Mark 2022

I'm gonna have our our reading now. So if you'd like to turn with me, in your bibles to mark chapter 6. I'm gonna be starting at verse 30 onto 52. So March up to 6, first 30. The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.

Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat. He said to them, Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving, recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them.

Because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So we began teaching them many things. By this time, it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. This is a remote place they said, and it's already very late. Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.

But he answered, you give them something to eat. They said to him, that would take more than half a year's wages. A way to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat? How many loews do you have he asked? Go and see.

Where they found out they said 5 and 2 fish. Then Jesus told them to make all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties, taking the 5 loaves and the 2 fish and looking up to heaven. He gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people.

He also divided the 2 fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was 5000. Immediately, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Besseida while he dismissed the crowds. After leaving them, he went up a mountain side to pray.

Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn, he went out to them walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost They cried out because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately, he spoke to them and said, take courage.

It's his eye. Don't be afraid. Then he climbed into the boat with them and the wind died down. They were completely amazed that they had not understood about the loaves Their hearts were hardened, Tom. Thanks for reading that to us, Rory, and welcome.

Good morning. It's lovely to have you here. My name is Tom Sweetman. I'm 1 of the pastors here. And welcome to you in the room if you're joining online.

This sounds a little echoey. Is it? Does it to you? No. Sounds right.

Welcome as well if you've if you've come up with family and friends because you are going to 1 of those marked drama performances later on. I was there yesterday evening and it we should be encouraged as a church. It really was superb. The team did a great job The atmosphere was brilliant. It's a lovely venue in which to have the Mark drama and it was just a pleasure to be part of.

Really and to see all of that hard work come to fruition and to see such a compelling and clear picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Shining through through Mark's gospel. I just thought, and hopefully, you won't mind this if you're in the production. If you would just stand up right now, if you're actually part of it, you're in the Mark drama just so the rest of us can see who's here this morning and who's part of it. So if you wanna know more about the Mark drama, there's Chris Bradshaw, Aliyah there.

Then you can go and speak to 1 of these guys after the after the service, find out why they chose to do it. And this is a bit of a spoiler. But if you want to see a really compelling picture of what a faricy is like, look out for Rachel Davis. I mean, she I mean, she's got all the viciousness and and the SaaS of a of a fallacy and did it so well, but they were all really brilliant. So do sit down.

Thank you. And as Rory said in his notice, It's a great venue, but the parking is difficult. So do give yourself plenty of time. I spoke to 1 person last night who'd had to park you know, the best part of a kilometer away down by a park. Now you should hopefully do a little bit better than that, but do leave yourself plenty of times so you can get there so they can start on on time.

And 1 of the scenes which is just so terrific in the Mark drama is the feeding of the 5000 which we're going to look at together. So let's take a moment to pray and ask the lord to help us. I'll just give you a moment quietly. As we come to God's words, it is a bustle and a hurry, sometime Sunday mornings. And there might be all kinds of things competing for your attention at the moment.

So Just take a moment quietly and ask that the lord would prepare your heart to speak to you this morning. Fathers, the lord Jesus taught us in this gospel. We are we recognize that whenever we come to your life giving words, there can be the thorns of this world trying to choke it out of our hearts. And the anxieties of this life and the desires for other things can prevent us seeing the light of your truth. And all of us in 1 way or another will come here with things that we are worried about things that we're anxious about, and lord Satan would would want to just capitalize on those things.

To cause them to stop us listening to the life giving words that are here. And so we pray holy spirit that you would cut away those Thorns even now and that you would give us ears to hear your words. We want to see Jesus. And we thank you for how these wonderful miracles teach us so much about him and what it means to follow him And to some here, this miracle will be very familiar, but perhaps others are coming to it for the first time. But wherever we stand in relation to this story.

