I suppose that in many ways, the transfiguration is the greatest miracle given in the Bible. To see Jesus in His human form, and then unveiled to reveal His true nature and glory, glory as of the Only Begotten Son of God, and to have the appearance of both of the greatest prophets from history appear to give credence to His majesty, and then to cap it all off with nothing less than the shekinah glory of God envelop them all and to hear God speak from the cloud, all of that combined must equal the greatest miracle recorded in scripture.

Now as I have said repeatedly, every miracle recorded in the gospels is presented as a parable to teach us spiritual principles. So the question remains for us then, what should we expect to learn from this miracle? If it’s truly the greatest miracle, then it would stand to reason that we should learn some great doctrines of our faith in studying it. So the question is why is the transfiguration important, and how is it important to me?

Well, let me start by saying that in some respects, Jesus had already been transfigured before this event. This transfiguration was just a reversal of what had already taken place at His birth. John chapter 1 makes that argument very well. In vs 14 of chapter one, John says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That’s transfiguration number one. Jesus, who John says existed from eternity with the Father, who was God, and was with God, became flesh, became a man, born to a virgin. That’s transfiguration number one. And then John continues in vs14, “and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Most commentators believe that reference to His glory is speaking of the transfiguration, which I am saying is the second transfiguration.

Peter speaks of this second transfiguration in 2Peter 1:16-18 saying, “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”– and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.” 

I think it’s important to notice that Peter uses the phrase, “we were eyewitnesses of His majesty…” The apostles were eyewitnesses of the works of Christ. They were eyewitnesses of His miracles. In Deuteronomy the law states that truth must be confirmed on the basis of two or three witnesses. So that explains why Jesus took three disciples with Him on the mountain, so that they could be eyewitnesses to what happened. So we might be assured of the truth of what happened.

And it’s important because we need to know the truth. Jesus said that God is spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. There is no spiritual benefit in following cleverly devised tales of men. But these three men were willing to die or go to prison for the sake of the truth of what they witnessed. And we can be assured that what they saw and reported is the truth.

Now in vs1, Jesus Himself affirms the truth of what they will see. “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” Jesus Himself is affirming the transfiguration as an important truth. He’s saying that some of the disciples present as He was speaking with them, would not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power. Jesus Himself is the manifestation of the kingdom of God on earth. He came to institute the kingdom of God.

Now what is the context of Jesus’s words? What caused the Lord to make this statement? Well, it was the previous statement at the end of chapter 8, which was the declaration by Peter that Jesus was the Christ. Mark puts the emphasis on the fact that He was the Messiah, and I believe in that sense then Jesus declares this statement. Because the whole issue with the disciples, and the reason that Jesus did not want them broadcasting the fact that He was the Messiah, was because they had an erroneous understanding of what the ministry of the Messiah was to be. They believed, as did the majority of the Jews, that the Messiah would resurrect the throne of David and the glories of Israel and it’s dominance in the world.

And that view was faulty. There are two comings of Christ. The first coming and the second coming. The first coming was to be a servant, a substitute and a Savior. In the first coming He inaugurated His kingdom. At the second coming He will come in glory, to consummate His kingdom. The disciples don’t realize all of that. They see only one coming of the Messiah. And so they have expectations of His kingdom which are not in keeping with God’s purposes.

So I believe that what Jesus was trying to teach by this statement and the miracle following six days later, is the reality of the kingdom of God that He was inaugurating in His first coming. In a sense, He is acting out the miracle we looked at last time of healing the blind man, in which at first the man did not see clearly, and then at a second touch from the Lord he was able to see clearly. That’s what is going on here. Jesus told Peter at his confession that Jesus was the Messiah that God had given him insight into that truth. But then a little bit later Jesus has to rebuke Peter and say “Get behind Me Satan, for you are not fixing your mind on God’s interests but on man’s.” Peter’s theology needed a second divine touch. And so that is what is happening here. God is providing a second touch, that the disciples might more clearly see the nature and purpose of the Messiah.

