I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to John chapter 6. You may also follow me in your
pastor's commentary, if you will, John chapter 6. As you know,
today we are going to install elders and deacons, and by the
mercy of God, a pastor from one of our sister churches, as you
have in your bulletin. And before we engage in that
formal process, what I want to do is to bear upon your conscience
what the Word of God teaches concerning the ministry. So John
chapter 6 is a good place to start. I thought about this message
that we are going to be considering now in light of all four of the
authors of the Gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, when you
want to acquire a full synopsis of what any text is saying in
the four gospels. You have to deal with all four. And as I read through all four
accounts of the gospel, it served as a great reminder of what the
local church is all about, what it's all about. So I want you
to focus with me now as we make our way through the text. The
title of our message is Feed My Sheep. Feed My Sheep. I want this word to come home
to the heart of every one of God's elect. When you hear, feed
my sheep, I don't want you to think that Christ is speaking
to the pastor. I want you to think of Christ
speaking to you. If you're part of the body of
Christ, then not only are you objects of that command and imperative
for which your soul has come to experience what it means to
feed on Christ. But you are also called to be
a partaker of the ministry by which souls are fed by Christ
through you. So I want you to hear this word,
ladies and gentlemen, if you are part of the body of Christ,
if you are a member of the God-man Jesus Christ, this command is
to you, feed my sheep. That's to you. However way that
is to work itself out in your life, it is a command to you
directly by your Lord to be part of this process called feeding
the sheep of God. Now, as with any institution,
organization or corporation, there are officers strategically
set up. Appointed is the word. You're
going to see that today for the purpose of achieving the goals
of that organization. Every institution, every organization,
every corporation, if you will, has officers strategically set
up, appointed for the purpose of achieving the goals of that
organization, to support it, to build it, to strengthen its
overall existence. This is true of the family. I
have taught you that when you find yourself part of a family,
if you are a husband or a wife, you are but a manager of God's
institution. When you are a husband or a wife,
you don't get to restructure and reconstitute what marriage
is. All you get to do is obey the
household rules for which the one who actually originated and
conceived the marriage has given you a privilege to be a part
of. It's the same thing with the
church. In the church of the living God, God has called us
to develop officers in order to exercise the gifts that are
variously given to the church by the spirit of God for the
purpose of, listen now, feeding God's people. In the local church
of God, Christ has prescribed a leadership process which comprises
the office of pastor, Elder and deacon now, I'm not talking about
gifts. I'm talking about offices now
They are gifts, but I'm not talking about gifts That is those personal
gifts that he gives us by which we might be in edification to
the church I'm talking about officers in the church The officers
of the church, pastors and elders and deacons, are merely those
who facilitate, they reinforce, and they execute the call to
feed God's people. And I think our text will serve
to develop this point very well. The role of the officers together
with the congregation is to model the grace of God adorning the
gospel with the fruit of knowledge, charity, and good works. The
role of the officers, together with the whole congregation,
did you hear that Saints? Is to model the grace of God
adorning the gospel with the fruit of knowledge, charity,
and good works. When you are a well-informed
congregation, you are known for a knowledge of God. knowledge
of God and that knowledge of God works itself out in your
life to the health of the community or the body of Christ in love
and by good works. Our elder was behooved upon,
he was bound to share with you the needs of our sister Dolores
Holloway and her father Arthur Banks as well as other brothers
and sisters who are afflicted and you're right We've got so
many Saints right now that are going through their troubles
But we share those things with you because we do not believe
that it is merely the elders or the deacons tasks to pray
for the Saints But for all the Saints to pray for all the Saints
as you're gonna see in our text Because it is through the prayers
of the Saints that God works to bless his people And I therefore
do not want you to think that today's execution of the office
of elder and deacon as they are about to be appointed in stall
and install relieves you of your responsibility to be part of
the task. They are merely office bearers
bearing the same gifts that you do by which the whole body might
be edified. So I say once again, before we
move into our points, watch this now, the office of elder primarily
the role of overseeing the ministry of the Word of God. We talked
about that for several months, did we not? The term elder is
the same term for bishop or the same term for pastor. The elder,
bishop, pastor has the primary, not exclusive, role of overseeing
the ministry of the Word. The deacons have no less important
a role in seeing to it that the Word of God, now listen to this
now, reaches its practical manifestation in the life of the church. Both
of these offices have their residence in Jesus Christ. Neither office
is independent of the other. It would be no gospel at all
were a man to teach an individual or a mass of people the mysteries
of the kingdom of God, and after having taught you, allowed you
to go away hungry or needy. that would not be a right representation
of the fullness and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. I would have
you therefore to respect both the office and elder and deacon
equally for Christ is both our elder brother and he is the chief
diaconate of the church. And our text will demonstrate
that in a beautiful way as it unfolds before us. There are
a number of points that I do want to call your attention to.
And the first is the demands of the ministry. Do you see that
in your outline? Point number one, the demands
of the ministry. The demands of the ministry.
