Here’s Your Sign

Good Morning Church!

Bibles out…Mark 7:31-8:21….

Lots of text to cover…

Lets get into it!

READ 7:31 to 8:10

So what do we see here???

MORE MIRACLES RIGHT???

More of Jesus’s miraculous works!!!

Again, we have talked about this many times over the last few months walking through the book of Mark…

Thats really the central theme of all the gospel writings…

To show the Jews who Jesus is…He is their promised Messiah…

The Jews were expecting signs and wonders from the man God sent to deliver them (Turn to Exodus 4)

When God sent Moses to deliver the people out of Egypt…He sent Him with signs and wonders…

So Jesus come and shows incredible signs and wonders to the Jews…

THE MIRACLES IN MARK:

-Casted out demon from a man in the synagog (1:23)

-Healed Peters Mother In-law (1:30)

-Healed and Casted out demons of many in Capernaum (1:34)

-Cleanses and heals the leper (1:40)

-Heals the paralytic (2:5)

-Restores man with withered hand (3:5)

-Healed a great multitude (3:10)

-Calms storm (4:39)

-Cast out demons (Legion) from man in the tombs (5:8)

-Healed the bleeding woman (5:28)

-Raised a little girl from the dead (Talitha Cumi) (5:41)

-Healed many sick in Nazareth (6:6)

-Fed 5,000+ with 5 loaves and 2 fish (6:41)

-Walks on water (6:48)

-Healed many in Gennesaret (6:56)

-Delivers the Gentile woman’s daughter (7:29)

-Makes a deaf and mute man hear and speak (7:34)

-Feeds 4,000 with 7 loaves and a few fish (8:7)

These are the works of Jesus in His earthly ministry...

THE JEWS SHOULD BE ERUPTING IN PRAISE AND WORSHIP AND CELEBRATION!!!

MESSIAH IS HERE!!!!

THE ONE FROM THE SCRIPTURES IS HERE…THE ONE GOD PROMISED TO ABRAHAM AND DAVID ISS HERE!!!

LOOK!!! SEE THE SIGNS AND WONDERS…GOD IS WITH US!!!

But thats NOT how they respond…

Lets look and see how they respond…

READ 8:11-21

LETS BREAK DOWN THE 3 RESPONSES FOLLOWING THE MIRACLES IN MARK…

The first…

HIS WORK REJECTED (8:11-13)

The Pharisees come…They say “give us a sign.”

What do you mean give us a sign!?!?!?!

How many more do you need!!!!

They have witnessed almost all of the above signs we discussed…

All those miracles…

On top of that they have listened to His teachings…even said “this is one that teaches with authority from heaven”

AND STILL THEY DO NOT BELIEVE!!!!

Look at Jesus’s reaction…

V12 “The Lord sighed deeply in His Spirit”

Oh come on!!! Ive healed and casted out and delivered thousands of people…Ive raised people from the dead!!!

And you still seek a sign!?!?!?

But what we have to see in the text is that …these Pharisees aren't here for the sign…

They are here to tempt…

They have already rejected all the signs…

Their hearts are already hardened to them…

And Jesus says “There shall be no sign given to this generation”

Now what does that mean???

Mark doesn't give us the whole statement here…Mark is very concise in his writings..

But Matthew does…he gives us the second half of what Jesus says…

Matthew 16:4 “A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah…”

What is the “sign of Jonah?”

Jonah eaten by a fish…

Jonah 2 “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly. And said, I cried by reason of my affliction to the Lord, and He heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and You heard my voice. For You had cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all Your billows and Your waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet have You brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in to You, into Your holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.”

SO Jesus lets them know…there is only one more sign you are going to get from me…

I will be killed, buried in the depths, and 3 days later I will rise again…

BUT THATS IT!!!!

Those who are supposed to know Him from…don’t

THEY REJECT HIS WORKS…THEY REJECT HIM…

Result (v13) He left them…

Thats the first response we see…

Lets look at the second response…

READ v14-17

The second response comes through His disciples...

HIS WORK MISUNDERSTOOD (8:14-17)

They get in the boat…forget to bring some of the bread from the feeding of the 4k…

This is a concern for them…13 guys on a boat…long journey ahead…1 loaf of bread…

SO they are discussing this…and Jesus responds to this issue…

“BEWARE OF THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES AND HEROD”

Now what is Jesus talking about…

First we gotta know what leaven is…

“LEAVEN -Any thing which makes a general change in the mass. It generally means something which corrupts or depraves that with which it is mixed.” Websters 1828

Where are my sourdough ladies at?!?!?! DO I have any???

