Dr. Rick Mandl - August 8, 2021
Free Lunch
During his time on earth, Jesus shared many meals, with a wide variety of dinner guests-tax collectors, religious leaders, skeptics, prostitutes, fishermen... Just as Jesus reveals his character through the words he spoke and the miracles he performed, he shows himself through the meals he shared and the people he sat across from. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hey, church family great to welcome you. Wherever you are and however you may be joining us, we’re glad you’re here. What you’re looking at on the screen is a picture of what is, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. The World’s largest sandwich ever made. This sandwich weighed in at 5,440 lb and was put together by Wild Woody’s Chill and Grill, Roseville, Michigan, on 17 March 2005.
The sandwich contained:
- 150 lb of mustard
- 1,032 lb of corned beef
- 260 lb cheese
- 530 lb of lettuce
- 3,568 lb of bread
Any way you slice it, that is one big sandwich. Just the top slice of bread took 8 men to maneuver into place. This sandwich was somewhat of a novelty because no one sat down to eat it after it was constructed. It was simply put together for purpose of setting the record in the Guinness Book of World Records - - for World’s Largest Sandwich.
Today we’re going to look at the story of a meal that Jesus provided, and unlike this sandwich, this was a meal that was consumed. It’s what is most often called the Feeding of the 5,000. But even that name is a bit of a misnomer because that number of 5,000 only includes the men who were present, that’s the way they counted things at that time. So when you factor in the women and children present, in all likelihood we’re talking about a meal that fed upwards of 10,000, maybe as many as 15,000 people, and it was a meal that Jesus provided for them at no cost. It truly was a “Free Lunch”.
If you have your Bible or your Bible app, let me encourage you to open to Luke 9:10-17.
As you’re turning there, let me mention that many would regard this miracle as the most famous among all the miracles that Jesus performed during his earthly ministry, and the reason is that among the miracles Jesus performed, this one is the Only One that is reported by all four of the gospel writers - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - all four of them include this miracle in the gospels they wrote that bear their names. And the references for those four different accounts are listed there on your message notes.
I’ll be reading to you from Luke 9, but then I’ll also be drawing from the records of the other gospel writers as each of them provides some additional details.
Let’s begin by looking at Luke 9 beginning in verse 10 we read...
“When the apostles returned, they told Jesus everything they had done. Then he slipped quietly away with them toward the town of Bethsaida. But the crowds found out where he was going, and they followed him. He welcomed them and taught them about the Kingdom of God, and he healed those who were sick.
“Late in the afternoon the twelve disciples came to him and said, ‘Send the crowds away to the nearby villages and farms, so they can find food and lodging for the night. There is nothing to eat here in this remote place.’
“But Jesus said, ‘You feed them.’ ‘But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish,’ they answered. ‘Or are you expecting us to go and buy enough food for this whole crowd?’ For there were about 5,000 men there. Jesus replied, ‘Tell them to sit down in groups of about fifty each.’
“So the people all sat down. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread and fish to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people.
And the story concludes by telling us that . . .
“They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers!”
As I mentioned this is the only miracle that Jesus performed that is recorded in all four Gospels. But even though it’s VERY FAMILIAR, it’s ALSO OFTEN very misunderstood.
Like the little boy in Sunday School, who when asked what his favorite Bible story was, answered, “My favorite story in the Bible is the story of the multitude, that loaves and fishes.” Well, the people in this story are NOT LOAFING and they’re NOT FISHING, but they were fed loaves of bread and fish for lunch.
Some people, who have a hard time with the miraculous, try and rewrite this story. They will tell you that if you want to believe this story in the way that it’s described – as a miracle – you can. But they’ll tell you that what really happened was, all the people who were gathered here this day had actually brought their own lunch with them to eat. But the problem was that they were selfish, they had plenty of food, but nobody wanted to share what they brought, with anyone else. And so Jesus sees this little boy in the crowd, ghis little boy who only had a few loaves and couple of fish, and with that wonderful, warm, Jesus-smile, He melts the heart of this little boy, and he persuades him to take his lunch out, and share it with others.
