[0:00] There was a reporter who was interviewing a wealthy entrepreneur and he was worth a hundred million dollars.
[0:14] ! And the reporter just was like, how did you do it?! And the entrepreneur was like, how did you do it? And the entrepreneur was like, how did you do it?
[0:26] Let me tell you, my wife and I, when we first got married, we started with nothing. We had basically nothing to our name except a nickel. I had five cents. Well, what'd you do?
[0:39] Well, I took that five cents to the corner grocery store and I bought an apple. And I took that apple and I shined it up. And I took it and sold it for 10 cents after I shined it up.
[0:57] And the reporter's like, ooh, this is going to be good. What'd you do next? Well, I took that 10 cents that I had earned and I went back to the store and I bought two apples.
[1:08] And I took those two apples and I shined them up and I got 10 cents, no, 20 cents for it, for those two apples.
[1:21] I sold them for 20 cents. Whoa, what'd you do next? Well, next, someone in my family died and left me a hundred million dollars. Reminds us of kind of the disciples after they came back from this journey, this trip that they were on.
[1:45] We talked about last week. Jesus had sent them out to preach the gospel and to heal the sick and to cast out demons and restore sight to the blind and all of this.
[1:56] And they had some success. They were successful at doing it. And eventually that success went to their heads.
[2:07] So much so, in the next chapter, Jesus sends out not just the 12, but the 72. And they go out and they preach the gospel and cast out demons and heal the sick.
[2:20] And when they come back from that, they're all excited about it. And they're talking about how they have authority now over the demons and how they were just marveling at that as they were telling Jesus about the success that they had.
[2:35] And this is what Jesus told them next chapter, Luke chapter 10, verse 20. Nevertheless, he said to them, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits, these demons are subject to you.
[2:49] Don't do that. Instead, rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Sometimes we can, especially if we've been at this for a while, we can get more excited about the things that God does through us than we get excited about what God has done for us.
[3:11] We should never take that for granted. We should never get over the excitement of, my God, how much you have done for me.
[3:22] How is it possible? Well, today we're talking about the feeding of the 5,000. You may have known that coming in, that that's what we're talking about, the bread and the fish and all of this.
[3:36] But we need to remember that pride is knocking at the door like it was for these disciples. And I want to point out the purpose, the deeper purpose behind this miracle.
[3:50] It's not just a miracle of fish and bread. It's more than that. The rabbis up to this point had been teaching that when the Messiah was going to come, that this Messiah would provide manna from heaven once again in the wilderness like he did in the Old Testament to the Israelites in the wilderness.
[4:16] That Messiah was going to duplicate that miracle once again. And it brings us to a question that Psalm 78 verses 19 and 20 asked.
[4:27] They spoke against God. The context of this passage is how Israel had questioned God and spoke against God and all of that. They spoke against God saying, can God spread a table in the wilderness?
[4:41] That's the question. Can God spread a table in the wilderness? Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people? And you have this on your notes because Jesus is going to answer this question by saying, why, yes.
[4:55] Yes, I can. Watch me. I want you to notice behind this miracle, what Jesus is doing in this miracle is quite remarkable.
[5:13] One of the Psalms that is many people's favorite, Psalm 23, reminds us of some of the elements of this miracle that Jesus is going to perform.
[5:25] The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I don't have any needs, right? We're going to see that in this miracle. He makes me to lie down in green pastures.
[5:38] We're going to see that fulfilled in this miracle. He leads me beside still waters. And then on to verse 5, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
[5:50] We're going to see this as well in this miracle. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows this abundance that the Lord provides.
[6:01] We're going to see all of that in this miracle. And there's no coincidence that when Jesus performs this miracle, it's other than the resurrection, this is the only miracle that's recorded in all four of the Gospels.
[6:17] So that tells you kind of the importance of this miracle. And it's no surprise then that when Jesus completes this miracle in John chapter 6, that the people rise up and want to crown him king in this very moment.
[6:38] Because of how he is fulfilling prophecy, how he is fulfilling what the rabbis taught would be essential for Messiah. And it's also no coincidence that Jesus right after this miracle begins to teach about how he is the bread of life.
[6:58] These stories, they intertwine with each other. They don't oftentimes the way that we read or sometimes the way that we hear sermons. These are isolated events that are all just kind of tied together.
