Let's be turning to Luke 9. Luke
chapter 9. This is one of those passages
that is touched on by all four of the evangelists, Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John. And as I understand it, the feeding
of the 5,000 is the one miracle that's recorded by all four. Just the feeding of the 5,000,
that's what I'm told. And I'm going to be looking more
closely for that, but that's what it says. Now, last week
we were in Luke's gospel, and our Lord gave his 12 disciples
power and authority. He gave them power and authority,
and he sent them out to the towns and the villages to preach the
gospel and to heal the sick. And we saw that there's much
instruction there. Just as it was for them, they
were being prepared because when Christ accomplished his redemption,
he would ascend back to the Father. And then the church would go
forth preaching this gospel and working these miracles among
the people. And it was much instruction for
them, and it's instructive for us. It teaches us what we're
to do as the church, to preach the gospel, and what that accomplishes
in the people that our God is calling out of darkness. Now,
as we go through Luke's account here of the details which lead
up to the feeding of the 5,000, we see their instruction for
us. There is a counter to pride and
arrogance, which every one of us Even the ministers of God,
there's pride and arrogance that can seize this flesh, that we
must be delivered from, that we must be instructed in and
kept by the Lord, lest we should think that we're something, lest
I should think that your hearing is a result of my preparation. or something I do. It's of the
Lord. And it's the Lord that teaches
us that. It's the Lord that gives us this
understanding and keeps us there. And that sounds strange because
to have power and authority is by the giving of the spirit. It's through the spirit given.
And yet we know from painful experience that men and women
and people that we love and care about and think about and are
friends with, They fall. We fall. And we need the grace
of God. Pride, just like the tongue of
the flesh, it's a cancer of our hearts. Pride is a vile sin. It's the first sin named when
the Lord said, these seven things the Lord doth hate. Pride. And
the reason why it's so bad is that out of the abundance of
the heart, the mouth speaketh. Out of the abundance of the heart.
And because of pride, our tongues boast of great things. Of great
things. James said, behold, how great
a matter a little fire kindleth. And when a man is lifted up in
pride, It may start small, like a little fire, a little spark,
and it grows, and it brings down the whole house. And what a sad
thing that is. If it goes unchecked, it defileth
the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and
it is set on fire of hell. And so what's it going to take
to keep us? It's going to take the grace
of God. And the Lord's going to give His child an understanding
that it's by His grace and it's by His keeping that the power
and the authority is His to give and His alone and He gives and
He takes as it pleases Him. And that's what we see in our
text today. So first, It begins showing us
here that our Lord has a people, and that's compared to the backdrop
of Herod, who remains in darkness. And then our Lord goes on to
teach his disciples in a manner that adjusts our attitude and
puts us right back where we need to be to see that, wait a minute,
our God, our Lord Jesus Christ does all things. He's the one
who provides abundantly for his people. It's not in us. It's
not in us, Lord. It's in the Lord, our God, who
provides for his people and does what we have need of. And so
man has nothing to glory in save Jesus Christ and him crucified.
The scriptures teach that he is the author and finisher of
our faith. And that means nothing's of us.
Nothing good, nothing lasting, nothing that cannot be shaken
is of us. That's all of our God. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, so that the power of God is not of us, but of Him. It's
of Him, and we need His grace to keep our hearts, to keep our
tongues, to keep our minds, to keep our thoughts, fixed upon
him. Even the Apostle Paul, as our
brother said in his prayer, even the Apostle Paul was afflicted. He tells us that he was given
a thorn in the flesh to buffet him, to buffet him, to keep him
humble, to keep him down lest he should be exalted above measure.
And so the Lord has to do that. It tells me the Lord is going
to keep you humble. Speaking of me, he's going to
keep me humble that I would continually look for him. And that's a good
thing for the people of God. That's a good thing for you. And I'm thankful. I'm thankful
for the Lord's leading and instruction because it's for your sakes. It's for your sakes, for your
good. for your good, and it's for my good, but it's for you.
