Mark 8:11-9:1 (October 23 2022)

In Mark 8 verse 11,

God's word says this. The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.

And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, Why does this generation seek a sign?

Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation. And he left them and got into the boat again and went to the other side.

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?

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?

And they said to him, Twelve. And for 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?

And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him.

And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. And when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him,

Do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see people, but they look like trees walking.

Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and he opened his eyes. His sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

And he sent him to his home, saying, Do not even enter the village.

And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples,

Who do people say that I am? And they told him, John the Baptist, and others say Elisha, and others one of the prophets.

And he asked them, But who do you say that I am? And Peter answered him,

You are the Christ. And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.

And he said this plainly, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning, seeing his disciples, he rebuked

Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it.

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?

For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words and this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the

Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. And he said to them,

Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God, after it has come with power.

Amen. This is the word of God. Do you have eyes to see?

That's the question I want to ask you this morning. Do you have eyes to see? You see this passage is about blindness and it's about having our eyes opened.

Now obviously the passage is about blindness when we get down to the story of the man who had his eyes opened at Bethsaida.

And there in that story we see Jesus' care, we see Jesus' power, we see that he is fulfilling

Isaiah chapter 35 verse 5, and then the eyes of the blind shall be opened.

This miracle is not just a demonstration of power, but it is also a parable that teaches.

This is a miracle that teaches us. And so Jesus takes the man by the hand and he leads him out of the village, and again just like we saw last week with the healing of the deaf man,

Jesus uses saliva as part of the healing process, putting spit on his eyes and laying his hands on him.

But, the man is not healed immediately. Do you see anything,

Jesus asks. I see people, but they look like trees, walking, he responds.

So Jesus puts his hands on his eyes again, and this time his sight is completely restored and he began to see everything clearly.

And so with Jesus' other miracles, he healed all at once, with a word or with a touch.

But here it is a two -stage healing. First he gets blurry vision, before he gets clear vision.

And this two -stage healing serves as a parable for the disciples, who have had their eyes opened to see

Christ, but they do not always see things clearly, as we'll see in this passage. And this healing, it also teaches us that we need our eyes opened, that we often need clearer vision than we already have.

So this miracle teaches us that Jesus is the one who opens eyes in a world full of blindness.

And blindness is everywhere in this passage that we just read. We see it first in verse 11, when the

Pharisees come to him and begin to argue with him and seeking from him a sign.

Now Jesus, he'd been given signs all over the place, right? Ever since his baptism, when the

Spirit descended on him like a dove, he'd been given signs. He's cast out demons multiple times.

He's healed Peter's mother -in -law from a near -death fever. He's cleansed the leper. He's made a lame man to walk.

He's healed a man with a withered hand. He's calmed a storm. He cast a legion of demons into the pigs and then into the sea.

He healed the woman with the issue of blood. He raised up Jairus' daughter from the dead. He fed the 5 ,000.

He fed the 4 ,000. He walked on water in the middle of the storm and he made the deaf and the mute man hear and speak.

He'd given plenty of signs. So much so that wherever he went, people were flocking to him, bringing their sick, bringing their lame to him for healing, bringing those who had unclean spirits to be made well.

And yet the Pharisees are blind to all of these signs. The only sign that he's going to give them, he says, is he's going to turn his back on them.

That's the only sign he gets. Verse 13, the Son of God turns his back on them and he leaves.

And this too is a parable and a prophecy. But it's not just the

Pharisees who are blind. The disciples do not yet see clearly either.

So they get into the boat and Jesus warns about the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. But the disciples don't get it.

They think he's talking about physical bread. He's actually talking about the false teaching that leads to wrong living of the

Pharisees and the Herodians. He's talking about the doctrinal error of the Pharisees and also their hypocrisy and the gross immorality and worldliness of the

Herodians. And he's saying that these things work like leaven, like yeast in a lump of dough.

And it makes the whole lump rise. Just a little bit of the leaven of the Pharisees, just a little bit of the leaven of the

Herodians will corrupt the person or the people. But they're blind to what

Jesus is talking about. They're just wondering what they're going to eat for supper. And even there, when it comes to having bread to eat, they're blind to the power of Jesus as demonstrated by the past works of Jesus.

He had fed 5 ,000 men plus women and children with five loaves of bread and two fish. He had fed 4 ,000 men plus women and children with seven loaves and a few fish.

And the disciples had been there for that. It's not just that they had heard about it. They hadn't just heard reports. They were there.

They handed out the bread. They tasted the bread. They spit out the fish bones. They collected the leftovers.

They were there. And yet, here they are in the boat and they still wonder about dinner because they had forgotten to bring bread with them.

They see, but not clearly. The same thing happens with Peter down in verse 27 and following.

