Quick Note – John 6:5-9 – “What Are They for so Many?”

John 6:5-9 – “5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?”

In the early 1900s, a woman by the name of Gladys Aylward felt called by God to become a missionary to China.  Although she did her best to apply to work with the China Inland Mission, she was rejected and seen as unfit for missionary service due to her test scores, age, and maybe even stature (She was a short woman physically.).  Although she was rejected, she was determined to go and saved up money every month from her job to buy a train ticket to China.  Eventually, she arrived in China and began her work as a missionary.  With little money and little support, she began by telling Bible stories at an Inn being run by a fellow missionary.  Over the years, she also became a “foot inspector” for the Chinese government, making sure that the practice of foot binding was no longer continued.  During and after this time, she also continued to share the Gospel and began to care for orphans.  After twenty years of service, when she returned home, she was well-beloved by both the Chinese people she served as well as the church back home.¹  This woman has gained so much respect that her life was even featured in the 1958 movie The Inn of the Sixth Happiness which starred Ingrid Bergman.  Gladys Aylward is an inspiring example of a person that was seen by the world as nothing but was used by God to do something incredible.  Who knows how many people have been affected by the work that she did?  The person everyone thought was useless was used by God to bring His name countless glory.

Our passage today is an excerpt from John 6 that describes the miraculous “Feeding of the Five Thousand.”  To summarize, a huge crowd of people that numbered 5000 men not including women and children came out to a secluded place to meet Jesus.  After spending the day with Him listening to His teachings and watching Him perform miraculous healings, these people must have been exhausted and hungry.  Knowing this, Jesus asked His disciples to feed the people.  All His disciples could not believe what they had just heard come out of Jesus’ mouth.  How could they find enough bread to feed this many people?  According to Philip, even if they had two hundred denarii (two hundred days’ wages) worth of bread that wouldn’t be enough to feed all the people.  It was at this time that Andrew, another disciple, would tell Jesus that all they had was five barley loaves and two fish and “…What are they for so many?”  All the disciples were seeing was the impossible.  They saw what they had and felt inadequate.  They saw the small insignificant meal and could not imagine how it could be of any use.  Jesus then took the bread and the fish, prayed to God, and began to share the food.  In the end, the supply fed 5000 men not counting the women and children.  Jesus took what every one of His disciples thought was worthless and used it to bring His name great glory.

When we as disciples of Jesus Christ feel inadequate for God’s task for our lives at hand, when we feel like we are useless or pathetic and incapable of being used by Him, when we feel like we are too stained of sinners to bring God glory, we need to remember that God takes the foolish things of this world to shame the wise, the weak of this world to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27).  We need to remember that God can take any one of us no matter how small, no matter how stained with past sins, no matter how unsmart, to bring Him glory.  God took 300 men with Gideon to conquer the Midianites.  God took David, the youngest of his family, to be one of the greatest kings of Israel.  God took Rahab, who used to be a prostitute, to be a descendant in the line of Jesus.  God took the things that the world saw as useless, as insignificant, as worthless and brought His name praise through them.  Let us never forget that God takes those who are humble and willing to be used by Him for His work; not just those things that the world has labeled worthy of success.  God took and used the small woman Gladys Aylward to care for many in China and to inspire missionaries today, and God can use you if you would just be willing to submit your life to Him.  I want to close today with a quote by Gladys Aylward:  “I wasn’t God’s first choice for what I’ve done for China. There was somebody else. I don’t know who it was — God’s first choice. It must have been a man — a wonderful man, a well-educated man. I don’t know what happened. Perhaps he died. Perhaps he wasn’t willing. And God looked down and saw Gladys Aylward.”¹

¹ “History of Mission:  Gladys Aylward.”  The Traveling Team. 2015. http://www.thetravelingteam.org/articles/gladys-aylward.

Quick Note – Luke 8:38-39 – Declaring All That God Has Done for Us

Luke 8:38-39 – “The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’  And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.”

Maybe I am speaking for myself, but I think everyone loves to be appreciated.  When you do something for someone (although you are not doing it for recognition), it is always nice when that person is so happy that they want to share what you did for them with everyone around them.  For example, I am overjoyed, when I do something nice for my girlfriend and she posts it on social media.  It’s not because I want a whole bunch of people to know what I am doing, but it makes me feel like she is proud of me and appreciates what I did for her.  It makes me feel like she is not ashamed of me.

And I am almost certain we have all been on the other side of the equation, in which we experienced something so amazing we couldn’t wait to share it with everyone around us.  Based on what I have seen with friends and family as well as television, some of the guaranteed times this happens is when someone has just accepted a proposal/been proposed to or has a child born.  Since I have not experienced either of these things, some examples when I personally felt this feeling was when I got my first training grant, when I bought my new car, and when I was first going out with my girlfriend (Some of my workmates can attest to how I couldn’t stop talking about her).  Good news is just hard to keep in!

In our passage in Luke 8 today, we hear of a man who was demon possessed in a region of Israel known as the Gerasenes.  This man was possessed by so many demons, that the demons called themselves Legion (likely as a reference to a legion of Roman soldiers).  Although he would be restrained by the people in the town, he had a tendency to break out of them and run around naked in the wilderness that surrounded that town.  When Jesus came to that place, he exorcised the demons, leaving the man in his right mind.  When Jesus was leaving the country, the man wanted to go with Him, but Jesus told him, “No!”  instead He wanted the man to go back home and share that all that God had done for him.  In other words, Jesus told him to go home and share the good news.  (As a side note, take a look at vs. 39 and how it describes that the man shared what Jesus had done for him, after Jesus told him to share what God had done for him.  This is a clear indication that the man recognized Jesus as God as we should too.)  The man then went home and did just that.  He shared what Jesus did for him with everyone in the city.  He did this likely because he appreciated all that Christ had done for him.  He recognized how much Christ had changed his life.

We as disciples of Jesus Christ have also been given the same command by Jesus Christ, “Declare to everyone you know how much God has done for you.”  God has given us life and health and protection.  God has given us His Son and salvation.  He has given us grace and mercy.  He has called us to Himself and made us His children.  Yet many of us feel ashamed to share the Gospel.  Many of us feel ashamed to tell others about what God has done and is continuing to do in our lives.  We often fail to show our appreciation for all that he has done for us.  We unlike the man in the Gerasenes take for granted all that God has done for us.  Let us change our attitudes and begin to reflect on all that God has done for us.  Let us then go out and share with everyone we know what he has done in our lives.  Let us share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, praising and worshipping our God, by declaring His wondrous works to the world.  For Jesus has done so much for us.