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Christus Victor
O Most High King of the ages
Great I AM God of wonders
By the blood You have redeemed us
Led us through mighty waters
Our strength our song our sure salvation
Now to the Lamb upon the throne
Be blessing honor glory power
For the battle You have won
Hallelujah Amen
O Most High dwelling among us
Son of man sent for sinners
By Your blood You have redeemed us
Spotless Lamb mighty Savior
Who lived who died who rose victorious
Now to the Lamb upon the throne
Be blessing honor glory power
For the battle You have won
Hallelujah
With every tribe and every tongue
We join the anthem of the angels
In the triumph of the Son
Hallelujah Amen
O Most High King of the nations
Robed in praise crowned with splendor
On that day who will not tremble
When You stand Christ the Victor
Who was and is and is forever
Now to the Lamb upon the throne
Be blessing honor glory power
For the battle You have won
Hallelujah
With every tribe and every tongue
We join the anthem of the angels
In the triumph of the Son
Hallelujah Amen
Amen amen amen
Amen amen amen
Amen amen amen
Amen, amen, amen
Now to the Lamb upon the throne
Be blessing honor glory power
For the battle You have won
Hallelujah
With every tribe and every tongue
We join the anthem of the angels
In the triumph of the Son
Hallelujah Amen
Sing the victory of the Lamb
Hallelujah Amen
Amen
Romans Doxology
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and[i] knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
“Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?”
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
“Immortal Invisible God only Wise”
1 Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
in light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
almighty, victorious, your great name we praise.
2 Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
nor wanting nor wasting, you rule day and night;
your justice like mountains high soaring above,
your clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.
3 Life-giving Creator of both great and small,
of all life the maker, the true life of all;
we blossom, then wither like leaves on the tree,
but you are forever, who was and will be.
4 We worship before you, great Father of light,
while angels adore you, all veiling their sight;
our praises we render, O Father, to you,
whom only the splendor of light hides from view.
“You Hold my World”
Take my heart Lord will You take my heart
As I surrender to Your will
I confess You are my righteousness
And until You move me
I'll be still and know that You are God
You hold my world in Your hands
You hold my world in Your hands and I am amazed at Your love
I am amazed that You love me
You hold my world in Your hands
You hold my world in Your hands and I'm not afraid
My world is safe in Your hands
Oh in Your hands
Take my life Lord will You take my life
You are the reason that I live
I believe You have forgiven me
And by Your grace I will forgive
And know that You are God
And know that You are God
You hold my world in Your hands
You hold my world in Your hands and I am amazed at Your love
I am amazed that You love me
You hold my world in Your hands
You hold my world in Your hands and I'm not afraid
My world is safe in Your hands
Oh in Your hands
You won't let go of me
You won't let go of me
You won't let go of me
You won't let go
Never let go
You won't let go of me
You won't let go of me
You won't let go of me
You won't let go never let go
You won't let go of me
You won't let go of me
You won't let go of me
You won't let go never let go
You hold my world in Your hands
You hold my world in Your hands and I am amazed at Your love
I am amazed that You love me
You hold my world in Your hands
You hold my world in Your hands and I'm not afraid
My world is safe in Your hands
Oh in Your hands
“Christus Victor”
O Most High King of the ages
Great I AM God of wonders
By the blood You have redeemed us
Led us through mighty waters
Our strength our song our sure salvation
Now to the Lamb upon the throne
Be blessing honor glory power
For the battle You have won
Hallelujah Amen
O Most High dwelling among us
Son of man sent for sinners
By Your blood You have redeemed us
Spotless Lamb mighty Savior
Who lived who died who rose victorious
Now to the Lamb upon the throne
Be blessing honor glory power
For the battle You have won
Hallelujah
With every tribe and every tongue
We join the anthem of the angels
In the triumph of the Son
Hallelujah Amen
O Most High King of the nations
Robed in praise crowned with splendor
On that day who will not tremble
When You stand Christ the Victor
Who was and is and is forever
Now to the Lamb upon the throne
Be blessing honor glory power
For the battle You have won
Hallelujah
With every tribe and every tongue
We join the anthem of the angels
In the triumph of the Son
Hallelujah Amen
Amen amen amen
Amen amen amen
Amen amen amen
Amen, amen, amen
Now to the Lamb upon the throne
Be blessing honor glory power
For the battle You have won
Hallelujah
With every tribe and every tongue
We join the anthem of the angels
In the triumph of the Son
Hallelujah Amen
Sing the victory of the Lamb
Hallelujah Amen
Amen
“May the Peace/Benediction”
May the peace of God our heav'nly Father
And the grace of Christ the risen Son
And the fellowship of God the Spirit
Keep our hearts and minds within His love
And to Him be praise for His glorious reign
From the depths of earth to the heights of heav'n
We declare the name of the Lamb once slain
Christ eternal the King of kings
May this peace which passes understanding
And this grace which makes us what we are
And this fellowship of His communion
Make us one in spirit and in heart
And to Him be praise for His glorious reign
From the depths of earth to the heights of heav'n
We declare the name of the Lamb once slain
Christ eternal the King of kings
Ebenezer CRC - August 31, 2025
Adam Veenstra
SCRIPTURE READING
SERMON INTRO SLIDE For our message this morning I invite you to turn to page 1655 of the Bibles in front of you, to John chapter 6. For our final message in the sandbox series, we’re going to look at a story of one of Jesus’ famous miracles through the lens of a kid who played a small but instrumental part in making it happen.
Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Feast was near.
When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
Philip answered him, “Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”
Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them.
Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.”
So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
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.”
Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.
MESSAGE
Part One
SLIDE 1 This goes on to be one of Jesus’ most famous miracles.
It’s told in all four books about Jesus’ life, but the book of John is the only one to include the detail of the bread and fish coming from this little kid.
For our series this summer, it’s an important detail.
The power of Jesus Christ is such that he might not have needed him to accomplish this miracle.
But I have no doubt that he wanted him.
As we said a few weeks ago, he might not have been necessary, but he was right.
So his inclusion in this miracle, which showed the power of Christ to thousands of people, reminds us of our place in God’s kingdom, no matter who we are.
SLIDE 2 Bible scholars suggest that it’s possible this kid planned to sell his food to the people who had gathered to hear Jesus speak: five loaves and two fish is a lot of food for one kid, and he definitely would have benefited from supply and demand.
Which makes his contribution to this miracle all the more powerful and thoughtful.
For whatever reason, this kid needed this food.
But he gave it up to help feed others who were hungry, to serve Jesus and his followers in this unique way.
All he did was provide the raw material, but these little ingredients became a miracle that revealed the power of Christ to thousands of people.
SLIDE 3 You might have noticed in the passage that it clarifies that the five thousand is actually just the men.
In Jewish tradition at that time, women and children weren’t permitted to eat with men in public.
It’s a potentially important point because Scripture tells us that those who were seated were served, but it’s possible that there were women and children nearby who may have also been fed.
The scope of this miracle is large enough already, but could have been even larger than we usually consider.
And, of course, that’s not accounting for all the people who would have inevitably heard about it, since they were so excited about the Prophet appearing.
SLIDE 4 In the original Greek that John wrote in, the wording used to say that they intended to make him king “by force” is the verb meaning “to seize.” To hold and capture.
That in their wonder and enthusiasm, they could get a bit carried away.
But that’s how impressive his presence and his miracles were.
SLIDE 5 Jesus was spending time in a relatively poor farming and fishing community, which was being heavily taxed by Rome and the monarchy.
This mountainside in particular was near a cluster of fishing villages where his reputation has grown. They have heard about and witnessed his healing, his compassion, and his heart for people.
They are hungry for his message, and passionate about the change he promises.
SLIDE 6 They are getting to know Jesus as a supplier of human need, and this miracle in particular sets the stage for his testimony in a later chapter that he is the bread of life.
He is the source of everything that any of his people could ever want or need.
He is the source of everything we could ever be hungry for.
SLIDE 7 And we find it in this man who started as a baby in a manger; like a tiny seed or bit of flour, like a kid in the sandbox.
SLIDE 8 And so we see his power on display in a miracle that started as the unimpressive lunch of another kid in the sandbox.
At that time barley bread was a pretty cheap bread, and was known as the “food of the poor”.
SLIDE 9 Even the ingredients don’t look like much: they’re pretty basic, and the recipe doesn’t call for huge quantities, and any kind of bread dough can be pretty lumpish and unappealing.
And yet these are the ingredients of a miracle.
Even just that these little bits of raw material can be worked together to create food that give us nourishment and energy to work and play and live.
And then, that Jesus can use for this miracle: to feed his people, and show them the power of who he is.
Part Two
SLIDE 10 It would be easy to overlook the ingredients of this miracle.
Once again, here’s a kid who doesn’t even get a name in the story.
And it’s no different today. It can still be easy to overlook our part in miracles.
How often have we heard or said something along the lines of “all I did was x, y z…” for a project?
I’ve heard it a half dozen times just in the last few weeks.
We say and hear things like “It’s no big deal” or “It’s just my job” or “Other people worked harder than me”, and so on.
But without that part that you did, it doesn’t happen.
I don’t know all the technicalities of Jesus’ divine abilities.
But if God can craft a universe out of nothing, and give the breath of life to human beings, and if Jesus can walk on water and turn water into wine…something tells me that he could manifest some lunch somehow.
SLIDE 11 But how much more rewarding and memorable to involve this kid?
It’s like the proverb, that when you give someone a fish you feed them for a day, but when you teach someone to fish, you feed them for a lifetime.
