Father, thank you so much that we, your people, can gather in your church, in your city, in your world,
to listen to your word directed to us that comes to us for our good, for the salvation of many, and for the good of this world.
We ask, Father, that the Holy Spirit would open and prepare our hearts for your word to have its role in our lives,
to bring the repentance and healing and strengthening and hope that we desperately need.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
So I'm going to take a bit of a risk with you and with you watching online.
And sort of a, it's a confession, actually.
I know that some of you, maybe many of you, pray for me, and I'm very grateful for that.
And I desperately need your prayers because I am a fallen human being.
And I actually, I'll begin to work on my next, the next sermon a week from now.
I begin to work on that on tomorrow, tomorrow morning.
I'll start to work on it.
I work on my sermon a bit every day.
But a week ago Friday, I was sat down to get some work done on my sermon.
I'm doing this, and I'm doing this, and I'm doing this.
And then, and maybe it's because one of you were praying for me, because I'm not the world's, I'm a guy,
which means I'm often not very self-aware, right?
I can often get hangry.
Angry because I'm hungry.
But I'm trying to work on the sermon.
And then I realized I'm not getting anywhere in the sermon.
And the reason I'm not getting anywhere with the sermon is that I was so irate.
I was so irate at what the government had done.
This is just give me some mercy to declare the Emergency Measures Act.
I was so irate.
I could not work on the sermon.
And, you know, pray that I never preach out of anger.
That I never compose or design a sermon out of anger or deliver it out of anger.
Pray that I never do that, because that would not honor Christ.
And I just had to stop.
And it took me well over an hour of just wrestling with it in prayer
to be able to get to a point where I could just begin to work at things.
Some of you are writers.
Some of you are in positions of authority and influence.
And it might very well be your vocation to write about what happened
and to give counsel about what happened.
And that's good and proper.
It's hopefully many of you are in positions in government and business
or the press or the media to write about it.
But it's not the vocation of the pastor of the church
who's going to come up and open the Word of God.
I'm going to give you a lecture on my view about the Emergency Measures Act.
It's not my vocation.
Christians in good conscience can come to different conclusions and nuances about that.
It's not my role.
It isn't my role.
So, you know, I struggled with it in prayer for an hour.
And I came to a place of peace where I just...
Not that I didn't still have moral judgments, but, you know, anger,
for those of you who ever are at all attracted or have a problem with anger,
anger is intoxicating.
Anger is intoxicating.
Those of you who don't get angry or get very afraid of it don't know what I'm talking about.
Those of you who do, you know how intoxicating it can be.
And so I came to a place of peace and was able to work on my sermon.
And I think if you listen to the sermon next week,
I don't think anybody would say that it came out of anger.
And, you know, I was thinking about that this week because, I mean,
there's a variety of biblical texts.
And it wasn't this text that I thought about as I'm trying to wrestle with the whole issue in prayer.
But, in fact, if I had of, this is a very profound...
The text that we're going to look at today is a very profound resource
to help you to, in fact, come to a place of compassion.
Compassion doesn't mean you don't make moral judgments anymore,
but compassion is the context within which you make moral judgments
and judgments about justice,
which is going to actually lead in a direction
where there can be real justice and peace at the end of it.
So I'd like to invite you to look at the text again
and see how this is, in fact, a very profound text to aid us in compassion.
So it's... I'll give you a little bit more context in a moment.
It's Mark chapter 6.
Hopefully you take your own Bibles and you can follow along with me as you look at it.
It's Mark chapter 6, verse 30.
And I'll give you a bit of context as we go into the text.
But the one thing I'd like to tell you about this miracle,
because it's the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000,
it's the... other than the death and resurrection of Jesus,
which is in all four of the Gospels,
this is the only other miracle which is recorded in all four of the Gospels,
just the resurrection of Jesus and the feeding of the 5,000.
So it obviously made a huge impression on the apostles and the early church,
and it got put, recorded in this ancient biography of Jesus.
So here's how it begins.
