The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
Luke 9:12-17primary text for the feeding of the 5000, read and expounded in full
12 The day began to wear away; and the twelve came, and said to him, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding villages and farms, and lodge, and get food, for we are here in a deserted place.”
13 But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we should go and buy food for all these people.”
14 For they were about five thousand men. He said to his disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.”
15 They did so, and made them all sit down.
16 He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to the sky, he blessed them, and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude.
17 They ate, and were all filled. They gathered up twelve baskets of broken pieces that were left over.
Elisha feeds 100 men with 20 barley loaves, cited as Old Testament parallel to the feeding miracle
42 A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God some bread of the first fruits: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. He said, “Give to the people, that they may eat.”
43 His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give the people, that they may eat; for Yahweh says, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’”
44 So he set it before them, and they ate, and had some left over, according to Yahweh’s word.
Matthew's account of the feeding of the 5000, read and compared with the other gospels
15 When evening had come, his disciples came to him, saying, “This place is deserted, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves food.”
16 But Jesus said to them, “They don’t need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
17 They told him, “We only have here five loaves and two fish.”
18 He said, “Bring them here to me.”
19 He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass; and he took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, broke and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples gave to the multitudes.
20 They all ate, and were filled. They took up twelve baskets full of that which remained left over from the broken pieces.
21 Those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
Mark's account of the feeding of the 5000, noted as longer with additional details including the 200 denarii
35 When it was late in the day, his disciples came to him, and said, “This place is deserted, and it is late in the day.
36 Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages, and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat.”
37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” They asked him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give them something to eat?”
38 He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go see.” When they knew, they said, “Five, and two fish.”
39 He commanded them that everyone should sit down in groups on the green grass.
40 They sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties.
41 He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke the loaves, and he gave to his disciples to set before them, and he divided the two fish among them all.
42 They all ate, and were filled.
43 They took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and also of the fish.
44 Those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.
John's account, cited for personal details including Philip and Andrew, and the boy with five barley loaves and two fish
1 After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the sea of Galilee, which is also called the Sea of Tiberias.
2 A great multitude followed him, because they saw his signs which he did on those who were sick.
3 Jesus went up into the mountain, and he sat there with his disciples.
4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.
5 Jesus therefore lifting up his eyes, and seeing that a great multitude was coming to him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?”
6 This he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that everyone of them may receive a little.”
8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him,
9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these among so many?”
10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in that place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.
11 Jesus took the loaves; and having given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to those who were sitting down; likewise also of the fish as much as they desired.
12 When they were filled, he said to his disciples, “Gather up the broken pieces which are left over, that nothing be lost.”
13 So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces from the five barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten.
14 When therefore the people saw the sign which Jesus did, they said, “This is truly the prophet who comes into the world.”
Moses foretells a prophet to come, referenced when the crowd says Jesus is the prophet who is to come into the world
1 The priests the Levites, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion nor inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the offerings of Yahweh made by fire and his portion.
2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers. Yahweh is their inheritance, as he has spoken to them.
3 This shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep, that they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the inner parts.
4 The first fruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him.
5 For Yahweh your God has chosen him out of all your tribes, to stand to minister in Yahweh’s name, him and his sons for ever.
6 If a Levite comes from any of your gates out of all Israel, where he lives as a foreigner, and comes with all the desire of his soul to the place which Yahweh shall choose;
7 then he shall minister in the name of Yahweh his God, as all his brothers the Levites do, who stand there before Yahweh.
8 They shall have like portions to eat, in addition to that which comes from the sale of his family possessions.
9 When you have come into the land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the abominations of those nations.
10 There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices sorcery, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer,
11 or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh. Because of these abominations, Yahweh your God drives them out from before you.
13 You shall be perfect with Yahweh your God.
14 For these nations that you shall dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery and to diviners; but as for you, Yahweh your God has not allowed you so to do.
15 Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from among you, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him.
16 This is according to all that you desired of Yahweh your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear again Yahweh my God’s voice, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die.”
17 Yahweh said to me, “They have well said that which they have spoken.
18 I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you. I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him.
19 It shall happen, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
20 But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.”
21 You may say in your heart, “How shall we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken?”
22 When a prophet speaks in Yahweh’s name, if the thing doesn’t follow, nor happen, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Ray walked through the feeding of the five thousand as told in all four Gospels, reading the accounts in sequence and letting them speak for themselves. The thread running through every version of the story is the same: Jesus took what little there was, gave thanks for it, broke it, and kept giving until everyone was full and there was plenty left over. The message was simply that little is much when God is in it.
What was said
The service opened with the commissioning of Florin and Violetta, along with their daughters, who announced they are returning to Romania as missionaries. They spoke about what this church has meant to them over eight years, and Florin talked about his desire to reach Gypsy families and to preach in his own language. The elders laid hands on them and prayed them forward.
