Sermon: The Tension Between the Physical and the Spiritual

Julius: The Holy Gospel according to Mark chapter 8 beginning at verse 1 and this will serve as the sermon text this morning. In those days, when there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples and said to them, His disciples replied, where can anyone get enough bread to feed these people here in this deserted place? He asked them, how many loaves do you have? Seven, they said. He commanded the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves, gave thanks and broke them. He gave the pieces to his disciples to distribute to the crowd and they did so. They also had a few small fish. He blessed them and said that these should be distributed as well. The people ate and were satisfied. They picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. About 4,000 men were there. The gospel of the Lord. Praise be to you, O Christ. I started to get worried as we drew near to the youth rally this past Tuesday. We had left here at 5 a.m. and we needed to make it to Bowling Green, Ohio by the opening service at 7 p.m. And as we drew nearer, it became clearer that we had to choose between dinner and opening service. We weren't gonna make it in time. So what do we do? They're hungry teenagers. Well, we decided to check in and get everything we needed for everybody and we all got together in front of this big arena where we're having the worship service and we went in, we chose the service. But about halfway through the service, my stomach started to grumble. And I started to worry. If I'm hungry, and my metabolism is a metabolism of someone in his 30s, then how hungry must the teenagers be? And so I started to plan, take my mind off the spiritual a little bit, back onto the physical. I snuck the little booklet out and started checking the schedule. What's after the opening service? Okay, announcements for a while, and then party. And then 1030 after the party is Bible study to 11 and then 11 o'clock is be in your room and 1130 is lights out There's no room for dinner So I started planning. Okay, here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna get all the kids to the other chaperones They're gonna be with the other chaperones and then they're gonna go to the party and while they're at the party Maybe I'll go out and I'll get a couple buckets of chicken and then I'll come back and find them at the party and we'll feed them It'll work out There was the tension between dinner and worship, between the spiritual and the physical. And you know that tension too, don't you? It seems to happen all the time in life. You could just think of a church example. We'll have our offering, okay? Christians give offerings freely based on what God has given to them. So you think, okay, what am I getting from God? What's my paycheck? What's my income? You take that, you look at that. And you think, okay, what am I going to give back to God a certain percentage that I decide that I can do with joy for the support of gospel ministry? And you decide that amount and you give that first and you live off the leftovers. Well, you see where the room is for tension there. When you take that first and you put it in the plate, or you give it online, it's gone and you have to wonder, is the rest going to be enough for me? If I focus on the spiritual, will I be taken care of? Physically, you can even think about that just when you're at church in a worship service. You've decided here to focus on something spiritual when you've had a lot to do. You have other places you could be, other things you could take care of. And that's not just when it comes to worship and Bible class on Sunday. It's every day. Do I have time to read my Bible? Do I have time to pray today? Or does that mean I can't exercise or can't do these other things that I need to do? There seems to be this tension. And Jesus himself introduces this tension in Mark chapter 8 at the feeding of the 4,000. What does Jesus seem to be focusing on? Well, maybe you think that's easy. Of course, He is focusing on the spiritual. That's His job. And He certainly is here. You see in this chapter of Mark how Jesus is doing big spiritual things, revealing big things about the kingdom of God. He's showing that He is not just here for the Jews, but He's also here for the Gentiles. He crossed the Sea of Galilee. He went to Gentile territory and He started teaching them. He's showing that He's a God for all nations. This is a big spiritual thing that He's doing. But as He does this big spiritual thing, there comes some physical tension. All of these thousands of people are at Jesus' three-day-long opening service, and they're forgetting about dinner. We read, in those days there was once again a large crowd, and they had nothing to eat. Jesus called His disciples and said to them, feel compassion for the crowd because they have already stayed with me three days and do not have anything to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will faint on the way. Some of them have come from a long distance. Classic preacher man, he got caught up in the moment, three day sermon, which is why this is the start of a three day sermon today to test you. We're gonna be here for a while. No, this three day sermon. Of course he got caught up in that. And now here they are three days later and they look around and there is nothing, nothing to eat. And he calls the disciples to himself and he says, have you noticed this? Before we focus on that for a second, just a little aside, these people were listening to Jesus for three days. What was he talking about that had them so riveted? That had them pay such close attention they didn't even notice their stomachs grumbling. It doesn't say. And I think that's a little teaching point that we can take home. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what Jesus was talking about because Jesus was talking. And so it was worth listening to. His sheep were listening. This is a good lesson for us. You know, it's not bad to have cool sermon series and things like that at church. And I do like to plan worship. And you'll notice sometimes in the front of the bulletin, it says what our plan for worship is and what series we're doing. But I don't lean into that too much because I don't want to give you the impression that Jesus is only worth listening to when it seems interesting. When it's a topic that seems really current or really relevant. Because that's not it. Peter tells us, tells believers, the pure spiritual milk of God's word. Crave it. It doesn't say, God's word when it talks about this, crave God's word when it talks about that. says, when Jesus is speaking, listen. If Jesus decides we're gonna have a 50 part series on the book of Leviticus and all about the skin diseases and purification rituals, I in my heart should say, I love it. Because it's God's word. What an amazing thing. Jesus, forgive us, forgive us when we don't wanna listen to all of your God's words, all of your words all the time. Back to the tension. Jesus knows what's going on. He knows that He's been focusing on the spiritual, teaching all of this, and He also knows that these people are in physical need, and so He draws attention to it, to the disciples. It says He calls His disciples to Himself and says, feel compassion. They have nothing to eat. And then here's the dilemma. He says, if I send them home hungry, they will faint on the way. But if I keep them here, I can't feed them either. So. What do the disciples do? Well, in response to Jesus' question, they make a grave mistake. They honestly think that Jesus is puzzled and he's asking for their help. That he needs their help. That he needs them to get out their calculators and say, Jesus, we get it. You're the preacher man. You don't understand worldly things like we do. So we'll figure it out. We'll find out how many loaves of bread, how many fish, and we'll see if we can distribute it among 4,000 people. No, that doesn't work. And when they try, they just throw up their hands in despair. But Jesus isn't asking them this question so that they can figure it out. He's testing their faith. He's saying, look guys, this is impossible, right? And they say, yeah. Nobody, nobody could possibly provide food for them in the wilderness. Who could do that, huh? And if you're thinking, well, they should have known, they should have known because Jesus had already did in the feeding of the 5,000. I don't think they'd forgotten the feeding of the 5,000. I think they were thinking in their heads something that we often think in our heads when we worry if God's gonna be able to provide for us. They were thinking this little phrase, this little attitude, this time it's different. This time it's different. I mean it was, feeding of the 5,000, that was back with the Israelites, with God's people. Jesus was proving that he was the prophet like Moses sent to be the bread of life. But that's different. Now he's with Gentiles. Is Jesus really gonna do that miracle again? We can't really expect him to do stuff like that all the time. This time it's different. And we can think that in our lives too. Even if Jesus has provided for us 5,000 or 4,000 times before, when we come up in need, when some trouble comes into our lives, we start thinking, no, as if this time is different, as if this time the Lord can't provide for us. You have that offering and that offering plate is passed around and you think, I've been giving offerings my entire life, but this week, this week is different. This expense, that accident, can I really give this to God this week? Can I focus on the spiritual or do I have to pull back a little bit and focus on the physical? You think about church when it becomes this weekly debate. Can I really go to church this week, Thursday, Sunday, worship somewhere else, even just worship online, devote that time? Can I? Because this week is different. This week is busy. And so if I devote myself to the spiritual this week, then things aren't gonna go well for me in the world, physically. This time is different. What do you think? Is it different? There are some differences in our lives, different times, different days, just like the feeding of the 5,000. Sometimes Jesus makes it look like, wow, we have to feed 5,000 people, that's really impossible. Sometimes He makes it look like, wow, we have to feed 4,000 people, that's really impossible. Sometimes He makes it seem impossible when there's just 12 disciples, like right after this when they forget to bring bread into the boat and they start panicking. And sometimes Jesus tests us when it just has to do with one person. With me. And I think, Jesus provide for me this time, this day? So yes. That's different. And that at different times, Jesus is testing our faith in different ways, seeing just how much we'll trust him. One person's worth, 5,000 people's worth. But one thing never changes, no matter when Jesus tests us, and it's this, it's that he will provide. We pray in Psalm 145, the eyes of all look to you, O Lord. Notice these people following Jesus, they had forgotten all about the bread, but who was paying attention to it? Jesus was. You for us, it seems like a decision. We can either focus on the spiritual or the physical, but