Sunday School Session 7

Well, hello again we're here to look at the gospel of Mark together and So if you would turn in your notes, we're in lecture 3 lecture 3 and We are in the section that covers mark chapter 6 verse 30 through chapter 8 verse 26 entitled seeing

Clearly. All right Now let's just take a moment and ask God to bless our time together as we

Look into his word as we see what God has to say to us in this gospel.

Let's pray father Again, we ask for insight. We pray that you would use this to point out

In our lives where we need to change to help us to see Jesus and what he is and what he's about So help us now we pray in Jesus name.

Amen All right mark chapter 6 verse 30 through chapter 8 verse 26 is the next section that we want to talk about you

Notice in your notes. What is the purpose of this section? What is? Mark trying to communicate to us

It's just this here you find a whole string of miracles with some teaching

But one thing and that is who can see Clearly who can see clearly now most of these incidents you find an element of the disciples not seeing

Jesus clearly what he's about and That is the overarching.

Tell us the overarching Tell us is the disciples don't seem to get it and this is illustrated primarily with the last

Miracle in this section of the man who cannot see clearly Sometimes we're like the disciples

We are so familiar with Jesus that we do not clearly see who he is

So let's begin chapter 6 verse 30 through verse 44 the feeding of the 5 ,000

Consider these questions When Jesus says to this to the disciples you give them something to eat

He was testing them. What should have been their response? Think about that, especially in terms of Mark chapter 6 verses 12 and 13

What could they not see in that miracle? Well, let's look at it together

Mark chapter 6 verse 30 through verse 44 once more I want to say to you that if you haven't read all of this text chapter 6 verse 30 through chapter 8 verse 26 just Turn this off and take the few minutes that's required to read that whole section and then come back and We'll look at it.

Okay when Jesus asked that question of His disciples when he asked them what?

You give them something to eat when he tells that to them the disciples could have responded with no

Jesus You can feed all these people You're the one who can feed all these people.

They should have responded immediately with faith With faith. These were the same men who had just returned to Jesus remember excitedly reporting

All their miraculous deeds that they did through the power conferred on them by Jesus they should have seen that since Jesus had given them power

To cast out demons since Jesus had given him all this power. He was the one to go to Right, they could have turned to him and says no

Jesus. You're the only one you're the only one If we're to do it, we need something from you, right?

We were looking to you to do that, but they didn't they didn't respond in that way Now before you look down your nose at the disciples how often has

God shown his truth and his has shown himself and your power and his power on our behalf and then we turn around and forget everything that God has done

We forget that God can accomplish great things How often has God showed himself powerful on my behalf?

Right has done some Extraordinary things has has worked In some way and then

I turn right around and start worrying about something else forgetting all about what Jesus has done in fact,

I can look back over my whole past and See many times where Jesus Where the

Father through Jesus has worked right and then immediately I can start worrying about something yet to come

Forgetting everything that that God has done here you find a record of Jesus power and Yet we fail to trust him at many junctures of the way

So the story from Mark is intended not just to show Jesus divinity He can feed 5 ,000 people with very little but to show that the disciples

Didn't get it that he could do that that he could do that They should have turned immediately to him and then next we see in chapter 6 verses 45 through 56

Jesus walking on the water now mark

Purposes purposely makes a contrast here He wants you to ask who does not recognize

Jesus and who does recognize Jesus He's drawing a contrast here between those who do not see

Jesus and those who do What is the reason he gives for not recognizing

Jesus? What can cause that in our own hearts not recognizing Jesus for who he is?

Well as we look at this text, you will notice that two miracles Two miracles are recorded within this one narrative

Jesus walking on the water and the people flocking to see him when he reaches the other side with the disciples the other side of The lake it seems to me that mark is putting a contrast right before us in order for us to see that So you read through the story?

