You, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you was great to be together in worship this morning. I realized as I was sitting there worshiping in the last few songs, I don't know if I introduced myself earlier. Sorry about that. My name is Daniel, and I have the privilege of serving as kind of our team leader here and preaching on Sunday. So it's great to be with you guys this morning.
I want to let you know some kind of family news, but wider family than this congregation. IBC, our Spanish congregation, lost one of their own this week. Wilmer Cardona has been dealing with battling cancer over the last few years, ever since I got here two years ago. And on Friday, that battle was done, and he's now with his Savior, Jesus. So we just want to pray, pray, want to let you know about that so you can be lifting up the IBC family. They had the funeral here last night at 7, and it went into 10, 11 o'clock at night as they grieved and celebrated. If you knew Wilmer, even through the battle of cancer, when he was weak, he would smile. He would still show up for Bible studies. He was serving, and just a really sweet man, and I can't wait to spend eternity with him.
I want to encourage you specifically to pray, not only for the family and the congregation, but pray for Pastor Angel Malero. He's our interim pastor of that congregation, and for our deacons, Saul and Julio, as they shepherd that family through the loss of Wilmer in that grief. So I just want to encourage you to lift them up as you head into this week.
All right, well, in following Jesus, my question for you this morning is, have you ever been stretched to a point where you knew you couldn't do it on your own? Where you knew you couldn't get through it on your own strength, on your own resources, on what you had to offer, you weren't going to make it? Have you ever gotten to that point where you had to rely on God to provide in order for you to get through? Or, in verse 10, has he ever asked you to be bold in declaring? Has he ever asked you to take a step that put everything at risk, maybe your job, or your pride, if you looked foolish in front of others, or you simply weren't sure you would know what to say in the moment? Has he ever asked something like that of you?
Well, I think that as we follow Christ, he will, and he does, and he has asked us to do those things. I want to give you some historical examples. George Mueller was called by God to care for orphans in 19th century England, in which they were all over the street. Think of the stories you think about. I think of the stories you think about. I think of the stories you think about. I think of from that time, and relying entirely on prayer and faith for the provision of their needs.
See, there's a story at one point in George Mueller's life where they've got orphans in the orphanage, and they are all out of food, completely out of food. So they have the kids come together for breakfast, and they put the empty plates in front of them, and they still pray, and they thank God for his provision. And as the morning went on, a bread truck came by and donated bread to the orphanage. And later on that morning, a milk truck broke down across the way, and they all end up with bread and food. And there's story after story in George Mueller's life of God providing that which he could not provide in his own strength.
Another example is Hudson Taylor, also 19th century, a missionary to China at this time. And this was a time when you went to China, you didn't come home, you went for life. And he entirely trusted God for everything. At one point, he was down to his very last coin, and there was an opportunity to help someone. And so he gave away that last coin, not knowing where the rest would come from. And that very same day, an unexpected donation arrived in the mail that covered not only his needs, but his needs many times over.
We could add to this a list of a host of others, Amy Carmichael in India, Brother Andrew in the Soviet Union. Countless others have followed God in obedience, unsure of how it would all work out, how all the pieces fit together. And I think it's a great kind of challenge for our day and age where we like to not make one step until we see how it all works. We don't want to step out in faith for fear that it might not work out. But I would argue that this isn't just historical. It is happening today.
Let me give you a couple examples just from this week. Wes Huff is a Canadian apologist and PhD student. He grew up in the Middle East where he was diagnosed with a rare neurological disease that left him paralyzed in the waist down. Some point in his life, God decided to answer prayers and heal and restore his strength. And now he is in much better shape than most of us in this room. But this week, as an apologist, he had the chance to go on the Joe Rogan show, which I can't endorse because it's full of foul language. But he had the chance to go on the Joe Rogan show where you spend three hours talking with Joe Rogan.
Now, if you know Joe Rogan's story, he has throughout his history been very antagonistic towards Christianity, very dismissive of God, and very sort of pro-atheist. And in recent years, that's been softening. So here, Wes has an opportunity as a PhD student apologist to come on Joe Rogan's show with an audience of 14 million. Now, Wes will tell you that he had no idea where the story was going, where the conversation was going to lead. There were no notes. There was no plan. It's a freewheeling three-hour conversation. And Wes had to step out in faith and say, God, you've given me an opportunity to speak boldly for Christ in this moment. Will you give me the words? And he did. And Wes did a tremendous job, both proclaiming the gospel and defending the trustworthiness of Scripture and who Christ was.
As of this morning, in the first four and a half days since the episode aired, 3.8 million people viewed it on YouTube alone. He took a step of faith that was out of his control, and he trusted God that he might use it. Well, we saw it again in a sports event this week when Notre Dame beat Penn State. And we saw both Marcus Freeman, the head coach, in an interview say later, he says, I want our guys to wonder what it means to embrace Jesus Christ. That's one of his goals for his team.
And what was not surprising then as a result is when his quarterback in the post-game interview says this. He says, shoot, I just trusted in the Lord. I looked up in the middle of the game and said, Jesus, whatever your will is for my life, I trust it 100%. Now, we don't know that. If you were with us a couple weeks ago, we don't get the job of saying, was that true or was that just something he said? God's going to discern that. But what I love is Riley, a young man, could have said, yeah, I had the best game of my life. It was awesome, wasn't it? Man, I threw the best throws I'd ever thrown. No, he takes that opportunity to say, I trusted Jesus with whatever he had for me.
