Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
Now, we know that verse 24 is one of the famous verses in the Bible: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
Then immediately the Lord followed that wonderful statement with a paradox: “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.”
Let us pray before the Lord.
Father, once again, we are like Mary sitting at Your feet, at the feet of our Master, at the feet of our Lord. Now, dear Lord, we ask You to speak to our hearts. May Your Word really sink into the very depth of our being.
Lord, we need You, and we pray that You would give us an open heaven this morning. Bring every one of us once again to the Mount of Transfiguration, that we may see no one but Christ. We only hear Him, and hear Him only.
Thank You, Lord. Sanctify this time. Separate this time, that only You and You Yourself may be glorified in our midst. In the name of our Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.
We know that when John the apostle wrote the Gospel of John, roughly he was almost one hundred years old. By the time he was writing this Gospel, most of the disciples of our Lord had already left for glory.
Here was John, alone, and alone with Christ. One day the Holy Spirit really touched his heart, and then he began to write. He wrote this wonderful Gospel.
Now, we know that actually this Gospel is the memoirs of John. When the Holy Spirit exercised his heart, he remembered something that happened in the past. Almost one century had gone.
I think his memory was brought back to the very early time—how he first met his Lord. So, if we study the whole Gospel of John, you will discover that it is completely different from the other three Gospels.
Because, no doubt, if you read the whole Gospel of John, somehow you can hear the heartbeat of John. His memories went back to the early days: how he first met his Lord, how he knew the other disciples, how he remembered the call from the Lord, “Follow Me,” and how the disciples followed the Lord for roughly three and a half years.
So, you see, when he put everything together, that is the Gospel of John. Brothers and sisters, when you read this Gospel, you discover that it is very different from the other Gospels.
In this Gospel, John remembered when he was saved, and he remembered when he first met the Messiah, his Lord. It was John who told us that it was four o’clock in the afternoon. He could never forget. Even when he was getting old, he remembered the time he first met the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, because he remembered his Lord, that is why he remembered everything connected to the Lord: when he met the Lord, and later how he followed the Lord for roughly three and a half years.
If you read the Gospel of Matthew, Luke, or Mark, you will not get the idea of how long they followed the Lord. Only when you read John do you discover this, because only in this Gospel are we told of three Passovers.
That is why Bible scholars can gather from this Gospel that John followed the Lord for at least three and a half years. So, brothers and sisters, when you come to this Gospel, you discover that it is the memories of John. By the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit, he wrote down this wonderful Gospel.
From John 2 to John 21, we remember how they really followed the Lord, because there was a way there. You see, the Greek term translated “Follow Me” carries the thought that the Lord was going to travel in a way.
The disciples did not have their own way. Now they were going to travel with the Lord. What is the meaning of following our Lord? It means that we come to the end of our way. We do not have our own way; He has a way, and He says, “Follow Me.”
So, from John 2 to John 21, you discover the way in which John, Peter, James, and all the disciples followed the Lord for more than three years.
When you study the record of John, you discover that the Christian walk, the Christian way, or the Christian life began with a miracle—the miracle in Cana.
Do you know the meaning of Cana? Cana in Greek means “the land of reeds.” Now, if you study the Bible very well, the Bible compares man with a bruised reed. That is why the Bible says, “A bruised reed He will not break.”
That was the beginning of following the Lord for John, because they started with the land of reeds. John now confessed that we are nothing but reeds. Outwardly speaking, the reed is tall and strong; but inwardly speaking, it is empty and weak. Anyone can go and break it. But the Bible says, “A bruised reed He will not break.” That is our Lord.
It began with Cana, my brothers and sisters. It began with the land of reeds. It began from zero. It began from weakness. John and his disciples confessed, “We are weak. We start from the land of reeds, and that is Cana.”
Then you know how the Lord changed the water into wine. Last night we mentioned that, according to Exodus, miracle in the Bible means the finger of God. Remember how our Lord touched with His finger and changed water into wine. Thank God.
That was the beginning of the Christian walk of John, or the beginning of the Christian life of John and his disciples. He began with the land of reeds, Cana.
But then, brothers and sisters, after three and a half years, we come to John 21. There we discover another miracle.
In the first miracle, we are told that there was no wine. But in the last miracle, we are told that there were no fish. Again, our Lord moved His finger, and they caught one hundred and fifty-three fish.
