Giving All You Have (Mark 6:30-44)

Scripture Introduction:

We will not be in Luke this morning. Instead I want to look at Mark 6 and do a bit of vision casting for us in regards to our Wednesday evening program.

What I see happening in this text is a difficult convergence. To put that another way what happens when it feels like you are spent but there is still great need?

Let’s be honest for just a moment about the difficulty of the past couple of years…and when I say last couple of years I mean every moment of human existence since the first couple ate the forbidden fruit. But for us…we feel it deeply.

COVID and everything that did. Death. Division. Discouragement. Deep Loneliness.

Political division. Civil unrest. Uncertainty with jobs. Uncertainty with our economy. Uncertainty on a global scale.

Not to mention stuff that you’ve maybe endured yourself. Financial difficulty. Relationship difficulty. Physical difficulty. Emotional stress. Trying to heal from trauma of your past.

You just feel as if there is nothing left to give.

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But there is great lostness. 35% of people in Newton County are considered religious. For the survey that means church going, and probably even synagogue or temple or mosque going. Let’s be generous here and say that of those 35% who identify as religious are actually saved (and that’s not going to be accurate, b/c faith in Jesus Christ is absolutely necessary for salvation)…but just for the sake of math, let’s say that there might be some who didn’t identify as religious but they nevertheless know Jesus and so it just kind of averages out…so 35% are saved. Do you know what that means?

It means that 37,853 people in Newton County do not know Jesus.

Do you know what kind of poverty we have here? Do you know about rampant drug use? Do you know about the broken homes? Depression. Suicide.

There is so much pain. So much ministry that needs to be done...

You’re spent. Tons of lostness around you.

In our story this morning we will see the disciples are spent. They are hungry. Probably hangry. Big crowd in front of them…and listen in to what Jesus does here...

Mark 6:30–44 ESV

The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 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. And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 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?” 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 he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. 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. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.

Sermon Introduction:

You ever hear the phrase “God won’t give you more than you can handle”. After reading this story do you think the disciples would agree? The disciples who are hungry themselves—and 5 loaves and 2 fish will barely feed them—and Jesus is saying to them, “You feed them”.

God does give us more than we can handle. That’s really the point. God always calls us to do things that we cannot accomplish on our own, but things which he Himself is fully able to accomplish.

Disciples have to learn this lesson. It was the same lesson that the Israelites had to learn in the wilderness. In fact it was really the test in the Garden of Eden. And it is the same test that Jesus faced in the wilderness. Will we trust in God to be our provider?

You see it in the Garden of Eden. The serpent worms his way into the heart of the first couple and convinces them that God is holding out on them. If they want to really live then they’ll grab that fruit and take a bite. They’ll provide for themselves what God isn’t giving to them.

Now, I will say that I think in this section the main point that Mark is wanting us to see is that Jesus is the great provider, he is the one that the prophets foretold, he is the manna in the wilderness. But there is also in this a question about provision...

This is the lesson the disciples are going to have to learn here in their own desolate place. They’ve got 5 loaves and 2 fish and Jesus is saying, “You feed them”. Just like the Israelites they are looking at the barren wasteland around them—they are looking at their paltry supplies and they are asking—Is God able to set a table in the wilderness?

We see their exhaustion in verse 31 and 32. Again I don’t think it’s an accident that this happens in a desolate place. The disciples are learning the lesson of the wilderness. Here they are in their hunger and want and Jesus is calling for them to give even more.

Let me show you something here in verse 33. What we have here is an intentional group of people that are running ahead of the disciples and trying to get there ahead of them. We read in the gospel of John a bit more about them. And I think this is why we read in John 6:44 that they were “men”. It’s a specific term used there—not just a generic term. What we have here is a group of Zealots. They are looking for a king. They are looking for a leader. Someone to lead their political revolution to overthrow Rome and set up God’s kingdom. They’ve heard of Jesus and they’ve likely even heard some of this kingdom talk and so they think they’ve found their leader. And so this mass of people are hungry for a leader and so they chase him down.

If I’m placing myself in this story in verse 34 I think I can sense and understand the disciples annoyance. They are hungry. They are spent. It’s getting late and here you have a group of people who aren’t serious disciples. They don’t see Jesus for who he really is, they just want to make him a political leader. But who knows—maybe the disciples were amped up about this—maybe they stopped thinking about food and adrenaline was kicking in.

These people aren’t even serious. They didn’t make plans on how to eat. This is on them. They got themselves in this mess. Why should WE have to feed them?

It’s getting late and Jesus’ sermon is getting long and so the disciples look at their watches, hear their hungry bellies, and probably sense the growing hunger in the crowd. And they come up with a solution. They’ve got nothing left to give at this point. Here we are…at the desolate place…it’s late…we’re hungry, so why don’t we just send them away until morning have them go to the local McDonalds grab a bite to eat and we’ll do this thing again tomorrow. “Buy themselves something to eat”. Do you hear that?

We’ve got nothing left to give. Let them take care of themselves. Pass the buck of suffering. Not my problem. We’ve got to worry about putting food in our own stomachs and getting a bit of rest. And then Jesus says it…”You give them something to eat”. What a stab that must have been. How? How can we do this Jesus? We’ve got nothing left to give. What do you want us to do go drop 10 grand and give them something to eat?

