The King Satisfied

O Holy God, we thank you that you are our heavenly Father. Jesus, we thank you for teaching us to pray to God as our Heavenly Father to remind us every time we pray that you are God who loves to provide. We thank you Lord that you know our needs even before we bring them to you, and therefore we want to focus on thanking you for meeting our needs. Thank you for meeting our greatest need, and that was the sacrifice of your son Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus, we thank you that your body was broken and your blood was shed in order to provide healing for our souls and cleansing of our consciences. And Lord Jesus, we thank you that you save us and along with saving us, you send us the Holy Spirit to sanctify us and on a daily basis, you sustain us and above all else, grace upon grace, you satisfy us. What a great God that you are.

Lord, we thank you that you offer your son Jesus Christ, the mighty Word of God, and you offer us the Holy Scriptures inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, to satiate our famish souls. Lord, we confess that we are often malnourished in our souls and we seek out satiety and things that never satisfy. We repent of that Lord, of our idolatry and our lack of trust in you. Lord, we come to you today relying wholly on you, relying wholly on your provision. We are completely dependent upon you. And today satisfy us from the Holy Scriptures and satisfy us with your holy presence. Holy Spirit, we welcome you into this place. Lord, if there's anyone in this place who doesn't even know what it means to be satisfied by you, I pray today, reveal that. I pray wet the appetites of their souls, the hunger of their soul. Lord, we ask for you to deepen it and take the taste buds anywhere that we have sought satiety apart from you and recalibrate them Lord, so that we hunger and thirst for you.

And Lord Jesus, we thank you that you, the bread of life was broken in order for us to be satisfied. Lord, if there's anyone who's not yet a believer, not yet a child of God, I pray, give them the gift of repentance, the gift of faith, the gift of your grace, and save them, welcome them into your flock, welcome them into your family. And Lord, as we look at the mission that you have given to us to go and make disciples of all nations, we understand our inadequacy. We cannot do this. So we take our inadequacy, we take our weakness, and we give it to you. And we ask, Lord, multiply our efforts as you multiplied the five loaves and the two fish and you fed thousands. I pray that you feed thousands through the efforts of this church, through the efforts of the members of this church, through our work.

And above all else, Lord, glorify your name, magnify your name, the name that is above all names, the name that we worship, the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, bless our time in the Holy Scriptures today. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series through the incredible Gospel of Mark. We've entitled the series Kingdom Come. And the idea is that Jesus has come to establish the kingdom, inaugurate the kingdom. He says, "I am the king. I have brought the kingdom," but Jesus also teaches us to pray, our Father who art in heaven, howled be thy name. Thy kingdom come. The kingdom has come, but he says to pray for more of the kingdom to come into our lives. And the title of the sermon today is The King Satisfies. Have you ever noticed that God's Commandments are often impossible to fulfill, like the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself? Lord Jesus, have you met my neighbors? Or love your enemies? How am I to love my enemies? Or go and sin no more, or love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.

Many heretical theologians have built upon on this presupposition that if God commands something, we have the natural ability to fulfill that commandment. For example, Erasmus in the 16th century, he said, "If it is not in the power of every man to keep what is commanded, all the exhortations of scripture are of necessity useless." And Martin Luther responds to this in the bondage of the will. He says, "When you are finished with all your commands and exhortations, I'll write Romans 3:20 over the top of it. Through the law comes knowledge of sin. The commands are not given inappropriately or pointlessly, but in order that through them, the proud blind man may learn the plague of his impotence should he try to do as he is commanded." Yes, God does often command us to do that which is absolutely impossible in our own strength. And he does that to stop us dead in our tracks, to get us to fall to our knees and say, "Lord, send us a building." Are we going to rapper mic? Rapper mic it is.

The sermon is on personal inadequacy. I don't know if you've noticed. We are inadequate, :ord, send us grace. That's the point. He commands that which is impossible apart from Him. Lord, you're commanding the impossible. But with you, all things are possible, even keeping all your commands and your commandments. Matthew 5:48, "You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." Will we attain perfection in this life? No, of course not. Should we strive to attain perfection? Yes, by His grace and for His glory. Today we are on Mark 6:30-44. Would you look at the text with me? "The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, 'Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.' For many were coming and going and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate 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.

