WWUTT 2033 Jesus Feeds the 4000 (Matthew 15:29-39)

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Jesus had compassion on the people, such compassion that he healed them of all their diseases.

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He had further compassion on them by feeding them when they were hungry. And he cares for us as well when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

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Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky, and greetings, everyone. In our study of Matthew chapter 15, we've got one more section to finish up the chapter today.

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So I'm going to begin by reading in verse 29 and go through verse 39 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

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Hear the word of the Lord. And departing from there, Jesus went along by the Sea of Galilee, and having gone up on the mountain, he was sitting there.

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And large crowds came to him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others.

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And they laid them down at his feet, and he healed them. So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking and the blind seeing, and they glorified the

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God of Israel. And Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I feel compassion for the crowd because they have remained with me now three days and have nothing to eat.

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I do not want to send them away hungry lest they faint on the way. And the disciples said to him, where would we get so many loaves in this desolate place to satisfy such a large crowd?

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And Jesus said to them, how many loaves do you have? And they said, seven and a few small fish.

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And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves and the fish, and giving thanks, he broke them and kept giving them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.

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And they all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, seven large baskets full.

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And those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. And sending away the crowds,

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Jesus got into the boat and came to the region of Magadan. Now of course, this miraculous feeding of the four thousand looks very similar to when

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Jesus fed the five thousand back in chapter fourteen with a few differences. Of course, we've got a difference of a thousand men here.

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There were four thousand men in this account, five thousand in the other. You have five loaves and two fish in the previous account.

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Here you have seven loaves and some small fish. So there are some differences, but it really looks like a very similar miracle.

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What are we to glean from this? And what is being taught to us about Christ, other than him being the miracle worker?

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We see him performing miracles in the beginning here, with the crowds coming to him on a mountain in Galilee, and he heals them of all kinds of diseases.

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And of course, this was a huge crowd. This is thousands of people, not just the four thousand men that are mentioned, but also women and children, thousands, possibly ten thousand, have come out to Jesus to be healed by him.

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And he heals disease after disease, malady after malady. And this is an incredible healing, an incredible three days of healing that Jesus does, not even resting himself, but continuing to show compassion to the people.

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You know, every time I read here in Matthew of a large amount of people that Jesus healed, this isn't the first time where we read just like a quick, brief account of how many, many people brought their sick and their lame to Jesus and he healed them all.

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That's come up before in Matthew. I think about in John, where in John chapter 20,

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John says that there were many other things that Jesus did. And if all of those things were written down, there would not even be enough books in the world to contain all of the incredible things that Jesus did just during the three years of his earthly ministry.

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And this gives us a picture of that. Jesus healing so many thousands of healings that he had probably done here.

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How could you have written all of that down? And this isn't the only time that we read about that.

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It's happened before in the gospel of Matthew. Many people with their sick and their lame being healed by Jesus.

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So Jesus went along by the sea of Galilee. He came up on the mountain and he was sitting there and large crowds came to him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others and laid them down at his feet and he healed them.

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Now we know that what we've read previously in Matthew with the healing of the lame man or the paralyzed man, when

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Jesus healed this paralyzed man, he said, what is easier? He had asked the Pharisees this question, which is easier to say of someone, your sins are forgiven or to say, get up and walk, say to a lame man, get up and walk.

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And of course it's easier to say to somebody, your sins are forgiven because how do you prove that?

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How do you show or demonstrate tangibly that somebody's sins have been forgiven?

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It's harder to say, get up and walk, to tell a paralyzed man to get up and walk because then you got to prove it, that he can actually get up and walk.

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So Jesus does this and he says, so that you would know that the son of man has the authority to forgive sins and then tells the man to get up and walk and take up his mat and go home.

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And he does immediately. He stands up and walks this man who has not walked in a long time.

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Everyone knows that he is paralyzed and he should have no ability to do this, but right there in front of everyone's eyes at the command of Christ, he stands up and walks.

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And so because Jesus has authority over sickness and disease and being lame in this way, so we know that he has authority even to forgive sins.

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So even these things that he is healing here are all to show us the power that he has spiritually to forgive a man, to transform him from a child of darkness into a child of the kingdom.

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So consider these illnesses and deformities that Jesus healed.

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There were many who came to him, lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others.

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And they laid them down at his feet and he healed them. Verse 31, the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored and the lame walking and the blind seeing, and they glorified the

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God of Israel. Because remember, as we've been talking about on the Friday additions of the last several weeks, these miraculous signs were to show that Jesus was truly from God.

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And the fact that he is able to do this, the people glorify God, they praise

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God because it is clearly by the power of God that a man is able to heal in such incredible ways.

