in Mark chapter six. So beginning in verse 30 through verse 44, hear the word of the Lord. The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. This is pausing quickly when he sent them out two by two in the countryside. 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 in the boat 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. And when he went ashore, he saw a great 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 to 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 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat? A denarii was a day's wages, just for reference. 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. And 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 said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. Now they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up the 12 baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish, and those who ate the loaves were 5,000 men. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our Lord stands forever. Let's ask for his blessing as we open it up. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would teach us that Christ would speak through the preaching, through the word of God. and Holy Spirit, I pray that you would open our hearts to receive it. Lord, who has made man's mouth, who makes him deaf, seeing, or blind? It is but you. So Lord, I pray that you would teach us, put the words in my mouth, teach us what we should listen to and how we ought to hear you and respond. Lord, let the words in my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight. Oh Lord, my rock, and my Redeemer. Amen. We're all headed somewhere. Everything is headed somewhere. Now, to give you an example of that, think about when it rains here and it rains and it rains and it rains. When the ground can no longer hold the water and it becomes a puddle that comes up to your house. It's all going somewhere. Now, some of you may know, and I thank Bill for educating me on this, in the residential area to the east of our town, there's something that used to be called Fisk's Bayou. It was a navigable waterway that steamboats or other boats could come up and offload, load up, so on and so forth. But now the pump and the wall, they hopefully keep that water out. But when it does rain, Bill has waterfront property in his backyard. Fisks Bayou, that water is going somewhere. And when that water, that water is going to the Yazoo. But when you stand on the banks of the Yazoo, that water is headed to the Mississippi River. And when you stand on the banks of the Mississippi or on an overlook, that water is heading somewhere. It's heading to the Gulf, which is formerly called Mexico, now the Gulf of America. So they tell us. That water is headed out yonder. Now, in the same way our lives are going places, our hearts are going places, and our hearts need to be shepherded. The Army Corps of Engineers, they shepherd that water to places so that it does not destroy the land or our homes. Now, they have to do that because the water does not want to be shepherded. The land does not want to be cared for, but it needs it. And so do we, because we often start flowing the wrong direction. When it floods, when the Mississippi floods, when, you know, half the country has a ton of rain, it floods the Mississippi and the water flows the wrong direction up the Yazoo, up Fisks Bayou, perhaps. It's not being, it needs to be put back into place. It needs to return where it ought to go. And in the same way, we see a people here, disciples, crowns, they need to be shepherded. And, you know, all sorts of people came to Jesus for all sorts of reasons. That's what sheep do. Sheep need a shepherd. And Jesus sees them and he has pity on them. Because these people, these disciples even, he is their shepherd, these disciples. But even us, we are often like sheep without a shepherd. So Jesus calls us. He calls us to return. to return to him and so Jesus calls us now by his spirit to return to the shepherd of our souls. The spirit calls us, return to the shepherd of your soul. Now we're gonna see a few things first that the shepherd gives to those who come to him or return to him. What does the shepherd give? That's our first question we're going to look at. So in verse 30, says 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. It says they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. So as Jesus sent these disciples out two by two, gave them authority over demons, and they teach the same message that Jesus was giving them to repent, for the kingdom of God is near, they come back. And if you've ever been on a short-term missions trip, where the missions team does a debrief. You can imagine these disciples are so excited to tell Jesus, look at all the things we've done. Even the gospel of Luke, the disciples report when they come back, Lord, the demons are, you know, they're under our authority in your name. Things are happening in Galilee. It's a happening place. Jesus multiplied his ministry and these ministry workers come back and they're giving that good report. But as you can see, verse 31 tells us, many were coming and