Jesus' Authority over Scarcity
In this sermon, we explore Jesus' authority over scarcity through the miracle of feeding the 5,000 as described in Matthew 14:13-21. We begin by recognizing Jesus' compassion for the crowds, who, despite His desire for solitude following the tragic news of John the Baptist's death, were drawn to Him for healing and teaching. This highlights the depth of His love and commitment to meeting the needs of others, even when it is inconvenient for Him.
We then examine the disciples' helplessness in the face of the crowd's hunger. They suggest sending the people away rather than trusting in Jesus' ability to provide. Jesus challenges them by commanding, "You give them something to eat," which underscores their inability to meet the need without His intervention. Finally, we see Jesus' miraculous provision as He takes the meager resources of five loaves and two fish, blesses them, breaks them, and distributes them through His disciples, illustrating that true sustenance comes from Him. This miracle foreshadows the spiritual nourishment He offers through His sacrifice, inviting us to seek Him not just for physical needs but for the eternal life He provides.
Key Takeaways
- Jesus demonstrates profound compassion for the crowds, showing that true love often requires us to step outside our comfort zones and serve others, even when we feel overwhelmed.
- The disciples' initial response to the crowd's need reveals our human tendency to focus on limitations rather than God's limitless power to provide.
- Jesus' command to the disciples to feed the crowd emphasizes that while we may feel helpless, obedience to His call can lead to miraculous outcomes.
- The miracle of feeding the 5,000 serves as a foreshadowing of Jesus as the Bread of Life, highlighting that our spiritual needs are far greater than our physical ones.
- Ultimately, we are called to seek Jesus for who He is, not merely for what He can provide, recognizing Him as the source of eternal life.
Scripture References
Discussion Questions
- What does Jesus' compassion for the crowds teach us about how we should respond to the needs of others in our lives?
- In what ways do we, like the disciples, sometimes overlook Jesus' ability to provide in challenging situations?
- How can we practice obedience to Christ's commands even when we feel inadequate or helpless?
- What does it mean for you to seek Jesus not just for His blessings, but for who He is?
- How can we better recognize and appreciate the spiritual sustenance that Jesus offers in our daily lives?
Matthew 14:13-21
Miracles of Jesus: Jesus’ Authority Over Scarcity
Matthew 14:13-21
Previewing Christ’s Provision at a Picnic:
The compassionof Jesus for the people. (13-14)
The helplessness of the disciples to provide. (15-17)
The provisionof bread from the Bread of Life. (18-21)
Transcript
· [music]
· >> But good morning Cross Church Phoenix.
· How are you?
· Damn.
· Yeah.
· I'm Pastor DJ. I'm the pastor here at
· Cross Church Phoenix. If I haven't met
· you before, welcome.
· Uh man, dude, this is awesome. Full
· house. Love it. This is great. All
· right. Well, if you would take your
· Bibles and open them to Matthew chapter
· 14. And if you don't have a Bible,
· uh there is one in the seat back in
· front of you
· or behind you if you're in the front
· row.
· You can make that your Bible. You can
· highlight it, mark it up, underline. Um
· that is your Bible. That is our gift to
· you. We will gladly replace it.
· Um make that your Bible.
· And as you're turning, it would help if
· the pastor did too here.
· Um as you're turning over there, I want
· to invite John and Emily up real quick.
· We're going to embarrass them about as
· much as we can
· because
· we
· have an announcement to make. And it's
· very sad.
· No, this is John and Emily. If you don't
· know John and Emily, everyone say hi
· John and Emily. Hi John and
· Um they have been faithfully serving
· Cross Church Phoenix for over 3 years
· now. They were here before I got here
· and they've been serving on the welcome
· team. You see them all the time out
· there under the canopy just welcoming
· people. Their job has been just find new
· people you haven't seen and track them
· down and show them around, make them
· feel at home.
· Well, they are leaving us. Can you
· believe that?
· This is their last Sunday.
· They are moving back home to Missouri.
· So, it's for a good reason, but um
· you know, I wanted to invite them up
· here. Thank you guys for all that you
· have done and your part in Cross Church
· Phoenix and
· our prayer. Pray for them as they find a
· new church. I told them, "Hey, you need
· to find a Bible-believing,
· Bible-preaching church." And make sure
· that that happens.
· Uh and they will bless wherever you end
· up, I'm sure. But I want to pray for
· them as well as we send them off to the
· next chapter of their life and and thank
· them. So,
· let's If you would, if you don't mind
· extending your arms out, we will
· we'll pray for John and Emily. Father,
· we thank you for John and Emily. We pray
· for
· uh
· just guidance and protection, safe
· travels as they
· move onto the next chapter in their
· life, Lord. We thank you for just such a
· blessing that they've been to Cross
· Church Phoenix, a blessing to me
· coming here, Lord. It's been wonderful
· to have them.
· And we're going to miss them, but we
· know that you have called and led them
· elsewhere and we pray your blessings
· upon them in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank
· you guys. You can sit down. Yeah. So,
· bother them about as much as you can
· before they go.
· Try to get them to stay. So, just tell
· them how badly you're going to miss
· them. Start weeping,
· you know, all that stuff and see if you
· can convince them to stay cuz I
· couldn't. So,
· but thank you, John and Emily. Well, I
· hope that you're at Matthew 14 by now.
· And I also wanted to say a quick word
· and express my gratitude and thanks
· to those of you who may have family
· members, friends who have paid the
· ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms that
· we have in this country. This Memorial
· Day, if you have or know anyone who who
· gave their life serving in the armed
· forces,
· I want to extend my gratefulness and
· thankfulness
· to those
· of you who have family members or
· friends who've given their lives. We
· love you. We pray for your comfort and
· peace this Memorial Day weekend.
· Well, last week
· Pastor Jackie
· uh preached from Matthew chapter 12. And
· it was the healing of the man with the
· withered hand.
· The main controversy
· behind that miracle was not the healing
· itself.
· They actually would tell Jesus, if you
· read through the Gospels, the Pharisees
· would, who have an issue, take exception
· to Jesus. They would say,
· "Why don't you heal on another day?
· Not the Sabbath day." The controversy
· behind that miracle was the fact that it
· was done on the Sabbath.
· That is very important.
· Remember
· the point of the miracles has never been
· the miracles in and of themselves.
· The miracles are great. It's cool to see
· the storm calm, uh or to see, I don't
· know, Jairus' daughter come back to
· life, or to see many of the other demons
· cast out, all these wonderful things.
· But all of them pointed to the bigger
· truth. The healing of the man's hand in
· Matthew chapter 12 comes right after
· Jesus makes a polarizing statement.
· He says, "The Son of Man," talking about
· himself, "is lord of what? The Sabbath."
· And then
· the healing of the man happens. Now,
· think about it for a second what that
· means.
· Jesus
· claimed to be lord,
· meaning have authority over
· one of the Ten Commandments.
· Only God has authority
· over any of the 10 Commandments or I
· should say all of them.
· He wrote it.
· Remember in Exodus when God gave Moses
· the 10 Commandments atop Mount Sinai, it
· says it was written with the finger of
· God.
· So if you say, "I am Lord I have when
· Jesus says I am Lord I have authority
· over the Sabbath." He's saying he's God.
· Oh, and then to show you
· the miracle
· is evidence of the truth that Jesus is
· Lord of the Sabbath and therefore God.
· So the healing pointed to a bigger
· truth. Well, now we find ourselves in
· chapter 14.
· And if you recall, if you if you were
· going if you were reading through it, I
· want to give you some context. We are
· skipping chapter 13 is full of parables
· which we will come to in our parable
· series.
· But
· Jesus speaks in parables in chapter 13,
· then we come to 14.
· And at the beginning of
· chapter 14 we learn that John the
· Baptist has been beheaded by Herod.
· John the Baptist stood for righteousness
· and surprise, surprise was hated and
· murdered for it.
· It's when Jesus hears the news about
· Herod
· and John [clears throat] the Baptist.
· John is beheaded and Herod
· thinks that now that Jesus' ministry and
· his population is is expanding, Herod
· thinks Jesus is John the Baptist
· reincarnated.