Verses one through three in our text. After these things, Jesus
went out over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias,
and a great multitude followed him. because they saw the miracles
which he had done on them which were diseased. And Jesus went
up into a mountain and there he sat with his disciples. And
we read concerning the Passover and then the next thing Jesus
finds out is that those multitudes of people who had come to know
him had followed him all the way to where he was. Now turn with me in your Bible
to Mark chapter 631. I want you to see this. See, I told you
it requires looking at all four Gospels on this account to really
get a clear and comprehensive synopsis and view of what's really
going on. In Mark's Gospel, here's what we are told in verse 31.
Mark chapter 6, verse 31. Listen to this. And he said unto
his disciples, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and
rest a while. For there were, watch this now,
there were many coming and going, so that the disciples had no
leisure, so much as to even eat. I want to press this upon your
mind. It's called the demands of the ministry. And if you're
a part of a ministry where it doesn't have demands, you're
not part of a ministry. All authentic ministry is laden
with demands. That's the nature of the gospel. From the moment that our Lord
Jesus Christ being filled with the Holy Ghost and left the wilderness
after being tested of the devil, engaging in ministry for three
and a half years, ladies and gentlemen, the whole of his ministry
was filled with demands. So I want to press this home
to you. You and I are only in a Mr. Mahan said this years ago
You haven't entered into the ministry at all until the ministry
has laid upon you all of its demands What are we talking about
as our Lord said there were many coming and going in Mark chapter
6 in John's gospel He said there were many sick and afflicted
In Luke's gospel, it says the same thing. They followed him
on foot, they followed him on boats, wherever he went, they
came to him with their troubles, with their issues, with their
problems. So you men who are aspiring to
the ministry, if you want to preach to people who don't have
problems, die first. The demands of the ministry require
that we pay a lot of attention. The demands of the ministry require
that we pay a lot of attention to what's going on. We must be
interested. We also must exercise discernment. Ministry requires that we give. Isn't that true? This is the
draining, exacerbating aspect of ministry because in ministry,
it is assumed that you are ready to give and serve. and many other things. And with
that ministry requires an energy, an energy and a power. Now these are two different terms.
Power undergirds energy. Energy is the exertion of that
power base by which you get the job done. And in ministry, it
is required that a man, a people, a ministry group, whoever you
are, operate out of a power base with an energy. Energeo is the
Greek term. Kratos is the term for power. You need a power base by which
you can exercise the energy to get the job done. Have you ever
done any ministry out of the flesh? and realize that you didn't
have the power to get it done. All you found yourself doing
is complaining because while you were trying to cast that
devil out, he was throwing you all over the place. I was telling
my sisters this last week, one of my sisters was telling me
about the work that she does. our prayer group was telling
me about the work she does in hospice care with a lot of older
people. You know how people want to run
and help folks and I told her be very careful when you're doing
hospice care or care of people that are convalescent and sick
because the very psychological and emotional afflictions that
are on them will jump on you and they'll get healthy and you'll
get sick and they'll go away happy that you rub their shoulders
but you go home with arthritis Watch this. If you aren't doing
ministry in the power of the Spirit of God and with the energy
that is required of God for you, you will fail in that ministry.
And I want you to therefore appreciate ministers of the gospel in that
regard because they are operating out of the same power that Jesus
did. Paul frequently talked about this energy, didn't he? He says,
and the workings of God, the power of God worked in me mightily
to accomplish his goals through me. Now, he wasn't boasting in
himself. He was boasting in the power.
Now, when you do ministry right and you are under the power of
God in that ministry, you are well aware that God is strengthening
you to do the work. But watch this. There are times
when you've got to rest. See, that's what our text is
teaching. look at verse 31 and he said unto them come ye yourselves
apart speaking to who the disciples and to a desert place with me
and what rest a while in Luke's gospel it's not only rest guess
what it is pray In mark's gospel as well turning your gospel in
your bible to matthew chapter 14 in matthews 14 He addresses
it this way and I want you to see it because I just want you
to get a picture of the demands of the ministry Require your
mental attention your physical attention. It requires your interest
your discernment. You're giving your serving It
requires an energy and a power For a number of reasons of which
you have to rest you have to recuperate You have to pray Look
at verse 23 Matthew chapter 14 in verse 23 and when he had sent
the multitude away he went up into a mountain to do what pray
he went up into a mountain to pray and when the evening was
come he was there alone Jesus is praying now you know if the
master has to pray you got to pray the demands of the ministry
required. I want to share with you a few
other reasons why the demands of the ministry require. You
have an otherworldly energy, the energy of God, the power
of God resourcing you, which comes through prayer, consecration
and communion with Christ. It's for these reasons. The church
of the living God is dealing with issues like sin. Now, when you start facing the
issues of sin, You need the grace of God. Because sin is sticky. It's slick. It's deceitful. It's wicked. And it requires
a lot of wisdom. Sin. Sin in the people you're
ministering to, sin in your own heart. And so you're dealing
with sin. Not only that, you're dealing
with infirmity. I just described that. You know,
when people get ill and afflicted and have different physical diseases,
you realize that you now are called upon to be a helper, right? In order to help somebody, you
have to have enough strength to hold yourself up and them. Then this is why I adore all
of our sisters I don't know if any of our brothers do it who
are engaged in helping older people who are afflicted I adore
them because I know what kind of strength it takes to go over
there every day pick those people up Carry them to the bathroom
clean them up take them back prepare food position them in
the pillow it takes a lot of physical and emotional and spiritual
strength and then to be ready to tell them about Jesus to it
takes a lot of grace and takes a lot of grace and most pastors
