Mark 6 — Mark 5-6

0:00 Today's gonna be a little bit different, and and the... Well, first of all, I called Andy and I said, I... You know, thanks a lot. The guy was supposed to get through to, the feeding of the 5,000 in chapter six. And here he gets six verses in.

0:14 I'm like, six verses? That's, you know... If we covered Mark like that, we would... We'd be doing it until two thousand thirty or something, I'm sure. So I'm kidding.

0:24 It was fine. And and I listened to his message online. I was in Sunday school last week, so I got to listen to his online. It was fantastic. The message that's really been pounding on me though is his message two weeks ago in chapter five, in which we see these three instances where people had to have incredible faith, you know, these situations of faith in Christ, that demonstrated this faith in Christ.

0:51 And the the idea that to trust in God when there's hope is a lot easier than trusting in God when... If you feel like you have no hope. Right? Or when you're in a hopeless situation. And I think we've all, you know, can kind of empathize with that, that...

1:11 Because we've all had experience in our life. First of all, you can't have kids. You cannot have kids and not have up and down in your... Just the way you feel about life at any given moment. Right?

1:22 It's one... It's the most challenging thing. It's not... It's a wonderful thing. It's a wonderful thing, it is a challenging thing too because there's so much, you know, you want them to do certain things a certain way and to, you know, to to follow Christ and all those types of things.

1:41 It's the most important thing to you. And and when it comes down to it, everybody makes a choice. And it doesn't matter that I love the Lord. You know, there's no guarantee that all my kids will. Right?

1:56 They have to make that choice for themselves. Those are hard things. And with that comes the up and downs of life. And it comes up the ups and downs of being a disciple or a follower of Christ. There's no question that we all see those peaks and valleys, and how do we find our way through that?

2:12 And I don't have answers. I don't. I truly don't. As someone who's been in some valleys lately, you know, I don't know how it happens, but I do know the Lord is faithful. And the verse that continually just keeps coming back into my mind, coming out of Malachi.

2:32 The boys and I studied Malachi recently. And the verse that kept coming back to me and coming back to me is where the Lord says, I am the Lord and I do not change. Therefore, you are not consumed, sons of Jacob. Right? I am the Lord, and I do not change.

2:48 Therefore, you are not consumed, sons of Jacob. Now I know that's certainly a reference to Israel, but it has meaning to me as well. Right? That he is faithful and unchanging. It is not him that changes.

3:01 It's my moods and my emotions and and all those things that that draw me away from the Lord. But he's faithful in that he understands. And this is one of the things that's come out of, you know, Mark so far is that we learn that that... And we talk about this, you know, in Hebrews all the time, that the Lord became man and can sympathize... We have a great high priest that can sympathize with our weaknesses.

3:28 Right? We have a great high priest that understands, was tempted in all things but without sin, but can understand our weaknesses. What a comfort that is. What a comfort that is. And so, today, I'm gonna...

3:58 They don't understand his power. They don't understand his love. They don't understand his grace. They fail in that endeavor all the time. Right?

4:06 And there's a lesson for us in a lot of what, and that's kind of where the focus ended up going. But these are lessons for a disciple. That the message that this process is not about me. And it's not about you. It is about the Lord Jesus Christ.

4:26 Period. It's about the Lord Jesus. It is where our hope lies, and that's an eternal hope. And as I said, some days, you know, it's that we we fight the flesh. We fight the day to day battles to find that hope.

4:38 Right? We know that it's there. For those of us that have the Holy Spirit, we know that that hope is there. That our eternal hope is secured. It's how do you find that in your day to day world that doesn't always cooperate with that, right?

4:50 With that mentality, with that knowledge. And so, I think we can see some of that when we go through this and I hope that you'll, you know, that it'll be encouraging to you as well. So, let's read Mark chapter six, and we'll start in verse seven, where Andy left off. One of the powerful things about that was that the concept, and I think what gets to me in that deal, is being able to The challenge that we're all gonna face of standing before our creator, And not measuring up. We can't.