When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. 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.' But he answered them, 'You give them something to eat.' And they said to him, 'Shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?' And he said to them, 'How many loaves do you have? Go and see.' And when they had found out, they said, 'Five and two fish.' Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups by hundreds and by fifties and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people.

And he divided the two fish among them all and they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish, and those who ate the loaves were 5,000 men." This is the reading of God's holy, inert, infallible, authoritative Word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. First, Serve the King, then Rest in Him. Second, The Compassionate King Shepherds by Teaching, and Seek First the Kingdom of God and be Satisfied. First, Serve the King, then Rest in Him. Verse 30, "The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught." Jesus is their rabbi. He said, "Follow me and I'll make you fishers of men." And then he sends them out to the villages and towns of Israel to go and proclaim the gospel. The king has come, therefore repent of sin and turn to him and follow the king.

And along with preaching the message, he gave them authority over the demons so they exercised them and they healed many by anointing them with oil. This is the only text in the Gospel of Mark where the disciples are called apostles and apostle is from the Greek word apostloy, which means to be sent out, sent out as a representative. So they didn't just preach their own message, they preached his message and they embodied his presence along with his authority. Jesus has called them to do incredible work, spiritual work. And did everyone believe? Of course not. And there were probably many places where people flat out rejected them, rejected the gospel, however many did hear and many were intrigued and they wanted to hear more about Jesus and they wanted to hear from Jesus himself. Jesus' name had become renowned, not the name of the disciples. They were doing the work of Christ in the name of Christ.

So they're back and Jesus receives their report and he also recognizes that they are exhausted, they're bone tired, both physically and spiritually and Jesus, who is God in human form, he knew all too well about the importance of rest. He often took time away from his own busy ministry seasons to go and spend time in the Lord and the presence of God the Father. And he calls the disciples to do the same in verse 31. And he said to them, "'Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.' For many were coming and going and they had no leisure even to eat." They served, and then now Jesus wants them to be replenished in their stores. I once had a coach who said, "Athletes do not diet and exercise, athletes train and they eat." And I like that principle as it applies to the spiritual walk. The apostle Paul compares our spiritual walk, he said to boxing, fight the good fight, to running as endurance sport.

And then Jesus also says that we are soldiers. The apostle Paul says we're soldiers of the king. So we are called to strenuous service and then we're called to serious rest and replenishment. If you are going to grow as a believer, you can't just take and take and take and consume. You have to take what you have consumed, the energy, and then use that in order to serve the Lord. If we're going to grow as believers in faith and effectiveness for the kingdom, we have to take both seriously, exhausting service and invigorating rest. Some of you need to take the service part more seriously. Do you ever get to the point where you are spiritually exhausted? Do you do things for the Lord that drain your energy stores spiritually, emotionally, physically? You should, and some of you should take that rest part seriously. You are not a machine, though in Boston, many of us think we are. We're not. You're not a machine. You are not more spiritual than the disciples here. You do need rest and you need recovery time.

It's like when you're driving, if you have a gas powered vehicle, and the low gas light comes on, how quickly do you find a gas station to refuel? I like to take my chances. I drive by faith, not by sight. I've learned about 50 miles you get, about, but you're not a car and you're not a truck, you're a human being and you might not run out of gas, but you might hit a wall, you might crash and get to the point of burnout. And this is what Jesus, the gracious king sees. He wants his servants healthy and effective, thus he calls them to service and to commensurate rest. And we have to take both seriously. Mark 6:32, "And they went away in the boat to a desolate place." They've been overwhelmed by the crowds that Jesus has attracted, so he takes them on a private retreat to a desolate place, a desert location. Jesus wants them to care for their own souls, to care for themselves and out of the fullness with which he fills them, there's a care for others.

If we are to love our neighbor as our ourself, we need to love ourselves, care for ourselves, if we are to love our neighbor well. But it's not just the vacation, it's time away with the Lord. So if we are to find true rest, it's not just a time of leisure, it's a time of resting in the Lord in order to restore their spiritual strength. There's incredible wisdom here. Our Lord knows that if we are to serve at our best, we need to take care of ourselves as well. Why the desolate place? It almost seems like a contradiction in terms. Why would you take a vacation in a desert? Well, it's not just a vacation in a desert, it's time with the Lord and even in the wilderness, even in a desolate location, if we are alone with the Lord, have solitude with the Lord, our stores of energy can be restored. And also in the Old Testament, we read that God provides rest for His people in the wilderness.