And I'm going to trust that he was honest in that moment. And what an awesome thing that he had this opportunity to say, wow, what happened in the second half of that game? And he says, I trusted Jesus. And so I trust you with whatever you have for me. I've heard it described recently as, is there a vibe shift in our culture? Is God moving in a new way? And I don't know. Is there a new revival upon us like the 19th century? I don't know. But I do know that for much of my life, I have been very discouraged about what's happening in our culture, and I think there's still reasons to be, but man, there seem like there's a whole lot of reasons to be excited.
Christians are being bold in a way they haven't. They're stepping out and risking their jobs and their careers, saying things that people don't usually say to boldly proclaim the hope and the truth and the light of Jesus Christ. In Mark 9, we read that Jesus responded to the disciples who wanted to stop people from doing things in Jesus' name, and Jesus says, no, don't stop them. Man, if they're not against us, they're for us, and there is something exciting happening in our culture today where people are proclaiming Jesus.
I'm not going to get in the nitty-gritty of how perfectly or imperfectly. I'm just excited that Jesus is where people are being pointed. What we're excited about God's doing in this passage is that everyone in the passage is excited. The crowds are excited about what Jesus is doing. Herod, not excited, but scared, and the disciples are excited for what's happening, and what we see in the midst of today's passage is that the stretching faith is not something new. It is something new. It is something new. It is something new. It is something new. It is something that has always been there and something that we are called to as Christ followers.
Now, I'm going to give you a window into the little teenage boy that's still inside me. As I was preparing the sermon, it comes up twice in this passage that Jesus was a ghost, so I really wanted to call this sermon Ghostbuster. I didn't. I still think the primary message of this passage is a stretching faith, but if you hear ghost and you think Ghostbuster, blame it on me. It's my fault, but it is an exciting passage where Jesus blows open these ghost stories.
So, let me remind us of the background here. So, we've been in chapter 13, Jesus' third section of teaching. He teaches through parables or stories. The purpose of these was to tell people what the kingdom of heaven was like. That is, explain how God works, how his work, his reign, his rules function. Spoiler alert, it's not like we function, not like we see, and so he specifically speaks in contrast with the Pharisees and the scribes, the religious leaders of the day are doing, and we'll see that he's in contrast to the secular leaders, Herod and his family today as well.
The kingdom of God does not work like we think it should, nor does it work like our world would want it to work. It works differently, and so Jesus takes stories of things that people knew, agriculture and fishing and buying land and seeking out for treasure, and he shows these to help them understand this is how God's kingdom functions. For his desires that people would hear who haven't heard, haven't seen, that people would understand, and as a result of understanding, would turn to God. So, we're going to look at this and we're going to look at this in a different way. So, we're going to look at this in a different way. Repent, believe in him as the Messiah, and as we sang earlier, be healed.
It's why we've named this series, Hear, Understand, Believe. There is a drive in this section of Matthew that Jesus wants to take people from just hearing his teaching, to understanding what he's saying, and from understanding what he's saying, to believing, and we're going to see that again in today's passage. But Matthew 13 gave us seven parables that we don't want to forget because they're important. First, the story of the sower and the seeds, that we're going to face resistance and rejection to the message of God. And then we're going to see the story of the sower and the seeds, and we're going to see the story of Christ.
And as you might remember, Andy Garcia reminding us, don't worry about the soil, keep on sowing. And then last week we looked at weeds and wheat, and we were reminded there's an enemy at work in the world, and he is sowing evil seeds, and there are people springing up to follow him, not follow Christ. And we want to sort those out. We want to figure out who's in and who's out, and yet the message of the weeds and the wheat and the parable of the net is, leave who's in the kingdom to the king. In the middle of these parables, we're reminded about what the good news of the kingdom is, that Jesus Christ changes our lives, uses us to change others, and introduce them to him, that their lives might be changed forever.
So today, as we head into Matthew 14, we keep these in mind, that this is the message that's driving forward, raising persecution, but the life that follows the kingdom, that follows the king, is a life that makes a difference. So today we head into Matthew 14, and one of Jesus's most famous miracles, the feeding of the 5,000. So if you want to, go ahead and start making your way to Matthew 14. There's Bibles at the back window. Feel free to grab one of those. If you don't have a Bible at home, take it with you. We would love for you to have God's word that you can just flip through and take notes in. We believe it changes lives. We've seen it change lives. We believe God uses it to change lives. It'll also be on the screen for those who want to see it there.
Well, as we get started, will you join me in a word of prayer? Heavenly Father, thank you for today. Lord, thanks for the chance to come together and worship you for all that you've done, for the great and marvelous deeds that are yours. Lord, we thank you for those who have gone before us, who have walked with you imperfectly, but with trusting obedience and faith. And they've shown us what you will do when people follow you and trust you. Lord, we want to be a people of faith in you. Lord, we want to be defined as a church that just believes in ourselves and what we can do, but one that obediently followed you and saw you do awesome things.