6:10 We can't. And so, therein lies the challenge of being a disciple. If you wanna follow Christ, you have to be able to come to grips with your imperfections. You have to come to grips with your failings, and you have to rely on his grace completely. It's easy to say, isn't it?

6:48 It's easy to say. And we say it all the time when we talk about resting and his hope and all those things. But actually actually doing that can be a challenge. So let's get into the reading. And he called the 12 to himself and began to send them out two by two and gave them power over unclean spirits.

7:50 If you read, there's even more description in Matthew, right, of all the things that they weren't supposed to take with them. And the same account. And he says, you're just going to go out and what are you going out on? What were they going out on? What were they?

8:06 Faith. They're going out on faith. You're gonna take nothing with you. Go from village to village and town to town and talk to people. And what's the message that they were sending?

8:14 To repent. Right? That the time was at hand. The kingdom of God was at hand. It's time to repent.

8:20 That message, they were to go out there and they were to do it completely on faith. They were to trust God's provision. Completely. Trust his provision. They could not in and of themselves.

8:31 I mean, maybe they could have packed some sandwiches and they could have grabbed some waters and they could have, you know, maybe made arrangements to stay at an inn or maybe they could have done those things, but that's not what he wanted them to learn from this. Was that he told them to go, trust that provisions would be made, that your needs would be accounted for, and to just go and do that. And so they did. So there's a lesson that they learned. They also had to trust God's power.

9:02 That regardless circumstances, and for those people that, you know, this, you know, I keep thinking, alright, does this just apply to those people that are in evangelism and out there, the missionaries and the street preachers? No. This is, we're all called to make disciples. Right? This is the great commission that we are all called to that know Jesus Christ as savior, to go out and share the message of salvation with the world.

9:25 Right? So this is about not just for those people, but but for for all of us. Right? And I think you can see how this just applies to being a disciple or follower of Christ in general. But that we are to trust God's provision, that we trust his power.

9:41 And yes, we don't maybe have the power to heal and the power to do those things, but he gives us the power to overcome the challenges of the world, the challenges that we face in our daily walk. He does give us the power to do that. He is all powerful, and it's about our reliance on him. And then, it's to promote the message. And why do I say that?

10:02 Promote the message. Because I think that sometimes as disciples of Christ, we get... We take things personally, and we can't help it. That's what we are. We're human beings.

10:12 We react emotionally to things. We react, you know, we... When when someone doesn't listen to what we have to say, or doesn't understand our reasoning, or won't accept our reasoning, we take offense to that often, don't we? Right? We want people to listen to what we have to say and and to buy in.

11:01 We don't see in that, certainly, the compassion. You think about back to the beatitudes in Matthew chapter five. Right? Blessed are those who mourn. The idea being that that we mourn for those that are lost in the world, that is a burden, that is our passion to to share the word with a lost people.

11:25 Right? But there's something he wanted him to learn from this too, which is the message is what saves. Go out, preach the message. If they don't accept it, it's not on you. It's not because you didn't study your apologetics enough.

11:43 It's not because you didn't, you know, come prepared well enough. You told them the simple message of of Christ and God's love and the need for for forgiveness. Right? Repentance. And they rejected it.

12:00 Dust your feet off. It's not you. It's not about you. They've rejected who? Yeah.

12:08 They rejected Christ. Not you. That's, you know, that's a good reminder. At least for me, it was. It was a good reminder because I know I've had circumstances, Kayla, we've talked about this before.

12:18 A couple of teachers, you know, I try to share something, walk right out of the room on me. Oh, come on, Bingham. You know, walk out. And what's my initial reaction? You know, it's kind of that discouragement, embarrassment even, or whatever, and I'm thinking, oh, you know, maybe I I didn't say it right, maybe I didn't lead into that right, maybe my transitions weren't good.

