This morning we are returning in the Old Testament to 2nd Kings chapter 4. Looking at some verses toward the end of that chapter. I'll be reading from verse 38 to verse 44. This is the Word of the Living God. When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, Put on a large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets. Then one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds, and came and sliced them into the pot of stew, for they did not know where they were. So they poured it out for the men to eat, and as they were eating of the stew, they cried out and said, O man of God, there is death in the pot, and they were unable to eat. But he said, Now bring meal. He threw it into the pot and said, Pour it out before the people that they may eat. Then there was no harm in the pot. Now a man came from Baal Shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And he said, Give them to the people that they may eat. His attendant said, What, will I set this before a hundred men? But he said, Give them to the people that they may eat. For thus says the Lord, They shall eat, and have some left over. So he said it before them, and they ate, and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord." So here are two culinary miracles. The first is the pot of stew with the wild gourds. What were the sons of the prophets thinking? But the more interesting one is this man from Bale, Shelley, Shaw, who comes with twenty loaves of barley bread and fresh ears of grain, and they give them to these hundred men, and lo and behold, there's more than enough, there's some left over according to the word of the Lord. Now, that's an impressive miracle. but not nearly as impressive as what we see in our reading in Mark chapter 6. So let's turn now to Mark 6 and we pick up at verse 33 and our reading through verse 44. The people saw them going and many recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities and got there ahead of them. When Jesus went ashore, he saw a large crowd and he felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things. When it was already quite late, his disciples came to him and said, This place is desolate and it is already quite late. Send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat." But he answered them, "'You give them something to eat.'" And they said to him, "'Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them something to eat?' And he said to them, How many loaves do you have? Go look." And when they found out, they said, five and two fish. And he commanded them all to sit down by groups on the green grass. They sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. And he took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, he blessed the food and broke the loaves and he kept giving them to the disciples to set before them and he divided up the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied and they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces and also of the fish. There were five thousand men who ate the loaves." Let's pray and ask God's blessing. Lord we thank you for your gracious provision to undeserving people. We thank You that You gave them all that they needed and more. We pray now that You would feed us through Your Word, that we would see You in Your beauty and glory, and that our hearts would strongly believe in You. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Just recently I was talking with Dr. Wingard about the dangers inherent in verse-by-verse expositional preaching. Specifically, I admitted that sometimes we focus so closely on the minute details that we can miss the larger movement of the text that's under consideration. I think that temptation faces us this morning. We are moving forward in Mark 6, and dead ahead is the story of the feeding of the 5,000. Now there are very many interesting aspects of this well-known account, and we can profitably examine them under the microscope. But to do so runs the risk of missing a bigger theme that Mark is also placing before our eyes. Namely, it is the theme of banquets. Not that many verses ago we were shown another meal. It was King Herod's birthday bash. He held a great feast for the leading men of Galilee They had been enjoying themselves. They had eaten and drunk of the very finest that Herod could provide. It was during that banquet that the daughter of Herodias had danced before these drunken men and had pleased them. And when Herod foolishly offered her anything she wished, the girl asked for John's head on a platter. and that was a rather grisly end to that banquet. It was surely a sinful and debauched affair. Nothing good came out of it. But now we are shown a very different banquet. Jesus and his disciples serving a meal to a group of 5,000 men sitting in groups on the green grass in this desolate location. This meal was preceded by very good teaching as Jesus had imparted many things to this spiritually malnourished multitude. So you could possibly call this chapter a tale of two banquets. What the world provides and serves, which ends in death. What Christ provides, which gives life. And in a sense, this is