Meeting the Need of the Multitude

Father, we thank you for this great and glorious day. A day, Lord, where we will learn about you. And Father, that's why we gather together to worship and praise your glorious name. When we do, Lord, we open your word and we are able to see the glories of our great God and Savior. And we pray that today, as we examine once again this great gospel of Luke, that we would see our Lord and his majesty and thus worship you as you are to be worshiped in spirit and in truth. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Turn with me in your Bible, if you would, to Luke chapter nine. Luke chapter nine. It was the summer of 1986, August to be exact. And as my new bride and I finished our wedding ceremony, and we had just finished our reception, I grabbed her by the hand and I stood up and addressed the audience and said, I want to thank you for coming and being a part of this great day in our lives. A day in which we embark on a ministry together as husband and wife. And I took her by the hand and I said these words.

The Bible says in Psalm 20 verse number seven and verse number eight, these words. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will trust in the name of the Lord, our God. They shall bow down and fall, but we shall rise up and stand firm. I said, those two verses are the verses for my wife, Lori and I from this day forward, that we will learn to trust only in our God for all things. We can trust in other people. We can trust in other objects. We trust or we choose to trust in the name of the Lord, our God.

And that's how we concluded our wedding ceremony. And from that day forward, over the last 23 years, my bride was just, just turned 20 years of age. I was 28 at the time. And our commitment was to learn, to trust the Lord, our God every single day. Little did we know all that would entail over the next 23 years, how God would use situations and circumstances and ministry opportunities to challenge us at every opportunity. And we began to realize how important it was to trust in the name of the Lord, our God.

So much so that almost 15 years ago, I stood in a pulpit of my previous church and preached a sermon in Mark chapter six on the feeding of the 5,000 the week before I resigned. And that sermon dealt with learning to trust God amidst daily provisions. The very next sermon, the following week, the week I would resign was learning to trust God amidst difficult situations. And when I preached those two sermons over 15 years ago, I preached them by telling the people that if you don't learn to trust God for your daily provisions, you will not trust him in the difficult situation.

Little did I know what would happen in the preceding weeks, but God was faithful to his word. God was true to his word that when you trust him and you believe in him and you are committed to following his word, he will supply, he will take care of every situation. So last week, when I returned from Israel, I decided to preach on Mark chapter six, because that sermon is not in or that series is not in Luke chapter nine. That situation where Jesus walking in the water took place after the story we're going to talk about this morning.

So last week, I spent some time talking to you about the inspirations from Israel out of Mark chapter six, about learning to trust God amidst difficult situations and how it was that after he fed the 5,000, he immediately made his men get into the boat and he himself went up into the mountain to pray. And when they found themselves in the midst of the lake, straining at the oars at about the fourth watch, the Lord would come walking on the water to his men who were straining at the oars in great misery.

And he intended to pass by them, the Mark account tells us. And as he was coming, they thought it was a ghost. And they didn't expect the Lord to show up on that morning, but he did. And he told them, take courage in his eye, be not afraid. We know about Peter and how he saw the Lord. And he asked the Lord if he could come and walk on the water with him. And the Lord beckoned him to come out. And of course he did. And when he began to sink, the Lord saved him and they immediately found themselves on the shore.

But the unique thing about that verse or that story is in the verse 52 of Mark chapter six, when it says these words or verse 51, and he got into the boat with them, the wind stopped and they were greatly astonished for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened. Those two verses right there speak volumes to us. They speak volumes to us because we find ourselves in that exact same situation. They didn't learn from the incident of the loaves. How come?

How come they didn't get what the Lord wanted to teach them? He immediately made them get into the boat to emphasize the fact that they had not learned anything about the ministry of the loaves. And sure enough, it was because their hearts were hardened. And hard hearts develop in the lives of people like you and me when there is number one, no consideration of what God has done in the past.

When there is no consideration over what God has done in the past, when the difficult situation arises in the present, you will fail to trust him as the apostles did. And there was no consideration about what the Lord had just accomplished there in the land of Bethsaida when he fed the 5,000. If there's no consideration about the past, and number two, if there is no application to what the Lord wants to do in your life in the present, your heart becomes dull, insensitive, and cold.