Here's what you see after praying Jesus sees his disciples Straining at the oars as they're trying to cross that body of water and he heads out toward them on the water

Walking on the water, but they don't recognize him. They don't recognize him

In fact, they think he's a ghost and they are terrified however

Jesus gets in the boat great climbs in the boat and everything is still all at once and Mark makes this observation

They were completely amazed for they had not understood about the loaves their hearts were hard Right Their hearts were hardened.

There was a hardness to their hearts that kept them from recognizing Jesus even after this miracle

They not understood about the loaves. They didn't get it, right? And so they didn't recognize him.

They're completely amazed their hearts were hard now Notice Notice the contrast as soon as they land on the other side of the lake

What does it say look at verse 54 the people? immediately Recognized him.

So in verse 49 you see but when they saw him walking on the sea They thought it was a ghost and they cried out in terror

They didn't recognize him But notice what he says to us in verse 56 and when they got out of the boat the people immediately

Recognized him there's that's a purpose. It's a purposeful choice of words there

Mark is trying to show us there that the people Notice they recognize

Jesus immediately so word spreads and the people come Now see the contrasting faith of these people

They begged him to let him touch even the edge of his cloak and all who touched him were healed you see that in verse 56 these folks had receptive rather than hardened hearts and they completely believed that Jesus could do all these things while the disciples can't quite see it

Clearly. All right. They can't quite see it. Clearly these folks do now.

Can you see that in your life? I'm a man who spends hours in the

Word of God face to face with Jesus and Yet I can say there are others of you who oftentimes see

Jesus clearer and who trust him more You'll find that What hardens our heart so that we do not see

Jesus? That's the question We need to ask as we leave this particular narrative What hardens our heart?

What hardens our heart so that we don't see Jesus? So what is it about these people that make them receptive and they immediately recognize it?

All right Now we come to chapter 7 a very pivotal Chapter for us in our

Christian lives verses 1 through 23 What really makes a man?

Clean what really makes a man unclean? That's the question here Who is blind in this narrative verses 1 through 23?

Who is blind and who cannot quite see clearly in this narrative?

What do the Pharisees believe makes you acceptable to God? What do they believe about worship?

Where do you see this attitude today? And by the way, make sure you're not looking at another group of people look at yourself

Where do we see this attitude today? Don't look at other people look at yourself now and ask where do

I see this attitude? now as You read the Pharisees are upset

Because the disciples don't hold to the tradition of when they come back from the marketplace

They don't wash Before they eat now, this is not

This is not Jesus saying to little children When your mom says you don't have to wash your hands before you eat lunch that don't believe that that doesn't matter

That's not what this is about. Remember he's talking about the Traditions of the elders and they have all of these little rules that you must follow

In order to be acceptable to God, for example, you go out into the marketplace. You're rubbing shoulders with Gentiles You're rubbing shoulders with with people who are considered unclean by Old Testament law

And so what they say is so then before you eat because if you eat

You know if you don't wash if you don't go through the ceremonial washing

It wasn't to take germs off It was to make them acceptable to God and if they didn't do the washing

They would contaminate the food and then the food they would eat would contaminate them and make them unclean

You see that's what they're worried about saying all these rules and they're they're angry at Jesus and his disciples because they don't do that right

They don't do the proper Washings and notice it mentions things like the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and and Dining couches and so forth all these ceremonial things to make sure you're acceptable to God Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?

Okay The disciples are quoting the Pharisees here Well Let's see they know they're asking

Jesus, I'm sorry, they're asking Jesus Why do your disciples not walk according to tradition of the elders? But even with the file hands and so Jesus goes on to tech talk to them

So to the Pharisees all the outward context the outward ceremonies the outward actions

Determine one acceptance one's acceptance with God you got to do all the right things in order to be acceptable to God Jesus says as you read through the narrative

Jesus says God's interest lies in the heart Not in the religious rights

For the heart is where true worship and obedience begins All right.