We see this in Isaiah and we see this in Jeremiah. For example, Isaiah 63:14, "Like livestock that go down into the valley, the spirit of the Lord gave them rest. So you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name." Or Jeremiah 31:2, "Thus says the Lord, 'The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness, when Israel sought for rest.'" So they're on their way. And then Mark 6:33 it says, "Now many saw them going and recognized them and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them." There are seasons in life when you are intentional about rest, you make plans to rest and you're on your way to rest and then ministry finds you. There are seasons in life where you can't get away from the ministry that God has called you to. For example, if you have a small child, you have the rhythm of rest in place and then you have a baby.

And then you can't tell the baby, "Today's my Sabbath. Okay? Feed yourself." You can't do that. That's not how that works. And in those seasons, this is the lesson that the Lord is writing indelibly on their hearts. In those seasons where ministry continues to follow you, you have to learn to rest in Christ even in the midst of unplanned ministry. Remember, Jesus promises us rest, but it's rest under a yoke. There are seasons when rest needs to be prolonged and your strength is waning and you need to rely on the supernatural energy of the Holy Spirit. I look at Matthew 11:28, Jesus says, "Come to me, all who labor in our heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

We don't know how long Jesus and his disciples spent in the hill country near Nazareth, but as soon as they start coming back into the area, the crowds all of a sudden find them. They run ahead of them. And this is important for our lesson where we find ourselves in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is going to entrust his disciples with more and more and more ministry, and they must learn to rely on God's power to do the work even when energy stores are long depleted. Point two is The Compassionate King Shepherds by Teaching. Verse 34, "When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things." Jesus had compassion on the crowds. The reaction of what the disciples had for the crowds is not mentioned.

Most likely they were not happy to see the crowds. They probably groaned in despair. Jesus, you promised us a respite, you promised us a retreat. And now, there's more work. And sometimes ministry is like that. Ministry finds you even when you try to take a break from ministry. I remember a few years ago, my wife Tanya and I, we took a vacation to not a desolate place, a resort, much better. And in the evening, there was a couple that sat next to us in the restaurant and all of a sudden we got to talk. And they're from Great Britain. I remember the gentleman was a mailman. He was a postman from Great Britain. And we got into the conversation like what do you do? And I was like, "Oh no, not that conversation." And then he's like, "What do you do?" I was like, "Oh, I'm a pastor."

And he's like, "Tell me more. Tell me more about this Jesus. I am intrigued. I want to hear the whole gospel right now." And he had all these questions and I remember I was irritated, and I remember because my wife called me out on it. She's like, "That's your job." I was like, "Not for this week it's not." But sometimes we don't get a vacation from being Christians. We don't get a vacation from Jesus and from the ministry he has for us. And we see Jesus, he has compassion on the crowd, tender mercy, sympathetic emotion. He sees the crowd as shepherdless sheep, defenseless, lost, unable to spiritually feed themselves. Around Christmas time, what do we celebrate? We celebrate the incredible miracle that God would so humble Himself to take on human flesh. And He does that in order to represent us on the cross, but He also does that in order to sympathize with us.

Hebrews 4:14. "Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence drawn near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." The sheep without a shepherd, that's a proverbial metaphor in the Old Testament for people who are lacking spiritual leadership. For example, in Numbers 27, Moses knows that he's going to die soon and he prays to God, "God send these people a shepherd." And God sends them a military figure in Joshua, Numbers 27:15, "Moses spoke to the Lord saying, 'Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.'

So the Lord said to Moses, "Take Joshua the son of Nun, the man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. Make him stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation and you shall commission him in their sight. You shall invest him with some of your authority that all of the congregation of the people of Israel may obey.'" So God appoints Joshua and Joshua, in the Septuagint, in the Greek is “Ἰησοῦς”, and that's Jesus' name. Jesus. Jesus is the second Joshua with a greater Joshua who's come as a shepherd to gather the sheep and to empower them and send them out. Ezekiel 34, we get the same metaphor, "And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them, he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them, I am the Lord. I have spoken."

