I like those words, within the sacred page,
I seek the Lord.
Nice to get beyond the black type on
the white page and find the Lord.
Not going to the Bible just as a
piece of literature, but as a search for
Him.
Shall we turn back again tonight to Luke
chapter 9, please?
We just got to the first three verses,
so I think I'll begin at the beginning.
If you don't mind, Luke chapter 9, verse
1.
Then he called his twelve disciples together and
gave them power and authority over all demons
and to cure diseases.
He sent them to preach the kingdom of
God and to heal the sick.
He said to them, Take nothing for the
journey, neither staff nor bag nor bread nor
money, and do not have two tunics apiece.
Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from
there depart.
Whoever will not receive you when you go
out of that city, shake off the very
dust from your feet as a testimony against
them.
So they departed and went through the towns,
preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.
Now Herod the Tetrarch heard of all that
was done by him, and he was perplexed,
because it was said by some that John
had risen from the dead, by some that
Elijah had appeared, and by others that one
of the old prophets had risen again.
And Herod said, John, I have beheaded, but
who is this of whom I hear such
things?
And he sought to see him.
The apostles, when they had returned, told him
all that they had done, and he took
them and went aside privately into a deserted
place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.
When the multitudes knew it, they followed him,
and he received them and spoke to them
about the kingdom of God and healed those
who had need of healing.
When the day began to wear away, the
twelve came and said to him, Send the
multitude away that they may go into the
surrounding towns and country and lodge and get
provisions, for we are in a deserted place
here.
He said to them, You give them something
to eat.
They said, We have no more than five
loaves and two fish, unless we go and
buy food for all these people.
For there were about five thousand men, and
he said to his disciples, Make them sit
down in groups of fifty.
And they did so, and made them all
sit down.
Then he took the five loaves and the
two fish, and looking up to heaven, he
blessed and broke them, and gave them to
the disciples to set before the multitude.
So they all ate and were filled.
Twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken
up by them.
We look first of all, then, at verse
4.
Whatever house you enter, stay there and from
there depart.
It's interesting to me that the same God
who legislates about a bird's nest in the
Old Testament is interested in the accommodation of
his servants in the New Testament.
Part of their wages would be the hospitality
that would be shown to them, and he
gives them instructions concerning that hospitality.
They're not to shop around for the best.
If a house receives them, they're to go
in there and stay there and from there
depart.
Although their ministry would be primarily a ministry
of giving, they must also learn to receive
graciously, too.
Sometimes this is hard in the work of
the Lord.
The poet said, I count him great who
for love's sake can give with generous, earnest
will.
But he who takes for love's sweet sake,
I think I count more generous still.
And there's a certain element of truth in
that.
Then, wherever they were rejected, they were to
shake the very dust from their feet as
a testimony against the people.
This teaches us that we are not obligated
to force the gospel on people when they
don't want it.
They do deserve a valid, bona fide presentation
of the gospel, but there are circumstances in
life when they turn on the gospel messenger
and, as it were, rend him, and he's
not responsible to continue that.
I think that's borne out, is it not,
in 2 Corinthians 2, verses 14 through 16?
2 Corinthians 2, verses 14 through 16.
Now, thanks be to God, who always leads
us in triumph in Christ, and through us
diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every
place.
For we are to God the fragrance of
Christ among those who are being saved, and
among those who are perishing.
That's the shock part of the verse, isn't
it?
We're the fragrance of Christ to God, not
only among those who are being saved, but
among those who are perishing.
To the one we are the aroma of
death to death, and the other aroma of
life to life, and who is sufficient for
these things.
We have a tendency to judge a man's
effectiveness, a person's effectiveness, by the number of
souls he wins to Christ.
But doesn't this verse teach that God judges
also by the number who receive a bona
fide presentation of the gospel, even if they
don't accept it?
I think that's implicit in this verse in
Luke, chapter 9.
Whoever will not receive you, when you go
out of that city, shake off the dust
from your feet as a testimony against them.
And so there they go.
They departed and went through the towns, preaching
the gospel and healing everywhere.
It's really interesting in this chapter the emphasis
on preaching the gospel, preaching the kingdom of
God.
These men knew what was central.
They knew what to preach.
They didn't preach psychology.
They didn't preach self-esteem.
They didn't preach a good self-image.
They didn't even preach current theological trends on
the continent.
They preached the gospel.
It's the word of God that men need,
men and women today.
They need to hear the word of God.
We live in a world that is increasingly
illiterate as far as the Bible is concerned.
It's certainly true here in the United States.