and teachers would rather just deal with healthy people but
the gospel is not designed to deal with healthy people it's
sinful people infirmed people mentally ill people crazy people
nutty people like you used to be and i want you to see this as
we move into the text how our lord handled that so i want you
to respect ministry The imperative and foundation for it is the
command to feed God's sheep. Feed them. I was over Ms. Holloway's house yesterday or
a couple of days ago, can't remember. Yeah, it was a couple of days
ago. And I was visiting with Ms. Holloway and her father and her
mother and a number of the children. And we worshiped. We talked about
God. We prayed. We encouraged one
another. I'll tell you the truth. Mr. Banks doesn't look like he got
any problem to me. That's how much grace is on him. You understand
what I'm saying? And he was so delighted to be
in the atmosphere of the exhortation of the word and just general
fellowship. I'm here to tell you that's why the Bible says
visit them. True religion is there. Visit them. And especially
if you have the gift of exhortation, the gift of encouragement, the
gift of building up. Visit them. Visit them. It was a joy. We weren't even
talking about crossing Jordan. When I looked at that man and
he started talking to me, I said, Lord, I'm not going to talk to
this man about crossing Jordan. He didn't look like he was ready
to talk about Jordan. He talked about getting healed
and getting up and going and doing something else for which
we pray because we've seen God do that again and again. Who
are the human doctors but blind men giving you prognostications
that work 50 percent of the time? It's called educated guessing.
Well, Mr. Banks, you only got two, three
months to go. Says who? Point number two in
our outline, the hunger of souls. Go with me in your Bible to Luke
chapter nine. This is another aspect of the feeding of God's
sheep that is critical to Christ. Now we are still in this account.
I'm just using different gospel accounts to paint the picture.
The hunger of souls is at the heart of what we do. There is
no doubt about that. And I want you to see how Jesus
addresses it. It is here still the same thing
is going on. The Lord Jesus is ministering
and John the Baptist has died and we read over in verse 10
as we are preparing to hear this portion concerning feeding the
multitude and the apostles when they were returned told them
all that they had done. He had sent them out on a precursor
mission and he took them and went aside privately in a desert
place. See, we're in that context, right? Belonging to the city
called Bethsaida. So, you know the desert place
they went to was Bethsaida here it is and The people when they
knew it followed him and he what? received them watch this and
spake unto them of the kingdom of God and Healed them that had
need of what? Now, saints, that's the nature
of the ministry. Point number two then, it is
at the heart of what we do to feed the souls of men. Do you
notice that the text says he taught them? He taught them. But he taught them after having
what? Received them. Look at it again. I want you to see this. And the
people, when they knew that he had departed to the desert, they
followed him and he received them. What book are we in? The
book of Luke. And that verb there, received,
is a verb that runs through the book of Luke as a theme. The
book of Luke serves as those four images in Ezekiel and Revelation
chapter 5 that represent the glory of God in Christ in the
fourfold ministry of the gospel. Remember the picture of the eagle
and of the lion and of the ox and of the man. Luke's gospel
deals with the profoundness of Christ's ministry as the son
of man to men. And what you read in the gospel
of Luke is this. He receives sinners. He receives sinners. He receives sinners. This group
of people are sinners that are coming to Christ and he's receiving
them. And get a handle on this word. It means to bind. To bind. It's not your common
term, Paralimbano and a couple of other terms, Ercomo. It's
the word to bind, to bring a situation into your bosom and claim it,
watch this now, as your own. Now, you know, you ain't ready
to do that with people. When Jesus receives sinners,
he brings the sinner in total to himself. And not only does
he embrace them, but he owns their problem. That's what it
means to receive them. He took them in and he owned
their problem. Remember what first Peter chapter
five says around verse nine or so? Verse seven, cast all your
care upon him for he what? Now I've told you before, your
cares are not God's cares. So don't think you guys are sharing
cares. Get this emotionalism out the
way. I want to help you right now. Your cares are anxieties
that are rooted in a knowledge that you have no ability to solve
your problem. Your cares are anxieties that
are rooted in a knowledge that you have no ability to solve
your problem. If you could solve your problem, you wouldn't take
them to Jesus. And I'm here to tell you, take your problems
to Jesus and get rid of the anxiety. Don't ever be ashamed to take
them to Christ, particularly if you're his. But even if you're
not, take them to Christ. He'll never reject you. Watch
this. Your anxieties, your problems, your strains, fears, your troubles,
your doubts, all of the agony that goes on because of your
limitations, carry those things and give them to Jesus. Now watch
this. And they will become his responsibility. So now the the term care in first
peter chapter five for god careth for you It's not that god is
anxious for you are troubled for you Are afflicted for you
like you are because of your sin When he cares for you, it
means he undertakes the obligation of resolving your problems for
you Only god can do that And yet, ladies and gentlemen, that
is an aspect of ministry for which we have to consider. Hungry
souls are coming to Jesus and he's teaching them the kingdom
of God, the gospel. Remember the promise of the psalmist,
open your mouth wide and I will what? Fill it. Psalm 81 verse
10. Isn't that what God says? Now
watch this. If there's a hungry soul in the
house, if you need God, open your mouth. Like the little birds
that open their mouth waiting for the food that comes from
the mother bird Open your mouth open the mouth of your soul open
the mouth of your heart and say god. I need you The promise is
he'll feel he'll feel it Now watch that watch this. This is
what's going on in our text, isn't it? This is a perfect model
of an event that jesus is using To teach his disciples ministry
and to teach us ministry as well. So two things ministry Filled
with demand secondly ministry is really about hungry souls
Thoroughly, I want you to note the compassion of Christ the
compassion of Christ It's in Matthews gospel chapter 15 go
to Matthews 15 verse 32 now, it's in Luke's gospel It's in
Mark's gospel not so much in John's gospel But I want you
to see the motive that emerges out of Christ when he sees the
need We are still talking about ministry chapter 15 of Matthew's
gospel, notice what it says. And I want you to hear this language.
