Soul Supplier

Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  42:18
0 ratings
· 22 views
Files
Notes
Transcript
Luke 9:10–17 ESV
On their return the apostles told him all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida. When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing. Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to him, “Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.” But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.” For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” And they did so, and had them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.
How would your daily life be different if you trusted Jesus to provide everything you need for life and godliness? What would it look like for you to truly live trusting Jesus everyday and step by step? Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think you should live your life without planning for preparing for the future. But what would your life look like if you believed that Jesus would supply all of your needs, even as you make plans, and as you live and those plans seem to fall apart in front of you? For most of us, if we were honest, we’d say our lives would be vastly different if we lived that way. This morning as we walk through this familiar story in Luke chapter 9, I want you to see that it shows us that Jesus is more than enough. He can be trusted to provide for His followers because He has the very power of God because He is God. He is not only capable of providing spiritually and even physically but He does that for His people.
Most of us would say, “yeah, I know that pastor.” We learned it early on as one of the basics of the Christian life, that God takes care of His people, even if that doesn’t always look the way we would prefer. Some of those basic things of the faith, we learn but then we develop what one man calls “spiritual amnesia.” We forget those basic things and our lives show that forgetfulness of those truths. This is exactly what we see with the twelve in our passage today.
Verse 10 says:
Luke 9:10 ESV
On their return the apostles told him all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida.
We see here that Jesus steps away with the twelve.

I. Jesus steps away with the twelve.

This is another of those verses that we tend to speed over because we are heading for the rest of the passage. But let’s think about this for a moment. In the prior passage, Jesus had sent the twelve out to travel around and speak to people about the kingdom of God and heal people. They had been out on this first sort of internship mission trip and here they have returned to Jesus.
So they return to the one who sent them and they give a report about what they did and saw. They come back and talk to Jesus about their mission. This was a time to relish and celebrate how God had provided for all of their needs as they spread the good news of the kingdom.
Then a third thing happens in this verse, they retreat. Together they withdraw for a time of retreat. It says they withdrew to Bethsaida, which was the hometown of Philip, Andrew, and Peter.
They must have been exhausted. They’d been doing ministry which is tiring and had traveled back to Jesus.
In Mark’s account Jesus actually invites them to come away and rest. After a busy time of ministry, the deepest need you have is time away with Jesus. So they head for Bethsaida for some privacy away from the crowd. Rest and time with the Lord is important. That’s why God instituted the Sabbath in the Old Testament.
Friend: When you’ve been out serving Jesus, helping folks, and spreading the gospel, do not neglect taking times of retreat and resting in the Lord. Many neglect this time with the Lord and the results are dire in their lives. Burnout, lack of compassion, and even falling into sin are the results of failure to withdraw from ministry for a time to spend time with Jesus. I’m thankful that this church allows for and even encourages me as I do this occasionally. You should too. One issue we have is that it’s hard to get so tired doing ministry when you aren’t doing any. So if that’s you, go back and listen to last week’s message on how Jesus gives our lives purpose and then go and do it.
A small issue happens with their men’s retreat. The crowds find out about it and they follow them. We all have that one friend who can’t take the hint, right?
What follows is one of Jesus’ most well known miracles and is found in all four gospels. It is through this miracle that:

II. Jesus supplies.

Luke 9:11 ESV
When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing.
Look at the compassion that Jesus has on the crowd. He is pulling back to spend time with the 12 and these people follow. Jesus doesn’t speed up and take the 12 and run away. He welcomes the crowd. People want to see Jesus and He welcomes them in. Lest you think this was not part of the plan, He welcomes them in because He’s about to teach them about the kingdom and heal those who need it, but He’s also about to teach the twelve a lesson that they don’t realize is coming.
He teaches and it gets later in the day and the twelve are concerned that there isn't enough food for all these people. They want Jesus to send them off to the villages and towns to get lodging and provision.
This betrays the fact that the twelve really didn’t understand what their mission trip and the instructions truly meant. They had just experienced God providing for their needs while out there serving Him and they didn’t understand that Jesus, as God Himself would be able to provide for the needs of the people. There’s that spiritual amnesia coming in.
I love that Jesus tells the disciples to give the people something to eat. He gives them a new assignment, feed these 5,000 men. (By the way, the count is of the men present so this likely was over 10,000 people in total.)
Their new mission is the feed the people and serve the people. Do you see? It’s the same mission that He sent them out with. They are to feed the people with the Kingdom and attend to the needs of the people. Jesus has taught them about the kingdom and is turning to the twelve and saying, take care of their hunger.
If we look at the crowd as representing the people of God and how God takes care of His followers, it connects us back to something in the Old Testament with Israel. This hopefully would have triggered their memories as well of the time God provided food for His people in the desert.
In Exodus, the people of Israel, whom God had rescued out of Egypt, were in the desert and they needed food and God was their supplier.
Look at Exodus 16:4:
Exodus 16:4 ESV
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.
God gave them food and sustained them. He took care of His special people and guess what? They still grumbled. They refused to be satisfied even though every need was filled.
And here we are again in Luke chapter 9 with a people who are in need of sustanence and the Lord Jesus provides for them.
And we see that:

