The Hand of Sovereignty (Part A)

The gospel was preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. That's the submitting kind of faith. That's the faith that includes surrender.

That's the faith that says, in me can increase, can expand, can gain power, can gain the upper hand. We are in the gospel according to Mark chapter 6, beginning at verse 30 through 45. Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile. 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 multitudes saw them departing, and many knew him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to him. 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 answered and said to them, You give them something to eat. And they said to him, Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them, give something to eat? But he said to them, How many loaves do you have?

Go 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 of hundreds and in fifties. And when he had taken five loaves and two fish, he looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to eat before them. And the two fish he divided among them all. So they all ate and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish.

Now those who had eaten the loaves were about five thousand 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. You may notice that I included the first verse of the next paragraph, verse forty-five, because it is a very important part of the story, and it belongs to both paragraphs. The hand of sovereignty is what we're considering this morning, and of course it is the hand of Christ that is sovereign. Sovereign, that word means to have supreme authority and power. It's interesting that in our English, authority and power, and in our Greek New Testaments, the emphasis is made that Christ had authority and power using these two Greek words.

Dunamis, from where we get our word dynamite, and excusia. He had the right and he had the might. That's our Lord, this sovereignty belongs to him, and none of us are surprised by this. In fact, when we become Christians, we're not surprised at all this glory that's just flying off the pages into our lives.

We drink it in, we develop a hunger and thirst for God's word because we have a hunger and thirst for a God. And I'm not surprised by this miracle. I'm not saying, well it's not very impressive, I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying, he's God. He's the Lord Jesus Christ.

Of course he can multiply fish, he can walk on water, he can stop the storm, he can raise the dead. I'm not surprised. You may say, well, I agree, why are you even mentioning this? The apostles, they weren't getting it. They were so busy in ministry that they really didn't have a time to digest all of these things. And the scripture of the Holy Spirit, he points these things out, and we are to read them and say, okay, this is a message to me to be careful, to not get so caught up in learning about God that I'm missing the point.

It's very easy to do. According to sovereign God, man has no right to believe whatever he wants about God. It comes with his sovereignty. It comes in the package with him being God, that human beings do not have the right to shape him, to form him into their image.

It's the other way around. God has rights, and ultimately they will all be enforced. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord. Man has no right to disagree with truth, the truth of God. When God gives it to him and man sees it, he has no right to dismiss it.

You say, well, who does that? Judas Iscariot did that. Satan himself did that.

I mean, here's Satan in heaven around all the glory of God, and still he thought he could outdo God. Man has no right to make up things about God, about good, about evil, about hell, about the spiritual world. There are a list of things that man has no right to do, and because man oftentimes goes ahead and does it anyway, he becomes accountable for these things.

It is sin if he is again consciously disagreeing or rejecting God. Man has no right to confine God to man's opinions. So as you sit, you know, we encourage you to bring your Bibles to church, to open them up, to go through the scripture together so that you're not being dictated to, that we're all being exposed at the same time, allowing the Holy Spirit to do what he and only he can do, and that is to isolate us, to pinpoint, to be very specific with whatever it is that he feels needs to be specified, and we love to have it so. We love for God to point out a verse and we say, that's it, that's right, especially when we're interacting with someone who's lost or in need of a word in season, and we get the verse, and we say, thus says the Lord, and so it shall be.

That is authority that comes from on high. Continuing my line of rights, which man has not, man has the right, actually, to submit when faced with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every human being has that right to submit to God. What will they do with it? Because you have the right, it doesn't mean you're going to benefit from it.

Unused advantages are no longer advantages. They're missed opportunities, and in this case, it is critical to the soul. Here is Jesus Christ.

He is God the Son, and he is sovereign over all creation, and in this section, it flashes out before us, and we do not ever want to be so familiar with Christ multiplying the fish and bread that it becomes a ho-hum event. We're not surprised, but we are still impressed. In fact, being impressed is not enough. We want to be moved into action. We want to be used. We, you know, that player on the bench that says, Coach, just put me in. Use me. Sometimes the coach says, no, you need rest. Other times he says, get in there.

We need a big hit. Then such is the Christian life. He is God and must not be seen as less, and that's what we're getting from Mark in this chapter, as we've been getting it from Mark.

We get it from the whole Bible. In the end, these truths from this entire Bible, they benefit those who submit to them. Those who stop pretending and resisting benefit from his sovereignty. He puts us in heaven, world without end, without pain, without suffering forever, and no one will ever take us out. The sovereign hand of God, it is a big deal. So those who think they have the right to dictate terms to God, I think are summed up in this word by A.W.

