He Provides Physically

Matthew 14:13-21

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For the next few videos, I want to just take a look at Jesus feeds the 5000 for Matthew chapter 14, and I think we’ll learn a few things from him. First of all, verse 13 says,

When Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place to be alone. When the crowds heard this, they followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw a large crowd. He had compassion on them and healed their sick. (Matthew 14:13-15)

So first of all, let’s just remember familiar story for many of us probably, but it says, when Jesus had heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. What comes right before this in the Bible is we hear about how Jesus’ friend, his cousin, a ministry partner in a way, John the Baptist, had been ruthlessly murdered by King Herod. And Jesus is hearing about this. He’s hearing that Herod is now associating him with John the Baptist. So he’s in trouble. He knows his time isn’t supposed to be here yet. So he goes off to a solitary place and he says it in a few different ways. He withdraws, privately, to a solitary place. So you can kind of just get in the mental, emotional headspace of Jesus. He wants to be alone with his disciples.

And what happens? They follow him and they follow him, they’re carrying their sick and bringing them to Jesus. And he gets there and… and he has compassion on them. And he heals their sick. Just Jesus doing what Jesus does, caring about people.

When evening came, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place and the hour is already late. Send the crowds away, so that they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”
But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
They told him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.”
“Bring them here to me,” he replied. hen he instructed the people to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish. After looking up to heaven, he blessed them. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples. The disciples gave the food to the people. They all ate and were filled. They picked up twelve basketfuls of what was left over from the broken pieces. Those who ate were about five thousand men, not even counting women and children. (Matthew 14:15-21)

So the first point I just want us to remember today as we look at this familiar story, Jesus Feeds 5000 plus, is that Jesus takes care of us, right? Jesus provides for us. We can trust Jesus to take care of us. And first of all, physically.

What’s going on in your life? How do we need God to take care of us? When do we wonder if he cares about us? Well, here we see just a picture of the God of the universe coming and seeing people who needed help. And he has compassion on them. He sees you. He knows you. He cares about you. You’re not just a speck out in the universe that’s unimportant to God. But Jesus sees and cares about you. And He provides for you.

Can he do that? Absolutely. Look what he does with five loaves of bread, think little pita loaves here, and two fish. And he gives thanks to God for it. And he just provides until people have more than enough. I would invite you to look back over your life and think about the times when you’ve been in need and thank God for the different ways that he provides for you by people that he uses. We can think of the first article of the Apostle’s Creed where we say, I believe in God, the Father Almighty maker of heaven and earth. And what does this mean? That he provides us with clothing and shoes, house and home, land, cattle and all that I own. You think of that from the meaning to the Apostle’s creed.

And God does this. Sometimes miraculously, maybe you can think about just really surprising things that have happened to you. But how does he usually do it? Through natural means. Through God using people like me and you, others around us, the grocers, the farmers, the people just serving God or living their lives. And God uses all of them and uses us to take care of each other.

Next time we’ll look at how God took care of us in the most important way. But today, let’s thank God for the ways that he physically takes care of us. And trust him that he’s going to continue to do that.