Verse 30.
The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.
And if you just go back sort of the beginning of the...
like about 20 verses earlier,
Jesus had sent them out to teach and to heal and to deliver.
And so now they've returned.
And that's what's happened.
Verse 31.
And Jesus said to them,
Come away by yourselves to a desolate place or a solitary place.
That's another very good way to translate it.
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,
a solitary place by themselves.
Now, this is going to be very important,
and it's one of the things which you can't notice in the English,
but it's there in the Greek.
And if you know the Greek, the original language,
you'll understand a little bit about the significance of what's going on.
And up until now, every time there's been mention of a crowd,
there's a particular word that was used in the original language,
except in one occasion, and this is the second occasion so far.
And the word is hoi polloi.
And that, of course, as we know,
not many people know that term anymore,
but it's a term of dismissiveness used by the elites against ordinary people.
The hoi polloi.
What are the hoi polloi?
They're just the hoi polloi.
Well, that's the word which, all the way through this,
when it's talking about the crowds or the many,
that's the word they're using, the hoi polloi, the many.
That's the context.
And this is going to be very, very,
and here, those of you who remember what happened just before this,
it's very, very significant.
Remember, Mark didn't just sort of give you this little,
it's not like he sent you a tweet with no context,
and that's the tweet.
I mean, this would be too long for a tweet.
But he just gives you, you know, an Instagram, you know,
with five different little pictures,
and each one of them has some of this,
and it has no context to anything else.
What's just going on before this is the complete opposite, right?
Herod has met, and who's invited to Herod's birthday party?
Well, the people invited to the Herod's birthday party aren't the hoi polloi.
Who's invited to Herod's birthday party are the leading,
and they're all men, only men,
and they're the leaders of the military,
the nobles, and the rich people.
And probably with included, and that would have been, of course,
yeah, I mean, they're the key influencers,
the people who matter.
So just before this, there's going to be a meal,
but the meal is restricted for only men,
and only those who are military leaders, nobles, and rich.
Jesus is with the hoi polloi.
And the difference between the two stories
is a very, very interesting thing to meditate upon.
I'm just going to point out a few point of things about it as we go on,
but it's a very interesting thing to meditate upon.
How we know what happens to the hoi polloi
in the story with Herod.
Herod kills one of the hoi polloi.
What does Jesus do when they disrupt his plans?
Look at it in verse 33 and verse 34.
Now many, the hoi polloi,
saw them going and recognized them,
that's Jesus and the disciples,
and they ran there on foot from all the town
and got there ahead of them.
And when Jesus went to shore,
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.
Now, once again, the contrast is very important.
In the story, you might remember,
and if you go back and you read it,
Mark records what goes through,
you know, they're probably drunk,
there's a sensual dance.
The person who's done the sensual dance
is a 12 or 13-year-old girl
who's both Herod's stepdaughter and his niece.
It's a sensual dance that arouses him and the others.
He makes a foolish promise up to half your kingdom.
She asked for the head of John the Baptist.
And Mark records what would have gone through Herod
in his term of self-awareness.
And by his self-awareness,
he can't break his oath in front of all these powerful people.
But the fact of the matter is,
as we all know, that's not true.
Because if Herod's stepdaughter had asked
for three of your fortresses,
he would still have been drunk,
slightly inebriated,
but his eyes would have gotten steely,
his face would have gotten steely,
and he would have said,
honey, you better reconsider what you just asked for.
And given that the political leaders of those times
were not adverse to murdering family members,
she would have probably looked back at her mom,
and her mom would have done this.
And she probably would have said,
could I go back and ask my mom what I should ask for?
But John's part of the hoi polloi,
and the powerful people can kill the hoi polloi.
That is often what life is like in the world.
Putin believes he can take over the Ukraine
and nobody will stop it.
It doesn't matter how many people he kills.
He doesn't want to kill a lot.
He just wants the property and the resources
and the spiritual significance,
and he does.
It's the way of the world.