So Lord, I pray this morning, as we study your word, would you stretch our faith? Would you make us uncomfortable in a way that makes us press into you and trust you and obey you and follow you? Lord, help us to walk in your strength, not in ours. Pray you'd use your word this morning to work in us that we might do that more faithfully. Pray this in your name. Amen.
All right. Well, today's passage involves three key events that we're going to be looking at. Herod and John. So Herod and the death of John the Baptist, Jesus feeding the 5,000, and Jesus walking on water. As I was looking at chapter 14, I thought about splitting these up, but what we'll see today is actually these three go together for very important reasons. So we're going to walk through all of them. We're going to look at the first three, and then we're going to look at the at a fairly high level this morning, though I'll give you some interesting things that help flesh these out for us.
In each of these sections, we get people responding to Jesus. Herod thinks Jesus is a ghost of John the Baptist. In the feeding of the 5,000, the people think Jesus is a healer and a teacher. And the disciples in both the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus walking on water are faced with this question. Who is this one who multiplies bread and walks on water? So let's dive in and take a look at the first one, Herod. Now, you need some context because when we see Herod, we typically think of, well, Herod's the same Herod as that Herod. So let's take a look at the first one.
This Herod's the same Herod? Is that Herod? Well, this isn't. What we're going to see here in the beginning of Matthew 14 is a reference to Herod the Tetrarch. Herod the Tetrarch is actually Herod Antipas. He just has a second name as well. He goes by Herod the Tetrarch. And he's a son of Herod the Great. Now, you know Herod the Great. Herod the Great was the one that was in power when Jesus was born. Herod the Great dies in 4 BC. And when he dies, he leaves his rule to three of his sons: Herod, sorry, Philip, Archelaus, and Herod Antipas, or Herod the Tetrarch that we'll see today.
I'll tell you a little bit more about those three. But what we learn from Luke 3 is this. When John the Baptist began his ministry, here was who was in power. In the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being Tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip, Tetrarch of the region of Etruria and Trachonitis, and it goes on and on and on. What we see in Luke is that the Gospels are grounded in history. There are specific details here that anchor this in the reality of life at the time that only those who live there would have known.
And what we discover here is that by the time of John the Baptist's ministry, and thus Jesus's ministry, we see Herod being Tetrarch of Galilee and his brother Philip. But you might be saying, wait, hold on, you said there were three. There is a third. So let's talk about the one who's not mentioned first, and we'll come back to these two. Archelaus. You know Archelaus. If you were with us back in Matthew 2, you would know Archelaus. You know Archelaus. You know Archelaus. When Jesus and his family are headed back from Egypt, back to Israel, they're going to settle in Judea, and we read in the text that because Archelaus reigned over Judea, they went to Nazareth, and Jesus was called a Nazarene.
So you might be like, well, what's the big deal about Archelaus? Well, Archelaus was a brutal ruler. Archelaus was so brutal that Caesar actually removed him from authority and exiled him to Gaul, or modern-day France. And he didn't give a whole lot of time. Archelaus was a brutal ruler, and he didn't give a whole lot of time. Archelaus comes into power, and he doesn't give a whole lot of time. Archelaus comes into power, and he doesn't give a whole lot of time. Archelaus comes into power in 4 BC when his father dies, and by 6 AD, 10 years later, he's out of there, and he's exiled to Gaul. Archelaus was brutal. There was a reason Jesus and his family avoided living under Archelaus' rule.
So he's out of the picture, and we're left with two of the sons of Herod, Philip and Antipas, or Herod the Tetrarch. Both of these are still in power, and they will both be in power through Jesus' death into the mid to the late 30s. These historical details give us trust in God's word that it wasn't written later. These are first-century documents showing us how things functioned at the time. So let's pick up verse 1 of chapter 14. Herod hears about the fame of Jesus, the theme of this chapter. As opposition to Jesus grows, both from Nazareth and the Pharisees, and later on we'll see from others, his fame also is growing tremendously. These two seem to go hand in hand. His fame is growing, and Herod hears of Jesus, and his response is...he's afraid John the Baptist has come back from the dead.
Now to give you some indication it's not that Herod was crazy or Herod had a crazy idea for if you fast forward two chapters to Matthew 16 and Jesus asks his disciples who do the people say that I am? What were one of the answers? They say you're John the Baptist. Okay, so Herod and the culture around him of the day thought that Jesus might be John the Baptist resurrected. Now what's interesting is by Jewish culture we don't believe in that. There are no ghosts and there's very few examples of Jesus raising people from the dead. In fact, certain sects of religion didn't think that would happen at all. And so this is a very Greek idea that there would be a ghost walking around that John would be, uh, Jesus would be John raised from the dead.
So Herod reflects the culture of his day as do the people. But we wonder why is John dead which is where Matthew takes us next. Take a look at verse three. For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. Because John had been saying to him it's not lawful for you to have her. Here's the story. We've got Herod Antipas and we've got his brother Philip. Herod liked Philip's wife so much so that he took his wife. His brother's wife became his wife. You can imagine that did not work well for their relationship. Herodias divorces his Philip. Herodias comes and marries Herod the Tetrarch who has divorced his first wife. It's a messed up family. Right. We've got one who's exiled to Gaul because he's a bastard. He's brutal. We've got brothers stealing wives from each other. And we've got John the Baptist bold enough to say that's not right.