I'm at verse 30. And a great multitude came unto
him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed,
and many others, and cast them down at whose feet? And what
did he do? Isn't that 1 Peter chapter 5?
cast all your cares upon him and he for he careth for you
Jesus is actually fulfilling first Peter chapter 5 in this
account now watch this this was this was normative to his ministry
and the text tells us in so much that the multitude wondered when
they saw the dumb speak the name to behold the lame walk the blindness
see and they glorified the God of Israel Then jesus called his
disciples unto him now. Here you go disciples. Watch
this. This is you this is me as we observe christ Efficaciously
dealing with the needs of men and women. He now is calling
our attention to pay attention to what he has to say Here's
what he says. I Have compassion on the multitude
Do you see that? He didn't have to tell you But
I think he did because you know how dumb and stupid we are We
can be following along with the lord jesus and he can be doing
everything as explicitly and then conspicuously As if we should
see it But we still miss it So what he does is he calls us close
by say hey jesse stand right here. I want to I want to show
you what you're looking at I will have compassion on these people
Do you guys get that? I will have compassion on these
people. He's speaking to grown men. Disciples,
I want you to get this. I am a compassionate Savior. I want you to get this, disciples,
this ministry business of thousands upon thousands coming to me.
This is not about fame. This is not about aggrandizement.
This is not about recognition. This is not about your ego being
stroked. I will have compassion on people. See, what he's doing is is prioritizing
their their perspective and their understanding on the opportunity
that ministry brings about. He's also telling them that your
motive must be right or else you won't be able to achieve
it. Watch this. I have compassion on the multitude because they
continue with me now. How many days? Now watch this.
This is how compassionate Christ is saints. These people have
been watching him preach, teach, heal, and they follow them every
day. And what he's saying to his disciples
is I am very aware that these people have a need. And I'm not
just going through the motions of doing ministry. enjoying the
money that comes in or the fame that comes in or the prospect
of doing larger ministry I'm very much aware that these individuals
have exerted a lot of energy coming to me and they have need
and because I am aware of the need I am also obligated to do
something about it you guys see that so the first thing that
you and I must know is Christ is aware of people's needs and
Secondly, because he's compassionate, his objective is to do something
about it. Thirdly, what about you? In relationship to knowing what
Christ knows, in relationship to knowing the predisposition
of his heart, in relationship to you being his disciple, are
you ready? What about you? See the implications? Stay with me now. You don't get
to just watch Jesus do this stuff. see in our outline we move not
only from compassion him receiving them him embracing their anxieties
because of the human obligation but jesus is getting ready to
draw these men into the process go back with me to your text
now this is a good place to to begin to develop this particular
point wouldn't we love for the lord jesus christ to so do it
all that all we would have to do is stay home and sleep and
eat and get text messages that Jesus is taking care of business
everywhere. John chapter six verse seven
says this. Are you ready now? Watch this.
Listen to what it says. This is this is quite remarkable
how how he's going to set this up in John's gospel chapter six.
Jesus says in this. No, I'm sorry. Let me start back
at verse five. When Jesus then lifted up his eyes and saw a
great company come unto him he said unto philip whence shall
we buy bread that these may eat do you see that now here comes
all these disciples all these people who are beneficiaries
of his blessings and jesus said philip come here now where are
we going to get bread at to feed all these Now he got Philip right
on his shoulder. Philip, what are you and I going
to do to feed these people? Now take Philip's name out and put your name in there. What are you and Christ going
to do to feed these people? Isn't that powerful? So you lazy
people, you can get on up and leave right now. in this in this in this profound
it is provide watch this that the God of the universe has just
called you alongside it says he didn't say he didn't say Philip
I got an idea he said Philip what do you think about this
now you know John doesn't leave us hanging because we don't put
things together too quick so he explains to us what's going
on in verse 7 look at it are you there I'm sorry verse 6 this
he said to prove him for he knew what he would do are you with
me Saints you see what Christ does he tests you and I to whom
much is given much is what he that hath more shall be given
but he that hath not even that which he hath shall be taken
away you pretend that you know Christ and you are in ministry
but in fact you don't have anything he's gonna prove whether or not
you have it or not he'll pull you alongside and say fill up
what do you have and if we discover that you don't have anything
he'll take away that which you don't what you do have or appear
to have so that will be evident that you don't have anything
now every child of God should have the one thing necessary
to get the job done and that's Christ But see, the test is you
and I come. Listen to me. The test is you
and I coming to learn the sufficiency of Christ in getting the job
done. Are you ready? Are you ready
to understand the importance of you and Christ is all that
is needed to get the job done? Do you believe that? Watch this
now. This is what he's doing in our point of number four,
the insufficiency of human resources He says to Philip, Philip, when
shall we buy bread that we may eat? And he said this to prove
him. He knew what he was going to do. Philip says in verse seven.