But Jesus sees the hoi polloi
and has compassion on them and teaches them.
Now, this is a compassion story.
But what you're going to see
is that it's not just a story,
but a window, like a true picture
of what reality is actually like at the deepest level.
Just before the service here,
I use my phone as a timer.
That's why I'm looking down.
I'm not checking new tweets or anything like that.
I'm checking the time.
And if you came and it was off,
you know, when it turns on,
there's a picture of Louise,
and Shane was commenting on it.
And if you saw the picture,
some pictures, you know, you could take it,
and, you know, a police could take the picture,
and they'd be able to find the person.
But it's just a picture.
But some pictures actually communicate
who the person is.
Do you know what I mean?
Like, it actually communicates who they are.
And if you were to see this picture of my wife,
you'd say, that's Louise.
That captures Louise.
The way she smiles, the way she looks,
it just captures her grace and her beauty.
It captures her.
And this story isn't just sort of like Santa Claus for kids,
but in terms of importance of compassion.
And this story captures God,
who's created all things and sustains all things,
and who alone can redeem the world
and will bring in a new heaven and a new earth.
And it reveals that compassion
is deeper than violence and hate,
just as we long for,
that it's deep in the created order
and in the future.
Let's see how that works out.
And just before I say anything else,
before we look at the text,
the way it sets this up
is it's very interesting
that the story,
all these little tiny details in the story
set up the reality of the miracle.
It sets up the reality of the miracle.
So we've already seen it.
Like the first way that it's done it
is that John and Mark hasn't put the God,
like he hasn't sort of said,
I'll just throw a whole pile of miracle stories together.
And then, you know,
but no, no, what actually has happened
is just before this
is the story of Herod killing John the Baptist.
And as I shared last week,
Herod killing John the Baptist,
we know a whole lot of other things about that story.
I shared with you some of the things
about what happened in the subsequent months and years
and everything like that
because one of the most important ancient historians,
Josephus,
was basically writing just after this
and he records a whole pile of things.
Like Herod's an historical person,
John the Baptist is an historical person.
Read Josephus.
Josephus will tell you that Herod has
John the Baptist killed.
This is a story,
a telling of history.
And Mark,
if you just look at it,
Mark goes right from telling you
this historical event
to this historical event
and there's no change in language.
It's still the language of historical reporting.
It doesn't go into,
oh, by the way,
once upon a time
or into language of analogy
or there once was a time
when this happened
or anything like that.
It's the same type of historical language
which is being used.
And it emphasizes
that Jesus and the disciples
go in a boat.
The boat would have carried,
I mean,
there would have been 13 of them
and from what we know of boats
at that time,
it's probably a boat
that would have carried
about 15 people
and there would have been
some room for nets
and everything like that
but it wouldn't have been
in something that would have had
like a big pile of bread
and fish
that could go from here
to the wall.
It wouldn't have had that.
It would have just had room
for them
and for some of their gear
and they go to a solitary place
and they keep saying
they go to a solitary place,
a solitary place,
a solitary place
and it's emphasizing
all of these things
and it's going to continue
on with the rest of the story.
Look how the story goes
and in a sense
it doubles down
on the miracle.
Look at verse 35.
And when it grew late
his disciples came to him
and said,
this is a desolate place,
a solitary place
and the hour is now late,
probably an hour or so away
from sundown.
Send them away
to go into the surrounding
countryside and villages
and buy themselves
something to eat.
You know,
so the,
and note one of the things
that's going to be important
in a moment,
when I try to bring
some of this home
in terms of what it means
for us
and,
but Jesus doesn't rebuke them
for saying this.
The disciples are showing
compassion.
They don't have any food.
There's no food here.
The people are hungry.
The food's run out
and it's going to take
some time
and they're going to
probably have to finish
the journey in the dark
and they're not,
it isn't,
the story isn't taking place
in an orchard
or a vineyard
or a grain field
where people could
take food from it
and so,
once again,
there's compassion
and they're never rebuked
for it by Jesus
and look what happens
in verse 37.
