Meals with Jesus: Big Picnic – Luke 9:10-17
Passage Luke 9:10-17
Speaker Ben Tanner
Series Meals With Jesus
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This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.
When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew themselves to a town called Bethsaida. But the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God and healed those who needed healing. Late in the afternoon, the twelve came to him and said, send the crowd away so that they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging.
Because we're in a remote place here, he replied, you give them something to eat. They answered, we only have five loaves of bread and two fish unless we go and buy food for all this crowd. About 5000 men were there. But he said to his disciples, have them sit down in groups of about 50 each. The disciples did so and everyone sat down, taking the five loaves and two fish and looking up to heaven.
He gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. They all ate and were satisfied. And the disciples picked up twelve baskets full of broken pieces that were left over. This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks so much, Andy. I'm going to ask my friend Joe to join us. He says, looking for. There we are. Jay, thanks so much for coming.
Are you happy to help me out in a few moments? Is that okay? Fantastic. Well, if you want to go there, that would be brilliant. And let me just lead us in a quick prayer as we think about this passage.
Father God, thank you so, so much for Jesus. Thank you that he is the one that we need. I pray that now as we look at your word, you would show us Jesus. I pray that we would see in him not just a wonderful story, but one who can help us out in our day to day lives here and now in totley this year. Amen.
Fantastic. Well, we are in a bit of a series. We are looking at meals with Jesus in the book of Luke. And you remember a couple of weeks ago we were with Levi, the tax collector and his friends who people called sinners. Last week we had supper at Simon's house and there we met somebody who people rejected.
But she did an incredibly beautiful thing and anointed Jesus feet. You see, Jesus welcomes those who others might push away. And yet today we see him and he is hosting a meal. You see, Jesus disciples had just been on a big trip. They had been out and they'd been doing all sorts of things in Jesus name.
And they came back and they wanted to tell jesus all about what they had done. So they headed off to a small town or just outside a small town, a small fishing village, in order to have a picnic, a big picnic. I hope Jesus had packed a big loaf of bread for his big picnic.
Problem was Jesus was pretty popular. And so his picnic with his twelve disciples, already a fairly big picnic, well it got bigger and bigger because people, they all wanted to see Jesus. They all wanted to listen to Jesus. They all wanted Jesus, or many of them wanted Jesus to make them well. And he didn't send them away.
He welcomed them and he taught them all about God's kingdom. And he healed the sick. Before they knew it. Though the people had been there for ages. It wasn't just Jesus and his disciples.
Jesus was talking and teaching and healing and. Oh, what's that? Is it Thunder Joe, is that your belly? Well, I say it was hungry. Bellies were rumbling and Jesus disciples, they came to speak to him.
Send everyone back home, they need to eat. And we're in the middle of nowhere. That's right. Uh oh. They were in the middle of nowhere.
They didn't have co op just round the corner or Tesco's just down the hill, or aldi just a little bit further down the hill. No, they couldn't nip out and get a boots meal deal. They were hungry and there was no food. If only they had a big loaf of bread. But Jesus replied, you give them something to eat.
What did jesus see? The crowds? Did jesus see all of them? Didn't he realise that they were in the middle of nowhere? Jesus, you can imagine the disciples trying to do the maths, giving the food that they had.
234-5678, 910, 100 and 5155. 200 and something 4000 and something 5000. We can't feed all these people with that amount of bread. Five loaves and two fish. How on earth were they going to do it?
The disciples couldn't do it, could they? Five loaves, two fish. Over 5000 people there. Nobody could do that, could they? Only Jesus could.
He took the food and he gave thanks and he broke the bread. And the disciples, they gave it out and everybody was satisfied. In fact they weren't just satisfied.
Noah built the most enormous boat, but kept the birds and animals afloat. The Lord was good. The Lord was strong. And Noah lived his life for him.
Moses led his people through the sea, taking them away from slavery.
The Lord was strong and Moses lived his life for him. Oh thank you, oh thank you. History, you were faithful. Thank you, oh thank you. You are just the same when it comes to me.
When it comes to me.
David fought Goliath and he won a humble shepherd boy became a king. The Lord was good. The Lord was strong. And David lived his life.
Daniel was inside a lion's den. God brought him to safety once again. The Lord was good. The Lord was strong. And Daniel lived his life for him.
Oh, thank you. Oh, thank you. All through history. A seat. Brilliant.
Fantastic. We have heard, haven't we, that Jesus is who we need most. Jesus is who we need most.
Passage. Just before our passage, you've got a question being asked by a ruler. He asks this question. He says, who is Jesus?
Who is Jesus? What's he all about? Just after this passage, we've got an answer to that question. Jesus asks Peter, who do people say I am? He says, oh, some people say, elijah.
He's a guy from the Old Testament. Still others say that you're one of the other prophets. But what about you? He asked, who do you say I am? And Peter said, I believe your God, messiah.
