The Hand of Sovereignty (Part B)

Whatever weaknesses I have, I still have enough to hold the word. He knows that and it has, all I can say is I'm still standing and it is because of him. And so when he says you give them something to eat and they counter with, what do you want us to do? Take a lot of money into town and buy bread for these thousands of people? He's bringing them face to face with their own inability to meet human needs without him.

They don't see it at the moment but they're going to get it full force eventually. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Mark.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of his teaching. Today, Pastor Rick brings us part two of his study called The Hand of Sovereignty in Mark chapter 6. 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, that 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 you know 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 was 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. 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. He 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 he 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, it's just 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, myself will, my self-interest must decrease so that God, Christ in me, can increase, can expand, can gain power, can gain the upper hand. Paul said to Titus while he's, you know Titus was one of Paul's strong assistants when, tick a kiss in Titus when he needed those guys to go out and clean things up.

When he needed men, those were two men he'd choose. So he writes to Titus and he's giving him instructions on how to run the church and he talks about a type of people that are church goers or Christ's professors. He says they profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, disqualified for every good work. They've ruined the whole thing, they're corrupted.

They have this, oh I'm a Christian, but the way they live, the things that they do to people, it's abominable. It's not obedience and in doing so, they're disqualified. That's quite remarkable and we do well to heed these things as Peter said. You do well to heed God's Word. Verse 35, when the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, this is a deserted place and already the hour is, pardon me, I read that with the wrong tone.

I read it as though they just discovered this. 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. So the disciples, it's a genuine concern, they do care, but still they're going to be happy to see the people go. They want that rest. Much of their work was crowd control and you just, how much, I mean, there's going to be a conservative number of how many people are here? Very conservative, 10,000.

More likely 15. We'll get that at the end. This is a lot of people and with that comes a lot of other things and these men, they're tired, they're hungry, they're ready for a rest. The seemingless, endless multitudes and needs, people coming up to them, can I have a word with Christ?

Can I just, on and on it goes. Verse 37, but He 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? Now John's gospel, his account, is almost comical because he singles out Philip. He says, Philip, fill up the baskets, Philip.

He doesn't do that. But he challenged, what are we going to do, Philip? And Philip's scratching his head, he's trying to figure it out. And every time we see Philip, he's getting the question wrong.

It's kind of an interesting study. But they're almost being wise guys. What do you want us to do?

Go into town with 200, with all this money, cash rolling, I don't know, just buy bread for everybody? They're kind of pushing back because they're not getting still. They're still not getting who He is. They got a lot of it.

I look at this and as I'm criticizing them, I'm right there with them. Because there are times when I'm not getting it. And you know what, I have a flashback of Nicodemus and the Lord saying to him, are you the teacher of Israel and you don't get it? I've heard God say that to me. Are you the pastor, the Bible teacher, you don't get it?

No. I mean, it's not that I don't get it, I don't want it. I don't want the circumstances. I know what you want me to do, I always know what you want me to do. I just don't always want to do it.

My flesh. And he tells us, you know, the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Okay, so what are you telling me? Are you telling me, pastor, that you're out every time? You're just weak? You just, you know, you don't want to do it?

Not at all. I will still grab from my sword and I will swing it nonetheless. Whatever weaknesses I have, I still have enough to hold the Word. He knows that and it has, all I can say is I'm still standing and it is because of him. And so when he says you give them something to eat and they counter with, what do you want us to do? Take a lot of money into town and buy bread for these thousands of people? He's bringing them face to face with their own inability to meet human needs without him.

They don't see it at the moment but they're going to get it full force eventually. And I don't mean in a harsh way. Again, John's gospel and his parallel account. But this he said to test him when he asked the disciple for he knew what he would do. He knew what he was going to do the whole time.

A denarii is a day's pay and to have 200 denarii is about 800, I mean about eight months of wages which money that they don't have. Judas might have it. He may have stolen enough from everybody else. But anyway, well that's what you do when you steal something.

That's from everybody else. Verse 38, and he said to them, how many loaves do you have? Go see. And they went and found out and said, five loaves and two fish.

You can hear the tone. Like, you know, okay here's how much we have. We have a boy's lunchbox.

That's what they had. This little basket, mom sent them, okay you're going to go run with the disciples and see Jesus. Fine.

You make sure you get your bread and fish basket and you go. And he does. And Andrew is the one that buddied up with the kid. You know, Andrew is just everybody's buddy.

When you got that kid? And you know, so he brings word back. Verse 38, but he said to them, how many loaves do you have?

Go see. And they found and said, five and two fish. Verse 39, then he commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass. Green grass. Chloros, where we get our English word chlorine from.

It is a green yellow in the Greek. He said, what does that have to do with the story? Well, it's Passover season. The grass is beginning to do, it's still raining and starting to turn.

