08.06.2023 - Serving Many

Scripture: Matthew 14:13-21

Matthew 14:13–21 NIV

13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. 15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.” 16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” 17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. 18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

8/6/2023

Order of Service:

Announcements

Kid’s Time

Opening Worship

Prayer Requests

Prayer Song

Pastoral Prayer

Offering (Doxology and Offering Prayer)

Scripture Reading

Sermon

Communion

Closing Song

Benediction

Children’s Moment:

Jesus Feeds the 5,000 (Matthew 14:13-21)

Jesus and his disciples were very tired and needed some time to relax. They got into a boat and went away to a quiet place to rest. When they reached their destination, there were people there waiting for Jesus. The Bible tells us that there were 5,000 men and who knows how many women and children! They wanted Jesus to teach them and heal the sick. Jesus needed to rest, but He still healed the sick and taught the people about the kingdom of heaven.

Soon it was time to eat. The disciples went to Jesus and said, "It is getting late and we are hungry. Send the people away so that we can go and get something to eat."

Jesus answered, "They don't need to go away," Jesus said, "you feed them."

"Feed them? How can we feed them? We have five loaves of bread and two small fish. That is all the food we have."

Jesus told the disciples to bring him the loaves and fish and to tell everyone to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the loaves and fish and looked up to heaven and gave thanks. He then gave the food to the disciples to give to the people.

What a miracle! If I were to share my small snack with you today, there might be enough for each of you to have one tiny bite. But when Jesus blessed the loaves and fish, the Bible says that everyone ate until they were full! Wait! That's not all! After they had eaten until they were full, they gathered up the leftovers and there were twelve baskets full.

What can we learn from this Bible lesson today? We learn that when we give what we have to God, he can take it, bless it, and do more than we could ever imagine.

Prayer on Jesus Feeds the 5,000

Dear Father, just as Jesus used five loaves and two fish to feed more than five thousand people, we pray that you will use the boys and girls here today to bless everyone they meet each day. Amen.

Serving Many

The Faceless Crowd of Needs

Are you familiar with the feeling of waking up tired? When we lay our heads down on our pillows at night, we expect to feel well-rested and rejuvenated when our eyes open the following day. But sometimes, it doesn’t work that way. Sometimes we stay up worrying, grieving, fearing, and keeping us from the peace that restores our strength. To make matters worse, we often wake up the next day only to face new challenges, as if yesterday's problems were not enough. Those days show us our weaknesses and can be enough to make us feel like giving up before we even start.

Jesus knew that restless anxiety and weakness too. Matthew gives us several examples of Jesus facing that kind of anxiety. Each time, Jesus went away to be alone with God and returned, facing the overwhelming needs of those around Him. In each case, Jesus called others to Him and offered up their small gifts together, and God provided miraculously to those around them.

This month we are going to look at some of the ways we serve Jesus. When it comes to serving, we don’t always get a lot of choices. The list of things that need to be done is often overwhelming and exhausting, and serving Jesus is often not just doing what we enjoy most. So, rather than starting small, we will begin big, facing the many needs of the world around us. Today we will see how Jesus provides for the many when we bring our small gifts to Him.

The Crowds

The first two times that Jesus had his world shaken enough that He needed to get away from it all were both focused on one person: John the Baptist. John was a close relative. Mary, the mother of Jesus, stayed with John’s mother, Elizabeth, while they were both pregnant and cared for each other. So John and his family were near and dear to Jesus.

In addition to that, it was John who paved the way for Jesus to begin his ministry. Long before Peter called Jesus the Messiah, John called Him “the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.” John may have known Jesus better than anyone in those early years.

The first time Jesus went away to be alone with God was in preparation for His preaching and teaching ministry, but it also corresponded with the time that John was arrested and put in prison by King Herod. We often focus on the way John and Jesus passed the baton of leadership, but Jesus had real feelings, just like you and I. Part of that exchange cost John his freedom, and I expect that Jesus felt sorrow over that, even if He knew it was going to happen. When Jesus went out to the wilderness that time, He probably knew He would never see his friend and relative again.

And it was true. Coming back from 40 days of prayer and fasting, Jesus preached one sermon and faced the multitude of people, lost like sheep without a shepherd. Rather than take up that role by Himself, Jesus called twelve disciples to join Him and taught them to offer themselves: to preach, teach, and heal with Him. Matthew focuses more on how they served together than how they came together at that first instance, but the result was that Jesus reached the many with His twelve disciples giving it their all.

Our passage today begins in a similar place. John had been in prison, and then Herod had him executed, and the news finally reached Jesus. Hit by grief, Jesus again retreated into the wilderness to be with God. This time though, Jesus could not escape the needs of the crowd. They followed Him. They brought their sick and asked for healing, and there, despite the anguish and exhaustion of His grief, He healed them.

