I'm just gonna get my notes out here. Let's open in prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for bringing us together tonight, Lord to worship you, and to look into your word, Lord, and to just to honor you, Lord, I pray that you would just work in our lives, Lord, and transform us through your word. Thank you for coming to earth to dine across for our sins, Lord, in all your majesty, in all your glory, Lord, you chose to come to earth to die for us, Lord, as sinful human beings.
I just pray that you would help me guide my words, tonight, Lord, as I speak from your word, and that we would all be transformed by this, and in Jesus' name, amen. I'd like to turn to Luke chapter nine, and that's the passage where we're gonna start. Luke chapter nine, starting in verse 10, I'm gonna read four main passages tonight, and this is a familiar account in the gospels. It's Jesus feeding the 5,000, and so most of you here are familiar with this account from the gospels.
So Luke chapter nine, starting in verse 10, I'm just gonna read the whole section. On their return, the apostles told him all that they had done, and he took them and withdrew a part to a town called Bethseta. When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God, and cured those who had need of healing. Now the day began to wear away, and the 12 came to him, sorry, and the 12 came to him, sent the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.
But he said to them, you give them something to eat, and they said, we have no more than five loaves and two fishes, unless we are to go buy food for all these people. For there were about 5,000 men, and he said to his disciples, have them sit down in groups of 50 each, and they did so, and had them all sit down, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them, and he broke the loaves, and gave them two of his disciples to set before the crowd, and they ate and were satisfied, and what was left over was picked up, 12 baskets of broken pieces. So that's the first section I wanted to look at. The next one, I'll read all the passages in order, or in the order that I want to share.
Mark 6, starting in verse 30. The Apostles returned, and this is the same account, but from, or the same event, but from the different account, from Mark's account. The Apostles returned to Jesus and told them all that they had done and taught, and he said to them, come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest the while. For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat, and they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.
Now many saw them and recognized them and ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them, and when they went ashore he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things, and when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said this is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. Send them away into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat. But he answered and said to them, you give them something to eat, and they said to him, shall we go and buy 200 denari and buy a worth of bread and give it to them to eat? And he said to them, how many loaves do you have?
Go and see, and they found out, and they said five and two fish. Then he commanded them to sit down in groups on the green grass, so they sat down in groups by hundreds and by fifties, and taking the five loaves and two fish, he looked up to heaven, and he said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people, and he divided the two fish among them all, and they all ate and they were all satisfied, and they took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish, and those who ate the loaves were 5,000 men. So it's gonna get a little repetitive here, because I'm gonna share all four accounts, and we're gonna go to John, and I know these are out of order, but I have just an order that I wanna read these in. John chapter, sorry, John chapter six, and verse one.
After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberius, and a large crowd was following him because they saw the signs he was doing on the sick, and Jesus went up, Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the Feast of the Jews was at hand, and lifting up his eyes then, and seeing a large crowd was coming toward him. He said to Philip, where are we going to buy bread that these people may eat? And he said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
Philip answered him, 200 in an era where the bread would not be enough for each person to get a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, there is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they among so many? Jesus said, have the people sit down? Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, about 5,000 in the number.
Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish as much as they wanted, and when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost. So they gathered up them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten. And when the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, this is indeed the prophet who is coming to the world, perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king.
Jesus withdrew himself again to the mountain. And finally, Matthew chapter 14, and starting in verse 13. Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there into a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.
And he went ashore and saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, this is a desolate place, and the day is now over. Send the crowds away to go into the villages to buy food for themselves. But Jesus said, they need not go away, you give them something to eat.
They said to him, we have only five loaves here and two fish. He said, bring them here to me. Then he ordered the crowds to sit on the grass and take the five loaves and the two fish. And he looked up to heaven and said a blessing.
Then he broke the loaves and gave them two as disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about 5,000 men besides women and children.
So I started in Luke, and I had a reason for that, because each of these four accounts gives a slightly different, I guess, focus on Jesus' miracle of feeding the 5,000. What's amazing about these four different accounts as well is that they are so accurately, they're basically identical to each other, apart from some minor details that are given in some and left out in others. And what I want to focus on tonight is God's love. And Jesus' love in each of these accounts.
And so in the Luke account, it says, starting in verse 10, and when it says on their return, basically this is right after Jesus sends out his 12 apostles in the power of the Spirit, two by two to proclaim the gospel to people. And they came back and basically gave Jesus a report on all that they had done. And so when the apostles returned, Jesus said, let's withdraw to a quiet place, basically where we can talk about this or where we can rest for a while. And when he got there, it says in one of the accounts, it says that the people had already followed him, and they'd already known where he was going to go.
And so when the crowds learned it, they followed him. And I guess in a human way, if it was me, I would probably be pretty annoyed at that, because I'd be already the take a rest, talk to my friends. And it says in Luke that he welcomed them, and he welcomed them in and started teaching them. And he was so focused on God's work, he was not focused on himself, he wasn't focused on his own strength and being strengthened by his friends or by his fellow disciples, he was focused on God's work and on loving these people and teaching them.
And it says also in Luke that it specifically talks about how he cured those in need of healing. And so I think Luke was a physician, so of course he would take interest in that, but also the fact that God, that Jesus met the need in these people, he didn't just teach them things, he didn't just talk. And I think that's something that's very important for all of us, even the ones of us who do talk a lot, and I don't know really anybody who does that, but it's important for us to be able to love through our actions as well. It says in James chapter two, and starting in verse eight, it says, if you really fulfill the royal law according to scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well.
But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and convicted by the laws transgresseders, forever keeps the whole law, but fails in one point, has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, do not commit adultery, also said do not murder, he committed adultery, but do not murder, I think I'm in the wrong section. I'm sorry guys, sorry for 14. What good is it my brothers, my brothers?
