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Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Do you believe that Jesus, in his love for you, genuinely, genuinely, through his power, through his love, through his sacrifice, washed you white as snow?
[00:00:14] There is no sin. There is no sin. Beloved, hear this. There is no sin that is somehow strong enough to overpower the love of Jesus.
[00:00:27] Corey ten boom was someone who survived the Holocaust as a Christian who went away for helping protect Jews and saw her whole family waste away and die in the concentration camps. And she said, there is no pit so deep that the love of God is not deeper still.
[00:00:47] Lord, that is the truth of the gospel for you today.
[00:00:50] There is no sin that Christ cannot wash away. Amen. Oh, hey, before we get into it, happy Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day. I am so glad you guys are here. Listen, I say this every year, and I think it's really important. You know, we at Emmanuel, we unapologetically celebrate Mother's Day. And there's one reason for that. Moms are awesome, and we all had to have one to get here.
[00:01:18] And it's worth celebrating God's good design in femininity and in motherhood. But, guys, listen, I understand that as I say that, that, you know, for a lot of people, Mother's Day is a day they avoid coming to church because it brings up painful feelings, it brings up painful memories. Whether that's broken relationships with a biological mother, whether that's longings for motherhood that have been left unfilled, whether it's pain and broken relationship, whether it's those who've just died and are no longer here and just brings up those memories. And I just want to say, if that's you today, if Mother's Day is difficult and painful for you, I want you to know that I personally. But we, as a church, we're so glad you're here. We're so glad you're here. We get the weight of that. We get the weight of that. I want you to know that Christ is in that with you today, that you can experience what you need to experience today. You can be with your church family, and you can meet with Christ today. And his balm is powerful enough to speak into whatever wounds you might carry.
[00:02:16] And alongside that, guys, we still just. We just want to unapologetically celebrate the ladies. Because, ladies, you're a gift. You're a gift to us. You're a gift to the church. Mothers, you're a gift to the church. You're a gift to this family. And so I don't know what the heck Jim was thinking earlier, saying, ladies, you can go get your own rose. That's not how we do this. That's not how we do this.
[00:02:37] I would just like. Can I get some of the pastors and deacons, whoever? Can you guys just go back there? Can you hand out roses to the ladies here today? There's no reason a lady should have to get her own rose on mother's day. And by the way.
[00:02:50] Yeah, it's what he said.
[00:03:00] Just let it be known today on the record. Official church forever. Sam loves the moms of the church more than Jim. Just so you guys could remember that.
[00:03:12] Oh, we are so glad you guys are here. While the guys are passing that out, I am supposed to remind you, Jim mentioned last week that we have this roman series coming up. This series are called asking for a friend. We're talking about how the gospel or the book of Romans speaks to the deepest questions in the human heart. We want to encourage you guys to think about who you might invite to come experience that series with you and speak. See Christ, speak into some of the deeper questions that we experience as christians. And so we've printed up invite cards. They're back there on the table. I would love for each of you guys to grab a handful of those and invite some friends and some family to come participate in that series with us in a couple weeks. Okay? All right.
[00:03:54] We're here today. We are continuing. I'm not doing a Mother's Day sermon, but I am because the mothers the church need is the gospel. So we're going to talk about the gospel today.
[00:04:05] So if you want to grab. If you want to grab your bibles and turn to Matthew 14, we're actually stepping back into our journey through Matthew today. Matthew 14. If you don't have a Bible with you here today, there are house bibles. Just look under the chairs in front of you. They're around. And I would really. I just want. I want you to hear this. If you're here today, especially if you're visiting, if you don't own a physical copy of God's word, we want you to have one, I promise. We really believe in the importance of access to God's word here at Dominion Fellowship Church. I would encourage you, if you don't own a Bible, just snag depew Bible and take it home or even talk to one of the pastors, and we'll give you like, a nicer one that's like, you know, doesn't have print that's so tiny you can't read it. But, yeah. Matthew. Matthew 14. Today we're stepping back into Matthew. As you turn there, I just want to give myself a little shout out. My anniversary is in a couple weeks, which it's like, it's. Thank you. It's that time of year, right? Everyone gets married in May and June. My 13th anniversary is coming up in a couple weeks. Lucky number 13. I've heard from several reliable sources that it's only the first 13 years that are hard. And then it gets easy after that. Can you guys. Can anyone, anyone confirm that? For me, that's how it goes. Okay.
[00:05:21] I feel like it's been getting easier for me and harder for Kim. I don't know what the.
[00:05:28] No. My anniversary is coming up. Those of you who are married, I'm sure you relate to this on some level. Every year my anniversary comes up, I just. I just think about my wedding a little bit. It pops back up in my head. And I think about that day and what I remember and what I don't remember. Here's a picture from. From my wedding. This was at our. At our party afterward.
[00:05:48] Oh, it was very dark.
[00:05:52] It was at night.
[00:05:57] The reason I. The reason I bring this up. I don't know about you guys, but I barely remember my wedding. And no, sobriety was not a reason for that. It was just so much going on. I barely. I know we. I remember the ceremony very specifically. I remember Kim. Those are the important parts to me. But the reception, the music, the toasts. Well, I do remember my brother's toast. It was very disappointing. He's here.