My brothers and sisters, after three and a half years of following, they should have been mature in the Lord. They had gone a long way with the Lord. How wonderful it was to follow the Lord. When they were hungry, the Lord fed them. When they were tired, the Lord was with them. When they were in danger, the Lord stilled the storm, and everything was all right.
Through those three and a half years, the disciples were with the Lord, and they grew in the grace of God. When they reached the end of that road—at the end of three and a half years—we are told of another miracle: the miracle of the one hundred and fifty-three fish.
What does that mean? It means that this Christian way begins with a miracle and ends with a miracle. It begins with the finger of God and ends with the finger of God.
According to Luke 6:40, if I remember correctly, the student can never be greater than his master. If he is perfected, he will be like his master. Here was the program of the Lord for His disciples: when they are perfected, they will be transformed into the image of their Master.
What kind of way is the Christian way? Why is the Christian walk full of miracles—or why is it a miracle? Because it takes the finger of God. It takes the finger of Christ working in us to transform us into the image of Christ.
When John remembered that long walk with his Lord, he remembered how it began with the first miracle and ended with the last miracle.
If you study John 21 again, you find the word Cana. It means again the land of reeds. Brothers and sisters, thank the Lord. You discover such a wonderful symmetry.
When we follow the Lord, do not forget: we begin with zero, and we end with zero. In the beginning, we have no wine; at the very end, we have no fish. In the eyes of God, we are less than nothing.
We are just like a number: minus one hundred. By the working of the cross, we are lifted from minus one hundred to minus ninety-nine, then minus ninety-eight, then minus ten, then minus five, then minus two. Finally, we are lifted up to zero.
That is always the goal of the working of the cross with us. Every miracle has a purpose: to bring us to zero, to lift us up to zero.
No longer I, but Christ who lives in me.
That is the greatest miracle, brothers and sisters. If today people can see Christ in the church, this is the greatest miracle in this city. Why? Because we know that it is Christ and Christ only—the greatest miracle of this universe.
Thank the Lord. That is how He works. That is why, when we study the Gospel of John, we discover a series of miracles. Last night we mentioned eight miracles, because eight stands for the number of resurrection.
From the first miracle to the last one, we see the wonderful Christian life. Not only is the Christian life full of miracles; the Christian life is a miracle. As I mentioned last night, we can never live a Christian life unless we have a Christian life to live. Thank God, because Christ is in us. He is working in us, and somehow a miracle has been performed.
This morning, we would like especially to occupy ourselves with one miracle. Last night we mentioned the first miracle, and this morning we would like to turn to John 6.
After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the sea of Galilee, or Tiberias.
And a great multitude was following Him, because they were seeing the signs which He was performing on those who were sick.
And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.
Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.
Jesus therefore lifting up His eyes, and seeing that a great multitude was coming to Him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?”
Now remember: the eight miracles in the Gospel of John are always described as signs. A sign is not only a miracle; it is a miracle with a spiritual lesson behind it. That is the meaning of a sign.
The following record is the wonderful story of how our Lord fed five thousand people. This miracle, the feeding of the five thousand, is almost the most important miracle recorded in the whole Bible.
It is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels. That is very unusual, and that is really something. You find the record in Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9, and John 6.
So, in the four Gospels, this is the only miracle recorded in all four. It must therefore be a very, very important one. This is like a mountain peak among the miracles of our Lord.
Somehow, the Lord must have hidden treasures of Christian lessons—lessons about Christian life—in this great miracle.
Unfortunately, today many people, especially modernists, do not believe this miracle. They are Bible scholars, but unfortunately they do not believe it.
For example, if you pick up books by William Barclay and come to this passage, you discover that somehow he was lost. He could not understand how this miracle could happen. Therefore, they suggest many theories to try to help the Lord, to help the Bible, and to solve the problem.
They suggest that when the Lord was teaching and performing this miracle, His message was so touching that everybody took out their own five loaves and two fish from their pockets. Then, as everyone shared, all were satisfied. That, they say, was how the five thousand were fed.
But, my brothers and sisters, to me it is much simpler to believe that this was a miracle. It has something to do with the greatest paradox given in the Bible.
What is a paradox? A paradox is an apparent contradiction—a contradiction in terms, but not in deep reality.
The Lord wants to teach us some very important lessons: a great paradox in the universe. If you only look with natural eyes, just like modernists, and if you try to use your fallen mind to understand the Word of God, then you get into trouble.
They see a paradox and think that something is wrong. But, brothers and sisters, the Word of God never contradicts itself. There is no contradiction within the Word of God. Yet remember: the Word of our God always contradicts the old man. It always contradicts the natural man.