It's for you. And so Paul said this, we have
this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. What's an earthen vessel? It's
a clay pot. And clay pots are fragile. They're
easily broken. And they're easy to toss on the
dunghill. You just throw them aside, and
you go get another one. And that's true of me. That's
true of me and any man who thinks that he's something. No, I'm
nothing. It's all of the Lord's grace.
It's all of the Lord's keeping. And he does that for our good.
He did it for Paul's good. I pray he does it for mine. I
pray he does it for me and keeps me. So let's begin here with
this distinction of God's grace. Now you and I might find a reason
to boast. We might look at our walk, where
we are today here. And we might think, well, I brought
myself here. I pray. My prayers have brought
me here. My opening the Bible and reading
the Bible has brought me here. I talked to people and learned
about the Lord. And I learned what I needed to
learn about the Lord. And I put myself in the path
of God's blessings. We've heard that in religion,
put yourself in the path of obedience and God will honor it. And he'll
bless you. And so a man gets to thinking, well, I've done
this. I've done my part. And I've done
what was necessary. But brethren, those are superficial
things. And it doesn't address what's
in this heart. You know, the flesh of man can
understand that. Open your Bible, say your prayers,
come to services. The flesh can get hold of that
and the flesh does get hold of that. But it's altogether a different
thing to understand that the only reason why I'm here today,
the only reason why I read my Bible and pray and have an interest
in the things of God is because of God's grace. Because of God's
The difference in you, you that believe Him, is not because you've
made good choices in life. It's because of God's grace.
Your good choices in life, so to speak, are because of God's
grace. It's because of God leading you and keeping you and teaching
you and making you to hear so that, I say that, so that we
ever look to Christ and ever seek Him for His grace and mercy
and understand it's of his grace. He said, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. Romans 9, 13. Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. What does that mean? Well, we
see in Genesis that God crossed paths with Jacob to be gracious
to Jacob. Jacob was fleeing from the face
of his brother because he did him wrong. He had just cheated
his brother out of the birthright and out of the blessing of the
firstborn. And Esau said, I'm going to get
him. As soon as Daddy dies, I'm going to take him out. I'm going
to murder him. And it came to Rebecca. And she said, Jacob, you've got
to go. And he goes to his Uncle Laban's house. And God met him
in Bethel. God met him there. Until then,
he and Esau. They participated in things.
They understood some things about the God of their dad, their father
Isaac, and their grandfather Abraham. But they didn't have
an interest in it, not a true saving interest in it. And God
met Jacob in Bethel and revealed himself to Jacob and continued
to reveal himself to Jacob as his redeemer. That's what we
saw. Jacob confessed to Joseph, saying,
my redeemer, the angel of the Lord who redeemed me, who provided
for me and kept me all this way, it was him. He met me. And that's what our Lord does.
He interposes. He intercedes on behalf of his
people to deliver us from death. And Esau, who was probably a
better man, more outwardly a better man than his brother Jacob, God
was pleased to leave him in darkness and pass right by him, just left
him in his sin. He died. He perished because
he's a sinner. But he had no interest whatsoever in knowing
the true and living God. And that's what our Lord shows
us in the scriptures. He says to Moses, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth. It's not my free will. My will's
in bondage. It's not my works. but of God
that showeth mercy. That's the difference maker right
there. And he goes on in Romans 9, 17, and 18, speaking of Pharaoh. And he says that the scripture
saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose, have I raised
thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name
might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore, hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardened
it. And Pharaoh is a sinner, a sinful
man. And by nature, he's a sinner
in works and practices. He's a sinner just like every
one of us by nature. But it pleased God to leave him
in that wickedness. And in fact, he hardened his
heart more and more. He hardened his heart more and
more. And then Paul asks. hath not
the potter power over the clay to make of the same lump one
vessel to honor and another one to dishonor? Of course he can. You that own property, don't
you decide what you're going to put on that property? Don't
you decide if you're going to put it over here or over there?
