Luke nine verses ten through seventeen. Let's take the nominal believer or the unbeliever who's giving a measure of consideration to the claims of Christ. Yet he is reluctant at why. Why does he hesitate as he does. I think one of the major reasons is that he doesn't believe that Jesus can meet his needs. You see, he's got these loves and these passions and these desires and these wants and some of them are illicit. Some of them are illicit or allowable, but he indulges those things in idolatrous proportions. And he hesitates. He just doesn't believe that Christ can meet his needs, that if he were to completely surrender himself to Christ, that life would be dull, that his whole landscape would be gray for the rest of his life. He doesn't believe that he would ever be satisfied or that he could ever be fulfilled as a disciple of Christ. So, we come to this feeding of the five thousand. The scholars call this an enacted parable. It's a sign, according to John's gospel, a sign. So, what is the sign? What is the sign of? What does it signify? It signifies This feeding of the five thousand who Jesus is and what he is able to do. In other words, the act of feeding the five thousand is a kind of an illustration or a visual aid of the spiritual truths of Jesus identity and of Jesus's power. And what does it signify then? Well, in John's gospel is rather explicit. The feeding of the five thousand illustrates the fact that Jesus is the bread of life and that those who come to him will not hunger and those who believe in him will never thirst. In other words, Jesus, by the feeding of the five thousand, is signifying that he is able to satisfy our spiritual hunger and our spiritual thirst, the deepest and truest needs and desires and longings of our souls. Now, how is he able to do that? You know, a number of years ago, when my friend in the ministry who happened to mention this a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday night, now we're driving to and from meetings. We used to run out of gas, we got so involved in our conversation, we would run right out of gas. We did it twice. The definition of a fool, isn't it, is somebody who does the same mistake a second time. Twice we ran out of gas on the interstate. Now, what would be wrong with us saying, you know, getting angry about our car, that, you know, this car doesn't work. This car keeps malfunctioning. And curse the car because it stopped. No, that would be ridiculous. Of course, we would understand the car stops because it ran out of gas, because that is in the nature of the car. The car needs the gas in order to run. That's the way it's designed. That's the way the car is made. The background to Jesus feeding of the five thousand is the fact that we were made to know God and depend upon him and that we malfunction. We don't work properly apart from knowing God and living in dependence upon him, separated from God. It's become something of a cliche, but it's a valuable one. You know, Pascal saying that there's a God-shaped void. That's true. And other things can't fill that void. He alone can bring satisfaction and fulfillment to the human soul. That's the way we're designed. We were made to know God. And if we are alienated from him and apart from him, then it is inevitable that we will experience this This absence of meaning and purpose and fulfillment and satisfaction that God alone can give. And when Jesus identifies himself as the bread of life by feeding the five thousand, he's saying that he is the one who brings us to the father in whom we alone can feed. The hunger of our souls. and find satisfaction. Let's look, then, at the verses. First, we want to see that Jesus is accessible to the crowd. There's no reluctance on his part to deal with them. It says on their return, the apostles, that is from this preaching mission, the apostles told Jesus all that they had done, and he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida. There's a clearly there's an attempt to have a retreat to rest. to refresh, to recuperate after this mission. They are in Bethsaida, about 80 miles northwest of Jerusalem, right on the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee. It's a desolate place. We read in verse 12, but on verse 11, the crowds learned of it and they followed him and he welcomed them. The crowd learned of it. It's amazing thing without cell phones and without the ability to text message the whole a whole multitude of people found out where Jesus was. And they were all like this, going like this to each other, word spread, you know, it always did in the ancient world and even into the modern world, right? Word got around. There was the mommy network, which was every bit as effective as texting. Word got around, word spreads through the crowd, even in antiquity. And they all go to where Jesus is. And he welcomed them, verse 11 says. He wasn't irritated by the presence of the crowd. He didn't become frustrated. It doesn't say that Jesus turned to the crowd and said, please, can you wait till tomorrow? We're in need of rest. Do you mind if you just leave us be for a while? We're having a spiritual retreat. We need this little time away. And I want to say that's a legitimate thing for Jesus to have said. There's a time for rest, and clearly he had identified this time as such a time. It would be a legitimate thing for Jesus to say it would be a reasonable thing for him to say. But instead, Luke tells us that Jesus welcomed them. Who are the them? It's just a multitude of people, be all kinds of people, be religious people and be irreligious people, be moral people, be immoral people. It would be nice people and it would be mean people would be every kind of person worthy people unworthy people. So Jesus is welcoming this mixed multitude of people. All are welcomed. All are invited. Jesus is