Are you ready? We got I mean, he said no. He just he said like
this. Philip answered 200 penny worth of bread is not sufficient
for them. that every one of them may take
a little now the way the construction is written it might be that that's
all philip and the disciples had or philip may have been just
sort of casting a number out there saying lord even if we
had 200 penny worth of bread that wouldn't be sufficient do
you see that but this is precisely where christ wants us to be look
at verses eight and nine And one of his disciples, Andrew,
Simon Peter's brother, said unto him, there is a lad here which
hath five barley loaves and two small fishes. Now watch how he
qualifies this. But what are they among so many? Do you see it? But what are they
among so many? Philip said, if we had 200 penny
worth. The other disciple said, but
what are they among so many? Go with me in your Bible to Luke
chapter nine, verse 12 and 13. I want you to see this. The Lord
Jesus has just beckoned the disciples to come along. He's now laying
upon their shoulders the obligation to meet the needs of the people
to whom he is ministering. And their response to him, I
want you to hear this, this is very important, their response
to him is two things. The first is, we don't really
have enough to deal with the need. Now that was their honest empirical
assessment. We don't have enough. to deal
with their needs. Now, saints, that is true concerning
you and concerning me. I want you to grasp this. The
Lord Jesus wanted the disciples to say as such, Lord, we don't
have sufficient to meet these people's needs. And that's exactly
where God must have us. right where we say we can't get
the job done. Are you with me so far? This
is important now. This is important. I want you to see how this works.
You can't come to Christ with your plans and your schemes.
You can't come to him with your methods and your techniques.
You can't come to him with your grandiose ideas. You better come
to him with the truth. Lord, I ain't got nothing really
to bring to the table but this little pittance right here. And
listen, as far as I'm concerned, I know this won't work. I am
under no illusions that my little two cents will get the job done.
It won't. Your two cents will not get the
job done. It will never get the job done. People will always
go away from you hungry They'll always go away from you still
sick still infirm still afflicted They'll go away from you and
your ministry will be a failure So well, so long as you believe
you have sufficiency to get the work done Are you with me? So then what is christ calling
his disciples to we learned this yesterday in our men's meeting
faith Faith! Am I telling the truth? Faith!
Faith! Because they're not abandoning,
but I want you to mark how Jesus is pulling out of them the need
for them to recognize the insufficiency of human resources. Luke chapter
9, verse 12 and 13. Let me start back at verse 11,
give you the context. And the people, when they knew it, followed
him, and he received and spake unto them of the kingdom of God,
healed them that were in need of healing. Now watch this, saints.
And when the day began to wear away, then came the twelve and
said unto him, Send the multitude away. All right, Lord, it's getting
late now. We didn't preach and we didn't
talk. And we're going through the church and we see all kind
of grumblings going on. We know people hungry and they're
tired. Now it's just enough daylight
to get them over on the other side of the mountain so we won't
be responsible for them anymore. So tell them to get on out of
here now. Lord, I think it's time to stop
this thing. It's getting dark. And they're complaining. Do you
see your attitude? when the day began to wear away
they came to the twelve came to him and said send them all
to do the way that they may now watch it that they may go into
the towns and countries and large and get victuals for we are here
in a desert place like our Lord Jesus didn't know where they
were and look at verse 4 verse 13
because here it is we're getting ready to move into our next point
and this is critical but he said unto them you give them some
knees Do you see that? You give them something to eat.
See, he didn't let them off the hook. He's not letting you off
the hook. He's not letting me off the hook.
He says, you give them something to eat. Now, doesn't this correspond
with the title of our message? Feed my sheep. You give them
to eat. These boys are stuck now, right?
They're stuck because all they've got is a few fish and a few loaves. And Jesus says, give it to them.
