Release
Luke 9:10-17
August 20, 2017
Action: We’re here.
Background: All that we have, Jesus entrusted to us.
Crisis: Our resources are not enough to meet the demand.
Resolution: When we release what we have and who we are to Jesus, wonderful things happen.
Consequence: A deeper understanding of who Jesus is and how wonderful He is
One of my favorite movies, Father of the Bride…George is upstairs to go to the bathroom, starts looking thru the bank book of his daughter’s future father in law, and gets cornered by 2 doberman pincers. The word he’s trying to come up with is…Release.” But he can’t think of it. (show clip beginning with dropping the book under the desk until he falls in the water and she drops her head—edit out the 1:07 minutes from the time he runs out of view of the window after dropping out of the window until the dogs appear to force him in the pool)
Turn to Luke 9:10-17. We are in this series entitled Wonders. The premise is that we get caught up in the hustle and bustle of our lives, distracted by work and school and parenting and the hurry up which is our 21st century American culture. We miss the wonder of Creation. We miss the wonder of the wind rustling the branches of our trees. We miss the wonder of the seasons brought on by the change of the rotation and tilt of planet earth. We miss the wonder of of the changes in barometric pressure that indicate changes in the atmosphere signaling the coming of rain that replenishes us. Heck, tomorrow we’ll have the 1st total solar eclipse was over 38 years ago, and I’ll be half of us in the room won’t even make the effort to step out at 1:00 tomorrow afternoon to see it. And yet, the movements of the planets and moons are a part of a delicate ecosystem that our infinitely creative God spoke into being just to make a stage on which He displays His glory and His love for a creature that He created in His own image.
I could go on and on—but you get my point. We need to slow down and get our antenna up to see and hear and sense the wonder of Jesus in a way we never have before—and keep it up so that as we live out our lives we become increasingly awed by the wonder of Jesus.
Week one, we studied the story of Jesus the young man who was tormented by a demon. Jesus reminded the dad and us that to see His Wonder, we need to bring our faith.
Last week we studied the story of Jesus telling Peter to push out a little farther to catch fish and we were reminded that for us to see His wonder, we need to invite Jesus into the routines of our lives.
Now this morning, we’re going to study a story that is so very familiar I’m afraid we’re going to yawn and tune out because we’ve heard it so many times. But this is a wonder-filled story of the feeding of the multitude that reminds us that to see the wonder of Jesus, we need to release, not ‘relent’ ‘recoil’ ‘reverse’ but ‘release’ control to Him.
Read Luke 9:10-17(on screen) with comments
v.10 apostles: sent ones; a title Jesus gave to the disciples. Was more a descriptive term at 1st; later became a titled term referring to the 11 remaining disciples. If you glance at the 1st 6 verses of this chapter, you see that Jesus had sent them out preaching and healing and they came back telling of great stories of life-change. So His fame was being spread throughout Israel and people wanted to come here and see this Jesus that the disciples had told them about.
Bethsaida, a small village just off the northern shore of Sea of Galilee.
v.11 welcomed them I find it interesting that the Creator of the Universe took time to welcome people. I love how you welcome people on Sunday mornings. In the parking lot, at the doors, in the worship center, at the check in stations. It shows you value people, and it shows you are following the example of Jesus.
v. 12 deserted place Apparently most of the crowd were not locals; they had traveled considerable distances to hear Jesus teach and observe and experience His power in healing. No Pizza Hut or Chickfilet or Babes; no Holiday Inn Express or Motel 6; there might have been a few KOA camp grounds but that was it. The landscape was dotted with a number of small villages, but most of the crowd would need to travel as little as a mile to Capernaum or in some cases as much as 20 miles to Nazareth just to get food.
v.14 5,000 men=no childcare; no children’s ministry. So grateful for the leadership Lauren Van Hoy, Emily Hill, and Jacklyn ?? to teach and care for our children. 5000 men. Throw in a wife and a few kids and you’ve got 20-30,000 people at least.
