Nourished in the Wilderness

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew, the 14th chapter.

Glory to you, O Lord. Now when Jesus heard about the death of John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by Himself.

But when the crowds heard it, they followed Him on foot from the towns. When He went ashore, He saw a great crowd, and He had compassion on them and healed their sick.

Now when it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, This is a desolate place and the day is now over. Send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.

But Jesus said, They need not go away. You give them something to eat. They said to Him, We have only five loaves here with two fish.

And He said, Bring them here to Me. And He ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish,

He looked up to heaven and He said a blessing. Then He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.

And they all ate, and they were satisfied. And they took up the twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over, and those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus.

Now every time this text comes around, I always like to point out, I've heard some pretty awful sermons on this text.

And before you feel bad for me, note that I listen to those bad sermons voluntarily.

So you know, it's not like somebody was out there waterboarding me, I actually purposely listen to those sermons.

And over and again I'm shocked by just how bad the sermons go. Because if you listen to our gospel text today, could you point to me what exactly was the application?

What was the thing that you're supposed to do while hearing this text about Jesus feeding the five thousand?

And you also note, this is a pinnacle, pinnacle miracle in the gospels.

And the reason why is because, aside from the resurrection of Jesus, this is the only miracle that shows up in all four gospels.

This is the only one. And boy, is this really, really important. And so bad sermons along these lines kind of go like the liberals, they always turn this into a story about the importance of sharing.

Because in the gospel of John chapter 6, we learn that it was a little boy who gave his lunch to one of the disciples, the five loaves and the two fish.

And apparently how the story goes, at least the way they tell the story, since they don't believe that miracles are possible.

I don't know what religion that is, by the way, that's not Christianity. Because if miracles aren't possible, then not even

Christ is risen from the dead. And if the Jesus you believe in hasn't risen from the dead, that ain't

Jesus. That's a different Jesus altogether, Jesus of your own making. And if the Jesus you believe in wasn't born of the

Virgin Mary, and yes, virgin births are miraculous, then who is this

Jesus that you claim to believe in? Because the biblical Jesus, the one that is, was born of the

Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate. He was crucified, died, and was buried, as we just confessed.

And he rose again from the grave on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. That's what we confess.

If that's not the Jesus you believe in, maybe you believe in somebody, you're mispronouncing his name.

You know, maybe you should be saying you believe in Jesus, because every

Jesus I know was never born of a virgin, and after they die, they stay dead. Keep that in mind.

So the liberals, what they do with this is that they claim that everybody was there on that grassy wilderness area, and they had all brought coolers with them.

And everybody was afraid to open up their coolers, lest they would have to share with other people.

And so here's this little boy, he shares his lunch when Jesus asks, you know, about feeding the people there, and how hungry they were.

And as the story goes, the little fellow basically says, Mr. Jesus, I have a lunch, I can share it with everybody.

And what ended up happening is that everybody was so shamed by the generosity of this children that everybody pulled out their coolers, and everybody shared their food, and there was leftovers.

That's not what this text is about at all. In fact, that's a completely alternate reading of this text, one that has no basis in the eyewitness accounts.

And then you think about, well, the televangelists. How do they handle this text?

Oh, it's real simple. You see, this is a story about how you must first give before you can get anything from God.

So you better make sure that you're tithing. Oh, and make sure it's 10%. That's the minimum requirement.

Off the gross, not the net. And you see, God can't multiply your seed unless you give your seed.

So this is a text about tithing. This isn't about that either. And that's not why this miracle appears four times in the scriptures.

Let me just read out the beginning of it. Jesus, when he heard this, he heard about the death of John the

Baptist. He withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. Where is

Jesus? A desolate place? Well, he's in a wilderness area, an undeveloped section of his country.

Crowds heard it, though. They followed him on foot from towns. And we learn at the end of this text that the crowd that followed

Jesus out into the wilderness was 5 ,000 men strong, and this doesn't even count the women and children.

How big was this crowd? Well, if every man had a wife, and these are the days before there was birth control, and every wife had children, this crowd could easily have been 20, 25 ,000 strong.

That's how big this group is. And they're out in a desolate place. I seem to remember from the

Old Testament, there's something about a large group of Jews in the middle of the wilderness who are being fed miraculously.

I seem to remember something about that. And see, that's kind of the point, is that when you read the

Gospel of John 6, after this miracle, what did they do? They wanted to make

Jesus king by force. They were going to have a compulsory coronation service for Jesus to make him the king of Israel because they realized with this miracle who he was.

And that's the point of this miracle. Who he is. But not only who he is, but what he's doing, not only for the

Jews of the Old Testament during the time of the Exodus, this group of Jews in the wilderness of Judea at the time the miracle was performed, but also we who are grafted into Israel.

