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You can go ahead and open your
Bibles this morning. Mark chapter six, Mark chapter six, and we'll
be looking at verses seven through 52. We'll read these verses. We won't read all of them. We'll
skip parts of the portion about John the Baptist, but please
hear the word of the Lord from Mark chapter six, verses seven
through 52. And he called the 12 to himself
and began to send them out two by two and gave them power over
unclean spirits. He commanded them to take nothing
for the journey except a staff, no bag, no bread, no copper in
their money belts, but to wear sandals and not to put on two
tunics. Also, he said to them, in whatever
place you enter a house, stay there till you depart from that
place. And whoever will not receive you nor hear you when you depart
from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony
against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will
be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment
than for that city. So they went out and preached
that people should repent And they cast out many demons and
anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. And if
you'll skip down to verse 27. Here we have a section about
John the Baptist and we'll read really what happens in the end
of this story. Verse 27, immediately the king sent an executioner
and commanded his head, that is John the Baptist's head, to
be brought. And he went and beheaded him in prison, brought his head
on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to
her mother, that is Herodias, Herod's wife. When the disciples
heard of it, they came I should say, when his John the Baptist
disciples heard of it, they came and took away his corpse and
laid it in a tomb. Verse 30, then the apostles gathered
to Jesus and told him all things, both what they had done and what
they had taught. And he said to them, come aside
by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while. For there were
many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.
So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves.
But the multitude saw them departing, and many knew him and ran there
on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and
came together to them. And Jesus, when he came out,
saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them,
because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So he
began to teach them many things. When the day was now far spent,
his disciples came to him and said, this is a deserted place,
and already the hour is late. Send them away that they may
go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves
bread, for they have nothing to eat. But he, Christ, answered
and said to them, you give them something to eat. And they said
to him, shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give
them something to eat? But he said to them, how many
loaves do you have? Go and see. And when they found
out, they said five and two fish. Then he commanded them to make
them all sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat
down in ranks in hundreds and in fifties. And when he had taken
the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, blessed
and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set
before them. And the two fish he divided among
them all. So they all ate and were filled. And they took up
12 baskets full of fragments and of the fish. Now those who
had eaten the loaves were about 5,000 men. Immediately he made
his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other
side, to Bethsaida, while he sent the multitude away. And
when he had sent them away, he departed to the mountain to pray.
Now when evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea,
and he was alone on the land. Then he saw them straining at
rowing, for the wind was against them. Now about the fourth watch
of the night he came to them, walking on the sea, and would
have passed them by. And when they saw him walking
on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost and cried out, for
they all saw him and were troubled. But immediately he talked with
them and said to them, be of good cheer. It is I. Do not be
afraid. Then he went up into the boat
and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed
in themselves beyond measure and marveled. For they had not
understood about the loaves because their heart was hardened. Let
us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we
come before you this morning asking for your Holy Spirit to
come and to speak to us, to take this word of Christ from heaven
and to deliver it to our ears, and not our ears only, but to
our hearts. We ask that you would change
us by your word this morning, and we ask for your help in this.
In the name of Christ, amen. Well, Dear church, once again
the Lord's people enter the Lord's house on the Lord's day, weary
from our week in the wilderness of this world. And maybe you are weary this
week from the normal, everyday grind of life, such that surviving
next week is a real question in your mind. Maybe you are weary
with some battle with sin, some horrid flame of sin which continues
to roar and ravage within your heart, such that you think you
will never be able to defeat it or be rid of it. Maybe you
are weary from earthly trials this past week. Maybe health
issues, maybe unjust treatment over godly convictions that you
have and hold to. Maybe there are big decisions
that you are unsure how to make. Maybe, however, your weariness
isn't so negative. Maybe you've had great success
in your hard work this week. Maybe you've laid down in your
bed at night tired, but satisfied with what you've been able to
accomplish in that little slice of kingdom work God has called
you to in this season of life. Maybe you come in with a mixture
of all of these things. And our passage today, however,
does not promise to remove that weariness, but rather to apply
a soothing balm to it. Being on this side of heaven's
service in Christ's kingdom comes mixed with weariness and wonderfulness. That is a given that every Christian
must deal with. But another given is that we
serve a great king who does not leave his servants starved and
unsafe. He gives us exactly what we need
to serve him well. And yet, all too often we find
ourselves confused about what we really need to live as a Christian
and to serve him well in this world. We have our list of if
only I had this or if only I had that, things would be better.