He rightly confesses who Jesus is. He rightly confesses that Jesus is the Christ. He is the long -awaited

Messiah. He is the long -awaited One whom God the Father anointed to deliver

His people and be a light to the nations. But then immediately after Peter confesses this rightly, we learn how much that Peter doesn't yet see clearly.

He's like the man who opens his eyes and sees people walking. They look like trees walking.

Jesus tells His disciples plainly what is going to happen to Him. That He must suffer many things and be rejected by the scribes and the

Pharisees, the chief priests and the elders. That He must be killed and rise after three days.

Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the One who would win the kingdom and restore

Israel, the Messiah. But he was blind to the fact that He would be a suffering Messiah who would win the kingdom by His death on a cross.

And he was blind to the fact that the way of following Jesus requires self -denial and a cross.

So there's blindness everywhere in this passage. And the healing at Bethsaida teaches us that Jesus is the

One who heals our blindness. Jesus is the One who opens our eyes. And so I want to ask you, are your eyes opened?

Do you have eyes to see and to see clearly? So I want to ask you a few questions as we just go through this passage.

The first one is this, do you have eyes to see the works of God? In verse 11, the

Pharisees asked for signs even though Jesus had given plenty of them. They didn't see what was right in front of them.

But how about you? Do you see the works of God? They're all around.

The psalmist tells us that the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above His handiwork.

People want to see miracles. Not realizing that miraculous is really the only way that God works.

Now we think it's normal because God is just always that generous to us. He's always that kind.

He's always that wonder -working all the time. But normal is actually incredible if you have eyes to see.

So take bread for instance. We think it miraculous that Jesus fed 5 ,000 with 5 loaves that time back in Mark 6, don't we?

But we find it completely mundane that God feeds 7 billion people on this planet every day.

The difference between the two is that He breaks His normal pattern in order to feed the 5 ,000 with 5 loaves.

But is it really, when you think about it, is it really any less impressive that He makes wheat to grow out of the ground and that you can take the grain, you can separate the parts and grind some of it up and then mix that with water and yeast and salt and throw it into a fire and out comes bread.

And that there's enough of it to feed 7 billion people on this planet. Is that any less miraculous?

Or what about the air we breathe? We get the oxygen from trees, right? We learned about that in science class.

But how does all that work? Where does the tree get the oxygen? Well, it takes starlight and converts it.

And in the process of taking the light from the sun and converting it to nutrients to grow, it gives oxygen all for us to breathe.

Now you can call it photosynthesis if you want to. And I know we have very scientific explanations for all sorts of things.

But that's where we get the oxygen. It's this miraculous world that God has given to us where starlight comes down.

And so you can think about it, if you've gone up to the mountains to go pick apples this fall, beautiful time of year to do it.

That golden delicious, when you get down to it, it's made of starlight. And that's where the apples come from, light from the sun, right?

Mixing with the dirt of the earth and the water of the earth. And when you think about it, that's kind of cool. And it's kind of miraculous.

One more of these type of examples. The next time you're taking butter and buttering your bread, you've already thought about where bread comes from and how miraculous that is.

I want you to think about the fact that the butter, it used to be grass out in the pasture somewhere. And then

God used a big, fat, smelly cow to turn that grass into milk, which was then shaken up to make butter.

Green grass to white milk to golden butter. Sounds like a miracle to me.

If you have eyes to see, the normal world is actually incredible.

The whole world is spoken. This is God's spoken world. God spoke it into existence. He holds it together by the word of His power.

It's an absolutely wonder -filled world that we live in. And God is always working wonders.

Now the Pharisees saw the signs and works of Jesus, and you remember from a few weeks ago, they attributed those to Beelzebub, to Satan.

We see God's works and we attribute them to science or nature or medicine. But who do you think made science or nature or medicine?

Who stands above it and who holds it together? You can open your eyes and you can see the works of God everywhere.

And you can give thanks. Romans 1 tells us that those who refuse to trace the works of God back up to God and give

Him thanks, that they'll be judged. And judgment is what we see in verse 13 when

Jesus left them. Do you have eyes to see the works of God all around? Second question, do you have eyes to see the threats to true religion?

Verse 15, and He cautioned them saying, Watch out! Beware the leaven of the

Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. The Pharisees had doctrinal error.

They were teaching the traditions of men as the commandments of God. We saw that a few weeks ago. They were hyper focused on external appearance to the neglect of true inner holiness.

The Herodians were worldly and immoral in their behavior and together the Pharisees and the Herodians shared an authoritarian bent.

The leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod refers to the influence of their ideas and teaching and behavior, all of which could corrupt

God's people. Watch out, and it just takes a little bit. So Jesus warns them,

Watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. Do you have eyes to see that which could corrupt

God's people today? So here's the thing about leaven or yeast.

It doesn't take very much. It doesn't take very much to be effective.

So when Shana makes homemade bread at our house, and when she does, she just puts a little bit of yeast in there.

