Mark's Gospel Part 11 - The Shepherd Who Leads and Feeds

Let me add my um welcome as well as Gavins.

My name's Mark Cooper.

I'm a member here with my wife Anna and children, Millie and Harry.

It's a real joy to be able to share God's word with you this morning.

If you're a younger person, there should be some learning sheets going around.

Do have a go at that and then come up the front at the end, and we might have a few sweets or something to share with you.

We're going to be in Mark chapter 6 today, so do be looking that up.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

Mark chapter 6, verse 30, and that's page 841 of the Black Church Bibles.

Mark 6:30

But before I read, let me pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your word.

Thank you that we have that here today.

And Lord, we pray that you would give us hearts to hear it, give us ears to hear it, and please take away distraction.

And please may your spirit be at work.

Please take away things that I say that are unhelpful.

And yeah, please may your spirit speak to our hearts this morning.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Okay, so we're in Mark chapter 6 and verse 30.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

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 awhile, 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 his disciples came to him and said sorry, and when his disciples came to him and said, This is a desolate place, and the hour is 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 two hundred 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 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 twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish, and those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.

Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Beth Seda, while he dismissed the crowd.

And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray.

And when evening came the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land, and he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them.

And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea.

He meant to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified.

But immediately he spoke to them and said, Take heart, it is I.

Do not be afraid.

And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased, and they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

When they had crossed over, they came to land at Genesaret and moored to the shore.

And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick on their beds to wherever they heard he was.

And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment.

And as many as touched it were made well.

Thanks God for his word.

So I wonder who feeds you, who leads you?

Not just feeding your body.

Maybe that's your parents, maybe that's your mum, maybe it's Greg's or even Gail's.

But what about your heart and your mind?

Feeding and leading.

We all have influences.

We all look to people for direction in our lives to give us a sense of purpose and meaning.

And in fact, you know, this is a hot topic at the moment in terms about bad influences.

Gareth Southgate recently gave a lecture, the David Dimbleby Lecture.

And he described these people as callous, manipulative, and toxic influencers whose sole drive is for their own gain.

But this isn't just a problem for young men.

All of us are looking to be led and fed.

And so today's today, God's word says to us that we should realize who Jesus is.

Let him lead you and feed you.

Let Jesus lead you and feed you.

Now, last week, if you remember, we saw the utter failing of Israel's leaders.

King Herod, there was indulgence, self-gratification, and ultimately it led to the murder of John the Baptist.

And we're just left asking, well, is there even such a thing as a good leader?

Is there somebody who is genuinely concerned for the people that they're leading and has their best interests at heart?

And so that brings us to our first point: Jesus, the compassionate shepherd.

Now I wonder as I read through that passage, which I'm sure is very familiar to many of us here, but I just thought maybe it's worth saying at this point to state the obvious that this is narrative.

It actually happened.

And it's important that it actually happened.

If we treat this as a nice sort of made-up story about Jesus who has a shared lunch with people, then the implications are pretty meaningless.

And we may as well go home and have lunch.

But this is not a parable, it's not a nice story.

This is narrative.

Notice how in verse 45 Mark sends Mark mentions the geography.

So in verse 45, Jesus sends the disciples to Beth Seda.

In verse 53, where they actually landed, Genesaret, real places.

And did you notice the colour of the grass in verse 39?

It was green.

Apparently it was springtime.

And so it's my hope today that we'll be struck fresh by the significance of these events.

They actually happened.

And the fact that they actually happened means it's life-changing for us.

So the context of this passage is that it forms the second half of a sandwich.

So the first half of the sandwich is chapter 6, verse 7 to 13, where Jesus sends out his disciples on a ministry trip.

Isaiah 6:7–13

And the middle of the sandwich is the story about King Herod and the way that he rejected Jesus.

And so now on the second half of the sandwich, we see that the disciples are coming back to Jesus and they're exhausted.

In verse 31, it says that they had no leisure to eat.

So Jesus invites them to come away to a remote place.

But you can picture the scene.

They're spotted.

And it says in verse 34 that they were spotted, including the disciples.

The disciples have become famous.

And so you can picture the scene, you know, like somebody seeing a celebrity, they see Taylor Swift.

Is that Taylor Swift?

Who's she with?

Let's go and see if we can get a selfie.

And so you can imagine these people running along the shore, following Jesus, getting ahead to where he comes before he lands the boat.

And it's at this point that we see the heart of Jesus.

Verse 34 says that he had compassion on them.

That word compassion is an intense word coming from the pit of the stomach, a strong feeling of tender compassion.

And despite coming away to rest, Jesus' main concern is for the crowd.

So he put his tiredness and the tiredness of the disciples aside and served them.

And notice what the first thing that he did was.