· And so it is at that that Jesus
· withdraws from the crowds only to be
· found by them once more.
· Well, let's pray. Father, we thank you
· for this morning.
· We thank you for your word.
· We pray that you would help us right
· now, God.
· Whatever's going on in our lives
· personally,
· that you would give us rest from it.
· That you would help us to not just be
· hearers of the word, but doers also. To
· see
· the truth of the text
· >> [clears throat]
· >> and to apply it to our lives. I pray
· that you give us eyes to see, ears to
· hear
· what the Spirit has to say to the church
· at Cross Church Phoenix in Jesus' name.
· Amen.
· Well, if you are able to, let's stand in
· honor of God's word. If you are unable
· to stand, that is to fine. If you would
· stand with us in spirit,
· we do this in reverence to God's word
· and you can do that seated as well. We
· are going to read Matthew 14:13-21.
· And it goes like this.
· When Jesus heard about it,
· John the Baptist and Herod, he withdrew
· from there by boat to a remote place to
· be alone.
· When the crowds heard this, they
· followed him on foot from the towns.
· When he went ashore, he saw a large
· crowd had
· had compassion on them and healed their
· sick.
· When evening came, the disciples
· approached him and said, "This place is
· deserted and it's already late. Send the
· crowds away so that they can go into the
· villages and buy food for themselves."
· "They don't need to go away."
· Jesus told them, "You give them
· something to eat." "But we only have
· five loaves and two fish here." They
· said to him,
· "Bring them here to me."
· He said. Then he commanded the crowds to
· sit down on the grass. He took the five
· loaves and the two fish and looking up
· to heaven, he blessed them.
· He broke the loaves and gave them to the
· disciples.
· And the disciples gave them to the
· crowds.
· Everyone ate and was satisfied.
· They picked up 12 baskets full of
· leftover pieces.
· Now, those who ate were about 5,000 men
· besides women and children. Amen.
· Thanks. You can be seated.
· If you have a handout this morning, if
· not they're in the back if you want one.
· If not, they'll be up here.
· You'll see the title of the sermon is
· Jesus authority over scarcity. Scarcity
· is a cool word, right? I like that word.
· It's fun to say, scarcity. And that is
· 100% true. Jesus has unlimited resources
· to meet the physical needs of the
· people. In this case, hunger.
· The hunger of thousands of people when
· there's little to no food.
· But at the same time and as we've been
· stressing throughout this miracle series
· is
· there's something bigger going on.
· So, I'm going to go in a slightly
· different direction this morning. I want
· you to see, yes, the miracle feeding the
· 5,000. 5,000 at minimum, right? Besides
· women and children. So, it's possible
· that there was upwards of 15 to 20,000
· people including women and children.
· They will be fed.
· But there's more going on.
· This miracle feeding the 5,000 is the
· only miracle aside from the
· resurrection, of course, that is
· documented
· in all four Gospels.
· Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all put
· this one in. And I believe that there's
· a very specific reason for it.
· Not just to show Jesus meeting physical
· needs, but foreshadowing
· Jesus provision of spiritual needs.
· So our main heading we're going to work
· under is this, previewing Christ
· provision at a picnic.
· That was my attempt to be alliterate.
· And not illiterate, um to alliterate.
· That's my attempt at alliteration. It's
· not good, but hey, previewing Christ
· provision at a picnic.
· The first thing I want us to see is
· simply the compassion of Jesus for his
· people, for the people. The compassion
· of Jesus for the people.
· If you look at a broad view of Jesus
· ministry,
· he spends extensive time with people,
· ministering to people, healing and
· teaching people, pouring himself out to
· them, and then you'll see this cycle
· where
· he'll withdraw
· from people, from the crowds, to spend
· time with the Father alone, and to spend
· time with his disciples in a more
· private setting.
· Well, verse 13 is one of those times
· where Jesus desires to be alone. One of
· the other gospels mention that he wants
· to He desires to be alone.
· His cousin, John the Baptist, was just
· murdered,
· and Jesus popularity had led Herod, as
· we mentioned, to believe that he's John
· the Baptist reincarnated, so he's going
· in back into some seclusion for a time.
· He's seeking to be alone, and yet lo and
· behold, what happens? The crowds follow
· and find him once more.
· Now, Jesus could have said, "Leave me
· alone.
· I'm tired of healing. I'm tired of
· teaching. I'm tired of dealing with
· y'all drama." Right?
· But, he doesn't.
· He has compassion on them.
· As he looks out to the crowds, Mark
· includes he says he says Jesus has
· compassion on them because they're like
· sheep without a shepherd.
· These are lost little sheep
· who don't know what they're doing or
· where they're going. Uh Luke mentions
· that alongside healing them, that he
· taught them about the kingdom of God.
· So, he's spending This is an all-day
· event.
· Hours are passing by. And though he
· wanted to be alone, instead of avoiding
· the crowds, he embraced them.
· And he had compassion on them.
· The word compassion means being moved in
· your inner being.
· You know, we talk about the heart,
· right? Like not a literal heart, but
· like your heart, right? Like if you say,
· "I love somebody with all my heart." Or
· I love I love basketball with all my
· heart. Or like he really that person
· plays with a lot of heart. Um we're
· talking about how like just like they're
· they're
· >> [laughter]
· >> they're they're passionate about it, you
· know, that kind of thing. Well, in the
· Bible,
· it is actually like your gut.
· Your bowels that is the seat of the
· emotions. And this word actually means
· that he has this inner
· um
· deep sympathy and compassion
· for these lost people. Not that he just
· simply feels sorry for them. Oh, it's
· sucks to be those guys, you know. No,
· no, it's more than that. It is a it is a
· deep compassion.
· They're like lost little sheep.
· Have you ever just wanted to be alone?
· But there's one more need to meet
· or one more person in need of
· compassion.
· One more person in need of your care.
· Remember Jesus, yes, he's fully God, but
· he's fully man. He experienced being
· tired. He experienced being hungry. He
· experienced being exhausted from meeting
· needs, too.
· But will we be like Christ and have
· compassion for people even when it's
· inconvenient?
· It can be inconvenient to have
· compassion sometimes, right? Doesn't fit
· into our schedule sometimes. But here we
· see Christ's compassion for the people.
· The second thing we see is the
· helplessness of the disciples
· to provide. The helplessness of the
· disciples.
· Now John's version of this miracle is
· fascinating. Don't make give me wrong,
· they're all awesome, right? But John's
· interesting.
· John says that Jesus is sitting with his
· disciples, he lifted up his eyes, saw
· the large crowd coming toward him,
· and he looks over at Philip,
· one of his disciples.
· And he turns to Philip and he says,
· "Where are we to buy bread so that these
· people might eat?"
· Don't you love that?
· And this is when the crowds are coming
· toward him.
· So before they even arrive, Jesus plants
· the thought into Philip's head. "Hey,
· bro.
· Where do you think we're going to feed
· all these people?"
· Keep in mind now all the disciples have
· witnessed to this point, right? Calming
· the storm, casting out demons, healing a
· paralytic, uh bringing Jairus' daughter
· from the dead, and who knows how many
· other miracles, right? And yet, yet, it
· never occurs to any of the disciples
· that Jesus can feed them if he wants to.
· In John, it says, "This he asked Philip
· to test him, for he, Jesus, knew what he
· was going to do." Jesus knows all along
· he's going to provide food for thousands
· of hungry people.
· But he says, "Hey, Philip,
· how do you think we're going to do this,
· man? There's a lot of people coming. You
· see all that?" If you saw 15,000
· people-ish coming towards you,
· how do you think we're going to feed all
· these?
· Check this out, right?
· But the disciples only consider what is
· physically possible, not what Jesus can
· do. Philip's response in John is
· basically, um "Lord, you know, we have
· 200 denarii,
· but that's not enough to buy food for
· everyone." Andrew is the one who comes
· up and says, "There's a boy here with
· the five loaves and the two fish, uh but
· that's nothing for so many people."
· Both of them are looking at only what is
· physically possible. If you look here in
· Matthew, it's all the disciples, right?