I chose to read the long version of our epistle text today, and that was very strategic on my part.

There was a reason for it. Here again, the longer part of our epistle text, the assigned one for today, we heard in this text in Romans 9 that not everybody who is genetically

Israel is Israel. Him talking, Paul talking about the people who are related to him ancestrally.

He's talking about the Jews who do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah. He says that his conscience bears him witness that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart for them.

For I could wish that I myself were accursed and I was cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

They are Israelites. To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, the promises.

To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race according to the flesh is the Christ or the

Messiah who is God over all, blessed forever. Notice who Paul says the

Messiah is there in verse 5, that he is God over all. And that's kind of the point here.

But then notice what he says, but it's not as though the word of God has failed. Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.

Not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. But it is through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

This is what the Scriptures teach. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God.

It is the children of the promise who are counted as offspring. Let that sink in.

I always like to note the fact that Congsvinger Lutheran Church here in Oslo, Minnesota, don't you know?

It was originally founded by Norwegian immigrants.

And Norwegians are not exactly known for being Jewish, but you're going to note here, whether you're

Norwegian, Polish, Irish, whether you're Welsh, Scottish, it doesn't matter what your ancestry is.

The Scriptures are clear that everyone who trusts in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, they have been grafted into Israel.

I love, several years ago when I preached on this topic, mentioned that fact,

Mike, Mikey DeGraw, after making that point, he blurted out in the service,

Mazel Tov. It was actually quite appropriate. I think amen would have been a little better, but you kind of get the point.

You know, Mazel Tov, we have all been grafted into Israel. And so keep that in mind as we take a look and kind of connect all of the dots regarding this particular imagery of God who miraculously feeds

Jews, Israelites in the wilderness. Because if you don't yet see yourself as an

Israelite, you do not yet embrace this reality. You have been grafted into Israel. So consider then that in the

Old Testament, this picture shows up in Exodus chapter 16.

The children of Israel in Exodus chapter 16, the 10 plagues have already taken place. The children of Israel have marched out defiantly against Egypt and Pharaoh has pursued them and Pharaoh's army has been drowned in the

Red Sea. And we learn from the New Testament that that was considered their baptism, baptism into the

Red Sea. Hmm. I seem to recall each and every one of us being baptized into the

Red Sea as well. You see, the imagery is all the same. And it's important that we see ourselves connected to this because we are not disconnected from it.

So in Exodus 16, the children of Israel have crossed the Red Sea. They've spent just a wee bit of time in the oasis of Alem, which is just on the other side of the

Gulf of Aqaba in Saudi Arabia. It's there to this day. And it says this, they set out from Alem and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of sin.

Man, that's great in English, man. Because it's like, if you want to talk about the imagery of where we find ourselves today, are we not wandering through the wilderness of sin right now?

I know that's not exactly how the Hebrew works here, but it works in English. So give me a little bit of liberty.

Because you'll note, a wilderness is not a good place to build a house, a permanent dwelling, to plant a farm, or a vineyard, or an olive orchard.

Wildernesses are places that you pass through. There's reasons why cities grow in the places that they grow, because that's a good place to build things.

Not so much in wildernesses or deserty regions. Those are always places that you drive through or you fly over.

But that's the point. Children of Israel are in a wilderness place. It's not a permanent place that they're going there.

They're heading somewhere permanent, and that's the promised land. So they came to the wilderness of sin, which is in between Alem and Sinai.

And on the 15th day of the second month, after they had departed from the land of Egypt, the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses.

And we know, based upon the fact this is two and a half months later, that it's really nice and warm and toasty where they're at, because we've now gotten far into spring, maybe the early months of summer, and they're hungry.

And they began to grumble. The people of Israel said to them, oh, would that we had died by the hand of Yahweh in the land of Egypt?

When we sat by the meat pots and ate the bread to the full. This is a weird recollection of slavery.

It wasn't really ever that good. It was always bad anyway. For you've brought us out into this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger.

But then Yahweh said to Moses, behold, I'm about to rain bread from heaven for you. And note the words, bread from heaven.

Where's this bread coming from? Heaven. I'm going 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.

And on the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.

So Moses and Aaron said to the people of Israel, at evening you shall know that it was Yahweh who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

And in the morning you shall see the glory of Yahweh, because he has heard your grumbling against Yahweh.

For what are we that you grumble against us? So Moses said, when Yahweh gives you in the evening meat to eat, in the morning bread to the full, because Yahweh has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him, what are we?

Your grumbling is not against us, it's against Yahweh. So then Moses said to Aaron, say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, come near before Yahweh, for he has heard your grumbling.

And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the

Lord appeared in the cloud. And you'll note that Moses had said that they would see the glory of God in the morning, which means that there was a glory yet that was coming.