[7:11] But no, there's a story that's being woven through all of these events. And I don't want to lose out on that. So with that all in mind, let's go ahead and get to the story.
[7:23] Verse 10, where we ended last week. On their return from their preaching journey, the apostle told him all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart, went to a private place is another way to translate that to a town called Bethsaida.
[7:40] Remember that town, Bethsaida. Now, we're going to skip over and look at a few other of the other gospels to kind of fill in the blanks. Because Luke kind of just gives us a shortened version of the story.
[7:52] And so we're going to fill in some of the parts of that story that we read in the other gospels. Mark chapter 6, verse 31. He said to them, come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest for a while.
[8:04] So Jesus is concerned. They've just had this journey. They've been out preaching. They've been out healing and casting out demons. And Jesus understands that we are only human.
[8:16] And we need to rest. And so he does this. And many people were coming and going. They're so busy. The crowds, this is as big as the crowds are going to get in his ministry.
[8:29] They had no leisure even to eat. That's how busy, how many people were pressing in around them. It goes on. So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.
[8:42] Now Luke doesn't tell us about them getting on a boat. And so we get this from Matthew and from Mark. But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns in the surrounding area and got ahead of them to where they were going in the boat.
[9:01] So basically the only alone time they had was in the boat. And I can imagine, you know, they're on the shore and they can look out in the distance and see the shoreline.
[9:13] And they, I'm guessing, saw streams of people walking out ahead of them. How they got ahead of them, but they did. And so when they landed, verse 11 of Luke chapter 9, when the crowds learned it, they followed him.
[9:29] He welcomed them, those crowds, and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing. And so the ministry just pressed on.
[9:41] He continued to preach the gospel of the kingdom, was right there. They needed to repent and believe and healing them of diseases. And all of this was ongoing now in this ministry that he was doing.
[9:58] Now the day began to wear away. So it's getting later in the day. It's probably like late afternoon. And the 12 came to Jesus and said to him, hey, Jesus, by the way, now that we've gone on this little impact trip and we've been preaching the gospel and healing people, and we know how this ministry thing works now.
[10:24] So we've got some counsel for you on what to do next. Send the crowd away and go into the surrounding villages and countryside. Let them go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and to get provisions for we are here in a desolate place.
[10:43] Jesus, we need to think about the people and the needs that they have. So send them away so that they can go and find rest and get some food and all of that.
[10:56] But Jesus said to them, don't miss this. You give them something to eat. You've got it all figured out now.
[11:10] You do it. Don't send them away. You. I mean, you were performing all of these miracles before, right? People were getting saved and people were getting healed and the blind were receiving their sight and demons were being cast out.
[11:26] You've got this figured out now. You do it. You. Give them something to eat. You can imagine how well this goes over.
[11:39] Luke chapter 9 verse 13. You give them something to eat. And they replied, well, wait a minute. We have no more than five loaves and two fish here unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.
[11:53] So now Luke kind of skips some of the parts of the story that I think are kind of interesting. We're going to go back into the Gospel of John and look at them. But basically they're not able to do this, right?
[12:08] And it's like they keep forgetting. Remember, these are lessons that Jesus is teaching them about faith. And then there are tests of their faith.
[12:20] And here's another test of their faith. Like on the boat with the storm. And it's like, where is your faith? They'd forgotten who they were with. And again, they did it again.
[12:30] It's like, you give them something to eat. Well, Jesus, we can't. But you can. No, it doesn't strike their, that doesn't come into their mind. And so they're like, well, hey, we got some food here.
[12:44] But so Jesus says to Philip, now this is again in John chapter 6, part of the conversation leading up to them discovering this food, this little bit of food that they did have.
[12:56] He says to Philip, now why does he say to Philip this question? Well, remember, they're in a desolate place outside the town of, what was it that I told you to remember? Bethsaida.
[13:07] Where's Philip from? Bethsaida. So he's asking Philip, the local boy, hey, where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat, Philip?
[13:20] Come on, figure this out. Figure this out. And I'm thinking Philip, like, gets out his calculator and he's, or he's got Google Maps and he's looking for restaurants or grocery stores.
[13:34] And he says this to test them for he himself knew what he was going to do. He's testing them again about their faith. If they would recognize we can't, which is the best place to be, right?