Jesus will never give you more than you can handle? That is hilarious. He’s dropping this problem right in their lap. Don’t miss this. And put yourself there. You’ve got an issue that fits here don’t you. You look around and all you have are 5 loaves and 2 fish. It ain’t gonna cut it. Your resources just aren’t enough. So what do you do in that moment?

This is the question that lingers over the Garden. It’s the question that lingered over the wilderness. It’s the question that lingers over the disciples? And I’m convinced it’s over us even today. Am I going to trust God to accomplish His purposes with His resources or am I going to trust what I’ve got to bring to the table? Will I trust in my resources or His?

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A couple things to notice.

First, the compassion of Jesus is always greater than our strength. And the need of the people is always greater than our resources. You combine these two things and it’ll flat wear you out. If you don’t learn the lesson of the loaves I think you’ll be miserable in life and ministry.

Because look at what the disciples are doing here. It’s the same thing really that the Israelites did. They are looking inside themselves for an answer and they are coming up empty. They’ve got nothing. Now in our culture we hear stuff like this all the time, “just look inside yourself. That’s where you’ll find the answer. Follow my heart, that’s what I always do.”

They look at what they have and its woefully inadequate. 5 loaves and 2 fishes. They do the math. That can’t feed 5000 hungry dudes fired up about military conquest. You wouldn’t even try this. You don’t want one of these guys angry with you b/c he didn’t get his cut. So their only solution—we got nothing—turn them away and let them fend for themselves.

But they do give 5 loaves and 2 fish. Everything they have in the hands of Jesus.

We believe that Jesus is calling us as a church to do a specific thing in this specific moment. We have adopted the Stepping Stone area of Neosho. We believe that we are to do well here and then branch out into another smaller community. Specific places. Specific people. Specific need. We believe we are to reach the families that are within our church with the gospel of Jesus. We also believe in adoption. And we have adopted the Stepping Stone community. They are our family.

This is the “you feed them” of the text. And so what that means is that we take inventory. What do you have to offer? Do you have a fish? Do you have a loaf? Do you have hands? Do you have prayer?

HERE IS WHAT THE WEDNESDAY NIGHT LOOKS LIKE…AND ALL THE PARTS IT TAKES TO MAKE IT THRIVE.

Church van

Stations

Security/Hospitality

Check-In

Food

Teaching

And this is what happens beautifully when a church works together like this. Give what you have to Jesus. Here is what I have to offer....that’s why we’ve passed out those sheets of paper. Now, just to be clear we will do background checks—we will vet things—because in reality sometimes we can be confused about what we have to bring to the table.

You might say, “man, I’m just great at doing this thing…but the kids, the people around you, don’t agree.” You’re saying you’ve got fish to bring but it’s really not fish…it’s a piece of bread. And so our job is to rightly name the resources. Yes, give everything you have…and trust the people around you to help in defining and sharpening those gifts. But we start by sharing your passion…sharing what you believe God has laid on your heart…and then we go from there. Where do you think God might be able to use you?

Give what you have. And Jesus does amazing things. But the disciples really didn’t get the lesson of the loaves. And if we are being honest neither do we most of the time. But that kind of is the lesson of the loaves. Jesus passed the test where everyone else has failed, the first couple, the Israelites, his disciples, you and I. But in the wilderness Jesus didn’t fail. He was hungry and the serpent tempted him to make bread—do you hear it?

Jesus too must endure the wilderness test. Does he want to be fed or fathered? And you see this in Matthew’s account of the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4. For forty days and forty nights (the same time given to the spies in Numbers, and perhaps corresponding to the forty years in the wilderness). Listen to Matthew 4:3 and the voice of the tempter. “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread”. If Jesus is like Israel then he is hungry. He doesn’t care how he gets fed. He doesn’t care whose hand it comes from. And so he just commands the stones and they become loaves of bread.

But Jesus succeeds where Israel—and all of humanity—would fail. He says, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”. In other words, “I don’t want provision unless it comes from the hand of my Father. He is sufficient. He will sustain. His food is better than any that this world has to offer.

Fast forward this story and Jesus is in the wilderness again with 5 loaves and 2 fish. And he breaks the bread, blesses it…he’s trusting His Father for this provision. And what happens? A miracle. He takes what they have and he multiplies it. And they even have leftovers. And that is significant. Why 12 baskets? I don’t think because of 12 tribes of Israel. It’s because there are twelve disciples collecting baskets and they’ve each got a basket full. I think that’s really what the lesson of the loaves is about. The Lord will always provide. When we are spent for the Lord he will always be our provision.

I close with one final story from the wilderness. It’s in Numbers 21. The people are frustrated again and they complain and they use their typical “we’ll just go back to Egypt” complaint, for there is no food and no water, and we loath this worthless food. We hate your provision God. This food is terrible. We liked Egyptian slavery better than you.

And so the Lord sends fiery serpents among them. And they bite them. And people start crying out to the Lord. And so the Lord provides a remedy. “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”

The people who have shunned the Lord’s provision. Who have insulted him infinitely. The people that have said we don’t care about being fathered we just want fed. Sinners. Rebellious, hard-hearted, stiff-necked people. These people the Lord gives his grace to. He provides a way of escape.

Thousands of years later he would do it again for sinners of all stripes, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Christ has been lifted up. Look and live. Oh, sinner. Look and live. Don’t look at your wounds, the bites from the serpent, your wilderness stupidity. He has set up a way of refuge. Will you turn to him? Christ has conquered in the wilderness where we have failed.

Christian let’s not be satisfied with mere provision. Fill our cup, Lord. Fill our cup!