JESUS MULTIPLIED THROUGH OUR BREAKING

Matthew 15:29-39    And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down there.  (30)  And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them:  (31)  Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel.  (32)  Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.  (33)  And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?  (34)  And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes.  (35)  And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.  (36)  And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.  (37)  And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full.  (38)  And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children.  (39)  And he sent away the multitude, and took ship, and came into the coasts of Magdala.

Matthew 16:1-13    The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.  (2)  He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.  (3)  And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?  (4)  A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.  (5)  And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.  (6)  Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.  (7)  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.  (8)  Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?  (9)  Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?  (10)  Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?  (11)  How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?  (12)  Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.  (13)  When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?

Message:

Last week we spoke of the multiplying of the bread and fishes and how that was a LIVING parable of what Jesus taught afterwards in John 6 about Himself being bread of life.

That message, and a message we preached in Feb 2000 and here as well several months ago, came together this week for a message combining both pictures.

• And it has to do with the Spirit in which God is working here now as well.

In Matthew 15 is the story in Matthew's gospel about the multiplying of the bread and fishes.

• Chapter 14 saw the same thing occur earlier with other people.
• And Matthew's story continues into events that are living experiences of the message Jesus acted out in multiplying the bread and fishes, just as John 6 showed us the multiplying in connection with Jesus' following words about Himself as bread from heaven.

Here is how Matthew plays it out.

A different message.

Pharisees and Sadducees tempt Him asking Him for a sign.

• Recall in John 6 people who saw the miracle of the food asked or a sign as well.
• Jesus looked at them and told them it was easy for them to discern the face of the sky and forecast the weather quite accurately.
• But they could not discern the signs of the times.
• They were supposed to be spiritual leaders of the people and could not perceive a spiritual time period and realize that was the day of the messiah!
• They could only grasp and discern what the common person could do with the weather!
• What good was their spiritual leadership if they could not spiritually discern that Messiah was in their midst, by seeing the miracles and the crowds following Jesus and the message of truth He preached??

And so we happen to read that when Jesus left with the disciples, the disciples forgot to take bread.

• This is mentioned because when Jesus then remarks to them about their need to beware of the leaven of the pharisees, they think He is talking about the fact they forgot to take bread.
• They figured that they had to get some, and were to ensure they did not take the bread the pharisees recommended, similar to the Jews being forbidden to eat bread of gentiles.

Jesus perceived their thoughts about this, and rebuked them.

• They had no need to worry over bread, after Jesus just multiplied a few loaves and fishes and fed thousands.
• Jesus would not concern himself over what kind of bread they should find to eat, and they should have had enough sense to know that.
• They made two mistakes... they thought his words must have concerned finding good bread to eat, when they should have known that was not the issue since He would not ask such a thing after multiplying bread...
• And secondly, they COULD NOT DISCERN the Lord's Words that were speaking spiritual things to them.
• The bread Jesus meant was SPIRITUAL BREAD of DOCTRINE.

The fact was that they had actually BEEN INFECTED with the leaven of the pharisees!

• That doctrine was one that people who could not perceive spiritual things proposed.
• It was the infection of carnality and not being able to follow spiritual words of Jesus as much as the pharisees and Sadducees could not discern who Jesus really was and the signs of the times all around them, because they were so carnally minded.

Just as the pharisees had placed before their very eyes the messiah and indications of the fact that God did send Messiah then and there in their time, and they could not see it, the disciples had words of Jesus in their laps and they could hot get what he was actually saying.

Jesus told them to beware because He knew they had been infected.

After a certain time by being around Jesus, they should have started to get things from God.

And that is the reason we read that when they arrived at their destination, Jesus immediately starts asking them who did the disciples think He was.

• Was anybody hearing from the Father yet about Him in revelation?
• And we find out that Peter got a revelation from the Father about who Jesus was.
• The son of the living God.
• But Peter was not there yet.
• He missed the next revelation from the Son.

When Jesus spoke of the gates of hell not prevailing against the church on the rock, and how he must go to Jerusalem and die, and rise again, Peter rebuked him for thinking of dying.

• If the gates of death cannot prevail against the church on the rock, and Jesus is the Rock, then death cannot hurt Jesus.
• But the reason Peter never caught that was explained by Jesus when He said this:

Mat 16:23-25    But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.  (24)  Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.  (25)  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Jesus nailed his problem in refusing to deny self.

• If Peter had been aware of the revelation of the Rock, how death cannot prevail against us, he would not have resisted Jesus; thoughts about death.
• But Peter refused to deny self and it was because he did not get that revelation.
• And it came out by hating the thoughts of death for Jesus.

What should have happened was what happened outwardly with the BREAKING OF THE BREAD.

• When Jesus fed the thousands, he first took the bread, blessed it, broke it and then gave it.
• Now there were 4000 in one instance who were fed and 5000 in another, and that was only counting the men and not women and children who were there.
• Jesus gave each of the twelve disciples some bread He broke and fish.
• If twelve people fed 5000 others, that would require each disciples to feed about 416 people.
• There is no way they walked away from Jesus with enough food to feed 416 people.
• This means that BREAD MULTIPLIED IN THEIR HANDS.
• To divide the five loaves into 12 pieces, Jesus could give each disciple a little less than half a loaf.
• It would be a quarter or less to feed all the men, women and children.
• Imagine Jesus putting that much in your hand and telling you to feed 416 men, plus that many more women and children, with maybe MORE children than all of them!