So Jesus is tackling two subjects here with these traditions first. He talks about worship and then he talks about obedience, okay, and He says to them concerning worship and he quotes

Isaiah concerning the legalistic rules for worship and Says you go all you you do everything right in order to be able to say

I worship God acceptably But in the process your heart Strays your heart is this is is not worshiping

Outwardly people honor God with their lips. They're singing their hymns. They're praying

Outwardly they honor God but inwardly their heart is straying away from God The worship is empty because it consists of no more than following man's rules for worship

Jesus even goes so far to say that that kind of worship actually leads to throwing aside

God's Commandments it leads to actual disobedience

Your rules for worshiping God acceptably your rules that say do this and God will accept your worship

Actually leads you to the point where you're disobeying God notice what he says verse 16 or verse 9

You have a fine way you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition

For Moses said honor your father and your mother and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die

But you say if a man tells his father or his mother whatever you would have gained from me is

Corban That is given to God Then you no longer Permit him to do anything for his father or mother thus making void the

Word of God By your tradition that you have handed down and many such things you do you see what he's saying there

He said you have all these rules about acceptable worship to God and you say if you take all your possessions

You say I am so sold out to God that I'm gonna give all my possessions to the temple

Right. I'm gonna give all my possessions to the temple. That's how serious about God I am and Jesus says, you know what you've done.

You've just by your tradition that says this is really worship You've actually ended up Disobeying the true commandment of God, which is honor your father and mother take care of them

Take care part of honoring your father and mother means take care of them. They're needy. They need food.

They they can't work anymore It's your job as a son then to help them But no because of your tradition you actually lay aside the commandment of God in order to fuck

In order to follow this tradition of man, you see what he's saying that we get so concerned

We get so concerned with the outward we get so concerned with the rules that we make we get so concerned about these things that We actually end up disobeying

God rather than saying wow, I'm really serious about God. Let me give you some examples

Here's my observance of traditions That has caused people to stray from worshiping and obeying

God and I don't exclude myself from this. I need to look at myself So for several years and even maybe still today

Churches have been involved in worship wars, which is to say should you have guitars drums?

People holding microphones as they lead in Worship and some people have said no that's absolutely forbidden

This isn't that this is a church not a nightclub These are the sorts of things I heard when I was a kid when when there would be people who would hold a mic

No one dared to have drums or guitars when I was a kid in church Oh, no, that was considered part of the rock and roll scene.

We can't have any of that But if you hold a microphone, oh man, did I heard this? This is a church not a nightclub, right?

So what happens? We're really serious about God we're setting aside this hour of for worship that nightclub stuff and what happens is

Does the Bible say anything about? Holding a microphone and singing. No, it doesn't but people have these rules

And what happens is in their intent to say by cracking we're gonna worship God We're not gonna have a nightclub here.

What happens is they start hating Their brothers and sisters who disagree with them on that in their devotion to this rule about Microphones or later on the rule about guitars and drums and praise teams right in their in their

Intense Saying we don't want that sort of stuff because that's not worship.

What do we end up doing? We end up hating our brothers and sisters instead of loving them like we're commanded, right?

Instead of loving them like work men. We ended up hating them when I was in Romania all those years

Here's what I noticed. So so Romania The Romanians in the

Baptist churches there are you know, kind of traditional kind of like what I grew up It's kind of like going back to the days when

I was young as as we first went to those churches And it was the tradition of the

Romanian the Baptist That they would The women would sit on one side of the auditorium and the men would sit on the other they would be

There would be two sections, right? and Single women would wear head coverings married women did not but single women would merit would would have head coverings and so There would be these incredible fights as some churches said, you know, the

Bible doesn't say we have to sit segregated Why don't we sit together as families or or even the head coverings?

Oh, there would be Humongous arguments about that again, what happens we have all these rules that we think are absolutely necessary For proper worship and in the process we end up hating our brother and sister

Instead of loving them. We end up getting angry with them. We end up violating all kinds of what

God commands Don't let the Sun go down on your anger Love your brother or sister if you're angry with your brother what you're guilty of murder

All these things are happening in our intense desire to do acceptable worship by these rules

And so you see when you get to that point you actually lay aside

The worship of God your heart strays even though outwardly Even though outwardly you are doing what is proper worship proper worship

Actually, you're disobeying God now next Jesus tackles the idea of sin

Jesus tells his disciples that any outward sin Always has its roots in the inner man in the heart now again when

Jesus talks about heart He's not talking about this organ nor is he talking about?

