A Major Transition in Jesus Ministry

All right, let's open our Bibles to Mark chapter 6. We are going to, we are going to finish the great Galilee and ministry tonight and we are going to make a major transition in Christ's ministry. A major transition from that ministry and Galilee, which has been so widespread, so extensive, three major tours of the whole region of Galilee, many miracles, many teachings, many amazing things going on. But we're going to make a transition into a different phase of ministry for our Lord, which is often called the training of the twelve. We've kind of been leading up to this since the Pharisees officially spoke on behalf of the nation and rejected the Lord Jesus as King and Messiah, even though not all the people feel that way obviously, but the religious leadership has taken stand against him. And we've kind of been seeing it go this direction and now it is going to take a major shift. What we're going to talk about tonight is the last event in the great Galilee and ministry. It's really not an event. It's just the impact on Herod from what Jesus had done in his great Galilee and ministry. And then we're going to make a transition into the training of the twelve where Jesus begins to pull back more and more from the crowds, not exclusively, not completely, but more and more Jesus will take time to instruct his twelve, the twelve disciples and spend focused time with them and teaching them and modeling for them what ministry is going to be like to prepare them for when he dies and returns to his father and they are left to plant the church. We're only about a year or a little over a year from the time that Christ will die. And so in this last year, Jesus is really going to pour himself into these twelve men. Okay, now let's in Mark chapter six, let's finish up the great Galilee and ministry with this effect of Jesus ministry on Herod. This account is found or a portion of it at least found in three of the gospels. We're going to take Mark's account beginning in verse 14. King Herod heard about this for Jesus name had become well known. Now again, place this in the context from week to week, we, you know, we're following chronologically through the life of Christ and what is it that he heard about? Well, he's heard about the great Galilee and ministry and the fame of Jesus because of that. Jesus has been traveling with the twelve disciples throughout Galilee, lots of miracles, lots of amazing things being done as we've seen and we've traced them out. Now, Herod has heard about this. News of this has come to him. Now, it's amazing that that would even be the case because Herod was completely disinterested in the Jews. Now, this is not the same Herod that was, was the Herod that spoke enough when Jesus was born. Sometimes get a good study Bible and trace the family tree of Herod the great. Herod the great was the one who was ruling when Jesus was born and he had several sons and and relatives who then took over after him, at least four. And this is one of those. He was given Galilee and Peria to rule over. He had absolutely no concern and care for the Jews. Spend a lot of time in Rome. He spent a lot of time in great building projects. He despised the Jews so much that he made Tiberius, his capital, a Roman city, rather than a Galilee in city, made a Roman city named after a Caesar to be his capital. So it's really of not really any great surprise that he would not have been hearing about Jesus till now. But he gets word of this Jesus and notice what is being reported to him, maybe even by his counselors are giving him different information about who this is. Middle of verse 14 some were saying John the Baptist has been raised from the dead and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him. Others said he is Elijah still others claimed he is a prophet like one of the prophets of long ago. But when Herod heard this, he said John the man I beheaded has been raised from the dead. Now Herod was very suspicious. He was kind of interested in the spirit world and that kind of thing. And so he was very superstitious. And so Herod among the reports that are being given to him as to who this is, he's hearing about Jesus wanting to find out who is this. And so these different reports are coming in and he latches on to the one that this is John the Baptist whom I beheaded. Now what Mark does next is he takes us back to the time when John was beheaded. It evidently has happened in the recent past. But he takes us back to that event because Herod has referenced the fact. I think this is John and being the superstitious man that he is, he feels like because John has been raised from the dead. And that's an incredible thing to believe for a pagan that that would happen. You know, but he's very superstitious because he's been raised from that he has increased powers. And that's why I'm hearing about all these miracles. It must be John and all of this is coming out of guilt. And we'll see why as we get into the story. Okay, verse 17 for Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodius, his brother Phillips wife whom he had married for John had been saying to Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. Let me stop right there and just give you a little bit of background here. Herodius was the wife of one of Herod's half brothers. This is a really mixed up family. Again, if you trace the family tree, interesting, all the offshoots and branches of this tree, but it's one of her as half brothers. Herodius was also the daughter of another one of his half brothers. So this is his sister-in-law and niece. Okay. On a trip to Rome, Herod is infatuated with Herodius and persuades her