Jesus - Nothing Like a School Fund-Raiser - Mark 6:31-44

Sermon Series: Spare Me the Details - Just Give Me Jesus

Can I share with you all something that I absolutely hated when I was a little kid in school?  School fund-raisers.  Every year the school would give each of us kids a brochure filled with different holiday wrapping paper and some order forms and tell us to go out and sell the wrapping paper.  It was like they were preparing us to be door-to-door salesmen when we grew up.  I can remember getting home that first day with the brochure and the order forms.  I lived in a medium-sized neighborhood but it was absolutely filled with young families and other kids my age.  So I would get off the bus and have to immediately start going to my neighbors’ houses, because if I didn’t one of the other hundred kids in the neighborhood who was trying to sell the same wrapping paper that I was would beat me to it.  Then when I showed up at school the next day (and every day after that) there was always that constant reminder, “Make sure you’re selling your wrapping paper.  For all the children who sell over $1000 of wrapping paper, there will be an extravagant party with pizza and ice cream and music.  And for those of you who don’t sell $1000 dollars worth, you’ll have to stay in class and work.”

The message that we heard as little kids during fund-raiser time was, “Serve, serve, serve!  And based on your productiveness, if you really excel, then you’ll reap a great reward.  If your productiveness isn’t what we think it should be, we’re simply not going to acknowledge your efforts.  And as far as resources go, we’re going to limit you to a brochure, some order forms, and an oversaturated market where there will be little opportunity for you to reach those goals because of all the other children selling the same thing.”  Who gets excited about that?

 Unfortunately there are a lot of people who think Christianity is like a school fund-raiser.  They think God’s desire for them is simply to serve, serve, serve, and to do things which will merit His favor.  They believe that those who reach a certain level will experience more reward and more recognition than others and so they start comparing themselves to others and striving to do just enough so that they feel like their efforts are just as good (and perhaps slightly better) than most of their peers.  But this notion is so far from the truth of the Bible and we need to realize that Christianity is nothing at all like a school fund-raiser.  Jesus, His ministry, and the service He calls us to are all together different.  In the passage of Scripture we’re looking at this week (Mark 6:31-44), Mark reveals through his account of the feeding of the 5,000 three truths regarding Jesus and His ministry that will help us grow to treasure Him, value the ministry He has called us to, and help us to be more effective in it.

Let’s look back at verse 30 and get a running start into verses 31-44.  Verse 30 was the last verse of the passage we looked at last week and in that verse we find the apostles returning to Jesus and telling Him about all that they had done and taught.  Now what takes place next is incredibly important.  If we see great rejoicing from Jesus and we see Him commanding the apostles to turn right back around and to go right back to the work of service and ministry then Mark’s readers then and now would assume that Jesus is primarily interested in our service.  What we would take away from the text is that serving is Jesus’ greatest concern and it is what causes Him to take great pleasure in us.  But that’s not what takes place in verse 31.  Mark says that after the apostles returned and told Jesus about all they had done and taught He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.”  The end of verse 31 indicates that the apostles had been incredibly busy in their service to Jesus because many were coming to them.  But Jesus calls them away from this busyness.  He calls them away from their work.  That’s because Jesus realizes that the disciples’ service can’t take the place of their fellowship with Him.  It is our close fellowship with Jesus that makes us His disciples not our own works of service or our own efforts.  Serving Jesus is part of the call that Jesus presents to His disciples, but it’s not what defines our discipleship – it’s our close and intimate fellowship with Him.  Our service to Christ is the result of our fellowship with Him.  So our text should help us to understand that Jesus’ fuel for ministry is fellowship.  It is our fellowship with Him that empowers our service and sets it in motion.  Verse 32 then shows us the disciples obedience as we note in verse 32 that the disciples get into a boat with Jesus and they set sail for a desolate place where they can be alone with Him.

Jesus’ focus on fellowship is seen elsewhere in the NT as well.  In Luke 10:38-42 Luke tells about a time that Jesus went to visit the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus.  According to Luke’s account Martha is busy about the house.  The text literally says, “busy with much serving.”  Mary on the other hand “sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to His teaching.”  Mary’s lack of help obviously frustrated Martha because we see in the text that Martha goes to Jesus and says, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?  Tell her then to help me.”  But Jesus’ response isn’t to look down at Mary and say, “You know, Martha’s right.  You really ought to give her a hand.”  Instead Jesus looks back to Martha and responds, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.  Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”  Listen guys, nothing can take the place of our fellowship with Jesus and with God the Father.  That is what we were saved for.  1 Peter 3:18 says “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God . . .”  Jesus did not suffer on the cross so that we would serve Him.  He suffered on the cross so that we might have a personal relationship with Him and with the Father.  And as a result of the personal relationship that we have and the fellowship that we have, we grow to treasure both the Father and the Son and that motivates our hearts to serve them in a way that will make their name great in our world.

Spending time with Christ and with the Father by reading His word and spending time with Him in prayer is the most important thing that we can do.  So often we get busy with the demands of ministry and the demands of serving, but we will never experience God’s mighty hand in our work if we haven’t spent time in fellowship with Jesus.  In fact, I would suggest that the greater the demands on us, the greater the need for us to be alone with Christ.  We need to be fueled for and empowered for the ministry and the service that Jesus calls us to, and the fuel that empowers that kind of ministry is nothing other than fellowship with Christ.

In verse 33 the text says that many people saw them going, recognized them, and ran ahead of them.  This would have been impossible to do if Jesus and His disciples had been sailing across the Sea of Galilee.  But it would not have been uncommon for people to travel in boats following the shore line.  This is most likely what Jesus and His disciples did in this instance.  We can’t know what exactly caused Jesus and His disciples to make such slow progress, but verse 33 says that the people from all the towns ran there and got there before Jesus.  Verse 34 then tells us that when Jesus went ashore and saw the thousands of people He had compassion on them.

I want you all to see a comparison that Mark is beginning to make in verses 33 and 34 to verses 21-29 that we examined last week.  In verses 21-29 we saw that Herod was hosting a banquet in honor of his birthday.  And at that banquet he invited his nobles, military commanders, and the leading men of Galilee.  Herod’s banquet was held for his own glory and was only attended by the most important men in the area.  Mark is getting ready to show us a different kind of banquet.  This time the One hosting it will be Jesus.  And notice this – everyone is welcome and the banquet isn’t for Jesus’ sake (to celebrate and make much of Him), it’s for the people’s sake (He had compassion on them).

Verse 34 also tells us why Jesus had compassion on the people  - because “they were like sheep without a shepherd.”  Along with the comparison to Herod’s banquet Mark is also wanting us to recall some OT imagery.  Jesus and His disciples set off for a desolate place – a ‘wilderness’ type place.  In the OT after the Exodus, the Israelites were led out to the wilderness, but they had a leader in Moses.  In this case, Jesus and His disciples have come upon shore in a desolate, wilderness-like place and found thousands of “people without direction, without purpose, and without a leader.”  And so Jesus has compassion on them and takes the opportunity to “teach them many things.” 

When Jesus and His disciples arrive on shore, Jesus doesn’t turn the many people away only to minister to His closest friends and associates.  He doesn’t call out the leading men of the group gathered there to minister to them.  He doesn’t call out only those who are Jews and send all the Gentiles away.  Jesus sees the crowd and has compassion on them all.  That’s the second truth that really stands out in this passage of scripture – Jesus’ object of ministry is everyone. 

The fact that we are all objects of Jesus’ ministry is an exciting thing.  It means that Jesus loves you!  And it means that Jesus loves me!  And it means that I don’t have to live up to a certain standard, or do a certain number of good deeds, or strive to be a part of some elite group of individuals or leaders.  We don’t have to be a Bible study leader or have perfect attendance at church.  Jesus came to bring salvation to each and every person.  Isn’t that the truth of what Jesus says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”  Listen to the truth of that message!  God love the world in such a way that He demonstrated His great love by giving His only Son, Jesus.  He didn’t give Jesus only for the Jews.  He didn’t give Jesus only for the religious elite.  He didn’t give Jesus only for those who are influential or who have power and celebrity type status.  Think about it – throughout the NT we find Jesus spending time with every kind of person.  Not only does He spend time with Jews, but He spends time with tax collectors and sinners.  He spends time with those outside the Jewish faith, including a promiscuous Samaritan woman.  He even spends time with little children.  There’s not anyone with whom Jesus won’t fellowship with or minister to.  John 3:16 says that God gave His Son and that ‘whoever’ believed would have the gift of eternal life!  We are all the objects of Jesus’ ministry!  No one is left out.  When He sees you He is moved with love and compassion.  And that demands a response from you and me.  If you’ve never trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior the Bible teaches that that is a response from us that is required for our salvation.  It means that you have to believe that He is the Son of God.  You have to believe that while He was here on earth He lived a perfect life and was without sin.  You have to believe that He died for you, in your place, when He died on the cross.  You have to believe that He rose again three days later, conquering sin, Satan and hell.  And you have to believe that it is only through Him that one can have salvation.  That’s what it means to believe in Jesus as Savior and Lord.  If you’ve made that decision and you’ve trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, there is still great application for you.  As individuals called to serve Christ our ministry and service efforts can’t leave certain groups out.  God didn’t call us to reach only one specific group of individuals.  He called us to reach those who are white, black, Hispanic, and Asian.  He called us to reach the rich, the poor and the middle class.  He called us to reach republicans and democrats.  He called us to reach those who are straight and those who struggle with homosexuality.  Christ saw the multitudes of people and had compassion on all of them.  Our response should be no different.

