In his sermon, Jason Dohm discusses the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 as recorded in Luke 9:10-17, drawing parallels to the 'Manna from Heaven' that fed the Israelites in the desert. He emphasizes the significance of this miracle, noting that it is one of only two miracles recorded in all four Gospels, the other being the resurrection. Dohm highlights Jesus's divine nature, demonstrated not only through words but through actions, as he proves his identity and compassion without needing to verbally assert it. Despite the initial plan for rest and seclusion, Jesus extends compassion to the multitude, seeing them as sheep without a shepherd, and teaches his disciples a lesson in dependency on God's provision. The sermon elaborates on the significance of scarcity and abundance, with Jesus turning a seemingly impossible situation into an opportunity to display divine glory. Lessons of humility, faithful distribution of God's resources, and the importance of understanding one's limitations in contrast to God's limitless power are drawn from the narrative.

The title of our message this morning is, Manna from Heaven. The only thing you can find in scripture that's like what we have in our text today, is God feeding the multitude of the Israelites for 40 years in the desert. You really get a little microcosm or a little miniature version of this. The same God is showing up and feeding a multitude essentially out of nothing. And it's wonderful to see.

If Gary were here we would attribute this to Him. Jesus is God. That's what you need to know from the Gospels and that's what you need to know from this text. The people are eating manna from heaven in this text. Last week, in last week's text, Jesus sent out the twelve.

We actually know them by name. They were named in chapter six and then in chapter eight they went with Jesus as he preached about the kingdom of God and healed and cast out demons. And now in chapter 9, He's sending them out to preach and to heal and to cast out demons just like they had been traveling around and seeing Him do. He's sending them out to do that as well. And in today's text, they return from that.

Something I didn't say last week, but is in Mark's account of the disciples being sent out, is that they were sent out two by two. So there are 12 of them, so There were six groups of two by two that went in different directions to preach in different places, to heal in different places, to cast out demons in different places, and they had been given power and authority by Jesus to do these things, and they did those things, and now they're returning to Jesus. And in our text Jesus will take them away for the purpose of rest as we'll see in a minute. I'll give you more detail on that. But the purpose of this going away was rest.

But in the end that plan won't come to fruition, at least it won't immediately. But a wonderful miracle will be accomplished and it's another miracle that answers the question, who is this Jesus? That's what you need to know from the Gospels. Who is Jesus? In account after account after account, that's being answered without words.

In other words, Jesus isn't having to say in words who he is. He's proving who he is by the things that he does. He'll end up teaching who he is too. But all of that will have been confirmed before the disciples' eyes and before the people's eyes in the things that Jesus has been doing. The feeding of the 5, 000 appears in all four Gospels.

Other than the resurrection, no other miracle fits that description. Can you believe that? Of all the miracles, there are only two that you find in Matthew and Mark and Luke and John in all of them, and that is the resurrection from the dead is in all of them, and the feeding of The 5, 000 is in all of them and nothing else is in all of them in terms of miracles. So that should make your ears perk up and know that we're in a really important account here. Let's pray.

God, your Word is a treasure. Week after week to just be able to, in our mind's eye, see Jesus and hear from Jesus in the Gospels is such a joy and such a privilege. Thank you for the gospel of Luke and our time in it. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

I'd like to begin by isolating verses 10 and 11. So, follow along as I reread Luke chapter 9 verses 10 and 11. Then I'll stop there and talk about it and then we'll proceed from there. And the Apostles, when they had returned, told him all that they had done. Then he took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.

But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him. And He received them and spoke to them about the Kingdom of God and healed those who had need of healing. Here in these two verses Jesus seizes an opportunity. In chapter 9 verse 1 we read, then he called his 12 disciples and in verse 2 it says he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. I said in last week's sermon that when we read he sent them, the Greek word being translated is from the same Greek word group that we get apostle from.