We recognize the insufficiency of human resources, but our Lord
is now calling them to an experience that I want us to grasp now in
our fifth point. Here it is. Here it is. Now,
remember, we're talking about leadership. We're talking about
ministry. And we're talking about Christ working through that ministry
to effectively bless men and women with the grace of God. Point number five, the cooperation
of leadership. Do you see that? The cooperation
of leadership. Now I want you to turn back to
John chapter six because here's where it'll start. I want you
to understand as we are unpacking these verses in relationship
to the feeding of the 5,000, just as with the feeding of the
4,000, you guys know there were two accounts of this, The instructions
that are given to us about the miraculous hand of Jesus in feeding
the 5,000, which you've heard this story a thousand times,
haven't you? But have you ever heard this story expounded in
its actual particulars? In other words, have you understood
the story as being not merely about Jesus feeding the 5,000? but Jesus feeding the 5,000 and
the 4,000 through his people. It'd be great if Jesus just flew
over with a plane and just dropped bread down on everybody. But
the text in all four Gospels unfolds for us a relationship
between Christ and his leadership and the cause of Christ to his
people. To bring them into the same obligation
that Christ has for sinners, they now must be obligated towards
sinners. This is both a responsibility
and a privilege. They are about to learn something.
You men, you elders, you deacons, all you brothers that were with
us yesterday, pay careful attention to what's about to take place.
You ladies, take careful attention to what's about to take place.
The cooperation of leadership. Don't we need to cooperate with
one another? If we're going to ever get anything
done for God, must it not be done in the context of cooperation? Must we not first and foremost
cooperate with Christ and then cooperate with one another? Nothing
gets done in the kingdom apart from it. Listen to the language.
Listen to the language. We already heard in verse 8 that
they discovered that they had five loaves and two small fishes.
And then Jesus said in verse 10, Make the men, what? Sit down. Now there was much
grass in the place. So the men sat down and number
about how many? Listen, do you understand what
kind of work those disciples would just put into right there?
It's three o'clock in the evening and 5,000 men, 5,000 women, 3,000
children are in this place. with the disciples who are now
called upon to go through and make everybody sit down. Do you
know they have to receive those instructions by faith? A faith
that has to fight against their knowledge of the insufficiency
of the resources that they have? A faith that is limited to the
ongoing progressive revelation that Christ must bring to them
in the context of their obedience? because while they are sitting
these folks down in groups if they are walking and unbelief
you know what they are thinking we getting ready to be made fools
of because we're setting people down in 50s and we're setting
people down in hundreds because mark's gospel and luke's gospel
tells us they were to sit down in 50s groups of 50s and groups
of 100s Now take 10,000 people and separate them in groups of
50 and groups of 100. Do you see how long your task
is? Y'all sit over here. Y'all sit
over there. Y'all sit over here. Y'all sit
over there. But the point is cooperation
of leadership. These men did exactly what Jesus
told them to do. They were to take these people
and put them in an organized structure, set them down. position them in order for them
to experience the blessing that would take place. What you are
actually seeing in the obedience of the disciples is what I call
the deaconate of the gospel. Let me say that again. What you
are seeing in the obedience of the apostles, the ones who would
turn the world upside down, the ones who would speak and people
would be healed, the ones who would just just they would leaven
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world
with the power of the kingdom of God and transform everything.
The ones whom all people had to do was enter into their shadow
and they would be healed. These men who are about to enter
into the fullness of the power of the Holy Ghost in the ministry
of the word in a few months time are right now made to serve tables. Are you with me? See, this is
the diaconate of Christ that I was talking about. And this
is the majesty of what it means to be a minister. The Son of
Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister. And if the
men who are going to turn the world upside down and have their
names on the foundation of the new Jerusalem, were going to
succeed in their apostolic calling, they would first have to know
what it means to be a servant. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? To in obedience to Christ, take hungry people, needy people,
tired people, weary people, men, women, and children, noisy children,
crying babies, set them all down in faith. Waiting on Christ to
do what only Christ could do So what's the next point? I want
you to hear it. This is so critical. So the corporate cooperation
of leadership in the contents of our account is Demonstrating
for us the diaconate of the gospel in the life of the Apostles.
They are waiting tables for Christ and the food that they are about
to give these men and women is physical food Are you hearing me bread and
fish, human sustenance, just the everyday provender of life,
the things that you and I need to survive every day. These great
men are now occupying the office of minister to Christ as his
deacons. See, they had to be taught before
they could be good stewards of the gospel with regards to the
spiritual food, they had to be taught how to submit to that
earthly need that people in ministry have. They had to be taught that
in order for them to receive the true riches by which the
souls of men and women are nurtured and strengthened eternally, they
had to deal with the temporal riches first. This is why for
me, I require young men who want to move into the ministry and
be an elder and be a pastor to first be a deacon because I just
see that pattern in the scriptures with Christ. I see that in order
for you to be a really good elder, a really good pastor, you have
to know what it means to wash people's feet, to refresh the
souls of the saint, to give them a cup of water, to give them
a piece of bread, to meet human earthly needs. And by the way,
this concept of cooperation, the three and a half year ministry
that Jesus did, Jesus had those boys being deacons all through
that ministry. Hey, go over there and tell that man that we're
getting ready to come to have the Lord's table. Take away the stone so
I can speak to Lazarus to tell him to come out of the tomb.
