Jesus, the Great Provider

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Steven Lee
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

0:19Last week, pastor Sam rehearsed the execution of John the Baptist. For us, Herod was corrupt, Herods was evil. John the Baptist was beheaded, and yet God is sovereign in the midst of all that. And so now this morning we look at a passage that stands in stark contrast as we see Jesus power and glory. So join me as I pray, father in heaven, we ask that you would open our eyes so that we would see more of Christ this morning.

1:05Would you multiply five loaves and two fish so that thousands would be fed this morning? Help us to trust Jesus more and conform us into the image of Christ in every way. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Imagine if I had a loaf of bread and I tossed it to the front row. I was actually going to do this, but someone stole my bread that was under here this morning. So I'm not gonna do this. I had it planned out yesterday even. But that's okay. Someone is enjoying a couple of loaves of bread right now. But imagine if I threw it down to the first row and they broke it in half and passed it to the next person and broke it in half and broke it in half and continued to pass it.

1:53How many people would it get to imagine a dinner roll size loaf, not those massive sourdough loaves that we're used to? How many people would get that? Maybe a dozen. And if by the end of it, if you thought communion bread was small, imagine how small those pieces would be. And so just imagine with us in this room, we have about less than a thousand people. And so one loaf versus five loaves for 5,000 wouldn't go very far. This miracle, which is commonly called the feeding of the 5,000, is one of the most familiar miracles in Jesus' ministry. It's the only miracle that appears in all four gospel accounts.

2:39And this miracle reveals Jesus' power to multiply bread in order to feed thousands. But it reveals so much more about Jesus' identity and his mission. So what we're gonna see this morning is that this miracle reveals that Jesus is the great provider who abounds with compassion for his people and who is limitless in his power. Jesus is the great provider, limitless in power and abounding in compassion. And he comes as this great provider to fulfill all of these kind of strands in the Old Testament to prove that he is indeed the Lord and the Messiah. And so what we're gonna do this morning is we're gonna look at the setting and then the dialogue and then the miracle.

3:32So setting dialogue and miracle. So let's jump in together. Look with me at verse 13. Now, when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. So when Jesus heard this, what is the this here? Well, it refers back to what we looked at last week, which was the execution and the beheading of John the Baptist. So imagine you are in Jesus' shoes, one of your dear friends, John the Baptist, you've just heard of his death, not just his death, his execution at the hand of an evil king. And so what are you feeling in that moment?

4:20Sorrow and overwhelming grief, some of which we can relate to here in this room. If you've lost a loved one recently, sadness, the tears are flowing freely. Jesus rightfully wants to withdraw and just to be alone with his disciples for a moment, John the Baptist, if you recall, is probably the only person who really understood Jesus identity at this point. His disciples are still kind of figuring out. They're slowly seeing a little bit more and a little bit more. But John the Baptist is the one who says the lamb of God, the one who takes away the sin of the world. So he's the only person on the face of the earth that knows who you truly are.

5:04And now he's been killed. He's been killed, he's been executed callously at the whims of a king. And so Jesus withdraws to remote area with his disciples. And so Jesus gets in a boat, we see that and he goes to a desolate place by himself or tries to at least. So he's on the edge of the sea of Galilee. This is also known as the sea of Tiberius. And the Sea of Galilee is about 13 miles long and about eight miles wide. And the surface area is about 64 square miles. So this would be very similar to Lake Vermillion here in Minnesota. So it's not a real big lake. And Jesus gets into this boat to withdraw, to try to get away so that he can be alone so that he can pray so he can talk to his disciples and explain what's going on.

5:54But what happens, we see in verse 13, the crowds heard it and they followed him on foot from the town. So they're looking from the shore and they're like, he's going that way. And and so they just begin to follow along the shore. And by the time Jesus gets to the place, the crowds are already there before him. Verse 14. And when Jesus went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. We know from verse 21 that there was 5,000 men. And if you include women and children, this is probably 10,000, maybe 15,000 people. So this is no small group. And Jesus is grieving.

6:35He's heavy hearted over the death of John. He has every right in this moment to be annoyed and irritated like I just wanna be alone for a moment and and hear are 15,000 people potentially coming, wanting to hear his teaching, wanting to pull on him, wanting to touch him, wanting him to touch them so that they might be healed. He he swarmed by the sea of humanity. And this is not kind of orderly middle class American society. Think of the slums of Mumbai or Manila. These are the peasants. These are the desperately poor, these are the sick, and they all want to get close to Jesus. So how does Jesus respond in the midst of his own grief and sorrow?

7:28He has compassion for the people. This is the same phrase that showed up earlier in Matthew 9 36 when it says, when they saw, when he saw the crowds, when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them. Why? Because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. And so we begin to get a hint of what is to come here we have this merciful Messiah who abounds with compassion even in the midst of his own grief, in the midst of his own sorrow, even in the midst of feeling all the things that he's feeling wanting to get away. And the crowds swarm him. He extends his hands with compassion. He heals them.

8:12So the stage is set. This is the setting. Large crowd has followed Jesus and his disciples into this desolate or remote wilderness location. And Jesus allows himself to be imposed upon by the people. So now we come to this dialogue in verses 15 to 17, the sun is setting, it's getting late. It's dinner time. Something needs to be done. And look at verse 15. Now, when it was evening, the disciples came to Jesus and said, this is a desolate place and the day is over. Now send the crowds away. Jesus send them into the villages to buy food for themselves. They're seeing the situation and in their best wisdom, they're like, Jesus, send them away.

9:03The largest towns nearby, Capernaum or Beth would've only had a few thousand people, so not a lot in order to go buy some food. But Jesus says something stunning in verse 16. They need not go away. You give them something to eat, you feed them. Jesus tells the disciples, you feed these 5,000 men, these potentially 15,000 people, and he knows that they can't do the miracle. So why does Jesus say what he says? I think he's inviting them to be part of the solution to feed the harassed and scattered sheep of Israel. This is a teachable moment here in this moment. The disciples when being faced with feeding the swarm of humanity, they're like, it's impossible that they feel deep in their souls.

9:58We can't do this. And it sets the stage for their participation that is to come. So the disciples are baffled in Mark and John's parallel accounts. They tell Jesus that it would take over 200 denari worth of bread and it still wouldn't be enough for each to get a little like if I passed out a single loaf, even if you use the big sourdough loafs that we're used to and everyone were to get a little bit, how small would that piece be? Pretty small. Verse 17, they said to him, we have only five loaves here and two fish. This is mission impossible. I don't know what kind of math you're using Jesus, but this is not math that's gonna work.

10:49John's gospel tells us that a young boy was the one who had five barley loaves and two fish. And so as we said earlier, these are not the big loaves that we're used to. This would've been like a dinner roll. And this is a a peasants lunch. These fish don't think big walleye here. This is like tiny salted fish just to give it a little bit of flavor, a little bit of protein here. And so this would be like my lunch when I was growing up, two slices of wonder bread, which is void of any nutrition. And then one slice of bologna, which probably causes cancer, right? So this is a peasants lunch here.

11:28This is what this little boy has. And Jesus says in verse 18, bring them here to me. So this dialogue is key to the miracle because Jesus is in charge. He knows what he's gonna do and there's no secret in his mind. And yet he's involving the disciples to see, I want you to feed them and to see that they are unable to fulfill the task. He wants them to learn that they're to feed his sheep. And I believe to serve in the strength and power that ultimately God will provide. So this setting leads to the dialogue and this dialogue now leads to the miracle. Follow along as I read verses 18 to 21, and he said, bring them here to me.

12:16Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass and taking the five loaves and the two fish. He looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the crowds and they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up 12 baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about 5,000 men besides women and children. Now there are secular skeptics that would say, this is just kind of a folk tale. This is just a myth. Maybe the miracle was just a miracle of sharing. So the boy pulls out his lunch and everyone else pulls out a little bit of their lunch and I got a couple of beef jerky sticks and everyone shares and then they feel like, okay, we're all satisfied.

