21-1-10 AM, On Mission With God #7: The Holy Spirit Goes Before Us, Mk 6:34-44
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In Mark 6, Jesus told His disciples to do something impossible.
34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. 35 And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. 36 Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?”
There was a big hungry crowd. They were hungry for spiritual truth about the kingdom. Jesus taught them. Later in the day the multitude became physically hungry. The disciples gave counsel to Jesus to let the crowds go on their way so they they could find food on the way home. However, many of these people were probably going to go without food rather than find it (the countryside and villages were probably not prepared to handle and influx of 10-15k people).
Here Jesus command them, “You feed them!” How would you respond to what seemed like such a preposterous command? Probably a lot like His disciples and point out the reasons why it won’t work (...because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, must have been unaware of the facts of the matter). “Jesus, feeding them a basic meal would take almost 7 months wages!” they said.
We do this don’t we? Jesus commands us to do things, some of them seem incredible, and we so often counter Him in our hearts with reasons why obedience would be unreasonable or impractical.
Take for instance the challenge of this sermon series to be on mission with God. We have looked the commands of Christ to “go and make disciples,” to be His witnesses from here to the end of the earth. We’ve been looking at the biblical example for us to sow the gospel a lot and teach new believers to obey and see new Great Commission groups and churches established and to raise up leaders to push the gospel onward.
In response, many of us have been thinking up reasons why we will not participate in these things.
We may hold on to the reason that we are lacking in knowledge or eloquence or courage.
We may hold to the idea that this doesn’t fit with the model of church we grew up with or the way we think church should be done.
Others have looked for a handy excuses like a busy schedule or a pandemic as reasons why you can’t be an active, eager, and effective participant in disciple-making. You know, “I would if I could but...”
And I imagine some of you have simply written me off as out of touch with reality “Share the gospel 5 time a week! That’s impossible! Preacher is given to hyperbole again.”
Well, think what you will, but the fact remains that being an active, eager, and effective participant in the Great Commission is the command of the King. We will all have to stand before Him and give an accounting. But before you destine yourself to another year of inactivity in disciple-making, let me remind you of the point of the story of the 5,000.
With God, all things are possible. After receiving their critiques of His command. Jesus simply asks them what they have,
38 And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”
Then Jesus gave them another command, which was smaller and easier to obey (because they had very small faith).
39 Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties.
Then Jesus demonstrated His power over physics. In fellowship with the Father and the Holy Spirit, Jesus added mass to those five loves and two fish.
41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And they all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44 And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.
You see, God is the One who supplies the power, the resource, and the direction so that His servants will achieve what He has commanded them to do.
8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
So, look back at the Great Commission, and your role in it. First, of all, all you really bring to the table for the mighty task of redeeming the world amounts to 5 loaves and two fish. But it does account for something. If I am going to push the analogy, the five loaves and two fish represent your faithful actions. You willingness and your attitudes and your attempts and your words. Everything else needed for the gospel to spread like a grass fire to the ends of the earth is supplied by the Lord.
No Great Commission work, of any scope, can succeed apart from the power of the Holy Spirit.
Attempting to succeed in the Great Commission without the Holy Spirit is like planning a trip to the moon without a rocket.
Kingdom growth happens as our faithful actions follow the power and direction of the Holy Spirit.
His actions and our actions work in concert and the Kingdom advances into the darkness.
Everyday, we must surrender our lives, agendas, strengths, and plans and simply follow. This means we have to cast aside those reasons we hold onto which prevent us from obeying.
When we do this, we are like a ship which raises its sails (faithful actions), prepared to receive a mighty wind (the power and direction of the Holy Spirit).
Scripture describes such emptying of one’s self as dying to self. We must die to self and follow the Lord’s leading if we want to see any degree of success in reaching the lost.
24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
Jesus says here that the advance of the kingdom thrives in the denial of self of His servants.
We need to put our confidence in the Holy Spirit to produce a harvest for the kingdom through us. We need to punt on the world’s ways, which are based on the things the world celebrates like performance and appearances.
And praise God, given our absolute dependence on the Holy Spirit’s power and direction for our role in our part of the mission, we have received the Holy Spirit into our hearts so His direction and power are near us.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
In every part of the mission, we need to have faithful action that follows the power and direction of the Holy Spirit. We need to learn to follow the Spirit in all things.
Consider the list of people you’ve written down to share the gospel with- those in your household, extended family, neighbors, coworkers, classmates.
How do you come by that list? If you prayerfully thought through that list, you would probably concur that the Holy Spirit brought those people to mind. You might have been thinking of one person and the Spirit said, “No, this one.”
6 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
How do you feel about the people on that list? The Holy Spirit puts love and concern for that person in your heart.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
What do you do with that person on that list before you share? The Holy Spirit compels you to pray for that person and to ask for his or her heart to be soft and to ask for the right occasion to share with that person.
In the formation of our lists of people to share with, He leads by His power and direction. We follow with faithful action.
And when it comes to the sacred time of sharing our testimonies and gospel presentations, and having the courage to ask, “Do you want to follow Jesus as Savior and Lord?”
The Holy Spirit leads God’s children to have the courage and direction to take action.
29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”
in Acts 1:8 we learn about the power of God present in our efforts.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Even having the right words, tone, and wisdom to speak.
12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
Becoming emboldened in your witness is a result of the Holy Spirit. Paul asks for prayer...
19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel,
The fact is, the Holy Spirit is already at work ahead of you in the person you are speaking to. Should that person repent and believe and confess Christ as Lord, you can be certain that it is because of the Spirit’s actions and His use of your faithful ones (as weak as they may be).
Again, your faithful actions follow the Holy Spirit’s power and direction.
Consider what happens when a person is discipled. The Holy Spirit takes the lead. What the Lord begins, He finishes. Salvation, training in the faith, and perfecting our faith happen because of The Spirit’s work in our our lives.
6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
God gives the growth...
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
These verses speaks to our faithful actions following God’s mighty power and direction. So we need to do our best and be intentional, but rest in the fact that the Spirit does the work and uses our contribution.
And when it comes time for new groups to form and advance the kingdom further into new oikoses and communities, it is the Holy Spirit who compels believers to unite, identify as a group, and take the baton in the Great Commission. It is the Holy Spirit who endows the group with servants and servant-leaders- gifted by His power.
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
and
5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,
Even when new churches form, it is the Holy Spirit who gives leaders to the church, instructs and rebukes when the church wanders and gives birth to each church as the Kingdom advances.
Believers simply follow the direction and power of the Holy Spirit with faithful actions.
And when it comes to the sustaining of movements of the Kingdom, the Spirit is the only one who compels believers to empty themselves and to invest in this process of engagement, evangelism, discipleship, and starting new works.
So, today, as we close this series called On Mission With God do you expect to see the Lord use your little obedience and make something great from it?
All you bring to the table amounts to 5 loaves and two fish, but God can take this and feed a multitude. He can take your little acts of obedience, and turn them into a movement which reaches the 60,000 around our church and beyond.
Will you say to the Lord, “Yes, I will work to share my faith 5 times a week. Yes, I will learn how to share my story and give a simple gospel presentation. Yes, I will learn how to give new believers spiritual milk and meat from the word.”
A lost world is counting on your simple obedience.
So, really, the only question today is, “Are you following the power and direction of the Holy Spirit with faithful actions?”
Have you died to self and decided each day to simply follow His guidance.