We turn to Psalm 23, and then Luke chapter nine, and we stand together to hear the reading of the word of God. Psalm 23 and Luke chapter nine. First from Psalm 23, familiar words. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his own namesake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." And from Luke chapter 9, as the good shepherd feeds his sheep. Beginning at verse 10, we read, And the apostles, when they had returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. But when the multitudes knew it, they followed him, and he received them, spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing. When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions, for we are in a deserted place here. But he said to them, You give them something to eat. And they said, We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people. For there were about five thousand men. Then he said to his disciples, make them sit down in groups of 50. And they did so, and made them all sit down. And he took the five loaves and the two fish, looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and 12 baskets of leftover fragments were taken up by them. This is the Word of the Lord. We turn in our Bibles to a familiar passage, the Gospel of Luke, the feeding of the 5,000. This familiar passage is familiar for a good number of reasons, not the least of which is that it is one of the narratives of the life of our Lord that is found in all four Gospels. It might be one of the most memorable Sunday school stories that you children remember. That Jesus, by divine miraculous power, was able to feed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fishes. Now there's a lot of people who don't believe that this story is true. Small children, receive it often with faith and rejoice in it. But many of the wise and mighty of this world are not afraid to criticize it and push it away. They would call this a myth clearly designed to elevate the biography of Jesus. Why would they say this? Because no man could feed 5,000 people like this. And a Christian would say, that's right, he's no mere man. He's divine power. So behind that statement is a rejection of the work of God in history. That God acts in history in powerful, supernatural ways that are different than the ordinary course. But the Bible, from beginning to end, declares that this is who our God is. This is what He does. That this is not a surprise. There are others who misinterpret the miracle and they say, well, clearly if Jesus can do this, he can give me anything. And so that's where we get the whole health and wealth gospel, which is if you believe in him enough, he'll give you, you know, he'll multiply everything you have by 5,000 and you will be rich and healthy and happy and without any suffering or tears in this present life. Also a terrible use of the miracle. Rather, the truth of this miracle is that Jesus Christ here in a simple sign is declaring himself to the world to be the Lord, Yahweh, I am who I am, and the shepherd of his people. And that with saving love and divine provision, he's promising to all those who follow him, everything we need for salvation and life is found in him. And in this wondrous, supernatural saving power that only belongs to Jesus Christ. We're gonna look at a couple of things as we look at the miracle. We're gonna do an overview, and I'm gonna do something a little different, move quickly through the narrative, and then we'll go back a second time, and we're gonna look at three particular details. in the same narrative that help us understand its significance. So an overview, a return to look at three particular details, and then pray for God to drive this into our hearts as we come face to face with the glory and saving power of Jesus Christ. It's always good to ask what the situation is, and in verse 10 we have a reminder of the situation that the apostles are returning. They're returning because they've been sent out, chapter 9 and verse 1. And in their sending, in chapter 9 and verse 1, there is the beginning of what we looked at last week, this explosion of kingdom, glory, and power as they've been given authority to teach, authority over demons, and power to heal the sick, that Jesus is investing his authority in the 12 and that they are going out to the whole house of Israel. Now before this already, Jesus attracted multitudes. His ministry was trending in Israel, popular. Everybody knew. He has become a major phenomenon throughout the land and all the way to the highest halls of power. If you just look at the earlier verses, Herod the Tetrarch had heard of all that was done by him and was perplexed. You need to have a sense of the power of this ministry in Israel. It is taking over the whole Land. Our Savior is turning the world upside down. You remember in chapter 8, it came to pass, verse 1, he went through every city and village preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the King. But 12 were with him when certain women who had been healed, Mary Magdalene, Joanna the wife of Juza, Herod Stewart, and Susanna, and many others who provided for him from their sustenance. We know from the other gospels that people from the Sanhedrin, leaders of the Pharisees, and the common and the lowly, the demoniac has been healed by him. And he's going into the hinterlands of Galilee and Decapolis and speaking of Jesus. This news is multiplying and spreading from Jesus, from his apostles, and everybody knows about him. And the result in verse 11 and 12 is