You Still Don’t Understand?

You Still Don’t Understand?

Mark 8:14-21

This morning, we’re jumping back into Mark’s gospel. We’ve been away from it for a while, so let’s quickly remember some of the events in this chapter that bring us to this point.

· In verses 1–8 of this chapter, Jesus takes seven small loaves of bread and a few small fish and He feeds 4,000 people!

· In verse 8 the disciples collect the leftovers and there are seven baskets full, seven baskets large enough to hold a full-grown man.

· In verses 11–12 Jesus is attacked by the Pharisees. They clearly state their rejection of Him and demand He perform some miracle in the heavens above to prove to them that He is really the Messiah.

· Jesus refuses to play their game in verse 13, and He simply leaves them standing there while He and His disciples get into a boat and sail away.

That brings us to our text. Jesus and His disciples on a boat sailing across the Sea of Galilee. While they are crossing the lake, the disciples still have their minds on bread, maybe they’re hungry. They realize they’ve forgotten to bring any bread for themselves. I can imagine their thoughts, “Oh boy! We had seven huge baskets of bread back there and we forgot to bring any with us! Now we’re hungry and we don’t even have enough bread to feed one of us!”

Of course, Jesus knows what they are thinking! He uses their forgetfulness as an opportunity to teach them a few much needed lessons. I’d like for us to eavesdrop on this conversation between Jesus and the disciples because we need to hear what He has to say to them.

I’m just guessing, but I would imagine they were pretty caught up in all this miracle business. I imagine that they thought they were somebodies, hanging out with Jesus and getting in on all the amazing stuff He was doing. I imagine that they’re feeling kind of smug having just seen Jesus put those Pharisees in their place.

In these verses they’re going to find out that they have some room to grow as well.

Guess what, these verses also speak to us today. There are times when we might start to think a little too highly of ourselves and our walk with the Lord. When that’s true, the Bible has a way of cutting us down to size. That’s what these verses are designed to do.

So, today were going to look at the lessons that Jesus was teaching His closest followers, lessons about their lack of faith and failure to understand His power. We need to hear this just like His disciples did some 2,000 years ago. We need to hear this because we’re just like them. Sometimes, we just don’t get it.

Let’s pray, listen and learn.

Pray!

Mark 8:14–21 ESV

Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

The first thing we see in our passage is:

The Lord’s Command

Jesus knew what they were thinking about. He knows their thoughts and their failure understand His power. We need this today because we’re just like the disciples, sometimes we just don’t get it. We need to listen and learn.

So, Jesus uses their thoughts of bread to speak to their hearts.

He warns them to beware of the “leaven” of the “Pharisees” and of “Herod.”

Leaven is another world for yeast. Yeast is added to dough to make it rise. Yeast is a bacterium that feeds on the dough and these bacteria give off a gas that causes bread to rise. Yeast can lie dormant for months, and then, at the first hint of moisture, it comes to life and begins its work. The yeast will completely fill the whole lump of dough.

Yeast feeds on the dough and produces gas which causes the dough to ferment. Fermentation is the first step in decomposition. The only thing that can stop the leaven is extreme heat. When yeast is exposed to the fire, it dies.

In the Bible, leaven is a picture of sin, evil and wickedness. It is used as a picture of corruption.

1 Corinthians 5:7

7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened…

We are to lay aside evil and spiritual corruption and live for the Lord. We are also warned that “a little leaven leavens the whole lump,” (1 Cor. 5:6). The idea is that a little sin is like yeast or leaven in our lives. When we tolerate sin in our lives, it will soon infiltrate every part of our lives.

So, Jesus warns the about the “leaven” or “the evil influences” of the Pharisees and of Herod.

What is the leaven of the Pharisees?

The leaven of the Pharisees is defined in Luke 12:1, “…beware of of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”

The Pharisees were religious men, but their religion was external; it didn’t change their hearts. They claimed to love the Lord, but they were nothing but religious fakes and phonies. When they infiltrated the lives of those around them, like yeast, they corrupted those lives as well.

Jesus said:

Matthew 23:15 ESV

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

Jesus is warning of the danger of having a hypocritical heart.

