Mark 6:34-42
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.
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:
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.
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?
He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes.
And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass.
And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties.
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.
And they did all eat, and were filled.
Let me give you some background to the scriptures that we have just read
John the Baptist has just been beheaded by Herod, the apostles have come forth to inform Jesus concerning the things that have just taken place and Jesus tells them that they should depart unto a desert place so that they may rest.
So when Jesus and the disciples departed to that place of rest many of the people who saw them leaving began to follow them.
When they arrived in the desert the book of Mark tells us that Jesus begins to teach them many things and the book of Matthew tells us that He also healed the sick,
Matt 14:14
And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.
When the day is about to end His disciples come to him and say Lord,
It is time to send the people away for if they do not leave now they will not be able to obtain food for the evening and many of them will faint along the way.
Now I need you to understand
I am not talking about going to an all night quick mart or a twenty-four hour Jewel store.
I am not relating to the conveniences that we encounter every day of our lives; there were no cars, no buses, no cabs, no atms, no 24 hours grocery stores, and no drive through at McDonalds.
The common mode of travel was walking and they were in a desert place many hours from any city or town and these people had been there all day long with nothing to eat.
Their were men, women and children that were there in that desert place and even if they were to start on their journey towards home they would not be able to obtain what they needed to eat because of the lateness of the hour.
And his disciples come to Him and tell Him that He needs to dismiss the people before it gets any later for the people have not eaten anything all day and many of them will faint along the way as they journey towards their home.
And Jesus tells the disciples feed them.
Mark 6:37
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?
So the disciples concerned about the welfare of the people who have gathered to hear Jesus begin to relate to Jesus the condition of the people and Jesus looks at the disciples and says Give ye them to eat.
Now look at
Matt 14:15-16
And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals.
But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat.
I am going to give you a spiritual truth, a truth that has long since departed from the thinking of the church world.
But Jesus said unto them, they need not depart; give ye them to eat.
There is a tremendous need in the lives of people today to be touched and to be ministered to physically, emotionally and spiritually and the church today for the most part is sending those who have needs some where else for those needs to be met.
If they have a physical need we send them to food pantries and mission centers
If they have emotional issues we send them to counselors, Christian psychologists and if the need is critical then we send them to doctors and centers for the mentally impaired, and if they have a spiritual issue it is then that we bring them to the church.
Jesus looked at His disciples and said they need not depart feed them
The church has become so good and so efficient at sending people to other places to get there needs met,
Government agencies, welfare agencies, the Salvation Army, social agencies, community pantries, mission centers and the tragedy is that it does not bother the church at all to send the person in need to place where their needs can not be met
Christ spoke the message so plain—Give ye them to eat And the message is so clear—Do not send people away that have needs,
Meet there needs
But here is the testimony of the church, we do not have the resources, we do not have the means, we do not have what it requires to take care of them in our budget.
We are a church and we do not have the means to supply what they need, but we do know a place where they can go and our prayers are with them.
This is the mindset of many of Gods people today.
So here the people are in a desert place with nothing but a few pieces of fish and a few loaves of bread and we have a dilemma,
The need is greater than the resources
The need is greater than what the disciples have on hand and so the mindset of the disciples is to go buy some bread.
And the Lord tells the disciples feed them.
And this is how they respond.
And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?
I wonder how many of those disciples looked at the Lord and said within them selves, He needs to get a grip; He is out of touch with reality.
I wonder how many of you have been in a situation where the need is greater than the resources that you have on hand and you look at the mountain and think to yourself how impossible is this. How impractical is this, how out of touch is this.
Hear is sobering truth,
This situation with the disciples relates exactly to us as children of God and what the Lord has commanded us to do,
Feed them
Heal them
Cast out demons
Cleanse the lepers
Raise the dead
Preach the good news
Preach deliverance to the captive and set at liberty them that are bruised.
