Andrew Hillier | 27 September 2026
Key Scriptures: John 6:8–13; Matthew 22:37–40; 1 John 4:19–21
I’m grateful for the opportunity to share this message at Devonport Church of Christ. Julie, our Board Chair and a member of the church, led a Q&A about the story of Devonport Chaplaincy and Loaves and Fishes Tasmania—where it began, where it is now, the lives that have been impacted, and where we believe God may be leading us next. I was then able to share a message that reaches beyond any one organisation.
There was a boy
There was a boy.
No title. No position. No program. No funding agreement. No organisational framework or strategic plan.
Just a boy with five small barley loaves and two fish.
John 6 tells us that a huge crowd had followed Jesus. There were at least five thousand people, and they needed to be fed.
Jesus turned to Philip and asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?”
Philip immediately began calculating. He looked at the crowd. He considered the cost. He thought about the resources they had available.
And he concluded that it was impossible.
Philip saw the size of the problem.
Then Andrew spoke up: “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”
I’ve always liked the fact that it was Andrew who noticed the boy!
But look again at the boy. John does not tell us his name. We don’t know where he came from, who packed his lunch or what conversation took place. We aren’t told every detail, but we know that what the boy had became available to Jesus.
Five small loaves. Two small fish. An ordinary lunch, carried by an ordinary boy.
Philip looked at the crowd and saw an impossible problem. Andrew looked at the lunch and saw an inadequate offering. Jesus saw what it could become.
John 6:11 says, “Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people.”
And when we read on, we find that everyone ate. Everyone was satisfied. When they gathered what remained, there were twelve baskets of leftovers.
More than five thousand people were fed because what one boy had became available to Jesus.
But we need to be clear. The boy did not perform the miracle. The lunch did not perform the miracle. Jesus performed the miracle.
The boy’s responsibility was not multiplication. His part was availability. Jesus took responsibility for what happened next.
And that brings me to the first question:
What are you doing with what Jesus has given you?
We can spend our lives looking at what we don’t have.
“I don’t have enough time.”
“I don’t have enough money.”
“I’m not qualified.”
“I’m too young.”
“I’m too old.”
“Someone else could do it better.”
We are very good at calculating why what we have will not be enough.
And perhaps we are right. The boy’s lunch was not enough. Five loaves and two fish could not feed that crowd.
But the question was never whether the boy had enough. The question was whether what he had would become available to Jesus.
The miracle did not begin with abundance. It began with availability.
What has Jesus placed in your hands?
What has Jesus placed in your hands?
It may be time, money or practical resources. It may be experience, influence or professional skills. It may be the ability to cook, drive, repair, organise, teach, encourage or listen.
It may even be a difficult experience you have walked through—one that now enables you to sit beside someone facing something similar.
Sometimes we imagine that if God were really going to use us, He would first give us something different: more money, more time, more confidence, a different gift or a different opportunity.
But Jesus didn’t ask the boy for what he didn’t have. He used what was already in his hands.
God is not asking you to offer what He has given somebody else. He is asking:
What are you doing with what He has given you?
Programs and frameworks are not wrong. Good structures help us steward responsibility and serve people well. But structures cannot replace surrender. Programs cannot replace compassion. An organisation cannot replace the willingness of an ordinary person to say:
“Jesus, what I have is available to You.”
The Kingdom often begins there.
Where are you with Jesus?
If we stop with the boy, this can easily become a general message about generosity:
Try harder.
Give more.
Do more.
Be a better person.
That is not the Gospel.
The boy is not the true hero of this story. Jesus is.
Jesus receives what is offered. Jesus gives thanks. Jesus multiplies. Jesus feeds the crowd.
So before I ask what you are doing for Jesus, I want to ask a more important question:
Where are you with Jesus?
Do you know Him? Do you love Him? Are you deeply in love with Jesus, or have you simply become familiar with Him?
In Matthew 22, an expert in the Law came to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
Jesus answered, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.”
Then He said, “This is the first and greatest commandment.”
This comes first.
Before activity, there must be relationship. Before service, there must be surrender.
Jesus is not simply added to our lives. Jesus is at the centre. Our identity is found in Him. Our security is found in Him. Our hope is found in Him. Our choices, priorities, values and relationships are shaped by Him.
It is possible to know a great deal about Jesus without living in a deep relationship with Him. It is even possible to be busy working for Jesus while gradually losing our love for Jesus.
Jesus does not first call us to a program. Jesus calls us to Himself.
“Dallas Willard described discipleship as learning from Jesus how to live our lives as He would live them if He were us.”
I love that picture.
Not simply believing in Jesus.
Not simply knowing about Jesus.
Not simply doing things for Jesus.
But learning to live our lives with Jesus.
So the question is not simply, “Do I believe in Jesus?” It is also:
“Am I actually learning to live my life with Jesus?”
Ask yourself: Where am I with Jesus? Am I deeply in love with Him? Or has my faith become familiar, routine and safe?
The second is like it
But Jesus did not stop with the first commandment.
The man asked for one commandment. Jesus gave him two.
