[0:00] For the family there. Take your Bibles. Go and me to the Gospel according to Mark. The Gospel of Mark.! This week we briefly looked at verses 11 and 12 as we looked at a verse also found in chapter 7 there, verse 34, when we were looking at the sigh of the Savior.
[0:42] This week we are looking at the bulk of what the 8th chapter is revolving around. And it is kind of laid out for us in two sets of verses here. We have that kind of in the middle, which we will come back to, I believe.
[0:56] But we are in Mark chapter 8, verses 1-10 and then verses 14-21. If you are physically able and desire to do so, would you join with me as we stand together and we read the Word of God found in the 8th chapter of Mark.
[1:13] The Word of God tells us, In those days when there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples and said to them, I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with me now three days and have nothing to eat.
[1:28] If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from a great distance. And his disciples answered him, Where will anyone be able to find enough bread here in this desolate place to satisfy these people?
[1:44] And he was asking them, How many loaves do you have? They said, And he directed the people to sit down on the ground and take them to seven loaves. He gave thanks and broke them and started giving them to his disciples to serve them, and serve them to the people.
[2:00] They also had a few small fish, and after he had blessed them, he ordered these to be served as well. And they ate and were satisfied. And they picked up seven large baskets of what was left over of the broken pieces.
[2:15] About 4,000 were there, and he sent them away. And immediately he entered the boat with his disciples and came to the district of Damanuthah. Go to verse 14. And they had forgotten to take bread.
[2:27] They leave that region. They get into a boat. See that in verse 13. And they had forgotten to take bread and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them. And he was giving orders to them, saying, Watch out.
[2:38] Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. They began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus said to them, Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread?
[2:54] Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? Having yet see, do you not hear? And do you not remember when I broke the five loaves of broken pieces you picked up?
[3:10] And they said to him, Twelve. And when I broke the seven for the 4,000, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up? And they said to him, Seven. And he was saying to them, Do you not yet understand?
[3:24] Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the opportunity we have of gathering together as your people. We praise you that we have this time to come and to read the word of God.
[3:39] Pray, Lord, that you help us to have eyes to see it and ears to hear it. Help us not to be those who do not understand. But, Lord, we also know that understanding comes through the power and presence of the Spirit among us.
[3:52] So we pray, O Holy Spirit, that you would touch our hearts and minds. We pray that you give us clarity. And as we understand it, Lord Jesus, help us to follow you with our lives for your glory.
[4:04] We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. And you may be seated. This morning, we are looking at a passage of Scripture Scripture in which both Mark and Matthew record for us, commonly referred to as the feeding of the 4,000.
[4:22] Matthew tells us that those 4,000 were just the men, that it did not include the women and children, much like the feeding of the 5,000, in which the 5,000 was the number of men, not including women and children.
[4:33] So as with the account of the 5,000, we can estimate that there were probably somewhere between 15,000 to 20,000 people present. And that feeding, there are probably 10,000 plus present here at this account as well.
[4:49] It is an account, if we're, to be honest, and we look at biblical scholarship. Now, biblical scholarship does not always mean a salvific faith. But those who take the time to study Scripture and to break it down, and those at times that are a little critical of Scripture, that some people have argued is a retelling of an event that has already taken place.
[5:07] It is just kind of a rebranding of the feeding of the 5,000. Hopefully, by the time we're through here today, you will understand that that is absolutely not the case. There are some differences that we need to pay attention to.
[5:19] There are some occurrences that are very unique in each one of them, and there is a reasoning behind it, which leads us to come to the overall question. Why do we have a second recording of the feeding of a multitude?
[5:33] When we read Scripture, it is always very becoming of us who want to know why it is there. We take it in its proper context. We see who's writing, who they're writing it to, the time in which it was written, and the purpose behind that author in his writing, and we say it's taking Scripture within context.
[5:51] But we also ask ourselves, but why choose to record these? Now, we know the ultimate answer is because the Spirit of God is moving the man of God to write the Word of God, but then the question must be asked, why would the Spirit lead Mark to record this account?
