How many of you have watched or heard of the show, ‘Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader’? Well, I got some laughter. A number of you have heard of that, maybe watched it. I caught part of a show the other day. There was a decorated policeman who was on — he had several medals for bravery. One of them was for running into a burning building and saving an elderly woman’s life and so they were sort of building him up as a real-life hero. And, of course, the host had a lot of fun razzing him about being nervous in answering these questions when it didn’t bother him at all or faze him to run into a burning building. He got a big charge out of that, he made a big deal out of it and by getting help a couple of times from the 5th graders who were there as a support team, he was able to win — I think it was $175,000 that he was up to. It must have been about his seventh or eighth question, somewhere in there, they asked him a question — he was down to some of the final choices. The question was a 5th grade Ancient Cultures question. And the question was this — I remember the question – it was: ‘According to Greek myth, Prometheus stole what from the gods and gave it to mankind?’ Of course, he squirmed and he thought and he reasoned and he finally came to the point that he said, “You know what? If I get this wrong, I only go away with $25,000. If I stop now, I keep the $175,000.” He said, “I just don’t know. I’m going to fold.” So he was supposed to look in the camera and say, “I’m not smarter than a 5th grader” or whatever the deal was. But anyway, he didn’t know the answer — how many of you know the answer or think you know the answer? Okay. It was rather ironic because, as the host pointed out, here this man was willing to run into a building that was on fire and Prometheus was supposed to have brought fire from the gods and given it to man. Of course, those of us like you and me – those of us who weren’t there on the spot having to answer – we had a little advantage, didn’t we? We can kind of sit there and say, yeah, it was fire. He’s up there squirming for his life, because he has a hundred and something thousand dollars on the line for it.
You know, sometimes reading after the fact gives us that bit of an edge as well. Now, we read things after they happen, we have a chance to analyze and think it through and look at things a little bit differently. Take, for example, the story that we read in Mark 6 about something that happened during Jesus’ ministry on earth. Let’s move into the realm of the Bible from ‘Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader’ — in fact, we may ask a similar question a little bit later as we get into the Biblical part of this. Mark 6. Actually this chapter is a part of the Bible reading for today in the ‘read the Bible in a year program’, so perhaps some of you in the local congregations have read this and thought about this passage today. Mark 6 — I’m going to pick it up in verse 47. It says:
Mk. 6:47 – Now when evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea; and He was alone on the land.
Verse 48 – Then He saw them straining at rowing, for the wind was against them. Now about the fourth watch of the night He came to them… that would have been probably 3 to 6 a.m. some commentaries say, and so very, very early in the morning He came to them. …walking on the sea, and would have passed them by.
Verse 49 – And when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost, and cried out;
Verse 50 – for they all saw Him and were troubled. But immediately He talked with them and said to them, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”
Verse 51 – Then He went up into the boat to them, and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled.
I want to stop and think about that for a minute. When He came walking and told them, “Oh, it’s Me. Don’t be afraid.” To walk up to the boat and the wind ceased. It says they were greatly — greatly amazed, beyond measure. And they marveled at this. You know, they didn’t seem to understand what was going on, did they? We don’t seem to have a problem understanding that, do we? We’re just reading it. It wasn’t real life for us. We are just reading the history of it, the recorded statements.
Notice why it is they had a hard time because Mark didn’t stop there. He added a bit more to give us a little more insight into why they had such a difficult time understanding this – why they were so amazed; why they marveled at it.
Verse 52 — says, they marveled because or — for they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened.
It’s because they didn’t understand about the loaves and their hearts were hardened. Now, of course, all of us understand about the loaves and fishes, right? I mean, even our teens — probably even our pre-teens have read that story and we all understand it, right? Or do we? Do we really understand it? Do we understand the point of the loaves and the fishes?
I’d like to focus on that passage today and let’s look a little more in depth to see if we can understand this passage a little bit better and then see if we can apply that to our lives today. After all, the Bible is supposed to be our guide for life now in the 21st century just as much as it was when it was written so there should be something we can gain from this particular story, this particular account of what took place and the added information about how they marveled because they didn’t understand what had happened with the loaves and their hearts were hardened.
Let’s see what we can learn from this story in the life of Jesus Christ. If you are like me, I found that as I start studying a passage, more questions keep coming. If I just read over it, well, okay, yeah this happened, all right. But the more you kind of get into depth, the more I start thinking, well, why did this happen? Why was this done the way it was? Why did that happen? Why did the other thing happen? And I find myself asking more and more questions. I have some unanswered questions about this passage, as well. We could read over it and go right on to the next thing, but I’d like to take a little bit of time with this.