He answered them,
you give them
something to eat.
Now,
it's not a rebuke.
It's one of those times
when the disciples
are thinking,
okay,
that this is how
the story's going to go
and all of a sudden
Jesus does this like this
and it's going
in a completely
different direction
and they said to him,
shall we go and buy
200 denarii worth of bread
and give it to them to eat?
Now,
200 denarii is
about nine months.
If you take
Canadian dollars,
you take what
an average worker
would make in Canada,
it's nine months
worth of wages
approximately,
just a little bit less,
less than nine months.
So,
that's a lot of money.
I don't know
about any of you,
but you probably
don't have
nine months worth
of your pay
in your pocket.
But,
I bet we couldn't,
maybe I'm wrong,
maybe a couple of you
have a lot of
hundred dollar bills
on you.
We probably couldn't
take all of the pockets
in the room
and come up with
the equivalent
of nine months wages
for an average
working person.
So,
the disciples
don't have
those resources
and it's going
to take a lot
to eat.
They just pick
out a number.
And verse 38,
he said to them,
how many loaves
do you have?
Go and see.
And when they found
out,
they said,
five and two fish.
Now,
I would say
that for a group
of guys
in our day in world,
five loaves
and two fish,
because they weren't
loaves like this,
they were probably
loaves like that,
wouldn't feed us.
But,
you know,
everybody in those
age were a lot
smaller and they'd
be way,
way skinnier.
And maybe that was
enough for them
to have their meal
so they could worry
about breakfast
the next day.
But it wasn't
that much food.
And so,
once again,
you see,
the story is
emphasizing that
they don't have
any resources
to handle this.
Okay?
I mean,
that's separate
from the fact
that they said,
well,
even when we had
the money,
they could have
gone on and maybe
that's what
happened originally.
Like,
even if we went
to a place
and we could
buy all the
things,
we don't have
wagons to bring
all the bread
and fish,
like,
we just,
we don't have,
it's just impossible,
Jesus,
we just don't have
the resources.
So then,
Jesus does
something here
which is very
significant to
the miracle.
It,
once again,
really emphasizes
the miracleness
of the miracle.
Look what happens
in verse 39
and 40.
he commanded
them all
to sit down
in groups
on the green grass
so they sat
down in groups
by hundreds
and by fifties.
Now,
this is going
to be very,
very important
to the miracle.
If you had
5,000 plus people,
we don't know
that number
until the end,
but nine months
worth of wages
tells you
that they're
estimating,
this is a lot
of money
to feed this group.
This is a very,
very big group.
But if they're
all standing
and milling around,
that if Jesus
did the miracle,
people,
I mean,
the disciples
might know,
but apart from
the disciples,
the crowd
wouldn't know
because they
might just think
there's a couple
of wagons
of food back there
they can't see
very well
or there's a big
hall of,
a couple of boats
have come in
with lots of fish
and they've been
cooking,
like they can't see.
But when you have
them all sit down
and all sit down
in order groups
and Jesus has done it
and now they're
looking at Jesus,
they're expecting
Jesus to do something,
there's going to be
a very,
very clear view.
There's no pile
of food.
There's no pile
of fish.
There's nothing.
There's only Jesus.
And what do they see?
Verse 41,
taking the five loaves
and the two fish
he looked up to heaven
and said a blessing.
A blessing here
doesn't mean that he
asked God to do a miracle.
The blessing is
probably a two-fold blessing.
You know,
we bless you
and praise you God,
the Father,
creator of all things,
sustainer of all things.
You alone are God,
there is no other.
And bless these,
your people
and your children.
But it's not a prayer
for God to do a miracle,
it's a prayer of blessing,
it's a prayer of adoration
and praise.
And then he broke the loaves
and gave them to the disciples
to set before the people.
And the disciples,
and he divided the two fish
among them all.
And we don't know
if the disciples
were doing this,
rolling their eyes
or with anxiety.
It gives you no emotional
thing going on.
But what they do
is they do it.