Of course you do. If it's a vehicle that you own
or some piece of property, if you have no more use for it,
you decide if you're going to sell it and how much you're going
to sell it for. You do all kinds of different things with your
own things all the time. And so does God. And we're the
Lord's possession. This is his earth, his world,
his heavens, his universe, his all. It's all his, and he can
do with it whatsoever it pleases him to do. And so we see there,
just like with Pharaoh, we see Herod. And Herod wasn't a pharaoh,
but he was an influential man, and the Lord hardened his heart.
And I look at, well, let me say this. And that man had a hand
in Christ's crucifixion, too. He had a hand in Christ's crucifixion.
And I know that because in Acts 4, when the people of God are
praying, Acts 4, it says 27 and 28, for of a truth, against thy
holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius
Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, that's
every one of us, were gathered together for to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. And so our
God is sovereign. He's sovereign. And so if we're
here today to seek the Lord, to hear His word, and have an
interest in Him as sinners who need His grace and mercy, praise
God because He interceded. He gave us that desire. He gave
us that new heart. He gave us his spirit and made
us new men and new women, children of God, to hear his voice and
to desire him. That's of God's grace and mercy.
And so there's a distinction that's shown here this morning
in this lump of mankind, if you will, between Herod and the disciples. So in Herod, Luke 9, verse 7
through 9, Now Herod the Tetrarch, that means he's basically a king
over that area of Galilee by authority of the Romans. Herod
the Tetrarch heard of all that was done by him. meaning Christ. He heard of the works that this
Jesus of Nazareth was doing. He heard of the works that his
disciples were going out now and doing, because it was all
in his land, in his area, that he was the Tetrarch over. And he understood this is of
Christ, and he was perplexed because that it was said of some
that John was risen from the dead, and of some that Elias
had appeared, and of others that one of the old prophets was risen
again. And Herod said, John have I beheaded,
but who is this of whom I hear such things? And he desired to
see Christ. He desired to see Christ. He
wanted to see this man and see, is this John? Who is this guy
that's doing all these things? Why was Herod so perplexed? Why
was he so perplexed? Well, because he had no one there
telling him the gospel. He was surrounded by a bunch
of people who knew a lot of things, and not one of them knew anything
about Christ. And he remained in darkness.
He remained in darkness. And ultimately, Mark tells us
that he settled on, it's John. It's John. This has to be John.
He didn't know what he was talking about. He was left in darkness.
The Lord never revealed to him the truth of Christ. And this
man, he was hearing religious things, right? We see him hearing
religious things. They're talking about John the Baptist. They're
talking about prophets being raised from the dead. They're
talking about the works of God being done. These are religious
things. Isn't that good? Don't the scriptures
say that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God?
Sure they do. But he wasn't hearing the word
of God. He wasn't hearing faith. He was hearing things of the
flesh. He was hearing things that cannot save, things that
just waste the time. He was hearing nothing. The preaching
of faith is to preach the Lord Jesus Christ. to declare that
he's the Savior whom the Father hath sent. He saves his people
from their sins. He was put to death to put away
the sins of his people, and he was raised from the dead by his
Father for the justification of his people. We declare faith,
and that's how men are saved. That's how faith is wrought.
God is pleased to use the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. And so Herod wasn't hearing of
Christ. Herod was hearing everything
but. And he remained in darkness.
He remained in darkness. He was learning some facts, but
he was hearing nothing of Christ and nothing of his need as a
sinner for the Savior of sinners. And God left him right there
in darkness. It says there at the end of verse
9, he desired to see Christ. But like so many of our good
intentions, nothing came of it. He didn't go and see Christ.