First of all, back in verse 31 it tells us that Jesus had tried to find a deserted place for the disciples to get away from the crowds for a while. You know, there was a lot going on. There was a particular miracle that He had just performed — in fact, it was raising someone from the dead. You might remember Jairus’ daughter had died and Jesus only allowed — was it Peter, James and John — I guess I could turn back there, I believe that was who it was. He only allowed three of them in the room with Him and actually raised this girl back from the dead. This was causing, obviously, quite a stir and He said, “Well, lets get away from the crowd for a little while. Let’s go find a deserted place.” The hopped in the boat and they headed across the lake. Now, many who are more action oriented, more achievement driven perhaps would have a problem with that. What do you mean? Take some R & R? That’s doing away with what needs to be done. And yet, Jesus said, “You need to do that. Let’s take some time. Let’s give you some time to rest and get away from things for a little bit.”
However, the crowds sort of circumvented that, didn’t they? You remember the story – if you glance at it from there in verse 31 on, they outsmarted them. They ran around. The saw where they were headed and they ran around the lake or walked around the lake and came to the other side before the disciples did in the boat. I don’t know if they had a headwind — what slowed them down, but for some reason, they were able to beat them to the other side. Now here is one of my questions. Why didn’t Jesus obscure the objective from the crowds? I mean, He said back in verse 31 if you read it,
Verse 31 – …Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”…
Why did He let the crowd understand and find out where they were going? I mean, Jesus had just done an incredible miracle, raising someone from the dead. Couldn’t He create a little fog — a little fog bank the boat could disappear into so they couldn’t tell which direction they were going? Couldn’t He get out in the middle and say, “Well, okay, they are all going that way, let’s go this way.” Take a hard right or a hard left. Why did He let them find out? I don’t know. For some reason He chose not to do that and He let the crowd meet them where they were going and it says He began to teach them. So maybe that was His objective all along? But it says He was going to take the disciples to a deserted place. It leaves me with a question.
As they got near the end of the day, the disciples asked a very logical question. They said, “Look, it’s getting late. Send them away. We don’t have enough food to feed these people. Send them so they can go and eat. We don’t want them to be here all night long. Give them a break. Give them a chance to go and find something to eat.”
Look at verse 35. When the day was now far spent… getting toward the evening, the disciples …came to Him and said, “This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late.
Verse 36 – Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat. If You wait too long, it is going to get dark and it is going to be hard to find their way, so give them time to go and find something they can eat.
That is a very logical thing to ask. But instead of doing the logical thing, Jesus did something different, didn’t He? He took an opportunity to teach the disciples by saying, “You give them something to eat.” And, as you remember the story, He then took the opportunity to stretch five loaves and two fishes into a meal for thousands of people — five thousand men. Now that’s pretty good Hamburger Helper, isn’t it? And it wasn’t even hamburger. To stop and think about it, that’s a pitiful little bit of food and after all the barley loaves — John’s account says it was barley — barley loaves and those were small, little flat loaves. They weren’t a big loaf of bread like we think of a loaf of bread today. They were the kind of thing that a person could eat two or three of them in a meal very easily. And they only had five of those little things and a couple of fish.
Now, of course, John’s account also tells us that Jesus had this in mind before He talked to the disciples. John’s account is rather interesting. We’ll go there in a minute perhaps, over in John 6. But He had that in mind before He talked to the disciples. John’s account tells us it was near Passover. That agrees with Mark’s comment. Look at Mark’s comment in verse 39.
Verse 39 – Then He commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass.
The green grass was normally in Palestine and that area of the Middle East, it was normally green in the late winter and spring after the rains had come so it coincides very much and corroborates the statement that John had that this was close to the time of Passover which, of course, is the time of year we are in — a few weeks away.
Well, there’s something else we do miss in the English translation and that is the fact that Jesus asked them to sit down in groups. I don’t know if you have ever thought to look that word up, but I looked it up in an interlinear and literally the word in Greek is sumposion sumposion. Now it doesn’t mean much to us, but literally it means ‘drinking party by drinking party’. So Jesus said, “Make them sit down drinking party by drinking party.” Now, if you look at the next verse,
Verse 40 – So they sat down in ranks … The word for ranks is also a little bit different. It is prasia prasia. It’s repeated also. And the word, prasia means ‘a vegetable garden’. So make them sit down drinking party by drinking party and they sat down vegetable garden by vegetable garden. What’s that all about? It doesn’t make sense to us. Well, it’s a Hebrew linguistic tool — actually what it is, by repeating the word it emphasizes the orderliness of it. It doesn’t emphasize the drinking party. It doesn’t emphasize the garden. It simply emphasizes the fact that it is orderly. But we miss that by simply reading the English.
Expositor’s Bible Commentary points out that the choice of words to repeat is something interesting, though. Particularly the one about vegetable garden because in the day of Christ when He was here on the earth in the first century, the rabbis referred to their students as ‘vineyards’ because they were lined up in rows like a vineyard is lined up in rows. Expositor’s points out a rather interesting part to that because there is symbolism in that. Some find symbolism in this orderly arrangement as they look at ancient Israel. Ancient Israel was arranged in an orderly way around the Tabernacle. You go through reading what God established in the book of Exodus, He told them exactly where the different tribes were supposed to be and it was in an orderly fashion. And some would say, well, there’s symbolism in this that Jesus is calling a new people of God — people who would listen to His words, who would respond to Him. Ancient Israel quite often let the words go right over their heads and didn’t follow through on what God said.
