The Hungry Then the Difficult (Part A)

John says, And not for ours only, but also for the whole world. And we see him ministering to representatives of the whole world. Those outside of the Jewish Covenant, Gentiles.

He cares for them. And the whole world, when we talk about God's love, means just that, not just the elect. He would say, God loved the elect.

But he says the whole world. We are in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 8. If you have your Bibles, please turn there. We will take verses 1 through 13. Beginning in verse 1, Mark chapter 8. In those days, the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said to them, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with me three days and have nothing to eat.

And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way, for some of them have come from afar. Then his disciples answered him, How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness? He asked them, How many loaves do you have?

They said seven. So he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke and gave to his disciples to set before them, and they set them before the multitude. They also had a few small fish, and having blessed them, he said to them also, set them also before them.

So they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments. Now, those who had eaten were about four thousand, and he sent them away. Immediately, he got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Namathuah. Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven, testing him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, Why does this generation seek a sign?

Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation. And he left them, and getting into the boat, again departed to the other side. The hungry, then the difficult. Here we have this very large group of people, a multitude, over four thousand people have come out to be touched by Jesus, to receive his teachings, and to their surprise and amazement to be fed by him. And in turn, he cared for them, healing them, teaching them, and as I mentioned, feeding them. Once he is finished with them and he leaves this area, he comes amongst those who confront him.

These are a difficult type. They happen to be very religious. Religion can turn a person upside down or right side up. It's very easy to be turned upside down for anything in life. This is part of the curse, it's part of sin in this world.

And those of you who drive on the road, you know how quickly you can be turned upside down. And there are those that have your buttons, the sequence codes to activate your anger and disappointment, annoyance, you know, little children in the home, older children in the home, just relationships period. So we guard against, we don't want to be this, like the difficult group in this section we're going to consider in a little while. Getting way ahead of myself, the question is, do people who are genuinely annoying, do they know they're annoying? And if they don't, that's annoying. What about mean people? Do mean people know that they're mean?

I think they do. I think that particular group, they like, they enjoy the feeling of being mean and cutting others down. If this is you, the mean group, the Lord needs to work on you.

That's a very serious problem and you need to come up for prayer. Or stay stuck in pride and stay that way and find out how useless you will be. As for the annoying ones, well, you'll figure it out, I hope, by hearing the Scriptures read in these situations that come before us. And that's why one of the reasons we come to church is to see ourselves in the Scripture, is to have it put up next to our own behavior and say, Lord, do I do this?

Am I annoying like these guys? And if he says yes, then you say, what do I have to do to correct this and keep it corrected? Thus the adventure of Christianity. Well, when those who were difficult did confront him, those religious leaders who were dishonest with their own Scripture and therefore difficult people and dishonest with him, he would not put up with them. Well, that's a brief overview of what we have before us. And so now we first take on those who are coming to him hungry for his care, his touch, his healings. And then as a bonus, they will be fed with bread and fish. Verse 1, chapter 8, Mark's Gospel. In those days, the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said to them, I have compassion on the multitude, verse 2, because they have now continued with me three days and have nothing to eat.

And so we go back up to verse 1. This location is very likely still in Decapolis going by the previous chapter, Mark, chapter 7, verse 31. That's kind of significant to the story because he is still in Gentile territory. He is going to perform this miracle where the people are predominantly non-Jewish.

This, of course, is the second multiplication of the bread and the fish. In the first instance, his audience, the multitude, over 5,000 men, probably as much as 20,000 people. You count the women and children. They were predominantly Jewish. That's pretty revealing as a Bible student. We see early on that Christ ministers to the Jew and the Gentile. The disciples are going to have to deal with this in detail as the Gospel begins to move out of Israel. But, of course, that's for when we get to the book of Acts. This massive Gentile multitude drawn to him, what he could do for them, and not in a dishonest way, but they were needy, they had needs. And you can bet they're bringing out those that are sick and in need of care in carts.

They're coming in large numbers. It says the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat. Matthew adds, besides the women and children, Mark leaves that out. Incidentally, of the four Gospels, all four of them cover the first multiplication of the fish and the bread amongst the Jews. This one is only covered by Matthew and Mark. So we'll be cross-referencing some of Matthew because he gives us a few details that Mark does not include.

For instance, in Matthew 15, verse 30, Matthew writes, Then great multitudes came to him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others, and they laid them down at Jesus' feet, and he healed them. So the lame, well, they're coming out a long distance. These are where the carts are going to bring them. And that's significant to the story because when they take up the fragments of the fish and the bread, they're going to put them in these large baskets. Well, where'd they get the baskets? I mean, people don't walk around them strapped on their empty baskets. Well, they're in the carts.