He wanted to if it was convenient, if it worked out, but he had
no interest in Christ. And he was left right there in
that darkness. And when he finally did see Christ,
Luke tells us at the end of Luke 23 11, it says, Herod with his
men of war set him at nought. And they mocked him. And then
they put a nice fancy robe on him and sent him back to Pilate.
And that man despised Christ. He despised him. But to his disciples
now, our Lord received them, even when they stepped out of
line. even when they misunderstood the gifts and the grace of God
for them. They stepped out of line. They
got a little too big for their britches. And yet our Lord, in
wisdom and in power, taught them in their hearts so that they
saw and understood and knew, this is of God. And this man
is the true and living God in the flesh. In the flesh. And so it says in verse 10 there,
Luke 9, 10, and the apostles, when they returned, told him
all that they had done. All that they had done. Now,
from Mark's account, it sounds like they gave Christ an accounting,
as a store would give. They said, these are the works
we did. These are the things we taught the people. It was
more of an accounting in that manner. But the way Luke records
it, it's for us to see something here. These men have just gotten
a taste of power and authority that was given to them. Herod
saw this was done by Christ. These men said, these are the
works we did. This is what we did here when we did these things. And so it says, our Lord took
them aside. And they went away privately
into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. And if that's all that it said
on this thing, I probably wouldn't have even noticed this or thought
much about it. But there's something more that
comes up. But first, verse 11. And the people, when they knew
it, followed him, and he received him. What a gracious, kind, open
Savior. What a welcoming Lord. I'm reminded
here of an Esther. It said that she had to be careful
just showing up to the king's palace because if he didn't extend
the scepter to you, you'd be put to death. You'd lose your
life. But Christ here never turned
anyone away who came to him and sought him. No one ever died
begging Christ for mercy and seeking Christ for mercy. He
always receives these sinners. He always receives those who
need Him and come to Him for mercy. And so He received them
and spake unto them of the kingdom of God and healed them that had
need of healing. And so it says there, if you
notice there, he's doing the exact same thing that he had
just sent his disciples out to do. He spake unto them of the
kingdom of God, and he healed them that had need of healing.
And look up at verse 2. And he sent his disciples to
preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He's doing
the exact same work as his disciples were just given power and authority
to do. And so his disciples there, are
now resting, and they see their Lord doing that. Until then,
only he had done. And now they were starting to
do them. And they're resting, and they see the Lord doing the
same exact work that they had done. And they're looking at
this, and they're thinking about what's going on here. And verse
12 says, when the day began to wear away, then came the 12 and
said unto him, send the multitude away. that they may go into the
towns and country round about, and lodge and get victuals, for
we are here in a desert place." Well, this is a new development
here. Now they're beginning to talk to the Lord like they're
his peers. They're one with him. You know, Lord, it's getting
late now. Don't you think you should send these people away?
You're just talking and intermingling with them. It's getting late.
