The Bread is Your Bread

By Dr. Johannes Reimer - adapted by Tom Mast

Dr. Johannes Reimer, a pastor, missiologist, and founder of LOGOS International, was the Missions Day speaker at this year's annual conference. The following article is adapted from his first sermon on Sunday, August 1, 2004. Tapes and CDs of both of Dr. Reimer's Missions Day sermons are available for purchase. See the ordering information on page 7.

The challenge to missions is a good ending to a conference-a calling, a disturbing calling, to go and do missions. But I don't like such endings. I'm like the disciples of Jesus in Luke 9. Jesus had sent them out two by two to go and preach the word of God and to heal the sick and cast out demons. After some time of doing this they were tired and worn out-not only because they had to preach a lot and heal many-they were worn out because Jesus didn't allow them to take anything along. He said "No tunics, no money in your purse; just walk and go."

When they returned they came to Jesus and told Him all those wondrous experiences. They had seen people healed. They had seen the demons flee. They had seen miracles of the Lord. And Jesus saw them worn out and said, "Whoa, let's rest a bit." He even picked a very quiet place and went to the quiet land.

But the multitudes discovered them in their land of the quiet. And Jesus took time for them and preached a sermon and a second one and a third one and a fourth one. He just didn't stop-it was a whole day of preaching. Jesus was speaking to the people and the story became a dramatic experience for the disciples. They were tired and at the end of this day they came to Jesus and they talked to Him.

12Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, "Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here." 13He replied, "You give them something to eat." 14They answered, "We have only five loaves of bread and two fish-unless we go and buy food for all this crowd." (About five thousand men were there.) 15But he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each." The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. 16Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. 17They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. (Luke 9:12-17)

Friends, this story is our story. It's an absolutely anti-American story. It is an absolutely anti-European story. It runs absolutely against all our capitalist thinking. It just doesn't work with us this way. We are humans. We get tired. We get concerned. We think according to what we have.

The disciples were tired. They were expecting a day of blessing, a day with Jesus, a day of resting. And what did they get? Long sermons, 15,000 stinking, smelling Jewish men and women, and even some Gentiles. The whole day Jesus was just concerned with the others. And for the whole day the crowd listened and listened and didn't go away. The disciples were thinking "Jesus spends time with them and not with us. He blesses them and not us. We're worn out; we're tired. We came for blessing and we received the others."

That is the reality of all life. We came into the world for blessing and we receive work. We came to the church for blessing and what do we receive? Mission. We came to Jesus to experience life and what does He lead us to? To die for Him. Is this fair? You come and you lose? Are Christians losers?

When I became a Christian after being a Communist Party leader, the first thing I heard from one of my professors was "Forever, forever, you will lose. If you become a Christian, you will lose everything-your career, your success. You will be a loser and you will end up in some prison and die. You will be nothing. You stay with us Communists, you will be everything. But if you become a Christian you become nothing."

You will become nothing. Paul understood that when he said "I count everything for loss." Actually, "loss" is a nice English translation of a very dirty Greek word. Paul said "I've died with Jesus. I'm gone. I'm done."

When you come to the church you are actually closing the door to your success. Most people do not understand that. They come to the church for blessing. They have heard that Jesus is blessing them so they come because they want to have more.

Abraham was a Jew and Abraham knew everything about blessing. But when God instituted the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 12, He said you will be blessed to give your blessing away to the others.

We don't want that. We want to keep it for ourselves. The multitudes, the peoples, the nations of the world, their needs, their problems-they are just disturbing us. So we tell Jesus, "Jesus, send them away." Except we'll never say it like that because we are polite-especially we Mennonites. No, like the disciples, we'll say "Send them away to get food and lodging." But if you look at the geography of this area, what the disciples were saying was a piece of baloney. There were no villages to buy food. There were no stores to buy enough food for 15,000. There were no hotels to lodge 15,000 people. There was nothing of this kind. But they said "Let's get rid of them. We're tired. Be a blessing to us."

And then Jesus turned around and He said something which doesn't fit our culture. He said, "Now you give them to eat."

"What? Us? Lord, there's nothing with us. Oh, there's a little boy carrying five bread and two fish. But, Lord, this little piece of bread is just enough for us. We'd have a nice meal, Lord, but that's all. This doesn't make any sense; it's not scientific. There's no logic in this."

And then Jesus repeated, "You give them to eat." Some of our translations say "give them something to eat." That is absolutely wrong. It actually says in the original language, "You give them everything you have to eat." You get rid of your blessing. You give it to them.

I marvel at those disciples. I marvel at their anger. I marvel at their logic because it's all me. If I would have been there, I would have felt exactly the same way and I could give you story after story where I felt like this.

In 1991 Lithuania was the first country to decide to move out of the Soviet alliance. The Soviets moved tanks in and surrounded the Lithuanian parliament. The Lord spoke to me and to some other young people and we decided we would go into Lithuania and evangelize. We started an evangelistic crusade and it was an incredible experience. Thousands of people gave their lives to Christ and God was opening heaven to us like we had not seen before.

