THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Mark: Jesus The Perfect Servant Of God

Part II: The Perfect Service Of Jesus, The Perfect Servant Of God, Mark 1:1-10:52

BB. Christ's Work To Meet The Physical Needs Of Those Who Follow Him

(Mark 8:1-9)

I. Introduction

A. We learned in our first lesson in this series that Mark's Gospel presents the perfect service of God's Perfect Servant, Jesus, with Mark's focus of having rebounded unto upright service from personal failure.

B. Mark may have defected from the ministry due to physical needs like fear over the dangerous road over the Taurus Mountains that Paul wanted to take or due to the threat of malaria, Bib. Kno. Com., N. T., p. 388-389.

C. Yet, Mark 8:1-9 shows Jesus met the physical needs of those who made following Him their first priority, and we study this passage for its insight and application (as follows):

II. Christ's Work To Meet The Physical Needs Of Those Who Follow Him, Mark 8:1-9.

A. The feeding of the 4 thousand occurred under a greater level of physical need than that of the 5 thousand:

1. With the five thousand, the people had been with Jesus without eating for the better part of a day (Mark 6:32-35) where in Mark 8:1-2, the crowd had been with Jesus for three days with nothing to eat.

2. With the five thousand, the people were able to walk back to their towns for food (Mark 6:36) where the people in Mark 8:3a were in danger of fainting were Jesus have sent them away without feeding them.

3. With the five thousand, the people had come from surrounding nearby towns (Mark 6:33, 36) where some in the crowds in Mark 8:3b had traveled from a great distance to see Jesus, enhancing their physical needs.

4. With the five thousand, the needs of the people were addressed as the disciples asked Jesus to dismiss the crowds that they might go into the nearby towns to buy something to eat (Mark 6:36), but in Mark 8:1, Christ initiated the call to His disciples for food due to His concern for the graver need of these crowds!

B. Thus, since the Mark 8 crowd had given themselves to follow Jesus at significant cost to their physical needs, the Lord met their needs even to a greater degree than He did for the needy five thousand, Mark 8:4-9:

1. Jesus' disciples, slow to learn from past experience, did not recall the feeding of the five thousand, so they asked Him how one could meet the hunger needs of the crowds with bread in the wilderness, Mark 8:4.

2. As with the five thousand, Jesus asked them how many loaves they had, and they said, "Seven," Mark 8:5.

3. Christ then commanded that the people sit down on the ground, then He took the seven loaves, gave thanks for them, and gave them to His disciples to set before the people, Mark 8:6.

4. The disciples also had a few small fishes, protein to add to the carbohydrates of the bread, so Jesus blessed them and commanded that they also be set before the people, Mark 8:7. As God supplied bread and meat, the carbohydrates and protein for Old Testament prophet Elijah at God's supply of food by the ravens at Brook Cherith (1 Kings 17:2-6), He also provided the bread and meat for the Mark 8 throngs!

5. The people ate and were filled, and the disciples gathered up of the leftovers 7 baskets (Mark 8:8), and the word for "baskets" (spuris) "denotes larger baskets than the word used of the twelve baskets (kophinos) in which the leftovers were collected from the feeding of the 5,000 (6:43). The larger basket was the kind used to let Paul down over the wall of Damascus (Acts 9:25)," Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Mark 8:8; Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of thr N.T., 1967, p. 771, 448. Thus, the "7 basketfuls . . . of Mark 8:8 likely held more than the 12 basketfuls of 6:43" in the feeding of the five thousand, fitting due to the more pressing need of the 4 thousand, Ibid., Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 137.

6. After feeding the people so they would be equipped to go home, Jesus dismissed them, and they left prepared by Christ to make the journey since they had previously committed themselves to follow Him.

Lesson: When the crowds around Decapolis (Mark 7:31) committed themselves to follow Jesus, and they developed significant material shortages for having been with Him for three days without food, with some having come from a great distance, Jesus amply supplied their material needs so they could go home and continue to do God's will.

Application: (1) May we NOT concern ourselves with our livelihood costs as our FIRST priority in serving the Lord, but commit ourselves FIRST to FOLLOW the LORD'S WILL in our lives, and let Him direct in the meeting of our livelihood needs as a byproduct of discipleship, cf. Matthew 6:31-33. (2) As Christ utilized the bread and fishes the disciples already possessed to meet the current crowd's great needs, may we seek to use what God already provides to begin to meet the material needs we face and let the Lord add to that provision as He sees fit.