It's getting dark out there. We're in a desert place. They
need to find lodging and food. Send the people away now. It's
time for them to go. And they're forgetting him who
had just calmed the waves and the wind, who's Lord of all. And they're speaking to him as
a peer, as a peer. And they had just received this
power and authority, and it seems like they're thinking that there's
something now. And they can speak to their Lord
in this manner. And it's similar to, like, if
you've ever had more than one child, and that first time you
leave the oldest one in charge. And you go away for a while,
and you put that oldest one in charge, and you come home. And
for a little while, they're still barking off commands to their
brothers and sisters, telling them, hey, stop that. I told
you before, don't do that. And then you have to wrest that
back from them and say, daddy's here now. You don't need to keep
parenting. I'll talk to them. Don't keep
shouting off things. And it brings them down. It reminds them that they have
a place. They have a place. Well, our
Lord does this, but he does it in a very gracious manner. He
corrects them in a very gracious manner. He said unto them, you
give them to eat. You give them to eat. You know
what's best for them. You're taking responsibility
for their care and their well-being. You give them to eat. Well, now
suddenly their attitude adjusts. Now suddenly they realize, well,
what do you mean, me give them to eat? We don't have, what's
it going to cost? 200 penny worth for us to go
out and get bread if we can even find it for them? Now you want
us to get this for them? Us give them to eat? They said,
we have no more but five loaves and two fishes, except we should
go and buy meat for all those people. They're realizing now,
wait a minute. We don't have everything it takes
to provide for the people. We have something. But we don't
have much. And the reality is that the power
and the authority that the Lord gives to us as the church, in
reality, all we have is about five loaves and two fishes. We
see through a glass dimly, through a glass darkly. And we may think
we have an abundance until the Lord makes us to see just by
his word, just by a simple word, you give them to eat. Lord, I'm
insufficient. I guess I don't have what it
takes, right? And he does it in such a way
to make us see our own insufficiency to provide for the needs of his
people. And that's a good place to be,
at the feet of Christ, saying, Lord, I can't do this, but you
can. You can do it. And that's what
they see. They're learning right here that
they can't do it, but there is one there that can do it. And
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. There's 5,000 men, plus their
wives, plus their children that are there. And that's just a
tiny segment of the world's population. And the one who's controlling
all things and governs all things is our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, who is right now seated on the throne. doing exactly
as he pleases, opening the seals and implementing the will of
his father in the earth. And we're running around and
bouncing into one another and raging and warring against one
another. And our God is in perfect control,
perfect control. And we forget that. We forget
that by nature. And we need to be reminded here. And that's what our Lord does.
The next thing, so our attitudes, need adjusting, and they get
adjusted through just simple power and his word. They get
adjusted by his word. And he said to his disciples,
make them sit down by 50s in a company. And they did so. They
made them sit down. At first, it was chaotic to a
degree. Nothing's getting done. People
are all around. Nothing's moving forward at all. It's chaos. And then secondly,
He gives the command, and then we obey. When our Lord speaks,
we hear His word, and that's when we're moved, and we see
that, that it's only by His grace that we are moved to action,
so to speak, that we have a desire in the heart to do anything that
pleases Him. It's when He speaks, and we hear
His word, and it says that He sits us down, and that's a humbling
thing. Preaching is a foolish thing.
You that hear, you that are ministered to by this word, that are given
the bread of heaven, that's a gracious thing that the Lord does for
us because who likes to be preached to? No one. No one likes to be
preached to, but he sets us down to hear his word. They hear his
word. And that's all his power. And
so through that all, we see the Lord humbling his people. We
see the Lord reminding his people, lest we should be puffed up like
a herod, only to fall and to hurt many. The Lord keeps us. And the Lord instructs us. And
the Lord must teach us. And when we don't hear, he's
able. He's able to get our attention
and to bring us down low in ourselves. And why does he do this? Because
we're servants. I'm just a servant. And I'm just
a servant serving him who is the greatest servant whoever
was. Do you know that Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, is one with the Father? He doesn't come behind
in anything. One isn't more or less than the
other. The Father and the Son are one. One, there's no difference
between them. And yet, when he came here as
the substitute of his people, he humbled himself and became
the servant of God. He came as God's servant, as
the Father's servant, to accomplish this redemption. So that when
he came, he only did the works that the Father sent him to do.
He only spoke the words that the Father gave him to speak,
that he heard the Father himself speak. And so he came as the
perfect servant. And he never stepped out of line.
He never questioned the Father. He never doubted the Father.
Even on the cross, he remained perfectly faithful to the Father. Perfectly. He didn't blame God. He didn't accuse God. He didn't
charge Him with any wrongdoing. He's the perfect servant, trusting
the Father in all things. And that's what we do as His
servants. We're to trust Him. We don't. We see our weaknesses. We see
our doubting. We question and we complain. But the Lord is very kind, very
gracious in what He does for us. And the Lord never misused
his power. Even when he was in the wilderness
being tempted, and Satan said, turn that stone into bread, and
you can feed your belly, and Christ wouldn't do it. He never
used his power to satisfy himself. He trusted the Father in all
things. He never pleased himself in it.
