You Give Them Something To Eat!

We're in the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 9. And I want to start by reading you two quotes, not from Scripture. One from St. Augustine. Some of you may have heard of St. Augustine. He was a pastor early, early in the church's history. And he had many things to say that are helpful. I think the thing that has been most helpful to me of reading of his are his confessions, the confessions of St. Augustine. I was talking to my son Joseph about some of them, about how he used to steal his neighbor's apples and feed them to pigs for fun. Does that sound interesting to you? Don't you guys want to do things like that? Steal apples and feed them to pigs? My son thought it was fun. Anyway, it's an interesting book that he wrote as a grown man about his life coming up and the things that he did. One of the things that he says as he's speaking to the Lord, he says, give what you command and command what you will. I want to put that quote together with a section of a song that I've often thought is cheesy, but I've seen on more than one occasion the Lord use it. The song is Trust and Obey. It seemed it's a kid's song. And that's what I always thought. It was sort of like Jesus loves me until I heard a grown man come to repentance because we sang that.

He sang that song in church, and it finally dawned on him that he couldn't live the way he was. And so the chorus of that song is, Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. So I want to put these two quotes together for you at the beginning. Give what you command, command what you will, trust and obey, there's no other way to be happy except to trust and obey. Whether you know these quotes or you're familiar with that song or with St. Augustine's is not really the point. I want you to realize... that both of those quotes put together, they promote something that's foundational to the Christian faith. In these quotes, we see that the life of a Christian is to be a life of faith. Now, that's sort of like, duh, right? So Christians live by faith, and it's a life of faith. And so for me to say that the Christian life is a life of faith, it's sort of like, yeah, we get that. I know that. But I want this morning for us to open up, what does it mean to live by faith? What does it actually look like?

that it can be not helpful. And I actually want it to be helpful. I want you to go away understanding what it means to live by faith, what it looks like. Hebrews 11.1 tells us that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And so you see that faith and sight are different ways of processing the world. We all have eyes, and to my knowledge, all of us can see. And so it's attempting... It's tempting for us to live by what we see, but faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And so Christians, those who call on the name of God, live by faith. That means they don't live by what they see. They live according to what God has to say, not by what their eyes take in. Now, if I asked you, what sorts of things do Christians do by faith? The sorts of things that...

that most likely come to your mind are things that get Christians' attention. We don't think of the quiet things that Christians do by faith. You think of the sort of public or noticeable things that people do by faith. And they go, oh, they get, you know, if they say something at work or they say something to one of their neighbors or they do something, you know, different with their money or their family structure is different. I was talking with someone recently that I've known for probably a year, but never closely. And they were just beside themselves. I was talking to them about their children and stuff, and at one point they asked me, so you have kids? And I said, yeah. And so I tell them about my family, and they're just going, and they can't believe it. And so their first concern was, how do you pay for that? And I said, We live humbly and we trust God. And we really love it. And oftentimes what I get from people when I talk about my family is they'll say something about my wife. They'll say something about Vanessa. And they'll often say, she must be a saint. Or you're really lucky. Because they understand something of the work. But their face, if you watch their face, they have received data that they don't have a...

a category. They don't know what to do with it. And this is just one example. But in my life, it ends up being a prominent example. And so both of them, their concern was, well, how do you pay for it? How do you afford it? And these are both wealthy people. One of them is a financial advisor. One of them used to own IndyCars and drive them for fun. So these are wealthy people. And they're thinking, why do you? How do you do it? And the thing that's going on in their face is they want to say, you're an idiot. What are you thinking? But they know they can't say that, and so they're trying to negotiate and reconcile how they live with how I live, and they don't know how to do it. And so the conversation is usually awkward, and I kind of get a kick out of it. And sometimes I point that out to them. But that's just one example of an area where...