SLIDE 12 I love the nuance and layers of this saying.
Because it doesn’t just mean that they now know how to fish themselves and can feed and provide for themselves forever.
It can also mean that you have fed them with your presence in their life.
You have nourished them, maybe for a lifetime, by standing beside them and giving them skill and knowledge and dignity and confidence, and a part of yourself.
That time and emotional energy is as important as any meal.
Really it’s discipleship! Even if just for a fishing trip.
That can feed them for a lifetime.
For this kid in Scripture - and maybe for your inner kid sitting here today - there is nothing better than someone taking the time to teach you how to fish.
Nothing better than someone taking the time to show you how to do something, to involve you somehow, and to help you know that you matter.
Imagine this kid going home and telling his friends who he just met and what just happened!
Imagine the boost that gave his self esteem and self worth…and his reputation on the playground.
There is nothing better than someone taking the time to show you something, to involve you somehow, to help you know that as small as your efforts might seem, you matter to the kingdom and mission of God.
SLIDE 13 In 2003, American writer Shelley Jackson began what she called the skin project.
She wrote a short story of 2095 words, but published it exclusively in tattoos: one word tattooed on 2095 different volunteers.
It’s been said that the story “can never be read in its proper order, but just exists, pulsing, out in the world at all times.”
And it means that when any one of those volunteers passes away, the story will be incomplete.
It cannot exist in its fullness without them.
Each and every one of them matters.
SLIDE 14 You are an inextricably valuable part of God’s story
That’s something that we talked about earlier this year, and will talk about again during Advent in a few months.
And I hope you have all had someone in your life to help you know that.
The thing is, though, you may never know the exact how or why that you matter.
Maybe some days it can feel like the word you’ve been tattooed with is just “the” or “at.”
But even so, no matter how small a part of the story you might feel, it would be incomplete without you.
Every one of you matters.
SLIDE 15 That’s been one of our themes for this summer series.
That even these little kids in the Bible, some of whom should still be playing in the sandbox, have so much to offer, and so much to teach us.
SLIDE 16 I’m sure a lot of you have seen a picture of sand under a microscope before.
This picture is of sand that has been magnified 300 times.
It includes miniscule bits of seashells, quartz, minerals, and diatoms and foraminifera - single cell organisms.
And they’re all different shapes and sizes, and completely different from one another.
We will never see these with the naked eye.
We could never pick out exactly how they all fit together to fill up a sandbox.
But every single one of them matters.
SLIDE 17 They’re like mustard seeds.
They’re just a couple millimetres in diameter, but show up on sandwiches and burgers around the world.
Over and over in creation we see God grow something from seemingly nothing.
SLIDE 18 So how fitting and powerful that even humanity starts as small and helpless as possible.
Genesis describes us as having started from dust.
In the way that creation started from nothing.
No more impressive than a mustard seed.
As individual people, we start as zygotes.
And yet here we are, showing up around the world.
Nothing short of miraculous.
And God will use these miracles, sitting right here, to accomplish his mission.
To help others recognize how miraculous their existence is.
SLIDE 19 This little boy with his lunch helped more than five thousand people believe that Jesus Christ was a Prophet, the long-awaited Messiah that God had promised them for generations.
And we don’t even know his name.
He might say all he did was offer up some bread and fish.
But his part of the story matters.
Conclusion
SLIDE 20 If you spent any time in libraries in the 90s, you’ve probably heard of Phoebe Gilman and her book “Something from Nothing.”
It’s a retelling of a Jewish folktale, rooted in the tradition of knowing how God can grow great things from small starts.
SLIDE 21 In the book, a little boy named Joseph is given a blanket made by his grandpa when he’s a baby.
When he outgrows the blanket, his grandpa makes it into a jacket.
When Joseph outgrows the jacket, his grandpa makes it into a vest.
And it goes on until all his grandpa can make from the scraps is a button, and then eventually the button is lost.
The story says that even Grandpa can’t make something from nothing.
Except that when the button is lost, all that’s left is the material for a wonderful story.
SLIDE 22 What Christ truly made from these loaves and fishes is the story of his power and presence among us, shared among these five thousand, then passed through the generations to be shared with with all of us today.
And then, for us to keep sharing with others.
SLIDE 23 If you read the book, you can see at the bottom that the scraps of fabric fall through the floorboards and get used by a family of mice for clothes and bedding and curtains.
Even the smallest of offerings can be a lifechanging part of someone’s life.
Something can come from seemingly nothing
So as a reminder of that, as we close today, we are going to invite the kids to come up front and get a piece of the bread we made as a reminder that every ingredient is needed for a miracle, and that every one of us matters to God’s story.
And I invite you all to rise, as we hear the words of Jesus from John chapter 6, assuring us that he will be the source of everything we could ever need or desire in our lives:
“For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.
Here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a person may eat and not die in their sin. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, they will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Amen.”
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