You shouldn't be doing that. And he calls out publicly both Herod and Herodias for this illegal immoral marriage that they have pursued. And as a result, John is put in prison. We've already got a sense of how messed up the Herodian family is. Herod the Great, the father of kills every boy two years and under in Bethlehem for fear of Jesus. Archelaus is so bad that even the terrible Roman government exiles him because he's worse. And now Herod has stolen his brother's wife and he's imprisoned a man considered a prophet for speaking out against him. This is a dark, dark family. In fact, Herod so wanted to go to the extent of killing John. Take a look at verse five where we read for, uh, sorry, uh, let's see I'm behind one. Sorry about that.
And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people because they held John to be a prophet. Herod we see clearly wanted to kill John but was afraid of the crowd. Fear is a core characteristic of Herod's rule. There was a scholar who once said weak men are fearful men. Herod was fearful. He was fearful of who Jesus was. John the Baptist returned from the dead. He's afraid of the crowd and what they'll think when John if John's killed. He's afraid of the crowd at his birthday party as we'll see in a second. Herod is driven by fear. Matthew tells us how Herod moves past this fear, though, to end up killing John. Take a look at verse six.
But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. Herod holds a birthday party. No big deal. Everyone holds birthday parties. No, you don't actually. In fact, Jewish historian Josephus says you don't hold birthday parties as a Jew. The Jews didn't do it. They were forbidden. The fact that Herod holds a birthday party is an incredibly Greek thing. He's living like the Greeks, not like the Jews. And Greek birthday parties were defined by their lewd dancing, their drinking, their carousing. And oh, by the way, they were just men. There were no women in this birthday party, culturally.
And so it's a bunch of guys getting together, doing things they shouldn't be doing. And who gets brought in to please the men but Herod's own daughter? To dance in what I believe is not a G-rated dance. This is a depraved family in which Herod brings his own daughter or stepdaughter or whoever she is in to please the men with her dancing. So pleasing is her dancing to her father that he promises on oath to give her whatever she might ask, though that's not really in his authority to do, but he offers it. And the young girl responds with the encouragement of her mother, what does she want? The head of John the Baptist. Prompted by her mother, she said, give me the head of John the Baptist here on a birthday party.
And Herod says, give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter. Her request, her mom's request, is a reward, is the death of a man who was considered a prophet. Matthew here gives us a glimpse into the Herodian family. Do you think our politicians are corrupt and immoral? The same was true, if not worse, during Jesus' day. They were a family who were known for killing one another, for backstabbing one another, for killing anyone who got in their way. And here we see the depths of their depravity together. And Herod says, give me the head of John the Baptist here on a birthday party. The very thing, too, that Herod had been reticent to do to kill John, he does because of the pressure of the birthday crowd and the request of his daughter and his wife.
Not wanting to be shamed in that culture, he gives his daughter what she asks for. And we read in verse 9, sorry, this was a slide, guys, sorry. I didn't know, I missed a slide, and that was what I missed. So pick up with me in verse 9 in your Bibles. And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his request, he commanded it to be given. He sent and had John beheaded in prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. What a horrifying view of this family. But even more so, John's death highlights the very real persecution that John faced for speaking out against them, and that Jesus will face when he heads to the cross, and that Jesus' disciples, all but one of them, will be crucified for proclaiming Christ.
When Jesus said persecution would come against you in opposition, he was not making that up. Nor was it simply a slap on the hand or the disapproval of your in-laws. In John, we see how serious this is. And so after his death, John's disciples come and they get his body and they let Jesus know what happened. His disciples came and took the body and buried it and they went and told Jesus. So you might ask the question, what does this first really dark episode have for us in Matthew 14? Why does Matthew even include it? Why not just give us verses one and two? Herod was afraid that Jesus was John raised from the dead and then move on. Why give us this darkness?
I think there's several reasons. I think one, it shows us Herod's rule, that he is a fearful man. A fearful man led by fear of the crowd and led by fear of his family and fear of others. That he is that politician who is immoral and evil and corrupt. And that John's message that Jesus picked up, repent for the kingdom of heaven in his hand, is a message people don't want to hear, including leaders and others who want to live in their sin. It's clear that Herod is struggling with this though. He's a bit convicted for he's sorry when John is killed, but he still imprisons the man and goes ahead with his death.
I would tell you that ultimately, Herod, thinking that Jesus was simply John reincarnated, gets Jesus's identity wrong. And as a result, he misses the whole point that Christ is bringing. Jesus is neither John's ghost nor just another prophet. And I think when you get Jesus's identity wrong, you miss the whole rest of it. For if Jesus is in fact God, holy and righteous, then a healthy fear of him leads us to repentance or should lead us to repentance. Herod did not see Jesus in this light, nor did he want to hear his call to repentance. No, Herod and his family were enjoying their own style of Herodian hedonism, and it was depraved and sick.
But Jesus was neither a ghost nor a prophet. And that's where Matthew goes in the next two stories in a really powerful way. So pick up with me in verse 13, the feeding of the 5,000. Now, when Jesus heard this, 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. Now, why did Jesus withdraw? It's not exactly clear. Could be because his cousin was just killed brutally, and he heard the news, and he wants to go mourn. Spend some time with the father. Could be because persecution's growing, and he wants to get away from it. We don't know. Could be all of the above. But he wants to get away by himself.