No consideration about the past and what God has already accomplished, and no application to what he's doing in the present. For instance, you come to church, and you sit, and it goes in one ear and out the other. The writer of Hebrews said it this way, chapter two, verse number one, for this reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

The problem in the church is that we don't pay very close attention to what we have just heard. That's what happened to the apostles. They didn't pay close attention to what the Lord had just said when he fed the 5,000. They didn't consider what he had done in the past with all the miracles he had accomplished in and through their lives, that when it came time amidst a difficult situation, they did not trust him because their hearts were hardened. We develop hard hearts when we come to church, and we don't pay close attention to what is said out of the Word of God, and then begin to apply it immediately to our lives.

When we don't consider what Christ has already done in our lives in the past, how faithful he is, how true he is, when the difficulties arise, hard hearts develop. And the third reason, the coldness and the indifference of our lives envelops us so that when the difficult situation comes, we don't trust the Lord, and our hard hearts are manifested, is because thirdly, there is no anticipation as to what God wants to do in and through our lives through that present difficulty.

There is no anticipation as to what God wants to do in your life and in mine. In other words, we are anticipating that, as Romans 8 says, he is going to conform us to his image. He saved us, and as a result of saving us, day by day, we learn to be conformed to the image of our God. And so we learn to anticipate each new day as another opportunity to look more and more like Christ, to act more and more like Christ, to speak more and more like Christ, because he is conforming us to his image. He wants us to look and act and speak just like him.

When there's no consideration of the past, when there is no application of that which is taught in the present, and there is no anticipation of what God wants to do in and through us so that ultimately we look like him, when the difficulty arises, there develops a hard, cold, indifferent heart that does not trust the Lord, but instead let the apostles keep straining at the oars, keep working hard, keep trying to believe that, yes, I can do it, yes, I can make it, I don't need the Lord. And the reason we don't trust him is because we don't trust the name of the Lord our God.

We do trust in princesses, we do trust in horses, and we do trust in chariots. That's our problem. And the Bible says not to do that, but that's what we do.

And they come crumbling down all around us, and our hearts are cold, indifferent. Let me ask you a question.

Is your heart excited about being in church on Sundays? Is your heart ecstatic about listening and hearing the Word of God every day? Is your heart enthusiastic about listening to and learning from God? If not, you are developing a cold, indifferent, hard heart. And that's because you are not considering, you refuse to consider what Christ has done in the past, and you are not applying to what God wants you to learn right now in the present, and you have no means to anticipate what God wants to do in your life in the future.

You know, and that's how hard hearts develop. And that's what happened to the apostles, all because they did not gain any insight from the incident of the loaves. That's why I told you last week, you had to be here this week. If you were here last week, if you don't understand this week, the very next difficulty you will face, you will not trust the Lord. You won't. This miracle, this one miracle, is the last miracle that Jesus does in His Galilean ministry. It is the biggest miracle that Jesus ever performed during His earthly ministry.

It is the only miracle outside of the resurrection of Christ that's recorded in all four Gospels. Why? Because life is about learning to trust God. Daily, moment by moment. And if you don't learn to trust Him for daily provisions, you will not trust Him in difficult situations. It's just that simple. And that's the lesson of Mark's Gospel in Mark 6, and that's the lesson of Luke's Gospel in Luke chapter 9. God wants us to lean upon Him. God wants us to trust Him. God wants us to believe in Him, so much so that everything about our lives is focused only on Jesus Christ, our Lord.

And so in this one miracle, that is the greatest miracle Jesus ever did, because it is the greatest creation since creation. He just created food on this day in Bethsaida. So that over, well, 5,000 men we know, if you count the wives, you count the children, you have upwards of 20,000 people in Bethsaida. Let me read to you the story.

It begins in verse number 10 of Luke chapter 9. And when the apostles returned, they gave an account to Him of all that they had done. And taking them with Him, He withdrew by Himself to a city called Bethsaida. But the multitudes were aware of this and followed Him, and welcoming them, He began speaking to them about the kingdom of God and curing those who had need of healing. And the day began to decline. And twelve came and said to Him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside and find lodging and get something to eat, for here we are 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 fish, unless perhaps we go and buy food for all these people. For there were about 5,000 men. And He said to His disciples, Have them recline to eat in groups of about fifty each. And they did so, and had them all recline. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed them and broke them and kept giving them to the disciples to set before the multitude. And they all ate and were satisfied.

