Do you still not see or understand?
Mark 8:11-21
INTRODUCTION
Good morning. Welcome to The Bridge Church. My name is Josh, I’m one of the pastors here.
Happy Mother’s Day everyone! To all the moms in the room, we want you to know that we love you and we value you…and if it wasn’t for you, none of us would be here…quite literally. (haha) But seriously, we want you to know today that we value you and appreciate all that you do to love and serve us.
** That was Adam & Emily Byerly – missionaries in Spain, just spent a week over there with them. We have another team going to Spain this fall as well as a team going to Haiti, both of which are looking for people to join the team so if you’re interested let me know. We partner with several church planters around the world, if you’re ever interested in joining one short term or long term let’s talk. We’re actually sending a team in a few weeks to Clarkston, GA and two teams to Haiti this summer.
If you have your bible with you go ahead and open it to the gospel of Mark chapter 8, as we will be walking through verses 11-21 today.
**Story that seems too good to be true…hard to believe even if it is happening right in front of you. Demand for more proof. – Finding out my wife was pregnant.
Since we have been away from the gospel of Mark for a few weeks, let me remind you of what has just taken place…Jesus in chapter 7 confronted the Pharisees on their adherence to traditions and laws above loving God and others. He declares all foods to be clean and then goes on to cast out demons, heal the deaf, and then right before our passage today he feeds a crowd of more than 4000 for the second time.
Right after he performs this miracle, he and the disciples get into a boat and head to Dalmanutha. Which is where we will pick up in verse 11…
11The Pharisees came and began to argue with him,seeking from hima sign from heavento test him.
Jesus and his disciples get off the boat and the Pharisees come out and begin arguing with Jesus. In the midst of their argument they request that Jesus show them a sign from heaven.
At first glance this might seem innocent and maybe even a little encouraging. I mean, the Pharisees are asking Jesus for a sign. Show us something that authenticates who you are. Show us a sign that we might believe.
But, that was not their intention. Mark tells us that the Pharisees ask for a sign in order to test Jesus. They are not seeking a sign in order to authenticate his ministry; instead, they were seeking a sign to discredit him before the people.[i]
The Pharisees were asking for a sign out their unbelief. They didn’t see or understand that Jesus was sent from the Father with full authority. They had previously witnessed miracles by Jesus and had concluded that his mighty works were of a demonic agency (ch. 3:22-30). Now, they are demanding that Jesus prove that God is with him.
They were asking in an attempt to test Jesus, which is a really important phrase. This phrase refers to the biblical provision for testing if a prophet has been sent by God (Deuteronomy 13:2-6; 18:18-22). If a sign was not delivered then they would know that the prophet was a false prophet and he would be discredited before the people.
In other words, the Pharisees sought definitive proof, undeniable evidence, that God was the source of Christ’s power and authority. They weren’t asking for Jesus to just perform a miracle. They’ve already seem him do some incredible things. They were testing him, they didn’t believe that Jesus was the Christ. They had already attributed his power and authority to that of Satan.
This displayed, on their part, their very own sign- an undeniable lack of faith in Jesus. In an ironic twist, they were proving the hardness of their own hearts with their own sign of disbelief.
Verse 12…
12Andhe sighed deeplyin his spirit and said,“Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”
Jesus sighs deeply perhaps with both grief and anger at the lack of belief by the Pharisees. These were the people that out of anyone of their time should have understood and seen who Jesus really was.
The words Jesus uses are reminiscent of the OT theme being the sin of Israel in doubting the Lord in spite of the signs that he performed for them. He uses the term generation to connect the two thoughts that these Pharisees would have picked up on.
“The generation of Israelites in the wilderness had shown themselves perverse and foolish (Deut. 32:5f.), trying to test God by demanding signs from Moses (Exod. 17:2), while ignoring those which had been shown them (Num. 14:10–12, 22f.), until the Lord was grieved with them (Ps. 95:8–11), so now the generation of Jesus’ contemporaries show themselves equally senseless and wicked when confronted with God at work in Moses’ successor.”[ii]
Ultimately, Jesus knew that their hearts were hardened. He knew that they had already made up their minds about him. No sign would be sufficient enough.