[00:06:27] I don't remember much about my wedding. Cause it was all just such a blur. I mean, Kim and I had people to greet. We had all the dances to do with all this different stuff. I don't know if we actually ate the meal or not. Like, we might have. I don't remember it. I know we had cake. I don't think I actually got any besides the bite you take for the picture. It was just that kind of experience. Because you're doing all the stuff. Right? And yet. And yet this key moment in my life. This key moment in my life that I celebrate the anniversary of every year. This key moment in my life was built off of a feast surrounded by family and friends. There is just something about, like, so much of human life. And human interaction happens around the table. You know what I mean? Like, there's just something about these feasts. Whether it's Thanksgiving and it's you and six other people. Or it's a wedding and it's everyone you know, or it's Mother's Day brunch. And your son made you a dutch baby, which, by the way, if you didn't make your mom a dutch baby today on Mother's Day, you're bad at it.
[00:07:28] I didn't. I was busy. But you don't have an excuse, whatever it is.
[00:07:34] We gather around tables for these important events, right? There's something about feasts that just commemorate that mark human life and interaction. As we step back into Matthew today, we're going to be in Matthew 14.
[00:07:50] We're going to see essentially a tale of two feasts. We're going to look at a feast with King Herod, and we'll see this worldly, indulgent feast that led to sin and destruction. And then we're going to see King Jesus's feast that was born out of his own exhaustion and his incredible, compassionate love for his family. And that feast leads to life and leads to worship. Because, beloved, at the end of the day, Jesus is just a better king than any this world has to offer. See, Jesus loves needy sinners like us.
[00:08:30] He pours himself out for us. He cares for us. So when we as christians, when we go out into the world and interact with people all around, and we love folk, even when it's costly, even when it's inconvenient, we're able to do that because of how costly the love of Jesus is for us. Pray with me and we're gonna jump into it. Jesus, we thank you so much for this morning. Thank you for the gift of a day at church. Thank you for all the ladies. You have blessed our church with those who are mothers and spiritual mothers and just designed in your femininity. God, we thank you for how you reveal yourself to us through femininity and through motherhood. You show so much of your heart of care and presence. Lord, we thank you for gifting our church the way you have. God, as we take a few minutes today to dig into your word, we ask, Holy Spirit, that you would be our interpreter, that you would be our discipler, that you would be the one who draws us to your truth today. For those of us who drug ourselves over the threshold today, exhausted, I pray that we would see your heart of care, your heart of presence.
[00:09:42] For those of us who are just deep in the throes of hurt and pain and bad decisions, I pray that we would see your compassion for us and God. For those of us who just need a kick in the butt to go and love like we've been loved, I pray that you would lovingly challenge us today, God, we need you for this work. So we pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.
[00:10:05] Okay, Matthew, chapter 14. We're starting in the first verse, if you remember. It's been a hot minute since we've been in Matthew. If you want to take just a second to remind or for us to kind of remind ourselves of the context, by the time we get to Matthew 14, Jesus ministry has really, like, just spun up to full speed. And a whole lot of big things happened all at once around this chunk of Matthew. The big one is that Jesus experiences a whole lot of opposition. The religious leaders, the authorities in his day, who should have recognized him as messiah, as the spiritual authority, instead actually begin to debate him and challenge him and reject him. And at the same time that that happens, his own family shows up and they say, hey, man, you're off your rocker. Come home. And Jesus says no to them. And at the same time that that happens, Jesus goes back and preaches in his hometown, and all the people who grew up around him and knew him reject him and run him out of town.
[00:11:08] So Jesus ministry is exploding in influence. He has more and more and more and more and more people coming to hear him teach, hear his parables, receive the blessing of his miracles. But the people who are actually closest to Jesus and the people who should have most recognized his messiah ministry, they're the ones who, who are actually pushing him away as his ministry explodes and grows. So we're going to look at two stories here, back to back, that we don't probably normally read together, but Matthew gives them to us together for a specific reason. Then we're going to see something powerful here. So we're going to read the one, talk about it. Read the second one and talk about it. So Matthew 14, we're going to start in verse one where it says this. At that time, this is in reference to everything we just said, all the stuff going on in Jesus life at that time. Herod the tetrarch heard the reports about Jesus. This is John the Baptist. He told his servants he's been raised from the dead, and that's why miraculous powers are at work in him. For Herod had arrested John, chained him and put him in a prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, since John had been telling him, it's not lawful for you to have her. Though Herod wanted to kill John, he feared the crowd since they regarded John as a prophet. But when Herod's birthday celebration came, Herodias daughter danced before them and pleased Herod so he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. Prompted by her mother, she answered, give me John the Baptist's head here on a platter. Although the king regretted it, he commanded that it be granted because of his oaths and his guests. So he sent orders and had John beheaded in prison. His head was brought on a platter and given to the girl who carried it to her mother. Then his disciples came, removed the corpse, buried it, and went and reported it to Jesus. Okay, that's not a super pleasant story, but our text opens here by reminding us that there's a lot of moving parts in Jesus story at this point. All this stuff is happening around the same time. Jesus's growing conflict with the religious leaders, his rejection by his family in his hometown, the explosion of his authority and the crowds coming around him, all this is happening. And because of this Herod the tetrarch, who's kind of the roman governor over the province of Galilee where Jesus lives, he hears about Jesus, he becomes aware of Jesus ministry. And all this happens around the same time that Jesus finds out John the Baptist has died.