And the broken pieces which they had left over were picked up, twelve baskets full. A simple reading of a very basic story. But it becomes profound in the understanding of our God and how He wants to relate to your life and to mine. It's almost as if it just kind of glazes over the miracle. Don't think about it. Miracles at this time were so common. They were everyday occurrences, right? I mean, our Lord had done so many miracles. He had raised the dead, okay? He had caused the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the paralyzed to walk.

People with leprosy were cured. Our Lord had pretty much banished all disease, all sickness, all illness from the Galilee region. About 50 by 25 miles encompassing that Galilee region, all disease, illness, and sickness had been basically banished. This miracle is like a crescendo in all the miracles. Everything points to this one last miracle in the Galilee. Because after this miracle, He's going to go off to Tyre and Sidon and to the Decapolis. He'll feed then the 4,000 and then make His way to Jerusalem, okay?

And so in the Galilee region, this becomes the crescendo of all miracles. Everything leads up to this last one to show people that Jesus Christ is the creator of the world. I mean, this miracle in and of itself is huge. And yet the Bible, as you read it, just simply glazes over it in Luke's account. And yet when it comes to us understanding it, it's absolutely significant for you and me if we're going to learn to trust God every single day of our lives. Four points I want to cover with you this morning.

First of all, the men. And I want you to see His sensitivity toward them. And then I want you to look at the multitude and see His sympathy toward them.

And then the miracle and our Lord's superiority in accomplishing it. And then a message, a message for you and me that speaks of His sovereignty and His sufficiency. Everything about the Scripture unveils to us Jesus Christ our Lord. If you come and you read the Bible and don't see Jesus, you didn't read it right. If you go to a church and they don't present to you Jesus, they didn't preach it right. Because everything about the Scriptures is about Jesus Christ. Like those Greeks who came to Philip, Sir, we wish to see Jesus.

Folks, that's all we're about, the Christ Community Church, is you seeing Jesus. So when you see the men, you must understand His sensitivity. When you see the multitude, you must understand His sympathy. When you see the miracle, you must see His superiority. When you understand the message of the feeding, then you must see His sovereignty and His sufficiency because it's all about Jesus Christ. It's all about Christ. Oh, by the way, that's the same about your life as well. Your life is not about you.

It's all about Jesus Christ. It's all about His glory. It's all about His majesty. It's all about Christ. In our narcissistic society, that's hard for us to grasp because we truly think it's about us. But I'm glad you're here because I want to tell you it has nothing to do with you, nothing whatsoever. It's all about Jesus Christ, our magnificent Lord. So first of all, these men, I want you to notice our Lord's sensitivity.

Look what it says in verse 10. And when the apostles returned, they gave an account to Him of all that they had done. Where were they at? Well, remember earlier in Luke chapter 9 verses 1 to 6, He had sent them out to preach the kingdom of the gospel. He had sent them out and empowered them with the opportunity, listen, the opportunity to raise the dead, cast out demons, and heal all sickness. And that's what they did. They went out from village to village, some 204 of them in that Galilee region, all around that Sea of Galilee, most of them off the north shore of the Sea of Galilee.

And they would go out and that's exactly what they did. And when He sent them out, He sent them out saying earlier, listen, when you go, take one tunic, one staff, no bag, no money. Why? Because you have to trust Me. Ministry is about learning to trust Me. And what happens in Luke chapter 9 is another story about learning to trust Him. They have to learn to trust Him every day. Some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we will trust in the name of the Lord, our God. They shall bow down and fall, but we who trust in God shall rise up and stand firm, Psalm 27 and 8.

Committed to memory, understand it, because that's what your life needs to be marked by, trusting God. And so He wants His men, He sends them out, and they're coming back, and now they're going to give an account. They're going to give an account of all that took place. So you can imagine the excitement, you can imagine the enthusiasm, you can imagine the joy, you can imagine all that they said. And Luke doesn't tell us what they said. But if they did heal the sick, and they did raise the dead, as Mark's account tells us, and they did cause the blind to see, they did all these miraculous works, they preached the kingdom of God, they're coming back to give an account.

Now, Mark's account also tells us that they took them away for a while to come apart. Why? Because in Mark's account, the preceding event is the beheading of John the Baptist. And our Lord knows that the forerunner now is dead. And He knows that His apostles will die. So He gathers them together because of His great sensitivity to their lives. He wants them to come apart for a while to a lonely place, that they can be rejuvenated, that they can be restored, that they can gather their thoughts together so that He can help them understand the high cost of ministry and what it's going to cost them to follow Him with deep commitment.

