Feeding the Five Thousand
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Feeding the Five Thousand
Back in Mark’s Gospel, Pastor Calvin got us rolling with the story of John the Baptist’s execution...
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.
Theme: Jesus is the Good Shepherd who feeds His sheep.
Intro:
Story included in all 4 Gospels.
This is an important story, no doubt many of you have a good idea about what happens from your Sunday School years.
It’s a puzzling story, it’s in incredible miracle. Sometimes we try to wedge more symbolism into it than it needs, and if we aren’t careful we miss the point of the story altogether.
Sort of a “We can’t see the woods because we keep trying to study the trees” sort of thing.
But the point is simply this: Jesus is the Good Shepherd who feeds His Sheep.
The Shepherd provides for those who are in close Proximity to Him, who are Obedient to Him, and who find their Satisfaction in Him.
Proximity to Jesus
Proximity to Jesus
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.
Notice Mark calls the disciples apostles here - I know it’s been a couple of months, but Jesus had designated the twelve to be His apostles back in chapter 3
He appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, to send them out to preach,
And preach they did!
So they went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons, anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
Jesus had sent them out, and now they’ve returned. They’ve gathered around Jesus, likely at a place they’d agreed to meet at previously, and they reported to Him all that they’d done.
And the disciples are likely tired. Wore out from their journey, but also from their ministry. As they were preaching, as they were being used by God to cast out demons, heal the sick, the power of God flowed through their mortal bodies.
I believe it was Leonard Ravenhill who once said the true ministry of a pastor begins after the sermon, but that’s when he’s the most tired. Because if - as a pastor - I am preaching the word of God right, the Spirit of God is moving through me, to pierce hearts, to change minds… and it wears a person out.
The disciples had experienced this, so Jesus told them to get to a remote place, a desolate place. It’s the same word used way back in chapter 1, speaking of where John the Baptist had been preaching. The “uninhabited” places.
Jesus says come with me to this remote place, where nobody normally goes, and rest for a while.
The Greek word for rest that is used here in Mark is the word anapauesthe (αναπαυεσθε) and it means to be refreshed, to regain their strength.
Now, stop right here. Where were they going?
Somewhere where other people normally aren’t. They intend to get away from the world, and get some time with just them and Jesus. Isn’t that the best place to find refreshment? To find rest? To be refueled?
Get alone with Jesus, get alone with His word, get alone in prayer. Get the distractions farther away and get your focus solely on Him, and you find rest. He promises this.
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
When we come to Jesus, we leave our old lives behind, we leave the world behind, we find ourselves in close proximity to Him, and there He sustains us, He nourishes us, He refreshes us, He revives us.
The disciples experienced it then, we can experience it now.
I know those weeks, those times I feel most beaten down, most wore out, most burned out, if I can take an hour, two hours, half a day, and just spend time in prayer and in my Bible, I feel rested.
Not gonna lie, either, sometimes I find myself falling asleep, and it’s usually some of the best sleep I have.
Because my mind and my heart are focused on Him. All the stress, all the problems, all the worries, begin to fade away. Not to say they’re gone, but the darkness of this world pales in His light.
This is what He is trying to show the disciples in this moment.
So they went away in the boat by themselves to a remote place,
This remote place, Luke tells us, is Bethsaida (Luke 9:10). Again, they are leaving Capernaum, likely in the same boat Jesus used in chapter 5, when he crossed the Sea of Galilee into the country of the Gerasenes.
But don’t miss this. They went “by themselves”. It’s just them and Jesus. It’s not the 70, not the 500, it’s just Jesus and the twelve.
Some may call this a retreat. They’re getting away to likely get some teaching just for them. Some time for Jesus to pray with them, time to eat together, maybe laugh, blow off some steam by venting their frustrations with their ministry to the only Person who’d understand - the One who had sent them.
Where do we see this today but in the church?
When we come together, when we fellowship. When we “consider one another in order to provoke love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24), as we encourage each other all the more as we see the day approaching (Hebrews 10:25).
When the church comes together, we are encouraging one another.
I saw where a church, some big megachurch, they said they care more about the unbeliever than the believer, or something like that. And I kind of understand what they’re saying, but the purpose of the church is to fuel the believer, to refresh the believer, so that they can
Matthew 28:19 (CSB)
Go, therefore, and make disciples...
The role of a minister within the church is
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ,
Now, that’s not to say we don’t care about unbelievers, please don’t misunderstand me. We absolutely do, but the goal is to take an unbeliever and convert them to becoming a believer, that they grow and mature in Christ - it’s called discipleship.