Here you discover an apparent contradiction, a contradiction in terms but not in deep reality. If you really have spiritual eyes, you discover a beautiful paradox here.
After we are told the parable of the grain of wheat—how the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies—you remember that wonderful statement. Immediately after that, our Lord presents a wonderful paradox.
We know how true it is in the Christian life, and that is where we find difficulty. It always creates a problem for great theologians. Why? Because the Lord has given us a wonderful miracle: the feeding of the five thousand.
The key to this miracle, especially in the Gospel of John, is that we are given the setting for the whole miracle. You do not find this in the other Gospels.
The Bible says, “Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.” When Jesus lifted up His eyes and saw that a great multitude was coming to Him, this multitude was actually on its way to the Feast of the Passover. They were on their way to Jerusalem.
When they saw Jesus, they came to listen to Him. But the atmosphere at that time was the atmosphere of the feast. The great annual Feast of the Passover was coming, and everybody was going to Jerusalem by way of the great wilderness.
When they passed through the wilderness, they would catch that atmosphere of Passover. Immediately, the memory would bring people back to the olden days—how their fathers and ancestors once passed through that great and terrible wilderness.
According to Psalm 78, there is one phrase: “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?”
If you study the Old Testament, one of the most important miracles was this: God prepared a table in the wilderness for the people of Israel for roughly forty years.
Some people say that they cannot imagine the miracle of crossing the Red Sea. Many modernists try to help the Lord and create many interpretations. But, brothers and sisters, yes, to cross the Red Sea is a miracle. What a miracle!
Yet many people forget the table in the wilderness for forty years. That is one of the greatest miracles in the Old Testament. Sometimes we are overwhelmed by what happened at the Red Sea, and we forget that a great miracle happened during those forty years of Israel’s history: God prepared a table in the wilderness.
Why did the Holy Spirit recall this miracle and say that the feast of the Jews was at hand? Why did Jesus lift up His eyes and see a great multitude coming to Him?
Because again our Lord wanted to use this wonderful opportunity to show the world that He was going to prepare another table in the wilderness for a new generation, for a younger generation.
Actually, it was not another table. It was the same table. It was the same God who prepared the table in the wilderness.
Here you find a table in the wilderness for the new younger generation, but God was the same. Again, you find that the miracle is actually the same.
Our Lord was going to prepare a table in the wilderness. That means He was going to prepare a banquet. He was going to show the world that He is the true bread from heaven, just like manna from heaven fed those people.
Do you know how many people were in the wilderness? The Bible says six hundred thousand people. Here there were five thousand people. What does that mean?
Our Lord was going to raise a new generation, to raise descendants of Abraham from the stones. Brothers and sisters, this table is very symbolic and very important.
It tells us that even today our Lord is preparing tables in the wilderness. There is a great need in this world. Here you find five thousand people, and in Old Testament times there were six hundred thousand people.
What does that mean? It is very meaningful, because today the church is the true Israel. We are the called ones, just as the people of Israel were called by God into the wilderness.
Today we are the same. We are the called ones of God, and we gather together as the church. There you discover a great need. There is a great need in the church.
When God spreads His table, how many people does He have to feed? He has to feed six hundred thousand people. That is a great need. That table was for six hundred thousand people.
Our Lord was going to prepare a table. Why? Do you know why? When our Lord performed this miracle, He had Pentecost in view.
Remember, brothers and sisters, this miracle is connected with the Day of Pentecost. Remember how the church of God, the church of Christ, was born. The Holy Spirit baptized one hundred and twenty individuals into one body.
Remember how Christ sent them, saying that they should be His witnesses from Jerusalem, through Judea, to the remotest part of the earth. That was a great program for those one hundred and twenty members of the body of Christ.
How were they going to fulfill that mission? How were they going to go from Jerusalem to the remotest part of the earth?
Thank God. If the people of Israel typify the church of God today, then they typify that great need. On the shoulders of each of those one hundred and twenty members of the body of Christ, there was a responsibility.
If they were going to feed six hundred thousand people, how many people were supposed to be upon each shoulder of those one hundred and twenty people? You discover that it is exactly five thousand people.
For that reason, the Lord had to perform this miracle of feeding the five thousand. Why? Because this is the only miracle in the Gospels in which the disciples were not only observers; they were participants in that great miracle.