The sermon itself grew out of that moment. Pastor Ray had been working through the synoptic Gospels and arrived at a story all four Gospels share, noting that its widespread presence in early Christian art and writing suggests it was told repeatedly in the early church because so many people were there and remembered it.
He moved through Luke first, the shortest account, pointing out that the disciples' first instinct was to send the crowd away. It was a reasonable instinct. They were in a secluded place with no resources and thousands of mouths to feed. Jesus said no, and told them to have the crowd sit down in groups of fifty.
Before reading the other accounts, Pastor Ray paused at 2 Kings 4, where Elisha told his servant to feed a hundred men with twenty barley loaves. The servant asked how that was possible. Elisha said do it anyway, and there was food left over. The echo is deliberate. The same kind of loaf, the same logic, and the same result.
Matthew and Mark fill in more detail. Mark records that the disciples calculated the cost at two hundred denarii, roughly two hundred days wages, and still concluded it would not be enough. John adds the personal touch that Jesus specifically tested Philip with the question, knowing full well what he intended to do. John also names the boy who had the five loaves and two fish and was willing to hand them over.
In every account the pattern is the same. Jesus looked up to heaven, gave thanks, broke the loaves, and gave the pieces to the disciples again and again until all five thousand men, plus women and children, had eaten as much as they wanted and twelve baskets of pieces were left. When the crowd saw what had happened they concluded, in the words John records, that this was the prophet who is to come, a reference to Moses' promise in Deuteronomy 18 that God would raise up a prophet like him whom the people should listen to.
Pastor Ray closed by tying the story back to the moment the congregation had just witnessed. Florin and Violetta are going with what they have. The same question Jesus put to the disciples, "Y'all give them something to eat," is the one he puts to every person in the room. You may not have much. Give it to Jesus and let him work with it.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Pastor Ray pointed to the disciples' first instinct being 'send them away, it's not our responsibility.' When have you responded to a need that way, and what would it have looked like to respond the way Jesus asked instead?
The sermon drew a connection between Elisha feeding a hundred men with twenty loaves in 2 Kings 4 and Jesus feeding five thousand. What does it mean to you that Jesus did something so similar to, but so much greater than, what Elisha did?
Quite yet. It will be soon. Good morning. How are you? Can you hear me now?
Alright. Welcome and I'm glad that you're here. We are going to go into a little song service here. Wow. This is going to be interesting.
We're adjusting levels. We're working out some new equipment up there. But if you'd stand with me, I'd appreciate it. We're going to sing Blessed Assurance, hymn number five seventy two. There are hymnals over on the sides, but the words will come up on the wall.
This one's a fairly common enough hymn that we probably know the but we're gonna sing it right off the wall.
Of glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his spirit, washed in his blood. This is my story. And blessed watching and waiting filled with his goodness lost in his love this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long this is my story this is my song
Amen. We're gonna go into the love of God. Y'all know this song. I know it. I'm just good.
It's a great song. Oh, there's so many quotable lines in this that come to mind every time. The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell. Let's sing it together. Amen.
You can have a seat. I have a few announcements to make this morning. First of all, Monday nights at first b. Where do you think this would be and when do you think it would be? It's on Monday nights at First Bee.
It's down the hall actually in the fellowship hall. We have a meal, then music, and then a message. And then lately, for the past couple of years now, we've been doing a meaningful Gospel conversation afterwards. So we'll hang around. Meal, music, and a message to begin with.
Then we get a chance to kind of ask questions and speak back. And it's really fun. So I like Monday nights at First B. That's where I go to church. It's great.
Monday nights at First B. 06:00 tomorrow night. If you have not heard already, we are having a memorial service here on August 20. That's next Saturday at one in the afternoon for Maureen Fates. Would you please?
It's 01:00 in the afternoon. Would you come out for the family of our dear sister Maureen who passed recently after a long, long battle with complex lung disease. So Memorial service, one p. M. This coming Saturday.
There is a connect hour and one of you all's of this services classes I think set the table this morning. Connect hours down the hall between service. So if you're going get here for the 11:00 service, can come a little early and have a little breakfast before coming in and get to connect with those 09:00 folks before they get out of here. That's fun. There is a fall Bible study that's starting up September 7 that will be held here at the church.
It's the Jackson Hole Women's Bible Study. So it's people from lots of different churches. It's a ladies group, Wednesdays from ten to twelve in the daytime. Right here at first B, probably will be in the sanctuary. Deborah Buckingham will be teaching.
I think Lissa Hunter will be doing music. So if you want to look, can RSVP to jhwomensbiblestudy.com and let them know that you're coming. They'll be using our space and our facility. It should be good. Sound booth volunteers are needed.
I probably could say sound booth and nursery volunteers are needed every single Sunday because that's kind of a mainstay. We'd like to have more people so that we could spread the load a bit. But the sound booth is quite a technical place to be. If you have any kind of a gifting for technical sort of things, they will train you well before they expect you to do this with people sitting in these seats, okay? That is a place where people will turn and glare occasionally at you.