And so He calls them apart that He might be able to help them understand the significance of their ministry. This is our Lord's sensitivity to His men He knows what they're going to face. He knows about the feeding of the 5,000. He knows about the storm that's going to happen on the sea that night. He knows about all those things. They have to learn to trust Him. And what better way for Him to explain to them that John the Baptist is now dead and help them understand the significance of His ministry and how it's going to cost them in the future as they continue that ministry.

Oh, He is sensitive to every need that you have and that I have. That says they withdrew or He withdrew by Himself to a city called Bethsaida. Bethsaida. That's where Andrew's from. That's where Peter's from. That's where Philip's from. And that's where Nathanael is from. Significant thing about this city is that four of the apostles were from this location. And that makes it very significant when you come to Luke chapter 10, verse number 13, where our Lord says those infamous words when He says, Woe to you, Chorazin, and woe to you, Bethsaida!

For if the miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you. It was just last week that we sat in Bethsaida and preached on Luke 10, 13. These people who had seen all the miracles had four apostles from that village. They would have known everything about the Lord. They were without excuse, right? And the Lord says, Woe to you, Bethsaida!

Same thing He says to Capernaum in just the next verse, in verse 15. Woe to you, Capernaum! Do you think you'll be exalted to heaven, do you? Because I had my home-based ministry there? Because you saw all these miracles? No! Not on your life you won't be. It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for you, Capernaum. For Bethsaida, He says, it will be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon, two pagan cities committed to immoral Baal worship. It's more tolerable on the day of judgment for the most immoral, most pagan man than for the religious man.

There's a hotter hell for the religious man than there is for the outright immoral pagan man. Why? Because the religious man, having heard the gospel, having believed the truth, maybe even one time, and apostatized the faith, their judgments far greater. Because in spite of all that was before them, they should have known the truth. And Christ says, oh, if Tyre and Sidon would have seen all these miracles that you saw, they'd repent.

But you never did. No, you were just religiously opposed to the truth. And Bethsaida didn't want to kill Jesus. They weren't like Nazareth, who wanted to throw Him off a cliff and kill Him. They never ran Him out of the city. They just were indifferent to the message. In a few weeks, we're going to talk to you about the problem of indifference to the message. Oh, that's just such a horrible place to be. It's worse to be indifferent to the message than it is to be outright immoral and pagan against the message.

And we'll talk about that in days ahead. But our Lord's sensitivity to His men. Let's come apart. Let's give an account. What took place? Let's go to a lonely place. Let's go to Bethsaida. So they get on the boat and they begin to make that journey. It's about four miles from Capernaum to Bethsaida by boat. It's about eight miles if you walk it, or in this case, they would run ahead. So they had to be, you know, going pretty quickly to run eight miles and to get there before they did by boat, that they might meet them in that place.

And it says in verse 11, but the multitudes were aware of this and followed Him. And welcoming them, He began speaking to them about the kingdom of God and curing those who had need of healing. So here was our Lord, wanting to get away with His men for a short while. And the only time He really had was that four-mile journey from Capernaum to Bethsaida on the boat. That's it. Because by the time they got to the shore, everybody was there. Everybody was there. And so now you go from the men and His sensitivity to the multitude and His sympathy.

The Bible says that when they were there, He welcomed them. Mark's account says that He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Our Lord would get off the boat. He'd see all these people. We know it's about 5,000. We know it's 5,000 men. So it's 5,000 men plus others who were there. So we have a lot of people. And so these people were gathered around Him, and He had great compassion for them, great sympathy for them, because that's the way our Lord is. And we told you, I think it was last week, that the miracles of our Lord came out of a heart of compassion.

I mean, the miracles He did, He did because He wanted to meet the needs of the multitude. I mean, if He just wanted to prove Himself to be God, He could divide the Sea of Galilee and walk through on dry land, right? And that would prove that He was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because only God parts the sea and walks through on dry land. He could have done that very easily, just part the Sea of Galilee, walk through on dry land, and everybody would have seen, wow, this must be the Lord God Jehovah.