That leads me to ask, how smart were the twelve disciples? Did they truly learn or did it simply go over their heads as well? You know. We already have read the answer to that, haven’t we? I guess more important than asking about the twelve disciples is how well do we learn? How well do we grasp and understand what He is really talking about here? Look at verse 45. I have another question.
Verse 45 — Immediately… after they took up the baskets of fragments in verse 43, verse 44 says there were about five thousand men, verse 45 – Immediately He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He sent the multitude away.
I’ve wondered about that. Why did He send the disciples away first and then talk to the multitudes and send them away after they ate? This one, at least, I think we have a little bit of understanding from John’s account. We’ll go over to John’s account in a minute. But it would seem to make more sense to dismiss the crowd, wouldn’t it, and then tell the disciples, “Alright, now you go on across. I’m going to go to a mountain – I’m going to a private place – up the mountain and I’m going to pray for awhile and then I’ll see you later.” But He makes the disciples depart first. Hold your place here and turn with me over to John 6. Look at John’s account of this. John 6:13
, we’ll pick it up there. John 6:13
says:
John 6:13
– Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.
Verse 14 – Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
Verse 15 – Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.
Again, we are not told specifically, John does not give the timing as forcefully as Mark that it was immediately after taking up the fragments that He sent away the disciples, but it does give a little bit of insight and since the crowd was so enamored by the miraculous powers of Jesus. And it says here they were about to make Him king forcibly: grab Him and say, “You’re our king!” and make Him their king. It gives us a little bit of insight maybe. Perhaps Jesus didn’t want that affecting the disciples. Perhaps He sent them away before that happened because He saw what direction things were going and He didn’t want the disciples to get that in their heads — that He was going to be the king then — lest the idea would catch on with them.
And after praying, He walked out on the water — as I said, somewhere between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. — past the disciples, scared them, got into the boat as we read in the start. Rather interesting. So while I had some questions about this incident, it is fascinating to research and think about. Let’s read those verses about it going over the disciples’ heads. Turn with me back to Mark 6.
Mk. 6:51 says – Then He went up into the boat to them, and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled.
So they had not understood about the loaves because their hearts were hardened. What is it that they didn’t understand exactly? What is the lesson the disciples didn’t learn? Or maybe we can phrase it another way — what should they have learned that would have resulted in them not being amazed that Jesus could walk on the water — did walk on the water, get into the boat and the wind would die down and everything would be calm? What didn’t they learn that would have helped them not being amazed at that? Maybe after rephrasing it, we might have a little better idea. What would you say the lesson was? We could probably phrase it any number of ways — even come up with a variety of lessons that should have been learned from understanding this particular incident. I boiled it down to this statement. I think it kind of captures at least the main thought of it. The disciples didn’t understand that God was working in their lives. They didn’t understand God’s workings in their lives.
I took you earlier to John’s account; I don’t want to keep flipping back and forth. I’ll just mention John’s account. You can go back to John’s account and read it later if you like. Study it a little bit more. But John’s account tells us Jesus specifically targeted one of the disciples to ask about this food issue. He specifically targeted Philip and asked Philip. And John says He did it to test him because He already knew what He was going to do. He said, “Where should we buy something for this crowd to eat, Philip?” Where can we buy something for them? Now, Philip’s answer — Philip was really at a loss. I mean, he talked about even if we took 200 denarii’s worth of bread, that wouldn’t be enough to give everybody just a little taste — a little nibble. It would be like a snack. It wouldn’t be enough to feed everybody, certainly not sufficient for their need. Now that would have been 200 denarii — a denarius was a day’s labor for most people. That would have been eight / nine months of labor for one person to come up with 200 denarii’s worth. That’s a good bit of money. But, he said, even if we had all of that, we could only get a tiny bit. It wouldn’t be enough to whet their appetite basically.
Think about this. Philip’s answer, the only thing Philip could come up with was one that focused on the physical. I appreciated the sermonette that fits hand in glove with what I wanted to talk about today also. All Philip could think about was the physical realm. Think about the background of this. By this time, Philip had seen Jesus cast out all kinds of demons. He had seen Him heal people from all kinds of diseases — I mean, things such as leprosy, somebody whose flesh was almost falling off of them. This is a horrible, horrible disease; He healed people of that. He healed people of paralysis, people of withered limbs — stretch for the hand and the hand became like normal. He had witnessed some incredible miracles. They had seen Jesus wake up in the back of the boat while they were fighting a storm and He stood up and He calmed the wind and the seas just at the command of His voice. “Be still!” And the wind and the sea died down. He heard Peter, James and John no doubt talk about being in that room when Jesus had raised Jarius’ daughter from the dead. Philip, I’m sure, had heard of that and yet, when Jesus asked what they should do to feed the crowd, all Philip could do was to think in the physical realm. And even after seeing that pitifully small amount of food miraculously feed all of these people with a huge supply of leftovers — you know, they picked up lots of food at the end of that meal — he and the other disciples still marveled and were amazed beyond measure, as Mark says it. Not once are we given an inkling that it even crossed Philip’s mind to say, “Well, Jesus, it’s beyond me. You obviously have all kinds of miraculous powers. You can make food for them if you want.” There’s no indication that that even popped into Philip’s mind because the only thing that came out of his mouth was, “Man, you know, if we could… let me see, if we had 200 denarii — even if we had 200 denarii’s worth, we couldn’t feed — have everybody get a bite. That wouldn’t do it!” All he could think was that it wouldn’t go around.