The shepherd of the sheep is technical language for Israel's Great King, the Great Messiah, and that's who Jesus is. And Jesus displays his compassion by doing what? Well, what he came to do. He said, this is for the purpose that I have come. The purpose for which I have come is to teach, is to teach these people God's Word. The sheep need a shepherd that guides them to feed on God's Word. He taught them at great length. He teaches them who God is. He teaches them their need for salvation, their need for truth. And once they come to know the truth, the truth will set you free and they'll be set captive from the nets of the evil one. John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that you may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

We all long for the good life, the abundant life, and the abundant life is found in following Jesus Christ. He is the good shepherd. How do we know he's the good shepherd? How's he proven that he's the good shepherd? Well, he's given his life. He laid down his life for the sheep. What kind of shepherd would do that? Well, only the best shepherd, the good shepherd. So he teaches them and he awakens in them a spiritual hunger. Therefore, they listen for hours on end. They've never heard sermons like this. They've never heard someone teach the Word of God with such authority. And what's he doing? He's feeding their souls. And this is what Jesus said in John 6:35, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst." And this is how we are to think about our spiritual walk, that we have appetites, we have a hunger, and we are to feed that hunger.

And the more we feed that hunger on God's Word, on God's glory, on God's person, the more we are satisfied in Him. And this text follows last week's text in which King Herod was leading a debaucherous lifestyle. And in that text, there was a feast and there was much food and there was much wine and there was much sin. And what that showed us is the king who was supposed to be the shepherd of Israel, he was supposed to be that military figure teaching people the ways of God, he himself was feeding on the junk food of the world. And Jesus here comes to satisfy his people. That brings us to point three, Seek First the Kingdom of God and be Satisfied. Verse 35, "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.'"

And what they're saying is, Jesus, the service is too long. The sermons, way too long, Jesus. Wrap it up. It's time. Jesus didn't have a timer like I do. Jesus, it's time. They see that Jesus is the compassionate teacher and they're like, "Okay, let's be compassionate. Jesus, send them home to eat. Send them away. They're hungry, Jesus." And obviously, the disciples themselves are starving. The beginning of the text says that they themselves didn't have time to eat. They're hungry or hangry, and they're saying, "Jesus, it's time to end this." And Jesus was ministering and he was ministering for hours on end. Most likely this was springtime in Palestine when the sun would set around 6:00 PM. And so we're guessing around 4:30, the people are getting hungry and the satisfaction of people's spiritual hunger still leaves them physically hungry. So verse 37, Jesus answers them, the disciples, "'You give them something to eat.' And they said to him, 'Shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them?'" And you can hear the irritation in their voice.

They're like, "Jesus, this is absurd. 200 denari and one laborer's wages for one day was one denarii. So this is working 200 workdays. Are we really going to do that, Jesus?" And what they're showing is they're exhausted and they're overwhelmed with all the needs. They're overwhelmed with the immensity of the task before them. They feel inadequate and they're like, "Jesus, this is absurd. How in the world are we supposed to feed all of these people?" 2 Corinthians 2:16 says, "Who is sufficient for these things?" And that's kind of what they're saying. "Jesus, what are you talking about? We've run the numbers, we've calculated, and we don't have the money." And the calculations are correct except they have omitted the most important factor in the calculation. The incalculable factor, the Christ factor, and what Jesus is calling them to on the surface seems unreasonable.

Unreasonable in their own natural limitations and resources. Verse 38, "And he said to them, 'How many loaves do you have? Go and see.' And when they had found out, they said, 'Five and two fish.'" Jesus, what are we doing here? How many loaves? Not enough. Can we go home? That's kind of their sentiment. But they do. They obey the Lord even though they understand that they don't understand. And the disciples are concentrating on what they lack. And Jesus draws their attention to what they have. How many loaves? How many fish do we have? And the Lord uses what we have to accomplish what we cannot because he always adds grace. And here you're going to pause and say, "Why did Jesus use the five loaves and the two fish?" Scripture says that Jesus could have turned the stones into loaves. He could have said, "Okay, 5,000 men, everyone grab a stone. Okay, in Jesus' name, everyone's got a loaf."