So, apostolo is sent and now in today's text we have apostolos which just means one who is sent. He sent them and now these ones who he sent came back and from now on from time to time they'll be called apostles. They've been called the twelve and will be from time to time. They've been called disciples and will be from time to time. And now from here on out from time to time they'll be called apostles or it just means sent ones.

But it is a technical term for these 12 men who were directly sent by Jesus into the world to teach about the kingdom of God and to heal diseases and to cast out demons. So that's where we start in verse 10. The apostles, the sent ones, return. They've been out two by two, so ministry pairs, going to different places, preaching, healing, casting out demons, and now they've come back. As we would expect, they tell Jesus all that they had done.

So there's a time, they've come back together, there's a time for them to relate the events of their ministry journeys. They share their stories. And undoubtedly Jesus uses this as an opportunity to instruct them. We don't get any of the instructions, but it's impossible to imagine this happening without them telling Jesus their stories and Jesus using that as an opportunity to instruct them. Again, Jesus is making them ready for the time when He'll no longer be with them and they'll be sent ones out to the farthest parts of the earth.

One of them is going to make it as far as India. One of them is going to make it as far as Scotland and these places are so far afield from Israel. So they're going to be sent out into the world and Jesus is using these things to make them ready for that. Undoubtedly this time where they tell him the stories of their ministry journey, he's using this to instruct them. Then after they have done that, Jesus takes them and just them, they go privately to a deserted place.

There's a clamor for their time and attention, but Jesus is taking them away from that and to go to a deserted place where there aren't other people. And this deserted place is nearest to the small fishing community on the Sea of Galilee named Bethsaida. It literally means fishing house. So that's the literal name of the town. It means fishing house and it's just this small fishing community on the Sea of Galilee.

It's six miles east of Capernaum. So Capernaum is also on the Sea of Galilee, is Jesus's home base for his ministry in Galilee, and this is just a small fishing community six miles east of it. It was actually in the news this week. Did anybody else see that? There was a link of an archaeological excavation and the archaeologist in charge of it says, I'm 100% certain based on what we're finding that this is Beth Seda.

And they had actually had a wildfire there and they said, oh no this is a tragedy. And then they discovered that the wildfire cleared out a whole area with all sorts of this archaeological evidence. And it's showing that this is that small fishing community or so the archaeologist says. So anyway, if you want homework, you can go Google Beth Seda and that news article will pop up because it was just this week. John chapter 1 verse 44.

Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. So in John 1 we learn that three of the twelve disciples, a quarter, one quarter of the disciples, were from this little fishing village on the Sea of Galilee from Bethsaida. So there's a deserted place near this small community and Jesus is taking them there. Philip, Andrew, and Peter, it's their hometown. The account in the Gospel of Mark makes it crystal clear why Jesus is taking them away.

Listen to this, Mark chapter 6, verse 31, And he said to them, Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place, and rest awhile. So in Mark's record, we get exactly why Jesus is taking them away. Jesus says, come aside with me and rest awhile. And then the end of that verse is this, for there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. So you can imagine, Jesus has been doing miracles.

Now he's given power and authority for his disciples to do miracles They've been out to all these different places two by two Preaching healing casting out demons now they come together again You can imagine the clamor for their time and attention that's happening And that's exactly what they come home to, so much so that there's really no time to even eat. And Jesus says we're going away by ourselves to a deserted place. Ah, but they are not undetected. The multitude is not about to let Jesus get away that easily, so they follow Jesus. And the account from the Gospel of John makes the motive of the multitudes crystal clear.

So from Mark we get Jesus's motive, he's taking them away for rest. In John we get the motive of the multitudes. John chapter 6 verse 2, then a great multitude followed him because they saw the signs which he performed on those who were diseased. So, why will the crowd not let them get away and get some rest? Because they saw the signs that he performed on those who were diseased.

So here's a good question. I think we should ask this question of the text. Does Jesus despise that? The multitude is following him because of the signs. They might want to hear from him too, but that's not what John records.