When our young men go out onto the
campus, they're going out to people who don't
know the Bible.
They haven't the foggiest notion about the Bible,
and they have to begin at the beginning.
Thank God for those who stay close to
the word of God and preach the word
of God.
When we come to verse 7, the connection
is rather unclear, isn't it?
Now, we believe that throughout the gospels there
is a continuous flow of thought.
After all, the gospels are not a series
of isolated incidents pieced together with scissors and
paste.
The spirit of God is weaving a spiritual
message through it all.
And I'm sure that some of you here
tonight can tell me the connection between verses
7 through 9 and what preceded.
I'm glad you can, because I can't.
It's very difficult for me, the flow of
thought, the continuity there.
But in all my ignorance, we might draw
one or two lessons.
First of all, I think it's very good
to see that John the Baptist's ministry was
still going on, in a sense, wasn't it?
Although he had been put to death, his
ministry was still continuing.
That's a wonderful thing about the life of
faith and a life dedicated to the Lord
Jesus Christ, that the ministry can go on
long after our lips are silenced in the
grave.
He being dead yet speaketh.
Another lesson I learned from this is that
we can never really effectively know the results
of our ministry down here.
John the Baptist didn't know, for instance, when
he left this scene, how his life and
testimony would affect Herod in days to come.
He didn't know that.
And there's a lesson in that for us.
Heaven is the best and safest place to
learn the results of our ministry.
A third lesson we can learn from this
verse of Scripture is that the rejection of
John the Baptist, the execution of John the
Baptist, was a forepicture of what was going
to happen to the Lord Jesus.
If they treated the forerunner that way, they
would treat the Lord himself that way.
And perhaps that is part of the thread
which you have in this chapter, because in
later verses, the Lord Jesus once and again
tells them exactly what is going to happen
to them.
Interesting how the news of Jesus' ministry tormented
Herod.
He was haunted by the memory of the
past, and he sought to see him.
But his seeking to see him, of course,
was not sincere.
It was not the seeking of a broken
sinner.
Verse 10.
The apostles, when they had returned, told him
all that they had done, and he took
them and went aside privately into a deserted
place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.
I think there's a suggestion here that the
importance, under certain circumstances, of coming aside and
being before the Lord.
I believe that many missionaries and Christian workers
have been lost to the work of God
because they were too spiritual to take a
change of pace.
Garvey said something to that effect.
He said a time of retirement is a
very good thing in our service.
It puts us before God instead of putting
our work before us.
And it makes us feel, too, that our
work is in His hands and not our
own.
He said, I remember when I used to
be ill every year, and I always felt
if I had been near enough to God,
the illness would not have been necessary.
Verse 11.
But when the multitudes knew it, they followed
him, and he received them and spoke to
them about the kingdom of God and healed
those who had need of healing.
Interruption, right?
He had taken the disciples aside.
They were going to have a time of
rest and rehabilitation and relaxation, and here the
multitude is there.
Interruption.
Are you annoyed by interruptions in the work
of the Lord?
Well, the Lord Jesus never was, was he?
In fact, as you read the Gospels, he
never had any interruptions in that sense.
But I believe the secret for him was
that every morning he opened his ears to
receive instructions from God the Father for that
day, and then whatever happened during the day,
he took it as the will of God
for him.
And here, when the multitudes pressed in upon
him as he went away in private with
his disciples, he realized that was part of
God's will.
Some time ago in Reader's Digest there was
this article about interruptions well worth remembering.
When you are exasperated by interruptions, try to
remember that their frequency may be an indication
of the valuableness of your life.
Only the people who are full of help
and strength are burdened by other people's needs.
The interruptions which we chafe at are the
credentials of our indispensability.
Good.
The greatest condemnation that anyone could incur, and
it's a danger to guard against, is to
be so independent, so unhelpful, that nobody ever
interrupts us, and we're left comfortably alone.
There was a dear Christian sister, and she
was leading a very busy life.
She had her housework to do, and she
did a lot of book work at home
as a result, and she was harried by
it all.
And one day her husband came home early
and unexpectedly, and she looked up from her
work and she said, What are you doing
here?
And he said with a wry smile, I
live here.
And she said that that was a lesson
to her because she decided that any time
he came home after that, no matter how
early and unexpectedly, she would put aside her
work and let him know that she considered
that he was tops.
Dr. Becker from Yankundi was here with us
last night.
Before he went home to be with the
Lord, Bill Sees was speaking at Bethany Chapel
in Oakland, and he said that on Dr.
Becker's desk there in Africa was this little
motto.