13:02Very clearly that is not what's happening. This miracle is very straightforward. Jesus multiplies bread and fish to feed thousands. And the image that is portrayed of Jesus here is rich and complex. We're drawing upon the rich history of the Old Testament. And so what I wanna do is show us four things that this reveals about Jesus' identity. Four things that this will reveal about Jesus' identity and person. And the first is that Jesus is the good shepherd. So Jesus commands that the bread and fish be brought to him. He orders the crowds to sit down on the grass. Marks gospel. Mark 6 39 says that they sat down on green grass.

13:49What a weird random little detail. And then John's gospel, John chapter six, verse 10 says, and there was much grass in the place. Why? Why are they making such a big deal about green grass sitting in the grass? Lots of grass. They could have sat in the dirt and would've made no difference. The miracle was the bread. Well, what does it begin to sound like? The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. I think Matthew is very intentionally trying to show us that Jesus is the Lord. He's Yahweh, he's the good shepherd of Psalm 23. The sheep who were gathered at this table with Jesus right now can say, I have no wants.

14:45I shall not want. Why? Because I've just eaten of my fill and I'm satisfied. This is the shepherd who leads his sheep in green pastures and satisfies their thirst and restores their souls. Later on in Psalm 23, Jesus prepares a table for the psalmist, his cup overflows. And in feeding these 5,000, Jesus reveals himself to be the good shepherd of the Old Testament of Psalm 23. The second thing we're to see Jesus is the greater prophet. There is this very obscure miracle that happens in Second Kings that I was personally not very familiar with until I was studying this passage. So if you wanna turn there, you can.

15:31It's two kings chapter four, verses 43 and 44. This is one of those miracle stories that shows up in like Bible trivia because no one really knows about it. So Elisha, the prophet who's came after Elijah, Elisha, the prophet, tells his servant to give 20 loaves of barley bread to a hundred men. And the servant's like I, I can't do that. Like I'm way undershooting what's needed. These are a hundred men. You can't give 20 little loaves to them. It's not enough. They're gonna fight over it. You're gonna create a riot. But Elisha says, and this is Second Kings chapter four, verse 43, just listen. Give them to the men that they may eat for, thus says the Lord.

16:25Now this is not Elijah, thus says the Lord, they shall eat and have some left. So the servant set the bread before the men and they ate and they had some left according to the word of the Lord. So here's this miracle in the Old Testament by a prophet where by God's grace, bread is multiplied to feed a hundred men with 20 loaves. And if we assume maybe one loaf per person, je Elisha multiplies fivefold. But what does Jesus do? Five loaves, 5,000 men. So multiply a thousand fold. I think what Matthew was trying to show us is that Jesus is this greater prophet. His works far exceed the prophets of the Old Testament.

17:19So we've seen he's the good shepherd, he's a greater prophet. And next we're gonna see that he's the new and better Moses. So there's more, I feel like an infomercial, but there's more. God gave bread from heaven to feed his people in the Exodus. We know this. This is one of the kind of most amazing miracles of God's great pion. 40 years in the wilderness, manna from heaven day after day after day after day, except for the Sabbath. And the day before they had twice as much. And here Jesus is reenacting that very same thing. And he becomes the giver of bread to satisfy the hunger of multitudes.

18:01And in Jesus' day, the people explicitly expected the coming Messiah to do greater works than what Moses had done. In in John chapter six. This is verse 30 and 31. This is after the account of the feeding of the 5,000 in John's gospel. The crowds say to Jesus, what sign do you do that we may see and believe you, and he's just done the feeding of the 5,000. And they say, what work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness in, in other words, what are you gonna do that looks bigger and better than what Moses did in the Exodus? We wanna see something that shows that you are actually the Messiah because we either don't believe you and we don't believe what you just did.

18:48Back there, there was this common rabbinic saying as the former redeemer referring to Moses, was so shall the latter redeemer, the Messiah be. And the implication is that we wanna see something in, in terms of a miracle that exceeds what we saw from Moses manna from heaven. And so can you see the connections here that they're in the wilderness or a desolate place? The crowds eat and are satisfied. Exodus 16, eight says that the crowds are satisfied, there are even leftovers here. Whereas in the Exodus, there was just enough every time and none leftover Jesus is this new and better. Moses, this is not just an all you can eat buffet just for the sake of it.