a parable about these two competing kingdoms that are vying in this world. The kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of Satan, provides the passing pleasures of sin for a season, but it always ends in destruction. There is always death in the pot. But then there is the glorious, beautiful kingdom of Christ, which culminates in the wedding supper of the Lamb, when we will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the new heavens and the new earth. and be enjoying pleasures forevermore. And these big picture themes are equally important to the details of our text today. So keeping the big picture in view, we can now turn to the specifics of the story that's before us. So as we look at this second meal, I want to begin by considering a change of plans. Then we're going to see the satisfying of hunger and finish with some lessons to learn. When we last saw Jesus and his disciples, he was prescribing a rest for their weary bodies, minds, and hearts. Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while," he had said. And that was a very good plan. And they took steps to implement the Savior's wise counsel. They had been hard at it. It was time for a break. And for the first while in the boat, it seemed that all was good. The breeze off the lake, the sunshine, the sight of the water had a relaxing effect upon everyone. Perhaps they even munched a snack as they sailed along. But then they looked back at the land and they saw an unwelcome sight. The ever-present crowd had watched them leave and had deduced their destination. And a lot of them, really thousands of men, went running off down the shore. Others joined in, and the crowd became a stampede. They guessed right, and they were waiting expectantly ashore when the boat arrived at its moorings. Now, in some ways, this might have seemed like a cruel joke to Jesus' disciples. After all, it was the crowds that had kept them so busy in Capernaum that they didn't even have time to eat. It was the endless line of people needing something from Jesus that had worn out His disciples. Jesus had ordered seclusion But now the crowds had thwarted Jesus' good idea. Jesus had prescribed some rest, but suddenly they are busier than ever. These developments were not positive for the weary disciples. Rest had not been a luxury, but a necessity. And now, through no fault of their own, the much-anticipated downtime was snatched out from under them. Surely this couldn't seem right or fair to these tired men. There's some good evidence here that the disciples were deeply disappointed to have their vacation ruined by demanding crowds of needy people. You can detect their frustration when they come to Jesus at the very end of that day. They inform him of the obvious facts. The place is desolate. It is already quite late in the day. There's nothing to eat. And so, send them away that they may go into the surrounding countryside and buy themselves something to eat, they tell Jesus. Those words do not exactly convey compassion or understanding, but rather there's a shortness, an edge to their demands. Send them away. Let them bend for themselves. And Lord, would you please do it quickly? There's another clue that shows up in verse 52 when it says, For they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened." So it seems that their hearts were so hardened by their disappointment that this whole miraculous event provided no insight whatsoever, nothing at all. They had seen it. They had heard it. They had watched as Jesus kept on giving them bread, and bread, and bread, and fish, and fish, and fish, and where did it all come from but from His hand? But these disciples got nothing out of that. Why? Because their hearts were hardened. Why were their hearts hardened? Disappointment. Frustration. We needed a vacation. We didn't get it because the crowd were waiting at the shore for us. And then look at what happened to the whole day. Jesus taught them and what's the deal? We didn't ask for a break. He offered us a break and now the break is gone. And that hardened their hearts. These men have grown frustrated. They were impatient. And their impatience even extended to Jesus. And I think sometimes we can experience the same thing when our plans are changed. We can be peevish with the best of them. We can be hard-hearted. We can be frustrated. We can be selfish. And we can demand our rights. And our plans have been changed. And we whine and we cry, it's not fair. And I know you do that because I know I do that. Sometimes we act like little babies. No offense to any babies, Presley. Babies probably behave better than adults sometimes do in these circumstances. Little children can shrug it off. They don't know much better. Sometimes we as adults can just sink our teeth in and say, this isn't right. And I'm mad about it. And I think these disciples were in a very bad place at this point. Jesus' response was altogether different. As Jesus looked on shore and saw the large crowd, some 5,000 men, not to mention women or children, Jesus viewed them differently. They weren't unwelcome problems who had rudely interrupted his downtime. They