Praise God for His provision
Too many people in our congregations are simply surviving, straining to get by, making it but not quite making it. Life is requiring all they have to give it and a little bit more. They need a little more time, a little more energy, a little more money. For many, the alarm makes its annoying sound each morning before the sleep is done. The frenzy of another day starts, and there is an avalanche of things to be done. Breakfast is rushed through, more work than can be done is waiting and it cannot get it done because people are coming by and the phone is ringing. The day is filled with meetings and even lunch is a meeting. There are kids to be picked up from school and taken to practice or lessons or games. People get
to their house exhausted and it should be a haven of rest, but even one’s home has demands. There is housework and yard work, meals to prepare and then it is time to pay the bills and once again a person realizes there is too much month left at the end of the money. The operative word is "lack". A lack time to do all one needs to do. A lack the energy to do the work easily. A lack the money to pay all one needs to pay. How great it would be to have a little more time for one’s schedule, a little more energy to do things, and  a little more money to spend.  It is to this end the scripture tells us how to have more than we need."
Why is life so hectic? What causes us to seem to have less than we need?  Well, the truth is found in this phrase “Jesus is More than Enough!”

In our gospel reading today, Jesus extended mercy to the many.  He did it then and He continues to do so now. Regardless of what state or situation you may find yourself in today, Jesus is able and willing to extend mercy to you if you will receive it. You can bring your troubles to Him and you will find sympathy, compassion, and a love so strong that it will not let you stay in the sin which brings turmoil to our lives.

Jesus had mercy for the many people gathered there, and that mercy resulted in His ministry to the multitudes.

30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.

31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.

33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.

34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late.

36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

37 But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages ! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

38 “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.” When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

In the Book of John we see that a boy had brought the laves an fish. (⁸ Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, ⁹ “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?)

39 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass.

40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties.

41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all.

42 They all ate and were satisfied,

43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish.

44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

We would all agree that it is not enough to just have a feeling of compassion for someone. That compassion must result in some kind of action if it is to do any good. This is stated very clearly in James 2:15, 16, “If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?” It is worthless.

Jesus had compassion and He did the work that was in keeping with His compassion. He healed the sick. The word sick here refers specifically to those who are “weak, without strength.” These people had to have made a special effort to travel around the northern end of the Sea of Galilee to follow Jesus. Many of them no doubt would have had to have been helped by their friends or relatives. Jesus had compassion on them and healed them.

It is both interesting and significant to note that all of Jesus’ miracles were related in some way with a demonstration of His compassion toward men. If Jesus had wanted to demonstrate His power He could have started moving mountains around, but that would not have demonstrated His love for humanity. Instead, most of His miracles were directly to individual people such as physical healings, casting out demons, forgiving their sins, and even those that were not, such as calming the storm,  and feeding the people, were done in response to the cry for help by those threatened by the calamity upon them.

And so we have the MIRACLE OF MULTIPLICATION: Verses 15-21,

“And when it was evening, the disciples came to Him, saying, ‘The place is desolate, and the time is already past; so send the multitudes away, 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 something to eat!’ And they said to Him, ‘We have here only five loaves and two fish.’ And He said, ‘Bring them here to Me.’ And ordering the multitudes to recline on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave to the multitudes, and they all ate, and were satisfied. And they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets. And there were about five thousand men who ate, aside from women and children.”

There are several things to note. The first is the size of the crowd. It was 5,000 men, not counting women and children. The number of people could have easily been two to three times that amount: 10-15,000.

Next, note what Jesus had to work with. Our text says five loaves and two fish. John 6 gives more detail saying that the food came from a lad that Andrew had found with “five barley loaves and two fish.” The barley loaves were not large, and the two fish were most likely the small Tilapia, now called “St. Peter’s fish,” which is the size of a lake perch. All that was available was this boy’s lunch, and Jesus was going to feed a lot of hungry people with it.

Why does Jesus do this miracle? John 6 gives us some additional insight into the reason. In verse 15, we find that the disciples have come to Jesus asking Him to send the people away to find food for themselves. This place was desolate with no large villages or cities nearby to get food easily, and the “time was already passed” (verse 15) for when most people would have eaten, so they want Jesus to send them away to get something to eat before it gets any later.”

John 6:5 tells us that earlier in the day Jesus had pointed out to Philip the size of the crowd and the problem of feeding them. Now Philip and Andrew as well had probably been working on that problem for awhile, because when Jesus told the disciples to feed the crowds Philip had already calculated out how much it would cost to feed them, and “two hundred denarii worth of bread” would not be “sufficient for them for everyone to receive a little.” If all the wages a man had earned over the course of 200 days of labor – fully 2/3 of the working year – were used to buy bread, it would not be enough to even give each person a little bit. Andrew had already assessed what resources were available on hand and found only the boy with the five barley rolls and two small fish. It was no wonder they were surprised at Jesus’ command to them feed the multitudes saying, “you give them to eat.” They saw that task as impossible.

But that is a major lesson that Jesus was teaching the disciples. Remember that Jesus and the disciples had set out originally to spend some time alone.

The task that Jesus charged his disciples with was impossible for them, but that was just the point being made. They would be sent out to do what was impossible by every reasonable means of human endeavor. But Jesus can do what is humanly impossible and the disciples were to look to Him just as we are today.

Often we find that we are charged by God with responsibilities that seem impossible. The task is impossible for us alone, but we must be faithful to the task and rely on God to provide what we cannot.

The same is true in living for Christ. I cannot live and witness for Him in my own power. I cannot fight sin in my own power. That is impossible for me to do and at times I feel that so strongly my emotions seem to be crying out that I must sin in order to find relief from the sheer tension of it all. We must rely on the promises of God that are beyond my own power and simply seek to be faithful relying on Him to do the rest.