But if you would like to, the sound booth volunteers, we do need that. And we do need nursery volunteers too. You'll hear later on in the service, you'll hear of one very, very gracious and good volunteer that will be leaving in the fairly near future. So we'd love to bolster that. Dinner and a movie.
Alright. 6PM on Fridays in the fellowship hall. Now we already have a ministry that's meeting on the first Friday of each month. It's a first Friday fellowship where ladies are crafting together. They do quilting and they do all kinds of different crafts.
So, not on that Friday but second, third, fourth, and fifth if there is one. We'll do 6PM on Fridays. Nancy Toracciano or Nancy T. That's her phone number up there. And she has volunteers to start showing her screening.
She has all the permissions necessary to be able to do this from the makers of this film. But The Chosen. I've mentioned it. I think it's the best depiction of Jesus that I've ever seen in film. But The Chosen season one, that'll be starting soon, Friday six p.
M. In the Fellowship hall. If you want more information, you can ask Nancy at that phone number, 699-9789. There she is right there. Hey, would you stand and wave again?
That's Nancy T. Right there. And so Old Bills. You all know what Old Bills is. Most of you in here understand.
I think I can see from the crowd. Old Bills is a fun run. It's a five ks run that happens once a year. But more than that, it is a way for Mr. And Mrs.
Old Bills and the co challengers to bolster and multiply any support for nonprofits in this valley. So there are lots of nonprofits in this valley. Part of the reason for that is because of old bills. It draws people to this. For a town of 10,000, we have three fifty something, last time I counted, nonprofit organizations.
Our benevolence fund here, what allows us to say yes when someone needs a car repair or a night in a hotel that they were not expecting. What allows us to say yes is our benevolence fund. And we accept the donations through old bills. For every dollar that goes in through old bills, what comes out the other side is 1.50 or so. Sometimes it's as much as double, but about $1.50 is the norm.
So if you want to give to our benevolence fund, you can do that. You can give to Turning Point through Old Bills. You can give to Good Samaritan Mission or any other. But that's giving season started Friday and extends to September 16. We have a lot of these around.
And there is a link on our firstbjackson.org website so that you can give directly through the website instead of having to deal with the paper copy. I'm going to invite Florine and Violetta and the girls forward just before the sermon time but would you please be praying for this family? They have dedicated their life to serving the Lord. Long ago, every day, all the time, Violetta has been in children's ministry for here for the whole time that they've been here. And Florine has been in ministry whether he's standing at the self checkout at Smith's or in the gas station.
Do you all know that when the gas station starts getting bad reviews at Smith? I'm going to tell something on him. So if the gas station at Smith says they have somebody that fills out forms and says, Well, the guy out there was rude or whatever, they put fluorine in the booth to bring their numbers back up. That's the truth. He's a good guy.
They're going to speak just for a little bit before the sermon and let you know what's going on as God is drawing them into specific ministry. So that's the announcements today. Have I forgotten anything? Did I leave anything out? Okay.
Good. Would you stand up and we'll just declare the truth. His name is wonderful.
Amen.
Continuing in that same vein, we'll sing about that name of Jesus. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I'm going invite the ushers to come forward. This is a worship through giving time or the operatory time.
And would you pray with me? God, we pray that we'd be willing and obedient servants, humble before you, listening, Lord, for your direction, filled with the power and given the resources to respond to your direction for this family, for the eons, for each of the families and missionaries that have been sent out from this church, Lord. We pray for that sensitivity, Lord, but we don't want it to stop right there. Individually, each and every one of us and every family here represented, we wanna be on mission for you, reflecting the love of God onto the people of this community and the world, Lord, who do not net yet know you. In Jesus' name, Lord, we pray that we would freely, freely give just as we have freely, freely received, Lord.
In Jesus' name, would you bless this offering to do your kingdom's work? May the gospel advance, Lord, because of us and not in spite of us. May we have, a part of the work that is going on here. In Jesus' name, amen. So I'm going invite Florine and Violetta and the girls, and I think she's going to introduce the girls too.
Good morning.
Good morning. Yes.
I know I see a lot of familiar faces. Most of you probably know us, but for those who do not know us, I'm Violetta, my husband, Florin, Brianna, our oldest, Melissa and Andrea. We have, been in Jackson for the past sixteen years. I've served here faithfully at First Baptist for the last eight years. We have served God with all our heart, and we feel that God would, could use us in Romania.
So we have felt the call of God to go as missionaries back to Romania where we're from originally. We would like to obey God's call and go where he calls us to go. The church here for the last eight years has been our home, our family, and we've gotten to love everybody here, and it's quite hard to feel like we wanna leave. But I know that obeying God is the best thing to do, and we have learned from experience that it's better to trust God and obey him. So we have we have taken to our heart to obey God and leave and go to Romania, go back to Romania to serve him as missionaries.
In Romania, we plan to work with some existing churches in there with youth youth organizations. We would be spreading the gospel of Jesus through all the people in Romania that we can meet. I will be serving in the children's ministry like I have done in here. Florinola will also be serving with the music and, with his wonderful personality, he can be friend people and spread the gospel in an easier manner. So we would like to humbly ask that you would pray for us and support us in prayer as we're getting ready to leave for Romania.