One other alternative if that Jesus did multiply enough for them to be able to carry all they could, and then it multiplied even more as the disciples broke the bread, themselves.

At any rate get the picture.

• Jesus rebuked Peter for not taking up his cross and denying Himself to follow Jesus.
• FOLLOWING JESUS in this case therefore means REPEATING JESUS' experiences in themselves.
• Or... MULTIPLYING JESUS.

Jesus is the Bread of Life!

• And He was MULTIPLIED when he BROKE in death.

Mat 26:26    And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

When He broke the bread he said it was His body.

1Co 11:24    And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

Perhaps Jesus was ALSO saying YOU DO THE SAME WITH YOURSELF.

• YOU do this, too, remembering me.
• Remember how I was broken in death  and self denial.
• Remember this and you do the same.

Peter was not doing it.

• He was not breaking in himself by self denial.
• And while Jesus broke Himself in self denial and thereby multiplied, we must likewise be broken in denying self SO WE CAN MULTIPLY!

The Sadducees and pharisees could not discern anything spiritual, because they were not getting any revelation from God.

• God gives people revelations.
• The ones who do not get it are not getting it for a reason.
• The leaven of the pharisees is self-exaltation and pomp and pride.
• Their doctrine was without revelation/
• It was results of carnal thinking.

Mar 8:15    And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.

Recall the Herodians.

• They actually believed Herod was the messiah.
• How blind!

Recall Jesus spoke of the Church on the rock.

• Peter knew Jesus but watch:

Mat 7:21-24    Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.  (22)  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?  (23)  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.  (24)  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

The ones who hear the word and DO IT.

• Jesus is the word.
• You hear the word when you see Jesus.
• Jesus denied Himself.
• Now, YOU DO IT.

Phi 3:10-11    That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;  (11)  If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Notice that KNOWING JESUS is associated with being able to experience His resurrection and suffering.

• THIS IS MULTIPLYING JESUS IN US.
• We do not know Jesus unless we REPEAT HIS SELF DENIAL IN US.

John 13:13-15    Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.  (14)  If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.  (15)  For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.

Mat 3:13-15    Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.  (14)  But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?  (15)  And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.

Deny yourself.

• Be a repeat of Jesus.
• Let Jesus be multiplied in you.
• This is where we will get caught up and is the reason why we cannot get anything spiritual if we aren't.
• We know to deny self and we choose not to do it.

We could say the taking and blessing and breaking and giving can be said to be taking, blessing, breaking and MULTIPLYING.

Blessing and multiplying go together.

Heb 6:13-14    For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,  (14)  Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.

But between the blessing nd multiply is the BREAKING!

Gen 1:22    And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

Gen 1:28    And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Gen 9:1    And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

The house on the rock gets power from the rock, when it is built of the same material as the house on sand that falls.

• The rock makes the difference.
• Two people can experience the same battles and trials, but one stands and the other falls because one is on the rock.
• ONE DENIES SELF.
• You have to deny self to get on this rock.
• He said to the people he never knew them, and said they were like people who built houses on sand by hearing and NOT DOING his will.
• People on sand are not known of the Lord.

2Ti 2:19    Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

Speaking of foundations or ROCK, Paul said Jesus KNOWS THEM WHO ARE HIS.

John 10:11-15    I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.  (12)  But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.  (13)  The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.  (14)  I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.  (15)  As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.

John 10:17    Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.

He knows the sheep and they know Him.

• He knows them because HE LAYS HIS LIFE DOWN FOR THEM.
• They reciprocate the same way.

Deny yourself.

• Let the wealthiest person here go to the poorest brother or sister and offer to help them off with their coat.

ONLY THOSE WHO DENY THEMSELVES are broken to be multiplied, and Jesus is repeated in them, and they alone FEED MULTITUDES.

• Becoming a leader in the Kingdom of God requires you to be broken.
• If you are complaining about what people do to you all the time, you are not allowing yourself to be broken.
• God is allowing things to occur so we can present ourselves in brokenness.
• This will open revelation up to you.
• The more you are broken, the more YOU FEED OTHERS, because only the broken get revelation.

2Co 4:6-15    For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  (7)  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.  (8)  We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;  (9)  Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;  (10)  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.  (11)  For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.  (12)  So then death worketh in us, but life in you.  (13)  We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;  (14)  Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.  (15)  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

You cannot feed anyone else without brokenness.

• The things that take you out are the very things in which you resist brokenness in your life.
• Brokenness is when your selfishness wants you to not TAKE a certain thing.
• And you refuse to do anything if that does not cease.
• Brokenness is setting aside what you demand.
• Take it.
• Even if you despise it, take it.
• And that will cause a breaking in your stubborn will.
• And God sees that and gives revelation to you.
• And ONLY THEN CAN YOU FEED OTHERS.

Be the bread multiplied.

• Your life is in your hands.
• Allow it to be broken.
• And RESURRECTION GLORY will occur as YOU ARE MULTIPLIED.

John 12:24-25    Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.  (25)  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.