· Are saying, "Lord,
· send them away to go buy food for
· themselves." The word send, uh in verse
· 15, is also a command. So, the disciples
· aren't like suggesting, like, "Jesus,
· you might want to send them away." No,
· this is like, "Jesus, send them away.
· Like, it's getting late. Send them away
· so that they can get food for
· themselves."
· The disciples aren't asking Jesus to
· send them away. They're telling him to.
· And then Jesus turns it right on them.
· It's fascinating. He just turns it on
· them and says, "You give them something
· to eat." And the word give is a command
· in Greek. The disciples try to command
· Jesus. Jesus turns and commands the
· disciples. No, no, no, you give them
· something to eat.
· You feed them.
· Now remember, Jesus already got Philip's
· mind rolling.
· The rest of the disciples, everyone is
· considering every option but Jesus.
· Think about that.
· Every option but Jesus.
· And Jesus confronts them head-on about
· it.
· You do it.
· And the disciples know they're helpless
· on their own, right? They can't [music]
· do it. And that's the point. They can't.
· You think Jesus doesn't know that? Of
· course he does.
· They can't. The disciples know they
· don't have the provisions and they can't
· go buy them.
· So the underlying point is here you here
· is the disciples, you don't have it and
· you can't buy it.
· They're completely helpless, unable to
· do anything, and they have no control
· over the situation. So let me ask you
· this, what do you have left? If you put
· yourself in the sandals of the
· disciples, what do you have left?
· I'll tell you what you have left.
· Surrender
· to Christ's plan.
· That's what you have. You have obedience
· to what Jesus told you to do.
· Surrender in spite of your helplessness.
· Jesus is telling me to feed them. I
· can't, but he keeps telling me to.
· I'm going to need his help. Exactly.
· Right? Exactly.
· And this leads me to
· point number three that I want to camp
· on, the provision of bread from the
· bread of life.
· The provision of bread from the bread of
· life. Look at verse 19.
· Who does Jesus give the bread to?
· The disciples.
· He's God. He's done many miracles.
· He could have just said,
· "Ta-da!" And bread and fish could be at
· the lap of everyone, right? He had them
· sit down on the grass in groups of 50
· and 100, the other gospels tell us.
· Jesus could have just made bread appear
· at the lap of everyone and said, "Ta-da!
· Eat. Let's all just have fun."
· But he doesn't do it that way. He's He's
· making bread out of nothing, and he's
· passing it to the disciples, "You give
· them something to eat."
· What was impossible a few minutes ago,
· they're doing
· now.
· Passing out bread. I love that Jesus
· includes them in the miracle.
· And bread and fish flow to thousands
· of people, right? The disciples Jesus is
· like,
· "You feed them." "We can't."
· "No, no, no, no, seriously,
· you feed them." As he just starts
· passing it out, right? It's awesome.
· They didn't know what Jesus was going to
· do.
· But Jesus challenged them to obedience
· in the face of their inability.
· See that?
· We've got a lot to learn, right? From
· the disciples' perspective, will we obey
· and trust Jesus even if we don't
· understand or know what he's going to
· do?
· Will we obey
· the New Testament commands Christ gives
· to us to be his witnesses and to make
· disciples of all nations, to spread the
· gospel, even if we don't see the end
· result? You don't need to. What if I
· share the gospel with my friend or
· family or co-worker and they reject it?
· You're called to obedience, not to know
· the outcome.
· Paul taught the same thing to the
· Corinthians. I planted and Apollos
· watered. Neither of them gave the growth
· to anything. God gives the growth.
· You may plant a hundred seeds and water
· a hundred seeds and only one of them
· grows. Congratulations, you didn't make
· it happen, God did. But you were
· obedient in sharing the gospel with
· those hundred people or pointing those
· hundred people to Christ each time that
· you did. That's obedience.
· You can't save anyone any more than the
· disciples can make bread.
· But you are called to share the gospel
· with them
· out of obedience to his command.
· Imagine what this was like for a second.
· Right? I'm guessing it would take hours
· to pass out bread and fish to this many
· people, right? You're not passing out
· bread and fish to 15,000 people in like
· 10 minutes.
· It's going to take a while.
· And every minute, every second, every
· piece of bread or every fish given would
· be a reminder to the disciples of the
· fact that what they couldn't possibly
· do, Jesus is doing.
· And so, he gives so much that they have
· 12 baskets left over, more than what
· they started with.
· And I I really I just tried to put
· myself in in Philip's shoes particularly
· this week. I was thinking like, what
· would it been like to be Philip?
· Philip is the first one that Jesus turns
· to, you know, and he's like, "Hey
· Philip, how are we going to feed all
· these people?" I don't know, we don't
· have enough money to. What do you want
· us to do, Lord? And then
· passing out bread and fish for an hour
· or two, maybe, who knows, and then you
· come back
· and there's a basket for you.
· Just a few hours ago
· Jesus was challenging you on how you're
· going to feed everyone.
· And a few hours later, you're walking
· away with a basket full of bread
· yourself.
· What a blessing.
· I want you to see something very
· important.
· Look at verse 19 again.
· And if you're an underliner or a
· highlighter, I would encourage you, you
· can if you want to highlight the words
· took, blessed, broke, and gave.
· Took, blessed, broke, and gave.
· Other translations might say taking and
· blessing, same difference.
· Here's what the writers are getting at.
· He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and
· gave it.
· Does that sound familiar to you?
· The formula is exactly the same in Mark
· and Luke and almost exactly the same in
· John. John says he distributed it, same
· difference.
· Here's what's even
· more interesting.
· This is the exact same wording
· Jesus used when he institutes the Lord's
· Supper in the upper room with the
· disciples.
· When he was in the upper room with his
· disciples before he was arrested, Jesus
· takes the Passover and makes it about
· him.
· Matthew 26:26
· says, "Now, as they were eating, Jesus
· what? Took bread and after blessing it,
· broke it and gave it to the disciples
· and said, "Take, eat, this is my body."
· Mark 14:22.
· And as they were eating, he took bread.
· And after blessing it, which blessing
· and giving thanks to God is the same in
· scripture, he broke it and gave it to
· them and said, "Take, this is my body."
· Luke 22:19.
· And he took bread.
· What do you think he did with it? He
· gave thanks, he blessed it, he broke it
· and he gave it to them saying, "This is
· my body."
· Which is given for you, do this in
· remembrance of me. What does Paul write
· in 1 Corinthians?
· For I received from the Lord what I also
· delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on
· the night he was betrayed took bread.
· When he'd given thanks, he broke it and
· said, "This is my body which is what?
· For or given to you. Do this in
· remembrance of me."
· The this whole miracle
· where Jesus is providing physical
· sustenance to a crowd of thousands of
· people is a preview of his ultimate
· provision spiritually through his death
· and resurrection on the cross. His
· broken body, his blood shed for us, we
· have eternal life in Christ. And you
· say, "DJ, that sounds like a stretch."
· Tell that to Jesus.
· Because in John chapter 6, that's
· exactly where Jesus goes with this.
· In John chapter 6, which is the chapter
· on this feeding of the 5,000, [music]
· the next day.
· This isn't like 6 months later. The next
· day, the same crowds who ate and had
· their fill before, the same crowds are
· looking for Jesus and they find him.
· And Jesus looks at them and says, quote,
· "You are looking for me not because you
· saw the signs, but because you ate the
· loaves and were filled."
· In other words, you're looking for me
· not because you see the signs I'm doing
· that point to the fact that I'm the
· Messiah, the Christ, but because you got
· free bread yesterday.
· You're coming to me not because you love
· me, believe in me, and want me. You're
· coming to me for what you can get from
· me.
· Like Jesus is some kind of cosmic
· vending machine.
· I show up and he gives me free stuff,
· right?
· Jesus is confronting people who use him
· as a means to an end. That's what he's
· doing. Yes, he blessed them yesterday,
· but he knows they're following him for
· all the wrong reasons.
· They want Jesus not for who he is, but
· what they think they can get from him.
· Like you come and you show up and you
· listen to him teach you, might say a
· prayer, and then he's supposed to give
· you what you want.