I like when she talks because she talks way better than me. Oh, dear church, I'm excited and thankful that the Lord is calling us to serve him. That's the purpose of us returning back home, spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen? He said, am the truth.
I'm the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the father but by me and we can be the voice of him. We can be the voice. We can spread the gospel and tell people about God and you can be part of our ministry in whatever we do over there in supporting us financially, spiritually, even visit us at the right time after we're gonna settle over there and we know we are doing, we know where we're going. Happily, thankfully, we we can invite groups from here and and visit us in Romania.
As you know, you know, Florin helping at the at the piano for quite some time here, I'm thankful that I had the privilege to do that. Miss Julia, I don't know how you can play the piano looking at the paper. I try to do that and it makes me dizzy. It's true. It's for real.
I need to see the keys. I need to see the chords of what I'm doing. Thank you for giving me the privilege to serve here and, grow up in my faith, and, I'm thankful for that. Thank you for pastor Ray. Oh, we love you pastor Ray very much as a whole family.
Thank you pastor Carl and the elder board. I'm thankful for their support and guidance and helping us grow in our faith so we can serve God more. As you I I think I mentioned this before, growing up in Romania, I was the privilege to have teams from here and missionaries from here. And right after the communism fell down, they could come in Romania and spread the good news and that's how I met wonderful missionaries from United States that came to serve and they invested in in us with love, with compassion. Not only that they invested spiritually but also they literally fed us too.
They they put food on the table for us, and they impacted our lives in a big big time, big way. So I know what they've done for us, and I know what we can do, the same thing, the same work that we've experienced from the missionaries who come who came from here. We can continue the work of spreading the love of God, but also helping people. We're going to work with existing churches as Viletta mentioned, but also I'm passionate to reach Gypsy families too as well. I come from a Gypsy family where in Romania, not everybody can say out loud Gypsy.
Actually, I I think I mentioned this. If I would say the word Gypsy my mom would literally spank me immediately. Don't say that word because people would immediately would judge you or something like that. But because I experienced the love of God from the missionaries, the love of God from you, you guys been so kind with me and so good with me. And I felt I felt like God strengthened my faith here in this church.
And I'm not as afraid or shy to say. I had a very tough spiritual difficult time in my life. But here to this church, I slowly from step by step, I came back where I wanna be serving God and dedicating my life to God. So I'm thankful for the ministry that you guys did for us as a family, especially to me, I promise you. I was lost here, but I'm better than ever now by the mercy of God.
And thank you for all your years of patience and kindness and just floating move on one day at a time. That's what I've done and the Lord has been working in my life and I'm excited to go back to Romania and spread the good news in Romanian language. I'm not gonna need Violetta to translate for me. She might have to correct me here and there because obviously she she's smarter than me and I'm I'm thankful for that. The Lord blessed me with a sweet beautiful smart woman and I'm thankful.
Oh, she's awesome. And of course, her education is way better than mine. So I'm thankful for that. But the Lord put something in my heart that I can reach people. No matter how big you are, how tall you are, I don't I don't care where you are from.
The Lord gave me the gift to approach people and and I I would use that. That's the gift he gave me. And I love to stand up in front of people and preach from the word. That's that's my call and I wanna do that in Romania. I'll be like a fish in the water and I'm thankful for that.
Todd Lampa specifically asked me to be more specific. He said, tell the people specifically to donate. So he, inspired by mister Todd Lampa, I'm I'm not, how to say, comfortable to say that, Would you please invest in us financially as we want to advance the kingdom of God in Romania and whatever God will do there, you will be part of the ministry in God's kingdom. Amen? Amen.
May the Lord bless you and thank you for being such a blessing to us. We love you and we miss you already. But we're gonna be here for a while.
Stay right here. Can I get any elders, pastoral present elders to come forward? There may not be or a bunch of us there in the first service,
but Yeah.
Come on. Come on. So they do have the seal of approval of the Holy Spirit for certain, but also of this church of the elder board, board of trustees, the admissions committee, all of us are praying for them and would you pray with us right now? Lord, we would like to commission these officially to launch this campaign to get them to where you would have them to be. We know that they have been exactly where they needed to be for these past years Lord and been a tremendous blessing for the ministry of this church and into this community.
They have opened the doors that people have been knocking on and they've opened the doors and brought people into this assembly and into other churches in town if that was a better fit. In Jesus name, Lord, pray that you would bless Florine and Violetta and Brianna and Melissa and Adriana as they go back into Romania. Lord that they would be channel of your blessing whether it be spiritual to set people free from their addictions and troubles or Lord whether it would be to be using their gifts to teach people in music and to train them in Bible, Lord to take care of children that really don't have people taking care of them. In Jesus name, Lord, we pray that you would use them as a blessing as we lay hands on them and commission them, Lord. I pray that you would show them exactly what you would have them to do, Lord.