Merely emotions the Bible when it uses the word heart in this way is talking about the inner man your thought

Processes so we could say that the heart includes mind it includes emotions it includes

Motives it includes Intentions it includes my loyalties

Right what I'm devoted to it's the inner man that part of you that thinks

That part of you the control center of your life That's what he's talking about and he says sin has its roots in the inner man

Not outwardly the contamination of sin begins with us Our hearts are the first link in the contamination chain

Not the last link as the Pharisees talked about right if I touch these kind of people

I am unclean I am unacceptable Right instead of seeing that Contamination comes from within they saw it as starting on the outside So whenever you sin now listen carefully whenever you sin it always has its origins in your heart

All right. Now, let's take a look at a couple of these for example I'm the heart of man coming evil thoughts sexual morality theft.

Let's think about that. That's an outward thing, right? I'm I am Stealing something but that stealing starts on the inside.

Why am I stealing? Why is that person a thief? Is that person a thief?

Because in his heart he says it's no way I'm gonna work I'm gonna take the easy way out.

I'm going to right I'm gonna grab some stuff that I didn't pay for and sell it and make more money

And I mean, that's pure profit margin, isn't it? Okay, or or Someone's hungry.

I don't trust God to provide for me And so what I'm going to do what

I have to do whatever I have to do. I'm gonna do it you see So it starts in the heart

It starts on the inside I know people I've counseled people I can think of one in particular who the only reason why

He shoplifted was for the thrill I Love this thrill the thrill of danger the thrill of getting away with something.

It started in his heart. You see I Have this incredible desire to have this kind of a feeling and so I get it when

I steal it starts in the heart What about adultery? What about adultery? I would guess that most people don't wake up and just say, you know today

I'm gonna commit adultery. No, it starts in the heart. Here's a guy who's married to a woman who says to him

You know what? I don't care about your work Really? I'm thankful that you can bring you can support us, but I don't want to hear about your work

I'm really not interested in what you do So don't bring your work home with you.

Don't talk to me about it All right, and so he says to himself what I need a woman who understands me

I need a woman who I want a woman who understands me I want a wife who understands me and that that becomes up I need someone to understand me and lo and behold.

He's at work and he's working with a female colleague And she is vitally interested in what he does and she wants to understand him and she wants to understand

Why he he feels bad when the project didn't go like it should have gone, right?

And so now I need to have someone who understands there it is. There's someone who understand

There's someone who's interested in what I'm doing. You see it starts in the heart I have this desire for something and it leads down this path until it shows up on the outside in Adultery, and so always examine your heart always examine your heart

Whenever you see the fruit of sinful behavior look to your heart and ask yourself

What is going on on the inner man? What's going on? What what am I loving? What am

I hating? What is it that I want? You can never blame anyone or anything else if what

Jesus says is right, right? If Jesus says if what Jesus says is right and he does say what's right, obviously

But if what he's saying is right Then you can never blame something else for your sin you must always say

It began inside It's the heart that sets the stage for worship and it's the heart that lays the groundwork for Sin now, let's continue next in chapter 7 beginning in verse 24

You see the plea of this Syrophoenician woman now, what does this woman see clearly?

Okay, so by the way, let's go back the the disciples don't see clearly

What Jesus is teaching here? They don't they don't get it, right? They're not seeing clearly what

Jesus is about. Jesus is about the heart Not just the externals.

All right, the Syrophoenician woman. What does this woman see clearly? What does this woman see clearly?