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The mute speak, and remember these physical restorations demonstrate what

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Jesus is able to spiritually restore. So a man who is mute, who is unable to speak is suddenly able to speak.

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And it's just like us who, before we come to Christ, are unable to give praise to his name in any way that would be pleasing unto

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God. But by the transforming of our hearts by the Holy Spirit within us, we are made from a person who curses

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God to a man who praises God. The mute speak, those who were previously unable to sing praises unto our

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King, now we do because of the grace that he has shown to us. The crippled are restored.

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The lame are walking. We have no ability to live our lives in such a way that is pleasing to God.

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We cannot follow his law. In fact, that's explicitly said in Romans 8. Those who do not belong to Christ cannot follow, cannot keep the law of God.

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But when we are transformed and his Holy Spirit is dwelling within us, now we are able to walk, to live our lives in such a way that is holy and pleasing unto the

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Lord. And then last, the blind seeing. Previously we could not see the glory of God.

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We did not know our own sin, but we continued in darkness, loving the darkness because we hated the light.

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And yet our eyes have been opened now to see the truth of who we are and the Savior we need and that Jesus is that Savior.

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What Jesus heals physically, he also does within us spiritually.

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Previously unable to speak, now we sing the praises of God. Previously unable to walk, now we live lives of holiness before him.

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Previously unable to see him, and now we see him as he is, following our

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Savior who has done this for us. So we see Christ's compassion on the crowds in this way.

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Christ has compassion on us. He had compassion on you and on me. That brought us from a child of darkness into a child of light.

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We went from being the objects of God's anger and wrath because of the sin and rebellion that we were in, and now we are the objects of his love and his affection, his grace and his mercy upon us.

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And so just as Jesus had compassion on the people in this way, so we see further compassion in the next section, verses 32 to 39.

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Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I feel compassion for the crowd because they have remained with me now three days and have nothing to eat and I do not want to send them away hungry lest they faint on the way.

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They're in a desolate place. Again, that's exactly what the disciples say in the next verse. Where are we going to find food for people in such a desolate place?

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They've been with him for three days, so whatever food they had with them is now gone. And if Jesus were to just send them away and they were to go back where they came from, they could faint on the way and something worse happened to them because they pass out in the middle of the wilderness.

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So Jesus is not willing to send them away. He's going to feed them before they're sent home.

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Now this is slightly different than the account of him feeding the 5 ,000, which we read about in chapter 14, because there the disciples said to Jesus, send the crowds away because otherwise they're not going to be able to get home.

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They're going to become faint and weary. Here Jesus is the one who takes the initiative and says,

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I have compassion on them. I'm not going to send them away because they're going to faint on the way home. The disciples said, where would we get so many loaves in this desolate place to satisfy such a large crowd?

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So Jesus asks them, how many loaves do you have? And they said seven and a few small fish.

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And so Jesus took the seven loaves and the fish and giving thanks, he broke them and kept giving them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the crowds.

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Yeah, I don't know the reason for why the disciples didn't just go ahead and come up with this idea.

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I mean, you might think if I was with Jesus, when he fed 5 ,000, shouldn't I think that he would be able to feed the 4 ,000?

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I don't know. I'm just curious about that on the part of the disciples. Why didn't they think of this? I don't know.

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I've never read a commentary on that where the, where the commentator had said something about that, like, uh, like the disciples just didn't see that Jesus was able to feed the 4 ,000 in the same manner in which he fed the 5 ,000.

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I'm curious to know why they didn't think that. Now, in the previous account of Jesus feeding the 5 ,000, they ask him, but what are so few loaves among so many, but here they don't ask that question.

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They don't say that about the seven loaves that they have. Of course, the seven loaves is not going to be enough to feed 4 ,000 men.

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And then many women and children that are with them as well. So they don't say, but, but what, you know, what can we do with seven loaves?

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They acted that way with the five loaves, but they don't say that with the seven loaves. So maybe the disciples have learned something here and they're not the ones that say that the crowds are hungry.

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So send them away. Jesus is the one that recognizes that. And he doesn't want to send them away because they might grow faint on the way home.

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So he draws the disciples attention to this. And maybe that's the reason why.

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Maybe that's why they didn't come up with the idea. Hey, we've got seven loaves here. Why don't you feed them with these seven loaves?

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Like you did with the five, they don't ask this or they don't make the statement like what good or having seven loaves for a crowd of this size.

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Of course, those are meager rations, but maybe because of what the disciples had witnessed with the feeding of the 5 ,000, then just simply saying seven and a few small fish, they're expecting this is going to happen again.

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Here we go. Jesus is going to feed all this multitude of people with just the few loaves and fish that we have.

