Jesus Christ: Sufficient for the Whole World

And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves and two fishes. He said, Bring them hither to me. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and break, and gave the loaves Would you pray with me this morning? gets full. And they that had eaten were about 5,000 men beside women and children.

Would you pray with me this morning? Our Father thank you so much for for just the grace of God that is near us. As we were reminded today that you are our confidence.

I just want to take a moment to pray for justice to be done, to pray for this murderer, that he might come to repentance, to pray for the family of Charlie Kirk, to pray for the family of this murderer as well. Lord, you are the only one who is able to take evil and use it for good. Lord, give comfort and mercy to these people. And would you please somehow use this terrible thing to draw people to you that they might see the Lord Jesus Christ and turn to Him in faith.

Help us, Lord, as we study your word in Matthew with this wonderful miracle that you did. Help us to see it in its true light and understand the lessons you taught by it. Give us understanding, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

In this passage, of course, our Lord feeds. The Bible says in verse 21, 5,000 men besides women and children. So if every person there had a lady with him, that would be 10,000 people. And what you might not know is when you go to places like this, places that are more similar to the culture of the Bible, kids are everywhere. Ben, is that not true? Little kids, no clothes on running around, right? It’s what you saw in the Philippines. Most of them had clothes on, yeah. But they’re everywhere, right? Just everywhere. And no doubt, there were a lot of people in this crowd.

10,000, 15,000, maybe more. This is the one miracle that is recorded by, one of the miracles that is recorded by all four of the gospel writers. And there aren’t many of those. This is one of them, though. by all four of the gospel writers. And there aren’t many of those. This is one of them though. And as Matthew doesn’t mention this, but Jesus had been teaching the multitude.

Luke 9 verse 11 says, Jesus had been teaching the multitude of the kingdom of God all day long. And so he had been, this idea that we have in our mind, I’m gonna try to address this because I just wanna warn you or forewarn you that this, because this miracle is so well known, sometimes we just tune it out and we think, you know, we’ve covered all of this before and we think we understand the moral of the story and we no doubt understand some of it, but I hope to point out some other things from the text that help us to see it in a greater light. But this was not an event where Jesus came upon this huge multitude and they were all hungry and so Jesus fed them.

No, they had been following Him. They were in a desert place, which means a place far from civilization. And they had been listening to Him teach. So you have to understand that the primary ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ was a teaching ministry and a preaching ministry. That was His primary ministry. In fact, the miracles that He performed were not His primary ministry. Those were supportive and were intended to demonstrate, as we’ve seen in our previous study of Matthew, they were intended to demonstrate His identity, who he was. And in fact, if you’ll take a brief look at this in John chapter, where’d it go, where’d it go, where’d it go?

I think it’s John chapter 6. You’ll look at that real quick. We’ll flip around a little bit. Look at John 6. I want you to see the point of this miracle. the point of this miracle.

I think it’s in John chapter 6. Yes, it is. Verse 14. So John 6 is the gospel of John’s equivalent or the record of John of this same miracle. Notice verse 14. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, this is of a truth that the prophet should come into the world. So I’m going to posit something to you. Jesus did this miracle first and foremost not as an act of benevolence, although it was that.

The first, the primary purpose of this miracle was to demonstrate who he was. And people understood that. People understood. They walked away from that thinking, wow, 10 or 15,000 people just ate from five loaves of bread and two fish. That was the main purpose of that. Now that might sound a little bit different than the way that you’ve heard it put. So let’s go back to Matthew 14 and look at verse number 14.

The Bible says, Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion toward them and he healed their sick. Now when you compare that to the disciples, verse 15, And when it was evening, his disciples came to him saying, This is a desert place and the time has now passed. Send the multitude away that they may go into the villages and buy themselves victuals.

When you compare the compassion of the Lord Jesus with the disciples, you see a little bit of a disparity, do you not? You see the Lord sees the multitude and he is, the multitude prompts compassion in him and the disciples see it and they’re basically like, all right, they got to eat, so just send them away and they can figure it out. And so the Lord had, the Lord had great compassion, but the disciples did not.