Read your Bible, brothers and sisters. Read all the miracles in the four Gospels. When the Lord performed many of those miracles, the disciples were simply observers. They observed with wonder, because these miracles were wonderful sights—something beyond them.
They observed what our Lord had done. But remember, there was one miracle in which our Lord invited all His disciples to be participants in that great miracle.
Why? Because the Lord was equipping the twelve disciples. No longer would they only be twelve disciples; they would become one hundred and twenty members of the body of Christ.
They had to experience this wonderful miracle for one purpose: each one of them would be responsible for five thousand people.
For that reason, we discover that this miracle is so important, so unique, and connected with what happened on the Day of Pentecost and with the whole history of the church.
By this means, we ought to learn important lessons from this wonderful miracle.
We said that our Lord was preparing the table. He wanted to give them something to eat. Five thousand guests were coming to Him, and He wanted to feed them, just as God had fed the six hundred thousand people of Israel.
The banquet was going to be ready. But remember, our Lord wanted His disciples to be part of it—not merely observers, but participants.
Before our Lord prepared the table, the disciples came to Him because they discovered a problem. It was almost sunset. It was very late, but the people were still gathering.
They came to the Lord with an important suggestion. Here were five thousand people. How were they going to help them? How were they going to feed them?
The disciples already sensed the seriousness of the situation. Therefore, they presented their Lord with a very quick solution: “Send them away.”
Brothers and sisters, if we are facing a problem, especially in the Christian life, we think that if the Lord would simply send the problem away, that would solve everything.
Sometimes we think of a ship or boat encountering a rock under the water. We think that God should remove the rock. But, brothers and sisters, it is the grace of God that often He does not remove the rock underneath. Instead, He lets the water of grace rise above the rock, so that the ship or boat can sail safely over it.
That is a miracle. Yes, with us, we are so clever. We say, “Just send them away. Send the multitude away.”
But do you know the answer from our Lord? He said:
They do not need to go away.
You give them something to eat.
The Lord said, “You give them something to eat.” That is your responsibility. Our Lord wanted to train them. He did not simply want them to see the miracle; He wanted them to experience the miracle. He wanted them to be participants.
Is this not the table in the wilderness that the Lord was preparing? Is this not the table of the Lord? Then the Lord was the One who was going to give them something to eat. Yet the Lord said, “You give them something to eat.”
That is why the twelve disciples became participants. The Lord invited them to have a part in this miracle.
That is why it was so wonderful. Matthew could never forget it; that is why it was recorded in Matthew. Peter could never forget this miracle; that is why it was recorded in Mark. John also never forgot it.
Not only did John remember it, but he filled in the details. He gave us the setting of this miracle, so that we can understand it in a better way.
But how were they going to solve the problem? Five thousand people were waiting to be fed, and there were only twelve disciples. What did they have? How were they going to solve the whole problem?
The third thing is that the Lord turned to Philip. He turned to one of the disciples and asked Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?”
Probably Philip was from that area. That may be why the Lord turned to Philip first and said, “Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?”
If you study the four Gospels carefully, this is the only occasion when our Lord asked the opinion of another person. Our Lord never needed to do that. That is His glory.
But do not forget: when the Lord said, “Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?” John immediately explained that the Lord was testing Philip, for He Himself knew what He intended to do.
When the problem arose, our Lord wanted to train Philip, help him, and show him the right solution.
Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.”
Now, when you read this verse, perhaps you think it is nothing. But actually, to me it is an amazing statement. You never knew that Philip was a great mathematician.
The speed of calculation in his mind was, I do not know, perhaps like the speed of light. It is very amazing when you read this verse. Think about it.
One denarius was the wage for one day’s labour at that time. Suppose one family had five people. Roughly, they would spend half a denarius per day for three meals. So, for six thousand people, if you do a quick calculation, you discover it is two hundred denarii—exactly two hundred denarii.
Philip was really a mathematician. When the Lord asked him, the first thing that came into his mind was, “Let us count. Let us calculate the need. What is the need here? How are we going to supply it?”
So he presented the solution to the Lord: “We need two hundred denarii worth of bread.” But even that was not sufficient for everyone to receive a little. Not to mention that they probably did not even have the two hundred denarii.
They had a solution in their minds and presented it to the Lord, but it would not work. That was the problem with Philip.
Then you discover that another disciple gave another solution. That was Andrew. The Bible says, “One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, ‘There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish.’”
Think about it: more than five thousand people were there, and Andrew’s eyes were so sharp that he found one lad who had five loaves and two fish. That was a great discovery.