going, they had no leisure even to eat. Even while they're trying to give the report, people are maybe pestering them for teaching and for help. They're worn out. They're worn out. So Jesus, the first thing he gives, Even to these shepherds in training, who are still sheep, he gives them rest. Come away and rest a while. Come away and rest a while. Even the shepherds in training, even shepherds full time, such as I, for you, need to rest. So if I need rest, you most certainly need rest as well. And that's what Jesus provides for them here. But not just rest. Now we see that many saw them coming and going, verse 33, and they recognized them and ran there out on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. These are, you know, the Sea of Galilee is not terribly big. It is really just a large lake, excuse me, lake. And so they see them getting into the boat and you can actually see boats across the lake. So they're tracking that boat, they're walking around the side, they're keeping their eyes on that boat. and they follow it to where they see it's gonna land, and then by the time they get there, verse 34, when Jesus went ashore, he saw a great crowd. They beat them there. And if you're a tired disciple, if you went on a hardcore, short-terms, missions, evangelistic crusade, and you are worn out, and you're hungry and exhausted, the last thing you wanna see is a crowd of 10 to 20,000 people. The whole region, it feels like, is there. So it's almost like when you are going on vacation, let's say it's Monday morning, you're already at the beach, it's 10 a.m., you've just had a leisurely breakfast, you've laid out your blanket, and then you sit in your chair, you get a phone call, and it's your most annoying client. Don't you know I'm on vacation? Leave me alone. Leave me alone. That's what we might do. I'm sure that's what the disciples were thinking, if they're anything like us. But what does Jesus do? As we discussed just a few moments ago, it says he saw the great crowd and he had compassion on them. His soul moved when he saw these people. I'm sure Jesus was tired, but he saw that they were like sheep without a shepherd. You know, people aren't puppies and vice versa, but it's like when you see those poor, you know, sad animals with Sandra McLachlan song playing on the commercial, late night TV, you see they're looking up at you with those big eyes, begging for you to love them and give money. That's what Jesus saw to these poor souls made in the image of God. Sheep without a shepherd. You know, they come to Jesus for all sorts of reasons. Maybe they just wanna hear something interesting. They wanna see something cool. Maybe they need healing themselves. They're on a mission for self-actualization, to become enlightened and to expand their minds and their hearts. All kinds of reasons. But all those reasons show that they don't have anyone directing their souls, leading them to salvation. Jesus sees them and pities them. We know that they're like this because in John 6, Jesus performs the same miracle, all four gospels. But in John 6, he's telling them about the bread of life. He says some really hard things and they are ready to abandon him. Jesus feeds them anyway before that because they are sheep without a shepherd. And so because they are spiritually hungry people, he gives them soul food. He gives them rest and he gives soul food, not, you know, your Cajun fare, but the true food of the word of God to fill them up and to lead them. He gives rest. He gives soul food and we're going to see he gives real food. Now without reading it, just quickly describing it, the disciples are telling Jesus to send these crowds away. Okay, Jesus, this has been a great Bible conference that you've done impromptu. Now it's time to call it for a while. Why don't you have them? I'm sure they're hungry. Why don't we send them away and then we can finally rest too. They need food. We need food. We're all hungry. Jesus says, well, why don't you give them something to eat? And then of course they go through the This, I think, is a bit of sarcastic response. Well, shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat? Kind of like, Jesus. We would need, you know, 40 grand, 30 grands worth of money and our money to do that. And where are we gonna get that? We don't have that. Judas has got the money bag. We know he doesn't have that. What can we even do? So Jesus asked them to go and find what food they have, five loaves, two fish. And Jesus commands them all to sit down in groups. The word being used is for them to recline together. Because when you feasted, you sat on one elbow, put the other behind you in a circle. He has them sit together. He takes the bread, he breaks it, he distributes it through the disciples. And as he's distributing it, it was probably an unnoticed miracle as he's giving it out to them, the bread multiplies and multiplies and multiplies until far beyond 200 denarii worth of bread and fish has been distributed to these people. Now, you know, some people think this is a secret miracle. I don't think it is. I think probably word passed pretty quickly through the crowd that, hey, this