And that single act of generosity, brought conviction on everybody else who was there, and so they took out their lunches, which they had been hiding, and they also shared them with everyone present and that’s how everybody ate. At least that’s how one person explains it.
Now if you want to believe that – even though it doesn’t say that – you can. I think it’s easier to take it the way that it’s presented as a miracle and to realize that miracles are no big deal for Jesus.
Today, I want to share with you Three Lessons From This Free Lunch...
1. Jesus Has COMPASSION For People In Need
If you look at the CONTEXT in which this miracle took place, you’ll see that in the first verses of Luke chapter 9. Jesus had called His disciples and He had commissioned them, and He had sent them out on what was in effect a mission trip. He sent them to TEACH and PREACH and HEAL and CAST OUT DEMONS. And as we come to verse 10 in this 9th chapter of Luke’s Gospel, we see that they’ve returned from that mission trip, they’ve given their report to Jesus, and His plan and theirs was to slip away quietly.
Now I wonder, if you’re trying to get away, if you’re trying to get some peace and quiet, only to find out that someone has followed you, how do feel?
Jesus response was to welcome them and teach them, and that’s kind of the opposite of what we’d expect because usually, if you are followed by someone, if you're chased by someone, if you're being pursued by someone, usually your reaction is not to turn around and say, “Welcome! Great to see you! C’mon over, let’s hug it out!”
Yet that’s what Jesus did and the Gospel writer Mark tells us why. It’s because “Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.”
When Jesus looked at them, He saw their brokenness, He saw their needs. He didn't see them just as an inconvenient bunch of people who showed up to mess up his plans. Through all of this Jesus wasn’t JUST TEACHING THE CROWD, he was also MODELING TO HIS DISCIPLES that this is how you do ministry. You do this SELFLESSLY. You do this WITH COMPASSION, you do it WITHOUT THE KIND OF SELF-IMPORTANCE that says that you can't stop and serve somebody who interrupts your schedule.
Another lesson that we see from this miracle is that...
2. God uses PEOPLE to accomplish His PURPOSES
You don’t see it in Luke’s account but if you look at the record of this same miracle in John chapter 6, you’ll read that when “Jesus saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. He turned to Philip, and he asked him, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?”
Now, we know Jesus isn’t asking Philip this question because he needed information, and the reason we know that is because the next verse in John’s account tells us that “He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.” And Philip was ready with an answer, “Philip replied, ‘Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!’”
Now maybe you wonder... Why, among all the disciples, did Jesus direct this question to Philip? And the fact is, we don’t know. We’re not told. But if I had to guess, I’d tell you that it’s because in John chapter 1 we’re told that Philip was from the town of Bethsaida which is a little town on the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. And in Luke 9:10, we’re told that that is the place where this free lunch for 5,000 is going to take place – in Bethsaida – in the very place that Philip grew up, in his hometown.
So if anyone would know what resources were available locally, it would be the local kid. So it’s like "Philip, you’re from around here, where do you think that there is a bakery big enough to feed this crowd?" Now again, Jesus said this to TEST him.
So let me ask you, did Philip and the other disciples pass this test or did they fail it?
I’d have to say they failed. Philip and the others looked at their available resources, and they did the math, and they figured... 5, 10, 15,000 hungry people... Five loaves of bread, and two little fish? It doesn’t compute.
Philip was looking at the enormity of the challenge, and the availability of the resources, but he was also totally forgetting all about who he had with him in Jesus. Philip was a pessimist. A pessimist with an ability to do mental math, but a pessimist nonetheless.
I remember hearing about two neighbors. One was an optimist, always joyful, always trusting God, always with a smile on his face, always believing the best. But his neighbor, and both of them were farmers, his neighbor was a pessimist. His neighbor woke up every morning with a sigh. Maybe you know somebody like that. Maybe you are somebody like that.