accessible. That's what we're learning in verses 10 and 11. He said then and he says now come on to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. That's his word to us. Come. Come to me. He welcomes the weary, the burdened, the heavy laden. He welcomes the prostitutes, the sinners, the tax gatherers. He welcomes patriots and traders. He welcomes everyone. As they come, he teaches them about the kingdom of God. And he calls them to repent and believe in response to the kingdom of God, but in terms of service, in terms of ministry, in terms of interest. In terms of love. He welcomes the multitude to come. All manner of persons, whatever their lifestyle might be, whatever their habits might be, whatever their past might be, he welcomes them to come. Jesus is accessible. Next, we see something of the destitution of humanity. Let's look at verse 12. Now, the day began to wear away and the 12 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. Now, the disciples lack faith and the commentators all point this out. I mean, they just seen him calm a storm and raise the dead. And then there's the impertinence of instructing Jesus like Jesus doesn't know the needs of the crowd and he needs to be told what needs to be done next. And yet on the side of the disciples, this was a destitute place. And verse 13 tells us they only amongst them all had five loaves of barley, which is the the bread of the poorest of people and then to fish. In other words, the crowd lacks adequate resources to meet the needs of their circumstances. The crowd here represents fallen humanity. Humanity doesn't have the resources to meet the hunger and the thirst of the soul. I think there's a number of ways that the Bible discusses fallen humanity. Sometimes it stresses the guilt of humanity, the corruption of humanity, the perversity of humanity. And it does so in a tone that is condemning. There is a despising of that the darkness and the filth of fallen humanity. But then there's other times when the perspective is that of the humanity as lost and as needy and in as to be pitted. And that's the perspective that we have here in the feeding of the five thousand in Mark's gospel. Mark six thirty four. We read that Jesus looked upon the multitude. All right. There's mixed multitude of people, but he looks upon them and he sees them as sheep without a shepherd. And Mark tells us that he had compassion on them. Sheep without a shepherd sees them as victims, as it were, as sheep defenseless. Wandering aimlessly, what are sheep without a shepherd like they don't know where to go, they wander, they need direction, they need protection, they have no means of protection themselves. We saw some of this last week. Jesus in John 6 warns of the thieves and robbers of to which the sheep fall victim and the hirelings who abandon them whenever there's danger. They need green pastures. They need still waters. They lack the resources by which to satisfy the hunger and quench the thirst of their souls. The multitude are vulnerable and they're exploited. And we can see this everywhere. You can see this in our celebrity culture who glamorize excess. And glamorize promiscuity and the people are like sheep. They just follow the examples. This is why celebrities can be used for advertisements and why celebrities can even be used for political campaigns as though they had any expertise apart from their life on the stage. Advertisers. promise excitement and fulfillment through the use of their products and the sheep follow. It's not just that the sinners are in need of condemnation. There is condemnation, but they are also victims, as it were. They are sheep without shepherd. There is this perspective of compassion with which we are to view fallen humanity, humanity, our neighbors, our co-workers apart from God. They are vulnerable and exploited by false religion to promise peace and contentment through their their rituals and their ceremonies and their teachings. There are politicians who promise utopia through their programs and their provisions and the sheep follow. It's as it were the dominant message of our society that happiness can be found through wealth and through all the toys that come with wealth, the bigger house, the bigger car, the wardrobe, the lavish vacations, the excitement that money can buy. And the people are like sheep. You can see the whole civilization, as it were, just slipping away from a Christian past to a pagan future. Why? Because the people are like sheep without a shepherd and they are deluded and they are misled and they are exploited and they are vulnerable and they fail to realize that what's being promised is false. These are counterfeits that are being promised. The advertisers and the celebrities and the false religionists and the politicians, they all fail to deliver what they promise. And so the sheep remain hungry and unfulfilled and joy is elusive and peace is evasive and the false shepherds and the hirelings and the thieves and the robbers all mislead and plunder and exploit. So how are we to view the unbelieving in our generation. Not with disgust. But with compassion. Because the multitudes are desolate. They're hungry. They are sheep without a shepherd. And this is something that we need to realize about ourselves that our propensity to wander our propensity for defenselessness. We are sheep. We need a shepherd. We need the good shepherd. We need to be able to say with David, the Lord is my shepherd. He directs me. It's his provision upon which I rely. Humanity is destitute. Thirdly, we notice that Jesus enlists the help of flawed helpers. Jesus wants to feed the five thousand. Could he not have just snapped his fingers and a plate full of food appeared in front of every single person, all 5,000. However, many women and children were along with just a snap of the fingers. I sometimes