And they all ate
and were satisfied.
And they took up
twelve baskets
full of broken pieces
and of the fish.
And those who ate the loaves
were five thousand men.
So it would be interesting,
you know,
if you think about it,
how would you want to film this
if you were making
a movie of it?
So you have this
five thousand plus,
maybe ten thousand people
all watching,
quiet,
maybe chatting
amongst themselves,
but quiet
when he says
the words of blessing.
And they would have seen,
I don't know,
maybe they had
some type of bowl
or some type of basket
or some type of bag
and you would have seen
Jesus take off a hunk
and divide it
amongst them all.
And they would have just seen
that it's not very much.
And you can well imagine,
I mean,
I probably would look
at the faces
of the apostles.
That's probably
what I would film.
As they walk
first here
and to there
and I would take off
just a tiny little bit
and I'd probably be red
faced with embarrassment
and I give
that little bit
and a little bit
and then another little bit
and another little bit
and then another little bit
and another little bit
and then I look down
and the bread
hasn't decreased
and neither is the fish.
And then I give
a little bit
and a little bit
and the bread
and the fish
haven't decreased.
And then I go back
to the beginning
and then
at some point
point in time, there would probably be this joyous, gobsmacked excitement as you give
hunks and hunks of bread and fish to the person after person after person, and the bag never
diminishes, and the bag never diminishes. And not only does the bag not diminish, the
bag is fuller as you go, so that by the end of the whole thing they can gather up 12 baskets
full of fish and bread, and everything about the story emphasizes that there is a miracle.
To be very clear, there is more matter in the universe after the miracle than there was before.
There is more matter in the universe after the miracle than there was before. Only God,
only God, only God can create out of nothing. Only the true and living God described in the
Gospels described in the Old Testament can create matter out of nothing. In fact, one of the reasons,
if the conversation was able to turn to it, one of the reasons a Christian should say to their
Muslim friends, and as many of us know, many of our Muslim friends are vastly more, I was just in a
conversation with a Muslim man just at the end of last, or at the beginning of this week, and gosh,
I mean, he's just very devout and very prayerful. Like, he really is probably a vastly better man than I am.
But one of the things we would say to our Muslim friends is, if God himself walks amongst the created
world and speaks, why would we need to wait six centuries for him to merely send a prophet?
If God himself, God himself comes and walks amongst his creation and speaks and acts,
why on earth would anybody want to wait for a prophet to come later?
Now, obviously some of you are going to say, well, this is completely and utterly impossible,
George. It violates every scientific law, to which I'd say it does not violate a single scientific law,
not one. It does not violate a single scientific law. It violates a misunderstanding of science,
but it doesn't violate science. Well, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. What does the
scientific method say? The scientific method and scientific theory always works on the principle
that you do the experiment and nothing extraneous comes into it. Like, the first law of thermodynamics
is that in a closed system, there's neither, my mother is neither created or destroyed. But that's
the whole point of this, is we Christians, this miracle shows we don't live in a closed system.
I mean, the scientific research is based on the idea that we're just, we're going to work,
we're only looking at natural causes. That's what we're going to look at. We're going to look at
natural causes and natural processes, and we're going to see how things naturally react.
And what this is saying is that it doesn't say, I mean, the second the bread is created,
it can be eaten. The second the bread begins, is created, it begins to get dry at whatever rate
bread gets dry in that type of environment. And if the bread is left on the ground, the bread will
get merged with the ground, and eventually it will go moldy. All of the scientific law is completely
and utterly practiced, but all that happened is that God himself has walked amongst, and he's
created more matter. The second the matter comes into the world, it acts according to it. I mean,
I've shared with you this analogy before, but it's a very important analogy to help you understand it.