Please help us not to assume that we know it all, but give us humble and receptive hearts and we pray in Jesus name. 1 of the classic doctrines that the church has wanted to defend over the years is what people call the Assaity of God, which simply means that God is from himself He is from himself, and in other words, that means he needs nothing else. He is not like the pagan gods of the old testament, which needed to be built and looked after and have their needs met by human hands. He is not like some of the pagan gods that we might worship today, which need to be charged up and downloaded and modified and in a way served by human hands. He's not like them.

He is from himself. In order for our God to live, and to exist and to create, he depends on nothing. As Paul says, who has ever given to God that god should repay him. For from him and through him and to him are all things. He needs nothing other than himself.

But like all doctrines, that can go wrong and it can take us to a dangerous place if we either mishear it or misapply it in our lives. And so 1 way to go wrong now would be to say, Well, if god doesn't need us, if he is from himself, then we don't really matter to him. How could we? We're just an extra he has all he needs in himself. All people might say, well, if God is independent of us, Therefore, there's no real way can we can relate to him because he doesn't need that relationship.

There's a sense in which he gets nothing from it. So all this talk that Christians use about a relationship with God, well, it's not really real because he he's independent, he's from himself, he needs nothing. But the scriptures would totally deny that way of applying the authority of God. Yes, he is from himself and he needs nothing to create from him and to him are all things. But that is not how the bible talks about our relationship with this all sufficient God.

And when you come to passages like this 1 in Mark chapter 6, you just see that those really would be wrong ways to take that doctrine. That Jesus in this chapter Mark wants us to know is the uncreated from himself Lord, God, breaking bread in the wilderness, passing before his people in the storm, That is old testament, yay, god language. And therefore, in order for him to feed, 5 or 10 or 15 or 20000 people if you include all men, women, and children. He needs no help. He needs no help to do that.

In verse 41, whose hands are the bread multiplied in. His hands. That's right. In his hands, no 1 else's. And yet look, how involved the disciples are in this miracle.

They make the people sit down verse 39. They take the food around verse 41. They go for the leftovers verse 43. God is for himself He doesn't need them to supply what these crowds need. But the 12 are right at the heart of his ministry.

He involves them in every aspect of it. And we saw this last week when Jesus sends out the 12. To preach and to heal the sick and to drive out demons. Remember we looked at that. He sends out the 12 And at this stage, they are miles from being the finished product.

Miles even at the end of this passage, if you look at verse 51, The disciples were completely amazed at what had happened for they had not understood about the loaves. Their hearts were hardened. So even here, they have got so much to learn and yet they are sent out not because Jesus needs them, but because he wants them at the heart of his ministry. He wants them to be involved, the from himself God who needs nothing, wants them in relationship at the beating heart of his purposes. For the world.

And so the question to set things up this morning, this is kind of the way we're gonna look at it. Is this. If Jesus is God and he can do anything, why does he involve them and are so much? And specifically, what does he want the disciples and us to learn from this miracle? What does he want us to learn from this miracle about himself and about the work of Christian ministry?

And when I use the phrase ministry from now on. I don't mean in a kind of paid professional sense, but the sort of discipleship ministry that we are all called to. What does he want us to learn about himself and about ministry from this miracle of the many things that we could look at. We're going to just look at these 2. He wants them to learn that rest is crucial and that ministry is full time.

Rest is crucial. And ministry is full time. Let's look at the first of those. Rest is crucial, and we'll start in verse 30. And if you were at the reaching, healing, demon banishing tour, and they are simply bursting to tell Jesus all that they have done and taught.

You see that in verse 30? They want to tell him what they have done, the miracles that they've seen performed in his name. And what they taught to accompany those miracles. And you can imagine them in their twos gathering round. I mean, it's so good in the Mark Trauma.

You know, they they are just desperate to tell Jesus about that little boy who had the demon banished from him at the name of Jesus. They wanna tell him about that aging woman they met who was dying of cancer and yet at the name of Jesus, she was healed. They wanna tell him about those whole towns who showed hospitality to the Apostle's word. They received them, they repented and was saved. And they also want to soberly tell him about those villages who refused Jesus, those ones they had to leave behind.