It said, The Jesus, not only of Calvary,
but of the workshop, the roads, the crowds,
the clamorous demands and surly opposition, the lack
of all peace and privacy, the interruptions.
For this, so strangely unlike anything we can
attribute to the divine life in itself, is
apparently not only light, but is the divine
life operating under human condition.
And I like what J.
Oswald Sanders said.
He said, Up to some time ago, he
was always annoyed by interruptions, which he felt
was merely a form of selfishness on his
part.
People used to walk in and say, Well,
I had two hours to wait between trains,
so I thought I'd come and see you.
He said, That used to bother me.
Then the Lord convinced me that God sends
people our way.
He sent Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch.
He sent Barnabas to look up Saul of
Tarsus.
The same applies today.
God sends people our way.
So he said, When somebody comes in, I
say, The Lord must have sent you here
for some purpose.
Let's pray and find out what that purpose
is.
And he says this does two things.
He says, First of all, it puts the
interview on a different level, because God is
brought into it.
Also, it generally shortens the interview.
If a person knows that you're looking for
a reason why he's there under God, if
he doesn't have one, he soon leaves for
greener pastures.
So take interruptions from the Lord.
Then they belong in your schedule, because God
was simply rearranging your daily pattern to suit
himself.
To the alert Christian, interruptions are only divinely
interjected opportunities.
And I think you have that illustrated here
in the case of the feeding of the
5,000.
The multitudes knew it.
They followed him.
He received them and spoke to them about
the kingdom of God and healed those who
had need of healing.
Now, it's interesting that the feeding of the
5,000 comes here and in all the
Gospels.
It must be important, must convey important spiritual
lessons, because we do find it in all
the Gospels.
Shall we try to list some of the
lessons we learn from the feeding of the
5,000?
First of all, the people, the 5,000
men plus women and children, represent the spiritually
starving multitude who are always with us.
Always with us.
Two, the disciples represent faithful followers of the
Lord Jesus with seemingly pitiful resources.
We went over that last night, didn't we?
And we said that the more primitive the
materials and the more limited the resources, God
could do more with it.
In the feeding of the 4,000 and
the feeding of the 5,000, you have
that contrast.
The less the Lord had to work with,
the more he fed and the more was
left over.
We often think, okay, I just had more
money.
If I just had more material things, I
could do more for the Lord, and it
isn't the way it works, is it?
The less the Lord has to work with,
the more he can accomplish with it, and
the more there is left over.
The disciples represent faithful followers of the Lord
Jesus with seemingly pitiful resources.
But ever and always there is the compassionate
Savior.
The compassionate Savior.
He wasn't irritated by the crowd.
The disciples were, but he wasn't.
He wasn't annoyed.
His heart went out to them.
Do we share the compassion of the Lord
Jesus Christ?
Do we pray, let me look on the
crowd as my Savior did, till my eyes
with tears grow dim?
Let me view with pity the wandering sheep
and love them for love of him.
Can we say in the words that have
been put into Paul's mouth, only like souls
I see the folk thereunder bound who should
conquer, slaves who should be kings, hearing their
one hope with an empty wonder, sadly contented
with a show of things.
Then with a rush, the intolerable craving shivers
throughout me like a trumpet call, O to
save these, to perish for their saving, die
for their life, be offered for them all.
And then number four, you have the Lord's
command, give you, you give them something to
eat.
You give them something to eat.
And what that really is, is a restatement
of the Great Commission, isn't it?
A restatement of the Great Commission.
What an honor that we who are the
least of saints should have this privilege of
giving the multitude to eat.
Number five, he made them sit down in
groups of 50.
This rather speaks to me today because a
great emphasis, even in the assembly today, is
building mega-churches, huge churches.
Several services on Lord's Day morning, you know,
this type of thing.
It certainly doesn't seem to fit with the
pattern of Scripture.
The Lord Jesus made them sit down in
groups that were easily administered.
It's typical of Americans to be thinking in
big terms, but I think of the servant
of the Lord who said, I loathe this
scramble for numbers.
I see now emphasis on huge churches, perhaps
small but growing assembly is what we have
in the New Testament.
I'm afraid today we're too occupied, preoccupied with
big numbers.
We judge success by numbers, and our outlook
has become more statistical than spiritual.
In fact, that's a very strong emphasis today.
Telemarketing, how to form a new assembly.
You call 20,000 phone numbers.
Of those, you are guaranteed that 200 will
come on your opening day, and you'll keep
100 of them.
Scripture please?
There's no Scripture.
It's not God's way, but this is the
whole emphasis today, and not very far away
from us either.
