#28 Little Is Much When God Is In It Series

#28 Little Is Much When God Is in It

Series: Mark

Chuck Sligh

September 27, 2020

NOTE: PowerPoint or ProPresenter presentations are available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives.

TEXT: Mark 6:30-44 – "And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught. 31 And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. 32 And they departed into a desert place by ship privately. 33 And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together unto him. 34 And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things. 35 And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: 36 Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat. 37 He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat? 38 He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes. 39 And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. 40 And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties. 41 And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. 42 And they did all eat, and were filled. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. 44 And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men. "

INTRODUCTION

Illus. – Once there was a turkey farmer who was always trying to perfect a way to breed a better turkey. All the members of his family enjoyed turkey legs, and there was never enough for everyone. After several frustrating attempts, the farmer told his friends at the general store, “Well I finally did it! I bred a turkey that has 6 legs!” They asked the farmer how it tasted, to which the farmer replied, “I don’t know. I never could catch the darn thing!”

Life is like that sometimes. It’s full of frustrations; and even when we do succeed, it’s often more than we can handle. This is especially true when we’re serving the Lord, because He asks us to do impossible things, to do things that are way beyond our ability to accomplish, things like loving an enemy, or making disciples of all nations.

Howard Hendricks once said, “Living the Christian life is not hard; it’s impossible!”

Well, that’s not exactly true. In today’s text, we’ll see how the disciples did the impossible through the power of God.

Before we begin, let me give you a trivia question: Who knows what is the only miracle that is recorded in all four Gospels? – Anybody know? If you thought it was the feeding of the 5,000, then congratulations; you are correct. Jesus performed dozens of miracles, but the feeding of the 5,000 is the only one that appears in all four Gospel accounts. I believe that’s because God wants us to pay close attention to the lessons of this miracle.

Let’s see what they are as we look at Mark’s version of the feeding of the 5,000.

I. BUT FIRST, LET’S NOTICE A WELL-DESERVED VICTORY LAP. – Mark 6:30-31 – “And the apostles gathered themselves together to Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught. 31 And he said to them, ‘Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.”

You’ll recall that earlier in chapter 6, in verses 7-13, Jesus had sent the Twelve out to preach and have authority over demons. Then Mark sandwiches in the story of Herod’s banquet and the subsequent beheading of John the Baptist. This is another one of those sandwiches we’ve talked about earlier in Mark).