“The Power and Provision of Jesus”
(Matthew 15:29-39)
Series: God’s Fulfilled Promise [on screen]
Rev. Matthew C. McCraw, EdD
First Baptist Church, Bartow, Florida
November 24, 2019
The Passage
Matthew 15:29-39
29 Moving on from there, Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee. He went up on a mountain and sat there, 30 and large crowds came to him, including the lame, the blind, the crippled, those unable to speak, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he healed them. 31 So the crowd was amazed when they saw those unable to speak talking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they gave glory to the God of Israel.
32 Jesus called his disciples and said, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they’ve already stayed with me three days and have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry, otherwise they might collapse on the way.”
33 The disciples said to him, “Where could we get enough bread in this desolate place to feed such a crowd?”
34 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked them. “Seven,” they said, “and a few small fish.”
35 After commanding the crowd to sit down on the ground, 36 he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 37 They all ate and were satisfied. They collected the leftover pieces—seven large baskets full. 38 Now there were four thousand men who had eaten, besides women and children. 39 After dismissing the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.
Introductory Comments:
Do you know what déjà vu is? Déjà vu is the experience of living something and having this feeling that you’ve lived it before. It’s a super weird feeling when it happens. Most of us can probably remember that feeling at some point.
Well, today’s passage may have some of us thinking that we are experiencing déjà vu. However, you probably aren’t experiencing it! Jesus is just working some of the same miracles that He has worked before.
We’ll see that what Jesus accomplishes in today’s passage is very similar, yet distinct, from some of the great work He’s already done.
Let’s see what happens. Before we do, let’s go to God in prayer and ask for His blessing.
(prayer)
In last week’s passage, we saw Jesus healing a Gentile woman’s daughter because of her great faith.
Now, Jesus has moved along the Sea of Galilee. We don’t know exactly where, but we can get an idea of where He is.
You see, Mark has an account of this same event in the Gospel that he wrote, cleverly entitled The Gospel of Mark. We call that a parallel account. In Mark’s parallel account (which can be found in Mark 7 and 8) he says that Jesus and His apostles were carrying out this story in the Decapolis region.
The Decapolis was an area of ten Gentile cities. It’s located southeast of the Sea of Galilee. See the map for reference. [show map on screen. Keep up until point I]
So, where Jesus was ministering was more than likely Gentile territory. That’s important to this historical biblical account.
So, Jesus and His disciples have left ministry in one Gentile region, Tyre and Sidon, to another Gentile region, the Decapolis.
Today, we have just two points. We will learn two characteristics of Jesus the Messiah.
Here we go.
First, notice . . .
I. The amazing power of Jesus (29-31) [on screen]
Did you know that Jesus has amazing power? Matthew wants us to know that and he’s shown us evidence of that again and again.
We see this in today’s passage as well. Look at verses 29-31.
29 Moving on from there, Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee. He went up on a mountain and sat there, 30 and large crowds came to him, including the lame, the blind, the crippled, those unable to speak, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he healed them. 31 So the crowd was amazed when they saw those unable to speak talking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they gave glory to the God of Israel.
We know by now that people seem to find Jesus, don’t they? Jesus went up on a mountain, sat there, and people came to Him.
Those who came to Him were those who were in need. Church, don’t you know that if you’re in need, you can go to Jesus! Through the Holy Spirit Jesus can give us healing, comfort, love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, goodness, self-control, salvation, provision, patience, perseverance, and more.
The people of that region knew that Jesus could help them, so they came to Him. The lame, the blind, the crippled, those mute, and many others. People came before the feet of Jesus and He healed them. They submitted themselves to Jesus and He blessed them miraculously.
Jesus did amazing things! We learn in verse 31, when others saw all of the changed lives they were amazed!
Matthew is careful to point out that these Gentiles, these non-Israelites, were so amazed that they gave glory to the God of Israel!
Let me ask you something: has Jesus changed you in an amazing way? Well, let people see it! Let people see the amazing work of Jesus in your life!
I’ve heard a lot about our culture not showing respect to God or to the name of Jesus anymore. You know, that’s certainly true, but maybe the reason people aren’t glorifying the name of God in our culture is that they aren’t seeing enough of the work of God among the so-called people of God!
Jesus has amazing power, let people see it in your life! Let’s see it in our lives! Let’s see it in our church! Let’s see it in our community! When it’s seen, let people give glory to God!
Jesus has amazing power!
Second, see . . .
II. The compassionate provision of Jesus (32-39) [on screen]
Jesus is not only able to do anything in the world for us, but He also cares deeply for us.
See His compassionate provision in this passage.
Look at verses 32-39.
32 Jesus called his disciples and said, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they’ve already stayed with me three days and have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry, otherwise they might collapse on the way.”
33 The disciples said to him, “Where could we get enough bread in this desolate place to feed such a crowd?”
34 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked them. “Seven,” they said, “and a few small fish.”
35 After commanding the crowd to sit down on the ground, 36 he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 37 They all ate and were satisfied. They collected the leftover pieces—seven large baskets full. 38 Now there were four thousand men who had eaten, besides women and children. 39 After dismissing the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.
Jesus said, “I have compassion on the crowd.” Jesus is not just King, Messiah, and Lord; He is a compassionate King, Messiah, and Lord.
He not only has the ability to provide what you need, He has the desire to provide what you need.
So, we see that He had compassion to provide for this crowd and He did so.
Now, this is where the déjà vu moment comes in. Some of you are saying, “Wait a minute, Pastor Matt, didn’t we cover this already?” Well, yes and no.
We did cover a miracle of the feeding of thousands of people, but it wasn’t this group of thousands of people.
There are some similarities and there are some differences.
Some of the similarities are that the disciples are there with Jesus, there is a large crowd, the food is fish and bread, Jesus performs a miracle to multiply the food, and there is a lot of extra left over.
Some of the differences include the fact that Jesus brought up that the people were probably hungry not the disciples, the numbers are different (4,000 instead of 5,000, seven baskets left over instead of twelve), and most importantly for our study is that this crowd was Gentile while the first crowd was Jewish.
Now, I know some of you may be skeptical about this being two separate accounts. Well, I’ve got definitive biblical evidence that they are different accounts. Before I share that I want to point out why these may seem so similar, particularly why the disciples even seemed to forget that this had happened before.
First, there’s the possibility that the entire group of disciples wasn’t there at each event. Perhaps it was part of the disciples at one event and part at the other event. I don’t really buy this possibility because the disciples normally traveled together with Jesus, however, it’s possible.
Second, there’s the possibility that the disciples knew that Jesus could do this again, but they were asking Jesus what they should do in an anticipatory manner. They were hoping Jesus would do it again so they were saying with a sense of hope and sarcasm, “What should we do, Jesus?” Perhaps that’s why it seems they were asking as if they didn’t know what to do.
Third, perhaps the disciples knew that Jesus could do this type of miracle but they didn’t expect Jesus to perform a miracle like this with a Gentile crowd. Last time Jesus performed the miraculous mass feeding with a Jewish crowd. Perhaps they thought, “Surely, Jesus wouldn’t do that for a Gentile crowd.” This is my favorite theory as to why the disciples seemed clueless about what was going on.
Well, how do we know for sure that these are two separate events and not just a retelling of the same event with the details changed a bit?
Here’s the definitive biblical evidence: as Jesus is later speaking about the leaven of the Pharisees (which we’ll cover in a few weeks) the disciples begin to get confused. He corrects them by referring to these two events.
Check out the passage in Matthew 16:8-10, “8 Aware of this, Jesus said, “You of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves that you do not have bread? 9 Don’t you understand yet? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand and how many baskets you collected? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand and how many large baskets you collected?” [on screen]
Jesus clearly refers to both events, so both events really happened in history.
We see that Jesus not only does mass miracles, but He does so on multiple occasions to people of multiple ethnicities. Our Messiah is a master of multiple miracles to multiple masses of people!
So, as we saw last week with the Canaanite woman, Jesus’ blessings are available not only for the Jewish people but for all the people of the world!
Concluding Thoughts:
Let’s summarize this sermon with this bottom line:
Bottom Line: Jesus comes through again and again with power and provision. [on screen]
(repeat)
He’s done so in the Gospel of Matthew and He does so in our lives as well.
Jesus is always faithful! Jesus has never-ending power and provision! He has blessed us as a church and He can bless you as well.
One of the greatest beauties of His power and provision is that He can bless others through us!
Challenge yourself this week in the following ways:
Weekly Challenge: [on screen]
- Help someone in the name of Jesus. [on screen]
Jesus helped many by His great power.
Show His power this week by helping someone in His name.
Let people know that you’re helping them because Jesus is a great helper.
Show the love of Jesus and shine the light on Jesus.
- Provide for someone in the name of Jesus. [on screen]
Jesus was a compassionate provider.
Be like Jesus. Be a compassionate provider.
Provide for someone this week in the name of Jesus.
- Go to Jesus for healing and provision. [on screen]
Our greatest need for healing is healing from sin.
Our greatest need for provision is a home in heaven provided for us.
Go to Jesus and let Him bless you!
Psalm 34:8 tells us, “Taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the person who takes refuge in him!” [on screen]
Go to Him for the ultimate healing and provision and go to Him for more healing and more provision above and beyond your salvation from sins.
Go to Him. Have faith in Him. Look to Him.
Closing:
Jesus can change your life.
He has great power and He is the great provider.
Jesus can change Jew or Gentile; man or woman; rich or poor; red, yellow, black, white, or brown; Northerner and Southerner; Democrat, Republican, Independent, and politically apathetic; Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Presbyterians, Mormons, Satanists, and non-religious. He can change anyone by His amazing power!
Have you been changed by Jesus? Have you experienced the provision of Jesus!
Come to Jesus and surrender all to Him! Experience His power and provision.
(Gospel presentation)
(closing prayer)
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