And you would use us, the people of God here that know them to fund this ministry. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank you. Things on.
Here we go. The the normal study that we're doing right now, that we've been doing for a long time is from the gospels. And I have been going through the synoptic gospels where three, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, synoptics, seen at the same same time or seeing together. Matthew, Mark, and Luke typically tell the same story. John was written a little later, and John tends to tell similar stories or the same stories, but also adds in it's the gospel of belief, and it adds in these sign miracles specifically that say, Jesus is the Messiah.
He can be trusted. All of these things in this book, this gospel, have been written so that you may believe and believing have life in his name. That's the purpose in the gospel of John. Well, this story today is one that all four gospels contain. The story is very consistent, and I just wanna tell the story of the feeding of the 5,000.
I'm gonna let the gospels do most of the work and basically just read it. I'll fill in here and there some preaching points, but think about this as we go through it and think about how consistent they are in each one of the gospels. There are things that are brought up. This story is one that was told over and over and over again in the early church. Some of the earliest examples of Christian art are of this story.
This is Jesus dividing loaves and fish for disciples right there. There are lots of others. We'll hit a couple more as we go. But it's something if you think about this, there are 5,000 men plus women and children, and it happened. And early Christianity picks this up and tells this story.
Imagine why. There were 5,000 people who ate bread that day from this small little portion. There were so many witnesses of this event. John will tell us when it was. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Luke is the shortest. We'll start with Luke. And that's all we're gonna cover today. All of those things up on the screen. And since we're covering them from all four, I won't spend a lot of time preaching.
Now the day was ending. So end of the day. And the 12 came up to him and said, dismiss this crowd. Dismiss the crowd so that they may go into the surrounding villages and the countryside and find lodging and get something to eat. Because here, we are in a secluded place.
We're in the middle of nowhere, and we've got a huge crowd. He'll go on to tell us how many, but, lord, dismiss the crowd. They'll listen to you. Please tell them to go away. They're hungry now.
They're gonna be hangry in a few minutes. Please tell them to go. But Jesus said to them, no. Y'all give them something to eat. Y'all give them something to eat.
We pay for meals on donated money. So unless we go and buy food for all these people, that's a whole lot of people, for there were about 5,000 men. And he says to his disciples, well, have them recline and eat. Right? Have them recline to eat.
Have them lay down, sit down in groups of about 50 each. And they did so. They had them all recline. So they listened to Jesus. That's good.
The disciples in the first paragraph had kind of figured out the way. Get rid of them. It's not our responsibility to feed these people. But Jesus said, no. Have them recline.
Spread them out into groups of 50 or so. They did so. They had them all reclined, and he took those five loaves, and he took those two fish. And looking up to heaven, I've highlighted three things that are included in all three of the all four of the gospels. Looking up to heaven, he blessed those loaves and fish, and he broke those loaves and fish, and he gave those pieces of loaves and fish to the disciples again and again.
Actually, he kept on giving. It's the tense of the verb there. He kept on giving from that portion that had been blessed and broken, and he gave it to the disciples over and over again and again to serve the crowd. Now he told them, you give them something to eat. And they said, how
are we gonna do that?
We're in the middle of nowhere. Why don't you want them to send us? We gotta walk to get there, the walk to get back. How are one of these little villages gonna have enough to feed this many people? But after he had blessed and broken and given to them, they were able to give to serve the crowd.
They were able to do what Jesus commanded them, although they themselves did not have the resources. We'll see this time and again. They all, every one of them ate, and they were all satisfied. And the broken pieces, which they had left over, were picked up. 12 baskets full.
That's the end of the story in Luke. And it's got all of the details. If you heard that story and you're an Old Testament scholar, you might think, I've heard this story somewhere before. Second Kings four, Elisha is the man of God in the story. It says, now a man came from Baal and brought the man of God, that's Elisha, bread of the first fruit.
So this was something it was a gift given to the man of God. It was first fruits. 20 loaves of barley. It's the same kind of loaf that's mentioned in Luke and in all of the gospels actually. Same kind.
It's a poor man's food, and it's bread. 20 loaves of barley and some fresh grain in his sack. And Elisha said, give those loaves to the people that they may eat. But the attendant said, how am to serve this to a 100 men? So this is only a 100 men, not 5,000, and he's got 20 loaves, and it's still not enough.
How are we gonna break up this 20 little loaves of bread to feed a 100 people? It says, give them to the people that they may eat, for this is what the Lord says, they shall eat and they'll have some left over. It's not the only time that we've seen miraculous multiplication, but this one is one that this story draws, and it's about the guy coming and bringing what he had of his first fruits. They shall eat and have some leftover, so he served it to them, and they ate and they were filled, and they had some leftover in accordance with the word of the Lord because the word of the Lord will be accomplished. So we've covered it in Luke.
