Turning Point: Rest, Test, & Confess

---

October 11, 2015

Luke: God on Display Turning Point: Rest, Test, & Confess Luke 9:10-17

Introduction: In sports, business, war, and life, turning points cause a shift in momentum, are brought on by a decisive decision, or radically change the direction of where something was headed. This is what we see in the well known story of the feeding of the 5000. The feeding of the 5000, as its known, was really a high point and culmination of Jesus' ministry in Galilee. He began His first year around the area that He grew up, making it known by word and deed that He was the promised Messiah. This miracle was massive on a visible scale, meeting the needs of thousands with undeniable power that was seen in creating something out of nothing (or almost nothing). It is also the first of two miracles that are recorded by all 4 gospel writers (anyone guess the other one? Hint: Has to do with conquering death). This was a miracle that was undeniable, compassionate, and called people to follow Him truly. However, it also became a turning point of judgment for the people of Galilee, who largely missed the point. Jesus had just commissioned His disciples to go into the villages and towns to heal, cast out demons, and proclaim the gospel of repentance. He said they were to travel light, stay focused on the message, and if they were rejected (which they surely would be), to shake off the dust from their sandals and move on. Jesus was their teacher, leader, and rabbi and He showed in this miracle on a larger scale what He commissioned His disciples to do. This miracle would mark a growing divide of those who once followed but stopped and those who truly were redeemed. This section in Luke acts as a bit of a hinge that pivots the story. What was once public was now going to be largely private. What was once engaging now would be withdrawing. What was once focused in Galilee would now be expanded. In this narrative we see Jesus teach on rest, gave a test, and it lead to a confession, both by pseudo-followers and true disciples. 1. Turning point: Withdrawal into privacy (Luke 9:10) Luke 9:10 On their return the apostles told him all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida. Reasons for withdrawal: Jesus welcomed the 12 back from their short term mission trip He commissioned them to. Upon their return He wanted to get away with them, to get their take on how it went. There are several reasons why this is important. 

Jealousy of Herod Antipas (Matt. 14:13: Mark 6:30) In the previous section we learned that Herod, who was the governmental overseer in Galilee, was perplexed by what he heard Jesus doing. Herod had asked the question, "who is this", and Jesus wanted to make sure that He did not encounter any unnecessary resistance from local authorities. The next time Jesus would talk with Herod would be in the trial phase before He went to the cross (Luke 23:6-12)



Misguided zeal of followers (John 6:15) The crowd was ripe with anticipation to go ahead and anoint Jesus King, taking Him by force. Jesus perceived this and avoided this messy confrontation. 1

October 11, 2015

Luke: God on Display 

Hostility of the Jewish leaders (Mark 7:1-23) Opposition by the religious leaders was always felt, but had reached a boiling point, and it was necessary to cease further ministry in Galilee



More personalized instruction was needed Active ministry always moves us from theory to reality. Now that the disciples had some real encounters, personal interactions, they would have a whole new slough of questions. They had made natural progress from listening, to observing, to doing, to sharpening, to being able to do it on their own. Jesus now needed to spend different kind of time with them, centered on their training, rather than declaring to Galilee who He was. This is why experiences of learning are so important when we are training our children, young people, and any disciple. Experiences allow for all new questions to be asked and for learning to grow.

 Disciples needed rest after their grueling tour (Mark 6:31) Mark 6:31 And he said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. The final reason for withdrawal was rest. Rest was important after a non-stop tour, both to debrief and catch their breath. This is such an important lesson in the midst of a non-stop culture where we often don't know how to rest on the run. (and for reasons of full disclosure, is not a strong suit of this particular pastor). Reasons we need to rest: "Instead of taking a vacation, create a life that you don't need to take a vacation from." Seth Godin  Built for it Mark 2:27 And he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. (cf. Genesis 2:2-23; Exodus 20:9-11) Part of our humanity - God made us in His image, and He made a clear point in the creation narrative to rest on the 7th day (yes, a literal 24 hour day that He rested). He ceased from action to build into the created order rest. This was designed even before sin began to break down our bodies and to ravage the earth. Part of being made in God's image means we NEED to rest, making rest imperative, not optional (or wimpy). God designed us for rest - God did not design us for the Sabbath, as if worshipping a day was the point. He graciously built in a day of rest for us. Like so many good gifts we can turn them into something negative (Sabbath regulations) or ignore them altogether (no differentiation in days). We believe the principle that we should rest weekly, and part of that rest is participating in the Body of Christ as we gather to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Being here is rest, a time to be refreshed by God's Word, by God's people, through song, service, and application. When this is not a priority, we miss out on an opportunity to rest in the Lord.  Danger of operating in our own strength (when we get over-tired, weary, or burnt out) Burnt out can look different for everyone. For me it is retreating from people and numbing myself for a time with inane activity where I don't want to think or do much, while guilt takes over for being lazy. For some, burnout can lead to lashing out in anger, melt down, fighting with your spouse for no 2

