Christ
Rules When There’s Not Enough
Christ
Rules! Gospel of Mark Series (Part 12)
A Sermon
By Jim Hammond from Mark 6:31-44
OUTLINE
Focus:
When there is not enough, it is difficult to think about helping
others. When we are
stressed financially, it is difficult to think about giving.
That is exactly what the disciples thought when Jesus had
compassion on a hungry crowd.
When There’s
Not Enough . . .
. . . We Feel
Like Sending Them Away
. . .
Jesus’ Insists We Help
. . .
Before you say No, See What You Have
. . . Try Faith
Anyway
. . .
Jesus Makes The Faith Effort More Than Enough
MANUSCRIPT
·
Money used to talk—Then it whispered.
Now it just sneaks off.
·
Most money is tainted.
Taint yours and taint mine.
·
If someone asked you
“How much money do you have in the bank?”
Would your answer be: “I don’t know. I haven’t shaken it
lately.”
·
Husbands, have you heard your wife say,
“Of course I spend more than you make, dear.
I have great confidence in you!?”
Today’s message is titled, Christ Rules! When
there’s Not Enough
Have you ever felt like there wasn’t enough money
to make it to the next paycheck?
I read recently of the Top 10 Financial Stresses in
Family Life
Percentage of families experiencing stress
1. Money for food, clothing and
energy
45%
2. Purchase of a car, or other
major item 43%
3. Taking out a loan
31%
4. Children’s education
29%
5. Problems with family income
26%
6. Medical/dental expenses
23%
7. Purchase or construction of a
home
16%
8. Bad investments
16%
9. Overuse of credit cards
15%
10. Starting a business
10%[i]
Focus:
When there is not enough, it is difficult to think about helping
others. When we are
stressed financially, it is difficult to think about giving.
That is exactly what the disciples thought when Jesus had
compassion on a hungry crowd.
(Mark 6:31-44 NIV)
"Then, because so many people were coming and going that
they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with
me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." {32} So they
went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. {33} But many who
saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and
got there ahead of them. {34} When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd,
he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a
shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. {35} By this time it
was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. "This is a
remote place," they said, "and it's already very late. {36}
Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and
villages and buy themselves something to eat." {37} But he
answered, "You give them something to eat." They said to him,
"That would take eight months of a man's wages ! Are we to go and
spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?" {38}
"How many loaves do you have?" he asked. "Go and
see." When they found out, they said, "Five--and two
fish." {39} Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit
down in groups on the green grass. {40} So they sat down in groups of
hundreds and fifties. {41} Taking the five loaves and the two fish and
looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave
them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two
fish among them all. {42} They all ate and were satisfied, {43} and the
disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and
fish. {44} The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand."
When There’s Not Enough . . .
. . . We Feel Like Sending Them Away
(Mark 6:31-44 NIV)
"Then, because so many people were coming and going that
they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with
me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." {32} So they
went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. {33} But many who
saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and
got there ahead of them.
The disciples were already exhausted.
They had returned from an exhausting mission.
Jesus was trying to give them a chance to rest.
He was trying to lead them to a quiet place to recoup.
There energy resources were gone.
The text tells us they had not even had time to eat because of
the crowd. These disciples
were hungry already. They
left in a boat to go find a solitary place (by the way this is that
desert theme again. They left to go into a desert place, a deserted place.)
But the crowd saw them leaving.
They go on foot and beat the boat to where they are going.
This tells you the immense popularity of Jesus by
this time. We will discover
that a huge crowd gathers. A
crowd of more than 5,000 since they counted the men, the heads of
households. This crowd is
swarming Jesus and the Twelve who are trying to get away, trying to get
some rest. Jesus does not send them away.
He has compassion on them. The
tired and hungry disciples want to send them away. But not Jesus.
Don’t you feel like sending the needy away when
you feel needy yourself? That
is a normal feeling. That
is what we are talking about this morning, and what Jesus would have us
do in those circumstances.
. . . Jesus’ Insists We Help
{34} When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he
had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
So he began teaching them many things.
The first thing Jesus Compassion leads him to do is
to teach these “sheep without a shepherd”.
By the way, calling these Jewish people “sheep without a
shepherd” does not speak well for their religious leaders.
The crowd here is a Jewish crowd.
Are they short of priests and leaders?
No. They are just
short of leaders who care. The
religious leaders of their day were not shepherding their flock.
This huge crowd were like sheep without a shepherd.
Shepherds in Jesus day are different than shepherds
of today. You need a
shepherd when there are no fences.
The shepherd actually lives out with the sheep, leading, guiding,
protecting, and knowing the sheep.
The Religious leaders of Jesus day weren’t doing this.
They didn’t like smelling like sheep.
They didn’t like getting their feet dirty.