We've seen the reminiscence of Elisha's ministry in second Kings. We'll go to Matthew now. Now when it was evening, they all agreed that this was supper. By the way, there seems to be a little American debate about what to call the meal in the about twelve noon and then the meal in the evenings. And I call dinner is twelve at noon and then supper is the meet meal at night.
And I think I have biblical support. Okay. When it was evening, this says. And then in the upper room it says, when it was evening. And what do we call it?
The Lord's Supper or the Lord's dinner? It's the Lord's okay. Rest my case. Now when it was evening, the disciple I don't usually proof text, only when it's convenient. Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, this place where we are is secluded, and the hour is already past time to eat.
It is past supper time. Send these crowds away so that they may go into the village and they buy food for themselves. We don't have enough money. We don't have enough resources. We're tapped out.
There's only so much we can do. Send them away. They'll listen to you so that they may go into the village and buy food for themselves. The crowd is hard to have on hand. Actually, 16 people spent the week with us this week.
College House Ministries stayed in our house. 16 people in our house. We actually moved out at midnight each night to go sleep somewhere else. But we were with them from 06:30 in the morning till midnight. And 16 people is hard to feed all the time.
You know? But 5,000 just the men. Wow. The place is secluded. We're in the middle of nowhere.
Oh, ride around Yellowstone for a few hours and forget your picnic. Oh, it's pretty tough. Send them so that they may go into the village and buy food for themselves. But Jesus said to them, they don't need to go. Y'all give them something to eat.
And they said to him, we have nothing. Nothing here except five loaves and two fish, and that is a squatty little quantity. That's not much. And he said to them, Bring them here to me. Bring me what you have.
Bring me the little that you have. And ordering the crowds to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and he looked up toward heaven. Each of the gospels mentions this, that he gave thanks. He blessed the food. Actually, Jesus blessed the food.
We ask for a blessing on the food. But it's it's important. It's important. This is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. What?
That you be thankful in all circumstances. He recognized that even though there were 5,000 people plus, and they only had this one boy's lunch, he blessed the food and breaking the loaves. He gave them to the disciples. He gave them to the disciples, the ones whom he had called himself to do the gospel ministry, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. It's funny that Jesus had said to them, Y'all give them something to eat.
And they're like, But we don't have anything. He says, I'll give it to you. And he does. And the disciples were the ones who gave it to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up what was left over, the broken pieces, no waste there, and there were 12 full baskets.
Does that coincide with the 12 disciples or the 12 tribes of Israel? Well, it's the same number. I don't know exactly what it means, but it's very specific in all four gospels that there were 12 baskets left over from such a pittance at the beginning. There were about 5,000 men who ate. Matthew says, besides the women and children, there were more than that there.
Everybody had to eat. And all of them ate more satisfied. Mark. What does Mark say? His is longer.
He gives a few more details. I want us back up till last week for just a minute. Remember that we heard the story about John the Baptist being beheaded and Jesus having received the news that John the Baptist had been beheaded. And he sought to go to a secluded place to rest and grieve, and he was encountered by a crowd that followed after. Even though he'd gotten on a boat to get across the lake, he went to this place called Bethsaida Of Julius.
And when Jesus went ashore, grieving as he was, and he was already gathering in the 12 disciples that he had sent out in groups, two by two, six groups of two, had gone out, and they had been ministering and healing in Jesus' name. And when they were all gathered back together and they crossed over the Jesus went ashore, and Esau, there was a large crowd. He felt compassion for them, though he was tired, though he was grieving. He felt compassion for them. Why?
Because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. And when it was already late, past supper time, his disciples came up to him and said, this place where we are is secluded and it's already late. Send these folks away, please, so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and into the villages and they may buy themselves something to eat. That's the normal earthly way things should have gone.
Now, y'all are probably used to because you live here, 10 of winter and two months of houseguest, you know how it is, right? People come in and you'll figure out the way because you're the one who knows the way. Well, they're in a secluded place. They didn't know all that well. It's the only time that it's mentioned that they were there.
And he's saying, let them go figure this out for themselves. Let them fend for themselves. Jesus, please send them away. They'll listen to you. Because they were thinking under the sun type of thinking.
But Jesus answered them and said, y'all give them something to eat. It's a refrain. And they say to him, Shall we go? Mark is specific. He says, And spend 200 denarii on bread.
200 denarii is two hundred days wages. So I looked up from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It depends on the industry you're in, but the lowest as far as dollars per hour, was around $18 average for that industry, and the highest was up around $35 or $36 But if you took, say, 25 an hour on average throughout all industries and you multiply that times eight, it's a couple $100 a day. If you took a couple $100 a day and multiply that times 200, that's $4,000. Now feeding 5,000 men and their families for $4,000 you might think, that sounds pretty good.
Where are they going get the money to do that? If we had it in the treasury, Lord, shall we go and spend two hundred days wages on bread and give it over to them just to eat this one meal? Does that sound reasonable to you? It's funny because they're questioning Jesus right now. But he said to them, how many loaves do you have?
What have you got? What you got? I'll work with what you've got. Go and look. And when they found out, they said, we've got five loaves and we've got two fish.