[13:46] That's the best place for us to be when we finally get to the point of saying, I can't. I don't have anything. I can't do anything. And that's when the Lord steps in and says, ah, best place for you to be.
[14:02] Watch. Watch this. So Philip answers, well, 200 denarii worth of bread won't be enough for each of them to even get just a little sampling, just a little bit.
[14:15] And so Philip, he's working the numbers, right? He's got the calculator out and he's figuring out, okay, now 200 denarii. Now, a denarii was basically a day's wage.
[14:26] So we got 200 days wages. We got a decent amount of money, right? If you put together 200 of your daily wages, it's a decent amount of money. But we're talking about a lot of people here.
[14:37] We can't buy an, even if we could find a store, a place where we could go to buy enough food, we don't have that kind of money.
[14:50] And then another one of his disciples, and this time it's Andrew. This is Peter's brother. And so Andrew, maybe Andrew's going to get it. Maybe.
[15:00] Maybe. So Andrew says, well, there's a boy here who's got five barley loaves and two fish. Maybe Jesus could do something with that.
[15:13] But does Andrew figure it out? What do you think? What's the vote? Does Andrew figure it out? Some of you know the story. But what are they for so many? So Andrew fails the test.
[15:25] Because he's like, Jesus, this boy here has brought his lunch. And here it is. And, oh, I shouldn't have even brought it up.
[15:36] I mean, what is this for so many? I'm sorry I even brought it up. And the rest of the disciples are like, Andrew, come on. It's just five loaves and two. Really, seriously. Just, you know, take your place back in the back of the group here.
[15:50] For there were about 5,000. Now we're getting to the nitty-gritty here of the size of the crowd. 5,000 men.
[16:02] Now I've highlighted the word men here. And some people would say, well, men is kind of like a generic term. It's 500 souls or 500 people.
[16:14] But, no, this word here that Luke is using is talking about 500 males, 500 men. Remember, God created them male and female.
[16:25] So there's not a lot of confusion here about this. And just to kind of highlight this, that it's more than just men. Matthew tells us those who ate were about 5,000 men besides women and children.
[16:44] So there's no argument here. So if we're saying 5,000 men, if you add women and children into the group, what's the number? Probably around 15,000.
[17:00] You know, we don't know how many people are married, how many kids each family would have had. We just don't know. So the only estimate that we have, the only specific number that we had is 5,000 men.
[17:14] So anything beyond that is speculation. But maybe an average speculation would be about 15,000 people. 15,000 mouths to feed, right?
[17:28] That's how men try to calculate, you know, how much they have to earn to feed, take care of their family. How many mouths are there to feed? Well, I'm guessing here, about 15,000.
[17:42] So, and he said to his disciples, Now have them sit down in groups of about 50 each. Take a seat.
[17:52] But it's better than that. It's better than just take a seat. And there's a couple of different Greek words here that mean have a seat.
[18:05] And the one that Luke is using here, the one that Jesus says, is quite interesting. We read the passage in Psalm 23, He makes me to lie down in green pastures, that sort of thing.
[18:23] I want you to see what Jesus is having them do. Have them sit down. The word that he uses here is often translated, and perhaps better so translated, as recline at table.
[18:44] In other words, Jesus is telling them to invite them for dinner. It's not just take a seat.
[18:59] It's recline at dinner. I want you to do this. Now, let me show you where else in the New Testament, actually, where else in Luke's Gospel it says this.
[19:10] Luke chapter 5, now, verse 29. This is the conversion of Matthew, who was known as Levi, right? Levi, the tax collector, gets saved, and he's having all these people now come over to his house at Jesus' invitation, right?
[19:29] Jesus invites himself to Matthew's house for dinner. Matthew's inviting a bunch of people for a big reception for him at his house. And there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were, same word here, reclining at the table with them.
[19:51] Now, I want you to notice, I've used the New American Standard Bible translation here. The New American Standard does a unique thing in their translation. Whenever you see an italicized word in the New American Standard translation, you know that those English words are not in the Greek language.
[20:14] They're supplied by the translators to help us to understand what's being written there. And I want you to notice, the word people, there were crowds of tax collectors and others, and the translators just other people, right?
[20:33] So make sure that we, you know, thinking it's not other raccoons there, it's other people that are there. And they were reclining. Notice at the table is italicized.