· And Jesus rejects that kind of thinking.
· So then the people ask, this is all John
· 6, you can read it yourself. The people
· are like, okay, okay, okay, okay. What
· can we do then to perform the works of
· God?
· In other words,
· how can we do what you're doing?
· Um
· okay, um you know,
· what c- c- c- c- like how do I get God
· to grant me the ability to make bread um
· the way that you're doing it, you know,
· make bread and fish out of nothing? And
· Jesus says, "This is the work of God
· that you believe on him on the in the
· one who he has sent, believing me. The
· work of God is you believing in me, but
· they don't. And then they say, "Okay,
· well, what sign will you do that we may
· believe in you?" Hello!
· Did you forget yesterday?
· Cuz you see what they say is, "Well, you
· know, Jesus, um
· Moses gave our ancestors manna in the
· desert.
· What can you do?"
· I just gave you
· thousands of you bread and fish in a
· desert place. And so, what Jesus does is
· he confronts this head-on.
· Jesus hits them with the hard truth. He
· says, "Moses didn't give your ancestors
· bread from heaven, I did.
· I did.
· I am the bread of life. If you come to
· me, you won't hunger or thirst again."
· Because here's the bottom line. They ate
· bread made from God yesterday, probably
· the best bread ever, right? If God made
· it, it's got to be good bread. They ate
· the best bread and fish ever and are
· hungry again the next day.
· Right?
· Physical sustenance, but they're hungry
· again.
· And Jesus is pointing them to himself
· and saying that you must eat of his
· flesh and drink his blood to have
· eternal life.
· Now, what he's talking about is
· believing in him and communing with him.
· They would know it doesn't it's not
· literal because the Old Testament
· forbade drinking blood. He They're not
· What Jesus is saying is that he is the
· source
· of spiritual sustenance that is far more
· needed than any physical sustenance.
· And when Jesus says he's the bread of
· life,
· everyone scatters.
· Right?
· Everyone starts leaving him
· when he starts saying hard things.
· He had thousands of followers yesterday.
· Jesus should have started First Baptist
· Church of Capernaum. He'd start with
· like 15,000 members.
· It'll be great.
· But he knows. Understand this that at no
· point was Jesus ever impressed with how
· many followers he had because he knew
· that when he dropped hard truths, many
· of them would walk away and they did.
· Free food?
· All kinds of people show up for that,
· right?
· Hard biblical truth?
· People leave.
· And that often happens in church, right?
· When all those people turn away, Jesus
· turns to the disciples and ask if
· they're leaving, too.
· And Peter, who puts his foot in his
· mouth often, didn't this time.
· Jesus says, or I'm sorry, Peter steps up
· and says those beautiful words, "Lord,
· to whom will we go? You have the words
· of eternal life."
· And then he says, "We have come to
· believe and know that you are the holy
· one of God."
· Remember what Jesus said earlier? "This
· is the work of God. Believe in me." And
· here's Peter, "We've come to believe and
· know you're the holy one of God, Jesus.
· Where else are we going to go? All these
· thousands of people just left you
· because you said you're the bread of
· life come down from heaven. We're
· sticking with you."
· And Jesus knew Judas didn't believe, but
· that's another sermon, right?
· This miracle is both a blessing and
· judgement. A blessing, a confirmation
· for the believer in Jesus.
· For those who believe in him.
· But this miracle is also judgement on
· those who reject Jesus Christ.
· This miracle previews Christ's spiritual
· provision on the cross where his body is
· broken and his blood is shed for us
· providing spiritual sustenance for all
· eternity.
· The question is this.
· If you're listening to my voice, you got
· to answer this right yourself.
· Do you just want bread from the bread of
· life?
· Or do you want the bread of life?
· There's a difference.
· Do you want Jesus for who he is? Do you
· love Christ because of who he is?
· Not cuz you want him to get rid of your
· headache.
· He might. We have blessings from God,
· right?
· We have blessings. We have roof over our
· heads and food in the pantry or drinks
· in your fridge and all that stuff.
· Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
· Yes.
· But come to Christ because you love him,
· not so that you can press a button and
· try to get a blessing out like he's a
· vending machine.
· Jesus is not a means to an end in your
· hand, a tool in your hand to use however
· you want. No, he's God and you come to
· him because of who he is.
· That's what this miracle's all about.
· And I want to invite the worship team up
· as we move on to our baptisms which is a
· glorious glorious, um, time of of
· showing this truth of those who are
· coming to Christ for who he is. So, I
· want to invite, uh, Beth
· McDonald, Scott Cunningham, Atreyu
· Reinhardt, and Araia
· uh, Johnson down here with me. If you
· guys just want to come up to the front
· here.
· Perfect.
· This is Beth. Everyone say, "Hi, Beth."
· Hi, Beth.
· Uh, Beth, let's see. Now, you first came
· to church what? A couple months ago now.
· She came in for the first time. She sat
· in the back. And I forget what sermon it
· was, but she come up to me afterwards.
· And she was just like, um, now's the
· time.
· What do I do? How do I do this? I want
· to receive Christ. I want to turn my
· life over to him. I don't know how.
· And we were able to pray right back
· there, right in the I said yes corner,
· uh, by the lamp over there, and pray to
· receive Christ, and
· and, uh, it's been wonderful since, and
· you've been meeting with Donna, and
· doing just some discipleship, growing in
· your walk with the Lord. What do you say
· we baptize you, Beth?
· All right. If you want to take your
· sandals off, you can, and just get
· All right.
· All right, Beth, just a couple questions
· for you. Is Jesus Christ your personal
· Lord and Savior? Yes. Do you believe
· that he died on the cross for your sins
· personally, and that he rose again on
· the third day, showing his power over
· sin and death, and that he has authority
· over your life? Yes.
· Well, upon your profession of faith, it
· is my honor to baptize you, my sister,
· in the name of the Father, and of the
· Son, and of the Holy Spirit. For we are
· buried with him by baptism into death,
· and raised to walk in newness of life.
· >> [applause]
· >> Be careful.
· >> [applause]
· >> All right. Oh, I got you.
· All right. We'll have Araya come. We'll
· do ladies first here, okay? So, Araya,
· everyone say hi, Araya. Hi, Araya.
· This is Araya and her fiance, Atreyu.
· They are getting married here in a
· couple months. We're doing some
· premarital counseling. Both of them I
· met with them they came to Christ a year
· and a half ago
· in Ohio, right? In Ohio. And we're never
· baptized. And so, they wanted to meet
· with me to discuss baptism. So, we we
· talked together about the gospel and
· about what baptism is, what it's not,
· and they said, "Yes, that is us. We
· believe in Christ and we want to do
· things God's way."
· So, we say yes and amen to that. Araya,
· do you believe is Jesus Christ your
· personal Lord and Savior?
· >> Yes, I do.
· Do you believe that he died on the cross
· for your sins personally and that he
· rose again on the third day showing his
· power over sin and death and that he has
· authority over your life?
· >> Yes. Well, upon your profession of
· faith, it's my honor to baptize you, my
· sister, in the name of the Father and of
· the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For we
· are buried with him
· by baptism under death and raised to
· walk in newness of life.
· >> [applause]
· >> Amen. And then, Atreyu, want to hop on
· in. The water's freezing cold, by the
· way. I'm just kidding. It's warm. It's
· warm. He's like he's like
· Oh, dang, bro. I'm out of here.
· All right.
· All right. Atreyu, same couple
· questions, brother. Is Jesus Christ your
· personal Lord and Savior?
· >> Yes. Do you believe that he died on the
· cross for your sins personally and that
· he rose again on the third day showing
· his power over sin and death and that he
· has authority over your life?
· >> Yes.
· Well, it's my privilege to baptize you,
· my brother, in the name of the Father
· and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
· For we are buried with him by baptism
· into death
· and raised to walk in newness of life.
· >> [applause]
· >> Amen.
· And this is Scott. Everyone say, "Hi,
· Scott."
· What's up, Scott? Um Scott is one that
· did want to to say a few words. Did you
· want to Um here you can I can do here.