Now, I’ve said all of that, kind of gone through this parable, it comes to this point. It’s the application point. How do we apply that to us? How does this apply to us today? What about you? What about me? Are we smarter than the disciples? Maybe not smarter than a 5th grader, are we smarter than the disciples? How about us? Is our heart hardened like theirs? Now, we can cut them a little bit of slack and say, well, the Holy Spirit wasn’t dwelling in them yet. You know, it wasn’t until the day of Pentecost that God gave the Holy Spirit to the disciples, to the 120 — however many people that was – on the day of Pentecost in the New Testament church. They all got the Holy Spirit all at the same time. So they didn’t have the Holy Spirit in them yet. But do you know what Jesus said? He specifically told them that the Holy Spirit was with them. ‘It is with you. It will be in you later. But it is with you.’ (Jo. 14:17) And if we want to go by that reasoning, we can’t say, ‘well our teens can’t understand. It goes over their heads’. But all of us who have God’s Holy Spirit, we should understand because we have the Holy Spirit within us.
Again, what about you teens? Would you have been as spiritually hardhearted and lacking in spiritual vision as the disciples? Would I? Would any of us? Am I today? That is an even more important question. And how can we know? I would like to put forth the idea that I think we can know whether or not we would see that and understand that. And then, by asking ourselves the question about our lives today, do we see God’s working in our lives?
As I said, I’ve sort of boiled this down to saying the disciples didn’t understand God’s working in their lives because they didn’t recognize the spiritual aspect of life. Now, surely they knew Jesus had great, miraculous powers. They had seen evidence of that. But they didn’t really relate that to their lives in saying, “Well, here’s a solution. Perform a miracle, Jesus. You’ve done it before. It’s beyond us, we don’t know how to solve this. You could step in and do it, though.” But the thought never seems to even cross their minds. Hence, Mark tells us that they were amazed — greatly amazed, beyond measure – and they marveled at it. So, what about us? Do we see God working in our lives today?
For the rest of the sermon, I would like to explore some areas where I think we should be able to see God’s hand working in our lives today in the 21st century. I want to introduce this part of the message, this portion, with a common thing of today. Many people in our society have the view — and I think this is a growing view — many believe that religion is fake. I think it was last week that we saw a clip from an avowed atheist who said religion has failed people. How would we respond to that? How do we, what do we think of that? What is our response to that statement? You know, when you look at their reasons for saying that, it seems like they have a point to a degree, doesn’t it? I mean, when they look around – people who are antireligious – they look around at man’s inhumane treatment of each other, they look at wars without end, they see rampant famine, disease, all kinds of issues, poverty. They tend to have a little bit of a point that religion hasn’t solved all of those problems for mankind. So some would say — many would say — religion has failed.
I don’t know how you answer that. I, in my own mind have come up with an answer. And my answer to myself at least is, well, yeah, I think most religions have failed. They haven’t addressed that. They haven’t resolved those issues. And you know what? They can’t because most of the religions of the world aren’t really the religion that God wants us to have. And some people understand that. In fact, an Englishman by the name of Gilbert K. Chesterton, he lived in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s until he died in 1936, was considered to be one of the most influential English writers of the 20th century. He was also a devout Catholic, so he was a very religious person. But he is quoted as saying this. Think about the way he phrased this. He said, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and not tried.” Now, that’s a devout Catholic Englishman, Gilbert Chesterton. That was his perspective. When he looked at the world around him, he said, ‘You know, religion hasn’t been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and it hasn’t really been tried! We really haven’t live Christianity.’ A rather indicting statement when he looked around at the major religions and churches of his day. And I would say that odds are relatively good that probably he never came in contact with a truly converted person in his life. It’s a good possibility of that, but as he looked at the world around him — at the religions of the world around him — Christianity really had not been tried properly.
Remember Jesus’ statement in Matthew 7:13
? I’ll remind you of it if you don’t. It says,
Mat 7:13
– Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
Verse 14 – Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
You know, as I read Chesterton’s statement about the fact that Christianity has been found difficult and not tried, I couldn’t help but think of this passage. It’s a narrow way. It’s a difficult way and there are very few that find it, Jesus said. Most people take the wide path. It’s the normal path, it’s the wide path, but it ends in destruction. It ends in death. It isn’t the way to life. The vast majority of humanity travels that broad, wide path and few — few find that straight, that narrow path that leads to eternal life. The only way anyone will ever find their way to eternal life is to get on what Jesus calls the narrow, the straight path, the difficult path. And it’s a path, as I said, that has not been tried by the masses of humanity. Only those who are called by God are even able to find the path. Now, you are blessed because God has opened your eyes, He has called you, He has allowed you to see where that path is, whether you are a first generation Christian, whether your parents were called and therefore God’s set you in a special category. You, too, can find that path if you want it. It’s open to you; it’s available to you. You are blessed to be able to see that. But all of us have to choose whether we want to take that path or not. As we think about what should help us see God’s hand in our lives, think about that dichotomy between the physical and the spiritual.