[00:13:43] Now, Herod's birthday party is a relatively famous part of history. It's well known. It's well known, well tested in the gospel stories. Also known in history. Outside of that, Herod the tetrarch, if you don't know, just like a real quick history lesson to kind of catch us all up here. Herod the tetrarch was the son of Herod the Great. This was the guy who was king when Jesus was born, if you remember the Christmas story. Like, super evil Herod, who had all the babies killed in Bethlehem, right? Like, this is that guy's son. When Herod the great died, none of his sons were deemed capable by Rome to actually rule over the whole region. So Rome divided it up amongst Herod's different kids. Eventually, Jerusalem became so unruly that they ousted Herod's kid and put a roman governor over Jerusalem. That's why by the time Jesus dies, it's Pilate, the roman governor, who's ruling over Jerusalem. But the rest of Palestine is ruled over by Herod's sons. And the region where Jesus lived in Galilee, north of Jerusalem, was ruled over by this guy called Herod Antipas, or Herod the Tetrarch. And what's interesting about Herod is that he is a secularized jew. Now, I know it feels like I'm zoning in on a couple different details here, but these actually make sense and kind of help flesh out the story. See, HeRod was a guy who was thoroughly rOman. He was fully given over to Roman culture and the Roman political life. He wanted to be successful in his government job. He wanted to live into all the pleasures that those wealth and that authority brought with him. But he also identified himself as jewish. See, his mindset and the mindset of his father, Herod the great, was that the only way forward for the jewish people was for them to adapt themselves to ROmAN culture. Stay jewish, keep your feasts, keep your festivals, keep your language, but just adapt yourself to the ROmAN customs. And this kind of weird, secularized, like, Jewish culture, but no Jewish faith. This actually gained some ground during Herod's life. Just a few chapters later, when Jesus is beginning to be confronted in the temple by the different religious authorities, there's a moment when a group of Herodians come and challenge Jesus's teaching. These are these secularized Jews who hold on to their jewish cultural identity, but who want to follow, follow the ways of Rome. Now, we might find it weird that it took Herod so long to, like, notice Jesus ministry, but a couple things you have to remember, right, like, first off, this is the first century. There's no Internet, there's no digital communications. But the other thing is this, guys, Galilee was pretty podunk, like, Galilee actually made a lot of money for Rome.
[00:16:20] But Galilee was not a place where a lot of famous scholars and teachers were raised up. There wasn't much precedent for the kind of notoriety that Jesus was gaining. And so it's actually not that strange. There weren't systems in place to report this stuff to Herod. It took a while for him to figure out about Jesus. And when he does, he connects his own dots and goes, oh, Jesus. Must be John the Baptist resurrected to haunt me for all the bad stuff I did. And then we get this just really sorrowful flashback. What essentially happened is that John the Baptist, who was this prophet who came right before Jesus ministry, he had been criticizing Herod for his illegal and immoral marriage to his own sister in law. We don't have time to dig into that fully. But what basically happened is Herod went to a party, met his sister in law and said, I like you better than my wife. Let's both get divorced and get married. And so they did. And his sister in law moved in with him, brought their adult daughter with them, and they started building their life together. And John the Baptist said, hey, that's evil. You shouldn't do that. And so Herod had him arrested and chained up in prison for the rest of his life. For speaking up against that. Right? And what the scripture tells us is that Herod really wanted to kill John, but he was, like, just superstitiously jewish enough to be like, I mean, I know this guy's a prophet. You're not supposed to kill prophets. So I'm just gonna keep him chained up in prison. And what he would do is every so often, he would bring John up to, like, teach me prophesy to me, and then, like, I don't like that, and then send him back to jail. He was just kind of this back and forth, but he wasn't willing to actually be the one to kill John. This is, by the way, just a few chapters back. Read about how John actually, in this season, grew in discouragement and doubt, going like, I'm trapped in prison. My ministry is, like, struggling. Like, I thought Jesus was the messiah. He actually sent word to Jesus to be like, hey, like, are you actually the messiah? Because from my perspective, everything seems pretty terrible over here. And Jesus sent these encouragements back to him. Like, God is moving. God is working. The kingdom is here, right? But what eventually happens is that Herod has this birthday party, this infamous birthday party where he brings all his people around him in his big, huge castle, and everyone's enjoying the feast. Everyone's wasted. And at some point, he has his stepdaughter come out and perform a dance for them. It doesn't really come across in the English, but the way it's written is meant to leave no question about the fact that it was, like, an erotic performance that this daughter in law performs for her father in law and all his guests. And he likes it. He enjoys it. He enjoys it so much in his drunken state that he says, hey, I'll give you anything you want. One wish, anything you want that's within my power. Let me know what it is. And she doesn't know what to do. So she talks to her mom, hey, what should I ask for? This is pretty nuts. It's a pretty great opportunity. And the mom says, yeah, you should ask for him to kill John the Baptist. Like, ask for his head on a silver platter so that we know he won't back out of it, because this guy, like, mocks us publicly and has, like, built a following out of mocking us. And so the daughter says, yeah, that's what I want. I want John the Baptist head. So they kill John the Baptist just like that, in the middle of the party. Herod is embarrassed. He feels bad about it, but he's like, well, I did make a promise in front of my friends while I was drunk. And everyone knows you got to keep those. And so he has John the Baptist beheaded, has his head brought up. His followers hear about it, they go, they bury his body, and they go and tell Jesus, guys, we're not going to linger here because there really isn't a lot to linger here, right? Like, this is just a sad story. Just a sad story. It's a wasted death. It was an evil thing that Herod and his family did. There was no good reason for it, and it happened.
