Luke 9:11-17 - You Feed Them
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction:
Engel v. Vitale was the 1962 Supreme Court case that changed American forever. It was based upon a 22 word prayer that is as follows:
“Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our Country.”
The prayer in New York schools addressed in Engel v. Vitale (1962)
The court ruled that this prayer was unconstitutional related to the establishment clause of the first amendment. This court decision spiraled out of control and within twelve months the court covered other cases that completely removed Bible reading and religious classes and instruction from public schools.
I want us to spend a moment on one key word from this prayer that led to the outlaw of prayer in schools.
Note the sixth word of the sentence - dependence. This prayer was all about dependence on God for provision and protection. And this was the prayer that the Supreme Court struck down. Interestingly, the name of Jesus was not even invoked in this and this prayer could have been taken in other ways also thereby making the legal ruling all the more suspect. But at the heart of the ruling was the word dependence.
Sinful man wishes nothing more than to be independent from his Creator. He wants to prove that He is a god himself. This is nothing short of humanism - which is actually a religious worldview in itself and should be struck down by the establishment clause in my humble opinion if we want to be consistent.
But in today’s Scripture, we see just how dependent man is on God. We see just how insignificant and powerless that man is when it comes to an impossible task. Let’s read today’s Scripture and listen to Jesus give the incredible challenge - You feed them…
Read Full Scripture:
When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing.
Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to him, “Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.”
But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.”
For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.”
And they did so, and had them all sit down.
And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.
And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.
Prayer
Today we will see three ways that followers of Christ should live. The first is…
I. Jesus Charges His Followers to Live Selflessly (11)
I. Jesus Charges His Followers to Live Selflessly (11)
When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing.
Jesus and his disciples took a break in the area of Bethsaida as we saw back in verse 10 last week. We talked about the need for healthy rhythms and quiet time last week. Well, as you can see, Jesus could not rest for long. The crowds eventually find Him and His disciples.
Here we have a map of Capernaum to Bethsaida (courtesy of Bibleatlas.org). If you recall, Jesus had just resurrected Jairus’s daughter in the area of Capernaum - which was His ministry hub throughout His ministry in Galilee. He then sent out the disciples two by two which we discussed last week and when they came back, they made this journey to Bethsaida to decompress. This journey was around four miles by boat and eight miles by foot. Their head start only gave them a little time decompress before the crowd figured out where they were heading and headed there also!
Yet we see that Jesus has compassion for them and welcomes them in Matthew 14:14.
When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
We must appreciate the selflessness of our Lord and Savior. Although He was 100% God, He also was 100% man. One could imagine that He was tired and exhausted like His disciples certainly were. Yet He knew that the people needed a shepherd. Mark tells us Jesus’ heart on this in Mark 6:34:
Mark 6:34 (ESV)
When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.
Jesus cares for the lost sheep. Despite the inevitable discouragement of the disciples seeing the crowds and still hoping for some time to rest a little longer, Jesus ministers to the crowd.
Although healthy rhythms are extremely necessary as we mentioned last week, there are times where we must work when we don’t feel like it. There are times and seasons where the Lord might call us to live more selflessly than others. These are times where we must exercise complete and utter dependence on God alone for our energy and strength. We should exercise this dependence at all times anyway - but these seasons require even more pressing into God for power and strength.
If we attempt to work in our power, we will fail and find ourselves burned out and ready to quit.
Listen to these two verses about relying on the strength of the Lord…
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
If we want to be able to persevere, we must fully rely on the strength that the Lord provides. We must exercise wisdom in doing our best to navigate the rhythms of our life and take breaks when we are able. But as we live our lives selflessly for the Lord, we must fully be dependent on His strength to continue.
Next…
Scripture References: Matthew 14:14, Mark 6:34, Philippians 4:13, Isaiah 41:10
II. Jesus Charges His Followers to Live Sufficiently (12-16)
II. Jesus Charges His Followers to Live Sufficiently (12-16)
I have chosen the word sufficiently because we are about to see the dependence of the disciples on Christ magnified in this coming miracle. God is all-sufficient for His people. We must live as if there is no other need in the world than what comes from God - because there isn’t one. He provides everything that we need.
Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to him, “Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.”
It was the spring and sunset was coming upon them soon. (We know this because it was near the Passover as seen in John’s parallel in John 6:4). In the spring in the area of Galilee the sunset is usually around 6:00 PM so we are looking at possibly an hour or two before 6 PM most likely. They were in a deserted area but civilization was not too far away. The people likely had enough time to make it to a nearby town before nightfall.
After an eventful day of ministry, the disciples get practical. There are thousands of people present and these people have needs for food and lodging. So they seek to encourage Jesus to send them away. Don’t you love it when the disciples tell Jesus how to do ministry?
Our first reaction here is to probably judge the disciples. But if you allow this situation to sit long enough in your mind the finger can quickly point back at us can’t it! I’m sure we have a lot of ideas we would like to tell God. I’m sure we have just about all been guilty a time or two by making the statement - if I were God I would…
We can definitely relate to the disciples!