was not here before Jesus did this. John's gospel says they were going to make him king by force because something extraordinary had happened. No one had seen anything like this, not since the days of old. I think Mark is trying to show us that. That with this rest, this soul food, and this real food, we are dealing with someone else entirely. Not just any prophet, but THE prophet. THE prophet. And a shepherd at that. Notice, we have food being satisfied, their souls being restored, they are being laid down in green grass, the text says. You know, he lays me down in green pastures. Leaves me beside still waters, he restores my soul. We have shepherd and prophet imagery coming out of this. Only a shepherd prophet could give true rest, soul food and real food. That is who we're dealing with. The gospel of Mark is trying to lead us in this text to show us that Jesus is the one. He is it. It starts in Deuteronomy 18. God says, I will raise up for them a prophet like you, speaking to Moses among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And then when Moses is about to die, he is being forbidden to go into the promised land. He's worried about these people he's been shepherding for 42 years or so in the wilderness. And so he says to God in Numbers 27, let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd. That same phrase Mark uses for Jesus. Now God appoints Joshua, who would lead them into the promised land. And so it is that this greater prophet of Deuteronomy 18, this man who will lead the people of God through a second exodus, as it were, and feeding 5,000, the miraculous bread kind of shows us that Jesus is a prophet in the same vein of Moses. Jesus is the one. He is the one who will lead and shepherd these people into salvation. Now the prophets accuse the shepherds of Israel, its leadership of ignoring them, of hurting them, Ezekiel 34, excuse me, and all of that. But in Ezekiel 34, God says, I myself will shepherd them. And sure enough, Psalm 23, verse one, the Lord, Yahweh, is my shepherd. And Jesus tells us in John 10, I am the good shepherd. I lay down my life for these sheep. They go in and out and find pasture through me. So all these things, it's not like putting in a mixing bowl. We have the prophet who is to come, you know, the shepherd who will lead the people. So not like sheep without a shepherd. Mix that in. I will shepherd my people. Continue mixing it in. The Lord is my shepherd. All together formed in Jesus Christ. the beauty of this text. He is the final prophet who will do all and accomplish all that God has given him to do. Now, how does this miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 through this man, this Jesus, the God-man, the Son of God, how does it show us the gospel? Talked about it a little bit with the kids here. But, you know, Jesus, who multiplied bread by breaking it, he multiplies salvation by the breaking of his own body. John 6, Jesus says, I am the bread of life. If you feast on Christ, you will never hunger. If you drink of Christ, you will never thirst. to a tired and shepherdless people, both in their time and in ours, Jesus offers his own body and his blood as life for the world. That is why we celebrate this supper. It is strength for our journey. You know, by the word of God preached every Sunday, God gathers his people in and confirms them, but it is by this supper that he builds them up. It is like a visible word. Jesus in multiplying bread for that many people was giving the people a tangible sign of just what he can do. The power of the almighty clothed in human flesh will give up his own flesh and will give up his own life of his own accord laying down so that we would live. All of that is pregnant in this miracle, both who he is and what he will accomplish. This fellow, Richard Halverson, I don't know who he is, but he had a great quote. Let me tell it to you. He says, Jesus Christ is God's everything for man's need. Jesus Christ is God's everything for our need, for rest, for soul food, and even for real food. He's the shepherd king, the shepherd prophet. He is our good shepherd. So going back, if we must return to the shepherd of our soul, Jesus Christ, how can we return? Well, first you must ask yourself, you know, Whether or not you're a Christian, you believe in your heart or not, you should ask the question anyway, who is shepherding my soul? How is my soul being shepherded? If you go back to the illustration of water, in what direction is my life flowing? It's a good question. Who is shepherding my soul? Another way to figure this out is asking to whom do I turn in trouble? you know, a good working definition of a small g, God, is that to which we turn when times are good and give thanks, or we turn for help when we are in trouble. You know, there's a, if you imagine it like this, it's like when you hear the best news possible. It's like, what's your first instinct? Is it to turn to your friend and say, yeah, that's not that your friend is your God. But as far as your soul is concerned, When I hear great news and it's a blessing to me, is it my first reaction to go on my knees and praise God for it, even