weren't people to be resented for crashing a private party. But no, these were sheep. They were hungry, needy sheep. And to make matters worse, these sheep had no shepherd. They had no one to lead them into green pastures or beside still waters, no one to satisfy what their souls craved, no one to satiate their hunger. This could mean one of two things, or perhaps a combination of the two. Shepherds in the Bible sometimes indicate kings and political leaders. And sometimes the civil magistrate is called the shepherd. And civil leaders do have some responsibility for the well-being of people under their care. And we know the civil leadership of that era was remarkably horrible. You have the Roman government, which was headed up by Caesar, and which was running the Caesar cult of idolatry. And then you have local officials that were really no better. But this can also have reference to spiritual leadership, the leadership of the church. And when we look at the leadership of the first century church, or rather we should probably say the first century synagogue, The leadership, the spiritual leadership of Israel was worse than the political leadership of Israel. The scribes, the Pharisees, the chief priests, the teachers of the law, they were just a mass of spiritually bankrupt frauds. They had nothing to offer the people. And so whether it was political or whether it was spiritual or whether it was both at the same time, The people of Israel were like sheep without a shepherd. They had no leadership that provided them any spiritual help. And Jesus looks upon them as sheep without a shepherd. Because the Savior looked upon this multitude in this way, He felt compassion for them. His great heart ached for them. He was stirred deeply within as he looked with tenderness and pity. His empathy for them led him to act for their welfare, to do what was the very best for them. And so it says, he began to teach them many things. And he continued teaching them late into the day. This was not a retreat for physical refreshment of weary disciples. This was a spiritual retreat for the encouragement of these leaderless Israelites. As I indicated, this went on for quite some time. Jesus didn't give them just a five-minute sermonette and then tell them to go home and be good people. Jesus taught them sound doctrine, followed by penetrating applications, and his teaching went on and on and on. Now I know that about 40 minutes, it's time to bring this thing in for a landing. And if I'm at 45, the ice is getting thinner. And if we start pushing up toward an hour, there's red flags flying all over the place. Jesus didn't preach for just 30, 40 minutes, or even an hour or two. He taught them the whole day until it was late in the day. And I would guess that not too many people minded because he was the best teacher ever. So after long sessions of pure theology and applied Christianity, the impatient disciples finally broke in to remind Jesus of the time and the need for some dinner plans. Now in one sense they were used to this. There had been so many people back home that they didn't have time to eat a meal and now the same dynamic plays out in the seclusion of this spot. The more practical disciples among them were probably already pondering the fact that there were no ready supplies. Where do you get enough bread for 5,000 men. Now let's put this into modern context. Let's suppose that 5,000 people showed up unexpected at church and they were all hungry. And what if I said to you, the congregation, you feed these 5,000 people. You'd clean out every bakery in Sheboygan and you still wouldn't have enough. We're in a town that has lots of bakeries. 5,000 loaves of bread? You better order that in advance, because you're not going to get it on the spur of the moment. And here they are in this desolate location, a secluded spot that's not heavily populated, and there's not a bakery on every corner Where are you going to get enough bread to feed 5,000 people? And so this is a real problem. When they reminded Jesus about the time and brought up the problem of dinner, they had their own plan already in mind. It was this. Jesus would say, Amen, and then tell everyone to disperse. and go find a meal in some neighboring village." It seemed like it was a sensible plan. Practical. Very practical. Little did the disciples expect what Jesus said to them next. You go and give them something to eat. It's really a very simple, basic assignment. You make plans for the meal. Well, in this, Jesus was testing them, and the disciples didn't exactly pass this test with flying colors. With more than a hint of sarcasm, they ask if they should go and spend 200 denarii to purchase a truckload of bread. It would take a half a year's wages for an average worker to ensure that each one got just a mouthful. Jesus' reply sent them off in a quite different direction. How many loaves do you have? He said. Go and look. And when they came back, they reported a mere five loaves and two small fish. That would be a meal for a family, but probably no more. And certainly this was not enough for 5,000 men, plus whatever women and children were