Feeding the Masses

Jake Edwards

Foundation • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

Luke 9:10–19

A Witness

Miracle

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Jesus taught His disciples a lesson on serving people.

Notes

Transcript

In , we find the disciples who are excited about the ministry that Jesus had given them.

For the first time, instead of watching Jesus share the message or performing miracles, the disciples were themselves given the authority to do ministry through the surrounding areas.

Sent in twos to “proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.”

Verses 7-9 tell us that the ministry of God done through the disciples had made an impact. The news of what had been done reached the ears of King Herod. He was paranoid that John the Baptist who he had personally called for execution had risen from the dead.

The community was talking and wondering what was happening.

Word travels fast in small towns. It doesn’t take long for news to travel, especially when the news it unlike anything anyone had ever heard.

As believers, we are given the opportunity to join God in His ministry to the rest of the world.

But don’t forget that the ministry of the word is God’s ministry, never ours. He is the owner. We are called to be managers of His divine work.

The disciples

Find joy in the fact that Jesus doesn’t need any one of us to serve Him. He delights in using His people in the ministry.

The disciples would now learn an important lesson in Gods purpose to reach the world through people.

READ PASSAGE

1. People Will Go Wherever Jesus Is. (v. 1-2)

The disciples were giddy with excitement. The work that Jesus gave them the authority to do had been well recieved.

People were stirred up and excited for the coming kingdom of God. The days were looking good. The disciples recieved positive notoriety.

Great work had been done. There was only good news to give.

Chances are, the disciples were exhausted. The adrenaline had worn off and fatigue was setting in.

Jesus did what he would do often. He took the disciples to the wilderness to rest. Bathsaida was a fishermen town, but chances are, the disciples were simply in the vacinity of Behsaida.

In other words, the disciples were in the middle of nowhere.

And yet, people heard where Jesus and disciples were, they came from all areas in droves to see Him.

Jesus preached an impromptu message and healed the sick. (Don’t you love the fact that willingness to know Jesus was so strong that spiritual moments where just happening with no planning whatsoever?)

Jesus knew what the disciples didn’t know yet. It didn’t matter if He was in the middle of nowhere or in a culture epicenter like Jerusalem. People would come because their hearts knew that Jesus was something different.

Country Road Fellowship, The mountains of Nepal, The Sparrows Nest Maternity Home are proof that the best locations mean nothing compared to being a place where the Holy Spirit resides.

Because of cultural influence, we can base ministry success on programs, locations, resources, and other aspects of reaching others.

When the name of Jesus is raised up for all to see, people will show up without even knowing why they are there.

The aroma of the Holy Spirit working is stronger than any barrier that people will put between themselves and God.

READ

Stop making excuses for the church. Jesus isn’t asking us to do so. We as the church are called to lift up His name and trust Him with the results.

2. Ministry Happens on Gods Time Only.

The disciples were tired, hungry, and ready to call it a night. The crowd was overwhelming and needed to find food and a place to stay for the night.

Travelers had come far from home to see Jesus and they were all standing in the middle of nowhere.

The disciples did what any other person would do. In their minds, there were no resources to care for the situation at hand. They also needed rest. Jesus would use this time to make a difference.

“You give them something to eat”.

Keep in mind that Jesus had given the disciples the authority to perform miracles. He wasn’t asking them to do something they were unable to do.

“5 loves and 2 fish”

Other gospels say that the bread was barley. This was known as poor mans bread. Not what we think of when we imagine a loaf of bread.

Jesus didn’t care what the disciples thought needed to happen in the moment. This was not a time to stop and close up shop. It was time to reach people.

Austin Chamness - bleachers at basketball practice.

When man is ready to throw in the towel, Jesus is just now getting started.

There are moments when we are ready to run for God and He will call us to rest. There are moments when we don’t feel as if we can go another step and God will call us to service.

What is the lesson here?

No matter how much ministry we have done, God will always be in charge. Don’t assume anything about how a situation is to be handled.

He is stretching you for a reason. Pay attention. The work He is doing will be an incredible teaching tool.

3. Trust God’s Resources to Bring Satisfaction.

The people huddled into groups of 50 and Jesus went on to perform the famous miracle.

He blessed the meal, gave thanks, and passed out supper.

Everyone walked away filled and satisfied.

He put them into the disciples hands to give to every person who was there.

Imagine the amazement.

One Sunday afternoon Billy was strolling about in the south end of the business district of Chicago, with half a dozen baseball friends. The New York Giants were in the city at the time, and several of them were in the party.

At the corner of State and Van Buren streets was an empty lot, which is now occupied by the Siegel & Cooper Department Store. Here a company of men and women workers from the Pacific Garden Mission were holding an outdoor meeting.

Sunday and his friends stopped to listen. The meeting soon took hold of their attention, and they sat down on the curb and heard the service through. Sunday confesses that the singing of the old gospel songs—the same his mother had sung in the little log cabin home back in Iowa—caught at his heart strings and set them vibrating in sympathy with memories of childhood days. A new spirit welled up within him, and created dissatisfaction with the life he was living.

When the outdoor meeting was over, a young man named Harry Monroe, now superintendent of the Mission, seeing that Sunday had been touched, went to him and invited him to attend the meeting at the Mission, two blocks away.

"You'll enjoy it," he said. "You'll hear some things that will interest you. Won't you come?"

Sunday accepted the invitation and went. The usual services were held in the Mission. There was singing and praying, and earnest and heartfelt testimonies from those who had found deliverance from many kinds of sin. Then some one gave a short gospel talk, that, though brief, was right to the point. The usual invitation to accept Christ was given, for no meeting has ever been held in that Mission without this being done, and there has never been a service when some one did not respond.

Sunday listened eagerly and closely to everything that was said, and though his heart was deeply stirred, he did not respond to the invitation, or in any way further commit himself; though when he left the Mission it was with the resolve that he would return again.

Several nights later he was once more in the Mission, and went again some four or five nights in succession. Then one night when he needed help as badly as did the man at the pool of Bethesda, a voice that was like a breath from heaven aroused him, and he looked up into the face of Mrs. Clark, wife of the saintly Col. Clark, founder of the Mission. She well understood his case, for she had helped hundreds like him into the kingdom.

She talked to him like a mother, and with a wisdom given to her from above led him to where he could see the light streaming from the cross. Little by little she brought him to see clearly that eternal life is God's free gift, and being such, it must be received as a gift, through childlike faith in the finished work of Christ. And then, when the good woman had given him a few promises, upon which she assured him it would be safe to plant his feet, he made the great decision that every one must make for himself, and took Jesus Christ as his all-sufficient Saviour, promised compliance with all that God's law required of him, and then soon—very soon his burden was gone. He knew that his name had been written in the Book of Life, and the peace that passeth understanding came into his heart.

Yes, Billy was moved by the message he heard in the street and by the revival meetings but the life change came when the heard the voice of a mother telling him the gospel. Billy would go on the famous preacher.