Now there are two ways in which the first verse is fulfilled. When Jesus says “some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power,” we can interpret that in two ways. Again, we see perhaps a first and then second touch. The first fulfillment is going to be through the transfiguration in six days. The second is going to be within about 7 months time, on the day of Pentecost, when the disciples will receive power after the Holy Spirit is come upon them. That is when the gospel is going to go forward with power throughout the whole world. And that is the ultimate fulfillment of the kingdom of God. Jesus said when He began preaching, that the kingdom of God is near you. The kingdom is in your midst. But then at Pentecost, the kingdom of God will come with power, not just to the Jews, but to all the nations of the world. That is when the kingdom of God reaches it’s full potential throughout the world, not only to the Jews, but also to the world.

So Mark says six days later after making this statement, Jesus took Peter, James and John up on a high mountain. Jesus often went up to a mountain to pray and be alone with God. This time, He brings His three closest companions to be with Him. They probably thought they were just going to pray. Luke 9:32 tells us that they fell asleep. I wonder if Jesus had to wake them up to see the transfiguration. That would be a real shame wouldn’t it? To sleep through the greatest miracle of all. I sometimes wonder what great things God intends for us to see, that we are too tired or disinterested in to notice. But nevertheless, great things of God often come through great times of prayer. If you would see Christ more clearly, then spend more time alone with Him in prayer. James says, draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. So this event teaches us about the nature of our faith; that intimacy with God produces greater illumination. David says in Psalm 36:9 “In thy light we see light.”

I will also say that this shows the necessity for a place of prayer, and the need to go to a place of prayer. We can pray anywhere, that is true, at any time. But Jesus shows us that there is benefit in going to a specific place. Jesus called the temple a house of prayer. I would suggest that church is a place of prayer. There is a special benefit in going to church to offer prayers to God.

Then when they were on the mountain, Mark says that Jesus was transfigured. Transfigured comes from the Greek word “metamorphoō,” which means to change into another form, to transform, to transfigure. As I said earlier, this happened at His birth, when the Word became flesh. Now in this second metamorphosis, the flesh becomes glorified. To be glorified is to become a spiritual body, a heavenly body.

Paul speaks of that difference between the physical and spiritual body in some detail in 1Cor. 15:40 saying, “There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another.” We are not sure how Jesus’s body changed, but Mark indicates that the light inside of Christ shone through His flesh and His garments in a blindingly white light. Luke says the appearance of His face became different. Mark also tells us that Moses and Elijah appeared with Him, talking to Him. And I believe in Luke’s account, he says that they both appeared in splendor as well, or appeared in glory.

Now as I said, we cannot fully comprehend the way the body of the Lord was transfigured or transformed. But I would say that the spiritual essence of Christ, that which was invisible, became visible, and that which was visible, became less visible. The body, rather than being a permanent fixture, was revealed as just a cloak over the spiritual being that was the essence of Christ. And I cannot help but remember that John tells us at Christ’s second coming that we will be transfigured as well, when we will be made like Christ. 1John 3:2 “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”

There are many interesting things that can be gleaned from this transformation. However, we don’t want to speculate beyond what the text indicates. But remember Jesus’s own statement regarding the dead in the Lord who have gone on before. In Matthew 22:32 He says, “I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” So here then we see that Moses and Elijah are living. They are not dead in a tomb, but living and communing with the Lord.

What a blessing that is for us that know the Lord! As Jesus said in John 11:26 “everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” We don’t die, we are just translated from the physical domain to the spiritual domain. We go on living, but in a different form, and in a more complete communion with the Lord.

And notice that Peter, James and John recognize Moses and Elijah. They in turn recognize Jesus. No one needs to be introduced. It’s nice to know that somehow, someway, our physical character is knowable and recognizable in that spiritual dimension. We will know our relatives and our loved ones. 1Cor. 13:12 “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.”

And one other mention, Matthew tells us that they were talking to Him about the events to come. They were talking about His ministry, about the cross, and the resurrection. I don’t know all that they were talking about, but I do know that they were talking about things to come and things that had happened. They were aware of current events. They were aware of the future. And I find that comforting, as well as challenging. I think my dad is watching to some extent what I am doing here on earth. I think he is interested. The Bible tells us that the angels long to look into what we are doing and what God has planned here on earth.

