WWUTT 2183 Jesus Warns and Rebukes His Disciples (Mark 8:10-21)

Jesus Warns the Pharisees and the Sign from Heaven

Jesus told his disciples to watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and the Herods. And the disciples thought he was talking about bread, and they realized they didn't bring any bread with them. And Jesus rebukes them, saying, Do you not understand?

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Mark, we've been in chapter 8, and I'm going to pick up where we left off yesterday. So this is right after Jesus has fed the 4 ,000 with only 7 loaves.

And I'm going to start reading here in verse 10, and go through verse 21 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. And immediately he entered the boat with his disciples and came to the district of Dalmanutha.

And the Pharisees came out and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven, testing him. And sighing deeply in his spirit, he said, Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.

And leaving them, he again embarked and went away to the other side. And they had forgotten to take bread and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them. And he was giving orders to them, saying, Watch out!

Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And they began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread?

Do you not yet perceive or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? 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 you picked up?

They said to him, Twelve. When I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up? And they said to him, Seven. And he was saying to them, Do you not yet understand?

So again, this is right after that incredible miracle that Jesus just did, practically making bread come out of nowhere. He takes seven loaves and is able to feed four thousand people, just as he had done with feeding the five thousand a couple of chapters earlier.

He had five loaves and two fish. Isn't that what it is? Yeah, I think I'm getting the ratio right. And from those five loaves and two fish, he fed five thousand people. So from these two miracles, he means to teach the disciples a lesson, which they're not yet understanding.

And because they don't understand, Jesus rebukes them with the same kind of earnestness that he rebukes the Pharisees with, because they likewise have eyes but cannot see and ears but cannot hear. So Jesus is now on his own disciples.

Why don't you understand? Are you as bad as they, that you can't yet see and you can't yet hear? So we're going to get to that here in a moment. But first, let's consider this exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees.

So right after Jesus has dismissed the crowd, they've all been fed. They're able to go home. If you'll remember, the reason why they couldn't go home in the first place or why Jesus wouldn't send them home is because they had been with him for three days, hearing him preach, and they didn't have any food left.

And Jesus said, if I try to send them home in this condition, they're going to faint on the way. So we need to feed them before we send them out. And the disciples have seven loaves of bread. So from those seven loaves, Jesus is able to feed 4 ,000.

And so verse 9 is, now about 4 ,000 were there, and he sent them away. So now they are refreshed, energized, ready to go home. Verse 10, and immediately he entered the boat with his disciples and came to the district of Dalmanutha.

Now we're not terribly clear as to where Dalmanutha is. We know that it was on the coast of the Sea of Galilee, but here it's even said that this was a district or it's a region. So it wasn't exactly the town.

This is the only place Dalmanutha is mentioned in the Bible. We don't see that region or vicinity come up by that name anywhere else in Scripture, only right here in Mark 8 .10. But it's somewhere along the Sea of Galilee, because after Jesus gets frustrated with the Pharisees, he gets back in the boat with his disciples, and they go away to the other side.

Likely it was still up there in the northern portion of the Sea of Galilee, northwest perhaps, because that's where Jesus was after he came out of the region of Sidon and Tyre, and he comes back into Galilee and to the Sea of Galilee.

So still probably up there on the northern edge. When he gets in the boat with his disciples, they're going to go kind of more to the northwest or northeast, rather. It's going to say that they're going to go to the other side, but it's just in reference to another shore.

It's not like they skip over to the opposite shoreline of the Sea of Galilee, which is probably the way that we will picture it. So anyway, they get to this area, this region of Dalmanutha. The Pharisees come out.

Obviously, there's a synagogue in the region, and they began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven testing him. Now, here we don't have any dialogue, any specific words from the Pharisees.

Matthew records it a different way, where they say, Good teacher, show us a sign from heaven. But here Mark just says that they're demanding a sign, and the specific kind of sign that they want is a sign from heaven.

They want to see something in the sky. They want to see if Jesus is indeed the Messiah, that he's coming on the clouds of heaven, just like Daniel described it. So that's probably the specific sign that they are looking for.

Or show us some sort of a storm, like if you'll remember in 1 Samuel, when Samuel was resigning his position as judge over Israel, he told them that they needed to obey God and serve the king that had just been appointed over them, which was Saul.