He doesn't do that. He could have had manna come down from heaven as we saw he did with Israel. He could have brought down angels, which would've been a lot more impressive. Angels showing up out of nowhere and feeding everybody. He could have healed all the people of their hunger, "In Jesus' name. No one's hungry." Boom. He doesn't do any of that. And the method of the miracle is significant. They don't have what the people need, he does, and they can't give the people what they need, but Jesus can. And Jesus chooses to use the disciples in the miracle. The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle, other than the resurrection, that's reported in all four gospels. And it is to teach us that in life when we are overmatched, when the mission in front of us is so much bigger than the resources that we do have, we have the Lord.

We always have the Lord. Indeed, the Lord does call us to do more than we're capable of by ourselves. He asks too much, sometimes it feels like that, and we have too little. But this is how the faith works. Augustine said the following, "Lord, command what you will." He's saying, "Lord, tell me to do whatever you want to tell me to do, but give me what you command. Command me whatever you will, but give me what you command." And then again, he's not asking us to do anything by ourselves, by our own devices and our own strength. He's telling us what He will do with the little that we have if we continue trusting in Him. Bread and fish were staples of most Galileans. God uses this example over and over and over, the fish and the loaves. Why five loaves? Some commentaries say that they may be related to the law of Moses, the Pentateuch.

In Deuteronomy 8:3 for example, it says, "He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." God does sustain us through His physical gifts. But even those gifts are always a sign, they always point to something greater, is that we need satiety of our souls from the Word of God. So Mark 6:39, "He commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass." As I was meditating on this text, someone asked me, "How about the water?" We got the bread, we got the carbs, we got the fish, probably dried fish, salty fish. It makes you thirsty. You got the protein. Most likely there was a water source, that's why the little detail of the green grass, they're in a desolate place, but there is green grass, most likely naturally irrigated perhaps by springs nearby.

And God's people always find rest in God's presence, even in a desolate place. The Psalm 23 is a great example that the Lord causes His people, His weary people to recline in green pastures. So verse 40, "They sat down in groups by hundreds and by fifties." So he has the disciples who kind of don't really believe that Jesus is going to do what he's going to do. He has the disciples direct these people to sit down in groups of 50, groups of a hundred. And perhaps the people who are asking, "Why are we sitting? What's about to happen?" And the disciples have to believe that something is going to happen if Jesus told them to do it. They are to obey. Why the groups of 50 and a hundred? Well, because God is a God of order, one who at the dawn of time brought order out of chaos and who loves order even in worship. One Corinthians 14:40, "But all things should be done decently and in order."

So the disciples here, they are risking looking foolish. "Jesus, you told us to do this. We guess you're going to do something." The risking embarrassment but no risk, no faith. And verse 41, "And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people, and he divided the two fish among them all." This is a good reminder that we are to bless the Lord as we bless meals, pray over meals. You should pray over meals. How about out in public, in restaurants? Should we pray over meals? Yes. I don't close my eyes though. It's always awkward because when the waiter all of a sudden is just there and they're like, "What are you doing?" And I pray like Jesus prayed. How did Jesus pray? He didn't close his eyes. He looked up to heaven. He's like, "Lord, bless you for this delicious meal that I'm about to make." So that's how I pray over meals in public, really loud, in Jesus' name, hallelujah, looking up to heaven. I think it's more emphatic.

And then if it's a really good meal, you just continue blessing the Lord the whole time and then conclude with extra blessing. So Jesus blesses the meal. And this is important because without the Lord's blessing, everything we do is a waste of time. Actually in John 15, the Lord says, "Apart from me, you can do nothing." Psalm 1:27, "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain." And to have God's blessing is to expect a result that is much more than we could do on our own. It's much more than just our talents, our labor. It's in proportion to God's abundance. We must expect God to work beyond all that we can achieve or conceive even. Without the Lord's blessings, there's only five loaves and two fish, woefully inadequate. With his blessing, with his blessing that multiplies, it's always more than enough.

And he divides the loaves, he divides the fish. And here the Word is that he broke it. He broke the loaves and he divided the fish. And in scripture, this is usually the pattern. When we ask for the Lord's blessing, just know that the greatest blessings come with brokenness, blessing and brokenness, they go together. You won't find God's blessing apart from God's breaking. If you want great anointing upon your life, just know that anointing with oil always starts with breaking. Olives need to be broken for olive oil to anoint. If you want the choices of wine, grapes have to be broken. There's no anointing without crushing. And we see this all throughout scripture. Abraham and Sarah were crushed years, crushed past their ability to produce a child before the child of the promise finally comes. Or Jacob had to be crippled in his hip before he prevailed with God, or Moses before God used him so powerfully, Moses failed in his own strength, spending 40 years tending sheep.