And now in the wilderness, he's going to ask the Father to bless
this food and make it abundant to provide for all his people.
Even in the beginning of the ministry, when the disciples
were with their Lord, they were outside sleeping with the Lord.
They wake up. They're not in houses. They're
not in their villages. They don't know anybody. And it's the Sabbath
day. And they're going to the synagogue
and are walking through a field of grain. And they were picking
the heads of grain rubbing them in their hands and eating the
green, the berries of green. And our Lord didn't, right? And the Pharisees says they were
watching them. They were seeing them coming
across the field. And they're like, we got them. Look at these
sinners. And they went and said, why do
your disciples break the Sabbath? Why do they not keep the law
of Moses on the Sabbath day? They're eating. They're working
for their food. That was their crime. Our Lord
didn't do that. They didn't say, why do you do
that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day? They said,
why do your disciples do that which is not lawful? Our Lord
didn't eat. He fulfilled the law perfectly in every jot and
in every tittle. But he suffered that for his
disciples because they were hungry. They didn't have houses where
they could prepare the food the night before and wake up with
a loaf of bread. He suffered that for them and
bore that for his people. He bears our weaknesses. He suffered
that for us on the cross to put away any sin we do. He put it
away. He put it away there. Even in
that, that He suffered it for them. because he's gracious,
and he is the servant of God for his people, for our salvation. But he's also the master, the
Lord, our God, our all, our all. And as our sacrifice and mediator,
he took away our sin from us and makes us the very righteousness
of God by him. And though he strips from us
the carnal workings and confidences that we would have in this flesh,
he always fills us with his spirit, and with his grace, and with
his power, and his authority for good, for the good of his
people. And so these men are learning
what it is to be a servant. They're learning what they're
called to preach the word when Christ rises again. And now they're
learning what a servant is. We have a place. before God,
whose word is all-encompassing, all-powerful, all-needful, and
we're to hear Him. We're to hear Him. And in everything,
we are dependent on Him, and that does not change. that does
not change. We're not to think of ourselves
more highly than we ought to think. Even Paul said, we preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your
servants for Jesus' sake. And when we forget, the Lord
is very gracious to humble us and to restore us in grace as
we have need of. But Herod, no such thing. No
such thing for him. And so the Lord's teaching us
that he is the author and finisher of our faith, and he does all
things well. And so here, the next thing we
see is him taking, but he gives. In verse 16, Luke 9, 16 and 17,
then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, that little,
little bit that they had. He stripped them even further
of it. He took from them the five loaves
and the two fishes. And looking up to heaven, he
blessed them and break and gave to the disciples to set before
the multitude. And they did eat and were all
filled. And there was taken up fragments
that remained to them 12 baskets. And so, our Lord, as the Master,
as Lord of all, as our King, takes from us, strips us down
and humbles us, and brings us to nothing in ourselves, and
yet He gives, He blesses it, He blesses it and makes it effectual
to the filling of all His people. As you have need of hearing,
as you have need of having, the Lord gives abundantly to His
people. And so, in this passage, Just
see there that there's a distinction. God deals with you as with children. He deals with you very graciously.
There's a distinction He puts between you and this world. And second, we're learning that
we are but servants in His body and what that means to be a servant. And third, He takes from us what
He pleases. He strips us down of even the
little we have And he blesses his word and gives back to us
what we then give to one another as the body of Christ, ministering
and serving one another in his body. And there's an abundance
there. There's so much that the Lord
does for his people as pleases him that there's an abundance
of fragments that remains over to the blessing of God's people,
to the awe and the wonder of our eye looking upon it. And
I pray that the Lord bless that word. Because Herod never got
that instruction. He never saw that. It didn't
mean anything to him ultimately. But to you that are his, it means
everything. Christ is everything. He is all
to us. Amen.