- 00:06
- Well, good Wednesday to you. We're in the middle of the week and we are at the end of June, last day of the month of June, and has been quite a month, hasn't it?
- 00:17
- Thank the Lord for all He has done for us this month and how He has provided for us. And by the way, while you're watching this,
- 00:25
- I've recorded it ahead of time. I always do. But while you're watching this, my wife and I are supposed to be out backpacking in Kettle Moraine State Forest up in Wisconsin.
- 00:43
- Supposed to be doing that all this week. It's a first for my bride. She has never done an overnight backpacking trip.
- 00:51
- You know, you put the pack on the back and you sleep in tents and yeah, we're doing that for six nights.
- 00:58
- So, pray that she survives. Pray that I survive. That she doesn't kill me for having her go out with me on an excursion like this.
- 01:09
- I think it'll be fun. It'll be enjoyable. I'll let you know how it goes. But anyway, so that's where we are as we wrap up the month of June.
- 01:18
- And I hope you're doing well wherever you are and whatever you're up to today as well. Well, we read today in Luke chapter 9 and one of the events that's recorded by Luke in this chapter is the miracle of the feeding of the 5 ,000.
- 01:32
- And naturally, we're just drawn to the miracle itself, aren't we?
- 01:39
- I mean, this is an incredible situation. 5 ,000 men plus women and children are gathered here before Jesus.
- 01:47
- They're listening to Him teach and they need to eat. There's nothing for them to eat, but Jesus provides.
- 01:54
- He takes these few fishes and loaves of bread and He miraculously breaks the bread, breaks the fishes into baskets, into a dozen baskets for the disciples to pass around to the people.
- 02:10
- And there's so much that's provided. Everybody eats all that they want and they want no more.
- 02:17
- And there's baskets of fragments left over. It's a stunning miracle.
- 02:24
- Astonishing miracle. And it made such an impact on the people that hereafter, they kept trying to find
- 02:33
- Jesus and to follow after Jesus because they wanted Him to give them more bread. Understandable. It's an astounding miracle.
- 02:39
- But the thing of it is, as much as we are rightly and naturally and appropriately astounded by the miracle and the compassion of Jesus to provide for people in this way, what we must not overlook is the purpose for it.
- 03:02
- Now, there was a secondary purpose in Jesus performing this miracle.
- 03:09
- The secondary purpose is for people to eat, give them something to eat because He didn't want them to go home hungry.
- 03:16
- But there's a primary purpose. And it's illustrated, I mean, it's brought out. The primary purpose comes out when the disciples come to Jesus.
- 03:25
- And you notice how they initiated this. It says in verse 12 that when the day starts to wear away, it's getting late afternoon, getting toward the evening hours, toward suppertime, if you will.
- 03:38
- The disciples came to Jesus and said, we need to send this multitude away so that they can go into the surrounding towns and country and get something to eat.
- 03:46
- I mean, it's quite a jaunt to the McDonald's and you get it.
- 03:54
- And they said, we're in a deserted place. There are no fast food restaurants out here. There's no grocery store.
- 04:00
- There's nothing. But then Jesus says to them in verse 13, you give them something to eat.
- 04:11
- What? What? Now, we know the rest of the story that Jesus is going to take these loaves and fishes.
- 04:18
- He's going to break it. He's going to perform this miracle. He's not asking them to perform a miracle. But he says to them, you give them something to eat.
- 04:28
- But they respond, we can't. What do you mean? How can we give them something to eat?
- 04:34
- All we have here is five loaves and two fish. Unless we go off to the towns and go to the market and try to find enough food, that's going to cost a fortune to do that.
- 04:45
- I don't know that we're strong enough to lug all the groceries back here to feed 5 ,000 plus people.
- 04:52
- You give them something to eat, Jesus says. Wow, that's an incredible response.
- 04:59
- Why does he tell them to give these people something to eat? Because Jesus is wanting to teach his disciples something here.
- 05:08
- It's a lesson that he wants to teach them that he wants all of his followers, all of his disciples to learn.
- 05:15
- That includes you and me, if you're a follower of Jesus. The lesson that he wants us to learn is that everything that we think we can't do, when he tells us to do it, can be done through him.
- 05:35
- Paul learned this lesson later on in the Christian growth.
- 05:42
- Paul becomes a believer. Paul becomes an apostle. Jesus is ascended and gone. Paul is carrying out his ministry.
- 05:49
- He writes a letter to the Philippians, the church at Philippi, probably 30 years, roughly 25 years after this event.
- 05:58
- He says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
- 06:05
- By the way, that verse doesn't mean I can do whatever I want to do through Christ who strengthens me.
- 06:11
- If I want to become an Olympic athlete, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
- 06:17
- That's not what it means. I've heard that verse humorously explained how
- 06:25
- I've seen this verse used. I saw recently a coffee mug that had this verse distorted on the side of the coffee mug.
- 06:36
- It said this, I can do all things through a verse taken out of context.
- 06:43
- That's the problem with that particular verse. It doesn't mean I can do anything I set my mind on through Christ who strengthens me.
- 06:52
- What Paul is saying is I can do anything that God gives me to do, that God calls me to do, through Christ who will strengthen me to do it.
- 07:03
- Paul, in that context, says I know how to be abased. I know how to do without.
- 07:08
- I know how to live in plenty. I can do all of this that God has called me to do through Christ who strengthens me.
- 07:14
- This is what Jesus is teaching his disciples with this feeding of the 5 ,000. You give them something to eat, we can't.
- 07:24
- No, you're right. You can't in and of yourself. But watch how, through me, you can do anything that I tell you to do, that I give you to do.
- 07:37
- Any task that I call you to perform, you can do it through me. I will strengthen you to do it.
- 07:45
- And so, they give Jesus the fishes and they give Jesus the loaves.
- 07:51
- And they discover this very, very important principle of the Christian life. If God calls me to feed 5 ,000 people with the little, if nothing, that I have, then somehow, someway, he'll multiply the fishes and the loaves to enable me to do what he's called me to do.
- 08:14
- I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. This lesson that these disciples need to learn.
- 08:21
- Have you learned it? Have I learned it? Boy, I wish I could say I've learned it perfectly and was in great maturity in this level.
- 08:30
- I'm growing. How about you? Our Father in heaven, I pray today that from this wonderful miracle, this powerful miracle that you performed, and in it, you taught your disciples a very, very important lesson.
- 08:46
- It's one that we need to learn. Lord, help us to learn to know that whatever you've called us to do, whatever you've given us to do, we can do it through Christ.
- 08:59
- Help us to trust him in the doing of it, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.
- 09:06
- All right, well, have a good rest of your last day of June. I trust that God will bless you in it richly and look forward to a new month dawning tomorrow.