[20:46] Because it's assumed what's being written here is that they were reclining at table. A few weeks back, I had one of our young men come up and kind of demonstrate what it looked like to sit at the table for this conversation.
[21:04] This was around the woman who was worshiping Jesus and weeping and using this perfume on his feet and so forth. And they would kind of lay down on the ground with some large pillows and recline on an elbow and the table was low to the ground, think coffee table kind of height.
[21:23] And that's what they were doing. And so now Jesus gives them the invitation, not just to have a seat like you all are having a seat. When you were coming in today, you had a seat, but you weren't expecting to sit at table for a meal.
[21:37] Well, that's what Jesus was inviting them to do. Have them sit down. Have them recline at table.
[21:51] Something's about to happen. And you got to wonder what the people are thinking, right? There's 10,000, 15,000 people there. And they've just been invited to recline at table.
[22:04] Well, dinner's coming. What's for dinner? They don't know. They just know they're kind of out in the wilderness somewhere.
[22:16] And they did so. And he had them all sit down. And again, recline at table. Same Greek word that's used here. And so now taking the five loaves and the two fish, because that's what the boy had brought for lunch, the five loaves and the two fish.
[22:35] He looked up to heaven, and he said a blessing over them. Now, understand, there was not like stacks of bread, you know, just sitting there waiting for Jesus to bless and hand out, right?
[22:49] There were no carts filled with fish overflowing and falling on the ground, right? There wasn't any of that. So what are they going to eat?
[23:01] So Jesus takes the original five loaves and the two fish, and he looked up to heaven, and he said a blessing over them. Now, let's talk about the bread and the fish, because archaeologists have kind of figured out now what this five loaves and two fish would have looked like.
[23:21] And it's in the Greek.
[23:35] No. Although it is interesting that kind of in our mind's eye, this is kind of what we picture. Five loaves of bread and two fish, like we could go fishing and pull out two fish from the local pond or lake or whatever, and this is kind of what we figured the boy had.
[23:57] But in actuality now, these are five barley loaves, but don't think of a loaf of bread like what you'd find in the wrapper at the grocery store or even a fresh loaf like that.
[24:08] Think of a flatbread, and it's made of barley, not wheat. Now, what does that tell us? It tells us that the boy is probably from a poor family, because barley is what was fed to the animals, and the poor families would use barley to bake bread, their daily bread.
[24:33] It's coarse. It was not as smooth as regular bread, so it wouldn't have been as appealing. It was just the everyday laborer's kind of bread, these barley loaves.
[24:48] And then the fish, think sardines. I mean, that's kind of the modern-day equivalent to what we could think of. And I don't know how many of you enjoy a good sardine.
[25:01] There's a few. You go to the – they still sell them. You know, if you go to the grocery store today, you can still go where they sell tuna. I don't know if you buy tuna anymore. Or even like canned chicken, you can also find sardines in the same spot in the grocery store.
[25:19] And they're these little rectangular cans with rounded corners. And they used to, and I don't know if they still do, they have this little thing, you put it in there and you twist it, and it peels back the lid.
[25:29] And there in this oil is – sometimes they pack them in water, sometimes they pack them in oil. Now, again, in their context, they would have probably, when they first caught these little – the kind of fish that would have been plentiful for them, they were called – this is the Lake of Knesset, or sometimes we call it the Sea of Galilee, where these are little Knesset sardines.
[26:01] There's another species that's not quite as good to eat, so I'm guessing maybe these are the sardines. I don't know. But they probably would have brought these in on the boats, packed them in salt, because that's what they did with salt.
[26:15] They used it as a preservative, and then soaked them in olive oil. Now, for us, packed with salt and olive oil, that's like a delicacy. Ooh, that's pretty good.
[26:27] I don't know. If you've tried sardines lately, go get some. Go to the grocery store, get some – just like your – and get some real cheap bread and reenact the story at your house.
[26:41] Do it. It's lots. And the sardines are delicious, I tell you. They really are. They would have eaten the heads and all, okay, because there's good nutrition in the heads of these little fish, right?
[26:55] So for us, we like, we'll cut the head off and then, you know, cut the tail off and all. They just eat the whole thing. So that's what we're dealing with here, five loaves and two fish, okay?
[27:10] There were no McDonald's, fully a fish around. So taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves, gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.