In judgment. They are excited. They are exhausted. They need to catch up to eat and to download to Jesus. About all that they have done.

That's the vibe. And so Jesus says to them, verse 31, come with me by yourselves. To a quiet place and get some rest. And so they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. And so far in mark, this solitary place has been a time of testing when Jesus went out into the wilderness, a time of hearing the word of God because that's where John the Baptist came from.

And this wilderness then is bringing to mind those ideas. There's testing, but there's also a time of hearing from God This is a time for them to gain strength and to refresh for their ministry. And at this point in the story, it's not just the disciples. They all needs that. Jesus needs that.

He needs to rest. If you turn to Matthew 14 with me, if you've got a bible, You can either flick there on your phone or if you've got a bible. Turn to Matthew 14 and go to verse 12. Here's another version of last week's story. You remember last week we saw that John The Baptist, because he would not stop preaching repentance to King Hereford, in the end lost his head for the message.

And then this is what we read in Matthew's account verse 12. His disciples came and took John's body and buried it, then they went and told Jesus, when Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. So can you sense the mood John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus Christ, his childhood friend who he grew up with, has just had his head removed for preaching the message of the kingdom, which Jesus is about. The disciples have come back just overwhelmed with all that they have seen and done and they need some time to download and rest. Right now, what they all need is to rest and to recharge with God together.

And especially, it looks like Jesus. Who perhaps wanted to go with them but also spend some time alone so that he could grieve about what happened to John. So that he could rest to pray and so that he could prepare himself. The beheading of John the Baptist was a clear message to Jesus wasn't it. If you carry on doing what he did, then you you you you are gonna lose your life as well.

And so this is the God who is from himself that is revealed to us in mark. He needs nothing, but he needs to rest. And the disciples need to rest. And if that was true for them, it must be true for us. We saw back in Mark chapter 3 that Jesus Christ is the Sabbath rest that we need.

Our own efforts to get right with God never work and they are absolutely exhausting, aren't they? Don't you feel exhausted by trying to get right with God in your own strength? I know I do. When you've fallen into that, you wanna prove yourself, make God happy. It's exhausting.

It's exhausting living like that. And so Jesus says bring that sin to me. Get rid of that self righteousness. Rest in me. Rest in what I've done.

I'm gonna be your Sabbath. I'll be your rest. But rest is not just the language of salvation. It's the language of creation. We are made in the image of a god who works and who rests.

And therefore, it is good for us. It is part of our faith in this physical world to rest. And for some of us, that is very difficult. Very difficult. Instead of saying rest is important and ministry is full time.

We would rather read it. Rest is crucial, but ministry is full time. Rather than an end, we'd have a but, rest is important. We all know that, but ministry is full time. Yeah?

We all know rest is important. But the real business, the real work, the really spiritual ones in the kingdom They never take their boots off. They're working all the time. They're really spiritual ones. They never need to hear what Jesus says in verse 31 come away to a rest because they never need it.

They've always got their boot songs. That's a spiritual way to be. It's like those interviews, job interviews where you get that terrible question. What would you say is your biggest weakness? Have you ever been asked that?

And If you've ever spoken to people who sit on the panels interviewing people and they say what is your biggest weakness? 1 of the kind of pretend weaknesses that people will admit is that they just work too hard. You know, I've got a really bad habit. I just tend to give everything to the companies I'm part of. You know, I don't stop.

I hardly talk. It's really bad. I know I shouldn't. But I'm just so into work. And, you know, I know it's a weakness.

I'm sorry, you know. Funny, isn't it? We call it a weakness. What we mean is that's my greatest strength. That's a virtue.

And that's the sort of culture we are in. In many parts of society, the always available, always on 24 7 worker is a glamorous person. It's glamorized that sort of commitment to work. Rest is important, we say, but ministry is full time. That's glamorous.