I mean, this was sort of like your pickup truck of the day, and you had these things in there. Whereas when he did it for the Jews, they had the smaller baskets with them, which is a significant distinction for the Gentiles who used the larger baskets the historians tell us, and the Jews tended to go with the smaller baskets. It says here in verse 1, Jesus called his disciples to him and said. Now, so he's bringing the disciples into this situation. He wants to feed them, and he has fed them spiritually already by his teachings and his healings. Now, he's going to physically feed them. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, but you still have to have bread in the manna in the wilderness or the manna in your kitchen, where it doesn't matter where the manna is, as long as you get it and use it to the glory of the king. So he's going to use the disciples to meet needs.

He still does this. God tends to work through human means whenever he can. There are some things that are absolutely out of our control. You know, the universe, the spin of the earth, there are things that are just beyond us, but there are other things that he joins to us, and he calls them into fellowship with them so that his blessings can flow through human channels.

Alright, big question. What about me? Does Christ ever work through me? Does he ever flow through me to bless people?

Or do I refuse and I just end up draining blessings from people? He is going to multiply the bread, but he is going to require human hands to distribute the bread. Now, he covered this a little bit on Wednesday, and I think it's very appropriate to bring it back into this morning's consideration. When Christ rose Lazarus from the dead, men had to roll away the stone.

Men had to unwrap the grave clothes that Lazarus was in. When he saved that persecutor Saul of Tarsus, he did not do it without the words of his martyr Stephen. And so there we see God, of course, doing the miraculous, but involving his servants, so involving people. And he is always on the lookout for souls to use, and the flesh, of course, wants to be used on its terms, not his terms, and that's where much of the conflict begins. And it's good and wise to nip that in the bud, as many Christians do. Reading from Isaiah chapter 6, this is that vision Isaiah had of the Lord sitting on his throne, and he's moved, he's in the Spirit, and he writes it down for us, Isaiah 6 verse 8, Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, whom shall I send, and who shall go for us?

And I said, Here I am, send me. What a ministry it was. Jeremiah didn't want to go into the ministry, but he did. God let him in.

Moses did not want to go into the ministry, but when these men went into the ministry for the Lord, great things happened. Esther did not want to be used initially. Mordecai convinced her with a simple sentence. Well, to not use someone else. And her response essentially was, Over my dead body.

And that's exactly what she said, because she put her life in jeopardy. In 2 Chronicles, the great prophet goes to the king to rebuke him, he says, For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him. And so God is looking for people to use, he's doing it right here. He sees the people have no food, they've been with him three days, they have spent their provisions, and now he's not going to send them away without caring for them, and he's not going to care for them without his disciples. Verse 2, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with me three days and have nothing to eat. Of course, this compassion runs deeper than the things of this life with Christ, and that's where we get tripped up, because we want to, of course, limit his care for us right here, right now. And if he doesn't do this and that and save me from these things, then does he really care? And of course, by faith we know that he does, and he has an entire eternity to demonstrate his love to us beyond the cross. Now he demonstrates his love to us and that Christ Jesus died for sinners, died for us, and he's going to continue to demonstrate it throughout the ages to come.

And so, again, knowing that they would struggle if they had been sent away hungry and having no intention of sending them that way, even those outside of the covenant, he's going to care for them. First John, chapter 2, verse 2, he himself is the propitiation for our sins. He's the one that's dealt with our sins personally. And then John says, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. And we see him ministering to representatives of the whole world, those outside of the Jewish covenant, Gentiles.

He cares for them. And the whole world, when we talk about God's love, means just that, not just the elect. If it meant just the elect, he would say, God loved the elect.

But he says the whole world. God is looking to save sinners, and he's looking to use his people to be a part of that process, and every Christian should be concerned about that. And so, here they are, three days, their provision spent, verse 3, and if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way, for some of them have come from afar. How damaging it would have been to all of his work, the teachings, the healings, and then they get home and they're exhausted if they make it.

What good would that do? Well, of course, he has the foresight to address this, and clearly, when it says here, when Christ is saying to his disciples that some have come from afar, how did he know that? Well, he had to interact with people, more than likely, through interacting with the people that he was ministering to. Someone coming up to him said, I've come all the way from so-and-so, and it registered with him. He did not dismiss it.

It still means something today. Those who come afar to Christ, he still notices, he still cares, he still has compassion. James writes, and one of you says to them, those in need, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body. What does it profit? Someone with some critical need, some urgent need, having nowhere else to go, and they're in front of you, and you do not meet that need, that's negligence.

And negligence is always a serious thing. In verse 4, when it comes to spiritual matters, verse 4, Then his disciples answered, How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness? You and I would have said, You cannot be that dumb. You were there when 5,000 people, men alone, were fed.

How can you ask such a question? Matthew and Mark make no comment from the Lord. He doesn't call them out. He just keeps going forward.

I so appreciate that. He's not looking to stick it to me. When it's critical, he'll bring it out. He said, Okay, look, you know, it's so hard. Were they overwhelmed? Had they seen so many miracles they no longer could keep track? Were they themselves exhausted mentally?

I would not count that out at all. They had, you'd think having lived through this situation before, they would apply it. Maybe they thought he wouldn't do it for the Gentiles.

