From the moment He finished with the devil in Luke 4, the Lord Jesus Christ’s public ministry went into full gear, teaching in the synagogues and openly about the kingdom of God, healing diseases and casting out devils. By the time we get to Luke 9, a new dimension of His work surfaced. As a man on a mission and recognising the limited time He had, the Lord focused attention on transfer of the ministry to His disciples. Today we summarise to all, the basic elements of instructions that are also useful to us particularly those who know they were called to ministry.

Now the disciples must learn to trust in Him and in His word. This was the practical theology of trusting Him to empower their ministry and to meet their needs that they were going to learn on this their first missionary campaign. The ultimate issue for the people of God in every age is not, “How much do you know?” but “Who do you trust?” The disciples are about to experience the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus in a new way, by living and walking by faith, by trusting in His power and faithfulness, even in His absence (Luke 18:1-8).

What about Herod’s interest?—Luke 9:1-9

• Herod’s interest in Jesus—a highly threatened man, would have undoubtedly had some counterpart to the secret police who kept track of Jesus.
• Herod who was of Edomite origin and converted to a Jew, became the client Roman king over Galilee and may have had some religious interest in the Messiah
• Herod was a king, and Jesus and His disciples were going about his territory preaching about THE KINGDOM OF GOD. That’s enough reason to go after them for treason.
• Herod was guilty of the murder of John the Baptist, and thus he was haunted by guilt and by a fear that he may have been raised from the dead
• Herod wanted to see Jesus to see a miracle

Here is our first big lesson, that the kingdom of God is not brought in by human might, not by political intrigue or ploys. The kingdom of God is not made up of mighty men, but of those who are child-like.

The account of the feeding of the five thousand is recorded across the four gospels (Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-14; Mark 6:30-44; Matthew 14:14-21).

The disciples thought that acquiring food was the people’s problem. Jesus told the disciples it was their problem. How could this be? How could Jesus command His disciples to do what was impossible? Jesus held His disciples responsible for meeting the physical needs of this huge crowd.

What the disciples were commanded to do, they had to do in faith. They had to act before Jesus provided. But just as the priests who bore the Ark had to get their feet wet before the Red Sea parted or the Jordan ceased to flow, the disciples had to act before the solution was given. God acted through the disciples, as they obeyed.

Jesus commanded the twelve to act in obedience to His command, without the means to do so, Jesus commanded the disciples to obey Him, without having the human means of doing so, and thus having to trust Him to provide for their needs.

1. Jesus’ commandments were purposed to create needs which only He could provide, and which provision could only be accessed through faith.
2. The great need of the disciples, like us, was not to know more (in a purely intellectual way) about Jesus, but to trust Him more.

Here are the lessons for us:

1. The Lord teaches us to trust Him by commanding us to do what is beyond our means to do.
2. God uses human “needs” as an avenue for teaching and testing our faith…faith is seldom learned in the classroom, but is learned in the crises of life, when we must obey God without all the visible means available to do so.
3. Human needs will either be viewed as an occasion for faith, or they will become the excuse for our unbelief and disobedience.
4. Too often deficiency, the absence of the needed element, is often used as an excuse for sin and for disobedience.
5. In businesses, and even in Christian ministries, there is one statement which seems to put plans to rest (Luke 6:30), without any further discussion: “We don’t have the money.” Everybody says, in effect, “Well, I guess that does it. I guess we cannot do anything more.”
6. Some needs are more important than others, and thus they must be prioritized. Some needs are not genuine needs at all…And when they let God worry about their needs, they ended up abundantly provided for, each having a basket filled with food.
7. Lacking the means to do what God commands is not only evident in the sinful excuses men sometimes offer when money is lacking, deficiency of various kinds are used to excuse many forms of sin and disobedience.
8. Lacking the means to do something is not necessarily proof that God does not want us to do what requires these things, nor that we should not attempt to do them…We have in each of these cases, a command and a promise of His provision.
9. God’s provisions come at the point of our inadequacy.
10. God often chooses to use little to create much. Jesus could have created a sumptuous meal out of nothing, just as He created the world from nothing

• Elijah
• Gideon’s army
• David was but a little shepherd boy
• Jesus used the five loaves and two fishes. He used “little people,” that is weak, uneducated men as His disciples. Jesus commended the apparently insignificant gift (of two mites) of the widow. He taught that the slave who did not make good use of that which was entrusted to him was lazy and wicked, even though he was given little, compare to others.

Sadly, we go on to think that we cannot contribute anything in the realm of Christian service, and in so doing we are wrong. Indeed, apart from God’s supernatural intervention and blessing, apart from Him multiplying what we have done, our service will accomplish nothing, but the Bible teaches that we are to do what we see needs to be done, to the degree that we are able. God often uses the little that we do to accomplish great things. **Culled from Bible.Org

Shall we ponder this, all who are in the valley of decision regarding the application of Matthew 6:33 to their responding to the Master’s call. Shalom.

Pastor Afolabi Oladele