In fact, speaking of all the saints who had died and gone on before, the author of Hebrews writes in Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” We are surrounded by an invisible cloud of witnesses. Those who have gone on before us are witnessing what we are doing now. The angels are witnessing what we are doing. And I think that they are greatly interested. I think they are cheering when we overcome. I hope that they are not weeping when we fall. But the Bible says that they are witnesses to what we are doing here, so let us run the race with patience and lay aside every sin and the weights which encumber us.

In that regard, I want to point out that the word metamorphosis shows up only four times in the New Testament. Twice it is used in the gospels in speaking of this event; here in Mark and in Matthew 17. But the other two times it is used in not in keeping with Christ’s transfiguration at all, but it’s in reference to our transformation when we are saved. The first is found in Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

The second is in 2Cor. 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” I think it’s noteworthy that in both cases it isn’t talking about our justification, but our sanctification. It’s talking about the process of transformation, as we are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, from glory to glory. When we are justified, we receive that first touch, but then we need to be sanctified, transfigured by the Spirit of God within us, our righteousness shining forth like the sun for the world to see.

We should also ask ourselves why particularly Moses and Elijah appeared at the transfiguration. First of all, Moses and Elijah represent the fulfillment of all scripture. Moses wrote the Pentateuch, the Law. Elijah represents the prophets. When the Jews spoke of the entire scriptures, they referred to them as the Law and the Prophets. So in appearing with Christ, they attest to His fulfillment of all the Old Testament scriptures, both in the law and the prophets. Jesus said in Matt. 5:17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”

Secondly, the appearance of Moses and Elijah speak to the fact that someone greater than a prophet was here. The disciples answered Jesus question of who do men say that I am by saying that the Jews thought Jesus was a prophet. Moses was considered the great prophet of God. And Elijah was of course a mighty prophet as well in his miracles. And yet God indicates that Jesus was not just a prophet, but His only beloved Son.

And we see more illustrated by these two men. Moses also died and was buried. Elijah was taken up into heaven without dying. Thus they represent the means by which we will see the future glory of the kingdom revealed. Either by dying and being transported to the presence of God in our spirit, or by being taken up into heaven when He shall appear with His holy angels when He comes the second time for His church.

Mark says that Peter and the disciples were very afraid at what they were witnessing. They don’t understand what was going on. And Peter, wanting to say something, says the wrong thing. He had good intentions, but he was still focusing on man’s interests and not Gods. So Peter said, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

Now there is some debate about what is meant by tabernacles. Some think that it has something to do with the feast of booths, or tabernacles, which was a feast celebrated by the Jews around that time. But I happen to think that it has to do with the tabernacle of meeting that was the fore runner of the temple. The tabernacle that Moses constructed according to God’s plan, where God’s glory would settle over it in the form of a cloud and great light, and which denoted the presence of the Lord in the midst of His people. I think there is a sense in which the disciples are so awestruck with Moses and Elijah being present, that they think that they each should have a tabernacle similar to the one in the Exodus. Kind of like building three churches for the three great preachers.

Sounds like a bad idea in hindsight to us, but it undoubtedly seemed like a good idea to Peter. Kind of like these multi campus churches that are springing up around the country today. They seem more like tabernacles erected to honor men rather than to honor Jesus. We need to be careful that out of a sincere desire to worship the Lord we do not end up building edifices to glorify men. Sincerity is no measure of truth. We are not to worship God simply in sincerity, but in truth.

Well, here’s what God had to say about Peter’s idea. vs 7 Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!” I believe this was the cloud that stood over the tabernacle during the time of Israel’s wanderings in the wilderness. This was the cloud called the shekinah glory in which the presence of God was, which would come down upon the tabernacle and Moses would go into it and talk with God.

So God is giving His witness to the Messiah, that Jesus is His beloved Son. Moses and Elijah were prophets who pointed to the One who was to come. Now He is here, and God has appointed Him to rule over His kingdom. The Lord Christ has been appointed by God to rule over His Kingdom.

Heb 1:1-5, 8 “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. 5 For to which of the angels did He ever say, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU”? And again, “I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM AND HE SHALL BE A SON TO ME”? … 8 But of the Son He says, “YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS SCEPTER IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM.”