Danny Akin says it this way, “In effect He said, “You want a sign? Read the Scriptures! Listen to my words. See what I do! Beyond that, ‘No sign will be given to this generation!’ If you cannot see God at work in me, no evidence will convince you otherwise. Your demand is just an expression of unbelief. I will not play your evil and wicked game.”[iii]
I have interacted with several people that have said something like, “Well if Jesus really existed and he is God, then he would show me right now by doing some miracle.” Or some that say something like, “I’d believe Jesus was real if he stopped this, or did this.” They are demanding that Jesus show them a sign that he is truly who he says he is. Like the mocking scoffers at the cross saying, “If you are truly God, then come down off the cross,” those whose hearts are hardened will demand that Jesus prove himself over again and again.
RC Sproul says this, “More than one person has held that he would believe in Jesus if he could see Him with his own eyes. [This] passage, however, indicates that this is wishful thinking. If one’s heart is fully hardened against God, seeing Jesus Himself do a miracle will not be enough to cause belief.”
Here’s what we need to understand:
Faith is what causes belief, not signs.
People who have hardened hearts like the Pharisees wouldn’t believe even if Jesus was standing there before them.
Here’s the application to us…we have all struggled with unbelief at times…some of you here today aren’t Christ followers and have your doubts, you aren’t sure what to think about God, Jesus, and this whole church thing.
Many times we say we need proof, but that’s not the real issue. The real issue is in our hearts…most of the time our hearts don’t want to believe even if we had a sign…
The unbelieving world will demand a sign. But, the sign is not going to cause faith. The issue is a heart issue. For some of you here today, your hearts are hard. You’ve already determined in your mind that you refuse to believe. You are convinced God doesn’t exist, you are sure that Jesus is not really who he says he is. For you, it’s not a sign that is going to change your mind. For you the only thing that can change your heart is the Holy Spirit.
This is really difficult. Oftentimes, we Christians want to do everything we can possibly think of to convince someone that God is real and that they should believe in Jesus. We pull out all the stops and do everything we can to be attractive and to show them that we are relevant and useful. We fall into the trap of thinking that evangelism, discipleship, and mission is all about our efforts. That we have to convince others to believe.
I know that I’ve felt that way many times before. When on mission trips or just talking with others that are not Christians, I often feel that it is my job to persuade them into believing. What we see here is that our job is to be faithful in proclaiming the gospel. It is the job of the Holy Spirit to soften hearts and cause faith to happen.
Serving the Lord compels us to pray and rely on him to do the work of saving souls. On our own we cannot make a lasting difference in people’s lives. We must be driven to prayer and be reliant on the Holy Spirit to move.
I know some of you are investigating whether or not Jesus is who he said he was, and you’re waiting for a sign, but at some point you have to take a step of faith. You have to stop waiting for a sign as a way to test whether or not Jesus is really who he says he is. No sign will make you truly believe. If you saw a sign you would simply want more and more.
At some point you just have to open yourself up to allowing the Holy Spirit to work in your heart producing faith in the gospel truth that Jesus is who he says he is. That Jesus is the Son of God, the messiah, the Christ that was sent to be sacrificed in order to redeem and forgive you of your sins. Are you willing to allow the Holy Spirit to work in your life this morning?
Verse 13…
13Andhe left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side. 14Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.
Starting to see a pattern here…they keep forgetting to bring their lunch
15And he cautioned them, saying,“Watch out;beware ofthe leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven ofHerod.”16And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread.17AndJesus, aware of this, said to them,“Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread?Do you not yet perceiveor understand?Are your hearts hardened?18Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?19When I brokethe five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?”They said to him, “Twelve.”20“Andthe seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?”And they said to him, “Seven.”21And he said to them,“Do you not yet understand?”
Jesus and the disciples then get back into the boat. Mark sets the stage for us in verse 14 telling us that they had forgotten to take enough bread with them for their trip. As they begin their trip, Jesus gives them a warning. He cautions them to not fall into the same trap that the Pharisees and Herod had.
A little bit of leaven will permeate through an entire dough and make the bread rise. The tiniest bit of leaven can have such a huge impact. Jesus is using leaven to describe how unbelief works.He is warning his disciples to not make the same mistake and demand signs. Only faith can allow them to recognize that Jesus is the messiah.