Toja that I'm about to quote, because there are those, there are many of them. They believe in what is called the universal fathership of God. In other words, he's everybody's father. The Bible does not agree with that. Toja writes, the fatherhood of God can be stretched to include everyone, from Jack the Ripper to Daniel the Prophet. Thus, no one is offended and everyone feels quite snug and ready for heaven.

That is right on. There are those that want to tell themselves it's going to be okay, and even if they get to hell, they'll somehow work it out. That ain't so. And so we look now at the 30th verse of Mark chapter 6, remembering hopefully as we go through this, these sovereign points concerning our Savior. He is more than our Savior. There's more to Jesus Christ than what we see in the Scripture. There's more to Jesus Christ than Him saving us from hell. He would be every bit wonderful, glorious, and beautiful if He never created us. If He never created the universe, if He never died for us, He would be no less who He is. The fact that He has done these things serves to let us know that not only is He sovereign, He's loving, He's merciful. His mercy and His love are also sovereign to the point where nothing can touch those things.

Nothing can alter His power or love. Verse 30, Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. They were excited. He had sent them out. We covered that in verses 12 and 16 of Mark's Gospel chapter 6 when He sent them out to minister, and now they're back and they're very excited about all the things that they had accomplished in His name. And remember, Judas is in that number.

But there's bad news waiting for these men, and there's a gap of information between verse 30 and verse 31. Now what Mark does, Mark gives us a parentheses. He tells the story of Christ sending out the apostles in verses 12 and 13, and then the parentheses come. He says, Oh, and by the way, when Christ is doing all these things, this is what Herod is doing. Herod's in there trying to figure out who Jesus is. He's got all these screwball ideas, but the man is a monster.

In fact, let me give you the details of why he's a monster. So he has this little party, his birthday party, and he has this dance going on, and then he trades for the head of John the Baptist. He was sorry, but he wasn't repentant.

And he was impenitent, we would say. And so Mark gives us that there in verses 14 and 15. But Matthew adds this right at that point. Matthew 14, who covers the parallel version of this story, not a contradictory version, just a little bit more insight from a different angle. He says, When Jesus heard it, He departed there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. Matthew tells us, I have to go to Matthew to read it to you.

It's your fault. If you had memorized all of Matthew 14, I wouldn't have to do this. Matthew tells us in verse, chapter 14, verse 12, and I should add, these are the things that Pastor Praise does not happen in the pulpit. All right, I'm not going to find it and I'm not going to look.

I can't even see at this point. Matthew tells us that at this moment, the disciples of John came and told him that John was murdered by Herod. And that is happening at the same time that the disciples are coming back and saying, Lord, look what we've done in the ministry.

Here's our report. John's disciples come, said they've killed John, and Jesus says, verse 31 now, and He said to them, Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile, for there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat nor to grieve. Those disciples of John, they had the gruesome task of having to take the headless body of John and entomb it, as Mark tells us, and now that they bring word to Christ, he's not going to have time to really grieve. The only moment of rest and grief that they will experience is on the boat ride from where they are, likely in Capernaum, on the way to Bethsaida. But things will change. Actually, not Bethsaida, to their resting place. Mark does not return to the story of Herod because Herod is unimportant.

He's made his point. He lets that part of the narrative evaporate, and he continues with the story. The lesson that comes from this is that as horrible as it is that we've lost John, life goes on. And when life goes on for the believer, so does ministry simultaneously go on. And as life goes on, we come across those craving people. John tells us, as does Mark and Matthew, that they were looking for miracles. And the apostles, they saw the cravings. They felt they were part of Jesus, satisfying those needs. But then the apostles began to care about the people, likely exhausted themselves and wanting to be rid of the people for a while.

That's likely very much what was going on. So the craving people, the caring apostles, they catch the alliteration and the compassion of Jesus. These come off the pages for us, saying the sovereign God is working it out in this life with us. Life goes on, in spite of all the things that we find ourselves in conflict with. And if those who minister do not come aside from always serving, they will come apart from always serving. And so he says, come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while. Time for a Sabbath. You can't always minister.

And so you plan to take breaks, but then those breaks are interfered with. And this is the story before us, verse 32. So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. Now, the Lord chose no less than four men who fished and sailed this lake and knew it very well. He chose those four, and maybe more, but at least those four to be with him. And here we see him using their skills. Whenever he needed their skills, he called upon them.

Of course, he could overrule their skills when those skills were not sufficient, such as that storm we read about in the fifth chapter that almost drowned them all. Christ skillfully guides whatever skills I may have, whatever talents I may have, whatever abilities I may acquire and or develop. He is still the master craftsman.

