"Learning to Trust"

9.30am Sunday 26 April 2009

Readings: Mark 8:1-21; Exodus 4:1-9 TNIV

The Christian faith is a living faith because you and I are constantly in God's presence and care. It is a faith that is worked out in your daily life. In essence it is walking in the presence of God throughout each day, living every moment in the consciousness that he is all around you. At the same time it is a very personal relationship with your Creator through Jesus Christ that requires trust and obedience to remain strong and vibrant. It is being in tune with God, or on the same wave length as him. It is keeping in step with him, being alert and sensitive to what he is doing, what he is saying, and what he is teaching and revealing to you through his Spirit. It is constant, for you are never outside of his presence and his watchful care.

This truth was brought home to me in a way I had never understood before at a Joyce Huggett seminar on 'Listening to God.' Up until that time my understanding of my relationship with God was of his living in me. He was the dot in the middle of the circle that represented my life. God was in me, which is something I have been very aware of ever since I invited Jesus to be my Saviour and Lord at the age of thirteen. However, at this seminar, Joyce Huggett encouraged us all to ask God how he saw our relationship with him. In that same instant, using the circle I had drawn, he showed me that I had it the wrong way round. He was the circle, and I was the dot inside. As soon as he showed me, I realised that that is how it should be. It is the way the Scriptures affirm it to be. For example, in Acts it says, "For in him we live and move and have our being."[1] The Bible talks far more often of our being 'in God' that it does about God being 'in' us. Paul understood this truth very clearly as one of his favourite expressions in his letters is to describe believers as being 'in Christ.'[2] King David also understood this truth when he writes, "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, and your right hand will hold me."[3] Although I knew this to be true in my head, my diagram showed that I had not really understood it in practice. Therefore it came home to me with new relevance when God revealed it to me himself. It showed me how great my God is; that there is nowhere where I can go where I am outside of his care. Realising this has helped me to trust him with my problems and needs, for he is so much greater that what I could ever imagine him to be. And that is true not only for me; he has you in his care also. As the song goes, "He has you and me brother in his hands, He has you and me sister in his hands, he has the whole world in his hands." Jesus made this plain in his teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. He said you are not to worry about what you will eat or drink, or about what you will wear. God knows what you need, even before you ask him. Therefore you can trust him to provide the things that are necessary to your life, for just as he looks after the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, he will take care of you and provide for your needs. Your part is to put the concerns of his kingdom first in your life. This is the lesson that Jesus was seeking to teach his disciples in the passage we read this morning. They needed to learn to trust God in every situation. This truth comes through again towards the end of the reading where Jesus remonstrates which his disciples about their lack of understanding. Twice he says, "Do you still not understand?" when only a short time before they had seen him feed five thousand. It serves as a reminder for you that you can trust him to supply your need.

As the healing of the deaf and mute man, which is recorded immediately before the feeding of the four thousand, took place in non-Jewish territory, it is likely that the scene for this second miraculous feeding of a large crowd of people would appear to be in the Gentile area of the Decapolis. No doubt of the healing of the deaf and mute man attracted people to Jesus. But it is more likely that it was the testimony of the Gerasene demoniac, which we looked in Mark 5, that was responsible for this crowd that gathered to hear Jesus. Remember that after he was set free and his sanity was restored, a truly remarkable healing, he had wanted to go with Jesus. But Jesus would not let him. Rather he told him to go and tell his own people how much the Lord had done for him. And that is what he did throughout that whole area. "So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed."[4] It confirms the power of personal testimony. When we share what the Lord has done for us, it encourages others to want to meet this Jesus themselves. Many, many people have come to faith in Christ through first hearing what God had done in someone's life, usually a family member or friend. Jesus calls all who follow him to be his witnesses. A witness does not persuade people to believe like an evangelist does. A witness simply shares what they have experienced of the amazing grace of God. A witness is one who through what they share points people to God.

Mark tells us that the crowd had been with Jesus for three days. By then they would have eaten whatever food they had brought with them, probably not thinking that they would be with Jesus for so long. It says something about the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus that people did not want to go home. They wanted to stay with him as long as possible. It must have been a very special time, like the revivals of the past where there was such a sense of the presence of God that people camped for days on end to listen to the preaching and to get their lives right with God. This is what was happening in Mark. The crowd were being fed spiritually through the teaching of Jesus. The truths they heard touched them in the very depths of their beings. They did not want to miss out on a word, nor miss seeing lives transformed through his healing touch. There is something very special about seeing people's lives being changed through being in the presence of Jesus.

