“The Miracle of the Messiah”

(Matthew 14:13-21)

Series: God’s Fulfilled Promise [on screen]

Rev. Matthew C. McCraw, EdD

First Baptist Church, Bartow, Florida

October 20, 2019

The Passage

Matthew 14:13-21

13 When Jesus heard about it, he withdrew from there by boat to a remote place to be alone. When the crowds heard this, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd, had compassion on them, and healed their sick.

15 When evening came, the disciples approached him and said, “This place is deserted, and it is already late. Send the crowds away so that they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”

16 “They don’t need to go away,” Jesus told them. “You give them something to eat.”

17 “But we only have five loaves and two fish here,” they said to him. 

18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 Then he commanded the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 Everyone ate and was satisfied. They picked up twelve baskets full of leftover pieces. 21 Now those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Introductory Comments:

Illustration: When I lived in Kentucky I had one of my wisdom teeth taken out. I had all four but one had become problematic, so it needed to come out. Don’t worry, I still have my other three, so I am still fairly wise. Anyways, to get the tooth out, they had to put me all the way to sleep because the tooth was completely enclosed in bone. In order to help me deal with the pain that came with that type of surgery the oral surgeon prescribed Lortab. Let me tell you, that was strong stuff. I didn’t feel any pain at all. However, the problem started when I came off of the Lortab. You see my body started doing weird things and I wasn’t feeling that well. I actually started to get a little grumpy. I wasn’t feeling well and a church member came into my office and I responded in a less than kind way. You see, I wasn’t one hundred percent and I took it out on others. I was not very compassionate towards others because of my situation. 

Well, here Jesus is, just after He has learned of the death of John the Baptist, His friend and cousin. As a result of what’s happened, Jesus wants to be alone. Although He is trying to escape the crowds and be alone, crowds actually start following Him around trying to see and learn more about this man they call Jesus. 

That brings us to today’s passage. 

Let’s pray together and see what God might be teaching us today. 

(prayer)

Today, we will learn three characteristics of Jesus the Messiah. 

Thank God He doesn’t respond like your pastor when He is having difficult. Jesus responds quite differently. Let’s see how He responded. 

First, . . .

I. The Compassion of the Messiah [on screen]

Let’s look at verses 13 and 14 again. 

13 When Jesus heard about it, he withdrew from there by boat to a remote place to be alone. When the crowds heard this, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd, had compassion on them, and healed their sick.

Jesus had gone through some intense stuff, and He knew that He would be going through some more intense stuff soon in the future, so He just wanted to be alone.

However, due to His popularity, people wouldn’t leave Him alone. Even in a remote place that He had gone to by boat, people found Him. When He arrived on shore there were crowds of people waiting for Him. 

I imagine that if that were me in the boat I would have just got back in the boat and found another spot, but not Jesus. The Messiah has unmatched compassion for people!

Rather than be alone and tend to His own hurt, Jesus addressed the hurt of the people. He had compassion on them and He healed their sick. 

Listen, church: there is no compassion like the compassion of Jesus the Messiah! If you have hurt, He has hea