Fed By Jesus

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 136

Today as we continue through the Psalms in our pre service reading we come to Psalm 136. And since, as you will see over the course of today, we are going to be doing things a little differently, lets just start by doing something different.

Psalm 136 is a “call and response Psalm, where every other line of this Psalm is the EXACT same thing. So today we are doing to do some call and response. I will be reading the psalm and after every line YOU ALL will say your line: “For his steadfast love endures forever!” Just in case I have asked Daryl to help us out by putting the words on the screen for us, so like I said, I will be reading the main lines then you ll say your part:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good

For his steadfast love endures forever!

Give thanks to the God of gods,

For his steadfast love endures forever!

Give thanks to the Lord of Lords,

For his steadfast love endures forever!

To him who does great wonders,

For his steadfast love endures forever!

To him who by understanding made the heavens

For his steadfast love endures forever!

To him who spread out the earth above the waters

For his steadfast love endures forever!

to him who made all the great lights

For his steadfast love endures forever!

The sun to rule over the day

For his steadfast love endures forever!

the moon and stars to rule at night

For his steadfast love endures forever!

To him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt

For his steadfast love endures forever!

And brought his people out from among them

For his steadfast love endures forever!

He led us with his strong hand and outstretched arm

For his steadfast love endures forever!

Give praise to the one who divided the Red Sea in two

For his steadfast love endures forever!

And led his people through the midst of it

For his steadfast love endures forever!

for he overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the sea

For his steadfast love endures forever!

and led his people though the wilderness

For his steadfast love endures forever!

Give praise to the one who struck down great kings

For his steadfast love endures forever!

and defeated all our enemies

For his steadfast love endures forever!

he has given us the land as a heritage

For his steadfast love endures forever!

given a home to his people

For his steadfast love endures forever!

It is God who remembered us in our low estate

For his steadfast love endures forever!

He has rescued us from our foes

For his steadfast love endures forever!

It is God who gives food to all flesh

For his steadfast love endures forever!

Give thanks to the God of heaven!

For his steadfast love endures forever!

Scripture Reading: Exodus 16:11-15

Exodus 16:11–15 ESV

And the Lord said to Moses, “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ ” In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.

Sermon

Good morning Church! I was glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

If you have been here with us for any number of sermon series you will know that I usually go into a series knowing two things: The portion of the book we are going through that I am MOST looking forward to and the one that scares me and keeps me up at night. The portion that am most looking forward to is still a long way off yet, for it is the passion narrative, the part that frightens me is also a bit off, it is the olivet discourse, but our passage for today has been slowly creeping up in my mind as a “what are you going to do about that one.”

Today we are looking at the feeding of the 5,000, and you might be thinking: I have heard that one before, a classic Sunday school story, I’ve sen this one on countless flannel boards and coloring sheets. and you would be correct, BUT heres my problem with this one. In the parables discourse we did a whole lot of skipping around, and I really wanted to limit the skipping in other parts of the Book of Matthew. So originally when I sat down to do what I call “cutting up” the book of Matthew I had 14:13:-21 and 15:32-39 as completely separate texts. But if you were to go home and read those two one after another you would see: wow, those are like the same exact story. It almost feels like Matthew was doing some editing and instead of CUT and PASTE he did COPY and PASTE. For here is the feeding of 5,000 there it is the feeding of 4,000. So, here was my conundrum, what Am I going to do?

So here is where I landed: lets rearrange the WHOLE service! I know for many of you there is some strife and unease welling up. Did David forget all about communion? I mean, we set it up the table, but why didn’t we take communion when we normally do? And the answer is no, I did not forget about communion. we will get there. But here is what happened when I sat down this week to get ready to preach to you Matthew 14:13-21 (which is our text today). One of the first things that I try and do each and every time I begin to preach a text is ask: what is the main idea of this text, for this is for me the heart of preaching.

Usually we think of expositional preaching as just going through books of the bible, and that is a small part of it, but at it’s heart expositional preaching is this: The main point of the text needs to be the main point of your sermon and the way that the text supports that point is how you need to support it. Fancily we would say it this way the form and function of the text must dictate the form and function of the Sermon. So her is the main point that tis defended and elaborated in the feeding of the 5,000: JESUS FEEDS HIS PEOPLE. They look to him for sustenance and he provides it. Jesus is God, and just like the Israelites relied on God for mama in the wilderness (this is why we read Exodus this morning together), so too Jesus’ people look to him. Then I looked back at my little calendar I make for preaching and realized, today would be Communion Sunday! And what is communion but a visceral reminder of that exact point?

So today we are not just messing up the order of service for the sake of it, Rather, the goal is that the whole thing serves to, and Paul would say in 1 Corinthians 11, allow us to “first examine ourselves”, THEN take communion.

So with that thought in our mind this morning, knowing that we are preparing to come to the table of communion, knowing that in our hearts we should be preparing to come and feast, lets look to our text for the day, Matthew 14:13-21

Matthew 14:13–21 ESV

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. When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Now 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.” But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then 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. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

These are the words of the Lord for us this morning. Lets PRAY

PRAY

-SO this morning, knowing the main point and that this whole text serves to defend and elaborate that point, that JESUS FEEDS HIS PEOPLE, i would like to use the feeding of the 5000 as an example and picture of what communion is for us.

-There are 2 sacraments, one once for all time and one that we do over and over again

-you don't eat once and are done - so too with communion

SO today thee quick points that highlight our need to be fed by Jesus

The fist is to realize that in the feeding of the 500 as too with communion:

The heart is God’s COMPASSION

-Summarize the context of Jesus having compassion

We bring NOTHING

And are given MORE THAN ENOUGH