The Gospel of Mark: Don't Miss The Point

David Krueger

The Gospel of Mark • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

Mark 8:1–21

Faith

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Understanding the lessons of faith.

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Text: Mark 8:1-21

Theme: Understanding the lessons of faith.

Date: 02/24/19 File name: GospelOfMark18.wpd ID Number:

Most of us have probably heard the story of the four blind men who were asked to describe an elephant. Each of them walked to the elephant and began to feel the animal. However, each went to a different part of the elephant. One felt his trunk and proclaimed that elephant was like a big snake. Another felt his leg and declared that the elephant was like a tree. Still another felt the elephant's side. He exclaimed that the elephant was like a massive wall. The last man felt the elephant's tail and speculated that the elephant was like a rope. Each man had felt the elephant. But each came to a radically different conclusion based on the limited facts they had.

Depending on our perspective, the conclusions we draw about certain events in our lives can be either accurate or wholly off-base.

All too often fail to understand what God is doing in our lives. ILLUS. Like Elisha’s servant, we see an army with horses and chariots circling the city and we despair. Elisha sees the same army and says, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Elisha’s servant saw the situation through the eyes of the flesh. Elisha saw the situation through the eyes of the spirit. (2 Kings 6).

We frequently analyze situations from the flesh rather than the spirit. And when we do, we frequently miss what God is up to in the moment. We need to learn how to see the big picture.

To understand what God is doing in our lives, we must first understand what God is after. In most of what God is doing, He is trying to teach us a lesson of faith. He desires that we learn to live by faith in the daily affairs of life. God wants us to learn how to trust Him in everything and for everything. If we can begin to see life’s events from that perspective, I believe we will begin to understand why God is doing what He is doing in our lives.

In our text this evening, we see Jesus trying to teach His disciples to walk by faith, but they missed the point. Like the disciples, at times we too can be spiritually insensitive and miss the point that Jesus is trying to teach us. But if we are, Jesus will be faithful to take us back through those lessons of faith in order to teach us to trust Him. Through these lessons of faith, Jesus will teach us to repudiate all self-reliance and trust in the God who alone can truly meet our needs.

I. A REVELATION OF THE SAVIOR

1. in the feeding of the four thousand, we have here a revelation of Jesus as Messiah

a. as you recall, He had already performed the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand in Mark 6

1) but this is an entirely different incident

2) Mark makes this clear in v. 1

"In those days, when there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples and said to them," (Mark 8:1, NASB95)

b. in the first case, there were five thousand Jews fed with five loaves and two fish

1) in this case, there were four thousand men

2) the majority of the crowd was probably pagan Gentiles (because they were in the region of the Decapolis) and

3) they were fed with seven loaves and a few small fish

c. in the case of the five thousand, twelve baskets of fragments were picked up

1) and in the case of the four thousand, seven baskets of broken pieces were picked up

2. what we have here is a different miracle similar to the first, but repeated for the sake of teaching the disciples an important object lesson

A. A REVELATION OF HIS CHARACTER

1. in filling these empty stomachs, we see a revelation of our Lord’s character and His ministry

2. during the ministry of Jesus, all His actions, all of His miracle, all of his preaching and teaching were meant to reveal the central truth of why He came

a. His ministry was to seek and to save those who were lost

3. Jesus was truly concerned about the needs of people

a. He had come to establish the Kingdom of God

1) but God’s Kingdom is different than earthly kingdoms

b. earthly kingdoms are concerned about power, and wealth and national boundaries, and political influence, and protection of the status-quo

1) He had not come to set up a kingdom like that

c. Jesus came to establish a kingdom whoso focus is on people

“But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be a people for His own possession, as today." (Deuteronomy 4:20, NASB95)

“For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth." (Deuteronomy 7:6< NASB95)

"looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." (Titus 2:13-14, NASB95)

4. Jesus came to meet the needs of people

a. as these Gentile multitudes gathered, Jesus felt compassion for them

1) he had been with them three days, and they had had little, if any, food

b. when they came to Him, they were hungry for spiritual nourishment

1) He had taught them now for three days running and now they were needing physical nourishment

