Seventh Sunday after Trinity – August 3, 2025

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The crowd of over 4,000 people were with Jesus for three days.

They were hungry for God's Word, and so Jesus fed them the Word of God.

He satisfied their hunger by preaching and teaching the Word of God.

At the end of the three days, the people were hungry for food,

and so Jesus fed them with bread and fish. It was a wonderful miracle.

Jesus satisfied their hunger with food.

We as believers in Christ have both a physical and a spiritual body.

Our physical life has to do with food and clothing and house and home,

and our spiritual life has to do with faith in Christ.

The forgiveness of sins, the gift of eternal life.

We will learn today that God is our source of both our physical and spiritual blessings.

He feeds us in both body and soul.

In the Lord's Prayer, for example, we first pray for daily bread regarding the

body, and then we pray for the forgiveness of sins regarding the soul.

The paralytic, as an example. Jesus first forgave the man his sins,

and then he healed the man's body.

Jesus cares about our eternal salvation that's given to us by means of the gospel

and sacrament, but he also cares about our body, giving us food and drink.

We are dependent upon God to feed both our body and our soul.

Let us first look at how God feeds us with his word, and then we will look at

how God feeds us with daily bread.

Again, the crowd of over 4,000 people were with Jesus for three days.

They were hungry for the word of God, and Jesus fed them with the word of God

by means of his preaching and teaching.

It must have been a wonderful Bible study, Perhaps similar today to like a three-day

retreat someplace, learning, praying, and studying God's Word.

Well, the people were so focused on the Word of God and His teaching that they

lost sight of their need for food.

We live busy lives. We have to go here and there.

Yet, it is very important for us to relax, to listen to God's Word.

And to study it, at home, in the church.

It's very important for us to put aside any kind of work or pleasure on Sunday

morning in particular so that we can worship, hear the word of God,

read or preached, and to receive the Lord's Supper.

We hunger for God's word, and Jesus feeds us with his gospel and word and sacrament.

Martin Luther said in the small catechism on the meaning of the third commandment,

we should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and his word,

but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.

At one time in Jesus' ministry, he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights,

and then the devil came along and tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread.

And Jesus responded, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that

proceeds from the mouth of God.

So bread for the body is important, but the word that proceeds from the mouth

of God is absolutely necessary.

God's word teaches us who God is and what he has done for us in Christ.

It tells us what is right and wrong.

It teaches us how to love the neighbor. God's word washes away our iniquities.

It refreshes and restores our soul. It satisfies our hunger for righteousness.

Jesus once gave the people a warning, saying, Do not labor for the food which

perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life.

So bread for the body is important, but bread for the soul is absolutely necessary.

Earthly bread costs money, but our eternal bread in Christ is free.

Our earthly bread is temporary, but our faith in Christ is forever.

Jesus provides bread that lasts forever.

Therefore, focus on the food which endures to eternal life, namely the precious gospel of our Lord.

The most important food is Jesus and his righteousness.

Jesus also said at one time, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,

and all these things will be added unto you.

Let's look at the crowd of 4,000 people.

They sought Jesus and his teaching first, then bread and fish were added to them.

And so also for us, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

Then food and clothing will be added unto you.

Jesus also once said, I am the bread of life.

He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks

my blood has eternal life, and it will raise him up on the last day.

Jesus is our bread of life, in other words, our source of life.

Martin Luther once called the Lord's Supper, food which nourishes the soul.

So just as the manna and the quail in the wilderness sustained the Israelites

on their journey to the promised land,

so also the Lord's Supper sustains us on our journey to heaven.

So the crowd of over 4,000 people were hungry for God's word,

so Jesus fed them with the word of God. He satisfied their hunger by preaching

and teaching the word of God.

And so also for us, we hunger for God's word.

And so Jesus feeds us with a gospel and sacrament.

Let us now focus on how God feeds us with daily bread.

The crowd of over 4,000 people were hungry. They had no food to eat.

There were no restaurants, no grocery stores nearby, no vending machines.

The people were so far away that if they were to leave to get food,

our text says that they would faint on the way.

Who made the mistake of not bringing enough food?

Do we blame Jesus for not bringing enough food? do we blame the people for not bringing enough food?

