Today we will continue a series of sermons based on our 2026 VBS theme that I am calling The Light of the World. In this episode, we will see that Jesus is The Powerful Light.
So far in this series we have seen that Jesus is The Perpetual Light and The Promised Light, for whom people waited centuries for His coming. We have also seen that He is The Perfect Light, without sin or mistake and who is one with His Father in Heaven. These are key aspects to the nature and character of Jesus which make Him able, as God, to be the Light of the World. However, He can only be The Light Of Our Lives if He can affect us and our circumstances. Blessedly for us, He has that power.
The power of physical light is often underestimated, but it is real. We have already noted in this series that light is a powerful disinfectant, but it is also an effective treatment for Newborn Jaundice. Light also has the power to change the behavior of people: one of the most common security measures against burglary is security lighting, which drives criminals to other, less illuminated locales. Lazers, which are a highly concentrated light form, have been used in medicine and industry for decades, and they have now become so powerful that they are a weapon of war.
A theme of all these human developments is the destructive power of light. Naturally, however, light is a key to the process of photosynthesis, which produces and sustains all the life on our planet. Without light, life would cease to exist here.
As powerful as light can be, no physical light can be as powerful as the Light of the World, however, and The Powerful Light is the subject of our message for today. Let’s read Matthew 15: 29-39,
Moving on from there, Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee. He went up on a mountain and sat there, and large crowds came to him, including the lame, the blind, the crippled, those unable to speak, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he healed them. So the crowd was amazed when they saw those unable to speak talking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they gave glory to the God of Israel. Jesus called his disciples and said, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they’ve already stayed with me three days and have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry, otherwise they might collapse on the way.” The disciples said to him, “Where could we get enough bread in this desolate place to feed such a crowd?” “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked them. “Seven,” they said, “and a few small fish.” After commanding the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied. They collected the leftover pieces—seven large baskets full. Now there were four thousand men who had eaten, besides women and children. After dismissing the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.
From this passage of Scripture, we see two dimensions of the Light’s power in our lives and two reasons why God has decided to exert His power to give us the Light of Life.
The Power of The Word:
The Bible is a collection of masterfully crafted books, poems, songs, and letters which contain many straightforward facts and descriptions of events. It also includes many subtle features and contexts which we will miss if we don’t pay close attention to them. This is one reason why we must read the Word regularly. When we watch our favorite movie again, or listen to our favorite song another time, we find new facets to them which we overlooked at first glance. The same holds true with the Bible.
The ostensible focus of this passage is the miracle of Jesus in which he fed the four thousand. It is easy, then, to gloss over or miss entirely the posture of Jesus when this event began. Jesus was sitting down. This is not a minor detail, but it is quite significant.
In the Jewish synagogue of the First Century, rabbis sat to teach. Jesus, of course, was the master teacher and the greatest rabbi, and He prioritized the teaching of the Word. This, of course, was the right path to follow, and being The Perfect Light, and one with God the Father, Jesus would know that. So, why should the Word have priority? Because its power is eternal and it has an eternal impact upon us. In Mark 8:34-38, Jesus taught His followers,
Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it. For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life? What can anyone give in exchange for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
In Ephesians 6, during Paul’s discussion of the Whole Armor of God, every item he described was defensive in nature except one, “the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God.” In Hebrews 4:12, we read that,
For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Paul also counseled his protégé, Timothy, to allow the Word to have power in his life, saying in 2 Timothy 3:14-17,
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
The greatest power found in the Light of the World is the power of God’s Word, which will transform our lives from the inside out and give us both an abundant life here on earth, and eternal life in the hereafter. This is the most important power of the Light of the World, but not the only one.
The Power of Provision:
The most obvious use of power in our focal passage is the power to provide for the needs of people. Amazingly, even that, however, was not apparent to some on that mountain on that day, although, as we look back upon those events, we should not be surprised.
We know from God’s Word that Jesus was the agent of creation. The Bible tells us that nothing was created which was created without Jesus. If Jesus was Creator, and He was, then Jesus is the Owner. As the owner, Jesus has the authority to do as He wills with His creation. As the Powerful Light, Jesus has the ability to do what He wills with His creation. Thus, it makes total sense to us today, that Jesus could use His power to provide for human needs, and He did.
As we see in the beginning of this passage, Jesus had power over disease. Here we see Him exercising His power, because everyone there saw, “those unable to speak talking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing.” In other places in the Scripture, we know that Jesus healed lepers and people with fevers and chronic bleeding as well. And power over disease is only the beginning of how Jesus provided for the daily needs of people in the Bible.
* In Matthew 14 Jesus demonstrated power over storms.
* In Matthew 14 Jesus also demonstrated power over the Laws of Physics when He and Peter walked on the Water.
* In Matthew 4 Jesus demonstrated power over temptation.
* In Matthew 9 and 12 Jesus demonstrated power over religion.
* In Matthew 22 Jesus demonstrated power over politics.
* In John 11 Jesus demonstrated power over death.
* In this passage and others, Jesus demonstrated power over hunger.
This last point is interesting, because when Jesus wanted to feed the people, His disciples were doubtful. Jesus had just been demonstrating His power, and He literally had done some amazing things. Plus, the previous chapter in Matthew recorded that He had already just fed five thousand people, and in this case, He even had more supplies to work with. Why did they doubt?
First, we must remember that the Holy Spirit had not yet come. We know that “the Spirit bears witness with our spirit,” and so we have a great advantage that the followers of Jesus didn’t have on that day on the mountain. We say that “seeing is believing,” but that is not necessarily true, as we can see here. We should give the disciples the benefit of the doubt.
On the other hand, what about us? Why do we doubt the power of Jesus in our lives? We have the testimony of the Bible to His power in people’s lives. We have the testimony of our fellow church members to His power in their lives. We have the testimony of our experiences to His power in our lives. We have the testimony of the Holy Spirit to His power in all of our lives. So, why do we doubt? Maybe we wonder why Jesus would bother with us?
The Power of Compassion:
Why would Jesus devote Himself to blessing and ministering to frail, sinful, and rebellious people? Why would He be kind to those who rejected His Father? Why would He spend His time, attention, and effort to help us? Paul also asked this question in Romans 5:6-7,
For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die
Of course, in our natural state we are the ungodly and we are not good. So, that leaves us out, right? In the human economy that is true, but not in God’s economy. Paul went on to say, in Romans 5:8-9,
But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath.
John told us that God is love, and Paul told us that God proved that by offering Jesus to be the sacrifice for our sin. And, as Jesus said himself, “I have compassion on the crowd . . .” So, compassion was the motivation of The Powerful Light to bless people, even when we were in rebellion against Him and His Father.
Although we know that compassion was the motivation for Jesus to act in our lives, He, like John the Baptist, had a specific mission. John’s mission was to testify to The Light. What was Jesus born to do? Jesus, Himself, described His mission clearly for us in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”
Make no mistake, Jesus came to save people from their sins and to provide them eternal life. Jesus always kept this mission in the forefront, to the point that He pushed back against His own mother, Mary, at the Wedding at Cana, and also calling Peter Satan when Peter pushed back against Him after Jesus told His disciples about His coming death, burial, and resurrection. When Jesus was at a place and all the people there wanted was for Him to perform miracles, Jesus would leave that place and move on. Why then did He attend to human needs of people at all?
The answer is that Jesus had both compassion and power. He could help people, and He loved people, and so out of His powerful compassion He acted. He turned water into wine so that a wedding would not be ruined. He healed the sick, blind, and lame so that people’s lives on earth would not be ruined. He died for us on the cross and He rose again so that our eternity would not be ruined.
I often share stories of my Father, but I had a wonderful mother also. I clearly remember a number of occasions, after I was an adult and had my own family, she would buy me a nice present or pay for a repair for my automobile. I would tell her, “Mama, you didn’t have to do that.” She’d just smile and say, “I know I didn’t. I wanted to. And I could.” The same is true for Jesus. He doesn’t have to bless us, but He wants to. And He can. So, He does.
The Powerful Light becomes the Light of Our Life by giving us His Word and satisfying our human needs by His compassion. But there’s more.
The Power of God’s Glory:
Another, almost hidden, statement in our focal passage gives us the second reason Jesus uses His power to bless us. Let’s read Matthew 15:31,
So the crowd was amazed when they saw those unable to speak talking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they gave glory to the God of Israel.
Jesus wanted to exercise His power in the lives of people because of His love, but also because He wanted to enjoy receiving the glory that is due Him as the Almighty God of the Universe. He taught this principle from the very beginning of His ministry. In the Sermon on the Mount, in Mathew 5:14-16, He said this,
You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
As a former colleague used to tell me, “You can’t hide money!” Jesus is glorious and He deserves all the praise and the honor that He is due. One way to gain that praise, one way to receive the honor that He is due, is by “Showing up and showing out.” He did that in this passage, and He does that when He works in our lives, showering us with His power and His blessings. He has done that through out His relationship with His people.
* In 2 Chronicle 5:14, the glory of the Lord filled God’s temple on the day it was dedicated to Him.
* In Mark 2:12, a lame man was healed by Jesus and then, “Immediately he got up, took the mat, and went out in front of everyone. As a result, they were all astounded and gave glory to God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’”
* In Luke 17:15-6, a leper healed by Jesus, “. . . seeing that he was healed, returned and, with a loud voice, gave glory to God. He fell facedown at his feet, thanking him. And he was a Samaritan.”
* In John 11, Jesus delayed going to heal Lazarus, and told Martha, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”
* In Acts 7:55, as Stephen was beings stoned to death, “[he] gazed into heaven. He saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”
* In Acts 12, when Herod was called a god after he had addressed a crowd, “At once an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died.”
* In Romans 15:5-6, Paul said, “Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice.”
* In I Corinthians 10:31, Paul said, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.”
* In 2 Corinthians 4:14-15, Paul said, “For we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you. Indeed, everything is for your benefit so that, as grace extends through more and more people, it may cause thanksgiving to increase to the glory of God.”
* John, in Revelation 14:7 wrote, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship the one who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”
Artists create paintings so others can appreciate them. Athletes play to demonstrate their abilities to those in the stands. Entertainers take the stage to hear the applause of the crowd. God acts through The Powerful Light to gain the praise and honor and glory that only He deserves!
Conclusion:
Our focal passage for today gives us great insight into actions and attitudes of The Powerful Light. We’ve seen how His power is applied to the lives of people and also why His power is applied to the lives of people. The only question remaining is, will we let The Powerful Light shine on us, in us, and through us?
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