And in God’s declaration of the preeminence of Jesus Christ, He reminds us to listen to Him. It teaches us the need for dependence upon the word. Even supernatural events will not guarantee a person’s perseverance of faith. The disciples, in spite of being witnesses to this tremendous miracle, still fell away from the Lord at the first hint of tribulation. Not by resting on the laurels of past experiences, but only through continual hearing of the word of the Lord does our transfiguration produce sanctification . Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

So in the final summary of things, the transfiguration is not simply something that happened two thousand years ago, which has very little application to our lives, but transfiguration is something that God is doing now in the hearts of those who love Him, as we are being conformed to His image through the application of the word of God. And one day, that transfiguration in us will be completed as we behold Him, and seeing Him will become like Him. And we will change this body of corruption for a body incorruptible.

But in the meantime, let us not be conformed to this world, but be transformed, transfigured, by the renewing of your mind, through the word of God, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect, for the building up and establishing of the kingdom of God.

I don’t normally go out of my way to preach a topical holiday message. And I don’t plan on doing that today either. But I did want to tie the Christmas story which Nick read for us a few minutes ago in Luke 2 to our text for today, because I feel it helps us to better understand the text as well as the true meaning of Christmas.

And the main thing I want to point out about the account in Luke is that it is simply a proclamation of the gospel. It’s not just a story about baby Jesus in a manger. And we see an indication of that in Luke 2vs4 where it says Joseph went up to the city of David, which is Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David. Christ’s birthplace and lineage are very important, because the prophecies of the Old Testament indicated that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, and that He would be of the royal lineage of David and He would sit on his throne forever. Now all of that may or may not have been known to the disciples when the Lord said, “who do you say that I am?” in Mark chapter 8, but it is likely that they knew about Jesus’s lineage, and that would have given rise to their insight that He could be the Messiah.

Secondly, I want you to notice that the angels tell the shepherds, “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy.” The gospel means literally good news. And the Greek word the angels use is often translated the gospel. Mark declared in his opening verse that he was writing the gospel of Jesus Christ. So the angels appeared to proclaim the gospel concerning the Messiah, the Son of God who came into the world.

And that brings us to another important doctrine of the gospel in the angel’s message – “for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” The good news was not just that a baby had been born, but that the Messiah had come to reconcile men to God. First note that Jesus is given the title Savior. Savior was often associated with a military conqueror. Some of the caesars used the title of savior to indicate the delivering nature of their military conquests. Jesus came to deliver men from the captivity of the evil ruler of this world, that is Satan. Towards the end of Mark 8 Jesus starts to disclose to the disciples the nature of His ministry, and what it means to be the Savior.

And notice there is one other title of Jesus in the angel’s gospel; Christ the Lord. Christ means the Anointed One, the Messiah. Christ is the Greek translation of the title Messiah. Some people mistakenly assume that Christ is Jesus’s last name. No, it’s a title. And His title was Messiah. We see Peter announce that Jesus is the Messiah in vs 29 of Mark 8. The Messiah was the Promised One, the One Anointed of God to be the Savior of the world, who would inaugurate the kingdom of God. And that statement serves as a summary of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now in our text in Mark 8, Mark has sort of reached a turning point in his gospel. The disciples have reached a turning point as well. And I believe that Jesus has reached a point where He is changing His approach to His ministry. Up to now, Jesus has been shining a certain measure of light which was given to the Jews of Galilee and Judea. But now He begins to illuminate the disciples in a very particular, intimate way, regarding the full nature of His ministry. Up to this point, the disciples had received much more spiritual insight than the rest of the people who are attracted to Jesus but they still did not have complete understanding of His ministry. Remember last week in vs18 we saw that Jesus rebuked them because they had eyes but they could not see. They had ears but they could not hear, so they don’t understand spiritual truth.

So in this passage, we see Jesus taking them aside to show them more intimate details concerning His ministry. And to illustrate this new phase of their discipleship where they begin to see more clearly, Mark gives us record of a miracle that is only recorded here in his gospel. And furthermore, it is the only miracle that we see Jesus perform which is done in a progressive nature. I’ve said repeatedly, that every miracle recorded in the gospels is presented as a parable to teach a spiritual principle. And such is the case with this miracle of healing the blind man.