[6:08] Now, we pay particular attention to that when we get to the Gospel of John. John writes in the last chapter of John, well, not the last, the next to the last chapter, in John chapter 20, that many other things Christ did when he walked the face of the earth.
[6:20] And John himself testifies that if the number of these things that Jesus did were recorded, he didn't even think the world would be able to hold the books that it would take to record all that Christ did. But then John makes this statement, but these have been written so that you may believe, that you may know, and that in knowing you would believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to be the Savior of the world.
[6:41] That John wrote for a purpose, and he recorded what is commonly referred to as the seven miraculous events in the Gospel of John, so that you would understand about Christ enough to accept him as Lord and Savior.
[6:53] Each of the Gospels are the same way. They are writing to a particular people group, and they are writing with an intended purpose. And their purpose is seen even in the way that the Spirit moves them in their writing.
[7:05] You know that the theme of the Gospel of Mark is found in Mark chapter 10, verse 45. For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.
[7:16] You know that, right? That the theme is that Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh, came as the Son of Man, not so that we would serve him, but that he could serve us, and give his life a ransom for the redemption of our sins.
[7:31] But, the theme flows from that, since that is why Mark is writing. Mark is encouraging the church among the Gentiles to follow that example of Christ, which I think is one of the keys to why we have this event recorded for us, which we refer to as the feeding of the 4,000.
[7:52] So, I want you to see this morning what it looks like to learn to feed the multitudes. What it looks like to learn to feed the multitudes. The key phrase is found here in the first verse, in those days there was again a large crowd, and they had nothing to eat.
[8:13] So, when we look at this, we need to connect it with the feeding of the 5,000, which you can find in Mark chapter 6, and starting verse 33, and going down to about verse 44, really you find it 34 to 44, and you can find that parallel passage there.
[8:29] So, this is a second occurrence. There are other reasons, and other evidences, that this is not a retelling of that event, but it is a unique event, and hopefully we'll understand it in just a moment.
[8:44] But now, when I look at this, I'll just be honest, when I read it for the first time, I say, well, there's a lot of applicable things that we can take from this. The first is that you follow Jesus, sometimes he brings you to a desolate place where you are in want, because these people followed Christ into a desolate place, and for three days they were without food.
[9:00] So, following Christ, we know this from every other occurrence in Scripture, does not always mean that it's going to be easy. Sometimes you can say, I'm going to follow him wherever he leads me, and sometimes that leading will take you to a place of desolation, in which there may be great want.
[9:14] They had been in a very desolate place, and followed from a great long journey, and said three days without food, without anything to eat, much like when the disciples were put into the boat, and told to go to the other side, the Savior sent them right into the middle of a storm.
[9:28] Now, they didn't know that he was going to come to them walking on the sea, but he did. Their following and obedience to Christ put them in what we would consider harm's way. I think one of the greatest tragedies we do is we pray that the Lord would just keep everyone safe, when sometimes we just want him to have his way, and accomplish his will, and that his will be done, even if it means that we are put in a desolate place without food for three days, or in the midst of a storm.
[9:55] Now, I know, you say, Pastor, that doesn't seem like a very loving thing to do. Well, if it means that I am with my Savior, then it is the most loving place that I could ever be. For the martyrs around the world, to be dying at the hands of the torturers in the presence of the Savior is a much safer place than to be denying their faith and living at home in a false sense of security in this world.
[10:19] We need to understand that. But that's not, I believe, what this passage is telling us, because if we wanted to understand that, we could go back to the sixth chapter of Mark, and we could see that sometimes following Christ makes you hungry.
[10:30] We do not need the retelling of the event to know that Jesus has the ability to feed a multitude because we have that recorded for us in the feeding of the 5,000. If we are wondering if Jesus can multiply the loaves and fishes, we've already seen it.
[10:46] Now, we're looking at, I don't think what it does tell us. There are applications here, but I want you to understand it before we get into it. If all we were trying to figure out is can Jesus feed the crowd, then we already know the answer to that.
[10:57] But yet this seems so similar to the event that came before it, which to me, and hopefully to you as the Bible student that you are, because I expect, I have this great expectation.
