Wednesday, April 28, 2021 AM

This is for us tonight. Let's go ahead and start with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before you tonight. We thank you for the great blessing. His 12 disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases.

He them take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread or money and do not have two tunics a piece to enter, stay there.

And from there, of that city,.

Shake off the very dust from your feet, testimony against them. So they departed. Now Herod the Tetrarch heard of all that was done by him. And he was perplexed because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead and by some that Elijah appeared and by others that one of the Herod said, John, I have beheaded, but things.

So he sought to see him. Then he took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. But when the multitudes knew it,.

They found those who had need of healing.

When the day began to wear away, the 12 came and said to him, send the multitude away that they may go into the surrounding towns and country and lodge and get provisions for we are in a deserted place here.

But he sent five loaves and two fish,.

Unless there were about 5 ,000 men. Then he said to his disciples, make them sit down in groups of 50. And they did so and made them all sit down. Then he took the five loaves and the two fish.

And looking up to heaven or the multitude.

So they all ate and were filled and 12 baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them. And it happened as he was alone praying that his disciples joined him. And he asked them saying, who do the crowds say that I am?

So they answered and said, John the Baptist, but some say Elijah, that one of the old prophets has risen again. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Peter answered and said, the Christ of God.

The Confusion Around Jesus and Peter’s Confession

Who Jesus was. Times have not changed very much. Speculation abounded. Oh, they thought he was Elijah. They thought he was maybe one of the other prophets having been raised from the dead. A lot of confusion about who Jesus was.

Previous passage, we should recall the mixture of faith and unbelief that I think gave rise to this opportunity to bring some clarification as to the confusion. There was a great mixture of faith and unbelief with the woman who came up to Jesus and touched his garment to be healed.

But she believed that, but didn't wanna say it was her. And at first deny that it was her.

We have the mixture of faith can do amazing things,.

But certainly not disciples. Mixture of faith and unbelief. And here, a great deal of confusion.

Christ Sends Out His Disciples to Preach and Heal

Of Jesus teaching the glad tidings of the kingdom of God.

This is 12 together and then sends them out. God, the sick and so began in chapter eight, he was modeling for his disciples. And then at chapter nine, now he sends them out to do what he had been doing.

He showed them how he would minister.

And this is the way that the rabbi took you on.

As his disciple. You were supposed to do everything that he did in just the way that he did. So, when you followed your rabbi, you followed him exactly. Did he always ford the river at this one spot? That's where you forded the river.

Did he sit down in a certain way to teach?

Then you would do that.

Did he duck down in a certain way to go under a low-hanging branch?

You did that.

Whatever your rabbi did, you did.

And so here, the disciple gives them power and authority.

And sends them out to preach the kingdom and heal the sick. With all the confusion going on, there's this moment of clarity where Peter answers. You are the Christ of God. And that, of course, is the central point.

That, of course, is the most important thing that was confessed and said. A lot of conjecture, but this confession is the main thing. It says to Jesus, you are the Christ of God. You are the anointed one of God.

You are the Messiah. That's what he's saying. And the following verses that will save your future show us that holding fast that confession will cost you everything. It'll get you into trouble, and you've got to be willing to hold onto that no matter what.

No matter what. Well, when you look at the passage about the way Jesus sent forth his disciples, anything odd? Yeah. Yeah, pretty ill-supplied, aren't they? Yeah, pack light. This is in contrast. This is in contrast to the beginning of chapter eight, where we're told that prominent women and widows, but when he sends out his disciples, yeah, he says, pack light.

You're going out with nothing extra.

And along with a few more wonders,.

Jesus tells, because I need to preach the kingdom of God.

For that is.

And yet, demons are being cast out.

Diseases are being cured. Wherever the gospel of the kingdom goes. We need to think about the importance. When Jesus was doing all these things, that's what led to the conjecture that he must be Elijah.

Elijah did miracles, we remember. Elisha, who received major miracles. We notice that there's a connection. When Jesus sends his disciples out to teach the kingdom, to preach the kingdom, he, but he doesn't load them down with supplies.

So essentially, when they go out,.

They, but they don't logistical support. And not only when they're going out,.

But when they're going out to the people, but when they're gathering, when the people are gathering in. So, back in chapter, and so on, and preaches the gospel of the kingdom, and then a great, and then very soon, a great multitude gathers to him.

And he starts teaching them parables, starts feeding them spiritually. Chapter nine, his disciples go out, every town, village, and so on. And then very soon, a great multitude gathers. Jesus feeds them food, right?

The loaf and loaves and fishes. Now, when the disciples went out, they were ill supplied. And then when they came back, and then the whole multitude followed them back.

Guess what?

They were still ill supplied. It's like, how do we feed 5 ,000 men, plus families, and so on? How are we going to do this?

And once again, it depends of Christ.

So, whether going out or gathering in, the lesson is Christ provides for the preaching of the kingdom of God. Did healing need to happen? Did demons need to be cast out? Did diseases need to be cured?

Do people need to be fed? There's always logistical issues. There's always needs, hurdles. There's always a bunch of mess, right? But who's the one who supplies?

Yeah.

So, Jesus Christ supplies all that his church needs. He supplies all that we need to do what he's called us to do. So, that's Christ provides for the preaching of the kingdom of God. He's the one who empowers the preaching of the kingdom of God.

Whatever the needs are, be they. We also see that Herod is interested in Jesus. Now, why is Herod interested in Jesus? He's a little bit, maybe he's a little bit nervous or afraid.

Jesus is a threat.

Yeah.

There's a multitude gathering.

But what does the politician want to do? Co-opt the movement. What happens? See, Herod liked John, remember? Herod liked John the Baptist. It was just because of his wife that John was in jail. And he would often have John come, you would go listen to John at some level, whether from amusement or just hearing something fresh or something.

