Give Them Jesus

I. Taste and See 00:00

…not to hear about you, but, Lord, you want to meet us here in this moment, to partake of you and your goodness. So, Lord, we pray that you would encounter us where we’re at, and that everything we brought, we could lay at your table as we encounter you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

I love that line, “I will taste and see that you are good.” That declaration of faith. As I maybe hinted a little bit as I was just praying, it’s so easy for us to fight a battle in our minds about the goodness of God. If you want to know if God’s good, you actually have to trust him. You have to encounter him. You have to experience him. It’s such a declaration of faith when you stand up and say, “I will taste and see the goodness of God.” Some days it’s easy, like when the band is really rocking and you’re getting into the music. But on Wednesday, when you get that call you didn’t expect, or that bill comes through that can’t be paid, or whatever it is that’s burdening you, to be able to stand and say, “I will taste and see that the Lord is good” in the middle of that moment: that’s when you’ve got to arm and equip yourself.

One recommendation: get some songs on your phone that encourage you. Sing and worship throughout the week. I think the worship has been so good lately, and I’ve been so encouraged. But in the middle of the week, find times to worship God like you do here on Sunday morning. It’s really powerful and effective when you’re in the middle of the battle. You don’t just have to save it for when you’re here on Sundays, or at fire night, or at your home groups. And none of that has anything to do with what we’re talking about today, but I was just really excited about that song. It’s such a good song. It goes great with the Scriptures here.

II. Moved with Compassion 01:29

Today the title of the message is “Give Them Jesus.” And we read this amazing Gospel lesson that everybody’s familiar with: the feeding of the five thousand. I love this lesson, and I want to set the scene for you. Jesus is in the middle of ministry. And if you feel like you do a lot of ministry, Jesus was on a three-year trek where his whole life was oriented around the ministry he was doing. But in the midst of that, he gets the news that his cousin John the Baptist has been beheaded by Herod. Crushing news for Jesus. If you think of Jesus as this Superman who was just happy all the time, that’s not him. He experienced everything like we do. He was human like we are. He was tempted in every way as we are (Heb 4.15). I love the line, the shortest verse in Scripture: “Jesus wept” (John 11.35). He really encountered the suffering of the world.

And so in the midst of that, like a wise person would, he decided to separate himself for a moment from ministry: “I’m going to get in a boat, and I’m going to depart to a deserted place, so I can grieve my friend.” But the people were too hungry, and they find him, and they show up, and it says he was moved with compassion.

So I want to frame everything we talk about today with the reality that sometimes we feel we have nothing left to give. Sometimes we do feel tapped out. And sometimes the wise move is to separate yourself and just commune with God, with your friends, with your close ones, and to grieve. That’s awesome. But even in those places, the reason Jesus had the ability to minister and do one of his most famous miracles was that he wasn’t relying on his strength. Even Jesus was participating, and only doing what he saw the Father doing (John 5.19). He was living on the power of the Holy Spirit.

And the invitation is: wherever you’re at, when your heart is moved with compassion for people, you don’t have to give of yourself. You can give of him. Now, it’s a hand-and-glove experience, as Bishop Jones uses that idea: Jesus is the hand, and we’re the glove. And so he’s moving in us. It’s us doing it too. But there are resources for the things that come up in your life. And sometimes, with the person in front of you, we get so concerned: “Well, I have nothing left to give.” Well, what does Jesus have to give in that moment?

These are just framing ideas as we get into this story. But Jesus was not standing there like, “Wow, I’m feeling great, so I’m going to now take on the extra burden of feeding these people.” No. He was probably feeling all the feels you would feel if your friend was killed, murdered for goodness and righteousness. I can’t imagine getting that news. But today I want to focus not just on what Jesus did, but on what the disciples did during the feeding of the five thousand.

III. Disciples Distribute 05:08

And so my first point is: disciples distribute. So let’s read this. Oh, I started one verse late here on my slide. It says:

15 Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” Matt 14.15

Reasonable. Wise. “We’ve got nothing here. Send them away.” But what does Jesus say?

16 But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” Matt 14.16

“You disciples, give them something to eat.” And they, like us, said, “We don’t have enough. I’ve got five loaves and two fish” (Matt 14.17). “What do you mean, Jesus? Feed them?”

