12- Feeding of the 5000: Mark 6:30+ - Rick Bayer, Meadows Church

You're invited!  Come on a journey as we see the sights, smell the smells & experience Jesus' story told by Mark in an immersive way.  Engage in the story as one of the crowd, the disciples or even as a religious leader.  For an even more immersive experience, click the link below to follow along with the PDF media with maps, pictures of historical sites and more.

Guest Speaker: Rick Bayer

Meadows Church is a church in the community, for the community, located in Langley, BC.  We want you to know that you're welcome here!

Transcript

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You're listening to audio from Meadows Church in Langley, BC. For more information about Meadows Church, go to Meadowschurch.ca.

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It's great to uh be with you here, Meadows Church. So yeah, love what you guys are doing. And uh my name is Rick, as Mike said, and I'm the uh yeah, director of pastoral ministries, which is kind of a mouthful. Uh but uh been a long-term pastor for decades, most recently at Grace Point Community Church in uh South Surrey. And uh last year, around this time, I had a stirring in my heart that God was going to do something different, and I was meant to uh leave the church. And um while that was happening, Pastor Jenna from your church sent me an email about a job description that the conference had, and I looked at it and I thought this is kind of interesting. I sent it to my wife Sheila, who's here this evening, and sent it to a couple of my mentors, and uh lo and behold, uh October 1, I stepped into this role. And so uh I worked together with, you know, we have um a hundred and uh oh, let me go the other way, maybe, eh? Okay, we have 111, thank you. 111 uh churches in the BCMB from uh which Meadows Church is one of those 111 churches, and so I get the privilege to connect with those churches, visit those churches. Every Sunday, Sheila and I are at a different church, and so last Sunday we were in our home church in uh at Easter, but Sunday before we're out on the island where we have seven churches, and so uh haven't gone up north there yet. Fort St. John is our most northerly church. I've zoomed called with the uh the pastor there, and I'll see him in uh in April, and then uh we're all the way on the east side to Grand Forks. We've got a church out there, and about 62 churches in the lower mainland, Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley area. And so, you know, every day I'm hearing stories of what God is up to amongst the 111 churches. And God is up to some good things in our province. There's like I'd say a quiet renewal happening. You know, last Sunday, North Van, there was a church there of about 40 people, and four people got baptized there in that church. Brand new Christians. Over in the island, there was a church there that uh somebody attended said, This is the first time in my life I've been in church. And it was Easter Sunday that they uh came to uh to the church. Uh a number of Iranian people in Metro Vancouver and up in the interior, um, because of what's all happening in Iran, have come to uh some of our churches. Some have come to faith in Christ and have been uh baptized. A uh a person left their witchcraft practice and began to follow uh Jesus and they were recently baptized. I could tell you story after story of the good things God is up to in our province, including here at Meadows Church. And I just love what you guys are doing here. Man, the Easter egg hunt last weekend, I I wish we could have been here. It sounds just awesome what you guys are doing to bless the community. Sheila and I were here for the living nativity that uh you had done. Just love that. And I've been bragging uh in the rest of the province about that living nativity what you guys had had done. So it's just great. Yes. Keep up the uh the good work and just love so much what uh what you're doing here. And uh, Pastor Mike, good on you. I just uh I listened to a couple of Mike's sermons. He's an amazing Bible teacher, this guy. Like uh I got an easy passage today, the one that he had done a few weeks ago. I thought, oh, that's pretty good. He described himself as nerding out there in the uh in the Bible passage and absolutely uh loved it and and loved the Easter message last week, Mike, and just the passion that uh that you brought. And so we're gonna continue our series as we encounter Jesus and the Gospel of Mark. And so you can turn there to Mark chapter six. And uh, before we look at the text, let me just ask you a question. Uh how often do your needs and problems seem greater than the available resources? Like do you ever feel that way? That the needs you've got, the challenges, the problems are just so much greater than your resources. It could be like, you know, you look at your bills and then you look at your income and you just think, oh man, my my needs are so much greater than my resources. Or maybe it's your time, like you've got kids, and you're just, you know, trying to manage the kids and everything with, you know, taking them to school and to appointments, and and the house needs to be cleaned, and then you've got your own work and your own responsibilities, and by eight o'clock you're just like done and spent, and you're like, oh, my needs are far greater than my resources. Or maybe it's just juggling that work-life balance and the demands of work and all the expectations and then everything else in life, and you just feel your resources aren't sufficient. Or maybe it's medical appointments that you find yourself, I've got to go like to another appointment and another test, and you just wish it would all end, and you just feel spent. When it comes to our problems and our needs, what if anything does Jesus have to say to us? You know, when it comes to our problems and needs, we can often feel just overwhelmed, inadequate, but God has something for us. When you and I are feeling that overwhelming feeling, Jesus is there with us. There's only two miracles that we are recorded in all four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And one of them, you talked about last Sunday and all Easter, that miracle. And the second miracle is what we're gonna look at today in Mark chapter 6, verse 30. So I invite you to uh turn there. Mark chapter 6, verse 30. And I borrowed one of your Bibles here from the front because I realized I brought a different translation here. Uh Mark chapter 6, verse 30. The apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told him all that he had done and taught. Then Jesus said, Let's go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest a while. He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn't even have time to eat. So Jesus and the disciples, they're just exhausted. You know, they've been doing ministry day after day after day, you know, and it's a long day, and they are just spent, and they're like, oh man, we've got to get away, get to a place where we can just have a retreat, a little quiet rest. You sometimes feel that way too, right? It's just like, I just need some alone time, or I just need some me time now. And so they uh they do that, and so they go take a boat and they go to the uh far side of the Sea of Galilee. Let's read what uh happens there. So they left by boat. So they left by boat for a quiet place, and when they could be where they could be alone. But many people recognized them and saw them leaving, and people from many towns ran ahead along the shore and got there ahead of them. Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. And so they uh, the disciples and Jesus, they go off by boat, but some people they see Jesus taken off and they follow along the shoreline. You know, they're kind of seeing Jesus and the disciples out in the boat there, and so they're kind of uh going ahead and uh and uh and running to uh to where they're going to be. And and so the disciples land on the beach there, and you can just imagine their reaction. You know, how like Mike's been saying in the sermons, you know what you want to get in the story and uh see the sights and smell the smells, and so you can imagine just being one of the uh, you know, one of the disciples. If you were in the boat with Jesus looking for some me time, some quiet time, then suddenly you see on the crowd this, the on the shore, this crowd of thousands of people there, you'd be like, oh man, I'm just exhausted. But notice Jesus' heart here that I just read. He had compassion on the crowd. He's not ticked off, he's not irritated by them being there, but rather he begins to uh to uh to teach them. And it says there he taught them many things, or another translation says, he taught them at length, which causes the problem. So we don't why do we talk next about the problem? The next verse. Late in the afternoon, his disciples came to him and said, This is a remote place and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the nearby farms and villages and buy something to eat. So we have this problem. The people in this large crowd, they're getting hungry. Jesus has been teaching them many things. It's getting late. And so the kids are getting whiny, right? They're like, Mommy, daddy, I'm hungry. You know, the adults, their stomachs are are growling. So we've got this problem of this hungry crowd. So the disciples, they make a suggestion to solve the problem. Suggestion number one is send the crowd away. Like, tell them to go home, you know. Let's uh let's let's let dismiss them so they can uh can grab something to eat. But Jesus chooses not to do this, he's got something greater in mind. And notice his response in the next verse. When um when the disciples give the uh give the suggestion, send the crowds away, then he gives them this curious response. But Jesus said to them, You feed them. With what? They asked. We'd have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people. So Jesus exhorts them, you feed them. And it's a very emphatic expression, like you solve the problem. And you can imagine the disciples, their reaction again, like, with what, Jesus? Like we just took a boat here across the Sea of Galilee. It's not like we drove food trucks over here, like we're supposed to feed them, like with what? You know, later we'll read about the size of the crowd. It's a huge crowd, 5,000 households, like you know, so we're talking 15,000, 20,000. Like you can just imagine, you know, Rogers Arena being filled for a Canucks game. Well, I hate to bring up the Canucks now, but you know, that uh, you know, uh, you know, that uh that we got this huge crowd. And Mark, being one of the gospel writers who uh writes about this event, and like I said, all four of the gospels recorded, and one of the other gospel writers tells us that it's Philip who goes to Jesus uh when um when Jesus says you guys feed them, and I'm sure Philip's thinking, um, how how can we feed them? Like, you know, what are we supposed to do? It would take months and months. Literally, that says 200 pieces of silver, and you you were paid one piece of silver for each day of work, so it'd be like 200 days of working to feed this crowd, so it's like a huge crowd, and they're like, where are we gonna get enough money for this? And so, you know, as he's doing the mental calculation on this and thinking, you know, Save on Foods is clothes, you know, where are we gonna buy the food for these uh for these people? And Philip and the disciples, they're looking at all the external evidence how much it's gonna cost. We can't do anything here, like Jesus just send them away, but they don't realize Jesus is right in their midst, and Jesus is testing their faith, and he's testing our faith when we find ourselves when our needs are greater than our resources. So we've got this problem in the story: this huge, hungry crowd. So the first suggestion by the uh disciples is send the uh send the crowd away, and then