Vance Havner says, "God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter weeping bitterly who returns to greater power than ever." Most of us aren't too weak to serve the Lord, we are too strong or we think we're too strong. Lord doesn't want our adequacy. He wants our inadequacy so that He supplies the adequacy and He gets all the glory. The impression seems to be that every time the disciples came back to the Lord for more, there was more to give. And this is a perfect picture of the manner in which the Lord calls us to serve Him. The Lord could have even now just made a mountain of bread and a mountain of fish and say, "Everybody come feed yourselves."

No, he chooses the disciples to take the bread. He's breaking it. As he's breaking it, it's multiplying in his hands. He deposits into the empty hands of his disciples who then carry it to group after group. They run out, they come back to the Lord, he's got more. They take it to the people. They're satisfied, they run out, they come back for more. And every time the disciples came back to Jesus, there was more, but not until then. And this is an incredible lesson. How many trips did they take back and forth? This must have taken hours, dozens and dozens of trips. Jesus blesses, he breaks, he gives, they give. They're empty. They come back for more. And this shows us that our need for the Lord, our reliance, our dependence on Him, it's never done. We're never in a position where we graduate from needing the Lord, graduate from dependence on the Lord.

And this is offensive in a sense, to our pride, to our self-sufficiency. You think that you walk with the Lord for a decade or a couple of decades. You think that you've graduated. You think you've studied the word and self-sufficient, no. We never get to a place in life where we do not need to rely on the Lord. We must always be depending on Him every day. We are to take what little we have to Him and say, "Lord, bless it. Lord, break it. Lord, multiply it and Lord use me." And then when we come back to Him at the end of the day for a fresh supply of grace. He breaks the loaves and he gives it to the disciples to set before the people. Despite their perhaps exhaustion, their thickheadedness, their disparaging sarcasm, the Lord chooses to use the disciples and chooses to teach them about His work.

And God delights to include us in His work. 2 Corinthians 3:5, "Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God." Or 2 Corinthians 4:7, "But we have this treasure and jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us." In 2 Corinthians 5:20, "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, He made him to be sin who you know sin so that we might become the righteousness of God." Christ will give us His adequacy to meet the needs of people if we yield our inadequacy to Him. And when the Lord calls you to follow Him, He calls you to do something that's impossible, you start where you are with what you've got.

If you're single or if you're married or raising children or you think about managing money or getting along with people at work or mortifying sin, or you look at the world and they're surmounting fears and you say, "Lord, this is impossible. Lord, help me." And what the Lord says is do the impossible, but do it with me because with God there's nothing that is impossible. And whom does God use here? Jesus uses tired, emotionally drained disciples who lack resources, who are bone tired. And the Lord satisfies them. Mark 6:42, "And they all ate and were satisfied." And the word satisfied shows it's not just a snack, something more substantial happened here. These people feasted, there was more than enough to go around for everybody. And this miracle is a miracle of one of the frequent biblical images of the bliss of the age to come, is a banquet, that in the new heavens and new earth, we will enjoy a banquet with the Lord and it's going to be a sumptuous banquet.

Isaiah 25:6 says, "On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, of feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever and the Lord will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of His people He will take away from all the earth. For the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, behold, this is our God. We have waited for Him that He might save us. This is the Lord, we have waited for Him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. God here guarantees to supply our needs, but not necessarily all our desires. It was a very simple meal of bread and fish. And the Lord often meets our needs, and His grace meets our needs, but not necessarily our greeds.

In verse 43, "They took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish and those who ate the loaves were 5,000 men." 12 baskets. Why 12? One for each of the disciples. You guys were hungry, you couldn't find time to eat. You guys doubted, you were a little irritated, a little hangry. The Lord's like, "Here's a basket, here's your carbs and protein for the next leg of the journey." And it shows us that the Lord loves to provide more than enough. This is the way I like to order food. I ask my wife how many pizzas and whatever number she says, I multiply by two. Two pizzas? Okay, we'll take four. And for some reason, crust is tremendous, especially the next day.