[27:28] Notice he told them, you give them something to eat. Guess what they're doing? They're still doing as Jesus commanded. They're going to give them something to eat.
[27:40] Jesus is the one who's performing this miracle completely. Because every time he reaches into the basket, there's more bread.
[27:54] How did this work? It's a miracle. I don't know. I didn't get to see it. It would have been great to be there in the crowd. What kind of a distance were they between where they were reclining at table and watching this miracle happen?
[28:10] But they would have all known that this was a miracle. And to understand that they understood this was a miracle, they wanted to crown him as king right then and there.
[28:23] So they knew this is a miracle. And I can imagine the 12, right? They're coming and they've got baskets. And they're bringing, you know, they feed one group of people and they come back with an empty, there's more.
[28:40] How's that working? I don't know. But Jesus is piling it in their basket and they're taking it back out again to the crowds and they just keep going back and forth, back and forth. However long it would take to feed 15,000 people, but they've got them organized by groups of 50, right?
[28:58] 50 or 100. And this miracle is just going on and going on and going on.
[29:10] Wow. Notice he took the loaves. He gave thanks. This is from John chapter 6. He gave thanks to John chapter 6.
[29:47] He said to his disciples, Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted. And they all ate and were satisfied.
[29:57] Now I highlighted the word satisfied there because I don't know what to do with this word. It's the same word that they used when they were describing fattening the calves for slaughter.
[30:21] Do you ever like Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner, whatever, you push away from the table and you're so full?
[30:32] Yeah, that's what this is describing. This is like, do you ever go to like a buffet? Maybe it's like a seafood buffet, right?
[30:43] And it's expensive and you're going to get your money's worth? Right? Right? Do we ever... And normally, like now, the way that our world thinks and we think, and it's like, no, we shouldn't eat.
[31:01] We should only eat until we're, you know, just... No! Now I'm not saying that Jesus is endorsing gluttony here. That's not what he's doing.
[31:13] But in this moment, on this occasion, he's saying that they had so much to eat, no one left hungry.
[31:31] No one left feeling, well, I could have had another piece of bread. I wouldn't have minded having a couple more fish. I don't think anybody was saying that.
[31:44] Because they were all fattened up. That's the word that he uses. They were all ready for slaughter? I don't know about that. But it's just the idea that they had all that they wanted and they were satisfied.
[32:00] It's not that there was just barely enough food to take care of everyone. No, it was they all had more. An abundance.
[32:13] And what they wanted. What was left over was 12 baskets full. I don't know if that's like one for each of the disciples' future lunch.
[32:28] I don't know. We're not told what they did with the leftovers. But this is what happened. And this is the kind of miracles that Jesus did.
[32:46] It wasn't just, hey, I'm going to heal you, but when we're done with the healing, now you've got to go to physical therapy and you've got to do follow-up and take these meds. And it wasn't any of that. It's when you were healed.
[32:57] You were healed completely and fully. And if you were like lame from birth and you're 40 years old now and that happened, they were up and dancing around right now. And when he restores sight, I don't think they needed glasses after that.
[33:16] I don't think when he restored hearing, they needed hearing aids to help out. I don't think that when Jesus does miracles like this, it's just a little bit.
[33:36] No, sir. That's an abundance. And they're full. It's not the best meal they've ever had, right? Because it's barley loaves.
[33:48] And it's these little fish with their heads still on. So it's not like, you know, delicacy fish. Still poor people's food. It's interesting to me that liberal theologians, they go through the Gospels and they decide what's miracle and what's not and what was real and what wasn't.
[34:14] And basically, they want to deny that miracles took place at all, period. Like the resurrection was just spiritual. His body stayed in the grave, but spiritually he arose from the dead.
[34:25] What kind of nonsense is that? And how they explain this one away is, well, when the people saw the 12-year-old boy was willing to provide his lunch, they were all embarrassed and they decided to pull out their lunches and they all shared amongst each other.
[34:44] That's how they explain it. Which is why after they all shared each other's lunch, they decided to crown Jesus as king, right? Oh, amazing.
[35:03] Now, there's some application for us here and on your notes, you have these. These are just, just, just kind of, I don't know if I call them random applications, but they're, they're applications, maybe not just from this event, but mostly so, but some of the things that have been leading up to this, the Lord, number one, teaches us to trust him by asking us to do that which is beyond our means to do so.