Or we might have the idea that to rest in this life is what the slug art does. And therefore, what Jesus must mean in verse 31, contrary to what he actually says, What he must mean is, write that. We go again. I know you're grieving. And I know you're tired, but you know the motto.

Rest when you're dead. Yeah? Keep your boots on. We're going back. But of course, what he actually says in a time of grief and in a time of tiredness.

Is come away with me to a quiet place and get some rest. And I don't think that means going away on your own and doing literally nothing except reading the bible. But more like because you are a disciple made in the image of a resting god, you are to adopt this pattern in your life of work and rest. And therefore however it looks for you, there are times when we really must put down the mobile phone and we must close off the email accounts and we must say no to yet another thing so that you can rest. And maybe now if you're not this way inclined, you could you can sort of feel the protest bubbling up inside you.

Yeah. This is exactly the message that our culture does not need to hear. We are already a bunch of works I layabouts in this society. The last thing we need to do is to be told to we should jolly well be working harder. But you know, behind that is often an empty heart.

That just is still trying to prove itself. Look how needed I am in the kingdom. I must always be on. I must always be available because honestly, that's where I get my identity. I may not be able to do much.

But I can work more hours for Jesus than anybody else. And so Jesus, you rest if you want to. I'm not going to. Of course, there are slug yards around. That is a danger.

And no, this does not mean that we should take off take a year off from church and all who are in it. Because you notice what Jesus says here, is don't go for your own private retreat. He says, come away with me and with the disciples. Come away with the gathering. Come with the community of God and rest.

So to hear this as I'm gonna take a year off from all Christian people in my life and any place where I might be exposed of that would be so woefully to misapply it. They rest with the disciples. But this is a word for people who honestly are a little bit allergic to verse 31. To obey Jesus in this verse is a sign not of unbelief but of faith. That we are not god and the kingdom work will go on if we rest and that we are not above the 1, not more perfect than the 1, not more needed than the 1 who said come away with me.

And rest. Warren Withersbee, our bible commentator, he says, if you don't come apart and rest, eventually, you will come apart. Disciples need to learn that lesson. But they also need to learn that rest is crucial and ministry is full time. Because with all of that said, what happens to their time of rest?

It gets delayed. Verse 32, so they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognize them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. And people reckon that's about a 6 mile run k? So firstly, you have to admire their perseverance in doing that.

But also, you do wonder about their social intelligence. Thank you. I mean, I think lots of us, if we were wanting to hang out with someone and when they saw us approaching, went into a car and drove 6 miles in the opposite direction. We would get the hint. We would pick up maybe a not now vibe.

Of that sort of reaction to seeing us coming. Clearly, the disciples are thinking that, haven't they got the hint It's okay for us to go to the crowds, but for them to come to us, we're off duty now that they realize When we're sent out, well, that's 1 thing. But they can't decide just to come to us when we're supposed to be resting. First 35, by this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. This is a remote place they said, and it's already very late.

Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and by themselves something to eat. Basically, they're saying Jesus, if these people stay here, Nothing can be done for them. That's what they've decided. Warren Wojs being the same book describes a committee this way. A committee is a group of people who individually can do nothing and collectively decide that nothing can be done.

Then if you've ever sat on a committee or tried to lead a committee, like that, a group of people who individually can do nothing and collectively decide that nothing can be done. That's what this little committee looks like. There's too many people. It's late in the day There's not enough money. Jesus, individually, we can do nothing and collectively nothing can be done.

For as long as they stay here, they're hopeless. And it's fair enough, isn't it? I mean, you can imagine them saying, Look, Jesus, we are all upset about John. It's been a hard week, but let's not get distracted here. Let's not get derailed.

We're meant to be resting. We haven't even properly rested. These people are hungry. They need to get going. We need to get going.

We've set our out of office emails. We've turned our phones on to answer machine. We'll pick up their messages tomorrow. We'll get back to them. But look at Jesus.