October 11, 2015

Luke: God on Display

apparent reason, retreat into fantasy (alcohol, porn, etc), or simply leaving altogether. Here are some other downsides: Operate in the flesh - We either operate by the power of the Holy Spirit or our own flesh. When are overly tired, burn out can easily look like simply operating with grit, determination, and solely on our own. When we do this, we miss the whole point of ministry and life (to glorify God in Christ) and think life is about and hinges on us Loss of joy - When we are burnt out, joy is at a minimum as perspective shrinks, selfishness creeps in, and we no longer see life through a lens of opportunity but only obstacle Loss of effectiveness - We get busy doing a whole lot but not accomplishing much. Busyness is seductive and lulls us into accepting artificially driven purpose and success, all the while we ineffective with what really matters. Prioritize in short sighted ways - When we get over tired or weary, we sacrifice the most important things (our kids, family, obedience, fellowship, time with God in His Word, prayer) for the tyranny of the urgent, thinking that this is the best and most important use of time. 

Reminds us that we are not God

Our Messiah complex - Sometimes we think we are needed to help or fix people or situations. We believe we are the only ones who can do it, and no one can do it as well as we can. Our need to be in control - Or we want to be able to be in control of things, and its disconcerting to be gone because things will happen without our influence, and this could mean things get messed up. However, have you ever wondered why God gave us the built in capacity to need sleep? Why do we sleep such a huge percentage of life. Even Jesus slept, especially while storms raged around Him. One of the reasons: when we sleep, the world continues on around us. Sleep is a great reminder that God is still on His throne, still conducting His business in this world without us. He uses us to His glory, but He does not need us. Ways we need to rest: 

Eternally – There is a longing in the heart of every person to be at peace. Several times in Luke sinners are called to go in forgiveness and peace. The main rest God offers us is rest from our weight of sin. We can stop striving and know He is God, that He is in control, and that He is leading us to eternal rest with and in Him. Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (cf. Hebrews 4) 

Physically - We also need physical rest. Jesus demonstrated this need while on earth, and He not only wept but He slept (Mark 4:38). We are built to rest by sleep, by cessation of activity, and by refreshing our minds and souls in Him. This means that we need to rest physically on a normal cycle and at special times, while trying to avoid the seminary cycle (blitz the whole semester, pay off the "sleep credit card" for a week at the end.

3

October 11, 2015

Luke: God on Display 

In the Spirit - We rest in the Spirit, refreshing ourselves in the Word, by prayer, and yielding to the leading of the Spirit. Rest does not mean we check out of life. Jesus would often go off by Himself to pray, to spend time with His Father apart from the crowds (Matt. 14:23). It means we understand how God made us so that we can be the most effective in the life He gives us.

This necessitates both Planning & Preparation. It means we must be proactive both by intention and execution to say “yes” to certain things and “no” to others. It means that we must look at rest both regularly and specially – meaning on a weekly basis but also in longer time set aside. I talked with a friend this week and I commented that he was looking svelte. He said he had to be at peak operating functionality because he takes care of his son and wife who both have severe auto-immune diseases. I thought that was so instructive. He knew that in order to be effective, it meant he had to eat right, exercise, and rest to be able to do what he was called to do. 2. Turning point: Training by testing (Luke 9:11-17) Luke 9:11-17 When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing. 12 Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to him, "Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place." 13 But he said to them, "You give them something to eat." They said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fishunless we are to go and buy food for all these people." 14 For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each." 15 And they did so, and had them all sit down. 16 And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. 17 And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, twelve baskets of broken pieces. We come to the actual miracle, one that was absolutely built for Sunday school classes and flannel graphs. The people had crowed in following Jesus to a desolate place without thought of the rest of the day. As dinner time approached, the dilemma was obvious: there were enough people to fill Staples Center1 (which has over 18000 person capacity), and we don't have enough food nor enough money to feed everyone (even if there was money, there was no grocery store close). The disciples response: send the people away. Its really not our responsibility to handle this. Now note, they had just returned from a tiring journey, were looking forward to some down time, and now they had to deal with thousands of hungry people who didn't bring food. Jesus used this opportunity not only to reach out to the crowd, but to train His disciples. 