multitudes. Very large crowds of people follow him. He went to take them away, verse 10, to a private deserted place to talk to them about what had happened. But it seems as soon as he does this, verse 11, the multitudes knew it, they followed him. And this is the picture, wherever he goes. If you were to get an aerial view, there would be our Savior moving through the promised land. And wherever he goes, a throng of people around him. This already happened at the beginning. You remember he was preaching early in Capernaum, and he was in the house, and the friends of the paralytic couldn't bring him to Jesus because the crowd was too thick. They had to make a hole. Well, this has only been growing. Hole in the roof to lower the front. This has been growing and multiplying and growing and multiplying. until that crowd, that throng around Jesus is thousands large. It's even more surprising because of where Jesus is. They are in a desolate place. Look at the end of verse 12. The 12, the disciples came to Jesus, they sent him away. The end of verse 12, we're in a deserted place. They're in the middle of nowhere. People have been walking, following. They don't have provisions. They're a great crowd. Just imagine 5,000 people following you around. This is a massive crowd. Imagine how much they need. It's also clear from the text that they just heard about Christ, and without doing a lot of pre-planning, they just followed. Because later on, When they look for something in the crowd, they can get five loaves and two fishes from one lad out of the whole 5,000. This is an intense following. No thought except Jesus Christ. Follow Him. The result of this is that as they follow Him, He received them. He welcomed them, the word is. And he does, again, what he does, all of his ministry, look at the sweetness of this language, spoke to them about the kingdom of God and healed those who had need of healing. He just goes right back to being the savior of the world. Preaching the gospel of the kingdom, the message of the kingdom, healing the sick. Just every need, he meets, he meets, he meets thousands of people. You have to have a sense of the the intensity of the picture for you to understand the rest of the miracle. The result of this is that they're in a faraway place with a lot of people. Verse 12, the day begins to wear away, sun starts to set, and it becomes obvious that there's a great need. The disciples understand it. Verse 12, send them away. What are we gonna do? Just sit here all night with 5,000 hungry people in the dark? Send them to the towns and villages, lodge, until they can lodge and get provisions. We need to split this crowd up. Today is over. And what does Jesus do? Instead of sending them away, he sits them down, and he takes those five loaves and two fishes, and he feeds the entire crowd, supplies all of their needs. And this, in turn, It's such a miracle that in all of the Gospels, but here you see the verses that follow it as it happened, it happened as he was alone praying. His disciples joined him, so when this is all over, he's back alone, crowd's been dispersed, his disciples are with him, and he asks a question about these crowds. Who do they say that I am? Why is that important? Because what is happening here is going to answer that question. Who are they saying? Are they seeing what is happening in my ministry? Do they know who I am? Are they understanding? This leads to a fundamental question of identity. The disciples are beginning to understand this is the Christ of God. This is the only Savior of sinners. This leaves some big questions. Why is this here in the Gospel of Luke? Again, critics, those who do not understand the supernatural power of God, see this as a narrative, a literary feature. And they're not seeing that this is much more than literary, it's history. Rules want to disregard the apostolic witness to the crowds and the miracle, but they cannot. It's clear. It's very clear, there's something powerful being said here about the Lord Jesus Christ. And I said at the beginning, it's not just said here. This is one of the narratives that is in all four Gospels that every apostle who puts a pen to paper to tell you about the ministry of Jesus says you need to know about this particular day. This is fundamental for every apostle to your understanding of the person, work, and mission of Jesus Christ. It will answer to you, who is He? What did He come to do? And so that's our task, to unfold that significance by looking at the details. Let's go back through the text and see a number of details that will help you look more carefully. I remember in seventh or eighth grade, we had a teacher who gave us an assignment, and it was an assignment sheet. I can't remember what the title was, but it was the task list. It had 20 tasks on a sheet of paper. But in the little paragraph above, it said instructions. And it was time limited, 20 tasks. It said instructions. Teacher said, you have this much time to complete these tasks. In the instructions paragraph, it said skip one through 19, read number 20. Number 20 said, put your pencil down and wait. Well, what do you think most of the class did? They're just furiously working on 1 through 19. Because what? Didn't read the details. Did not slow down to look. But when we slow down here and look at the details, There's some things that the gospel writers, and particularly Luke here, is communicating to us. First of all, detail number one from verse 12, which is significant. For we are in a