I mean, money works in very, very obvious ways, you know. I mean, one of the problems,
I mean, one of the problems is, for those of you who maybe, you know, you check the money at the end
of the service, and you do your bank balances, it can't just be within a dollar. Like, it has to be
correct to the penny. I mean, that's just how, that's how numbers work. Like, you can't have one
person say, oh, you know, I got, you know, $400, I got $350. That's close enough. No, it's not close
enough, because that's not the way money works, right? And so, you know, money just works. You know,
I have a 20, and you add a 20, you add a 20, it gets you sick, it gets you three $20 bills,
that's $60. That's how it works. And so, imagine, you know, that I had far more financial resources
than I have, and one of my children wants to buy a house, and they can't buy a house because they
don't have the financial resources or the credit rating, et cetera, et cetera, to do it. So, my wife
and I decide that we will, I mean, all the money will, in a sense, come from them, but we will,
in effect, become a co-signer on the mortgage. And we say to our son, or we say to our daughter,
that part of the condition of that, by the way, is that, you know, the bank account that you have
the mortgage on, that we have a sign and authority that too, right? And then one day, and money works,
just by money works, they're making X number of dollars, and X number of dollars, you know,
works on the mortgage, and it works on the fractions, and the percentages, and all of that,
and that's just how it works, and we can see by looking at that and another thing that our son
or daughter is in some type of financial distress. And so, one day, Louise and I, we talk about it,
and we decide that we just want to bless our kids, so we put $10,000 extra in the bank account.
Well, has that violated the rules of math? No. Has it violated the way money works? No.
That extra $10,000 is now in there. All of the other equations all just instantly change, right?
And that's exactly what's going on here. In fact, if you could help the first point,
here's the thing which is going on in the story, okay? Especially, I'm going to say it,
and then I'll explain why I put it in this way. And I'm just going to add, up there,
it doesn't say strong hand. I realized afterwards I should add that, because it's actually even better.
The strong hand of love that made the world is the same strong hand of love that sustains the world,
is the same strong hand of love that was nailed to the cross to redeem his fallen world,
and is the same strong hand of love that will beckon and welcome his redeemed children
into the new heaven and the new earth.
I mean, that's what you're seeing when you look at this, because it's going to be the same hands
that breaks the bread and distributes it. It's the same hands that will be nailed to the cross.
Very same hands.
And by God, the creator of all things, because only God can make something matter out of nothing,
only God can do that. What we are actually seeing. Remember I said that this story,
you know how Shane looked at the picture of Louise and said,
that's a good picture of Louise, like that captures Louise.
And what this story is telling us is this story captures God,
and it captures the deeper, deepest reality.
The world came into being not as an accident,
not as a tragedy, and not because the gods wanted slaves,
or because God needed somebody to praise him.
It was God's strong hand of love that created the world.
And I know there is famine in the world, and there's hunger in the world,
and we all know that those things are wrong, and that the world is broken.
And that's a different part of the story as to how the world became broken,
but it wasn't broken by God, it was broken by human beings,
and continues to be broken by human beings.
But the fact of the matter is, is that whenever we eat,
and whenever there's a good harvest,
and whenever we have the clean rivers, and the rain, and all of that type of stuff,
what you are actually seeing is the strong hand of love sustaining all things.
The same strong hand of love that created all things
is the same strong hand that sustains all things,
and provides for us today the coffee, and the tea,
and the milk, and the cereal, and the bacon, and the eggs,
and the veggie bacon that we ate today.
And it's the same strong hand of love that is nailed to the cross.
And it will be that same strong hand of love
that if we die before he returns,
those who are redeemed in Jesus will close their eyes
in the sleep of death,
and wake in the new heaven and the new earth
to the same strong hand of love,
waving in welcome, and beckoning you in.
You see, compassion
is deep.
It is deeper
the violence of an invasion of Ukraine,
the persecution of Christians
in Nigeria,
the persecution of Christians
in many other groups in China.
Our basic intuition
that that looks strong
but is ultimately doomed
is shown to be true,
a true intuition
in light of the gospel.
True and living God
has compassion on the hoi polloi
and gives them the dignity
of feeding them
and caring for them.
In fact, that's actually one of the things
which is so important about this story.