He made them sit down in groups of
50.
Let us learn a lesson from that.
Maybe it's a good thing when an assembly
is planted to set as one of the
ground rules that when it reaches a certain
number, immediately we'll think in terms of hiding
off as long as there is adequate spiritual
leadership to do it.
Number six, if we give Jesus what we
have, he can multiply it to feed the
spiritually hungry multitude.
You've seen that in your work.
You've seen the multiplication process going on.
You've seen sacrificial gifts.
You've been the recipient of gifts from widows,
oftentimes from those who could least afford it,
and you've seen it used and greatly multiplied
in the work of the Lord.
The feeding of the 5,000 is not
ancient history.
It's current events going on all over the
world where consecrated money is multiplied by the
Savior.
A poet has said, "'Twas springtime when he
blessed the loaves.
"'Twas harvest when he broke."
Beautiful, isn't it?
But that's exactly what happened.
I learn also in the feeding of the
5,000 that the Lord expects us to
do what we can do.
He puts the disciples to work.
He expects us to do what we can
do.
Then he will do what we can't do.
And number eight, I like to see in
this that the bread of life is sufficient
for everyone, not just for the elect, but
for everyone.
I find it very interesting when I hear
people pushing Calvinism to the extremes, the limited
atonement, and all the rest.
The problem that keeps men on stage is
not election, but their own stubborn will.
Jesus made that clear.
He said, "'If you search the Scriptures because
you think that in them you have eternal
life, and these are they that testify of
me, and you don't want to come to
me that you might have life.'" He didn't
say, "'You can't come to me because you
aren't elect.'" Nonsense.
And he didn't say, "'You can't come to
me because there are intellectual problems.'" The problem
wasn't in their intellect.
The problem wasn't in their mind.
It was in their will.
That's true with every unsaved person today.
God makes a bona fide offer of the
gospel to every man and woman, boy and
girl in the world.
And there isn't a person living in the
world who, if he repented of his sins
and received the Lord Jesus, wouldn't be saved.
I see in this also that the 5
,000 men, plus women and children, had their
hunger satisfied for a few hours, but those
we feed with the bread of life are
satisfied eternally.
That's wonderful, isn't it?
John, chapter 14, verse 12.
John 14, 12.
"'Most assuredly, I say to you, he who
believes in me, the works that I do
he will do also, greater works than these
will he do, because I go to the
Father.
And whatsoever you ask in my name, that
will I do, that the Father may be
glorified in the Son.'" I haven't got quite
the right verse there, but it's close.
It is true, the 5,000 had their
hunger satisfied for a few hours, those we
feed with the living bread are satisfied eternally.
Number 10, the fragments that were left over
were greater than he started with.
God is a bountiful giver, yet notice that
nothing was wasted.
Gather up the fragments that remain.
Waste is sinful.
Whole countries of the world today could be
evangelized with the waste that goes on in
the United States.
Number 11, disciples of the Lord Jesus never
need to doubt his power to supply their
needs.
I think this is one of the reasons
in the flow of thought in this chapter.
Why is this brought so forcibly before the
disciples?
Because the Lord Jesus is going to lead,
he's going to go back to heaven, the
disciples are going to be here, the Holy
Spirit will be given.
With such a Lord Jesus, they never need
to worry about the supply of their needs.
If he can feed 5,000 with five
loaves and two fish, he can provide for
his trusting servants under any circumstance, and will,
too, as they walk in fellowship with him.
Those who serve him need never worry where
their food is coming from.
Did he not say in Matthew 633, Seek
ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness on all these things shall be added
unto you?
God is a faithful God, and a faithful
provider.
Verses 18 through 31 are generally considered to
be the high-water mark of the Savior's
teaching ministry.
He had been teaching them, teaching them, teaching
them up to this point, and now comes
Peter's great concession of him at Caesarea Philippi.
Let's read it, beginning in verse 18.
It happened as he was alone praying that
his disciples joined him, and he asked them,
saying, Who do the crowds say that I
am?
They answered and said, John the Baptist.
Some say Elijah.
Others say that one of the old prophets
is risen again.
Nothing unique, just a man among men, nothing
greater than that.
He said to them, Who do you say
that I am?
Peter answered, The Christ of God.
And he strictly warned and commanded them to
tell this to no one, saying, The Son
of Man must suffer many things, and be
rejected by the elders and chief priests and
scribes, and be killed and be raised the
third day.
It was of paramount importance that the disciples
should have a genuine conviction as to the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what this is all about.
If the Lord Jesus is the Christ of
God, then they're on the winning side.