If only I could achieve this or get that or do this or do
that, everything would be okay. If only this thing would happen
in our country, everything would be okay. If so, if we're asking
these questions, we find ourselves in a very similar place to Christ's
12 disciples in our passage today. And you'll notice, of course,
that Mark 6, 7 through 52 is a long passage of scripture.
It speaks about Christ sending out the 12 apostles for what
we might call a temporary mission work. We get a back story about
John the Baptist's death at the hands of Herod. We see Jesus
feed the 5,000, something certainly we're familiar with. And we see
Jesus walk on water. We have a tendency to take these
passages as disconnected mini-stories. And there is much to be had from
looking at each one individually. There will be, in fact, many
details that we will miss this morning. There will be many things
that you wish we had covered that we will not get to. But
hopefully, by taking a 30,000-foot view to these verses, we'll get
a picture of how they are connected. And most importantly, we'll learn
the same lesson that Christ was teaching his apostles about service
in his kingdom in this series of events. And that lesson, simply
put this morning, is that our Lord Jesus Christ is the only
sufficient sustenance and safety for his disciples as they serve
his kingdom. Our Lord Jesus is the only sufficient
sustenance and safety for his disciples as they serve his kingdom. We'll see this in three points.
First, the principles for faithful service in verses 7 through 13. We'll see persecution for faithful
service in verses 14 through 29. And we will see power for
faithful service in verses 30 through 52. So if you would then, we'll look
first at principles for faithful service. And we see this in verses
7 through 13. We see that faithful service
in Christ's kingdom is not by the power and preparation of
man, but by a spiritual dependence upon God, which offends the carnal
mind. We see in these verses the apostles
sent out on a temporary mission assignment. Its character is
such that it shows us the spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom, of
serving Christ's kingdom in this world. We see in verse 7 that
the disciples are spiritually prepared by Christ. We see that
he sends them out two by two. He gives to them spiritual companionship,
for spiritual help, for a spiritual mission. We see also that he
gives them authority over unclean spirits. Here we have in verse
7, right here at the beginning of this temporary commission,
we have a phrase that shows us the kind of warfare that they
would be engaged in in this work. So Christ spiritually prepares
them, but he also sends them out carnally, if we will, unprepared. Carnally unprepared. You see
this in verse 8 and 9. You see that they're commanded
to only take one staff with them, such that they would not be hindered
in their journey. They're also to take no bread,
no bag, no money in their belts. Now, certainly many of us have
just gotten back from traveling, maybe, and We, of course, fill
our cars up with the things that we will need. Certainly, the
younger your children are, the more it seems that maybe your
car is filled up with things that you need for a journey.
But in this case, Christ tells his disciples to take nothing
with them. And those things needed for their
carnal sustenance, for their nutrition, would be provided
to them as they worked. So they go spiritually prepared
by Christ, they go carnally unprepared. And we see that sometimes they're
going to face carnal failure, failure in a worldly sense. And Christ says, if any place
will not receive you and they will not listen to you, here
he's warning his apostles about the chance of failure. And he's
teaching them about what their concern ought to be in their
work in service to his kingdom. Their concern is not to overrun
the cities that they come in contact with by carnal persuasion
or coercive force. Their concern should be to proclaim
the gospel faithfully and to let the chips fall where they
may. We might even say it better, to let the dust fall where it
may. For Christ says to them, he says,
shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against
them. We see here that Christ is teaching
his apostles that rejection in this life, rejection in their
work, now is okay. It is okay. God's servants will
be vindicated at the last judgment. This flows directly out of other
things which Christ has said, which Christ said to Pilate,
Christ's kingdom is not of this world. but one day it will overtake
this world." This is the promise that Christ gives to his apostles. These cities may reject them
now, but one day they will cling to the dust from their sandals
as they await their judgment. And here, in all of this, in
the way that he sends out his apostles for this ministry, our
Lord was specifically teaching them what Paul would later teach
the Ephesians. to put on the whole armor of
God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
For what reason? For we do not wrestle against
flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against
the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Christ is teaching his apostles
and us that service to his kingdom, even in this temporary assignment,
is a spiritual work with spiritual ends. And we see in verses 12
and 13 that the apostles, who maybe we often find not doing
well, they did well, and they have spiritual success. It says,
they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. The
kingdom of Christ advances not by means of political intrigue
or worldly persuasion, but by the proclamation of the gospel. Not only did they proclaim, but
in this instance and in this time, they cast out many demons
and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. We
see here that their work was spiritual and by a spiritual
means. They cast out demons, specifically
demons which Christ gave them authority over in his commission.
And they're anointed with oil. Not medicinally, certainly, but
rather as a symbol or a sign of God's power to heal the people. So they have been, by Christ,
spiritually prepared, sent out carnally unprepared, sent out
with a warning of carnal or seemingly worldly failure, but yet we see
them come back with spiritual success. Spiritual success. But then we move to verses 14
through 29. And we see here, maybe in your Bibles it's labeled,
John the Baptist Beheaded. Or sarcastically, maybe, we could
label it, A Disciple's Guide to Fame, Friends, and Long Life. But we ask the question, why
is this here? Why is this here? While the apostles' temporary
missionary work is presented as a resounding success, It would
seem like John the Baptist's ministry ends in abject failure. I'd like to argue, however, that
these verses are actually another picture of spiritual success,
and one that, if we see it rightly, keeps us from placing our hope
in the carnal results of our work in this world, one that
keeps our eyes locked, rather, on heaven. In verses 14 through
29, John's beheading shows us that faithful service in Christ's
kingdom comes with no promise of fame, friends, acceptance,
or even physical safety in the kingdoms of this world, but instead
calls the Christian to expend themselves for the sake of a
heavenly kingdom. And yes, like John the Baptist,
even unto death, if God in his providence brings us to it. We
see in these verses persecution for faithful service. We see
in verses 14 through 16 that Christ is misidentified and misunderstood
by the world. Herod hears of these things happening
and he says, John the Baptist has been raised. Others say that
it's Elijah has come back from the dead. Others say that he
is a prophet. But Christ, as we know, was much
more than John the Baptist, much more than Elijah, and much more
than just a prophet. Christ came bringing good news
into this world, and this world, it seems, looks for every other
possible answer. And this misidentification and
misunderstanding of the world is the same for Christ's disciples
as it is for Christ. Though his disciples proclaim
eternal life to this world, they are misidentified and misunderstood
in their righteousness. The world always looks, it seems,
for another way that allows them to cherish their sins. The world
is perpetually missing the point of the gospel unless God in his
grace opens their eyes to it. We see that here in these verses
14 through 16. But then in 17 through 20, we
see that John the Baptist and the disciples of Christ likewise
are despised for righteousness sake. We see here in these verses
a woman scorned. We have Herod, the king, who
has decided that he would like to marry his brother's wife,
Herodias. And, of course, Herodias also
wanted to marry Herod, and so they did. And John the Baptist
stood up and called out their sin. And we see here that her
sin and reputation are constantly under attack by John's faithful
service to Christ's kingdom. John the Baptist's great sin
in this, I say quote unquote sin, to Herodias was not breaking
the laws of Herod's kingdom, but bringing the laws of Christ's
kingdom to bear on the sins of this world. John the Baptist, he is despised
for this. We hear that Herodias holds a
grudge against him, and we'll see where that grudge goes. But
then we see, similar to the disciples that were sent out in verses
21 through 28, we see carnal failure, failure in this world,
failure that we might see with our eyes, our physical eyes. We see a rash oath sinfully fulfilled. We see Herod has a birthday party
and he has there sitting in his court many men and great nobles
of the city of Galilee and he has his wife's daughter come
and dance before them, and likely in his merrymaking and his wine
drinking, he becomes pleased with her such that he offers
her up to half of his kingdom, anything that she would ask.