19:38This is revealing Jesus identity. So we've seen Jesus as the good shepherd. He's the new and greater prophet. He's the new and better Moses. And number four, Jesus is the one who brings about the Messianic banquet. Jesus is the Messiah who inaugurates the Messianic banquet. So look at verse 19. Notice the sequence of events. What happens taking the five loaves and the two fish? He looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and then gave them to the disciples. So Jesus takes, he blesses, he breaks, and then he gives. Now listen to Matthew 26, 26 at the last supper. Jesus in the upper room with his disciples, I'm just gonna read it, Matthew 26 26.

20:35Jesus took the bread and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to the disciples. So the feeding of the 5,000 is not just for food, but I think Jesus is enacting kind of a living parable in this moment. This is table fellowship with Jesus. It's the early echo of the Lord's supper that would take place. And then it's anticipating the Messianic banquet or the messianic feast that would take place at the end of time. And so here we have Jesus seated at a table at its head, and it's anticipating this Lord's supper, a meal of remembrance and celebration. In Isaiah chapter 25 in the Old Testament here, there's this prophecy from Isaiah about God who is going to come and what is he gonna do?

21:29He's gonna prepare on a mountain, a feast of rich food, a feast of well aged wine, where death will be swallowed up forever and the Lord God will wipe away all of the tears from their faces. And so I think what is going on here is Isaiah is saying that there's going to be this future messianic feast where we will be seated with God at his table with the Messiah, and he's going to serve us this lavish feast with rich wine and rich food. And we're gonna partake in that day. And Jesus, in this moment, in the feeding of the 5,000 says, here is the inbreaking of the kingdom that has begun that reality.

22:10What does Jesus do? He prepares a meal for his people. He heals their diseases. He provides a feast that satisfies their hunger. He's saying, get ready for this messianic feast right now. You can participate and be part of my family. And the same pattern that he'll use at the Lord's supper, he uses here to foreshadow and anticipate the messianic feast that is to come. And in Revelation 19, nine, God's people are going to be invited to the marriage, feast, marriage supper of the lamb. Or if you were here two weeks ago, pastor Josh preached from Revelation three. And what does Jesus do? He knocks And what does he wanna do?

22:51He wants to come in and sit at table with us in order to share a meal with us. So the feeding of the 5,000 is a picture of what Jesus has come to do. He is the great provider, abundant and overflowing in compassion even when he wants to get away and the crowds are swarming him. And he has every right to say, I just need a little bit of alone time. What does he do? He overflows with compassion for people who desperately need him. And this miracle reveals Jesus, limitless power, but more than just his power reveals his identity as the great shepherd, as the greater prophet, as the new and better Moses and as the Messiah.

23:44Later on in John's gospel, Jesus will go even further, won't he? He will say, I am the bread of life, not just that I can give you bread. I am the bread. I will lay down my life so that you would have life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst. I satisfy all of your spiritual longings, all of your great needs, whether you can see them or not. And you need to come to me and believe. So Jesus doesn't just satisfy our empty stomachs, he satisfies our spiritual emptiness. He meets the longings of our souls. And then notice Jesus gives the bread and fish to his disciples so that they would be the ones who pass it out.

24:38You see that He broke the loaves, gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. Jesus said earlier, you give them something to eat and now they are, but only through what Christ has first done in the miracle. So they are mediators of this miracle. Jesus power and provision is supplying what the disciples need in order that the disciples can meet the needs of others. And I think this miracle is sort of a living illustration of two Corinthians nine, eight. God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

25:28God's grace is mediated through them to meet the needs of the crowds. And what's the result? Verse 2012 baskets full of broken pieces left over. I think this symbolizes incredible bounty. These baskets are not the little picnic baskets that we imagine now. These baskets were like big backpacking baskets. Uh, Josephus describe such baskets as part of the equipment of a foot soldier. And they would put their saw, their pickax, their rope, their grappling hook, their bed roll, and a three day supply of food in this basket. So think backpacking, pack, like when you go portaging and whatever in the boundary waters, right?

