9:1 ¶ Then he called his
twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils,
and to cure diseases. 2 And he sent them
to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. 3 And he said unto them, Take nothing for your
journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have
two coats apiece. 4 And whatsoever house
ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart. 5 And whosoever will not receive you, when ye
go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony
against them. 6 And they departed, and
went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where. 7 Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was
done by him: and he was perplexed, because that it was said of some, that John
was risen from the dead; 8 And of some,
that Elias had appeared; and of others, that one of the old prophets was risen
again. 9 And Herod said, John have I
beheaded: but who is this, of whom I hear such things?
And he desired to see him.
Jesus now send out His
twelve disciples to the people of Israel, having authority and power to expel
devils and cure sickness. They were to preach the kingdom of God, that the
power of God was with them, as they healed the suffering. In this stage of
God’s plan they took nothing with them but depended completely upon the good
will of the people to whom they were preaching and whom they healed.
The stir caused by
their actions sparked Herod to want to meet this man that some were saying was
John the Baptist risen from the dead. Others said that Elijah had returned or
one of the Old Testament prophets. Herod the tetrarch, not the former King
Herod who is dead now, wanted to see Christ.
9:10 ¶ And the apostles, when they were returned,
told him all that they had done. And he took them, and went aside privately
into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. 11 And the people, when they knew it,
followed him: and he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God,
and healed them that had need of healing. 12
And when the day began to wear away, then came the twelve, and said unto
him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into the towns and country round
about, and lodge, and get victuals: for we are here in a desert place. 13 But he said unto them, Give ye them to eat.
And they said, We have no more but five loaves and two fishes; except we should
go and buy meat for all this people. 14
For they were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples,
Make them sit down by fifties in a company. 15
And they did so, and made them all sit down. 16 Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes,
and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to
set before the multitude. 17 And they
did eat, and were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained
to them twelve baskets.
Here, Christ performs the
feeding of a multitude of people, five thousand men, a number that does not
include the women and children that were there. As I do not want to start
making this study a harmonization of the gospels, as there are many of those
that are good, I am not going to discuss the different accounts of these mass
feedings.
Again, we have the
number twelve as significant in this
passage. Remember, the nation of Israel was built on signs and wonders and the
Jews required signs to make them believe.
Deuteronomy 4:34 Or hath
God assayed to go and take him
a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs,
and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm,
and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in
Egypt before your eyes?
1Corinthians 1:22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews
a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24 But unto them which are
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
There is so much
preaching material here it is staggering. I have heard many good sermons on
things like, “what are you going to do with your five and two?” that suggested
we can do great things with very little. I heard that sermon given by a great
African-American preacher from Baltimore named Sewall Smith.
9:18 ¶ And it came to pass, as he was alone praying,
his disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people
that I am? 19 They answering said, John
the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others say, that one of the
old prophets is risen again. 20 He said
unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God.
21 And he straitly charged them, and
commanded them to tell no man that thing; 22 Saying, The Son of man must suffer many
things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be
slain, and be raised the third day. 23
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose
it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
25 For what is a man advantaged, if he
gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? 26 For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of
my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own
glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels. 27 But I tell you of a truth, there be some
standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of
God.
Peter declares that
Jesus is God’s Messiah. To prevent people from trying to make Him king, to
delay His mission of bringing human history and God’s plan of reconciling
mankind to Himself at the Cross and the empty tomb Jesus orders them not to
declare that. It is something that will come from the grass roots level as
people realize who has performed miracles among them and healed them. We are
talking about Jews here, first-century Palestinian Jews. Jesus then declares
what His end on earth must be for this plan to go into effect. God’s own blood
must be shed to save a dying humanity, lost in its rebellion, its sins, against
Him. Then, He must rise from the dead.
Verse 23 is one of the
great verses of the Bible. The true follower of Christ must push his own
demands, desires, and even needs behind and put Christ first. He then must take
up his or her own suffering, their own cross, daily, and carry it, following
Christ. We are all born in dying bodies that will eventually fail us and our
suffering at the end of our lives will be horrific typically without drugs. Our
eyes must be on eternity and on our Creator at all times. Otherwise we will
overthink our suffering, dying, and death. We must, at all times, maintain an
eternal perspective or we will wallow in our humanity and in our suffering.
Even the most spiritual minded atheist tries to justify their own suffering by
philosophizing and rationalizing to justify themselves. But, only one things
justifies us; Christ, God in the flesh, the Word by which we were all created,
who shed His blood on the Cross for our sins and rose from the grave for our justification.
We must keep our eyes on Him.
When we struggle
carnally for our life trying to hold onto it, we lose it. When we willingly die
for Christ….
1Corinthians 15:31 I
protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
Galatians 2:20 I am crucified
with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet
not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I
live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
…we have eternal life
with Him. Eternity is a long, long time compared to this short biological
existence.
There is nothing that
this life has to offer that can compare to an eternity with our Creator.
At the end of this
passage Christ again speaks of persecution for our faith and how important it
is to stand fast in our faith in Him. It is absolutely essential and spoken of
in several places.
Verse 27 is about to be
fulfilled in the next passage.
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