99% of the time, converts aren’t made on Sunday mornings - they may pray a prayer, they might make an official declaration of faith on a Sunday morning, in a church service, sure, but the work was put in by a believer, who was equipped by the church, the week before.
Sometimes weeks before, months before.
You see, the disciples got in that boat with Jesus because they needed rest, they needed to be refueled, refreshed. Because they were excited, they wanted to get back out there and do more ministry, spreading the Good News of Jesus.
The church is that place for His disciples today, as is the prayer closet, the study, the home office, or wherever you make your alone time with God.
WE get in close proximity to Jesus, so we can take others there, with us.
Yet, not all goes according as the disciples might have hoped, as we read on.
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.
Many saw them leaving and recognized them. How? Because they were initially so busy with the crowd they couldn’t even have time to eat!
So this crowd sees Jesus heading off with His disciples and they watched the direction they were headed, and they were so desperate to be near Him, too, they ran on foot to meet with Him.
And this does something within the heart of our Lord. He sees them and has compassion on them, becaues they were like sheep without a shepherd.
This isn’t the only time Jesus feels this way. Matthew tells us Jesus was going around in all the towns and villages, teaching, preaching, healing
When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.
This is an Old Testament way of thinking.
When Moses was getting old, he asked the Lord to appoint someone over the people of Israel, and Moses said:
“May the Lord, the God who gives breath to all, appoint a man over the community who will go out before them and come back in before them, and who will bring them out and bring them in, so that the Lord’s community won’t be like sheep without a shepherd.”
and so God tells Moses to anoint Joshua as his replacement.
The idea is that Israel needs a good leader to direct them.
When we get to Ezekiel 34, God promises the people of Israel, who were abused by their shepherds, the priests and the prophets who were taking advantage of them, God says they were even getting fat off the sheep, ruling them with violence and cruelty.
They were scattered for lack of a shepherd; they became food for all the wild animals when they were scattered.
“ ‘This is what the Lord God says: Look, I am against the shepherds. I will demand my flock from them and prevent them from shepherding the flock. The shepherds will no longer feed themselves, for I will rescue my flock from their mouths so that they will not be food for them.
“ ‘For this is what the Lord God says: See, I myself will search for my flock and look for them.
And as we have walked through the Gospel of Mark, have we not seen the Pharisees doing the same thing in the time of Jesus? Lording over the people their knowledge, their rules, their traditions? They weren’t tending the sheep, they were building them pens and caging them.
They weren’t letting them grace and learn, they refused to teach them instead they would ridicule people who would give all they had, because all they had - according to the Scribes and Pharisees - it wasn’t enough.
So Jesus has pity on them. He feels a deep compassion for them. I imagine he saw the crowds rushing on the shoot and looked at His disciples, smiling saying, “Guys, looks like the work is just getting started. We’ll rest later, now we must tend the sheep.”
And these people who were so desperate to be close to Jesus, will again sit down and be taught by Him. The hearts and minds being fed by the Good Shepherd.
As Jesus feeds His sheep who are close to Him.
Obedience to Jesus
Obedience to Jesus
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.”
The sun is starting to go down, the disciples are tired, they’re in an uninhabited area. There’s no Dollar General nearby, there’s no Walmart. There’s no place where they can grab a snack.
So, the disciples finally go to Jesus and they say “Hey, you need to send these people away.” The word in Greek is apolouson (απολυσον), and it means to “send away” or “release”.
In other words, “These people aren’t going to leave unless you tell them to.” They’re so desperate to be near Jesus, to learn from Him, to hear His word, they won’t leave until He makes them leave.
It’s likely this is the first time in the lives of these people that someone ever cared to preach and teach them the truth. The Pharisees saw them as income.
The revolutionaries and cult leaders that preceded Jesus saw them as canon fodder.
But Jesus sees them as sheep in need of a shepherd. He loves these people, and He loves them enough to be honest with them. To give them the truth of the word. To preach to them what is truth and do so without flinching.
Many people today don’t even get that from their “pastors” or church leadership. Yet Jesus is preaching to them so passionately, so tenderly, that they won’t leave until he sends them off.
Now, the disciples aren’t being selfish here. They genuinely are thinking of the people. Luke’s Gospel says they didn’t just want the people to get food, but a place to stay. It was getting late and they needed lodging.
Late in the day, the Twelve approached and said to him, “Send the crowd away, so that they can go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find food and lodging, because we are in a deserted place here.”
Jesus had been teaching, likely for hours at this point. Our text says he was teaching them “many things”.
But I hope you notice this, before we move on - the crowd has only gotten bigger since he started talking.