But it causes the whole thing to rise. It just takes a little bit. It takes just a little bit of compromise on God's word.

And the whole loaf rebels. And so watch out for the leaven that can corrupt

God's people today. I want to give just a couple of examples. We could probably think of many. But I think of that which has been dangerous for church and culture in our day.

And I would say watch out for the leaven of the evolutionist materialists. You see, the belief that we are all descended from the primordial goo has had catastrophic effects on our culture.

Everything is malleable, and nothing is meaningful. Of course, nothing is fixed.

And when you get down to it, the only thing that matters in this worldview is power.

And this is all downstream from the materialistic worldview of the evolutionist. And that worldview is incompatible with the

Christian worldview, and incompatible with the Bible, and incompatible with reality. But it has leavened our culture.

And so beware. I would also say to beware of the leaven of the egalitarians.

Those who try to flatten out the distinction between male and female, men and women. Those who try to flatten out the hierarchies that God has established in the world.

So you see, when God made mankind, Genesis 1 tells us that He made them male and female in His own image.

And this was good, and right, and wise. We should thank God for it.

And so any and all attempts at androgyny is pagan at root, and strikes against God by striking at His image.

Attacks on anthropology, you know, what is a man, what is a woman?

Attacks on that is an attack on God, because we were made in God's image. And so what is this androgyny that I speak of?

It's treating men and women the same, as interchangeable, as if they have the same makeup and the same duties, as if what is fitting for one must necessarily be fitting for the other.

But that is not how God made us. I know this is kind of a thought crime these days, but men and women are different.

Men have a particular glory as men, and women have a particular glory as women.

And one is not less than the other, just different. And that difference is

God -given, and it is good, and right, and wise.

And so it's easy to look out into our culture today, and see the leavened loaf of 2022

America. And there's gender confusion and rebellion that's just become commonplace.

Well, something caused that loaf to rise in that particular way. Something that started out small, and then grew, and filtrated the whole thing.

And I would say that one of those things is the egalitarian leaven that tried to do away with the distinctions between men and women.

And it shows up in all sorts of places. So I have an acquaintance that lives up in Idaho, and he tells the story about his son who wrestles.

He tells the story about one day when the other team sent a girl out to wrestle him, and he forfeited, because he refused to treat a girl that way.

He wouldn't treat a girl with violence, or get in those positions.

It wasn't right. But, but, but, but, but, it's just sports, we say.

Yes, but a little leaven leavens the whole lump, and it's just sports until it's not.

So we must watch out for the leaven of the egalitarians. Now I've picked out just two.

Two dangerous leavens in our culture. There are more. But the question is, do we have eyes to see them?

And how will you know if you've seen them? How do you tell truth from error? Right from wrong?

Wise from folly? And how can you be ready to actually watch out?

You've got to know your Bible. You've got to be a good Berean, and look back at the

Scriptures to see if these things are so. If you don't know the reference there, I believe it's

Acts 17. Paul is speaking, and he's in the city of Berea, and they don't just take what he says, and run with it.

They go back to the Scriptures and check it. And why do they do that? Because this is the authoritative

Word of God. Now look, I realize that these two leavens that I brought up, evolution and egalitarianism, this is the air we breathe, and so I wouldn't be surprised if someone took issue with some of the things

I've said this morning. And I would welcome a conversation with you about it. I'll only make one request. Bring a

Bible. Because this book here is the inerrant, inspired, sufficient, authoritative

Word of God. And so what it says goes. And so we look to the

Scriptures to discern these things. If I could tweak and C .S. Lewis quote just slightly with one word,

I believe the Bible as I believe the sun has risen, not only because I see it, because by it

I see everything. Do you have eyes to see the threats?

Those things that would corrupt us? If so, you're going to need to see in the light of Scripture.

Know God's Word. Third question. Do you have eyes to see God's past works?

The disciples were worried. They're in the boat. They're worried that they wouldn't have bread to eat. Even though they have been there for Jesus feeding the 5 ,000, they've been there for Jesus feeding the 4 ,000.

And so Jesus asked them a question. He said, And do you not remember? Do you not remember?

Brothers and sisters, remembering. Christian remembering is a shield about you. It protects you from losing heart.

We sang about it just a little bit ago. We sang, Here I raise my Ebenezer. That word

Ebenezer refers to the memorial that God's people built in order to remember

God's deliverance. Throughout the Old Testament, God is constantly reminding Israel of His power and deliverance.

I am the God who brought you out of Egypt, He says. Over and over, God's people are commanded to look back to God's mighty works.

And we too need to look back and remember God's mighty works. And so this is one reason why every

Sunday, after we sing the first song, we have a gospel focus.

Where we remember God's grace and mercy to us as we confess our sins to Him.

Because we need to remember that we are forgiven. We are a forgiven people. This is one of the reasons why we celebrate the

Lord's Supper. It's to remember that we have been delivered out of the Egypt of our sins and brought in to the promised land of new life in Jesus.