2) before He sends them to their homes, he decides to give them something to eat

5. through this event, we discover that we have a compassionate God who is concerned about empty stomachs

a. God is a God who gives

1) He gives because He cares about our needs

2) His care extends to every need we might have

“Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? “And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things." (Matthew 6:26-32, NASB95)

6. man is a living soul — that’s how God created us

a. in each of these areas, we can have needs

b. we are most aware of our physical needs

1) the empty stomachs here were certainly a physical need

2) Jesus is concerned with our physical needs

3) and just as He met the need here for physical food, so He will meet our physical and material needs as well

c. we also have a soul

1) in this area, we find our intellectual and emotional needs

2) again, Jesus desires to meet those needs as well

ILLUS. On several occasions, Jesus asks a hurting person, Do you want to be made whole? It doesn’t refer to mere physical healing, but the wellness of the entire person.

B. A REVELATION OF ETERNAL TRUTH

1. just what was Jesus trying to say through these miracles?

a. if you look closely, several important truths emerge

2. 1st, Jesus Is the Bread of Life

a. in John’s Gospel, after the first feeding of the multitude, Jesus declares Himself to be the bread of life

1) the hungry soul of man may search for spiritual nourishment through many means

2) but only Jesus can satisfy the empty soul

ILLUS. The passage says that these people were satisfied. I believe they were satisfied with more than physical nourishment. After all, Jesus had taught them for three days. He had broken the bread of life to them. Now He had given them bread for their empty stomachs. They came with empty souls. They stayed until they had empty stomachs. But Jesus filled both their empty souls and their empty stomachs. Their empty stomachs He filled with physical bread; their empty souls He filled with the bread of life, Himself.

3. 2nd, When He Provides, There Is More than Enough

a. in the first miracle, you might recall that twelve baskets full of fragments were gathered

1) in this case, seven large, hamper-type baskets were filled with the leftovers

b. in both cases, there was a multitude to be fed: five thousand in the first, and four thousand in the second

c. in each case, there was only a limited amount of human resources, but Jesus multiplied those resources until there was not only enough to feed the multitude, but more than enough

1) in fact, there was plenty left over after everyone had his fill

d. the lesson here is that God's provision is not only enough, it is more than enough

1) we can trust Him with our lives

2) He will more than meet our needs

4. these were the lessons Jesus sought to teach His disciples

a. would they understand or would they miss the point?

b. what about us?

II. A REJECTION OF THE SKEPTIC vv. 11-13

1. the Pharisees always had trouble with Jesus

a. they were the religious leaders of their day

2. it is ironic that while the common people heard Jesus gladly, the religious leaders looked at Him through skeptical eyes

a. in verses 11-13, we see here a picture of the blind eyes of these religious leaders

1) we see a rejection of the skeptic

A. THE PHARISEES' DEMANDING REQUEST

1. they wanted a sign from heaven

a. but these were not honest seekers, desiring to see God work in their lives

b. notice in verse 11 that it says that these Pharisees began to argue with Him

1) they were argumentative

2) they were skeptical

3) they were cynical in their approach to Jesus

2. the entire reason they wanted a sign was to test Him

a. far from being open to the grace and power of God, they were closed

b. all they wanted to do was trap Him

1) and so they came to Him with this demanding request, "Give us a sign. Then we'll know who You really are, and if You are who You claim to be."

2) I don’t know . . . supernaturally feeding over 10,000 people in the course of a few weeks seems like a pretty decent ‘sign’ to me!

3. these Pharisees came to Jesus with blind eyes, with skeptical hearts

a. they did not want to see

b. even after the resurrection, they did not believe

B. THE LORD’S DISCOURAGED RESPONSE

1. verse 12 says that He was sighing deeply in His spirit

2. I'm sure Jesus hurt over the fact that there were those who refused to believe and receive

a. here were eyes which could see physically, but could not perceive the spiritual world

1) they were blind eyes that would not be healed

3. Jesus told them that no sign would be given to this generation

a. it says in verse 13, that He left them

1) it is as if Jesus turned on His heel and walked away

b. what a tragic thing, to be rejected by God

1) but notice that Jesus only rejected those who would not believe

2) the Bible teaches us that all who call upon the name of the Lord are saved

3) it teaches us that if any one comes to Jesus, he will not be cast out

4) you will only be rejected if you reject the Savior

4. we see here that Jesus does everything to cause people to believe

a. it is only when they stubbornly refuse to replace skepticism with faith that they are turned away

