Good Morning and welcome to my last Daily Scripture Word for 2023!

Just a reminder before I get on in to todays lesson - if you have a question about The Bible, about God, about The Church, then send it on in and when I start up next year I'll do my best to have an answer for you.  You can use the "Contact Us" page on this Website, or email it direct to me at: church@gardencitybaptistchurch.com.au .  I look forward to hearing from you!

• Mark 6:35-38, “And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat. He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?  He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes.”

Mark’s perspective provides us with a unique view, for Mark was not a Disciple. At this point in history, Mark would have only been a young fella – I would imagine in his teens at the most. It is very probable that Mark saw Jesus, heard Him teach, maybe even got to see him perform a miracle, but this eye-witness account is not actually Marks – it is Peters!

It turns out that just as Timothy was the disciple of Paul, John Mark was the disciple of Peter! And this Gospel penned by Mark is pretty much accepted by all to be Peters recollections, written down by Mark!   

Now, we all know why kind of a guy Peter was – right? The kind of ‘shoot first – ask questions later' kind of guy. I mean, if Matthew was the office worker, Peter was the physical labourer kind of guy. Peter didn’t want to just hear about the things Jesus did, he need to be apart of what Jesus did! Case in point would be Jesus walking on the water – who was it that said, “Let me have a go!”? That’s right, Peter!

Here in Mark 6 we have the same account of the Feeding of The Five Thousand and sure enough, Peter is right in the middle of it! The Saviour has pulled the disciples out for a time of ‘R&R’ – Jesus Himself desiring it. But the crowd has beat them to the location and Jesus being moved with compassion on a group of people reminiscent of sheep without a shepherd, begins ministering amongst them – and of course the Disciples are pulled into it also.

The sun begins to set in the West and the Disciples suggest to Jesus that “perhaps it’s time to send these people home – it’ll be dinner soon!” Jesus blows them away by dropping on them that THEY were supplying Dinner! Look at Verse 37:

• “He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?”

“SAY THAT AGAIN JESUS?!” says Matthew grabbing out his slate and pen beginning to do the sums! “IS HE SERIOUS?!” says James looking at his brother John! “WHAT?” explodes Judas rummaging through the moneybag, adding, “WE DON’T HAVE THE MONEY!”

Now look carefully at the wording of Verse 38:

• “He saith unto them, How many loaves HAVE ye? go and see.”

In all the activity of the day, and in the panic of this very moment, the Disciples had failed to notice what is probably the greatest miracle of this feeding! Can you see it? It’s right here in V38!

The miracle of Verse 38 IS: God had already supplied the answer to the need before they even knew they had a need!

• Philippians 4:19 reads, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

The word “riches” refers to God’s abundant fulness; God possessing all things; God’s inexhaustible ability to supply their wants. And through Whom is that supply provided? BY CHRIST JESUS!

• David wrote, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Psalm 23:1.

You see, God had already supplied the means by which they could feed 5000 people without notice – they just didn’t recognise it! And here is the challenge for us: so often we pray and pray and pray about a particular need, WAITING for some great miracle of God, when God has actually already supplied the answer and HE is waiting for us take WHAT WE ALREADY HAVE and just use it for Him!

That kind of reminds me…

• of Naaman the leper. HE HAD the cure to his leprosy – dip in the Jordan 7 times as God’s man had said. Yet because that answer was delivered by a servant, Naaman refused to accept that as being God’s will. (Oh, how many Sunday’s in a row does THAT happen?!)
• of the Prodigal Son – think about it, he was already IN the house of The Father, but forsook it!
• the rich young ruler - he had so lived his life that Mark 10:21 says, “Then Jesus beholding him loved him…”, yet V22 reads: “And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved:”.

I wonder how many times your prayers have gone on presumably unanswered, because you have refused to see or accept God's supply when it came? And you refused it because you just couldn’t accept who it was that God used to supply the answer (maybe a little boy?), or in what location that answer was to be found in (like a desert!).  Jonah suffered from the same thing.

What are you praying for brother? What are you seeking the answer for sister? Have you looked around you? You might find that God has already supplied the answer – maybe you’re just not accepting it!

• Matthew 6:8, “Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”