Back in verse 33, the crowd ran there on foot and got there ahead of Jesus and the disciples, but not everyone was able to outrun the boat. The land distance was probably about 8 miles, while the boat travelled 4 miles.
The younger, more eager members of the crowd would have gotten there early, while the rest kept coming by land, and some possibly by sea, themselves. In fact, John’s account says
John 6:5 (CSB)
So when Jesus looked up and noticed a huge crowd coming toward him...
It’s likely the disciples were able to brace for the crowd, prepare for it, settle in for a time of teaching and preaching of Jesus.
Time has passed, though, and the crowd likely continues to grow as the sun begins to set. The disciples are not concerned for themselves, or even for Jesus, but these people are going to start getting hungry soon - and a hungry mob is an angry mob.
Good teaching or not, pretty soon there could be fights breaking out, so Jesus before things get out of hand, send them away so they can eat!
But Jesus has other plans.
“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?”
Notice two things here. One, Jesus is refusing to send them away.
First and foremost, Jesus is a teacher, and He will not refuse His students. Not here. Not this day. They are seeking Him, they want Him, they need Him, they are starving for His word.
This is no different today than it was then. People are starving for an encounter with Christ. People are starving for the word of the Lord.
This is why I will die on the hill of good, expository, Christ-centered, Gospel preaching every time.
Charles Spurgeon said, “Never was man blamed in heaven for preaching Christ too much.”
So many churches grow fast, but never stop to ask if they’re growing right. Employing gimmicks and nonsense that Scripture never teaches in an effort to lure people in - using the tools of the world to satisfy the world never takes anyone to Christ.
“God is still the same, and man is still the same, therefore the instructions are still the same: Preach the word. (2 Timothy 4:2)”
Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, “This may be slow work; it often is’ it is a long-term policy. But my whole contention is that it works, that it pays, and that it is honoured, and must be, because it is God’s own method. He has always honoured it, and still honours it in this modern world, and after you have tried these other methods and schemes, and found that they will come to nothing, you will be driven back to this ultimately.”
Jesus preached and He refused to send people away who were hungry for the word. So we must, as well.
Second, the disciples ask if they should go purchase the bread - and they’re likely asking rhetorically here. A Denarius was a day’s wage for a Roman Soldier.
So to spend 200 denarius would have been a lot of money, likely more than the disciples had at that time. In fact, in John’s account, Jesus asks Philip where they can get the bread,
Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread wouldn’t be enough for each of them to have a little.”
So the disciples know they can’t afford to buy all this food. They’re basically saying to Jesus, “Look, there’s nothing we can do here, unless You’re going to do something, we’re powerless.
And there we are.
Jesus, unless you move, I can’t go anywhere. Unless you fix this, I can’t do anymore. They are at a point of desperate obedience.
Unless Jesus does something, has money they don’t know about, a pizza delivery system far ahead of its time, or something of that sort, they realize they can’t do what He asks them to do, without His help.
If we love Him, we’ll carry out His directive. If we love Him, we’ll feed His sheep. May not know how, may not always do it perfect, but we need to do it in obedience.
It’s what He said to Peter. He asked him 3 times, “Peter do you love me?” And each time, the reply was, “Yes, Lord, I love you.” Then feed my sheep. (John 21:15-19)
He said, “Okay, you can’t afford to feed them with the world’s food, you can’t go to the next town over and buy bread, but you’ve got me! So feed my sheep.”
“But Lord, it doesn’t make monetary sense, it doesn’t make logical sense” and He says, “Hold on, I think you’re missing the point,”
so he asked them...
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.
Wait a second, Pastor Jeff, I thought there was a kid in that story? Wasn’t there a song about a boy whose mom packed his lunch or something?
Yes, there was a kid! John’s Gospel reports it:
“There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish—but what are they for so many?”
So again we see the disciples not understanding Jesus’ plans, but our text doesn’t say they didn’t trust Jesus. They did, or they wouldn’t have bothered looking for food among the crowd. They obeyed Him, and He is about to blow everyone’s mind.
Five barley loaves, two fish. That’s all they have. Yet Jesus has the disciples instruct the people to sit down in groups on the grass.
He tells them to “sit down in groups”, now in the Greek, that’s “anaklinai pantas sumposia sumposia” (ανακλιναι παντας συμποσια συμποσια); to “sit down all in groups of groups”. This is wording used for banquets if you’re Greek, for a feast (like Passover) if you’re Jewish.
With five barley bread-cakes, and two fish, Jesus is preparing the crowd for a feast.