[00:20:00] What we see here, guys, just to be honest, really is just a perfect picture of a worldly power, of a worldly feast. Herod is drunk in a literal sense, but also drunk on his own glory, engaging in debauchery and foolishness. He doesn't consider the well being of anyone else. And the result of his sin is more sin is human suffering. It's death.
[00:20:29] Guys, it's important, I think, for us to remember, right? Like, this is not the main point today, but I think it's important for us to remember that without Christ, this is the result of earthly powers. Like, this is the best earthly authority and power has. This is the most it has available apart from the power of Christ. It's just sin and debauchery and self glory and suffering. Next time you are tempted to believe that some political figure is a messiah who will save our culture, like, remember Herod, right? Apart from Christ, earthly power just doesn't have it in it to actually bring about the good of the kingdom. It's a tragic story. It ends with Herod deep in sin and John the Baptist dead. Read on with me. Starting in verse 13, we read this.
[00:21:16] When Jesus heard about it, he withdrew from there by boat to a remote place to be alone. When the crowds heard this, they followed him on foot from the towns. I actually think it's really important. I know there's a whole narrative here. I think it's really important to stop at this first verse.
[00:21:34] Jesus hears about all these happenings, and it's really easy to read this text almost kind of cynically of like, oh, Jesus is feeling the political heat, right? Like, things are going down, there's persecution firing up. He warned his people about this. And so he's got to go, like, get away and let the heat die down. And the reality is that probably is part of it, right? Like, there was persecution firing up. And they're being wise. But I think there's something way more important to remember here because Jesus loved John.
[00:22:02] He loved this man.
[00:22:05] They were cousins.
[00:22:07] They knew each other. They were raised around each other. Remember the story of young Mary going to visit Elizabeth? And in the womb, John jumps with joy at the presence of Jesus the messiah. Remember the scene at the river Jordan when John and Jesus, like, there's this intimate connection and he's speaking to him and says, I should be baptized by you. This is not how this should go. Remember his bold proclamation when Jesus first walked by on the banks of the Jordan? Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He was Jesus herald to the world, but he was also his family. He was also his friend. Remember Jesus sending word to encourage him in his doubt?
[00:22:47] But, guys, truly, as John said, John must become lesser as Jesus becomes more.
[00:22:54] In this moment, I think we're given a window into Jesus's humanity, right? Fully God, but fully man.
[00:23:03] The work of the kingdom has been constant. Like Matthew kind of like calms it down for us because we get these breaks where we get these long chunks of Jesus teaching. But if you read in Mark where he kind of jumps through the teaching moments real quick, you can really see the feverish pace at which Jesus and his apostles were working for the kingdom. The work has been constant. And in the midst of the constant work, Jesus has been rejected by the religious leaders who should have recognized him. He's been rejected by his own neighbors who grew up around him. He's been rejected by his own family.
[00:23:39] John may have doubted, but John at least understood Jesus.
[00:23:43] He knew who he was, had no problem saying who he was. And now John is dead.
[00:23:52] He's dead.
[00:23:54] And, guys, I think in just a very real sense, what we see in this verse is that Jesus just needs a minute.
[00:24:01] You know what I'm saying?
[00:24:03] He just needs a minute. He's mourning. He's tired. I think many of us know exactly what that feels like, right?
[00:24:14] He wants solitude to connect with the father, as was his habit, by the way.
[00:24:20] And it's striking, I think, that he takes the twelve with him. They've all been going hard for the kingdom. This is a painful blow. And so essentially, they're taking like, a spiritual retreat together, right? Like, hey, we've been doing a lot. It's really intense. It's really sorrowful that John died. Let's get away. Let's go. Slow down. Let's go reconnect with the father and the immense work of the kingdom that's here for us. I paused there today, guys, even though there's a larger narrative here, I pause there because I'm guessing a bunch of us actually really relate to this.
[00:24:51] A life lived for the kingdom of God is hard.
[00:24:57] It takes time. It takes sacrifice. It can be exhausting, especially when things don't go the way you hope.
[00:25:05] You pray for someone for weeks, for months, for years, and they reject Christ.
[00:25:10] You plan something out, hoping to help people feel loved and invited, and they just don't show up. That family who you've been going deep with just says, I don't know, like, it's just not into it. And they leave the church or the ministry because these things are painful, and it can throw you for a loop spiritually. It can leave you exhausted. It can leave you needing a break. And here's the wonderful thing. You are allowed to do that.
[00:25:35] You're allowed to be exhausted. You're allowed to be discouraged. You're allowed to be sorrowful, to take the space you need to take to feel what you're actually feeling. It's okay to be in your reality.
[00:25:48] So you today, right here, right now, are you exhausted? Are you discouraged? Are you worried? Are you burnt out? Are you hurt?
[00:25:56] Beloved, these are real. You can feel them. You can take the time to rest and connect with Christ. It's good. It's right, it's healthy. Even Jesus took time when he needed it. Amen.
[00:26:08] However, there is more to this story, so we start there because it's really important to note that. But as we see, it's not always as simple as just stepping away and taking some rest.
[00:26:19] What we see in the story is the crowds actually weren't interested at all in giving jesus the time he wanted to get away and rest. The text says the crowds heard what he was doing, and they followed him.