26:13You gotta haul everything in and haul everything out. It's that sort of basket. So it far exceeds what they even began with. And I think the 12 baskets suggests one for each disciple showing that God is going to care for their needs even as they meet the needs of others. As you meet the needs of others, you will not be shortchanged in God's economy. And in verse 21, 5,000 men besides women and children. So Jesus is shown to be the great provider, abundant in compassion and limitless in his power. So I have three applications for us this morning, three applications. The first is that we come to Jesus, our great provider come to Jesus.

27:08Some of you walked in this morning spiritually empty, you ate breakfast. But there's a deep emptiness, not in your stomach, but in your soul. You're anxious over things beyond your control. You're unnerved by the news and current events. You're searching for purpose and meaning. Maybe you're scratching and clawing for survival. You're longing for transcendence and you feel like there, there must be more than what I'm experiencing that's out there, but I don't know what it is. Some of us are plagued by guilt and shame this morning. Maybe you're a skeptic or a cynic or maybe on the verge of deconstructing, or you look at a miracle like this and you're like, I can't believe Christians believe that.

28:02And the invitation this morning from this text is to see ourselves as those in the crowds and to see ourselves as those disciples that we cannot do the work we need. The great provider in our midst come to Jesus who looks right into the depth of your soul this morning. The good, the bad, and the ugly. He knows what you did last week. He know what is what you did 10 years ago. He knows the thing that you're most ashamed of in your life. And how does he view you compassion sheep without a shepherd. Oh, he says, come to me. Come and find healing and find grace. Come to me to get what you cannot obtain on your own.

28:49I remember many years ago I was painting a laundry room and we had just installed this brand new charcoal tile in the room and we were playing the walls white. And I had been working on it for some time and I came back to it maybe a day or two later and I was like, oh, I gotta remember, you know, you gotta shake up the can of paint before you use it again. 'cause things settle. I did not remember that the last time I just put the cap on. I didn't close it all the way. So I had three-fourths can of white paint proceeded to shake it up and the first shake cap pops off three-fourths of paint come pouring out onto my brand.

29:29White paint comes pouring out onto my charcoal colored tiles. And so you can imagine the shriek that goes out. My lovely wife comes in and just kinda chuckles, glad it's me and not her that did it. And I try cleaning it up. But my hands are covered, my, my whole lap is covered. The paint is spreading. The more I try to clean it up, the more it spreads it it. It's just an exercise in futility. And this is the picture of our neediness this morning, the contamination of sin. It covers everything and our attempts to make it right, make it worse. And this text invites us to see our spiritual neediness and to cry out for Christ compassion and his cleansing in our life.

30:22Second application reflect Christ's compassion, reflect Christ's compassion. Jesus looks out on 10, 15,000 people, poor peasants, sick, diseased, demon possessed. This is not the cream of the crop of society. These are the people who are in the streets. When you go to a third world or developing world country who are lying on the side of the street begging, these are desperate people. They don't have work to do. They're just following Jesus. And Jesus has compassion on them. Is there someone or a group of people, a type of person that God is calling you to display compassion towards? Do we pray for them?

31:15Now, compassion is one of those things that is increasingly tricky in our world today. Jesus is not a prisoner of his compassion. He doesn't just keep doling out food and feeding them just because they're hungry. In verse 22, you see that he dismisses the crowds and sends them home. He doesn't just keep giving them food just 'cause they're hungry. Jesus' miracle is revealing the truth of his identity. It's not just food, but it's the truth of his identity. It's trying to show who he is. And so in today's a day and age, we need our compassion to be tethered to truth. Truth that there's right and wrong.

31:57That forgiveness requires repentance, that emotional pain and hurt are not always good and right. And compassion can indeed be weaponized or hijacked to guilt trip or to manipulate. And so compassion doesn't mean that anything goes well. You just need to be more compassionate. You Christians just accept me without calling me out for the ways that I fall short or the things that don't align with God's word. No, that's not the case. Compassion does not mean you have to do as someone else says, but we need to display compassion that is tethered to Christ.