Remember that God will provide a way. God will make a way Where there seems to be no way
He works in ways we cannot see
He will make a way for me

He will be my guide
Hold me closely to His side
With love and strength for each new day
He will make a way, He will make a way

 Our part is to be faithful to His commands and then see how He delivers. Your future is in God’s hands and God will put you where He wants you. God will provide for those who seek His kingdom and His righteousness first. God can sustain you.

Say “yes” to a righteous response even when others make fun of you for doing so. You are living with eternity in mind. Say “yes” to proclaim the Word of God even when others may hate you for it. We are more concerned about pleasing God than pleasing men. Say “yes” to serve others even when it requires sacrifice on your part. Our purpose for living is to serve God and others for Him, not ourselves. God will provide for us when our priority is to serve Him and strive to be holy.

The apostles were just like us. All they could see in front of them was an impossible task even though the one who could do the impossible was right there with them. It is not recorded that they asked Jesus for help. All they said was that they could not do it. They did not have enough, so why try? They were defeated before they started.

Have you ever felt that way? The task was beyond you so why even try? Remember that God does not require success from us, only faithfulness in following His commands. It is God Himself that works out the end result. Jesus told them to give to the multitudes to eat.

The apostles, and we, are not to be mindless servants of God who act without thinking, but we are to have the faith of a child that fully expects his father to provide. It is not a matter of our understanding why He wants us to do something, but a matter of trusting Him that it is best for us and that we will be able to do it and/or He will be there to help us.

Jesus was there and He did help even if they did not specifically ask for it. He tells the people to sit down in organized groups of 50 and 100. That must have been quite a site as they sat there in multicolored splashes of color against the backdrop of the lush green grass that grows there in the early spring and the beautiful blue sky above. Then Jesus took the bread and the fish and blessed the food, giving praise to God for what was provided. Then Jesus broke the bread and divided it among the disciples to distribute to the multitudes. Nothing in the text specifically indicates when the bread and fish multiplied or how it did so. There was no fanfare, there was no majestic public display, but quietly, and perhaps imperceptibly the food multiplied with the magnitude of the miracle being attested to only by the many people who ate and were satisfied and the twelve baskets of leftovers.

My thought is that the miracle occurred much as those in the Old Testament did. The widow woman of Zarephath whose jar of flour and jar of oil never ran out, though there was little in them and she used them for a whole year (1 Kings 17:10). Or the case of the multiplied oil of the prophets’ widow when Elisha had her continue to pour oil from one container and fill up a room full of vessels. The oil multiplied even as she poured it out. I believe the same occurred here with the food multiplying in the baskets even as it was being distributed.

Jesus performed a miracle of multiplication of food. Five small loaves of barley bread and two small fish multiplied to feed and satisfy well over 5,000 people and the fragments that were leftover amounted to more food than when they had started.

But what does all this mean to us? The miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 is obviously a very important miracle since it is the only one repeated in all four gospel accounts.

Jesus’ demonstration of compassion is a model for us. Life is not about our convenience, but about serving the Lord. Ministering to others is not always convenient, yet, as we see people through God’s love, we reach out self-sacrificially to meet their needs.

We also find that truly ministering to someone necessarily involves telling them about God. We should help meet the physical needs of others, but our real purpose is to reach out and meet their spiritual need. Another lesson here is that we need not question the wisdom of God asking us to obey Him. It is enough for us to know of His love for us and that He will enable us to do whatever He asks. And we must remember that God is not limited as a human. What is impossible for us is the possible for Him.

God wants us to know that Jesus is more than enough…that Jesus supercedes our inability with his supernatural capability that he wants to put on the inside of us…notice notice notice…that Jesus did not say…okay disciples I take care of this…this is too much for you…no, no, no, Jesus said you feed them…you give them something to eat…..what Jesus was saying..is that you make the effort to minister unto to them and I will bless your effort…I will multiply your effort…I will strengthen your effort…I will make your effort to minister become successful. We cannot any longer my friends shrink back from the great mountains of tasks that are before us we are going to literally have to start taking our little bit and giving it to Jesus and when we do so, Jesus will take our little bit and make it into much. Jesus works beyond our ability. Jesus is the master of assigning things to us that we cannot do because Jesus wants us to learn that he has come to do the work through us. Jesus wants us to learn how to lean on him. Jesus wants us to learn how to trust in him. Jesus wants us to learn how to rely on him. Jesus wants us to learn that he wants to glorify himself through us. And Jesus assigns us a task that only he can do through us not something that we can jump up and do and say I did this myself….let me tell you Jesus wants you and I to be involved in ministry that is beyond our limitations because it’s not about our limitations…it’s about Jesus unlimited, unlimited, unmeasured, beyond comprehensive ability to move in our lives personally, in our families and in the church. Jesus is more than enough.

And so we proclaim that Jesus is more than enough. Just as there was more than enough food to feed the multitude, so there is more than enough help from Jesus in any situation we give to him and ask for assistance.

And that is a message to share with the world. Jesus is more than enough. For the poor person with no money to pay bills. Jesus is more than enough, For the person sick with a devastating disease, Jesus is more than enough.  For the young. Unwed mother, Jesus is more than enough.  For the young wife facing divorce, Jesus is more than enough.  For whatever your problem, have no fear, for Jesus is more than enough! Jesus is the answer for the world today.  He is the answer for you, and your family and friends, for your church and your community,   He is the answer for this presbytery!  Never Forget that “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” Praise God! Jesus is more than enough! Amen. Amen.
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