In fact, this miracle, which was initially prompted by compassion, the Lord’s compassion, obviously, this whole miracle happened not because of the compassion of the disciples. It happened because of the compassion of the Lord Jesus.

It was the Lord’s compassion, not the disciples’ compassion. Take a look at Mark chapter 6, if you would, very quickly. Why was the Lord moved with compassion? Matthew doesn’t cover it, but Mark does in his gospel. Mark 6, verse number 34.

This is the same miracle, just another account. Verse 34 says this, and Jesus, when he came out, saw much people and was moved with compassion toward them because they were as sheep not having a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. So you might find this surprising that the compassion of the Lord Jesus was not so much due to the fact that they didn’t have a way to eat dinner. Although that is how it’s been primarily characterized in our life, is it not? The primary reason, and that’s further evidenced by the fact that Jesus only fed them one time.

After this, they went home and it was on them to feed themselves because that’s the biblical principle, that if a man will not work, neither should he eat. And this, the compassion of the Lord Jesus does not overturn that principle. So this is not somehow a call for us to, you know, to, in the name of compassion, you know, feed everyone so they don’t have to work or whatever. It’s nothing like that at all. You see it in Mark chapter 6, verse 34. Jesus’ compassion, it says, he was moved with compassion toward them because they were as sheep not having a shepherd. So the compassion was not about their belly, was not about their physical, the physical situation they’re in, although he did alleviate that at this time.

The compassion was due, the compassion, his compassion was due to the plight of these people of not knowing the shepherd. You see that? In the context of this miracle, Jesus had compassion, not because they were hungry, but because he saw people that their relationship with the shepherd was out of order. They did not have a shepherd. And of course, we know when you do not have the shepherd, you do not have, the Lord is not yours and you are not his.

And I wanna say, let me pause here a second and say this, especially in all this stuff with Charlie Kirk and the conservatism and that kind of thing. It is not that when we say that we name the name of Christ that makes us Christ’s. It is that Christ owns us that makes us Christ’s. Right? Everybody, everybody at this time, this week, everybody in the world is a Christian, especially if you’re talking about conservative politically. But this, what happened, this terrible thing that happened to Charlie Kirk did not make everybody a Christian all of a sudden.

make everybody a Christian all of a sudden. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Period. Regardless of any religious veneer or anything like that.

And that’s exactly the source of Christ’s compassion. And so the question I have is this, and this is me, this is you, this is all of us why is it that we so easily feel compassion for people because of their physical needs but we so rarely feel similar compassion for people’s spiritual condition when you compare the two, why is it that one far outweighs the other? When is the last time that you or I have shed a tear because someone does not have the shepherd or because someone is standing on the edge of eternity without Christ?

You see, the Lord, the center of Christ’s compassion was not the belly. It was the soul. It was the soul. The Lord is not nearly as concerned with how much money we have or what’s in our bank account or the outward physical things that we think of when we think of compassion as He is with where we stand with Him. That was the source of the compassion of the Lord Jesus.

It is a mistake to assume that the Lord’s compassion was simply lack of food. And that leads to several errors kind of down the road. That leads to several errors. But this is not the first time the Lord’s compassion for this reason is shown. Matthew chapter 9, which we’ve already covered, I won’t go there, but it says, he saw the multitude and was moved with compassion. You remember in Matthew 9, verse 36, he says this, then saith he unto his disciples, what? The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labors are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth labors into his harvest.

So the compassion of the Lord Jesus was not their belly. It was the fact that there was no one to tell them the truth. No one to take the gospel to them. No one to give them the truth which gives them the opportunity to respond and to be saved and that kind of thing. That’s what the Lord was concerned about. That was his primary concern. That might sound and feel cold to you.

was concerned about. That was his primary concern. That might sound and feel cold to you. It might sound and feel cold to a deeply secular society that seeks to have religion without God. Religion without God that is primarily consumed with men’s bellies instead of men’s souls. But that is not what the Lord Jesus was concerned with primarily. Not what the Lord Jesus was concerned with primarily. That is not His purpose.