And he swears it by an oath in front of many witnesses. And
this daughter goes then back to her mother and she asks, what
should I ask for? I could ask for up to half the
kingdom. And her mother, full of hatred in her heart for John,
for John's great work of bringing the law of Christ to bear on
her sin, she demands or she tells her daughter to go request the
head of John the Baptist on a platter. And she does so. She does so. And we see that John the Baptist,
there who has already been in prison, He is beheaded for his
service to Christ. And John's death was neither
necessary nor purposeful on Herod's part. Neither necessary nor purposeful
on Herod's part. He didn't want to do it, we see
in the text. He rather liked John, and he
feared him even. He had reverence for John, but
with a rash oath He killed him. He killed him. So John is dead, who's faithfully
served, and the king and his wife are left
in their sin. And it seems that John's ministry
has failed. It has ended in abject failure. But we see in verse 29 that his
disciples came, and it says, they took his body and laid it
in a tomb. That is his headless body. His
head was on a platter in Herodias' home. They took his body and
laid it in a tomb. And here we see a spiritual hope. So whereas it seems like John's
ministry has ended in carnal failure, we see, however, in
this passage that there is spiritual hope. J.C. Ryle, a pastor from
the 19th century, he said, stories like this are meant to remind
us that the true Christian's best things are yet to come. His rest, his crown, his wages,
his reward are all on the other side of the grave. Here in this
world, he must walk by faith and not by sight. And if he looks
for the praise of man, he will be disappointed. Here in this
life, he must sow and labor and fight and endure persecution. And if he expects a great earthly
reward, he expects what he will not find. But this life is not
all. There is to be a day of retribution. There is a glorious harvest yet
to come. Heaven will make amends for all. Eye hath not seen and ear hath
not heard the glorious things that God has laid up for all
that love him. The value of real religion is
not to be measured by the things seen, but the things unseen."
And here, This awful story of John the Baptist being killed
wedged in between a powerful miracle of Christ on the one
hand and this wonderful success of the apostles on the other reminds
us, just as Mr. Ryle said, that the value of
real religion, the value of faithful service in Christ's kingdom is
not to be measured by the things seen, but by the things unseen. Listen maybe to even a more current
man. His name is Pastor Wang Yi in
China, who is currently serving a prison sentence for preaching
the gospel. And in a letter he released after being imprisoned,
he explained why he, as a pastor, was willing to civilly disobey
the government. And I think those men who would
make the church's mission political change or social transformation
would do well to listen to his and John the Baptist example.
He says this, as a pastor, my civil disobedience is one part
of the gospel commission. The goal of civil disobedience
is not to change the world, but to testify about another world. If God decides to use the persecution
of this communist regime against the church to help more Chinese
people despair of their futures, to lead them through a wilderness
of spiritual disillusionment, and through this to make them
know Jesus, if through this he continues disciplining and building
up his church, then I am joyfully willing to submit to God's plans,
for his plans are always benevolent and good. If this regime is one
day overthrown by God, it will be for no other reason than God's
righteous punishment and revenge for this evil. For on earth,
there has only ever been a thousand-year church. There has never been
a thousand-year government. Those who lock me up will one
day be locked up by angels. Those who interrogate me will
finally be questioned and judged by Christ. When I think of this,
the Lord fills me with a natural compassion and grief toward those
who are attempting to and actively imprisoning me. Separate me from
my wife and children, ruin my reputation, destroy my life and
my family. The authorities are capable of
doing all these things. However, no one in this world
can force me to renounce my faith. No one in this world can change
my life. No one in this world can raise
me from the dead. You see here, And all these men,
John the Baptist, and their quote from Mr. Ryle, and this longer
quote from Pastor Wang Yi, we see men who have their eyes fixed
on another world, who are not concerned with the carnal, what
may be, what seems like success in this world, in the kingdom
of God, but they are fixed upon the spiritual success for which
Christ's kingdom is aimed. So we have the principles for
faithful service, the persecution for faithful service, and then
lastly we have the power for faithful service. We could ask
the question then, after hearing a man die for his faithful service
to Christ's kingdom, another one locked up for it, who then
is sufficient for these things? Who is sufficient for these things? We are attacked on all sides. Paul tells us that in Ephesians.
He commends us to put on the full armor of God. We are attacked
on all sides by spiritual forces, as the disciples were, and by
carnal forces, as John the Baptist was. From where can we get spiritual
strength to serve Christ's spiritual kingdom faithfully? Jesus' feeding
of the 5,000 and his walking on water are meant to show his
disciples and us that he is the only sufficient sustenance and
safety for his disciples as they serve his spiritual kingdom.
So in verses 30 through 52, we see the power for faithful service. We'll consider these miracles
quickly. There's much that could be taken from them. And in some
ways they are both testaments to the divinity of Christ, and
we could preach a whole sermon on each of them to that end.