· I just had a short thing to read. Uh
· Jesus Christ has saved me by his grace,
· has forgiven my sins, and called me to
· follow him.
· Today I am being baptized because I
· trust him with my
· I trust him as my Lord and Savior. Amen.
· All right, you want to go ahead?
· >> [applause]
· >> Scott and I had a a few meetings
· together which were absolutely
· wonderful. And uh Scott did not make the
· decision to follow Christ lightly. Uh he
· did a ton of his own research and his
· own um looking into the um
· trustworthiness of the gospels and of
· the resurrection. And uh I look forward
· to seeing what God does in your life,
· Scott. Is Jesus Christ your personal
· Lord and Savior? Yes, he is. Do you
· believe that he died on the cross for
· your sins personally and that he rose
· again on the third day to show his power
· over sin and death and that he has
· authority over your life? Yes, I do.
· Well, upon your profession of faith, it
· is my honor to baptize you, my brother,
· in the name of the Father and of the Son
· and of the Holy Spirit. For we're buried
· with him by baptism into death
· and raised to walk in newness of life.
· >> [applause]
· >> I got you. I got you.
· Uh you're good. There's an extra one
· here. All right, let's stand and sing
· our last song together.
Part of Series
Miracles of Jesus
View all episodesTranscript
· [music]
· >> But good morning Cross Church Phoenix.
· How are you?
· Damn.
· Yeah.
· I'm Pastor DJ. I'm the pastor here at
· Cross Church Phoenix. If I haven't met
· you before, welcome.
· Uh man, dude, this is awesome. Full
· house. Love it. This is great. All
· right. Well, if you would take your
· Bibles and open them to Matthew chapter
· 14. And if you don't have a Bible,
· uh there is one in the seat back in
· front of you
· or behind you if you're in the front
· row.
· You can make that your Bible. You can
· highlight it, mark it up, underline. Um
· that is your Bible. That is our gift to
· you. We will gladly replace it.
· Um make that your Bible.
· And as you're turning, it would help if
· the pastor did too here.
· Um as you're turning over there, I want
· to invite John and Emily up real quick.
· We're going to embarrass them about as
· much as we can
· because
· we
· have an announcement to make. And it's
· very sad.
· No, this is John and Emily. If you don't
· know John and Emily, everyone say hi
· John and Emily. Hi John and
· Um they have been faithfully serving
· Cross Church Phoenix for over 3 years
· now. They were here before I got here
· and they've been serving on the welcome
· team. You see them all the time out
· there under the canopy just welcoming
· people. Their job has been just find new
· people you haven't seen and track them
· down and show them around, make them
· feel at home.
· Well, they are leaving us. Can you
· believe that?
· This is their last Sunday.
· They are moving back home to Missouri.
· So, it's for a good reason, but um
· you know, I wanted to invite them up
· here. Thank you guys for all that you
· have done and your part in Cross Church
· Phoenix and
· our prayer. Pray for them as they find a
· new church. I told them, "Hey, you need
· to find a Bible-believing,
· Bible-preaching church." And make sure
· that that happens.
· Uh and they will bless wherever you end
· up, I'm sure. But I want to pray for
· them as well as we send them off to the
· next chapter of their life and and thank
· them. So,
· let's If you would, if you don't mind
· extending your arms out, we will
· we'll pray for John and Emily. Father,
· we thank you for John and Emily. We pray
· for
· uh
· just guidance and protection, safe
· travels as they
· move onto the next chapter in their
· life, Lord. We thank you for just such a
· blessing that they've been to Cross
· Church Phoenix, a blessing to me
· coming here, Lord. It's been wonderful
· to have them.
· And we're going to miss them, but we
· know that you have called and led them
· elsewhere and we pray your blessings
· upon them in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank
· you guys. You can sit down. Yeah. So,
· bother them about as much as you can
· before they go.
· Try to get them to stay. So, just tell
· them how badly you're going to miss
· them. Start weeping,
· you know, all that stuff and see if you
· can convince them to stay cuz I
· couldn't. So,
· but thank you, John and Emily. Well, I
· hope that you're at Matthew 14 by now.
· And I also wanted to say a quick word
· and express my gratitude and thanks
· to those of you who may have family
· members, friends who have paid the
· ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms that
· we have in this country. This Memorial
· Day, if you have or know anyone who who
· gave their life serving in the armed
· forces,
· I want to extend my gratefulness and
· thankfulness
· to those
· of you who have family members or
· friends who've given their lives. We
· love you. We pray for your comfort and
· peace this Memorial Day weekend.
· Well, last week
· Pastor Jackie
· uh preached from Matthew chapter 12. And
· it was the healing of the man with the
· withered hand.
· The main controversy
· behind that miracle was not the healing
· itself.
· They actually would tell Jesus, if you
· read through the Gospels, the Pharisees
· would, who have an issue, take exception
· to Jesus. They would say,
· "Why don't you heal on another day?
· Not the Sabbath day." The controversy
· behind that miracle was the fact that it
· was done on the Sabbath.
· That is very important.
· Remember
· the point of the miracles has never been
· the miracles in and of themselves.
· The miracles are great. It's cool to see
· the storm calm, uh or to see, I don't
· know, Jairus' daughter come back to
· life, or to see many of the other demons
· cast out, all these wonderful things.
· But all of them pointed to the bigger
· truth. The healing of the man's hand in
· Matthew chapter 12 comes right after
· Jesus makes a polarizing statement.
· He says, "The Son of Man," talking about
· himself, "is lord of what? The Sabbath."
· And then
· the healing of the man happens. Now,
· think about it for a second what that
· means.
· Jesus
· claimed to be lord,
· meaning have authority over
· one of the Ten Commandments.
· Only God has authority
· over any of the 10 Commandments or I
· should say all of them.
· He wrote it.
· Remember in Exodus when God gave Moses
· the 10 Commandments atop Mount Sinai, it
· says it was written with the finger of
· God.
· So if you say, "I am Lord I have when
· Jesus says I am Lord I have authority
· over the Sabbath." He's saying he's God.
· Oh, and then to show you
· the miracle
· is evidence of the truth that Jesus is
· Lord of the Sabbath and therefore God.
· So the healing pointed to a bigger
· truth. Well, now we find ourselves in
· chapter 14.
· And if you recall, if you if you were
· going if you were reading through it, I
· want to give you some context. We are
· skipping chapter 13 is full of parables
· which we will come to in our parable
· series.
· But
· Jesus speaks in parables in chapter 13,
· then we come to 14.
· And at the beginning of
· chapter 14 we learn that John the
· Baptist has been beheaded by Herod.
· John the Baptist stood for righteousness
· and surprise, surprise was hated and
· murdered for it.
· It's when Jesus hears the news about
· Herod
· and John [clears throat] the Baptist.
· John is beheaded and Herod
· thinks that now that Jesus' ministry and
· his population is is expanding, Herod
· thinks Jesus is John the Baptist
· reincarnated.
· And so it is at that that Jesus
· withdraws from the crowds only to be
· found by them once more.
· Well, let's pray. Father, we thank you
· for this morning.
· We thank you for your word.
· We pray that you would help us right
· now, God.
· Whatever's going on in our lives
· personally,
· that you would give us rest from it.
· That you would help us to not just be
· hearers of the word, but doers also. To
· see
· the truth of the text
· >> [clears throat]
· >> and to apply it to our lives. I pray
· that you give us eyes to see, ears to
· hear
· what the Spirit has to say to the church
· at Cross Church Phoenix in Jesus' name.
· Amen.
· Well, if you are able to, let's stand in
· honor of God's word. If you are unable
· to stand, that is to fine. If you would
· stand with us in spirit,
· we do this in reverence to God's word
· and you can do that seated as well. We
· are going to read Matthew 14:13-21.
· And it goes like this.
· When Jesus heard about it,
· John the Baptist and Herod, he withdrew
· from there by boat to a remote place to
· be alone.
· When the crowds heard this, they
· followed him on foot from the towns.
· When he went ashore, he saw a large
· crowd had
· had compassion on them and healed their
· sick.