We read 1 Timothy 4:8
— I have that in my notes as well – physical exercise benefits a little. And it does. It benefits for a little. Some translations say for a little while. It’s temporary. Again, the dichotomy — the comparison between what’s temporary and what’s eternal – is there in the Bible over and over again. All right, I enjoy sports because it’s a way to exercise when I’m distracted – looking at a tennis ball or volleyball or basketball, but I’m chasing something. You know, I’m running. I have to be distracted in order to run. I don’t have the self-discipline to just get out and run on its own. But doing a sport makes me get out and do something. It does benefit me, but it only benefits me for a little while. It is only a temporary nature for that, even if it helps me maintain relatively good health. Sixty, seventy, maybe eighty years in the flesh — it is only temporary. Now, I’m not saying I am going to live to 80 — I hope Christ returns long before I reach 80 or 70 — well, maybe not 60 because that’s only a few years off. Wouldn’t mind Him returning, but I think there are other things that have to take place first, so I probably won’t hit that one, but I wouldn’t mind it. But, you know, it’s only temporary. It’s only temporary. In contrast, Godliness, as we read there in 1 Tim 4:8
, godliness is profitable in all things. It is profitable now, in life now, and it is profitable for the life that will come — the life to come later on, the spirit life.
Well, again, my question is, do we really see living God’s way, God’s truth from that perspective? Do we see it that way, that God’s way really is a blessing to us now as well as in the future? And what are the benefits we can receive from obeying God? Can we identify those benefits in our lives? And if we can, then that perhaps helps us see a little bit more of God working in our lives. The disciples didn’t see it because it was spiritual in nature and they were focused on the physical. It’s part of what Mark was saying when he said their hearts were hardened.
Let’s talk about some areas where we ought to see those spiritual areas in our life, where we ought to see God’s hand at work. I think one of the most obvious ones — one you would probably come up with, too — is answered prayer. Answered prayer. You know, Jesus said if you ask in My name, I will petition the Father and I will ask Him to give you what you ask. In fact, He made an even more forceful statement in John, chapter 14. Let’s turn to John. This is as He was about to leave the trade during this final Passover in the flesh, John 14 and we can start in verse 13. We’ll read a couple of verses here, 13 and 14. He says,
John 14:13
– And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Verse 14 – If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
Now, that’ a pretty forceful statement, isn’t it? Ask in my name and I will do it. I’ll be there to help you.
I can’t help but ask myself after looking at the story in Mark 6, what if Philip had said, ‘Jesus, why don’t you just turn these stones into bread? Why don’t You do this? Why don’t You do some other miracle?’ Jesus possibly would have done it. Or, perhaps He wanted them to learn that God can also stretch things. He can use physical things in whatever way He wants. He is not tied to the physical. I think, again, that’s the major point. He wasn’t tied to the physical. But, He says, “Ask in My name and I’ll do it.” That’s an incredible promise; it’s an incredible thing from Jesus.
Sometimes we might think, well, asking for little things — that’s not what God’s concerned about. Food? Was He concerned about food for the crowds? Sure. Well, you know, if I need a certain color and size of a blazer for my grown son, that’s something too little to trouble God over. Right? No. Ask Him about finding a source for fresh eggs or milk or trying to help you find or remember something that’s important — aw, I shouldn’t ask God about that. Do we think of it that way? Or do we realize ‘God is involved in my life and He’s willing to help me with things.’ Every one of those things that I mentioned, individuals over the years have prayed for and received answers to.
Many years ago when I was working over here in the church office with Mr. Burk McNair, there were several instances where we were trying to find something in the office and the secretary said, “Wait a minute, let’s go pray about it.” About five minutes later, “Here it is.” We found it. We had been looking for it – I don’t know how long, trying to find some particular item that we really needed. You know, God does those things. Now, the question is, what’s our response to that? Do we see the hand of God in our life or do we say, “Sooner or later I would open the right drawer, I would have looked in the right file cabinet, would have looked in the right file folder, I would have looked under the file folder — sooner or later, I would have found it.”
Do we give Him the credit when He does those things for us? Do we even think to ask Him? Do we see His hand in our life that much that we think to ask for those things? I don’t think God is put off by our asking for simple things in our life. I think He see that as us being His children and wanting His help. Now, of course, there are some qualifiers. We don’t ask for, “Okay, give me a billion dollars tomorrow. I want the rest of the stimulus package.” And He’ll give it to you. No, it doesn’t quite work that way. We realize there are some other qualifiers that come into play as well.
