Well, I thought I knew what was going to happen next, but I didn't know what was going to happen next. I was going away for a ministry weekend; I was going to drive a couple hundred miles; I had prayed that the Lord would give me safety on the road, that He would get the car from point A to point B so that I could make my ministry appointment. It was about dusk, and all of a sudden, the car that I had prayed for, died. I was in the proverbial middle of nowhere. I was so discouraged. And little did I know that circumstance would be a glorious way that God would answer my prayer.
His Care in the Unexpected
Because in that moment, He would demonstrate to me His care and His provision in a way that was much more striking, much more beautiful, much more faith-building than had I gotten from point A to point B. The passage we are going to look at this evening is really, "You just don't know what is going to happen next" kind of passage. It is the familiar story of the feeding of the 5000, but I want you to think about this with me, that this telling of Mark has a very different cast to it than in John.
In John, the whole move of the feeding of the 5000 is Jesus' revelation of Himself as the 'bread of life.' Remember it ends with Him saying, "...unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you'll not enter the kingdom of heaven ... I am the bread of life." And it really moves toward the crowd's misunderstanding of who Jesus was. And the response of the crowd is very, very important to John's telling of the story. Mark tells the story in a very different way. The focus is really on the disciples, and the setup is this ministry trip, the first time Jesus had sent out His disciples.
And they come back to report their journey - and if you want to look in your Bibles there, page 841 in your church Bible, verse 30 of Mark 6. As they report to Jesus all that happened, all they had done and taught, He said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a desert place and rest for a while." Now you may think you know what's going to happen next. Jesus is going to take His disciples away; these guys were exhausted; this is a big deal; this is the first time they've ever done this. You think if you haven't read this passage before that they are going to go to this desert place; it's going to be desolate like its predicted, and they will get rest.
Look what happens next. For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in a boat to a desert place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. Now, it's maybe important to say something about the nature of ministry. Sin makes us selffocused. Sin makes us always oriented to our wants, our needs, our feelings. You wake up for the day, and you are sort of filled with what you'd like to accomplish in your day, and the call of the Kingdom is to be motivated by a greater purpose.
And so no longer is my life just ruled by my wants, my needs, my feelings; I'm called to be part of what God is doing on earth, and there's no such thing as ministry without sacrifice. Ministry always demands sacrifice. It will take you out of your easy comfort, out of the bounds of your wisdom and your strength. And that's exactly where the disciples are in this moment. And it says here that there are such great demands on Jesus and the disciples, they actually don't even have time to eat. Ministry is hard to schedule; it's hard to keep in comfortable boundaries.
Again, it will take you out of that place to a place of sacrifice. And yet, when Jesus and the disciples get to the other side of the water, there's not a desolate place there. It's a place filled with many people. Now, what do you think Jesus is going to do next? Maybe His disciples would be expecting that He would say to the crowd, "No, no, no! I've been very faithful in ministering to you. I have been very faithful and caring for you; this is my time with My disciples. We're trying to get away; these guys need rest; I'm going to care for them."
What About the Rest?
But that's not what Jesus does. And it's important to be honest about this passage, to ask the question, "What about the rest? What about what seemed to be a promise of Jesus that He was going to provide for these weary men who had been so burdened by ministry, rest? What happened to the rest?" Now, I want you to be honest with me this evening: is there ever a moment in your life where you wonder where are the promises of God to you? Where is the peace? Where is the comfort? Where is the strength?
Where is the wisdom? Where are the things that God has promised to provide for me? Maybe I should be so bold as to ask you this evening: Are there places, right now in your life, where at least you're tempted to doubt His presence; tempted to question His promises; tempted to wonder if He's hearing your prayers; tempted to wonder if, in fact, He actually cares? Maybe that's because you and I not only pray, but we tend to think about how the prayers will be answered. And we tend to think that God, in His grace, is more predictable than He actually is.
And often He will answer our prayers in ways that are unusual; but you get to the other side, and you see the glory of His grace and the glory of His wisdom and the glory of His provision. I would propose to you that in this moment, Jesus is about to provide a deeper, fuller rest than just the physical rest that the disciples thought they were going to get. Jesus has not forgotten the disciples; Jesus is about to display something to the disciples that is meant to forever change their hearts. Sadly, it may not have, as we will see next week.
Jesus is about to display the compassion of His grace. Jesus is about to display what He will, in grace, do with His power for those who love Him and follow Him and serve Him. And that is all meant to give these men, who have now given their lives to follow Christ, a remarkable rest, because they're going to get a metaphor of the kind of provision that Christ is willing to make for those who follow Him. No, Jesus doesn't send the crowd away; because when Jesus looks at the crowd, He doesn't see an obstacle; He doesn't see an interruption; He doesn't see a hassle; He sees an opportunity for grace.
He sees sheep without a shepherd because He is a Savior of glorious compassion. Again, I would say that if your eyes ever see and your ears ever hear the sin, weakness, and failure of another person, it is never an interruption; it is never an obstacle; it must never be viewed as a hassle; it's always grace! It's not just grace for that person; it's grace for you. And you must view that as grace. If you're a husband and wife and it's early in the morning, let's say you're the husband, and your wife wants to have a serious talk with you, how do you respond to that?
How do you respond to that moment of need? If you're a parent and there's a late-night difficulty with your children, how do you respond to that moment of need? If you've planned a day of relaxation and one your brothers and sisters calls you with a difficulty, how do you respond to that moment of need? What a beautiful picture of the compassion of the Savior! He cannot look at these people and see them as an interruption; these are sheep without a shepherd. Now you know the metaphor, it's well known.