[00:26:31] This is why you don't ever tell your friends where you're going for vacation, right?
[00:26:37] They followed him. So Jesus gets out onto the lake with his twelve, and they go and they land and they find the same people already there waiting for them. Look how the text continues. This is verse 14.
[00:26:50] When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd, had compassion on them, and healed their sick. When evening came, the disciples approached him and said, this place is deserted. It's already late. Send the crowds away so they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves. They don't need to go away. Jesus told them, you give them something to eat. But we only have five loaves and two fishes here. They said to him, bring them here to me, he said. Then he commanded the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish. He looked up to heaven. He blessed them, he broke the loaves, he gave them to his disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. Everyone ate and was satisfied.
[00:27:31] They picked up twelve baskets full of leftover pieces. Now those who ate were about 5000 men, besides the women and children.
[00:27:41] Because I want you to imagine this scene.
[00:27:44] Jesus is exhausted.
[00:27:47] Jesus is sorrowful. He's pulling up to the shore for his retreat to get away, to rest with his closest friends. And he finds work, finds work waiting for him. The crowds followed him. They traveled around the lake on foot and met him at their spot to rest.
[00:28:13] Right? Like, can you picture this scene as the boat's pulling up and you can see like, the disciples, like, they got all their camping gear, like sewed in the boat and one of them's looking going, do you guys see people on the beach? Is that people?
[00:28:28] Didn't we come here for no people? Wasn't that the thing? I see people and they get there and it's the same people, all of them, thousands of people, just 5000 men in this group. So bump that number up to ten, to twelve, to 15,000 people gathered saying, oh, you want to take a vacation? That's cool. But like, see my nephew, he's sick, so will you heal him instead?
[00:28:54] Because Jesus's response to this is compassion.
[00:29:01] You see that? He sees the crowd. He has compassion on them. It draws us back to Matthew nine. When Jesus sees his people, sees his creation, sees his image in the midst of the curse, and he sees their suffering. It arouses his compassion. Compassion.
[00:29:21] He doesn't respond with anger, with indignance. Hey, this is my time off. I leave work at work. Get away.
[00:29:28] No. Christ responds to the suffering of the people around him, to their hurt, to their neediness.
[00:29:36] He responds with compassion.
[00:29:39] Even in the midst of his own sorrow, even in the midst of his own exhaustion, Jesus serves these crowds. Kim pointed out something to me this weekend that struck her in this text that was so good for me. Just isn't it interesting how our own sorrow can often give us context to meet others and theirs? That when we are experiencing hardship and hurt, when we are something difficult, that it can ground us and help us to better understand the difficulty around us?
[00:30:10] Something powerful in that. The text tells us that Jesus spent the whole day healing and serving. These folk didn't show up to hear jesus awesome sermons or his real cool parables. Nope. They are poor and they're hurting. And they want his miracles, they want his healing touch. And Jesus gives it to them freely. Thousands of people. It takes them hours and hours meeting with people, touching people, praying for people, healing sickness, casting out demons, doing all the things he does. Tells us, as the day wore on, toward evening, the disciples start thinking about dinner. They're in the middle of nowhere. They're at the campground. They're surrounded by thousands of people. They didn't plan for this, right.
[00:30:56] You know, in this day, it was actually a really common kit for folk who lived around the sea of Galilee. We have good archeological evidence for this because a lot of people's jobs, especially if you're in the fishing industry or the farming industry, it required you to actually travel a decent distance during the day. And so it was really normal kit for the men and the women to have these almost like messenger bags where they would pack themselves walking lunches. And the cultural norm was if your work that day took you just far enough that you would miss Lunch, you just packed your lunch and you come back for dinner. But if for some reason your job took you farther than that, you didn't pack extra food. You just would go to a village, go to a city, because there was this really strong ethic of hospitality that existed in first century Palestine. And so the idea was everyone did this for everyone. If you were out and you just, there's no way I can get home by dinner. You just find a house and someone. Okay, cool. Yeah, come have dinner with us. And that was kind of the norm. And as the disciples are looking out and they're realizing it's getting to be about dinner time. And we gave away our dinner, right? Like, we've been, we've already eaten, and they're looking around going, hey, we're in the middle of nowhere.
[00:32:00] We have nothing for these people. There's nothing here for them. And so they come to Jesus and they just go, hey, look, you got to tell everyone to leave.
[00:32:08] There's, like, it's awesome that you're compassionate, that you love these people, that you're serving them, but, like, it's dinner time, and we don't have anything, and there's nothing around here. Everyone needs to leave. See if they can, like, get home or find a village or, like, find a market where they can buy something. Like, these people gotta get out of here. What I love about this is that Jesus, like, this is a really common sense thing, right? And Jesus's response is, like, challenging. Like, it's borderline. Like, when you send them away, you feed them, which is just nuts, right? Like, imagine yourself, like, in the apostles state. You're like, we don't have anything like we already ate lunch. This story, by the way, it's the only miracle of Jesus besides his resurrection that's recorded in all four gospels. And if you look at the telling of the story in other four gospels, you actually hear the food that they have right here that's not even theirs. Like the apostles already ate their lunch. They've got nothing left. This is just some little kid who skipped lunch and he's like, I got some extra food. He's got like five dinner rolls and two fish. And so the apostles are like, hey, Jesus, this is what we have. Like see the crowds like this, that doesn't work. Cause here's the thing guys. Like they didn't have 2000 years of this being one of the most famous miracles Jesus ever did. No one in that moment went, you know, I bet he's going to like miraculously multiply the food so we can all eat. I bet that's what he's going to do because that doesn't happen. That's not what people think. When was the last time you get off work? It's 545. And you're like, it's my turn to cook dinner. And you open up the fridge and you're like, there is half a fruit roll up and that's it in this entire house when that happens. Listen, I have a lot of kids. That's a lot of half eaten things inside the refrigerator. When that happens, your first thought is not, I'll just chop it up. I'm sure there'll be enough.