My argument today is that if your ministry revolves around your resources, you will fail to meet the needs of the people you’re trying to serve. You know, Haley and I celebrated our anniversary yesterday: eleven years. Very exciting. She’s not here. She’s serving in the nursery. But everybody here knows that that’s a bigger accomplishment for her than it is for me, so feel free to congratulate her. And we even have our anniversary buddy in the house, Margaret, over there. She was married on the exact same day as us. So eleven years for Margaret and Joe.

And so, in the midst of that… I don’t know if I just brought that up because I wanted to celebrate myself, but I think I had a point. In the midst of that, my point is that she and I don’t actually have the resources to go the distance in marriage. Neither of us is strong enough to be the husband I need to be, or the wife she needs to be, or the mother or the father we need to be. If we are relying on our own strength, we will fail, as you hear so often so many marriages do. Half of all marriages end in divorce.

Your marriage, your ministry, your obligation is fueled by the power he gives you, the resources Jesus has. You have five loaves and two fish, with five thousand people to feed. The sooner you realize that it’s actually about what he can do in you, the less stress you have to have. You can hear the stress in the disciples’ voice. They’re like, “Jesus, we would love to do what you say, but we’ve got nothing. It doesn’t make any sense.”

IV. Focus on the Hungry 07:38

Now, there are a couple of things I want to mention about the crowd. It was hungry. And in the verse before, it says the crowd heard of Jesus, and so they went to where he was (Matt 14.13). They need to hear about him in order to go find him. The word was spreading. The disciples were sharing. The crowds hear it, and they come. But how will they hear it if you don’t tell them? Jesus doesn’t have a backup plan to the church. The church is his plan for people to hear of him. And so when I say disciples distribute, it’s not just the food they distribute. It’s the word: “Hey guys, have you heard about Jesus?”

And maybe you’re sitting here thinking, “Just another burden to put into my sack. I’ve got to tell people about Jesus now.” It’s like, no, you get to share the life of the world with people. Why is Jesus feeding these people? Because he was moved with compassion. It’s not a burden. He wanted to share with them. And so when you are walking as a Christian, God will change your heart, and you’ll start noticing people who need him, who need what he has.

And when you’re doing this, we can focus on the hungry. You don’t have to go convince your atheist neighbor, who talks about how evil you are for taking your kids to church on Sunday. He’s not your person. Focus on the hungry. Focus on the people who actually are interested. It’s actually not your job to convince them to be hungry. We can trust that the Holy Spirit will highlight the people who have needs, who are hungry. It might be that they’re sick and they need a word of encouragement, or they just experienced the death of a loved one and they come to you and say, “I don’t know what to do.” That’s a soul hunger. That’s what we’re looking for. That’s an opportunity to share life, to share Jesus.

We always say “the least, the lost, and the lonely.” But I think sometimes that actually misses something, because your boss might be the least, the lost, and the lonely if he doesn’t know Jesus. You might not think of him that way: “Oh, he’s crushing it. He’s making all this money. He’s so smart. He’s so intelligent. He’s so strong.” If he doesn’t have Jesus, he’s in the category of least. Because “I count it all as loss compared to the knowledge of Jesus Christ” (Phil 3.8). And then you think about that line: they gain the whole world, but they lose their soul (Mark 8.36). That’s like Orange County standard people. Who are you ministering to? They’ve got the whole world, and yet…

V. The Multiplication Comes in the Pouring Out 09:48

Now, when does this whole transformation happen in the disciples, from “I have five loaves and two fish” to “I’m feeding five thousand people”? When does it happen? Does it happen when they give Jesus the five loaves and the two fish? No. What happens is, they start handing them out. Now, there’s a key message in there. When are you going to have the provision for ministry? When you give of what you have. You start there. You don’t wait for a stockpile. It wasn’t like Jesus blessed it, it started multiplying, and they started stacking it in organized piles, and then they’re like, “Okay, now we have enough.” No. They just gave what they had, and what they had never ran out. That’s amazing. In fact, they collected twelve baskets of overflow. There’s an abundant provision. It’s a different story that you live in. Okay, we’ll talk more about that. But the provision comes in the feeding, and the multiplication comes in the pouring out.

