Encounter the Truth

Jonathan Griffiths: You've been on a quest for satisfaction of some kind. You've been looking for true fulfillment, true satisfaction, and you've been looking all over the place: in career and in relationships, in money. You have been looking here, there, and everywhere. And the reality is this: very few things in this world will satisfy very much. But here's the truth for you today: Jesus Christ does satisfy.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths. I'm Steve Hiller, and we continue our series, "In the Presence of the King," looking at the satisfaction that comes in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Jonathan, there's a word mentioned there with intentionality, and that was relationship with Jesus Christ, because I think a lot of people kind of quote-unquote "try out" Jesus, try out religion, and they don't find satisfaction there. If that is the case of someone listening today, would you encourage them to maybe consider: did they actually really know Jesus?

Jonathan Griffiths: I think that's a great prompt, Steve, because there are those who will have some superficial experience of Christianity and find that very dry and very empty, some kind of religious experience of going to church or participating in ritual or receiving some instruction, but they don't know Jesus.

It is the relationship with Jesus Christ that is life-giving and that is truly satisfying. I hope that in today's message we'll come to see something more of the dynamics of that true relationship, of coming to him and finding satisfaction in him through faith in his name.

Steve Hiller: Well, join us in Matthew chapter 14 as we continue a message called "The Lord Who Satisfies." Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: Next, the rejected Jesus will have compassion. Verse 14: notice it there with me. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. People in the so-called "caring professions"—you know, doctors, nurses, teachers, psychologists, pastors, and others—people in such professions can get what is, I understand, called "compassion fatigue." That is, they can lose emotional energy from meeting the needs of others and can get kind of burnt out with that.

I think it can happen all the more readily where there's a lack of reception, a rejection of the care that's offered, a spurning of the help, an angry reaction from those they're trying to serve. Those who work in such professions know something of these things. Now, it would not be unreasonable to imagine that Jesus's supply, his well of care and compassion for people, must be running a little dry at this point in his ministry.

He's been pouring himself out in care for others. He's been teaching his heart out. He has been ministering to the needy. He has been helping the outcast and the sick, the oppressed and the unclean. And now he's had this major kick in the teeth. His old friends and his neighbors from Nazareth have roundly rejected him. They've taken offense at him. They've practically driven him out of town.

Jesus has been reminded of the way in which a former servant and prophet of God was treated: decapitation, head on a platter. And we might reason, "This would be enough." I think for anyone, this would be enough to prompt Jesus to hang up his shingle as a teacher, as healer, even as Savior. Maybe time to go back to carpentry, to retire from ministry, to return to his Father in the heavenlies. Surely he would be out of compassion, out of patience, out of care.

But when the crowds seek him out, when he sees large numbers of sick and needy and hungry people approaching him, coming to him, his reaction is not to flee. It is not to be dismissive, not to be short-tempered, not to be left alone and to turn his back. No, his immediate reaction of heart is one of compassion. And here, I think, we are being given a window into the heart of Jesus Christ, a window into the very heart of God.

As we gaze through that window together, here is what we see. We see a heart with depths of compassion that you and I cannot fathom and could never plumb. As believers, you and I look out on a world that is so often so turned against the Lord Jesus Christ, so full of rejection of him. It's easy to wonder, "Has God now closed the door on this world? Does he have it in him to care, to love these people, to open wide his arms once more to them?"

But the Jesus we see here on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he has compassion abounding. He's not been rejected into resentment or spurned to the point of cynicism. And it's so beautiful, isn't it, what he does for them? Notice it there in verse 14: he healed their sick. We see from the story that he's going to deal with their hunger in a moment. There's more compassionate help that is yet to come.

But immediately, he looks upon the sick and upon the diseased, and he heals them. It's recorded so simply we might actually just skim over it very quickly, but just think on that for a moment. The Lord Jesus Christ looks on his oppressed people, people created by him—men and women, boys and girls—whose bodies are broken because of the fall and due to sin, who are weighed down by disease. No doubt illness for some has curtailed their way of life.

Others whose disease is truly debilitating. Still others whose sickness is terminal. People maimed by accident, others with unknown viruses and infections for which there is no treatment, some with heart disease, some who have suffered strokes, others with cancer, children perhaps with genetic disorders. We can only imagine who there might have been in that crowd that day.

And Jesus, having already given so much, now buffeted by rejection and discouragement, he doesn't turn away from them in emotional fatigue. No, he looks on them in compassion. He sees the depths of their pain, their fear, their suffering, the sheer brokenness of their situation, and he heals them. You may be here among us, you may be listening today, because you know that you need the healing touch of Jesus Christ. That's why you're here.