if just in my heart, or is it to, you know, thank so-and-so, or thank something-something, or, you know, my money, my abilities, you know, you name it. Who is our God, in other words? I think what helps answer that question for us is we need to ask ourselves, okay, well, who is shepherding me can also be answered by who is feeding me? Who is the one giving me bread? What am I eating? Of course, and I mean this in a spiritual sense. We go back to the water. It's the flow again. If we're flowing one direction, do we have a current or a minor current in the water that's pushing the other direction? Which ways are we being pulled? And if you've ever been in a boat, if you've ever been in a spot where the water has two alternating currents, you'll find that your boat will spin. You're caught in a netty. So it is when we take the bread of the world and the bread of Christ together, we try to mix them together or hold them in two parts of our lives, it can be a problem. Whose truths are we following? Can't have two opposing shepherds. And this can happen in a variety of ways. You can imagine those of you who love to fish, You know, different people like different aspects of fishing. Some people love the act of catching fish itself. Some people like the opportunity to go out on their boat and relax. And some people just love the equipment. Erica's biological father, who's now with the Lord, he would go on his big fishing trip with his brothers to Canada every summer, from Michigan, so it was closer for them. But they would go, but before, when he was getting ready, the thing he liked to do the most, more than fish, was sit in the boat, even before they left, and just admire the tackle, admire the pole, the bait, the lures. That was his favorite part, and it was organizing all of it. Every one of us, when we fish or do anything, like different things. Do we like the tools? Do we like how it makes us feel? Or do we like the result? Any one of those things in our lives, not those exact things, can be a God of sorts. Perhaps it's my abilities. And I'm serving God, of course, but I ultimately trust myself. Perhaps it's my resources, my money. You know, you name it, my relationships, my networking abilities, my standing. And of course we're serving God and, you know, we're not trying to use those things badly, but are we trusting in those things? And where we get most caught up and messed up and tripped up is where the ultimate direction. Are we catching the wrong fish perhaps? is the whole tenor of life messed up because we are being shepherded in the wrong direction. And no one else can give us rest. No one else can give us the soul food that we need and no one else can provide for our needs and give us the real food except the great shepherd of our souls. We need restoration. We need that strength for the journey, and that strength here, again, beloved, is pictured in the supper. When you take up the supper by faith, you truly do commune with Jesus Christ, not because the bread has turned magically into his body, not because of that, but because he provides these things to you so that you would meet with him. You know, the First Corinthians 10 tells us, when you partake of the bread, are you not you know, partaking of the table with Jesus. So it is with us to meet with him, to receive his love, to know that my sins are paid for because of what he has done. When we partake of the supper by faith, we see and confess, I am not enough. I don't have the resources. I can't do it. But when I partake of these things given to me, I see that Jesus himself has done it. He is enough. He is my all in all. And with these tokens of love, he will get me home. When you feed and drink on him by faith, your faith will be strengthened. The people who receive the bread, the thousands and thousands, they weren't gonna You know, we say, well, how could they have known? How could they have known that Jesus, that what he was really offering them, they should have seen that he did it on his own authority, by his own power, for them, through the heart of Christ he provides. And Jesus in John 6 says, you came and you are here because of the loaves, but I give you something better. This is the better that he gives. These are the tokens of it, the sensible signs and seals. So today, if you hear his voice, beloved, do not harden your hearts. Do not harden your hearts. Don't run away any longer, but feast on him and feast on his love and know that you have no good apart from him. Amen, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do not know all that you know. We do not even know the depths of our own hearts, what we like being shepherded by, or even an attempt to shepherd ourselves. Lord, I pray in the supper that we are about to eat that we would see that Christ is the good shepherd. He lays down his life for his sheep. He is the prophet whom you have appointed. He is the Messiah, and he has given us life and life to the full. So I pray that you would open our hearts to receive him by faith more and more, whether it is again after many years of following him or for the first time. We ask all these things in Jesus name, amen.