And Samuel demonstrated the authority he had, speaking in the place of God, for he was a prophet. God would give him words, Samuel would give them to the people. And he again showed the authority that he had, that he spoke on God's behalf, as a mouthpiece for God, when he commanded the storms, and they came down and frightened the people.

So the Pharisees, they're probably looking for something like that. Show us some sort of a sign in the heavens that demonstrates that you have the kind of power that people say you have. Like you can do miracles.

How did the Pharisees dismiss Jesus being able to heal and cast out demons? They said that Jesus himself had a demon. And that was how he was able to do this. But if he was truly of God, then he should be able to perform some sort of a sign in the heavens.

It's not that Jesus wasn't giving any signs at all. The miraculous works that he was doing, those were signs. Jesus even refers to them as signs. But this specific sign that is being asked about here is a sign from heaven.

Show us that you are from above. And sighing deeply in his spirit, verse 12, he said, Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation. Now, a little bit different than the way that Jesus put it in Matthew 16.

Jesus says to them there, An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. And of course, that was in reference to his dying and being buried and being in a tomb for three days and three nights and then rising again on Sunday morning.

On the Lord's Day, the first day of the week, as we will also read when we get to the end of Mark. So this is the only sign that is going to be given to this generation. Mark doesn't refer to that. Matthew has that, but Mark doesn't.

It's not that there's a contradiction here. Mark just has something different that he is attempting to convey with this. And really what is being conveyed by Jesus here is that these people, these Pharisees, are not satisfied with what I've already done.

The incredible miracles that they've been there and they themselves have seen, they're not satisfied with that. So you know what? This wicked and evil generation will not even be satisfied should some sign appear in the heavens.

They might weep and mourn on the day when Christ returns with judgment in His hands, ready to strike down the nations with a sword that comes from His mouth. He's going to strike them down with a rod of iron, as talked about in Revelation 19.

The nations will mourn and weep, but they won't repent. They won't turn from their sin and worship Jesus Christ the Lord. There's the sign from heaven, the ultimate sign from heaven. The end of days has come.

God will rescue His saints and He will destroy the wicked, but even that won't turn their hearts. They will either weep or gnash their teeth at it. That's the response that they're going to have to that sign.

So Jesus says to this generation, they will not receive a sign. And so He leaves them and He again embarks and goes away to the other side, it says in verse 13. And like I said, it's just a different shore, doesn't necessarily mean they're going to the opposite side of the lake.

And they had forgotten to take bread, it says in verse 14, and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them. Now, yesterday I mentioned that when they had the seven baskets full of food left over, they didn't take any with them because we have this exchange here where they say, you know, we forgot to bring bread.

But this was likely several days later. So it wouldn't have been like they would have carried that bread and fish around with them anyway. So in their replenishing their rations, they didn't get enough.

They've only got one loaf with them in the boat. And Jesus was giving orders to them. It says in verse 15, saying, watch out. Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. Now, this is also different from what we read in Matthew 16.

For there, Jesus says, beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And He doesn't mention the leaven of Herod. Why the difference? Well, it was likely that He told them all three and may have even given them warnings about other people as well.

So beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the leaven of Herod. What would have been represented by the Pharisees and Sadducees and the house of the Herod's? Well, with the Pharisees, you had this corrupt doctrine adding to God's word, taking away from it.

We had just seen the Pharisees earlier in chapter seven about how they elevated their traditions above the word of God. And they tied heavy burdens on people. If you want to be righteous, you've got to do what God says in His law.

And you have to obey all of our laws as well. So they were just piling on the doctrines on top of people and twisting God's word and ignoring certain parts of it. But instead, valuing what they taught over what they should have been teaching the people, which was right out of God's word.

Now, that was the Pharisees. It was almost like as far as teachers go, the Pharisees, you just couldn't get to shut up. They were just going to go on and on and on and add and add and add and expound and expound and expound.

And it was just constantly getting extra biblical. With the Sadducees, it was a little bit different. They had more of a political connection. The high priest was chosen from among the Sadducees and the Romans approved of who that was.

So the Sadducees are kind of more of the upper echelon. Pharisees were more like the common man. Whereas the Sadducees were more high society, so to speak. And on top of that, where the Pharisees would kind of go on and on and on about all these extra doctrines, the Sadducees could sometimes be pretty cryptic with their doctrines.

