Luke 9:12-17 contains one of Jesus’ most famous miracles. This story appears in all four gospels and marks a pivotal point in Jesus’ ministry as He transitions from His Galilean ministry toward Jerusalem.

In the gospel of Luke, three critical meals mark different stages of Jesus’ ministry, each described with similar phrasing: this feeding of the 5,000, the Last Supper, and the post-resurrection Emmaus dinner. Each features Jesus blessing and breaking bread, highlighting the significance of these moments.

The crowd had just experienced divine healing and heard about God’s kingdom of grace. They were content in Jesus’ presence, experiencing true transformation. But as evening approached, the disciples grew concerned.

Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.” But He said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.” For there were about five thousand men. And He said to His disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” And they did so, and had them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.

Luke 9:12-17

Faithless Disciples and the Unfixable Problem

When the day began to wear away, the disciples urged Jesus to send the crowd away to find food and lodging. These disciples, who had just been preaching the gospel and performing miracles in Jesus’ name, suddenly forgot who was standing before them. Their gaze shifted from what Jesus came to do to what they thought they had to do.

The disciples weren’t wrong to notice the crowd’s hunger. But they jumped straight to logistics. Counting loaves, calculating mouths, checking hotel vacancies. They were quickly overwhelmed by their inadequacy. “We have no more than five loaves and two fish,” they said. They traded faith for a spreadsheet and trust for triage.

This is performancism: the belief that your identity is fully tied to what you do. When you see yourself this way, you live and die on the success and failure of your own performance. You can’t admit weaknesses. You become too critical and judgmental, seeing people only as cheerleaders, threats, or insignificant.

The parts of your life you cannot control are precisely the parts that need Jesus’ miraculous grace the most. We’re not asked to ensure our children turn out perfectly or to maintain flawless health. We cannot make ourselves holy no matter how hard we try. The burden of responsibility for righteousness isn’t on us in Christ.

A Good News Savior and a Super Abundant Solution

Jesus responded to the disciples’ problem by no less than a miracle. “Have them sit in groups,” He instructed. Taking those five loaves and two fish, He blessed them, broke them, and distributed them to the disciples to give to the crowd.

The text says they “all ate and were satisfied.” When Jesus is your righteousness, your holiness, your everything—you need nothing else. You don’t have to fix things or be strong to be enough in God’s economy. He provides it all.

Not only were they satisfied, but they collected twelve baskets of leftovers. Jesus proclaimed a new kingdom marked by faith in God’s provision rather than our efforts or religiosity.

Jesus’ grace is super abundant. Like manna from heaven, God provides enough grace for every day. His “enoughness” is always more than enough. Jesus doesn’t send us away to fend for ourselves. His grace feeds our faithless hearts with abundant love and patience.

You are not what you do. You are not the sum of your performance, successes, or failures. You are what Jesus has done for you. His cross has already put to death the worst problem you’ll face, and His resurrection assures that everything broken will be mended.

Like the crowd, Jesus calls us to simply sit at His feet and hear the good news. Sometimes the best thing we can do is let Him do all the work and bear the responsibility of fixing every problem.

This article is a recap of a sermon preached by Pastor Hunter Sipe at Good Shepherd Bible Church on Sunday, March 30, 2025 entitled An Unfixable Problem, A Superabundant Savior. This sermon continues our expositional series on Luke’s gospel entitled Luke: Good News for the Rest of Us. This sermon and others are available for listening on the Good Shepherd Bible Church Sermon Podcast.

Good Shepherd Bible Church is an Acts 29 church located in Pataskala, OH serving the eastern Columbus area.

We invite you to explore our website to learn more about GSBC, consider connecting at our church, or read about our core beliefs.

The message of Luke 9:1-11 presents a striking contrast between two kingdoms. This passage challenges us to examine where we place our trust. Do we cling to fragile control, or do we step into the security of Christ’s kingdom?

And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics. And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening, and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen. Herod said, “John I beheaded, but who is this about whom I hear such things?” And he sought to see him.