[35:32] God doesn't ask us to do things that we can do ourselves. He challenges us, he tests us by, by saying, hey Rich, this is what I want you to do and I can't do that.
[35:44] I know. That's how our faith grows. That's how he challenges us. It's, it's like, remember a couple stories ago, Jairus' daughter who was dying, right?
[36:04] And, and he comes in and, oh, she's dead already, you can go, you don't need to be, Jesus walked, no, she's just sleeping and they laugh at him and they mock him and he goes in with the three, the three disciples, not, not the whole 12, just the three, Peter, James and John and, and he raises her from the dead and then he says, get her something to eat.
[36:32] Right? Remember, remember in that story, it's kind of a throwaway word, get her something to eat. It's why Jesus says, get her something to eat instead of giving her something to eat but now with the 5,000, it's not something that was in their means to do it so he says, I'll take care of it.
[36:53] I'll do that. Well, Jairus and his wife, it's like, hey, you got, you got a refrigerator full of food here? Come on. They didn't, but they didn't have a refrigerator.
[37:04] You get what I mean? Give her something to eat. You can do that part so you do it and that's what he does with us.
[37:16] Secondly, God uses our own, our own human needs as an avenue for teaching and testing our faith. We've been seeing this all along with the, with the disciples and it's so difficult for us to trust him when we don't have a sense of our need.
[37:40] Right? Why is it so many people refuse the message of the gospel? Because they don't sense their need is perhaps the biggest explanation.
[37:50] They don't sense their own lostness, their own desperation and because they don't, they don't see the need for trust, to trust him in this.
[38:04] Our needs then, our human needs can be viewed in one of two ways, two responses and boy, we see this big time in our culture today, the second part of this. We can see our own human need as an occasion for faith.
[38:18] I have this need, I can't do it myself, I'm in trouble, I'm desperate, I'm going to trust Jesus. That's one response. The second response is, I have this need, I'm in trouble, I'm desperate and now I'm going to use that as an excuse for my unbelief and my disobedience.
[38:45] I have this need because God doesn't like me or because there is no God. And if God cared about me, I wouldn't have this need.
[38:59] That kind of thinking. We can take the same need between two different people who have that, the same need and one says, ah, I need the Lord.
[39:10] I need the Lord. I need the Lord. And the other person says, oh, I hate the Lord. He's done this to me. I don't believe.
[39:23] I'm going to live my own way. Another application point, God's provision comes at the point of our inadequacy. Oftentimes, it is when our human resources are expended, when they're gone and we have no other choice, why do we do that?
[39:47] Why do we say things like, well, there was nothing left for me to do but pray? Well, wait a minute. You should have started with that. Right? We get it.
[39:57] You know, after we're out of the predicament, after we're out of the trouble, after the pain and the sorrow has gone, we should have been praying all along and we wait until we're, why do we do that?
[40:11] But that's kind of our nature. Some needs are more important than others. It's important that we prioritize those needs.
[40:26] And then some needs are not needs at all. Boy, this, again, our culture needs to figure out, and maybe I should say we, maybe I should say me, me, let's do that.
[40:43] I, Rich, I need to learn the difference between a need and a want. Right? It's kind of how we are.
[40:53] I mean, it's, I have, do you guys, do you guys ever have pet peeves? I would like to say I don't have pet peeves, but I do.
[41:06] I, I guess I'm human. I have, one of my pet peeves is people ordering at restaurants. I'll hear someone go to the drive-up window or the person at the counter, as rare as that is today, normally you're talking to a computer screen, that kind of thing, which saves us from ourselves in this sense.
[41:29] I need a Big Mac and I need a large fry and a large, I need a large chocolate. Let me say, honey, you don't need any of those.
[41:40] You want them. What you might need is sustenance, but you don't need that particular item. And it's nitpicky of me, I know, you can go home and say, well, that rich man, he really lets that gets on his nerves and I don't know why.
[41:57] I'm like you. I have my, I'm that way. Some needs are not needs at all. And then, God often chooses to use little to create much.
[42:15] So, Jesus here starts off with five little flatbreads, little loaves, and two little fish, and how much was left over?