I mean, you know, if you can speak to Lazarus to tell him
to come out of the tomb, you can speak to the stone to tell it
to move too. You better not say that to the master. Hey, I gotta take a walk through
Samaria and catch up with a lady that I need to preach the gospel
to. Y'all going down to the store and buy some bread. I'll meet
you over on the other end. See, the whole of the three and a
half year ministry was a ministry of diaconate. They were deacons. They were deacons for Christ. Isn't that a glorious task? Do
you know when you get into this place of being elder, you'll
be glad to go back to being deacons? When all you got to do is feed
people because when you get into the more spiritual stuff, it
gets even more sticky But our lord is about to teach us a nut
another glorious truth I guess it's in point number six if this
is in your outline the organizational structure for effective ministry
John chapter 6 mark chapter 6. Let's try mark chapter 6 verse
39 and 40. I want you to see something It's
already in your outline, but I want you to see this I want
you to take this away as a principle and a model for ministry. That's
critical Mark's gospel chapter 6. Here's what it says in verse
39 and 40 as I watched our Lord instruct the disciples to do
what they did I see that he was setting up something that would
be a picture and a foreshadow of things to come verse 37 give
ye them to eat verse 38 he said unto them how many loaves have
you go and see and when they knew what they had they He commanded
them, verse 39, to make them all sit down in companies upon
the green grass, and they sat down in ranks by hundreds and
by fifties. You see that? I submit to you
that what you see is a foreshadow of local churches all over the
world being established by all the apostles. Now, I know in
our American churches and some of our European churches, but
certainly in our American churches, we get so big that we don't think
of local churches in terms of 50s anymore. But you should perish
the thought. Some of our best churches around
the world only have 50 people in them. And all around the world,
God's sheep are scattered in small folds, small folds. small foals and there is something
worth expanding on and developing in terms of the strategy of Christ
to have the disciples to set them down in fifties and in hundreds
as opposed to in the mass number of the tens of thousands as they
were now I guess it would be alright for us in the number
size that we have if we were sitting together in a meal a
meal that would take place by the hand of the ministers the
deacons the elders by the command of Christ and we would all enjoy
it but not like you would in smaller pockets of groups of
people with whom you have some commonality where God in his
own special prerogative is ready to bless you as a small group
with his presence and his power and the sufficiency the all sufficiency
of his grace so that you together can enjoy it in a much fuller
way than it would be with the aggregate whole. Are you guys
hearing what I'm saying? Listen to the account. The implication
is profound. Verse 41 and verse 42 of Mark
chapter 6. And when he had taken five loaves
and two fishes and looked up to heaven and blessed them and
broke the loaves and gave to his disciples to set before them
and the two fishes divided he among them all. Is that crazy
or what? Listen to it. Listen to the process.
When he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, that's a
point in itself, is it not? Give Christ what you have. And
then he looked up to heaven and he blessed it and broke the loaves.
That's the point. Ask God to bless your gifts.
And then he gave to the disciples to set before them. He's going
to take what you gave to him after blessing it, give it back
to you. so you can give it to the people. So every gift that
you have by which you want to bless the souls of men, you must
give it to Christ acknowledging your insufficiency and the insufficiency
of that gift in order for him to bless that gift so that that
gift might be completely adequate and sufficient for the needs
of the people. That's the only way ministry
gets done right. Lord take what I have bless it
so that when I give it to your people, they will be blessed
by it Do you guys see that? Listen to what it says. Here's
the miracle. Here's the miracle that take place And he gave it
to the disciples and set before them and the two fishes he divided
among them all and they did eat all and were what Phil That's
a doctrine all by itself, isn't it? That statement confirms the
teaching of the Old Testament and the New Testament. It fulfills
all that was anticipated in the old, brought to reality in the
new. The typical and the shadowy and the representative and the
ceremony that could never fill your heart is only filled by
Christ, who is the administrator and mediator of the new covenant.