Because the truth is, is the hunger of the belly of greater concern than a man’s very soul? If a man lives his whole life with a full belly and wants nothing and his soul is lost, what doth it profit? The soul is of far greater importance than the belly. And that of course doesn’t preclude compassion, the outward expression of compassion on physical needs. But the primary consideration of everyone around me and around you is where they stand with God, where they stand with the shepherd, whether they’re in the fold or not in the fold, whether they’re in Christ or not in Christ.

We don’t have to look any further than Scripture to see the biblical Jesus. Notice verse 15 in Matthew 14 says this, And when it was evening evening his disciples came to him and saying this is a desert place the time has now passed in the multitude of way that they may go into the villages and buy themselves victuals but Jesus said unto them they need not depart give ye them to eat 15,000 10, 15,000 people we just had a wedding where we fed how many? 150, 200, probably, something like that.

That was expensive. Thankfully, we have a blessing in Lynn and Lisa Sargent, and they put up. They really blessed us with that and helped us out. But that’s expensive, and that’s only a couple hundred. Multiply that times ten.

Right? Times, you know, far more than that. You realize what Jesus is doing in verse 16? Jesus is telling them to do the impossible. Think about it. Matthew 14, verse 16, it says, they need not depart, give you then to eat. We won’t turn there, but John 6, 5, I’ll read the verse to you. It says, when Jesus then lifted up his eyes and saw a great company come to him, he saith unto Philip. Now poor Philip, he singles poor Philip out as if Philip has the answer.

And he says to Philip, when shall we buy bread that these may eat? In other words, Philip, what you going to do? These people are hungry. They need to eat. They’ve been with me all day long. And, you know, if we don’t do something, they’re going to have a hard time.

something, they’re going to have a hard time. The Lord is purposefully testing his disciples. The Lord is purposefully testing his disciples to do something he knew very well they were unable to do. John 6, 6 reveals this. It says this, and this he said to prove him, for he himself knew what he would do. The Lord is scheming. That’s what he’s doing. The Lord intentionally put this question forth, intentionally gave the disciples a command when he said, give ye them to eat. He’s saying, you feed them.

saying, you feed them. Why would the Lord tell them to do something that they are utterly unable to do? Because this directive, this command by the Lord, what did it do? You can see it because Philip said, and you can hear kind of his frustration in John 6, 7, he says this, 200 penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may take a little.

How, Lord, do you expect me to do this? It is not possible. We don’t have enough money. We cannot do this. You can kind of hear the frustration. It frustrated and confused them. And what did the disciples do? You can hear it in Philip. They immediately thought. Now, Christ has given them a command, and they immediately thought from a human perspective how this would be possible. Right?

In other words, they operated as a man, as a human being. The Lord’s told us to do something, we’ve got to figure out a way to do it. And this is the very reason the Lord sometimes tells us to do things that are not possible to do. I’m talking about you and I’m talking about me.

The Lord, it is, the Lord Jesus Christ, it is not unusual. And it should not be unusual to you for the Lord Jesus Christ to tell you to do things that you can’t do.

The scripture is filled with things that you can’t do. And he tells us to do those all the time. You know, if you’re married to someone who is extremely difficult, the Lord still tells you to love and to honor that person. You know that?

If you’re mistreated and you’re vilified or you’re slandered or you’re persecuted, the Lord still tells us to bless those that curse us and to do good to those that hate us. That’s what he tells us to do. That’s not possible to do from a human perspective. That’s not possible. The scripture is filled with examples like this. How is it possible to honor and love a parent who is not worthy of honor?

How is it possible that in this world, especially those of you who are younger, the Gen Z, the Gen Alpha, how in the world are you going to live a life that is holy and morally pure and upright in the sight of God and stay off of pornography and stay off of ungodly things on the internet. When your world is totally saturated. All of your friends, all of your social circles are totally, totally saturated with social media and the internet, right?