to leave her husband, his brother half brother and marry him. Actually, the marriage took place while she was still married to Herod's half brother. So you're getting an idea why John would jump all over that. You know, I mean, John who preached repentance and righteousness just let Herod have it with both barrels, which shows you something about John, doesn't it? It shows you here was a man who had no fear. He had no fear of political power or what might happen to him. And he just called it like it was preach the law of God like it was and Herod was in these crosshairs. And so Herod arrest him puts him in prison, verse 19. So Herodius nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him, but she was not able to because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. Isn't that interesting? And then the verse ends when Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled yet he'd like to listen to him. There's actually the Greek phrase here is a little difficult to understand and some would translate it. He did many things when he heard John, he did many things. In other words, he was he was maybe making some changes in some things. Maybe he was responding somewhat to John. He had a fear, a respect of John, knowing he was a holy man. And there's this interesting thing going on where he's actually protecting him by keeping him in prison. You see, put him in prison because he didn't like what he was saying, but once he started listening to him, once he started having him come in and talk to him some, Herod is intrigued with this man and possibly is responding in some degree to what he's saying. But his wife wants John dead. She just has a grudge against him, hates him and she wants him dead. And there's a sense in which Herod is keeping that from happening by keeping him in prison. Okay, this is a really interesting scenario going on here. Okay, any questions up to this point before we get into the next part of this story? Any questions, comments about Herod and John the Baptist? I wonder why he would say no to the Gentile. Why John would take note? You know, that's an interesting question because he's breaking God's law, he's breaking the law of Moses. Herod doesn't care anything about the law of Moses. He is a Gentile. He is not a Jew. But John, remember, even in his earlier ministry, Roman soldiers were coming to him and saying, what was me to what what must we do to show signs of repentance? And he said, you know, be satisfied with your wages and so forth. So John evidently had an ear among Gentiles too. And maybe for that reason, felt compelled to address Herod sin. Yes, Gentiles were not excluded in the sense that Israel was going to be a light to them and to be a witness to them. God always wanted to reach out to the Gentiles. So for whatever reason, John pounced on this and took her it on. And it might have simply been the fact that Herod is such a high profile figure. He's the king. And for him to be living in this kind of open sin, John's not just not going to wink at that and let it go. He's going to call him on it. Maybe just been in John's nature as a righteous man to respond against that. Okay. Anything else? Okay, verse 21. Finally, the opportune time came, opportune time for what? To kill him for Herodius to get her way. Okay. On his birthday, Herod gave a banquet. And it need to be able to give yourself your own birthday party. Gives a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodius came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. The king said to the girl, ask me for anything you want. I'll give it to you. And he promised her with an oath, whatever you ask, I will give you up to half my kingdom. This is probably not a Johann Strauss waltz that she danced. I don't think it was. In fact, this whole situation was probably a highly degrading licensious, sensual party atmosphere, which was probably getting worse by the minute. I mean, that's the way things were in Roman courts of the day. If you know anything about Roman history, you know that that was the case. And so this probably was a pretty raunchy party. And Herodius sees an opportunity and evidently, she's the one who sends her 17 year old daughter, Josephus, the Jewish historian tells us 17 year old daughter, Salome, in to dance for Herod and his guests. And Herod is very pleased with that. Obviously in a very sensual way and promises her on an oath, I'll give you whatever you ask up to half my kingdom. And she runs out to ask for Mama. Now you can just see the wheels turning behind that, can't you? Mama has probably set all this up and told her, you know, if there's any promise to you, you come back. I'll tell you what to say. So she goes and and verse 24 said to her mother, what shall I ask for the head of John the Baptist? She answered. Now look at this indecent impudent, haste, horrifying request in verse 25 at once the girl hurried into the king with the request, I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Well, I suppose a hush fell over the audience then and whatever, you know, partying was going on. There's dead silence now when that request is made. Nobody's ever asked for anything like that before at a party like this. And verse 26, the king was greatly distressed. Why would you be distressed? Like John fear John didn't he? May and the Bible says because he knew as a holy man, righteous man maybe felt being a superstitious as he was. If I do anything to harm him now, I'm going to be in big trouble. You know, the gods are going to get me. It may well have been what he was thinking. So he's greatly distressed, but notice because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. What does