So let me ask you a question: What is the turning point of the story? As you probably know, good stories have 5 components: action-background-crisis-resolution-consequence (draw with loop). This begins with an action: the disciples are reunited with Jesus after being gone and a crowd follows them. Jesus welcomes them and begins to teach and heal. The background is that the disciples had been out preaching and healing in the name of Jesus and they wanted to see and hear this man Jesus for themselves. The crisis comes when Jesus wants to feed them and the disciples don’t have the resources to get the job done. The resolution or turning point of the story comes when Jesus takes what the disciples had, blessed it and distributed it to the crowd. What you don’t see here fully is the consequence. If you’ll notice in v.18, Jesus is away somewhere else, we learn from Matthew that it is at Caesarea Philippi, and He asks the disciples who He is. They answer: “some say you’re john the Baptist or Elijah or one of the other prophets. Jesus asks: “But who do YOU say that I am?” And that’s when Peter responds, based on the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 men, the multiplying of the 4 loaves and 2 fishes, Peter responds, “you are the messiah, the son of the living God.”
So when they released their resources to Jesus was a turning point in the story; and it was a turning point in the lives of the disciples. (point)
Action: (build) Our story begins this morning with you taking the necessary steps to be here in worship this morning. It’s no accident that We’re here. All through the Bible the gathering of the saints for teaching and fellowship is absolutely critical… The presence of Christ is experienced when we gather in our life groups and the presence of Christ is experienced when we gather here on Sunday mornings. There. Is. No. Substitute.
Background: (build) Those of us who are Christ-followers, and I concede that not everyone is born again and saved. If you’re not saved, you can’t be a Christ-follower. If you are saved, you must be a Christ-follower. So those of us who are Christ-followers are to have our hearts and minds on ministry; on advancing the kingdom. Remember Jesus said, “Love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all you mind, with all your strength.” He said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” So the background to our stories this morning is that God sought us, God saved us, God rescued us, God redeemed us, so we owe Him EVERYTHING. And all that we have—who entrusted it to us? He did. All that we have, Jesus entrusted to us. He entrusted us with the bed we slept in, the clothes we put on, the car we came here in, and the food we’re going to eat as soon as I shut up. The very breath we breathe, the life that we have, the joys and hopes and dreams—He has entrusted to us.
Crisis: (build) The crisis in the text comes when Jesus tells the disciples to feed the crowd, right? Have you ever noticed how often Jesus does that to them—how often He does that to us? He seems to delight in putting us in situations that seem impossible; where the resources we have just won’t get it done. Our resources are not enough to meet the demand.
This is in just about every area of our lives: tithing, serving, witnessing, loving our spouse for a lifetime, patience with our children, contentment with life-circumstances, peace in the midst of storms. I could go on and on but what I’ve learned about the Master is that He delights in putting us in situations where what we have is not enough to do what He demands.
And why does Jesus do this? Why does Jesus DEMAND this? Make no mistake: Jesus demands complete and total surrender and loving obedience and absolute trust in Him. He does it so that we will look to Him and trust Him and build our faith in Him. We have our resources (5/2) but He has His. So, in matters of money, love, adversity, patience, I have to acknowledge that my resources are not enough. Whenever I teach on tithing, invariably I get comments from non tithers that 10% is beyond their ability; they don’t have the resources. But Jesus demands it. That’s what He told the Pharisees in ??? For most of my years of walking with Jesus, I didn’t really have the resources to take 10% off the top and give it to Him. But when I stepped out in faith, something miraculous began to happen. One of the things that scared me to death about getting married was the reality that I didn’t have enough love to love anyone for a lifetime. But when I stepped out in faith, something miraculous began to happen. This is true in a whole myriad of issues: Jesus puts us in circumstances where our resources are not enough to force us to do something.
Resolution: (build) Now this is the turning point in the text: the disciples release what they have to Jesus. I guess when He said, “Give me the loaves and fishes”, they could have bowed up and said NO: you ain’t touching these loaves and fishes. These are ours.” Seems kind of silly, doesn’t it? They could have done that; might have satisfied their immediate hunger need, but they would have missed out on the wonder of watching Jesus take what they released to Him and multiply it to bless thousands.
When we release what we have and who we are to Jesus, wonderful things happen. It is amazing what Jesus does when we release control to Him…past hurts/failures…fears…selfcentered needs…. More…
Consequence: (build) The consequence of this releasing for the disciples was a deeper understanding of who Jesus is and how wonderful He is.
How will your story continue after today? Will you file this away as just another teaching on a worn out told too many times story? Will you walk out thinking this was a nice Sunday—glad you were at church? Or will you walk out with A deeper understanding of who Jesus is and how wonderful He is?
Will you walk out with the determination to release all that you have to this Jesus so that you can experience the wonder of watching Him take what you release to Him and multiply it to bless thousands?
Close… Story of someone who transferred what they had and came out way ahead…check out Parable of the sower in Stanley’s book.