We've lived by faith. And the world goes, I don't get it. It gains us some strange attention. Some people say, your wife's a saint. Some people say, I feel sorry for your wife. I'm not nearly so kind to those people. But everyone has their way of processing Christians who live by faith. And what I want this morning is for you to understand that the world doesn't want you to live by faith. The world will always and relentlessly be putting pressure on you to live by sight, to live by what makes sense around you. That pressure will be relentless. And oftentimes, you'll succumb to that pressure, you'll give in to that pressure, and you won't even have realized that there is pressure. If we started going through your life and picking up the details of your life, the things you do, The things you spend your time on, the things you spend your money on, the things that you, your goals, your desires for your family, if we start picking them up and holding them up and I say, why? Why do you do that? Why do you want that? You, like I, would start to think, there would be these things that we'd be talking about and you'd go, I'm not sure, actually. And then we would have to do the work of figuring out whether that desire or that goal was godly.

or worldly, whether it's something worthy of pursuit or not. We all live in this constant pressure against us to not live by faith, but to live by sight. This morning, we're going to study one of Jesus' most common miracles, the feeding of the 5,000. As we work through our text, I want you to see the pressure that the apostles faced to trust what they saw and what they thought instead of God. I also want you to see that in this miracle, God commands these men, these disciples, to do certain things. And I want you to put together in your mind, such that you can't ever take it apart, that the things that God commands us to do, he meets with us and helps us do it. Augustine said, give what you command and command what you will. Another way to say that is, so long as you'll help me do it, You can tell me to do anything you want. So long as you'll help me to do it, you can tell me to do anything you want. And what I want us to come away with is this certain reality fixed in our minds that the things God tells us to do, that we are to do by faith, we're to trust and obey, that as we do those things, he will meet with us in that work and bless us and bless others through our obedience.

That's the goal this morning. That's what we're headed towards, okay? Would you please stand for the reading of God's word? Luke chapter 9, verses 10 through 17. This is the word of the Lord, and it is eternally true. When the apostles returned, they gave an account to him of all that they had done. Taking them with him, he withdrew by himself to a city called Bethsaida. But the crowds were aware of this and followed him. And welcoming them, He began speaking to them about the kingdom of God and curing those who had need of healing. Now the day was ending, and the twelve came and said to him, Send the crowd away, that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside and find lodging and get something to eat, for here we are in a desolate place. 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 perhaps we go and buy food for all these people.

for there were about 5,000 men. And he said to his disciples, have them sit down to eat in groups of about 50 each. They did so and had them all sit down. Then he took the five loaves and the two fish and looked up to heaven. He blessed them and broke them and kept giving them to the disciples to set before the people. And they all ate and were satisfied. And the broken pieces which they had left over were picked up, 12 baskets full. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. So our text begins by saying, when the apostles returned, well, last week we studied where they went. They went out to preach the gospel, and they went out to preach the gospel with authority, both to heal the sick and to cast out demons. And we studied that last week. So they've gone out to do this work. And as they went, Jesus told them, don't you take any food, don't you take any extra clothes, don't you take anything with you except yourself, your person.

And you'll see how the ministry of the word, through the ministry of the word, God will provide those things for you. He'll provide shelter. He'll provide food. He'll provide your necessities through the ministry of the word. That's one of the outworkings. And he said, if there are cities that won't receive you, then as you leave, shake off your sandals as a testimony against them because they wouldn't receive the word. And so the apostles have just been out on this mission, short-term missions trip, if you will. They've gone out with no food, with no clothes. They come back and we understand them to be tired. We also understand that Jesus is tired because when they returned, they gave an account to him. And then Jesus takes those men and goes away somewhere private. But it's not somewhere private because the crowds hear about it. The crowds see what's going on and so they follow him. But we understand that both Jesus and the disciples were tired and would have liked to have rested.

The problem was, as I've said, the crowds knew where they were going, and so the crowds followed them. They pursued them. And so consider for a moment what I want you to do today, most weeks, but especially today. I want you to crawl into the apostles' skin. And I want you to have gone out and done the work, and you've come back, and you're tired now, and now there's people following you, disrupting your rest. Is this selfish of them? You want to say, no, no, it's not selfish. Do you appreciate when people come and upset your rest? No. Some of you say no. I don't. I've grown to not mind it quite so much sometimes. I went to bed about 12.30 last night. I got up about 6.30. But I also got up at 3, right in the middle, because there was needs at my house. And it's taken years for me not to actually get up and not play like I'm still sleeping, but to actually meet the needs, to care enough.