He didn't do that, though. No, He did something unique. He would meet the needs of the people because He had a heart of compassion. This is His sympathy. He was sympathetic to the needs of the people. And I want you to notice that what He did, He began to teach.

He began to teach them about the Kingdom of God. Listen, the sympathy of the Shepherd is always seen in the Scripture that He teaches. The sympathy of the Shepherd is seen in how He meets the spiritual needs of the people that have been entrusted to Him. He immediately began to teach them about the Kingdom of God. They needed to know the truth. Now, He knows what He's going to do as the day unfolds, but He knows the primary need is to feed them the truth because He knows that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

And they need to know the truth. And He knows that if He gives them the Word of God, it will shield them, it will protect them, it will help them understand the truth so that their eternal destiny can be realized and they will know exactly where they will spend eternity. He is concerned about the spiritual needs of people, so He immediately gets them together. When you get 5,000 men together, what do you do? You teach them. You speak to them about the things about the Kingdom of God, so they will know the truth about the Kingdom.

That's what He's all about. Our Lord is a preacher of the Gospel. He sent His men out to preach the Gospel. Yes, they did heal the sick, cause the blind to see, cast out demons, and raise the dead. All that, though, was that which verified the authenticity of the message they preached. And so, our Lord began to preach to them about the Kingdom of God. But I want you to notice something.

They came to Him, listen carefully, because they had a felt need. They had a felt need. These people were super shallow. It was all about their felt needs. It was all about their healings. It was all about what God could do for them in the temporary, not the eternal. How do we know that? Well, over in John's account, in John chapter 6, after He feeds the 5,000, He immediately makes His men get into the boat, and the whole story about Him walking on the water, and them straining at the oars, takes place, right?

We read about that last week. Well, when that's all said and done, He immediately finds Himself on the shore the next day. And who greets Him? These same people. Listen to what it says. The next day, verse 22 of John chapter 6, the multitude that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there except one, and that Jesus had not entered with the disciples into the boat, but that His disciples had gone away alone. There came other small boats from Tiberias near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

And when the multitude therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they themselves got into the small boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, Rabbi, when did You get here? And, O Lord, where have You been? Why? Look what Jesus says, verse 26.

Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Why are you here? You're here for breakfast. That's why you're here. You don't seek Me because of the signs. You seek Me because you had your needs met yesterday. I gave you something to eat. You were satisfied. You're back now for breakfast. You want to be satisfied again. You see, it was all about their felt needs. Here's the problem with churches who are designed to meet the felt needs of people.

When you stop meeting those felt needs by preaching the Word of God, they don't stay. So you have a choice, right? Preach the Word of God, help them understand their real need, their spiritual condition, or continue to meet their felt needs. You can't do both. It's either one or the other. And so what happens with churches who design, who are designed to meet the felt needs of people, they don't talk about the spiritual condition of people. Because if they do, they'll leave. And Jesus was concerned about their spiritual condition.

So He preached to them about the Kingdom of God. That's why they ended up crucifying Him, because they hated His message. It was all about their sinful condition, their need to repent, and turn from their sinful ways, and follow Him as Lord and Savior, their Messiah. They weren't about to do that. Oh, but for the felt needs, for the healings, and for the food? Huh, they were all about Jesus. That's why John's account says that when He was all done, they wanted to take Him by force and make Him their King.

Read John's account. He said, boy, we want to make Him our King. I mean, if He can feed this many people so quickly, just think what He'll do if He's set in the throne in Jerusalem, and He rules over everybody. We'll never be hungry again. We got to make this guy our King. And that's what caused Him to leave, and immediately put His men into the boat. Why? Because that's not what He was about. That's not what He came for. He came to die. But we see His sympathy as He sees these people as sheep without a shepherd.

And He wanted to feed them the truth of the Word of God, because of His compassionate heart. But it goes on, and it says these words in verse 12, and the day began to decline. And the twelve came and said to Him, send the multitude away, that they may go to the surrounding villages and countryside, and find lodging, and get something to eat, for here we are in a desolate place. This is point number three, the miracle.

I want you to see His superiority. We've seen His sensitivity. We've seen His sympathy. Now I want you to see His superiority. The disciples say, let's send them away. They've got to get something to eat. They need to be fed. Just tell them to go into the surrounding villages, into the countryside, and get something to eat. Now two things I want you to notice about that.