On their return the apostles told him all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida. When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing.

Luke 9:1-11

The Kingdom of Good News

Jesus gathers His twelve disciples and grants them power and authority over demons and diseases. He sends them out with a mission: to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. This moment marks a shift in their role. They move from being followers to active participants in Jesus’s work.

Their authority is not their own. It is borrowed, given by Jesus for a specific purpose. They are not spiritual elites who have reached a higher level of faith. They are ordinary men, flawed and often confused, yet entrusted with the message and power of the kingdom.

Their mission consists of two key tasks: preaching and healing.

Preaching the Kingdom

The disciples are sent to proclaim that God’s reign has arrived in Jesus. This is the same message Jesus has been declaring. The kingdom of God is not distant or theoretical. It is present, unfolding in real time. It is an invitation to repent and believe.

Preaching is not about offering advice or giving people a list of things to do. It is the declaration of good news: God has acted to save, forgive, and restore. It is not about the listener; it is about Christ. True preaching does not leave people with burdens of self-improvement. It leaves them with Jesus, the one who has already done everything for them.

Healing as a Sign of the Kingdom

Alongside preaching, Jesus sends the disciples to heal. This healing is not just about physical restoration. It is a sign that in God’s kingdom, brokenness is being undone. Disease, oppression, and suffering do not have the final word. These miracles serve as visible proof that Jesus is making all things new.

While we may not see healing in the same dramatic ways today, the spiritual reality remains. Jesus heals the wounds of guilt and shame. He frees people from the bondage of sin. He reconciles relationships and restores hope. His kingdom brings real transformation, both then and now.

The Kingdom of Fear

In contrast to the kingdom of good news, Luke introduces us to a kingdom of fear. Herod hears of Jesus and is deeply unsettled. He is perplexed, unsure of what to believe. Some say Jesus is John the Baptist raised from the dead. Others think he is Elijah or another prophet. Herod, who had John beheaded, wonders if his past actions are coming back to haunt him.

Herod has a very real and relatable fear of losing control. He is a ruler clinging to power, threatened by the idea that Jesus might disrupt his kingdom. This is the same fear that grips many people today. When Jesus confronts the false securities we build, our first visceral instinct is to resist. We fear what surrendering to Him might mean for our carefully constructed lives.

Jesus calls us to trade our fragile kingdoms for His unshakable one. He is not a tyrant who takes joy in our loss. He is a king who offers something far greater than anything we try to hold onto. His kingdom is not about fear. It is about freedom, healing, and grace.

At the heart of Luke 9:1-11 is a contrast between two ways of living. The kingdom of good news, where Jesus reigns, and the kingdom of fear, where we struggle to maintain control. One leads to life, the other to death.

Jesus does not come to ruin and leave us. He comes to rescue us. He offers forgiveness, healing, and eternal security. The call is clear to all with ears to hear: let go of fear, trust in His grace, and step into the kingdom that will never fall.

This article is a recap of a sermon preached by Pastor Hunter Sipe at Good Shepherd Bible Church on Sunday, March 23, 2025 entitled A Tale of Two Kingdoms. This sermon continues our expositional series on Luke’s gospel entitled Luke: Good News for the Rest of Us. This sermon and others are available for listening on the Good Shepherd Bible Church Sermon Podcast.

Good Shepherd Bible Church is an Acts 29 church located in Pataskala, OH serving the eastern Columbus area.

We invite you to explore our website to learn more about GSBC, consider connecting at our church, or read about our core beliefs.

In this week’s passage, we encounter two stories woven together that reveal the surprising nature of Jesus’ grace. As we journey through these passages, we see how Jesus meets people in their moments of deepest need, offering not just physical healing but profound restoration.

Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus’ feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying.

As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler’s house came and said, “Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the Teacher any more.” But Jesus on hearing this answered him, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.” And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him, except Peter and John and James, and the father and mother of the child. And all were weeping and mourning for her, but he said, “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But taking her by the hand he called, saying, “Child, arise.” And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened.