And he ordered them all to recline by groups on the green grass, and they did recline, groups of hundreds and fifties. It's interesting. Luke says he told them to recline in groups of about 50 and then people do what they do. This is what they did, was they reclined in groups of hundreds and fifties. And he took the five loaves, and he took the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, he was thankful to God for having the little bit that he had.
He blessed the food. It's important. It's important. And he broke the loaves. So he started doing the multiplication where he had one loaf, he had two pieces.
And he kept on doing that. And he was the one that was doing the multiplication, and he gave them to the disciples again and again, over and over. He continually was doing this until 5,000 had been fed to set it before them. The disciples were the ones that would be setting it before them. In 2010, I didn't mention this in the first service, I just thought of it.
We had a group of 5,000 people at the Lausanne Convention in South Africa, in Cape Town, South Africa. So Lausanne, there was one in 'seventy four with Billy Graham and Ralph Winter and a few others. In 'eighty nine, there was another one in Manila, Philippines. In 2010, there was one in South Africa. And my job as a steward there, I was in charge of the plenary hall.
So every time that all 5,000 people got together, I was the guy that was supposed to be in charge of that room. A servant, making sure they had the newspapers on the table that morning, making sure they had all the handouts for the speakers, making sure if they needed water on the table, they would have it. And so there were 5,000, though. And that was an interesting thing. When it came to the end of the week and we needed to do communion for 5,000 people.
How do you do communion for 5,000 people? I did it like the Bar J because I'd been out here for a couple of summers. So I just had them get up and follow when that one goes by your table. I did Brian's speech basically in front of 5,000 people. And in eighteen minutes, we'd all done communion.
That's neither here nor there. But he blessed the food. He broke the loaves. He gave them to the disciples again and again. He was doing this until it says, for the disciples that set before them.
He divided those two fish among all of those people, maybe 10,000. You know, 5,000 men plus women and children. He divided the two fish among them all. And it says that there was plenty. Little as much when God is in it.
Do you all know this song? I figured Crystal probably knows this song. I don't remember the tune. I remember the remember the saying because my mother used to say it all the time. Little is much when God is in it.
I actually, I thought it was a Bible verse. And when I Googled it, I found that it was a song that I don't know. So I'm gonna read you the lines of the song. In the harvest field now ripened. We just covered this.
Jesus said, look, the fields are ripened to harvest. Pray that Lord would send workers into the field, and he's doing that. In the harvest field now ripened, there's a work for all to do. Hark, the voice of God is calling to the harvest calling you. Little as much when God is in it.
Labor not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you go in Jesus' name. In the mad rush of the broad way, in the hurry and the strife, tell of Jesus' love and mercy. Give to them the word of life. Little as much when God is in it.
Labor not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you go, in Jesus' name. Does the place you're called to labor seem too small and little known? Is it? It is great if God is in it and he'll not forget his own.
Little as much when God is in it, labor not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you go in Jesus' name. Are you laid aside from service, Body worn from toil and care? You can still be in the battle in the sacred place of prayer. Little is much when God is in it.
Labor not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you go, in Jesus' name. Last verse says, when the conflict here is ended, and our race on earth is run, he will say if we are faithful, welcome home, my child. Well done. Little is much when God is in it.
Labor not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you go in Jesus' name. This says that that little bit that Jesus started with was enough for him to stretch it so that all were filled. They ate and they were satisfied. And they picked up 12 full baskets full baskets of the broken pieces of bread and of the fish.
And there were 5,000 men who ate those loaves. So that's Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and we're gonna get an added bonus this week of having John to cover it too. John says this, now after these things we covered these first three verses last week, but I think it's important for context. After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea Of Galilee or the Lake Of Tiberias, same place, different names. A large crowd was following him because they were watching the signs.
For John, the word sign, semion, is about a sign that points to his messiahship, a sign that points to his divinity. A large crowd was following him because they were watching the signs which he was performing on those who were sick. But Jesus went up on the mountain. There he sat with his disciples. And then it gives us a time marker of when this was.
Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. So this is springtime. The other gospels have already told us where the grass was green, so we know it's not the late summer, fall, or winter. So it's springtime. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews was near.
So this is springtime, one year before the crucifixion because we all know that the crucifixion was around springtime, around the Passover. So Jesus, after raising his eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to him, he says to Philip, I love that John is so personal. So these other ones tell the story. They tell the story exactly the same way. And John, being there, adds a personal detail.
He says, So Jesus, after raising his eyes, seeing a large crowd was coming to him, he says to Philip, Hey, Philip, where are we going to get the bread to feed all these people? Isn't that great? Specifically for Philip, I think that's funny too. John knows and he says, but he was saying this only to test him. He's just monkeying with him.
For he himself knew what he had intended to do. And Philip answered him and said, two hundred days wages worth of bread is not even enough for them, Lord. Each one just to receive a little, we'd we'd have to spend $4,000 and it still wouldn't be enough to satisfy them. They're still gonna be hungry, and you know how people are when they're hungry. They're gonna be complaining.
