Feeding The 4000

Here, Jesus has left the regions of Tyre and Sidon. Mark 7 tells us that he came to the region of the Decapolis. Which is a region of 10 cities around the sea of Galilee. This is significant because at this time the region of Decapolis was mostly inhabited by Gentiles as well.

He walks along the sea of Galilee, down the western side, comes to a mountain, goes up and sits down there. His disciples are with Him.

There’s strategy at work here. We’ve seen this before. Matthew 5. The record of The Sermon on the mount begins this way...Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And He opened His mouth and taught them.

Sometimes Jesus seeks a mountain top for solitude and time alone with the Father. Other times, Jesus seeks a mountainside for the very purpose of ministering to people, and that people might come to him and hear his message.

Strategy in evangelism and disciple-making isn’t bad as long as it’s submitted to God, and for the purposes of His glory.

The side of a hill or mountain, unencumbered by streets and structures, plenty of space to see, and for others to find their way to Him…And v30… “The crowds came to Him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them,

By the time this is all done, Matthew tells us at the end of v31 that “they glorified the God of Israel,”

This is a key phrase in helping us to see that these are gentile people, and similar to the woman whom Jesus was speaking to, they are broken, sinful, full of sickness, disease, and many deformities.

There are two phrases I want to highlight for us to think about in these first 3 verses, which is kind of a transition Matthew uses before the feeding of the 4000. But there’s a connection.

They put them at His feet and he healed them.

They glorified the God of Israel.

At the feet of Jesus there is great power, and mercy. At the feet of Jesus is a perspective on the world and our lives that you can’t get other places.

They…the crowds who were coming, brought with them the people in need, and laid them at His feet.

What did Jesus do? He healed them.

What kind of people were they?

These were not people with stuffy noses and sore throats. The words Matthew used are clear.

There are people with missing limbs, serious mutations of the body, along with the blind and mute. The worst of the worse. And He healed them so that the crowd was struck with wonder when they saw what had been done.

Remember Jesus told the Canaanite woman that she could have the crumbs under the table, and then He healed her daughter and praised her great faith.

This is an entire gentile crowd, and these are not crumbs. Just think of the love of Christ for sinners on display. All sinners. Not just Jews, but the nations. Can you image this scene, with Jesus sitting there, and his heart as He sees the affects of the fall, and the disobedience of Adam.

Do you ever just stop and think from time to time that the Judeo- Christian view has the only explanation and answer for a world that is full of sin? Here’s Christ, the second Adam, the perfect man and doing all the Father’s will, and why is He there at all? Well, it’s because of the Father’s plan, and because He was sent from Heaven, but it’s also because the people whom He created chose to love and worship lesser thing over the glory of a good God.

Everywhere that Jesus went he would see and experience the affects of the fallen world, and how he responds to it shows us the heart of God.

And were is this mercy taking place? At the feet of Jesus.

Why do you place someone or something at another’s feet?

When you do this, you’re not telling the person what to do. You’re saying, lowly, and submissively. that this is yours to do with as you please. You do not give instructions or plans, because you know the one whose feet you are placing it in front of needs no instruction, or wisdom from you… you place things at the feet of a King and a higher authority. It is placed there in total surrender.

Some of you need to do that this morning. Just go back to the feet of Jesus as one who has nowhere else to go.

We see physical miracles happening here in the text. Blind, mute, and deformed are being healed at the feet of Jesus. How much greater then is the need for the soul that sins to be laid at His feet? How much more necessary is it that we, whether well or sick bodily, bring our hearts and lay them at the feet of Jesus in total surrender?

“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

The crowd responds.

When the evidence was seen by the crowd, that Christ had done what no other physician could do, how did they respond? They glorified the God of Israel. It’s the proper response to a work of grace. It’s the right response for those who have been saved.

They glorified the God of Israel. They gave glory to the Father. Even though Jesus, the incarnate Son was healing them, he did these miracles in such a way that all glory was given to the Father.

Jesus is humble in His power. Just another great reminder to do the works that we do for the glory of God and not the praise of men.

Do you glorify God for what He has done?

You know, to claim to be a Christian and to not give glory to God would be like a flower that refuses to open up its peddles in response to the sun. If you are a Christian, you must glorify Him. All that you have and all that you are is because of His energy that supplies you. That flower cannot boast in itself, it must boast in the sun. We must boast in God.

God wants you to glorify Him, church, and to wonder at His works.