12:41 No, they didn't wanna hear about Christ. They didn't wanna hear about Christ. It wasn't it wasn't me. I mean, yeah, it doesn't mean you shouldn't know your bible and and be ready to share it. But the point is, the message is pretty simple.

12:55 Right? The message is pretty simple. You don't have to be an expert in apologetics to be able to to go ahead and share what the Lord has done for us and how everyone needs that. Right? But that message being rejected is not on us.

13:11 It's on them. And they're not rejecting us, they're rejecting Christ. So I thought that was a healthy reminder. So it takes us to Mark chapter six and verses 14 through 31. And the beheading of John the Baptist.

13:29 And I'm not gonna go through and read it because we're gonna look at a couple other things. And prior to this time, and you have to understand the time frame, if you look in Matthew, it appears that the beheading of John takes place according to the way it's set up in Matthew, that the beheading of John takes place somewhere in that point from where the disciples are out going village to village and just before Jesus feeds the 5,000. Right? That's my understanding of it. And the disciples of John have come to Jesus during this time.

14:35 And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to him, are you the coming one or do we look for another? So John is already in prison and he has this moment. Now this is the guy who was out baptizing, had recognized who Jesus was. Right? Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

15:00 That is a direct revelation from God that that John knew. Right? John knew who Jesus was and what he was going to accomplish. Before anybody else, he knew the purpose. He certainly understood more than the disciples through that direct revelation from God.

15:16 But behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and he gets imprisoned. His circumstances changed, didn't he? His circumstances changed and he goes through a moment of doubt. He goes through a moment of doubt. And he says, are you the coming one or do we look for another?

15:34 He wants reassurance. He's sitting there in prison and he, you know, he knows... You gotta think he knows this isn't gonna end well. Tell me I did this for the right reason. Tell me I did this for the right guy.

15:46 I went through this and I and I prepared this. Tell me that you're really the one that I'm supposed to be doing this for. And Jesus responds. He says, you know, I love how Jesus doesn't... There's no judgment.

15:58 Isn't that amazing? There's no judgment to it. He just says, go and tell John the things which you hear and see. The blind see and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed.

16:10 The deaf hear. The dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of me. That's his response to reassure John that, yes, the right thing. So what does he do when he goes on to eulogize eulogize?

16:25 I almost said it like zoolander. You googly. When he goes on to eulogize, John in the coming... In the verses after that as he's talking to the people, he says, surely I tell you among these born of women there is not risen one greater than John the Baptist, but he who is the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. So he didn't judge them.

16:49 Isn't that reassuring? He didn't judge that doubt. He didn't blast him for it. He gently and compassionately reassured him that this was the right thing. So John is having those, he has that moment of doubt, and he's in prison for what reason?

17:09 Why is he in prison based on what we read here? And in Luke and in Matthew, why is he in prison? Cause I'm not getting into all the Herods. Okay? I'm not gonna try to figure out who is who in all the Herod lineage.

17:21 Okay? I just don't have that kind of patience. I'm sure it would be a fun history lesson, but I don't wanna do that today. Why is he why is he in prison? What did he say?

17:31 What did he say wrong? Say it again? Prison prison for speaking out against Herod's sin. Yeah. Because Herod had married his sister-in-law, right?

17:43 He said this is an abomination of sin. So obviously John the Baptist made a mistake, don't get involved in politics, right? You know, that's probably something to remember, right? Don't let politics get in the way. But he's in prison for that, and as we know, Herod's wife's daughter, whose name we're not given in any of the gospels, she dances for them for his birthday, and he's got his posse there with him, and and, you know, she pleases the crowd and pleases Herod, and she said, he says, what do you want?

18:18 I'll give you anything. Anything you want. And she says, you know, I don't know, let me check with mom. Mom says, I want John's head on a platter. And of course, he's embarrassed.

18:30 You know, he doesn't want to do it. He's kind of afraid to do it. He respected John. He knew he was a holy man. Right?