that tell you about here? He's a people pleaser. Yeah. More interested in public opinion and anything else. Yeah. He's full of pride, isn't he? Someone has said the hardest thing in the world to do is get down off your high horse. And for him to back off now of what he's promised. In front of all of his guests, even though it horrifies him to think of what the request is, he's not going to lose face in front of all of his guests. And so he goes through with it. Verse 26 because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. Verse 27. So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. The man went beheaded John in the prison and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl and she gave it to her mother on hearing of this. John's disciples came, took his body and latered into him. Groose some stuff, isn't it? Now, for just a moment, put yourself in John's place. Put yourself in John's place. Think about this man's career. Think about his life. God has groomed him his entire life to be a faithful, proclamer of the kingdom of God and the Word of God prepare the way for the Messiah. And John did his job well. He was faithful to God. What do you think John was thinking when he's thrown in prison? What do you think John was thinking when the executioner walked in his cell? He knew what was happening. What do you think John was thinking? It's impossible for us to know, isn't it? But I try to put myself in his shoes and I wonder if I might have been asking myself, is this what I get? I mean, don't we often ask ourselves that in much lesser circumstances? If things don't go quite right, if things, I mean, even even if there's tragedy in our lives or great trial, God, is this what I get for trying to be faithful to use? Is what I get for serving you? I mean, I gave up everything. I've laid my life on the line. And now this is what I get. I have no clue whether or not John felt that way at all. And I don't want to impune him in any way, but where the scriptures are silent, I'm just putting myself in his place and wondering what I would think in my own simple responses and self-centered responses. What would I think? What? Yeah. Yeah. Certainly we have that story where John is doubting whether or not Jesus really is the Messiah and he's already in prison when he does that. So we know that that was hard on him. We know that it did create some some doubt in his mind and heart. How deep that was, whether or not he said, okay, once they brought the report back, Lord, forgive me. I shouldn't have doubted. Yeah, we don't know, but we do know that that this was extremely difficult for him. Yeah. Okay. Any other comments or questions about this story? Well, this is here. I'd like to listen to him. John in prison, and he didn't think he was the Son of God. He didn't think he had a brother, a brother, a brother, a brother, a brother, a sister, a sister, a sister, a son of God. He's the son of God. Yeah, he might have. Sounds like they have a pretty John. Does say he liked to listen to him. Yeah, he may have. One other thing just before we leave this story in verse 29, on hearing of this, hearing what had happened to John, his disciples came and took his body. I just like the way that the scriptures say that. It didn't say they came and took John. John wasn't there. John was with his Lord in heaven. He was in heaven with God, but they took his body. It's all they could do. Took his body. And I love the way Matthew says it. I think it's Matthew 1412 says, and they went and told Jesus. Took his body, buried it and went and told Jesus. What a what a pattern that is very simple, but a pattern for us when we give our loved ones up to the Lord and death. We take the body. We place it in a grave. And let's not forget that last part. And we go tell Jesus. Let's talk to him. Go spend some time with him. Go get along with him. Get his perspective on what's happened. Okay. All right. Any other comments about this ending of the great Galilee and ministry? Okay. Jesus in John chapter six. Let's turn to John six. Feed the 5,000. That's the next event. In the life of Christ. Again, place this in context. Jesus had just finished the last tour of Galilee with his 12 disciples, preaching, healing, casting out demons, doing miracles of mercy and power. And John the Baptist has been killed. Herod's heard about Jesus popularity. Questions who he is and so forth. Mark says that when the disciples came back to report to Jesus about their tour of Galilee and they're having this debriefing session. Mark says in Mark chapter six that there were so many people around Jesus and the disciples. They didn't even have time to eat. And that's when Jesus says to the disciples in Mark chapter six in verse 30 and 31. Come apart and rest a while and they got into a boat to go across to leave the crowds and go across the Sea of Galilee. Now that's where we pick up the story in John six, verse one where it says sometimes after this Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee. That is the Sea of Tiberius. Now let's take a look. Well, go ahead and read verse two and then we'll take a look at the map and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous science he had performed on the sick. Actually, Mark's gospel says many of them ran along the shore. As Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee on a boat, many of them ran along the shore and and actually some of them arrived at the location where Jesus is going before the boat got there. And you say, how can they do that? It's going to cross the Sea and they ran, well, let's look at where he was going. Okay. It may help the picture of this a little bit and understand Jesus