come to Him and become His children, all the wealth and strength of our Heavenly Father is our inheritance. Whatever He wants you to do He will supply the means to do it.