First day you're like, "I'm not even crust. I'm watching my carbs." Second day like, "Oh, really good." And the Lord here provides more than enough. And it shows us that God wants to be good stewards of the resources that He provides us with. I teach my girls, it's against my religion to throw any food away. If they're like, "I'm full, I can't do any more." I was like, "The Lord has already provided your next meal. You're having just the broccoli." The Lord here teaches us many a lesson. 5,000 men, and it's the word Andres men. So most likely apart from women and children. With women and children, you're talking about thousands of people that the Lord has fed. And what was the point of this whole lesson? He taught, he taught, he taught all day. What did he teach about? He taught about salvation. He taught about our greatest need. Our greatest need is to repent of our sin because we've transgressed the commandments of the Lord.

And then he does this miracle to do what? To attest to everything that he has just taught. He has taught, "I have come to pay for your sins. I have come, my body to be broken, my blood to be shed for your sins to be forgiven, for remission of your sins, as a substitutionary atone, I am the one. I'm the bread of life." And Hebrews 2, 3, and 4 says, "How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will." He said the whole point of these miracles was to attest to the fact that this message about our salvation is truth.

Salvation's greater than the signs and the signs were supposed to point to the salvation. But most of the people here who ate and were satisfied, most of them missed the point. They missed the whole point of the miracle and the parallel passage of John 6, these people then after Jesus fed them, Jesus and the disciples leave, and then the people find Jesus again. And Jesus tells them this. Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves." Jesus calls out their seeker mindset, their consumeristic mindset. They don't want salvation of their sins. They don't want condemnation removed from them. They don't want to be saved from the condemnation that they deserve for their sins. They just want more reprieve from hunger. And John 6:30, "And they asked him, 'Then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you, what work do you perform?'"

Jesus said, you fed them. They show up again. They're like, "We're here for some more." And then Jesus is like, "You're not here for salvation. You're not even here for the sign. You're here for food." And they're like, "What sign will you do for us?" Showing they missed the point completely. And the point was that we all need salvation. 1 Corinthians 1:22, "for Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God." People gawked to the miracles, but they weren't convicted of their sin. They didn't come to Jesus for salvation and the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Last Supper, he uses the same exact phrases, taking, thanking, breaking, giving. Same exact four words in the same exact order.

Luke 22:19, "And he took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, 'This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' And likewise, the cup after they had eaten, saying, 'This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.'" Jesus is the Messiah who provides for God's people, who will host God's great banquet. And if you today are not sure where you stand before God, if you're not sure that you are saved, that your sins are forgiven, we appeal to you, look to the cross of Jesus Christ. That's the God man, Jesus Christ, God who took on flesh, came lived the perfect life that we are supposed to live, but we did not, refuse to. He didn't break one commandment, loved God with all his heart, soul, strength and mind, love neighbor as himself.

And then he offers himself as a sacrifice, as a substitutionary atonement on our behalf. So that whosoever believes in him, looks to the cross, asks for forgiveness, repent of sin, and turns from it and turns to him, he will heal. The world tells us that God helps those who help themselves. Well, no, God rescues men and women dead in their trespasses, who cannot help themselves, who will not help themselves, dead sinners. And when we turn to Him, He offers healing, salvation, satisfaction, and sustenance, and He does that with Himself. So dear sheep today, come to the good Shepherd. Hear His voice. He laid His life down for you, to save you, to satisfy you, to sanctify you, and to empower you for service to the King. Let us pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for the sumptuous meal from the holy scriptures. We thank you for the reminder that only in you can we find true satisfaction for our souls.

And every time, Lord, we have a meal, let us be mindful of the fact that you have provided it and let it be a sign to the greatest provision that you have given, is the provision of salvation, that anyone that would cry out to you and ask for forgiveness, you forgive. And anyone who comes to you and says, "Jesus, I need a shepherd." You are the good shepherd. And Jesus, thank you for laying down your life for each one of us sheep who in many ways are foolish. I pray that you continue to guide us to green pastures and still waters, recognizing that it's your presence that we need above all. Holy Spirit, I pray right now, bless our time of worship. We worship not to get something from you. We worship you because you deserve to be worshiped. And as we do, Lord satisfy us and we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.