[00:33:56] You have two thoughts, you either go, well I guess I'm going to the grocery store or I guess we're just ordering pizza tonight, right? Like your solution is not, I bet the Holy Spirit will supernaturally multiply this cold spaghetti for all of us. Because no one thinks that way because that's not how it works. And so this doesn't occur to the disciples that Jesus was provided in this way. They say there's no way. And Jesus just says, no, no, no, you guys do it. You can do it, it's fine. That's enough.
[00:34:23] And you can just imagine this scene of them going, this is already so frustrating. We aren't even supposed to be working today. We're supposed to be chilling out, sitting around a campfire singing worship songs and like connecting with Christ. Instead we're serving these people and you want us to give them like we have two fish. What are we supposed to do? Like they each get one crumb. This makes no sense.
[00:34:44] And Jesus is insistent. He's insistent.
[00:34:48] I imagine like imagine what it would have been like to be like one of the apostles when Jesus is like, hey, everybody, sit down. We're gonna have dinner.
[00:34:57] Like, what were you thinking in that moment? You know, you're seeing thousands of people sit down and you're going, we have to fish.
[00:35:05] It's funny. Secular Bible historians talk about this text, one of the most famous stories associated with Jesus. They'll talk about this text and they'll say, well, no, no. What happened was everyone had a little bit of food, but they were selfishly holding onto it. And so when the little boy offered up his food and Jesus told everyone to sit down, that inspired everyone to be generous, and they all shared their food, and there was enough left over, which is dumb. It's a bad way of reading the text. It's a bad way of reading the text. It totally dismisses everything the story is trying to teach you. The point of this story is that Jesus solution here is supernatural and totally and completely unexpected. It's nuts. Jesus solution, Jesus solution is to go, eh, we've got enough. I'm just going to supernaturally multiply it so everyone can eat all that they want. None of us thinks this way because notice that as Jesus gathers the meal, notice the language he uses is strikingly similar to his language at the Last Supper when he institutes communion. This is intentional. Jesus wants us to see that his power is at work here. He wants us to make a connection, because God, the God we worship, loves to provide for his people's needs.
[00:36:20] That's what this text is showing us. We worship a God who sees our needs and loves to meet them. These people are hungry, so Jesus feeds them. At the beginning of the story, they were sick, so he healed them. Now they're hungry, so he feeds them. It's not how somehow harder for Jesus to supernaturally end an illness or take authority over a demon than it is for him to tell a fish, be bigger, right?
[00:36:47] Jesus sees the need, and through his power, he meets it. This is why he used similar language to communion. It's why Matthew goes out of his way to record it this way. For us, we're supposed to see this provision, and we're supposed to look forward to God's ultimate provision for his people, just like Jesus ultimate sacrificial provision for us. Through the cross and the empty tomb, here, Jesus pushes through his own sorrow, his own exhaustion, and he pours himself out for meet these people's needs. Beloved, this is how your sweet Jesus sees you in all your sinfulness, in all your neediness. He sees you with the same compassion that he sees them, and he just as gladly pours himself out for you as he did for them. And, guys, can we be honest for a minute? We are sinful and needy. Amen.
[00:37:43] That's, like, a little embarrassing to him. And I know in our pride, we don't want to admit how needy we are. But, guys, that is reality. You are needy. You are mired in sin.
[00:37:55] Like folk who are so desperate for healing, they hound and follow. Jesus, you and I need Christ's intervention in our lives.
[00:38:04] We need him if we're to grow in peace. We need him if we're to work through our emotional and relational hearts. We need him to find breakthroughs in our mental and spiritual health. We need him to find peace in our physical suffering. We need him to guide us through the pains and trials of this life, from our bad habits and addictions to the bad decisions we make and the scripture tells us, and we see. And in Christ, you experience, he does this.
[00:38:31] This is what he does. He meets us in our neediness, and he cares for us. Philippians two, it says that Jesus poured himself out to serve us, that he gladly stepped out of heaven and became a person just like you and me, that he stepped off his throne, down into the muck and mire of this broken and sinful world, just like him, pushing through his own exhaustion and sorrow to serve the multitude. And Hebrews twelve tells us that Jesus gladly endured this sacrifice, that he walked through his gospel sacrifice, his passion, his suffering, with joy, that he gladly endured the scorn of the cross because of the joy set before him. And what was the joy set before Christ? It was his redeemed people.
[00:39:12] It was you and I washed clean and made holy at his wedding feast. That is what drove jesus to joyfully pour out to serve you and to serve me when it was far from easy for him.
[00:39:25] Far from easy.
[00:39:28] That night in the garden when Jesus was so stressed and anxious and his heart rate and blood pressure were so high that his capillaries were bursting and there was blood coming out in his sweat, his prayer to the father was, I don't want to do this.
