Kingdom Advancement: Provision for Gentiles Mark

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Kingdom Advancement: Provision for Gentiles Mark 8:1-10 I just want to make it clear this morning that there’s a reason for us to preach through books of the Bible the way we do on Sunday mornings. It’s not accidental or haphazard for us to slowly but surely study through books of Scripture in the order in which they come. Why do we do it this way? The primary reason is that we believe God has spoken to us through His Word and that we ought to take His word to us seriously as it has come to us. If God has spoken to us through the Bible in the structure and order in which we have these books, then we want to understand what God has said to us as He said it. The biblical authors, inspired by the Holy Spirit wrote for a particular purpose and with a certain goal in mind. Our goal in study is trying to understand that purpose or intention. We do that through studying their writings in the context in which they wrote them. One of the great advantages of this is that sometimes we get to passages that we wouldn’t really understand unless we read them in the context in which they come to us. What comes before the passage and what comes after it? That is the case this morning with Mark 8:1-10. The heading in your Bible probably says something like “Jesus feeds the Four Thousand.” That is what happens here, but I want you to see how this passage pops off the page when we see it in the narrative flow in which it comes to us. This story is familiar to us, but think of what we are doing this morning as getting some background or childhood information on a close friend that you never knew before that really helps you get him or her. So, this morning we are going to handle things a bit different than we normally do. I want to begin by reading through this story and briefly commenting on it to help us understand the story itself. Then I want to show you how this story fits into the story of Mark. Then I want to bridge the gap of 2,000 years and show you how this story applies to us in our lives today. Got it? Alright, let’s jump into this story. Look at Mark 8:1. You can see that our story begins with the words, “in those days.” That is important because Mark wants you to know that this event follows in the same area and the same time period as the previous stories we have read of the deaf man and the Gentile woman. That’s important for us and we’ll get to that later. Once again we find a huge crowd of

people, with Jesus, and they have nothing to eat. As we go along here I hope this story begins to sound familiar because it should. Feel free to put your finger in Mark 6 in the story of the feeding of the 5,000 and notice the similarities. It’s unreal. In fact, one commentator said to just refer to his notes on the feeding of the 5,000 because everything is basically the same. Look what Jesus says to his disciples in verse 2. So, Jesus and the disciples are in a wilderness area, not close to towns where food can be purchased apparently and they have been there for 3 days while the people have intently listened to Jesus teach and been with him. Notice that Jesus has compassion on the crowd because of their hunger. He believers they will pass out from hunger if he sends them away without food and the point of verses 2-3 is that he makes this known to the disciples. Look how the disciples respond in verse 4. It’s uncanny how the disciples are lacking in faith and trust in Jesus. We will see Jesus confront them on this next time as we go further into chapter 8 but look how Jesus responds in verse 5. So, they have a few loaves, just like in chapter 6. Now, notice the sequence of events once Jesus has the loaves. Look at verse 6. It’s not exactly the same wording, but the order is the same. He tells the people to sit down, he takes the loaves, he blesses them, he breaks them and he gives them to the disciples. They even have a few fish to go along with the bread in verse 7. Now, once they have passed the food out, the people eat and are satisfied in verse 8 and Jesus provides so much that they have to take up the extra in baskets. Verse 9 tells us that instead of 5,000 men, there were 4,000 people this time. Not as many, but still way more people than could possibly be fed with seven loaves and a few small fish. And after the miracle Jesus and the disciples get in a boat. So, we have basically the same story here with slight changes, mostly because it’s a different situation and a different group of people. We just saw a miracle like this in Mark 6. Why in the world does Mark include another feeding miracle? Hasn’t he made the point about Jesus providing? If the miracles are just intended to show us Jesus’s power then why have two almost identical miracles nearly back to back in the same gospel story? I think Mark included this miracle in his gospel account and it’s worded almost identically to the feeding of the 5,000 on purpose. He’s making a point by doing this. So, what is his point? This is where we go back and trace the context

between the two feeding stories to help us grasp why it’s here. After feeding the 5,000 we get into chapter 7 and Jesus teaches on what truly defiles a person. It’s not what comes from the outside, but what comes from the inside, the heart. On the heels of this story we get to the story we talked about last week with the Gentile woman. Let me remind you of what Jesus says to this woman in verse 27. The parable he tells focuses on bread coming to the Jews first and then to the Gentiles. Of course, then he continues to minister in Gentile territory and he heals the deaf and mute man at the end of chapter 7. Then we go immediately into the feeding of the four thousand with Mark telling us it’s the same context as these other stories. So, what is the point? I believe this whole structure is set up with Jesus’s words regarding bread coming to Jews and Gentiles in between these two feedings because these feedings show us that full satisfaction and provision comes to Gentiles in the same way it comes to Jews, through the work of Jesus Christ. This is not the only way this is demonstrated in the gospel of Mark. Look at this little chart I’ll put up on the screen. Jew

Gentile

Demon Possessed Man (Mark 1:21-28)

Demon Possessed Man (Mark 5:1-20)

Daughter of a Jewish Man Healed (Mark 5:21-24, 35-43)

Daughter of a Gentile Woman Healed (Mark 7:24-30)

Feeding of the Five Thousand (Mark 6:31-44)