Luke 8:40-56

The Similarity of Desperation

Desperation unites the characters in these stories. Jairus, a synagogue ruler, approaches Jesus because his twelve-year-old daughter lies dying. Meanwhile, a woman who has suffered with a bleeding condition for twelve years has exhausted every resource seeking healing. Both face impossible situations that have pushed them beyond their ability to cope.

We can relate to this desperation. Like them, we pride ourselves on being fixers. We have solutions for everything. Engine trouble? YouTube tutorial. Kids fighting? A stern look or a distracting playlist. Bad day? Coffee or a glass of wine to end the day. We constantly throw money, willpower, and spirituality at our problems, hoping something sticks.

But real desperation comes when we hit those impassable walls—problems we simply cannot fix. A marriage fraying despite our best efforts. A child drifting away. An unexpected diagnosis. Exposed sin we cannot hide. These moments strip away our illusions of control and expose our powerlessness.

Yet desperation actually serves as a gift. It shatters the lie that we have everything under control and reveals our need for something greater than ourselves. Desperation becomes the point where God can finally grab us by the shoulders, shake us awake, and say, “Look, I’m the only One who has the real power.”

The Contrast of Faith

Both stories showcase faith that’s simultaneously perfect and imperfect. Jairus displays remarkable faith by approaching Jesus despite his religious position and the potential cost to his status. He fears the Lord above people’s opinions. Yet his faith wavers when messengers bring news that his daughter has died. He begins to think Jesus’ timing has failed.

Jesus responds with gentle correction: “Don’t fear. Only believe.” He reminds Jairus that even when circumstances change dramatically, Jesus Himself hasn’t changed. His sovereign grace remains constant.

The woman with the bleeding condition demonstrates a different kind of imperfect faith. She approaches Jesus almost superstitiously, thinking she just needs to touch his clothes. She attempts a secret healing, fearing exposure. She only comes trembling before Jesus after being discovered.

Yet her faith is also perfect in its simplicity. After twelve years of exhausting every option, she believes one touch of Jesus will heal her. This teaches us that great faith isn’t necessary. Just the tiniest faith in Jesus’s great power. Our salvation doesn’t depend on our grip on Him but on His powerful hold on us.

The Restoration of Relationship

Jesus’s interactions reveal that His concern extends beyond physical healing to relational restoration. When He calls the woman “daughter,” He establishes her identity not just as someone who’s physically healed but as someone who belongs to God’s family. He publicly affirms her clean status and restores her to community.

With Jairus’s daughter, Jesus keeps the resurrection private, creating an intimate family moment. In both cases, Jesus demonstrates that while physical healing matters, relational restoration—first with God, then with others—matters even more.

When life falls apart, where do we reach? These accounts in Luke’s gospel remind us that desperate people find the greatest relief when they reach for Jesus. While our fixes eventually fail, Jesus heals what we cannot and saves what we’ve lost.

The gospel reveals God’s eternal movement into our desperation, perfectly solving our deepest problems through the cross. Though grace doesn’t always fix everything immediately, it promises we’re never alone in our brokenness. Jesus meets us personally in our most desperate moments, looks at us with compassion, and calls us daughter and son.

This article is a recap of a sermon preached by Pastor Hunter Sipe at Good Shepherd Bible Church on Sunday, March 16, 2025 entitled The Surprise of Jesus – Part 3: The Two Daughters. This sermon continues our expositional series on Luke’s gospel entitled Luke: Good News for the Rest of Us. This sermon and others are available for listening on the Good Shepherd Bible Church Sermon Podcast.

Good Shepherd Bible Church is an Acts 29 church located in Pataskala, OH serving the eastern Columbus area.

We invite you to explore our website to learn more about GSBC, consider connecting at our church, or read about our core beliefs.

At GSBC, we emphasize Christian freedom. If grace is the root of faith, freedom is its fruit.