See, I think many people
will look at something like this
and say,
well, George, I mean,
that's really a nice story.
But if you were to know my story,
you would know that
I am always the left out.
I am always the forgotten.
I am always the butt of jokes.
I am always the ignored.
I am always the lonely.
I am always the one
who does not matter.
One of the things
which is so wonderful
is what does this
whole story focus on?
Apart from Christ,
it focuses on the hoi polloi,
the people who don't matter.
And all I can say is
that Jesus looks at you
and he says,
you matter to me.
You matter to me.
And this good news
that George is just talking about,
that good news is for you.
Your days have been the forgotten.
I mean, that might not end
on this earth,
but I can tell you
that from all eternity
you matter to me
and you will matter
into eternity with me.
And for us,
just a couple of points
in closing
in terms of what it means
for us to hear this story
and to receive it.
If you could put up
the next point,
that would be great.
We're to receive
the good news
about the person,
work, and promises
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And as we receive it,
and as it becomes
a deeper part of who we are,
as it becomes clearer
and clearer
what Jesus,
who he is,
and the significance
of the fact that
you see,
if you think about it,
it's only if the creator
of all things,
only the creator
of all things
could die
for the whole creation,
could die for the rich
and the poor,
the gay and the straight,
the black and the white,
the Asian,
the people from India,
from all the different cultures,
people living in feudal times
and pagan times
and remote tribes
and powerful people
and unpowerful people
and handicapped people
and people with spectacular
physical and mental abilities.
It's only the creator
of all that could die
for all.
And it's only the creator
of all who knows all
that his death for all
could be for all
of who you are.
That by the time
you go from this story
to the cross
and then the resurrection,
you realize that Jesus
has done it all.
and that all we can do
is begin to live out of
the truth
of what he has done for us.
Not live to attain
something from him
but to live out of the truth
of his compassion for you.
The truth that he looks
at George and says,
George,
I am not weighing your merits.
I never weighed them
for a moment.
I mean, George,
how could I weigh your merits?
Didn't you just tell everybody
how irate you were
a week ago
that you couldn't
even function?
You should be so glad
that I do not count
your merits
because, George,
you would,
you'd be up a creek,
you know,
the type of creek
you go up without a paddle.
That would be you, George.
But no,
I've done it all.
I'm calling you
to live out of
what I have done
and what I have promised.
And so receive
the good news
about the person
and work
and promises
of the Lord Jesus Christ
and be formed.
and his compassion
for the hoi polloi.
We are to be formed
by Christ,
not by Herod.
The world will try
to form us
into Herod.
But as the gospel
becomes more real,
it should lead us
to have a great compassion
for the hoi polloi
and not just the hoi polloi
for our own city,
but the hoi polloi
in Guatemala.
Hoi polloi,
the forgotten refugees
and the forgotten wars.
And then one final thing,
if you could put up
the final point.
There's a profound question
in this text
and a profound thing
that takes place
in this text.
And, you know,
often it's when we think about it,
we see it and go,
oh yeah,
but you see,
part of what the gospel does
and the Bible does
in forming us
is it forms us
without us necessarily
realizing it.
But in a sense,
this question is given
to us all the time.
We see a need,
like I see a need.
We're hoping to bring
John Owen as an intern
and part of what we want to do
is try to reboot
our ministry
to the university
and we can look
at the university
and say we would love
to begin to have
a ministry once again
to university students
once they really open up
and not just Ottawa,
you down the road
for Carlton.
And you know,
at the other hand,
where we meet
on a Sunday morning,
we could also say,
and maybe he at some point
in time said,
we need to have a heart
for all the embassies
or we need to have a heart
for all of the new Canadians
and all of the poor
and those afflicted
and in danger
of gang violence
or maybe he's calling us
to have a heart
for the arts
and entertainment
and bar world
or maybe he's calling us
to have a heart
for Parliament Hill
and all the civil servants
which will eventually
return at least occasionally
to the office.
And we can look at it
and say,
we don't have the resources
to do any of that.