deserted place here. What is happening here? We have, it's not too far from towns, we know it's in the region of Bethsaida, but what we have here is Israel in a place where there is a dry and thirsty land where there is no water, in a wilderness where there's no manna. We have the people of God in a place where the disciples recognize that unless God provides in some way, they're gonna go hungry. What is the great saving event of the Old Testament? It's the Exodus. And there's one thing that's been developing in the Gospel of Luke and perhaps hasn't been as plain to you is that there are intimations in this Gospel of something greater. To use the language of the writer to the Hebrews, one greater than Moses is here. There's also intimations of Psalm 23, the good shepherd who causes His sheep to lie down in green pastures so that He can feed them. These actions of our Savior and the places in which they happen have been foreshadowed in God's redeeming acts in history. Let's go back to the Exodus. You have the taskmaster Pharaoh. You have the release from that taskmaster. We have a Passover feast, a table, a lamb, who himself is the feast, the meal, the blood on the door, the angel of death passing over, the march through the wilderness, the Red Sea crossing, and then the entering of a new wilderness in which manna was needed in order that they would reach the promised land. There's a few key elements here. You have a man named Moses who is the mediator between Israel and God. You have a taskmaster. You have a redemption. You have a Red Sea crossing. And you have a wilderness. And finally you have rest. But if you go back in your Bible a little more you'll see that there's another similar pattern in a man named Noah who saves his family in an ark and passes through the waters and ends up on the other side at a mountain with God. Or if you go ahead in your Bible you have Joshua who redeems the people of God and brings them out of the wilderness but they cross through the Jordan River on dry land to be brought into Israel, where they are fed by God. Like God feeds Noah in the ark with the sustenance, and like God fed Israel with the produce of the land, and like God fed Israel in the wilderness with the bread of angels. The psalmist in Psalm 78 said, men ate angels' food, mysterious statement, the bread of heaven. Divinely provided supernatural sustenance to bring them home. What followed each of the Exodus events, or what was always combined with, or I'd put the heart of each of these events, especially the Exodus proper, is provision, provision, provision. Begins with a Passover meal. It's followed by manna in the wilderness. It leads to the mountain of God where there's a feast on the mountain where Moses and the elders ate and drank and they saw God. And God preserved their life to bring them to himself. Now this exodus pattern is in the Gospel of Luke a number of ways. First of all, it's in the life of Christ. He's baptized. He's brought through the waters. He faces the tempter, the taskmaster. He conquers him. He overcomes the devil. And then he preaches a kingdom and salvation and glory to Israel. And now Christ, what has He done here in the Gospel of Luke? He's taken His place amongst the people of Israel, as the One greater than Moses, and as the One who is feeding the twelve tribes of Israel, as the One who is the Redeemer, the Savior, the One who even in this context rules the sea, preaches the Gospel, casts out demons, and heals the sick. It's all about salvation and mercy. who redeems our lives from destruction, who crowns us with loving kindness and tender mercy, who satisfies our mouth with good things so that our youth is renewed like the eagle, Psalm 103. And Luke begins this way with an Exodus theme with Jesus at a Passover at 12 years of age and Jesus at a Passover just before the cross. The whole arc of the saving work of God, which includes his provision of life through bread as a symbol of that life. It blankets the whole of the epistle, the whole rather of the gospel. They were in a deserted place. and Jesus provided bread, supernaturally. The second thing, the second detail is that only Jesus was able to provide. The gospel writers and Luke here take pains to highlight the helplessness of the disciples. They're utterly powerless. This is actually curious in the context because if you look at verse one, he called his 12 disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and heal the sick. But here, suddenly, powerless. And it's not just that they're powerless, it's that our Savior takes pains for us to see and them to feel the powerlessness. I mean, they're in the middle of nowhere. There's no grocery stores, no Costco, Walmart. There's nothing where they are. There's no towns or villages. There's nowhere to get food. If you think about this, just a few weeks ago when we were in Wyoming, I think I've said this in sermons before, one of the things that struck me on the drive home is the utterly desolate places. And there's a couple of places where I can imagine if you put me there and said, we have no food, feed the family, Peter, it would immediately be evident that the reason for that command was to teach me my helplessness, because I would have no power to provide. Jesus, look what he says to them. You give them something to eat. They say they're gonna be hungry. And Jesus says, well, give them something. Give them something. What do they say? We have no more than five loaves and two fishes. We have scoured the crowd. This