think that's what happened in John 21. I'm not sure. But suddenly Jesus is there with breakfast for the disciples. Where did the breakfast come from? Did he just exercise divine powers and the breakfast appeared? Regardless, this is what he could have done if he had wanted to do that. Instead, he's got these disciples and they're doubting his wisdom at this point, doubting his ability to provide. They want to scatter the cloud because there's not enough food for them. So Jesus says to them in verse 13. You give them something to eat. And they said, we have no more than five loaves and two fish unless we are to go and buy food for all these people. You give them something to eat now, how might they have responded to that? Well, they might have said. We will show us how to do it, that would have been a positive response, a believing response. We give them something to eat. We don't have anything. We we cost 200 denarii, about a year's labor to pay for enough food for all these people. Philip says is recorded as saying that in John's Gospel. They don't have any food themselves. Remember, Jesus sent them out without any food and without any money. So they don't have the money. They don't have the food. Jesus says, You feed them. They could have said, Yes, show us how they might have said, Provide us with the resources and we will feed them. Instead, what they did is they look to their own resources. And they said, we don't have any money and we have nothing to give them and we don't have the food and we don't have the resources with which to provide it. In other words, they only look to themselves and what they had available. That's the problem with the response. Rather than trusting that in some way, Jesus was going to make available the resources by which to feed them. So these are very flawed helpers that Jesus is enlisting. Verse 14, for there were about 5000 men and he said to them, have them sit down in groups of about 50 each, presumably for the sake of efficient distribution of the food. Verse 15. And they did so. Then he had them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven. Notice when Jesus prayed, he didn't bow. He looked up. Then He said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. You have this sequence of blessing breaking and giving that sounds like the Last Supper that has some sacramental verbs that are being used there. But it's also the language that would be used of any pious Jew in the first century before a meal. This blessing and breaking and giving. So I don't think it has any meaning really beyond that, that this is the prayer and the action of somebody who's giving thanks for food that's about to be eaten. So he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. What's happening here? Well, Jesus is not feeding them. directly. He's defeating him indirectly. He's giving it to the disciples and they are to set it before the crowd. Why is he doing this? Because this is the pattern of gospel ministry that they're learning from the very beginning. Jesus feeds the crowd, but he feeds them indirectly. He feeds them through the disciples. They are the ones who are going to be the means by which the bread of life that satisfies the hunger and quenches The first of the soul is to be delivered to the needing multitude. It's a deliberate use of the disciples when it isn't necessary at all for him to do so. Indeed, he could have just created a mound of food and had the people come and pick what they wanted off of the mound. Jesus uses disciples, he uses people, he uses flawed people. How flawed, very flawed, so flawed, in fact, Judas is being used. Judas, the betrayer of Christ, at this point is being used to distribute the bread of life, so is Peter, who will deny Christ. So is Thomas, the doubter. These are these are men of very different personalities, very different gifts and aptitudes. And yet Jesus is going to use them. I think we need to be very careful not to stereotype what kind of persons that Jesus is going to use that God is going to raise up for the ministry of his church. Sometimes he raises up great orators and sometimes he raises up people who are only able to speak haltingly. Sometimes he raises up brilliant minds with weak personalities and sometimes he raises up men with great personality and charm and winsomeness who are weaker intellectually. He uses different kinds of people with different attitudes and different gifts and different abilities. The fact that Jesus is using them even in the face of this Unbelieving encounter is significant to us. I don't think we should ever write somebody off as far as ministry. I don't think we should say, well, about a given individual. Well, he doesn't quite have the gifts. I don't think there should be any kind of a premature stereotype based assessment that so and so is not outgoing enough or or or eloquent enough or smart enough. Sometimes God uses very outgoing people. Sometimes he uses people with great reserve and shyness. We learn here, God takes what's available and he uses it in terms of the disciples and the food, a few fish and a few loaves. That's what was available. That's what he uses. What's our task, we simply distribute what he offers, we simply set it before the people and the key, given this diversity, give this given this principle that Jesus uses what's available. And he uses a variety of persons, I think the key really is availability and willingness more than anything else, more than level of giftedness. It's the fact that they're available and they are willing and eager to serve. That's the key. If one wants to be of service in the kingdom of Christ, that's really the question to answer, am I available to be used? Am I willing to be used? If all I have is a couple of fish and a couple of loaves worth of gifts. Well, God can use that and bless that and make