Jesus in Mark: Wk 9

Intro:

The 4 gospels:

We have been in the Gospel of Mark for quite a while now and have seen so many stories from the life of Jesus. But it is easy to forget that this is Jesus 1 of 4 Gospel accounts. There are 4 eyewitness accounts included in the Bible about the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. They each have their unique perspectives and details, they have similarities and differences. This is a good thing. If 4 people witness a crime or a car crash, the police that interrogate everyone expect to have some differences and uniqueness because they are 4 different people with 4 different perspectives. If all the stories are identical they know something is off, something is fake or being made up by the people.

The Gospels do have differences and uniqueness that help us trust them and now they are legitimate. They have differences in stories, some put things in different orders than others, some completely leave out stories, and they all include miracles but not necessarily the same ones. But did you know that there are only 2 miracles of Jesus that are in every single Gospel account? Jesus rising from the death is obviously one of them- that is sort of the biggest detail of Jesus’ life right, so that makes sense. But the only other miracle in all 4 Gospels is the Feeding of the 5000 as we will read about tonight.

This story is significant and packed full of details that pull from the old testament and carry through the new testament. I want us to dive right in and see all that God has for us in this story tonight. So, if you would, turn with me to Mark 6.

As you turn there, we need to get caught up a bit from last week. We saw Jesus in Nazareth last week with his hometown homies, family, friends, neighbors he grew up with. He teaches them in the Synagogue and they completely reject him and have no faith in him. And he does no miracles among them, their lack of faith prevented them from experiencing the power of God.

After this story, Jesus actually gets his 12 closest disciples together and sends them out to different places to preach about the Kingdom and call people to repent, turn away from their sin, and follow Jesus. He even gave them the authority and power to drive out unclean spirits, they could push back the darkness int he world by Jesus’ power.

But, that story is interrupted with another story- ANYONE REMEMBER WHAT THAT IS CALLED? Markan Sandwich, yes!

We hear that King Herod, a Roman ruler, hears about Jesus and his power and it reminds him of John the baptist. We then learn that Herod had arrested John the Baptist but liked to listen to what he had to say- unfortunately, his wife and daughter did not. They end up tricking Herod into killing John the Baptist. It’s a crazy short story in the middle of this moment!

But then we come back to hear about the disciples- now called the apostles since they were sent out by Jesus- have returned to Jesus to report to him what all happened while they were away!

That story of Herod is in there, I believe, for 2 reasons- 1. To show us how powerful the message of Jesus is, that these men went out spreading the gospel and the impact of it in the world reached the ears of a powerful roman King. and 2. To warn us of the risk and potential cost of following Jesus. The world will hate us and try to stop us, it may even cost our life to follow Jesus and tell people about his Kingdom.

So, the question must be asked- why? Why is it worth following Jesus and telling others about Him if it will be difficult, people will likely hate us, and it will cause us to suffer and maybe even die? That’s the question to have in mind as we enter the story tonight. Let’s read in Mark 6 starting in verse 30.

Mark 6:30–44 (CSB)

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.” For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.

So they went away in the boat by themselves to a remote place, but many saw them leaving and recognized them, and they ran on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.

When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd and had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he began to teach them many things.

When it grew late, his disciples approached him and said, “This place is deserted, and it is already late. Send them away so that they can go into the surrounding countryside and villages to buy themselves something to eat.”

“You give them something to eat,” he responded.

They said to him, “Should we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?”

He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”

When they found out they said, “Five, and two fish.” Then he instructed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke the loaves. He kept giving them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. Everyone ate and was satisfied. They picked up twelve baskets full of pieces of bread and fish. Now those who had eaten the loaves were five thousand men.

Another awesome story about Jesus and his power impacting people’s lives in an amazing way!

But what is this about and why do all four Gospels emphasize and highlight this ONE miracle above all the others that He did. I mean Mark doesn’t even specifically name that many miracles and yet He includes it- he even includes another miracle similar to it just a little bit later.

Well, let’s work our way through the passage and see why this moment is so significant for Jesus and his followers.

Verse 30-33:

Jesus begins by gathering his disciples and encouraging them to come away with him to a remote, or deserted, place to get some rest from all their work. Remember, they have been travelling and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom to everyone they could, and now they are back with Jesus. He sees they need time to be alone and rest. This was a regular rhythm for Jesus- silence and solitude, he wanted to teach them to regularly have time away to rest and recharge as well. They can’t minister to people when they are burnt out and exhausted, Jesus knows this and wants to help them with it.