So one morning the sun was shining and the optimist got up and he said “What a beautiful, bright, sunny day God has given us!” His neighbor, the pessimist said, “Yeah, but if that sun keeps shining it’ll scorch all of our crops.” The next day it rained, and the optimist, true to form, said, “What a gift that God is giving us to water our crops, and give them a drink.” And the pessimist said, “Yeah, but if the rain doesn’t stop, it’s gonna wash all our crops away.” And this went on all the time.
One day the optimist decided to give the ultimate test to the pessimist, he invited him to go with him to do a little duck hunting. He had something in mind. There they were out on the boat with their shotguns, ducks flew up, they pulled the trigger, shot a couple of ducks, they fell into the water and the optimist couldn’t wait. He smiled and the twinkle in his eye said to his dog, “Go get ‘em!” His dog gets out of the boat, walks on the water, gets the ducks, and brings them back, again walking on the water the whole way. And the optimist smiles and goes, “What do you think of that?”
And the pessimist said, “Oh, your dog can’t swim, can he?” That’s a pessimist.
When two pessimists meet at a party they don’t shake hands, they just shake heads. That’s Philip. Philip is calculating the need and cost. But he made a mistake in his calculations. And his mistake was that when he calculated the need and the cost, he forgot to factor Jesus into the equation.
Now you might want to defend Philip because maybe you figure if you’d been there you would have done the same thing. But remember, Philip was there when Jesus turned water into what? Into wine! Philip was there when Jesus healed the nobleman’s son. Philip was there with Jesus in John 5 when Jesus healed the man at the pool of Bethesda. A man who had been ill for 38 years. When faced with the miracle of feeding 5,000, Philip should have said, “With man this is impossible. But with you Jesus, all things are possible.”
But he didn’t. And yet he was allowed to be part of this miracle anyway. Why? Because...
2. God uses PEOPLE to accomplish His PURPOSES
And if you want proof of that, you can see it in the key phrase that Jesus uses in response to his disciples telling him that feeding all these people is an impossible task. Look at what Jesus says to them in Luke 9:13, after they encourage him to send the crowd away so they can find food and lodging. Jesus tells them, “You feed them”
The key phrase there is “YOU FEED THEM”
Could Jesus have fed them all by himself? Could He have performed the miracle without involving any of his disciples? Absolutely. He could’ve had an In-N-Out burger, fried and a coke instantly plopped in everybody’s lap. But it didn’t happen that way because He uses people to accomplish his purposes. He uses people.
You don’t see it here, but in John’s Gospel, we’re told that it was… "Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother" who brings the young boy to Jesus who had the five barley loaves and the two fish… Why did it happen this way? Couldn’t Jesus have found this little boy without any help from his disciples? Of course he could, but God uses people to accomplish his purposes. He used Philip, He used Andrew, He used that little boy, and He can use you and me if we’re open and available to being used.
From this FREE LUNCH, we learn that Jesus Has COMPASSION For People In Need, that God uses PEOPLE to accomplish His PURPOSES, and...
3. Where God GUIDES He PROVIDES
When Jesus said to his disciples, ‘You feed them.’ Their focus was only on the little that they had to work with. They told Him, ‘We have only five loaves of bread and two fish,’
Let me ask you, were they correct in their inventory when it came to the resources available to them? Was it true that all they had were five loaves and two fish? No that wasn’t true. What they actually had was five loaves, two fish, and one Jesus.
Jesus, the guy who they'd seen turn water into wine. The guy who they had seen cleanse the lepers, heal the sick and raise the dead. They had forgotten that it wasn’t just five loaves and two fish. It was five loaves, two fish, and one Jesus. Someone once said that there was a reason that they called these twelve the DUH-sciples...
What does Jesus tell them to do? He said . . . “‘Tell them to sit down in groups of about fifty each.” And what were the results? Verse 17 says, "They all..." And they didn’t just all eat, but "They all ate as much as they wanted". And they didn’t all just eat as much as they wanted, but... "They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers."
What’s the application in this story for you and me? Let me answer that in the form of three questions, that I want to challenge you to ask yourself?
Question #1 - What challenges, what problems, what obstacles am I facing in my life that, if I’m honest, I think is too big for God to handle?
Maybe it's a change of habit in your life? Or an addiction? Or a temptation that you don’t feel like you’re strong enough to beat? Maybe it's seeing your kids changing? Or maybe it's somebody you love that you’ve been praying for them to faith in Christ and you don’t think that’s ever going to happen? For the disciples, what they thought was too big was the crowd, 5,000 men, and the Bible says that was just the men.
Where you’ve got 5,000 men, you may have 5000 women, and maybe another 10,000 kids. So likely, between 15 and 20,000 people here that is a lot. An impossible need for them to meet. Maybe too big, even for Jesus to handle it is impossible.
What do you feel is too big in your life, for God to handle? It’s like, you can trust Him for salvation and forgiveness, and to provide you with a forever home in heaven, but you’re not sure you can trust Him with this?
Question #2 - What do I think is too little for God to use?
What do I think is too little for God to work with? Maybe it’s your own talents and abilities that frustrate you. You have a dream, you have a vision of how you would like to be used by God. But you feel like "I just can't do it. I don’t have what it takes. I don’t have enough time. I don’t have enough money. I don’t have enough talent."
If you feel that way, I'm not going to tell you you're wrong. I’m not going to tell you “You're the man, you're the woman.” What I’m going to tell you is that you’re probably right. Because actually, the lesson in this story is not: don't think like that. “You are awesome.” “You are powerful.” “You have unlimited capabilities.” The lesson is, you're probably right, that the need is enormous. And your abilities are so small and so few.
But the lesson is - - - start with what you have and watch what God can do? And you see this truth over and over and over throughout the pages of scripture. Start with the little you have. David took his five smooth stones, and his slingshot and brought down a giant. Moses had a shepherd staff. He threw it down and it turned into a snake. He picked it up by the tail it turned back into a staff. The disciples had two fish and five loaves and with that little they fed thousands. What would you do, if you believed that God could do that?
Some of you hear that and you think "I do believe!" Okay, then let me turn the question around this way...
What will you do because you believe God will provide?
This 9th chapter of Luke’s gospel begins with Jesus sending his disciples out on a mission trip, to teach and preach and heal and cast out demons. When they return from that trip, they really didn’t have much to report, in terms of results. But then, they are given the opportunity to participate in a miracle in which Jesus feeds thousands. And the very next chapter, Luke 10, begins with Jesus sending them out again, and He warned them, He said, "As you go, you don’t have much, by way of resources… It will be very easy to become discouraged because the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few..." But when they came back, this time they were filled with joy and they had great reports. What was different? What was different was that they had seen what God can do with what we offer to Him, and they believed that they weren’t limited by what they had in themselves. . . .
They could trust in the One who promises us that where He guides He will provide, and provide abundantly. Would you pray with me?
From Series: "Meals With Jesus"
During his time on earth, Jesus shared many meals, with a wide variety of dinner guests-tax collectors, religious leaders, skeptics, prostitutes, fishermen... Just as Jesus reveals his character through the words he spoke and the miracles he performed, he shows himself through the meals he shared and the people he sat across from. Join us for our new sermon series "One Minute After You Die" beginning July 3rd! How to join: In-Person during our Outdoor Worship Service on Sundays at 11 am (click here for details) or… Watch online at www.erockchurch.com/live Live Stream Service Times: Saturday at 5:30pm Sunday at 9am, 11am, 1pm, 6pm Wednesday at 7pm For more information on our worship services click here.