That's interesting. She's not a disciple All right In fact, she is identified as a

Gentile and not just a Gentile but a Syrophoenician woman in other words a traditional term for the very if you will the very worst enemies of God All right, the cane a

Canaanite type woman now She comes to Jesus and she wants him to deliver her daughter from a demon

And she falls down at his feet and She begs him to cast the demon out of her daughter and he says to her let the children be fed first for it's not

Right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs now what's

Jesus saying here says I've come for the people of Israel and And for the for the covenant people of God and I've come to give them bread

And so I don't throw the children's bread to the dogs and by the way dog is another Dog was a common term for Gentiles.

And so Jesus is probably making that allusion to make the point now. Is he being cruel here is

Jesus being cruel. He can't be cruel He was the perfect the perfect Lamb of God But Jesus tests her faith here

All right Jesus tests her faith With this statement because Her reply notice her reply shows her faith.

She answered him Yes, Lord yet, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs

Now do you see what happens here here you find someone who sees

Jesus clearly and what does she see She knows that Jesus is her only hope

There's nowhere else to go At the feeding of the 5 ,000 the disciples did not immediately see

Jesus as the one to whom they must first turn Who to whom they must immediately turn this woman sees

Jesus as her only hope Her faith sees only him and she does not cast about for other solutions right

Where else can she go? Where else can she go?

She says hey if I only get crumbs I'll be happy with crumbs because you're the oh, you're my only hope and if I can only get crumbs from you

Then I'll take the crumbs. Do you see what's going on here? She clean she sees clearly that no matter what

Jesus decides to do No matter what he decides to do. She cannot go anywhere else.

He's the only hope that she has Even if he chooses to give her crumbs, he's the only one who can help.

There's nowhere else to go Jesus you're it you're the only one if I can only get crumbs that then that's what

I'll take because you're my only hope do we see Jesus that clear Jesus, of course, he's her faith doesn't he and The girl is delivered from that evil spirit that unclean spirit.

Isn't that interesting? Do we have the same vision of Jesus the same view?

Where do you look for help and hope? Where do you look for help and hope yeah,

I mean we have to prepare like I don't get up and say Jesus is my Only hope and so I'm just gonna wing it when

I preach I prepare I study I pray But I expect

Jesus to work. It's it's worth nothing unless Jesus decides to work And if what if Jesus does not work in the way that I wanted to right

What if he doesn't? Work in such a way in the way that I want him to do

I start looking for other solutions that do I start casting about do

I start saying Wow? My sermons don't seem to be effective Maybe we ought to quit preaching and do something else

Right. No, what do we do? Do I say Lord Jesus if you want me to have crumbs?

I'll be satisfied with that because you're the only one who can work Do I?

Do I see him as cruel or do I see him as testing my face so that no matter how he works

I will see him and rely on him no matter what even if he doesn't do what

I want him to do What am I going to do? I'm gonna stay with Jesus. He's my if I only get crumbs

I'll take the crumbs because Jesus there's nowhere else to go Actually, I love the story about the

Syro -Phoenician woman there's a tremendous tremendous Lesson I'm seeing clearly.

I'm Seeing Jesus as our only hope Now we see the miracle of the deaf mute the man who cannot hear and the man who cannot talk

Here's the question. These people do not see clearly even though they walk away in wonder and amazement

Why are they so amazed Okay, they don't quite see clearly enough

Even though they walk away with wonder and amazement. Let's take a look at this Unlike the previous woman these people do not see as clearly as they ought

The woman knew that Jesus was her only hope and that she had to keep asking never wavering in her faith

Now there are some similarities with these people these people beg Jesus to heal the man like the woman begged him to heal her daughter in the woman's case

He doesn't want people to know where he is That he is here, you know, he doesn't want them to tell

What he's done like the woman he seems reluctant to heal that reluctance evidence in the sign, okay

But unlike the woman these people see Jesus as what as The miracle worker they do not see him as Savior as the

Savior King and that's why Jesus commands their silence That's why Jesus commands their silence.

They'll just talk about his power and not his mission They'll talk about his power, but not his mission.

That's why he tells him not to talk right overwhelmed with amazement at the wonder worker

They're overwhelmed with amazement at the wonder worker, but they have no desire to follow him or to trust him

All right, they see the signs, but they don't see where those signs point

They're satisfied at the relief. He can bring but they are not satisfied in the fact that he is

Messiah He has done everything. Well is their cry, right?