1 John 5, we should turn and read that one. I don’t mean to paint this and the statement in John 14 as a carte blanche — anything you ask, God will do. We read elsewhere in the Bible that that’s simply not the case. John, himself, makes the statement in 1 Jo. 5:14-15 — he shows a qualifier to this.
1 Jo. 5:14- Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
Verse 15 – And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
So we have to ask according to God’s will. We have to ask something that is going to be within His will. We love it, of course, when the answer is yes and that makes us very happy. But, like any loving parent, sometimes God doesn’t give a ‘yes’ answer, He answers, but sometimes His answer is ‘no’. We don’t like that answer as much, do we? Just like our children don’t like it when we say “No, you can’t have ice cream before dinner. Forget that I said once ‘life is short, eat dessert first’. I didn’t mean it for you.” Oops. Well, we don’t like it just like our children don’t like it when we say no. Sometimes God says, “Not right now. Not right now.” We don’t like that answer either, do we? We like the ‘yes’ answer much better. But ‘not right now’ — those are the ones we have more trouble with.
Turn with me to 2 Cor. 12 and we will see an example of someone who learned to deal with the ‘no’, the answer that wasn’t quite the one that he wanted to hear.
2 Cor 12:7
— Paul said, And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.
Verse 8 – Concerning this thing I pleaded… didn’t just ask, …I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
Verse 9 – And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore… Paul said, …most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
You see, Paul had to learn that lesson and he did learn the lesson and made peace with it. Sometimes God says ‘not now’ and sometimes God says ‘no’. In this case, God obviously made it known to him that the answer is, ‘No’. After three times of beseeching God, earnestly beseeching God, “Please, take this away from me”, God made it clear the answer was, “No, I’m not going to do that. You’re going to continue to have this difficulty.”
So again, how much do we recognize this part of God’s involvement in our lives? Do we see that? Do we understand that? How much do we recognize this part of God’s involvement in our lives? Or do we just slough it off as coincidences when God answers prayers as those whose hearts are hardened would do? “I didn’t really get an answer, that was just a coincidence.” Do we see God’s hand in our lives?
Let’s look at another passage. This one’s a famous one, another aspect of the blessings God gives us. Go with me back to the book of Psalms. This is a famous passage and famous chapter in the book of Psalms. Turn to Psalms 103. And simply by giving you the chapter, many of you know what is in this particular psalm. It is a psalm of David. And, of course, we keep in mind that David lived during the Old Testament time under the Old Covenant with ancient Israel, during the time when God promised Israel tremendous physical blessings for obedience, for remaining faithful to the covenant — the physical preservation and blessings that were offered to them. Look at David, one who did have God’s Spirit. Look at what David said in Psalms 103:1
.
Ps 103:1
– Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Verse 2 – Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits:
David said don’t stop thinking about the benefits of God in your life. Don’t stop thinking about God’s involvement in your life. Recognize it. See it. But notice what the first thing David mentions in this list that he gives in the rest of the chapter. What’s the first thing?
Verse 3 – Who forgives all your iniquities…
Now, I ask you, where is the physical indication of God’s forgiveness for your or my sin? What is the physical indication that, yes, God has forgiven me when I repent to Him? Every year we keep Passover, which is an annual reminder of the fact that we do have the blood of Jesus Christ to cover our sins. But there is no physical indication that God has forgiven a particular, individual sin that we repent of, is there? It is a spiritual matter. And it’s a matter of trust. It’s a matter of faith. It’s a matter of believing God. ‘I’m doing my part, I trust you, God, to do Your part. I recognize that what I did was wrong, I am sorry for it, I repent, I ask for your help — not to do it again. Please forgive me. And now, God, I trust You that You have forgiven me.” You see, there is no physical indication of that, but it’s one of the greatest ways God works in our life.
You put this in physical, human terms, Paul told us that God leads us to repentance. He leads us to that point. Why would He lead us to that point if, when we do repent, He doesn’t actually forgive us? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s not logical and that’s not the way God is. God is faithful. And when we repent, He does forgive us. He takes away that death penalty we have all earned.
Again, to make it more concrete, imagine yourself in a maximum security prison on death row awaiting execution and suddenly you get word that you’ve been pardoned. You are free to go. You can walk out of the prison. Now, that we understand because it’s physical, right? Someone comes, physically talks to you, physically opens the jail door, the cell door, and lets you walk out a free person. How well do we understand that taking place in our lives spiritually because that is just as real to us as if we went through it in a physical sense? It should be. God offers that to us for all our sins — as long as we repent, as long as we work to change, God offers that. Again, do we feel forgiven when we repent? We certainly should. It’s one way to recognize how God works in our lives.
Now, David goes on in this chapter — I realize, I don’t want to shortchange the chapter. I know he goes on and mentions a number of other things, he mentions a lot of physical things, he mentions healing, he mentions satisfying our mouth with good food, our needs for life that He provides. But as you read through that chapter, notice that David keeps coming back to God’s pity for us, God’s redemption. He comes back to talking about God’s lovingkindness, about His tender mercy. How much do we see that aspect of God working in our lives?