But like parents with kids who have a knack for coming to us when we just want a few minutes to ourselves, the crowds show up. In the very moment when Jesus is trying to get time alone, the crowds show up in mass. And we read in verse 14 that he went ashore and he saw, sorry, there we go. Verse 14, when he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them. The great crowd is an understatement. We're told that by the end of this story, by the time he feeds the crowd and dismisses them, there are 5,000 men plus women and children. At a bare minimum, we're probably talking about 6,500 people. If a couple of the husbands brought their wives and a couple brought a couple of kids, right? We're bare minimum. We're talking 6,500, maybe many more than that. This is a huge crowd.
Now, it doesn't feel big to us because we know stadiums with 70,000. We know cities of 80,000 are small and cities of 14 million are large. But you know what? In this time, in this area of Judea, a large town was 3,000 people. Two cities essentially have emptied out and are gathered around Jesus. The crowd around him is great, as Matthew tells us. And Jesus' response is not to get back on the boat and go over to the other side of the sea and get away from them. No, his response is to have compassion on them. This is one of the most defining descriptors of Jesus throughout all the gospels, was his great compassion. He has compassion. He has compassion on them, though he's trying to get away to be alone. And he heals their sick.
Compassion is a strength. And man, I want you, especially in our culture, to hear me in this. Compassion is not a weakness. It is a reflection of Jesus' strength and his love. Compassion in you is not a weakness. It is a strength that you can show others what they need and lay down your life for them. I don't know about you, but so far, this is incredibly convicting for me. Because when I'm tired, when I'm discouraged, when I'm depressed, when I'm anxious, when I'm worried, and I'm trying to get alone by myself, is when my temper is short with my kids and when I don't want anybody to bother me.
Jesus was trying to get away by himself, and thousands come to him, and rather than get frustrated and say, go away, he shows them compassion. What about you? When your neighbors show up at inopportune times, when your family wants time from you at the wrong time, when co-workers stop by your office and need you at a time that's not convenient. How do you respond? Years ago, I read this quote by C.S. Lewis, and it's continued to challenge me ever since. Here's what he wrote. He said, The great thing, if one can, is stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's own or real life. The truth is, of course, that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life, the life God is sending one day by day.
Jesus recognized that his Father had sent thousands his way, and so he stops and he has compassion on them. He says, and he spends the day with them, or however much part of that day, all the way until evening, till dinnertime. And we read in verse 15, to be honest, the disciples respond like I would want to respond. Send them away. We're done. Get the crowd out of here. And then Jesus responds, but Jesus said, they need not go away. You give them something. You give them something to eat. Jesus' compassion had already put his plan in place. Hands on hold to care for the sick, to heal them, to have compassion on them. And now they're still with him at evening and they're hungry and he decides to feed them.
Culturally, a teacher in the first century wasn't expected to feed their followers. This was hospitality writ large. This was extravagant hospitality that he would even consider feeding them, let alone this large of a crowd. So practical, though, are the disciples that they say, God, we can't feed this many people. This is two cities worth. Like, send them away. Hopefully they spread out to half a dozen villages who will be overwhelmed as it is and they can find their own food for dinner. Send them to the surrounding villages that they might find food to eat because we can't provide for them. And what is Jesus' response? They need not go away. You give them something to eat.
What? Are you kidding me, Jesus? Are you absolutely out of your mind? Do you see all these people? What do you expect us to do? We could work for years. Years and years and years and not have enough money to feed 5,000 plus people. Jesus, what do you expect from us? It was a ridiculous request, an overwhelming request, an impossible request. And yet Jesus asked it of them. And so I think the disciples did what many of us did. They brought what little they had and actually they show a bit of the incredulity. Like, Lord, are you really kidding us? Like, look, this is all we have. They said we have only five loaves here and two fish.
It's the gospel of John that will tell us that this was the lunch of a little boy in the crowd. Five loaves and two fish would barely feed two people, let alone 5,000 plus people. And the disciples just kind of come to Jesus and say, are you kidding me? Like, this is what we've got. What do you expect us to do with it? The disciples thought that was all they had, but they forgot that it wasn't the only resources available. We read in verse 18 that Jesus said, bring them here to me. Jesus took what the disciples had available, what they could offer. Having asked them to do the impossible, they panic and he simply says, bring me what you have and trust me with it.
And then in verse 19, he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass and taking the five loaves and the two fish, all the disciples could bring. 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 and they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up 12 basketfuls of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about 5,000 men besides women and children. Jesus says, bring me what little you have. Jesus takes it and he says a blessing, perhaps the traditional Jewish prayer that dated all the way back to the Mishnah. It went like this, bluster thou, O Lord, our God, King of the world, who brings forth bread from the earth.
When Jewish people at this time blessed meals, they pointed back to God's provision in the desert, the manna in the desert. And so Jesus begins this meal with a blessing that says, God, blessed are you who bring bread from the earth. And the moments that follow, over 5,000 people are fed. God did indeed bring forth bread from the earth. Enough that all of them eaten are satisfied. If you've ever been in cultures where that is a unique thing, in the States we have more than enough food. But in most cultures around the world, you don't eat until you're satisfied. You eat until you have enough to move on that you can be sustained in. In this meal, Jesus is so extravagant with his provision that they all eat and are satisfied and there's still 12 baskets left over.
