Last week we had our first glimpse of Jesus’ plan to make disciples who make disciples. After having traveled all over Judea with Jesus, listening to him preach and watching him heal, he gave them power and authority over demons and diseases and said, “Now it’s your turn. You go do it.” And they did!

Can you imagine the scene when they returned and reported back to Jesus all that they had done? I can picture them talking over one another as they swapped stories in their amazement.

But as we’ll see this week, they were slow learners. Jesus leads them out to get some rest, but the crowds follow, eager to hear more about the kingdom of God. And as the sun begins to set, Jesus takes advantage of the situation to teach them a lesson about sufficiency. Surrounded by thousands of hungry hearers, with a few measly leftovers on hand, Jesus tells the twelve, “You give them something to eat.”

I was reminded of a rhetorical question Paul asks in 2 Corinthians 2:16. As he thinks about about the magnitude of this responsibility we have been entrusted with as ministers of a new covenant to a lost world, he asks, “Who is sufficient for these things?” (He assumes we know the answer is “No one!”) But this didn’t decrease Paul’s confidence. It increased it.

“Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant.” (2 Cor. 5:18–20)

Jackson Randall will be preaching Luke 9:10-17 for us this Sunday and Kenny Clark will be leading our sung worship. Would you pray for them as they prepare? And ask the Lord to increase our faith in his power and his authority and his sufficiency to live out our calling as disciple-making disciples.

See you Sunday, Grace. Come hungry!