[42:31] Not only is it, he doesn't use it all, right? And everybody gets more than enough. But what's left over? I mean, he used a tiny little bit to create an over and abundance.
[42:44] And oftentimes in our life, that will hold true at all for us. Now, on your notes, we're almost done.
[42:57] I want to talk about some, from what we've been learning these last few weeks now, including this story, applications for us as a church. Because there are some applications here for us as a church.
[43:09] Number one, Christianity is a team sport. It's not a, you're not out there on the golf course by yourself, on the tennis court by yourself, right?
[43:23] It's a team sport. In other words, we do this together. God puts us in families, God puts us in churches for a reason.
[43:38] And that is that we would serve together. It is certainly not a sole proprietorship. We need to get away from, and Lord help me if I ever have this mindset that, well, this is Rich's church.
[43:55] I hear that sometimes from people in the community. Well, that's Rich Chassie's church, or whatever. No. And there's a wonderful story.
[44:07] John MacArthur passed away recently, a pastor in California. Maybe you know that name, or maybe you don't. It doesn't matter. Somebody asked him about his own legacy, and I loved his answer to this question.
[44:22] He said, basically, our lives are like putting a hand in a bucket of water. How long does it take for the water to return back once you pull your hand out?
[44:39] In an instant. When I'm dead and gone, or moved away, or whatever it is, the impact that I would have had is gone.
[44:52] That quick. And we need to remember that. That any one of us as an individual, our legacy, it's all about him.
[45:07] It's about the Lord. It's not about this guy, or any other human being. And I like how he described that. Because that made sense.
[45:21] This is about Christ. And if you think anything about me, I would say no. It is Christ.
[45:31] And I know sometimes it's just a matter of semantics or words, and I get that. But listen, I also understand that once a preacher dies, or once anyone in the church dies, a pillar of the church, that sort of thing, saw it with my own dad.
[45:48] And when he died, life goes on. Life moves on. Our need to serve the Lord continues. Our need to grow in our relationship with the Lord continues.
[46:02] And there are other faithful servants who come along behind and pick up the mantle and do the work. But it's the Lord Jesus Christ who deserves to receive all the glory and honor for all of it.
[46:18] It's nothing to do with me. Nothing to do with you. This is all us working together for the glory of the Lord. Here's another one.
[46:30] Your spirituality is not a private arrangement between me and my God. I don't know how often I've heard this. You ask someone about their, how they're doing with the Lord and kind of the mindset is, well, that's none of your business.
[46:49] They might not say it in those words, but that's kind of how they, they come across is, that's between me and God, not, not you. I'm not going to tell you.
[47:01] I get that. I mean, there is a sense of a private, like, how I'm doing with the Lord, and yet the Lord never calls us to be secret about it.
[47:17] The Lord calls us to share with each other what's happening spiritually. We are a body of Christ, and if individual parts of the body are trying to be separate from and private, I don't know how well that works.
[47:37] You know, if, if my hand decides, well, I'm just going to separate myself from the body and, and do my own thing. Eh, it doesn't work so well.
[47:50] Okay? Actually, you might be able to get by without a hand, but let's, let's start playing with your organs and see how that works, right? If one of your organs says that. When you read the Bible, and this is a generalization, okay?
[48:11] Generally speaking, when you read your Bible, read the word you as plural, as in you all.
[48:22] Okay? It's not that the Bible is Southern. It's just that it's plural. Okay? Read it as plural. Read it as you all.
[48:33] Let me give you a for instance. Oftentimes, we'll read passages of Scripture, and we'll think of it, well, it's talking to me. No, no, it's talking to the church. It's talking to you all. Philippians 4.9.
[48:46] What you, and again, supply the word you all there. It's plural. In the Greek, it's actually plural. In English, you can't tell. Because English, you can mean you singular, or you can mean you plural in the English language.
[48:59] But in the Greek language, there's you singular, and then a different spelling, the word you plural. And it's the word you plural here. You have learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me.
[49:12] You all, meaning the church at Philippi, right? You've all seen this in me. And I want you to practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you all.
[49:27] The church. Not you individually. Now, you can take application for this for you individually as well, but the intention of what Paul is saying here is that the peace of God would be with you all.
[49:39] The church would enjoy peace of God in your midst if you're putting this into practice.