This glorious appearing of the Lord in the cloud is not the glory that Moses said that they would see in the morning, it's different.

So keep that in mind. So the Lord said to Moses, I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, at twilight you shall eat meat, in the morning you shall be filled with bread, and then you shall know that I am

Yahweh your God. So in the evening, quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning, dew lay around the camp.

And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake -like thing, fine as frost on the ground.

And when the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, what is it? In Hebrew, manah, manah.

What is it? What is it? And I would note here, I always like to point out that this is clearly a reference to the

Lord's Supper. And this is due to the fact of what Christ does in John chapter 6.

So if I were to open this up, COVID -19, I'm not going to do that right now, but if I were to open this up and point to one of our communion wafers, and I held it up, and I asked the question in Hebrew, manah, what is it?

What does the scripture tell us it is once it's consecrated? It's the body and blood of Christ.

So note then, this miracle points us, points us to the

Lord's Supper. So here's the children of Israel. They're woken up. There's this stuff on the ground.

They're asking, manah, what is this? They did not know what it was. Moses said to them, it is the bread that the Lord, Yahweh, has given you to eat.

This is what Yahweh has commanded. Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can, and you shall take an omer according to the number of persons that each of you has in his tent.

The people of Israel did so. They gathered some more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over.

Whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could. And then

Moses said to them, let no one leave any of it over till the morning. They did not listen to Moses.

But what happened here? God gave them bread from heaven. Consider then what

Christ says in this regard. In the Gospel of John chapter 6, we have one of the clear cross -references to the miracle that we just read about in Matthew chapter 14.

And it's in this text, John 6, where Jesus says to those who wanted to make him king by force, they had requested that Christ give them the bread of heaven.

In fact, in that text, Jesus answered them, the work of God is that you believe in him who he has sent.

They asked Jesus, what must we be doing to do the works of God? And that's plural. Jesus said, the work of God is to believe in the one whom he has sent.

So they asked him and said, what sign then do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?

Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

And then Jesus said to them, amen, amen. Truly I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven.

It was my father who 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.

Listen to those words again. The bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

And they said to him, sir, give us this bread always. Jesus said, I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

I said that to you that you have seen me and yet you do not believe. And here's what happens in verse 41.

Jesus talking about himself being the bread from heaven. The Jews grumbled about him because he said,

I am the bread that came down from heaven. You'll note the manna of the Old Testament points to its fulfillment in Christ, the bread from heaven.

So they said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say I've come down from heaven?

Jesus answered them, do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him.

I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets and they will all be taught by God.

Everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the father except he who is from God.

He has seen the father. So truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died.

So this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven.

If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. I am the bread that will give life.

Give for the life of the world is my own flesh. Well, that didn't sit so well with the

Jews who listened to him on that day. So the Jews disputed among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?

And notice what Jesus doesn't do. He doesn't sit there and go, whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down there, guys.

I didn't mean for you to actually eat my flesh. I was just talking in symbols here. You know, come on, let's be reasonable.

That's not what he said. Listen to what he said. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.

My flesh is true food. My blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.

How many bad sermons have you heard about the importance of abiding in Christ? And you never really quite understand how you go about doing that.

You need to be abiding in Christ. Have you made the decision to be intentional about your abiding in Christ?

Well, we all know what that means. Give up your booze, get rid of your cigarettes, stop your dancing, get rid of all of your movies that are rated

PG -13 or above, and only listen to wholesome music. This is what it means to abide in Jesus.

But that's not what the text says. Whoever feeds on my flesh,

Jesus says, and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.

As the living Father sent me, I live because of the Father. So whoever feeds on me, he will also live because of me.

Man, this is a tough saying. This is really, really hard. And then Jesus like triples down.

This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.

And the text goes on to say then in John 6, when many of his disciples heard this, they said, this is a hard saying.

Who can listen to it? And they didn't follow Jesus any more.

This isn't what we signed up for. So Jesus, knowing this, he turns to his disciples and says, do you take offense at this?

What then if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all.

The words that I've spoken to you are spirit and life, but they are some of you who do not believe. After this, many of the disciples turned back.

They no longer walked after Jesus. So Jesus said to the 12, do you want to go away as well? Simon Peter said,

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that you are the

Holy One of God. So you'll note there's a lot going on in this miracle. It's not a mistake that it shows up in all four gospels.

But then how then does it relate to us? Well it relates to us in a very fascinating passage.

In the book of Revelation chapter 12. In the book of Revelation chapter 12, you have an interesting picture of a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars.

This isn't the Virgin Mary. And the reason why we know it's not the Virgin Mary is because this woman is there for the birth of our

Savior and is there after his ascension, and it says something very interesting about her.