God bless yall LOL

What an incredible trend…fresh baked bread in the house!!!

If your looking for a husband…learn how to stretch and fold …I promise it wont be long and you will get you one lol

If you have ever baked sourdough you know about leaven…

When you are baking something…you have your flour in a bowl…you add a little of that sourdough starter…now the entire bowl becomes sourdough…

A little leaven leavens the whole thing…

its not flour and water anymore…its sourdough…you have changed the entire thing by adding the starter…

So here is what Jesus is saying to His disciples…

Don’t let any of the teachings and actions of the Pharisees (thats the false teachers of religion) into you…

Don’t let any of the teachings or actions of king Herod (thats the false teachings of the world) into you…

Because it can easily effect all of you…

Don’t let their unbelief…hypocrisy…legalism…false gospel…man pleasing…the physical things…worldliness..self pleasure…influence you or take hold in you…

He is warning His followers…

BUT HERE IS THE THING…it already has…

Look at their response

v16 READ

Their focus isn’t on what Jesus is saying…or what He has done…

Its on the bread…the physical…on themselves…their flesh

They are clueless to what is being said to them…

BUT This isn't about the bread…this isn't about being fed…

BUT ITS ALL THEY CAN FOCUS ON…

They aren't sitting in the boat going “I cant believe we just saw Him feed thousands of people with so little food” they are panicked because they forgot to bring some of the food with them!!!!

Look how Jesus responds…

READ v17…neither do you understand…which has hardened your heart…

Your focus always in the wrong place…you don’t understand what Im saying…or what you are seeing

This is a common problem with the disciples….

This happens again later on…

Later Jesus is speaking to the disciples about Him being God in flesh…

These men who have heard the teachings of Christ and seen His miracles only God could do…look how they react to this teaching

JOHN 14:7-9 “If you had known Me, you should have known My Father also: and from hereafter you know Him, and have seen Him. Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us. Jesus said to him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known Me, Philip? he that has seen Me has seen the Father; and how say you then, Show us the Father?”

Church here is what we see…

Those who should understand (who have walked with Him and seen the signs)…don’t

Thats the second response we see…

Lets look at the 3rd response…

READ 18-21

HIS WORK FORGOTTEN (8:18-21)

Having eyes you see not…

Having ears you hear not…

do you not remember…

Then He begins to ask them questions (I do this with my kids to when they just arent seeing things like they should)

Do you remember when “I” …me Jesus …broke 5 loaves among 5,000 plus people and fed them all???

How many baskets did you collect??? 12 Lord

AND do you remember when “I”… me Jesus…fed 4,000…how many basket then…7 Lord…

HOW IS IT THAT YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND????

REMEMBER WHAT “I”…NOT YOU…I did!!!

What you have witnessed with your own eyes and heard with your own ears!!!

WHY? Has this happened????

Because the men have let in the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod!!!!

They let in self sufficiency, unbelief, doubt…

Look how quickly it can effect the whole loaf….

HOW DO WE DEFEND AGAINST THIS???

We respond to the Work of Jesus in the way He desires…

Jesus desires for us to…

ACCEPT HIS WORK

UNDERSTAND HIS WORK

REMEMBER HIS WORK

2 different ways to apply this…

-In salvation

If you are in this room and you don’t know Jesus…

Today you have seen a quick scope of all of Christs work…

Including His most important…greatest…finished work… (dyeing for our sins and resurrection to defeat sin and death)

You need to ACCEPT that work…it happened…it was witnessed…it is fact…

You need to UNDERSTAND that work…it happened…by Jesus…for you…to give you eternal life

You need to REMEMBER that work…someone I hope has spoken this to you before…this happened…place your faith in it today…and remember it always…

If you are apart of the body of Christ in this room…

-In daily walk of a disciple

This is how we defend ourselves from the leaven of the false religious teachers and the worlds teachings…

ACCEPT the work of Jesus daily…(Stand on faith)

UNDERSTAND the work of Jesus daily…(study and search the scriptures to understand)

REMEMBER the work of Jesus daily…(remember the gospel…communion)

LETS PRAY!!!