Number one is, as you read Mark's account, you realize that our Lord is concerned that they have no food to eat.

What's the big deal about skipping a meal a day? What's the big deal about not eating a meal a day? I mean, is it that big a deal? I mean, truth be known, most of us could use to, you know, miss a few meals every once in a while. But, but, amen. See, we've got an amen for that. You see, but, but, so what's the big deal here? The big deal is this, is that the Lord concerns about every need that you have, not just your big needs, even the little needs, such as, yeah, I'm a little hungry. The Lord's concerned about that, isn't he?

Sure he is. And so the disciples, in response to that, say, send them away. Let them find in the villages, in the surrounding cities, some place to eat. Now, you know, I could be wrong here, but, you know, I think it would be better if you would ask the Lord a question instead of tell the Lord what to do. Wouldn't you agree with that? I mean, I think it's a lot better to ask the Lord a question than to tell him what to do. Hey, Lord, how about you do this? How about you, you send them away? I don't know.

I haven't been saying it very long, you know, over 30 years, but I don't, I don't make it a practice to tell the Lord what to do. But evidently, these men had enough gumption to say, hey, Lord, why don't you just send them away? They'll find something to eat. They'll take care of themselves. They'll be good. They can make it on their own. And the Lord says to them in verse number 13, how about you give them something to eat? I see, folks, this is a test. It's a test in trusting God. Remember, they had been endowed with great miraculous power, right?

After all, earlier in the chapter, what did he say? I want you to go to the villages. I want you to heal the sick. I want you to raise the dead. I want you to cause the blind to see. I want you to cast out demons. You've been empowered to do that. Now go and preach the gospel. And that's what they did. They have the power to do the miraculous. But in this instance, they did not tap into that power, did they? They did not do that. And the Lord says to them, how about you feed them something to eat?

How about you guys figure out a way to do this? See, all he wants them to do is say, Lord, we need you to do this for us. See, as you go on in Luke's account, also in Mark's account, you realize that after the man of transfiguration situation, when he comes down in front of the mountain, his disciples were unable to cast a demon out of a young boy. And they had already been given the power to do that. And yet in a specific instance in Luke's account and in Mark's account, they're unable to do that.

The question comes, why? It's because they didn't trust the Lord. Your whole life is learning to live in trusting obedience, learning to live by faith, learning to live by trusting everything God says, believing it will happen exactly as he says it, and relying completely on him to accomplish his word in your life.

Folks, that's the essence of your Christian life. And if you don't learn that through the feeding of the 5,000, through the incident of the loaves, your heart will become hardened and calloused. And when the difficulty arises, you'll fail. So you've got to learn the lesson. And so he says, give them something to eat. You do it. And again, he says, they said, we have no more than five loaves and two fish. Now, where'd they get that from? That's from Andrew. If you go to read John's account, it was Andrew who went and found the young boy who had these fish and these loaves.

But also in John's account, there's something very unique. John says this, 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? Not where are you, Philip? Where are we to buy bread? Philip, what are we going to do? So now we know that the test specifically refers to Philip. Philip's from Bethsaida. He would know where the food is in Bethsaida, right? So the test specifically comes to Philip, but in reality, it comes to all of the apostles because he says to them, you feed them something to eat.

He says to Philip, where are we, including all of us, all 12 and me, going to find enough food and bread for them to eat? And this, verse six says, he was saying to test him for he himself knew what he was intending to do. Isn't that good? Who's that? Our Lord. He knew exactly what he intended to do. He knew exactly how he was going to feed the multitude. And that's also how we know that when Andrew found that lad with the fishes and the bread, that the children were included in the counting because children were there.

So you had the 5,000 men. We know the only count of the men, those who are married plus their children. So you've got a lot of people of upwards of most commentators say somewhere around 20 to 25,000 people there in the Bethsaida area, all hungry. Our Lord has sympathy for them. So he teaches the word of God to them. Our Lord has compassion for them. And so now he wants to feed them and show his superiority over nature by creating for them food before their very eyes that they might see the wonderful provision of the Messiah of Israel.

So when you read on in the text, it says these words. They said to him, we have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless perhaps we go and buy food for all these people. For there were about 5,000 men. He said to his disciples, have them recline in groups of about 50 each. And they did so and had them all recline to the five loaves and the two fish. And looking up to heaven, he blessed them and broke them and kept giving them to the disciples to set before them. Folks, this is so incredible what our Lord did.

