Mark 6:30-44 – What A Servant Does – Bible study

Mark 6:30-44 What A Servant of God Does What is a servant of God? The simple answer is, he or she is someone who serve God. But that still doesnt clear it up, does it? What does it mean to serve God? Do I need to go to school to learn how to do that? Do I need a degree? Do I need to be approved? What is it that a servant of God does? Tonight, lets see if we can answer that question. I. \#30\ Notice the new name for the disciples-APOSTLES. A. This title is often consider to be a post resurrection title. However, it was used 8 x in the gospels 1. Matthew-1 2. Mark-1 3. Luke-6 B. Meanings: 1. Apostle means-"Sent one" or "messenger." 2. Compare that to "disciple" which means "student, learner, disciplined one." 3. The change in titles implies that these followers were growing! C. Greater growth demands greater responsibility. 1. Some have failed to move from disciple (learner) to apostle (doer). I often say that in Christianity the sheep are supposed to grown into shepherds! 2. The first indication of greater responsibility occurred when the Lord had to cancelled their day off. a. \#31-32\ There was the purpose of the trip. b. \#33-34\ It got interrupted when the crowd found them. How are the "apostles" going to handle it? c. Mature Christians, things dont always work like you planned! (1) In fact, they seldom do. (2) Someone said, "A plans is what you have until God shows you the next problem He wants to fix." (3) A plan is just what you do until the next problem comes. (4) It was the plan of God that these apostles help these people. (a) First, with their spiritual problem. (b) Second, with their physical problem. 3. Up to this point in the gospels, Jesus had done all of the work in caring for the people. a. Up to this point, the disciples had actually been part of the load that Jesus had been carrying. b. Starting today, Jesus was going to let the apostles help in taking care of others. II. What lessons are the apostles to learn? A. \#34-35\ Apostles need to learn the condition of people. 1. People are pretty much the same everywhere. It does not matter what color they are, what nationality, what education they have, how much money they have. 2. I see three expressions that tell me four things about people. a. \#34\ They are as sheep having no shepherd. (1) They have no leader. (2) They have no Savior. (One doesnt get a Savior without getting a Leader.) i. That means they have no direction, no Director, and no destination. ii. Most people are just winging it, adlibbing it, playing it by ear, doing the best they can for someone with no direction. iii. In that directionless flight, some try some things and some try others. iv. Those things end up pushing some further into wickedness than others, but all are doing the same thing. v. It is just the mercy and grace of God that every one of us sitting here are not drunks, drug heads, brawlers, thieves, murderers, or worse. b. \#35\ They are in a desert place. (1) This is where their journey had lead thema desert place. (2) A desert place in Israel is not necessarily a sandy wilderness. i. Quite often, it is a rocky, mountainous area where nothing will grow. ii. Here is the problem of living for the world. aa. It cannot sustain you! bb. It is that the world WILL not sustain you. It CAN not. cc. Its riches, its fame, its comforts, its reward, its breadnothing that this world has CAN sustain you. dd. This is what Jesus meant when He said that man cannot live by manna alone. (3) So these people were in a barren land with no food or water. i. Now, we know why Jesus was there. ii. He wanted to be in a place with no people so the disciples could rest. iii. No doubt, they had brought food and water for themselves. iv. These other people had simply wandered into the desert because they had no other direction to go, no Director, and no destination. (4) This is the condition of the lost world! i. Dont hate them. It doesnt matter what they do. Dont hate them. ii. If you want to hate, hate sin and the devil. iii. At this point, sinners are merely victims too. c. \#35\ The time is far spent. (1) It was later than the people thought. (2) They had tarried longer in the wilderness than they realized. (3) Now, with the heat, the distance to get back, and the difficulty of the journey, some might not make it. (4) Let me tell you something about sin. It is always easier to get into it than it is to get out of it. (5) Conditions in the world have changed in the 40 years that I have been in the ministry, but I have always preached that its later than you think. i. People are always closer to death than they realize. ii. And I think we have always been closer to the coming of the Lord than we realized. B. \#36\ Apostles need to learn to react properly to mens condition. 