[49:50] So, again, when you're reading your Bibles, it's a good thing to just assume that that's what's happening there. It's plural. Not every need or opportunity has our name or your name individually written on it.
[50:08] sometimes someone will have a particular ministry in mind, and when they tell you about it, they're passionate, they're on fire, their heart is filled with this need, and God has built us all and given us different desires and passions and things that we want to see happen in ministry, and so sometimes this has happened to me.
[50:40] Someone will come and they'll say, well, I'm very passionate. We ought to get involved in this ministry, and they don't hear back from me, and it's like, how come this person, I've had this as a phone call, by the way.
[50:55] This company, it was a Christian company who markets evangelism products, I'll put it that way, right? And the guy on the phone is like, well, your church is interested in evangelism, isn't it?
[51:13] Yes, of course. Well, then you need to get whatever the product or service or whatever it is that they're selling. Okay, click.
[51:27] And then they call again the next week. You haven't ordered yet. Don't you care about evangelism? You might think really badly of me for me to admit this because by this time, I figured out their shtick.
[51:50] No. What? You don't care about evangelism? Apparently not. I'm not buying your product.
[52:02] And then I went on to tell them, if you're going to use this kind of a tactic in order to sell, I'm not interested. Just, you might have a fantastic product or service, but if this is what you're going to do to sell it, I'm just not interested.
[52:20] Oh, that's not what I meant. Click. By the way, we need to be better at, well, how much does that even happen? I'm talking about in like 1970s or 1990s kind of terminology.
[52:33] Hang up the phone. Right? How many of you take your cell phone and go click? We don't do that anymore. We don't do that anymore. That's a certain age you got to be to understand that little gesture.
[52:48] Some of you are like, what is that gesture all about? What is he doing? Ask your grandparents. Now, the question about the disciples, did they get this?
[53:09] Did they ever get this? Because we're going to see later on, they're going to be talking about who's the greatest in the kingdom, and they're just, they're not getting it yet. But do they get it yet?
[53:22] Well, Peter, he finally gets this lesson of humility and faith and service.
[53:33] And when he comes to the end of his life, he's writing a couple of letters that we have as part of our New Testament. First and second, Peter. Peter. And in those letters, here's what you won't find.
[53:46] You won't find Peter talking about or listing all of his own accomplishments. Peter in these letters is not, well, I was the one who preached the initial sermon of the church and 3,000 people got saved.
[54:02] Or, man, there was this guy at the temple and he was lame from birth and John and I were there and we were like, hey, we don't have any money but rise up in the name of Jesus. And man, he got healed because of me and later on, I was walking down the street and my shadow was cast across people's bodies and they were being healed on the spot.
[54:22] And man, the Lord just used me bountifully in the transitioning of the church between the... That's not what you hear.
[54:32] That's not what you see. What you do see, 1 Peter 5, clothe yourself, all of you, just to make sure we know it's plural.
[54:46] Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
[55:03] Peter got it. God... God... Kind of closes the letter with this. To him be the dominion forever.
[55:13] To him be the power, the authority, the dominion. That's the word is kind of multidimensional in that way. Forever and ever. It's his.
[55:25] It's all his. Every bit of it is his. And by the way, that's a good thing. That's what we need.
[55:38] What he's... What he's... What he's doing, who he is, is exactly what we need. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Lord, thank you so much for this incredible story that we know...
[55:57] We know it happened. We can't explain the details of how it happened. There's nobody that's going to question this story and come to us and say, well, how did he do this?
[56:09] And I don't know. That's our only response. We don't know, but we know that it happened. We know that it's miraculous because we see the response of the people. And Lord, we know and we believe all that you have done for us.
[56:32] And that's what we remember. That's what we celebrate. That's what we honor. You. We are nothing without you.
[56:42] These commands that you've given us, we can't even obey them if not for you. Help us to recognize our utter and complete need.
[57:00] The desperation of our circumstance without you. And may we celebrate that every day of our lives.
[57:12] And anything that we could ever do in service of you, it's still you. It's because of you.
[57:22] It is through you. You're the one who does the work. And we recognize that we're just vessels. Empty vessels that you fill up over and over again.
[57:42] And when we pour it out, Lord, we recognize that it is you that people need, that we need.
[57:58] So Lord, to you be the dominion, the power, the authority forever and ever. And all God's people said, Amen.
[58:09] Amen. Amen.