However, as they leave for this remote destination to rest, the crowds see him and follow them. They even get to the destination ahead of Jesus and the disciples. So, by the time the disciples get to the place they need to rest they are in for a rude awakening. But before we keep going, there is an important reason so many people are coming and going as it says in verse 31: This is actually the week of Passover a year before Jesus is crucified. This story happens a year before Jesus goes to the cross. This is known based off of many details, the crowds going by, John mentions it specifically in John 6, and later in the story we will see Mark emphasize the green grass in the midst of this desert area, that grass only grew around this season of passover in that location.

So, the week of Passover, a year before Jesus goes to the cross, crowds follow Jesus to where he was trying to take his disciples to rest and recover.

Verse 34- Jesus had compassion.

And so, the disciples arrive, they see the crowds and this verse is important- verse 34, we see the heart of Jesus as he sees this crowd. Remember, the timing was inconvenient, the disciples were exhausted, Jesus had previous plans that he was counting on, but he sees this large crowd waiting for him and what is his response?

Mark 6:34 CSB

When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd and had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he began to teach them many things.

Jesus could’ve been rightly annoyed by their invasion, and turned them away. But he is doesn’t, he feels compassion for them. Jesus, has compassion on them- meaning- at his innermost being he had a deep sense of love and care for these people. Why?

IT says, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things.

Now, at this time we have to point out that a shepherd is the image used for depicting God all throughout the Old Testament and the Hebrew Bible. Time and time again, God is compared to a Shepherd who lovingly tends to his people like sheep, caring for them, protecting them, feeding them, and providing for them.

Jesus was the Good Shepherd. The Shepherd, God had come to tend to his sheep. The sheep were lost, struggling, starving, and suffering and the Good Shepherd came, saw them, loved them, and was about to feed them.

Jesus’ love and compassion for the lost people in front of Him was about to motivate him to provide for them in a miraculous way.

But before that, Jesus teaches them as they desired. They were heading to Jerusalem for Passover, they saw Jesus and wanted to hear him teach on their way, and he teaches them.

Verses 35-36 - The Disciples are frustrated.

Now, it gets late in the day, they are out in the middle of nowhere and the crowd is still pushing in around them to hear Jesus teach. So the disciples are like, ok enough! IT’s late Jesus, we were supposed to come out here and rest and that didn’t happen. We have been here all day with this crowd, it’s late, there is nothing for miles out here. We have to send them away now so we can all get some food!

And that makes sense, it seems fair. They are supposed to be with Jesus, resting, learning, recovering, and growing. The crowd prevented that and even stole Jesus’ time away from them. But you can tell in their words and attitude-

The disciples saw the crowd as an inconvenience, as a problem, as an obstacle.

Jesus saw the crowd as a lost flock of sheep and an opportunity to display that He is the good shepherd.

So, let’s see what Jesus does.

Verses 37-44- Jesus is the Good Shepherd who provides the bread of life for his sheep.

Jesus calls them out, and says YOU feed them. Don’t send them away, they have come to me to be fed, you feed them.

And of course, to the disciples this sounds outrageously impossible. How could they feed this massive crowd, it’s like 5000 men, plus women and children- this was likely a crowd that was over 10000 people strong, if not much larger.

They estimate it would cost 200 denarii to feed this crowd. What does that equate to? Well a denarius was roughly one full day of pay. So, 200 denarii would’ve been like 8 months of pay to cover enough bread to give all of these people.

Full of doubt and unbelief of what Jesus could do in this situation, yet Jesus pushes further- he is like what DO you have access to? I get you don’t have 200 denarii and you don’t plan to go buy all that bread, but what do you have with you.

They search around and find a child in the crowd who had 5 loaves of bread along with 2 fish.

Jesus had a command- feed the people.

The disciples had doubts and uncertainty but they went and found what little they could and brought it back to Jesus.

Then the real moment happens!

They divide up all the people across this grassy patch in the desert. Again, telling us the season of Passover is happening but also it is adding to this beautiful picture of Jesus bringing life to a desolate and dry place.

Jesus takes the food, looks up to the sky and blesses the food, praying over this small portion to God the Father.

And he begins to hand portions to the disciples and tells them to take it to people.

The disciples one by one take the food from Jesus and deliver it to the members of the crowd.

Then they return to Jesus and get more food, and take it to more people. Then they return to Jesus and get more food, and take it to more people....

Over and over again and the food supply never runs out.

The massive crowd eats till each person is full and satisfied.

In fact, they feed everyone and even have so much left over that there are 12 full baskets of bread and fish, one for each disciple to enjoy afterwards.