If someone says he has faith, but does not have works, can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly dressed, poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things they need for the body, what good is that? So also, faith by itself does not have works. Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Jesus showed his love in this section through his works, through his healing of the sick, and the fact that he had true compassion that actually met and need in these people. I think this miracle is just, it's an amazing miracle. The fact that he was able to multiply these fish and these loaves just from nothing, and just shows that he's a creator of the universe. And so, in the mark section, it's actually a very similar sort of outlook, or from what I gathered today.
It's a similar view to Luke. It says in, I'm sorry, it says in verse 33, now many saw them going and recognize them, and ran on foot from all the towns, and got ahead of them. When he went ashore and saw a great crowd, and he had compassionate, when he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things. This teaches us to look at the world through eyes of compassion, and not through eyes of annoyance, or being annoyed.
There's many times where I could be wanting to go on with my things that I do, and sometimes we have our own agendas and our own, the things that we desire to do, but if we're focused on God's work, and what God wants us to do, then we'll look at the things that seemingly get in our way, our actually opportunities to serve God. And in this passage, it really talks about how Jesus was so focused on God's work that this crowd wasn't just what got in the way of his ministry, this crowd was his ministry. And it seems as though, to his disciples, it would have seemed that they were intending to get in place by themselves. But Jesus was actually, and we'll see in the next section in John, Jesus was actually intending to reach this crowd when he went to this place.
Also, in this whole thing as well, this is very shortly after John the Baptist was beheaded. It says in the Matthew section that it was almost immediately after John the Baptist was beheaded. It was right after the disciples had told Jesus about all these things, including John the Baptist being beheaded by Herod. So in the context of grief, or in the context of, you know, the disciples and Jesus possibly grieving about their friend, Jesus was still so focused on God's work and on loving the world, loving the people in the world, and having compassion on them that he was focused on providing for them.
I just want to go to John, the John section. The John account has a lot of, it has a few differences actually in just in some of the details from what the other gospels say. When he asks them to buy something to eat, he actually says specifically who he asked, he asked Philip who was from the area. And Andrew, who was also from the area, came in, and brought him, or sorry, Philip was from the area.
Andrew came and brought him the fish, and the two loaves, sorry, the two fish and the five loaves. Right here you see Jesus was really connected with God's power. Jesus could really, he really understood, obviously, because he is God, he understands God's power. He understands the power that was at his disposal.
And when it says, sorry, when it says in verse six, he said this to test him for he himself knew what he would do. That's when he asked Philip, where can he buy bread, that he said he tested Philip. For he himself knew what he would do. That just indicates the sense of purpose that Christ had, that he was very purposeful in coming to this area and meeting this crowd and meeting their needs.
And Philip is kind of doing the numbers in his head and he's saying, okay, yeah, years' wages isn't even gonna pay for these people to eat a little bit. So Jesus knew 100% the power of God because he is God. And Philip, of course, as any of us, is thinking in human terms. And when we go out and we work for God for the Lord, we can sometimes, it's easy to look at the numbers and look at the difficulties ahead of us and the things that can prove to be difficult and prove to be obstacles.
But we know that God is on our side and he is the one who is mighty to save. And so Andrew, it's interesting because Andrew comes in with the two fish and the five loaves. And Jesus said, if you have faith of a mustard seed, then you can move mountains. And I think Andrew had just a tiny little bit of faith and it was pointed in the right direction and that's, it was pointed towards God.
And he just brought what he had to the Lord and basically trusted that God could do something with it. This brings us to Matthew. And Matthew, there's just one phrase actually that I wanna focus on in Matthew. And this is, the section really shows God's love, the account of the feeding the 5,000.
We see his love to the crowd. And here in Matthew, we see his love and his care to his disciples. When you read in verse 17, they said to him, we only have five loaves here and two fish. Jesus says, bring them here to me.
And it reminds me of 1 Peter chapter five. When we're serving the Lord, it's so easy to get caught up in having to do things ourselves and having to muster up our own strength and our own ability and even our own desire to do God's will and do the things of God. In 1 Peter chapter five, I'm gonna read starting in verse one. So exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.
Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you. Not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And we're gonna skip down to verse seven, says casting all your anxieties upon him for he cares for you. When God expects us to lead people and to teach people his good news and to serve, he doesn't expect us to do it on our own and in our own strength.
In fact, he tells us to cast all of our anxieties on him and all of our cares on him. Even the five loaves and two fishes, he told his disciples to give them to him so that he could do a miracle with them. We don't have anything in ourselves that can please God. We don't have anything in ourselves that can serve God.
But what God can do with our lives, but God can do amazing things with our lives when we surrender them fully to him and when we bring them to him. And because he's the creator of all the world. So I just wanna close with a verse in Romans. I'm sorry, where was I?
Sorry, I'm still a Matthew, I believe. Sorry about this, I had the wrong verse written down. So I'm not gonna end with a verse in Romans. Or maybe I will, but I have to figure out which one.
Anyway, that's okay. Yeah, I guess I'll just thank the Lord for his grace and his mercy and what he's done for us. And also, I guess to sum it up, God's love is shown in this passage through his compassion on these people in spite of possibly annoyance. And also he was very purposeful in loving these people.
He's very purposeful in coming to this place. And also he was very loving to his disciples in how he told them to bring the loaves and the fish to him. And I think that's just an example for us to follow. I'll just close and prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, Lord. Thank you for this evening that we can look into your word and we can study it. Thank you for your grace and your mercy, Lord and your love. And I just pray that you would help us all, Lord, to be transformed by your word and that we'd be transformed into the image of your son, Lord, and that we'd be like him and in Jesus' name, Amen.