How are you going to stay pure when that stuff is constantly in front of you all the time? all the time. How are you going to stay pure in a world where literally everybody that you know is engaging in immorality before they get married? How are you going to stay pure? You know, the Lord often tells us things to do that are impossible to us. And I want to tell you something, it is impossible to you. It is impossible for a young man to stay pure in this world. It is impossible. It is impossible for a young man and a young lady in this society to keep themselves pure until they get married.

It is impossible for you to love your husband or love your wife when they do not act very lovable. It is impossible. We don’t need to make excuses for the commands of God and say, well, you know, I just can’t do it. You just don’t understand. No, no, we need to take the command of God seriously and stop trying to figure it out from a human perspective.

The Lord was trying to get these men to think, to no longer think in human terms. They couldn’t do it in human terms. They couldn’t do it themselves. They needed help. They needed grace. They needed help. They needed grace. They needed provision. He was trying to get them to look to the Lord Jesus Christ for the grace and for the ability to do what he told them to do.

He didn’t expect them to do it by human means. Because if they had done it by human means, then how would that have glorified Him? It wouldn’t have. Because they didn’t need Him. You know, I want to say something. This is my one rabbit trail, okay? This is the stuff with Charlie Kirk. I was coming to church this morning, listening to my daily, I have a daily news podcast, 10-12 minute podcast I listen to every day, generally.

And of course they were covering Charlie Kirk and all that happened with that. They were honoring him and his life and legacy and those kinds of things and that’s all good.

But I noticed that the announcer, the host, was talking about this and there was a constant reference to faith. Faith, you know, his faith. He just lived by faith, and he had such great faith and faith. I mean, Brother Schwartz, I mean, faith is good, right? You’ve got to have faith. But I noticed that they rarely, if ever, mentioned... I mean, he was interviewing a pastor, no less, who knew Charlie Kirk.

And even the pastor was constantly using this, well, you know, faith is so important in our lives. And no, it’s not. No, it’s not. Faith is not important in our lives. The God who is the object of the faith is what is important.

You can have faith all day long. And if your object is a fantasy, a figment of imagination, that faith is vain. If you have faith, just does not 1 Corinthians tell us, does it not tell us of the resurrection of Christ? That if Christ be not raised, your what? Your what? Your faith is vain. You know why? Because the object of our faith is null and void.

And I am, honestly, in the wake of all this, you hear so many people talking about Charlie Kirk. The funny thing is, Charlie Kirk himself, when you go back and listen to his videos, I would encourage you to do that, and listen to him describe his faith. He doesn’t just describe, well, my faith, my faith, my faith. He talks about the object of his faith often. And encourages people to believe in the object of his faith. He doesn’t just describe, well, my faith, my faith, my faith. He talks about the object of his faith often and encourages people to believe in the object of his faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. He does. But what I’ve noticed is this, you know, this kind of godless Christianity.

You guys know that I coined that term, right? I wrote that down. So it might not make any sense. Godless Christianity is Christianity is a form of Christianity in air quotes that is all about faith and all about church and all about religion and, you know, doing good and helping one another and all this stuff. And the name and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ is absent.

He’s not mentioned. He’s not thought of. Jesus Christ is against this kind of godless Christianity. Christianity, Spurgeon said it best. He said, misquoting it, of course, but Spurgeon said, he said, preacher, you get up in the pulpit, you have a sermon with no Christ, go home.

Christianity without the Lord Jesus Christ, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Christianity that just has faith, that just has ritual, just has works, just has church. I don’t want to have any part of that religion, even if it’s called Christian. Jesus is the sinner. And this is what this reminds me of, because here Jesus is telling them to do something that is impossible, and he’s making it so that the only way they can do it is if they go to Jesus.

You know what he’s doing? He’s trying to get them to see, I’m essential. I am essential to you. I’m essential to every part of your life. Listen, child of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are his child, or even if you’re not, you might be a person who is now outside of the fold. You don’t have the shepherd. You’re just wandering in the wilderness of sin.