He just kept breaking it off, breaking it off, breaking it off, breaking it off. He said, set them down in groups of 50. Okay. A hundred groups of 50 is 5,000 men. So there was at least a hundred groups of 50 men. Okay. Plus more. Tell them to recline in groups of 50s. And then he took those fish and bread and began to break it and hand it to his men. And they in turn would go and hand it out. And they come back and get some more. This was a miracle of creation. He just kept creating more fish, creating more bread so that the multitude would be fed.

Now listen to this. It says these words, looking up to heaven, he blessed them. Why? Because he wants everybody to know, listen carefully, that his father in heaven is the source of everything. The source of everything for every day. He gives thanks to his father in heaven for the opportunity to meet the need of the multitude. At the same time, he is getting the people to recognize that his father in heaven is a source of all things. Every good and every perfect gift coming down from the father of lights, James tells us, right?

James chapter one. Everything comes down from him. Everything, everything that you have, you receive from God. You don't have one item of clothing. You don't have one penny to your name. You don't drive one car, live in one house. You don't do anything unless God gave it to you. Everything you have, it came from God. Don't think for one moment you earned it on your own. Don't go there. Don't even think about going there because you did not do anything yourself. It's all of God. And the moment you begin to think you did it, oh, let me tell you something.

You will stop trusting in God and you will trust only in yourself and you will fail. You must trust only in the Lord God of Israel. Believe solely in his name. He looked up to heaven and he blessed, he blessed the Lord. He blessed his food because he wanted to know that everything comes from the father above. And then it says, and they all ate and they were satisfied. Cortazzo. It means to fodder up. It wasn't like here, take, take, take this little piece of bread. Now don't, don't take too much because I got to save it for the next guy.

Oh no, no, no, that's too much. Give me that back and give it to somebody else. We got food to go all around. No, no, no, no. They were foddered up. They were so full. They were so full that they couldn't eat anymore from a few loaves, just a few fishes because it was a miracle of creation. And God wanted the people in Galilee to see one more time. He was the Messiah of Israel. The book of Isaiah tells us, Isaiah 25, that the Messiah during his millennial reign will give his people a lavish banquet and he will feed them as they celebrate his messiahship.

This was a foretaste of things to come. They being Jews should know what the prophet Isaiah said about the millennial reign of the Messiah and how it is he will prepare for them a banquet and feed them all. And Christ was leaning towards the spiritual food that they would themselves receive because he was going to give them the word of God. And the Bible says, not only were they filled, it says, and satisfied and the broken pieces which they had left over were picked up, 12 baskets full.

The baskets are in the Greek word kofinos. Okay. It's a different than the seven baskets full left over in the feeding of the 4,000. Those baskets were the large hamper baskets like the apostle Paul was put in and let down through the window to escape back in the book of Acts. Huge baskets. These are kofinos. These are little hand baskets that Jews would take as they went from place to place. And if they crossed over unclean land, they would have food that was already clean in the little kofinos, the little baskets.

And 12 of them were filled, 12 of them were left over to show that the Lord God would be the daily provider for his people forever. Forever. He will always supply every need. Listen, not only was there provision for all, it was provision with precision. It was a precise provision. It was provision with precision. There were 12 baskets left over specifically, 12 kofinos, 12 little, that's where we get our English word coffin. So they were shaped like a coffin and that's what they carried with them.

And they were all filled so that the men would see once again that he would provide for them, that they would learn to trust him. Remember earlier in Luke chapter 9 he said, when you go, you take no bag, you take no money, you take no food. Take nothing with you because you must learn to trust me. This was an example of what they saw of how it is God would supply once they learn to trust him. All you got to do is lean upon him. All you do, all you have to do is trust him. All you have to do is believe in what he says.

That's it. Simple lesson, but yet so very few of us ever apply just by reading the very next story in Mark's account, by immediately making them get into the boat. And they had the perfect opportunity to trust their God, but they didn't trust him. Why? Because they were fishermen. They knew the sea. They had to trust the Lord on the sea. That's what they do. That's their job. Who needs the Lord for your job? Right? I'm educated. I don't need the Lord for my job. Oh, but you do. See? And so because they didn't trust the Lord for daily provisions, they didn't learn that lesson.

