Jesus in Mark: Wk 10

Illustration:

Gardening/Pulling bushes out of front yard. cut the limbs, but eventually had to chop the massive root at the bottom.

Unfortunately, this is a really accurate picture of our lives as Jesus followers. From, neglecting to deal with certain messy areas of our lives once we follow Jesus, to just trimming the branches instead of cutting the root. When we follow Jesus it is generally easy to “clean up” the outside of our lives and not ever truly let Jesus transform us from the inside out, getting to the root of our sin in our hearts. Both, neglecting the sin in our lives or even embracing it, or only dealing with cleaning up the outside, do not lead to the life of the Kingdom of God. They keep us away from knowing Jesus personally and experiencing the life he came to give us.

As we said last week, Jesus alone is the source of life that we all need. He is the good shepherd, who provides the bread of life to his sheep. We need that life and those around us need us to share that life with them!

Transition:

Tonight, Jesus will be going a step further in this train of thought with his closest disciples. He gives them a strong and intimidating warning that is crucial for us today. Because it reveals that while some of us claim to follow Jesus, or truly do follow Jesus, if we fall for certain lies around us we will never truly know Jesus and the fullness of the life he has for us.

Turn with me to Mark 8 tonight. As you turn there let me get us caught up on what has happened since the story we left off on last week.

Jesus feed the 5000. good shepherd with bread of life for his sheep. pointed back to Moses and the bread God provided from heaven for them in the wilderness.

Then his disciples are in the boat out on the sea and get caught in a storm, yet Jesus, as Lord of Heaven and Earth, walks out to them ON THE WATER, and joins them in the boat and immediately the wind and waves stop. Again, it says they were astounded, they could not understand who Jesus was and how creation obeyed his commands and presence.

Jesus confronts the pharisees about their traditions and made up rules that they are imposing on the Jewish people, specifically how hypocritical they are saying they need to measure up to standards that God never set and that even the leaders weren’t able to measure up to. They made up every rule and tradition to clean up their appearances and put money in their pockets but that left sin dwelling in their hearts. Jesus says, quoting the prophet Isaiah Mark 7:6-7 “... This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines human commands.”

Then Mark shifts his stories to a few that actually have Gentiles, non-Jewish people at the focal point. A gentile mother comes to Jesus and he heals her daughter, a man who was deaf and couldn’t speak was healed completely, and then we have another story of Jesus feeding a large crowd.

This time, instead of a largely Jewish crowd, it is a largely gentile crowd based on the area he was in. And it says it was 4000 people, with 7 loves of bread and a few fish.

So, that is a lot but it leads us to where we are now in Mark 8:11.

Let’s dig into the passage tonight and we’ll see how it ties back into everything that has been going on.

Mark 8:11–26 (CSB)

The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, demanding of him a sign from heaven to test him. Sighing deeply in his spirit, he said, “Why does this generation demand a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.” Then he left them, got back into the boat, and went to the other side.

The disciples had forgotten to take bread and had only one loaf with them in the boat. Then he gave them strict orders: “Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” They were discussing among themselves that they did not have any bread. Aware of this, he said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact you have no bread? Don’t you understand or comprehend? Do you have hardened hearts? Do you have eyes and not see; do you have ears and not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of leftovers did you collect?”

“Twelve,” they told him.

“When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many baskets full of pieces did you collect?”

“Seven,” they said.

And he said to them, “Don’t you understand yet?”

They came to Bethsaida. They brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and brought him out of the village. Spitting on his eyes and laying his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?”

He looked up and said, “I see people—they look like trees walking.”

Again Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes. The man looked intently and his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly. Then he sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”

We see a difficult story here for the closest disciples of Jesus. What happened?

First, the Pharisees approach Jesus and demand another sign. They still refuse to believe and demand God to prove Jesus’ identity to them without a doubt. And Jesus says no. Stop asking for signs, you aren’t getting anymore. The only sign they will get after this that should convince them is the resurrection.

But Jesus is clearly frustrated by them as they leave immediately and get in a boat.

And unfortunately that boat ride isn’t much better.