So if you’re sitting here today saying, “I’ve got no time or energy for anything but my own life”: where do you get your time and your energy? Is it from saving it? From preserving it? From guarding against the compassion you have for other people? From guarding against the needs of other people? No. You get your resources when you give. In fact, it says, “Give, and it shall be given unto you, pressed down, overflowing, in good measure” (Luke 6.38). So if you want more time, energy, or money today, find a way to give time, energy, and money to those who need it. Who has God put on your heart? Who is that person you just don’t have the energy to talk to or send a text to? Or that place you don’t have the money to give to, but you just feel so desperately that they need it? Trust in God that he will lead you to those things.

VI. Twelve Baskets 12:05

Okay, let’s continue the story here. So they start handing it out, and it says Jesus says, “Bring me what you have.” Great.

19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. Matt 14.19

Just emphasizing here everything I’ve said so far: they were giving not out of their provision but out of Jesus’s. And he chose them to hand the food out. Jesus didn’t walk around giving everybody the food. No, he picked people like you in this room to feed the world. This is a symbol of the job the disciples will be doing when Jesus ascends into heaven. You know how there are a billion Christians today? That’s because those twelve disciples (eleven, and then they added one) started handing out Jesus to people. Because they learned. They understood about the loaves and the fishes. I mean, it took them a long time and a lot of learning, but they eventually understood enough that they gave and gave and gave until they were martyred. That’s how much they were willing to give, and it never ran out. In fact, it pressed down and overflowed, to become the largest religion in the world, from these little backwards fishermen and tax collectors. I mean, it doesn’t make sense. The disciples themselves are five loaves and two fishes who grew to fill the whole earth.

That’s it. That’s the message of the loaves and the fishes. It’s not about the bread. It’s about Jesus. Disciples distribute. At the Eucharist, we celebrate the same idea. Continuing, Jesus’s disciples break the bread and give it to the hungry. That’s why we’re here: to participate in this.

20 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. Matt 14.20

Why twelve baskets? Because in an agricultural culture, when you’re looking for food is when the right month comes around. But there are twelve baskets: there’s food every month. And they’ve actually been split up into the twelve tribes of Israel; you’ve heard of that. So there’s not only food all the time, there’s food for everyone all the time. That’s a reality you live in today. There’s never not enough. That’s radical, life-changing news.

We still live in the poverty mentality. I’m going to contrast these two. One of them is the Christian mentality, and one of them is not. Let me see if you can figure it out. The abundance mentality says, “All that I have is God’s, so I can spend and give freely, knowing my source.” The poverty mentality says, “All that I have is mine, so I must hoard it and protect it and strive for more, because there’s never enough.”

Now you’re like, “I don’t live that way. I know how good God is.” Yeah? Do you feel that when the trial comes? How much are you tossing and turning at night, thinking, “Where am I going to get the next thing I need? How am I going to deal with this emotional situation at work? How am I going to deal with my money? How am I going to deal with my spouse, my kids”? There’s always something that says there’s not going to be enough. But we can know, because we understand about the loaves and the fishes, that there will always be enough.

VII. The Food That Endures 14:59

Now, the problem here with the loaves and the fishes is that in this story, it doesn’t satisfy the crowd. They’re satisfied in the moment. It says that clearly: everybody ate as much as they could fill up. But the next day they got hungry again. Have you ever had a meal, like Thanksgiving, and you think, “I will never be hungry again. I’m never eating another bite of food”? And you’re lying on the couch, and you’re like, “What did I do?” And then six o’clock rolls around, and you’re kind of hungry. How does that happen? You will never eat enough to be satisfied. You will never drink enough to be satisfied, except when you come to Jesus.

So let’s talk about this, because this actually happens. The crowd follows him, because then he feeds the four thousand. So it’s happened twice now. And so they start, like, “We’ve got to follow the food truck. We’ve got to go there.” And Jesus says:

26 “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, John 6.26

What do signs do? They point to a person, to a thing. The signs are not the thing. The person is the thing.