[11:09] Someone once told me, you always get what you expect, and my expectation is that you are reading the Word of God, studying the Word of God, and so I expect to be speaking to people and to be preaching to people and have a hunger for that and a desire to know what the Word says.
[11:25] And I know as you study Scripture, you know that there are a multitude of people which Jesus healed that were blind. None of them were healed in the same way. We are going to read, immediately following this passage, a man who is blind, and Jesus lays hands on him and says, Do you see?
[11:41] And he says, I see men like trees walking around. And then he touches him again. Why did he have to touch him twice? Well, we'll get to that. We know that sometimes he just said, You can see, and then he sees. Sometimes he lays hands.
[11:52] Sometimes he sends them to the pool of Siloam to wash. But he does it different each and every time. Why? But yet in this feeding of the multitude, it is almost identical.
[12:05] Which ought to capture our attention and say, Why is that? Why would he tell the same thing in exactly the same way? But is it identical?
[12:21] Because Christ came not to be served, but to serve. And the call of the passage and the call of the Gospel of Mark is that the believer in Jesus Christ does not exist to be served, but to serve.
[12:37] That the disciples of Christ have been called not to live in a world so that the world would serve them, but that they may serve the world.
[12:50] And that the ambition is that the disciples would be able to feed the multitudes. You remember the promise that Jesus gave. You say, Pastor, it's a long introduction.
[13:01] It is, because you need to understand it before we get to it. You remember the promise that Jesus gave in that final discourse of his life, found in John chapter 13, 14, 15, 16, and even his high priestly prayer in John 17.
[13:12] You remember that, right? Where Jesus says, greater things than I have done, you will do. And what he is saying is not that you're going to do the greater works, but you're going to do it in greater scope.
[13:23] Jesus confined his ministry to the geographic region in a small corner of the world, but yet he sent his disciples throughout the world. It is amazing when you read church history how far the disciples went.
[13:35] And the greater work that they accomplished in scope, doing the same thing, serving the world. And so the calling and the question before us is do we exist so that people would serve us or so that we would be positioned and fit to serve?
[13:53] So let's see exactly what the difference is in this passage. And there was again another time, it tells us. And in those days when there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat, Jesus had a way of gathering a lot of people and not providing a lot of food, right?
[14:07] There was a second occurrence of this. But notice here is the difference and I wonder if we see it. It took me a whole week in reading it before I saw it and I don't know how many times I've read this passage.
[14:17] I don't know how many times I've been through it and I'm just praise the Lord but these are some of those glory hallelujah times when you're in the pastor's office and I had to share this with my wife at the table the other day and she just kind of gave me a blank look and she said, that is great, that's good stuff and maybe in a moment you have to see it when the Lord goes, there it is but look at what it says and Jesus called his disciples and said to them, that's the phrase, and Jesus called his disciples and said to them, he said, well that doesn't mean anything well let's go back to the sixth chapter.
[14:44] I don't normally do this for you but I want you to see it. Go back to the sixth chapter and let's see this feeding of the 5,000. Let's go, it starts in verse 34, Jesus goes on shore, he sees this large crowd and Jesus has compassion upon the crowd for they are like sheep without a shepherd and Jesus begins to teach, right?
[15:01] And he's teaching and he's there and now when we come down to verse 35, look at this, and when it was already quite late, his disciples came to him and said, this place is desolate, it's already quite late so send them away that they may go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.
[15:19] Do you notice the difference? In the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus is teaching and the disciples come to him and say, Lord, you know we're in a desolate place, these people are hungry and the disciples bring the need to Jesus.
[15:31] So here's your first application. To learn to feed the multitudes, we must first know what it's like to serve. Because in the second occurrence, Christ is teaching and for three days, no one is eating anything and after three days, Jesus brings the need to the disciples.
[15:53] In the first occurrence, it is the disciples who come to Christ and say, Christ, Lord, these people are out here, this is a desolate region, we need to send them away. In the second occurrence, Jesus teaches for three days, three days people are gathered in a more desolate region and after three days, Jesus tells the disciples about it.