There is so much powerful imagery in this story but the bottom line is this:

Jesus is the good shepherd who provides the bread of life for his sheep.

Remember the story of the paralyzed man earlier in Mark? His friends lowered him through the roof…What did we say about his need? Anyone remember?

We said his, and our, greatest need is never physical it’s what? Spiritual, the forgiveness of our sins.

Jesus does care and will bring physical help, healing, and rescue. But much more than that He cares about our spiritual healing and rescue from our sin.

In John’s Gospel he includes a follow up story.

Unfortunately, this same crowd returned to Jesus over and over after this moment to demand more bread. Literally, they kept coming back to ask Jesus for another sign, and Jesus is like what sign? And they say a sign like Moses who gave bread, called manna, to the israelites in the wilderness.

See, this story of Jesus feeding this massive crowd in the desert wilderness along the sea of Galilee is all actually pointing back to Moses and the Israelites, and even the prophets of Israel. God provided manna, bread from heaven to the israelites during the exodus, the prophet Elisha multiplied food for a group of people much smaller than this crowd.

But here we see Jesus is a new Moses, he is THE Prophet, the Messiah, the savior of the world. And he didn’t come to just give us some biscuits. No, he came to give his whole life. He says he is the bread of life and other places he says he has the water of eternal life. Anyone who comes to him will never be hungry or thirsty again, they will be fully satisfied in life through him.

Remember back to the beginning of the night. Why would we ever devote our lives to follow Jesus, to share the gospel with people, even if we suffer or die for it? Because we have found the one who loves us, who saves us, and who gives us life.

We are beggars who found food and we go and run to tell everyone else where the feast is.

The world around us promises a feast, but the food wastes away and the people are left starving.

Jesus offers LIFE! Real life, that satisfies the deepest longings of our souls! He is the good shepherd, he loves his sheep, he gave his life for us to gain it!

Tonight 3 takeaways for us as His followers:

1. We need to have the same compassion for the lost that Jesus does.

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Those around us need Jesus! They need the bread of Life to fill them.

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We must learn to love people and see them with compassion as Jesus sees them- only when we are broken over our sin and realize our salvation, will we become broken for the effects of sin in others lives, and have compassion on them and a heart fully desiring to reach them and see Jesus save them!

But we won’t be moved with compassion for them if we don’t understand our own brokenness and how much Jesus saved us and satisfied us. Then we have see them for where they are. They are lost sheep without a shepherd. They are looking for life, and love, and satisfaction in all the wrong places just as we were, and we have found the good shepherd. We can introduce them to Him!

We have to have compassion for the lost and introduce them to Jesus!

2. We must come to Jesus for spiritual transformation, not just physical needs.

Our prayer life, our worship, our daily time with God should be prioritized around our spiritual need to be filled up by the life, truth, hope, and power of Jesus, and out of that we can trust him to supply our physical needs. We cannot offer our friends and family members a spiritual healing and satisfaction that we haven’t found personally in Jesus.

Finally,

3. God wants to reach people through your life, right where you are, with what you already have.

Listen, this passage is not all about this idea, as some poeple like to make it. But it is clearly there and it’s important that YOU know that.

Yes you are just a student.

Yes you are just a child in your family’s home.

Maybe you don’t have any money

Maybe you don’t have a lot of followers online

Maybe you are just a good math student

Maybe you are just a good athlete

Jesus has saved you, has given you new life, and hope and forgiveness right where you are, with exactly what you have and he wants to use everything you have to reach the world around you with the Gospel.

God always has a plan to love people well and bless them through our lives, we get to be a part of it. But we simply must get out of the way, offer everything we have to Jesus, and obey how He calls us to use it!

Jesus is the Good shepherd, let him satisfy your life, and then introduce other lost, wandering sheep the the Good Shepherd who can give them LIFE!

Bow your heads and close your eyes with me.

JP Story of his coworker- worked with him years, talked about life, hinted at being a christian, then that guy got saved, came back so excited telling JP everything, and then asked JP- wait, so you knew all this but you never told me this whole time?

Gospel: Have you met the good shepherd?

2. Ask God to help you have compassion for those around you in need of the Love and truth of Jesus.

3. Pray and surrender your life and all you have to Jesus to see how he can use it to lead others to new life in Him!

{RAYER: God here is my life, here is my personality, here is my bank account, my job, my gifts, my food, my family.... have your way with all of me- further your kingdom on earth through my life, use me to reach the lost in this world. Show them your power, blessings, and love through my life.