is what we have. Really, in essence, nothing. We have one boy's lunch. Now think about how many people left home without a lunch or a dinner that day. That's it, 5,000 people. We've got nothing, all of us, nothing. Nothing. They sense that they're being asked the impossible. Unless we go buy food for all these people. What are you asking us to do? We have nothing. We'd have to go somewhere else. We cannot do this. And we know from John 6 that Jesus was intentionally doing this. John tells us that He was testing them. That it's not just an intimation, but it's a reality. He was bringing them to the end of themselves. Like He does for you and me. He was pressing them hard. There were 5,000 men. Why don't you feed them? Give them something to eat. If you're worried about dinner, provide it. The point of the detail here is the impossibility of man to save himself. Even those closest to Christ here in the text, the ones who were invested just a moment ago with some degree power, were powerless and had to go back to Christ in humility. The spotlight here is on Jesus Christ and Him alone. Third detail. One of the problems, and it's not really a problem, wrong way to say that, but I often say this. Some of you have read this passage maybe thousands of times. You've read your Bible a good number of times, you've heard preaching. four times in the Bible, it's not your first time around. And maybe because of that, you might be having trouble listening. I've heard a sermon on this before. It's a mistake. Don't ever get used to the magnitude of this miracle. Don't ever get used to its magnitude. The third detail is the is the display of unmatched supernatural power in the ministry of Jesus Christ. In the opening act that Jesus does publicly, verse 14, well first he said the disciples make them sit down in groups of 50. They did so and they made them all sit down. So now the crowd is sitting. Christ is center, and what does he do? He takes the five loves and the two fish. He's unhesitatingly bold. Give me the five and the two. And everyone watches him, and we know this because this is an eyewitness report, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke them. He blessed and broke them. He prays. He gives thanks to the Lord for the meal. As an aside, we ought always to pray when God gives us blessings, that he would bless them. Here the action of blessing, interestingly though, is from Christ to the food. Now some would interpret this simply as a way of thanksgiving to God, and surely he was. He's praying to his Heavenly Father. It's indicated by the action and the words. But he is also himself God and intends to bring blessing. Second thing is opening action. The second spotlight on Christ is in the magnitude of the miracle is to get back to the number of people. The number of people is very great. There were about 5,000 men. If you have a family and you have a number of children, if you have young men that grow to be teenagers, you all of a sudden know that they have a, seems to be an unlimited capacity to eat. Times 5,000. 5,000 men. And then Matthew tells us a little phrase in his gospel, besides women and children. 10,000, 15,000, 20,000? This crowd is a lot bigger than just the 5,000. 5,000 heads of households. In verse 17, they all ate and were filled. There were 12 baskets left over. This is a signal of provision beyond any natural capacity. And the Savior was concerned that no one would be missed by the abundance and with the 12 baskets of the leftover fragments that were taken up by them. Why the 12 baskets? It's hard to know, but there was a signal that this was bread for Israel and bread for the world and all the tribes with abundance. Reminds us of Joseph, who was sent to Egypt to provide bread not only for Israel and his sons, but for the world. with a degree and a capacity and a magnitude beyond what you are able to think or ask. And it's a perfect sign of the promise of new covenant feasts that are found all throughout the Old Testament. that salvation comes and is declared in the way of the satisfaction of the human soul with the riches of God symbolized by food and drink." And listen to this call from Isaiah 55, "'Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. You who have no money, come buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money, without price. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me,' says the Lord. Eat what is good, let your soul delight itself in abundance. Abundance. This whole parable is pulsing with abundance. My people shall be satisfied with my goodness. Jeremiah 31 14. The immeasurable abundance of the provision of God for his people in salvation. Look at the magnitude of the miracle. In the boldness of Jesus Christ. In the extent of the feeding. But now let's get to the moment itself. What actually happened that day? How did Jesus do this? How? What's going on? This is where the skeptics stumble, no faith. Couldn't have happened. Because the gospels proclaim a kind of power that belongs only to God. You know, I have an undergraduate degree in engineering, and we had to learn all kinds of different laws. We had the laws of thermodynamics, and Newton's laws, and there's another one, law of conservation of mass, that in a chemical reaction, mass is neither gained or lost. In other words, we can't make new things, and we can't make new energy. The laws of the universe is that we are constitutionally limited. That what is being conveyed to us does not belong to the order of mere men. Because