Well, have you ever been on a trip and the second you get on the road but are just far enough to where you can’t turn around you realize that you forgot something really important? My whole life I have been forgetting to pack deodorant. I use it every day, It is a habit for the last like 15 years of my life, yet whenever I pack a suitcase deodorant never makes it in there. And believe me, that’s a big problem that no one wants to deal with! But has that happened to you? You end up having to buy something and your parents or whole family is upset because they are like COME ONE how did we forget that!!! Well that’s the situation we find the disciples in here.

They have left the massive feeding of the 4000, that has 7 basketfuls of leftovers, and they are on a boat journey, but SOMEONE forgot the bread! They only have one loaf with them! And they are getting mad at one another. How could you forget it, how could I forget it, how could YOU forget it!

Jesus hears them arguing like little kids and he does the biggest and best Jesus juke of all time, and it isn’t cringey because IT’S JESUS!

He hears them talking about bread a physical conversation about physical needs- even though Jesus has proved himself faithful time after time to them to provide for their needs. I am sure he was frustrated.

But he turns the conversation Spiritual.

Mark8:15 “Then he gave them strict orders: “Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.””

What is Jesus talking about? Well, We will get to that but see the seriousness of the rest of the conversation first. They continue to think that Jesus is talking about bread, real bread. Because he did say leaven, which is like yeast which is meant for baking bread. So they are like see Jesus is mad about the bread too!

But he isn’t talking about bread, it’s not about the physical so he gets pretty serious with them: He essentially asked them if they are deaf and not hearing him, are their hearts really that hard, are you blind and not seeing what I am doing, do you really not remember or understand?

He then references the two stories of him feeding the crowds and says how much was left over with the crowd of 5000? they say 12 baskets.

How about the 4000 that JUST HAPPENED? 7 baskets they say.

Ouch. He points out their lack of faith in him and their lack of understanding.

They are so caught up in their physical needs and problems that they miss that the bread of life, the one who can give them life to the fullest is SITTING IN THE BOAT WITH THEM!

Before we criticize the disciples tell me this: how many of you would say God has blessed you and your family in some way in your life? He has allowed you to live, he has given you breath in your lungs, food on your table, provided for you, brought you through a hard time, or given you salvation from your sin? Yeah every hand. Put them down.

How many of you have ever still doubted God, questioned God, or been worried about what was happening in your life? Exactly, so don’t be hard on the disciples but relate to them.

So, why? How could they still lack this faith and understanding in who Jesus is and that he is here for SO MUCH MORE THAN BREAD?

Jesus said they need to beware of the leaven of the pharisees and Herod. WHAT?

Leaven: this is a substance like what we would call Yeast today. It is what is added to dough to cause it to rise when it bakes. It is the difference between a flatbread and a big fluffy loaf of bread.

This word should immediately take us back to the Exodus out of Egypt. The bread conversation like last week makes us think of God providing manna-bread from Heaven- for the Israelites in the wilderness. But before this, God called them to make bread without leaven that would be better and easier for them to take on their journey out of Egypt.

From that moment on in Israel’s culture and traditions, leaven was used as a symbol. To leave leaven out in offerings of worship was meant to call to mind the unleavened bread of the Exodus- leaving behind the things of Egypt that God was rescuing them from.

Throughout the rest of the bible, especially the new testament we see Leaven, or yeast as we would say today, used as a symbol for evil, and sinful influences in our lives.

What are the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod?

So, Jesus is essentially warning against the false teachings and lies of two different threats in our life. False religion and the sinful world.

A bible teacher and preacher named Harry Ironside put it this way:

[The leaven of…]Pharisees was hypocrisy and self-righteousness; the leaven of the Sadducees was evil doctrine or false teaching; the leaven of Herod was worldliness and political corruption.

Harry A. Ironside

On one side you have the false religion.

The Jewish leaders at that time who were imposing a bunch of false and made up rules on the jewish people and telling them they had to listen in order to be right with God and allowed to worship in the temple. They were the ones who demanded signs to be sure of who Jesus was, rather than actually have genuine faith in Him which would COST THEM their traditions and customs. But remember those things looked good, they sounded good, the felt good, they made them wealthy and respected in their culture.

