Mark 6 (Lesson 3) - Aaron Cozort - 06-18-2025

Seeing as we have concluded First Peter uh and seeing as a result of having the evangelism seminar and the things that oh we started with that, we kind of waylaid our study of Mark that we were doing on Sunday afternoons ah with the new schedule of the trainings and things. What I have decided uh after I polled All the important people, mainly myself, no, I'm just kidding.

No, what I decided is it would be good for us to pick up with that study of Mark and go ahead and conclude through the remainder of the book of Mark before we head into something else. So that's what we're going to be doing, picking up there in chapter six where we left off on our Sunday night studies in Mark. For those who. ah don't remember where we were or what we've already gone over. Those videos are on the website.

You can go and listen to those or watch those and catch up to where we were at. But we're going to begin uh down about verse 30 of Mark chapter six this evening. And we'll continue on through the remainder of the book on Wednesday nights. Let's begin with a word of prayer. Our gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day you've granted to us and the life that we have. We're appreciative and honor you for all of the great things that you do for us each and every day.

So many things that we do not even understand, we do not appreciate, and we do not have a way to grasp and to realize how you work in this world and in the lives of individuals.

And yet we know that all things work together for good to those that love the Lord. And we know that your Son came and died on the cross for our sins, that we might have the hope of eternal life. And through His power, through His Word, all things are upheld. Lord, we pray that you will forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory. We pray that we might always walk in the light as you were in the light. All this we pray and ask in Jesus' name, amen.

In Mark chapter 6, we had just concluded reading and studying about the end of the life of John. And John came to an end, his life came to an end as a result of what? Alright, He was beheaded by Herod at the request of who?

All right, Herodias, his wife, who He was in a relationship with that was adulterous because she was actually Philip, his brother's wife, ah but He had married her and so her daughter had danced before Herod and his leaders and had pleased him and He had offered her up to... half of the kingdom and what she came back with by way of a response after talking with her mother was, want the head of John the Baptist on a platter. And so that's exactly what she received. You get down to verse 30.

In Mark chapter 6, then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. context of this is you gotta go back to verse 7 of chapter 6 verse 7. He called the 12 to himself, began to send them out two by two, gave them power over unclean spirits, commanded them to take nothing for the journey except the staff. No bag, no bread, no copper in their money belts, but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.

He also said to them in whatever place you enter a house, stay there till you depart from that place. And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. So they went out and preached that the people should repent.

And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. Then go down to verse 30, then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. So Jesus didn't just send out the twelve. Jesus expected the twelve to come back and give him a report concerning the things that were done. And Jesus wanted to know and they presented to Jesus both the events that occurred, the things that they did.

and also the things which they taught. Is it appropriate when a congregation or when uh a church sends out individuals into the mission field or into a work, is it appropriate for the church that sent them out to inquire concerning what they teach? Absolutely. Is it appropriate for the individual who is being sent out to realize that they will be held accountable for what they teach? Yes. And that principle is visible right here. Jesus didn't send them out and say, teach whatever you want.

He didn't send them out and give them the permission to just decide what needed to be taught and what didn't.

Jesus sent them out with a message. They were to preach the same doctrine, the same message that He taught. And they were to prepare the way for Him to go into these cities. Verse 31, we read, and He said to them, come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest for a while. For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.

As the disciples come back from having been sent out into these cities, they come back and While they were gone did all the crowds diminish and there wasn't anybody around Jesus and so when they came back all the people who were around Jesus and the multitudes had just kind of disappeared and they were no longer there? No. As matter of fact, it was to the point when they arrived back they immediately were back into the throng in the midst of everything that was going on with the multitudes.

And the text is telling us that they didn't even have time to stop and eat, let alone do anything else. When you are busy and when you are working and when there are a lot of demands from all around you on your time, sometimes you look up and realize, it's been like seven, eight, nine hours. Stop, sit down, let alone eat. And that was the situation with the disciples. Now, you notice Jesus is going to tell them to come aside. Jesus is going to separate them from all of that in order to do what?

What is it that Jesus tells them to separate themselves in order to do? to rest. Is it? scriptural, is it a biblically wise thing to go nonstop and never rest? No, quite to the contrary. Scripture declares in many different ways, all going all the way back to the Old Testament and in the New Testament, that God designed us to need rest. God designed the world in such a way as to go through cycles of productivity and rest.

What was one of the condemnations that God gave against Israel when God took them into captivity in Babylon? What was one of the things that God said they were condemned as a result of? and even it set the duration of their captivity. All right? They didn't observe the Sabbath years. That was the opportunity for the land to rest. God told them that every seven years they were to plant no crops. They were to harvest nothing off of the land.