the rules belong to and were made by the Christ who makes the bread. Have you ever stopped to think of what happened? Verse 13. Five loaves, we have no more than five loaves and two fish. What are they saying? We have nothing. Jesus settles the crowd, make them all sit down. The food, verse 16, is transferred to Christ. He took the five loaves and the two fish. Looking up to heaven, here's the phrase. He blessed and broke them. At that moment, something remarkable is happening. He broke them, and then endlessly flowing from His hands, He gave them to disciples like a river from the throne of God. He keeps breaking and giving to the disciples, breaking and giving, breaking and giving, until their cup runs over. And the power is found in the mediator, in the magnitude of His glory and grace. brings you face-to-face with supernatural greatness. What happens in Jesus' hands as He breaks the bread and fish? I've often thought about it. Did He make something new in the universe? Something akin to, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Let there be light. There is something here that brings us all the way back to the majestic, sovereign, original creation and creator of all things, who stands in his creation, the God-man in the flesh, and breaks the bread and the fish to give life to the world. And that there's something much bigger going on here than a miracle that you can read quickly over, something far greater. Something which brings you back to Psalm 78, men ate the food of angels. It's a mysterious phrase, but at the very least it means this, something of the bread of heaven was being tasted on earth when God gave manna to Israel. And now Jesus is doing the same thing, signaling something about the glory of the new covenant and his identity and his mission in ways that if you could see it, if you were there with your own eyes, would have caused you to tremble at his majesty. And more, this is for your salvation, the picture of salvation. The little phrase that's here, Looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke them and gave them to the disciples. Does that remind you of anything? Luke chapter 22, and Jesus institutes the Last Supper, and he takes the bread and the cup, and he takes the bread and he blesses it, and he breaks it and he gives it to disciples. What do you think they were supposed to remember at that point? How do we know this? Because John 6 tells us that Jesus also said, I am the bread of life. And it's interesting in Luke chapter 24, after the death and resurrection of Jesus and Jesus on the road to Emmaus with those two disciples who didn't recognize him, that it was when they sat down with him and he blessed the bread and broke it, that they suddenly recognized that they were in the presence of the Lord of the universe, the God-man, the savior of sinners. This is why it's in four gospels. This is why it proclaims a saving glory and power which cannot be measured. It's infinite. Dimensions of glory that remind us of John chapter 1, where we read about our Savior, the Creator of all things. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing that was made was made. Colossians chapter 1, the same statement. Hebrews chapter 1, through whom the world was made. Jesus Christ. The third detail is the staggering magnitude of the power of Jesus Christ to give life and salvation. For these reasons, we are to conclude, in John chapter six, we know that the crowd concluded, this must be the Messiah, the salvation of Israel. This must be our worthy King. This is why we read afterwards when Jesus said, who did the crowd say that they am? Some say John the Baptist, Elijah, others say one of the old prophets. He says, who do you say that I am? Peter answered and said, the Christ of God. You are the Redeemer that we have been waiting for. Drive this home to the heart. A few things. Lesson number one is simple. Depend on God for your daily provision. It's so simple it's easy to miss, but isn't that the thing that Satan in the garden said, maybe not? Did God give you enough? Did He really give you enough, or is He holding something back? Jesus demonstrates and teaches here that God sustains life, and He does it abundantly. He fills the crowd. The language is, they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them. Abundance beyond what we need is found in Jesus Christ. And we begin to think about that with our daily bread. You had breakfast this morning, probably. You need to think about where that came from. You need to think about why you're alive. The ministry and power of Jesus Christ, the Lord of the universe, sustains you. Luther, preaching on Matthew 15, where there's another miracle like this, the feeding of the 4,000. He says this, we are familiar with the fact that grain grows yearly out of the earth, and because we're so familiar, we are blinded and don't really respect the work of God in his ordinary providence. For what we daily see and hear, we don't regard as miraculous, but this is just as great as Jesus feeding the multitudes. You know, when a seed falls into the soil, and there's rain, and it's harvested by the farmer, and it's brought to the market, and God's sustaining every life and every intelligence that's planning all of this. He's looking down on this world, giving rain to the just and the unjust, giving food to all His creatures, Psalm 104. And this is the sovereign hand and work of God. Children, when that grain comes from the grocery store, and your mom bakes a loaf of bread and puts