This is the idea today of putting on the best christian show of your life. Dressing up, styling your whole body, changing how you talk, and act all to go to church, fit in and then go home and be a totally different person. It’s checking the right religious boxes without truly following Jesus as Lord.

It’s cutting off the branches and never getting to the root of the bush! You still have a sin problem, it just doesn’t look that bad.

we must watch out for this temptation. Especially growing up in church or jumping into church for the first time. It is easier to look the part, act the part and talk the part but never let Jesus truly transform you from the inside out. That requires giving him your heart and letting him change you.

To the pharisees he said: Mark 7:20-23

Mark 7:20–23 (CSB)

And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a person.”

The leaven of the pharisees says just clean up the outside and that is good enough. Don’t let Jesus change your heart- that is too hard, too extreme, too radical. Just pray fancy words, know enough about the bible to sound good, put a verse in your bio, and show up when you can to sundays. That’s nice, easy, looks good and won’t get you in too much trouble. But it’s not the life altering, kingdom of God life that Jesus wants to give you.

That’s the leaven of the pharisees.

On the other side you have the leaven of Herod:

This is the lies and temptations of the world creeping into the church. See, Herod was a Jewish man who was placed by Rome to rule over the Jewish people. He had some knowledge and care for the Jews but was in love with the power and benefits of Roman life.

The leaven of Herod tries to make the Gospel lighter and easier for people to hear. It says we don’t really need to repent of Sin, just cover it up. Just enjoy life and don’t care too much. Just add some Jesus into your life and keep pursuing whatever else you want in this world. That is good enough. Pray a prayer to get you to heaven and then live in sin, no big deal!

The leaven of Herod says, to believe the world when it says to follow your heart, to pursue those desires in you to, explore your feelings without the Bible of God’s design as a guide and guardrails.

It’s two sides of the same coin:

The religious hypocrite and the watered down, church goer who tries to keep living in sin of the world.

Both are not the life that Christ has called us to.

The life of Jesus is not religious rules, or traditions, and it’s not of this world. Sin is not to be tolerated in either camp- religious sin or worldly sin.

And Jesus calls out his own disciples out on it. But they aren’t living in any sin that we can tell, so why does Jesus warn them about it?

Well, because it only takes a little leaven to change the whole batch of dough: Check this out

HOLD UP YEAST PACKET: illustration

We cannot tolerate even falling for a little bit of these lies.

Listen, I believe that every single one of you DESIRES and wants to have the life that Jesus promised you. Life of joy, hope, peace, love, satisfaction…etc.

But I also have a feeling that there are those of us here that are allowing a little bit, or maybe a lot, of yeast to hold us back. We are concealing sin instead of confessing it. We are holding onto false ideas and beliefs from this world because they are easy, they sound nice, and they don’t cost us much. But listen, THEY WILL NOT GIVE YOU LIFE. Fake religious acts and this world will promise life and give you death in the end. You will

Leaven in religion and the world today:

Leaven of church attendance

leaven of hiding our sin

leaven of wealth

leaven of popularity

leaven of sexuality

leaven of tribalism(divison and discrimination)

leaven of

Response:

Jesus alone is worth your faith because He is the only source of life.

We must turn from sin and put our trust and hope fully in Jesus to find life.

Bow your heads and close your eyes

TOnight, We will sing to close out, but during this time if there is sin in your life, false beliefs, ways you have been leaning on this world, or a fake religious experience to give you hope na dlife you need to confess it! Not quietly to yourself, but to GOD! Cry out to God and ask him for forgiveness and new life! And I’ll give you one step to make that experience even better, confess it to a leader in here, me, or rosie, Jenna, MAtt, MAtthew, or Adam. We are here for you. We want to encourage you guide you and wlak with you. Stop holding onto even a little yeast, stop keeping sin or lies in the dark, confess them tonight and let’s step into new life together tonight!

Gospel

Prayer

Music.