Jesus continued: “A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
The New Living Translation says, “A second is equally important.” Other translations put it, “The second is like it.”
The Greek word translated “like it” is homoia, from homoios. It carries the idea of being alike or similar, of the same kind.
We hear a related idea in the word homogeneous—something consistent throughout. Think of homogenised milk: the cream is no longer sitting separately on top; it is dispersed throughout the milk. It gives us a simple picture of the connection Jesus makes. Love for God is not meant to sit in one part of our lives. It is meant to flow through the whole of life and become visible in the way we love our neighbour.
The two commandments are distinct, but Jesus connects them so closely that we cannot pull them apart.
Loving God is the root.
Loving our neighbour is the fruit.
The first command asks: Do you love Jesus?
The second asks: Where can that love be seen?
First John 4:19 says, “We love each other because he loved us first.”
That is where it begins.
We do not love God so that He will love us. We do not serve our neighbour to earn salvation. We love because God has already loved us. We serve because Jesus first served us. We give because Jesus first gave Himself for us.
But John continues: “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar.”
Those are strong words.
We cannot claim to love God deeply while remaining indifferent to the people He has placed around us. We cannot worship Jesus on Sunday and ignore our neighbour on Monday. We cannot receive grace while refusing to show grace.
Love for our neighbour does not replace our love for God. It flows from our love for God.
Love must become visible
Our love for God should become visible. It should have hands. It should have feet. It should affect our time, our priorities, our resources and our relationships.
Love notices.
Love listens.
Love gives.
Love shares.
Love turns up.
Love makes room.
Love uses what is available to meet another person’s needs.
Our neighbour is not an abstract idea.
Our neighbour has a name.
Our neighbour has a face.
Our neighbour carries a story.
It may be a child who regularly goes to school without lunch. It may be a young person who has never had someone genuinely believe in them. It may be a colleague who appears to be coping but is quietly falling apart. It may be somebody in our own family whom we have stopped noticing.
Who is your neighbour? Who has God placed in front of you? Who have you walked past? Who have you stopped seeing? Who needs the love you have received from Jesus to become visible through you?
This is where the two parts of the message come together.
There was a boy. What he had became available to Jesus, and in Jesus’ hands it became a means through which thousands of people were fed.
The boy didn’t preach a sermon. He didn’t have a title. He didn’t lead an organisation. He simply had something Jesus could use.
That is part of the story of Devonport Chaplaincy and Loaves and Fishes Tasmania. Whatever good now exists did not happen because one person had everything required.
Someone carried a vision. Someone gave financially. A farmer donated produce. A cook prepared a meal. A driver delivered food. A mentor gave their time. A chaplain listened. A supporter prayed.
Many people simply brought their loaves and fish.
But this message is not primarily an invitation to become involved in one particular organisation. Devonport Chaplaincy and Loaves and Fishes are only one expression of loving God and loving our neighbour. God may be asking you to serve somewhere completely different.
The question is not simply, “Where can I get involved?” It is:
“Where is God calling me to love and serve my neighbour?”
And the questions each of us can ask are:
Where am I with Jesus?
Who is the neighbour He has placed in front of me?
What am I doing with what Jesus has given me?
Our response
Perhaps today Jesus is calling you back to your first love.
Before He asks for your gifts, He wants you. Before He wants your activity, He wants your heart.
Come back to Jesus. Receive His love again. Remember His grace. Remember the Cross. Remember that He held nothing back from you.
Then look at the people He has placed around you. Who is your neighbour?
Then look at what is in your hands. Don’t dismiss it because it appears ordinary. The boy’s lunch was ordinary too.
Maybe your offering seems small. Make it available. Maybe your experience does not seem important. Make it available. Maybe all you can do is listen, encourage, pray or quietly stand beside someone. Make yourself available.
Dallas Willard famously said, “Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning.”
That is an important distinction.
We don’t make ourselves available to earn the love of Jesus. We make ourselves available because we have already received it. Grace doesn’t mean we do nothing. It means our response flows from what Jesus has already done for us.
Our part is availability. Jesus is responsible for the multiplication.
There was a boy. There were five loaves and two fish. It did not look like much. But what he had became available to Jesus, and more than five thousand people were fed.
The greatest commandment is: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.”
And the second is equally important: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
These commandments cannot be disconnected.
As you leave today, I want to leave you with three questions:
Where are you with Jesus?
Who is your neighbour?
What is in your hands?
And ultimately:
What are you doing with what Jesus has given you?
Closing prayer
Lord Jesus, thank You that You first loved us. Thank You for Your grace, forgiveness and the love You demonstrated through the Cross.
Draw us back into a deep and genuine love for You. Help us to love You with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind. May that love become visible in the way we notice, value and serve our neighbours.
Show us the people You have placed around us. Show us what You have already placed in our hands. Give us the willingness to make what we have available to You.
Take our time, gifts, experiences, relationships, resources and lives. Bless them, multiply them and use them to bring hope, dignity and the love of Jesus to the people around us.
Amen.