…but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, John 6.26–27

It doesn’t satisfy. The food that endures to eternal life does. And so what is that food? You all know this: “I am the bread of life.” A couple of verses later he’s like, “If you didn’t get it, let me make it clear. The signs point to me. I’m the food. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6.35). They didn’t even get it then, because later he said, “I’m the bread, and you have to eat my flesh; and I’m the blood, and you have to drink my blood.” And they’re like, “What are you saying?” And so a lot of them left at that point, because they couldn’t handle it. But we know that it’s the Eucharist: that truly the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. And every week we come back, and we partake of him and his divine life.

And like we’ve been talking about so much lately, we become in Christ. We’re clothed in Christ. We’re filled with Christ. Christ is all of us. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2.20). That’s the food that satisfies. Because when Jesus is your source, it doesn’t run dry. You can wake up every day in the joy of the Lord. Now, like I said earlier, Jesus himself wept. It’s not as though we walk around like, “Oh, everything’s copacetic.” How shallow is that understanding of joy? True joy can embrace the pain of this world with the hope of resurrection. It never gets snuffed out. It never runs dry.

We’re called to bring Jesus to them. That’s the title of this whole thing: “Give Them Jesus.” Give them the bread of life. We’re called not to fill their bellies, but ultimately their hearts. That’s what the church does. Now, the church has also been known throughout the ages for filling people’s bellies. Yes, wonderful. Just like Jesus, we feed people. I love that. That’s awesome. But truly, if that’s all we do, then they’re going to come to us for the bread and not the person. And that’s a problem.

VIII. That Which Is Not Bread 18:25

And so we continue, and we look at this verse in Isaiah that we had today:

1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Isa 55.1–2

This is a particular problem, as I brought up, in Orange County. We have virtually eliminated starvation in Orange County. I looked at the numbers. The people who die of starvation are dying because of other problems in their life, not because there isn’t food to be had somewhere. And those don’t happen in this local area. I did some research. I was like, “Okay, I wonder if this is a problem.” Because we have food pantries, because we have places of distribution, because we have these programs, people do not starve near us.

And yet, has the utopia arrived? Is everybody here just joyous, because they have their needs met and they are no longer hungry? No. They’re hungrier than ever for that which is true, that which is good, that which is beautiful, that which really satisfies. In fact, the mental health statistics in America are very depressing. Ironically, right? No, but the mental health… in fact, suicides actually correlate with higher income brackets. That’s weird. Now, I’m not going to get into that, because I’m not a statistics guy, and I get it: 90% of all statistics are made up and found on the internet. But this one I really did do my research on, and it does seem that there’s a problem in people’s hearts. And I don’t think that’s surprising to anybody here: that people are suffering and hurting. Like Bishop Chris always says, people are dying on our watch. And it’s not the bread they need. It’s the person of Jesus.

Thank the Lord for modern technology and modern systems and modern provision for people’s hunger and thirst. That’s awesome. Let’s continue to praise the people who do those things and serve in those ways. But let’s remember that what they truly need is Jesus.

And for us, if you’re feeling anxious about your provision, your food, your clothing, your housing, whatever it is you’re anxious about, remember what Jesus told us: “Your Father knows you need these things” (Matt 6.32). That’s the abundance mentality. We know where our source is, so we don’t have to be afraid. And if you need some faith, and you’re really struggling with provision, just let me know. I’ll show you my bank statements for the past eight years. You will see that God is good. How did you survive so long? Because God is good. It’s not because I’m all that wealthy. I’m a truck driver. But God wants me to be here so I can serve you guys, and so he makes provision. And he wants me to have six kids, apparently. Praise the Lord. So he’s going to provide. They actually need shoes. I don’t know if you know that shoes are expensive. But God provides. Your Father knows you need these things.

But our attention gets captured by all the ways we try to fill up that fear. Our attention is captured by all the things that don’t satisfy. That’s what Isaiah is saying: “Why do you spend money for that which is not bread?”, for that which isn’t satisfying. In fact, we know that there’s actually only one thing that is necessary, as we’ve been talking about with Martha and Mary:

41 “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10.41–42

So what is the one thing that is necessary? Jesus. The Sunday school answer does work.