[16:10] That's a big difference by the way because discipleship is this, watch me do it, do it with me, now go do it on your own and what we're seeing Christ do is exactly that model, right?
[16:20] They have seen that he is able to feed the 5,000. They have watched this, they have observed this, they have understood this. They knew that in this desolate place, Christ could meet the need and in his patience, he waited a moment and then he told them about the need.
[16:36] Why? Because he is putting the responsibility on the disciples. He is saying, hey guys, they're hungry. Now they respond much the same way we would have.
[16:51] Well, what are we going to do about it? But that's not really how the response should have been because this is why we see the parallel over, starting in verse 14 when Jesus says, do you have eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear?
[17:06] Do you not yet understand? By the way, the greatest apologetic for the reality of this being two or defense, if you want to say it that way, for there being two separate occurrences is the fact that Jesus testifies to both events.
[17:22] He says, were you not there when I fed the 5,000 and were you not there when I fed the 4,000? So he clearly declares there are two events and by the way, the term used, he said, how many baskets full did you pick up when I fed the 5,000?
[17:33] And then there's this kind of different word. The English language adds a word. He says, how many large baskets? So the first one is they picked up what we would call like the old communion baskets. You remember those are the old offering baskets.
[17:44] You remember the wicker baskets that people used to have? And so he said, how many of those did you pick up when I fed the 5,000? Now the 7,000, I mean the 4,000, they picked up seven large baskets. Those are those huge baskets that they would tie on the side of animals and they would tote them around.
[17:59] So the basket, the term is used even different there. So there are two unique occurrences. And what Jesus is saying is you should have learned from the first event that it could have been accomplished on the second one.
[18:12] And this is why Christ brings the need to the disciples because now the responsibility lies upon the disciples to serve those that Christ has brought before them.
[18:26] But they haven't quite learned it yet. Why? Because we need to learn to feed the multitudes and he is calling them, he's giving them the responsibility. Sometimes we say, well, if the Lord would just work in such a powerful way and if the Lord would do this and if the Lord would do that and you're exactly right but we forget at times that we are the hands and feet of Christ and so his service to the people who come before us is us.
[18:52] And when he draws them and gathers them and attracts them, he looks at us and he reveals to us the need and say, hey, guess what? These guys are hungry. And he calls his people to serve those who are among them.
[19:07] And Jesus called his disciples and said to them, I feel compassion for the people not because they're like sheep without a shepherd because they have remained with me now three days and have nothing to eat and if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on their way and some of them have come from a great distance and his disciples answered and said, well, what are we going to do about it?
[19:25] Jesus brought the need to the disciples because they had seen before him work, before they had said, Jesus, send them away. Now he's saying, hey guys, let's do something about it.
[19:36] It is easy to think, well, that's not my responsibility, it's not my calling, but remember that we exist not so that this world can serve us, but so that we can serve the world. And when we find the need in front of us and it is brought to us by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and all of a sudden it is our service to render.
[19:58] And we see this. We learn to feed the multitudes first by service. Secondly, we do it through surrender. And we see this very clearly here.
[20:09] His disciples answer, where would anyone be able to find enough bread here in this desert place to satisfy these people? Don't lose that word satisfy, by the way. So they had this question, said, well, okay, Lord, that's all well and good.
[20:23] We know that you care about them. We know that they're hungry and we see that you're bringing us the responsibility of it, but we don't have any idea how we're going to find enough bread for all these people. But notice what Jesus says.
[20:34] And he was asking them, how many loaves do you have? Because of all the multitudes of people who followed Christ into the desolate region, you know who did come prepared?
[20:50] The disciples. They brought food. Everyone else left. And by the way, the teaching of Christ, the primary teaching of Christ, remember this through Mark, right?
[21:01] The primary teaching of Christ is geared towards those who are closest to him. It is veiled to the multitude, but it is intentionally given to those who are closest to him in relationship.
[21:11] So Jesus is not teaching the multitude here. He's teaching the disciples. They said, we don't know where we're going to find enough bread to even satisfy a portion of this body.