Sheep, by creation, are dependent. Sheep don't do very well by themselves. Sheep don't feed themselves well. They don't guide themselves well. They don't protect themselves well; and sheep without a shepherd, by the very nature of that, are in trouble. These are people who are in deep spiritual peril if, in fact, they are sheep without a shepherd. And so Jesus does what a compassionate Savior will do; He begins to teach them, He begins to nourish them with the nutrients of the Gospel of the Kingdom.
The Heart of the Disciples
I would ask you to reflect on what's going on in the heart of the disciples at this moment. Perhaps the disciples are not all too excited about seeing the crowd. You get a hint of that next in this passage as a matter fact. Perhaps they do see this as an irritation; perhaps they are disappointed; perhaps they're wondering, "Where is the rest we were supposed to get?" And as Jesus teaches, it seems a fairly extensive teaching, the disciples actually see an opportunity, but it's not an opportunity for ministry.
Look what happens next: And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, "This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat." (ESV) The disciples see an opportunity; this is sort of a logical way to divest ourselves of the crowd. And what happens next is not that. It's sort of, "Jesus we love You, and we have a wonderful plan for Your life at this moment. You've taught these people well.
You've done your Messiah duty. It's late; they're hungry; there's no place to eat around here; send them away to the countryside and the villages." And Jesus says this remarkable thing to these, His followers, "Feed them! If this is their need, you give them something to eat." Imagine what's going on in the minds of the disciples at this point. Now, not only are they not provided the rest that they thought they were going to get, now Jesus is laying on them the burden of feeding this large crowd of people; what in the world is going on?
Again and again, these disciples will be called by Christ to do things that, in themselves, they have no capacity whatsoever to do because they are not the Messiah; they're tools in the hands of the Messiah. And the disciples give this predictable response, "Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?" They are saying, "Jesus, if we took a full day's wages, we probably couldn't feed this crowd; what are you talking about? How are we going to feed these people?"
And Jesus says, "Go see how much food you have." It must've seemed like an irrational search. And what they come up with is the extensive buffet of 5 loaves and 2 fishes. Jesus isn't at all upset by that; He tells the crowd to sit down; divides them up into hundreds and fifties; He says a blessing and He distributes food, enough to feed 5000 people with 12 baskets of leftovers. And the disciples are witnesses to a glorious metaphor of the Gospel because theirs is a compassionate Savior who will exercise His power to make abundant provision.
He will meet every need. His grace is sufficient. His love is abounding. You do not have to be afraid no matter how burdened you are, no matter how weary you are in ministry, no matter what you're facing the next day, no matter how confused you are about life, you are the sons and daughters of a powerful and compassionate Redeemer. He will meet your needs! And He has creation at His control. He has power beyond your understanding. He has love that you cannot place in your brain. He has deep, personal, specific compassion.
He will meet all of your needs! And Jesus was wishing for His disciples, at this point, not just physical rest, but a deep, abiding rest of heart. Listen, what makes us weary is not the physical work. What makes us weary is the weariness of heart. What causes people to burn out? Not physical exhaustion. What causes people to burn out is weariness and discouragement and trouble of heart. That's the rest that Jesus is seeking to give at this moment. And He gives this astounding display of His ability to provide.
This Is Real Rest
This is real rest! "No matter where you are, no matter who you are, no matter what I call you to do, I am with you, and I have the willingness and the power to make abundant provision for you. I will feed you beyond anything you could imagine." There's a real way in this moment, this beautiful moment, where the Gospel is played out in this miracle, that you get the equation of the Gospel. Divine Power plus Divine Compassion equals Everything You Need. Divine Power plus Divine Compassion, equals Everything You Need.
Listen, if God were only holy and only powerful and only sovereign and had no compassion, we would be damned! No one would ever run to Him. No one would ever find hope in Him. But His compassion means that sovereignty is exercised for your good; that power is released for your provision; that holiness is what leads Him to send His Son so His Holiness does not have to be compromised, so through the holy life of Christ, justification and forgiveness and righteousness is given. And on the cross, holiness and power and sovereignty and compassion meet together in salvation for His elect!
Sadly, the disciples were struggling to understand the calling, struggling to understand the One who had made Himself known to them, who had chosen them to be His own. And sadly, their life was one still of confusion and fear and misunderstanding and panic and disappointment. You see that pictured throughout this Gospel. We're going to see that pictured in the next event that we will look at. Who do you think your Savior is? Do you rest? Is your life a picture of rest? Do you understand the Gospel means that His glorious power and His glorious sovereignty, because of His compassion, are now exercised to meet all of your needs?
Whether that's the need of the disciples for that deeper rest, or the need of these sheep without a shepherd to be nourished with the Gospel, or the need of this crowd for physical food, Jesus is a compassionate Savior, and He will meet all of those needs by His grace. What needs did you come into this room with this evening? Maybe you are in this room, and you're like one of those sheep without a Shepherd; I would plead with you: erun to this compassionate Savior. Confess your need; embrace His grace.
Maybe you're weary as that verse in Matthew says, "heavy laden." Don't run from your Savior; run to Him. Maybe your heart lacks that deeper rest, and maybe you're here this evening because your Savior wants to remind you again that he has covenantally committed Himself to you; He will supply everything you nee: Divine Power + Divine Compassion = Everything You Need. Let's pray: Lord, we would embrace what the Scripture says that each one of these passages is written for our example and our instruction; that You are revealing to us Your grace and Your glory so that we would quit shopping for rest horizontally, and we would look up to find the only rest that is truly rest in You.
Thank you for this picture of how You will exercise Your power because of Your compassion to make overflowing provision. May we rest in You. In Jesus's name, Amen!