18:35 And he feared the people, how... What their response was, because... And this is one of the things that you see throughout the gospels. Sometimes I don't think we realize or appreciate how much of a stir John the Baptist made. And then we certainly can't appreciate how much of a stir Jesus made.

18:54 Right? I mean, it's hard for us to imagine today's day and age, we read the Bible, this is all... But these guys were creating, they were stirring things up big time. And and Jesus, and this is a tough lesson in what happens to John the Baptist, it's a tough lesson to learn. We'll get to that in a second.

19:32 Let's go to that just for a moment. I was just gonna talk about it, but I think it's worth reading through a little bit. John chapter three. Let's start at verse 26. And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, who is with you beyond the Jordan?

19:58 To whom you have testified? He... Oh, I'm sorry. He who is with you beyond the Jordan. To whom you have testified, behold, he is baptizing and all are coming to him.

20:09 Right? All are coming to him. John answered and said, a man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice.

20:32 Therefore, this joy of mine is fulfilled. This joy of mine is fulfilled. The next verse, lot to learn being a disciple of Christ. He must increase, but I must decrease. So I look at this and and as a disciple of Christ, how does this apply to us?

20:59 Well, there's a couple of things. One, even things that you think are good, that are wonderful, in the name of the Lord, there are times that he decides it's going to come to an end. Right? That you can be doing things in the Lord's name, work for the Lord, and he decides it's done. I have other plans.

21:25 Right? And this is why I'm saying that we can't make the message about us. We can't make it about us. We can't take the things personally. We can't because that's a hard thing.

21:35 It's a hard thing to think that I'm doing something that's productive and wonderful in the name of the Lord and it came to an end. It stopped. I think, you know, and I... But I think Andy Hilton, right, you know, this is part of the conversation, this is a challenge, you know, he's faced. You know, we've been praying for him about that.

21:52 Right? But the challenge is that he was doing a wonderful work, and the Lord said, okay, now I have something else for you. And you have to figure out what is that? What is, what am I supposed to do? John the Baptist, his reaction to this is incredible, is it not?

22:08 It goes against our nature. It completely goes against our nature. We like to be recognized when we do good things, right? We do. I hate to say it, but you know, we're supposed to not let left hand know what the right hand's doing.

22:20 I get that. But it is our nature to want, when something, we do something good, to get that pat on the back. We want it. But you know, that's human nature. Yes?

22:29 It's our nature. It's our nature that when we're doing something and we're passionate about it, even in the Lord's name, that when it's done, maybe not of our own choice, that it's done because the Lord said it's done and you've to move on to something else, that's a challenge because we have egos and we have, you know, self esteem issues or whatever. You throw throw whatever you want to in the mix there. But those are challenging things that that sometimes, even with the best intentions and the greatest hope, it's not what the Lord wants. And the things that you do, you know, we're with the ranch.

23:06 Yes, Karen? You're back there. You know, I mean, it was wonderful summer. It really was. And but we don't know how long it will last and how long the Lord will will will want this ministry to go on.

23:17 Right? AB with the the nursing homes and all those things, there could come to a point where it says, where the Lord says, no, I'm done with this. I have another plan. And that's hard because we just... It's not in our nature to just accept those things and move on.

23:31 Right? Because we do take it personally. But but that is the way being a disciple of Christ, and in our thoughts and in our actions and the way we conduct ourselves on a day to day basis is understanding that it's to his glory. And he's going to, he has a plan and it's to, you know, it's according to his will that we need to be submitting ourselves to. Right?

23:55 And so therefore, we we are less likely to be offended. If we have that mindset, we're less likely to be offended or to be discouraged or to be hurt when things don't work out the way we thought they would. Because oftentimes they don't. So, I think some good lessons in that. Let's go ahead and talk about the feeding of the 5,000.

24:22 Because again, this is still, this is teaching. Right? This is the Lord teaching his disciples. And we're gonna see this again in chapter eight, it's referred to after he feeds the 4,000, that again, the disciples just don't get it. It says because of the hardness of their hearts, you know.