He is still the master. Psalm 78, verse 72. So he shepherded them to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. You can say that of a father, you can say that of a leader, a pastor, but it belongs to Christ. It belongs to the God who is there, who is involved, so that when I am struggling, when I am perplexed, when I can't figure it out, when I've had about enough of all this stuff, I still find myself submitted to him and waiting in my perplexity, trusting by faith that he'll do what he needs to do when he's ready to do it.

And it is my business to be ready when he is ready, regardless of how much squirming I may find myself doing. Verse 33. 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 him. This is the peak of his popular enthusiasm. This is the time in his ministry when people are just seeking him and wanting him, they're actually listening to him.

There's going to be a twist at the end of this story, but they're coming out in droves. John adds in chapter 6, Then a great multitude followed him because they saw his signs which he performed on those who were diseased. Matthew says, And when Jesus went out, he saw a great multitude, and he was moved with compassion for them and healed their sick. So you've got people coming out, there's the first initial group that beats him to that destination the boat was headed towards.

They just sort of ran along the shoreline. And then the others that they were picking up, the momentum was gaining, the word was, you know, Jesus is coming to so-and-so, he's heading to this and people are closing up shop and they're all racing to this place that was supposed to be the place of rest. Jesus said, My Father works until now and I do too. In other words, there's no rest for God. God is working all the time, he's tireless.

And I'm working also, and we see this in action. Verse 34 now, 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. Now just a moment ago, I read you the two verses that said they were also coming out bringing their sick with them, because Mark leaves that part out of the story, so we just bring it in from the other ones. This compassion for them as a shepherd and seeing them as a flock, vulnerable, without a protector, without a shepherd, the Latin word pastor. It's an Old Testament expression being used here by Mark when he says he was moved with compassion for them because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. Well that is picked up in Kings and Ezekiel, Jeremiah hammers it, it speaks of inadequate and or corrupted leadership. Sheep having no shepherd. They may have a leader, but if he is corrupted, they have no leader. They have no shepherd, they have a ruler. So he began to teach them many things.

Interesting. He sees them coming out, bringing their sick, he has compassion on them, so he teaches them. Now a lot of people might take issue with it. Why didn't he just meet their social needs? Why didn't he give them all new sandals? He decides he's going to give them a Bible study.

The carnal will recoil at that. Now I'm not saying a Bible study fixes everything, not at all. There are times when it's just not appropriate to give someone a Bible story.

But there are many times when it is. And we better take those times, like we're doing right now. We're taking those times, the time to seizing the moment to preach the word of God. The way exposition works is God appoints his servant, he works with him in his study to filter out a lot of the junk, to organize the thoughts, to be able to present something that everybody can follow to some degree. And then, after the folks have listened, or while they're listening, the Holy Spirit himself comes alongside of them. And he may point out things during the message, he may point it out later. He may point it out years later, decades later. All of a sudden you have a fly, I remember a pastor said this one, that handsome one, I remember that guy.

I know everybody says that, but I'm too modest to bring it up to you. Anyway, he begins to teach them, because he knew they needed to learn. He knew that if he left them in the dark, they'd stumble, wouldn't be able to see.

We mustn't lose this. When Jesus came across the two grieving disciples on the road to Emmaus, he did not pamper them. He expounded on the scripture, Moses and the prophets, the whole scripture. He opened it up to them as much as he could on that walk. When I see those guys in heaven, I'm like, why didn't you write it down?

We were just, what did he say? So he knew, he knew that they had to learn how to conduct themselves, or they would never really develop skills to be used by God. Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 15, one of my favorite verses. And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. This is the will of God.

God is saying this is what I'm going to do, because this is what I want to do, and it's going to happen. And sadly, many who profess Christ don't appreciate these things. They don't get it. They reduced, you know, pastors to sort of like baseball cards. You know, I like this one, I don't like that one.

This one's good, let's swap them or something. And they're not understanding the divine processes in back of these things. A pastor could have no power unless it was given to him from on high, from heaven. It is God's process, it is not because of the man. I don't care how much schooling he goes through, I don't care how much he reads his Bible in praise. It is the work of God or it's nothing.

And it's a good system. Well, they received his sermons, many of them not to their benefit. Many of them are just like, how heartbreaking. How heartbreaking it is to teach God's word only to have it sort of turned against you when you're innocent. And that's what Christ is going to experience. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 3, For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. That's the submitting kind of faith. That's the faith that includes surrender.

That's the faith that says, I, my self-will, my self-interest must decrease so that God, Christ in me can increase, can expand, can gain power, can gain the upper hand. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the book of Mark, right here on Cross Reference Radio.