Hello friends, and thank you for joining me in our daily reading from God's Holy Word. Today we're reading Mark chapter 6. In this lesson we see Jesus perform miracles with bread, fish, and water, and we are invited to ask, Who is this Jesus? Before we read, let's pray.
Our Father in Heaven show us Jesus, and then help us to open Him. Amen. Amen. Mark chapter 6, He went away from there and came to His hometown, and His disciples followed Him, and on the Sabbath He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard Him were astonished, saying, Where did this man get these things?
What is the wisdom given to Him? How are such mighty works done by His hands? It's not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joseph, and Judas, and Simon, and are not His sisters here with us? And they took offense at Him.
And Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor accepted in His hometown, and among His relatives and in His own household. And He could do no mighty work there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people, and healed them, and He marveled because of their unbelief. And He went about, among the villages, teaching. And He called the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.
And they charged them to take nothing for their journey except the staff. No bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on to tunics. And He said to them, Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you, and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.
So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil, many who were sick, and healed them. Can Herod heard of it? For Jesus' name had become known.
Some said, John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him. But others said, He is Elijah. And others said, He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.
But when Herod heard of it, he said, John, whom I beheaded, has been raised. For it was Herod who had sentenced, and she's John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death.
But she could not for Herod feared John, knowing that he was righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. From Herodias' daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests.
And the king said to the girl, Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you. And he vowed to her, Whatever you ask me, I will give you up to half my kingdom. And she went out to send to her mother. For what should I ask?
And she said, The Head of John the Baptist. And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on platter. And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head.
He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl. And the girl gave it to her mother when his disciples heard of it. They came and took his body and laid it in a tomb. The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.
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. And they went away and about to a desolate place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.
When he went ashore, he saw a very crowd and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, This is a desolate place and the hour is now late. Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.
But he answered them, You give them something to eat. And they said to him, Shall we go and buy 200 and an hour worth of bread and give it to them to eat? And he said to them, How many loaves do you have? Go and see.
And when they had found out, they said five and two fish. Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups by hundreds and by fifties and taking the five loaves and the two fish. He looked up to heaven and set up a lesson and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people.
And he divided the two fish among them all. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces out of the fish. And those who ate the loaves were 5,000 men.
Immediately, he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side to let Seida where he dismissed the crowd. And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea and he was alone on the land. And he saw that they were making headway painfully for the wind was against them.
And about the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them. And when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a coast and cried out for they all saw him and were terrified. And immediately he spoke to them and said, Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.
And he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. When they crossed over and they came to land at Ganeserit and moored to the shore, when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he came in villages, cities or countryside, they laid the sick in the market places and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment.
And as many as touched it were made well. Amen. This is God's Word. When Jesus adds to his healings the miracles of multiplying food and walking on water.
And at the heart of the chapter is the question, Who is this Jesus? He spoke with such authority, yet people said, He is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother, James and Joseph and Judas and Simon and these sisters here. He's just one of us, they said, and they took offense at him. A prophet is without honor in his hometown.
Others thought Jesus was a new prophet, like the prophets of old. Some thought Jesus was Elijah. Because the Old Testament ended with a promise, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day the Lord comes. And He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.
But Jesus wasn't Elijah to come. He said elsewhere, Elijah has already come. Speaking of John the Baptist, others like Herod thought Jesus was John the Baptist, risen from the dead for wicked Herod had John executed and thought John had resurrected. But John had said, Jesus is mightier than I, the strap of who save those, I am not worthy to stoop down untie.
And then even his disciples mistook Jesus for a ghost. Of course, Jesus was walking on the water and that made them terrified. I mean, who can do that? So Jesus said, take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.
So many people were confused and many are today about Jesus. Who do you say that he is? I think the best thing is to let Jesus show us. These two miracles particularly remind us of second kings in the ministry of Elijah.
In second king, six, Elijah and the prophets needed more space to live. So they went to cook wood for building. But as one was spelling along, his axe head fell into the water and cried out, alas, my master, it was borrowed. And Elijah cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron float.
Elijah made an iron axe head float, contoured in nature. More amazingly, Jesus himself walks on water. Then also in second king chapter four verse 42, a man came bringing bread, 20 levels of barley. And Elijah said, give to the men that they may eat.
But he started to say, how can I set this before a hundred men? So he repeated, give them to the man that they may eat. For thus says the Lord, they shall eat and have some left and they ate and have some left over. More amazingly, Jesus multiplied the bread and fish to feed 5,000 with some left over.
But Jesus is a prophet from God. But he is more than John or Elijah or Elisha. He is the greatest and the highest. He is not near man speaking for God, but he is the God man revealing God to man.
And this prophet is the good shepherd. Did you notice when he fed them any, it was because he had compassion on them for they were like sheep without a shepherd. And like the shepherd of Psalm 23, he made them, he commanded them to lie down in green pastures. And he quieted the waters.
So even though we walk in the valley of the shadow of death, we can fear no evil for he is with us. Surely his goodness and mercy will pursue us all the days of our life and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this, Jesus, true prophet and good shepherd.
In Jesus name, amen. Well, thank you for listening in and I hope you'll join me next time.