probably debriefed his disciples in Capernaum. That's his home base for ministry in Galilee. That's probably where they regroup get back together. They're talking about, you know, what's happened. And so they get in the boat here. I believe it is Luke's gospel in Luke nine that tells us. They went to Bethesda. Okay. So going across the Sea of Galilee, that doesn't mean boom way down here. It means kind of hugging the shore to go here. They are intending to go away for retreat, if you will, for some time of R and R. I mean, Jesus has said to them in Mark six, 31 come apart and rest a while. We need to get some rest. But they're not really going that far. And so you can see how people would, would easily trace them along the shore and be able, some of them even get there before the boat got there. Okay. Some of the younger ones know down. So notice, notice what happens next. Verse three, then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover feast was near. So Jesus takes his disciples, goes up on a mountainside evidently to do more talking about their ministry. And what had happened in their tour of Galilee. Remember Jesus was not with them. He had sent them out to by two. And now they're all coming back to talk about what had happened in this preaching tour of Galilee. But as this is happening, crowds are gathering below. They're up on a mountainside crowds are gathering below. Initially, some people have gotten there even before Jesus boat landed. Other people are catching up with them. Mark and Matthew both say that were people that people were coming out of all the towns and villages in that area. Catching up to where Jesus was. And then verse four here says that Passover time was coming. So Passover crowds were beginning to gather in groups as they often did. People who were getting ready to travel to Jerusalem for the Passover. And so what you've got is. A huge crowd of people starting to gather as Jesus is looking for some R&R with his guys who've just come off this intense preaching tour. Well. The Bible says that Jesus, I think it's Luke's gospel that talks about the fact that Jesus welcomed the crowd warmly and began to teach them. Mark and Matthew talk about that Luke says he also began to heal people. So now please get the picture here. And by the way, this is the only. Event in the gospels besides the resurrection that is in all four gospels. All four gospels is a very significant event. There's some wonderful lessons here. This is the first event when Jesus starts pulling away to train his disciples. And even though he's among a huge crowd, everything he's going to do here is for the purpose of training the disciples. This is going to be very clear as we go through this story. But a huge crowd of people, we know that the Bible says there were 5,000 men. Along with women and children, some estimate upwards of 15,000 people may have gathered here, maybe more. So just get a picture here of the huge crowd of people that have come and converged on Jesus. And Jesus does not tell them. I came over here to get some rest. Leave me alone. Know the Bible says he warmly welcomed them and began to teach them and began to heal. And I think this is going to be a great lesson to his disciples in compassion. In fact, one of the gospels says that he had he was moved with compassion on the crowd. And that's why he began to teach them and began to heal. And this would last. A great part of the day. Okay. Now what happens next in verse 5 happens early on in this this event. And then there's going to be if you put all the gospels together, you get the whole picture. There's going to be a span of probably several hours before the next event in John's gospel. But let's let's look at verse 5. When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, this crowd is converging. He said to Philip, where shall we buy bread for these people to eat? Now, Philip was from Bethesda. Okay. So what he's saying is Philip, we're the best restaurants in town. Where's the best supermarket in town? You know this area. What where's the best supermarket? Interestingly enough, this is the only time in the gospels where Jesus asks advice of someone. And so John quickly adds in verse 6. He asked this only to test him for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Okay. Do you see Jesus training? Jesus is going to use this event to train his disciples and he starts out with a question. The question to Philip is where can we get enough food to feed these people? This is a test. Jesus is in the classroom. He's teaching. He's training and he's going to start out with a test question. And the question is designed to test Philip so that if and when and he does give the wrong response, Jesus can use that teaching. Okay. And all the disciples. And so that's what's happening here. This is not just a miracle of feeding of 5,000 people. We often read this story and all we think about is how five loaves and two fish fed so many people. Wow. What a miracle. That's great and that is a miracle. But the real purpose of this is not to feed a crowd. The real purpose is to teach the disciples. First of all, a lesson in compassion. I know you're tired. I pulled you out here to get away from the crowd and to get some R and R. But my heart's breaking for these people and we're going to minister to come on. Let's go. Okay. A lesson in compassion. And then there's a lesson in faith when he questions Philip here about where we're going to get the people to feed this. This is the test verse seven. Here's Philip's answer. Philip answered him eight months wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite. Now Philip is obviously the CPA among the disciples. He doesn't even answer Jesus question. Where are we going to get food Jesus asks Philip doesn't say down at the Bethesda. First and first and fifth street IGA. He doesn't give him a location. He doesn't answer the question. He starts calculating. Okay. Must be so many people for square. 