· When evening came, the disciples
· approached him and said, "This place is
· deserted and it's already late. Send the
· crowds away so that they can go into the
· villages and buy food for themselves."
· "They don't need to go away."
· Jesus told them, "You give them
· something to eat." "But we only have
· five loaves and two fish here." They
· said to him,
· "Bring them here to me."
· He said. Then he commanded the crowds to
· sit down on the grass. He took the five
· loaves and the two fish and looking up
· to heaven, he blessed them.
· He broke the loaves and gave them to the
· disciples.
· And the disciples gave them to the
· crowds.
· Everyone ate and was satisfied.
· They picked up 12 baskets full of
· leftover pieces.
· Now, those who ate were about 5,000 men
· besides women and children. Amen.
· Thanks. You can be seated.
· If you have a handout this morning, if
· not they're in the back if you want one.
· If not, they'll be up here.
· You'll see the title of the sermon is
· Jesus authority over scarcity. Scarcity
· is a cool word, right? I like that word.
· It's fun to say, scarcity. And that is
· 100% true. Jesus has unlimited resources
· to meet the physical needs of the
· people. In this case, hunger.
· The hunger of thousands of people when
· there's little to no food.
· But at the same time and as we've been
· stressing throughout this miracle series
· is
· there's something bigger going on.
· So, I'm going to go in a slightly
· different direction this morning. I want
· you to see, yes, the miracle feeding the
· 5,000. 5,000 at minimum, right? Besides
· women and children. So, it's possible
· that there was upwards of 15 to 20,000
· people including women and children.
· They will be fed.
· But there's more going on.
· This miracle feeding the 5,000 is the
· only miracle aside from the
· resurrection, of course, that is
· documented
· in all four Gospels.
· Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all put
· this one in. And I believe that there's
· a very specific reason for it.
· Not just to show Jesus meeting physical
· needs, but foreshadowing
· Jesus provision of spiritual needs.
· So our main heading we're going to work
· under is this, previewing Christ
· provision at a picnic.
· That was my attempt to be alliterate.
· And not illiterate, um to alliterate.
· That's my attempt at alliteration. It's
· not good, but hey, previewing Christ
· provision at a picnic.
· The first thing I want us to see is
· simply the compassion of Jesus for his
· people, for the people. The compassion
· of Jesus for the people.
· If you look at a broad view of Jesus
· ministry,
· he spends extensive time with people,
· ministering to people, healing and
· teaching people, pouring himself out to
· them, and then you'll see this cycle
· where
· he'll withdraw
· from people, from the crowds, to spend
· time with the Father alone, and to spend
· time with his disciples in a more
· private setting.
· Well, verse 13 is one of those times
· where Jesus desires to be alone. One of
· the other gospels mention that he wants
· to He desires to be alone.
· His cousin, John the Baptist, was just
· murdered,
· and Jesus popularity had led Herod, as
· we mentioned, to believe that he's John
· the Baptist reincarnated, so he's going
· in back into some seclusion for a time.
· He's seeking to be alone, and yet lo and
· behold, what happens? The crowds follow
· and find him once more.
· Now, Jesus could have said, "Leave me
· alone.
· I'm tired of healing. I'm tired of
· teaching. I'm tired of dealing with
· y'all drama." Right?
· But, he doesn't.
· He has compassion on them.
· As he looks out to the crowds, Mark
· includes he says he says Jesus has
· compassion on them because they're like
· sheep without a shepherd.
· These are lost little sheep
· who don't know what they're doing or
· where they're going. Uh Luke mentions
· that alongside healing them, that he
· taught them about the kingdom of God.
· So, he's spending This is an all-day
· event.
· Hours are passing by. And though he
· wanted to be alone, instead of avoiding
· the crowds, he embraced them.
· And he had compassion on them.
· The word compassion means being moved in
· your inner being.
· You know, we talk about the heart,
· right? Like not a literal heart, but
· like your heart, right? Like if you say,
· "I love somebody with all my heart." Or
· I love I love basketball with all my
· heart. Or like he really that person
· plays with a lot of heart. Um we're
· talking about how like just like they're
· they're
· >> [laughter]
· >> they're they're passionate about it, you
· know, that kind of thing. Well, in the
· Bible,
· it is actually like your gut.
· Your bowels that is the seat of the
· emotions. And this word actually means
· that he has this inner
· um
· deep sympathy and compassion
· for these lost people. Not that he just
· simply feels sorry for them. Oh, it's
· sucks to be those guys, you know. No,
· no, it's more than that. It is a it is a
· deep compassion.
· They're like lost little sheep.
· Have you ever just wanted to be alone?
· But there's one more need to meet
· or one more person in need of
· compassion.
· One more person in need of your care.
· Remember Jesus, yes, he's fully God, but
· he's fully man. He experienced being
· tired. He experienced being hungry. He
· experienced being exhausted from meeting
· needs, too.
· But will we be like Christ and have
· compassion for people even when it's
· inconvenient?
· It can be inconvenient to have
· compassion sometimes, right? Doesn't fit
· into our schedule sometimes. But here we
· see Christ's compassion for the people.
· The second thing we see is the
· helplessness of the disciples
· to provide. The helplessness of the
· disciples.
· Now John's version of this miracle is
· fascinating. Don't make give me wrong,
· they're all awesome, right? But John's
· interesting.
· John says that Jesus is sitting with his
· disciples, he lifted up his eyes, saw
· the large crowd coming toward him,
· and he looks over at Philip,
· one of his disciples.
· And he turns to Philip and he says,
· "Where are we to buy bread so that these
· people might eat?"
· Don't you love that?
· And this is when the crowds are coming
· toward him.
· So before they even arrive, Jesus plants
· the thought into Philip's head. "Hey,
· bro.
· Where do you think we're going to feed
· all these people?"
· Keep in mind now all the disciples have
· witnessed to this point, right? Calming
· the storm, casting out demons, healing a
· paralytic, uh bringing Jairus' daughter
· from the dead, and who knows how many
· other miracles, right? And yet, yet, it
· never occurs to any of the disciples
· that Jesus can feed them if he wants to.
· In John, it says, "This he asked Philip
· to test him, for he, Jesus, knew what he
· was going to do." Jesus knows all along
· he's going to provide food for thousands
· of hungry people.
· But he says, "Hey, Philip,
· how do you think we're going to do this,
· man? There's a lot of people coming. You
· see all that?" If you saw 15,000
· people-ish coming towards you,
· how do you think we're going to feed all
· these?
· Check this out, right?
· But the disciples only consider what is
· physically possible, not what Jesus can
· do. Philip's response in John is
· basically, um "Lord, you know, we have
· 200 denarii,
· but that's not enough to buy food for
· everyone." Andrew is the one who comes
· up and says, "There's a boy here with
· the five loaves and the two fish, uh but
· that's nothing for so many people."
· Both of them are looking at only what is
· physically possible. If you look here in
· Matthew, it's all the disciples, right?
· Are saying, "Lord,
· send them away to go buy food for
· themselves." The word send, uh in verse
· 15, is also a command. So, the disciples
· aren't like suggesting, like, "Jesus,
· you might want to send them away." No,
· this is like, "Jesus, send them away.
· Like, it's getting late. Send them away
· so that they can get food for
· themselves."
· The disciples aren't asking Jesus to
· send them away. They're telling him to.
· And then Jesus turns it right on them.
· It's fascinating. He just turns it on
· them and says, "You give them something
· to eat." And the word give is a command
· in Greek. The disciples try to command
· Jesus. Jesus turns and commands the
· disciples. No, no, no, you give them
· something to eat.
· You feed them.
· Now remember, Jesus already got Philip's
· mind rolling.
· The rest of the disciples, everyone is
· considering every option but Jesus.
· Think about that.
· Every option but Jesus.
· And Jesus confronts them head-on about
· it.
· You do it.
· And the disciples know they're helpless
· on their own, right? They can't [music]
· do it. And that's the point. They can't.
· You think Jesus doesn't know that? Of
· course he does.
· They can't. The disciples know they
· don't have the provisions and they can't
· go buy them.