that an effective means of building his kingdom. So Jesus enlists the help of flawed helpers. So we've seen so far he's accessible. We've seen the condition of humanity, the crowd represents humanity and its destitution. We've seen that Jesus uses these these flawed helpers, that he's eager to use those who are available and willing. And then finally, we see that what Jesus applies, he supplies in an abundance. Let's go back to the fears of the unbeliever, the nominal believer. Are those fears legitimate? Can Jesus meet The needs. Of ordinary people with ordinary needs and ordinary desires and ordinary passions. Can he really meet their needs in a way that's satisfactory, that is it a lie to say that the life will be led in commitment to Christ would be a boring life with no excitement, only shades of gray everywhere one looks. Verse 17 says and they all ate and were satisfied. That's the word that's used in a Sermon on the Mount sermon on the plane for those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. They are satisfied. The parallels are obvious here. You know what it is to be hungry. and to long to eat food. Well, there's a parallel of the soul. There's the hunger of the soul. And in a similar fashion, there is this hunger, this need. There's this desire of the soul that doesn't that can't be met by things in this world. They just don't scratch the itch. They don't they don't feel the need. They don't touch the spot as it were. And Here, they eat the bread and the fish that Jesus provides, and that sense of fullness and satiation, satisfaction, the meeting of the hunger, the satisfying of the thirst takes place. And the meaning of it is Jesus is the bread of life, and that what happens physically in eating the meal is what happens spiritually when we come to Jesus and put our faith and trust in Him. They are satisfied. Moreover, and what was left over when it was picked up, there were 12 baskets of broken pieces. In other words, Jesus doesn't meet the needs of the soul just barely. 12 baskets full. There is plenty more than enough. There are leftovers. Leftovers get a bad name. Let me tell you, in the ancient world where people barely had enough to eat, and the average person was a subsistence farmer to have twelve baskets left over. This is a picture of satiation and abundance. It is a sign. What does the sign signify? It signifies that Jesus, the bread of life, brings full contentment and satisfaction and fulfillment to the human soul, that that for which we are longing and looking in the world and which the world can never deliver, is in fact satisfied in him. We could notice as well that he does this apart from religious law. It's significant that there's no distinction here between clean and unclean food. There's no mention of the cleansing ordinances and requirements prior to eating. There's no washing going on. There's no hygienic food preparation, kosher food preparation. He just multiplies the loaves and they eat. Again, what does it signify? It signifies the blessings and benefits of Christ and of his cross apart from the law. It's not according to the law and its works, it means that Jesus himself is the bread of life that satisfies and quenches the needs and desires of the soul and that not slightly. But in abundance. overflowing. My cup runneth over. And this is what a believer will say. Knowing Christ and the forgiveness of our sins and reconciliation with God, knowing that I'm adopted and that I'm a member of the family of God, knowing his peace that passes, understanding the contentment that he brings in all circumstances of life, the joy that's inexpressible and full of glory that we have in him, psychological, emotional and spiritual satisfaction beyond anything that the world can provide. No amount of wealth and success and notoriety and fame and fortune. Jesus said, if any man thirst, let him what come to me and drink. Is the soul thirsty, where is it going to be satisfied, where is that thirst going to be quenched? Not in the world. That's the meaning of Jesus mission, not in the world, it can't be, it won't be forever be seeking after that which cannot satisfy. And the key is, he's the bread of life and you've got to eat him whole. You can't just sample. You can't just toy with your food. You can't just move it around on your plate. You have to eat and eat him whole. Somebody wants to say, well, I don't see how he can compete with partying and all that fun. I just can't see it. Well, there is a step of faith, isn't there? You want the proof before you take the step? Well, it probably won't be coming. Believe that he can believe that what he promised is true, that he will satisfy the hunger, that he will quench the thirst and understand that he changes us. So that we're not so that our desires become other than they were, we become different people. We're no longer lovers of darkness, but now lovers of life, a life. He changes our desires, our appetites, our longings. He transforms them so that we love him and the light and we find satisfaction and fulfillment in him. The isms of the world are never going to deliver the hedonism and materialism. They're all external and superficial. They are counterfeits. Jesus is able to feed the five thousand. What does it signify? It signifies that he can feed your soul. That he can quench the spiritual thirst of your soul, that he can satisfy the hunger of the soul. He can bring peace, contentment and joy to the soul. Because he brings us to God, our maker, the one who we were made to know and apart from Christ, we cannot know. His death for our sins removes the barrier, he reconciles us to the father whom to know is eternal life. And whom to know. means a contentment and peace and joy and satisfaction and fulfillment. That the world cannot ever deliver that God alone can give as we pray together.