Now we've traditionally done this quarterly. I'm hoping we can move to a bit more regular observance of the

Lord's Supper. A bit more often. Because we need the regular remembering through the

Supper that Jesus gave to us. The Lord's Supper is the means that Jesus gave to us to remember our deliverance.

We need to remember. This is one of the reasons that Christians have historically used a church calendar to mark time.

Marking the seasons of life by the life of Jesus and the five evangelical feast days of Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost.

Now somewhere along the line we see the time keeping to the government and the greeting card companies. But they don't help us remember

Christ. We need to find ways to remember God's works.

God's past works. To remember the mighty acts of God. To remember the mighty acts of God that we find in Scripture.

To remember the mighty acts of God that we find throughout the history of the church. One great way to do this is to read missionary biographies or church history sketches.

If that's something that interests you, I can make some recommendations for you. Also, that's what we're doing on Wednesday nights at Midweek Family Fellowship.

Remembering God's mighty acts throughout the history of the church. That's why we need to remember God's mighty acts in your own life.

Don't forget how God has acted to save you and call you to Himself. To provide for you in times of need.

To heal you in times of sickness. Remember, pass these stories down to your children and grandchildren.

Rehearse and retell the mighty works of God in the past and be strengthened for the times of the present and the future.

For God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Fourth question.

Do you have eyes to see who Jesus really is? First Jesus, when

He called His disciples to Him, He asked, Who do people say that I am?

They answered, Elijah, or John the Baptist, or one of the prophets. But then

He asked the more specific question, Who do you say that I am?

Peter answers, You are the Christ. You are the long -awaited, anointed

One who comes to save Israel and the world. That's who

Peter says He is. I would ask you, Who do you say that Jesus is? And that's the most important question that you're going to answer in your life.

Who do you say that Jesus is? Others say He's a great teacher. Others say He's a prophet. Others say He's a good philosopher.

Others say He's an admirable man. But who do you say that He is? Do you have eyes to see that He is the

Christ, the Son of the living God? The One who comes to seek and save that which is lost. The One who died for sinners.

The One who had authority to take His life up again. The One who rules the nations with a rod of iron.

The Messiah. And do you have eyes to see, not just who

He is, but how He would win His kingdom? Not by power or might, though He has power and He has might.

But by sacrifice and death, which turned out to be a far deeper power. For the

Son of Man must suffer many things, He said. This is how Jesus won.

Do you have eyes to see that? And then lastly, I would ask you, do you have eyes to see the shape of the

Jesus follower's life? Do you have eyes to see the shape of the life of one who would follow

Jesus? The life you are to be pursuing as a Christ follower is shaped like a cross.

Verse 34. And calling the crowd to Him with His disciples, He said to them,

If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it.

But whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospels will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the

Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels. Now crosses, we're not talking about just kind of generic hardships of living life in a fallen world.

Rather, crosses, the cross that we are to bear, these are the sufferings that come from obeying and following Jesus.

You see, the invitation to follow Jesus isn't an invitation to a very quiet and peaceful retreat in the mountains where you can just live above the fray.

No, the invitation to follow Jesus is to join the fray. It is an invitation to the war to win the world for King Jesus.

To cast down idols and strongholds and principalities and powers. And in following Jesus in this way, we might get shame from the world for doing so.

It might cost us financially. We might get fired from our jobs. We might lose friendships.

We might get physically hurt. But what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

Do you have eyes to see that the way of Jesus is good and right, even if it is also narrow and difficult and steep and rocky and dangerous?

Do you have eyes to see that the words of God are true and that there is nothing in this book to be ashamed of before men?

And if we see that, Jesus will not be ashamed of us before His Father. And so we all stand in Bethsaida, answering the question of verse 23,

Do you see anything? The invitation is to come to Christ and have your eyes opened.

Maybe for the first time. If you have never repented of your sins and believed in Jesus, do that today.

Repent and believe the gospel. That Jesus Christ died in your place to save you from your sins.

And He was raised so that you too might be raised to live new life. Do that today.

Come to talk to me during the closing song. Don't leave here today still in your sins. Or maybe you're a believer and have been one for decades, but there are some areas of life where you don't see clearly.

It's like seeing people like trees walking. Look to Christ. He opens our eyes and He is the one who makes us see clearly.

And in the light of Christ and in the light of His Word, the Holy Scriptures, we can see everything.

Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, I pray and ask that You would open our eyes that we may see.

That we may see and behold Your glory. That we may see You for who You truly are.

That we would see the goodness of Your ways. And the rightness and the truth and the power of Your Word.

Thank You for revealing this to us in Your Word. By Your Holy Spirit, lead us to respond in this moment, in whatever way would bring

You maximal glory. In whatever way that would do good for us.