Matthew 14:22-23 Mark 6:45-46 John 6:14-15

Matthew 14:22, 23 22 Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away. 23 After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone.

Mark 6:45, 46 45 Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself was sending the crowd away. 46 After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray.

John 6:14,15 14 Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.

Power is one of the most craved commodities in the world today.  People go to great lengths to gain power and control over others.  It is not only the privileges of power that make it so attractive to us; it is the sense of personal importance and pride that comes with power that is so desirable to us.  Satan was thrown out of heaven because of his lust for power.  Adam and Eve sinned because they wanted power.  God created us to worship Him.  The fall of Satan and mankind was born out of a desire to be worshiped instead of worshiping.  Many of the struggles of our society and the conflicts in our personal lives spring from our competition for the worship of others.  When others don’t worship us the way we think they should we get upset because we recognize that they are thinking that we should be worshiping them.  Jesus was not after that kind of power.  He lived in perfect submission to the will of the Father.     

JESUS REFUSED POLITICAL POSITION: When the multitude realized that Jesus could feed thousands of people with just a few loaves of bread, they declared that He was the Prophet who had been promised to come into the world.  This was a recognition of Jesus as Messiah to a certain extent.  They were ready to make Him king because the Messiah they were expecting was a political power who would free them from the rule of Rome.  Since Jesus gave them food for free, this made Him a very attractive candidate for king.  Jesus perceived that this was their interest and refused to move in that direction.  He had been sent of a mission to save the world from sin through the sacrifice of His own body.  Surely, being king would have been more attractive to Jesus as a man than being crucified.  However, restoring mankind as worshipers of the Father for all eternity was mission on which He was sent.  We have been called to this same mission and must make sure that our own desires for power and comfort do not distract us from that mission.

JESUS AVOIDED PERSONAL POPULARITY: When Jesus perceived that the people were thinking about making Him king; He took some proactive steps to avoid that.  He quickly got the disciples into the boat and sent them to the other side of the sea.  He knew their hearts and the hunger that they had for Jesus to assert Himself as king.  He didn’t want the disciples to see the multitude as an opportunity to move forward with that agenda.  The second thing He did was to send the people away.  There had been fed and cared for.  He had instructed them but now the people were more interested in a political revolution than they were in biblical revelation.  Jesus was not out to please the crowds or promote Himself.  He wanted to protect the disciples and disperse the crowd before it got out of control and thrust Jesus into some sort of conflict with Rome or a popularity contest.  We all enjoy the praise of men; but it can easily become an idol in our lives that we crave and are willing to sin in order to obtain.

JESUS SAUGHT POWERFUL PRAYER: Once the crowd was gone and the disciples were off in the boat, Jesus withdrew to a private place in order to pray.  The only type of power Jesus sought after was power through prayer that would enable Him to accomplish God’s mission.  There should be two basic motivations for prayer.  First, communion with God.  Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Father have coexisted for all of eternity with perfect communion.  Prayer was a means for Jesus to be able to fully concentrate and rejoice in that communion.  Second, empowerment from God.  As a man Jesus was empowered by the Father through the Spirit to accomplish the will of God a complete the mission for which He had been sent.  We pray because we recognize our own weakness and our dependence on Him to enable us to accomplish His will.  Lack of prayer is spiritual pride that reveals our lust for personal power as opposed to submissive worshipers of God.  We must set aside time and seek for times of solitude where we can contemplate the greatness of God and enjoy communion with Him as well as ask Him to enable us to turn our backs on our sinful desires to be fully engaged and effective in the mission He has given us.

APPLICATION: Don’t be distracted from the mission to which God has called us by a lust for power or popularity.  Recognize our tendency to compete with God and others for worship that should belong only to God.  Seek for times of prayer and live in a constant attitude of prayer as a means of having communion with God and empowerment from God.