there. Now at this stage, the disciples were just where Jesus wanted and intended them to be. They were stymied by their problem. They had precious little resources and no way to secure enough to fulfill the assignment Jesus had given them. What would they do? They could only rely upon Jesus, and that is the point that Jesus wanted them to reach. When things seem impossible to man, they are not impossible to Christ. And then, without even being asked, Jesus commanded them to sit down in groups on the green grass. The great shepherd of the sheep would feed them on green pastures and would restore their souls. With an economy of actions and neither pomp nor circumstance, the Savior looked up toward heaven blessed the food, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples to distribute. So far so good. And the bread just kept coming and coming and coming. And the disciples came back for more. And there was more. And they distributed that, and then they came back for more. Twelve men distributing food to 5,000 people. That's not going to happen in just two or three minutes. These guys were running, and they were serving, and they were coming back to Jesus for more and serving more. And this miracle is just happening in front of their eyes. Meanwhile, the grateful and hungry crowd just kept eating and eating and eating, and they all ate until they were all satisfied, until they were full. After everyone had eaten all that they wished, the disciples then went around and gathered up twelve full baskets of broken pieces of bread and also of fish. So you have 5,000 satisfied customers and leftovers to boot. Jesus had fed their souls, and then he had fed their bodies. And no one went away hungry that day, spiritually or physically. So what lessons can we glean from these events? Why has God given us this account of this miracle? What's the point? I think first and foremost, we see here our Savior. Our Savior in His compassion, His mercy, His glorious power. He felt compassion for those sheep without a shepherd, He served them far better than they deserved to be served. Jesus is the bread come down out of heaven to feed hungry and weary souls. He provides food and as He does it reminds us in many ways of the provision of Himself through the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Now understand, I'm not saying that this was a sacramental meal. I don't think that's the point. But what I'm saying is, Jesus is the bread of life. In John 6, verse 51, he says, I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. He offers himself to us that we might eat and be full, that we would be satisfied with him who is the bread of life. Now, that is pictured for us every time we partake of the Lord's Supper. But that is not the only sense in which we feed on Christ. We feed upon Him as He comes to us in His Word and gives us Himself through His Word. And so every time you're reading your Bible, every time you're at a Bible study, every time you're sitting under the preaching of the Word of God, you are eating of the bread of life which is Christ. And as you partake of Him, He gives you what your hearts crave and yearn for. And so we see in this Christ representing Himself not only as the giver of the bread, but as the bread itself. He offers himself to you that you might eat of him and have your appetite satisfied to the full. Anytime we look at things of this nature, lessons like this, we have to see Christ That's the point. And if we miss Christ, we're missing the main thing. Now, we could spend some interesting time debating how the miracle happened, whether there was more bread or there was more fish, and why was it five versus two? I mean, there's all kinds of rabbit holes we could go down, but Christ is presenting Himself. here, and that's the main thing. Miss this, and you miss everything. Well, connected to this, we also see His abundance, His kindness, His generosity, and His compassion. In other words, we see His heart, the heart of Christ. Jesus didn't resent the crowds. He felt compassion for them. He doesn't shortchange them, but He gives them more, much more, than they rightly deserved. He wouldn't leave them hungry. He feeds them to the full. And just consider those leftovers. Twelve baskets full of pieces of bread and fish, far more than they started with, when it was just five small loaves and two tiny fish. Now there's twelve baskets of leftovers, full baskets, big baskets, there's some question and debate as to where did these baskets come from, what size were they, and I think the best answer to that is these were kept in a fishing boat to store the fish you caught. And you wouldn't want just a little tiny cutesy basket, you'd want a big basket because you were expecting a large catch. And so likely They got these baskets out of the boat that they had used, and they were big, big baskets, and they're full to overflowing with leftovers. Why is this detail given to us? To show us the generosity of Jesus. The abundance, the lavish liberality of Jesus. And don't we see this so often in our own lives? We pray these very small, safe prayers where we're not asking for