They couldn't trust the Lord amidst difficult situations. Are you in a difficult situation today? How are you doing? Your heart cold, hard, indifferent, insensitive to the things of God. It's simply because you haven't learned from the incident of the loaves. Let me talk to you about his message.

I know my time is way gone, but you know, I might die tomorrow. And if I die and not get through this message, I'll be through all eternity. I'll be, you know, sad. I didn't give you the rest of his message. So I got to give it to you. And that is this, that there's a message about his sovereignty and his sufficiency. You must learn the lesson about the feeding of the 5,000, the incident of the loaves, because our Lord is sovereign over all things. And in that sovereignty comes his sufficiency. He is sufficient for all things, not just some things.

That's why when he saw people who didn't have a meal throughout the day, he says, we got to meet the need of the multitude because our God is sufficient to meet every need, not just certain needs and not just certain needs of some people, but the needs of all people, because that's the way our God is. He is sufficient to meet the needs of all people, but he's sovereign. That's why John's account says he himself knew what he was intending to do. Folks, in every situation you have, God knows what he intends to do.

He does. Now you might not think he does, but he does. God has a plan and he knows exactly what he intends to do in your life and in mine, and you must trust him for that. You might not think he knows. For instance, let me tell you something.

He said to the men, set them down in groups of 50s. Now the text says, set them down to eat, but the eat's in italics, so that's not what he said, okay? The italics is added by the translators later. So because it's in italics, that's not what he said. He just said, put them down in groups of 50s. So why? Why would we do that? We only have a few fish and a few loaves of bread. Why would we do that? Because you see, he himself knew what he intended to do. See, we can sit back and we can debate our Lord when he says, this is what I want you to do.

We could say, well, you know, let's talk about that for a minute, Lord. Why would you do that? Why would you want to discuss anything with the Lord? He's already told you what to do. But we see, somehow we think that we had this inroad to discuss things with God, because we don't see his sovereignty. He's in complete control of all things. He doesn't have to explain why you put them in groups of 50s. You don't have to sit there and debate why groups of 50s, not groups of hundreds, or groups of 25.

Why 50s, Lord? He is sovereign. He's got a plan. He knows exactly what he's going to do. And so God says to you, this is what I want you to do.

Do you do it? Or do you hesitate? Because you truly doubt the sovereignty of Almighty God. Our Lord is sovereign overall. Faithful is he who calls you, who also will bring it to pass. Right? If God has called you into his marvelous kingdom, he will accomplish everything for you, because that's what he does. He will conform you to his image because that's how he operates. He is so faithful that once he's called you, he will conform you to the image of his son, because that's what he wants to do in your life.

And because he knows what he himself has intended to do, he will map out your life just perfectly for that to be accomplished. The problem with us is, is we don't like how he's mapped out our life. And that's just a rebellious, hard, stiff-necked person. That's all that is. We have to learn to submit to what God is doing. Why? Because amidst that sovereignty, he is completely sufficient for every need that you have. Every single need that you have. The Bible says very clearly in Matthew 6, verse number 32, your heavenly Father knows what you need before you even ask him.

Boy, that's powerful. He knows what you need before you even ask him. See, that's how sufficient he is. He is so in tune with every situation you encounter. Don't think for one moment you don't have a faithful and merciful high priest who can sympathize with your every weakness, because he can, and he does, because that's who he is. Folks, listen.

You need to learn from the incident of the loaves that your God is sovereign. He knows what he himself intends to do. That's why he says to Philip, Philip, where are we going to buy the food? Where are we going to get the food? Why? Because it's not a me, it's always a we in a relationship with Christ. It's always a we. It's always about you and him together. It only becomes a me when you step out on your own, and you trust in chariots, and you trust in horses. You will bow down, and you will fall flat on your face, but it's a we when you trust in the name of the Lord your God.

You shall rise up, and you will stand firm. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for this day, and the greatness of your glorious word. May we learn to trust Lord Jesus, this whole scenario that paints for us a picture of our glorified Christ, the greatness of your kingdom. You are sovereign. You rule over all. You are sufficient to meet the needs of your people. For that, Lord, we are grateful, and I pray that every one of us would learn to trust you more today than ever before, that you might accomplish the perfect we in our lives.

Pray in Jesus' name. Amen.