· So the underlying point is here you here
· is the disciples, you don't have it and
· you can't buy it.
· They're completely helpless, unable to
· do anything, and they have no control
· over the situation. So let me ask you
· this, what do you have left? If you put
· yourself in the sandals of the
· disciples, what do you have left?
· I'll tell you what you have left.
· Surrender
· to Christ's plan.
· That's what you have. You have obedience
· to what Jesus told you to do.
· Surrender in spite of your helplessness.
· Jesus is telling me to feed them. I
· can't, but he keeps telling me to.
· I'm going to need his help. Exactly.
· Right? Exactly.
· And this leads me to
· point number three that I want to camp
· on, the provision of bread from the
· bread of life.
· The provision of bread from the bread of
· life. Look at verse 19.
· Who does Jesus give the bread to?
· The disciples.
· He's God. He's done many miracles.
· He could have just said,
· "Ta-da!" And bread and fish could be at
· the lap of everyone, right? He had them
· sit down on the grass in groups of 50
· and 100, the other gospels tell us.
· Jesus could have just made bread appear
· at the lap of everyone and said, "Ta-da!
· Eat. Let's all just have fun."
· But he doesn't do it that way. He's He's
· making bread out of nothing, and he's
· passing it to the disciples, "You give
· them something to eat."
· What was impossible a few minutes ago,
· they're doing
· now.
· Passing out bread. I love that Jesus
· includes them in the miracle.
· And bread and fish flow to thousands
· of people, right? The disciples Jesus is
· like,
· "You feed them." "We can't."
· "No, no, no, no, seriously,
· you feed them." As he just starts
· passing it out, right? It's awesome.
· They didn't know what Jesus was going to
· do.
· But Jesus challenged them to obedience
· in the face of their inability.
· See that?
· We've got a lot to learn, right? From
· the disciples' perspective, will we obey
· and trust Jesus even if we don't
· understand or know what he's going to
· do?
· Will we obey
· the New Testament commands Christ gives
· to us to be his witnesses and to make
· disciples of all nations, to spread the
· gospel, even if we don't see the end
· result? You don't need to. What if I
· share the gospel with my friend or
· family or co-worker and they reject it?
· You're called to obedience, not to know
· the outcome.
· Paul taught the same thing to the
· Corinthians. I planted and Apollos
· watered. Neither of them gave the growth
· to anything. God gives the growth.
· You may plant a hundred seeds and water
· a hundred seeds and only one of them
· grows. Congratulations, you didn't make
· it happen, God did. But you were
· obedient in sharing the gospel with
· those hundred people or pointing those
· hundred people to Christ each time that
· you did. That's obedience.
· You can't save anyone any more than the
· disciples can make bread.
· But you are called to share the gospel
· with them
· out of obedience to his command.
· Imagine what this was like for a second.
· Right? I'm guessing it would take hours
· to pass out bread and fish to this many
· people, right? You're not passing out
· bread and fish to 15,000 people in like
· 10 minutes.
· It's going to take a while.
· And every minute, every second, every
· piece of bread or every fish given would
· be a reminder to the disciples of the
· fact that what they couldn't possibly
· do, Jesus is doing.
· And so, he gives so much that they have
· 12 baskets left over, more than what
· they started with.
· And I I really I just tried to put
· myself in in Philip's shoes particularly
· this week. I was thinking like, what
· would it been like to be Philip?
· Philip is the first one that Jesus turns
· to, you know, and he's like, "Hey
· Philip, how are we going to feed all
· these people?" I don't know, we don't
· have enough money to. What do you want
· us to do, Lord? And then
· passing out bread and fish for an hour
· or two, maybe, who knows, and then you
· come back
· and there's a basket for you.
· Just a few hours ago
· Jesus was challenging you on how you're
· going to feed everyone.
· And a few hours later, you're walking
· away with a basket full of bread
· yourself.
· What a blessing.
· I want you to see something very
· important.
· Look at verse 19 again.
· And if you're an underliner or a
· highlighter, I would encourage you, you
· can if you want to highlight the words
· took, blessed, broke, and gave.
· Took, blessed, broke, and gave.
· Other translations might say taking and
· blessing, same difference.
· Here's what the writers are getting at.
· He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and
· gave it.
· Does that sound familiar to you?
· The formula is exactly the same in Mark
· and Luke and almost exactly the same in
· John. John says he distributed it, same
· difference.
· Here's what's even
· more interesting.
· This is the exact same wording
· Jesus used when he institutes the Lord's
· Supper in the upper room with the
· disciples.
· When he was in the upper room with his
· disciples before he was arrested, Jesus
· takes the Passover and makes it about
· him.
· Matthew 26:26
· says, "Now, as they were eating, Jesus
· what? Took bread and after blessing it,
· broke it and gave it to the disciples
· and said, "Take, eat, this is my body."
· Mark 14:22.
· And as they were eating, he took bread.
· And after blessing it, which blessing
· and giving thanks to God is the same in
· scripture, he broke it and gave it to
· them and said, "Take, this is my body."
· Luke 22:19.
· And he took bread.
· What do you think he did with it? He
· gave thanks, he blessed it, he broke it
· and he gave it to them saying, "This is
· my body."
· Which is given for you, do this in
· remembrance of me. What does Paul write
· in 1 Corinthians?
· For I received from the Lord what I also
· delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on
· the night he was betrayed took bread.
· When he'd given thanks, he broke it and
· said, "This is my body which is what?
· For or given to you. Do this in
· remembrance of me."
· The this whole miracle
· where Jesus is providing physical
· sustenance to a crowd of thousands of
· people is a preview of his ultimate
· provision spiritually through his death
· and resurrection on the cross. His
· broken body, his blood shed for us, we
· have eternal life in Christ. And you
· say, "DJ, that sounds like a stretch."
· Tell that to Jesus.
· Because in John chapter 6, that's
· exactly where Jesus goes with this.
· In John chapter 6, which is the chapter
· on this feeding of the 5,000, [music]
· the next day.
· This isn't like 6 months later. The next
· day, the same crowds who ate and had
· their fill before, the same crowds are
· looking for Jesus and they find him.
· And Jesus looks at them and says, quote,
· "You are looking for me not because you
· saw the signs, but because you ate the
· loaves and were filled."
· In other words, you're looking for me
· not because you see the signs I'm doing
· that point to the fact that I'm the
· Messiah, the Christ, but because you got
· free bread yesterday.
· You're coming to me not because you love
· me, believe in me, and want me. You're
· coming to me for what you can get from
· me.
· Like Jesus is some kind of cosmic
· vending machine.
· I show up and he gives me free stuff,
· right?
· Jesus is confronting people who use him
· as a means to an end. That's what he's
· doing. Yes, he blessed them yesterday,
· but he knows they're following him for
· all the wrong reasons.
· They want Jesus not for who he is, but
· what they think they can get from him.
· Like you come and you show up and you
· listen to him teach you, might say a
· prayer, and then he's supposed to give
· you what you want.
· And Jesus rejects that kind of thinking.
· So then the people ask, this is all John
· 6, you can read it yourself. The people
· are like, okay, okay, okay, okay. What
· can we do then to perform the works of
· God?
· In other words,
· how can we do what you're doing?
· Um
· okay, um you know,
· what c- c- c- c- like how do I get God
· to grant me the ability to make bread um
· the way that you're doing it, you know,
· make bread and fish out of nothing? And
· Jesus says, "This is the work of God
· that you believe on him on the in the
· one who he has sent, believing me. The
· work of God is you believing in me, but
· they don't. And then they say, "Okay,
· well, what sign will you do that we may
· believe in you?" Hello!
· Did you forget yesterday?
· Cuz you see what they say is, "Well, you
· know, Jesus, um
· Moses gave our ancestors manna in the
· desert.
· What can you do?"
· I just gave you
· thousands of you bread and fish in a
· desert place. And so, what Jesus does is
· he confronts this head-on.
· Jesus hits them with the hard truth. He
· says, "Moses didn't give your ancestors
· bread from heaven, I did.
· I did.
· I am the bread of life. If you come to
· me, you won't hunger or thirst again."