When things don't go your way, are you quick to judge and condemn God and others?

Do you blame others in order to make yourself look good?

What should the crowd of over 4,000 people have done?

Should they have left Jesus's Bible study and gone to get food?

No. They would have missed out on a wonderful Bible study, right?

It's kind of like Martha and Mary. It was wrong for Martha to focus on the food.

She should have sat at the feet of Jesus listening to his word, like Mary did.

What should the people have done? Should they have complained to Jesus of why

they don't have enough food?

Nowhere in our text does it say that they complained about the lack of food. They trust in Jesus.

Perhaps Jesus' preaching and teaching had a positive effect on them.

Perhaps they had faith that Jesus will provide them with the food they need.

After God delivered the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt, They were hungry.

What did they do? They complained to Moses and to God.

God had mercy on them, and he fed them manna and quail.

When we suffer from various trials and tribulations, do you complain to God?

Do you turn to God in prayer, or do you try to solve your own problems on your own?

Do you worry? Are you filled with anxiety?

In the Holy Gospel for today, we learn that Jesus directed the crowd to sit

down. He took the loaves of bread.

He blessed them and he gave them to the disciples and they passed out the bread.

Then he took the fish and he blessed

them also and he gave them to the disciples and a miracle occurred.

The bread and fish just multiplied. It's a wonderful, wonderful miracle And

Jesus gave them enough food For all of them to eat with leftovers at that.

The bread and the fish were a free gift for the people, from Jesus for the people.

They didn't have to work for it. And Jesus freely gave them and the people received.

And Jesus satisfied their need for hunger.

Today, God doesn't drop manna and quail down from the sky.

He doesn't cause bread and fish to multiply enough for our needs.

Rather, today God uses the farmer to grow the food.

He uses the truck driver to deliver it. He uses the grocery store or the restaurant to serve the food.

God gives us employment so we can buy food and clothing and house and home.

In other words, God works through people for our benefit and for our blessing.

God works through you and through

your various vocations for the sake of family and also your neighbor.

In other words, God cares about you and he cares about the neighbor.

He gives us sun and food and crops for our need.

God is a giver of all good gifts and we freely receive them.

Everything we have is a gift from God. Our clothing and shoes,

food and drink, house and home, and even our faith in Christ,

our righteousness in Christ.

The forgiveness of sins are also free gifts from God, apart from any work on our part.

Dearly beloved in the Lord, do not make the things of this world an idol.

Do not think that the things of this world will bring you complete happiness

and contentment. The things of this world cannot give you everlasting peace.

The things of this world cannot satisfy your hunger for righteousness.

Jesus had compassion in the crowd because they were with him for three days

and they had nothing to eat.

The word compassion basically in the Greek means my heart goes out to you.

However, Jesus' greatest act of compassion for you was his death upon the cross.

Because it's there where he brought you salvation. Jesus was monetarily poor

so that you could become rich in his righteousness.

He was stripped of his clothing and nailed to the cross so that you could be

clothed with his righteousness.

Jesus took your sin upon himself so that you could be reconciled with the Father

and forgiven of all your sins.

Jesus died so that you can live.

And on Easter Sunday, he overcame our enemies of death and the devil.

Thanks be to God. Just as Jesus freely gave the crowd of over 4,000 people an

abundance of food without any work on their part,

so also God in Christ Jesus freely gives us grace and mercy,

forgiveness and righteousness without any work on our part.

This morning the menu is not manna or quail or bread or fish.

Rather, it's bread and wine along with our Lord's body and blood We don't need

a full course meal We just need a small wafer and a sip from the cup This meal is physical,

bread and wine for the body But also spiritual,

our Lord's body and blood for the forgiveness of all our sins As the people heard Jesus'

word and received a meal, so also today we hear his word read and preached and

we receive a meal and we go home to where he blesses us with daily bread.

So are you hungry? Yes, your soul is hungry and God gives you the righteousness of Christ.

Psalm 107 says that God, quote, fills the hungry soul with goodness.

Are you hungry? Yes, you are hungry for food, and God freely gives you your daily bread.

God is a giver of all good gifts.

We receive these gifts, and we give him all thanksgiving and praise.

Everything we have for body and soul are gifts from God.

Thanks be to God. Amen.