24:39 I don't know, sometimes I think hardness of the hearts and just plain old stupidity and obliviousness is, you know, I don't know that there's always a difference, but they they they didn't understand who Jesus was. They fully, they hadn't grasped who he was. No matter, they've seen these miracles and these amazing things happening, and they just can't grasp who he is. And that doesn't apply to us at all, right? Because we weren't there.

25:12 Verse, verse 32. So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. But the multitude saw them departing, and many knew him, and many knew him, and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to him. So the people are flocking from all around.

25:33 Thousands are coming to be around Jesus. Some for healing, but some just to hear the words of the Lord. And Jesus, when he came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them. There's a whole bunch of different things we could break down here that would be wonderful. And if somebody wants to go back and redo it, I mean, you know, there's a lot.

25:54 There's a lot of there's a lot of meat on this bone still, that I'm not necessarily gonna address today. But he was moved with compassion for them because they were like sheep, not having a shepherd. That's a beautiful thing that we see in the Lord, just that compassion that he had for the people. So he began to teach them many things. When the day was now far spent, his disciples came to him and said, this is a deserted place and already the hour is late.

26:18 Send them away that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread for they have nothing to eat. And listen what Jesus says. He answered them and said to them, you give them something to eat. You do it. You give them something to eat.

26:39 I would like to think that some, you know, we would would have been there and we would have gone, let's break that down. Let's break down what Jesus means by this. I don't have any bread, but he wants me to give them something to eat. I don't have enough money to feed 5,000 people, but I'm gonna give them something to eat. Our reaction, I don't think, would have been any different.

27:04 Right? Than theirs? Would it have been any different realistically? Would we have done anything different? You give them something to eat.

27:15 And they said to him, shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat? What did they say in another, in in... Is it Matthew, I think he said, or Matthew or Luke? Because it... This is the only...

27:27 This this miracle and the resurrection, right, are the only two that show up in all four gospels. Isn't that true? I think that's right. And and one of them, I read through all of I just can't remember which one it was. Where he said...

27:38 They say, that's like nine months wages. Or twelve months wages or something like that. Right? Are we going to do? We're going to go buy them something?

27:46 But he said, how many loaves do you have? Now that was a test right there, wasn't it? You give them something to eat. Well, don't have any answers. I don't know.

27:55 I got nothing. Well, many fish, how many loaves do you have? Go and see. When they found out, they said five and two fish. Then he commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass.

28:09 So they sat down in ranks in hundreds and fifties. When he had taken the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up into heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them. And the two fish he divided amongst them all, so they ate and were filled. And they took up the 12 baskets full of fragments and of the fish. Now those who had eaten the loaves were about 5,000 men.

28:35 So what do we what do we learn from this? What was he teaching the disciples through this? Well, the first thing, and what they just didn't quite get, is that God is all powerful. And he's able to provide for all of our needs. Right?

28:49 We don't have to doubt. And it's not just those needs, it's all of our needs. All of our needs can be met through him. All of them. And it's our faith and we see it time and time again throughout the Bible, it is the faith of man that has come short.

29:06 Right? Not the provision of God that ever comes short. It never comes short. It is exactly what he wants us to have and what we need at all times. It is our ability to recognize and accept and trust that is the problem.

29:20 Right? So we see that in the loaves and there's lots more you can break down out of this. The breaking of the bread and the significance of that, all those things could definitely be getting, we could get into. But of course, it's already noon so we're not going to. But the idea that you give them something to eat, that the power of the gospel is not about us.

29:47 It's about the message. Right? The power... You give them something to eat. Well, we have nothing to give them.

29:54 You're right. I'm the bread of life. Right? That's the point he's making. I'm the bread of life.

