Sermon Tone Analysis

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