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So Jesus directed the crowd to sit down on the ground and he took the seven loaves and the fish and giving thanks, he broke them and kept giving them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the crowds and they all ate and were satisfied and they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, seven large baskets full.

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How many baskets full were there when Jesus fed the 5 ,000? How much was left over?

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It was 12 baskets full here at seven and numbers are very symbolic and this is intentional.

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It's deliberate. It's not just some random number that they would have 12 baskets left over or seven baskets left over.

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There's something that's meant here by this. The number 12 is the number of the people of God and the number seven is the number of completion.

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So the 12 baskets represented God's people. They represented his disciples who were feeding the people just as Jesus was going to direct his disciples to do this later on.

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They were going to be the ones that were going to carry the message of the gospel to the people and feed them, feed the multitudes that being represented by the 12 baskets.

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Here there are seven baskets left over and this is showing how much

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God provides for people completely. They are satisfied.

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That's what said exactly in verse 37, they all ate and were satisfied and they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, seven large baskets full.

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So we have considered here how Jesus healed so many diseases and how he fed so many people.

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He cares for the people that he rules over. He will heal and restore.

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He will feed and satisfy and we get this from our Lord Christ whenever we come to him.

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Now we don't have any need to have to come to Christ and desire a miracle in order to believe in him.

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His power has been demonstrated and it is given to us in his word so that when we feed from the word of Christ, we are fed and satisfied.

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Those whom Christ feeds, he fills. He feeds us with his word. We will be filled with his word.

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Now he provides for our basic needs as well. We read that previously in Matthew back in chapter six, the

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Lord knows that you need food and clothing and he will provide those things for you. If he cares for birds and the lilies of the field, how much more will he care for you?

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Oh, you have little faith. So God provides for us those basic needs, that basic sustenance.

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But beyond this, what we need more than food that fills our bellies is the food that leads to eternal life.

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And it is only when we feed upon the word of God that we're satisfied eternally.

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As Paul says in Ephesians chapter five, don't be filled with wine for that leads to debauchery, but instead be filled with the

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Holy Spirit. Don't fill yourself with those things that offer some temporary satisfaction, but be filled with that which gives permanent satisfaction, eternal satisfaction, filled with the word of God and understood by his spirit.

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With Christ, there is enough. He is enough and even more to spare.

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He supplies grace. He gives us more than we need. And those who seek more will be given to them.

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When Christ had sent away the people, they had everything that they needed and they went home, but they didn't need to look for a miracle again.

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And nor do we need to look for such miracles in order to secure our faith.

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God has given us everything that we need according to his word so that we look into the word and we see

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Christ and we see the love and compassion that he has for us, that he laid down his life for us as an atoning sacrifice on the cross for our sins so that whoever believes in him, our sins are washed away totally, completely.

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We're fully satisfied. We don't need to go for another way to heal the rest of our sins.

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We are completely healed and forgiven when we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

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And the multitudes will come to him and be fed. And we've read here, not just about those in Galilee, not just those in Judah who have come to Christ to be fed by him, but we even read about a

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Canaanite woman in the section we looked at yesterday, verses 21 to 28. She understood that she was no better than a dog, but that Jesus is master.

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And so if he would even give crumbs to her, the crumbs that fall from the master's table, she said, even with a small tiny bit, her daughter could be healed of her demon possession.

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And Jesus blessed her for her faith and her daughter was healed so that even the crumbs that Jesus gives is enough to satisfy us.

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But he doesn't just give us crumbs. He gives us abundantly so that we have everything that we could ever need in Christ.

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And even then so much more for his, Jesus says in John 10, 10, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

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I come that they might have life and have it abundantly.

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And so as we finish up this in verses 38 and 39, those who ate were 4 ,000 men besides women and children.

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So like I said, it could have been 10 ,000 people that were fed with just seven loaves and a few small fish and sending away the crowds.

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Jesus got into the boat and came into the region of Magadan. And that's where we pick up next week.

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We're in a really heavy chapter next week when we come back to our study of Matthew on Monday for we'll be in chapter 16.

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This is the chapter where Jesus asks his disciples, who do you say that I am?

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Heavenly father, we thank you for what we've read here. And I pray that it points us to the savior and understanding that everything that we could ever need, we find in Christ who fills us up and fully satisfies.

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Jesus said in the gospel of John, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks, my blood has eternal life.

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And so we look to his word as our daily bread. We look to his sacrifice as the blood we need to atone for our sins that we may be forgiven today.

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As we read in Lamentations 3, your mercies are new every morning.

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Great is your faithfulness. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts.

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We ask in Jesus name. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

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Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.