Even when — back in the book of Exodus, I think it’s chapter 34 where Moses wanted to see God and God said, ‘No, you can’t look on my face and live. I’ll put you in this little crag, you know, this little crack in the rock, I’ll put My hand over and I’ll pass by and I’ll let you see my backside. That’s all you can see of me. You can’t see My face.” But when Moses wanted to see God, He said, “Well, I’ll tell you about Me. I’ll tell you who I am.” And the words that He used were: merciful God, pardoning, forgiving, longsuffering. Those were the descriptors that God used about Himself. He said, “I’ll declare myself to you. I’ll declare My name and here’s what My name is like. Here’s what My character is like. Here’s what I am like.” God is anxious to forgive us. Again, do we see that in our life? Do we recognize that as God working in our lives?
Let’s talk about something else. How about confidence — confidence in the future. Our society, our world today just oozes uncertainty, doesn’t it? I mentioned the Stimulus Package. Well, it’s a pretty relevant topic right now, isn’t it? Pretty relevant. Financial worries and concerns are all over the place, not just here in the United States — all over the world. Many, many people — thousands of people — have lost their jobs. Many others have had slowdowns. Some are worried that they will lose their job. The value of retirement savings is sharply eroded, and in some cases has just been wiped out completely. If you happened to invest with a certain individual you probably lost it all and perhaps in some other areas as well. Home values have plummeted, the economic future of our Country is at stake — and, actually, that of the world is of great concern. There’s a lot of worry over physical safety as well — all kinds of ways to get hurt these days. If you stop and think about it, compared to a hundred years ago, we have all kinds of ways you can hurt yourself a lot easier than you could back then. Motorized vehicles, airplanes, boats, submarines — there are all kinds of things — spaceships, and on top of that, nuclear devices that some nut can get their hands on and blow up a part of the planet. I mean, we’ve got more worries, more uncertainty today than ever in human history. But God gives a hope for the future. In fact, God promises us that humans aren’t going to destroy themselves. And that gives us some hope, gives us confidence in the future.
Turn with me to Mat. 24, the Olivet prophesy, Matthew’s account of it. I think all of our young people, all of us — but certainly our young people ought to have memorized this passage and be very familiar with it as well because it is one of those aspects of God blessing us spiritually. He blesses us with a confidence in the future, a knowledge that man is not going to be allowed to obliterate human life on this planet.
Mat 24:21
– For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
So that’s one time in human history that is going to be the worst ever and we seem to be getting closer and closer to that, don’t we? But there’s one time that it’s going to be the worst it ever has or will be. And verse 22:
Verse 22 – And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved… The Simple English Version says – No one would be left alive. The New Jerusalem Bible says it this way — No human being would have survived. In other words, human beings would just eradicate themselves off the earth if the days weren’t shortened. But, it says – but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. God will intervene before man can do that to himself. It’s a promise from God. It’s a promise that God won’t let humans destroy all life on this planet, that God can send Jesus Christ back. And in the next chapter — chapter 25 — Jesus confirmed the ultimate future of those who trust in Him. It is a very positive future. Yes, there is going to be some difficulty. It talks about this time of tribulation and some are going to go through some difficult times and we face some difficult trials now in this physical life.
And in the future years, I think we are going to face some even more difficult things. What kind of vision are we going to have? Will we see God working in our lives and will we trust Him to be working in our lives? Or will we, like Philip, only see the little bit of bread, a couple of fish, calculate out – how can we do this physically — I have 200 denarii — 200 denarii won’t do it. Eight months’ wages won’t do it. Or will we see the bigger picture of God working spiritually in our lives?
In Mat 25:31-34
—Jesus gives us an incredible promise to those who trust Him, to those who believe in Him, to those who will walk the walk down that narrow path — the straight way that does lead to eternal life.
Mat 25:31
—When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.
Verse 32 — All the nations will be gathered before Him… so nations are not going to be destroyed. They are not all going to disappear. Humanity is going to continue to exist and …the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.
Verse 33 – And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.
Verse 34 – Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world… I did all of this for you and I want you to inherit it, not just come to be someone who lives and has a small part in this, but I want you to inherit it. I want you to own it. I want it to be yours. I want to give it to you as an heir, a joint heir with Christ. And that’s an incredible, incredible future that God has for those who are willing to take the difficult step of entering that relationship with Him. What an incredible, incredible thing! God, who tells us He cannot lie, has promised an incredible, marvelous future if we will be faithful to Him. Again, that is cause for great confidence in the future. Do we see that? Do we recognize that part of God’s hand in our lives, that He is involved in our lives and He is offering — actively offering us the kingdom?