They could go forth in triumph, knowing that
although the waves might seem to be against
them, the tide was sure to win.
The Lord Jesus is the Christ of God.
They could know that no one could be
successfully against them, and they could know, too,
as he goes on to develop in the
passage, that no matter what lay in the
meantime in their pathway, they were assured of
coming glory.
Wonderful, isn't it?
Really wonderful.
And it was on this truth, embodied in
Peter's confession, that the church is built.
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God.
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the
living God.
The Apostle Paul had a twofold ministry, which
I see here in germ form.
It's found in Ephesians chapter 3, and it
should be the twofold ministry of everyone of
us, I believe.
Ephesians chapter 3, verses
8 and 9.
To me who am less than the least
of all the saints this grace was given,
that I should preach among the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all
men see what is the fellowship of the
mystery, which from the beginning of the ages
has been hidden in God, who created all
things through Jesus Christ.
You see it?
You see the twofold ministry that was there?
Verse 8, the gospel, that I might preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
9.
The church.
To make all men see what is the
administration or fellowship of the mystery, which from
the beginning of the ages has been hidden
in God, who created all things through Jesus
Christ.
We must keep our priorities straight.
Our task is to preach the gospel, and
see New Testament assemblies established, and everything else
is secondary.
I don't mean trivial, I don't mean unimportant,
but everything else is secondary to that.
In verse 21, the Lord Jesus speaks very
frankly to them, doesn't he?
He straightly warned and commanded them to tell
this to no one, saying, The Son of
Man must suffer many things, and be rejected
by the elders and chief priests and scribes,
and be killed.
You know, it's a good thing that there
isn't a period there after killed.
That would have been enough to doom any
ministry, wouldn't it?
Just a period there would have been enough
to doom any crusade.
But it doesn't stop there.
He raised again the third day.
Somebody said, Jesus never hid his scars to
make disciples.
Jesus never hid his scars to make disciples,
and he didn't.
And he didn't put all the best berries
on the top of the box, either, did
he?
He told it the way it was.
And if they're going to be his followers,
they're going to go through what he went
through.
He was going to suffer many things, be
rejected, be killed, but he raised the third
day.
The first part of the verse is grim.
The last part of the verse is all
the difference.
It makes all the difference in the world,
and it's the certainty of the Savior's resurrection
that makes it all worthwhile.
And so he goes on to explain to
them that if they are going to follow
him, they must know that this is the
pathway to glory.
I don't suppose we ever get used to
it, do we?
It goes so across the grain of nature,
and yet wasn't it the Savior who said,
except a corn of wheat fall into the
ground and die, it abideth alone.
But if it dies, it bringeth forth much
fruit.
They must know that the pathway to glory
is through denial of self, taking up the
cross daily, and losing one's life for his
sake.
And then, quickly, in verses 24 through 27,
I think the Lord Jesus looked into the
faces of those Jewish disciples, and he saw
that there would be two great hindrances to
them in the pathway of discipleship.
Two considerations that might deflect them from wholehearted
commitment to him.
One was the love of money.
The other was shame over him and his
cause.
As for the first, he pointed out, it
would be a poor bargain to gain the
whole world and lose one's life.
And as for the second, he warned that
shame of him now would mean shame from
him or by him then.
We often use that verse, verse 25 in
the gospel, as perfectly legitimate in the gospel,
as an application.
What advantage is it to a man if
he gains the whole world, and is himself
destroyed or lost?
But it was really spoken to those who
are already disciples, wasn't it?
And he's not talking about the salvation of
the soul, he's talking about the salvation of
the life here on earth.
He's not talking about eternal damnation, but about
damage in this life.
And it reminds us that it's possible for
a man's soul to be saved and his
life to be lost, his life to be
frittered away on nonessentials, on that which is
passing, on that which is of no eternal
consequence.
And so we see the way the Lord
Jesus is leading the disciples along.
He's telling them that his pathway must be
their pathway, and that the way up is
down by the way of denial.
Self-denial, taking up the cross, following him,
and refusing the lust for material things, for
money and material things, and refusing to be
ashamed of Jesus, that blessed name on whom
our hopes of heaven depend.
Shall we pray?
Father, we thank you for the incomparable words
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We marvel at how relevant they are to
life here, the day in which we're living.
We pray that at the beginning, beyond this
sacred page, we seek the Lord.
We thank you that we've seen the Lord
in this wonderful passage of Scripture.
We pray that we indeed might continue to
respond to his call, and never turn back,
having put our hands to the plow.
We ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.