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Reading Matthew 14:13-21 where Jesus feeds the 5000 just using two loaves and two fish, an incredible miracle but also a demonstration of God's love. Visit wwutt.com for all of our videos!
Jesus fed 5 ,000 men, and even more than that, women and children, with just five loaves and two fish. And as Jesus fed so many, so he feeds us today when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the word of God that we may comprehend with all the saints how wide, how high, and how deep is the love of Christ. Tell all your friends about our ministry at www .tt .com.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we are in chapter 14 this week. Yesterday, reading about the death of John the Baptist. Today, it's the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5 ,000. I'm gonna begin reading in verse 13 and go through verse 21 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.
Hear the word of the Lord. Now, when Jesus heard about John, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. And when the crowds heard of this, they followed him on foot from the cities.
And when he went ashore, he saw a large crowd and felt compassion for them and healed their sick. Now, when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, this place is desolate and the hour is already late, so send the crowds away that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.
But Jesus said to them, they do not need to go away, you give them something to eat. But they said to him, we have here only five loaves and two fish. And he said, bring them here to me. And ordering the crowds to sit down on the grass, he took the five loaves and the two fish and looking up toward heaven, he blessed the food and breaking the loaves, he gave them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the crowds.
And they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, 12 full baskets. And there were about 5 ,000 men who ate besides women and children. So this is right after we read about the death of John the Baptist, that was in verses one through 12.
Jesus feeding the 5 ,000 is the miracle in verses 13 to 21. And then the last story in chapter 14 is Jesus walking on the sea, verses 22 to 36. That's the portion of chapter 14 we'll be looking at tomorrow.
But again, with the death of John the Baptist, it says here in verse 13 that Jesus heard about John and withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. Remember earlier, I didn't get the chance to mention this yesterday, but Jesus had said about John, and this was while John was in prison, there was no one born of woman who was greater than John the Baptist.
He was considered to be the last prophet. He is the forerunner to the coming of Christ. And because of what John preached, he was arrested and thrown in prison and was ultimately put to death because he desired righteousness and preached righteousness.
And Herodias, Herod's wife, hated what it was that John the Baptist preached and demanded that he be put to death, and so he was. John did what he was supposed to do out of faithfulness unto God. Herodias hated what it was that John preached, and Herod had John put to death.
This is the same as with Cain and Abel. I made this comparison yesterday. Cain hated Abel, who did the righteous thing, and God's favor was with Abel. But Cain, out of jealousy toward Abel, took his brother out to the field and struck him down and killed him.
And so it's the same sort of a thing that's happening with the Herods and John the Baptist. They hate righteousness. They hate God. If they had known God, they would have loved John. John wasn't out there just trying to stir up trouble.
He was continuing to do what he was supposed to do out of faithfulness to God. And it eventually led to his death. So depictions of John as being this troublemaker, that he was trying to stir some things up just to stir controversy, that's the way things work in our world today.
You know, you want to have fiery takes on social media so that people will get stirred up and you get a lot of tension to yourself. That's not what John was doing. John was simply acting out of faithfulness to God and in faithfulness to the Lord because he loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.
The lawless rose up against him and struck him down. Jesus being fully God and fully man, right? He's vera homo vera Deus, very man and very God. He mourns over the fact that his cousin, because remember Jesus and John the Baptist were related in the flesh.
He mourns over the fact that his cousin was put to death. And so in verse 13, it says that Jesus withdrew in a boat to a desolate place by himself. Most likely he was praying. Jesus goes off to spend time with his father, grieving in his heart over the effects of sin in the world.
It looks like here the wicked are winning and the righteous has just been struck down. That's the effects of sin in the world. And I'm not saying it looked that way to Jesus. Jesus knows what's about to happen.
He knows what's going to take place. But nonetheless, he grieves over the fact that the wickedness of this world has cost a man his life, someone that he dearly loved. And so he goes off to a place by himself to be with his father.
When the crowds heard of this, they followed him on foot from the cities, it says. So Jesus is in a boat going off by himself. The crowds go to the other side of the lake. And it says in verse 14 that when Jesus came ashore, he saw a large crowd and felt compassion for them and healed their sick.
Now, the miraculous signs that Jesus did, these miracles, these healings that he did and casting out demons and other things, these of course were signs to the fact that he was sent by God. Remember that Nicodemus says in John 3, we know that you are a man come from God because no one can do the signs that you do unless God is with him.
So this is to show that Jesus comes with the authority of God. In fact, he is God himself. No one else in scripture did more miracles than Jesus did. So he shows that he has been sent by God, that he is God, he is God incarnate.