So listen carefully to what the text says. She was pregnant and crying out in birth pains and in agony of giving birth.

And you'll note what this is an image of is the church. And the church has existed long before the day of Pentecost.

Remember what Paul said. Not everyone who is descended from Israel is Israel. It is those who have the same faith as Abraham who are true

Israelites. And so those in the Old Testament prior to the coming of our Savior, who believed and trusted in the one who was to come, who had the same faith as the faith of Abraham, and the same faith in whom

Abraham had faith in, they comprised, if you would, the church of the Old Testament.

And it's this church that gave birth to the Messiah, and it says this.

She was crying out in birth pains, the agony of giving birth. Another sign appeared in heaven, a great dragon, red, seven heads, ten horns, and on his head seven diadems.

His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to earth. This is a picture of the devil. And the third of the stars swept out of the heavens were the angels that joined him in his rebellion against God.

The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she bore her child he might devour it.

And she gave birth to a male child who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron.

But her child was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman then fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God in which she is to be nourished for 1260 days.

The woman is the church, her offspring. You and I are the church. And where are we right now?

Situational awareness, very important thing for survival on a battlefield. Where are we right now?

Welcome to the wilderness of Oslo. For those of you joining us from around the world, the wilderness of wherever you are, this world is the wilderness.

Christ's church is still being nourished to this day. And you'll note,

God himself sent bread from heaven to feed his children, to feed the Israelites in the wilderness.

Jesus then shows that he is that God by miraculously feeding a multitude of Jews in the wilderness of Judea.

And now Christ assures us that he is caring for us, nurturing us in our wilderness wanderings as we are heading, heading to the real promised land.

Not a postage stamp piece of property in the Middle East, but the new heavens and the new earth.

So then consider then Jesus's, this text from Matthew 14 in that regard,

Jesus, he withdrew from there to a desolate place, crowds followed him on foot, he went ashore and he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them.

That's what the text says. I love this in contradistinction to what we read in Exodus 16, because in Exodus 16,

God acts, not because he had compassion on people, he acted because they were grumbling.

But here, this crowd is following after Jesus and his guts are wrenched.

He has compassion on them and he heals their sicks and he feeds and nourishes them miraculously in the wilderness.

And brothers and sisters note this, that Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior, he has had compassion on you and he's had compassion on me.

In the Red Sea of our baptism, he's washed away the filth of our sin. Because each and every one of us come dead and filthy and he has made us alive in him.

And not only that, as the bride of Christ, Christ cares for his bride and he feeds and he nurtures and he protects her in the wilderness the same way that he does, has done in the past.

And so Christ nurtures us, he feeds us, he protects us, he's had compassion on us. But even better than that, we, like the

Israelites of Exodus 16, are grumblers. We are malcontents. We are constantly straying and sinning and grieving

God. But God, rather than giving us what we deserve, has sent his only begotten

Son so that our sins could be atoned for, so that we can be pardoned, so that we can be forgiven, so that we can be cared for as sheep, so that we can be led to pastures, the pastures and the green grass of the new earth.

So the disciples said, this is a desolate place, the day is over, send the crowds away. And Jesus said, you feed them.

And they only had five loaves and two fish. And so he ordered the crowds to sit down in the grass, taking the five loaves and the two fish.

He looked up to heaven and he said a blessing, he gave thanks, he broke the loaves. He broke the loaves.

He, yeah, I seem to think, it reminds me of what we say when we have the Lord's Supper. He broke the loaves and he said a blessing, gave them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the crowd.

And all ate and were satisfied. So brothers and sisters, what is the application of all of this?

Well, it's the imagery that we saw in Isaiah. Come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.

And he who has no money, come buy and eat. I assure you that there is no money in your pocket that you can give that would be able to pay for the gift that God gives you of salvation, pardon, grace, eternal life, even the nourishment that you receive as Christians as we wander through the wilderness towards the new

Jerusalem. So come and buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and labor for that which does not satisfy?

So listen diligently to God and eat what is good and delight yourselves in the rich food of the bread that comes down from heaven.

Incline your ear to the words of the Lord and come to him and hear so that your soul may live because your great

God has had compassion on you. And God will make with you and he has already made with you an everlasting covenant, a covenant that he will not break, a covenant where he has promised to forgive your sins and give you the kingdom as a gift.

It's a lot in that miracle when you begin to unpack it. So brothers and sisters, believe.

The God who fed his children in the wilderness in Exodus, fed them in Matthew 14, shows us in Revelation 12 that we are being fed to this day.

Behold your compassionate great God and Savior who feeds you and nourishes you in your wilderness wanderings as you head towards the new

Jerusalem, all because of his great compassion. In the name of Jesus, amen.

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