They need not depart,
You don’t have to send them to the government agencies, you don’t have to send them to the psychiatric centers to be evaluated by psychiatrists, you do not have to send them to the food pantries and you don’t have to send them to the health clinics
Feed ye them
Meet the needs of these people.
And the church, the people of God are saying exactly the same thing that the disciples said
Should I go and buy 200 pennyworth of bread and feed them.
I do not have any bread or money to buy bread, I do not know how, I do not have those types of resources, I can’t do it,
I’ve never been in ministry, what do I do, what should I do, I do not have what it takes to meet the needs of these people.
But here is reality according to the word of God
They really did have the resources to meet the needs of that multitude,
They had 5 loaves and two fishes.
And some one in the natural is going to say that is not enough, the church is going to say it is not enough; the minister is going to say it is not enough.
But the truth is that the little that they had was more than enough to meet the needs of those that were gathered in that desert place and the little that you have is more than enough to do all that you need to do to meet the needs of those in need.
If you are born again the measure of faith that you have is enough to cleanse the lepers, heal the sick, and raise the dead,
It is enough to cast out every demon and bring liberty to every single person in bondage.
Why do you think that Jesus said to the disciples you feed them?
Because He knew that they had enough.
And the message that he gave to them is the same message that He gives to us
You have the power inside of you
You have the resources inside of you
If you are born again the same spirit that Jesus has lives inside of you
The same resurrection power that lived on the inside of Jesus lives on the inside of you and that which lives on the inside of you is more than enough to meet all of your needs and all the needs of those who are ever going to come into contact with you.
The church has undervalued what Christ has done within us and the body of Christ lives far below and underneath its advantage and privilege.
We are sons of God; we are heirs with Christ and joint heirs with Christ and partakers of His divine nature.
We are above only, we have been made to sit in heavenly places, we have been made free, and we have been given access to the throne room of God with boldness and confidence.
But very few of Gods people get it and grasp what Christ is saying,
Feed ye them
Heal ye them
Deliver ye them
All things are possible to you.
And because Gods people do not get it they live there life as a beggar, they live there life as a pauper, they live there life as a drifter, as a transient moving around the palace, staying close to the palace, talking about some day living in the palace but never taking up residence in the palace.
And the reason is because we do not have the knowledge or the confidence of His word to see what He has done in us and what He has done for us.
These disciples had more than enough to meet the needs of the multitude but it was not apparent to them and not only was it not apparent to them but they believed that there was no way that they would be able to feed the multitudes.
Jesus said feed them but they still could not believe that they would be able to feed them.
Jesus says heal them, raise them from the dead, cleanse them, cast out demons and the body of Christ still believes that it is unrealistic and out of touch to do so.
Hear the word of God
Mark 9:23
Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
John 11:40
Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
Luke 17:6
And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
Mark 11:23
For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
When is the body of Christ going to start to partnership with the word of God?
When is the body of Christ going to start to partnership with what the word of God has to say about them?
When is the body of Christ going to start to believe that because He lives inside of you that which is impossible with man is possible with God?
When is the body of Christ going to stop casting themselves down when He has lifted you up?
When are you going to stop allowing your past to be part of you when He has delivered you from your past?
And when are you going to stop seeing yourself as you have always seen yourself and start seeing yourself as God sees you.
And yes it is true that you are not able to heal the sick, cast out demons, bring deliverance to the oppressed, cleanse the lepers and raise the dead on your own but as a son of God you have more than enough.
These disciples that came to Jesus and told Him that He needed to send the multitudes home so they could eat, they thought that they were doing some thing wonderful, I can imagine that they thought they would be commended because they we’re being compassionate.
And instead the Lord said,
They do not need to depart you feed them
And what did the disciples do, they immediately looked to the natural
Should I go and buy 200 pennyworth of bread.
When are we as children of God going to stop looking to the natural and begin to walk in the supernatural?
Mark 6:41
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.
And they did all eat, and were filled.