If you will turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew, chapter 14, this is the third sermon in a series of sermons on meals with Jesus. We've talked about what does it mean to see Jesus, to understand Jesus through these meals that He had with sinners, and then the first one we saw Jesus love for sinners, how He pursues them, how He celebrates with them, and how that's offensive to religious people. Last week, we saw how sinners love Jesus, this woman overcome with this love falling at his feet, and we said that big sin, when there's big forgiveness, always produces big love for Jesus Christ. This week we look at his feeding of the 5,000 in Matthew chapter 14. When Jesus heard what had happened, He withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed Him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them and healed their sick. As evening approach, the disciples came to Him and said, this is a remote place and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away so that they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food. Jesus replied, they do not need to go away. You give them something to eat. We have here only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish they answered. Bring them here to me, He said. When He directed the people to sit down on the grass, taking the 5 loaves and the 2 fish and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then He gave them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied. And the disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about 5,000 men besides women and children, let's pray. Lord Jesus Christ, would you fill this place by your spirit? We need to hear from you. We need to be encouraged by you. We need to be fed by you because you are the bread of life. Pray especially for Max. I pray that this outward sign that's been laid upon him would become an inward reality and that he would run to you at an early age and that he would know you, that he would praise you, help us understand your compassion and your power for us and your precious name. Amen. I've had the opportunity since I've been in ministry to watch some really seasoned wise pastors at work. One situation that sticks out in my mind was this crisis that arose in one of the churches I was serving. It was a terrible accident. Young man was killed in a car accident and going with this pastor at 1230 or so in the middle of the night and just sitting back and watching him, watching him love this family. And saying a word because it's by watching someone do ministry that you see the heart of the minister, that you find out what he's really about, that you find out what's really important. Well, Jesus is training his disciples. Jesus has sent them out two by two. That's the context of this passage earlier. He had sent them out two by two to go and proclaim the gospel of the kingdom, to do many miracles and to heal. And now, as we know from Mark, chapter 6, they have returned to Jesus and they're reporting all that they had said and all that they had done. They're tired, but Jesus has something else to teach them. So they get into a boat, the disciples think they're going to a solitary place to have some R and R, but Jesus has something else in mind. He wants to teach them something about himself. He wants them to slow down and to watch him work, to find out what's really important to him, what's always been important to God, his compassion for needy people, and his power for the powerless. This is the only miracle outside the resurrection that's recorded in all four gospels which is a hint to us. When things are repeated in the Bible, it's a hint, I know you're busy, listen to this. Don't forget this. The connections between this miracle and the miracle that happens in the desert, the 40 years of wandering that the Israelites is replete. You have a needy people in a desolate place. You have a compassionate God who miraculously provides and satisfies. Look through the entire New Testament. You see the same pattern over and over again, a needy people, a compassionate God, a powerful God who provides over and over and over and over again. Here's Jesus doing the same thing. So what would be the message for us? He's still the compassionate one. He wants us to slow down and stop and consider what does the compassion of Jesus Christ actually mean. Do we actually get how compassionate He really is for the needy? He's still the powerful one. He wants us to watch and to listen and to consider what does it mean to be changed by the compassion and the power of the true living Jesus Christ. Now that's what we're going to look at today, two points, occasionally a Presbyterian gives a two point sermon. So here's two points, real simple, the compassion of Christ and the power of Christ. Let's look first at the compassion of Christ. Verse 13, keep your Bibles open, please. When Jesus had heard what had happened, He withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. There's a hint of irony here, 5,000 men, not including women and children. Hearing of this, the crowds followed Him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them and healed their sick. Luke and Mark both tell us that He also taught them about the kingdom of God. Christ Jesus, healing and teaching and feeding these people. What does the word compassion mean in the New Testament? It means to be moved with pity, to have deep affection and love on someone who doesn't deserve it. It's the word used in Luke chapter 15, familiar with many of you with the parable of the prodigal son. The prodigal has spent and blown all his money that inheritance that his father has given him. And it says, Jesus is telling this parable, when the father sees the son a long way off, down the road, the father is filled with compassion. And he runs to his son, throws his arms around him and kisses him, kisses and kisses his son. Parents, do you know the feeling of compassion that you would have for your child? That you thought was lost and gone? And you see him down the road? How that would move you? The word compassion is actually the root word is the same word for intestines. That is, it comes from the center of who you are. And when you see someone filled with compassion that Jesus is describing here, they are overcome. They must run to that person and throw their arms around them and kiss them. It's a visible thing, it's a visceral thing compassion is in the New Testament. Now this is a lot different than the cold, detached Jesus that we're used to seeing. You know the Jesus in the movies, no sense of humor, blue eyed, staring like this. You know what I'm talking about? There's blasphemous picture of Jesus. That's not Jesus moved with compassion. You know Matthew was with Jesus when he saw him. He sees this crowd of people and he's moved with compassion for them. He's filled with compassion just like a father who sees his son from a long way off and it's an untiring compassion. Now Jesus was not a robot, he was a human and he grew tired. And the disciples were probably at this for many months and let me tell you if I'm tired I'm not compassionate. Compassion is a luxury. It takes a lot of emotional energy doesn't it to be compassionate. When I'm tired I want to put the closed sign up. Closed for business but Jesus is slowing us down here and he's saying look at who I have compassion on. It's an ungrateful, pushy, obnoxious group of people. If you go later on this afternoon and you read John 6 which is John's account of this miracle you know that later on the people aren't really interested in what Jesus has to teach or about the bread of life or anything like that, the real meaning underneath this miracle. They just want Jesus to be a genie or a doctor and heal them. I don't have compassion on people like that. Jesus is saying something so important as he goes to this group of people, this crowd across this lake. He's saying they're very, very precious and important to me. They're not important to us but they're very, very important to him. I love the Beatles and the St. Louis Cardinals and many of you know that, you can relate to that. But let me tell you why I love the Beatles and the St. Louis Cardinals. They're easy to like. But the reason I like the Beatles and the St. Louis Cardinals is because when I was a little boy my dad would talk about the Beatles and the Ed Sullivan show in 1960 something and his eyes would light up and he would become a high school student again. And as a 6 or 7 year old boy when you see someone that you adore like your dad becoming excited about something about the Beatles you were like, I must listen to them. This must be the greatest thing in the world. And in 1982 my dad listened to almost I think every game of the entire season on the radio of the St. Louis Cardinals when they went to the World Series and he would jump up and down and he would be so excited and I had no idea what was going on but I love the Cardinals now. Jesus Christ is saying something about the huddled mass sick people that can't give anything back to him. He is an outrageous fan of them and he wants his disciples to see it. I can't stand crowds. The most unhappy day of my life is when I'm forced to go to the mall the day after Thanksgiving and people are loud and pushy and some people will kill you for a parking place or places like Disney World waiting in long lines and this huddled mass of people and they're just obnoxious and pushy but over and over again in the gospel you can look at it. Places like Matthew 9 says Jesus looked at a mass of people when he went to towns he would look at them and the disciples would say he was moved with compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd taken from Ezekiel 34. There's something unusual about his compassion and it's his very character. Here's what's happening here. The God of Exodus 34 who said I am the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate one full of grace and a bounding and loving kindness. Jesus is being God, Jesus is being God and his heart, the heart of God overflows with compassion for people that I don't want to be compassionate for. Let me ask you this. I think this is a question I've been probing, been asking myself, do I really believe that Jesus Christ has compassion for me? St. Clair Ferguson, great preacher in South Carolina from Scotland. He said he believes that the greatest lie that Satan interjects, that Satan places in the heart, that Satan lies to us that God is not good and that he doesn't love us. But look here, Jesus has crossed the lake and he looks and he's moved with compassion. What if you were in the crowd that day? Can you place yourself in the story and that Jesus would look at you and you don't really know what he's about and you really understand him, you know that you're needy and that you're starting to get hungry, do you think that he would be moved with compassion for you? Let me tell you something, he is because it's the character of God to be moved with compassion. How do we experience that compassion? How do we become recipients of that? The way that we become recipients is to begin to see ourselves as needy and to begin to see him as coming out of the heavens and the glory of heaven itself to be compassionate toward us and then the second way of being someone who experiences the compassion of God is to begin to see the crowds like Jesus saw the crowds, to begin to see them as sheep without a shepherd that Jesus Christ can give you, here it is, Jesus Christ gives you His compassion. Where our resources of compassion run dry, Jesus Christ actually gives you His compassion for people and we can never show compassion unless we have experienced it ourselves. How do we do mercy ministry at a church? You may be asking yourself that question, well, we're supposed to, it's what churches do. Why do we give a cup of cold water for someone who's thirsty? For profit? Why do we take trips to places like Peru, to thermal countries and what do doctors and nurses and other people go and they take time off and they go down there, do they do it because they're trying to be good? Then we do mercy ministry, it's very simple, but we often forget it because Jesus, the Jesus that's feeding to 5,000 is alive in us and He longs to bust out with compassion. Jesus Christ, if He's alive in you, longs to show compassion through you. That's why we do mercy ministry. So that the world may look and say, we know a compassionate God, you'll have an opportunity, this Wednesday, to find out about some of our short-term mission trips and where we're going in the world and right here in Memphis and it may be that you will have an opportunity to experience the compassion of Jesus by showing the compassion of Jesus. I'm telling you, He's alive and He longs to show compassion and He heals people that don't say thank you and He gives food to people who are hungry, who can't give Him any money back and we go to places like Palmer Home and men have been working on a structure there, a porch there, a patio there. Not because Palmer Home can give us something back, Palmer Home can't give us anything back. We do it because we believe it pleases Jesus Christ. It pleases God for us to show compassion to the widow and to the fatherless. They were precious in His sight and they still are. He's a compassionate God but He's also powerful. Now which is our second point, we know compassionate people who are not powerful and we know powerful people who are not compassionate. Jesus was built and Jesus is showing true power like He always has and always will. He shows it in powerlessness. Do you want to find out about the power of Jesus? Guess what He's going to do? He's going to show you how powerless you actually are. Verse 15, as evening approach to disciples came to Him and they said this is a remote place and it's getting late, send the crowds away so that they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food. Verse 16, Jesus replied, they do not need to go away. You give them something to eat. Now you can imagine the disciples scratching their heads. Yes, they would have been scratching their heads because you know what they say to Him? Okay, this has been a great day but we only have five loaves of bread and two fish and we have a basket ball arena of people. What do you mean we don't need them to go away? What do you mean feed them? Now the disciples are always doing that. They see an opportunity for ministry over and over again, for example, people are bringing their children so that Jesus can bless them. What a wonderful thing. Please come bless our children, the disciples, go away. He doesn't have time for this and Jesus rebukes them and Jesus looks at these disciples here on this evening and He says you give them something to eat. You know what He's doing? He's revealing that they don't have anything to give them to eat so that they will see how powerless and resourceless they actually are. You've got five loaves and two fish, okay? That's what God does. He does it over and over and over and over and over again in the Bible. He shows people you cannot trust in chariots and horses. You cannot trust in the strength of man. You may have strength in the world's eyes, but that doesn't matter to me. And if God really cares about a group of people, He shows them how powerless they are and He's teaching them a lesson. He's teaching His disciples a lesson where it is true, power, life. He's been teaching this church that for some time now. Now I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but if there's a lesson that God is teaching independent Presbyterian church, embrace your powerlessness. You may be powerful out there, but until you're powerless, until you really see how mean you are, you will not be effective because Jesus is the source of true power. If I think about it, folks, leadership issues, loss of resources, I can go on, I know you're sick of hearing about it, but do you hear what Jesus says? I want you to need me. I don't want you to be strong in the world's eyes. I want you to need me. And so you know what Jesus does in verse 18, He says, bring the food to me. It bring the five loaves into fish. Just bring it to me. He blesses it. He breaks it. And folks, the food starts rolling overflowing. And at the end of this miracle, there are 12 baskets full. This is just like Jesus Christ. There are 12 baskets full. The very people that were saying, we only have five loaves into fish. Now there are 12 baskets full of leftovers. And you can imagine these men holding these baskets in their hands with leftovers as a monument to say, I am powerful, I am compassionate and unpowerful, it will shock you. I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the beginning and the end. I made all things and I hold all things together and I can provide supper for a few thousand people. You can trust in me. What a lesson. What a lesson. And what's so wonderful is that the Almighty, the everlasting one, the one who is there with them, He shows His compassion because of all the places He could be in the world. Think about this. Of all the places that Jesus Christ could be in the world, He's on the north, eastern shore of the sea of Galilee with a bunch of needy people. See He always uses His power for the oppressed. Most people use their power to oppress. Jesus Christ uses His power for the oppressed. He uses His power for you. Do you know the impossibility that we are facing in ministry? How about your families? Do you know the impossibility of raising children? Some of you have sent them off to college and other places and you want them to return to the church and you feel hopeless and helpless? You've tried everything? How about moms? Vimos think was job and the most difficult job on the face of the planet, promise you. You give and you give and you give and you give. You give and they take and they take and you take and they take and sometimes you don't know if you can keep on doing it. Do you hear what Jesus is saying here? And all four gospels this was recorded. I am compassionate. I have compassion for you. You're worn out. And the reason you're worn out is because you're trying to do it all in your own power. Come to me. Find your power in me. Okay, Richie, what in the world does that actually mean? What does it mean to find power in Jesus because I know I can suffer from preacher talk. I'm trying to do better to say some, God is powerful, let's pray. What does it look like to be powerless and to find the power that we need in Christ? Honest prayer. The prayer seems like the most useless thing in the world. What a gr- what a gr- if I were Satan, that'd be the first lie that I would make up. Don't pray, that's a waste of time. How do you engage the most powerful, the almighty God is that you get on your knees and you cry out, I have no power. I need you to shock me with your power. I need you to provide for me in a way that I can't even imagine. I'm facing impossibility. Let me promise you this, that whoever humbles himself and becomes powerless at his feet before his face, he delights in lifting you up in his own way and in his own time. Because Jesus ultimately is saying he's the bread of life, remember John chapter 6. He didn't come to just fill bellies, although he does care about that. He's saying I came to satisfy your deepest hunger, your hunger for forgiveness, your hunger for meaning, your hunger for hope, your hunger for eternal relationship and being okay with God. And that's why he went to the cross, that really this is a foreshadowing of the great Messianic banquet, all the scholars that I read believe this is a foreshadowing of a great Messianic banquet in places like Isaiah 25, this will be the day where we will hunger no more. Why? Because of his compassion and because of his power, let's pray. Lord Jesus, we need you, Father, we thank you for sending your Son to us, Holy Spirit, we ask that you would give us new life, show us our powerlessness and show us your compassion, but we might be satisfied like this crowd in your precious name, come in.