32:36Jesus exposed false teachers, he denounced Pharisees, he commanded us to expose wolves that prey on the sheep. And so in cultivating compassion, we never are to compromise the truth. Amen. And that's a difficult thing to do. And we have our perfect example in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you lack that wisdom, ask him for it. He will indeed grant it. Third application, participate in Christ's work, participate in Christ's work this miracle. It has this underlying theme of discipleship. You see it in the dialogue where Jesus says, you give him something to eat. He didn't have to do all that. He didn't have to record all that. Well, we can't, Jesus.

33:23It's impossible. And he's like, that's right. Now see my power. And then now give them something to eat. And the disciples are to recognize their inability apart from Christ and to see their great abilities with the grace and power of Jesus. They become conduits of his grace into the lives of others and for the crowds. And in the same way, Jesus is inviting us to mediate his miracle working power into the lives of one another. We are conduits of grace. We are to be vessels of his mercy into the lives of others. In Acts two where it says, everyone shared what they had and no one had lack, how did that happen?

34:09Yes, it was the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, but in and through people meeting one another's needs. And that was the miracle. And so do we pray for one another? Do we love one another? Do we welcome one another? Do we comfort one another? Do we serve one another? I wanna encourage us in one very specific, tangible way. In this coming year, I think we ought to all aspire and to set goals in order to have others over into our homes. In order to share table fellowship, you can just feed them bread and fish or white bread and bologna. That's okay. It doesn't need to be fancy, but I think there's something really profound when God's people welcome one another into their homes to share around the table.

35:01And you take and you break and you bless and you give. We're reenacting something, not just at the Lord's supper, whenever we observe communion, but in our homes we observe table fellowship. And we might think, well, what if I don't know them? What if I don't have enough? What if I don't have fine China to lay things out, don't have enough plates, use paper plates, use plastic utensils. It doesn't matter. We get the joy of welcoming one another into our homes to share table fellowship. And that's gonna help this place feel like a family where we know each other, where we love each other. And God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

35:48Let he who serves serve as the one who serves by the strength that God supplies. And so maybe just one a week, maybe one a month, maybe one a quarter, have someone over into your home and enjoy table fellowship together. I think this will have an evangelistic effect in our community. The world denies the validity of the gospel. It argues whether a count like this will defies logic and reason. Physics would say, you know, you can't do that and multiply bread. But what is undeniable is the transformative love of Christ poured out into our hearts and then manifest in us into the lives of others. And so like Jesus, we can even minister out of our suffering and our grief and our pain.

36:39Perhaps the Lord wants, especially for you to minister out of your grief and your suffering and your pain. It's one of the ways he's going to use you and draw you out of your suffering and pain when you open up your doors to allow others in. The Bible consistently reminds us that giving and generosity and serving others is not a zero sum game. The one who waters will him himself, be watered by the Lord, give and it will be given to you. Good measure, press down, shaken together, running over. It will be put into your lap. Whoever sows bountifully will reap bountifully. I wanna draw your attention to one last thing.

37:21Pastor Sam showed us one feast with one king last week, didn't he? And we see another feast with another king. This week. King Herod throws himself a drunken birthday party in a palace. Jesus ministers out of his grief. In the countryside, Herod's party entertains the high society of Galilee, the rich and the famous Jesus feeds the lowly peasants. The diseased Herod's party had sensual dancing that led to John's beheading. It celebrates sensual pleasure and unfettered power. Whereas Jesus feast was marked by teaching and healing and compassion and generosity. King Herod sought his glory. King Jesus lavishly provides for his people.

38:11So come under the rule of a better king. King Jesus, the great provider, abundant in compassion and limitless in his power. Let's pray. Father, we wanna see Jesus. We wanna celebrate Jesus. And then we wanna be conformed to the image of Jesus. Help us be a body that meets the needs of one another. Grow us in our hearts of compassion and make us more like Christ in every way. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Sermon Text

Matthew 14:13-21

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