Now that also brings about the next point I wanted to talk about. What about the immediate future, the time from now until Christ does return? How does God work with us in the intermediate time? What’s the blessing here? Well, my answer is simply one word — peace — peace — peace of mind if you want to make it three words — but it’s peace because we know the future, because we have confidence in the future. Because we know what God is going to do and what He has promised us and that He will not lie. Because we trust Him and have that faith, we can have incredible peace. In fact, God promises us great peace, peace of mind, being at peace with Him, being at peace with ourselves, being at peace with others in spite of the problems that we will face — and we will face some.
Turn with me to Phi. 4. We are going to face trouble. Everyone who lives Godly will face difficulty in this physical life. It is just the way the world is set up as a result of Adam and Eve’s choice. We are going to face difficulties because the world is not going God’s way and we will have some tests, as well. Even Abraham was tested by God. Abraham was taken out of his environment. God took him out by himself and even Abraham was tested. So we are going to have some tests. We are going to have some difficulties, but we can have peace even in the midst of those troubles and difficulties. Phi 4:4-7
says:
Phi 4:4
– Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
Verse 5 – Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand… God is there. Is God there in your life? Do you see Him as being at hand? One might think, well this just means that He is coming back soon. I don’t know that’s all that means. I think it also means God is at hand. God is there living, dwelling with you. Jesus Christ promised that. He said, “I’ll send My Spirit. I will come and dwell with you. The Father will come and We will make our home with you. We’ll dwell with you.” So, to me, ‘God is at hand’ means much more than He is just coming in the future. He is with us now. …The Lord is at hand.
Verse 6 – Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
Verse 7 – and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
God promises us peace beyond the human capacity to understand. That’s a spiritual component, an invisible component, but it’s a very real component of God working in our lives.
Again, I talked about Paul — let’s look at another example of Paul in 2 Cor. 4 where he learned to deal with God answering him ‘no’ to a particular request he had for a physical problem, a physical infirmity that he had. And God said, “No, I’m not going to heal that. I’m not going to take that away.” And Paul said, “I understand and I can deal with that. I can handle that.” In 2 Cor 4:8-9
, Paul talked about some of the difficulties he was experiencing as a servant of God, an evangelist. He said,
2 Cor 4:8
– We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
Verse 9 – persecuted, but not forsaken… God is still there. God is in our lives even when we are persecuted. I know He is there. I see Him in my life. We’re …struck down, but not destroyed—
You see, Paul kept that peace of mind and it was able to give him a positive viewpoint — even when he went through difficulties; even when he experienced persecution; even when he experienced being crushed, hard pressed on every side, he still had a positive outlook on life because he was confident about the future. He was positive about God involved in his life. And God was there. Skip down to verse 16.
Verse 16 – Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
Verse 17 — For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,
Verse 18 – while we do not look at the things, which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen… that is, not seen with the physical eye — those, he said,…are eternal.
He said, look past the physical ailments, the physical problems, the difficulties he had. He was able to see into the spirit realm, to see the reality of God and Jesus Christ working in his life. He was able to see the reality of them encouraging him, cheering him on. They gave him great courage in the face of physical danger just like David, just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego in the book of Daniel. Just like David facing Goliath; like Daniel in the lion’s den; so many different stories we have in the Bible of individuals who looked to God, looked beyond, had courage in the face of danger because they saw God in their lives. How much do we see God in our lives? You see, that kind of outlook gives us stability in life because we have something solid. We have God’s promises to stand on and we are able to look with the mind’s eye spiritually and see God’s presence, God’s involvement in our life.
Now, we could list another number of benefits — I’m sure we could talk about this for a long time, finding the benefits of God working in our lives, about understanding death and the resurrection. That’s an incredible blessing. Doesn’t that give us incredible hope and confidence? It is a part of God’s blessings for us — understanding prophesies, physical needs being met where God says, ‘I’ll take care of your needs.’ Our problem is that wants and needs become blurred often. But He does take care of our needs. He promises to take care of our needs.
So, we can find all kinds of things. How about you? Are you smarter than the disciples — spiritually speaking that is? Do you have a more spiritual outlook than Philip in Mark 6 who could only see the puny little bit of physical bread and fish that they had on hand and they couldn’t figure out any kind of way to feed all of those people because he only saw with his physical eyes. He didn’t recognize God working in his life. So, are our eyes blinded? Are our hearts hardened as we read about the disciples? I hope not. I hope our eyes are open. I hope our heart is soft. I hope we clearly see God in the spirit realm working in our lives, cheering us on, saying, “I desire — it is My earnest desire to give you the kingdom. I want you to make it,” — cheering us on to make our spiritual endurance with joy and hope for the future.
I hope that helped you to think a little bit today first of all about that particular story of the loaves and fishes and about the fact that Mark says the disciples were awed and amazed by Jesus’ next miracle of walking on the water, stepping in the boat and the sea and the winds calmed. He did that because they couldn’t see, they didn’t understand and they didn’t grasp the significance of God’s spiritual working in their lives. I hope that helped you to see a little bit today that we can have a different outlook. We can see if we look — if we are willing to look, we can see God’s hand in our lives. All of us, we all need to believe and trust God. We all need to open our eyes to see God’s hand in our lives.
