Mark chapter 6. I will begin reading in verse 30
and read through verse 44. And the apostles gathered themselves
together unto Jesus and told him all things, both what they
had done and what they had taught. And he said unto them, come ye
yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a while. For there were many coming and
going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. And they departed
into a desert place by ship privately. And the people saw them departing,
and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and
out went them, and came together unto him. And Jesus, when he
came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward
them. because they were a sheep not
having a shepherd. And he began to teach them many
things. And when the day was now far
spent, his disciples came unto him and said, this is a desert
place, and now the time is far past. Send them away, that they
may go into the country round about and into the villages and
buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat. He answered
and said unto them, give ye them to eat. And they say unto him,
shall we go and buy 200 penny worth of bread and give them
to eat? He saith unto them, how many loaves have you? Go and
see. And when they knew, they say,
five and two fishes. And he commanded them to make
all sit down by companies upon the green grass. And they sat
down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties. And when he had taken
the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven and blessed
and break the loaves and gave to his disciples to set before
them. And the two fishes divided he
among them all. And they did all eat and were
filled. And they took up 12 baskets full
of the fragments and of the fishes. And they that did eat of the
loaves were about 5,000 men. I want you to notice that the
passage that we are looking at today begins with the statement
that the apostles returned from their first mission. He had sent
them out. We looked at this, I believe,
two weeks ago on their first mission to preach the gospel.
They return, verse 30, and the apostles, the 12 apostles, gathered
themselves together unto Jesus and told him all things, both
what they had done and what they had taught. This text should
be a reminder to all who preach the gospel that we, too, one
day must give an account for our ministries. In Hebrews chapter
13 and verse 17, the apostles said, obey them that have the
rule over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls
as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy
and not with grief, for that is unprofitable unto you. All of those that God calls and
puts into the ministry, we need to be reminded that one day we
will give an account for what we have done and what we have
said, what we have taught. And it is required, the Apostle
Paul said, that those who are made stewards of the mysteries
of God, that is the gospel, that a man must be faithful. Doesn't
say he must be successful according to the world's standards or anything
like that, but he must be faithful. He must be faithful to God who
called him, must be faithful to preach the word of God that
God has commanded us to preach. Next we see that the Lord had
these 12 apostles to depart by ship to a secluded place away
from the crowd The scripture here says that they might rest
a while. Verse 31, and he said unto them,
come you yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a while. Now the people saw them as they
departed by ship and they went by land and out ran the Lord
Jesus Christ and his apostles, so that when they came out of
the ship, they saw a multitude of people, saw much people. They had gone to an area called
Bethsaida, and the reason it took longer, took hours by ship
to sail to this place, and these people could outrun them or outwalk
them on foot was because they had to sail around the point
of the lake. They come into that part of the
lake where the Jordan on the east side, where the Jordan,
the river Jordan, flowed in to the lake. We cannot miss or we should not
miss this. Last week, we looked at that
passage of scripture where Herod's birthday, they had a great feast. and that great feast ended in
murder. And this passage we are looking
at today, we see a great feast also of bread and fish that the
Lord supplied the multitude and it did show forth his glory. I want to divide my message into
three parts. First, I want us to look at the
miracle itself, the miracle itself, and then second, I want us to
observe from the account that is given here of this miracle
several things, several observations from the account of this miracle. And then third, this morning,
I have some questions. I'd like to end the message with
several questions to you and to me from this passage of scripture. First, the miracle itself. The place, the place of the miracle. You notice we've read several
times that it is called a desert place. When you think of a desert
place, if you were like me, normally you would not associate green
grass with a desert place. And yet that's what we read in
verse 39 when he had them set down. and he commanded them to
make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. The word that is translated desert
place is the same word which is translated wilderness in many
places. For instance, when the scripture
says, in those days came John the Baptist preaching in the
wilderness of Judea. Now the meaning of the word,
the primary meaning of the word according to Strong's Concordance
means lonesome. Lonesome. Translated here, desert
place. Translated in many places, wilderness. The New American Standard Bible
translates this text, a lonely place. A lonely place. And the reason it was a lonely
place because there were not many inhabitants around this
place. It was a place little cultivated
where there were few or no inhabitants. Now the grass being green at
this time of the year, it wasn't always green. We look out at
the grass in your yard and in your neighborhood. Not many yards
of grain right now. Why? Because we're in the wintertime.
