66 Jesus and your life will be springtime.’ One young man said, ‘Today Jesus un locked my heart and let the Father’s Spirit in.- Now my heart is like a new silver dol lar just made, new and bright.’ ” - Jesus Making a Little Girl Live Again M a r k S :21-24, 35-43 Memory V erse: “The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad” (Psa. 126:3). Approach: When people saw the won derful things which Jesus did, they came from everywhere to get help from Him. They began to know that He was able to do anything. L e s s o n S t o r y : One day, a rich ruler of the sy n a g o g u e came to Jesus and fell at His feet. He was in great trouble. H is little daughter was very sick. He begged Jesus to come and put His hands on her, for he thought •that then the child would live. Jesus started to go with the ruler to ♦ 'V i s i © * Lesson T ext: Mark 6:30-44. Golden T ext: “ The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28). Loaves and Fishes I T w a s the quantity, and not the quality, o f the food with which Jesus fed the multitude, which occasioned surprise. That which He distributed to the multitude constituted the usual fare o f the majority o f people o f that day. Even now, bread is the principal article o f diet ■ in the Holy Land. In most sections of the land, it is sup plemented with leben, or s o u r milk, but around Galilee it is eaten with fish. Two personal experiences will serve to illustrate the manner o f prep aration of these two staples o f the Pales tine natives. While we were exploring the Dead Sea region, the guides .and muleteers made their own bread. The ingredients were flour, salt, and water. They usually bor rowed one of our kettles to use as a mixr ing bowl. They' put their coarse whole wheat flour in this and mixed it to the con sistency o f dry biscuit dough. This they patted out into loaves about an inch thick and twelve to eighteen inches in diapieter. In the meantime, they had built a fire of brush upon some smooth, hard ground, and had let-it burn down to a bed of glow ing coals. When the loaf was ready, they scraped the coals aside and laid it on the ground. Then they heaped the coals over it again, and laid a few sticks over it to keep the fire going. In about fifteen or twenty minutes, the loaf was fished from the coals, beaten with a stick to free it from excess ashes, and was then ready for human consumption. When we were sailing around the Sea of Galilee, we stopped at noon at the site of
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
February, 1933
his house. On the way,, messengers came to them and said to the ruler, “Don’t trouble the Master further; your daughter is dead.” . How sorry the ruler must have felt ! But Jesus knew that, as the Son of God, He was able to conquer even death. He wanted the people to understand this. So He said to the ruler, “Be not afraid, only believe.” ; : Then He took with Him the ruler, and three of His disciples, Peter, James, and John. .They must understand this, too. When they reached' the home, there stood a great crowd of people crying. As Jesus went in, He said, “Why do you cry? The little girl is not dead, she is sleeping.” The people laughed at Him, but Jesus went ahead with what He had to do. He took the' father and the mother and the three disciples and went into the child’s room. There He spoke to her and called her back to life. How wonderful it was ! How the father and the mother and the disciples and the people must have be lieved, then, that Jesus had indeed come to give iife! The people who had laughed had to believe in Jesus now. ancient Bethsaida. We went exploring around the site for about a half hour. When we returned to the boat, we found that the boatman had built a fire, and had laid some of the fish which he had caught that morning on the coals and roasted them. These fish constituted the principal portion o f our noon meal. This expe rience reminded us of that of the dis ciples who returned to shore one day to find Jesus preparing fish on a fire o f coals. Outline and Exposition I, T he G athering M ultitude (30-33). The report o f the apostles, who had been sent forth by Jesus, included all things “both what they had done£«and what they had taught.” It is a good thing when the servants o f the Lord can report upon all they have done or taught. W e some times do things of our own design, and say things from our own wisdom, which, when viewed in the light o f the Lord’s presence, are scarcely proper to mention. That these servants were exceedingly busy is seen in the next verse where they are invited to come apart for rest. The Lord understands the stress and the strain of service too well to require the servant to continue without rest. Service for the Lord should be, in some sense, like a musical composition of perfect harmony, in which rests are as necessary as notes. The reason for the Lord’s invitation to the disciples is also seen in that “there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.” The Lord never expects His servants to be so overbur dened that they are nervous and dis traught; such a condition hinders the working o f the Holy Spirit, the One who alone can make the work stand for eter nity. They therefore departed into a desert place, but the multitude ran ahead and came to the place before the Lord and His disciples arrived. The crowd was augmented by people from the cities round about—those who joined in order to make
the most of the opportunity to secure some benefit from the Lord. Irrespective of the disciples’ needj the crowd thought nothing of giving them the opportunity for rest, as long as something might be obtained from them. The natural selfishness of the hu man heart is here clearly revealed. But the record also shows that Jesus is ever on the giving hand. He will continue to give as long as men will take what He has to offer them. II. T he C o m p a s s io n o n the M ultitude (34 ). The need of people always appealed to the Lord. These crowds, composed of some drawn to Him out of curiosity, some from an earnest desire to have the truth, and some with real burdens to be lifted, stirred His compassionate heart. Under neath all the manifest need, He saw them as sheep having no shepherd; ignorant, without knowledge of the truth; and with out protection. Those whose business it was to supply these needs had long since turned their backs upon the truth and were engaged in feathering their own nests at the expense o f those who had been placed under their care. The Lord saw the hid den need, and His servants should see that hidden need today. Meeting that need will go far toward relieving the physical distress so prevalent among us at present. In order that these sheep without a shepherd should have a shepherd’s care, the Lord began to “teach them many things.” We may be certain that His teach ing would be from the Scriptures; hence, He would be teaching them concerning the One of whom the Scriptures speak, that is, Himself. He Himself is the Way for the lost, the Truth for the ignorant, and the Life for those dead in trespasses and sins (John 14:6)v The shepherd’s business was to guard the sheep from all enemies, to lead them to the quiet waters, and to find them pas ture for.their sustenance. The members of the Lord’s flock may always depend upon Him to perform the work o f the shepherd; the trouble is that the sheep, being per verse, are continually straying. If we can teach the Christians of today to wait un til the voice of the Lord is heard, and then to obey that voice, we shall have solved most of the problems which confront the saints in these trying .days. III. P reparing for the M ultitude (35-39). After a full day o f teaching, and after their rest had been disturbed, the disciples o f our Lord advised Him to send the multi tude away, in order to secure needed food. It was not that they did not desire the best welfare of the people, but that they themselves had no means wherewith to meet the people’s need. It seemed too great to be met either by themselves or by the Lord. His word to them,; -<“Give ye them to eat,” must have fallen with start ling effect upon their ears. The Lord would have them deal gra ciously with the multitude, saying, “ Give them to eat.” As He Himself gives freely, so He would teach His disciples to give, as a matter of grace, without hope of re ward. He would have them give person ally, saying]ETGive y e them to eat.” To their objection that they had nothing to give, He added, “How many loaves have ye?” They had only five, and two fishes. This was a pitiful supply in the light of the need of five thousand men. But with the Lord, it was wholly sufficient. Is it pos sible that the Lord is supplying a suffi ciency today, but that His disciples are using their “ five loaves and two fishes” for themselves, before meeting the need of the multitude?
MARCH 12, 1933 JESUS MINISTERING TO THE MULTITUDE M a r k 6:1-56
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