John records it's the signs. They're, in a way, they're thrill seekers. There are some in every group, thrill seekers, that are attracted to the big things that are happening. So that's clearly part of it here. John 6 2, then a great multitude followed him because they saw his signs.

Does Jesus despise that? Listen to Mark 6. Mark 6 33 and 34. This is just Mark's account of the same history. Mark 6, 33 and 34.

But the multitudes saw them departing, and many knew him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to him." So they actually anticipate Jesus. They have a sense of where he's headed. So they're coming together from the different cities. The word has got out and they actually beat him to the spot.

They arrived before him and come together to him. Now John 6 34, and Jesus when he came out saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things. Now is that because Jesus didn't know why the crowds coming together. He didn't know that they were sign seekers.

No, Jesus is the author of the Bible. He knew exactly why they were coming together, that in a sense they were thrill seekers. But he doesn't despise it. When he looks out on that multitude, though they are stupid, though they are weak, though they think so wrong about so many things, though this is a multitude of sinful people, what he sees is sheep not having a shepherd. And he has compassion on them, so he starts to teach them many things.

They need to learn many things. He starts to teach them many things. So the multitudes actually run ahead a little and arrive there first and are there waiting. Jesus looks out on this multitude and He has moved with compassion for them. He does not despise them at all.

Our text, Luke 9 says he receives them. He doesn't rebuff them, doesn't send them away. He receives them. He teaches them and he heals them. We don't know when the day started, But as long as the day lasted, he was teaching and healing.

You know, I'm so often so impatient. So selfish. You do not want to be between me and rest. When I think that I need it, when my perception is that I need rest, or when I think that I deserve it, when my perception is I deserve rest. On Tuesday, if you are between me and the beach, I don't know what to tell you.

If you throw yourself in front of the car on Tuesday, when we're headed to the beach, I can predict the outcome. That is so unlike our Lord Jesus. What does Jesus see? A golden opportunity to do His Father's will. His Father sent Him to have compassion on these people and so He sees an opportunity to have compassion on these people and He will not miss it for anything.

Does he need rest? He actually needs rest. He's fully God but he's fully man too. In the last chapter we saw him exhausted, asleep in the bottom of the boat. He's fully man.

He needs rest. The crowds have been so demanding that they haven't even been able to really find time to eat. They're trying to leave that behind to get rest. Jesus still sees an opportunity to do His Father's will. He was sent to have compassion on these people.

Stupid people, weak people, people who were thinking wrong about all sorts of things, sinful people, but he has compassion and he spends themselves for him. Paul will end up saying, I think it's Thessalonians, I didn't come prepared with this one, this one's off the cuff. But Paul says, I think in Thessalonians, I will willingly spend and be spent for you. Paul is just following Jesus in that. He willingly would spend and be spent for these people and we're watching it in this text.

Jesus sees people who need to be taught and are willing to hear, Some who desperately need to be healed and have come in the hopes that he'll receive them and heal them. And that's exactly what they find. Jesus ready and willing to do all that. Next section. Verses 12 through 15.

I'll stop after 15. When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to him, send a multitude away that they may go into the surrounding towns and country and lodge and get provisions for we are in a deserted place here. But he said to them, you give them something to eat. And They said, we have no more than five loaves and two fish unless we go and buy food for all these people. For there were about 5, 000 men.

Then he said to his disciples, make them sit down in groups of fifty. And they did so, and made them all sit down. In these verses we find out that people need food. Did you need to know that? People need food.

Jesus teaches and heals until evening. In our text it says, when the day began to wear away. In Matthew 14 verse 15 it says, when it was evening, in Mark 6 verse 35 it says, when the day was far spent, we spent the day, it's all spent up, we're out of day, it's evening, Jesus' twelve disciples come and say, send the multitudes away, Jesus, send the multitudes away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country and lodge and get provisions for we are in a deserted place here. This massive people did not prepare for anything extended. They just wanted to be with Jesus, hear Jesus, experience the things that were happening around Jesus.