See we are talking about new covenant blessings here. We're
talking about the grace of god being poured out in the life
of god's people We are talking point number seven the supernatural
work of grace in the church. Am I not? We're talking about
blessing our insufficiency god having to bless our insufficiency
in that in blessing our insufficiency and our inadequacy it becomes
adequate and sufficient as a blessing to others the disciples knew
full well that what they were doing was impossible. Christ knew full well, now watch
this, that he was able to meet every need in that place. And
your outline then, point number eight, the blessing of Christ
and the work of feeding souls. Do you see that? The blessing
of Christ and the work of feeding souls. the blessing of Christ
in the work of feeding souls. I was talking to our elders and
our deacons and our men yesterday. This is where we want to be right
here. We want to be in the will of
God in such a way that our ministry to anybody at any time is an
actual blessing to their soul. I don't want to do any ministry
that does not bless people's souls. And therefore, I don't
want to do any ministry that is rooted in my own inadequacy,
in my own weakness, in my own power, in my own flesh, that
is not first acknowledged as weakness and sin and insufficiency,
and therefore given to Christ. And pray, Lord, bless this two
little loaves and few fishes that we are about to feed these
people. Bless it, Lord, because here, watch this. I know that
you are able, to make all grace abound, so that in all things
there is all sufficiency for all the people of God to do all
the work that they're called to do. The operative word, all. God is an all-sufficient Savior,
is he not? And is he not able to make all
grace abound? Is he not able to give us everything
necessary for life and godliness? Is he not able to cause everything
for which we think or ask to be fulfilled super abundantly
above anything we could even imagine. Isn't he able to do
that? If he's able to make you stand as a minister of the gospel,
if he's able to present you faultless before the presence of his glory,
if he's able to take you out of darkness and bring you into
his marvelous light, if he's able to take a hell-bound sinner
like you and me and make us the very righteousness of God in
Christ, If God is able to deliver our souls from death and hell
and damnation, isn't he able to use us to minister to the
well-being of men and women? I believe he's the God of the
Old Testament, don't you? You remember Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego? Do you know how come they were so happy when they
were getting ready to be thrown into the fiery furnace? Because they
knew the God that was what? Abel! He says, Neb! That's the ghetto version of
Nebuchadnezzar for some of you. Neb! Listen, we know how bad
you are. In fact, God told us a hundred
years ago that you were coming down. In fact, you are God's
servant. We know that. You're God's servant. And you're scaring
up to death about, you know, if we don't bow down and worship
this God, you're going to throw us into this fire. But I just want
to let you know that the God that we serve is able to deliver
us from this fire. This is the reason you don't
see us sweating. Those boys were bad, weren't
they bad? We're not sweating because we know that God is able
to deliver us. Isn't that good? God's able to
do it. And see, that's an aspect of faith where your faith has
been strengthened by the work of God in your life over and
over and over again. And as I say it all the time,
to the degree that you come to know the nature and character,
the attributes, the person, the work of God Almighty, to that
degree, your faith will be able to operate because your faith
is no stronger than your knowledge of the character, nature, attributes,
and power and work of God. I know that God is able he's
able to do everything exceedingly abundantly above all that I ask
or think Then I don't really have a problem about of God giving
me an imperative or a commandment To do something and then him
also giving me the grace to do it The only thing I have to do
is hear the echo of Christ in Matthew's gospel When the folks
came to him as a couple blind men come knocking on the door
Jesus open the door they came in and say master We would have
our sight. Now, that's a major miracle,
isn't it? Do you know what Jesus said? Now, do you fellas believe
that I'm able to do it? Do you know what they said? Yeah,
we believe you're able to do it. And he says, so be it according
to your faith. The ability of Christ to get
the work done is the confidence that we have that it will get
done. The recognition of the insufficiency in our own life
is the basis upon the sincere need to look to Christ to get
it done. The privilege, ladies and gentlemen,
which moves me to my last couple of points, the privilege of us
being part of the ministry of Christ and the cause of the gospel
is that Jesus Christ works in us the will and to do of his
good pleasure. Points number 9 and 10 quickly.
The combination of spiritual oversight practical needs equals
compassion the combination of spiritual
oversight and practical needs equals compassion the text proves
that Christ had the spiritual oversight the people had the
practical need the master declared that he had what on them compassion
and he met that need through his people the combination of,
watch this, spiritual oversight and practical needs equals compassion. When you and I realize that we
have been given gifts from God for the purpose of the ministry
and then God has given us opportunity to deal with people in need,
the only thing we are looking for now is the compassion of
Christ. That will be the basis, the premise,
the energy, the impetus that drives us to do what we're called
to do. Because we already have the methodology, don't we? Give
our insufficiency to him, ask him to bless it, then let him
give it back to us, and then we give it to the people, right?
And watch God work. Saints, haven't we learned that
over 16 years? Haven't we seen God do just that for us over
16 years? Just demonstrate his faithfulness
in our life. Finally, number 10, as we get
ready to do our installation. the satisfaction of the gospel
ministry in the souls of men. I just want to say this for the
record. The hungry soul, blessed by God, awakening them to their
need of Christ, then feeding that hungry soul with the manna
that is from heaven, which is Jesus Christ himself, the true
bread that gives life to the world, that hungry soul is blessed. You are blessed when you come
to see your need of Christ. And you are blessed when you
find in Jesus Christ all your soul's satisfaction. For us,
the bread of life is Christ. For us, the bread of life is
Christ. And when I say the bread of life,
I am talking about every need. The word bread is a very generic
term. I need the bread of Christ's
righteousness. I need the bread of Christ justifying
grace. I need the bread of communion
and fellowship with my Savior. I need the bread of his atoning
work on Calvary Street. I need the bread of the efficacious
blood of Christ. I need the bread of his Holy
Spirit to give me counsel, to correct me and to comfort me.
I need the bread of God's decrees and God's promises and God's
purposes and God's plan. I need the bread of the word
of life to let me know that all God has purposed for me, he will
do. Here's what I'm saying. I really
want to experience Christ. just as much as a human being
experiences physical breath, I want to be full, satiated,
and happy with a full belly of everything that Christ is for
a sinner. And if you are hungry, if you
are hungry, if you are really hungry in your soul, let me tell
you, if I don't have 600, 700 witnesses in here right now,
Christ will fill your need. Christ will fill your need. If you hunger and thirst for
righteousness, he will fill your need. If you hunger and thirst
for the glory of God, he will fill your need. If you are hungry
for God, Christ will meet your need. And he will meet your need
through the body, which is his church, by which he meets the
needs of men and women. He will meet your need. Isn't
He a good Savior?