It's going to brown up as it dries out, but the seasons. John's gospel again, chapter 6, now the Passover, a feast of the Jews was near. So it's March-April, just a time stamp for us. Verse 40, let me pause there. Of course, Peter's telling the story, more than likely. John may have, John Mark, may have been there also. Somebody remembered this little detail. To someone, this was a vivid memory. And it enters into the scripture.

And it's a very human touch. It is, it is God saying, these are eyewitnesses. These are men that were there. And it's just quite natural of them. I can remember, the grass was just like green, yellow, kind of just, you know, and it finds its way into scripture. If it were creative writing, we'd have pages more of this kind of stuff, but we don't.

We just have these little bits every now and then. Because these men were so focused on what was going on. I think they hid the identity of many people, fearing that they would be persecuted.

I think they also left out some facts because of various good reasons. I think the way we have the gospel presented to us with the three synoptic gospels and the one independent gospel, I think it is an act of God how it is given to us. It forces us to think through the challenges, to see if there's contradictions or not.

We'll come to that trust in the word a little bit. But coming back to this, verse 40, so they sat down in ranks in hundreds and in fifties. Now that kind of organization will make distribution go a lot more smoothly.

And the coming miracle of fish sandwiches that everybody's going to get does not need to be hampered with chaos. Very smart. And this would also help identify how many people were there.

You break them down into ranks, you just do the multiplication. Verse 41, 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 he says grace before the meal. He does this at the Passover too.

We are to do the same thing. First Thessalonians. Now a little background here, the Thessalonian church, when Paul writes this first Thessalonian letter, it's a new church. He and Silas established this church while still bleeding from the beating in Philippi.

And so these people that were attracted to their message knew about this beating, knew what they were getting into, they're pretty solid believers early on. And not just months after he establishes this church, he writes to them this Thessalonian letter. And so he treats them, he gives them end times information, he gives them how to disfellowship if you have to somebody, and who to be with and who not to be with as far as fellowship goes. And he says this, in everything give thanks for it is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. In everything, you know, we all know the Philippian, be anxious for nothing but in all things with thanksgiving, prayer and supplication. Well, here it is straight out, this is the will of God.

We see Christ giving us that example. He takes the food and he blesses it. I try not to let even, you know, anything go into my mouth without saying thank you Lord.

Eat the, you know, you can be fruit, vegetables, candy, milkshakes. I'm very grateful for God feeding me and I don't mean to say that I am and you haven't been. I'm not being, preaching down at you, I'm just enjoying the moment because I remember when I wasn't that way. So he looked to heaven because that's where everything comes from, that is good. But what we see in this also, and this is kind of standard in preaching on this verse, what he takes, he blesses. And what he blesses, he breaks. And what he breaks, he distributes.

That is very good preaching. I just don't want to be the one broken. But there's no way to really have the Lord distribute through you unless there's some breaking going on. Unless there's some hardship, some facing life, suffering of various sorts. You know, you can go through life, you know, healthy and really unscathed by many things, but still internally there's that struggle.

You can't put your finger on why it's there. As David said, why are you cast down, O my soul, why? Trust in God, David goes and says, I didn't need a whole dissertation.

Well, what you've got is, he didn't need all of that. He just trusted in God. Verse 42, so they all ate him and were filled. These are the apostles now.

They ate first. Everybody else is sort of gathering, wondering what's going on. Christ has enough momentum through his healings and teachings for them to be patient enough, but before we can be used to feed others, we ourselves must feed on the great work and truth of Christ personally. We're kind of annoyed at someone who acts like a know-it-all when they know nothing, and we identify that. The person doesn't know what he's talking about. John's gospel, Peter said to him, chapter 13, this is when he's washing the apostles' feet. Peter said to him, you should never wash my feet. Jesus answered, if I do not wash you, you have no part with me.

If I don't feed you, if I don't wash you, if I don't fill you, what can you do? 1 Corinthians, Paul says, for I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, first received. Then he goes on to say this, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. You see, it's always the Word of God. Man shall not live by bread alone but by the Word of God.

And Satan is notorious for coming along and saying, okay, enough with the Bible now. Now it's time for something practical. Well, we're doing practical things as best we can, but that can get away from us, too. I mean, you start giving.

We just opened the bookstore and just gave everything out. People would take books away that they never would read just because they're free. It's just how people are. We have to learn how to manage the blessings that God gives us. I remember as a relatively new believer, I was just devouring God's Word. And I went on a church camping trip, and I'm lying there in a tent, and Satan said, I think you're putting just too much into Christ. It's just too much Bible reading, just way too much. And almost instantly, the Lord spoke to me, you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You need to throw everything you've got into me as best you can. And that's where largely my struggles have been in my life.

I've not been able to do that. 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.