In this miracle we see this blind man healed in two stages as an illustration of how the disciples are receiving spiritual insight. First, Jesus spits on the man’s eyes, and laying His hands on him the man reports that he sees men as trees walking. Then again Jesus laid His hands upon his eyes and the man looked intently, and was able to see clearly.

Now lots of reasons have been floated around why Jesus had this supposed difficulty in healing this man. But I have to say that it was not due to any difficulty on Jesus’s part. He who made the world and all things in it is not unable to heal blindness. It was in fact a deliberate two part healing to illustrate that the disciples needed a two part spiritual touch in order to see the gospel clearly. As the blind man initially saw men as trees walking, the disciples had seen Jesus walking around up to this point in a natural way, as a natural man, albeit one who had supernatural abilities, who spoke like no one had ever spoken, but they failed to see Him in the fullness and clarity of His ministry.

And they had the same difficulty with spiritual principles that Jesus was teaching. They were so focused on their physical expectations of the Messiah, they could not see the spiritual kingdom which He was establishing. Back in vs15, for instance, when Jesus started warning them about the sin of the Pharisees which He called leaven because of it’s corrupting influence, they thought He was talking about the fact that they hadn’t eaten dinner. And so Jesus rebuked them for having dull hearts, spiritual ears that could not hear, and spiritual eyes that could not see.

So Mark records this account of Jesus healing the blind man in two stages to illustrate that the disciples needed to receive a second touch from the Lord, so to speak, that they might have spiritual insight into the purpose of the gospel. So often I find that the church is guilty of the same spiritual blindness today. We are so focused on the physical, on the natural, on our physical needs and wants, that we miss the spiritual blessings that God intends for us as citizens of the Kingdom of God. We measure God’s blessings in our lives by how well our business is doing, or whether or not we have perfect health, or whether or not we have a good relationship with our spouse. We are focused on the physical, the natural, so much so that we are blind to the spiritual.

Well, Jesus leaves Bethsaida and He and the disciples travel to Caesarea Philippi, and Jesus wants to help them gain this spiritual insight, so He asks them, “Who do people say that I am?” And the disciples answer Him, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.” We could try to explain all the reasons that people would think of one of those men, but I think the real point of their answers was that everyone had limited Jesus to that of a prophet. That’s the most that they could see.

Then Jesus said, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter *answered and *said to Him, “You are the Christ.” You are the Messiah. And Jesus warned them to tell no one about Him. In Matthews gospel account of this incident, Jesus said, “Who do you say that I am?” And Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. (Matt.16:6)

So we see that God touched Peter, and presumably the other disciples as well with a divine second touch, that they might see that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. And there is in that act a foretaste of a second touch needed in our lives as well, as once we believe, the Holy Spirit is given to us that we might have understanding of the word of God. That is the purpose of the Spirit, to give us power and understanding.

But why does Jesus tell the disciples not to tell anyone? Isn’t that counter productive to the ministry of the gospel? Well, Jesus instructs them not to tell anyone because their knowledge is still incomplete. Their conception of the mission of the Messiah is incomplete still. They need still another touch to see the method by which Jesus will fulfill His Messiah-ship. They are still expecting what most people expected of the Messiah; a earthly reign from the throne of David in Jerusalem, after the Messiah had vanquished all their enemies and established the Israelites once again to their former glory they had once under David. So Jesus does not want them to broadcast that kind of message. He has further insight for them first.

So in vs 31 “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 was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.”

What we see there is that Jesus began to teach them the true nature and purpose of the Messiah. And the purpose of His coming to earth. It was not to reestablish Israel as a world power, but to die on the cross for the sins of the world, to pay the penalty for sin through His death, and to rise again from the grave victorious over the enemy of mankind. That was the mission of Christ; to suffer rejection from Israel, and die on the cross as substitute for sin, and rise victorious from the grave, having triumphed over sin and death, so that He might give life to all who believe in Him.

Well, Peter and the rest of the disciples can’t comprehend such a thing. That doesn’t fit their template for what they thought Messiah was to accomplish. So Peter, perhaps emboldened by the Lord’s comments after he had said Jesus was the Messiah, says to the Lord, “may it never be!” “We will never let that happen!” In his mind, nothing could be further from their expectations than Jesus dying. The Messiah was supposed to sit on the throne of David forever. And of course the disciples were looking forward to being on the front row of that new regime. They were looking at things naturally. They were expecting physical exaltation from following the Lord. Suffering and rejection did not factor into their expectations of their life with Christ. They did not understand still that the kingdom of God which Jesus was inaugurating was a spiritual kingdom where He ruled in the hearts of His people.