Sometimes that is how we study the Bible. We think we are so sharp. Here is the problem, and we have found someone who has five loaves and two fish.
Sometimes, when we think about the two fish, we imagine that they must have been large fish, especially like those in Chinese restaurants. But do not forget: at that time, especially for ordinary people, the five loaves and two fish were the lunch of that boy.
Those fish were roughly like sardines—small fish, not large fish. Because the people were poor, they salted the fish. If it were not salted, you would swallow it in one mouthful. So it had to be eaten slowly because it was so salty.
That is how they had two fish—two small fish. Andrew discovered what seemed to be a solution because he found a lad with five barley loaves and two fish. But then he said, “What are these among so many?”
Even if it were enough for one person, how were they going to feed five thousand people?
Why did the Lord turn to Philip and then Andrew? It is very meaningful, brothers and sisters.
Last time, we mentioned that when the Lord performed the miracle of changing water into wine, He told His mother, “My hour has not yet come.”
Finally, He performed that miracle, but it was only a rehearsal. Only when the time came—when the Greeks came and said to the Lord, “We would see Jesus”—did the Lord know that the time had come.
The world cried out through the mouths of those Greeks, “We have no wine.” Then the Lord said that the hour had come. He went through the winepress, which is the cross, and He gave wine to the whole world.
When the Lord performed that miracle, it was a rehearsal. The time had not yet come. Now the same thing is true here, brothers and sisters.
The Lord was training Philip, and the Lord was training Andrew—first Philip, then Andrew. Do you know why? This tells us the correct interpretation of this miracle.
This is always the method of John. John was so skillful in this, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
When those Greeks came to see Jesus, the need of the world finally arose. When the time came for the Lord to perform the miracle—because He is the true vine and wanted to change water into wine—the Greeks first came to Philip.
Then Philip went to see Andrew, and both of them came to Jesus.
What was the solution? When Philip and Andrew led the Greeks to Jesus, what did our Lord say?
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
Do you see that? After Philip and Andrew comes the word about the grain of wheat. The Lord is that wheat. If He does not fall into the ground and die, He remains alone. But if He dies, He bears much fruit.
Remember this very well: why could five loaves and two fish feed five thousand people? Because this bread was multiplied in the hands of the Lord and the disciples.
The Bible says that the Lord kept giving to the disciples, and the disciples gave to the five thousand people. By that incident, we discover that the Lord indeed fed five thousand people. It was no longer simply five loaves and two fish; they had been multiplied.
If the disciples had kept those loaves in their hands, they would have remained alone.
My brothers and sisters, you know that our Lord is that true grain of wheat. Because He died for us, because He was in the hand of His Father, our heavenly Father broke Him while He was on the cross. Then you discover that He bore much fruit.
At the time of Pentecost, our Lord was the firstfruits. The grain of wheat speaks of the maturity of life in the wheat. But this wheat had to be crushed into pieces, ground, and mixed with oil. Finally, it became bread. It became the loaf.
He is the true bread from heaven because He was willing to be broken by His Father in the hand of the Father. That is why, my brothers and sisters, the whole world has been fed.
Remember: this is the true interpretation of the miracle of feeding the five thousand. Our Lord is the true bread who is from heaven.
If you see a field of grain, after many months, in the beginning there was only one grain of wheat. But after a few months, you discover many, many grains of wheat. It is much fruit.
This is multiplication. Somehow a grain of wheat has died, has been broken, has been divided into pieces, and finally you find the harvest.
If this is true in the nature of God, it is also true in that miracle. But remember, our Lord did it in less than one second.
When He broke that loaf and distributed it to the five thousand, immediately you find a harvest. Immediately you find that many people were fed. That is exactly what happened at that time.
When we come back to this miracle, we discover that they came to the end of their solutions. Philip could not solve the problem. Andrew discovered something, but he could not solve the problem.
Finally, the Lord said, “Bring them here to Me.” Now, that is the solution.
My brothers and sisters, this means that it is a call to consecration. If you study the Gospel of Mark, the Bible says that these loaves were in the hands of the disciples.
When they gave up the five loaves, at the very beginning they had five loaves. But when they gave them to the Lord—when they transferred these five loaves from their hands to the hand of the Lord—what did that mean?
It meant that, in their hands, the five loaves had been reduced to zero. There was nothing in their hands anymore. But that was exactly the solution. That was exactly the miracle.
