# 70 Lu. 9:10-17   JESUS FEEDING A MULTITUDE

Introduction:  The twelve had returned from a preaching tour.  In our
message last Sunday they reported in to Jesus at Capernaum.

I.  Leaving Capernaum and going to an isolated spot

    Matthew tells us that after the meeting in which the apostles gave
their report that great crowds of people came to Jesus.  The crowd was
so numerous that neither Jesus not His disciples had time to eat the
noon meal.  Furthermore, someone came to Jesus and told Him that John
the Baptist had been beheaded.  Jesus was so deeply grieved that He
wanted to get away from the crowd for some peace and quiet.  He
especially wanted some time to be alone in prayer to God the Father.
So early in the afternoon Jesus took the apostles and left by boat to
go to the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee.
    Luke does not go into that much detail.  V. 10, "And the apostles,
when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took
them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the
city called Bethsaida."  Jesus took His disciples and went to an
isolated spot near Bethsaida where they could rest.  It is worthy of
note that they were now out of Herod's jurisdiction so that he would
pose no threat to them.

II.  Followed by a great crowd of people

    V. 11, "And the people, when they knew it, followed him..."  Great
crowds of people were right there on the shore when Jesus left in the
boat.  They, of course, saw the direction that He went.  They knew that
He was headed around to the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee.
    Now when we talk about the sea in this case, at least, we are
talking about a small body of water which was actually smaller than
some of our East Texas lakes.
    So when the people saw that He had headed across the lake to the
other side rather than heading south they headed around the lake on the
shoreline.
    A few of the faster ones must not have been far behind when Jesus
and His disciples came to the shore and headed out to what would
ordinarily be an isolated spot away from the towns and away from the
people.  These, of course, followed after Jesus to the intended place
of rest and joined them there.  As the slower ones began to arrive the
few became a crowd and the crowd began to swell to great numbers.  It
was not long until a multitude of people were on hand.

III.  Jesus ministering to the people

    (V. 11), "...and he received them..."  We get an insight here into
the great love and compassion that Jesus has for people.  Jesus, was
personally in need of some rest.  In addition to the need of physical
rest, He was suffering a deep personal grief because of the death of
John the Baptist.  He needed some time to be alone with God the Father
in prayer.  When the people began to arrive He could have sent them
away.  He could have said, "I came out here for some peace and quite
and I don't want to be bothered.  So just leave.  Scat! Go home! Get!"
He could have sent them away, but He didn't.  Instead He graciously
received them and began to minister to them in their need.  He put
their needs before His own.
    (V. 11), "...and spake unto them of the kingdom of God..."  He
began to tell them about the kingdom of God.  I am sure that He must
have told them of their need of repentance of sin in order to enter
into the kingdom.  Except they repent they could not enter into the
kingdom.  Without repentance they would perish.  Also He must have told
them that they should trust in the Messiah of God.  He may not have
told them that He is the Messiah, but He would surely want them to know
about the Messiah and that they should put their faith in Him.  In my
own mind, I am confident that there were a great many in that crowd who
got saved there on that occasion.
    (V. 11), ...and healed them that had need of healing."  The healing
of the physical body was not the primary objective of Jesus.  His
primary objective was to present the gospel of the kingdom of God to
them so that they could be saved.  But, never-the-less, Jesus was
concerned about the physical well-being of the people and so He healed
all of the sick who were brought to Him.  He healed them of all manner
of disease.

IV. The suggestion by the apostles that He send the crowd away

    V. 12, "And when the day began to wear away, then came the twelve,
and said unto him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into the
towns and country round about, and lodge, and get victuals: for we are
here in a desert place."  We were told by Mark that one of the reasons
they had left Capernaum was because Jesus and His disciples had been so
busy ministering to the crowd that they had not had time to eat.  Well
if Jesus and His disciples had not eaten the noon meal then we can be
sure that neither had most of the people in the crowd.  The crowd was
so excited at their opportunity to see and hear Jesus and to bring
their sick to Him to be healed that they had just passed right on
through the noon hour without stopping to eat.
    They had travelled all that distance around the lake on foot.  Now
the hour was getting late and the sun was beginning to drop down.  The
apostles actually began to get worried about the well-being of the
people in the crowd.  They were out in this wilderness place at a
considerable distance away from the towns and villages where the people
would have to go for food and for rest.  There were no Holiday Inns
near by where they could get food.  There were no McDonalds where they
could all get hamburgers.  The apostles went to Jesus and suggested to
Him that He dismiss the crowd and send them all away into the towns.
    This seemed like a logical solution.  To the apostles it seemed
like the only solution.  It was the only solution so far as the
apostles were able to see.

V.  The apostles instructed to feed the people

    V. 13, "But he said unto them, Give ye them to eat..."  The
apostles just could not see as far as Jesus could see.  They could not
see all the possibility that He could see.  Jesus said to them, "No.
Don't sent the people away.  You feed them.
    The apostles were dumbfounded.  They could not imagine such a
thing.  (V. 13), "...And they said, We have no more but five loaves and
two fishes; except we should go and buy meat for all this people."
They had already checked among themselves to see how much food was
available.  All that they could come up with was one lunch that one
little boy had brought along for himself.
     The disciples told Jesus that they had five loaves of bread and
two fishes.  Now these were not the big loaves of bread like we buy
from the grocery store.  They were about biscuit size and were probably
flat like a pancake.  The fishes were not big five pound bass.  The
little boy had brought all of this for his own lunch.  The five loaves
of bread were originally intended for his own lunch.  The two fish were
originally intended for his own lunch.
    Even if they should try to go and buy food for all this great
crowd, where would they get the money?  And where could they go to buy
that much food?  And how could they get all that food delivered out
into the wilderness area?
    To the apostles it was an impossible thing that Jesus was asking of
them.  It was.  It was impossible if it had been up to the apostles to
supply the food by their own power.