That’s why the prosperity doctrine which is widely preached today is such a damning doctrine. It is a doctrine focused on the well being of the physical. It claims that the kingdom of God is measured by your bank account, or by your job, or heath, your prosperity. And in so doing, they miss altogether the spiritual kingdom where the Lord rules and reigns in one’s heart. And even more to the point, they reject the fact that often suffering in this world is a divinely appointed part of the Christian experience.

So Jesus rebukes Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” I don’t think Jesus is necessarily calling Peter Satan, but He is saying that Peter is pushing Satan’s agenda. The world agenda is the devil’s agenda. Ephesians 2:2 tells us that Satan has engineered the course of this world, the systems and passions and desires in such a way as to entrap men by their passions and desires of the flesh. So those that push the agenda and interests of the world are in fact acting on behalf of Satan, whether unwittingly or not.

Here at Christmas, supposedly a time when we honor Christ’s birth, we end up finding ourselves entrapped by the course of this world, don’t we? Our passions and desires of the flesh are ratcheted up to another level this time of year. We think we are honoring Christ and in fact we are serving our flesh, the natural man. Bottom line, Jesus said, you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s.

I was telling someone yesterday that truth in regards to attending church. Some where along the line we have forgotten that our main purpose in going to church on Sunday is to simply worship God. To bow our will to His will. To bow our knees in the midst of the congregation and to refocus your mind of God’s interests for a couple of hours. To relinquish your focus on man’s agenda, on man’s interests and focus your heart on the Lord’s interests. Church is not just about whether or not you like the preacher. Or whether or not you got your needs served. But just to come to the assembly of believers and bow your heart to the Lord and meditate on Him, and pray to Him, and worship Him. To present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service of worship. (Romans 12:2)

Well, thankfully Jesus is patient towards the disciples, as He is patient towards us. We are often slow to see, and slow to hear. We don’t care to be refocused away from our desires. But the Lord provides another chance for the disciples to learn and to see the truth of the gospel and so He tells them clearly what it means to be a disciple. And I think that this teaching is the clearest presentation of the gospel that Jesus has ever given up to this point. So I want to read it to you in it’s entirety before making any comments on it.

Vs.34 And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? 37 “For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

What Jesus is saying is a continuation of what we have just seen in regards to the gospel. The world, the natural man, the agenda of man, is at odds with the interests of the Lord. If you want to be a follower of Christ, then you must abandon your agenda and the agenda of the world, for the sake of the Lord’s agenda. That’s the truth of the gospel of salvation. It isn’t believe in Me and I will give you all that you want. That is the way most people think Christianity offers. God is like sprinkling fairy dust over your life. It makes everything better. All your dreams will come true.

But nothing is further from the truth. The natural things, the passions and desires of the flesh, must be forsaken in exchange for the Lord. “Come after Me,” He says. Come away from the lusts of the flesh and follow the desire of the Spirit. And the way that is done practically is you must be willing to die to the world. You must be willing to lose your life for the sake of gaining new life from God. You must put to death the desires of the flesh, and desire to live according to the Lord’s desires.

Now that is nothing short of a radical change. But nothing less is the gospel. Nothing short of full surrender to the Lord is salvation. God will not strive with man. Either you surrender everything, or you have no part in Him. And furthermore, Jesus said, if you gain the whole world and as consequence you lose your soul, then what benefit is that? What is worth your soul? The soul of man lives forever, either with the Lord or in eternal damnation. What is the benefit of gaining a million dollars and losing your soul? What is the benefit of gaining worldwide acclaim for something you have accomplished on this temporal earth, but you have accomplished nothing for the Kingdom of Heaven? What does it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your own soul?

The gospel is about a choice of focusing on the natural things which you can see, taste, feel and touch, things which offer some physical benefit, or things which offer an eternal benefit. Do you have ears that cannot hear? Do you have eyes that cannot see? Is your heart too dull to comprehend the spiritual things of God? Is your appetite too honed on the things of this world to hunger for the things of God? I urge you, focus your attention on the things of God. Look intently at the word of God that you might see clearly the spiritual truths of God.

