Banquets of the Kingdom: From Table Fellowship to Miraculous Feasts

The HHP Podcast | The Kingdom Banquet: Feeding the Multitudes (Matthew 14–15)

This week on the HHP Podcast, Pastor Chris Franke (Senior Pastor of HFF Church, Oklahoma City) continues our journey through the banquet imagery in the Gospel of Matthew. After looking at the Kingdom table in Matthew 9—where Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, sparking outrage from the religious leaders—we now turn to one of the most famous banquets of all: the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000 (Matthew 14–15).

These miraculous feedings were more than meals in the wilderness. They were living testimonies that Jesus is the Bread of Life, the Living Water, and the fulfillment of Israel’s long-awaited hope. Through breaking, blessing, and giving bread, Jesus not only fed hungry crowds but foreshadowed the communion table and revealed that the Kingdom of Heaven isn’t far off—it’s here, now, and available in Him.

Join us as we explore: 🍞 Why the feedings were real, literal, and deeply symbolic 🍞 How Matthew ties these miracles into the bigger banquet theme of the Kingdom 🍞 Why Jesus satisfying physical hunger points to Him as the only One who can satisfy our deepest spiritual hunger

We may be right. We may be heretical. That’s for you to decide.

👉 Don’t forget to like, share, comment, and subscribe to join the conversation as we talk all things Bible, church, and family.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This week as we continue on taking a look at the concept of the banquets in the Gospel
of Matthew, we're going to turn into Matthew 14 and 15 and we're going to look at the
feeding of the multitude, remembering that all of us need a Savior.
All of us are looking forward to the Kingdom of Heaven, but Jesus is the way.

(00:26):
Welcome to the HHP Podcast.
My name is Chris Franke and I am the Senior Pastor of HFF Church in Oklahoma City.
Join me and others from around the country as we talk all things Bible, church, and family.
We may be right, we may be heretical, but that's for you to decide.
Drop a like, a share, a comment, subscribe, and let's get to it.

(00:49):
Last week we looked at Matthew chapter 9 and reviewed how the concept of the table fellowship,
the banquet that Jesus was having made the religious leadership very upset.
Not that he was breaking bread, but it was with who he was breaking bread with and how
Jesus had kind of fired back at them when they asked, "Why are you eating with tax collectors

(01:13):
and sinners?"
And he had said, "Hey, look, I didn't come to call the righteous.
I came for the sinners."
And he kind of reestablished in Matthew chapter 9 this concept that he's the Savior, he's
here at a banquet of freedom while he is reclining in a seat of honor, even in the physical way

(01:34):
that he was showing this testimony, the physical testimony, not just the verbal testimony,
but the physical testimony that he was freedom, that he was bringing freedom, that he was
bringing deliverance, that he was bringing the kingdom of heaven.
And this was kind of shocking for all of that culture for first century Hebrews, Israelites,

(01:58):
the culture, I mean, even the Roman centurions, even the outside, the Gentiles, the Pagans,
all of them.
This was a very different concept.
And this week I want to look at Matthew chapter 14 and 15 in the feeding of the multitudes
because this is one of the most famous banquets that we have.

(02:19):
It's the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000.
And some have speculated that these were just metaphoric, they were not real, they weren't
literal, but I believe they absolutely were real.
And I believe that watching how Matthew as a narrative writer records this, that he is

(02:41):
highlighting the fact that these were literal.
There was hungry crowds, there was a wilderness, there was very few fish, very few loaves, and
suddenly Jesus, the bread of life, Jesus, the living water, Jesus, the King over all

(03:01):
creation, suddenly through his works and his miracles, there's more than enough.
But Matthew doesn't include this just because he needs some other reason to make those who
are doubters be like, "Oh, this is amazing.
Jesus fed 5,000 or 4,000 individuals and this couldn't have really happened."

(03:28):
Let's be real here.
We're already in chapter 14 and 15 when this testimony is being recorded.
At this point in time, he's cast out demons, he has healed people.
There is some miraculous things that have happened.
Feeding people?
I don't think like if I were to need a sign, if I were to say, "God, I need a sign," him

(03:50):
feeding me with fish and loaves, I don't think that would have been somehow a greater sign
than him healing somebody who couldn't walk, him healing a leper, him...
All the other things like him being able to provide food, it seems like a smaller scale

(04:16):
as far as shock value or influence.
So Matthew doesn't just include that in his writing for that.
He records these because it's a continuation of this concept of banquets that we see throughout
the scripture.
These feedings echo what we saw in Matthew 9, what we talked about earlier that we'll

(04:41):
see later in Matthew 22.
And then also, it is a foreshadow of what is commonly known as communion or Eucharist
or a sacred meal of communion with Christ.
And all of these are tied together.
Jesus takes the bread and he blesses it and he breaks it and he gives it.

(05:03):
And we see that same language again later on in the recorded testimony of Matthew at
what's known as the Last Supper or for some of the Messianic individuals, the Passover
meal.
The recording of these stories reminds us that the kingdom isn't some far off place

(05:26):
anymore.
You got to remember before Jesus came, this was the hope.
The hope was that there would be this Messianic king, this Mashiach, this Yeshua that would
come who would be the Savior.
And someday they would have this Messianic kingdom in the temple and everything would
be restored and they wouldn't be enslaved to Babylon or to Persia or to Rome.

(05:47):
They wouldn't be exiled.
They wouldn't be...all these things that were happening and those cycles happened over and
over and over again in the Torah and the prophets.
This story is to remind us that the kingdom is not something that is far off.
When Jesus came and these things are happening, this is imagery and testimony that the kingdom

(06:07):
is at hand.
It's now, it's here.
The one you were looking for, the one who would fulfill all of the requirements of the
Torah and fulfill all of the apocalyptic interactions that we have in the prophets, that that person
is here.
The one that Daniel was foretelling, the one that Jeremiah and Isaiah and Zechariah, all

(06:31):
of these individuals who were looking forward to this Messianic age, this Messianic kingdom,
this time when heaven and earth would collide, not just through angels or angelic principalities,
but when God Himself would come off the throne.

(06:51):
It's not just about breaking bad.
It's not just about the fact that Jesus fed people who were hungry.
It's not just about saying whether or not they were full.
Jesus did a miracle that represented a kingdom banquet.

(07:13):
And when Jesus does those things and we partake in that life with Jesus, it's not that we're
full, it's that we can finally be satisfied in Him.

(07:47):
you