And Jesus said,
yeah, that's what
the story's about.
You don't.
You don't have the resources.
You never,
you're never going to have
the resources.
Like in a sense,
stop thinking about
your resources.
I mean,
we have to pass budgets
and I'm not saying
we should pass
a $10 million budget.
That would be called
presumption.
But you see,
you do not have
the resources
to feed the hoi polloi,
but you can trust
and do what the one
who can feed
the hoi polloi
tells you to do.
See,
isn't that what's going on
in the story?
The disciples
don't have the resources
to feed the hoi polloi.
What does Jesus
ask them to do?
Take what I've given you
and just start
giving it out.
And the disciples
had nothing to do
whatsoever with the miracle.
It was all God.
It was all Christ.
It was all his grace.
It's always only his grace.
All things come of you
and of your own
have I given you
and there is no other way
to live the Christian life.
All things come of you
and of your own
have I given you.
And that's the means of grace.
You trust him at his word
and you take those
small steps of faith,
maybe with faith,
which is this,
the distance between
my finger and my thumb.
You know,
but taking a thing
off of Nightbird
who died over the last week,
some of you know
who I'm referring to
and if you've seen that thing
in America's Got Talent,
I'm sort of playing
with what she said
when afterward she said
she only had a 2% chance
of survival
but she says
with this big smile
2% is not nothing
and I wish you all knew
how wonderful it was.
And all I can tell you
is if you have faith
this much,
that much faith
is in nothing
and I wish I could only
tell you how wonderful it is.
It's the difference
between heaven and hell.
It's the difference
between being used by God
and not.
Your faith can be this small
but it's wonderful.
Please stand.
Let's bow our heads
in prayer.
And if there's anyone here
or any who are watching,
if you feel a bit
of a pressure
that maybe
you're not quite sure
but you know
it's directed towards Christ,
I can tell you
that what it is
is if you've never
actually just acknowledged
that you want to belong
to Christ
then that's Jesus
calling you.
And all I can say
is there's no better time
than just to turn to him
in prayer
and say,
Jesus,
I want you to be
my Savior and my Lord
and I thank you
that you will never
let me go.
And you know
how terrible
and crummy I am
at keeping my commitments.
I just give myself
into your hands.
Never let me go.
There's no better time
than today to pray that.
And there's no better time
for us to recommit to that.
Not that we have to become
Christians over and over again
but every one of us
needs to recommit
and say,
yeah,
I've had an angry week
or I've had a self-indulgent week
or I've had a greedy week
or I've had an envious week
and I am so glad
I can come and be
in your presence,
God,
and receive grace
from you again
because I need it again
and again and again.
And I need to know
my weakness
and I need to know
I need to be formed
in compassion.
I need to be formed
in compassion.
So let's pray.
Father,
thank you for Jesus.
Thank you that God,
the Son of God,
came and walked
among and amid
his fallen creation.
Thank you that he is
truly Emmanuel.
He was truly Emmanuel,
God with us.
That he came,
Father,
and revealed
at the depths
of your compassion
and love and care
for us.
That he died for us
as our Savior.
That he is the one
who is our hope of glory.
That he alone
is the one
who has done everything
that has to be done
to make us right with you
and fit us for heaven.
And Father,
we ask that these stories
and Jesus
and who he is,
that they would become
more and more real
to our hearts
so that they would form us.
Father,
we don't want to be
people of anger.
We do want to be
people of compassion.
We want to be people
whose compassion
doesn't overwhelm
their justice
or their truth
or the sense
of right and wrong.
But Father,
we want to approach
these things
out of compassion
and out of being
just resting in you.
And Father,
we ask that your Holy Spirit
would move and work
in us as individuals
and us as a congregation
that that would be true of us.
And Father,
help us to be attentive
to how you would have us
minister to the hoi ploi
of the world
for your great glory,
trusting that you would
provide the resources
as we step out in faith.
And we ask all these things
in the name of Jesus
and all God's people said,
Amen.