The miracles serve as a sign in that way. But Jesus also does them because he loves the people. He cared for them, he had compassion on them. We see demonstrations of the fact that Jesus even loved those who did not love him back.
Remember the story of the rich young ruler, the way that Mark tells it in Mark 10. We're gonna have this story coming up in Matthew. It's worded slightly different in Mark's account because when the rich young ruler says to Jesus that he's kept all the commandments from his youth, according to Mark's account of this story, Jesus looked at the rich young ruler and loved him and said, this thing I hold against you, go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor and then come and follow me and you will have treasure in heaven.
So Jesus loved this rich young ruler even though the end of that story is the rich young ruler walks away because he had many possessions. He loved his stuff more than he loved God. Jesus loved him enough to tell him of his sin so that he would turn from his coveting to Christ and have treasure in heaven.
Jesus loved the people even when they did not love him back. And so here he has compassion on the people and he heals their sick. Now, when it was evening, verse 15, the disciples came to him and said, this place is desolate, the hour is already late, so send the crowds away that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.
But Jesus said to them, they do not need to go away. You give them something to eat, which is a hilarious response, all things considered. Jesus knows they don't have food, but he's about to demonstrate this incredible miracle as the man who, the man, he is the God man, he is the one who created all things out of nothing so he's going to feed 5 ,000 men in addition to women and children with just five loaves and two fish.
The disciples said to him, we have only here five loaves and two fish, that's all we've got. How are we gonna feed these people? Send them off so that they may go to the villages and buy food. But Jesus said, bring them here to me.
And ordering the crowds to sit down on the grass, he took those five loaves and the two fish and looking up toward heaven, he blessed the food and breaking the loaves, he gave them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the crowds.
Would have been a lot of work for just 12 men to do. It's possible that there was more than 12 there and we've talked about this multiple times. I mentioned it yesterday even that there were more disciples than just the 12.
There were the 12 that were like the inner core that Jesus focused on and spent most of his time with. There was also in addition to the 12, well, in addition to the 12, inside the 12, there were the three.
There were three that were even closer than the other nine and that was Peter, James and John. There were many disciples that followed Jesus. So it could have been that there were many who were with him here that helped serve the 5 ,000 people, the loaves and fish that Jesus was dividing up.
And as Jesus takes these five loaves and two fish, he does well with them. First of all, he blesses the food. He asked that the father would bless it. Just like you and I would say a prayer at lunch or at the dining room table, asking that God would bless this food to our bodies.
We thank the Lord for the hands that prepared it. This is the very thing that Jesus does. You understand that when we are praying and giving thanks for the food that we eat, we are imitating something that Christ did with his father.
It is a good thing to pray for food. Of course, we need to do more than just pray at mealtimes and at bedtime. I try to teach my kids, we should be praying all the time. But we do this prayer, thanking God for our food because Jesus did it.
And it's one of the most basic things that we can do. Everybody needs to eat. So when it comes to giving thanks to God, thank him for the food that we have been given that helps to sustain us. All things given by the Lord, this food that we eat been provided by God.
So we thank God for this. Jesus thanks the Lord. He thanks his father in heaven for these five loaves and two fish. Thank you for these small rations that I have, that I may glorify your name and feed this people.
And so Jesus breaks the loaves, he gives them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the crowds. Surely the disciples had to be astonished by this as it was happening. Where is he getting all this food?
We just gave him five loaves and two fish. But all the people, it says in verse 20, all the people ate and were satisfied. They weren't just little, you know, like handfuls of bread and fish. It was more food than they needed.
They ate their fill. They ate until they couldn't eat anymore. They ate and were satisfied. And then there was even more that was left because the disciples go around picking up what's left and they have 12 full baskets.
How many disciples were there? 12 disciples. Of course, like I said, I think there were more disciples than that that were gathering, but they came up with 12 full baskets. That's what they had left over.
And there's a significance to that. The number 12 has a significance in scripture. You have 12 tribes of Israel. You had 12 disciples of Jesus, the 12 apostles who were sent out. Jesus appeared to the 12 after his resurrection.
Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 15. So he is an additional apostle, but there was still the 12 that Jesus appeared to after he rose again. So you have 12 tribes representing the people of God in the Old Testament.
You have 12 apostles representing the people of God in the New Testament. Seems to be a significance to the number 12. We see that number come up a lot in the book of Revelation as well. So it's a number of God's people.