In verse 34, you might expect it to say he healed them, he cast out demons.

But it says that he taught them many things.

These people lacked knowledge of God and his kingdom, and they had been let down by their shepherds.

And the most important thing was that Jesus taught them.

And I think that's a challenge for us when we look at people around us thinking about their greatest need.

That knowledge of God is so important.

And so as this day wears on, stomachs start to rumble, and the disciples come up with a plan to send the people away, and they go to Jesus to kind of rubber stamp their idea.

But Jesus has other plans.

He says, You give them something to eat.

And notice here that he was in involving the disciples, he wants them to feed the people.

He's training them to be shepherds.

But the disciples push back.

And what they say is actually quite rude.

It's quite dismissive in the tone of what they're saying.

And humanly speaking, they had a very valid point.

In today's money, if if a labourer's wage is 150 pounds, then times 200, that's 30,000 pounds.

And if there were 10,000 people, then that would leave about three pounds for a lunch, which might just get you a sandwich at Greg's.

But the point was fair.

30,000 pounds was not something that the disciples had.

But isn't it wonderful the way Jesus works here?

He could have made food come out of the ground, he could have made food come on a chariot, he could have made food come down from heaven.

But he chose to use what was offered to him: five loaves and two fish, maybe three pounds worth.

How pathetic when you need 30,000 pounds worth.

And he takes this small and inadequate offering and turns it into something special.

And notice how he broke the bread and gave it to the disciples.

Again, Jesus wanted them to feed the people.

And we're not told whether the multiplication happened in Jesus' hands or whether it was happening in the disciples' hands.

But it was clear that Jesus wanted them involved in this ministry.

And so as they gather up the leftovers, the story moves on.

And notice that Jesus put the disciples in the boat and sent them off into the boat.

And a question that you might ask is why did Jesus send his disciples out on a boat, knowing that they were heading for trouble, heading into a storm?

And we're going to hold that thought and come back to it in a moment.

But the point was that Jesus was ending this party.

Perhaps the disciples were starting to enjoy the attention.

Perhaps the people were trying to move to make Jesus something more like a king or a political ruler.

But no, Jesus ends the episode, he sends the disciples off, and he goes up to the mountain, goes up the mountain to pray.

And how significant that at this moment Jesus decides that it's time to pray.

And flipping back to the disciples, verse 48 says that they were making headway painfully.

They're obviously struggling with the wind, whether they were in danger or not, but they were going nowhere, and it was the middle of the night, not an ideal situation.

But I don't know if you noticed it says that Jesus saw his disciples.

Could he actually see them from the mountain, or was this divine sight?

We don't know.

But how significant that he was looking for them.

His focus was on them as they struggled.

And I think that's a real comfort.

And this was something that we mentioned in Sunday school today, that people who suffer for obedience for Christ, that Jesus is watching you, his focus is on you, he cares for you.

And that can be a great reassurance.

And so Jesus comes to them walking in power on the water, which sends the disciples into a panic.

They think it's a ghost.

And Jesus gets into the boat, and like chapter 4, the storm is calmed, power over nature.

And they are astounded.

They just cannot believe it.

And so this brings us to our second point, the verse 52 puzzle.

I don't know if anyone noticed it as we were reading there.

Let me read it to you.

And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

What did they not understand about the loaves?

What was there to understand about the loaves that Jesus, you know, miraculously turning five loaves and two fishes into enough food to fend five thousand men?

So let's go back through the passage and see if we can find out what it means.

Now, if you're a Bible explorer, listen up here because I've got a question for you.

So Mark tells us three times in this passage that this was a desolate place.

So that's verse 31, 32, and 35.

So desolate place.

We have miraculous food, we have people sitting in groups in verse 39.

We have a miraculous water crossing with strong winds, and to top it off, we have disciples with hard hearts.

Now, if you're a Bible explorer, is there another book in the Bible that this is reminding you of?

We've got one over there.

Exodus.

Exodus, fantastic, well done, Rory.

Exodus, yes, Exodus 16 describes the uh the children of Israel in the desert and God reigning down manna from heaven.

Miraculous bread as part of God's rescue plan for the nation of Israel.

And in Exodus 18, um, it describes how people were organized into thousands, hundreds, and fifties, which is very similar to the groups of 150s, hundreds and fifties in verse 40.

Now, does that convince you that Mark wants us to think Exodus?

Well, if not, what about Jesus going up the mountain to pray?

That could make us think of Moses going up the mountain.

Um, and that the in verse 48, where it says Jesus meant to pass by them, um, this is a rich term to pass by.

Um, and it's associated with God revealing himself to Moses when he was in the cleft of a rock.

And if you're still not convinced, how about Jesus using the name that echoes the divine name of God, I am, um, in verse 50?