[21:22] And he says, but how much do you have? Here is your key to service. Whatever you have is able to be used for the service he's called you to do.
[21:33] And the call of the disciples is give me your bread. Now think about it. The disciples are in the same desolate region that everybody else is.
[21:47] Right? So when they give up their loaves, what they're saying is we're going to give it to you, you give it to all these people, and now we're going to be out here without any food, and what if we faint on our way back?
[21:58] I mean, don't forget, it's not like they're in the middle of a city next to a grocery store and they're going to send it to Christ. No, they're in the same region everybody else is at, and they're in the same place where there's no food, and they're in the same place where they have it, and I know your temptation because it's my temptation.
[22:16] Well, it's their fault. They should have brought more food with them. I've got my seven loaves. What about them? Lord, if you send them away, the rest of us will be okay. They should have brought it.
[22:28] Christ says, no, you brought it for them. The book of James says it this way, he who has this world's provisions and sees his brothers in need but does not do it to him, it is sin.
[22:43] I know that's a paraphrased version of it, but it is to say that if we have what those around us need and we don't give it to meet their need, then we are sinning. It is this beautiful thing called surrender.
[22:55] It is the giving up of what we have and not handing it to the crowds but notice who they give it to. The disciples don't open their lunch sacks and give it to the crowds, no, they bring it and give it to the Savior.
[23:12] And the one we surrender it to is important. And they say, Lord, this is all we have. Do what you can with what we have. And when we live in an attitude of surrender saying, Lord, this is all I possess, this is all I have, this is all I brought with me and if I give it to you, I know that I'm giving up everything for my own existence and people question you sometimes and say, well, what if they would have given it all away and they would have starved?
[23:37] Well, they were with one who had fed the multitudes before. They were also with the one who was in the wilderness when the nation of Israel came out of Egypt and he called forth the pheasants and brought the birds out of the air and the manna out of heaven.
[23:51] You say, no, that was God right, that is Christ. So he was there. So we understand it. Someone asked me one time, what do you expect just to open your mouth and for food to rain down out of heaven? And you know what my answer was to that?
[24:01] It's happened before. So I believe I'm on a good ground of expectation and it says that in the book of Proverbs that the righteous will not go hungry and so he's coming to this place of surrender saying, Lord, I don't know what you can do with it because I'm seeing such a large multitude around me but what I'm going to do, this is what I brought with me and I'm going to lay it at your feet and I'm going to say, here, Lord, let's see how we can use this.
[24:31] See, we serve the multitudes by surrendering our possessions. By surrendering what we're holding onto so tightly.
[24:43] You say, well, pastor, it's easy to say because you have so many possessions, you're exactly right and I live my life in such a way I try and this is not a boast in any way because sometimes, I'll just be honest with you, I get a little upset with it, we say we want to live open-handedly, that is, whatever the Lord leaves there, we enjoy.
[24:58] Whatever he chooses to take, we say, okay, Lord, you can have it and we try to live open-handedly and we try to lead others to live that way so much so that we know that if God takes something out of our hands, it is not because he is trying to put us in a place of discomfort or a place of uncomfortable existence, but rather there is something that was causing us problems or there is something better he wants to put in its place.
[25:20] That means we've made some tough decisions over the times and that means at times we don't understand everything, but that is the call, right, is to surrender it and say, Lord, here you go. And we know it is because he calls us to serve.
[25:35] We have come to serve too often, we believe, and I say we, and this is not a world problem. It does not surprise me when the world, the world people, the people of the world, by the way, Jesus refers to that, those who have the leaven of the Pharisees and those who have the leaven of Herod.
[25:50] Listen, if you are existing according to the leaven, which means teaching of the Pharisees, that is the religious, it is cross your, you know, cross your T's and dot your I's, do what you have to, fulfill your obligations and live the rest of your life however you want to.
[26:03] Think that you're more righteous than anyone else. If you're living according to the leaven of Herod, which is the teaching of the world, is that this world exists to serve your purposes and to promote your interest. But Jesus says reject those.
[26:17] Why? Because whatever we have been entrusted with in this world, we have called to surrender to the Savior who brings the people before us. It does not mean that we're going to live in cardboard boxes.
[26:31] Maybe it does. I don't know. But it means we're supposed to live in such a manner and such a way we say, Lord, here it is. We trust you with it. Surrender is just a matter of trust. Some of you know when we sing that song I Surrender All and we sing it kind of doom and gloom, I would like for us to re-sing it because I don't think we can sing I Surrender All.
[26:49] I know the tune is a little hard. Sometimes I think maybe we ought to change the tune and get Miss Lynn to pep it up just a little bit over here on the keyboard for us and maybe we can add a little jazz touch to it or something. I don't know. We can do something with it because I think whoever set the tune to that song kind of did it wrong and I know some of you are going to throw things at me and say, no, that's a good tune.
[27:06] It's in our hymn. Right, but I Surrender All. Think about what you're giving up because it says in that song and you gain his glory. No matter what you give up to gain his glory, you don't have to be sad about.
[27:19] Like, I surrender all to him I give. No. What I gave up was trash and rubbish and, you know, light in comparison.
[27:30] Paul would say, what, this momentary light affliction does not even compare to the eternal weight of glory. Whatever we give up in this world does not compare to what we gain in return. So we surrender all and say, yes, Lord, here it is.
[27:41] I gained your reward. By the way, when they surrendered, guess what? They picked up seven large basket full of food. That is, everything they gave up came back to them in a larger quantity.
[27:55] Surrender is not a bad thing, my friend. If they had kept it, they had their seven little loaves, but because they gave it up, they got seven large baskets. Pretty amazing, right?
[28:08] Because not only can he feed the multitude, he'll also take care of you. Which gets us to the third thing. Sufficiency. Their service, their surrender, and their sufficiency.
[28:22] It tells us in this scripture, it says, where can anyone find enough bread that would be sufficient for this multitude? So their question is, how can we do this? We can't find enough bread here to satisfy anyone. Lord, we don't know how to do it.
[28:33] You know, maybe our seven loaves aren't even enough for us because we know there are at least 13 of them, the 12 apostles in Christ. More than likely, there are more than that because when we find them in the upper room and they choose those from among them who had been with them from the very beginning, right?
[28:47] So there were some who were with them from the very beginning and there were 120 gathered in the upper room. So their kind of traveling entourage was more than likely larger than 13 because Matthias was chosen and he had been with them from the very beginning.
[29:00] So at least there's a 14th one. There was another one put before them too. So there's a 15th one and you say, pastor, you're getting a little deep here. I understand, but when we read it, so they only have seven loaves among themselves that probably wouldn't have satisfied the group that was there.
[29:14] And so we can't find enough here to satisfy these 4,000, but look at what the text tells us that after Jesus blessed it, he broke it and he gave it to them and then they found some small fish too and they said, well, Lord, we're going to give you this.
[29:24] Matthew tells us they gave the fish at the same time that the loaves were given. Mark seems to imply that the fish were found later. Like, oh, since we've given the bread, here's the fish. Either way, Jesus blesses the fish and he gives it and he gives it to the disciples and the disciples give it to the multitudes, right?
[29:40] Both occurrences. And that's not accidental, by the way. In the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus gave it to the disciples and they gave it to the multitudes so that they would learn the lesson. They didn't learn the lesson so he's going to do it again.
[29:52] And so he gives it to them and they feed the multitudes and look at what it says and they were all satisfied. Everyone was satisfied.
[30:05] Which is a great way of saying that what Christ provides is sufficient for the need. No matter how large the need. No matter how grand the scope.
[30:17] That what comes from the presence of Christ is sufficient to meet the need. When they surrendered it and they gave it to him, he began to bless it and break it and multiply it and to hand it out.
[30:32] And they were satisfied. You say, well, did they have this huge meal? I don't know. Maybe, maybe it was just a little. We have the picture that they have these huge plates.
[30:44] Maybe not. But maybe the provisions of the Lord God Almighty are so great and so grand that they were satisfied with just a small amount. But either way, everyone left satisfied.