Jesus’ motive to teach

To test His disciples John 6:6 - ”He said this to test him (Philip) for He Himself knew what He would do. So much like us, the disciples forgot quickly that there is nothing impossible with Christ. He knew He was going to feed this crowd, but He wanted to see if the disciples trusted Him to do it. How quickly we see God act in our life or the lives around us, but we don't trust Him with the future. 1

The text is clear that there were 5000 men, with the inference that there were women present as well as children. A conservative estimate would be 15,000 people were there, but it easily could have been upwards of 20,000.

4

October 11, 2015

Luke: God on Display

To show His preeminence Colossians 1:16-17 For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. Jesus was the One who created the earth, that sustains it, and for which all things were made. In a blatant display of this power, He showed this immense group of people that He can create out of nothing, that He can do anything, and that it is all done for Him.  The crowd’s motive to follow John 6:2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. The problem in the story is the motivation of the crowd. it is clear that as long as they were getting fed and healed, as long as Jesus catered to their needs, they were happy to follow. When the bread runs out (as seen at the end of John 6), so did the following.  Jesus’ motive to feed Matthew 14:14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Mark 6:34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. Here we see a few extremely important principles: 1. Jesus had compassion on the people that He KNEW were in it for themselves, that were only there for the free meal, and that would not ultimately respond to the gospel. Compassion does not necessitate a positive response to act, but gives even when rejection is inevitable. 2. Jesus knew that they were sheep without a shepherd, so He gave them truth. In His longsuffering nature, He continued to tirelessly teach about the nature of the kingdom, of repentance and forgiveness, and of following Him Wrapped up in this miracle is the fact that though Jesus would move on from these people, He had not turned His back on them. 3. Turning point: A positive & negative confession (Matt. 14:33; John 6:60) The true disciples confession Matthew 14:33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God." There is a gap of action in between Luke 9:17 and 18. After the baskets of bread were collected and the crowd was satisfied, Jesus moves away from the crowd who tried to make Him king. The disciples pushed out on a boat onto the sea of Galilee and were once again faced with a storm. Jesus decided to meet them on the boat, so ended up walking on the water after them. Peter jumped out at Jesus' command, but was caught afraid by the waves, and began to sink. As he got in the boat, the wind ceased and the boat immediately went to the other side of the Lake (Mark 6:51; John 6:21). This lead to the disciples to utter the affirmation, "You are certainly God's Son." (Matt. 14:33). The disciples confessed once again that they understood and believed that Jesus was in fact God, and thus they would continue to follow Him. The pseudo-disciples confession 5

October 11, 2015

Luke: God on Display

John 6:60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" This lead to another confession, but of the opposite response. After His walking on the water He addressed the crowds and reiterated the fact that He is the bread of life, and anyone that came to Him would not hunger (John 6:33). The Israelites in the OT were given manna, but they perished because the manna met a temporal need. The bread He offered was one of eternal life, but it meant that they had to receive it by faith alone, not works (John 6:28-29), and it was in Jesus alone apart from the law. At this, many of His disciples, those who had followed Him until this point declared this a hard saying and "as a result, many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore" (John 6:66), which was a decisive decision, not a temporary one. They confessed that they truly did not believe that Jesus alone saves, and that He was the only way. This leads us to a reflection on Bethsaida. It was outside of this small town, the hometown of Peter, Andrew, Philip, and possibly Nathaniel, that Jesus fed the 5000. This was a group of people that saw, tasted, listened to, and embraced the message and miracles of Jesus. They had every advantage. But they continued to reject. This led Jesus to say, "Woe to you Bethsaida. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon (places of prophesied judgment), they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you." (Luke 10:13-14) What does this have to do with us? The message is clear for us: have we come to grips with our sin, have we seen it as an offense to God, and have we repented? Today is the day of salvation to all who believe. Learn from the lesson of the feeding of the 5000. Concluding thoughts and questions:     

Why is rest so important? What do you see as negative effects in your life when you are burnt out or exhausted? What are ways that we need to rest? How do we accomplish this? What are areas of life that are hard to say "no" to, but that we probably should? Do you have a plan for rest? Daily, weekly, yearly? What would be different in our lives if we learned to rest well? What are areas that we fail to believe that Jesus can do anything? Have we found rest in our soul by repenting of our sins and professing our belief? Have we reaffirmed that?

6