Let me read that again.

But immediately he spoke to them and said, Take heart, it is I.

Do not be afraid.

And so if Mark wants us to think Exodus, why?

Well, Exodus was a defining moment in God's salvation plan, a moment when he showed his love and mercy by rescuing his covenant people and bringing them into their own land.

In fact, all through the Old Testament, the Exodus story is referred to as the defining moment when God saved his people.

But as the story unfolds and things start to go wrong, the prophets start to talk about a new Exodus, a new rescue, a new Exodus rescue that is to come.

And there are a number of examples of this, but I think the one that fits this passage so well is Ezekiel chapter 34.

Ezekiel 34 · chapter mention

And so in this chapter, Ezekiel prophesies against the shepherds of Israel.

Um, he says that they've neglected the sheep, that they've made themselves fat, um, they haven't cared for the weak.

But in that chapter, God promises that he will raise up a shepherd and he will rescue his people.

So let me read verse 12 from Ezekiel 34 to you.

You don't need to look it up.

As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep.

I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.

A new rescue, a new exodus moment is promised, and a new shepherd and a good shepherd.

And is that not what we saw in verse thirty-four?

Let me read it.

When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

And does this not then make sense of why this passage comes straight after the account of Herod?

Herod was meant to be the shepherd of Israel.

He was meant to be a religious leader, but he's engaged in debauchery, getting fat, and serving up the head of John the Baptist.

The picture of a bad sheep and the resulting scattered sheep.

But let's contrast Jesus, the good shepherd, caring for the sheep selflessly.

So I think Mark is saying, This is it.

This is the new Exodus rescue.

This is the defining moment in God's salvation plan that had been foretold by the prophets.

The new Exodus rescue is here.

Can you spot him?

And so that brings us to the disciples.

When they're faced with this new Exodus rescue power, Jesus walking on the water, their response is to be terrified.

Have a look at verse 50.

In fact, they thought that Jesus was a ghost.

They were not believing in Jesus as the new Exodus rescue, the shepherd that was to come.

They should have known that he would have not abandoned them as he sent them out on the boat, that he could have been trusted for their safety.

And so, after two amazing accounts of miraculous acts, the disciples were not there, which is mind-boggling.

In fact, at this point in Mark's gospel, Mark is lightening their response to the Pharisees in chapter 3, where we are told that the Pharisees had hard hearts as they opposed Jesus.

And he's using the same term for the disciples, which is shocking.

And what's more strange is that we've seen people respond rightly to Jesus.

In chapter 5, the woman with the issue of blood, she believed in Jesus' power to heal.

With gyrus, he believed and had faith that Jesus could raise his daughter.

And as we, yeah, it's just shocking then that the disciples have responded with unbelief.

They're not believing in Jesus.

And so as we reflect on the disciples' unbelief, then maybe it's good that we reflect on our own hearts.

In their natural state, when presented with the Savior, the King, that we naturally respond with unbelief.

And yet we have a God who is able to change hearts.

If we throw ourselves on his mercy, he will change us by the power of his spirit.

And in a few chapters' time, we're going to meet a man whose son had an unclean spirit.

And his response to Jesus is, I believe, help my unbelief.

And so as I draw to a close, you know, maybe you are someone that has struggled to believe.

You felt on the outside, you've felt that it's something, belief is something for others and not for yourself.

And I hope that this passage has been an encouragement to draw near to Jesus.

This is not the end of the story for the disciples.

They're not cast aside and replaced by better candidates.

Jesus does grant them the gift of faith, and we will see that in a few weeks' time.

So if your heart is if your heart is hard and you struggle to believe, then pray.

Pray for a work of the Spirit.

Jesus loves to answer prayers of I believe, help my unbelief.

He is the good shepherd.

And if you are trusting Jesus, I hope today has been a big encouragement to see that he is a good shepherd.

He can be trusted to lead you, and he has your best interests at heart.

Jesus can lead us and feed us.

And he not only broke bread here with 5,000 people, but he broke bread at the Passover, which is a symbol of him breaking his body on the cross for us.

And as we feed on him, we can become part of his covenant people.

He can be our shepherd and leader, the good shepherd that lays his life down for the sheep.

So why don't we just take a few moments?

If you're somebody that struggles with belief, then maybe this is a good time to pray.

And if you pray that prayer, maybe you could discuss it with somebody.

Or pray a prayer of thanksgiving.

Thank you that Jesus is the good shepherd, the one who serves us selflessly.

Let's just take a few moments and then I'll pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the Lord Jesus, thank you that he is the good shepherd.

Thank you that he is compassionate and selfless and has laid down his life, broken his body, um, for the good of his sheep.

Lord, help us to feed on him.

Help us to follow him even this morning.

In Jesus' name, Amen.