Ministry and the Church

We’re going to read about one of Jesus’ most well known miracles today, “The Feeding of the 5,000”. This is the only miracle that is found in all four gospels, which means it must have made a profound impression upon the disciples.

What I want us to consider today as we read this is: “Ministry and Jesus”.

Ministry in the Bible is simply “acts of service to others”. And as disciples of Jesus, we are called to minister to other people. In fact, ministry is a bridge to the gospel.

We will see today that Jesus cared deeply about the needs of other people, and He called His disciples to be directly involved in the ministry of meeting people’s needs.

Matt 14:13-21 “Now when Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by Himself; and when the people heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities. When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!” They said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” And He said, “Bring them here to Me.” Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets. There were about five thousand men who ate, besides women and children.”

Jesus cares about people’s needs and so should we

Matthew 14:13-14

Matthew 14:13–14 NASB95

Now when Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by Himself; and when the people heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities. When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick.

Explanation

John the Baptist had just been martyred by King Herod. When Jesus heard the news He left that area in a boat to find a secluded place to be alone. And we read that Jesus was looking for a secluded place to be alone.

But the crowds saw Him and began to follow Him. And whether they heard where he was going or watched him as he left in a boat they began following him.

No respect for Jesus, no respect for his loss and desire to be alone. These were a people who more concerned with their own desires than they were about Jesus.

Principle

ILLUSTRATION: Put yourself in Jesus shoes

You had just heard that your forerunner for the gospel John the Baptist had just been murdered by the evil king. And rightfully so, you wanted some time by yourself to pray and heal.

And so you get in your boat and head out to a private location just to get away from the world.

Anyone ever feel like that? Anyone ever want to just sit by themselves and talk to God.

And when you arrive at that secret place, you pull up to shore only to find thousands of people wanting something from you.

What is your response to those people? Most of us would begin to think of an escape plan. Im sure there would be frustration and anger that these people would not leave us alone! They even knew that Jesus was trying to be by Himself yet still refused to allow Him this small token of freedom.

What does Jesus do? HE HAS COMPASSION ON THEM

He begins meeting their needs. He heals them, and takes care of them, and loves them, and demonstrates that He cares about them.

He doesn’t get angry and send them away. He doesn’t run from them. He has compassion on them.

And the gospel of John reveals this same story and tells us these people did not even believe in Him, yet He loved them anyway!

Now the emphasis in this verse is on the compassion of Jesus toward a self-centered crowd. It is showing the depth of the heart of Jesus and how much He truly cared for people.

Application

And I think one point we should not overlook is that Jesus cares for us like this.

Jesus is concerned about our needs, and our lives, and the even the small details that we think are so insignificant.

And what we often hear are the whispers of the enemy who tells us that that Jesus is not for us!

That He does not care about the things that we need. That He is not concerned about some of our deepest needs that most people are not even aware of! That Jesus only cares about His will and His purposes and that is simply not true!

You’ll never find another relationship in this life that has compassion for you like the Lord Jesus Christ.

You’ll never find another who cares for you so deeply as God does.

What is a need you have in your life right now? What is it that you deeply long for?

A child to be saved?

A health problem?

An addiction or sin that you struggle with?

When is the last time you brought it to Jesus? When is the last time you put off every other responsibility you had and sat down at the feet of Jesus?

The second point if that if Jesus cared for these people, shouldn’t we care too?

John tells us, that we “ought to walk as Jesus walked”

That means we ought to live as Jesus lived, do what jesus did, so that we can reflect Him to this world.

And much of K Jesus’ ministry is about meeting needs of other people even if there is no return for us.

Jesus did not heal people to get something out of it, He healed them because they are made in the image of God.

God uses His disciples to meet other’s needs

Matthew 14:15–16 NASB95

When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!”

Explanation

Here are the disciples, trying to figure this thing out on their own.

They tell Jesus to send the people back home so that they can get some food for themselves and have a place to stay.

I mean how can Jesus and his few followers feed thousands of people?

This makes sense is the only thing that makes sense!

But Jesus does not want them to be sent away, He says, “you feed them”.

This is not a suggestion, but a command In the Greek.

Jesus knows what He is going to do, but He will not do it apart from the disciples!

It is part of their calling as a follower of Christ to be directly involved in ministry.

It is the disciples who are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus, and Jesus wants them to know and us to know that it is our responsibility as well.

Bridge

Times have changed, but the needs of people have not. And the church still has a responsibility to go out into the communities to meet the needs of others.

Now this does not mean that we hand out hotdogs to people who need no food.

This means that we specifically recognize what people’s needs are and make every effort to make a difference!

This takes two things from us:

A Compassion for people

If we do not love people, then we are going to care about helping them out. And if we do not love people then we are going to shrivel up and die.

We must be people who love others, and I mean the lost people of this world who desperately need Christ.