Either way, one of the big things that stands out for me is that he just continues to do what he's going to do. You know, I walk away, I say, How clumsy we are in our faith. I'm not ready to judge the disciples when they make mistakes every time they make a mistake. There are some times, they're like, Yeah, that one was, that one I struggle with. But overall, if I lived then, would I have recognized Christ as the Messiah, as they had come to recognize him?

I would hope so. But again, the Lord does not rebuke them. He will remind them of both the feedings. We'll get to that later in this chapter. We'll look at that down at Mark's Gospel, chapter 8, verse 18.

Jesus giving them another lesson, he says, Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand? How many baskets full of fragments did you take up? They said to him, Twelve. Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?

And they said, Seven. So they remembered those little details. And he dismisses it here. He gets back to it later only because it comes up, it's pertinent to what he's dealing with when we move later on in Mark's Gospel. So I look at that and I say, I want to get it right the first time. I do not want to dismiss his miracles, but I know as I'm reading this, I say to myself, Lord, yeah, I know you can do anything. The problem is, there are times you don't.

And that's where I get messed up. Stephen, we mentioned him earlier. What did Christ do for Stephen? He let the stones fly.

He let them kill him. He stood up to watch that happen as he received Stephen into the kingdom. Christ has got a whole other way of working with things and I'm never going to find those things out outside of his word. And that requires constantly going over it, repaving, filling the potholes of doubt and confusion and absence of memory. It takes hard work to be a Christian and it's worth it. Is there any Christian that wants to come to Christ and say, I don't have to do anything now, I'm saved? Well, your salvation will be questioned after a while. It is hard work and once we grab that, once we understand, okay, it's hard work.

In the midst of all the other things I have to do in life, this is still a demand upon me and it's worth it. Narrow and straight is the way that Christ has laid before us. But once we begin to understand that, it's not so bad. It's when we fight it, acting like laziness is somehow going to be blessed, acting behavior as though it's negligent and somehow honorable with Christ. When we face the facts, we get stronger and not weaker. Maybe after that initial shock may weaken us, but when we regroup, Satan is afraid you're going to regroup. When something happens to you that is horrific or grievous, Satan is afraid that you're going to regroup.

It's good to keep him like that. It's good to understand that we are going to regroup. The disciples did after the crucifixion. They were shattered, but they were still gathering. And when he appeared to them, they regrouped. In verse 5, then he asked them, how many loaves do you have? And they said seven. Now in chapter 6, when he multiplied the bread and the fish for the Jewish people, it was five loaves and two fish. And so it's a distinct difference between the two miracles. It's not a repeat.

Verse 6, so he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground and he took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke and gave to his disciples to set before them and they set them before the multitude. I have criticisms of how the New Testament is written and the Old Testament, and so should you if you're a Bible citizen. If you're a Bible student, you look at these and say, why does the sequence out all the time? Why do I have to do this detective and puzzle work? Well, because you'd be worse off if I didn't force you to consider these things and think. My people are supposed to think. I didn't give you a brain just to figure out what you're going to wear in the morning. I've given you a brain to do other things to my glory.

Don't be afraid of that. You know, maybe you don't get good grades in school. Well, you can get outstanding grades with Christ nonetheless. He's not looking for, you know, pseudo-genius. No one's a genius to God. I mean, who are you going to stand up before the Lord? You know, I graduated genius school two years early.

It's like, pop. Anyway, he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. Why? Because he understands that disorder robs us of blessings.

Order, it is very, it is valuable. You know, if the enemy can scramble us, fragment us, break up, cause disorder, he's going to do it. How many churches have gone down because of disorder, spiritual disorder? Somebody out of line, not where they're supposed to be enough of the time, too often, methodically. He went about resolving this situation. Paul writes to the Corinthians, he says, let all things be done decently and in order. And that church needed it.

Cause they could not, they couldn't control themselves. They felt that they could just, you know, the passage preaching, that gift of teaching is working, I'm going to interrupt that because I've got a rush of a feeling. And they get up and start speaking and Paul says, look, you're not helping God. You're helping the devil. You're bringing in confusion and disorder. Let it be done decently and in order because that's how God has set the universe.

If he hadn't, we would never survive. Something too many churchgoers don't seem to care for in the church. The pastors oversee the church and they keep order in the house because the people, if you're left to ourselves, we will create disorder. One person wants it this way and another one wants it that way.

You've got to tug a war now. And folks get offended. They think because they're Christians, they've got to say so.

In the assembly, they don't. And Paul never asked permission. Paul said, what do you think? What color should we make the drapes?

He never asked anybody. This is what God is leading to me. This is the direction we're going.

And they loved him. And don't be taken by that. You know, if I'm speaking to you, you're wrong, I'm right. I like it that way. But I want you to be right with me. There's some humor in that. I'll say it later again for those of you.

Anyway, he knew how to control the crowd. 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.