Some claim it means we can do whatever we want, preaching that new life in Christ is unfettered. But, bondage to self is not freedom.

Others undersell it in fear of making mistakes of eternal significance for their souls. To these we ask, didn’t Jesus already take the penalty of your sins past, present, and future? Lest we forget, bondage to the Law isn’t freedom, either.

Our lack of freedom reveals both our bondage to self-righteousness and our addiction to our unrighteousness. It brings us to uncharted territory, where we have to trust in the sufficiency of Jesus and the new identity He has given us without prerequisite work of our own.

It is precisely in this freedom where true transformation actually occurs. Grace isn’t supplementary to our own work. Grace is everything.

Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it has seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.

When the herdsment saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how the demon-posessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

Luke 8:26-29

Grace Is Way More Powerful Than Your Darkness

What do you have to do with me? It’s the normal response of all who live in an anti-grace paradigm. Our posture and desparation at the feet of the Son of God is not dissimilar.

There are things we think we can’t be freed from. Though we may not be posessed by Legion, the grip of sin is oppressive. Alarmingly, spiritual darkness is even attractive to the human heart.

We don’t have to be posessed to be overwhelmed by the power of sin. Our hearts desire things that aren’t named Jesus—things that leave us feeling completely defeated, unclean, and unrescuable.

Thankfully, there is nothing God can’t redeem. These demons were powerless to resist Jesus and could do nothing but submit completely to His authority. Jesus is certainly about casting out evil, but He does so in a way that brings redemption and overflows with grace.

The sin that haunts and plagues you has been paid for on the cross. Even the sins you’ve not yet committed are already judged and put to death. Upon the cross at Calvary, Jesus said “it is finished,” and He meant it forever.

Grace Blows Up Natural Economies

When someone is given freedom from the worst kind of oppression, you would think there would be great rejoicing. Instead, the people of the city found Jesus’ grace to be an affront. They saw what happened but could not embrace it. They were struck with fear.

This reaction reveals that there are sometimes things we don’t want to be free from. We like control. We trust our own efforts more than God’s grace.

The real scandal is not the financial impact of the lost pigs or some other earthly concern. The real imbalance at play here is God’s grace, freely given despite rejection.

Grace wrecks the system because it refuses to be earned. We don’t want to be free from our responsibility because our work to earn status, wealth, and accolades makes sense to us in a human, transactional sense. Grace is an attack on the achievement-obsessed person we’ve built ourselves to be.

In Christ, there is now not only freedom from self and Law, but redemptive grace—a grace with which we are armed to share good news with others who are enslaved.

Grace Commissions Us With Only One Message

There is nothing that is keeping you from being used by God. Stop and reflect; do you believe this? Or do you still fear that some hidden sin in a dark corner of your heart makes you unusable?

The man Jesus helped couldn’t keep silent. His heart burned to proclaim what Jesus had done for him. This is what every heart transformed by Jesus wants to do.

Jesus didn’t tell the man to prove his worth. He simply said, “go and tell.” The power of the gospel we have been given lies in Christ’s work. We simply recognize that Christ has given us everything we need and walk in freedom, going and telling.

The grace that saved you is the same grace that Jesus pours out to save others. Our message is singular: grace. Because of Jesus, we have a life beyond the grave. We are secured by the One who bore the wrath that we deserved.

You, Christian, are free. Live in that freedom. Declare His grace.

This article is a recap of a sermon preached by Pastor Hunter Sipe at Good Shepherd Bible Church on Sunday, February 23, 2025 entitled The Surprise of Jesus – Part 2: The Exorcism. This sermon continues our expositional series on Luke’s gospel entitled Luke: Good News for the Rest of Us. This sermon and others are available for listening on the Good Shepherd Bible Church Sermon Podcast.

Good Shepherd Bible Church is an Acts 29 church located in Pataskala, OH serving the eastern Columbus area.

We invite you to explore our website to learn more about GSBC, consider connecting at our church, or read about our core beliefs.