III. Jesus satisfies.

Unlike Moses, Jesus will completely satisfy and fulfill their needs. Once Jesus has filled you, you don’t get spiritually hungry again because He satisfies. He’s enough. In fact, He’s more than enough. All of the people eat till they are filled and there are leftovers. There are twelve baskets left over. It’s a rather poignant, at least to us, image of each disciple having a basket to see how abundantly Jesus provides for His people.
These people had a very high view of Moses. Here was Jesus going over and above what even Moses was used by God to do.
It’s hard for us to comprehend the level of respect the Israelites had for Moses. If I took a survey of people in the United States and asked who the most influential or well known American in history was I suppose many would say George Washington. You can see his legacy and impact all around us. There is a state named after him as well as our nation’s capital city. There are also: 241 townships, 26 cities, 4 forts, 5 mountains, 3 ports, bridges, parks schools, and at least 12 colleges. One pair of scholars suggested that if you took the influence of Washington and combined him with the Pope or Billy Graham, so that not only is he the leader of your nation but also the leader of your religion, you still wouldn’t even come close to how the Jews of that day felt about Moses.
So when this miracle happens and we have that background of Moses that they would have had, it really carries a ton of weight when I tell you that Jesus was a greater prophet than Moses. When we read in Hebrews we find that He’s greater than Moses. The people rejected Moses and grumbled in the desert but now someone greater than Moses was here. Would they believe Him and trust in Him or would they grumble and complain?
Now, imagine you’re one of the twelve watching this all unfold before your eyes? Jesus keeps breaking up the food and it doesn’t run out when it should. You take some and deliver it and there is more still. You probably eat some of it. I’ll bet it tasted awesome. Like when Jesus changed the water to wine at the wedding in Cana. The master of the feast came to the bridegroom and says that people usually serve the good wine first and after the people have drunk freely, they bring out the poor wine. But you’ve kept the good wine till now. (my paraphrase) So I’m sure this tasted great.
So Jesus provided. He multiplied the food. He did the miracle. But how did the people get the food? How did it get from Jesus to the groups of people? Jesus met the needs of His people through the hands of His people. The twelve didn’t have any food to give the people so Jesus provided the food and sent them to minister the food to the needs of the people. And Jesus still does this. He sends us out to give people the sustaining, life giving, Bread of Life!
Matthew Henry wrote,
“Ministers can never fill people's hearts unless Christ fills their hands.” - Matthew Henry
In order to minister the Bread of Life, Jesus, to others, we must first come to Christ and have our hearts filled with Him so we can minister His love to others. He is the only one who truly satisfies abundantly. Why don’t we do this? We have the promise of God’s provision running throughout scripture:
Matthew 6:33 ESV
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Psalm 23:1 ESV
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 Corinthians 9:8 ESV
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
Jesus gives his people purpose and then supplies everything they need to serve others. And it is miraculous provision and abundant satisfaction.
At the beginning of the sermon I told you that this passage shows that Jesus is more than enough.
This miracle is intended to reveal Jesus as the Bread of Life.
This miracle is in all four gospels and in John chapter 6, it’s set up with the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus walking on water, and then the Bread of Life discourse. So when we are talking about Jesus providing for and satisfying hunger, I hope you figured out that we aren’t just speaking about bread.
John 6:26–40 ESV
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 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.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Conclusion
Jesus is the Bread of Life. He is the only one who sustains. He came and lived a human life as all God and all man, experiencing life as we do, but without sin. He gave that life on the cross, in your place and in my place, as a sacrifice standing in for us and dying for our sin. They buried Him in a borrowed tomb and three days later He arose from the dead. He appeared to as many as 500 people before ascending to heaven. This Jesus can be trusted to provide not just for your physical needs but for your deepest and most dire spiritual needs as well.
Jerry Bridges said that “in order to trust God we must know Him in an intimate, personal way. David said in Psalm 9:10, “Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord have never forsaken those who seek you.””
Someone here may have come in here and you are in a real war in your soul to believe that Jesus is more than enough for you. You might have gone through something or had some conflict or loss that has dragged you into this fight. Maybe you’re in the battle because of a loss. But maybe you’re someone who isn’t dealing with loss but you’re doubting Jesus is more than enough because of what you do have and have not lost. Maybe you struggle like the Rich Young Ruler to have your possessions get in the way of your faithfulness to Jesus. And still someone else might be struggling today with this message because there’s something you desperately want and it seems to be kept from you. You are being tempted to not trust that Jesus Himself is actually more than enough for you. To all of you and anyone else in this same battle, let ask, did you notice that it was no problem for Jesus to provide food for all of those people? It is just as easy for Him, the King of the Universe, to provide for everything you need and fill whatever part of your soul feels empty today. Will you trust Him and take your empty fish basket to Him?
Let’s pray.
Pray
Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more
Earn an accredited degree from Redemption Seminary with Logos.