Not only that, you know the story very well. The Lord also broke the loaves. The loaves themselves were only five small loaves, but now the Lord was going to break them and reduce their size, dividing the loaves.
My brothers and sisters, that is the miracle. After the Lord broke the bread, many people were fed.
When the Bible says, “When they were filled,” and then says that the disciples gathered up the leftover fragments so that nothing would be lost, it means that everybody was filled.
The Holy Spirit uses a very humorous word. It is a word used to describe a pig that has been fed to the full. The Bible uses that word to tell us that literally everybody was full.
Not only that, the Lord said to His disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.”
Now, sometimes when we think about those baskets, we think of something like a supermarket basket. We suppose that each disciple had one basket, and therefore there were twelve baskets. But that is a misunderstanding.
Do you know what those baskets were? They were the travelling bags of the disciples. At that time, when they travelled, they had special food. They did not want to eat with the Gentiles, so they put flour and food into their bags.
Those bags were as large as a man—very tall, very large bags. The Bible tells us that after the Lord fed the five thousand, each disciple had one bag full of fragments.
Those fragments were not merely scraps left over on the ground. They were the leftovers from the Lord’s distribution of the five loaves and two fish. They were the leftovers from the hands of our Lord.
That is why the Lord said that nothing should be lost and nothing should be wasted, because these leftovers were glorious leftovers.
This tells us something of the background. When Jewish masters gave a banquet, there were always leftovers because the banquet was so rich. The servants would each carry the leftovers home.
That is exactly what happened here. When the disciples received the bread from the Lord, they only received it and passed it on—received it and passed it on.
They did not know what was happening. Why could five loaves and two fish feed five thousand? They did not know. Some kind of multiplication was taking place. Some kind of increase was taking place. But they could not understand it.
All they did was participate in the miracle. The more they worked, the more they laboured, the more they themselves were fed.
Before this miracle, if you put five loaves and two fish into twelve bags, how would you distribute them? If one bag was full, another bag had to be empty.
But we have witnessed a wonderful miracle here, brothers and sisters. Finally, you find the bags full to overflowing.
That is how we are fed when we are giving out. When we are willing to be in the hand of the Lord, to be broken, to be divided, somehow the need of the world is met.
Because we are labouring with Christ, even we ourselves are greatly satisfied.
After this miracle, you discover some important principles. I will try to summarize them quickly.
First, when the Lord said, “Bring them here to Me,” the five loaves decreased in the hands of the disciples. But what was the result?
The operation of subtraction produced the effect of addition. Here, the loaves were subtracted from their hands, yet the result was addition. That is the first principle in this miracle.
The second principle is the operation of division. When the loaves were divided, the result was multiplication. Division produced the effect of multiplication.
In ordinary arithmetic, when you divide one into fractions, one equals one-half plus one-half, or one equals one-third plus one-third plus one-third. The individual one is always greater than any fraction.
But how strange! When you have five loaves and two fish, and after the miracle they are given out and given out, all those results should be fractions. Yet you discover that the fractions are greater than the original individual one.
That is the third principle.
The last principle is this, brothers and sisters. Suppose you divide five by two. You have two, four, and then you still have one left. You call that a remainder.
That remainder should be smaller than five—always smaller than five. But think about it: when John or Peter received one bag full of loaves, it was much greater than the original five loaves.
Here you discover another paradox. You can never explain it with mathematics. If you taught this mathematics in a primary school, you would be fired by your principal.
But, my brothers and sisters, you know how true it is in the school of Christ. That is how we learn these wonderful principles.
Unfortunately, our time is gone, so I have to stop here. Thank the Lord that through this wonderful miracle, this is only the beginning.
When you go home, brothers and sisters, study this miracle carefully. Then you will discover not only that our Lord is the true grain of wheat who fell into the ground and died, but also that the Lord invites us to be participants.
That is why the Lord says that whoever loses his life will gain it. This is the paradox. If we are divided, we are reduced. We become smaller and smaller, yet we become richer and richer.
When we are weak, we are strong. We know that the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man.
Not only that, brothers and sisters, sometimes you discover that as the dying of Jesus operates in us, the life of Jesus is working.
How do you explain all this? It is all summarized in this great miracle. It explains how we, the church today, can serve the need in this perishing world.
May the Lord be merciful to us. At least we see two important miracles in John: the first miracle, the miracle of changing water into wine; and now the miracle of feeding the five thousand.
May the Lord bless His Word to us.