Even that which grew of its own, they were to allow the animals to consume. It was to allow the land to rest. God designed the world that we live in to go through cycles. And so while God expects people to have wisdom about how they use the land, He also expects them to have wisdom about themselves. How often did God set by way of a cycle of rest for his people in the Old Testament? Seven days. What was the day of rest? The Sabbath day.

Now that day was set aside both for rest and for focus on God. Watch this. As Jesus says to them, come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile. There is more to rest than just relaxing. It is the opportunity to refocus on priorities. As you're continually inundated on a daily basis if you're in the situation the disciples were by this person who's sick and this person who's in need and this thing that needs to be done and all of the things that are good things to do.

Is it easy to lose sight of yourself?

Is it easy to lose sight of your relationship with God because you're trying to help everyone else? I've known more than a few, unfortunately more than a few preachers who have been so focused in their ministry on helping everyone else spiritually that they lose their faith. because they never actually took time to focus on their own faith instead of everybody else's.

Jesus is going to emphasize in this action and in many other occasions as we read throughout different texts the importance of slowing down, of resting, and prioritizing. focusing on oneself and one's priorities. Verse 32 we read, so they departed to a deserted place in a boat by themselves. But the multitude saw them departing and many knew him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to him.

as Jesus calls the disciples to separate themselves, to come out to a place that's deserted so that they're out away from the cities. This uh doesn't mean that they went to a desert. It means that they went to a place where the cities and the multitudes were not a wilderness area. There are those who are watching them and observing them, and they realize where they're going because they know the tendencies, they know the traits as the text kind of gives us an indication.

And so they rushed on foot to beat them there. So you leave the multitudes, you leave all the requests of your time and effort and energy only to arrive and find all the requests still there.

think we've all experienced uh the days where something happens and as a result of that thing happening, whether that be we forget and leave our phone at the house or we just happen to be out of contact for a day and then we come back and the list that we had when the day started is now just that much bigger. They arrive at the shore, and the multitudes are already there. And the text tells us that Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them. Jesus!

had compassion on his disciples, but Jesus also had compassion on the multitudes. And it's a hard balance to strike when you have many people who need you and then you have a few people who need you. One of the things that we've discussed often in our family growing up, my household, is my dad had grown up in the church. His father was an elder in the congregation where they attended.

ah And a friend of his had asked him, He lived down in Gainesville, Florida at the time, a friend who was in Michigan asked him, will you go to the Florida School of Preaching and get information for me? Because this is the 1970s. There was no email, there was no website. He wanted information about this school of preaching because He was considering going. And He asked dad to go get the information for him since He was fairly local by comparison to Michigan and send it to him.

And so dad went and looked and got the information from the school there in Florida and uh sent it to Lee. But in the midst of that, mom had the conversation with dad, well, you've gotten all this information for Lee. What do you think about going yourself? And dad said, of course, no kids at the time, fairly recently married, a couple of years into marriage, I don't know that I want to be a preacher. And mom said, why not? And He said, well.

All my life I've grown up watching preachers who work all day and all week to try and save the world and they lose their own family and their own children aren't Christians. And He said, I've kind of decided that if that's what it costs and that's what it means to be a preacher, then I won't be one because I'd rather... my children and my family be saved, then try and save the whole world. Anybody who knows my mother can just picture, she looked at him and she said, well, we'll make a deal.

If you want to be a preacher, you go become a preacher and if you get too far out focused on the world and not focused enough on the family, then I'll tell you. And that was their arrangement. That was their agreement. And the focus was, yes, it's important to preach to the world. Yes, it's important to evangelize. Yes, it's important to help the church. Yes, it's important to do all of those things, but not at the expense of those who are closest to you.

So Jesus is trying to help His disciples. He's trying to prepare His disciples and have compassion on them and provide the rest that they need, while at the same time, here's this multitude.

So when they arrive at the other side, and the multitude is still there, Jesus has compassion on the multitude, and the text tells us because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. Jesus saw the predicament that Israel was in. This is the northern region of Galilee. This is there on the Lake Gennesaret. And as these events are transpiring, you see a group of people and a nation that they represent, and they're searching for anything. They're searching for someone to guide them.

And so Jesus sees their scenario and He has compassion on them. So He began to teach them many things, the text says. When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, This is a deserted place and already the hour is late. Send them away. They may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread for they have nothing to eat. Now, how did they come to where they are, this multitude? They ran. They saw what was going on.

