Faith in Miracles

1 Samuel 5:1-7:17

John 6:1-21

Psalm 106:13-31

Proverbs 14:32-33

When Jesus feeds the 5,000 with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 small fish.

There's a lot of crazy miracles that Jesus performs and this is not the least of them. And the lesson it teaches the disciples is insane. Jesus starts out by asking Philip, "Hey, how are we going to feed these people?"

And Philip says, "uh, I don't think we are...'cause we are poor, Jesus."

Straight up, we can't afford to feed these people. Yes, Jesus, I see the need. Yes, Jesus, I feel bad. Yes, Jesus, they need to eat. But I am not the guy, I can't afford it. I don't have what it takes.

It seems really simple and really sensible too. In fact, no one would blame Philip if he just left it at that. He doesn't have enough money! So that's that.

Then Andrew says, "I found some food, but it's not enough."

Okay, again. That's that.

But Jesus says, "let's feed them."

He doesn't even give them the typical "you of little faith" speech. He just shows them how little their faith is. He takes the little food they have and he feeds 5,000+ people right then and there with leftovers.

Philip and Andrew were being sensible, but faith is not sensible. Faith is acting upon compassion. Faith is being generous, hospitable, kind, gentle, patient.

I remember when I was about 13 I went with my family and my church on a missions trip to Mexico. We set up a little carnival for the kids in an impoverished neighborhood. We played soccer, did crafts, and ate food.

One of the games we made was a pretend fishing game like in the movie "Pollyanna." The kids would take a toy fishing pole and throw it over the wall and one of us would put a stuffed animal on the end of the fishing line. The kids would bring it back up and take home whatever they "fished out."

It was a really popular game and we had a long, long line. New kids kept coming and it didn't take us long to make the simple and sensible observation that we did not bring enough toys. But we kept going and kept playing the game. We kept going and by the end of the day we still had toys. My mom said it was like when Jesus fed the five thousand. We did not have enough toys, it was true, but by faith we kept giving what we could and God provided miraculously.

Faith is believing in miracles.