[00:39:42] This sounds awful.
[00:39:44] Is there any other way but the textiles for the joy set before him?
[00:39:50] Joy set before him is you and me washed in his blood, made glorious, made perfect at the wedding feast celebrating our forgiveness, our restoration, our eternity. For the joy set before him, he said, not my will, but yours.
[00:40:03] And he endured the shame and scorn of the cross.
[00:40:07] Come on, church. Come on, church.
[00:40:10] Look how this works. Out for these people.
[00:40:12] Everybody eats their fill.
[00:40:15] When Jesus sets up the feast, everybody eats their fill. Jesus meets their real and immediate need. And he does so lavishly. Like on the one hand. On the one hand, the feast in the wilderness is a modest feast. It's barley bread and fish. It's the food of the poor. It doesn't compare to the lavish meats and wines that the mighty king Herod would have at his birthday party. But at Jesus feast, 5000 men and their wives and children ate their fill. They had their sick healed. They were seen. They were loved. They were cared for. What a beautiful feast.
[00:40:51] What a picture of a true feast. Pointing us forward to communion. Pointing us forward to the wedding feast. Truly beloved. Truly beloved.
[00:41:02] We should be drawn to worship today.
[00:41:05] Your Jesus sees you fear nothing else today. Hear that? Christ sees you in your real needs.
[00:41:15] The real hurts, the real burdens that you have right now.
[00:41:19] The things that draw you to shame. The things you hate about yourself. The things you just so desperately want to break free of. The things you so desperately want to move past and be healed. Christ sees that in you.
[00:41:34] He sees your need and it arouses his compassion.
[00:41:39] It draws him to love for you, draws him to care for you, to make a way for you to be with him. Truly, he is worthy of praise, thanksgiving, worship. Amen.
[00:41:52] Which really brings, by the way, this whole text, because of Jesus, his lavish love for us we give our own costly love to those in need around us. Which I, by the way, I both love and hate about this text.
[00:42:09] There's nothing convenient about Jesus miracle and love to these people. You catch that?
[00:42:17] There's nothing convenient about the way Jesus serves these people in this story. Quite the opposite, to use the language of our day. These crowds are not respecting Jesus's boundaries, right?
[00:42:30] He says, I'm sad and exhausted. I'm going on a retreat. I'll be back later. And they say, yeah, no, we're coming.
[00:42:40] He's stepping away for quiet and for solitude. And they invaded his space with their insistent need. And Jesus's love and his compassion drove him to care for them. Regardless.
[00:42:53] Even in the midst of that beloved, we need to understand for those of you who are in Christ, for those of you who are seeking to give God your yes to walk in obedience and faith in this life you have to understand that real kingdom love and real kingdom work will very, very rarely be convenient.
[00:43:10] Very rarely will it be easy.
[00:43:14] Those of you who are parents, your kids are not going to approach you and ask you the best time and the best part of your schedule to sit down and talk about the gospel.
[00:43:23] That's not what your kids are gonna do. No, they're gonna pepper you with need and whining. And then the Holy Spirit is gonna remind you in the moment of your own frustration that you were teaching them about Christ with your response.
[00:43:35] Right.
[00:43:37] Very rarely will your neighbor or friend walk up to you and just say, hey, why is Jesus so important to you? No. Rather, you'll live your life with all the ups and downs, and you'll be the one who has to take the risk in your relationship, in your friendship, to boldly tell them the reason for your hope.
[00:43:54] Rarely will those who are struggling with homelessness or mental illness or loneliness or sorrow, broken relationship reach out to you and ask you the best time for you to meet their needs. It's just not how it works. If you're given over to the work of the kingdom, kingdom work will most often be inconvenient.
[00:44:14] I'm just gonna say it bluntly. Most often, it'll be annoying.
[00:44:17] That's a terrible way to say it, but it's true. It pushes against your flesh. Like, I got my own stuff going on. I got my own schedule, I got my own family. I got my own needs. And someone goes, yeah, but I'm hurting and really need right now. And I don't know. I'd love for you to explain the hope you have.
[00:44:34] That's why the scripture says, be prepared in season, out of season. Always be ready to do the work of the kingdom. Because the work of the kingdom is so rarely on our schedule, showing up with the love of Jesus for a world in desperate need of him will be largely inconvenient.
[00:44:50] And, guys, even when it's not inconvenient, it'll be hard. It'll be difficult. It'll require sacrifice. It will drain you.
[00:44:58] I know many of us today. Many of us today find yourself in these seats, exhausted.
[00:45:05] You serve at your church. You plug into discipleship. You try and meet real needs. You struggle to be on mission at your job and in your neighborhood. And all the while, you have your own problems and your own hurts and your own faith journey you're dealing with. Following Christ takes sacrifice.
[00:45:23] I mean, you're here right now instead of outside enjoying a few extra hours of beautiful weekend, right? You're giving your money to kingdom needs. You're filling your time. It's real sacrifice. And it would be dishonest for us to not say. It's exhausting.
[00:45:39] I wouldn't lie to you and tell you that following Jesus is easy. No, quite the opposite.
[00:45:45] Quite the opposite. Look to him and look to his example.