Glory in His power that has made you a new creation in Christ. And if you are not yet a new creation in Christ, may today be that day that you turn all your self boasting, and all your self pity into praising His glorious grace.

Physical infirmities are small abrasions compared to the depraved soul that is sick with sin.

What Christ does for these bodies that were laid at His feet, he does 100 fold for the spirit of a person who comes to him by faith.

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Now let’s look at this next section, one that you will not be unfamiliar with, as it’s quite similar to the feeding of the 5000. I’ll make a few observations and some application as we go along.

v32 Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”

Here we see again the compassion of the Lord on the crowd of people. He calls His disciples to himself and shows them that despite the crowd’s hunger, with nothing to eat, they have been with Him for three days in a desolate place. And in that state, Jesus is unwilling to send them away.

Thank God he does not send people away for their lack of ability to save themselves from peril and destruction. What’s the prerequisite for coming to Jesus for salvation? You must be a sinner in need of saving, you must know that you are, God must show you.

And aren’t you at least a little bit humbled by the crowd here…their zeal despite their circumstance?

Our church service averages 2 hours. How long is your commute to work? We demand food for any flight over 2 hours. How weak is our ability to suppress the flesh? We can hardly focus on something spiritually good for our souls for 10 seconds without needing to satisfy some craving, some itch, some worldly desire. What is it for you? What is it that gets you?

I can be in my study, focused on God’s word, being ministered to, thinking on the goodness of Christ, and in the very next second I’m in need of seeing what’s going on in the world and my cellphone is the portal.

Who texted me in the last 2 minutes? What’s on social media? What’s the weather tomorrow, or next Tuesday?

What is it for you? How about now, as we sit here? Something draws you in the weakness of your flesh to drift from Christ. We are so weak aren’t we? So when we see the crowd wanting to be with Jesus for 3 days, despite their hunger, I’m humbled. What’s incredible is that Jesus makes note of it.

Listen to how Jesus takes note of the church of Ephesus in Rev 2:2. I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

Let’s walk with Jesus, and stay with Him, and daily fight the urges of the flesh that would cause us to drift away from our first love.

You may have reasons for why you don’t stick with him closely.

-The crowd has seen Jesus work miracles…I’ve never seen a miracle like that.

-But they were lame, and blind, and mute. When have we seen Christ work miracles like this? If I had, I would stay with him through hunger.

Let’s recall together what have we seen God do…

There was a time when you and I could not get to God for we had no spiritual feet by which to travel. I ran continually to sin and disobedience.

There was a time I could not see His Kingdom because I did not have Spiritual eyes. I only had eyes for the world and myself.

There was a time when you would not speak His name except to curse it, for your mouth had not been purified by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus.

We were spiritually lame, blind, and mute in the worse ways, and deformed in our belief and doctrine...

BUT by His grace he has changed us. Glory to God!

v33 And the disciples said to him, “Where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?” 34 And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.

Ever ask God a question that you know is absurd to ask?

What the disciple just asked is one of those kinds of questions.

Jesus has fed more with less, and they wonder what He will do?

This is a lesson on forgetfulness.

This almost identical story to the feeding of the 5000 serves us well this morning, brothers and sisters. The reason I know this is because I know that between the time that I preached that sermon, and this morning, we have all doubted, feared, misdirected our trust, and forgotten the goodness and power of God.

Matthew Henry puts it plainly… ‘Forgetting former experiences leaves us under present doubts.”

Deuteronomy 8:10-14 When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you. “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;

There’s a part of me that is upset with the disciples for forgetting, and then I remember myself. So we look afresh at the story, and without judgement of their forgetfulness.

And how patient our Lord is that he does not beat them down, but uses them. It’s as if He knows their frame, and he knows ours.

God will be faithful to us, church, even when we are faithless. He will perform all His wonders through His forgetful people, and repeatedly show us His power.

Jesus took up the bread and fish, and was thankful for it. Thankful to the Father in the midst of a doubting band of brothers. Once again, the thousands ate and had their fill, and there was more than enough. This time, 7 baskets instead of 12.

God provides in different ways, and in His timing. He may not do exactly what He did last time, but he will show himself faithful. And now, on two different occasions a massive crowd in need was fed by Christ, One crowd being Jewish, and the other Gentile.

Jesus is the bread from Heaven who gives his life for the whole world. All who come to him will not be cast out. Come to him, we must...not for earthly bread alone, but heavenly.

John 6:26 Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal

Revelation 7:9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,