He has done everything. Well Now can we be awed by Jesus and still not love him

Think about that. Can we? be awed by Jesus and still not love him as We should

Now comes another feeding the feeding of the 4 ,000 again the

Pharisees display Blindness now the Pharisees come to Jesus and they demand a sign

They want a sign that will meet their criteria for a miracle such demands indicate a settled and Deliberate blindness that no sign would ever overcome

This is a settled deliberate blindness. He Jesus could do Whatever he could perform any miracle and they still would not believe you see now

What didn't the disciples see clearly what is the yeast of the Herodians and the

Pharisees And how do you find that today? So take a look at the disciples. They blow it again

How could they have responded to Jesus question? How could they how could the disciples have responded to?

Jesus Question when he says to them, why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread?

Do you not yet perceive or understand are your hearts hardened have there again? We see are your hearts hardened

Have you 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 5 ,000? How many baskets full of broken pieces? Did you take up? and And and so they they recount the feedings, right?

Here's what happens. Jesus warns them about the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod That corrupting agent that the man signs in the face of the obvious Of course, they mistake this for a discussion concerning the bread that they forgot

Right. What are you talking about? Jesus gets a little frustrated and he asked him if they still don't see or understand

He asked them about the feeding miracles and they just recite the facts. Do you still not?

Understand he says to them. Do you still not understand? Unlike the Pharisees who are blind the disciples again just miss it with evidence all around them

The Pharisees prove their blindness do a sign for us Well, they've had all kinds of signs with all that Jesus is and does the disciples just miss it right

Jesus gave them a chance to say Jesus Why don't you feed these people remember but they end up thinking about one loaf of bread in the middle of all of Jesus power

Now we can see the revelation of Jesus glory and all of Scripture and yet we too in the midst of all that Revelation can miss the point

Cannot see the significance of who he is Okay They don't see the significance of who he is we can get distracted

By everything that's going around for us I'm only looking at the present reality and not seeing my powerful

Lord Jesus and what he can and will do I worry about bread Forgetting that Jesus has multiplied loaves beyond my greatest expectations

Right. I must see Jesus Now this whole section ends in chapter 8 verses 22 through 26 with what

I call the funny miracle Do you think Jesus couldn't heal the man on the first try?

This man who's blind and he he does something to his eyes and then he they say what do you see?

He says I see people like trees walking. All right, he couldn't see clearly. What's the purpose of this miracle?

Now this is a living object lesson Concerning the disciples and their lack of sight

He just said to them after the discussion concerning Pharisees and Herod. Don't you still understand?

He has challenged them about their lack of understanding of their lack of sight

The disciples were not blind But they like this man could not see clearly

Their vision was blurred They are not blind But they still can't see you see

So this this is the culminating miracle the object lesson that says too often

We're not blind, but we just don't see clearly. We need to see clearly That's the way it will be with many

With whom you minister it's going to be the way with you some are blind They need to be brought to salvation through Christ They need

God to break through the blindness to give them sight so that they can embrace Jesus in faith But some are not blind like this man.

They see men as trees walking. They see life in Christ's purposes through blurred vision and confused images

They are not blind, but they cannot see Now that's addressed to you and that's addressed to me.

It's not just addressed to people. We minister It's addressed to us We have to work at seeing

Jesus Clearly and he's given us all kinds of miracles here by which we can see him clearly

So we see the kingdom of Christ advances even with responses to it that you would think would oppose its growth

But when that kingdom and its king is put before people as you minister to others you will observe that not all

See clearly its nature and its power well, I hope that's helpful to you and I Pray that these studies will continue to give you more insight into who

Jesus is. Let's pray Thank you father again for today help us now as we

Go on help us to begin to see Jesus clearly give us eyes to see help us to work at Concentrating on what

Jesus has revealed about himself so that we will know clearly who he is and his power and Put our faith and our trust in everything in him.