One day a Franciscan monk came to me and he said "Mr. Reimer we have prepared a local stadium for an evangelistic crusade and we would like you to preach there."

We were very tired, so I told him that we couldn't, that we needed to rest. Then this monk started to cry, so I looked at him and said "All right, I will ask my people."

We went to the stadium and about 5,000 Lithuanians had gathered there. But when we were almost ready, it started to rain-and it poured. So we hid, but the people were expecting rain. They were sitting under their umbrellas; they wanted their evangelistic crusade. We didn't have any umbrellas and nobody offered us any.

Then the monk went into the rain; he was wet and crying. He expected God to speak to his people through us, and now the rain was interfering. While I watched him, the Holy Spirit started to speak to me and said, "You are a real chicken. He is crying there and expecting me to move and you are hiding like a chicken. And you are angry because there is no umbrella. I tell you, you go and tell the clouds to disappear."

I said, "What, Lord? I am a Mennonite, I am not a charismatic. I can't do that. I've never prepared such a miracle."

If the Holy Spirit starts to push you, you can't stand. You go. So finally I went. I looked up to heaven and I said, "In the name of Jesus Christ, go." And while I was saying this, the clouds were just torn apart and the sun started to shine. We preached, and after I closed my sermon and invited people to accept Jesus, twenty-four Franciscan monks were kneeling down and crying tears, giving their lives to Christ. It was incredible.

God deals His way. But expecting a miracle is difficult because you have to go against all your logic. "You give them to eat" doesn't make any sense to us.

But I marvel at those disciples. Jesus said, "Bring me the five bread and two fishes." He took them, broke them, prayed for them and then He turned back to the disciples.

Now I can just imagine Peter. Peter was a very skeptical guy. He was just like me. So Peter took the pieces of bread and he probably thought, "Now this is quite clever. He breaks the bread, He gives me a part of it-not even a whole piece of bread, and then He has placed 50 guys right there. I have to approach them and all I have is a quarter of a piece of bread and a small piece of fish." I'm sure that in his heart, he was saying, "You are absolutely out of this world. It doesn't work!"

But again, I marvel at Peter. He didn't understand what was going on. He had his problem with the logic, but he took the bread and he took the fish and he went. He broke a little piece of bread and began to give one to each person and everybody laughed because it was a joke. He went on and maybe after the third or the fourth piece, he looked at the piece of bread and thought, "This doesn't get smaller!" All of a sudden he caught on and he ran back to the first person and gave him a bigger piece and then a bigger piece. It didn't get smaller! And suddenly nobody laughed anymore. They turned around and they saw Jesus blessing the miracle in progress.

The miracle took place in the hands of an obedient disciple. He understood nothing, but he obeyed totally, and that's why the miracle took place.

The heart of God is with the multitudes. They are hungry, they are naked, they are dying, they urgently need the blessing. And the church, seeking its own blessing, loses the opportunity to introduce God's miracle to the world. A church which is always hunting after blessing for itself will never be used to display God's miracle in the world.

You have to understand, God's logic does not run humanly. God's thoughts are different. Take the piece of bread you have and feed those multitudes.

I challenge you to decide to become a miracle maker. You are like those disciples. You don't have food to feed 15,000. You don't have any ability to go to the peoples of the world and change something. You have to look for the means of God and for the ways of God. To feed the 15,000, you have to see that God introduces His miracle. You cannot do it yourself. It doesn't work. You have to have God in motion. But God is not going to change the world without you. So He invites you to come and to give Him whatever you have.

It is not because of God that the people stay hungry in this world. It is not because of Jesus that people do not get their food. It's not because of Jesus that people do not receive heaven. It's not because of Jesus that we don't see any miracles in the world. It's not because of Jesus that your church hasn't grown for the last 25 years. It's not because of God! It's because of you!

You ask me, what's the basic principle? It's very simple. It's Abrahamic: You will receive blessing in order to bless. You will be freed from sin in order to become a liberator in the name of Jesus. You never keep to yourself what you've got; you give it on. Missions is what God wants and wherever we involve ourselves in missions we receive God's power.

Friends, God is sending us. I hope you realize that the bread to be shared with others is your bread. The gifts to be given to the unreached are your gifts. The mission that CMC is moving in is your mission, and Rosedale Mennonite Missions is not just an agency somewhere out there, it is your mission. You are responsible because the Lord has called you. He wants to introduce His heaven to earth and He is asking you to feed the hungry.

Maybe you are old. Most of you who are 65 have a life expectancy of at least twenty more years. For twenty more years you could play an American tourist. For the next twenty years you will have enough money to stay alive (at least to a certain degree) and you will enjoy it or you will not. Twenty years of life with a pension in your pocket, with your children moved away - you are actually the best mission force I can think of! You have life experience. You've been executives in a company; you've done this and that. You are the best people to change the world, and you want to be a tourist? Are you crazy?

When will RMM send the first senior team into the mission field? And who is coming along?

It's your bread. It's your abilities. It's your experience. It's whatever you have-come and share it and God is going to multiply it and feed the masses. You are called. Will you come?

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