VI.  Further instruction from Jesus

    V. 14, "For they were about five thousand men..."  Matthew said
that there were about five thousand men beside women and children.
If there was one woman and one child for each man there were about
fifteen thousand mouths to feed.
    (V. 14), "...And he said to his disciples, Make them sit down by
fifties in a company."  In order for all this many people to be fed
they must be seated.  If they milled about it would be impossible for
the disciples to distribute the food and to make sure that everybody
got fed.  Somebody would surely get missed that way.  So Jesus
instructed the apostles to have all the people to divide up into groups
and to all sit down.
    You will notice that Jesus did not command the people to divide up
and sit down.  He told the apostles to have them to divide up and sit
down.  The apostles were obedient.  V. 15, "And they did so, and made
them all sit down."  I think it is safe to say that the apostles still
did not understand how this was going to result in all the people
getting fed.  They did not understand, but they obeyed.  This is a good
lesson for us all.  Whether or not we understand the reasons for the
Lord's commands to us we ought to obey.  It is not necessarily our's to
understand.  It is our's to obey whether we understand or not.

VII.  The miraculous feeding of the multitude

    V. 16-17, "Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and
looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the
disciples to set before the multitude.  And they did eat, and were all
filled..."  Jesus took the five little biscuit size loaves of bread and
two fishes and blessed them.  Jesus lifted His eyes to heaven and
blessed the food.  Jesus set a good example for us to follow in having
the blessing before a meal.  We ought to thank God for what we have no
matter what it is or how little it is.  Whatever we have is a blessing
from God.
    After Jesus blessed the food He had the apostles come by Him with
their empty lunch baskets and He began to break off pieces of bread
into their baskets.  He broke and He broke and He broke and He broke.
I suppose He probably filled up the baskets of six of the apostles with
bread and then He switched over to the fishes and started breaking off
pieces of fish into the baskets of the other six apostles.
    The apostles would then go out among the people who were seated in
groups and they started methodically going through all that crowd
serving them with bread and fish.  Jesus just kept on breaking of bread
and fish.  As soon as an apostle would empty his basket he would go
back to Jesus for more.
    They kept this up until they had all eaten.  They all ate and were
filled.  They not only had enough to suffice until they got back into
town but they had enough to fill each person.  As the old saying goes,
"If anybody didn't get enough to eat it was his own fault.
    They all ate and were filled and there was plenty left over.  There
was more left over than they had to start with.  (V. 17), "...and there
was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets."  The
basket of each apostle was full when the people finally quit eating.
Even the apostles had their fill and there were twelve baskets left
over.
    Assuming there were one woman and one child for each man present
that means that Jesus fed a multitude of about fifteen thousand people
with five loaves of bread and two fishes.  That would average out to
about three thousand people who were fed with each biscuit.  Likewise
it would average out to about seven-thousand and five-hundred people
who were fed with each fish.

VIII.  A challenge to the so-called miracle workers of today

    The so-called miracle workers of today claim that the same miracles
which Jesus and His apostles worked in their day are being done today.
I repeatedly hear them say, "Nothing has changed."  They march people
across a platform before an audience and pronounce them healed when
they are not healed.
    A woman in Frankston who had cancer was good friends with a family
of our church in Jacksonville when I was pastor there.  This woman went
to Tyler to one of those healing campaigns when a nationally known
faith-healer was there.  She paid a large sum of money to get in the
healing line at that meeting and was pronounced healed of her cancer
before that audience.  Three months later that woman died of her
cancer.  She was never healed, but the audience was told that she was
healed.  Most of the people in the audience believed she was healed,
but she was never healed.  The man lied to them and the audience could
not tell whether a miracle was performed or not.
    If they want to perform a miracle so that they audience can know
for sure that a miracle has been performed then let then go into the
slums and gather all the poor and needy under one tent.  Then let them
take five little biscuit size loaves of bread and two fishes and feed
all those hungry people if they can do it.
    Let me tell you that if these miracle workers have the power to
feed all the hungry people who are in the cities round about and just
will not do it then they are cruel and heartless.  If nothing has
changed and they have the power to do the same kind of miracles as
Jesus and His apostles then let get busy and feed the hungry people of
the world.

IX.  The real lesson for today

    Jesus preached to those people the kingdom of God and then
performed this great miracle.  There was no reason why anyone hearing
Him preach that message and witnessing Him performing that miracle
should doubt that He is the Christ, the promised Savior and King.  Each
and every one in that great big crowd should have gone away from there
believing in Jesus as the Christ.
    Jesus never ruled from any earthly throne, but let me tell you that
He is a King in the truest sense.  He is the King over a spiritual
kingdom.  He came to this world, not to set up His throne, but to seek
and to save that which is lost.  He came to save lost sinners and tao
keep them out of the fires of hell.
    It was a marvelous thing that Jesus could take five loaves of bread
and two fish and feed about fifteen-thousand people.  It in even more
marvelous that He can save a lost sinner and keep him out of hell.  He
can save a lot more than fifteen-thousand.  He can save every one  who
will trust in Him.

Conclusion:

    He can save you.  Will you trust Him today?  If you were sick you
would ask Him to make you well.  If you were on your way to the
penitentiary you would ask Him to keep you out of prison.  It is all
the more important that you ask Him to keep you out of hell.