That’s something that we all struggle with! Isn’t it easy to get cold toward and distant from God in our hearts? Isn’t it easy to pretend on the outside that all is well with God? We’re good at pretending that our hearts are where they ought to be with God. Jesus is warning us all against hypocrisy in our hearts. We need to be sure that we are what we claim to be as we pass through this life. Beware of the leaven of hypocrisy.

What is the “leaven of Herod”?

In Matthew’s account of these same events, Jesus calls it the leaven of “the Sadducees.” The Pharisees were the religious conservatives of the day while the Sadducees were the religious liberals. They were worldly and secular and they joined forces with King Herod in compromising with the Romans. These people, both the Sadducees and the followers of Herod, are often called “Herodians.”

The leaven that infiltrated their lives and teaching was materialism, worldliness and compromise with the world.

Jesus is warning not to get caught up in the quest for more of the world’s stuff or more of the world’s favor. The only way to be a friend of the world is to be the enemy of God.

We’re meant to be separate from the word, not participating in the world’s sins or caught up in what the world has to offer.

2 Corinthians 6:17 ESV

Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,

Jesus is telling us to beware of hypocrisy, worldliness and compromise. He tells us that if we allow just a little of those things to exist in our lives, they’ll infiltrate every area of life, just like yeast infiltrates an entire lump of dough.

It’s a simple command for His people to be clean, holy and different. And the truth is, He hasn’t changed His mind. He still expects His people to live different!

There is the Lord’s command and next we see:

The Disciple’s Confusion

So, the disciples hear His warning and misunderstand what He’s trying to say. Their minds are so focused on the material, physical world that they can’t see the spiritual side of anything.

They hear His word and immediately start trying to figure it out.

· Is He mad because we didn’t bring any bread?

· Is He saying we shouldn’t buy bread from the Pharisees or Herodians?

· Is He saying that we shouldn’t associate with them?

The answer is none of the above.

Jesus isn’t talking about real bread at all. He’s merely using the leaven found in bread as a metaphor, as a symbol of evil. They are so think-headed that they can’t grasp what He’s trying to tell them.

Let’s not be too hard on these guys.

There are a lot of times when we don’t understand as well. He tries to get us to understand and we keep on missing the point. That’s why we aren’t any farther along than we are right now. That’s why we continue to struggle with the flesh like we do. That’s why we don’t enjoy the victory like we could.

We’re thick-headed and often miss the spiritual truth that’s all around us. We’re so quick to dismiss what we see and hear without ever realizing that God is trying to grow us, teach us and develop us for His glory.

Let’s take a church service for example. We always come in and do the very same things. We pray, we sing, we take an offering, someone preaches and we all go home. It’s the same thing Sunday after Sunday. We’ve gotten used to it and it’s just what we do. We’ve become so accustomed to the routine of doing “the church thing” that we fail to even consider God, or to even look for God in what we’re doing.

Have you ever stopped to think that just the privilege of going to church is a blessing? When you go to church, you’re enjoying a privilege that many people around the world have never and will never have.

We take it for granted. I wouldn’t do that if I were you.

When we take the blessings of God for granted, He has a way of removing those things from our lives and giving them to others who will appreciate those things and who will be thankful to the One Who gave them!

Have you ever stopped to consider that every song and every service is an opportunity to offer praises to the King? We may sing the same songs and do the same things, we may sing songs that are new to you and you don’t like, but we are privileged to be here.

Think about some other areas of your life. Have you ever stopped to consider that some of the trials and valleys you face might just be the hand of God working in your life?

Have you ever thought about the truth that God is intimately involved in your life, and what you see as routine, accidental or coincidental is really Him at work?

The disciples never seemed to get it.

They were so focused on the material world that they failed to see the spiritual work of God in their midst. I’m afraid we’re much the same. God is trying to grow us, change us, develop us and we’re so captivated by the world and the needs we think we have that we can’t see Him at work around us.

What a shame! When we’re like that, we miss out on so much that God wants us to enjoy.

We need to pray that God will help us to look beyond the material to see the spiritual. We need His help to grow beyond our spiritual blindness.