First 34, when he saw the large crowd, he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And so he began teaching them many things. A time is coming when he will dismiss the crowds verse 45. Eventually, he will leave them and go to pray verse 46. But as he sees them there, waiting on the shore, he sees not an irritation but an aching need in front of him.

You might know that word compassion is very strong here. And it's really as if the needs of the people and the brokenness of the people is in his guts. Slightly feels it on a deep internal gut moving basis. These people have been left to wander the hills with no help and no food and no teaching for too long and tired as he is and up set as he is. He cannot ignore them.

And even if the disciples don't see it, What Jesus is about to do for these people is best not only for them the crowds. It will be best in the end for the disciples. Verse 39, then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the 5 loaves and the 2 fish and looking up to heaven.

He gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people He also divided the 2 fish among them all. They all ate and was satisfied. And again, the marked armor just gets this so right. It really conveys the idea that this mirror this scale of this miracle is breathtaking.

It is breathtaking. It would be like trying to feed this whole room with a crouton. In fact, I did actually think about bringing a crouton on a plate and passing it around just to see how far we would get. The the scale of it is stunning. 5 loaves and 2 fish really is not enough for the 12, let alone for the 20000 people in front of them, which, of course, is exactly the point, isn't it?

Who could make this work? 3 times verse 31, verse 32 and verse 35, we learn about the location. Mark is very keen to stress the location. We're in a quiet place, solitary place, remote place. It's actually all the same word, although it's translated differently there.

And it means wilderness. And so before we even get to the miracle, we've got the place in mind. Where are we when this happens? We're in a lonely, solitary, remote, wilderness kind of place, and that's an alarm bell. In verse 41, Jesus takes the food and looks up to heaven as if to say that's where it comes from.

This meal is from there. That's where it comes from, from heaven. And that's an alarm bell. So what have we got? We got a group of people in the desert being fed from heaven, by when in exodus, it's Yahweh.

And in the gospels, it's Jesus Christ, who is that lord. Now in verse 52, we told that the disciples just didn't understand this. Didn't make the connections that needed to be made. But the question is, what should we? What should they of?

Learned about Jesus and about ministry from this miracle. Well, firstly, they should have learned that everything depends on him. In verse 37, he says you give them something to eat. And the point is, Jesus, there is no way that we can. We haven't got the resources We haven't got the staff and we're not in the right place.

There's so many problems. We can't do it. Jesus says maybe not, but you have got me. And that is what they would have to remember after he was gone. If they measure what they can do just by what they've got, they will only see problems.

If they measure what they can do just by what they've got, they will only see problems. Jesus, we can't do it. But if they measure what they can do by the 1 who is with them, there will be opportunities all over the place. And what an important lesson for these men who would be leaders of the early church? They would have to stand up and lead God's people 1 day.

And if they were gonna be problem people, individually, we can do nothing collectively, nothing can be done. If they were going to just measure what they could do by what they had, they were not qualified to leave the church. They couldn't. They had to remember and base all of the early church ministry. They needed this lesson to see we mustn't measure what can be done by what we've got.

But what can be done by the 1 who is with us and is promised to be with us even to the end of the age. Isn't that encouraging? Then we often feel like that. How can I make a difference in my street? How can I make a difference with the people at my school gate?

How can I make a difference the people in the office? If I measure what I can do just by what I've got, I'll only see problems. I'll be a no I'll just be a no person. But if I measure what can be done by the 1 who is with me and the church who supports me and who is also out doing the same thing, well, there will be opportunities all over the place. But the big lesson for the day, what they should have learned is this.

Rest is crucial and ministry is full time. Rest is crucial and ministry is full time. You see if Jesus is God, he could have said to them. Don't worry, fellas. You get you go and have some rest.

I'll handle this. I'll handle this. If I can multiply the lobes in my hand, I can certainly sort out the distribution as well. I don't you you rest, and I'll take care of it. But instead, he involves them in the whole process start to finish.