And so they came, no advance planning, no preparations, no food. Certainly not for anything overnight. They just wanted to see Jesus and hear Jesus. Some needed to be healed by Jesus so they followed him. But now reality is setting in.

Reality has a way of doing that. When you don't prepare for things, it will catch up and now the day is spent and reality is setting in. The disciples have the plan. Send them out. None of these little communities would have enough, so send them out into the surrounding towns and villages, plural, plural, to get what they need and have it brought with them.

Jesus, however, has a different plan. Disciples, you give them something to eat. They don't need to go into the towns and villages. You feed them. They say, all we have here is five loaves of bread and two fish.

So unless we go and buy food, there are 5, 000 men here, we cannot feed these people. Matthew 14 verse 21 says, 5, 000 men besides women and children. So it wasn't all men. Probably, my guess is, it was mostly men who could drop everything and go to a remote place. So my guess is that maybe it was a majority of men.

But however you want to swell the numbers from there, it was more than 5, 000 because there were also women and children who weren't counted in that number. The accounts in Mark and John both record that they would have to buy 200 dinarii worth of bread. So one dinarii is a day's wage for a common laborer. So it's an agrarian society, most people are farming. So for a farmhand, for a day's work, an honest day's work from a farmhand, the farmhand would get a denarii.

It'd take 200 of those to buy enough, one of the accounts says, for everyone to have a little. Five thousand people, if you want just enough for all of them to get a little to tide them over till they could get somewhere else where there was a real meal would be 200 days worth of labor about eight months eight months of labor in fact listen to John chapter 6 This is John's account of this same events. John chapter 6 verses 5 through 9. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes and seeing a great multitude coming toward him, he said to Philip, where shall we buy bread that these may eat? Now remember Philip was from Bethsaida, so he knows.

This is the area of Bethsaida. Philip, you know, you know the area where do we where do we buy bread that these may eat. Verse 6, but this he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. So John lets us in on a little secret. Jesus knows they can't feed these people, and Jesus knows exactly the need and what he's going to do about it.

This he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, 200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may have a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said, there's a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish but what are they among so many? So Jesus always knew exactly what he was going to do And eight months of wages would have only bought enough for each person to have a little, so a snack, not a feast. And the five loaves and two fish were the possession of a little boy.

This is what we learned in John. So essentially, no one has anything. That's the whole point of the little boy's five loves and two fish is it's essentially equal to nobody has anything. The mention of the five loves and the two fish is the problem statement, not the solution. That's not a solution to anything.

Among 5, 000 people, that boy's lunch is nothing. So This is a setup. John clues us in. This is a setup. Jesus is making the impossibility of the challenge evident because he knows that he's about to display his glory.

He wants it clear in everybody's mind. We got 5, 000 people. We have essentially no food. The five loaves and two fishes. The problem statement, not the solution.

Statement, not the solution. I'm going to show my glory. This is a setup for the display of my glory to a multitude." That's the whole purpose of this. The identity of Jesus is being established in the Gospel of Luke. This is another plank in that structure.

Who is this who commands the winds and the waves and they obey Him? Herod wants to know who is Jesus. Jesus is going to ask in next week's text, that I didn't mention, Riley's preaching next week, pray for Riley. In next week's text, Jesus is going to ask him, okay, you've been through all this, who do you say that I am? This is about the display of Jesus's glory.

That's the whole purpose of this. He's establishing his identity. How does the Gospel of John begin? Let me remind you, you know, but let me read John 1, 1 through 3. In the beginning was the Word, and speaking of Jesus, in the beginning was the Word, Jesus, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, And without him nothing was made that was made." John, where did you get that theology? Well wherever he heard it, it was confirmed by things like this that we're seeing. John is there seeing Jesus make a feast for 5, 000 men from nothing. He took what was essentially nothing and he set a feast before 5, 000 men plus women and children and there were leftovers.