Like they didn't really want to expose to people the things that they taught. They wanted to kind of hide it and conceal it and then spring it on people later on or maybe even condition them for certain doctrines.

And then once the people accepted them, then you understood what it was that the Sadducees actually taught and believed. We see a lot of that today, right? Andy Stanley, for example, seems to be rolling out all of this false doctrine on a slow boil.

Kind of like the whole thing of a frog in a pot that's beginning to heat up until the point of boiling. And it's going to heat up so slowly that the frog doesn't realize it's in danger until it's boiled alive and it's dead.

So, yes, Stanley kind of is introducing doctrines the way that he does in that sort of a manner. And people who have been in his church, who have been with him a long time, are just not noticing it because it's happening so slowly.

So that's the kind of thing that's going on with the Sadducees as well. They have these false doctrines. They just kind of roll out steadily. And they're kind of secretive about what it is that they teach.

They also deny some very essential doctrines. So the Pharisees twist essential doctrines. The Sadducees just outright deny essential doctrines. Like, for example, the biggest one being that the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.

So you have the Pharisees, you have the Sadducees. Pharisees adding doctrine, Sadducees denying doctrine. And then for the Herodians, you've got basically an irreligious people. The Herods were descended from the Edomites.

So they are kin with the Jews, but they're not exactly Jews. And they did not have any fear of God. They did not have any reverence for the law of God or the temple practices or anything else. Even though the huge temple that was there in Jerusalem at that time is called Herod's Temple.

Herod was the one that built it. Maybe he believed building a temple that big would gain the favor of God. But he himself had no regard for any of the commandments and statutes that God had given to his people.

None of the Herods did. In fact, they were full of sensuality and corrupt living. And so here you had one kind of false teacher in the Pharisees, another kind of false teacher in the Sadducees, and then a denial of religion altogether and indulging in the passions of the flesh among the Herodians.

So you see the three different types of pits that were prevalent in the region of Judah at that time in all of Israel. So Jesus saying, watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, because that's who we had just heard about here in Chapter 8.

And then, of course, the confrontation that Jesus had with him in Chapter 7. And also the leaven of Herod. And they began to discuss with one another the fact that they have no bread. Jesus is talking about leaven.

So maybe they're thinking, oh, he's bringing up bread, and we forgot to bring bread. They are not making the connection at all to what Jesus is talking about when he says, beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

Like, are Pharisees bad cooks? The Herods? Is their bread, like, offered to idols or something? Is that why we can't eat their bread? And Jesus, aware of this, verse 17, said to them, why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread?

Do you not yet perceive and understand? Do you have a hardened heart? So are their hearts now so hard that they can't understand what it is that Jesus is teaching them? If you'll remember back to when Jesus was teaching on the parables, and we had the parable of the soils.

Jesus said the reason for the parables was because those with hard hearts won't be able to understand it. But to you, he said to his disciples, has been given the secrets of the kingdom of God so that you may hear and understand.

You may be able to see and perceive it. But here, it's like the script has been flipped. Why don't you get this? Why don't you understand? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Do you have a hardened heart?

Having eyes, do you not yet see? And having ears, do you not hear? And this was the crowd that did not understand the parables. Jesus said that same passage regarding them, and it's taken right out of Isaiah 6.

Keep on hearing, but do not understand, the Lord said to this dull of hearing people. Keep on seeing, but do not know. Isaiah 6 .10, render the hearts of this people insensitive, their eyes dull, their eyes dim, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and return and be healed.

And so Jesus is saying to his disciples here, is that you? Have you been so hardened that you can't perceive these things? And that should be quite convicting to the disciples to hear him speak in such a way.

Do you not remember, Jesus said, when I broke the five loaves for the 5 ,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up? And they said to him, 12. And he said, when I broke the seven for the 4 ,000, how many large baskets did you pick up?

And they said to him, seven. And he was saying to them, do you not yet understand? So he's asking them, what did you observe? What did you see here in this miracle that I performed? How many baskets full were here?

How many baskets full were there? And they're answering the question. And it's almost kind of like Jesus is rolling his hand to get them to see. Do you get it yet? You know, what is it that you're supposed to be able to see here?

Why is it that you do not yet understand? So what is it that they're supposed to understand? They're supposed to understand how much Jesus takes care of the people that he loves. He had compassion on the crowd of 5 ,000.