To not be, that I'm not overwhelmed by the inconvenience of it. To say, there's someone in my house, and it doesn't really matter who it is, children, Vanessa, doesn't matter, who needs something from me at 3 a.m. until 3.30. We don't like to have our rest disrupted. We think, if I'm going to work hard, when I come home, I want to be able to rest. This is something that men have to learn when they get married. You don't get to come home and rest. Not like you think you do. You get to come home and do the work of loving your wife and your children. That's what you get to do. You don't get to come home and veg out. You don't. And I know because that's what I want to do. I want to come home and just let my brain go to mush and piddle around on the computer or go to sleep or whatever. And all of the needs can go unmet. And I can even get frustrated that there are needs that are coming into conflict with my desires that are founded upon me being tired.

So here we are, the crowds are following Jesus and the disciples who are tired. And having followed them, Jesus welcomed them. Jesus welcomed them and he began speaking to them about the kingdom of God and curing those who have needs. If you were to read the parallel text in Mark, it says that he spoke to them for a long time about this. So it wasn't like, okay, here you go, here are the scraps and the crumbs of the kingdom of God, now go away. No, he speaks to them. He welcomes them. He continues to teach and to preach and to heal. And he does it for a long time. We know that he does it for a long time because the disciples are concerned. What is their concern? These people don't have any food and they don't have any shelter. They followed you away from their home. They've been here all day. They're hungry. They need to eat. And so the disciples make a completely reasonable suggestion. And depending on how you read it, there's more than one way you could read it. You could see them as being curmudgeonly and being...

grumbling and frustrating and saying, Jesus, these people need to eat and it's late and why don't you send them away? But really the reason they're saying it is because they're tired and they want a break. Or you could read it as them, the disciples, having concern for the people, having a genuine concern saying, these people have been with us all day. They're tired. They're hungry. They need provision. You should send them away so that they can go into the city. Now, it only makes sense what they say. It only makes sense. And they're sitting here thinking, we don't have the means to feed them. Jesus, you need to send them away to find lodging and food. And so Jesus' response to them, to the disciples who are tired and who've been there all day, is, you give them something to eat. Now, I have a question. That statement has an exclamation point at the end of it. So it's not like, hey, you give them something to eat. It's, you give them something to eat.

So what tone do you hear when you read that statement? How is Jesus saying it? Stern and disciplinary. Why? So is he angry? I think we hear this one of two ways. I certainly hear it that way. I want to think that he's fed up with the disciples. And that he's saying, you feed them, in sort of contempt or disgust, the way I would. But I know enough to know he's not sinning by what he says to them or in the way that he says it to them. He's not saying, would you guys please give them something to eat? This is not the way he speaks to the disciples. And yet he's not angry and sinning in the way that he commands them to give them something to eat. Now, if you were the disciples, you've been out to preach the gospel, you've been given authority to cast out demons, you've come back tired and reported, everything that happens to him, he takes you away to rest, but you don't get to rest all day. And then comes the end of the day, you say, you need to send these people away so they can get something to eat. And he says to you, you give them something to eat. What are you thinking? Do you not feel like you've just been spun in a circle and shaken up and set for everyone to laugh at? Do you know what to do? You have no idea what to do, and they don't know what to do. That's why they come to him and they say,

We've got five loaves of bread and two fish. I suppose we could go buy food for 5,000 men. I mean, they have come to the end of their ability to understand what's going on, right? We don't know what to do. They only did what made sense to them. These people are hungry. We don't have food for them. They need shelter. We don't have that either. These people need to go find their own accommodations. And then Jesus says something completely out of left field. You feed them. It doesn't seem to follow. It seems like Jesus is being over the top, inappropriate, demanding things that the apostles have no ability or means to do. And yet what Jesus tells them to do follows right in line with the things he's been doing with the disciples. Is it beyond the pale to think that the apostles...

who've just been given authority to cast out demons and to heal people who are sick, is it so far beyond the scope of possibility to expect that they might trust God, that he can provide food for these people? It's not too far. It's not too much for them to say, Jesus, what are we going to do? You have made this earth and everything that's in it, and here are thousands of people who are tired and hungry. What are we going to do? No, that's not how they think. That's how faith would think. But what we see in the apostles is just sight. There's all these hungry, tired people. We're hungry and we're tired. Send them away. I want you to see that when it says that Jesus welcomed the people, he welcomed them and he talked to them and he spoke to them about the kingdom of God. He cared for their souls. And then when it came time for their bodies that needed care, shelter and food,