· Because here's the bottom line. They ate
· bread made from God yesterday, probably
· the best bread ever, right? If God made
· it, it's got to be good bread. They ate
· the best bread and fish ever and are
· hungry again the next day.
· Right?
· Physical sustenance, but they're hungry
· again.
· And Jesus is pointing them to himself
· and saying that you must eat of his
· flesh and drink his blood to have
· eternal life.
· Now, what he's talking about is
· believing in him and communing with him.
· They would know it doesn't it's not
· literal because the Old Testament
· forbade drinking blood. He They're not
· What Jesus is saying is that he is the
· source
· of spiritual sustenance that is far more
· needed than any physical sustenance.
· And when Jesus says he's the bread of
· life,
· everyone scatters.
· Right?
· Everyone starts leaving him
· when he starts saying hard things.
· He had thousands of followers yesterday.
· Jesus should have started First Baptist
· Church of Capernaum. He'd start with
· like 15,000 members.
· It'll be great.
· But he knows. Understand this that at no
· point was Jesus ever impressed with how
· many followers he had because he knew
· that when he dropped hard truths, many
· of them would walk away and they did.
· Free food?
· All kinds of people show up for that,
· right?
· Hard biblical truth?
· People leave.
· And that often happens in church, right?
· When all those people turn away, Jesus
· turns to the disciples and ask if
· they're leaving, too.
· And Peter, who puts his foot in his
· mouth often, didn't this time.
· Jesus says, or I'm sorry, Peter steps up
· and says those beautiful words, "Lord,
· to whom will we go? You have the words
· of eternal life."
· And then he says, "We have come to
· believe and know that you are the holy
· one of God."
· Remember what Jesus said earlier? "This
· is the work of God. Believe in me." And
· here's Peter, "We've come to believe and
· know you're the holy one of God, Jesus.
· Where else are we going to go? All these
· thousands of people just left you
· because you said you're the bread of
· life come down from heaven. We're
· sticking with you."
· And Jesus knew Judas didn't believe, but
· that's another sermon, right?
· This miracle is both a blessing and
· judgement. A blessing, a confirmation
· for the believer in Jesus.
· For those who believe in him.
· But this miracle is also judgement on
· those who reject Jesus Christ.
· This miracle previews Christ's spiritual
· provision on the cross where his body is
· broken and his blood is shed for us
· providing spiritual sustenance for all
· eternity.
· The question is this.
· If you're listening to my voice, you got
· to answer this right yourself.
· Do you just want bread from the bread of
· life?
· Or do you want the bread of life?
· There's a difference.
· Do you want Jesus for who he is? Do you
· love Christ because of who he is?
· Not cuz you want him to get rid of your
· headache.
· He might. We have blessings from God,
· right?
· We have blessings. We have roof over our
· heads and food in the pantry or drinks
· in your fridge and all that stuff.
· Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
· Yes.
· But come to Christ because you love him,
· not so that you can press a button and
· try to get a blessing out like he's a
· vending machine.
· Jesus is not a means to an end in your
· hand, a tool in your hand to use however
· you want. No, he's God and you come to
· him because of who he is.
· That's what this miracle's all about.
· And I want to invite the worship team up
· as we move on to our baptisms which is a
· glorious glorious, um, time of of
· showing this truth of those who are
· coming to Christ for who he is. So, I
· want to invite, uh, Beth
· McDonald, Scott Cunningham, Atreyu
· Reinhardt, and Araia
· uh, Johnson down here with me. If you
· guys just want to come up to the front
· here.
· Perfect.
· This is Beth. Everyone say, "Hi, Beth."
· Hi, Beth.
· Uh, Beth, let's see. Now, you first came
· to church what? A couple months ago now.
· She came in for the first time. She sat
· in the back. And I forget what sermon it
· was, but she come up to me afterwards.
· And she was just like, um, now's the
· time.
· What do I do? How do I do this? I want
· to receive Christ. I want to turn my
· life over to him. I don't know how.
· And we were able to pray right back
· there, right in the I said yes corner,
· uh, by the lamp over there, and pray to
· receive Christ, and
· and, uh, it's been wonderful since, and
· you've been meeting with Donna, and
· doing just some discipleship, growing in
· your walk with the Lord. What do you say
· we baptize you, Beth?
· All right. If you want to take your
· sandals off, you can, and just get
· All right.
· All right, Beth, just a couple questions
· for you. Is Jesus Christ your personal
· Lord and Savior? Yes. Do you believe
· that he died on the cross for your sins
· personally, and that he rose again on
· the third day, showing his power over
· sin and death, and that he has authority
· over your life? Yes.
· Well, upon your profession of faith, it
· is my honor to baptize you, my sister,
· in the name of the Father, and of the
· Son, and of the Holy Spirit. For we are
· buried with him by baptism into death,
· and raised to walk in newness of life.
· >> [applause]
· >> Be careful.
· >> [applause]
· >> All right. Oh, I got you.
· All right. We'll have Araya come. We'll
· do ladies first here, okay? So, Araya,
· everyone say hi, Araya. Hi, Araya.
· This is Araya and her fiance, Atreyu.
· They are getting married here in a
· couple months. We're doing some
· premarital counseling. Both of them I
· met with them they came to Christ a year
· and a half ago
· in Ohio, right? In Ohio. And we're never
· baptized. And so, they wanted to meet
· with me to discuss baptism. So, we we
· talked together about the gospel and
· about what baptism is, what it's not,
· and they said, "Yes, that is us. We
· believe in Christ and we want to do
· things God's way."
· So, we say yes and amen to that. Araya,
· do you believe is Jesus Christ your
· personal Lord and Savior?
· >> Yes, I do.
· Do you believe that he died on the cross
· for your sins personally and that he
· rose again on the third day showing his
· power over sin and death and that he has
· authority over your life?
· >> Yes. Well, upon your profession of
· faith, it's my honor to baptize you, my
· sister, in the name of the Father and of
· the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For we
· are buried with him
· by baptism under death and raised to
· walk in newness of life.
· >> [applause]
· >> Amen. And then, Atreyu, want to hop on
· in. The water's freezing cold, by the
· way. I'm just kidding. It's warm. It's
· warm. He's like he's like
· Oh, dang, bro. I'm out of here.
· All right.
· All right. Atreyu, same couple
· questions, brother. Is Jesus Christ your
· personal Lord and Savior?
· >> Yes. Do you believe that he died on the
· cross for your sins personally and that
· he rose again on the third day showing
· his power over sin and death and that he
· has authority over your life?
· >> Yes.
· Well, it's my privilege to baptize you,
· my brother, in the name of the Father
· and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
· For we are buried with him by baptism
· into death
· and raised to walk in newness of life.
· >> [applause]
· >> Amen.
· And this is Scott. Everyone say, "Hi,
· Scott."
· What's up, Scott? Um Scott is one that
· did want to to say a few words. Did you
· want to Um here you can I can do here.
· I just had a short thing to read. Uh
· Jesus Christ has saved me by his grace,
· has forgiven my sins, and called me to
· follow him.
· Today I am being baptized because I
· trust him with my
· I trust him as my Lord and Savior. Amen.
· All right, you want to go ahead?
· >> [applause]
· >> Scott and I had a a few meetings
· together which were absolutely
· wonderful. And uh Scott did not make the
· decision to follow Christ lightly. Uh he
· did a ton of his own research and his
· own um looking into the um
· trustworthiness of the gospels and of
· the resurrection. And uh I look forward
· to seeing what God does in your life,
· Scott. Is Jesus Christ your personal
· Lord and Savior? Yes, he is. Do you
· believe that he died on the cross for
· your sins personally and that he rose
· again on the third day to show his power
· over sin and death and that he has
· authority over your life? Yes, I do.
· Well, upon your profession of faith, it
· is my honor to baptize you, my brother,
· in the name of the Father and of the Son
· and of the Holy Spirit. For we're buried
· with him by baptism into death
· and raised to walk in newness of life.
· >> [applause]
· >> I got you. I got you.
· Uh you're good. There's an extra one
· here. All right, let's stand and sing
· our last song together.
Miracles of Jesus