And your judgment awaits you. I want to tell you something. You will never, you will never enter. You will never enter into God’s presence without the Lord Jesus Christ. A religion won’t get you there. Christianity won’t get you there. A church will not get you there. Rituals will’t get you there. Christianity won’t get you there. A church will not get you there. Rituals will not get you there. Only the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.

Do not substitute church and religion and Christianity for the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the Lord often tells His people to do things that they find impossible, that they might see the end of themselves and not trust in themselves.

And that they might look to Him for the grace needed to do it. So Jesus takes these, in verse 18 of our text, he said, bring them hither to me.

Bring them hither to me. I remind you, in another passage, when the disciples are showing frustration, they only have five loaves and two fish, and they bring it and they say, Lord, we have five loaves and two fish. We find out later or at another place in Scripture that those actually belong to a little kid. And they had, I guess, appropriated. What did the Marine Corps call it?

A choir? That was the Marine Corps term for stealing. They appropriated. I assume, although the Bible doesn’t say, I assume that the kid offered his bread and fish willingly, but I just want to look on the bright side.

But the disciples bring it to him and they say, but what are they among so many? I thought about, I thought about just visualize that. The little bit, right, that was offered. The little bit that they had. All those people just said five loaves and two fish. Basically a meal. That’s it.

It appears very small. And yet the multitude is enormous. And after the Lord had blessed it and break it, there was enough, more than enough, for everyone to be filled. No one went away hungry, including the disciples themselves. Everyone who was hungry would have provision, and none would lack at all. Look at verse 19 in our text here. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took five loaves and two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, notice this, and break and gave the loaves.

Does that remind anyone of anything? The Last Supper. Last Supper was bread, unleavened bread, but he was before the disciples and he took the bread and he’d break it. That’s what the Bible says, right? And then he gave it to the disciples. Now what does that bread represent?

His body. His body. This reminds us of the last supper in which the Lord Jesus broke the bread which symbolized his flesh. He broke it and then what did he do? He divided it. Because so long as the bread is broken, it cannot feed those who are hungry. It must be broken, and that’s what you see here. The five loaves, two fish. You could give that to, you might be able to give that to two or three people, and that would be sufficient to them, but it is not until the bread is broken and then divided and given out to people that others can be blessed and others can be filled by it. In other words, by the breaking of this bread, it could be divided and it could feed everybody, but it could not feed anyone until it was broken. And so it is with the one whom the bread represents. When Jesus came into this world, it was not until he died and he shed his blood on the cross and his body was broken that he was then able to feed a multitude.

So someone might ask this, this is an actual quote from a preacher, you might have heard it, it’s a good quote. Someone might ask this. This is an actual quote from a preacher. You might have heard it. It’s a good quote. This preacher was in a Q&A session, and he was asked this question. How can one man’s suffering for a few short hours on a cross save a multitude of men?

A countless multitude, according to you, from eternal judgment. The man replied, he said, I said, Son, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. You want to know how that one man dying alone for a few short hours on a tree can save a multitude of men from an eternity in hell? Because that one man is worth more than all of them put together.

And so it was when Jesus took this bread and he divided it, one little lunch, one little meal Jesus took, and because he broke it, it could be divided and it could be given out and it fed everyone. Christ himself is the provision for everyone. Christ himself, because his body was broken, he became the bread that every man must partake of. And I’m not talking about the Eucharist. I’m talking about he is the bread that everyone must by faith partake of.

And when, it doesn’t matter how large the multitude is. And I thought about even this group in other parallel passages. The Bible specifically talks about how he had them sit down in groups of 50. And I thought about, man, why would they divide up the people into 50? Maybe it was just to be able to count. I don’t know. But I thought about humanity because humanity why would they divide up the people into 50? Maybe it was just to be able to count. I don’t know. But I thought about humanity, because humanity is pictured in this multitude.

And how humanity is divided into groups of languages, and groups of peoples, and groups of nations, and it’s divided up neatly into all these groups, and yet it doesn’t matter how large the multitude was, or how many groups there were, there was enough.