And finally, Jesus gives a warning to those who are ashamed to proclaim Jesus as Christ the Lord. He says, if you are ashamed of Him and His words, and chose instead the acclaim of this adulterous and sinful world, then He will be ashamed of you when He comes in His glory with the angels in power. If you lived your life in pursuit of this corrupt and dying world, then when Jesus appears to consummate His kingdom, you will have no part in it. Jesus is coming again in the full sovereignty and power of His kingdom, as the Israelites had looked for. The first coming He came in humility, to serve, to be our substitute and our Savior. The second coming is still in the future. And that coming will be in power and judgment.

The true meaning of the Christmas story is that God so loved mankind, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes on Him shall be saved from the wrath to come. To those who accept that gift of God, and believe on Him who He has sent, that is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, then to that person will be given life everlasting. But to him who rejects that gift, and spurns the love of God for the love of this world, they will face the judgment for having chosen this world rather than choosing the Lord. I pray no one leaves this place today without making that choice to die to the world and live for God through Christ Jesus. What shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? And what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

I think it was the last time I visited my mother before she passed away, she recited to me the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2. I think Nick did a great job of presenting that the other night at the Luau. I think it’s a great tradition to have with your family, to read the familiar story of the birth of Jesus on Christmas morning. If nothing else, it gives pause to the mad rush to open presents, and gives us a moment to reflect upon the real reason for all of the traditions that we have during this season.

But I was thinking later after Nick’s reading that the Christmas back story actually starts with John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The Christmas story is the story of salvation. “Unto you is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” And the reason for the Savior coming to earth is because of the love of God for the world. The world that lay in darkness, lost and condemned to death saw a great light. God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son to be the light of the world. The love of God, and the compassion of God towards us is what we really should be celebrating, not only at Christmas, but throughout the year.

Today in this passage we are looking at, we get a glimpse of the compassion of Christ, the Son of God, for the world. In vs.2, Jesus says, “I feel compassion for the multitude…” Compassion is from a Greek word I can’t pronounce, maybe Nick can, but I’ll try to sound it out, splagchnizomai, (splänkh-nē’-zo-mī). In those days, your bowels, not your heart, was considered to be the source of your emotions. So love and pity were expressed as felt in your “gut”. That’s maybe where we get the phrase, “gut-wrenching.” Something that really moves you so deeply, practically making your stomach turn over.

I think what they are trying to say is that the compassion that Jesus felt for the multitude came out of a deep seated love for them, which moved Him into action. The other night after the party, Joe Bartell stayed around and talked with Susie and I for a bit, and we were talking about David being a man after God’s own heart, and Joe was talking about how much David loved the Lord, how passionate he was towards God and the things of God. And I said, that is true, but the Bible says that David was a man after God’s own heart. That indicates not just the love of David for God, but the love of God towards David. God passionately loved David, so that He restored him and sought him even when David sinned so egregiously against the Lord.

God’s love for us is an amazing love, a passionate, pursuing love, that doesn’t take into account a wrong suffered, but suffers all things for our sakes. And so we see in this passage today the love of Christ for the world. The compassion of Christ for the multitude who were hungry, who were faint, and who if left to themselves would faint on the way. The love of Christ compels Him to help them, to give them what was necessary for life. It’s interesting too that these people were from the region of Decapolis, 10 Greek cities. And therefore it is likely that they were a mixed race at best, and probably there were many Gentiles there. And proper Jews would never eat with a Gentile. Yet Jesus not only wants to eat with them, but to provide a banquet. Jesus loves sinners, He has compassion on the lost sheep of the world. And this miracle is an illustration of God’s love for the world, who as the Bread of Life which came down from heaven is able to give life to those who are in fear of death.

But note also that Jesus wants to share this love and compassion with the disciples. If you are going to follow Christ, then you must share in His love for the lost, share in His compassion for the lost. So Jesus turns to the disciples. And His disciples answered Him, “Where will anyone be able to find enough bread here in this desolate place to satisfy these people?” In the previous feeding of the multitudes the disciples begged the question how could they afford to feed the multitude. Now in this situation, they say that the place is so desolate there is no where to buy food, even if they could. And Jesus temporarily overlooks their ignorance. The lesson they should have learned from the last feeding was that He is the source of life, therefore, He is able to provide all that is necessary for life.