And there were leftovers. Wherever John learned the theology, he learned it from Jesus obviously, but whenever he heard that, it was confirmed. He wasn't hearing something that would be hard for him to believe then that Jesus was with God in the beginning and that all things were made through him because he saw Jesus make a feast for a multitude from essentially nothing. Jesus instructs the twelve to make people sit down in groups of fifty. Have them sit down in groups of fifty on the grass.

And they do it. Verses 16 and 17. Back to Luke 9, verses 16 and 17. Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven he blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. So they all ate and were filled and 12 baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.

These verses we see the God of abundance. Jesus takes what is there, the five loaves of bread, the two fish, he looks up to heaven, He blesses them, breaks them up, he gives them to the disciples to pass out to more than 5, 000 people. Good luck boys! See how far it goes. Only there's no luck involved.

Like the manna in the wilderness, when God fed a nation where there was no way to grow crops and nowhere to graze herds. And they lived for 40 years on something that came from nothing. Man or from heaven. Not just a little bit for each person as the eight months of pay would have bought as much as anyone wants. Eat your fill.

All of you eat your fill. Our text says, they all ate and were filled. You can translate that satisfied. They all ate until they were satisfied. They all ate and were filled.

John 6-14 says, as much as they wanted. So nobody in the multitude of 5, 000, by the way, how many is 5, 000? If you've been to the Church of Fame and Life Conference in the keynote speeches, When it's full, you have maybe 1, 300 people there, so four times that filled auditorium would be how many people are eating here, just to give you some sense of scale. What is 5, 000? Spillman Auditorium filled up four times over is about what you get.

That's a lot of people. As much as they want. Everyone can eat as much as they want, and they all do, And then there are 12 basketfuls left that they collect. So they start with five loaves of bread and two fish. And out of that, 5, 000 people plus women and children are fed and then they end up with 12 basketballs of leftovers.

That's Jesus for you. What do you need to know about Jesus? You can start with nothing, feed a multitude, and end up with more leftovers than the little you started with. Conclusions and applications, I'll give you five. Number one, worship Jesus your God.

They didn't fully understand it then, couldn't be expected to, But we do now. We've got the whole book. We've got John's theology of Jesus and where he was in the beginning and who he was in the beginning. And how everything that's ever been made has been made. It's through Jesus.

It's by Jesus. It's for Jesus. Colossians 1. I should have included Colossians 1. I have time.

Too late. God took on flesh and came and lived on the earth we're living on. Can you believe that? So we see Jesus in the Gospels, we worship God. Jesus is God and worthy of all of our worship.

Worthy anyway, but now we know that He's God, but He took on flesh out of compassion for people who are like we are. Who would do that? Jesus did that. Number two, in our text we are watching Jesus love. The word love is never used, doesn't need to be.

Jesus is a man. He and his disciples need rest. But here comes the multitude. So Jesus spends and is spent. He's happy to spend and be spent.

He's unbelievably patient and giving and you can trace it back to love. He looks out on this multitude and he has compassion for them. They're like sheep without a shepherd And he's a shepherd. What Luke doesn't even hint at, but we learn in Matthew 14 and John 6, Matthew and John's accounts of the same history, John the Baptist has just been beheaded and as the disciples return from their ministry journey they're getting the report of this just as they're returning. So in our text Luke doesn't even hint at it but we learn it in Matthew and John.

They've just also gotten the report that John the Baptist has been beheaded. Even so, Jesus sees the multitude. He has compassion on it. John 3.16 is so overused and so ripped out of context that I find that it has fallen out of use with me. That's a shame.

That's a shame. I do hate how people use it because they disconnected, They act like there's not a John 17, 18, and 19. And that's not good. And we can affirm that's not good without losing John 3.16. I find myself feeling like sometimes I've lost John 316.