1. Im afraid they did not react very well in the beginning. a. In fact, they acted just like the world. b. Send them away! 2. That is exactly how the world reacts when it sees the lost in need! Matt 20:30 And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 31 And the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace: but they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. a. The world said, "Thats you problem. You deal with it!" b. Isnt that were the apostles were saying? "Let them go into the village and buy something to eat!" (1) What if they have no money? (2) What if the village has no food? (3) What if the village is not hospitable? c. So what these "apostles" were saying was, "Thats all their problem. Let them deal it!" 3. By the way, that is also the response of a disciple. a. If all you are here for is for YOU to get feed, you are still saying of others, "Thats there problem!" b. To move from disciple to apostle, you are going to have to learn how to respond correctly to the condition of others! 4. \#37\ Notice what Jesus said. a. YOU feed them. b. Guess what? Those disciples just got promoted. c. Whether they wanted to or not, now the responsibility for the 5,000 is upon them. d. Jesus is NOT going to send them away. Those people are going to be fed. e. \#44\ We need to remind ourselves how many people there were, 5,000 mennot counting women and children! f. What a day to get promoted!! This is a real problem. How are we going to feed that many people in this desert? g. Anytime you step up to serve God it is going to because someone has a real problem. h. Remember, a plan is just what we have until God shows us the next problem He wants you to fix! C. \#37\ Apostles need to learn how the Lord will work through them. 1. I dont know if you have ever noticed itI am probably about to work my way out of ever getting another raise or even having a jobbut apostles always do exactly the same thing in their service to God. a. All servants of Godevery one of themalways do exactly the same thing. b. What is that? Well, it is actually very little. 2. Notice in the remainder of the story. a. \#41\ Who actually fed the people? (1) The "he in that verse is Jesus. (2) Jesus took the bread and fish, blessed the bread and fish, multiplied the bread and the fish. (3) In other words, it was JESUS who feed the 5,000. (4) Wait a minute! I thought Jesus told the apostles that THEY were going to feed the multitudes. (This was THEIR promotion day!" (5) What did the apostles actually do? (6) The same thing that all who serve God do. b. \#39-40\ What did the apostles do? (1) At Jesus command, they divided the people into groups. (2) At Jesus command, they got the people seated. (3) At Jesus command, they passed out the baskets. (4) At Jesus command, they picked up what was left. 3. Who actually did the work that day? Jesus, but the apostles were the ones who stood before the people. a. If you asked someone sitting in group 98 who it was that fed them, they would probably have said, "Well, it was" whichever apostle that brought the basket by. b. But it wasnt. It was Jesus! 4. And so goes! a. The apostle, the servant of God, actually does very little. b. He is the face that stands before the people; but if anything spiritual gets done, it is always done by God! c. I have a very prominent position in this church. I am the pastor of the Green Pond Baptist Church, but I very little. (1) I cannot do much to get people into this church. (2) I cannot do much to hold their attention once they get into the church. (3) I cannot make them understand what I say. (4) I cannot convict their hearts over their spiritual condition. (5) I cannot get them to respond to the conviction they feel. (6) I cannot get them to repent of their sins or to truly believe on Jesus Christ as their Savior. (7) I cannot not get them to change according to the working of God. d. You may be asking, "Well Preacher, exactly why do we keep you around here?" (1) Ive often wondered that myself! (2) All I do is what these men did that day. I take the basket of bread and sit it down in front of you. (a) I cant make you like it, want it, eat it, or be changed by it. (b) No apostle can. (c) Now, because I have been a student of the Bible for so many years, I might be able to put a richer selection of bread into the basket, but it wont be anymore powerful than anothers because bread is still bread. (d) But it is always God that does the work! e. Friend, anyone who has eaten of the basket of the Bread of Life can stand up and pass it to another! (1) Any disciple, no matter how spiritually young or how physically old, can become an apostle. (2) Just find someone and feed them the Bread of Life. (3) Tell them what happened to you. (4) Give out a tract. (5) Invite them to church. (6) Pray for them. So, lets go back to the beginning. What is a servant of God? it is someone who will but the basket of bread in front of hungry soul. I wonder, are there any servants of God in this place?