But Jesus has thousands of people following him. I remember at the trial of Jesus, Herod was really glad that Pilate sent one to meet this guy. And it was a big disappointment because Jesus wanted to say a lot.

So, Herod is interested in Jesus, but we know it was not for any kind of pure motives. He wasn't seeking to repent of his sins or what must I do to be saved? That wasn't his interest.

Okay.

But it's interesting that we see.

That Herod, the texity of his wife,.

No word of clarification comes to Herod. Established or legitimized by the king. We've got a lot of ministry we've got to do. We better ask the government to give us some. That's been the standard operating procedure.

But the kingdom of men,.

There's a very are sitting that he is the Christ.

Jesus is the Christ of God. And what does he do? Well, in Christ, the confusion and the chaos of the curse are undone. What do we have here?

We have people who are struggling with sickness.

And a lot of people who have submitted Jesus, the majority of Jesus' audience, 70 of them were, you know, earn enough money to buy enough food for the next day. That's about 70 of his audience.

10 You're lame, you're a beggar, you know, you're blind.

Subsistence farmers, you know, people who are masons, carpenters like Jesus' father, fishermen. And then 5 were like the ultra rich who had a lot of money, who owned everything, Pharisees and so on.

So this crowd that's following him and interested in him, they don't have any options. They just spent the whole day not earning food, earning money for the food the next day. Okay, they just, they don't have anything with them.

So Jesus is like, okay, well, we could just let them all faint. And but notice what he does to his disciples, you feed them and puts them in that position. And then again, they're forced to depend upon Christ and then Christ supplies.

Christ supplies. But he undoes the chaos and the scarcity, the confusion of the curse. Everywhere he goes. Why is that important? Because he's preaching the kingdom of God. He comes around and he's preaching the kingdom of God, going and showing that in him, everything gets reversed.

He's bringing focus on the new creation and who he is and what he does. So disciples are to preach that, to preach the kingdom of God, the good news, the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. How in the world are they gonna do that?

They have to do so through the provision of Christ. And on him to have any success whatsoever.

And that Christ to help his political power.

Everybody loves to claim Christ. It's like, if every group, Christ would be smoking marijuana. Christ is for the sexual revolution. Christ is a social justice warrior. Christ is a communist. Everyone wants to claim Christ for their movement.

Why is that?

If he's not real or not important and so on and so forth. Well, the reason why is because we live in his world. This is all his. And so everybody wants to pretend like they own him. That he thinks like me.

But we need to clarify that who he is is who he is and he's revealed Christ. We should not be listening to what people want and then say, you want X. And then the resume changes five months later. Oh, this is what we're to be concerned about.

Well, yes, of course, that's what Christ is about too. Everybody's attention to who Jesus is and then he'll tell us what we really need. But we have to speak clearly as to the person of Christ and also pray for his provision and his direction.

Otherwise, we're going to be without the supply that we need in an all of confusion. Any questions or thoughts about this passage?

Yes, everybody's got to answer that, yeah.

John MacArthur and the whole crowd saw them kill two people for a lot, right there in front of everyone. And it said that, John MacArthur said, a lot of them. So it's almost like maybe a lesson to today.

Do who Christ really is, regardless if it scares someone or if it makes them uncomfortable or if they're disturbed. It's, I think.

We see a lot of waxing and waning in the ministry of Christ where the crowds would suddenly leave. They gather together and then they leave. And you see that in that moment with Ananias and Sapphira. But then later on, we hear that the church kept growing.

And

In the case of Ananias and Sapphira, some did stay.

Yeah, right. But it's an illustration of what we're told is that the flesh profits nothing. Right, the flesh profits nothing. It has to be by the spirit. It has to be God's actual work. Otherwise, it won't succeed.

I would say that whatever is in front of us that Christ wants us to do, then we should ask him for the provision to do it. A lot of people take a look at this and say, and they want to make miracles and so on to be normative.

Any time and any place, I do miracles. I call, you know, I control this power and authority invested in me. Therefore, I can do miracles anywhere, anytime, any place. When in fact, the miracles that we see in scripture and the situation, the miracles are situational according to God's sovereignty.

And so, you know, the point is, okay, if we're following Jesus and, oh, he wants us to do this. And it's pretty clear that he wants us to do this. Okay, God is free to work with means or without means, to use normal processes or completely without them.

He's totally free.

And he's father. And Christ is king of the universe. So if I've got to do this and I don't know how, then, well, obviously I should pray and see what God will do. Now, either this is going to be a 20 year long labor, incremental progress, where God's going to get all the glory and do a lot of good through that, or he's going to do something in 20 minutes, right?

And he'll get the glory that way. So I'm going to pray for what I need and then God's going to do what is best. So, you know, so I think that to me, the miracles in scripture are very much situational.

And the people who thought they could possess the power up and fled naked. For all of our edification, who thinks, to think that Jesus is a power word that we can manipulate. You know, we are, so we're called to live lives of faith, believe that God can do whatever he wants, however he wants, for he's righteous and good.

And then as situation arises, ask father for what we need. That's what he tells us to do. And not to be, and the other side of it, of course, is the over, I can just declare whatever and have it so, which is in some sense, displacing Christ.

The Limits of Miracles and the Need for Faithful Dependence

Actually gives us hints, or am I wrong? Take nothing for the journey, with your staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money. Now, how many of these faith healers,.

Except for this part of the verse,.

Yeah, they can heal, but this part of the verse,.

Very sage observation. All right, well, I'm supposed to go teach in TAG tonight as well. I'm going to my second booking, and.

I'm from.