He broke five loaves and two fish to feed them. 12 baskets full left over. Demonstrates how Christ in his giving and his abundant provision will give you more and more, even more than you need. Christ will continue to give.

And then with the crowd of 4 ,000, Jesus breaks up seven loaves. There's seven baskets full left over. Jesus says to them, why don't you get this? Why don't you understand that when Jesus provides, remember the compassion he had on the crowd of 4 ,000 that we read about yesterday.

When Jesus has compassion on his people, he provides. He abundantly provides. And we have even meaning and significance in the number of baskets full that were left. To one crowd, 12. To another crowd, 7.

12 is the number of God's people. You have 12 tribes of Israel. You have 12 apostles. Seven is the number of completion. Or the number of God, as it's sometimes said. But it's also a complete number. So you have 12 referring to God's people.

God providing for his people. You have seven. God provides completely for his people. And this is a numbers thing that we don't just consider today. The disciples would have understood the significance of those numbers.

Hence why Jesus asks them, do you not yet understand? About this passage, Matthew Henry says, when we forget the works of God and distrust him, we should chide ourselves severely as Christ here reproves his disciples.

How is it that we so often mistake his meaning, disregard his warnings, and distrust his providence? In the weakness of their flesh, the disciples here are hungry. They don't have enough bread. And they're missing what it is that Jesus is telling them.

And so they think instead about their stomachs rather than thinking about their spirits and the warning that Jesus has just given. If they're hungry, let it go, Jesus is saying. You saw who I was able to provide for.

I can provide for you. Why are you even thinking about that? Do you not yet understand? You can't perceive? Why are your heart so hard that you can't hear the instruction that I'm giving you? Watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Herods.

And if the disciples can't hear Jesus say that, then what's likely to happen? They're not going to watch out. And they're going to give in. By the way, I didn't exactly explain the leaven part, but I hope you understand the concept of the leaven.

So remember that in the practice of Passover, that the children of Israel were not to have any leaven in their homes. They were to eat their bread without leaven. Leaven is what makes the bread rise. Now, we use least, but leavened bread would be bread that is fermented.

And if you have even a little bit of leavened bread in with a lump of unleavened bread, well, then that leaven spreads and the whole lump is leavened. And so the leaven becomes an illustration to the children of Israel.

If you're supposed to be pure, you get the leaven out. You want unleavened bread? Don't even have a little bit of leaven in there because it will spread and ruin the lump if your desire was to have unleavened bread.

That's not to say that any time they ate leavened bread that they were sinning, but just with regard to Passover and making unleavened bread, they understood the concept of removing all leaven so that it doesn't end up ruining the batch of bread that you're trying to make into unleavened bread.

This was what was understood among the Jews. The Apostle Paul uses this, too, in 1 Corinthians 6, where he says, A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Purge the evil person from among you, he says to the church.

And then later on in chapter 15, where he talks about bad company corrupts good character. This is the thing that Jesus is warning the disciples about. Beware the leaven of the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Herodians.

They will corrupt you, too, if you don't watch out for these things. But the disciples are worried about their own stomachs. Where are we going to get food from? That they are missing the instruction that Jesus has.

Don't miss what God is teaching us in his word. Don't be so consumed with the cares of your own body, the cares of this world, anxious for the things of tomorrow, that you are not listening what God is saying to you today in his word.

The temptations that are coming your way today that you must resist and draw near to Christ. Don't miss what it is that Jesus has said to us. And don't miss how he abundantly provides for us. When we know that our every care and need is taken care of, especially when it comes to receiving eternal life in glory with him.

Then you won't be anxious about those things that will cause you to miss what is most important. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. God has provided everything that you need. Don't forget that.

Lest you find yourself unsatisfied with everything that God has given you, and you start looking to the world and seeing what they are offering, and you think to yourself, if only I had a little bit of that.

Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the Herods. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here today in this warning, in this instruction. And may we not fall into the same kind of depravity of listening to false teachers, or of going after our flesh and sensuality and the ways of the world.

But let us hear from Christ to watch out for these people. To understand that bad company corrupts good character. To draw near to God instead, resisting the devil, and he will flee from us, as said in James 4.

Anything that is unclean in us, God may it be purged. Remove it. Let us not go after the sin, but desire the holiness of Christ. And it's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.