it in the oven, and it gets put on the table, you should be thankful. And you should thank the Lord for everything that happened. For your mom, for the wheat, for the farmer, for the sun, the rain, and the Lord who gave you life. We should all be grateful. We should pray, Lord, give us this day our daily bread. Calvin in his Institutes on Prayer, I can't remember where it is, but he says when you eat as a Christian, he's got a great rule that he recommends for life. Pray before and after you eat. One, because you need his blessing to enjoy it, and two, because when you enjoyed it, you offer him thanks for what he's given. No less divine power has kept your life and brought you here today. When the meal hits the table, every day, thank the Lord who sustains your life. If you're unthankful, Romans 1, you're unbelieving. That's what the Lord says. Number two, the provision of life is found in Jesus Christ. Bread flows from Christ to the apostles to Israel. It's the great gospel distribution in a physical sign. The actions here sum up the entirety of the ministry of Jesus Christ that this whole chapter is full of. As a matter of fact, this section begins with preaching. It ends with the miracle. It's a picture of what He came to do, to provide, to give, to distribute, to save. The focus is on the epicenter, the source, the fountain. Not the apostles, not the bread and the fish, Christ Himself. not even the miracle itself, Christ himself, the person at the center in whose hands is the power of the new creation and who forgives and gives and restores life. Who is he? What did he come to do? We just read Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. What does Psalm 23 tell us that the Good Shepherd does? He made His flock sit on the green grass. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. But He also feeds His flock like a shepherd. He provides. And this whole picture is pulsing with Jesus Christ and his ministry foreshadowed in the old covenant. Hear my sheep, sit on the green grass of the hills of Israel, and let me feed you with the heritage of the covenant of grace. I have come to be your savior. Life is found only in me. I am the bread of heaven. Ezekiel 34, I will feed them in good pasture, and their fold shall be on the high mountains of Israel, which is where this is happening in the text. There they shall lie down as a good fold, and they shall feed on rich pasture in the mountains of Israel. And I will feed their flock, and I will make them lie down and rest. This is what Jesus came to do. Christ is the center, Christ himself. This is an act of self-revelation. Here, the last supper, road to Emmaus, and by the way, this path of this supper will lead all the way to the marriage supper of the Lamb in glory. This is what it's about. And Jesus is saying this to you. If you have me by faith, you have life and life abundantly. I've come to save. If you don't have me, you have no life. You only have death. Don't be tempted to look just for the outward blessing. You want Christ. Not the fish, not the bread, not the sign, but you want the Savior. Matter of fact, we know this from the Gospel of John. When he explained his miracle there, he said, I am the bread of life, and the question is, how do you have this bread? Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall not thirst. Come, believe, rest in him. Trust him, that's the simplicity of the Gospel. To be saved, Jesus is saying you need me. Some of you maybe just want the perks, like forgiveness. Jesus says you need me and me alone. You don't just need some help with your sin problem or a great teacher. What you need is me. You receive me by faith, and you can have salvation by no other way than by grappling with the reality presented to you in the feeding of the 5,000 and confessing, I know who you are. You're the Christ of God. And that leads to satisfaction they all ate and were filled. Tonight, 6 p.m., we gather for worship. It's not a small thing that what our Savior plans to do is spread before you the Lord's Supper. Why? Because He intends tonight here in this place to take bread, to bless it, to break it, and to give it to His disciples. And declare to you in a sign directly tied to the feeding of the 5,000 in this place by the power of His Word and Spirit that He is for us, not against us. Salvation and life is in Him. He will reveal His glory to you. He will remind you that It is by the power of His mighty hand and Him alone, there's salvation in life. So come, prepare to feed on Him, renew your allegiance to Him, sit at His table, be reminded of His grace and glory, and by faith, receive the heavenly bread. Let's pray. Lord our God, we are grateful to You for revealing the dimensions of the glory and power and saving love of Jesus Christ to us again today. We pray for grace that we would receive and believe what we have seen and heard. We thank you that you care for us. You fed us our food this morning, you brought us here, you sustained physical life. We pray for our daily bread. But then, Lord, we lift our eyes beyond and we recognize the deadness of our spiritual condition and the signal that this is the Christ of God, the Savior of sinners, the bread of life for the world. We pray that we with greater expectation would always be found by faith, holding to and believing in Him, and never hungry or thirsty again. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen. But go now with the blessing of the Triune God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.