There is the Lord’s command, the disciple’s confusion and finally:

The Lord’s Challenge

Remember, Jesus started out trying to warn them about the evils of the Pharisees and the Herodians. They totally missed the message and are focused on physical bread.

In a sense, they are no different that the Pharisees that rejected Jesus. The Pharisees saw what Jesus could do and refused to believe. The disciples were with Jesus when He performed many of His miracles. They even saw Him multiply a small amount of food and feed multitudes. They still couldn’t understand that He could take care of them.

They were worried about bread to eat when they had one loaf. Didn’t they know that Jesus could take that one loaf and feed them all? Didn’t they understand? No, they didn’t!

Now, it’s one thing for unbelievers like the Pharisees to fail to see and believe. It’s another thing when those who claim to know and love the Lord to fail to see His power and trust Him for their needs.

When Jesus senses their thoughts, He asks them a series of questions, that are meant to awaken faith in their hearts and cause them to remember what He has done and what He can do.

Didn’t they see Him feed 5,000? Didn’t they see Him feed 4,000? Have they forgotten His power? Are their hearts so hard that they cannot be penetrated by the things that they experienced?

Then, Jesus asks them specifically about how many baskets were left over in the two miracles. They answer that there were twelve in the first and seven in the second.

The Pharisees had seen His miracles, yet what they had seen wasn’t enough to convince them of His true identity. Apparently, the same is true of His disciples. They had seen enough to convince the hardest of hearts, yet they refused to believe what they saw. They failed to understand that Jesus was and is God in the flesh.

This unbelief among His disciples must have been frustrating. But, their failure to fully appreciate and trust Him has been handed down to you and me.

Isn’t it true that we’re just like these men? God has done so much for us, but when the next crisis comes, we respond in fear instead of faith. We need to do what He was trying to get these men to do. We need to take the time to reflect on what He has done and remember His power in our lives.

When Israel came out of the wilderness and entered into Canaan, they set up a memorial of twelve stones in the river Jordan. God had parted the river for them and allowed them to cross on dry ground. Before the water came back together, each tribe placed a stone in the river. They served as a memorial. They were a reminder of the great power of God in their lives.

Maybe we need some reminders to His power as well.

· Stop and think about all the mountains He has moved in your life.

· Stop and remember when God answered your prayers.

· Stop and think about all the answered prayers; the peace of God; the sense of His presence; the times when He blessed you for no apparent reason

· Stop and think about how He saved you.

Stop, reflect and remember, then realize that if He can do those great things, there is nothing in your life He can’t handle.

Remembering what the Lord has done in your life is the first step toward real revival and genuine spiritual renewal.

You see, what Jesus is really trying to teach His disciples is that it isn’t what you have or what you can do that matters. Everything comes down to Who you know and to Who walks with you.

If He’s in your boat, you don’t have to worry about where the bread will come from. He’ll take your little and make a lot out of it. If you’re a child of God, the best thing you can ever do is learn to trust Him completely, without any reservation, and He will never fail you.

Jesus doesn’t want us to live our lives focused on earthly things like bread but that’s often the case. He wants us to understand that a lack of bread isn’t our real problem. Our real problem is that we don’t see, hear and think about the things of God. Our real problem is a serious lack of faith!

The heart of the issue in this passage is not the leaven of the Pharisees and the Herodians. The real issue here is the lack of faith among the people of God.

We see and we hear, but we don’t understand. We read His Word, but we don’t believe it. We’ve experienced His power, but it hasn’t convinced us that we can trust Him completely.

He’s challenging each of us to examine our lives in the light of His work in us. He’s calling us to radical, total faith in Him. He’s calling us to lay aside our “what if’s” and our “how’s.” He’s calling us to trust Him.

He’s challenging some of you to stop and remember what He has already done in your lives.

He’s challenging some to come to Him for salvation. You’ve never really trusted Him and you need to do that. You see, it really does not matter how much of this world’s bread you have. If you don’t have Him, you don’t have anything.

He’s calling others to get rid of the leaven of hypocrisy and worldliness from your life.

Come while He still calls.