You know what's unique? This is the only miracle mentioned in all four Gospels. All four Gospels mention this miracle and mention the 12 loaves of bread. This is a really important miracle. And you might ask, why? Because this miracle boldly proclaims who Jesus is. It is God himself. How, you might ask? Well, first of all, the miracle of feeding himself. Who else can take five loaves and two fish and feed 5,000 plus people? But even more than that, it points back to God feeding his people in the desert and God is saying, I'm here with you now feeding you in a miraculous way. For the Jewish people of the first century anticipated a Messiah who would provide and perform a tremendous feeding miracle. And here he is before them doing the miracle they had hoped for.
The miracle of the 5,000 is displaying in bold ways that Jesus is the promised one of God, that he does only what only God can do. It's an amazing story. But what surprises me and Jesus invites the disciples into it. If I was Jesus, it might have been easier just to simply pull the young man out of the crowd and say, hey, young man, could you come here? I know what you have in your basket. Could I have those bread and those fish and then pray for you? But instead, where does Jesus begin? He begins by giving the disciples an impossible task. You guys feed all these people. Jesus invites them into the moment to say, you try to feed all these people.
He doesn't actually expect them to feed 5,000 plus people. He knows they can't. But what he is asking is for their obedience and for their faith that he might be able to. Jesus knew that feeding the 5,000 people was not something the disciples could do. But they would have to depend on resources and strength, not their own, but his. That, I would argue, is one of the messages of feeding the 5,000. The kingdom of heaven operates on God's strength and resources, not on ours. Church, when God calls you to follow him, it's not to say, you have so much to bring, you have so much to offer, come and give me what you have, human. It's you don't have nearly what you need. Come and follow me and I will give you what you need.
When God calls us to follow him obediently, he calls us to trust him completely. It's true. Think about it in our salvation. In the very beginning of our relationship with God, what does God say? He says, come to me, you who cannot save yourself, and I will save you. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That's why Jesus describes himself as the bread of life because we can't provide that bread for ourselves. It's why when Jesus sits at the well with the woman, he talks about an eternal spring that will never dry up. That's not something she can pull from the ground, but he offers her.
When we come to Jesus, we come to him with what we have, recognizing that it's not enough, and that we have to trust in his work on the cross and his resources, his strength to give us new life. But church, I'm also here to tell you it doesn't stop at salvation. Every day we walk with Christ, we continue to have to trust in his resources and his strength, not our own. Some years ago, the Crokes dads were in a church and the church challenged everyone to say, hey, we really want this to be a year where everyone steps up and sacrificially, courageously, boldly gives to missions to see what God might do through that.
And so Mike and Jody begin praying about what God might have them do, and they feel like there's a number that God's really asking them to step out in faith and give. And they know it's going to be hard. They know it's going to be sacrificial, but it's clearly his demand. It's clearly his leading, his direction. And so they step out. And it is a year where up until the very end of the year, they're not sure how they're going to meet the obligation that they had made to missions or meet the other needs they have, but they know they've made this obligation and they trust God with the others. And God provides.
And they will tell you that in the subsequent years, every year or two, they would come before the Lord again and say, God, what would you have us do this year? And oftentimes he would stretch them and have them increase what they were giving. And every year, as they did that in a step of faith and doing something that they could not figure out themselves, that they could not control, God would provide in abundant ways through pay raises and bonuses and unexpected gifts. You see, God just called them up. He called them to be obedient to what he called them to do and to trust him with how it would work out.
God will often call us to places that stretch our faith. We don't like to go there. We're Western individualists, pull ourselves up by our bootstrap kind of people. God, don't ask me to go somewhere. I don't know how to get there. Don't ask me to do something I don't know how to do and I can't do in my own strength. And God says, that's not what I'm asking of you. I'm here to stretch you because it's not your resources and your strength. It's mine. Well, John tells us that this miracle was such that the people wanted to make Jesus king as a result. And so in Matthew, we read these words, he immediately just made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd.
The crowd is so overwhelmed with this incredible miracle that they want to just go to make him king. And so he gets the disciples out of there. He dismisses the crowd. Now, here's the thing. We already know it's evening. So Jesus puts his disciples in a boat in the dark to cross the Sea of Galilee. Now, the... May the disciples get into the boat. Just so you know here, this is that mom, dad, boss voice that you don't argue with. The Greek language behind this is an unusually firm, strong way of saying this phrase. It is, you get in the boat and there is no question asked. If you've been in the military, this is when your sergeant, your commander tells you to do something and you know it's not up for discussion.
So Jesus gets his disciples in the dark, in the boat, and they start crossing the water and he dismisses the crowds and here's what we read, picking up in verse 23. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray and when evening came, he was there alone. But the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves so the wind was against them. Jesus finally gets to do probably what he had come over to do in the first place, to be alone, to pray with his heavenly father. And so he gets up to a mountain and he prays and while all the while, the disciples who he'd sent off and they had obeyed him in the dark, in the boat, crossing the sea, find themselves a long way from shore being beaten by the waves.