there's a uh second suggestion in the uh in the next verse. Verse 38. How much bread do you have? He asked. Go and find out. They came back and reported, we have five loaves of bread and two fish. So we know from one of the other uh gospel writers that it's Andrew who finds this young boy who's brown bagging it. He's got a little lunch there, you know, and uh he must be poor because it's barley loaves, and which were the poorest or the uh the poorest of the grains back then, and two small salted fish, you know. So he's got that. He brings this boy to uh to Jesus, and uh, and then Andrew, in one of the other gospels, he says, Jesus, here's this boy with you know five loaves and two fish, but how far is that gonna grow, go amongst this huge crowd? You know, which again is kind of a realistic question. Like, what am I gonna do? You know, sure, we've got this small lunch here, but how far is that gonna go in this crowd? Andrew sees the small lunch and the large crowd, as do the rest of the disciples, and they wonder, what can we do with this? And again, they fail to see that Jesus is among them. And Jesus has done miracles in the past. But don't you notice that God can do something great for us, even like today on a Sunday? And then by tomorrow, 24 hours later, let's say, by tomorrow's supper, I can be caught, if you're like me, I can be caught up in my own challenges, my own obstacles, my own struggles very quickly. That's why we've got to keep remembering, keep reminding ourselves of what God does. So we got this problem, this huge, hungry crowd. Jesus sees the people's problem and he gives it to the disciples. You feed them to test them. He's trying to expand their spiritual understanding, remind them what he can do. And so in the disciples, we see a bit of our own shadow selves, right? Because we sometimes think, oh, I don't have the resources. Oh, you know, it would take 200 days of wages, or oh, just make this problem go away, Jesus. Like the two suggestions that the uh disciples give here. The disciples' problem was that they grossly underestimated their wealth. They thought all they had was five loaves and two fish. See, the disciples thought, saw you know, their problem, five thousand hungry men. And that's a problem, right, women? We know how grumpy men can get when they get hungry, right? So, you know, we got five thousand hungry men, you know, and women and kids, you know. So the disciples saw 5,000 problems, but Jesus saw 5,000 opportunities. Opportunity to provide for these people through the fish and the loaves. Now, before we go on to the solution, I want us to look again at the uh the verse we read earlier there, Mark 6.37. Let's uh read it together. But Jesus said, You feed them. With what? They asked. We'd have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people. I want you to think about those last three words. All these people. What would be kind of your version of all these people? Maybe taking out the word people and replacing it with something else. What would that something else be for you? You know? When your head's on your pillow and you're worrying about something, is it all these what? All these bills, all these relational challenges, all these work worries, all these kid problems, all this, all these worries. What's you how would you fill in the blank when your needs are kind of greater than your resources? When you think, I don't have enough. Jesus knew their problem, and he knows your problem and my problems too, right? And he has a solution in mind. So after, in this story, after the failed suggestions from uh from the disciples, let's uh take a look at uh at God's solution here. Mark chapter 6, verse 39. Then Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of fifty or a hundred. Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up toward heaven, and he blessed them. Then breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people. He also divided the fish for everyone to share. They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterwards the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish. A total of 5,000 men and their families were fed. An incredible miracle happened that day. Could you just imagine the little boy's face, like his reaction, you know, as this lunch, his lunch gets multiplied again and again, and then there's more afterwards, 12 basketfuls, more afterwards than what he started with? What an incredible miracle. So the question I have for you is why does God use the boy's lunch? Like Jesus didn't have to do that, right? I mean, he spoke the world into being so he could just say it, and there could be enough food. Why does Jesus choose to use the boy's lunch in this story? Is it perhaps that God chooses always, or not always, but often, our participation, something that we have, our time, our resources, our talents in order to do his work. He doesn't have to, but he wants to show us that when there's little with him in it, it becomes much. See, he could create the food out of nothing, but he chooses not to. He chooses to use the boy's lunch. That was it, what was in the boy's hand. So what's in your hand? What about if you were to give him that, your kind of version of the five loaves and two fish, and then watch what God does with it. See, it might not seem much in our hands, but with God's math, it's amazing. Five plus two equals five thousand. Five loaves plus two fish feed a crowd of five thousand households. So, yeah, so my second question is what's in your hand? What do you have that you could offer to God? You say, Well, I don't have much, but offer what you've got. Maybe it's a feeble prayer. Offer that to God. God hears that, and God can use that feeble prayer. Maybe it's a talent, a skill that you have. You offer that to God, and God can multiply it. Maybe it's your time. You say, Well, I don't have much time, but maybe a little bit of time you you say to God, use me, use my time. Maybe it's an apology. Maybe it's a a step, like just some step that you're thinking of taking, and you take that step of faith, maybe a wobbly step of faith, but God will be in it and God will bless as you take that step. If God can take five loaves and two fish and turn it into this buffet with twelve basketfuls left over, He can do uh for you. Because when it's in God's hand, it becomes much, right? You know, like it all depends what's in our hand and who is holding it in the hand. Like I've got a basketball here and saw the kids playing basketball, and I didn't really need to bring my own basketball. There's some year. I wasn't really uh thinking of it. But you know, I'm not much of a basketball player. If I were to take a shot here, it probably wouldn't go anywhere close, you know. But if this basketball was in like Michael Jordan's hands, you know, or LeBron James or some other NBA player past or present, they could probably sink it and make a three pointer, right? It depends whose hands it's in, you know. I'm not a golfer, but uh, you know, imagine if uh, see, I don't even have own a set of golf clubs, but you know, again, if uh, you know, I were to step up and try and golf, uh uh, you know, a golf club in my hands wouldn't do much. But again, put it in the hands. Hands of one of these guys playing at the Masters now, then suddenly it becomes amazing. It all depends whose hands the golf club is in. You know, I did bring my tennis racket, and I am a bit of a tennis player, you know, so I play some uh some tennis down at White Rock uh Tennis Club. And uh, but again, I no there's no scouts that are watching me. Like there's nothing like that. Um, but again, take this racket and put it in Novak Djokovic's hands. There's a guy who's won a couple dozen grand slams. It all depends whose hands the racket is in. Or the paintbrush, you know. I can't paint it all. My life depended on it. Like I just draw like stick figures kind of thing, you know. But again, you take the paintbrush and you put it in Van Gogh or Picasso's hands, suddenly it becomes a brilliant masterpiece of art. Why? Depends whose hands the paintbrush is in. You know? Take a uh a nail. What can I do with a nail? Well, maybe fix the fence that's uh coming loose in my backyard, you know, and a few little projects like that. But take a nail and put it in Jesus' hands, and suddenly we have salvation for the world. It all depends whose hands it's in. So you have what you have, you offer it to God, and he can take what you have and you place it in his hands. Your skills, your talents, your needs, your problems, your worries, the things that keep you up at night, your anxieties, your challenges, give those over to God. Place them in his hands. A lunch in a boy's hand is just a meal at noon, but in the hands of a Savior, it's a feast for thousands and thousands. And God always begins with what we have and believe that God can take what you have and he can multiply it. Because we look at the cross and the resurrection of God's provision for us, the most critical need in our lives, our salvation that he bought for us on the cross and through his resurrection. And if he's going to meet our critical core needs, we can trust him. We can depend on him, we can have faith in him for all of our needs. In John's gospel, after he tells this uh story, he um has a teaching from Jesus, and Jesus says these words. Let's read them together and we'll end it with this. Jesus replied, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. Jesus said he's the bread of life. Bread, bread, you know, is true in all cultures. You know, every culture eats bread, you know, and we have our favorite types of bread that you might enjoy, you know, nan bread or three-corn bread or sourdough bread, my favorite, or whole wheat, or whatever it may be, you know, that Jesus is universal. In every culture, in every language, in every need, he can meet that need. He is the bread of life. That Jesus brings life, that eternal life, a quantity of life, but also a quality of life, that we flourish when we look to Jesus. Because the temptation is always to turn to other things to meet our needs, you know, and we think, okay, this challenge or this circumstance or this relationship, or if if only I'm I, you know, could work it out this way and we try to control it, or we try and look to that to solve the need in our lives. But ultimately, those things will disappoint us, right? Things will change, circumstances change, relationships change and alter, but ultimately our core need is a spiritual need. Jesus in our hearts, that he is the bread of life. See, he said, I am, that he is the great I am, that the solution to our problems is found in a person, the person Jesus. So you can come to him, whatever your challenge is, whatever your need is, whatever is overwhelming you, and look to him as your provider. He loves you. He demonstrated that on the cross. If you ever doubt his love, look again to the cross and what he did for you. And since he did that, he will provide for you. You can trust him. So is there an area in your life today that he's asking you to trust him in? Why don't I pray and then we'll go to our table questions? We just have a few moments of silent prayer right now. There's a story here from two thousand years ago for it to be in your life today. What is Jesus saying to you? Oh Jesus, I know that sometimes I can get overwhelmed and I try and seize control, or think I've got to figure a way out. And you call me to trust. And each person here this afternoon. You know our stories, our challenges, and yet you walk there with us. And you're willing to take what we have and show yourself and show your glory. So I pray you would grow our faith, the trust in you for this. In your powerful name I pray. Amen.

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We're so glad you chose to join us today. To find out more about Meadows Church and how you can get involved, connect with the pastor or how you can partner with us in ministry. Go to Meadowschurch.ca.