And certainly we will not leave that aside, but we will not dive
into it as much as maybe we would like. But consider these miracles
side by side. We see that both of them are
introduced by a deserved earthly rest, if you will. The Apostles
have just gotten back from their mission assignment. And we see
that Christ attempts, in verse 31, to give them a chance to
rest. We see that our Lord honors his
disciples who serve him well, attempting to give them a chance
to rest. He says, come aside by yourselves
to his deserted place and rest a while. And this sets the circumstances,
sets the stage for this feeding of the 5,000. But we see also
in verse 45, in the next miracle where Jesus calms the sea, walks
on the water and calms the sea, we see that that miracle as well
is started by Christ attempting to give the apostles a deserved
earthly rest. It says, he made his disciples
get into the boat while he sent the multitudes away. Well, remember
that the disciples were sent off on their temporary mission
assignment with no bag, no bread, no money. These men are hungry. They are hungry. They are tired. And so Christ tries to give them
rest. But we see that both times in
these miracles, the disciples are denied their earthly rest. Before the feeding of the 5,000,
they get out to this deserted place, and the crowd, wanting
so badly to hear from Christ and to be healed by him, the
crowd follows them out to this deserted place. And the crowd
is hungry. The crowd is hungry. The disciples, themselves hungry,
having no food of their own, having just come back from this
temporary mission assignment with no bread, no bag, no money
to buy, they are hungry. But the crowd is hungry. And
Christ commands them to provide the crowd food. The disciples,
of course, have no way to provide it for themselves, certainly,
or for the crowd. And the disciples, being hungry
themselves, without enough food, they respond to Christ's command
with maybe a hint of sarcasm. And certainly we could all imagine.
Lord, I've been serving you, and I've done a lot of good work. We had great spiritual success.
Can I just get something to eat? And so they say, shall we go
and buy 200 denarii worth of bread? This is certainly a large
sum of money. And in effect, they're saying,
do you really want us to go do that? Do we really have to go
do that? Can we not just send these people
out on their own to buy their own food? But in the other miracle, in
which Jesus walks on the water and calms the sea, we see that
their peaceful trip across the Sea of Galilee was interrupted
by great storms. Christ made his disciples get
into the boat while he sent the multitude away. That is, he did
all the cleanup work. And he sent them away, and he
sees, he goes up to pray, and he sees them from the mountain
on the Sea of Galilee, straining at rowing, for the wind was against
them. These men now, of course, they
have eaten, and we'll get there in a moment. They have eaten
because of Christ, but here they're straining at rowing. Certainly
their bellies are full, but their backs are still tired, and yet
they are in the middle of the sea, straining at rowing, having
the wind set against them. So they're denied their earthly
rest in both of these. But also in both of them, the
disciples are supplied with divine rest. In the first case, our
Lord Jesus supplies them with a miraculous supper. It says,
when he had taken the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up
to heaven blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples
to set before them. And the two fish he divided among
them all, so they all ate and were filled. Before I read the
next sentence, consider again the disciples. They're hungry. They've just maybe been sarcastic
with Christ. They're frustrated. This miracle
happens. And it says, they took up 12
baskets full of fragments and of fish. You'll note one basket
for each disciple. It's as if Christ is saying to
them in this miracle, not only do I have enough for the crowd,
I have enough for you. I am enough for you. You have not had time to rest
or to eat, so I will be your sustenance. In the second case, the second
miracle, in which he walks on water, we see that his presence
among them brings them through a watery trial. It says, then he went up into
the boat to them and the wind ceased. So here they are, backs
hurting, straining against the wind, rowing hard. Christ comes on the water, and
he steps up into the boat with them, and the winds cease. It's
as if Christ says to them, the winds and the waves are great,
but I will be your safety. You still have not had time to
rest, so I will be your rest. Dear friends, the apostles like
us were not sufficient for the work that they had been called
to. Certainly Christ in these miracles
makes that clear to them. We see that our Lord brought
them to the end of themselves so that they might discover that
only he could supply all their needs, spiritual and physical.
And we see that he does. We see that he does. So let us
conclude quickly with a few applications To the believer, as you serve
Christ's kingdom in whatever place or season of life that
he has called you, do not mistake this world or the things of this
world as the goal of Christ's kingdom. The glory of this world
is fading. its glory will one day give way
to the glory of that other world which our Lord will bring at
his return. So do not mistake this world
as the goal of Christ's kingdom. Do not mistake the methods which
are effective in changing this world for the methods that Christ
has ordained for use in his kingdom. It's easy, certainly, maybe in
our day, with all the media and such, it's easy to get wrapped
up in action and do-gooderism and so-called culture warring
for their own sake, thinking that if we can change the outward
form of this world, then Christ's kingdom will have succeeded.