And I'm not talking here about physical disease, although I know there will be many who are facing illness at the present time. I'm talking about your heart. I'm talking about your soul. You know that things are not right between you and the God who made you. You have that weight of guilt upon your conscience. You know that experience because it is your experience today.

You have little hope for the future, maybe no hope at all. All you see before you is despair. And you sense that Jesus could bring you healing, but you wonder, "Will his compassion reach me? Will his grace extend to me?" Here's what we see in the events by the Sea of Galilee. We see the Jesus who has been so buffeted and rejected. We see him open his heart to the needy.

We see him pour out his compassion. We see him freely heal. And the Jesus of this story, the Jesus of history, the Jesus we encounter here in Matthew 14 is the Jesus we meet today. You see, he hasn't changed. He is the very same. If you come to him, if you seek him out as the crowds sought him, you will not find him jaded or hardened of heart, but you will find him full of compassion.

Will you come to him? Will you receive his healing touch? Will you receive his forgiveness and his grace? It's easy for us who serve Jesus Christ to grow rather jaded, even cynical, to tire of the world's scorn. It's easy, actually, for us to pull up the drawbridge of our own heart and say, "I'm not going to bother anymore."

Maybe that's how you're feeling. The conversations at work, they have been so difficult and so discouraging. The pleas to your loved ones issued over years and years and decades and decades, they have gone unheeded. The invitations to friends to come and hear, to engage and respond, they are met now with irritation and with anger. And you're feeling as though it's just time to quit. I'm tired.

To retreat into a quiet and a privatized faith to avoid the hurt and the disappointment. But you know that is just not the heart of Jesus Christ. He has compassion on the needy, and as his own people, we are to share that same heart despite every discouragement, despite every rejection we face. The rejected Jesus, he'll draw crowds, and when he draws them, he'll have compassion upon them.

Next, he will make provision for them. Verse 15: notice it with me. Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves." But Jesus said, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat." Crowds have come to Jesus. They've followed him to the water's edge away from the towns.

And like so many in the Gospels who followed Jesus, they've done so in a rather uncalculated way. They didn't say, "It's a long walk. Let's pack up the cooler. Let's load up the minivan. Let's bring our camping supplies. Or better, let's book a room at the Holiday Inn. We'll make a weekend of it." No, they heard that Jesus was over across the Sea of Galilee, and wanting to hear Jesus, wanting to see Jesus, wanting to receive from Jesus, they grabbed the kids, they strapped on their sandals, and they set off on foot.

But as they're gathered there a long way from home, thousands of them, it dawns on the disciples that these people are now in a place of dependency and vulnerability. They're going to be hungry. Blood sugar levels are dropping. You'll have the elderly and the vulnerable fainting soon. This is going to be a humanitarian situation. Thousands and thousands of people. These people have followed Jesus, they've made themselves dependent upon him in a way, and the disciples are thinking, "This was a mistake."

There's no food here. Jesus is not running a catering business. They need to go home now and they need to take care of themselves. "Jesus, look, just send them back now," say the disciples. "Send them into the villages that they might buy some food for themselves, that they might provide for themselves." And Jesus says, "No. No. These people have followed me here, and there's no need for them to leave. There's no need for them to go and provide for themselves. You feed them."

And now the disciples, they're rather confused, perhaps understandably so. Over verse 17: they said to him, "We have only five loaves here and two fish." And he said, "Bring them here to me." Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.

Now, this is a very, very well-known event in the Gospels. It's actually the only miracle, I think, recorded in all four Gospels. We learn it in Sunday school; it's familiar to readers of the Bible. But it's good for us just to try and imagine this and picture this in a fresh kind of way, to try and imagine what this actually looked like and what was taking place here. Thousands of people seated before Jesus. Five thousand men, we're told, plus women and children. Is that 12,000 people? Is that 15,000 people? I don't know, but a huge crowd.

Five loaves, two fish, a prayer of blessing, and then the dividing of that food that just keeps on going. There's no flash of lightning from heaven, no jolt of divine electricity, but simply a division of the ordinary things that does not stop, that then exceeds the bounds of nature, that defies skepticism, that meets every need. The disciples, they looked out on this sea of people, literally thousands of them who had come to receive from Jesus, and their immediate reaction, their reasonable concern was this: there are not enough resources here to care for them.

The draw of Jesus Christ has generated a response, it's generated actually more need now than there are resources, and we cannot meet that need, Jesus. Situated here as we are in the city of Ottawa and in the nation of Canada, I often look out on our city and think of our vast nation—vast. And I think of the spiritual need across our land, and actually I see a spiritual hunger. I believe there is one.