We are given more detail from John regarding this situation and the interchange that followed.
Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.”
We see a little interchange between Jesus and Philip here. Jesus is setting the disciples up for the miracle about to take place. He shows them the situation and they present what they see as a logical and rational response. Philip, now attempting to the be the CPA of the group tries to calculate how much it would be to feed them all. I can imagine his mind stretching trying to add up how much bread was going for at that point, how much would be needed per person, and how many people he was estimating were there. You have to wonder if he was asking the people around for something to write with and write on! He came to the calculation of two hundred denarii and decided even that wasn’t enough to give everyone a morsel of bread. And this would have been around 200 days wages!
As we saw in Luke’s account, the disciples chimed in and had recommended that Jesus dismiss the crowd and let them go take care of their needs elsewhere. Here is where it gets really interesting…
But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.”
I love the sharpness and directness of Jesus’ response here. You give them something to eat. This is where I came up with the sermon title - “You Feed Them.” Jesus calls His disciples to do something that they are completely powerless to do apart from Him. He presses in on their dependence on Him.
They had just done some pretty amazing things as we saw last week. They were given power and authority to cast out demons and heal the sick. It would have become pretty easy for them to to start to rely on their own strength instead of remaining dependent on God. Yet, they are called to a dependence on the supernatural Savior.
As Alexander Maclaren said:
“It is often our (God-given) duty to attempt tasks to which we are conspicuously inadequate, in the confidence that He who gives them has laid them on us to drive us to Himself, and there to find sufficiency. The best preparation of His servants for their work in the world is the discovery that their own stores are small.”
Alexander Maclaren (British Baptist Preacher 1826-1910)
God is all-sufficient. The less we trust in our own strength and the more that we trust in His - the more successful we will be in ministering for Him.
We start to see the humbling of the disciples. Jesus isn’t going to let them out of this that easily. He isn’t going to take their advice and send the people away. So they search out some food from the crowd and eventually bring forth a boy who has some food - namely 5 loaves and 2 fish. John 6:8-9 spells this out a little further:
One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?”
We are told that Andrew ends up finding the boy. Andrew, being what appears to be the least pessimistic in the situation by bringing at least something to the table - literally and figuratively, still seems to struggle with how this is going to go down. What are they for so many?
Interestingly, we should note the importance of this miracle. All four Gospel accounts mention the 5 loaves and 2 fish and have this particular miracle. It is one of the few miracles that is actually shared by all four Gospel writers.
Moving forward we see just how big of situation that was before them.
For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” And they did so, and had them all sit down.
Here we see the humble disciples obey their Master. They follow His orders and have the people sit down in groups of about 50 each. This is likely to aid in keeping some open aisles for the disciples to get food to them and for organization to remember where all they had served. I can imagine that these disciples were about to get quite a workout! Their Fitbit step goals would have been far exceeded!
Matthew lets us know that there were also women and children present - so the feeding of the 5,000 was more likely the feeding of 3-4x that amount!
And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
The disciples obey the voice of the Lord. We can learn a lot from this. Sometimes God calls us to do something that seems to not make any sense. Having 5,000 men along with their families sit down in groups of 50 when there is only enough food for a few people seems a bit outlandish to say the least. But they followed orders. They obeyed the voice of the Lord.
We need to do likewise. When the Lord stirs your heart to move, or start a new ministry, or share the Gospel with the toughest and meanest person on your street - you need to obey the Lord and watch Him work. We must trust Him. He is always working. He sees the beginning and the end. We must trust His sovereignty and omniscience - which refers to Him being all-knowing.
Moving forward we see Jesus move supernaturally and all-sufficiently in response to their practical steps of obedience.
And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.
The disciples get a glimpse of the Creator God here. After blessing the bread and giving thanks He begins to break the bread and hand it out time and time again.
One important theological understanding of creation is that God created everything ex nihilo - meaning that He made everything out of nothing. He spoke everything into existence.
And here we see Jesus take five loaves and two fish and multiply them many times over. He again creates something out of nothing. This miracle confirms that He is in fact - the Creator. He is God-made-flesh.
When speaking about Jesus Christ Paul says the following:
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
It is this amazing God who is at work amongst the disciples and the crowd gathered.
Before moving forward I think it is important to address a liberal theology that is infiltrating many modern churches today and has been for decades now. Many have tried to explain away this miracle by asserting that all of these people actually had food but that they were hiding it in fear that they would not enough for themselves. They assert that the young boy being willing to share his meal led to others being ashamed and sharing their meals as well. They focus in on the young boy as the catalyst of this feeding of the 5,000 instead of Jesus. Sadly, I heard a man preach a sermon with this exact scenario years ago.
This is nothing short of demonic teaching that does everything it can to keep the focus off of Jesus and place it on man - it is humanism and naturalism that seeks to deny miracles, defame Christ, and elevate man.