His needs and challenges did not stop Him from giving what He had to offer. Their needs did not prevent Him from getting away to be in God’s presence. I imagine that the whole countryside was a bunch of mixed-up feelings like swimming in a soup of neediness. Jesus was able to be present with everyone there. The disciples, however, had some problems with it.

They knew John was a close friend of Jesus and that He was grieving and tired. They also knew the needs of this crowd were not going away. If anything, the crowd was growing. So they told Jesus to send the crowd away so everyone could return home to eat, rest, and process the day.

When was the last time you tried to tell Jesus what to do? Faced with my weakness, I can become ironically arrogant, even bossy, to Him. It makes no sense. Jesus always knows better than me, especially when I feel overwhelmed. Thankfully, Jesus can take it, and He will also correct us when we are wrong. Instead of sending that crowd of nameless, needy faces away, Jesus drew His twelve disciples into the middle of the mess.

“They do not need to go away. You feed them.”

Bring Your Gifts to Jesus

“With what?” the disciples replied.

All they had were five loaves of barley bread and two fish.

When faced with the crowds of needs, we draw inward, look to ourselves, and try to figure out what we can do. On our good days, we might even team up with others around us, hoping to be greater than the sum of our parts individually. But we turn our eyes inward when everything outward becomes overwhelming. What can we do to meet such a great need?

Jesus, however, kept His eyes on God. He did not look to what His disciples could do, nor what He could do. He looked to what God could do. We are weak, but He is strong. The disciples were weak too, but they brought all they had and gave it to Jesus. He blessed their small offering, broke it up so it could be shared, and gave it to the disciples to begin handing out to everyone.

It could have been a mad rush for the food, but the disciples made everyone sit together in groups. Just as Jesus broke up the fish and loaves, they broke up the crowd into smaller groups that could eat together as families. No longer would they be nameless faces. They faced each other as they all partook in a miracle that most did not realize had happened. They were just happy to have a free meal this late in the day.

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Jesus had not abandoned the people, even in His own time of need. The disciples tried to leave them, but Jesus pulled them back into the thick of it. He broke down the challenge into bite-sized pieces and gave them the instruction and provision they needed for nearly 5,000 families. Not only did he provide for that crowd, but the disciples also discovered they had leftovers — twelve baskets full! That was enough for each one of them to take and share.

Amidst all that need, Jesus never lost sight that our needs are always ultimately met by God, not our efforts. He showed the disciples that God meets those needs when we give what we have, no matter how small those gifts may seem. As His disciples, we best address those needs, not by stockpiling our gifts but by bringing those people, with their needs and gifts combined, to Jesus.

Bring Them to Jesus

One of the last times Matthew tells us about Jesus going out to pray is in Matthew 26:36. After celebrating the last supper with His disciples, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Not a friend or relative weighed heavy upon His heart that night. Instead, His own approaching death filled him with anxiety and grief. Rather than go alone, Jesus told Peter,

“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” — Matthew 26:28

This is one of the few examples of Jesus asking for help for His needs. Peter could not meet those needs, nor could any of the disciples. The cup of suffering was not taken away from Jesus that night. Although He did not return rested and rejuvenated, He did arise with a resolve to surrender to God and go to the cross, and as He came out of that garden of prayer and made His way toward the Hill of the Skull, Jesus faced the greatest crowd of needs ever.

Through His interrogation, torture, and death on the cross, Jesus faced the crowd of anger, hatred, bitterness, selfishness, brokenness, sadness, sickness, poverty, and every other calamity we carry with us, and He did not run away. On the cross, He took upon Himself all our sins, which were poured out upon his frail, broken body like a sacrificial offering. He did not stand there strong. He hung there, surrendering up His very life, giving all He had as we gave our worst. He brought His one life to God as an offering. God broke it, blessed it, and used it to save the many.

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At that moment, as Jesus served out of that emptiness, He did not see a faceless crowd before Him. He knew the names of every face whose sin He carried. John, Peter, James, Mary, Judas, Barnabas, Paul. He knew you and me as He took our sins. And while it overwhelmed, crushed, and killed Him, He did not run away from our needs. God used the offering of His one small life to meet all of our needs.

And there was life left over. New life for Jesus in the resurrection. New life for the disciples and the people around Him: thieves, soldiers, priests, everyone. And there was a new life for you and me.

Jesus draws all people to Himself and brings them to God.

As we bring others to Jesus, with all their needs, they are No longer nameless faces in the crowds. Jesus sees each person. None are left out. He teaches His disciples to do the same. We come with our needs to the throne of grace. We receive what Christ gives to us, and we offer up ourselves as a living sacrifice that Christ might break and bless us, and use our gifts to serve many or even just one, and as God helps us grow to know and love those He blesses through us.

Today as we celebrate Holy Communion together, Christ invites all, be they strangers or neighbors, to come to His table and become His family.