[31:00] because what he provides is sufficient. And even in our own lives, that's just with the multitude. So even with us, we need to learn this as well because they get kind of bent out of shape because Jesus tells them not to beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.
[31:17] They say, we only have one loaf of bread. They're saying, we don't have enough to, he says, I am sufficient. It's not a matter how many loaves of bread. It's not a matter how many positions we have.
[31:27] It's not a matter of what we bring with us into his presence, but it is the sufficiency of his provisions. And fourth and finally, we notice there's service, there's surrender, sufficiency, and fourth, there's submission, which is what verses 14 through 21 are really about.
[31:50] Because they got into a boat again, they'd forgotten to take bread, they only had one loaf, and Jesus says, beware the leaven of the Pharisees and beware the leaven of Herod. And they think it's about bread. He's not talking about bread, leaven is really, it is the teaching that you submit to that allows to have its impact in your life.
[32:05] Leaven is that hidden agent that you put into flour that causes it to rise. Some of you know, I like making bread. It's a weird thing for a man to say, I know, but I like making bread. I don't do it as much anymore because bread doesn't like meat as much as it used to like me.
[32:18] So, you know, it kind of has a way of doing that when you age, I figured that out. But anyway, so I like making bread, I like making homemade cinnamon rolls, so when I make homemade cinnamon rolls, it's like a two-day process.
[32:30] I do it every year, Christmas Eve, it's kind of, so on Christmas morning we eat homemade cinnamon rolls. So I've done it every year and it takes two days so I start on Christmas Eve and I let those things rise and I let them rise and I let them rise and I do it multiple times and I know, I just kind of, I just like the process.
[32:45] But you hide that leaven in there and that yeast in there and it begins to grow and begins to change and begins to affect what's going on. That's the same way Scripture tells us all the time. Leaven is that hidden agent in your life that you're letting affect who you are on the outside.
[33:00] And the two he warns against are the teaching of the Pharisees which are the religious elite so don't let the religious elite, those legalists, say well if we dot, we do everything right, we dot our I's, cross all our T's, we're good, we're okay and we obeyed all the rules and the leaven of Herod which is the teaching of the world.
[33:18] So he says don't let those because what he's asking you to is submit to who he is. It is the submission to the reality that the one that affects us should be the one who is with us, that is Christ.
[33:30] It is not the teaching of the religious, it is not the teaching of the world, it is not what comes out of the courtrooms, it is not what comes even out of the higher institutions that should affect us.
[33:40] It is the thing that we submit to is the reality that it is Christ in the boat with us, it doesn't matter how much bread we have. And he is calling us to learn to feed the multitude so that we would be used by him to do as he did, right?
[33:55] Not to exist to be served but that we may serve and give our life for ransom for many. Because it tells us John 3, 16 is a beautiful passage, you know it.
[34:07] that God gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life, that God gave his son that he would die upon a cross for our sins.
[34:22] 1 John 3, 16 is equally as beautiful but we don't think very often of 1 John 3, 16 because John 3, 16 speaks of the reality that God gave us his son that he would die for us.
[34:35] 1 John 3, 16 tells us that we as his children ought to die for others. That we like Christ ought to lay down our lives for those around us.
[34:53] Not a substitutionary penal death. We cannot accept the responsibility of anyone else's sins but it is the living out of our faith and it is the understanding that Christ has called us to serve and to give our lives a ransom for many and that we like the disciples ought to learn to feed the multitudes.
[35:11] How do we do that? Through service, surrender, sufficiency and submission to the reality of who he is. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your faithfulness and goodness towards us.
[35:23] We thank you for the way you lead and guide and we thank you for the truth of scripture. We know that it can be challenging at times. Lord, it calls us the things that are beyond us but it is in that reality that we come to the understanding that we need a savior such as you.
[35:40] So Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank you for the price you paid upon the cross for the redemption of man. Thank you for the calling that you place upon our lives as you call us to yourselves and we pray that we would lean not on our own strength but we would submit to yours.
[35:58] That we would surrender it all for your glory and honor and we ask that you would be magnified through it and we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.