Mark 8

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0:00 This morning is, so we're in Mark Chapter 8, and there's, the last several weeks is a community we've been going through the book of Mark, the Gospel of Mark. And so this week is Mark Chapter 8, and next week will be Mark Chapter 9. And then as those preparing the last couple of days to share with you guys on Mark Chapter 8, there is a tremendous amount of content that can be covered. You could take Mark Chapter 8, and you could spend several weeks just going through the different points or moments in this chapter.

0:36 And so I promise we won't do that, but I won't take one verse of the time and walk through it. But I'll try to hit some of the highlights, some of the points. But before we do, let's go ahead and I'm going to pray for us and for our time this morning. And yeah, so let me do that real quick. Hey God, thank you so much for this opportunity to be here, to be here with everybody in the room. God, I know you have a lot, a lot of great things for us to hear, a lot of great things that you've revealed to me even this morning about this chapter.

1:19 And so I just, you know, I asked that you meet us in this time, you take over this time, that you help where my words, my stuttering kind of this is distracts, and I hope that I pray that you step in and just help connect the points the way that you intend for us to hear things this morning. I thank you that we can talk to you, that we can pray to you, we thank you for your son.

1:56 And we just asked that this morning that again, you just be with us as we're trying to study your work. And we pray, amen. So, March after eight, and so it starts off with a second feeding of a large group of people. It's a very, very, very, very important thing to do with this. And so, it's a very important thing to do with this. It's a very important thing to do with this. It's a very important thing to do with this.

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3:57 It's a very important thing to do with this. It's a very important thing to do with this. It's a very important thing to do with this. It's a very important thing to do with this. It's a very important thing to do with this. There's multiple times where people are asking God for, like, when's God going to show up and where is the food and how is he going to sustain us? In this instance, there's no attention drawn to that. For all we know, the entire crowd was just so engulfed in everything that Jesus was saying. They weren't even thinking about the food. I just think that's like, what was he talking about? What was Jesus sharing for three days straight?

4:28 We don't know the content specifically of what he was sharing. But whatever it was, it was so good that people were missing three days' worth of meals. Like nine meals for an average person. I think some of the kids said that would be like, they have like 24 meals. That's a large jump. But 24 meals, all right. I can't imagine just missing that. And the amazing thing is, you just don't hear any complaints.

5:00 You don't see anything there. I just think, I just want to know what he talked about. That's something when I get to the other side. That's something I want to know is, how did you hold people's attention for three straight days? And I'm going to try to hold everybody's attention for 20 minutes. I'll be thinking about food during this time. So that's just the first thing that I see in Mark chapter eight. It's just like Jesus has that ability to just hold the large groups of people's attention.

5:35 So kind of a little bit of background. If you've missed the last few weeks, like I have, or if you missed this your first week here, and we're talking Mark chapter seven or the whole book of Mark. Mark is an abbreviated or a fast paced gospel. He doesn't get into all the details that the other gospels do, the other three gospels. Mark is, so today we're chucking Mark chapter eight, so we're halfway through the gospel of Mark already. And what Jesus has been doing this whole time is he's been healing people.

6:05 He's been gathering large crowds of people. He's been doing a lot of miracles, not only just healing people, but casting out demons. Like Jesus is like really, really building his ministry this whole time. And you see that he's establishing himself as the authority figure of that he actually is. And so it's amazing to like start out Mark chapter eight, and it's like he's captivated an audience for three days straight, and they're not even worried about food. It just shows like the significance of the things that he was saying in that moment.

6:38 That to me is just amazing. The second thing is if you jump down to verse 11, it says this. It says, the Pharisees came and it began to argue with him seeking a sign from him, a sign from heaven to test him. And he sighed deeply in the spirit and he said, why does this generation seek a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be giving to this generation. And he left them and he got in a boat again and went to the other side. So Jesus goes from feeding 4,000 people, you know, holding an event for three days, three day conference,

7:10 and people are going away fed. They get in a boat and they go over to a new region and then instantly the Pharisees show up, and they're asking Jesus for a sign. And what I get out of this the way Jesus is saying things and how he responds to the Pharisees is this. He clearly knew the why behind their ask for the signs, right? And Mark one through seven, Jesus has been healing people, he's been casting out demons,

7:41 he's been doing great signs and wonders. And so part of it that's why so many large crowds are attracted to Jesus because they're hearing things. So no doubt the Pharisees have obviously heard this based on how they come to Jesus, but their intention for asking for a sign from Jesus was not to help their unbelief, was not to help validate, hey, we're hearing these suspicions that like you're a pretty big deal, but it was to test him. And Jesus is very stern, very has great boundaries, immediately pushes back on them and says like,

8:14 why are you seeking a sign? Like the real reason you're seeking to sign is to test me, to try to prove me wrong to catch me. And what I get out of that is there's often times in my life, my intentions of going to God, like I forget he already knows my intentions, like it's not a formula, right? Like when you go to God, he already knows the reason why you're coming to him. And so to me it's like a reminder to check your motives and your intentions when you're approaching God

8:45 and you're asking him for something, because this is something he already knows, he already knows what's going to happen. It's kind of like, like with my wife, she kind of already knows for some whatever reason, she already knows what I'm thinking in majority of situations, and she already knows what I'm going to ask and why I'm going to ask things. Like just this morning, we were talking about a couch, like getting into a couch or whatever. And she's just like, okay, well I'm just going to let you sit with it for a little while,

9:15 because now you're like in a no mode, but in like two hours, you'll be like, okay, yeah, maybe we should go ahead and pursue a couch or whatever. She already knows these things, like she can read in my mail. And Jesus is absolutely like that. Like when we go to Jesus, he knows our motives, he knows the reason we're asking things and why we're seeking these things from him. And so I think that's just a reminder, hey, when you approach God, just double check your motives really quickly. What are you asking for, and why are you asking for it?

9:48 Verse 14, it says, now they had forgotten to bring bread, so they go back into a boat, right? And verse 14 picks up, and this is Jesus and this is the disciples around the Sea of Galilee. Verse 14, it says this, and it says, now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they only had one loaf with him in the boat. Okay, so Pharisees, or not the Pharisees, sorry, the disciples are like in the boat Jesus, and they only got one little loaf of bread, right? And they just experienced a few weeks ago Jesus feeding 5,000 people.

10:22 And we don't know exact timing of things, but probably the last couple days they saw Jesus take one loaf of bread, and feed, or a few loaves of bread and feed 4,000 people, right? And so here they are, the disciples and they're asking, or they're already thinking in their mind, oh gosh, we don't have any food, and we're hungry. And it's like they've already forgotten what Jesus has been doing and has done in their life already. And so Jesus comes and he says, and verse 15, it says, he cautions them and he says, watch out,

10:55 beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. When the Bible talks about leaven, it's not usually a good thing. And so, okay, let's talk a little bit about it. Eleven means essentially it's like yeast, right? So the Jewish people, there's certain times, certain seasons and certain times of the week, the Sabbath, where they're not supposed to have any leaven, right? So think of leaven as yeast. And you guys remember during the early part of the pandemic when we were all in lockdown,

11:27 and for some reason the entire world turned into bread makers, and you couldn't find yeast anywhere on the shelves? Like, I think we were like, attempted to contact a feed store to like find yeast, because we were going to try to make bread at home. But yeast is like a critical, critical ingredient when it comes to making your own bread. And yeast is something that when you put it in, when you're trying to make bread, you can't take it out, right? Like, yeast just spreads. And so what Jesus is saying, he's saying, be aware of the yeast, be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod.

12:02 And what I think it's representing here is be aware of your doubt and your ability to move things forward on your own merit. What Jesus is saying when he's talking about leavening, he's talking about those things, is sometimes our doubt and small things can quickly spread and consume us in larger things, right? Like, the disciples in this instant, they just witnessed Jesus feeding 4,000 people with a little bit of fish and a little bit of lobes.

12:35 They've witnessed all of these miracles happening the last seven chapters. And here they are in a boat, they've got no food, and they're already starting to doubt things, and already starting to doubt. They've got Jesus with them, but they're already starting to doubt that Jesus is going to come through them. There's been roughly 15 miracles or 15 direct healings that have happened so far in the Book of Mark.

13:07 And there's more than that because we know there's one time where Jesus sends the disciples out 2 by 2 and he gives them the ability to cast out demons. So we know there's more than 15 miracles that have happened at this point. Some of them include, of course, growing hands back, where somebody doesn't have a hand, healing a death person that just happened at the end of chapter 7, walking on the water, calming down a storm. So the disciples have witnessed all these things and have taken part of all these things.

13:37 And here they are in a moment, the weakness that they're in a boat and they have no food and they're starting to doubt. And Jesus quickly jumps on it and says, like what I think is interesting is verse 14, it says they had forgotten to bring bread, and they said only, and they only had one loaf with them in the boat. So it sounds like they're just thinking this, right? Because in verse 16 it says, and they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. So like they're all thinking it, they're in the boat, they're already thinking it, and Jesus immediately jumps in just with them thinking it

14:12 because he can read minds and understand your intentions. And he's immediately warning them saying, like, watch out for the leaven, watch out for doubt, because that stuff takes over. The watching out the leaven of the Herod, I equate that in what I've seen in just researching things. It's like watching out for your ability to rest in your skills or your ability to get something done. I do that all the time. I take for granted, like I think the skills that I have when it comes to work or just being a person in general,

14:48 like I think I've earned those and I've built those myself when reality is like they're gifts that come from God. But I'm very easily tempted to doubt God in small things and or rest on my skills and my abilities. Like I can get through this week of work, no problem, because I know how to handle these types of situations I have these experiences. And so it's a temptation for me to rely on my own skills and my abilities. And Jesus is quick to call off the disciples and say, watch out for that leaven.

15:21 Because when that leaven starts spreading, when that yeast starts spreading, you can't stop it. It just keeps going and it takes over all aspects of life. Verse 17, so verse 16 says, they begin discussing with one another, in fact they have no bread. So I don't know if somebody ate that one loaf of bread or what, but they had one loaf of bread. Now there's no loaf, now there's no bread. I don't know if he did that. But verse 17 says, and Jesus was aware of this and he said to them, why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread?

15:55 Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes, do you not see and having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember when I broke five loaves for the five thousand and how many baskets full of pieces did you take up? And they said to him, we had twelve. And the seven for the four thousand, that just happened a few days ago. How many baskets full of pieces did you take up? And they said to him, seven. He says, do you not yet understand?

16:27 You know, we see a moment of Jesus like a different color, a different shade of Jesus that you do. You know, you have a shade of Jesus that you don't always see everywhere else in the Bible, right? And I think you're seeing a really human side of Jesus. I think you're seeing a frustrated side of Jesus because if you actually count, he asks eight questions of the disciples in this moment in the boat when they're worried about food, right? You guys have seen me feed five thousand people with very little bread. You just saw me feed four thousand people with the same amount or even less bread.

16:59 You've seen me walk on water. You've seen me stop storms. You've seen me help limbs grow back. You've seen me raise people who are dead. You've seen me do all this stuff for the last couple of weeks. And he's asking these questions like he doesn't pause for an answer. And I get the sense like Jesus is like frustrated, right? He's frustrated with his disciples. They've had all these opportunities to see and witness these miracles and they've forgotten in the moment. That makes me think of me.

17:29 And maybe you're like this as well. I'm very quick to forget things that Jesus has done or God has done in my life. I wrote here like my faith leaks a lot of time. I can have moments where I have great amounts of faith and trusting God and get through something really hard and really believe in them. But then it's like the next week I've kind of forgotten that stuff and it's all fizzled out.

17:59 What God's done so far in June for me, for you, are we going to remember it in July when we're facing some other kinds of struggles or trials? We were in Athens a couple of weeks ago, which is just mind-boggling the trip we got to go on this the last two weeks. But we were in Athens and it was really cool. We went up to Acropolis. We didn't do too many monuments. We went to Acropolis and Acropolis is like the high point of the city.

18:30 It's pretty cool. You get off the boat. We took a cruise. We got off the cruise ship and you can see Acropolis. It's a high, high point of the city. Did that for multiple reasons, obviously protection is one of them. So we go up there and we're in Acropolis and go through these huge gates. Then you got the Parthenon right here. You got another temple over here. We listened to this audio tour of the Parthenon. The Parthenon was essentially like to commemorate and to dedicate and to sacrifice and to thank the Greek God Athena for the victories.

19:09 It's this big thing to remember what Athena has done for the Greeks, for the Grecian people. I remember we were listening to this audio tour and you turn around and you're up on this huge hill. We turn around and there's this Greek flag at the edge of the hill and it's massive. It's this huge massive Greek flag. We were listening to this audio tour and they told the story of during World War II, so the Greek flag is like a symbol of hope, obviously, for the Greeks.

19:42 That flag was flying and then during World War II the Nazis invaded. There was a Greek soldier who was guarding the flag and two Nazi soldiers came up. They basically like demanded to take the flag down and put up the Nazi flag to symbolize they had taken over. That guy, he wraps himself in the flag and he jumps off the side of the hill and dies. But then like two days later there's a group of teenagers who sneak up there in the middle of the night. With the Greek flag they take down the Nazi flag and they put the Greek flag back up.

20:15 When the Grecians or the Athenians woke up the next morning they saw that their flag was back. They lived under the banner of a couple days of the Nazi flag. There's a monument there commemorating that moment. When we were in Rome on Tuesday we were standing at the base so we're at the end of the ruins or the Roman Forum where the markets were and the Senate and they basically ran the entire empire from this place.

20:45 We're standing at the end and there's this arch they built and this is massive arch. What was different about the arch was pretty cool is it actually has a menorah sculpted into the arch. That whole arch is to commemorate the first Roman Jewish war. This was in 8070 when the Romans completely sacked and took over Jerusalem and they destroyed the temple. It's to commemorate. You can look through it and then you see the Colosseum and all the stuff.

21:20 What I'm going with this is there's these huge monuments that have been built in parts of the world here in America as well to remember big moments. In the Old Testament when Jacob wrestled with God and he changed his name from Jacob to Israel, he builds a well there. There's multiple times in the Old Testament when God does something they build a well,

21:50 they build a monument or something to help remember that God's done something. We're going with all this is we all like my faith leaks. Maybe your faith leaks. Maybe it's not such a bad idea to build something physical in our lives to commemorate, to remember, hey, on this day or in this time God showed up in this season of life for us in a unique way that we've never seen before. Like the monuments take up space, right?

22:22 And I don't think it's a bad idea to build a monument to remember, to serve as a memory of what God has done for us in the past. Because I'm like the disciples and I can witness God doing all these great things, but in the moment I can easily quickly turn to doubt and forget everything that he's done. It's just a very interesting approach that Jesus takes with the disciples and calling them to attention.

22:57 I think he's trying to urgently with some frustration as well as like do you not remember? Like do you not remember all the things that have happened, what have just done? And I just think it's such an interesting way that he addresses them, the way that he interacts with them. And there's no answer that the disciples give in that moment. We don't have an answer that they give right there in that moment. The next part, so they're in the boat and we don't know what they say in response. Maybe it's nothing.

23:27 Might be one of those rhetorical questions. This is best not to answer. But verse 22 it says this, they came to Bethsaidia. And some people brought him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and let him out of the village. And when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hand on him he asked, do you see anything? The blind man looked up and he said, I see people, but they look like trees walking.

24:01 That Jesus lays his hands on his eyes again and he opens his eyes and his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly. That's a really, really significant and weird story. So let me just kind of break it down a little bit. So Bethsaidia, right, the significance of Bethsaidia is, it's a couple times it's mentioned. Number one, Bethsaidia is the actual home to Peter and Drew and Philip.

24:33 Right? So that's where those guys are from. Bethsaidia. Bethsaidia is also one of those towns that Jesus rebukes and basically says like, you guys have no faith. It's one of the towns that Jesus mentions. It's already happened at this point in the gospel. It's already happened at this point where Jesus rejects Bethsaidia and basically says like, if Sodom and Gomorrah had seen the signs and the wonders that you have seen, they would not have perished.

25:03 But you guys have seen all these great things that I've done and you still don't believe. Right? So I think that's why Jesus takes the blind man away from the town because he basically says, I'm not going to do any miracles for your town anymore. I'm not going to do anything for you guys. Jesus is blind man out away from the town, out into the wilderness and has such an interesting healing that happens because it's the only time in the gospel. It's the only instance of Jesus doing something that is when it comes to healing that is a progressive healing.

25:35 Right? He spits on the guy's eyes, which is weird, but it's what Jesus does. So he spits on his eyes and he lays his hands on his eyes, takes his hands away and asks the guy, what do you see? How are you doing? A few chapters ago, Jarius's daughter has passed away. Right? Jesus says, don't worry about it. She's only sleeping and she gets up. A deaf man, Jesus instantly heals in that moment. For some reason, this blind man, it takes like two laying on of hands from Jesus to actually heal him and to fully restore his sight.

26:13 Why? Did Jesus lose some power? Did he lose some ability? I don't think so. I don't think that's it at all. So then why is it that Jesus can command the dead to get up and walk and they can do it, but for this blind man, it takes two steps to heal him? I think it's because it's, I think there's a lot of symbolism in it, number one, but number two, I think it's to speak to us today here at Ten Ten West Church Street in 2023.

26:43 There's a lot of different things I think it says. Number one, I think it says that sometimes your healing is going to be progressive, meaning calling out to God, asking him to fix the situation, it may not happen in a drop of a half. It could take time. I think it's a reminder that although Christ is sanctifying us in this life, that it's progressive action, it takes time.

27:18 It takes time sometimes to heal. It's not going to happen overnight. I think it's also some imagery of like where the disciples were in that moment, right? They'd seen all these signs and wonders, but they couldn't really see clearly who Jesus was. What's interesting about this, a couple of weeks ago when Ben asked me to do this chapter and to do next week's chapter as well, what was interesting is he mentioned something to me that I had never even thought I ever heard.

27:52 The Gospel of Mark 16 chapters were in number eight, so we're halfway through, right? At this point, and we're going to see it in a minute, but at this point, no human being on earth had acknowledged who Jesus really was, meaning not really called him by who he actually is. We're going to see Peter do it in just a second, but no one had done that. If you go back and you read through the different chapters and stuff in the book of Mark, nobody on earth has actually called Jesus the Messiah or Christ yet.

28:26 No human has. What's weird is when he's casting out demons, there's demons that refer to him. Like the demons know who Jesus is, right? And I think in this moment, the reason why Jesus heals the man in a progressive phase is it's a way to connect with us and connect with disciples. Like you haven't clearly seen all I'm doing yet to you. I might look like it's just a giant oak tree. You haven't fully seen me yet.

28:56 And it's really interesting because like right after this instance of the healing of the blind man, verse 27, it takes over and it says this and Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Kesseria, Philippi, and on the way he asked his disciples, who do people say I am? So from a geographical standpoint, right, they've crossed the Sea of Galilee a couple times in March after eight so far. Now they're headed north. And Kesseria, Philippi is where we'll look at it next week where we think the transfiguration happened, but Kesseria, Philippi, they're on the way there.

29:31 It's the most northern part of Jesus's ministry. It doesn't go any further north than this town. And on the way there, Jesus is just asked this question. He goes, you know, like I can imagine Jesus thinking like I've done all these signs and wonders for you guys. I've done all these miracles, you know, fifteen that I can count so far, probably way more than that. I've done all these miracles. Who do people say that I am? What are the people saying? Like I know you guys here, like you're listening, like who do people say I am?

30:03 So their answer is, John the Baptist and others say Elijah and others say one of the prophets. He's just one of the prophets. Jesus is just another good teacher, right? And then verse 29, he says, and he asked them, but who do you say that I am? And then Simon answers, you are the Christ and he strictly charged them not to tell anyone about him.

30:37 So in theology, we call this the great confession. This is that turning point, right? For seven chapters, nobody's acknowledged who Jesus is. Demons have, but no human being actually has yet. So in this moment, Simon steps forward and he says, well you're the Christ. You're the Messiah's another translation. When Jesus asked that simple question of who do you say I am? Peter's response is, or Simon's response is, you're the Christ. And the reason why I say Simon is because Matthew's account, which is a little bit more expanded of this moment,

31:13 in that moment when Peter confesses you are the Christ, everything changes. Simon's name is turned into Peter. Jesus starts calling him Peter. He charges him and says I'm going to build the church on you, right? Everything changes for Simon in that moment. Even his name, the moment he says you are the Christ. Everything changes in Jesus' ministry at this point too. Going forward, you're going to see a different theme, a different vibe from Jesus when he's talking about things.

31:47 In the very next paragraph, he talks about how he's going to be killed for everybody. He's going to suffer many great things and how he's going to rise again from the dead. He hadn't talked about that until this point. Until they acknowledge that he was the Christ, that's when things start moving. So this morning, kind of wrapping things up, who do you say that Jesus is?

32:17 And not just from a verbal answer response thing, I was thinking about this. I can say who Jesus is. I believe Jesus is the Christ, I believe Jesus is the Messiah. I believe that. I've said that to you guys verbally, right? I've confessed it to him. I've confessed it to multiple crowds before. But who does my life say Jesus is?

32:48 Meaning, how do I conduct myself with my friends and my family? As a dad, my life. Who does my life say Jesus is? And so that's the question for all of us this morning is, number one is who do you say that Jesus is? And number two, what does your life say? Does your life align with whatever your verbal response is to that question?

33:19 And I just love the aspect of where Jesus changes Simon's name over to Peter because it's that reflection, it's that moment of that acknowledgement, the moment Jesus is the ultimate fork in the road. You either got to move on from life believing he just is who he is, he was just a teacher, he was John the Baptist, he could be Elijah, just another prophet, it doesn't matter. Or you have to start going down the path of like he's the Christ. Like Jesus is one of those figures like you've got to some at some point you've got to come up with a response to who is Jesus.

33:57 And so this morning, there's a couple questions that have just been laid on my heart is like, number one, Brian, who do you say Christ is? And number two, does your life back that up? Does your Wednesday nights when you're exhausted, you're halfway through the week, you know, family's frustrated, you, your kitchen's a mess or whatever like that, like your response in that moment, does it reflect who Jesus is? Who you say Jesus is in your life? That's a tough question for me to wrestle with, that's a tough question I think probably for all of us to wrestle with.

34:31 Ben's really good at bringing everything back to one major point and I think there's multiple points here in this chapter. And we'll kind of look at some of them again as some different light next week, but I think number one, if there's a thing that's out there that God's trying to ask us or remember this morning is number one, like, watch out for your doubt, right? It's like leaven, it spreads crazy fast. Maybe a way to help that is to build monuments or to remember those moments that God has done something significant in your life.

35:05 The second thing I think that God is showing us this morning or talking to us about this morning is like, hey, while we're living on earth, sometimes healing is not going to be instant. Sometimes the moments that have struggled that we've got and we're all facing or whatever, and we're asking God to heal them, it could be progressive. Sometimes it's instantaneous, but it could be progressive, but to remember that, right? What I love about it is when the blind guy opens up his eyes and he sees people walking around and says it looks like trees,

35:39 he doesn't scoff at Jesus, he doesn't say, what are you doing? Like, I'm a little bit better, like, what's wrong with you? He doesn't doubt Jesus' ability to finish the healing. So it's a good reminder for me when things aren't changing as rapidly as I'd like to, doesn't mean that Jesus isn't being progressive in that healing. And then the third thing is just that reminder of, who is Jesus? Who do you say that Jesus is? And just making sure your life also echoes that same response.

36:11 Let's go ahead and pray, and then Mike's going to come up and lead us in Michael and Carol going to come up with some of the couple songs. Hey, God, thank you again for this opportunity. Thank you so much for this story. Thank you so much for the Mark chapter eight and for all these big things that you've put out there for us. Hey, help us to remember, ultimately you're in control, you know what you're doing. Even though our healing or progress may seem like it's not happening overnight, it doesn't mean that you're still not in control.

36:44 It doesn't mean that you're still not in charge and your plans failed or it's broken. Help us remember that. And also, God help me to remember later today that like, I've confessed you as Christ, but I want my life to also back that up and to echo it. And so just help us with that struggle, Jesus. Thank you so much for having grace and for mercy for us and patience. It's in your name that we pray all these things.

37:15 Amen.