Here's a glimpse of the Sea of Galilee if you've never seen it. It's 15 miles long and 8 miles wide. The long way off in the text here in the Greek is literally many stadia. We know what a stadia is. It's actually 600 feet. And we find out from the rest of the Gospels how many stadia exactly were many to the point where the disciples are 3 to 4 miles into the lake. They're not on the shore. They are not close to shore. They are in the middle of their journey and it has been a long, hard night for the wind. The wind, we're told, was against them. They're near the middle of the lake. They're probably tired. They're probably overwhelmed. And Jesus is nowhere to be seen until the fourth watch of the night.
Pick up in verse 25. And in the fourth watch of the night, he came to them, that being Jesus, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and they said, it's a ghost! And they cried out in fear. Now the fourth night of the watch, the Romans broke up the night into four sections. This is between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. to say it's been a long day and a long night for the disciples and for Jesus, is to put it mildly. It has been a very long day for all of them. And Jesus, who had sent his disciples out in the boat, comes walking on the sea. Jesus knew what they would face as he sent them out on the boat, that they would face the winds and the waves, that it would be an even longer night for them.
And he knew how he was going to cross the sea by walking. Have you ever stopped at this point, this is what I did this week, and I was like, Jesus, how many other times did you do that when you were alive? I don't know, maybe never, but maybe he did it all the time. We don't know, but I can't wait to ask him. So he knew how he was going to cross the sea. He didn't need a boat. He's walking across the sea. He's walked three to four miles out into the water, and the disciples see him or see this thing, and they say, it's a ghost. And much like Herod, their response is fear.
But Jesus busts this ghost story wide open by responding immediately in verse 27. But immediately, Jesus spoke to them saying, take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid. Take heart is this beautiful phrase we've already seen in Matthew 9. Take heart is a phrase you use when there's reason to be afraid. Take heart is a phrase you use when there's reason to be concerned and you're wanting to communicate. Take heart because I am here with you. In the middle of the very real concerns, the very real fears you have, take heart for I am here. The crisis they face with winds and waves is real, but with Jesus, He says, take heart for I am here. And then He says this phrase, it is I. It's actually literally, I am.
If you know your Old Testament, you know this is how God revealed Himself to His people. Who are you? I am. I am who has always been. I am who is and will always be. So Jesus in this moment uses this declaration to say take heart, I am with you. God Himself is here with you in the waves and the wind. Interestingly enough, you know the only other person in all of Scripture that ever walked or trod on water? God. Take a look at Job 9, 8 this week when you get a chance. The only other person who's ever walked on water in Scripture is God. And so Jesus, through the feeding of the 5,000, through walking on water, through His statement, take heart for I am, is declaring to them, I am God here with you.
Well, Peter, as he so often does, with courage, speaks to Jesus and says in verse 28, Peter answered him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. And he said, that is Jesus said, come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked in the water and came to Jesus. For some reason we translate here, if it is you, the Greek here is actually more, Lord, since it is you, command me. It's more of a statement of trust and faith, not a question of doubt. Lord, since it is you, you can command me to come, to come to you. Notice that Peter's request is a genuine request. It's not like so many of my prayers to God. God, if it will be okay, let me do this. God, I'd really like to do this, so if that's okay with you, I'd really, can I please?
No, Peter's request is a sincere request. Jesus, since it's you, would you command me to come? Jesus had said, no, I have to believe Peter would not come. But He simply says, Jesus, would you command me to come? And Jesus says, with one simple word, come. So Peter steps out of the boat and for the first time in his life, rather than falling into the waves, walks on water. How amazing that moment must have been. And he walks on water and the text tells us that he came to Jesus as he moved towards Jesus. And somewhere along this walking to Jesus, he begins to look at what's around him. Take a look at verse 30.
But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. He was afraid and beginning to sink. And Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? As Peter is experiencing the most amazing moment of his life, he begins to look at the waves around him. He begins to think that they're more scary than Jesus is powerful. He begins to fear them rather than have faith in Christ. Church, can't we relate? I don't know about you, but I've had similar experiences in my marriage. Where I'm trying to walk in our marriage and follow Christ, and then I start to look at all the challenges we're facing, and those challenges begin to distract me.
They begin to take my attention, and I begin to be overwhelmed by those rather than trusting in the one who called me to our marriage. For those of you who are parents, there's many a moment in parenting where I get distracted by all the challenges, all the things I think I can't do right, or I'm not doing right, or, Lord, how in the world am I going to do this? And I take my eyes off Christ, and I focus on the things that overwhelm me. We're in our jobs. Have you ever been in a job where it's clearly that God puts you there, but you're overwhelmed by the challenges in the midst of it? That's been every single job for me, actually. From Oxford to being a professor to now being a pastor. I feel this so clearly.
So clear that when Jesus called him, that Jesus was going to make him and sustain him through that entire walk, but here he becomes overwhelmed by the waves around him. Much like the disciples, who only saw five loaves and two fish, Peter begins to see the waves and begins overwhelmed with the task at hand. And he begins to doubt. The idea of doubt here in the Greco-Roman world was being torn in two different directions. It's being torn between going after Jesus and focusing on the waves. Jesus will put it a different way in one of his teachings. He'll say, no one can serve two masters. You can't be distracted by two different things. Where is your focus?
