"The Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, to test Him. Sighing deeply in His spirit, He *said, "Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation." Leaving them, He again embarked and went away to the other side.
And they had forgotten to take bread, and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them. And He was giving orders to them, saying, "Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." They began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, *said to them, "Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?" They *said to Him, "Twelve." "When I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?" And they *said to Him, "Seven." And He was saying to them, "Do you not yet understand?"
Good Morning my beloved,
We welcome you to worship in the name of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It isa privilege is to come together with you
We welcome you to worship in the name of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is
Anybody can make a claim, however, it's something different to be able to back your claim up. Yet, Jesus repeatedly validated His claims by His divine power over sickness and disease, sin, death and the kingdom of darkness. Spiritual Blindness is the inability to understand, perceive, grasp, comprehend spiritual truth. While spiritual blindness is certainly not new, it is a major issue in the church today.
It’s easy to ignore Christ's message for sinners to repent and follow Him, when a warped view of the Gospel is being presented in many churches. Repentance, is a gift from God, and comes when the sinner recognizes his conduct is evil before a holy God. Obedience and submission to His Lordship can be understood as two sides of the same coin. Repentance leading unto salvation will result in obedience and submission in gratitude for Christ's saving work on our behalf. When you don’t take God at His Word, it says one of two things, either "I don’t believe what you are saying,"or "I believe what you're saying, but I'm going to do what I want anyway!" Satan's objective is to blind a person’s mind that they can’t grasp the Truth. By disguising himself as an angel of light, he misrepresents the Truth so that they cannot perceive of the reality of being lost. We are living in a world blinded by spiritual darkness, determined to live in sin, refusing to believe God will condemn them to Hell.
God is patient with sinners but His patience is not endless, there comes a point when sinners will face the consequences of their wilful chosen disobedience! Don't become so immersed in sin that you miss the opportunity to come to Him.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Amen
Today's Message: No Bread, No Problem
As we return to our study of God's Word, we've reached the halfway point in the Gospel of Mark. Open your Bibles to Mark chapter 8, verses 11 through 21. I invite you to
follow along with me, as I read to see what God's Word has to say to us
today. Mark 8:11-21.
"The Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, to test Him. Sighing deeply in His spirit, He *said, "Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation." Leaving them, He again embarked and went away to the other side.
And they had forgotten to take bread, and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them. And He was giving orders to them, saying, "Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." They began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, *said to them, "Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?" They *said to Him, "Twelve." "When I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?" And they *said to Him, "Seven." And He was saying to them, "Do you not yet understand?"
In 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, Paul wrote, "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." Since the fall of Adam,
as part of the human sinful condition, man is blinded to the things of God. Apart from Jesus Christ, there is no way out for him to see. He either naturally blinded, sinfully blinded, satanically blinded, or sovereignly blinded as a divine judgment of God.
John says in John 3:19-20,
"This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world,
and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were
evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed."
In our passage today we’re going to see that there are two kinds of spiritual blindness, one that is permanent, and the other that is temporary. Born in sin, we all come into the world spiritually blind, but we don’t have to stay that way. Some of us who were blinded temporarily, and now that we have come to the Light, we've been given eyes to see. Others, because of the hardness of their hearts, are confirmed in their spiritual blindness as a divine judgment of God, making it permanent. The first degree is natural blindness, the second degree is sinful blindness, the third degree is satanic blindness, meaning Satan compounds it again, in the minds of them who don't believe. Then, there is another degree of blindness, judicial blindness or sovereign blindness, meaning you can’t see what you wouldn’t see, leading to the blindness of outer darkness or eternal punishment. In Scripture, hell is described as outer darkness. I want to be clear, no one goes to Hell because God sends them there. People go to Hell
because they refuse to turn from their sins and believe on Jesus. That describes much of what we're seeing in our culture today, doesn't it?
For over two years, Jesus has already given the Pharisees so many miraculous public signs which had never been seen before, they could not be counted, yet, settled in their unbelief, their minds were so darkened, they couldn't understand the Scripture. And, when they were exposed to the truth, they were consumed with looking for a way to suppress it. Romans 1:18 says, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness."
Let's look at verse 11, "The Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, to test Him." Matthew tells us the Sadducees were there also, which is interesting, because the two groups couldn't agree on anything. In fact, they hated each other. The Pharisees were theological conservatives, and the
Sadducees were theological liberals, they loved to get mingled up
politically with the Gentile culture. But that's what false religion does, no matter how much they disagree, they will unite in their rejection of Christianity. Interestingly enough, not much as changed with the liberal Christians tolerate egregious sin because God loves everybody. Refusing to believe the Truth, they spiral deeper into the pit of darkness, installing homosexual and transgender pastors and Bishops, inviting drag queens to read stories to innocent children, because God loves diversity.
No sooner than He arrives back into Jewish territory, and gets out of the boat, His enemies waste no time in finding Him to ask for a sign from heaven, a sign that was so spectacular that they couldn't help but be convinced that He is the Messiah. The reason behind it is the Jews believed only God could do heavenly miracles and demons could only do earthly ones. The problem with that is that Jesus is the sign from heaven, they're just too blind to see it! Remember, they're not trying to grow spiritually, they don't believe He can do it. They're wanting to start an argument and discredit Him publicly, because they're convinced He's operating by demonic power, which is what they've said all along. They need a reason to kill Him, As we're watching play out in the world today, false religion is capable of the most heinous crimes!
Matthew adds in his parallel account, Jesus replied to them, "When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?" I believe Jesus is teaching us a lesson about paying attention when He teaches. This is significant, because up to this point, there have been invitations extended to the religious leaders to believe. From now on, they encounter Jesus as a condemning Judge.
Verse 12, "Sighing deeply in His spirit," it's the Greek verb "anastenázō," which means to groan intensely, stenázō is the intensifier. He's expressing His grief over their willful unbelief. Then, "He *said, "Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation." Matthew gives us more detail, telling us He said "an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah."
Nicodemus already knew that He had to come from God. Why would He give another sign to those who have ignored all of the other signs that He has given them? That's the tragic reality with people who are caught up in darkness, the more evidence you give them, the deeper they go into darkness. It's a viscous cycle. He says "Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation." That's a strong indictment. In the Greek it reads, "If I give a sign to this generation, may I die."
Are there times when God instructs us something and instead of just
doing it, we show our unbelief by saying, "If this is really from you
God then show me a sign!" Are we guilty of ignoring the signs that God has already provided? Asking God for a sign demonstrates a lack of
belief and unbelief is never pleasing to God.
Verse 13, "Leaving them, He again embarked and went away to the other side." He's done! Leaving them is a symbolic action of abandonment. Tragically, there's no more opportunity given to come to the Light. Now, they’re condemned to everlasting darkness. It's just like Psalm 81 says "But My people did not listen to My voice... So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, to walk in their own devices." The Resurrection is the only sign they’re going to see, and of course, we know they're going deny that when happens and lie about it. There are many in the church today, who are really no different than these religious leaders, they would rather remain in darkness than face the Truth and deal honestly with the sin in their lives. It's like the old proverbs says, "May you get what you wish for." They loved their darkness and now they've got it. People who often wish for things have no idea what it will be like when they get them. When God abandons you to your darkness, you're in grave danger.
Verse 14, "And they had forgotten to take bread, and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them." You would think after what just happened between Jesus and the religious leaders they wouldn't be thinking about eating lunch. Did they just miss the whole rejection thing? No, they're looking around the boat for bread because they're thinking about lunch. I wonder how they could have forgotten to take bread when there were seven large baskets of leftover from the feeding of the 4,000?
Verse 15, "And He was giving orders to them, saying, "Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." These are present imperatives, Jesus is commanding them to always be on your guard, because they’re still going to be surrounded by the influence of their false teaching. There’s a vulnerability of false teaching among those who have just begun to see the light. If you know anything about yeast, it only needs a little for the dough to rise. In the Bible leaven is often used as a metaphor for the invisible, pervasive influence of sin. I believe this is a good word for us today, isn’t it? We are surrounded by hypocrisy and damning theology. When we come to Christ, we are to leave all that behind. We're not only to flee from it, we are to do everything we can to expose deceptive teaching to protect others.
Verse 16, "They began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread." The verb "dialogízomai" implies they kept talking about it, they are going back and forth. It makes you wonder if they were pointing fingers, blaming each other. It goes to show it's not just what we say, it's about what people hear isn't? They think He's still talking about bread. Jesus uses this as a teachable moment because they missed the entire meaning of His warning.
Verse 17, "And Jesus, aware of this, *said to them, "Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart?" Why are you so focused on the fact that you have no bread? He wants them to think more deeply about the bread then they have been. Aren't you listening to anything I've said, think about what you know to be true about God; I am the bread of life, I am the solution. In verse 18, He reinforces the point with rhetorical questions, "Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear?" In other words, are you as blind as those from who I've hidden the Truth? Have you forgotten to you it has been given to know the mysteries, to understand. I'm sure they didn’t like hearing these questions. You need to stop focusing on literal bread and pay attention to Me.
"And do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?" They *said to Him, "Twelve." "When I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?" And they *said to Him, "Seven." By the way, the miracle of multiplication was immediately before this. Mark is intentional in showing us this reminder is meant to teach them great spiritual lesson. No bread is no problem for God. If He's been faithful to provide in the past, won't He also be faithful to provide in the present? What a profound reminder that we are called to live by faith, not our feelings. Our feelings by their very nature they are untrustworthy. I'd like to encourage you to think about all the provision God has put in your hands.
Verse 21, "And He was saying to them, "Do you not yet understand?" Matthew adds "How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." They were raised in a Jewish society, they grew up learning to respect the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They had to choose if they were going to follow the religious system in
which they were reared, or they were going to follow the teaching of
Jesus. I believe Jesus is posing the same question to some of us today. "Are you going to follow the familiar false teachers and be dead in your trespasses and sins? Or are you going to follow Christ Who is the the way, and the truth, and the life. You cannot claim to be a Christian without having the evidence of the new birth. If you're not living in the Truth, you're living a lie!
John 5:24, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life."
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen