Sermon Tone Analysis

Matt 14:13-21 "Jesus Feeds '5,000'"

Marc Transparenti / General

The Grace of the King / Jesus feeds the 5000; Grace; Miracle; Trust / Matthew 14:13-21; Matthew 14:22-33; Matthew 14:34-36

Jesus Feeds 5000 men, plus women and children.

Good morning Calvary Chapel Lake City!

• If you don't have a Bible, please raise your hands and one of our ushers will bring you one.

• If this is your first time at Calvary Chapel...I'm Pastor Marc...welcome!

• Calvary Chapel is known for a few things...a relaxed environment, vibrant worship, and teaching the Bible chapter-by-chapter and verse-by-verse.

Thanks for joining us today!

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Please turn in your Bibles to Matthew 14.

From the end of Matt 13 to mid-chapter 16, opposition to Jesus persists, yet Jesus steadfast love persists...healing, ministering, teaching...unwavering grace to people who were opposing Him.

Thus, the theme of these chapters is "The Grace of the King."

• Matt 14:13, where we pick up today... marks the beginning of Jesus Third Year of Ministry.

• Jesus' First Year / Year and a Half of Ministry has been called, "The Year of Preparation" where we observed Jesus' baptism, temptation, first miracles, early conversations with Nicodemus, the woman at the well, and the calling of the Twelve Apostles to follow Jesus...to name a few highlights.

• His Second Year of Ministry, "The Year of Popularity" is where Jesus' fame boomed.

The multitudes flocked to Him, and people were excited.

But, the religious leaders did not like His break from their traditions...so, they plotted against Him.

• Jesus gave 3 great discourses in this second year....

• "The Sermon on the Mount"...

• "The Kingdom of Heaven" discourse (the Parables), and...

• "The Missionary Discourse" to the Twelve Apostles as Jesus sent them out.

• The second year ended with the death of John the Baptist.

• Jesus' Third, and final, Year of Ministry, "The Year of Opposition" is where tensions mount.

Jesus righteously fails the expectations of the people to be a political messiah, and the Religious leaders plan to kill Jesus.

Despite opposition... Jesus continues to teach, preach, and heal (thus "The Grace of the King")...and His eyes focus on His disciples... to equip them for ministry...to take the Gospel to the world.

To help you understand where we are chronologically, a few weeks back we looked at Jesus' teaching on the Parables...

• Right after the Parables, Jesus performed a number of miracles that Matthew accounted for in Chapters 8 and 9.

• Jesus calms the storm

• He heals two demon-possessed men, a sick woman, raises Jairus' daughter...

• Heals two blind men and a mute man.

• And then, He heads back to Nazareth, which we looked at last week.

Jesus was rejected in his hometown for the second time, and He "marveled at their unbelief."

• After this rejection at Nazareth, Jesus was on the move...Mark 6:6 records, "Then He [Jesus] went about the villages in a circuit, teaching."

(So, immediately Jesus travelled through various Galilean cities teaching...no doubt about the Kingdom of Heaven).

• Then, according to Mark and Luke, Jesus gives "The Missionary Discourse" and sends the Twelve to "preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick."

• News of all these ministry happenings reached the ears of the Governor of that area...Herod Antipas the Tetrarch, who beheaded Jesus' cousin, John the Baptist...Jesus' forerunner...the "friend of the bridegroom."

And, Antipas is trying to make sense of who Jesus is...so he sought to see Jesus.

• And, that's where we pick up today...Jesus is back at the lake...the Sea of Galilee...likely in Capernaum.

The Twelve Apostles just returned from the short term local mission, and Jesus receives word that Antipas is seeking Him.

The title of today's message is "Jesus Feeds 5,000."

Let's Pray!

Matt 14:13 "When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself.

But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities."

1. V13 begins "When Jesus heard it..." When Jesus heard what?

Not about the death of John, which could have happened 2 years prior to the feeding of the 5000, but what we read in Matt 14:1-2...regarding Herod Antipas.

a.

When you look at the context Matt 14:1-2 is in real time, Matt 14:3-12 is a literary flashback...a re-telling of the past... how Herod Antipas beheaded John.

i. Matt 14:1-2 reads, "At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus and said to his servants, "This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him."

ii.

And, now Antipas is having superstitious thoughts about John and Jesus, and wants to see Jesus...and you get this full picture when you read each of the Gospel accounts...I encourage you to invest in a resource called, "A Harmony of the Gospels"...a book that lays out each of the Gospel accounts side-by-side.

1.

According to Mark and Luke, people were taking notice of Jesus..."His name had become well known."

People were trying to make sense of who Jesus was...they said He was a prophet, or Elijah; Herod Antipas superstitiously and likely haunted by guilt, suggested that Jesus was John the Baptist resurrected with power, so Antipas "sought to see [Jesus]."

iii.

Now, if the man who murdered your cousin...now wanted to see you and was having some paranoia...how would you respond?

Probably just like Jesus...you'd get out of Dodge.

This was not fear based...Jesus knew God had appointed a time for His death...this was wisdom on Jesus' part.

Sometimes it's just good to avoid trouble.

1.

And, that's what Jesus does...He departs to a solitary place...avoiding Herod.

I imagine the emotion of what Herod did to John the Baptist was stirred within Jesus as well...

2. And, at the same time, the Twelve Apostles return from their local missionary journey...Luke 9:10 tells us, "And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done.

Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida."

Mark 6:31 records, "For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat."

iv.

There's a lot going on at this time...the crowds were huge, so much so the disciples didn't even have time to eat...amazing ministry activity, but very tiring.

Couple this with the fact that there were murmurings about who Jesus is... and a crazy ruler seeking Jesus out...because of all these things, Jesus takes time for rest...thus they go to a deserted place where no one else is...at least that is their intention.

1.

And, this speaks to my soul.

If Jesus took time for rest, we should too as well.

Sometimes it's good to hit the pause button and take time for rest...to get away with family and close friends...It's permissible...It's advisable....It's biblical.

a.

The first mention of rest is Gen 2:2 where God models rest for us...Gen 2:2 states, "He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done."

God didn't need to physically recharge...He is Spirit, but intentionally He paused...and sometimes we need to pause as well.

Exo 31:17 tells us when God rested this seventh day He "was refreshed."

b.

I have a lot going on right now...I work full-time, I'm Pastoring, I'm moving, I'm a Dad...there's a lot going on, but in the midst of all the busyness...I'm going on the Men's Retreat...to rest...to be refreshed.

To sit at Jesus' feet and be poured into and spend time with my son and my friends.

i. Make sure you take time to pause in your life as well.

Make a plan to be spiritually refreshed.

Not just a vacation, but a time to be spiritually refreshed.

Men...there's still time to sign up for the retreat.

c.

I love in Matt 11:28-29, Jesus' invitation and promise of rest, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

i.

You will not find rest in the world...true peace...true rest is found only in Jesus.

ii.

This week my rest was disturbed when I found a love note from the City of Fort Wayne on my 5x10 trailer parked in front of my house...$100 parking ticket.

No warning...just a ticket.

I learned that you can't park an unattached trailer on the streets of Fort Wayne.

The grade of my driveway is too steep to not bottom out, and I'm moving.

Quite the dilemma.

So, I called Traffic Enforcement, and I was advised to hook the trailer up to my vehicle.

Quite the frustrating event.

1.

And, while my rest was been disturbed, I reclaimed some of my rest and some of my peace by praying.

I prayed with my family and asked the Lord to soften the hearts of my neighbors...to give them compassion on a family that's moving...and to stop the wiles of the devil...and giving it to Jesus worked.

2. What do you need to give to Jesus this week?

What pressure, problem or circumstance do you need to pray and ask God to help you with?

There is nothing too big for God.

2. Well, back to Matthew.

I'd love to share an account of Jesus and His disciples resting at this desolate place...having a time where they were refreshed, and as we read through the text...you get a sense the Disciples longed for this, but it didn't happen...not in this scene.

a. Because, we read, "...when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities."