Bread From Heaven, Pt. 2

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Pastor Nick Gatzke returns to the miraculous feeding of 5,000 men. This wonder was recorded in each of the four gospels and witnessed by thousands. Because we’re familiar with this story, it’s easy to marvel at the massive scale of God’s provision and still miss the more important lesson.

Today, as we turn to Mark 6, starting at verse 30, we look at the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. And as we turn there, please follow as I read. It starts this way in verse 30. It says, “the apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest for a while. For many were coming and going, and they had now leisure even to eat. And they went away in a boat to a desolate place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all of the towns and got there ahead of them. When they went ashore, when he went ashore, Jesus saw a great crowd. And he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, this is a desolate place. And the hour is now late. Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages to buy themselves something to eat. But he answered to them, you give them something to eat.”

“And they said to him, shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat? And he said to them, how many loaves do you have? Go and see. And when they had found out, they said, five and two fish. Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups by hundreds and fifties. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven. And set a blessing and broke the loaves and gave it to them, to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the fish among them all. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up 12 baskets full of pieces and of the fish. And those who ate the loaves were 5,000 men.”

The disciples were very hungry. And so they said, that this isn’t gonna end anytime soon. And so they went to Jesus and they said, this is a desolate place and the hour is now late. Send them away and go to this surrounding countryside and villages and have them buy themselves something to eat.

And Jesus answered them, you give them something to eat. And they said to him, shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat? Jesus seemingly gives them a sarcastic answer. He knows that they’re not able to feed the people and the disciples shoot back with some tone of disrespect. They know they can’t spend 200 denarii on bread and even if they could, they probably wouldn’t be able to find enough bread to feed this many people. It’s all setting up the fact that this is now an impossible situation. They hung around too long and there’s no way out. The people, have a growing need, and this growing need will only grow further.

But you know, when the situation is so clearly impossible, like it is here, the source of power that is displayed comes with equal and crystal clarity. And so Jesus asked the disciples to go to the crowd and see what resources are available, and they come back with five small pieces of bread, perhaps little barley cakes, and two fish that are most likely pickled. And then the miraculous happens. But here we need to take a step back, way back in time, to help us understand the importance of what happens. I wonder if you know who were considered to be the greatest prophets in the history of Israel. Who were the prophets that come to mind? Maybe you heard them in children’s stories. Maybe you’ve studied them deeply in your own study of the scripture. Abraham, Elijah, and Moses. Abraham is considered to be the father of the people of Israel, the one who receives the covenant for the promised land.

Elijah is known for great power and righteousness and messages of great conviction. And Moses was known as the one that God used to deliver his people from slavery into Egypt. Also the one that God used to deliver the law and the one who brought them through the wilderness right up to the edge of the promised land. God did mighty things through Moses. In Egypt, Under the whip of their harsh masters and of a Pharaoh, God used Moses to institute 10 plagues upon the Egyptians to show his supremacy. And the 10th plague, the one that broke their back, was the angel of death that took the life of the firstborn of every family and even animal across the nation. However, if their houses or dwellings had doorways painted with the blood of a lamb, they were passed over from the angel of death. And thus, the Passover holiday became a marker point of God’s salvation for his people from Egypt.

God did mighty things as he delivered the two tables of the law to Moses. As the mountain was shrouded in smoke and lightning and the glory of God, and his presence passed in front of the prophet, the law would reveal true righteousness and holiness, and it would highlight the people’s need for a savior as it displayed their sin. And God gave it to Moses. Of all people, he gave it to Moses to give to them. God did mighty things through Moses as he led the people through the wilderness for 40 years. Sometimes we feel like we’re waiting for a long time for 40 days or 40 weeks, but these people were in the wilderness for 40 years. It didn’t need to take 40 years if they’d just gone in a straight line, but God’s way is not always a straight line.

And so for 40 years, Moses led them through the wilderness and God led Moses and the people through a pillar of cloud by the day and a pillar of fire at night. And he gave them guidance along the way through life. This isn’t days. This is life. 40 years. And God did mighty things to meet the physical needs of those people. While they were in the wilderness, there were some couple million of Jews anyway during that time. And how would they survive as nomads wandering for 40 years? Well, God rained down bread from heaven called manna for them to eat. And he did it every day except for the Sabbath day to meet their hunger and to provide for their need. And Moses was the one who directed them on how and when to collect and eat.

You see, Moses was one that God used to deliver the people and to provide for the people. Moses was a great teacher. He was a great leader. He was a great prophet. But he was seen as God’s instrument of salvation and of provision. And now God’s people were in the wilderness again. They had followed Jesus to the desolate place. And they were wandering directionless like sheep without a shepherd. And once again, they were hungry. And they not only had a great teacher of God’s word among them, a great leader among them, a great prophet among them. What Jesus does was more than a second Moses could provide for them with. Jesus does more than Moses could ever possibly do. And he divides the people into groups of 50s and 100s, just as Moses had done in Exodus 18:25. And he looked to heaven, looked up to his father, but he did not need to look for manna to rain down upon them as bread from heaven.

Instead, he thanks his father. He splits the loaves and the fish. He passes his disciples to distribute. And then something amazing happened. No matter how many times they reached into the basket, it never emptied. It kept multiplying and multiplying and multiplying. Jesus can do anything. This is creation power right there in the midst of his people. He multiplies physical objects on a cellular level. He has complete power. He has it over the spiritual realm. He has it over the physical realm. Nothing is impossible for him. And it is the same creation power that he uses to create the world, that he uses to multiply food, that he uses to take dead spiritual people and make them alive to him in new life. No matter how far away they are, no matter how far away you are, no matter how great your sin is, he’s powerful enough to redeem you and to give you a healing and a new life going forward.