Up until verse 35 we haven’t seen any real problems in the text.  Certainly things had not worked out as the disciples and Jesus had originally intended, but Jesus was showing compassion and teaching and there weren’t any big concerns at the time.  But in verses 35 and 36 the disciples make an observation and see a problem that is quickly approaching.  They say to Jesus that it’s getting late and He needs to dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the nearby towns and villages and purchase food to eat.  The disciples began to focus their attention on what they didn’t have – food to feed all of these thousands of people.  As a result they make a very reasonable suggestion to Jesus.  Jesus doesn’t relieve the anxiety that is starting to pop up in the minds and hearts of the disciples though.  Instead He probably causes it to multiply when He says to them in verse 37, “You give them something to eat.”  I’m sure the disciples didn’t quite know what to do with that response, so they follow up Jesus’ response with a question.  “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?”  It is a little unclear what exactly the disciples were asking.  200 denarii was the equivalent of about 8 months of wages.  It’s unclear if the disciples had that much money and they were asking Jesus if He wanted them to go spend that money to buy as much bread as possible.  Or it may have been a rhetorical type question as if the disciples were asking Him “even if we had 8 months of wages could we really buy enough bread for all of these people to eat?”  We can’t know exactly what the disciples were asking, but that’s not what Mark wants us to focus on anyway.  Look at Jesus’ response to this question.  Verse 38 – “How many loaves do you have?  Go and see.”  While the disciples were focused on what they didn’t have, Jesus is focused on what is available.  This is an incredibly important point!  Jesus’ means of ministry is whatever is available.  As Jesus prepares to feed this multitude of people we’re going to see Him using the things that are available to Him – both people and resources.

In verse 37 Jesus says to the disciples “You give them something to eat.”  Jesus wants to use His disciples as a means of doing ministry.  And as the narrative continues Jesus is going to demonstrate that He can do extraordinary things with even the most insignificant resources, as long as they are available for Him to use.  Jesus tells the people in verse 39 to sit down.  Then in verse 41 Jesus divides the loaves and the fish among the disciples.  (Again – note that Jesus is serving the people through those who are His disciples.)  And verse 42 says, “they all ate and were satisfied.”  Added emphasis to the idea that the object of Jesus’ ministry is everyone.  Listen to what one commentator has to say about the significance of ‘all’ in this verse.  “Nowhere did the Torah and the oral tradition regulate Jewish life more than at [the] table.  The effect of kosher was to ensure that only proper foods that were properly prepared were eaten by the properly clean; unclean foods and unclean persons were necessarily excluded.  At the wilderness banquet, however, the ritual hierarchy of kosher was abandoned in favor of an open invitation and inclusiveness of all people.” (James Edwards)  Even those who were unclean partook of this meal.  This is so important.  We are all unclean as a result of the sin in our lives, but Jesus says that doesn’t exclude us from being welcome at His banquet.  When we come to Him in faith we’ll find that He takes our sin, and our guilt, and our uncleanness and He replaces it with His righteousness.  That’s who Jesus is and that’s what He does.  Don’t miss that!  Verse 42 says that after everyone had eaten they were satisfied (full).  Notice that Jesus doesn’t offer them something that will hold them over until they can get a hold of something more substantial.  Jesus’ provision is all they require.  Finally, verse 43 concludes by telling us that the disciples collected the leftovers and it was enough to fill twelve baskets.  Each disciple that was available for Jesus to use came back carrying evidence of Jesus’ mighty work.