They saw where Jesus was going and they just dropped it all and left to where they could be there when He arrived. So here they are at the end of the day, no provisions, no preparations. And the distance had been, least by indication of the text, quite considerable. So now the day is far spent, they have nothing to eat, and the disciples say, send them on. Now there are a few times where preachers have been encouraged to stop teaching so the people could go eat. That's one of these occasions.

He answered and said to them, you give them something to eat. Does Jesus tell them how to do it when He initially commands them to do it. Are there any other commands in Scripture where God doesn't give us anything more than the command? and expects that we can use wisdom and appropriately carry out the command? Absolutely. Jesus says, you're telling me to send them away, you feed them.

Now, if you've kind of kept in mind as we read through Jesus sending out the disciples and what they did while they were there, what did the text tell us about what the disciples did while they were sent out? They taught, but what else did they do? Back to verse 13. All right? While the disciples were separated from Jesus, they were able to cast out demons. They were able to heal people. So when Jesus tells the disciples, you feed them.

It's not as though they're unacquainted with the idea of performing a miracle. It's not as though that would have been outside the possibility for them to do as they had just gone throughout the region doing that. This is one of those times where Jesus is measuring their understanding and their faith. You know, there are passages in Psalms and others where the psalmist writer declares to God, search me and try me.

Test me, God, to see whether or not I'll be faithful, to see whether or not I am what I believe to be which is faithful to you. Jesus is going to test the disciples through this command. You say send them away. I'm saying go take care of them. Now, watch the comparison in the text. Why did Jesus have compassion on the multitude as He observed them as the boat came to shore? What did the text tell us that Jesus saw in the multitude? Sheep without a shepherd.

What is one of the roles of a shepherd? tending and feeding the flock. But what did the disciples want Jesus to do? Send them away. Let them be someone else's problem. We don't have the capacity for this. We don't have the preparations for this. They don't have, the sheep did not bring their own food. How many shepherds get out into the wilderness with the flock and go, what, y'all didn't bring anything? Nobody thought to pack a lunch. Is that what the shepherd does?

No. The shepherd supplies the preparation. The shepherd leads them to the good pastures. But the disciples are saying, listen, we can't be the shepherd. Send them away and let them go shepherd themselves. And Jesus turns it around and says, no, you shepherd them. You take the responsibility. You bear the burden of being the shepherd. Was that referring to both their physical and spiritual conditions like He knew?

mean because the religious leaders in that time were not what they needed to have been anyways and the first thing He did was start to teach them, assuming like always it was a spiritual teaching. So is this a physical and spiritual observation He made? uh I believe it would be a combination of both the physical and the spiritual observation. The physical is the manifestation of the spiritual condition.

People who have the wisdom, the knowledge, the insight, the leadership that they have a need for, don't go running across the shore to get in front of a teacher. And yet these people did. That was a physical manifestation of a spiritual condition. Their actions were exhibiting their spiritual need, and Jesus recognizes that. But now the disciples are saying, listen, due to the physical needs, we need to send them away, not keep them here.

And Jesus challenges the disciples to stop thinking like everyone else. One of the things that Paul says as He writes to Corinth and as He writes to other churches is when they are acting and behaving in a very non-spiritual way. When He wants to teach them spiritual things, yet they are not able to understand spiritual things. He accuses them of thinking like the Gentiles. His emphasis is, you are the people of God, you shouldn't relate to the world around you.

You should not relate to life's events as if you were pagans. As if you've got to do it all yourself because guess what? In spite of the fact that you prayed to that God, that God doesn't exist and He can't help you. So Jesus challenges the disciples to stop thinking like pagans. To stop thinking like they don't belong to God the Father. What is it that Jesus taught over in Matthew chapter 7?

Or Matthew chapter 6, there at the end of Matthew chapter 6 about taking thought or having anxiousness or anxiety about the things of this life. What we shall eat, what you shall wear. What does He teach about that? Seek first the kingdom of God. And all these things shall be added unto you. He's challenging his disciples to do that. He's challenging them to rely on God and not without precedence. They've just been sent out. When He sent them out, what food were they to take with them?

None. How much money were they to take with them? None. How many extra changes of clothes were they to take? None. Now Jesus just sent them out and said, God will provide for you. Now He's challenging them to apply that again. So.

They said to him, shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat? Jesus, are you asking us to go out and spend 200 days wages to go feed these people? By the way, the implication of the question is we don't have the money. We don't have that. Where are we going get it? Then He said to them, how many loaves do you have? Go and see. When they found out, they said five and two fish.

Then He commanded them to make all, make them all sit down in groups on the green grass. So, by the way, how do we know it wasn't a desert? It's green grass, okay? Must be nice. Certainly wasn't in Mississippi. It would have been a pile of weeds. So He has them sit down on the green grass. They sat down in ranks in hundreds and in fifties.