[00:45:48] Look what he models us and shows us. It was hard work for Jesus and it will be hard work for you. Now hear me in this, guys. This is not to say that you should, like, ignore your own heart when you're hurt or when you're burned out. No, no, no. Speak up. Take time, take space, take rest. Take real rest. Like, take time to recover. Those are important things. Your church family will come around. You will support you in that and help you find life enjoying those things because you need them. What I'm telling you is just don't be surprised when the kingdom need invades your neat and orderly rest schedule. Just don't be surprised.
[00:46:27] No lie, this can be obnoxious, it can be frustrating, it can be maddening, but at the end of the day, guys, it's worth it.
[00:46:38] It's worth it. The kingdom of God is worth it. No sacrifice for the kingdom is unseen or unaccounted for.
[00:46:49] You know that when you give those little yeses to Christ and you put yourself out there and you're inconvenienced or you struggle or it hurts to be kind and loving, it is noticed that late night after small group after GC, where you stay to pray and comfort someone, it's in the next morning. Your kids are dysregulated in the am while you prep them for school and it's a nightmare. Guess what? Jesus sees that.
[00:47:18] Christ sees that. That extra financial gift you gave to meet a real need and ends up taking a day or three off of your vacation.
[00:47:28] Christ sees that that swallowed pride where you seek out reconciliation with someone even though, like you're still kind of burnt, but you know it's good. Jesus sees that. That late night you could have spent at home with your family, but you spend it with that person in need. Or you go and serve in that ministry that needs volunteers. Your Lord sees all of it. Beloved. Mark ten records this difficult time for Jesus disciples. We read this. Peter began to tell him, look, we loved everything and followed you truly. I tell you, Jesus said, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters, or mother or father or children or fields for my sake, for the sake of the gospel, who will not receive a hundred times more now at this time, houses, brothers, sisters and mothers and children, fields and persecutions, eternal life in the age to come.
[00:48:16] But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first. Beloved, you need to know. You need to know that Christ sees and Christ keeps accounts.
[00:48:26] Your sacrifice for the kingdom, your labor for the kingdom of God, even the difficult labor, even the labor that feels wasted, even the labor that draws you out, like to the edge that rings you out and leaves you spent. It is seen and it is accounted for.
[00:48:44] I love the way our story ends.
[00:48:49] Our story starts with Jesus and his twelve apostles going to get away.
[00:48:55] And their getting away is interrupted, right? They're going to go chill, have their campfire, their kumbaya time. Instead, they've got a full long day in front of them where they serve and they pour out. And you notice. You notice at the end of the day, after all the work, what is left over after Jesus miraculous provision for the masses?
[00:49:19] Twelve baskets, twelve portions, twelve lunches.
[00:49:26] Because Jesus cares for his twelve.
[00:49:31] Because he knows. He knows that was supposed to be their day and it wasn't.
[00:49:36] And so at the end, when the miracle's over, when the healing's done, when people are wandering home and it's just them again, Christ has provided even for them, because their sacrifice for the kingdom is not wasted, it's not unseen. Christ sees and he keeps account and he cares for us, even while we pour ourselves out for the work.
[00:49:58] Beloved, you must remember, all kingdom work matters.
[00:50:03] It all matters. Because this life is not all there is. Because we are preparing ourselves and our community for the reality feast, the wedding feast of the lamb. There's not a point, there's no point in keeping your reserve here on earth. Spend it all, cross the finish line into eternity, empty.
[00:50:22] Because what you spend here gets invested in forever.
[00:50:26] Pour yourself out for the kingdom, because the kingdom is actually eternal.
[00:50:31] Chris, if you want to come back up, I'm going to land with this thought. Guys, at the end of the day, if you have to choose between Herod's feast and Jesus feast. And by the way, spoiler alert, you do.
[00:50:43] You do.
[00:50:45] If you have to choose between the best this world has to offer and the ways of the kingdom, and you do, the choice is obvious.
[00:50:56] Eat with Jesus.
[00:50:59] He's made a seat for you at the table.
[00:51:03] He's done that for you and his love for you and his knowledge of you and your weakness and your neediness.
[00:51:10] He pays the price and he makes a seat for you at the table. He buys you a meal that you can't afford.
[00:51:16] He makes a way.
[00:51:18] So eat with him.
[00:51:20] Join him in continuing that work, doing the work of bringing more in to enjoy his compassionate hospitality.
[00:51:32] I'm going to invite us to take just a minute to pray as we land out today. And I was reminded as we were closing up here of just this parable that Jesus gives about that wedding feast of the lamb. And he compares it to a real wedding feast. And he's invited all these people, and they all make excuses so no one comes. The wedding feast is ready, and the feast is there. The tables are prepped, but the seats are empty. And so he looks to his servants. That's you and me in the parable. He looks to his servants and he says, go find people.
[00:52:00] Look at this amazing feast I have prepped. I don't want it to go to waste. Go find people. I don't care where you have to go. Go into the alleys, go into the ditches, go into the roads. Find people, compel them to come, that they might experience my hospitality.
[00:52:16] Lord Christ made a seat for you at the table, and he invites you to help him fill the rest of the seats.
[00:52:25] Let's take a few minutes.
[00:52:27] Let's talk to Christ about what it looks like for us to be the recipients of his love, his grace, his kindness.
[00:52:34] And for those of you who are in Christ, I would encourage you strongly. Take a minute. Just ask him, what does it mean for you to join with him in the work, to be in the work of spreading the hospitality of the father to those who need him?
[00:52:49] Take a few minutes to be with Jesus Church, and then we'll continue. In response.
