It Depends On Who Is Asking- 2
Mark 6:38
January 10, 2010
A couple invited their elderly pastor for Sunday dinner. While the parents were in the kitchen preparing the meal, the minister asked their young son what they were having. “Goat,” the little boy replied. “Goat?” replied the startled man of the cloth, “Are you sure about that?” “Yep,” said the youngster. “I heard Dad say to Mom, ‘Today is just as good as any to have the old goat for dinner.’”
Aren’t kids great?
God used a child in our study today to do something miraculous.
How often do we witness a miracle and don’t even see it as a miracle? How often does the Hand of God move in our lives and we don’t even see Him at work? How much do we miss because we not looking for it? God still moves in the lives of His people but how often do His people even recognize what He is doing?
This message today begins on a hillside near the town of Bethsaida. This little town was built along a river that flowed down to the Sea of Galilee. It was on that hillside that one of the great miracles of the Bible happened.
Jesus began the day teaching many things. Time flew by and it got pretty late – your pastor is not the only one who preaches long sermons. The disciples became disgruntled. They wanted Jesus to send folks into the countryside and villages to find something to eat. There were no fast food restaurants around.
I love what Jesus said next. He looked at his disciples and said, “You give them something to eat!” You can’t tell from the English but he put the emphasis on the word “you.” It was very emphatic. He looked at each of the disciples and said, “You give them something to eat.”
John 6 reports that it was Phillip who flipped out and spoke for the rest of them: “That would be eight months of a man’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” In our day that would amount to at least $15,000 for just one meal! Now, these men had just seen amazing things happen when they were out on their ministry trip, and now Jesus is standing right in front of them. Pastor Ray Pritchard points out that Phillip answered the way an atheist would answer because he never considered the possibility of supernatural resources. Like us, they were quick to see what they couldn’t do because they focused on what they didn’t have. If they can’t figure out how to feed these men, they assume it can’t be done. Incidentally, Jesus loves to put us in situations where we are desperate and completely helpless.
It’s at that point that Jesus asks a question: “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” They want to get rid of the people, and Jesus tells them to provide for them. They didn’t see 5,000 people; they saw 5,000 problems they couldn’t solve. Now they start searching for any snacks that someone might have brought with them. You could tell that they were all men because no one had remembered to pack a lunch! The disciples are going in and out of the crowd frantically looking for food. I think they wanted to go back to Jesus and tell Him that there was nothing available.
That’s when Jesus blessed the fish and bread from one boy’s lunch basket, and fed 5000 men plus the women and children. With 2 small fish and a few loaves of bread, under the direction of Jesus, every one ate all they wanted and then 12 baskets were left over.
What can we see in this miracle?
The fact is, that unless we are paying attention to what is happening, and unless the Holy Spirit opens our minds to see what God is doing, then we may not see anything at all.
It appears that this is exactly what happened to the disciples as they went about breaking bread and fish and giving it to the 5000. They were so busy working to feed the people that they didn’t stop to think much about the miracle that was taking place right before their eyes.
They walked along breaking off a piece of bread, and then another, and then another; on and on they went, breaking off pieces of bread and fish, one by one, and still reaching back for more, and it was always there. Yet, in their work, they somehow didn’t see what was really going on.
You don’t see them start to shout for joy, or praise God for the miracle! They just kept breaking, dividing and passing it out without much thought.
Mark 6:39-44— And He commanded them all to sit down by groups on the green grass. They sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves and He kept giving them to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces, and also of the fish.
There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.
Did you sense an excitement in the crowd as they were all fed? Did you notice any unusual worship going on? It seems to me that the whole miracle was taken for granted. It’s as though neither the crowd, nor the disciples, even recognized that a miracle had happened right in front of their eyes!
How could that happen? How could they not see and understand that Jesus had done a miracle with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread?
The answer is this – they were too busy doing the work of God to see the miracle of God in operation, and they were too caught up in completing their task of feeding the people and missed the lesson that Jesus was trying to teach to them. They were so busy doing the work that they didn’t allow the Holy Spirit to let them see what was really going on!
I’ve read the story of the feeding of the 5000 many times before, and I’ve always thought of how great it would have been to be there that day to see the miracle happen. But I wonder if I would have seen it as a miracle?
The crowd didn’t see it as a miracle. All they could see was that they were receiving bread and fish from one of Jesus’ disciples. I can imagine that the vast majority didn’t even know that it all started with 2 small fish and 5 loaves of bread. How could they know it was a miracle happening to them?