But in the spring, just a few weeks now, it will be grain. And so it was at that time of
the year when the Lord worked this miracle. And we know that
by John's account of this miracle, when he says, it was nigh unto
the Passover. Now the Passover feast, of course,
was in the spring of the year. So the place of the miracle,
a desert place, a lonely place, if you please. A place that was
not that much inhabited or cultivated. Now the second thing, the importance
of this miracle. The first miracle that the Lord
Jesus Christ wrought when he became flesh and came into this
world, we know the scripture says he turned water into wine. And at that time, the Apostle
John, he's the only one who records that miracle, but he tells us
that it manifested forth his glory. When the Lord turned the
water into wine, that miracle manifested forth his glory. That is the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I'm convinced that all of
these miracles, they all had the same purpose. That was the
purpose of all of the miracles. to manifest forth His glory,
and John also says, and His disciples believed on Him. To manifest
forth His glory, so the Lord wrought these miracles, and that
those who are His disciples, that we might believe upon Him. When John said that the miracle
manifested forth His glory, I'm reminded of what he wrote in
the first chapter of his gospel when he said, the word was made
flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory as of the
only begotten of the father. The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ,
his glory. He is the glory of God. We saw
that a few weeks ago on Sunday night in Isaiah chapter 40, when
the promise was the glory of the Lord shall appear. And the
glory of the Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God's glory. The importance of this miracle
is seen in the fact that it is the only miracle. Now, how many
miracles did the Lord Jesus Christ work? We don't know, do we? We
know there were many, but think about it. This is the only miracle
of all of his miracles that is recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John. It's the only miracle that is
recorded in all four of the gospel narratives. Not only that, the importance
of it is seen in that fact, but it was in many ways the most
public the most public of all of his miracles. And what I mean
by that, it was probably witnessed by the most people. Of all the
miracles which he wrought, this one was witnessed by more people
than any others. And many of his miracles, think
about this, many of his miracles were him healing or restoring
something that was was broken, something that was not working.
For example, he opened the ears, but he did not create ears upon
the heads of those people. Their ears were there, but they
were closed. And so he opened their ears that
they might hear. The same is true of the eyes.
The blind eyes he didn't create. They had eyes, the physical eyes
they had, But they were not working. They were blind. And he restored
them or opened the eyes of one man who was born blind. But the
eyes were already there. And the same thing concerning
those paralytics that he commanded to walk. Their legs were there.
They just did not function. They did not work. They were
crippled. And even, think about this, even
when He raised the dead, we know of three that He raised from
the dead, but their souls had departed. Their souls were there. He didn't create souls for their
bodies. The soul had left their bodies,
no doubt. The young girl, the young man,
Lazarus, their souls had left their bodies, but they didn't
cease to exist. They were no longer in the body.
That's what physical death is, isn't it? When the soul is separated
from the body, we call it death, but the soul continues in existence,
whether a man's saved or lost. The soul doesn't somehow cease
to exist. But this miracle, this miracle,
we see the Lord Jesus Christ multiplying, creating, creating,
if you please, that which had not existed before. So the miracle itself. Now, I
want us to see several observations from the account of this miracle. First of all, the Lord's compassion. That's the first thing that I
noticed. Verse 34. And Jesus, when he came out,
saw much people and was moved with compassion toward them. Much people meant there would
be no rest. They had gone aside that they
might rest. But much people meant that he
could forget about rest. And what does he do? What does
our Lord do? When he steps out of that ship
and sees the multitude, the much people, the scripture says, he
recognized his father's providence in giving him this opportunity,
and he was moved with compassion toward them. Now the word compassion,
compassion, means to suffer with. to suffer alongside of another. And this shows us that our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, that he has entered in to the sufferings
of his people. I want you to look in Hebrews chapter
five just a moment. Keep your places here, but in
Hebrews chapter five, The apostle tells us this about every high
priest, every high priest under the law
that was given on Mount Sinai. In Hebrews 5 and verse 1 we read,
For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men
in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts
and sacrifices for sins. Now notice, who can have compassion,
there's that word, the Lord Jesus Christ, when he saw the multitude,
he was moved with compassion. Who can have compassion on the
ignorant and on them that are out of the way, for that he himself
also is compassed with infirmity. An angel, an angel, a holy angel
could not serve as a high priest. Why? Because he could not have
compassion upon men. Every high priest had to be taken
from among men that he might have compassion on the ignorant
and on those who were out of the way. Mark tells us that he had compassion
toward them, and you notice he had compassion toward them because
the scripture says they were as sheep, not having a shepherd. Now, there's many things about
sheep that are instructional to us because we know that God's
people, His chosen people, are called His sheep. Sheep must,
get that word must, sheep must have a shepherd. There are many
animals that can exist without a shepherd. They can forage and
they can look for food and they have protection. That's the way
they were created by God. But a sheep is one animal that
was created by God that must have a shepherd. It's not optional
for sheep. They must have a shepherd. You know, a sheep gets their
wool can grow so much that they fall over on their backs. They can't set themselves upright
again. They have no ways of protecting
themselves. They have no offense like horns
and things like that that other animals have. And they're not
fast and running. Sheep, this is the reason, one
of the reasons God has chosen sheep to picture his people. We must have a shepherd. You, if you're going to get along
in this world, If you're going to see God and enjoy God forever,
you must have a shepherd. Sheep must have a shepherd. And there's only one good shepherd. There's only one good shepherd
who gave his life for his sheep. He didn't give his life for the
goats. He gave His life for His sheep, out of love, out of compassion
for them. When our Lord stepped out of
the ship that day and He saw these people, the multitude,
the first reaction, I won't say reaction, that's not a good word
when we speak about Christ. But His first action was compassion,
compassion. And the reason was because He
saw them as sheep not having a shepherd. Now listen, they
had shepherds. They had shepherds. These were
Jewish people, just the common people of that day, the Jews
of that nation. They had shepherds. But you know,
they had shepherds like are described in the book of Ezekiel. Thus
saith the Lord God unto the shepherds of Israel, woe be to the shepherds
of Israel that do feed themselves. Oh, they had shepherds, the scribes
and the Pharisees and the priest of that day. They had shepherds,
but they took care of themselves. They fed themselves. Should not the shepherds feed
the flocks? That was the purpose of the shepherds,
to feed the flocks. They were feeding themselves.
He said, you eat the fat and you clothe you with the wool.
You kill them that are fed, but you feed not the flock. Our Lord had compassion on them
because they were sheep not having a shepherd. Sheep must have a
shepherd. As I said, they had shepherds,
but they were shepherds of no value. When you read Matthew
chapter 23 sometime, you see how the Lord Jesus Christ pronounced
woe after woe after woe upon those who would be considered
shepherds. And one of them, he said, woe
unto you hypocrites. For you devour widows' houses."
In other words, rather than care for the poor and rather than
teach the poor, they were enriching themselves. We see that going
on many times today, don't we? Men who call themselves preachers,
more interested in what's in it for me. What's in it for me? That's the reason many times
they look at one church as just a stepping stone to a bigger
church, to a bigger church, to a bigger church. Always looking
to promote themselves. Always seeking their own self
aggrandizement. These were people as sheep not
having a shepherd. What did the Lord do? He had
compassion. You know, it's one thing to have
compassion, but compassion must result in action. Part of compassion
is pity. One thing to see something and
have pity, but how does it influence us? What does it cause us to
do? If we truly have compassion, how did the Lord show his compassion? He taught them. He taught them
is what the scripture says. He began to teach them many things. And in Luke's account of this
miracle, we read, he spoke unto them of the kingdom of God. In
other words, he began to teach them and preach to them the gospel,
the message of the kingdom of God. So that's the first thing I point
out to us. That's my first observation about
this miracle. Do we not see our blessed savior?