Feeding of the Four Thousand (Mark 8:1-9)

So, if the intention of the Holy Spirit in including the feeding of the four thousand is to show us that the ministry of Jesus will expand out from the Jews to the Gentiles, what application can we take away from this for our lives today? Let’s spend the rest of our time together looking at two encouragements for us from Christ’s intentional ministry to the Gentiles. 1. Our Hope of Satisfaction is Real

The point of this story is that Gentiles receive the same, full provision and satisfaction that Jews receive through Jesus. It’s a level playing field at the cross. We need to think for a minute about the imagery of bread here because this is the focal point of these stories. The bread is what provides in the feeding of the 5,000. The conversation between Jesus and the woman centers on bread and then in the feeding of the 4,000 the people are satisfied with bread according to verse 8. Throughout the Bible bread is spoken of as one of the basic needs of life. In many cases in Scripture bread just means food and is absolutely necessary for life to continue. Think about how needy we are as human beings. We require sleep daily. You can only go so long without sleep and your body literally will shut down. You can’t go more than a few hours or a half a day at most without drinking water. Without water you and I would be in such agony and thirst that normal life would cease to exist rather quickly. Bread is the same way. But beyond being a necessity for life, bread is used in Scripture as something God gives to human beings as a gift. Remember how God provided bread, or manna, every day for Israel while they were in the wilderness. In the Lord’s Prayer we ask God to give us our daily bread, acknowledging that our lives are daily dependent on Him for everything. He is the giver of all good gifts. He gives out of the overflow of His character and He gives gifts in order to bring us, through those gifts, back to the enjoyment of Him. At the end of the gospel of Mark in 14:22 we see Jesus tell the disciples that his body is the bread which will be broken for them. And I think in Mark 6 and Mark 8 when we read about these two feedings, we are seeing a very vivid picture of this reality. God provides the necessities of life, spiritual life, through His Son, Jesus Christ, to both Jews and Gentiles. So, when we read here of Jesus providing bread we ought to view this as a promise that God will provide for our spiritual needs. The satisfaction we long for is to be found through the bread of life, Jesus Christ. If you were to go one, two, or three days without food, you would have a gnawing hunger in your stomach. I’ll never forget a return trip from Nepal that I was on with a friend of mine. We left Nepal, had a multiple hour flight into western China, had a twelve plus hour layover in western China where they wouldn’t take

American money in the airport. So we couldn’t’ get any food. Then we took another flight the next morning across China to Beijing. When we landed in Beijing we had been in Nepal for 2 weeks without American food and it had been close to twenty-four hours since we had eaten a decent meal. When we got into the airport we found a Pizza Hut and plopped down exhausted and never so happy to eat pizza from Pizza Hut. It was some of the most satisfying food I’ve ever had. Every human being has a set of desires and longings that will only find satisfaction through knowing the love of God in Jesus Christ. It’s the only thing that will satisfy and according to this passage that gnawing hunger will be satisfied as we are able to partake of the bread of life. Psalm 63:3 says “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.” The bread of life is available and we have the promise of satisfaction through Him. The only appropriate response to receiving the bread is praise and delight and that brings us to our second encouragement. 2. Our Response of Gratitude is Appropriate Of course, Jesus came to the Jewish people as a Jew, but we are seeing clear instances in the Gospel of Mark that his ministry would extend outward to the Gentiles. This trajectory continues in the gospels and picks up steam after the resurrection in the book of Acts. Look at Acts 1:8. Of course, a huge chunk of the book of Acts describes Paul's ministry to the Gentiles on his missionary journeys. Paul understood his basic life purpose to be to take the gospel to the Gentiles and at the end of the book of Acts we see Paul in Rom ministering, writing, and preaching about the kingdom to Gentiles. Listen to Acts 28:28-31. Paul explains this reality quite clearly in Ephesians 2:11-22. The church is the place where Jew and Gentile have been brought together into one body, the temple where the Holy Spirit dwells. We have access to the Father together through Jesus Christ. Paul continues in Ephesians to describe the grace of God going out to the Gentiles because of Jesus and then he turns his joy over this reality to prayer in 3:14-19. Let’s be honest, we are that group of 4,000 Gentiles in the wilderness without any ability to provide for our own needs spiritually speaking. Ephesians 2 states specifically that those of us where were Gentiles were standing outside the house. We are truly recipients of grace in

every way and the only appropriate response to that grace is gratitude. I want to read you a hymn by Isaac Watts that addresses our gratitude that we have been included in the provision that Christ provides. Then it turns our gratitude outward to the ends of the earth to long for others to find provision in Christ. How sweet and awesome is the place With Christ within the doors, While everlasting love displays The choicest of her stores. While all our hearts and all our songs Join to admire the feast, Each of us cry, with thankful tongues, "Lord, why was I a guest? "Why was I made to hear thy voice, And enter while there's room, When thousands make a wretched choice, And rather starve than come?" 'Twas the same love that spread the feast That sweetly drew us in; Else we had still refused to taste, And perished in our sin. Pity the nations, O our God, Constrain the earth to come; Send thy victorious Word abroad, And bring the strangers home. We long to see thy churches full, That all the chosen race May, with one voice and heart and soul, Sing thy redeeming grace.