100 yards. I estimate this many people. Okay. How many how much for each person? Eight months wages. He's got it all figured out. You know, I don't know if you had a calculator or was eight months wages. That's what it would take. That's not what Jesus asked him. But Philip responded a lot like most of us do. When faced with an impossible task, we start counting our own resources, figure out how we're going to do it. And Jesus is testing his faith. Are you willing to trust me or is your first response going to be? Look at your limited resources and figure out how much it's going to take. And then figure we can't do it. We can't do it. Isn't that our default response? You know, when we face a real test, we start looking at our own resources and say, we can't do it. We just can't do it. It's not enough. Can't do it. Jesus is really going to stretch their faith here. You know, they're not taking into the equation the power of Jesus. All they're taking is what's in the pocketbook. And that's never how God measures what He wants to do. He's never limited to our resources. Never. I think, and I include myself in this, most of us have very little concept. I'm really, I'm seriously including myself. Very little concept of what it means to live by faith. What it means to step out on faith when the resources aren't there. If it's something you know, God wants you to do. I'm not talking about foolhardy stuff. I'm not talking about walking to the top of the Empire State building and throwing yourself off. You know, trusting God to take care of you. I mean, even Jesus wouldn't do that when Satan attempting to reduce the temple. I'm not talking about that. Not talking about foolish stuff. I'm talking about when your convinced God is moving and wants you to do something, but you don't have the resources. We were most of us really don't know how to live by faith. Me included. And so Jesus is testing him now. If again, if you put all the gospels accounts together, what you would find is that Jesus then leaves the question hanging and never responds to Philip's answer and goes about healing and teaching. Probably for several hours because the other gospels tell us that it's later in the day when the disciples come to him and say, you know, it's getting late in the day, send these people to the villages around here so that they can find them something to eat. I don't know how much more calculating they've done through the day. I don't know what else they've figured, but they've reached the same conclusion. We do not have the resources to feed these people. Lord, it's getting late in the day. We're getting a developing crisis on our hands here with these people staying late in the day without anything to eat. Just send them into the nearby villages and let them forage for themselves. And you know what Jesus tells them? I believe it's Luke's gospel that says this Jesus and maybe one of the other gospels too. Jesus told them, no, you give them something to eat. What? Why are we supposed to give them to eat? Well, Andrew has the answer and that's where John's gospel picks up. Verse 10 verse 8, another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon's Peter brother, Simon Peter's brother spoke up, here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish. And then he says, but how far will they go among so many? Boy, I just see myself written all over this story. You know, Andrew's been doing his own figure and at least Andrew is willing to say, you're telling us to feed them? Okay, Lord, here's all the food we got. Five small loaves and don't think of French bread here, okay? Okay, the French haven't even gotten started yet. These are the word that's used here is a little round biscuit size pieces of bread. Okay, so five of those and two fish, two fish just enough to small fish, the Bible says. Maybe anchovies, I don't know, but two small fish. And this is just enough for a boy's lunch. Now, Andrew is at least willing to make that available to the Lord. I mean, he knows how far will this go? I mean, this won't feed much more than this little boy, but Lord, here it is. He's at least willing to make it available to the Lord, which is another lesson that the disciples need to learn. They need to learn a lesson in compassion, they need to learn a lesson in faith, and they need to learn a lesson in availability. Whatever you have, give it to the Lord and he'll do something with it. And that's another hard lesson to learn, isn't it? Whatever you have, if you're willing to give it to God, he'll do something with it. You know, I often have the attitude, what is this? What am I? What are my abilities among so many? And the needs, Lord, just know this is too much. And God says, if you just give me what you have, then I'll do something with it. That's a great lesson for any of us to learn about walking with Christ. So here's what happens, verse 10. Jesus said, have the people sit down. There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down about 5,000 of them. The other gospels say that they sat down in companies of 50,000, and 100. By the way, that's good organization. God values organization. Believe it or not, he does. They sat down, the disciples had them sit down in groups of 50,000, and 100. I mean, they're not just scattered all over the place. They're organized into groups. Verse 11, Jesus then took the loaves, gay thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. Now, wouldn't you love to have seen this miracle? I don't know how it happened. I mean, I know what happened. I don't know what it looked like. Did Jesus take the five loaves and two fish? The Bible says he gave thanks for them, and then did he just start passing them out to the disciples, and as he's passing them out, he just keeps passing out. And he's already passed out 35, and now he's passed out 100, and now he's passed out 600, and where's all this coming from? I mean, obviously, he's a miracle, but what it looked like, I don't know. Did Jesus drop it in baskets, and all of a sudden they look in the basket, and it's full? I don't know exactly what it looked like, but obviously, it's an overwhelming miracle. And verse 12 says, when they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, gather the pieces that are left over, let nothing be wasted. There you go, mama. That's what you need to tell your kids when they're eating. Jesus said it, let nothing be wasted. That doesn't mean you have to eat everything on their plate, though, right? Jesus didn't say that. He said if it was any leftover, don't waste it. Let it go some good. Verse 13, so they gathered them and filled, look at this, 12 baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. I don't know, I guess all the fish got eaten, but there's five or 12 baskets of barley loaves left over, and it's been noted many times, one for each disciple. So maybe they're going to eat off of this for a couple days. I don't know. Interesting miracle. Great lessons the disciples needed to learn about compassion on people, even when you're tired, faith and trusting God to do what looks impossible and giving whatever you have, making it available to him, and let him do with it, what he wants. Great lessons. So Jesus is now teaching his disciples this is what ministry is. That's what ministry is about. Questions, comments about the story before we move on. I'd like to maybe cover one more thing if we have time. But any questions, comments? We'll stop here if you have some questions. So, trust in faith, regardless of the result. This works out. Yes. We don't always have enough fish and give me this. No. No. Good point, John. Just because we trust God for something doesn't mean we're always going to have 12 baskets left over, and everything's going to work out like it did here. There's going to be a great miracle. But that's the whole purpose of trusting God, isn't it? If faith was really just a check, a blank check, and I get whatever I want, then what are we trusting? What is our faith in? Our faith is in our request. What we're going to get works. Faith is not really in God unless it is willing to say, I'm trusting you. And if you do the miracle and there are 12 baskets left over, wow. I'll rejoice in that. But if you don't, I was trusting you. I wasn't trusting that I was going to get what I asked. I think there's something that's always come home to me when we talk about prayer. People talk about faith in prayer and making requests of the Lord. A lot of times what we're actually talking about is faith in our prayers or faith in our faith. Do I have enough faith to get what I'm asking for? That's faith in your faith. It's not faith in God. Faith in God says, I'm trusting you to do what's best. I realize with my corrupt, sinful heart, my inability to see two steps ahead of me, much less see the future and what your plan is, I confess that I may not be asking the right thing. And so I trust you to do what's right. And sometimes it's not what we thought it would be. And if we still are trusting God, he hasn't let us down. He's just said, I've got another way for this to go. You may see it later, you may not. That's a great point, John. It doesn't always turn out this way. Okay? We're going to have to stop. Right on the heels of this, Jesus is going to refuse to be made king because 5,000 people get fed miraculously. The crowd is ready to hoist him on their shoulders, take him to Jerusalem, right now with them to the Passover feast, and rebel against the Romans and crown him king. This is the man we want. And Jesus is going to squash it. And what happens, it really gets interesting after that because what happens next is an incident where Jesus is going to teach his men through hardship. His miraculous power so that they will be ready for the sermon. He's going to preach the next day, which will drive the whole crowd away. And they won't want to follow him anymore. And so Jesus is going to prepare them overnight on the Sea of Galilee to really trust him even when he preaches such a hard sermon that the crowd leaves. I mean, Jesus is really training his men now. He's really teaching them everything that's going to happen now is for their growth and encouragement and strengthening so that they'll be able to really follow him and serving well. So we'll get to that next week. Okay? Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. We marvel at the riches of your word. Especially in the life of our Lord as we see the way he taught his disciples and the way he brought them along and trained them, put them in situations where they were stretched beyond their capacity. And then they saw him come through. Father, help us to learn the lessons that Jesus is teaching his disciples. And I pray especially as we enter this phase of our Lord's ministry where he's really teaching. He's really training these men what ministries all about how to do it. I pray that we would be really attentive in our hearts and with our ears and we would learn to what it means to follow you and to serve you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.