Jesus is going, so I'm not supposed to provide that for them as well? I provide spiritual help to people. I speak to them about becoming a Christian. I speak to them about the kingdom of God. And I speak to them about repentance. But when they're hungry, I tell them they're on their own? No, you give them something to eat. And the apostles are at the end of their rope. They go, do you mean you want us to go buy food? And what does Jesus say to them? He says, tell them to sit down in groups of 50. Have you had opportunity in your life where you've been in a similar situation to the apostles? You've come to the end of thinking it through. You don't know what to do now. In this situation, you're going, I'm at a loss. I have no idea what to do. And someone tells you, well, do this. I'm trying to think of a more fun example, but a really common example.

would be relationally with someone. You and Mr. Jones have a problem. And you're mad at Mr. Jones and Mr. Jones is mad at you. And you both know that you're mad at each other and you're not talking to one another because you're mad at each other. And you don't know what to do with Mr. Jones. There's a problem, you know there's a problem, but you don't know what to do with Mr. Jones. So you come and you talk to somebody. I've got this problem with Mr. Jones. I had this conversation with one of those people that was shocked about my kids. They're telling me they have this relational problem with someone. And they're going, I don't know what to do. And then they're like this. But it's not like, you know, the person they have a problem with is someone that they interact, they see somewhat regularly. So it's not like I have a problem with a stranger. It's like I have a problem with someone that I see regularly. And they throw their hands up in the air and they say, I just don't know what to do. And I said,

What? They had had a misunderstanding. They didn't want to explain the misunderstanding because they're not going to believe me anyway. What did I say? Go explain it to them. Go explain it to them. Well, they might not believe me. Well, yep, that's true. That actually is a possible outcome. They may take what you have to say and throw it away. They might or they might not. But the reason that that person didn't want to go was because for them to go and explain the situation, it meant they had to explain something that they did wrong, and they didn't want to do it. And so I said, you should go and tell them what happened. Just explain the situation. You screwed up. Whether they believe that you're sincerely sorry for screwing up is not the point. But this person, they'd come to the end of their ability to know what to do in the situation. And so I said, go talk to them. They're like, okay, yeah, I suppose that's what I should do. Good. I hope.

I hope you do it. But every one of us has come in our lives to situations where we don't know what to do now. Here presents a problem. What are we going to do? Will you live by sight? If you live by sight, you go, I'm hemmed in. I've got no options. If you live by faith, all of a sudden there's options available to you, but they might be unorthodox. They might not seem to make sense to you. You may not see how it's all going to work out. Jesus says, you feed them. They say, we don't have the food. He says, tell them all to sit down. He didn't say, tell them all to sit down and I'm going to talk to my father in heaven and we're going to multiply this food and there's going to be an abundance and everyone's going to get plenty. He didn't say all that. He said, tell them to sit down. And then it's significant. These little phrases in scripture, it says, where did it go? They did so. The apostles did it. They're left going,

Okay, so we're going to tell these people to sit down because that's what Jesus told us to do. And so they do it. And you realize there's no other way for them to do that except by faith. And I'll tell you that their faith wasn't perfect. You remember when Jesus got chased out of Jerusalem? He fled to preserve his life. And then he finds out that Lazarus dies. And he's got to go back into the land. Do you remember what Thomas says? What's he say, Daniel? Yeah, let us go with him so that we can die with him too. This is one of these men. Let us go with him. If he's going to die, I suppose we should go die with him. He's not real thrilled with the prospect. And so I don't want you thinking, the apostles, they had perfect faith. No, they didn't. Thomas didn't have perfect faith. Peter denied his Lord. These were men like you and me. And yet when Jesus says, tell the people to sit down, they did so.

And they did it by faith. And then they're left dependent on God to go, what's going to happen now? Now, if they were more accustomed to living by faith, I mean, can you imagine being given the ability, the authority to cast out demons and to make lame people walk and blind people see? If Jesus gave you that authority, says, here, you can do this now. Go out and do it. And you're like, okay. Then you go out and there's the lame person. Can you feel the... the, uh, what am I going to do? I'm supposed to tell them to get up. Jesus told me I could get up. And then they do. And then you come back and you're tired. And Jesus says, you feed them. And they're going, we don't know how to feed these people. How are we going to feed them? They acted by faith, imperfect faith, small faith, but they acted by faith.

And after they've acted by faith, Jesus takes the bread and he takes the fish and he blesses it and he breaks it and he puts the food into their hands. And they're left, just like with the authority to heal, they're left with food from heaven in their hands to go feed the people. And everyone ate and they were satisfied. And there was an abundance left over. So what do we learn from this passage? What do we learn from this text? It's a common, it's one of Jesus' miracles, as I said at the beginning, that a lot of people are familiar with. He takes something that's insufficient and he makes it abundant. He blesses it. He grows it. He multiplies it. So what are we supposed to do with it? What are we supposed to do with that knowledge? Well, what I don't want is you simply to walk away going, we're supposed to live by, we're supposed to trust Jesus that he can make it all better.

and that's good. That's not what I want you to take away. That's not helpful. That's not helpful when you go to work tomorrow or when your kids get up tomorrow or when you're in class tomorrow. It's not helpful to go, I need to trust Jesus more. By itself, that doesn't equip you. So do you need to trust God because of what you see Jesus Christ having done here? Yes, absolutely you do. Now, what's that look like? What that looks like? is you obeying him by faith. So many times when we're faced with the prospect of obeying God, we're simultaneously faced with simply pressure not to from the world. And part of the pressure not to is wrapped up in the consequence as the world sees it if we obey God. If you obey God, this is what's going to happen. If you say that, if you do that, if you don't do that, here's what's going to happen.

You're going to lose your job. You're going to get your kids taken away. You're never going to get married. You're never going to have any money. And it goes on and on and on. If you obey God, if you do this thing that doesn't make sense to the world that's dying, it won't go well for you. And yet here you see the apostles, beyond what they can understand, left only with the words of Jesus Christ, tell them to sit down. And by faith, they have the people sit down. They do what Jesus said. And as they obey, as they act by faith, God meets with them in it and he blesses them in it. And not just them, but the crowds. You have to get fixed in your mind that living by faith means doing what Jesus said. And as you do what Jesus says, you don't do it hopelessly or faithlessly. You're not a martyr to do what Jesus said. Maybe you will be a martyr.

Obedience to Jesus Christ does not make you a martyr. It doesn't make you a poor thing. You had to do this hard thing. You had to do this painful thing. You had to do this awkward thing. How often is doing what Jesus said or saying the things Jesus said create awkwardness? All the time. All the time. I have the thought, if I say that, everyone's going to go, and I don't want them all to go, because what might they think of me? I can tell you, one of the privileges of my work is that I get to hear about the things that you do by faith. And I get to worry that, I just had this happen this last week, and I get to worry that if you act by faith, bad things are going to happen. You know that's what I do. I worry that if you act by faith, bad things will happen to you. I worry that you'll lose your job. I worry that you'll get in trouble. I worry that you'll get arrested. I worry about these things.

I struggle to trust that God will meet you in the obedience and bless those efforts. And I can tell you from this week, that's what happened. I'm not going to go into the details of it here, but I went through the whole process. I get the phone call. Here's the situation, and I'm going, my feet don't touch the bottom of this pool. I don't know what to do. Let me think about it. Let me pray about it. Let me get some counsel. I need help. What do you think? Well, tell them to do what their conscience says they should do. I say, but what if this... Well, you can't control that. Tell them to obey their conscience. Okay. You need to obey your conscience. And you need to know that I'm worried that if you obey your conscience that it's not... But I don't want you to worry about it. I want you to do it. Okay. So what are you going to do? I'm going to do this.

Don't you think that's going to be hard? I mean, what if, well, but I think I should. Okay, I'll pray for you. This is part of my job, right? And so then I'm going, and then I get the phone call. Okay, I did it. And I'm going, I hope, man, you did it. Good for you. Did you do it perfectly? Well, no, actually, there was this part I misunderstood, and it was kind of a mess, but it was all good. You're going to really get it. It's going to go bad. I'm thinking this, right? Good, I'm glad. And then I find out that it actually ended up very sweet and very good. So far. I mean, it could still go bad, so I still can worry. But so far, it's gone well. And God's been glorified. And my faith's been strengthened. Because someone acted by faith. And God met with them in it. And all of the fears that I had, that they have, that everyone has,

we're set aside because God met with them and worked through the situation. It's very sweet to watch. And this is what God does. We may not live as though Jesus would tell the apostles, you feed them. And they're going, we can't feed these people. And he says, tell them to sit down like he's doubling down and daring them. I dare you not to do what I say. No, he says, you feed them. They go, we can't feed these people. He says, well, tell them to sit down. And they're going, why? And then he feeds them and gives them in abundance. Augustine said, command what you will, whatever you will. Only grant what you command. I'll do whatever you tell me to do, Lord. Whatever you tell me to do. If I have the one assurance that you'll be with me as I do it. And God grants that assurance to his people, that he will be with us, blessing and working through us as his hands and his feet. Blessing others, strengthening our faith. If you want to be happy.

If you want to maintain a clear conscience, if you want to be useful in the kingdom, then trust God and obey him. Trust not just that he's commanded you to do something, but trust that he will meet you in obedience and bless your efforts. If you have kids, and they're four, if you have at least a four-year-old, you're beginning to understand this. If you have kids that are younger than that, it's still kind of fuzzy to you. It doesn't quite make sense yet. But as your kids get older, it comes into focus. It's like, I don't know what I'm doing at all. And there's my child. I know what I, I read what I'm supposed to do, but I'm not very good at that. And I've read what I'm not supposed to do. I seem to be inclined towards that. Now what am I going to do? Here they are. You as parents must trust God and obey him.

And you have to trust God that he will use your efforts as the parent that he's given to that child to bless them. That's what the apostles did. So that's what it looks like in your family. What's it look like in your workplace? It looks just the same. He gives you opportunity. You didn't ask for the opportunity. In fact, the opportunity is terrifying to you. But here it is. And what are you going to do? You're going to trust God. You're going to obey God. And you're going to see him work. Now, you're content with me to say the first two things, but the last thing makes you uncomfortable. At least it makes me uncomfortable. I say, you're going to trust God. You say, amen, brother. And I say, you're going to obey God. And you say, oh, sure, I'm going to try. And I say, and God's going to bless you for doing it. And you go, are you sure? And by faith, I say, yes, I'm sure. Absolutely sure. Because God wouldn't have had 5,000 people hungry and tired sit down if he didn't intend to bless them and feed them. And so don't be afraid to obey God. Trust God.

Mature in your faith such that you believe God will meet you in the work and use you. Then you have freedom to fail because God is the sovereign who causes the seeds to grow. Paul says, I planted an Apollos water, but God caused the growth. I trusted, I obeyed, but God multiplied it. He used it. I carried the fish and the bread, but he broke it and blessed it. And here everyone's fed. This is our life as Christians. You'll be happy to the extent that you grow in this and you learn this and you begin to think God can actually fix this situation. I don't know what to do. It's beyond my ability to comprehend. But it's not beyond God's ability. And so for my part, what I'm going to do is act by faith. I'm going to do what he said people should do in situations like this. And I'm going to trust that God will use it. And then you'll be happy in Jesus. And you'll be useful in his kingdom.

And you'll be a blessing to your neighbors and to the ones that you love. Let's pray. Father, when we see the power mixed with your mercy, it's humbling to us. And in many ways, it's terrifying to know that you, who've made heaven and earth and us, are over all things. Father, that you've given us work to do, to grow us, to stretch us, to bless. us and others is amazing. We ask, Father, that you would increase our faith, that you would help us to see what the world cannot see and help us, Father, to be fruitful. We ask that you would not only work through our efforts, but that you would make it known to us. We pray that we would be able to see how you're at work and that as a result, our faith would grow.

We thank you that you're merciful to sinners, that you feed the hungry, that you give shelter to those without. Father, help us as men and women, brothers and sisters, children, as a church, help us to be faithful, to love the lost, to love sinners, to love you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.