Besides, the people ran after Jesus in haste. They didn’t have time to plan a picnic. They were running after Him after seeing Him leave the area of Capernaum. I could spend time going through the Scripture and discussing the verb tense of continually breaking the bread over and over again - thereby showing that Christ multiplied it. I could spend a lot of time combating this heretical teaching. But the root of this false teaching is naturalism. Liberal theologians do all that they can to explain away the supernatural. And they do all that they can to explain away the deity of Christ.
Last week we saw that if a town did not accept the disciples - they were to shake the dust off of their feet and leave that town.
My advice to you is that if you hear liberal preaching like that - that you shake the dust from your feet and flee a church that refuses to acknowledge the miracles and amazing power of Jesus Christ.
Getting back to our account…There is another important aspect for us not to miss as well. John tells us that this is around the time of the Passover in John 6:4:
Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.
However, this particular Passover Jesus is not in Jerusalem preparing to celebrate it. We are told in John 7:1 the reason why.
After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.
It was not time for His death yet and going back to Judea would have meant a certain death for Him.
So here Jesus is around the time of the Passover with a huge crowd of people, and what is He doing? He is breaking bread.
The Passover was instituted in the book of Exodus. We see in chapter 12 the requirements for this. A lamb was to be taken and killed at twilight. One lamb was killed per household and the the blood was to be placed on the doorposts of the house. This Passover was to remind Israel about the deliverance that they received from Egypt as the firstborn was killed in all the land of Egypt other than those belonging to Israel who had the blood of the lamb on their doorposts.
The Passover looked forward to the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world - namely Jesus Christ.
In a foreshadowing of the breaking of the bread at the Last Supper, Jesus prays and breaks the loaves in the presence of His disciples. Just like this large crowd of people were fed by bread from the Savior, the world is offered the bread of Life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We can be saved by His work on the cross. At the Last Supper He broke the bread and said that it was to represent His body broken for us.
His death on the cross is sufficient for our salvation. Nothing else is needed. We are saved by grace through faith and not by our works. And His power working in and through us as believers is sufficient to do the work that He calls us to do.
Finally we see that…
Scripture References: John 6:4, John 6:5-7, John 6:8-9, Matthew 14:21, Colossians 1:16-17, John 6:4, John 7:1, Exodus 12
III. Jesus Charges His Followers to Live Satisfactorily (17)
III. Jesus Charges His Followers to Live Satisfactorily (17)
And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.
The people were satisfied. There is no greater satisfaction than in Jesus Christ. And the beauty of Jesus is that His love and mercy never run out. Just like this miracle with 12 baskets of pieces left over, there will always be more and more people that are to be saved by His sacrificial death on the cross. He still offers salvation to the lost. His love and mercy never run dry. Until Christ returns as the reigning King, the opportunity for people to partake in salvation exists. Yet, once a man dies there is no other opportunity for salvation. And once Christ returns to reign there will be no further chance for those left as well. That is why today is the day of salvation my friends (2 Corinthians 6:2).
I pray that everyone here has experienced the true satisfaction found only in Christ. A relationship with the Savior is available to all who believe in Him and repent, or turn away from their sins. And there is no more satisfying thing in the entire world than Jesus.
We must find our satisfaction in Jesus and Him alone. No other earthly relationship can truly satisfy us and fulfill us. A great marriage is only wonderful if your true satisfaction is in Christ. We can only enjoy good friendships if our ultimate satisfaction is in Christ. People cannot fully satisfy or fulfill us. Only Christ can.
There is definitely a reason why there were 12 basketfuls left over. Jesus let the disciples know that He would care for their needs as well. They could fully rely on Him to care for them. And we can fully rely on our Lord to provide for us as well.
Paul lets us know in Philippians 4:19:
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
We do not need to worry in this life.
Our God is Jehovah jireh - which means ‘the God Who provides.’
Many people have heard this name of God. But many forget where it originates in the Scriptures. This name originates in Genesis 22:9-14. This is the account where God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Right when Abraham lifts up the knife to sacrifice his son, the Lord provides. The Lord provides a ram in the thicket. This ram pointed to Jesus Christ - the Lamb of God - who would take our place on the cross like this ram took Isaac’s place on the altar.
Our God provides for us salvation, and He continues to provide for us throughout this life.
What an amazing God we worship friends!
Scripture References: 2 Corinthians 6:2, Philippians 4:19, Genesis 22:9-14
Conclusion:
As we come to a close we have seen that the Lord charges us to live selflessly. We are not to be about building our own kingdom, but instead we are to be doing His work through His power and strength. We have seen that we are to live sufficiently - meaning that we are to live relying on Him alone. And finally we are to live satisfactorily - meaning that we find all of our joy and contentment in Him alone. He is the only thing that can truly satisfy us my friends.
If you want a good marriage - find your satisfaction in Christ first and foremost.
If you want to enjoy your job - find your satisfaction in Christ.
If you want to be content with what you have - find your satisfaction in Christ.
Nothing else in this world can truly satisfy us my friends. Rely solely on the all-sufficient, satisfying Savior.
Prayer