But don’t miss this, because Mark has a gift for us in this text - he’s the only one who writes it this way: He makes them sit down on the GREEN GRASS.
Where have we heard that before? Listen to the Legacy Standard Bible’s translation
Psalm 23:1-3 “Yahweh is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.”
They sit down in the Green Pasture of this uninhabited area, and are about to be fed by the Good Shepherd.
Jesus feeds His sheep who obey Him.
Satisfaction In Jesus
Satisfaction In Jesus
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.
The crowd sits down in groups of hundreds and fifties. While some commentators will try to connect this to Moses, and his division into hundreds and fifties we see in Exodus 18:21, I think that’s a bit of a reach here.
Read what that text says:
But you should select from all the people able men, God-fearing, trustworthy, and hating dishonest profit. Place them over the people as commanders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.
Okay, they had 5,000 people there, and yet we don’t see groups of thousands, nor of tens. And we also have to remember that for Moses’s purposes, it was in the purpose of grouping able-bodied men for the military.
We may want to try and force that in here - we’re in the Lord’s army, the Saints go marching in, or something like that, but that’s not what Jesus is doing here.
Mark actually uses a Greek word - the word prasiai (πρασιαι) - which is only used here in the New Testament. Now, in other Greek writings, it refers to flowerbeds. Or to the way a tilled garden may be grouped together by kinds of vegetables.
This makes more sense in the context, doesn’t it? Jesus is preaching and the people’s hearts like soil - it wasn’t that long ago He delivered a parable to illustrate this point to His disciples, and they just got back from “sowing the seed of the word” themselves.
So to illustrate to them further what happens, He groups those who will hear His words as if they are a garden, His garden.
Passages like John 15 may come to mind
I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.
The idea that God is walking among the people, as He once did in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3, perhaps.
And what Jesus does next illustrates this further, by taking the bread and fish, praying, and breaking the bread - this is what the head of a Jewish family would do before a meal.
He looks upon His garden, and He blesses the meal, as He feeds the fruit of His labor, as He walks among them. This is almost a beautiful visual for those in attendance of Eden itself.
And you notice, after He broke the loaves, “He kept giving them” to His disciples. He kept giving.
The bread of life never runs out, church. The hand of a man may take the brad and give it, but the God who supplies that bread will never want for anything, never need anything, as Paul wrote:
And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
They were physically hungry, but the spiritual nourishment they received that day would fill them greater than anything their mouths chewed. What the hearts took in was greater than anything their stomach would digest that day.
Everyone ate and was satisfied. They picked up twelve baskets full of pieces of bread and fish.
Everyone ate and was satisfied.
John says it this way:
Then Jesus took the loaves, and after giving thanks he distributed them to those who were seated—so also with the fish, as much as they wanted.
In the Old Testament, Elijah performs a similar miracle - providing for one widow enough oil and flour to bake enough bread they survive a famine. (1 Kings 17:8-16).
Elisha, also, performs such a miracle - feeding a hundred men with 20 barley loaves in 2 Kings 4:42-44.
But now one greater than both of those prophets stands in Israel, and He feeds how many?
Now those who had eaten the loaves were five thousand men.
Not just five thousand men, but their wives, their children, some estimate it could have been as many as 10, possibly 12,000 or even 20,000 people in total.
But that’s not the greatest miracle. If you’re a parent whose ever cooked for your kids, you know the greatest miracle that took place here.
They all ate and were satisfied - nobody complained! They were satisfied by Christ alone!
As one pastor puts it, God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him.
And these people were satisfied!
When we are satisfied in Him, we are obedient to Him, and we’ll find we’re in close proximity to Him.
And this is how Jesus feeds His sheep who are satisfied in Him.
Conclusion:
I’m going to move to close today, and I don’t have a lot of extra things to add, I simply want to say this.
Are you satisfied in Him today? or are you chasing something else?
Are you obedient to Him today, or are you living in rebellion? Are you close to Him today, or does the idea of closeness to Christ frighten you?
Let just end with this. One of the names of Christ is Immanuel, God with us. He came, and walked among mankind. Ultimately, he would be placed upon a cross for the sins of mankind, and rose again, that we may rise again.
The cross is the bridge to a right relationship with God. And the blood of Christ is the pavement that allows us to walk into His presence, in obedience to Him, as His Holy Spirit leads.
There is no other way to heaven, there is no other way to being right with God, no other way to get close to Him except through the cross of Christ. If you search for any other way, you’ll never be satisfied.
You’ll never be in obedience, you’ll never be close to Him.
He said Matthew 7:13-14
“Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.
Close in prayer