However, the time came for the crowd to go home, and Jesus knew they needed some nourishment before they left lest they fainted on the way. Jesus said to his disciples, "I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance."[5] Just as Jesus was aware of the needs of this crowd who had been with him for three days, so too is he as aware of your physical needs as he is of your spiritual ones. God's concern for you is total, spirit, soul and body, and his provision covers all these areas of your lives.

After Jesus says this, the disciples immediately throw up their hands in despair saying words to the effect, "Where are we going to find food to feed so many is this deserted place? There is not a shop for miles." They want to dismiss the Master's request and put it in the 'too hard' basket. It is no small undertaking to feed four thousand people, and that may have only been the men in the crowd. Catering for a group as the youth did so well last night is challenge enough, but imagine doing that for four thousand! That is no small undertaking. However, this does not faze Jesus one bit. He applies a principle that is found throughout Scripture. He asks the disciples what they have, and then he takes the seven loaves of bread along with the few small fish and performs a miracle. He feeds the multitude. We will return to this in a few moments when we look at the closing verses of this passage.

Note what it says at the end of this incident. "The people ate and were satisfied."[6] Just as these people had all they wanted to give them the strength to go to their homes, so Jesus is the only One who can satisfy the restlessness of the human heart. And he does not do it partially, but totally. There is a hymn in the 'Missions Services' section of the Second Edition of the Presbyterian Hymn Book which goes like this:

"O Christ, in Thee my soul hath found, and found in Thee alone,

the peace, the joy, I sought so long, the bliss till now unknown.

Now none but Christ can satisfy, none other name for me!

There's love, and life, and lasting joy, Lord Jesus, found in Thee."

Although these words may be couched in language that we do not use much today, the thoughts expressed in them contain the timeless truth, that only in Jesus can we experience life in all its fullness;[7] life as God intended it to be.

One further thought before leaving this story of the feeding of the four thousand. The word Mark uses for 'basket' in this passage is different to that in the account of the feeding of the five thousand in Mark 6:44. In Mark 6:44 the word for basket describes that which was used by the Jewish people for carrying food when they travelled. It was relatively small and shaped like a bottle, narrow at the top and wider at the foot. In the passage we have just read another word for basket is used, that was more like a hamper. For example it was this kind of basket that Paul was lowered in over the wall of Damascus when he was escaping from the Jews who sought his life.[8] It describes the much larger basket that the Gentiles used. It is astonishing to think that the disciples picked up enough leftovers to fill seven of these baskets. However the really important truth that comes out of the story is this. The feeding of the five thousand that took place in Jewish territory was symbolic of Jesus coming to meet the needs of the Jewish people. His feeding of the four thousand in non-Jewish territory is symbolic of his coming to meet the needs of the Gentiles. It affirms God's intention that has been so from the very beginning of time, that all nations would be blest through his Son, for only He can satisfy the desire of every living creature.

After dismissing the crowd Jesus crosses the lake to Dalmanutha, more likely Magadan as there is no historical record of a place called Dalmanutha. Once again the Pharisees come to test him, asking for a sign that would prove beyond doubt that he was the long-awaited Messiah. Mark tells us that Jesus "sighed deeply," or literally, "groaning in his spirit." There are none so blind as those who will not see. As if what he had done already was not proof enough. Nothing would convince them otherwise. Their minds were made up. Jesus was an impostor, a blasphemer and would have to be disposed of. Faith is the essence of the Christian life. Demanding signs takes away the necessity for it. You can understand the deep anguish of Jesus at the stubborn refusal of the Pharisees to believe. And there are many today who are like them. They say they want conclusive evidence of the existence of God but have no intention of taking the matter any further. Jesus said to 'doubting Thomas,' "...blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."[9]

And it is a similar kind of frustration that you can sense in Jesus words to his disciples in the last part of this passage, when twice he says to them, "Do you still not ... understand."[10] They had seen the feeding of the five thousand and had gathered up twelve baskets of pieces left over. They had just witnessed the feeding of this crowd of four thousand with food enough and to spare. On both occasions Jesus had taken the little they had and it became enough not only for them but for all who were with them. It is as if Jesus is saying, "Why are you so worried? Don't you remember what happened before? Has not experience taught you that you need not worry about such things like that if you are with me?" Too often we are daunted by the need and feel the situation is hopeless. And yet in your own experience God has brought you through. Sorrow came - and you came through it still intact. Temptation came - and somehow you did not fall. You were ill - and somehow you recovered. You faced a seemingly unsolvable problem - and somehow it was solved. You reached breaking point, the end of your tether - yet somehow you went on. When you really think things through you discover that God has never let you down, and he never will. You can trust him. This is the message he had for his disciples, and is his message to you and I today. Trust me he says. I will see you through. Don't be afraid. Put what you have into my hands and I will meet your need, whatever it is today.