An Important lesson on Faith from Jesus

Jesus met with his disciples and He said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees" (Matthew 16:6, NKJV, emphasis added).

The disciples thought Jesus was referring to bread since they did not bring any bread with them.

"But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, 'O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread? Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up" (Matt. 16:8 to 10, NKJV, emphasis added)?

In other words, Jesus said the disciples had little faith because they failed to understand and failed to believe the significance of the miracles of feeding the five thousand and the four thousand. They still relied on their own ability and not on Jesus abundance.

The feeding of five thousand (Matthew 14) is a unique miracle of Jesus. This is the only miracle which appears in all the four Gospels. It is so important that God is trying to teach us an important lesson. When we combine this miracle with the miracle of the feeding of four thousand (Matthew 15) we will soon understand why Jesus paid so much attention to numbers.

In the feeding of 5000, there were available 5 loaves and 2 fish, and 12 baskets full of left-over. In the feeding of 4000, (Matt. 15) there were available 7 loaves and few fish, and 7 baskets full of left-over.

I think the principle Jesus is trying to teach us is:

The greater the needs, the fewer the resources, the greater the surplus.

Another way of looking at it is:

The greater the challenge, the less we have to start with, the more we can expect God's abundance.

Let us take as an example, the Great Commission (Matt. 28:16 to 20). It is an immense task that Jesus set before the Church. The Lord's coming again depends on the completion of this task. This the last sign of His coming again.

Jesus said, "And the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come" (Matt. 24:14, NKJV).

In other words, the end will come when the Church has completed the job of preaching the Gospel to all nations of the world.

I obtained the following statistics from the internet:

The projected population of the world in 2005 is about 6.4 billion, out of which there are only about 1.8 billion christians including more than about 1.2 billion Roman Catholics. Every year there are about 70 million unsaved souls added to the world. Even if all those who could understand the Gospel message have heard the Gospel, there are at least 70 million yet to hear the Gospel each year!

Impossible? But, Jesus said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible" (Mark 10:27, NKJV, emphasis added).

I believe "all things" means "no exception" and the Church can accomplish the task that Jesus set before us. The Great Commission is God's idea and He will not command us to do anything that the Church is not capable of. This assurance comes from Jesus, " ... I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:20). The Church is not doing it alone, but together with Jesus.

The Church must take the challenge and apply the principle we have just learned in the lesson on faith from Jesus:

The greater the challenge, the less we have to start with, the more we can expect God's abundance.

In other words, the Church must start with whatever resources that is available, take the challenge by faith and we will see the miracles of God!