Does it not cause us to love him more? To appreciate him more? This one who all things are his
and yet he came into this world as a man to be our shepherd,
to have compassion upon us. You say, well, he's no longer
here. No, he's not, but he has his shepherds in this world that
he has given, that he's called to shepherd his sheep. The second thing that I point
out, my second observation, the disciples' faith is tested in
verse 37. He answered and said unto them,
because they had come and they had said, send them away. It's
getting late in the day and they don't have any food, they don't
have anything to eat, just send them away so maybe they can go
into the villages roundabout and buy themselves something
to eat. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
give you them to eat. Give you them to eat. Now, did
he expect, did the Lord Jesus Christ expect his disciples to
provide food for this multitude of people? Well, in John's gospel,
when he speaks of this miracle, he only mentions one of these
apostles, but he tells us that he said this to prove him. Give you them to eat. He said
this to these apostles to prove them. For John says he knew what
he would do. He knew what he would do. He
was going to feed all of these people, yes. But he told them,
you give them food to eat to prove them. He had sent them out just previously
without anything. Remember he told them, don't
take anything. Don't take a purse, don't take
any money, don't take any food. You just go forth preaching and
your needs will be supplied. And when they came back, they
said unto him, we didn't lack anything. Everything we needed
was supplied. Okay, you can do that for 12,
But now you must recognize this one who you now call your master,
he has the power not only to take care of the needs of 12
men, but these thousands of people. They needed to recognize that
this one, their master, the Lord Jesus Christ, As God, He had
fed not 5,000 men, but over two, now listen to me, over two million
peoples, not one meal, but meals for 40 years. Same God, He's now manifest in
the flesh. But He is the one who fed Israel
as they went through that wilderness. You need to recognize that. Is
there anything too hard for the Lord? If it's 12 men, 5,000 men,
50,000 men, one male, 40 years, is there anything too hard for
Him? You give them. to eat. I say he's proving their
faith. They trusted him for their provisions
as long as they were out preaching the gospel, but now can you trust
me to feed these thousands of people? The third observation
is The Lord used that which can only be described. I mean, there's
no other way to describe this. Five loaves of bread, which were
not these big loaves, you know, you see sometimes on TV, maybe
a party, they've made a sandwich that reaches all the way across. And even if it were a loaf of
bread like that, What is that? Five of those among 5,000 men. Nothing. But these were five
very small loaves, and these fish, too, and all the writers
point this out, they were small fishes. And the apostles, they
reasoned like this. What are they among so many? These fish meant that they were
what we would call sardines. You know how large a sardine
is? Not very big. They come in that little old
can about that size. That's the kind of fish we're
talking about. But if it had been a whale, like
swallowed Jonah, what is that among 5,000 men? But the truth
of the matter is the Lord Jesus Christ He always uses what the
world calls little things, little things, insignificant things. There was a little maid that
was taken captive into Syria. And she told her mistress, what
do God, our master was in Israel. There's a prophet over there.
who would restore him of his leprosy. Just a little lay, just
a few words and yet God used that to bring that great general
of the army of Syria into Israel to stand before Elisha for him
to send him down to the river Jordan and duck yourself seven
times. And when he did, that little
voice from that little maid resulted in him coming up. His flesh was
as a baby's flesh. The leprosy was all gone. How big do you think that stone
was at David? He picked up five stones out
of the brook. Put them in his bag. Goes out
to meet the giant Goliath. How big do you think that stone
was he put in that slain? It wasn't some big rock or boulder. It was a small stone, no doubt.
And God directed that stone so it did exactly what God had purposed,
and that was to destroy the giant Goliath. That prophet Elijah,
when he went over into Seraphoth, And he found that, God told him,
said, I've provided a widow there that's going to take care of
you. And I've often thought about that. Do you think Elijah thought,
you know, that widow's probably a wealthy woman. She's probably
got a bank account, has so many zeros behind it. She's going
to take care of me. God told me he's provided a widow
there's going to take care of me. And lo and behold, it goes
over there, and there's a widow woman out there, and what is
she doing? She's gathering up just a few
sticks. She didn't have much need of
many sticks, much firewood. Why? Because she had just a little
meal and a little oil in the cruise. And with that, she was
fixing a piece of bread for her and her son rather to eat and
die. That's her, Elijah. And God provided
three and a half years for Elijah, for the widow woman and her son. While all the other part of the
world was in a drought, just that little bit of meal and that
little oil in the cruise, God provided. God takes little things
to do his work, that way he gets the glory. I read just this morning,
actually, Thomas Brooks. He made this comment. He said,
when all the power comes from God, then all the glory must
go to God. Amen? When God takes a little
something, a nothing, and does his work, uses it for his glory,
all the power, all the strength, all the ability comes from God,
then he must receive all the glory. This fourth observation, Jesus
took, the scripture says, he took, he blessed, he break, and
he gave. And that's the way the Lord works
with his own. First of all, he took. He takes, he calls out his people. He calls one, and he blesses,
blesses us in knowing our brokenness, our inability. By nature, we're
all so proud and haughty, and most of us have no idea, as Solomon
said, of the plague of our own heart. We can see other men,
we can see the plague of their hearts, yes. How wicked they
are, how sinful they are, how needy they are of a Savior. But
it's only when the Lord takes us and blesses us and shows us
our need. It's me, oh Lord. I'm the one
who needs a Savior. That's the way God deals with
His people. And then he gives, he took, he blessed, he broke,
and he gave. He calls us, he saves us, and
he gives us, not to serve ourselves, but rather to serve him. Now,
I said I have some questions for us. Number one. Have we learned that this world
is often a lonely place for the child of God? That's where they
went. They went to this desert place.
I told you the primary meaning, a lonely place. Have we learned
by experience that this world is not a friend of grace? This
is not our home. We're in a wilderness. That word
translated sometimes wilderness. And we are in a wilderness as
long as we are in this world. The Israelites, the Israelites,
they went into the wilderness of sin, S-I-N. Do you know what that word sin
means? It means thorns, thorns. And that's what a child of God
finds in this world. It is a world of thorns. Have you found that? Have you
found that to be true? There are many times those of
your household, those that are closest to you as far as blood
relations, are those that receive you and have the
less respect for you, the less use for you. Our Lord said, you'll
find that they will be your enemies, those of your own household.
Why? Because the gospel separates. It separates. A second question I would ask
us, what is our conduct when our plans are frustrated? The Lord said, let's go there
that we may rest. Well, as soon as he comes out
of that ship, forget about rest. And many times we make our plans
for what we're going to do, and then all of a sudden they're
blown up. What's our reaction? Is it passion or compassion? Which is it? I speak for myself. I find it's mainly passion. Why
did this happen? I had planned to do this. That's
all out the window now. Number three, how is it when
our faith is tested? We can trust God for the big
things, we say we can. We can trust him to save our
souls. We can trust him for eternity,
but then some small thing, happens, and our faith, where is it? Where
is it? It's gone. How we need to pray as the disciples
prayed, Lord, increase our faith. Number four, do we know that
God is able to use us for his glory, though we feel in ourselves,
and we should, how little, how insignificant we really are.
But yet, that's no hindrance for God to use us. And number
five, lastly, are we by his grace this morning able to pray, Lord,
take me, just like you took those loaves and those two fish. Take me, bless me, break me,
and give me out. to the people, to be used to
serve thy people. I pray that the Lord would bless
his word to all of us here today. I want us to sing, Break Thou the
Bread of Life, number 176. We'll stand as we sing number
176.