1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God
our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The message from God’s Word for us today is
taken from the Gospel lesson from Matthew 14:13-21. Here Jesus teaches us to put “First Things First.” As Christians, we need to seek the Savior
who takes care of our spiritual needs (vs. 13, 14) and then we trust the Savior
who takes care of our physical needs (vs. 15-21). Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. In the Biography of James Hudson Taylor by Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor
(London: China Inland Mission. 1965), we find a story about a man who truly
trusted God for provision. As a young man Taylor was preparing to go to China
to be a missionary. But, before he
became a missionary Taylor worked for a doctor in England and was paid a
quarterly wage. As the time to receive his salary drew near, Taylor was
disturbed that his employer said nothing about it. Taylor was nearly broke, but
would not break his resolution and ask for the salary. While visiting a needy
home on Sunday, Taylor felt led by God to give his last coin to a needy family.
The next day he received an anonymous gift through the mail, four times what he
had given to the poor! The following Saturday,
the doctor finished up his work and said, “Taylor,
is not your salary due again?” Taylor confirmed that it was and became
disappointed when he learned that the doctor had completely forgotten about
Taylor’s salary and sent all his funds to the bank! He prayed about the matter
(for he had bills of his own to pay) and left it with the Lord. That evening,
the doctor visited him and said that one of his richest patients came over after hours to pay his bill! He gave the
money to Taylor, who rejoiced. He had learned he could trust God for the
provision of his needs, both in England and China.
3. Jesus’ feeding of the 5000 miraculously
provided life-giving sustenance for all. He showed his ability to provide for
our needs. We find the “bread” theme throughout Scripture. God provided manna
for the wandering Israelites in the wilderness in the Old Testament as Moses
was leading them. And, in the Lord’s Prayer, he promises to give us this day
our daily bread (Matt. 6:11). Jesus is truly the Bread of Life (John 6:30–35;
47–58). We may confidently trust him to provide for our every need.
4. Matthew 14:13-21 says, “13Now when Jesus heard [about the death of John
the Baptist], he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself.
But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14When
he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed
their sick. 15Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said,
“This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go
into the villages and buy food for themselves.” 16But Jesus said, “They need
not go away; you give them something to eat.” 17They said to him, “We have only
five loaves here and two fish.” 18And he said, “Bring them here to me.” 19Then
he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and
the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the
loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the
crowds. 20And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets
full of the broken pieces left over. 21And those who ate were about five
thousand men, besides women and children.
5. Now ordinarily we need more than 5
small loaves to feed 5000 men. But, here
in Matthew’s Gospel we see that Jesus touches the bread in the wilderness with
His mighty hand, and it increases until all are fed. Jesus feeds the multitudes by a miracle. God still multiplies bread. A farmer sows some wheat into a field and it
produces fifty to a hundredfold. That,
too, is a miracle of God.
6. To this day, we’re fed out of the
abundant goodness of God. Each day, God
provides us with enough bread to satisfy the world’s hunger. If anyone goes hungry, God can’t be blamed. Why is it then that people go hungry in this
world? The greed and selfishness of man
withholds and destroys the bread that God so richly provides us.
7. God gives us our daily bread and He
challenges us to live trusting in him from day to day. After all, the same God who sends down rain
upon the righteous and the unrighteous, who clothes the lilies of the field and
feeds the birds of the air, is able to provide for your needs. There’s enough bread to spare. But, at times we think otherwise. We see our refrigerators and freezers
becoming more and more empty. But wait,
God opens His hands at His appointed time supplies us with all our spiritual
and bodily needs.
8. Most of the time, God gives us more
than we need for today. He pours out His
blessings upon us even more than we need in one day. What should we then do, if we have more than
we can use? Well, like the disciples we
can gather up the fragments. We are
stewards of our earthly possessions, and we shouldn’t squander or waste the
physical possessions and resources that God has given to us. We are to use the things that God has given
to us wisely. We’re not to forget to
break our bread with the needy and to us our possessions to further God’s
Kingdom.
9. But, Jesus feeding the 5000 here in
Matthew 14 reminds us something else.
Jesus isn’t just some wonderful man or great teacher. Jesus Christ is the
only, the true, and the almighty Lord God.
Each one of Jesus’ miracles proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt. And each miracle of Jesus in the Gospels
tells us in a special way how our Lord Jesus feels for you. Each miracle in a
special way is intended to strengthen your faith in him. The feeding of the
5000 does this. It shows Jesus to be our all-sufficient Savior, who loves us
dearly and who will care for all our needs. Like those disciples, we sometimes
forget that. So often we can see all of our problems, but we don’t always see
that compassionate and all-powerful Savior there too who can help us. Many
times we forget that he always has and will provide the best solution to what
we might view as a great problem.
10. This miracle reminds us to “cast all your anxiety on him because he
cares for you” (1 Pe 5:7). This miracle also verifies what St. Paul so
triumphantly says: “If God is for us, who
can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us
all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Ro
8:31, 32). This miracle reminds us too of what our most important need is
and how Christ meets that need. He feeds the souls of this crowd first, and
then he feeds their bodies. That simple thought of this text emphasizes what
Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount: “Seek
first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to
you as well” (Mt 6:33). This is the lesson Jesus sought to teach the crowd
on that day when he first nourished their souls and then sent them home with
happy souls and full stomachs.
11. That multitude apparently didn’t learn
that lesson. Later on they wanted to make Jesus their “bread king.” They figured
that Jesus would be their Welfare King, who would provide socialized medicine
for them and who would provide them their grocery cards to get whatever food
they needed. Hey, who wouldn’t want
that, right? It sounds great! Well, sometimes
we don’t always learn that lesson, either. Do we always give our soul’s welfare
priority over everything else in life? So often we can be more concerned about
the grocery bills, the rent, and all the other bills than we are with
nourishing our souls on the Word, growing in our faith, and advancing the
kingdom of God.
12. But, thanks be to God that the one who
fed this great crowd with a meager supply of food is the one who still says to
us: “I am the bread of life. He who comes
to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty”
(Jn 6:35). Amen.
13. Please pray with me: With
grateful hearts, we come to Your throne of grace, O Lord, recognizing Your
goodness and abundant mercy. You have
opened Your hands to supply our needs for this day and have given us also the
heavenly manna of the Gospel to nourish our souls and preserve us in
faith. Accept our praise and thanks
arising from our appreciative hearts, which you have cleansed from all sin
through Jesus’ most precious blood.
Amen.
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