A REAL Commitment to Christ

If we are not committed to Christ, then we will not be committed to meeting needs of others. It is only when we truly love Jesus, that we will truly love others in deed.

Application

Why is it important for this church, and for us as individuals to meet the needs of others?

Because ministry is a bridge to the gospel. See without ministry, we will struggle to meet people where they are. Ministry provides a bridge to the gospel.

Most people see the church as a club that is trying to gain members. And also as a club that wants their money!

Now we want members, but not for the sake of numbers, but so that people will be saved!

Ministry allows us to demonstrate that Christianity is much deeper than adding members to the church. It is about demonstrating love to those who we do not know simply because they are human beings made in the image of God.

And if Jesus continuously met needs with no obligation of following Him, why should we be any different? Shouldn’t we walk as Jesus walked? Shouldn’t we have compassion on people regardless if they are coming to our church or not?

Here are some ideas I have about some future ministries I would like to see us do in Oak Grove:

A Wednesday night meal ministry to soldiers (most soldiers do not get good home cooked meals)

A babysitting ministry to allow young military couples to have a date night.

An oil change ministry for soldiers wives when their husbands are deployed.

Where is your place of ministry today, and how will you serve Jesus by serving others?

We can do nothing apart from Christ

Matthew 14:17–18 NASB95

They said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” And He said, “Bring them here to Me.”

Explanation

Notice that Jesus CALLS the disciples to get involved. But the disciples are unable to give the people what they need.

They exhaust every logical idea that they could think of to get the people fed.

Send them away to a nearby town to get food and lodging.

Gather up whatever is available out here and let’s see how much we have.

But this Is not at all why Jesus had in mind.

So He tells them, “Bring them here to Me”.

Principle

It is so easy to criticize the disciples at this point. We are reading this narrative thinking, Jesus is right there! the miracle worker, the way maker, the Creator! Just ask Him to feed the people!

But in all reality, we are just like the disciples! We try to do everything so logically and by what we can see with our eyes, and yet forget that it is Jesus who we ought to be unto!

The disciples could not feed the 5,000 apart from Christ, just as we cannot do any kind of effective ministry apart from Christ.

What lesson can we learn from these two short verses?

Without Jesus we can do nothing! And it is not enough to say that, but we must act like it in the church. We must live this out in ministry! And we must live it out in our lives!

Application

What does that look like in our church?

Prayer

We must pray to seek God’s will for us. Prayer is not a means to get what we want, but to discover God’s will so that we may do it.

I’m not saying we cannot pray for things, but dependence upon God is praying for His will. And when the church gets on board with His will, the provisions always follow!

Faith

Dependence upon God always require faith! The church must be willing to walk by faith and in impossible situations is where God works miracles!

Do you want to see God work in this church, then we must be people who walk by faith! We must be willing to move and go by faith!

One of our core values is “We will take risks over status quo.”

Jesus’s resources are unlimited

Matthew 14:19–21 NASB95

Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets. There were about five thousand men who ate, besides women and children.

Explanation

In the Bible over and Over God meets provisions through multiplication. And that is exactly what he does here. He takes a little and makes it sufficient to meet the needs.

When Moses insisted that he needed a sign to take with him, God asked Moses what was already in his hand and then transformed it

When a widow needed financial help Elisha asked what she had in her house; she responded that she had only a small amount of oil, so Elisha commanded her to borrow jars into which to pour the oil and multiplied it until all the jars were full. In biblical tradition

God frequently transforms the ordinary things of his followers’ lives and multiplies them to meet needs.

And you think about it, it is a creation miracle. Jesus creates enough food for a massive crowd to eat and become full.

And this was no small crowd, but over 5,000 people. Notice it says there were 5,000 men not counting women and children.

And Jesus takes what little bit they have on hands, 5 loaves of bread (about the size of a bun) and 2 fish and feeds an army.

Principle

The lesson is Jesus’ unlimited resources. Jesus never runs out of resources!

But the Miracles only happen when they are needed!

God does do miracles just to do them, but only in times of need.

Application

We must think about this in the context of our church! If God calls us to a work, we must trust Him that He will provide all of our needs!

God has called us to a place, and we must trust Him that He will take care of us in the place. And that He will be gloried through that.

This must be the attitude of the church: seek the will of God, and when that is known so it regardless of what things may appear as to our own eyes.

And we must think about this in the context of our own lives. He will always always always take care of our needs as long as we continually trust Him to do so!

God has never let me go hungry.

He has always taken care of me, especially when I did not see any way possible!

CONCLUSION

SATISFACTION

Notice that jesus completely satisfied all of them!

Earthly needs are important, but not nearly as important as our spiritual needs

And only Jesus can meet them.

Do you know Him?

Has He filled that empty place in your life?

Only Jesus can give you what your heart so longs for.

~Prayer~

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