And one thought that often occurs to me is this: we just don't have the resources to meet that need. Here locally, we don't have the resources. Nationally, we don't have the resources. And then, of course, we think of the global picture, the global missions picture around the world. So many who hunger for the word of God, who are eager, truly eager to receive the things of Christ, and we know full well that workers are hard to come by.

More or less every penny in ministry budgets are always accounted for. There is more work to do and more opportunities to explore and more people to reach than we seem able to respond to. "Lord, we're going to have to send them away." And he says, "No." He says, "You feed them." He says you sit them down and you give them that which I will bless and that which I will provide.

And so the disciples, they pick up what they've got. It's not that the Palestinian Lottery Authority has called and said that someone in the crowd bought the winning ticket last night at the local 7-Eleven. It's not that a billionaire called with some massive check and says, "I'll cover it." No, it's more ordinary than that. They pick up what they've got and they start ministering to people, meeting the immediate need.

And under the blessing of God, the resources multiply. It's miraculous. It's a true miracle. But the resources, they just multiply in their hand and the need is met. And here's the thing: the same Jesus who provided miraculously for the needs of that crowd is the same Jesus Christ whom you and I serve today. And as we seek to reach a community and a city and a nation and a world with his Gospel, and as the needs look too big and the resources look too small, here is the assurance of the narrative before us: Jesus Christ is able to meet every need.

He is capable of providing for all that's required. His resources, they are not limited. His sufficiency comes not from an earthly supply, but from a heavenly one. The disciples, they think, "We are being placed here in an impossible situation. Jesus has called us to serve with inadequate resources. Ministry just is going to have to come to an end at the present time. The people need to go away."

But no, Jesus says, "I will supply. I will resource. You just keep serving." The bread and the fish are, I think, a powerful picture. The people come to Jesus because they're spiritually hungry. Of course, they did become physically hungry too. But the point, I think, is not the food in and of itself. The point is not that the disciples of Jesus will always have enough food to give to the physically hungry.

The point is that Jesus will resource his servants to feed the hungry not just physically, but spiritually. Elsewhere, Jesus teaches us that he is the bread of life. And what we see here is the bread of life feeding people, nourishing them, meeting their deepest needs, and it's a glorious picture. What does that look like now? What does it look like for you and for me? What does it mean for us in our service of the Lord Jesus Christ today?

Well, you're a parent maybe, and you've got kids at home, and you know you've got a responsibility to teach them the things of Christ, but you don't know where to begin. That's the truth. It's actually quite daunting. You don't know how to do it. Jesus says, "Feed them," and you say, "I have no spiritual bread. I'm in over my head."

But you open up the Bible and you make a start, and what you find is that the word of God multiplies in your hand. And your kids hear what you give them, and they respond and they grow. Maybe your kids are a little bit older now and they've got more complex questions about the faith and about the world and about following Jesus, and you say, "I don't understand this world myself. I don't have the answers."

And Jesus says, "You feed them." And you say, "I don't know how." But you take what you know of the Lord, you speak what you know from the word, and here's the thing: Jesus multiplies it. And there's nourishment, and to your amazement, your kids respond and your kids grow and there's some fruit from it. You are teaching Sunday school or mentoring in youth or leading in a community group, and you see spiritually hungry people before you, and you feel you don't know what to do with them.

You feel you don't know what to give them. And Jesus says, "Feed them," and you say, "I don't have any bread." But you open up the Bible and you give them what you have before you, and you think, "This is so feeble. I've got so little to offer." And the word of God multiplies in your hand and in their heart, and there is growth and there is discipleship and there is multiplication that doesn't make sense in human terms.

We look at our ministry here and there's so much opportunity—so much opportunity—and there's so much need, so many people to minister to and to reach. We don't have all the staff we could have. We don't have all the volunteers we feel we need. Every penny in the budget is accounted for, and there's more to do. And we look to the Lord and he says to us, "You feed them." And we feel we don't have the resources. He says, "You feed them."

So we begin with what we've got, and you know what happens? The Lord brings some more workers along. And he raises up his servants, and he grows the gifts and the capacities of those who are already here. And he stretches the dollars and he moves people to give, and the ministry grows and it reaches and it multiplies and the spiritually hungry are fed.

I so often begin my preparation for Sunday early in the week looking at the text of scripture and thinking, "I don't know what to do with this. I don't understand fully what this passage is saying. I don't know how it applies to us." And Jesus says, "You give them something to eat." And I feel like saying, "I don't have anything to give them."

But I take what I see in the word and I ask the Lord to open it up and to make it clear, and what feels like a small morsel of a message grows into something of substance, and Jesus multiplies it. And 20 minutes becomes 40 and then 60 and then on—now, I will stop, don't worry. As hungry people come to receive from Jesus as they did then and as they do now, and as his servants look to him and say, "Where are the resources? Where is the provision? Where is the meal?"

