John 6:11

CO-OPERATION WITH GOD

‘And Jesus took the loaves.’

John 6:11

There is great teaching in this. What were ‘five loaves’ for ‘five thousand’ persons? Why use them at all? Just as easy to make the whole supply out of nothing by one creative act; and would not the miracle then have been, at least would it not appear, to be greater, and take more effect? A very reasonable thought; yet ‘Jesus took the loaves.’

He must have had a reason for that apparently unnecessary act. What was it? That He might show us that men must do what they can. You must give Him what you can. You will not be fed if you do not give those things He requires. It is all His own love and favour, but He requires first ‘the loaves.’

I. You have a little grace.—It is very little; a mere nothing compared to what is wanting; a mere nothing to what it might have been if you had used well what God had given you. But God has given yon something. You have some good desires; you have some convictions of sin; you have some religious feelings; you have some rays of hope; you do really pray, and you have given up something that is wrong. You have sparkles of love now and then in your breast. Do you want that to become more? Then put what you can in Jesus’ hands constantly. Simply commit it to the holy keeping, and the transforming and magnifying grace of Jesus; and He will do it; He will multiply it. Give Him what He has already given you. Give Him ‘the five loaves.’ What you have—it is very little. Give Him ‘the five loaves,’ and He will do wonders. Then it will go on and on invisibly—by a secret process. ‘The five loaves’ will increase, they will grow; He will add a thousandfold; He will make it more than you ever conceived.

II. You have some powers which you can now in a solemn way give to Jesus.—Consecrate them. Do not say, ‘Oh, I have not got anything worth the giving; it is of no use at all.’ Do not say that; it is not true. Do not despise the grace that is, at this moment, in your soul. Whatever it be, however poor, however small, just give it to Jesus; simply give it to Jesus. Put that little, that very little that you have—though it seems nothing to you—put it into the hands of Christ, and it will come back multiplied, manifolded, wonderfully manifolded. Give Him the little, and He will make it much.

III. And it will not be for yourself only.—‘The five loaves,’ placed in Jesus’ hands, they not only benefited the person who gave them, but ‘five thousand’ people. The fact is wonderful, but true! Who knows, who can calculate, to what extent anything we really give to Christ, may radiate and extend? Have faith in the little! have faith. It needs no more; believe it, and it will be. Have you, at this moment, any one to whom you wish particularly to do good? Have you any weeping heart to comfort? any soul to be saved? any good to be done to any one? Have you a desire for the conversion of the heathen? Do you wish that the whole world should be brought to Christ? Then, then give to Christ what you have now got to give. Give Him, give Him ‘the five loaves.’ Give it Him in simple confidence, and when you have given to Christ anything that you can give Him, watch, see, look what will become of it. See how wonderful, how effectual He will make it. How wonderful! Beyond all your hope and calculation the result will be.

—Rev. James Vaughan.

Illustration

‘How many people read the miracle and forget the boy. For—

“What time the Saviour spread His feast,

For thousands on the mountain side,”

it was a boy who carried the loaves. Yet that boy has been famous for nineteen hundred years. The story of what he did has been told all down the ages. He was evidently a poor boy—he had for his dinner five barley cakes and two small dried fishes: it was just what the poor people of those days ate. But he was unselfish, for he gave his own food for the Saviour’s use. And he was plenteously rewarded.’