It's better to just send them away, Lord. One of his disciples, Andrew. I love Andrew. Andrew, every time you see Andrew in the New Testament, every time you see him, he's bringing somebody to Jesus. He's the one who introduced Peter to Jesus.
He's the one who brought a man who was ailing to Jesus. And in this case, one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, says to him, There's a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what's this for so many people? It seems like such a pittance. But the boy was willing.
Feed the Multitudes. This is by Bernardo Strozzi from the early seventeenth century. And there are lots of examples. Like I said, this comes up a lot in the history of art. I didn't include the whole art lesson.
But I do like this one because of this. This kid's got his lunchbox. Think about that. Now 5,000 men didn't bring anything. Women and children were with him.
Didn't bring anything. There's one kid who has his lunchbox. Now it might have been that he carried it for the whole family. I don't know. But this one boy, John mentions, it's one little guy.
Right? And he brings what he has, and he offers it. It comes up a lot. That's loaves and fishes from the catacombs. That's a really early mosaic.
And Jesus said, have the people recline. Now there was plenty of grass in this place, the big field. So the men reclined, about 5,000 in number. They weren't milling around anymore. They sat down to eat.
And Jesus then took the loaves, and after giving thanks, he broke them. He distributed them to those who were reclining. Likewise, the fish as much as they wanted. He kept on doing it again and again. It's what it says in all of the gospels.
He kept on doing it until they were filled as much as they wanted. Does this not recall I mean, bring up for you seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. These people were following after him, and then rather than sending them that way to let them fend for themselves, he saw that what they were doing is seeking him. And so these people who had come to listen and were willing to forego food, it seems. The disciples were concerned about it, but they it doesn't mention that they were concerned about it.
They were concerned about seeing Jesus, and he filled them with as much as they wanted because they were seeking first the kingdom of God his righteousness. And when they had eaten their fill, he says to the disciples, gather up the leftover pieces so that nothing will be lost. We don't want to waste anything. There's enough here. So they gathered them up, and they filled 12 baskets with pieces from the five barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten.
Wow. Therefore, when the people saw the semion, the sign I said at the beginning that John says in John twenty thirty one, he says, many things could have been written. If we wrote down everything that there was to write down about Jesus, I imagine the whole earth is not big enough to complain the books that to contain the books that would be written. It reminds me of that song we sang at the beginning too, the love of God, right? If the whole sky was made of parchment, the whole ocean was filled with ink, you could drain that ocean dry nor could the scale contain the whole.
Those stretch from sky to sky. John is saying this one out of seven signs was showing that he was the Messiah, the one that they were supposed to be looking for and recognize. And therefore, when the people saw this semion sign which he had performed, they said, this is truly the prophet who is to come into the world. And that, if you don't know, is a reference to Deuteronomy 18. Deuteronomy 18, before they enter into the promised land, Moses is going over a second statement of the law.
That's what Deuteronomos means, Deuteronomy. It's a second retelling of the law, and he is saying, y'all need to be looking for one that the Lord will raise up. He will raise up from among you a prophet like me from among you, from your own countrymen, to him you shall listen. This is forecasting Jesus. And when these people saw this sign, truly, this is the one that we're supposed to be looking for.
We need to listen to him. Now you'll see from this point, one year, from this Passover to the next, you'll see the opposition against Jesus sharply increase. And you'll see the people who believe being more and more and more dedicated to him. And I think those two always go hand in hand. I think the next slide is blank.
So I don't think since I've said it four times now and all the gospels agree, I don't think it takes much to understand what the point of the story is. Little is much when God is in it. If you are willing to give the little that you have, like the widow's mite, if you feel like, I don't have much, but what I have, I give to you, Lord, he can work with that. We've got a family that just said, and they're little actually, by the way. Hate to say it, but he picked on tall people in the first service.
I've never met anybody with as much joy for other people. So I wanna pray again, and then we'll sing, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. This is not just a prayer for the eons that are seeking to go out, but I hope that it is a prayer for each and every one of us that we would be consciously praying. Like Jesus said, y'all give them something to eat. He has told us to give this gospel that we believe away.
He's told us that. And you think, don't know that much. I'm not a seminarian. I don't understand the Greek. I don't understand the Hebrew.
Yeah. But you know who it is that has saved you. And you can share freely of what you have. If you feel like it's just a little, give it to Jesus and allow him to multiply that, and he will spread the message through you. He will give you what you need to give up.
In Jesus' name, let's sing. Would you stand up? And we're gonna sing whatever comes up on the wall, but take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord to thee. Dear friends, first John four seven says, let us love one another. They'll know we're Christians by our love, not by our pure theology, but by our love.
Let us love one another for love comes from God and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. God, would you love this community that we're in through us? Would you love this world that we're in to the very uttermost parts through us? May we have an impact, Lord, and may that impact be of the advance of your good news of love, mercy, and forgiveness. In Jesus' name.