It's not the case. Lastly, do not cut yourself off,
then, from the means of grace. If service in Christ's kingdom
is chiefly spiritual, we would do well to not cut ourselves
off from the means of grace. Do not miss that Christ supplied
his disciples in our passage with a miraculous supper and
his presence in their watery trial. For Christ still supplies
his disciples by a miraculous supper. The Lord's Supper we'll
celebrate here shortly. Not that his physical body is
brought to earth miraculously in the bread and wine, but rather
that much more miraculously we are raised to truly and spiritually
feast upon him by faith for the sustenance of our souls. His
blood was shed for us. His body was broken for us. And
we see this in the Lord's Supper as a visible word to us, a picture,
so that we might, by it, by faith, have rest in Christ. We see also
that Christ still supplies his disciples by his presence in
the watery trial of baptism. And we've seen a few of these
in recent weeks. And hopefully, we'll see more soon before the
end of the year. But think then upon your own
baptism. See the picture of Christ accompanying
you in those waters. and because of his presence of
being raised again to new life in him. These things should be
a great encouragement to the believer. To the unbeliever,
then, consider your state before Christ. Like the disciples, you
are without food. You are without food in the desert
and straining against an unbeatable, unovercomeable wind. Your sin
condemns you before a holy God. There is nothing which you could
ever do to supply yourself with the righteousness needed to be
right in his sight. You are quite figuratively stuck
in the Sea of Galilee with no hope of getting to shore. Consider
then also that the world that you now serve is passing away.
The world that you serve in your sin is passing away. Herod killed
John the Baptist. It seems like a victory for the
kingdom of this world, but his disciples buried his body in
hope that he will one day be resurrected. The sad news is
that for those who serve this world and love this world, they
have no such hope and receive their reward here. Everything
which you see around you that gives you great comfort that
you will be able to achieve, those carnal desires of your
heart, your goals and aspirations in this life, your talents, maybe
give you comfort, a stable society, maybe political victory, a good
job, whatever else you might put your trust in, it is all
passing away. One day all that will be left
is the sinner and his sin naked before a holy God who is just
and will punish sin. But consider then that Christ
offers you rest. So many promises sit at the ready
in his word for any sinner. You've seen pictures of them
here, of him providing a miraculous supper for his disciples and
teaching them of his sustenance for them, of his presence in
their watery trial. But there are so many promises
sit at the ready in the word for any sinner. Christ says,
come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. He says, no less whom the sun
sets free is free indeed. He says also, the one who comes
to me I will by no means cast out. Scriptures say that today is
the day of salvation. So I call on you to set down
your sin. and lift up your hands to receive what Christ freely
offers to sinners. He is the sufficient sustenance
and safety for his disciples as they serve his kingdom, and
he is the only sufficient sustenance and safety for sinners in this
world. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father,
we thank you this morning for your kindness, your goodness
to us, your grace to us. O Lord, we are disciples in your
kingdom, and we serve a spiritual kingdom, one that is not of this
world, as you, Lord Jesus, told Pilate. We pray that we would
not serve your kingdom with the eyes of the flesh, but that we
would serve them with the eyes of faith. We pray that you would
give us spiritual success, that we would see that our spiritual
battle is great, that the enemy of your kingdom is great, that
this world and its systems are opposed to your kingdom and its
spiritual aims. So Lord, bring us to the end
of ourselves. would we confess that you are
the only sufficient sustenance for your people. You are the
only one who provides true safety. Though we may die in this world,
though we may go hungry, though we may go with our backs hurting
for your sake in whatever season of life that you have called
us to, Lord, we know that you provide all that we need, and
we pray that this morning you would do so greatly for us, especially
here as we take the Lord's Supper. We pray that you would lift our
hearts to heaven, let us feed upon our Christ, and Lord, give
us all the grace that we need to serve you this morning. We
pray all these things in his name, amen.
Jesus Christ: The Disciple’s Sustenance and Safety
Mark 6:7-52 - Jesus Christ: The Disciple's Sustenance and Safety
The Lord Jesus mightily supplies His servants the ordinary and extraordinary strength they need for their service to Him.
I. Principles for Faithful Service (vv7-13)
II. Persecution for Faithful Service (vv14-29)
III. Power for Faithful Service (vv30-52)
| Sermon ID | 12324955497695 |
| Duration | 43:13 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Mark 6:7-52 |
| Language | English |
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