30:00 I have what these people need. I'm going to show you with this physical presentation of the miraculous creating of enough food for them, but really the point is you have to you have to teach me. I'm showing you that I, through this, that I am the son of god but they need me. They need the bread of life. Right?

30:25 They need the bread of life and that bread of life, as I wrote up there, is this is what I thought of right away, stored in jars of clay. Isn't it an amazing thing that this incredible gospel, this incredible news, this incredible story of Jesus Christ and his power is stored in fragile, failing, imperfect beings. Why is that the case? Look at second Corinthians when when Paul says, you know, I want this infirmity gone. I I could do so much better probably if I just didn't have this infirmity.

30:59 He says, no, my grace is sufficient for you. Right? Because when you're weak, that's when I'm strong. It's our weakness that is our greatest strength as Christians. It is our weakness that can be our greatest strength.

31:11 Can be, I should say. Can be. Because we do have the responsibility of maintaining our faith in him. As wavering as that may be at times and imperfect as that may be at times, it is our our our our need to be keeping our faith and our trust and our focus in Christ. We read that in Hebrews two, right?

31:33 The author and finisher of our faith. Keep our focus on Jesus Christ. The author and finisher of our faith. I'm not gonna get into, you know, I'm not gonna get into the walking on the water, but one thing that we do see there at the end when Jesus walks on the water, he came up to the boat, and we're familiar with the story, so I'm just gonna skip to 51 in the chapter. They went up to the boat to them, and the wind ceased, and they were greatly amazed to themselves beyond measure and marveled.

32:05 Think about how many times he repeats that there. They were greatly amazed beyond measure and marveled. They couldn't believe it. But they had not understood about the loaves. They didn't understand the power that Jesus had, who he was, that he was the son of God.

32:20 They hadn't gotten it yet because their hearts were hardened. So we need to pray as disciples of Christ that we do not harden our hearts to the power that God gives us to walk for him and live for him every day. We have to do that. And I know that's, again, easier said than done. Let's take a look at Romans eight eighteen before we close.

32:58 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Why was that the verse that I wanted to close with? For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. I would suggest to you that sometimes the most difficult part of the Christian walk is not the challenges that we face in our everyday world and all the stuff that happens and the ups and downs. It is that challenge of wanting to be faithful.

33:29 You think of Paul. The things that I will to do, cannot do. Right? I do not do. And the things that...

33:34 You know that whole deal in Romans. Right? The things I wanna do, can't, I don't do. You know, I I sin when I don't wanna sin. My mind says when my flesh is weak.

33:42 All those things. One of the biggest challenges that we face as disciples of Christ is that we we don't do it perfectly. And we don't live up to... We set standards for ourselves that we can't live up to. And and so we feel like failures.

33:55 And Satan uses that and he attacks us with it. I know. He attacks us. He says, you're not good enough. You're not good enough.

34:08 Christ is good enough. And the message that came out of that speech that we read in the beginning was just that. That our sufficiency is not in and of ourselves. We're not fulfilled in ourselves or in each other, although the each other part is important in maintaining, right, and dealing with it. That's what's so important about our fellowship, is that we build each other up and strengthen each other.

34:33 That's valuable and important. It's huge. But our sufficiency comes from Christ. And it's the humility to recognize that on a day to day basis, that it's God's grace, it is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that sustains us, that fulfills us, that keeps us going. Alright?

34:58 Let's pray. Father, we thank you, for your word. We thank you, Lord, that once we come to know you, we are called sons of God. Sons. We thank you for that.

35:22 And as sons, sometimes we need to rely and lean on your power and on your grace and on your love. Not sometimes, all the time. We need to rely on you, Lord. We thank you, Lord, for your word that that gives us some guidelines as to how to be a disciple. How to how how to live a life that's in service to you, in subjection in in subjection to you, in submission to you, and to do it for your glory.

36:02 We pray, Lord, that we would focus on those things and that that you would give us the strength, Lord, to have... Keep our hope and our faith and our trust in you. We pray these things in your name. Amen.