Jesus says, "You feed them and I will supply." And he does. And he does. He makes full provision. And so where is it in the work of the Gospel, in the work of ministry, that you and I need to believe that afresh, to see that afresh, to trust afresh that Jesus provides for that which he calls us to do? He provides for those who respond to his call, who come to hear and to receive from him.

The rejected Jesus will draw a crowd, he'll have compassion upon them, he'll make provision for them, and finally he will give satisfaction to them. Verse 20: notice it with me. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about 5,000 men, besides women and children.

This is just a very brief point as we close, but it's important. Many will reject Jesus, of course. Many will turn away from him in scorn. But here's the wonderful truth, and if you are contemplating following Jesus, you need to see this and believe it. Here's the truth: those who come to Jesus are completely satisfied. It's awful, isn't it, going to a restaurant with a great appetite?

Maybe you know you're going out for dinner and you say, "I'm not going to have any lunch." There's a sense of anticipation, and then you get to the end of the meal and you leave hungry. Awful thing. In my experience, it's almost a rule that the more expensive the restaurant is, the smaller the portions will be and the more likely it is that you will leave hungry at the end.

With all those naysayers about, with so much negativity surrounding the things of Christ, will the experience in coming to Jesus, will that actually disappoint? Will it just be fodder for a bad review, a letdown, a flop? What was the experience of the crowd? Were their needs met? Did they experience full provision more than they expected or anticipated?

The statement in verse 20 is so brief but so meaningful: they all ate and were satisfied. Having received the nourishment that Jesus provided through his disciples, the people hungered no more. They weren't longing for something more after that. They weren't hankering for the next thing. No, not at all, because Jesus Christ had met their every need.

I imagine that a number, perhaps quite a number here among us, have been on a quest for satisfaction. You've been looking for true fulfillment, true satisfaction all over the place. You've been looking for it in career and in relationships, in money, in prestige, in travel, in image. You have been looking here, there, and everywhere, and so far you have come up short. Is that your experience? Is that what you've found? I expect that's true for no small number among us.

And the reality, of course, is that very few things in this world satisfy, and nothing in this world satisfies completely and comprehensively. But here's the truth for you today: Jesus Christ, he does satisfy. He alone satisfies. And if you are hungry today, if you are longing for nourishment for your soul, if you are longing for satisfaction, let me urge you: come to Jesus Christ. Receive his word, accept his forgiveness, allow him to fill you with his spirit, and you will find satisfaction of soul.

It's lovely how we read there that there were 12 baskets full of pieces left over at the end. The number 12 is a weighty number in the Bible. The people of God, the nation of Israel, had 12 tribes. And the symbolism here is significant. It almost seems as though we are being told that there is enough food left over to feed the whole people of God, including those who are not yet at the table.

And you need to know, you need to understand that there is enough nourishment left over for you. There is a meal for you, a place at the table of Jesus Christ at his spiritual banquet. Will you come? Will you receive? Will you find satisfaction in him?

Steve Hiller: Jonathan Griffiths wrapping up our message, "The Lord Who Satisfies," part of our series, "In the Presence of the King." And if you joined us a little late or you want to go back and listen to this broadcast again, you can do that at our website, encounterthetruth.org.

Encounter the Truth is able to be on this station, make the website, the podcast, and all the things that happen behind the scenes happen because of your generous financial support. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a book written by Paul Mallard. It's called "An Anchor for the Soul." And Jonathan, how would reading this book be helpful in our Christian walk?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, if we're going to keep walking with the Lord Jesus Christ day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, we need stability. We need stability. And in order to have stability, we need to understand who Jesus is and what he's done for us.

And Psalm 22 is a wonderful Old Testament passage that points us to Jesus and teaches us about his work on the cross for us, entering into the depths of human suffering and bearing the cost of sin in our place at Calvary. I think for each one of us, taking the time to reground and re-anchor our faith in the saving work of Jesus is going to do us tremendous good, and I'd just love to get this book into your hands.

Steve Hiller: Again, it's called "An Anchor for the Soul," written by Paul Mallard, our thank-you gift to you for your financial support this month. You can give online at encounterthetruth.org or over the phone. Our number is 1-833-99-TRUTH. Again, the website is encounterthetruth.org, and the phone number is 1-833-998-7884.

You can also write to us at Encounter the Truth, PO Box 5513, Ottawa, Ontario, K2C 3M1. Or in the US, at Encounter the Truth, 215 North Arlington Heights Road, Suite 102, Arlington Heights, Illinois, 60004. For Jonathan Griffiths and our producer, Mark Bretta, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time.