that is not the case with Jesus. He can focus on two things at once. He can focus on everything at once. And so for three days while Jesus was entirely devoted to teaching these people what they needed to know for salvation, He was also entirely devoted to taking care of their physical needs, everything they needed in this life, and that's true for you. Jesus is here right now with all of His love and all of His attention and all of His grace, and He is gonna give you everything you need for your spiritual life and salvation. And right now, Jesus is keeping very close track of the feeding schedule of every squirrel and every sparrow in Lincoln. He can do both of those things at once. When you open up your Bible reading and you have so much to do that day, you have Jesus' undivided attention as He speaks the words that you need for rest for your soul. And Jesus has already worked out how He's going to provide for you the rest of the day. When the eyes of all look to Jesus, He has already looked. and taking care of everything, and that's what he's doing here. Jesus says, what are we gonna do? He knows what he's going to do, and we read about it. He asked them, how many loaves do you have? Seven, they said. He commanded the crowd to sit down on the ground. He took the seven loaves, gave thanks, and broke them. He gave the pieces to his disciples to distribute to the crowd, and they did so. They also had a few small fish, little sardines. He blessed them and said that these should be distributed as well. The people ate and were satisfied. He picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. About 4,000 men were there. Then he sent them away. the Lord sent them great physical need because they focused on the spiritual so that they would have this much room to trust. And notice, the Lord wasn't demanding their trust before He took care of them. What grace. Trust is not something we trade to God so that He will provide for us. Now if that were the case, these 4,000 people would have went away starving and the disciples would not have been provided for. But God in His incredible grace gives to us. and plans how he's gonna provide for us before we're even thinking about it, before we even trust in him. He does that for us physically, and that does point to the spiritual reality that he does that for us spiritually. That's what Jesus is trying to show us, ultimately, when he gives us today our daily bread, that we can receive that with thanksgiving, but not only that, but that God will always provide for us before we even ask, even spiritually. especially when we don't deserve it. The Lord looks on us with compassion and says, will provide for you anyway. I will give you what you need for body and for soul because that's the kind of God I am. And we see that especially on the cross, don't we? If there was a moment of greatest tension in the universe between seemingly between the spiritual and the physical, it was when Jesus was on the cross. He focused on the spiritual. He wanted to save us. And what happened? He was stripped of everything. Stripped of his dignity, stripped of his clothing, hanging there, naked on the cross with nothing to his name. And eventually, even his life and his soul were taken from him. And in that moment was the greatest gap of trust. Can you trust that a God hanging on the cross with nothing is the one that can provide everything that you could ever need for body and soul? That's what he was doing. Before you even knew about it, Jesus said, is what I'm going to do. I will take God's wrath for my ungratefulness. I will take that. I will be stripped of everything so that they can have it all. So that they can know that the Father loves them and will take care of them body and soul forever. That's what Jesus has done for you. And so what is he saying in those moments of tension? He's saying, Trust me, this time it's no different. If the Father did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how much more will He give us all things? And he does. So we made it to Youth Rally, and I was panicking. How are we going to feed these people? How are we going to feed these 17 hungry teens? And you know what happened is as we're there in the arena, they're making the announcements, and they say, go out to the party. There's food there. And they say, but only take one. We want to make sure there's enough for everyone. Well, by the time we got out there, there we were in the middle of the field, a deserted place you could say, in the middle of a field, and there were tables on tables on tables of food with people serving it, and there were no lines. You walked straight up. and there were mountains of hamburgers and hot dogs and brownies and cookies and drinks. And as you came up, they said, no, don't just take one, take more. Please, we have so much. Before I even thought about it, at 7.30 p.m., the Lord had planned how He was going to provide not just for 17 teens, but for 2,200 teenagers, plus helpers, plus workers. Can I round it up? Before I even thought about it or worried about it, Jesus already knew how he was going to feed 4,000 people. And he looks at me and he says, you of little faith, why did you doubt? That's what he's saying to us. In those moments of tension between the physical and the spiritual, when our eyes look up to Jesus and say, uh-oh, he's saying, I've already seen to it. The Lord will provide. Trust me. I'll provide for you today. I provided for you in the past, and tomorrow, guess what? It's going to be no different. The Lord will provide. now and always. Amen.

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