We can't let that happen. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Praise the Lord! He loved this multitude with all that was wrong with them and even with his and his disciples craving for rest that was no obstacle to him to loving these people to having compassion on these people. Abby was over for dinner last night and so we had family worship together and we were talking about instances where we feel the need to defend God.

Because Because God's righteousness and God's justice are so neglected in the modern church, We can so emphasize God's justice. Is he just? Amen. Of course he's just. Is he righteous?

Amen. He's perfectly righteous. But We can fixate on that and lose sight of the love and compassion of God for sinners. If we do that, what are we doing? What are we doing?

So, I don't know if I'm preaching to you, I know I'm at least preaching to me. We are watching Jesus' love in this text and it's wonderful. And He's like that. He's eternally like that. He's like that today.

He's saving. He's having compassion on the multitude and saving sinners today. We don't know their names, but they're being saved today. He's applying the work of the cross to people who are in desperate need. Up to this moment they've been headed into eternal destruction and he's snatching them out of the flame today.

He's doing that. He's like that. He's like that. Number three, Jesus tests to teach. That's something that's happening in our text.

He tests. He's testing them. He said, you feed them. He knew all along what he was going to do. John said so.

It's a setup. He's testing them. That's actually the word in John 6. He tested Philip. What is He doing?

Trying to trip up Philip? No, He's teaching Philip. Jesus puts His disciples in a position that was completely beyond them to teach them about themselves and their limitations, and himself and his lack of limitations. So he's going to send them into a big hostile world. They needed to understand their limitations and they needed to understand that he had no limitations and that anything they lacked he could supply and would supply when they...

Jesus tests to teach. You might think, why am I going through this? He's probably trying to teach you something. He's trying to teach you about your limitations. I know enough about human nature to know that after this ministry trip where they had been preaching, healing, casting out demons, exercising all this power and authority that he given them that they might have been a little full of themselves.

So he shows you, You feed them. Taught them something about themselves and about himself. Number four. I said in last week's text that we were seeing how God staged resources. I'm stealing your line from Tuesday morning, thank you.

Staging resources. Meaning, he sent the Apostles out, the disciples out, He said, don't take an extra anything with you. Don't take any food with you, not a knapsack, not a second staff. And it wasn't just good luck, guys. It was you'll find the resources when you get there.

It was to teach them that God had already planned it out and put the things that they need where it would be needed, and they would, walking by faith, find that the resources were there when they got there. This week he's doing the opposite of that. He's staging scarcity. He owns the Catalonia Thousand Hills and the other hills also. He's never in need of resources, but sometimes he strategically uses scarcity to teach us about himself and to cause us to depend upon him.

Thank God for that. You've heard fat, dumb, and happy. Fat, dumb, and happy is a real category and we're very prone to it. Sometimes he needs to strategically use scarcity. But you have to understand That's all it is.

It's never lack of abundance. It's never lack of ability. It's only a strategic use of scarcity to teach you who he is and how he'll provide at the right moment. Last week, he was staging resources. He taught them that.

This week, he's staging scarcity. And he's teaching them the resources sometimes catch up. But he never lacks, he always has abundance. Number five, finally. J.C.

Ryle says this, receive humbly, distribute faithfully. He's actually applying it to ministers there. He's saying ministers of the Word of God receive humbly and distribute faithfully. That's his application. But we can apply that to all of us.

Preachers, non-preachers, moms, dads, children, receive humbly from God. That's all they had to do was just receive humbly here in our text and distribute faithfully. God's going to put resources into your hands. Don't think you own them. Receive them humbly and distribute them faithfully.

God, I thank you for this text more than anything else. I thank you for your compassion on sinners. Thank you that you receive sinners. The text uses that word. You received them.

You looked out on the multitude. You had compassion on them. As sheep without a shepherd and you are a shepherd and you are bringing in sheep from every people, tribe, tongue, nation to be together with you for eternity. Not one will be lost. Thank you for your kindness.

Thank you for being love. Pray in Jesus' name, Amen.