Did you know that if every person in this world repented and put their faith in Jesus, there would be sufficient? And there would be enough left over. How many baskets? Twelve. How many disciples? Twelve. Did they keep it? I don’t know. Maybe they gave it back to the kid. I don’t know what they did with it. It’s interesting, there’s 12 disciples who gave out the bread and 12 baskets left, which meant there was enough for each disciple to have a whole basket themselves.

And they’re the ones who already, they already believe in Christ. In other words, there’s enough in the Lord Jesus Christ, there’s enough efficacy and power in what He did when He shed His blood upon that cross and was buried and rose again through the power of the blood of Christ shed for sinners. There is enough power to save any and all sinners, every one of every tribe and nation and people and language.

Not only that, but there’s enough left over for every one of His disciples to live for good. The grace of God. Because even now, even now, we live, we live by that bread now as a believer, do we not? But notice, Christ chose to use instruments. And this is the last thing I want to show you. Matthew 14, verse 18. He said, bring them hither to me.

Brothers and sisters, I just wish I could convey this to you properly. I wish I understood it myself enough fully. Memorize verse 18. You can put anything you want in the word them. Anything you want. Any difficulty. Any insurmountable problem. Any sin. Anything. Jesus says, difficulty, any insurmountable problem, any sin, anything, Jesus says, just bring it to me.

Bring it to me. Bring it to me. You say, well, I’m not even saved. I don’t know God. You are the them. Bring yourself to him. You got to start there. Verse 19. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass and took the five loaves and the two fishes and looking up to heaven, he blessed and break and gave the loaves. Notice, and gave the loaves to his disciples and the disciples to the multitude.

You think of this as the gospel, the good news of Christ, the bread who is broken, his blood shed for the world. Right? This is a message. This is that bread that has now already been broken and handed to the disciples. Do you see the picture here? He hands it to the disciples. You see the picture here? He hands it to the disciples. So the first thing we see is that disciples cannot possibly give it to anybody else until they first themselves have received it. All right. That’s the first thing. But then the Lord chooses to use the disciples to get the bread to everyone else.

He chooses not to give it out personally, but he chooses to have an instrument between him and the multitude that he will use that allows them to be a part of his feeding the world. Is that not what missions is all about? Not just missions, but is that not what evangelism is all about? Is that not what you’re telling your neighbor or your sibling or your loved one about the Lord Jesus Christ?

Is that not what it is all about? Is that God has given you something and you are full, and that is available to feed those whose souls are going to perish with hunger spiritually. And He’s not giving it to them directly. spiritually and he’s not giving it to them directly. He has chosen to give it to you and to me so that we can take it to all of those groups of every tribe and people and nation, the closest of whom are nearby to us.

And if we do not take it, they will not get fed. He’s depending upon our instrumentality. He’s depending on us to do it. He will not do it otherwise.

He gave them this job. But by them having this job, here’s what they had. They had the privilege of being involved in this miracle. They were not only recipients.

They were laborers together. Think about that. They got to see firsthand from the inside the miracle of Christ feeding people who were hungry. The Lord wanted to feed the multitude, but He chose to use the means of His disciples. He would not do it independent of them. Matthew Henry said it like this, He did this to signify in what way the spiritual food of the world should be dispensed to the world.

And so the only way for the multitude of people who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ to get the provision that has been provided, Jesus Himself, is if those of us who have already received Him will take the bread to them. That is the way God has ordained it to happen. That’s why we support missionaries. That’s why we seek to get the gospel to people.

It’s because that’s what the Lord expects. And so if anyone that’s hungry wants to eat, they have to get it from one of Christ’s disciples. You know that? That’s the way God has ordained it. No, God must reveal Himself to me or else I’m not going to believe. Well, then you’re not going to believe. No, God must reveal himself to me or else I’m not going to believe.

Well, then you’re not going to believe. He has chosen to use corrupt and dirty handed people. You know, think of their hands. I doubt all their hands were dirty. There’s no place to wash their hands. And here they are handing bread to people. It’s kind of gross, ain’t it? But that is the means he chose to use to get the food to them. That’s our job. That’s our job.

That’s our privilege. That’s my privilege. Would you pray with me?