III. A REBUKE OF THE SELF-RELIANT

1. unfortunately, the disciples had not become particularly adept at getting the point of what Jesus was trying to teach them, either

a. in fact, the disciples had dull hearts when it came to perceiving spiritual truth

b. they preferred, rather, to rely upon their own resources rather than trust God's resources by faith

A. THE INSENSITIVITY OF THE DISCIPLES

1. As Jesus left the Pharisees, He and His disciples got into a boat to go across the lake

a. seeking to teach them another spiritual lesson, He said in verse 15, "Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees ..."

2. leaven, in Scripture, is generally symbolic of evil

a. Jesus was trying to tell them to be careful of the evil tendencies of the Pharisees

b. but while He was trying to teach them a spiritual truth, they were too busy thinking on the material level

1) verse 14 tells us that they had forgotten to take bread on their journey

2) this is really laughable when you think that they had just gathered up seven large baskets full of bread

3) in any event, verse 16 tells us that "they began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread"

c. the picture we get here is of these disciples trying to find out who was to blame because they had no bread

3. as they were busily arguing among themselves, it became apparent to Jesus that they had missed the point

a. even though they had seen this miracle of God's provision now twice, they were so spiritually insensitive that they had failed to understand what Jesus was trying to teach them

1) Jesus was incredulous

2) what was the matter with these Bozos?

3) what would it take for them to understand?

4) why did they keep missing the point?

b. we get a picture of Jesus almost being beside Himself because of the dullness of these disciples

4. we see this in the series of rapid-fire questions with which He challenged these disciples

a. His cross-examination begins in verse 17

1) Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread?

2) Do you not see or understand?

3) Do you have a hardened heart?

4) Having eyes, do you not see?

5) And having ears, do you not hear?

6) 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?

b. finally, he says Do you not yet understand?

B. THE SELF-RELIANCE OF THE DISCIPLES

1. in both of these miracles, we see His disciples looking first to their human resources

a. even after Jesus had fed the first multitude, the disciples kept looking to their own human resources

1) it seems to me that on the occasion of the second hungry multitude, the disciples ought to have known something was up

2) it seems to me that they should have reasoned that if Jesus could feed five thousand with five loaves, He could certainly feed four thousand with seven

b. but they were too self-reliant for that

1) perhaps they considered themselves too pragmatic, too practical

2) perhaps they fancied themselves as realists

c. unfortunately, being overly pragmatic can keep you from stepping out in faith

2. faith is not sight and never can be

a. the Bible says we are to walk by faith, not by sight

1) in every step of faith, there is an element of risk involved

2) sadly, too many of us would prefer to stay on the seemingly safe shores of self-reliance rather than launch out into the deep

3) when we do, we miss the great things God can do

3. in Jesus' encounter with the disciples we have a rebuke of the self-reliant in man

a. Jesus wanted them to cease trusting in themselves and begin to trust in what He could do

b. and that is precisely the same lesson we need to learn

1) all too often, we are like these disciples – trying to depend on our resources when what we need to do is abandon ourselves totally to God

2) only when we cast ourselves into His hands will we find the strength and power and grace to live by faith

4. we need to heed the lessons Jesus was trying to teach His disciples that:

a. man does not live by bread alone – What we need is not physical bread, but the bread of life, which He can provide

b. what we need is trust in the God who alone can provide for our needs

God makes it so simple, while we make it complicated. The Wall Street Journal once paraphrased "Give us this day our daily bread" in legal contract language: "We respectively petition, request, and entreat that due and adequate provision be made, this day and the date hereinafter subscribed, for the organizing of such methods of allocation and distribution as may be deemed necessary and proper to assure the reception by and for said petitioners of such quantities of baked cereal products as shall, in the judgment of the aforesaid petitioners, constitute a sufficient supply thereof." Thank God they didn't write the entire Lord's Prayer. Jesus makes it simple. He says, "Just tell Me what you need. I'll be there for you." And if we will trust Him, He will not only provide what we need, He will provide more than enough.

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