Why does he do that? Why does he allow this interruption? Because he needs to show them that ministry is not a clock in clock out system, but a life of service. In this part of Mark's gospel, Mark want to wait, he is showing us who Jesus is and he is God and he is a servant. And then in the last part of Mark, he'll show us that this servant has come to serve by giving his life a ransom for many.

Jesus Christ is God and He is God the servant and ministry is to take that shape It is not to be a clock in clock out system because when you're dealing with people, as we all do, we are in the business of feeding people Their needs simply just don't shut down at 6 o'clock every evening and resurface at a convenient time. There are people everywhere all the time who need Jesus. And Mark is telling us that to follow him is to follow 1 who was among you as 1 who served. The lord Jesus Christ was driven, not by the amount of hours on his timesheet, but by the amount of needs on his doorstep. And we are, by God's grace, to adopt the same view.

Verse 34, when he saw a large crowd. What did he see? An irritation, a distraction, an opportunity to clock off? He had compassion on them. And if we can see it that way, the clock in clock out is replaced by aching need and glorious solution.

You see work and rest are really important categories, but they are not to enslave us. They are to help us to serve the people who need who need Jesus. Isn't that right? It cannot be a clock in clock out system. When there are so many needy people all around us.

I don't know if you've ever had that experience where you've been on a a plane or a train or a bus. And you've sat down by yourself and you have been looking forward to a time of just quiet. Headphones on book out. And then a person next to you, very rarely happens in London, to be honest. A person next to you decides they want to chat.

Okay? Now unless you are psychopathically extroverted, you don't look forward to that. Okay? But lot lots of people when the conversation comes, they're thinking, no. No.

No. No. No. No. No.

No. Yeah. What happened to my headphones? What happened to my book? I was meant to be writing sermon on reaching people, not actually having an opportunity to do it.

You know, that's that's what I wanted. Okay? And of course, it's not to say that whenever you're on public transport, you must always have that sort of conversation. But it is interesting, isn't it how these needs, these interrupt These desperate people present themselves to us as disciples all the time. And in verse 34, Jesus sees the large crowd and he had compassion on them.

And the disciples need to know this because to live this way is not only the right thing to do. It is the life in which they will be most happy. And that's really hit me this week. It's interesting at the end, isn't it, that they pick up 12 baskets And you think, well, who is that for? Who is that for?

I guess they weren't gonna chuck it all in the bin. And it doesn't actually say. But we already know that the crowd had had their fill and was satisfied. So who is all that for? Well, it could very well have been for them, couldn't it?

Jesus is showing them that when you give yourself to others, in this way, you will have more than you had before. 5 loaves and 2 fish is what you had. Look at what you've got now because you haven't seen it as a clock in clock out system. You've seen it as a life of compassionate service to the pit, just look at what you've got. In other words, When the love of Christ compels us in this way, we will be more satisfied, better rested, happier, and fuller.

Than we would have been if we just kept what we had. It's amazing, isn't it? To see how this god who needs nothing brings the 12 so intimately into this miracle. So that they can learn how much they need him and so that they can see that rest is crucial and that ministry his full time, may the lord help us to know it? Let's take a moment of quiet.

And then we'll pray together. Further, we thank you for showing us your son in this glorious miracle. We thank you that he is the 1. Who can break the bread and feed the hungry crowds that it is his word taught that brings life and guidance and salvation to those who need it. And Lord Jesus says those who follow you.

We pray that you'd help us not to think that we are more qualified, more important, and more needed in the kingdom than you are. We pray that you would help us to accept your kind instruction to us in verse 31, that however it looks in our lives and we'll all need to work it out, that we would have times where we come away with you with the church family and rest. And yet, Lord, we pray that that desire to rest would not become a bad master. We pray that you'd help us to remember that the crowds are always among us. That they are in desperate need of you.

And that by your grace, we would have the same sort of compassion which moved the lord Jesus towards them. And we ask it in his name, Ahmed.