After Jesus had ascended into Heaven the book of Acts tells us that the disciples began to proclaim the message of the Gospel and to perform miracles.  In Acts chapter 3 we see an account of Peter and John healing a lame beggar.  The beggar’s healing provides them with an opportunity to begin to teach and preach, which in turn upsets many of the priests, elders, and scribes.  As a result Peter and John are brought before a council of these men and asked to give an explanation of the healing that was performed.  And in verse 8 of chapter 4 in the book of Acts, it says that Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit and he responds.  Take a moment and look at that response (Acts 4:8-12).  Then pay careful attention to verse 13 – “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished.  And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”  Listen guys, we don’t have to be all-stars of the faith.  All we are required to be is available.  Jesus uses the people and resources that are available to Him to do the work of ministry.  It doesn’t matter if you have the greatest education or no education at all.  It doesn’t matter if you are an eloquent speaker or if you’re afraid to talk to yourself in the mirror.  If you make yourself available to God He can do great and mighty things through you.  The application here is pretty simple.  We need to stop worrying about what we aren’t and what we don’t have and start focusing on what we do have.  Figure out what God has given you.  Is it a talent?  Is it some material item?  Is it money?  What is it that God has given you?  It doesn’t matter how big or how small it is.  Then start asking God how He can work through you and what it is that He has provided for you to make an impact on His kingdom.  Make yourself and your things available to Him.

Unlike the school fund-raisers I used to have to participate in, serving is not Christ’s primary interest – fellowship with Him is.  That, in fact, is the very reason that He came and died for us – to bring us to God and to Himself.  When we are fellowshipping with Him we will grow in our love for Him and out of that love our service will flow.  Unlike the school fund-raisers it’s not just those who perform at a certain level that will be granted access to Him and to His salvation.  In fact our performance has nothing at all to do with that.  Jesus’ love and compassion extends to each and every person.  His death on the cross was sufficient enough to cover over the sins of everyone.  It was Jesus’ service – His death on the cross for our sins – that makes a way for us to have salvation.  And the Bible teaches that His death completely satisfied the Father’s demand for justice to be served.  Jesus did it!  Now He extends to everyone an invitation to receive the salvation He purchased for us. Lastly serving well doesn’t require us to have certain skill sets, abilities or resources like school fund-raisers often require.  Serving well simply means making ourselves and the resources we do have available to Him.  Jesus takes care of the rest.  Mark reveals to us in the feeding of the 5,000 that Jesus’ fuel for ministry is fellowship; His object of ministry is everyone; and His means for ministry is whatever is available.  That’s good news!

Questions for Small Group Discussion

1.  Read Mark 6:31-32.  In those verses we noted that Jesus’ fuel for ministry is fellowship with Him and with the Father.  As we fellowship with Him, we grow to love and treasure Him more.  It’s that love for Him that then motivates us to serve Him and to make much of Him.  Last week we talked about the things that make it difficult to serve Jesus.  But do we ever find that doing things “for Jesus” is sometimes easier than spending time with Jesus?  If so why is it that it is sometimes easier to do things for Him than it is to spend time with Him?  What are some of the things that we gain from spending time with Jesus that we miss if we simply spend all of our time and effort serving Him?

2.  Read Mark 6:33-34.  In those verses we noted that Jesus’ object of ministry is everyone.  When Jesus reached the shore with His disciples He saw the crowd and had compassion on all of them, not just a select few.  Why is that such an important truth for each one of us?  What impact should this truth have on each one of us and our efforts to serve/minister on behalf of Christ?  In what ways do we struggle with this?  How would our church look different if we did not make distinctions in who our objects of ministry would be?

3. Read Mark 6:35-44.  In those verses we noted that Jesus’ means of ministry is whatever is available.  While the disciples are focused on what they don’t have, Jesus focuses on what’s at hand and uses available people and available resources to do the work of ministry.  Who do we resemble the most – the disciples who are focused on what they don’t have or Jesus who is focused on what’s available?  Why?  If we answer the disciples, what must we do to change that and to begin to more closely resemble Jesus and His focus?  What are some things that Jesus has made available to us?  How can we make that available to Him in the weeks ahead?

4. What step of faith does this passage of scripture require us to take as individuals and as a small group?  How do we work this out on mission?