Now Jesus, once again, in his compassion, rescues Peter and says, if you hadn't doubted, if your faith had been fixed on me and set on your fear of the waves, you would have made it all the way to me. Well, they head back to the boat, and here's what we read in our last two verses for today. And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, truly, you are the Son of God. The disciples have heard, they've seen, and they seem now to understand. The one who multiplied the loaves and fishes, the one who walked on water, the one who healed many, the one who allowed Peter to come to him and called Peter onto the water, he is not simply a ghost or a prophet or a teacher, he is the Son of God.
And on this incredible day, they learn a powerful truth, that when we follow Jesus, we're called to trust him each step of the way. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way. He says, Therefore, since we've been surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, since all those who have gone before us have shown us what it means to follow God, lay aside everything that pulls you back, that distracts you, the sin that so closely holds, grasps you, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. Church, I would encourage you when it comes to your marriage, when it comes to your parenting, when it comes to your family and your friends and your job and your neighborhood, those things at some point will overwhelm you.
And your own strength and your own resources. And Jesus says, I've brought you here for a reason. Will you walk with me and step in faith and follow me and keep your eyes focused on me, not on the challenges. And I will provide for you the resources I have and the strength that I alone can give. Well, Matthew 14 has challenged us to a stretching faith. And I think at the heart of this, there is this question of do we trust God's resources and strength or our own? And I would argue, if you've placed your faith in Jesus Christ, you've actually done this before. Because you don't come to Christ and place your faith in him unless you realize you can't do it on your own.
You know what this feels like to say, God, I can't do it. I don't have what it takes. No matter how hard I try, no matter how hard I walk, no matter what I do, I can never be perfect. I can never save myself. Only you can do that. And I would encourage you that that didn't stop after you were saved. But that's what God calls us to. Each and every day. We need to identify who Christ is. And we need to follow him day by day, step by step, trusting that it's his resources and his strength that will get us through. Matthew 14 reveals these important truths that we need to hear, to understand, and then to act on, to believe and turn to of what the kingdom of heaven is like.
That we're called to identify that Jesus is not a prophet or a ghost or a teacher or just a healer. He is the Son of God. And as we follow him, he's going to call us into impossible situations in which he reminds us that it was never about our strength and our ability but our obedience. And he calls us to stretch our faith and trust him in those moments. That it's his strength and his power and his might and his leading for his glory. Church, I want to see lives change in our community as it grows. That's not going to be because we have it all figured out. That we have all the strength and the resources. It's going to be because we obediently follow God and we see him do awesome things.
And we see him do awesome things. When I prepare a sermon, I know it's not me who's going to change your life. I know this is going to be an imperfect sermon every Sunday and that's a pretty sobering thing to realize, but I know that it's not me who changes hearts and minds. That's God. So God's going to ask us to trust him in everything we do. And as we do, he's going to ask us to bring what we have, our five loaves and our two fishes and then to watch him do things we could never imagine. Because it's about his glory and his power and his work, not ours.
We're called to trust him every step of the way, to follow him as we disciple others, as we seek to love and lead our families, as we seek to work diligently, and we find ourselves overwhelmed with the task. He says, where are your eyes going to be focused? On me or on the challenge before you? So church, I want to end with a couple of questions. Where is God asking of you that which you can't do on your own? Here's maybe a sobering one. At some point in your life, did God ask you to do something that scared you so much, that felt so overwhelming, so impossible, that you didn't do it? First of all, he will confess that lack of faith God forgives, and I would argue that he has moments he wants to stretch you, still in front of you.
But where is he asking you today to trust him? Where is he stretching your faith? And where is it that you are asking him to take you? And he might actually be willing to say, come, if you'll trust him, each step of the way. Will you join me in prayer as we close? Heavenly Father, thank you so much for today. Thank you for the chance to open your word and be challenged by it. Father, this is a challenging text for all of us, but for me included. Lord, I think about the times in parenting where I get overwhelmed. And Lord, if I'm honest, I lash out in frustration. And at the root of that frustration is a feeling of not having what it takes to be the dad I need to be, to love my kids, to have the answers for them.
Lord, in our marriage, when I get disenchanted or frustrated, oftentimes it's because I'm trying to do it on my own, and I'm not looking to you. Lord, in my work, and the job that I do, and the time I spend leading this team, and it's when I take my eyes off you, and I look to my strength that I forget that actually, God, it's in your strength and your resources. Amen. Amen. In all areas of my life, that I'm going to be able to walk faithfully with you. And only then, Lord, am I going to see the amazing things you desire to do. Because it was never about my strength, or about my resources, but about yours.
So Father, I come before you this morning, and I just confess, far too often, I've taken my eyes off of you. Far too often, I thought that all that was at hand was what I had, and forgotten about you. Lord, I got to believe I'm not the only one in this room who's walked those roads of trusting in ourselves. Of losing sight of what you've called us to, of beginning to doubt that you can get us through what you've put us in the middle of. So Father, we come before you, and we confess this morning that we haven't trusted you in all things, and obediently walked with you. Father, thank you for your forgiveness. Help us to be a people who step out in faith, to trust in your strength and your resources, wherever you might call us, no matter how great the task, that we might see you do awesome things in our families, in our community, in our church. Pray all these things in your name.
on Jan 12, 2025