Perhaps some of the disciples didn’t know how much they had begun with either. All they knew is that the bread and fish just kept coming. Maybe the disciples passing it down the hill had found more and didn’t tell them.
But someone should have seen it as a miracle. They knew what Jesus had blessed. They knew it wasn’t nearly enough to feed the crowd of people, and yet when it began to multiply right before their eyes, it’s almost as though they just took it for granted, because not one is recorded as stopping, even for a moment, to recognize the miracle in progress.
It’s amazing to look back at the story now and see just how spiritually blind and ignorant the disciples really were. They had walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, and seen him do some mighty works, but somehow, they just didn’t see Him for who He was. Without the Holy Spirit opening your mind, and helping you to understand and see the Hand of God at work, you won’t see it for what it is. You will take everything that happens for granted because you are spiritually blind.
How do I know this is what happened? How can I know that the disciples didn’t recognize the full lesson of the feeding of the 5000? Let’s read a little further in Mark.
Mark 6:45-52— Immediately, Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself was sending the crowd away. After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray. When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land.
Seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, at about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them. But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out; for they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke with them and said to them, "Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid."
Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened.
Pay attention to verse 52, “…for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened." – That’s the key to this whole message.
As soon as the 5000 were fed and Jesus’ teaching was finished, he sent the disciples into a ship to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee while he went into a mountain to pray.
Just as a side note here – Why do you think Jesus went to the mountain to pray? The fact is that we all need to find our “quiet place” to pray and get alone with God. Praying here in the church is great. Praying as a group around the altar, or around the dinner table is great, but we must have our own secret place to be alone with God. It’s only there that we can really pray as we should.
When I’m alone with God, I can pray and not worry about if I say it right – because He knows my thoughts and intent of my heart. I can talk to God differently than I can when I stand in front of the church to lead you in prayer. I can say things to God, and ask things of God, that I can’t do in a crowd. And, I can better hear the voice of the Lord, speaking back to me, when I’m alone with Him. He speaks in a still small voice, but it can be heard, as long as we don’t allow the people and things around us to drown it out.
Jesus needed to be alone with the Father in prayer so He went up into the mountain, where most of the crowd would not try to follow because climbing the mountain would be hard. When we go out to Pinehaven, sometimes at the end of the day, I just need some space, so I walk back up the mountain. Folks are tired, and they generally do not follow!
So the disciples were sent away and Jesus went up into the mountain to pray. As the day began to grow dark we see the next great miracle of God begin to unfold.
According to John 6, the ship was about 25 or 30 furlongs out in the Sea of Galilee when a sudden storm blew in. A furlong is about 1/8th of a mile, so the ship was 3 to 4 miles from land. That’s a long way to row and an even longer distance to swim, especially in a gale force wind and rough waves.
Jesus was alone on the land, up on the mountain – and yet the scriptures say that he could see the distress that the disciples were in. If he was high enough on the mountain, and the light of day was still bright enough, maybe He could literally see them. But, I’m convinced that he really saw them in a different way. He was very God, omniscient in power, and so Jesus knew at every given moment, where His disciples were, and what they were facing.
But why didn’t they know Jesus? Why didn’t they see the miracles of the fish and the loaves? Why didn’t they recognize the man who had walked with them and talked with them and who had just performed the great miracle on the hillside not more than 10 hours before?
The answer is Mark 6:52— "…for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened."
They were still spiritually blind, not because sin, not because they had rejected Jesus, but because of their own lack of paying attention to what God was doing in their midst. How can anyone who has witnessed, first hand, the feeding of the 5000, and Jesus walking on the water, and calming the stormy seas, still not know who Jesus was?
Let’s make sure that we don’t let that hardness happen to us today. Allow me to share some practical action steps that will allow this multiplying miracle to go from your head to your heart to your hands.
-Do something with what you have. It might be helpful to just admit that you don’t have much and then give what little you have. That’s what the widow did when she put two small copper coins into the offering (see Mark 12:42). Do what you can with what you have. Do something! A little in the hands of Jesus is always a lot. Jesus doesn’t ask us to go and get more before He goes to work. He didn’t tell Andrew to go find 50 more loaves and a bucket of fish before He went to work. All He wants is what we have right now. One pastor put it this way: “As long as we keep what we have in our own hands, we are limited to what we can do. But when we transfer what we have to the mighty hands of Jesus, there is no limit to what He can do.”