And here God's people have eaten and are satisfied. And God has given so much, he has given abundantly more, that there is more left over, in fact, 12 baskets full. Remember what Jesus said in John 10 .10, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly. And so this is demonstrating the abundance that God gives to his people. He feeds us and we are satisfied. Jesus, the bread of life that came down to heaven to sustain our souls.
And here Jesus gives bread, he gives fish, the people eat and are satisfied just as we desire to be fed from Christ. That we may also be satisfied. Jesus had gone away by himself at the beginning of this section of the story and the people followed him, they pursued him and Jesus had compassion on them and healed them.
So we should always be pursuing after Christ. And if we desire to be fed by him, then we will be fed and satisfied and even there will be an abundance more than that. Whatever it is that we come to Christ desiring, he's gonna give us even more than we came for.
You understand what we're gonna receive in eternity. We who love Jesus, who know that by faith in Jesus, our sins are forgiven. We know that he is preparing a place for us as he said to his disciples in John and he is coming back to take us to that place that he is preparing for us.
Whatever it is that we're gonna be receiving on the other side, whatever you think you're going to receive in Christ, you receive something from him now plus more and then what you're gonna receive for eternity is far beyond whatever it is that you imagine it will be.
Jesus gives us abundantly more. We are fed by him, by his word and we are satisfied. He takes away our sins, he gives us meaning and purpose, he sanctifies us, he reconciles us to God. Through him, we are adopted into the family of God.
We are part of his church, we're part of his body. With these people, we are growing and building one another up in love. There is so much that we have been given in Christ and are enjoying the blessings of even now.
He gives us so much more even now, but it's gonna be even greater than this. It's incredible what's coming. Words can't even describe it. And so do you eat from Christ and are satisfied now and you anticipate that extra that's coming, what we will be rewarded with in eternity when we get there in glory.
The people were all ate and were satisfied. There was more leftover of the broken pieces, 12 full baskets that we may come to Christ and desire more. An incredible statement in verse 21, there were about 5 ,000 men who ate besides women and children.
5 ,000 men who ate of these loaves and fish. Matthew is the only one that mentions that the 5 ,000 were only men. The ones that they counted were men, 5 ,000 men besides the women and children. So it was way more than that.
Could have been, he could have fed 15 ,000. We don't know. It could have been tens of thousands that Jesus fed, but the crowd had come from many distances. Women and children were probably few. It probably wasn't a lot.
It may have been mostly men, but the women and children would have been grouped together by themselves and therefore not counted. The men may have gathered up what they needed and then gathered food also for their wives and for their children and then took it to their wives and a man's wife and his kids and fed them.
This is just the way things were done then. The men had more prominence than women did. It's very unlikely that the crowd was more women and children than men. It was mostly men, but nonetheless, the statement here indicates to us that it was more than just 5 ,000 who were fed.
We often refer to this as Jesus feeding the 5 ,000, but it may have been more than that. Feeding so many, what an incredible miracle, but also what an incredible act of benevolence. Jesus showing care and compassion to these people.
We read back in verse 14, Jesus felt compassion for them and he healed their sick. He did more than this. He fed them till they were satisfied. The food that we need is Christ and by feeding upon Christ, we are promised eternal life.
Knowing that Christ is the food that we need is more than just going through a conversion and saying, well, now I'm a Christian and so I'm saved forever. Desiring Christ means that we come to him daily.
If you understand that Christ is food, you need food every day, right? So you need Christ every day. Jesus taught us to pray. We read previously in Matthew 6, give us this day our daily bread and Christ is a daily bread that we so desperately need.
As Jesus said to his disciples, man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. I'm sorry, that wasn't to his disciples. That was his response that he gave to Satan when Satan was trying to tempt him to turn the rocks into bread.
Jesus had quoted to him from the law and said, man shall not live by bread alone, but from every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And so we cannot live forever by eating the food that perishes.
We can only live forever by eating that which never dies. That's Jesus Christ. And by coming to him and feeding on him every day, we are being grown spiritually and we are promised everlasting life. Let's finish there with prayer.
Heavenly father, we thank you for what we have been given in Christ. As Jesus had compassion on this crowd, may we have compassion on others, knowing that they need to be fed. They need to be fed the gospel of Jesus Christ, a world full of people who are perishing, who are going to hell and the only way that they can be saved is to come to faith in Jesus Christ, that they may be healed, that they may be fed, that they may live forever.
So give us this day our daily bread and teach us how we may take this bread and feed others so that they too may live by the power of the gospel of Christ. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Pastor Gabe is the author of several books and Bible studies, available in paperback or for your e-reader. For titles and more information, visit our website at www .utt .com. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in God's word, when we understand the text.