Unfortunately, the disciples seem to not even hear Jesus. Instead of listening to his warning, they began to discuss and perhaps even argue over the fact that they only had one loaf of bread, not near enough for all of them to eat their fill for the entire trip. They were worried. They were consumed by their circumstances and missed what Jesus was saying to them.
Jesus then responds to them with a series of questions that I like to think went something like this:
-Why are you talking about not having bread? - Uh……
-Don’t you understand? – Ummmm….no
-Do you have eyes and not see? – I mean…
-Do you have ears and not hear? – Well…
-Do you not remember? – Remember what?
-When I broke the five loaves for the 5000, how many basketfuls were left? – uhhh…12
-When I broke the seven loaves for the 4000, how many basketfuls were left? – uhhh…7
-Do you not yet understand? – Wait, what’s he talking about?[iv]
Jesus isn’t trying to shame them, he’s trying to instruct them with compassion. The unfortunate reality is that
Current circumstances can make us forget past provisions.
We often miss what Jesus is saying/doing because we are so caught up with our current circumstances.
How many times has this happened to you?
Story – God’s provision in my life when I didn’t have a job and then when things get tough I wonder if he’s still there.
We get so consumed by what is happening around us that we miss Jesus altogether. For some (non-Christians), it is their unbelief and for others (Christians) it is their preoccupation with circumstance or things of the world.
The disciples were so concerned that they weren’t going to have enough bread. They were so worried about their stomachs that they forgot that the bread of life was in the boat with them. They had just seen Jesus feed two massive crowds with practically nothing and yet they so quickly got side tracked by their current circumstance.
This is what often happens to us. We desperately cry out to God for a change in our circumstances and for Him to give us some provision, but when the storm has passed, we forget what God has done. We forget our need for Him and go back to living life as if we are the provider instead of God.
The disciples didn’t hear his warning and were actually becoming like the ones he was warning against. Their eyes and ears weren’t working. Not physically, but spiritually.
Oftentimes we focus our eyes and ears on ourselves. We are focused on the mundane, on the physical. We are worried about our stomachs while Jesus is worried about our souls. Jesus is saying, “watch out, your heart and your soul is wandering,” and we’re saying, “yea, but my tummy is hungry.”
Jesus calls out to us, instructs us and yet we do not listen. Not because we do not hear him, but because we are worried about our circumstance. We hear his call to love someone, and we think about ourselves. What will they think about me? Will I be safe? Will it cost me money? What about my comforts? What about my family?
We read his commands to love God and love others and the commission to go and make disciples and instead of going, we get sidetracked by our worries. We start to think, “well if he really wanted me to go, he would give me a sign.” Sound familiar?
How often do we do that? God if this is what you want from me, do…this…to show me. What other sign do we need other than what he has given us in his word? His word tells us that we are called to go and be disciples who are making disciples. We drive around looking for him to put it on consecutive street signs or to make something happen in our lives that proves that this is what he wants for us.
Instead of listening to his command, we ask for another sign.
We often sit back and wait for some visible sign from God to tell us to go and live out what he has already called us to live out. We do this not necessarily because we don’t believe it, but because we just don’t want to. We sit back and wait for God to shove us out the door.
Dhati Lewis, a pastor in Atlanta says this, “Jesus did not call His disciples to build the church and then put up gates to keep hell at bay. The church is not a city under siege, as if hell was fast approaching and we need to keep it out. Jesus says the absolute opposite. Jesus is building a church that is going to mobilize as an army to attack the darkness of hell, and no fortress or gates are going to stop it!”[v]
Jesus has given us his word. He has instructed us and his sign to us was his death and resurrection. He died, just as he said he would. Then, he rose from the grave, the greatest sign we could ever ask for. The sign that death has been defeated. The sign that victory will be had. The sign that we will forever be in his presence. The sign that the Holy Spirit is now with us. The sign that we have the full authority given to us by Christ, to go and make disciples of all nations.
I want to try to make this really practical for just a second and show you how often we do this. I remember a few years back being in a situation in which I had three options for job and life and I didn’t know what to do. So, I prayed, which is good. I was realizing that I couldn’t figure it out on my own. However, my prayer was essentially, “God what is your will for my life?” A question that many of us ask, which again is not a terrible question.