They tried using fences, and intimidation.
These are not the tactics of shepherds.
They tried watching from a distance.
Consequently, these sheep have no shepherd.
QUOTE: Bonhoeffer
described people without a shepherd this way,
“There were questions
but no answers, distress but no relief, anguish of conscience but no
deliverance, tears but no consolation, sin but no forgiveness.”[ii]
It is no wonder they turn to Jesus, an obvious
leader, who they find to be the answer to their hopes.
The Lord is My Shepherd—Green pastures
Jesus
statement and actions and Mark’s description make the one familiar
with Psalm 23 to think of it.
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”
When Jesus shepherds this crowd he meets their need.
Jesus really helps. He
is not going to send them away to fend for themselves.
“He makes me lie down in green pastures”.
Notice where Mark describes the crowd sitting.
He gives us the seemingly unnecessary detail about the color of
grass upon which they sit.
.{39}
Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on
the green grass.
Still Waters, Restoreth My Soul
Perhaps
Mark’s description of the green grass is even more startling when you
realize Mark has already told us this is the desert.
But the desert by the sea has grass.
Speaking of being by the sea.
You can’t help but to think of the Psalm again.
“He leads me beside still waters.
He restoreth my soul.” There
they are on the beach by quiet waters.
And what is Jesus doing? Teaching,
feeding their souls, then feeding their bodies, restoring this weary
hungry crowd.
Greater Than Moses—The Shepherd who leads into the Promised Land
Before
we leave the theme of sheep without a shepherd we must see one other
detail. That theme is
actually more directly related to the desert theme than it is to the 23rd
Psalm. The description is
actually a direct quote from Moses, describing the people in the
wilderness. Mark has already told us this is the desert, alerting us to
this theme. The wilderness
theme is strong in Mark. What
the disciples had missed at first, they had finally learned and passed
on to Mark. Mark faithfully
presents the narrative for us to have a chance to see it much like the
disciples did. We might
miss the profound nature of it also if we did not stop to reflect.
Moses led the people out of Egypt.
From Egypt they entered the Desert, and what happened there? God miraculously fed his people in the wilderness!
Mark does not want the reader to miss the point of this miracle
as the disciples had. Like
Moses, but Greater than Moses, Jesus feeds the people with teaching and
with miraculous food. The
image of the people being like “sheep without a shepherd” comes
directly from Numbers 27.
(Numbers 27:15-17 NIV) "Moses said to the LORD, {16} "May the LORD, the
God of the spirits of all mankind, appoint a man over this community
{17} to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and
bring them in, so the Lord's people will not be like sheep without a
shepherd.""
Moses
asked God to appoint a man to lead them so that they would not be like a
sheep without a shepherd. This
request had a double answer, one immediate and one prophetic.
Remember, they are about to enter the promised land.
Moses is asking that one would be appointed to lead them as they
enter the promised land. Guess
who was appointed? Joshua.
He was the immediate answer.
But Guess how Joshua’s name is translated in the Septuagint,
the Greek translation of the Old Testament, translated some 200 years
before the New Testament? JESUS! Joshua is
the Hebrew for “Yahweh Saves”, Jesus is the Greek for “Yahweh
Saves”. Joshua and Jesus
are the same name just in different languages.
The Joshua of the Old Testament then becomes the type,
foreshadowing the Greater than Moses deliverer, who was appointed to
lead us into the Promised Land, the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of
Heaven. There are great
Biblical themes connected with this powerful miracle, one of the few
miracles that are recorded by all four Gospel writers.
It was the significance of the miracle that the disciples just
didn’t get until later. You
can even see how they missed it later in this chapter.
Our
job is not done this morning even if we finally see what the disciples
missed. It is not enough
for us to see that Jesus is the Good Shepherd, the Deliverer that is
greater than Moses. If he
is to lead us, we must hear his voice and follow him.
We must listen as the disciples listened to him.
What did Jesus want to do in this case?
He has compassion, and He wants us to help with the crowd of
shepherd less sheep.
Like
the disciples, we are overwhelmed with the needs out there.
We don’t have the
resources to meet them. Yet
Jesus insists we help. We
are tempted to simply point out to Jesus the problems.
The disciples did that.
"This
is a remote place," they said, "and it's already very late.
{36} Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside
and villages and buy themselves something to eat." {37} But he
answered, "You give them something to eat." They said to him,
"That would take eight months of a man's wages ! Are we to go and
spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?"
It
is not our jobs as Christians to simply point out the problems we see in
society. Many Christians
act as if that is there job. No,
that is not enough. We must
lift our hand to do something about the problems we see.
Jesus Insists we help.
. . . Before you say No, See What You Have
{38}
"How many loaves do you have?" he asked. "Go and
see." When they found out, they said, "Five--and two
fish."
I
want to know something. What
were the disciples planning on doing if they did send the crowd away? Five little bread rolls and two little salted fish are hardly
enough to eat and be satisfied for the twelve hungry men and Jesus.
Were they planning on just making do?
Were they planning on going back to town?
I bet they didn’t have plans at all.
They didn’t have the time to make plans, or make lunch, or buy
lunch. The point I want you
to see is that they didn’t have enough even for themselves.
Being in that condition, it is harder to give.
The spirit of poverty has more to do with the state
of your mind than with the amount of assets you possess. Sometimes those who possess very little recognize how blessed
they are. This week I was
emailed the following:
·
If you own just one Bible,
you are abundantly blessed; 1/3 of the
world does not have access to even one.
·
If you woke up this morning
with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who
will not survive the week.
·
If you have never
experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the
agony of torture or the pangs of starvation, you are
ahead of 500 million people around the world.
·
If you attend a church
meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, or the torture of death, you
are more blessed that almost three billion people in the world..
·
If you have food in your
refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to
sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.
·
If you have money in the
bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are
among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
·
(this one is for the
younger crowd) If your
parents are still married and alive, you are very rare, even in the
United States.
·
If you can hold someone's
hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder, you are blessed
because you can offer God's healing touch.
·
If you prayed yesterday and
today, you are in the minority because you believe in God's willingness
to hear and answer prayer.
·
If you hold up your head
with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed
because the majority can, but most do
not.
Live the Christian Life Little by Little
Fred Craddock, in an address to ministers,
caught the practical implications of consecration. “To give my life
for Christ appears glorious,” he said. “To pour myself out for
others...to pay the ultimate price of martyrdom—I’ll do it. I’m
ready, Lord, to go out in a blaze of glory.
“We think giving our all to the Lord is
like taking a $1,000 bill and laying it on the table—’Here’s my
life, Lord. I’m giving it all.’
“But the reality for most of us is that he
sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $1,000 for quarters. We go
through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there. Listen to the
neighbor kid’s troubles instead of saying, ‘Get lost.’ Go to a
committee meeting. Give a cup of water to a shaky old man in a nursing
home.
“Usually giving our life to Christ isn’t
glorious. It’s done in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a
time. It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory; it’s harder to
live the Christian life little by little over the long haul.”[iii]
When there’s not enough, we’re to go and see
what we have. When we find
there is still not enough we are asked to bring what little we do have
to Jesus, and Try Faith Anyway,
. . . Try Faith Anyway
{39}
Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on
the green grass. {40} So they sat down in groups of hundreds and
fifties. {41} Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to
heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his
disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among
them all. {42} They all ate and were satisfied, {43} and the disciples
picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. {44} The
number of the men who had eaten was five thousand."
HOPE HOME
We have examples of this having worked already in
our own little church. Stephanie
Osborn was like one who had a small lunch of 5 loaves and 2 fish.
She had a little time, a little energy, and a willingness to go
to India. What did she see
there? Sheep without a
shepherd. They were also
hungry and needing the care of the shepherd.
She realized that Jesus doesn’t just watch people in need, he
helps them. So she began to
be Jesus to them. A dream
was born in her heart. She
could not save all of the Calcutta children, but could do something.
She came home and shared her story.
We saw the pictures of those lost little lambs.
She brought tears to our eyes.
She filled our hearts with the compassion of Jesus that was
filling her heart. We
brought our fish and bread. Jesus
broke it and blessed it and passed it on to Hope Home in Calcutta.
The result was that where there was no home a home was born.
Since that beginning in faith.
Funds have been fueling this vision from other sources.
Our church has given over $25,000 towards this cause over the
past several years. And now
recently, other places are giving.
Over $16,000 from outside sources have come in the past two
months. A second home is
starting to house little girls, mostly the forgotten daughters of
prostitutes.
OTHER BENEVOLENCE
We have seen it in other smaller ways.
You bring your gifts to church.
Needy people have called for help.
In recent months, there has been money to help a family who had
fallen behind in her rent when the mother had to have surgery and the
father was living on a Social Security check.
They were behind and desperate.
Gas money was given to a stranded and desperate man
who is living out of his RV and had his cash stolen.
We might be tempted to take the attitude of the
disciples, send them along, let them help themselves.
But then would they learn there is a God who cares?
Another man called.
His wife was in a car accident and had been in a coma for 2
months. They just moved
back to AZ. They have 4
children. Their car broke
down. They paid to have it
fixed. Not long afterward
the engine blew. They are
without a car and without cash reserve.
They both have jobs. He works a day job, and she works nights.
They both walk to work.
He walks her to work from the motel they live in because she
works at night. They’ve
been living in a motel since May. They
are paying $1300 a month for lodging but can’t get into an apartment
because they have no cash reserve.
They were stuck in a whole looking for some way to climb out.
We are in the position to help. I took the man’s name and asked him to call me with the
details of how we could help without giving him cash.
We never give people cash. But
we have paid landlords, we have paid gas stations. We have given out grocery store gift certificates.
Your 2 fish and loaves help as we give them to Jesus, and Jesus
does with them more than we by ourselves ever dreamt of doing.
These are but a few of the stories I’ve listened to in just the
last 3 weeks.
But the simple fact is we personally are asked to
help when we don’t feel there is enough to begin with.
That’s when we are to look at what we have. Then try faith anyway, and give of what we do have.
There’s something else in this passage.
The disciples did not give their food directly to the people.
They brought it to Jesus. Jesus
blessed it and made it multiply. He
did a miracle with it. I
believe this is the key here. Here
is a powerful picture of what the church can be and do.
The church is the body of Christ.
When we bring our gifts, small as they might be to Christ, he can
bless it and do amazing things. Things
we did not dream possible are things we become involved in.
When the crowd comes and there are hungry people in that crowd we
will see Jesus take our small tokens, bless them, and meet needs in
surprising ways.
Love Is Sacrificial Action
Dave Simmons tells us his story.
“. . . I took Helen (eight years old) and Brandon (five years
old) to the Cloverleaf Mall in Hattiesburg to do a little shopping. As
we drove up, we spotted a Peterbilt eighteen-wheeler parked with a big
sign on it that said, “Petting Zoo.” The kids jumped up in a rush
and asked, “Daddy, Daddy. Can we go? Please. Please. Can we go?”
“Sure,” I said, flipping them both a
quarter before walking into Sears. They bolted away, and I felt free to
take my time looking for a scroll saw. A petting zoo consists of a
portable fence erected in the mall with about six inches of sawdust and
a hundred little furry baby animals of all kinds. Kids pay their money
and stay in the enclosure enraptured with the squirmy little critters
while their moms and dads shop.
A few minutes later, I turned around and saw
Helen walking along behind me. I was shocked to see she preferred the
hardware department to the petting zoo. Recognizing my error, I bent
down and asked her what was wrong.
She looked up at me with those giant limpid
brown eyes and said sadly, “Well, Daddy, it cost fifty cents. So, I
gave Brandon my quarter.” Then she said the most beautiful thing I
ever heard. She repeated the family motto. The family motto is in
“Love is Action!”
She had given Brandon her quarter, and no
one loves cuddly furry creatures more than Helen. She had watched Sandy
take my steak and say, “Love is Action!” She had watched both of us
do and say “Love is Action!” for years around the house and Kings
Arrow Ranch. She had heard and seen “Love is Action,” and now she
had incorporated it into her little lifestyle. It had become part of
her.
What do you think I did? Well, not what you
might think. As soon as I finished my errands, I took Helen to the
petting zoo. We stood by the fence and watched Brandon go crazy petting
and feeding the animals. Helen stood with her hands and chin resting on
the fence and just watched Brandon. I had fifty cents burning a hole in
my pocket; I never offered it to Helen, and she never asked for it.
Because she knew the whole family motto.
It’s not “Love is Action.” It’s “Love is SACRIFICIAL
Action!” Love always pays a price. Love always costs something. Love
is expensive. When you love, benefits accrue to another’s account.
Love is for you, not for me. Love gives; it doesn’t grab. Helen gave
her quarter to Brandon and wanted to follow through with her lesson. She
knew she had to taste the sacrifice. She wanted to experience that total
family motto. Love is sacrificial action.[iv]
. . . Jesus Makes The Faith Effort More Than Enough
We must not forget the end of the story.
The disciples who thought they didn’t have enough had more than
enough. In fact they had
more after giving their meager resources away.
They had more energy than when they started, and they had more
food than when they started giving it away.
What Jesus did was a true miracle. We don’t need to explain it away. Literally, he fed over 5,000 hungry people to the point of
being fully satisfied, by breaking and multiplying what little was
offered. This was done
primarily to show the disciples, and others with the eyes of faith, who
Jesus was. He is the one
Greater than Moses, Deliverer. He
is the divine Son of God.
1)
Believe He is who he claimed to be
2)
Trust Him when there’s not enough
3)
Show you trust him by pitching in with what little you have,
whether it is time, energy, talent, money, or other resources.
[i]
Together Forever, Aid Association for Lutherans, Appleton,
WI, 1997, p. 51
[ii] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The
Cost of Discipleship (New York: Macmillan, 1963), p. 224.
[iii]
Darryl Bell, Maple Grove, Minnesota, quoted in Leadership, Fall
Quarter, 1984, p. 47
[iv]
Dad, The Family Coach by Dave Simmons, Victor Books, 1991, pp.
123-124
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