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31.05.2008
When Things Seem Impossible
John 6:1-14 NIV
All of us have had at one point a difficult situation, and said; God I do not know what to do. I do not know where to go. I do not know which way to turn. What shall I do? We had our back to the wall – so to speak. Everything seemed impossible. I am pleased to inform you that with God, nothing is impossible.
In John 6:1, is the story of the feeding of the five thousands. You might say, oh, I know that story. But do you know the principle behind the story? What is it that God is trying to say to us in this account? After Jesus had performed a series of miracles on the sick people, a great crowd followed him. Jesus had now gone up the mountain with the disciples, probably to get a rest. It was close to the Jewish Passover Feast, which maybe, was the reason that there were many people walking around and towards him.
Then seeing so many people coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip: “where are we to buy enough bread so that we may eat (Verse 5)?” In this, Jesus was testing Philip, because Jesus knew what He was going to do (verse 6).
The crowd of people was so large, that “eight months’ wages” of that time, was not enough to buy bread, for each one to have a bite (verse 7)! With this in mind, the only alternative must have seemed ridiculous - verse 9: “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many people?” There were about five thousand men, in addition to women and children. So in all there were probably about 6000 or 6500 or maybe 7000 people. But nothing is impossible with God.
Jesus took the five small loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed them to them, as much as they wanted. He did the same with fish (verse 11). When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples to gather the pieces that were left over, that nothing be wasted (verse 12). They gather up and filled twelve baskets of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten (verse13).
All miracles are signs of His true identity.
Let me just point this out. Jesus’ primary purpose for performing miracles was not just to heal people and to help them feel better. The primary purpose of His miraculous signs was to demonstrate His true identity. After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world (verse 14).” All of his miracles were signs of His true identity that Jesus Christ was and is the Messiah.
The theme of this message, however, is, “when things seem impossible” in our daily life. Some situations that may seem impossible for us to overcome can include health or finance or employment, etc., or a combination of them. It may seem impossible to come through a given hardship. There are some facts which I want you to be fully aware of. These are:
1. Jesus is aware of those circumstances which we feel it is a seemingly impossible situation.
You notice here, that I didn’t write “an impossible situation” but I write “seemingly” impossible situation. It appears to be impossible. It looks like it is impossible. In this situation there were about five thousands men, besides women and children (Matthew 14:21). The impossible situation here, it appears, is all of these people who had followed Jesus all day long, were now tired and hungry. That it was now late in the evening with so many people who had been following Jesus all day, and now tired and hungry, made it a desperate situation.
Many times, when in such desperate situation in our life we tend to ask the wrong questions, sometimes make the wrong decisions. We tend to ask “What in the world am I going to do?” or “What shall I do?”. Wrong questions. The right question should be “Lord, what are you going to do about my situation?”(John 6:8-9). Nothing is impossible when the Supernatural invasion of the Lord Jesus Christ comes into our life, and He enters our circumstances to deal with them. God does not want us to figure it out by ourselves. God wants us to call upon Him and to trust Him to deal with our circumstances. When we call on Him, He will deal with our circumstances, no matter what they are. The apostles did not know what to do, nor did they call upon Jesus Christ to handle the problem. Instead they said “Send the crowds away… (Matthew 14:15).
2. Jesus Christ always has a plan for our seemingly impossible circumstances.
Not only is He aware of our circumstances, He always has a working plan for our problems. Jesus is never caught off-guard. He always knows what He is going to do. And He knows how, where, and when. He knows exactly the resources that are necessary for your situation. And yet often Christians act like unbelievers. Trust Him. Get on your knees and say, Lord what are you going to do? He will guide you step by step.
3. Jesus will often surprise us by the way He turns our seemingly impossible situation into things that are possible.
Sometimes God is very surprising. Don’t you ever under-estimate what God can do in your life, when you surrender all you are and all what you have to him. This boy just turned over his small lunch to Jesus. After they had eaten their fill, they gathered the pieces of bread that were left over, and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. (John 6:12-13). Surrender your life to the one who created you. God has the best plan possible for your life. But he can only make that plan work if you surrender your life completely to Him.
4. He will use these seemingly impossible circumstances to teach, train and grow us up.
Just think the impact the apostles got when they watched this miracle. This incidence must have strengthened their faith, watching the power of God in action. The same can happen to you and me. God allows you to hit some impossible situation. He has a purpose for it. Maybe it is to strengthen your faith. Maybe He wants to demonstrate His power working in your life or to demonstrate His love for you. God loves us. It may also be to reveal to us, how inadequate we are. Apart from Him we can do nothing. He wants us to live according to his resources, his strength, his power, trusting in him. He wants us to come to the end of ourselves, saying, what am I going to do? He wants us to say, God what are you going to do in my life, or in this situation? Whatever you may be going through, surrender to God, and watch what He is going to do in your life. With God nothing is impossible.
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