Jesus is more than a prophet. He’s more than a second Moses. He does more than Moses could have ever done. He is God. And that creation power here results in 5,000 men plus women and children, 8,000, 9,000, 12,000 people having their physical hunger satisfied. Jesus is sufficient to satisfy our greatest hunger. And the account ends with that mention of complete, Satisfaction. Look at it again in verse 42. It says, they all ate and were satisfied. They took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces and fish. Those were the leftovers. And those who ate the loaves were 5,000 men. The miracle was more than sufficient. Every person present who had physical hunger was completely satisfied.

But it’s more than that because the people are still hungry in a spiritual sense. That’s why they never left in the first place. Not only was the miracle more than sufficient, but what this shows us is that the miracle worker himself is more than sufficient. He is the deliverer and the provider. He’s greater than a second Moses. He is sufficient to satisfy our greatest hunger. And so the question becomes, what are you hungry for? What motivates you? What are you striving for? What are you thinking about? What’s your goal in all of this? Self-actualization, finding your true self or the best version of who you are, simple pleasures, the next thing that will make you happy. Some of us go through life and we don’t even think about life in those categories. We don’t have long-term goals. We just want to survive. We just want to get to the end of the day and get to the next one and have a little bit of fun or a little bit of joy along the day.

And if that’s true, then our goals will often display themselves in our desires and our desires will often display themselves in something related to the self. Mike Benson tells a story that you could tell of my home at some times and probably some of your homes at some times. As his family was finishing dinner, his eight-year-old daughter left six green beans on her plate. And she normally ate her veggies. And Mike usually didn’t allow for this sort of thing to bother him, but tonight he was particularly irritable. And so he said to her, eat your green beans. And she replied, Dad, I’m full to the top. You won’t pop, he replied. Yes, I will, Pop, she said. Risk it, he said. It’ll be okay. Dad, I could not eat another bite. And Mike knew that night that they were having her favorite dessert, pumpkin pie squares.

And so he said, how would you like a double helping of pumpkin pie squares with two dollops of whipped cream on top? That sounds great, she responded, and she pushed back her plate ready for dessert. How can you have room for two helping of pumpkin pie squares with two daubs of whipped cream, but not have room for six measly green beans, he replied. And so she stood up tall out of her chair, and she pointed right at her belly and said, this is my vegetable stomach, and this is my meat stomach, and they’re both full. But this is my dessert stomach, and it’s empty. I’m ready for dessert.

You see, what you eat, what you desire, what you stretch for, that reveals what you’re hungry for. So what are you hungry for? More, more money, more stuff. It’s human nature to strive, to gain more, to do more, to have better, to pursue more. But the satisfaction it brings is temporary. And the satisfaction it brings is insufficient. But Jesus is showing us that he is sufficient to satisfy our greatest hunger. What are you hungry for? More prestige? Do you want to be known? But then what? If you have a great brand for yourself and your company or in your community or on social media, more people know you. To what end?

So that when people see you in the grocery store? They say, oh, there goes so-and-so. He’s so great. But I wonder why he drinks that kind of soda. John 4, Jesus says to the woman at the well, “everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Maybe you’re hungry for the next adventure. Experiences are the currency of the day, but when it’s over, you’ll be hungry for another one, and then another one, and then another one, and you’ll be chasing that hunger forever because although they’re wonderful in their nature, they never truly satisfy.

But Jesus is sufficient to satisfy our greatest hunger. Or perhaps it’s more power or more influence. After all, money, sex, and power, those seem to be the big three. You see the desire for power displayed in many lives. I think about the 90-year-old government officials who can barely walk to the platform or put a couple sentences together, but they stay in office because the power is something that’s so difficult to give up. And that desire for power and for influence can come all the way down into your family life, into your community life, into your different spheres of influence. And for some, the desire for power is intoxicating, but it’s never enough. Jesus says in John 6, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.” You see, Jesus is sufficient to satisfy your greatest hunger. I think about the small boy in the grocery store, who was told by the grocer to reach his hand into a large jar of jelly beans. And the boy shook his head and resisted. And finally, the grocer took a handful of the jelly beans and filled both of the boy’s upturned hands. And as a result, he received twice as much jelly beans as he could have taken for himself. If you’re missing the best in the Christian life, then maybe instead of trying to grab, you should turn your hands over so that God himself would be the one to fill them up. He reserves the best for those who continue to depend upon him.

And so what do you do with this? You think about your life. You think about your desires. You think about what you’re hungry for, really hungry for. And then you turn those things over to Jesus. And when you do, all those desires aren’t going to go away necessarily because some of them are very good. It’s good to grow. It’s good to strive. It’s good to have great experiences. It’s good to have a great meal. But when they are positioned in their right place, you recognize that they will not be something that produces true satisfaction. You know who is? You know who does? The one who tells you to remind you of his sacrifice for you. “Take and eat my body, which is given for you.” That’s a peculiar thing. Why would he have us eat the symbol of his body? “Take and drink this blood that is shed for you.” Why would he have us drink the symbol of his blood?

Why would he have us consume these things? Because it points to satisfaction. Jesus is sufficient to satisfy our greatest hunger. And it is my prayer that you would indeed find your greatest satisfaction in him. Let me pray to that end. Father in heaven, We so readily seek to satisfy ourselves through all kinds of temporary things, blindly thinking our need is something different than it is. And we hear your son and see your son provide ultimate satisfaction. And we recognize our need to grow in this way. And so God, help our desires, shape our desires, shape our motivations in such a way, where we find our deepest meaning, our deepest trust, our deepest rest, our deepest joy in the one who died for us. It’s in his mighty name we pray. Amen.

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This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy, but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.