The key is to make sure we give ourselves first to the Lord as stated in 2 Corinthians 8:5. Paul commended the Macedonian churches for giving out of their poverty and then he said this about them: “And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord, and then to us in keeping with God’s will.”
Do you think you don’t have much to put in the offering? Give what you have and watch God work.
Do you feel like you don’t have any gifts or talents? Start using what you’ve been given and God will do the multiplying. What you have might be small but God goes to work when we give Him our all. When you give food to the Food Pantry or diapers to the Caring Pregnancy Center, what you give gets multiplied to help many. I came across this email:
- If you have just one Bible, you are abundantly blessed; 1/3 of the world does not have even one.
- If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the world.
- If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthiest people.
-We must be involved in feeding lost sheep. We can’t just sit back and wait or just point out the problems with people or with society. By the way, some of us think that that’s our job as Christians. The disciples pointed out the problems; Jesus told them that they were part of the solution. They were to be participants in the miracle that Jesus was going to perform.
Can I challenge you to begin praying for your neighbors and co-workers and family members who don’t know Jesus? Look for opportunities to feed them. Our mission here at Maplewood is to connect people to Jesus and one another. In order to connect we must first have compassion, and then we must have Christ conversations with people. When Jesus looks at the lost in the Wabash Valley, he says to you and to me, “You give them something to eat!”
Here are some questions: How many loaves do you have? Who are you feeding right now? What resources do you have? What skills do you have? How much time do you spend loafing instead of loving people?
-Don’t turn and leave just because the teaching is tough (see John 6). It was a common belief back then that people would recognize the Messiah because He would be able to provide bread from heaven just like Moses did. Jesus not only fed the 5,000 he also had a sequel and fed 4,000 another time. The people still wanted more signs and more miracles but they couldn’t stomach (no pun intended) the words of Jesus when he declared in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry.” In verse 58 Jesus declared, “This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.” This was a tough teaching and difficult for people to swallow (pun intended). Don’t be like the people described in verse 66, “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” Are you going to follow or will you fold because it’s just too hard?
J. Hudson Taylor, who started the China Inland Mission, saw God do the impossible many times. He was persecuted and faced hopeless circumstances. Looking back, he wrote these words: “There are three stages in any work attempted for God: Impossible, Difficult, Done.” If you’re facing something impossible right now, be encouraged. It may just be stage one of a mighty miracle God is about to perform.
-When we serve Jesus we will be more than satisfied. The disciples who thought they didn’t have enough had more than enough. They had more after giving away what little they had. Jesus gives us much more than we need when we give our all to Him. Ephesians 3:20— “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” If you want to be fulfilled, then follow Jesus. God always gives more because He is a giving God. I love what John Piper says: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. Question. Is the Savior your satisfaction today?
-Surrender to the Savior. Jesus does some miracles because of people’s faith. He did this one to cause people to have faith. Jesus asks, “How many loaves do you have?” There’s another question from Christ inherent in this one: “How much of your life do I have? That’s really what I want. Surrender to me today.”
In John 6 we read that the disciples went looking for the Lord later on because they wanted more food. They kind of liked the free bread from heaven deal. Jesus told them not to focus on food but on eternal life. They then ask what it is that they are supposed to do so they can experience the works of God. I love the answer Jesus gives in verse 29— “The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.”
I don’t know where you’re at today but if you’ve never put your faith in Jesus for forgiveness of sins, it’s time to believe and be saved. If you’re saved, then make sure you’ve surrendered fully to the Savior.
Fanny Crosby was probably the most prolific hymn writer in history. Though blinded by an incompetent doctor at six weeks of age, she wrote over 8,000 hymns. When she died, her tombstone carried the words from one of her hymns, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.” But one hymn that she wrote back in 1868, just 3 years after the end of the Civil War, goes like this:
“Pass me not, O gentle Savior, Hear my humble cry; while on others Thou art calling,
do not pass me by.
Let me at Thy throne of mercy, Find a sweet relief, Kneeling there in deep contrition;
Help my unbelief.
Trusting only in Thy merit, would I seek Thy face; heal my wounded, broken spirit,
save me by Thy grace.
Thou the Spring of all my comfort, More than life to me, whom have I on earth beside Thee? Whom in Heav’n but Thee?”
May that be your prayer and mine this day!