IX. Eat What Is Good 22:34

This continues in Isaiah:

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Isa 55.2

God doesn’t just want to provide the bare minimum. If you’re feeling like “I’ve only ever got the bare minimum,” that is not the fullness of what God has for you. He has rich food, and delight in him. Now, that may mean steak occasionally, and awesome, wonderful, but that is not the point. The richness is in Jesus. If you’re not enjoying Jesus, you’re lacking the reality of who he is. You should spend time actually savoring Jesus. You should enjoy him in your life. He is rich food. He is delightful.

Okay, let’s keep going here:

3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Isa 55.3

Now, David here is symbolic of Jesus. And so Jesus is what it means: his sure love for Jesus is the love he has for you. That’s what’s happening in this prophecy. It’s not talking about David, who has already died at this point. It’s talking about Jesus, who is coming: the true David, the true Adam, the one who fulfills all the promises in the Psalms and the prophets. So the love of Jesus is the love of you. If you’ve ever questioned that, if you’re like, “Man, but I’m not good enough. How do I have everything I need?”: it’s because God loves you the way he loves Jesus.

X. Give Them Jesus 24:05

So we have the good portion, the necessary thing. The world needs what we have. What’s the answer? Give them Jesus. What was Jesus doing with the disciples for three years? He was teaching them to distribute Jesus, to be clothed in him and to be like him. That’s what discipleship is all about. What is it? Spend time with Jesus, do what he did, be like him. That’s what discipleship’s all about. And so he’s teaching them: “We’re going to bring Jesus, the great treasure to the poor, the great physician to the sick, the home to the homeless, the belonging to the stranger, the wholeness to the broken.”

Anybody in your life who has a need: Jesus is the solution. Now, yes, of course, if you get cut and you need stitches, I’m not going to come here and just wave my hand and say “Jesus,” and you’re going to be all better. I understand that. Let’s just be real here. But ultimately, your metaphysical reality, your spirit man, every part of you, is only satisfied by Jesus. In fact, every breath we take is provided by him. In him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17.28). Okay? Disciples distribute Jesus.

I’ll make one more analogy, and then we’ll close out. There’s a huge difference between the person who is training to be the starting quarterback of the greatest team ever in the world, the Dallas Cowboys… Everything I say from the pulpit must be true, right? There must… no, the Dallas Cowboys are my favorite team. There’s a difference between the guy who is training for thousands of hours to become the starting quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, and the guy who spends thousands of hours in the weight room for the sake of the weight room. Which one do you want to be?

This here: this is the weight room. This is the training ground. Yes, it matters. He cannot be the Dallas Cowboys quarterback without the weight room. The weight room’s first. This is first. Come to Jesus. Be filled with him. Be shaped by him. Be trained by him. Become his disciple. That’s first. But it’s for the game, which is out there. All the practice is for the game.

And you can’t do it alone. Did you know that if the starting quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys has a bad left tackle, he will lose? There’s nothing he can do. So you, whatever position you are, make everybody else able to play the game out there. We come together as a team. We train together. We do these things together. But it’s not about us. In fact, if all my time is spent hanging out with you guys, as wonderful as you are, and that’s it, I’m not playing the game. I’m just in practice, scrimmage, whatever. Yes, necessary. 100% necessary. Nobody would ever make the comment that you don’t have to build your team dynamics, that you don’t have to train with one another, that you don’t have to learn how to do the thing and become the person. Nobody would ever argue you don’t need to do that. But if that’s all you did, it’s just not enough, because the mission is out there. The game is out there. We’re here for a purpose.

The world needs the disciples to bring them Jesus. They’re starving for him. This is something we are doing as Saint Michael’s. We’re learning; over years we’ve been talking about it. We’re taking action to bring Jesus to the world. That is our mission. That’s where we’re heading. If you’re not in that, then sure, come along for the ride and see the move of God. But let me tell you, it’s way better to be in that game. That is the end of discipleship: to make disciples. That’s what disciples do.

Now, there’s one way we’re really good at it at Saint Michael’s: producing children and raising them up in the way of the Lord. We do a great job of making disciples that way. But that’s not how the church grew. The church grew because your neighbor had a problem, and you walked over and said, “Do you need Jesus?” And they said, “Yes, I need Jesus.” And then the church became a billion people around the world. Pretty much, in summary: they are starving for him. Give them Jesus. Amen.