Why was it that this story, this meal, this big picnic, helped them see that? We just sung a song, haven't we, about God being faithful, being there for God's people throughout all of history? One of the big times was when Moses led his people through the sea. We've just sung about it, but you know what happens after that? Moses leads God's people and they're actually following a pillar of cloud and fire, and they go to a desert place, a place that doesn't have Tesco's just down the road, a place that doesn't have co op around the corner where you can't get a farm foods pork sandwich.
And even if you could, it would be off the menu.
Big joke for some God's people. They were hungry. Their stomachs were rumbling. They called out, God, we're hungry. Have you led us out here to die?
And do you know what God did? He caused manna like bread from heaven to come to feed them. Now, that was well known to God's people in our story today, what have we seen? We've seen a bunch of people who've come to listen to Jesus in a desert place, and Jesus providing food. It is a picture.
The God who provided for you back then is right here with you now. He fed them and we said there were leftovers. Twelve baskets of leftovers. Again, that would have rung all sorts of bells for the original hearers, for the disciples, for those who knew their Old Testament. Because there were twelve tribes of Israel.
This is the God who had fed the people in the past. The God who had provided at every step for his people. And here is Jesus providing for them once more. You see, that's why Jesus is the one that we need most. Peter, he got it.
But Jesus goes on to provide even more, doesn't he? See, we've got all sorts of meals with Jesus in this series, but they all point forward to a final meal that he will have with his disciples. We'll get to that one in our all age services somewhere up in November, I think. But that one's the one where Jesus sits down and he says, this bread is my body broken for you. This wine is my blood poured out for you.
The amazing thing is, Jesus doesn't just feed them physically, but sustains them, just as the God of the Old Testament has. Eventually, he will die so that he can provide what we need most.
And that's important, because if he's going to die to be providing what we need most, then we can trust him with what we need less. Right, let's imagine for a second that I said that I had a big remote control car that I had, and it was really, really cool. It was one of those ones that could go really fast. It can go up to half a mile away from me. It looks really cool.
And I said, I'm going to give this to Naomi. You might think, wow, that's very generous. You might think, there's no way Ben's going to give away such an amazing car like that. But if just a moment or two before, I'd said to my friend Richard here, I'd said, hey, richard, I'm wanting to be very generous today. I've got the latest iPhone 14 pro and I want to give it to you as a gift.
And I gave it to him and then I said, I'm going to give away this amazing remote control card. You'd have a lot more confidence, wouldn't you? He's just giving away an iPhone 14. Of course he can give away a remote control car.
The book of Romans in chapter eight says, if God didn't spare his son, how will he not give us all things? If Jesus dies to provide our very deepest need, right relationship with him, then we can trust him with our everyday needs here and now. So what. What do we do? Well, what did the people in the passage here do?
A bit of congregation participation. What did the people the crowds do? Cheered, probably. Cheered, yes. Yeah.
I mean, the fact that there's not loads of answers coming back is quite helpful, because they didn't do very much. They sat and they listened. They followed Jesus. Other accounts tell us one boy gave some loaves and fish, a very important thing for him to do, but they do very little. They're focused with following and listening and coming to Jesus.
That's their focus. What does Jesus do? Everything else. He feeds them. What do we need to do?
Focus on Jesus. Listen to him. And what will he do? He will provide for our needs. Maybe not all our wants, but our needs, the things that we need.
What might that look like? Very quickly, maybe you're at school or going into a new school class or a new school going off to secondary. And maybe you're thinking, I don't have anybody who I know very well in my class. I need people who will support me and be with me. Jesus, if we come to him, says, look, I'm a friend who's closer than even your brother or your sister.
I'll always be there. I'll never let you down. And what's more, I've given you a church family to support you. Maybe our needs, maybe our needs are more to do with our bodies. We feel like our bodies are broken.
Maybe we're waiting on test results. Maybe we feel like our bodies just aren't going to recover the way that they used to. Even there. Jesus says, I will provide for your needs. One day.
I will give you resurrection eyes that don't, that aren't blurry. I'll give you resurrection knees that don't creak. I will give you resurrection bodies that are no longer broken. I'll give you resurrection minds that don't hurt for no reason. One day I will provide for you.
We have a God who provides for us. All we need to do is listen to him. So, a few questions for us as we close. If you are under five years old, I'd love you to ask this question. What did the people in the story need and who gave it to them?
If you are between five and eleven years old, I'd like you to answer this question.
What did Jesus do in the story and what does that show us about who he is?
If you are over eleven, I'd like you to answer this question. If God provides for all our needs, what's it going to look like for me to trust him?
That's a big question and it can work at a lot of levels. Okay, so I'm going to give us just a few moments just to ask those questions. What did the people need? Who gave it to the Munda? Fives.
Fives to sevens. What did Jesus do in the story? What does that show you about who he is over eleven s? Sorry, five plus five to eleven. You know who you are over eleven s we're going to ask that question.
If God provides all that we need, what's that going to look like for us to trust him? Just five minutes. If you're the kind of person who hates talking with other people, show that with your body language and that's fine. If you are happy to talk to others, then do gather round into others and just a few moments to answer that it.