much, and He just gives us way more than we anticipate. And that's just His way. He's not stingy. He's generous. Generous, as we might say, generous to a fault. He's so generous we cannot even begin to imagine the scope of His generosity and His abundance and His liberality to us. He doesn't give us just enough grace so that we can somehow eke our way across the finish line and die and go to heaven. But He shows us such abundant grace that we grow into the fullness of the stature of Christ Himself. When He pours out His Spirit upon us, it's not just a thimbleful, but it is a vast river that gets deeper and broader as it comes to us. Don't think that the God whom you serve and whom you pray to is a tight-fisted tyrant in the sky, and you've got to pry things out of his iron grip. He is a loving Father that says, let me give you as much as I can. Let me give you everything and more that your hearts desire and need. And so when you see Jesus, you have to also see His generosity, His compassion, His love, His great heart to you. Because He's showing us. This is who and what I am. With the clear implication, come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I'm not a hard God to serve. The God of this world Satan and the kingdom of darkness, that's a hard master. But it's not hard to serve God because Christ is so, so generous to his people. And so we see Christ and we see his heart. I think this situation also reminds us that God reserves the right to change our plans as he sees fit. You know the disciples properly needed and wanted a break for their refreshment and that is what Jesus had intended that is what Jesus had prescribed and yet in God's great wisdom there were other purposes Purposes that Jesus fully understood, but the disciples didn't anticipate. It resulted in a major shift for the disciples. Vacation is now cancelled. It's back to work. And though we can't really crow about the disciples' response to these providential changes, we do see how Jesus handled the situation He had grace. He showed mercy to the undeserving crowds. He cared more about them than he did about his own personal weariness. He laid down his life for them, in a sense. When God changes our plans, when you are left with disappointments, how do you respond? Are you peevish? Do you grow snippy? Are you selfish? Jesus didn't respond in these ways and neither should we. We'll defend our reactions and say, well, I'm only human, what do you expect? Of course I'm disappointed, and of course I'm irritated, and of course I'm angry. I'm just a human being. Yeah, but you are in Christ, and the Spirit of God dwells in you. And if you are in Christ, if His Spirit dwells in you, you can do all things through Him who gives you strength. And that means you can respond graciously even when you are dealing with bitter disappointment. Now this may be high-level sanctification, but it is something we should seek for and attain to. That when God changes our plans, We respond with compassion and kindness and a humble gratitude to Him. Flexibility is necessary for the Christian who would submit himself or herself to the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you be flexible? to deal with the plans that God gives you and even the changes of plan that God gives you. Well, finally then, I think this whole situation, the whole scenario really speaks of the wisdom of reliance upon Christ. When circumstances seem desperate, when we don't know what to do, where to turn, Relying upon Jesus is always the right answer, because He can and He will provide for us a way forward. Turning to Him in faith and admitting, Lord, I do not know what to do here, that's okay. But better still is the statement, I don't know what to do here, but I trust that You do. And so please lead me in the way that is best in your sight." Faith means that we do not rely upon our own selves, upon our ingenuity, upon our wisdom, upon our savvy, or upon our experience. Faith calls us to rely upon the Savior of sinners. And He won't fail us. As we turn to Him and trust in Him, He is not going to disappoint. He might take us through avenues that are unexpected and sometimes even perplexing, but He always does what's best. And when we learn to rely upon Him and just simply follow Him, it makes life so much easier You know, I sometimes like to try and figure things out in advance. I really would appreciate a blueprint, Lord. Could you give me a blueprint of what the next, say, ten years looks like? And his response is, just take my hand and let me lead you along. You don't need to know what's going to happen next week, next month, next year. Just hold my hand and we'll go together. And that's what faith is. Taking Christ by the hand. and following where he leads, believing that he knows where he's going and he does all things well. Let's pray. Lord, thank you that you are trustworthy and that as we trust in you and follow you, you never lead us astray. You are the good shepherd and we thank you for the care that you provide for our souls. Help us, Lord, to trust you more and more. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. you. so so Oh.