And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He took, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples and to set before them. And the two fish He divided among them all. So they all ate and were filled. and they took up 12 baskets full of fragments and of the fish. Now those who had eaten the loaves were about 5,000 men. So Jesus has them sit the people down. and He blesses the food.

What was one of the things that Jesus taught His disciples to pray for? Give us this day our daily bread. Do you notice the phrase is not, thank you for our daily bread? It's give us this day our daily bread. It is a request, not a thankfulness for a pre-existing provision. It is an expression of trust, of God's provision, and not an expectation that we have already provided it ourselves. And Jesus here blesses the bread and divides it among the disciples.

And they start, you can picture it, here's group one of a hundred people. They take the basket and they hand it. Now, the easiest way to think about this is think about the way we used to pass the collection plate, right? Or pass the communion. pre-COVID. And it went down, it went down the road. This person got plenty. This person got plenty. That person got plenty. That person. That person. That person.

One of the illustrations from the Old Testament is of the woman who comes to the prophet and says, the landlord has just come to me and told me that if I don't pay the debt, He's going to take my two sons because my husband who was a prophet, a son of the prophets, is dead. And now here I am destitute and and He's going to take my only two children. What did the prophet tell her to do? Go borrow jars and containers from all the people you know. What else? Go in the house, shut the doors.

Start filling from the one jar of oil that you have. Fill the containers. What happens when the mother says to the sons, hand me another container? And they say, there aren't anymore. suddenly the oil stops reproducing. Because every time she pulled out of one jar into another jar, her jar was still full. That's just one example of an Old Testament occasion where God delivered to someone because of their need the physical things they needed. True or false?

The disciples were aware of what God had done in the past. True! So why couldn't they trust as much as the woman who was told by the prophet to go? And the answer usually is... that they themselves needed a shepherd. they needed someone who knew that God could provide so that they could rely on the faith of someone else, so that they could trust in the word of the prophet and just go do what He said.

And the challenge that Jesus presents all through this event and others is for disciples to, yes, be disciples, but to not be reliant on the faith of someone else. to have their own faith in God. So they do as they're told. They hand out the baskets. and the first person has enough and the second person has enough and the 4,000th person has enough and the 5,000th person has enough and when it's all over, they had five loaves and two fish left, right?

No, they had more left over than they started with. because God provided abundantly. Turn over to Ephesians. verse of Ephesians chapter 3. For this reason, Paul says, I bow my knees to the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.

that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Paul, as He writes to the church at Ephesus, says, wish, I desire that God grant you... grace, glory, strength, and faith. So you could have knowledge. but even more than that, that you could have what God gives that passes knowledge.

What did the apostles have by way of knowledge when Jesus commanded them to go feed the multitude? Their knowledge said, we don't have enough. Were they're right or wrong? Okay, didn't have enough faith. It always matters who's in the we. We don't have enough. Who is we? Did they have enough? No. Did they plus God have enough? Yes, more than enough. You see, their knowledge discounted God. Their knowledge said, we can only do what we can do.

And so they looked at the command and said, we can't do it. We aren't sufficient. Question, when Jesus said, give them something to eat, did Jesus give in that command the instruction, you do it by yourself without the help of God? No. When Jesus says, into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, He that believeth in his baptism shall be saved, He that believeth not shall be damned, does He give the instruction to do it without God? No. See, Jesus is teaching them.

that we ought to always include God in the decision. That we ought to always consider God's resources in the decision. And when we do, we have to face this reality. God has no lack of resources. God is not bound by our limitations on resources. but we will always be bound by our limitations of our faith. Jesus knew what God was able to do. Jesus knew that they needed to learn to trust God.

Now, as we wrap up, I want us to notice that the limitation of the faith of the apostles was rooted in what they had observed Him already do. Had they witnessed Jesus casting out demons? Yes. So when He gave them the ability to do so, they had faith they could do it. had they witnessed him healing people? Yes. So, when He gave them the ability to do so and commanded them to go out, they had faith they could do it.

Had they ever witnessed him feed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish prior to this occasion? No. so they had no faith they could do it. And one of the struggles that we have to overcome is not limiting ourselves by what we have observed others accomplishing. One of the biggest challenges that small churches have is they look at other small churches and they assume that they can only do what only small churches can do. and therefore they self-limit their expectations.

Well, if we were just bigger, if we just had more of this, if we just had more of that, if there were just more opportunities... Maybe if we just acted more out of faith than out of knowledge of our own resources, we would have all of those things. And we would stop limiting ourselves by our own resources. Thank you for your attention.