Summary: no matter what we bring to Jesus, he will use it to bless others

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Only miracle, besides resurrection, repeated in all 4 gospels.

Some try to explain this miracle away: When they saw the boy was willing to share his lunch they all took out their lunch baskets. Miracle was in convincing the Jews to share! Would they want to crown him king because he tricked them into giving away their lunch? READ

The passage is about giving. Specifically What Jesus expects us to give him We will look at four areas:

I. Give of ourselves

1. Context - Jesus sent out the 12 (ministry is tiring) and then heard of the death of John the Baptist Matt 14:13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. Large crowd: Capernaum and Bethsaida had pop of + 2000 - 3000 each


3. They were tired. How would you or I react in that situation? The same as the disciples

a. Matt 14:14 (niv) When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so that they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food."

"Full of compassion" cf "Send them away" (privacy had been invaded)

4. Jesus will never send us away John 6:37 (niv) All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. He expected his disciples to have this attitude and so must we.

5. We need to be willing to give of ourselves when it costs.

6. Giving of yourself may mean:

a. giving your time

b. giving your reputation

II. Give of our finances [“where shall we buy bread ...”]

* Jesus didn’t protect the disciples from the situation. (behind that bush you’ll see a mule who’ll take you to the nearest Spur ...)

We protect new Chris¬tians "No you can’t go and witness untill you’ve done EE III ..."

My mother has nightmares when she stays with us because I let Daniel climb trees / walls and then jump off. 3 girls at camp praying for demonised friend.

1. Jesus asked "Where should we buy food" NOT "How?" They must have had enough money to buy food

2. Jesus wasn’t expecting Philip to give up the money but he was testing him

3. Wasn’t his reaction typical? New sugestions are often shot down because of a lack of funds but the lesson Jesus was teaching his disciples was that financial resources are not the most important factor.

EasterFest. (Cost R185 pp - charged R135 / R155 pp. Had R3000 left over)

4. God is more important than money. The reason we need to be prepared to give of our finances is not because God needs our money, but because we are so easily tempted to put our trust / security in our bank balance instead of in God.

I can’t tithe. If I do I won’t have enough money left over ... who are you trusting?

III. Give up our opinions [8,9] “what are they among so many?”

1. Jesus answered in a way nobody expected

2. This is the only way it can be done ...

a. ILLUS ... Tim Team (turned down by YfC so thought it was over)

3. Is 43 Behold I am doing a new thing. The wild animals can see it, but you can’t. We don’t see it because we know how God should do it, don’t we?!

4. ILLUS problem of the 9 dots

5. Mustn’t put God in a box

IV. Give what we have

1. Jesus can do the job without us but yet he chooses to do his work through us.

a. used the resources at hand (could have said: “Let their stomachs be filled!”, but he used the bread)

b. disciples handed out the bread

c. Taking off Lazarus’ graveclothes

2. This is one of the great mysteries of Christianity. Why should God choose to work through frail humans?

He want’s us to give him what we have.

3. And to add emphasis [11] Jesus gave thanks for what he had

a. Even though it was barley loaves (poor peoples food)

b. He give’s thanks over your gifts (and we aren’t satisfied) SIES

4. There was more than enough left over

a. they were satisfied - no half jobs

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