That is the real lesson to be learned in this text, by the way. As I said the other night at the luau, Christianity is not a religion, but a way of life, in fact, it’s new life which is given to us by God on the basis of our faith in Christ. And just as there is a beginning and a maturation process and an end to physical life, there is a beginning, and a maturation process and an end to the spiritual life. And nothing less than Jesus Christ is the author and the sustainer and the finisher of our faith. That is the lesson to be learned. It is a completely new way of living, of thinking, of acting, that is wrought about in our lives by an act of God’s grace. It is the light of God which shines in our hearts and in that light we live and have a fruitful life. As Peter said in 2Peter 1:19 “So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.”

Now notice the phrase in the disciples question in vs4, where can you get enough bread “to satisfy these people?” The disciples have hit upon the key and they don’t even realize it. Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well, “if you drink of this water, you will thirst again. But if you drink of the living water which I have, then you will never thirst again.” The same equation must be enacted here as well; Jesus said after the first miraculous feeding in John 6:35 “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” The point being that the way of life through Christ satisfies. The way of the world never satisfies. The things of this world promises satisfaction, but they can never produce satisfaction. The only thing that satisfies is the bread from heaven, which is Jesus Christ. Nothing in this world can satisfy.

If that is ever seen at any time, it is seen most clearly at Christmas, isn’t it? People rushing around and buying and buying and getting and getting, in this insane materialistic, commercial endeavor we have substituted for the true Christmas, and yet nothing satisfies. The busiest times in the department stores are after Christmas, when they go and exchange what they were just given in hopes of finding something else that will satisfy. But nothing satisfies life the way life in Christ satisfies. The source of true satisfaction was standing right in front of them, and yet the disciples ask what can satisfy these people?

Well, Jesus is moved by compassion for the multitudes, and He wants to get the disciples involved in that same compassion for the lost, and so He asks, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said “Seven.” They have more than they had last time. Last time they had 5 loaves for 5000 people and they had 12 baskets left over. This time they should have realized that they had 7 loaves for 4000. More than enough for Jesus to work with. More than last time. But they had not learned that simple lesson yet. Mark doesn’t say that Jesus rolled His eyes, but I wouldn’t be surprised if He did.

But Jesus is compassionate to the multitudes and the disciples, and so He gets them to be seated on the ground, and then blesses the bread and breaks it and starts handing it to the disciples to hand out to the crowd. And as He breaks the bread, more bread appears in His hands. And I suspect that when they saw this miraculous multiplication, someone who had been hoarding a few little fish was moved to share them as well, realizing that He could multiply the fish. Vs 7 “They also had a few small fish; and after He had blessed them, He ordered these to be served as well. And they ate and were satisfied; and they picked up seven large baskets full of what was left over of the broken pieces.”

So take note, Jesus does virtually the same miracle, with a few minor variations, twice. The feeding of the 5000 a few months before, and now the feeding of the 4000. And by the way, Matthew indicates in both accounts that those numbers were only the men, not including the women and children. Possibly you could triple those numbers in each case. But the point is Jesus is giving the same lesson twice to the disciples. Because the Lord is compassionate, and realizes that sometimes we need to repeat a lesson before we really learn it. Some of us seem to be learning the same lessons over and over again as we go through life. But thank God He is merciful and patient towards us and willing to teach us again and again.

But notice that there are some people who cannot learn, because they don’t want to learn. They have hardened their hearts. Such were the Pharisees. After Jesus sent away the multiudes, He and the disciples got back into the boat and came to the district of Dalmanutha. And the Pharisees, who had undoubtedly been hearing of all that Jesus was doing in Galilee, came out to argue with Jesus, and demand a sign from Him. He’s healed hundreds, if not thousands of people by this time, He has raised the dead, He has feed tens of thousands from just a handful of loaves and fishes, He has done so many miracles and yet the Pharisees seek for a sign. What they were demanding was that He produce a sign from heaven on demand, such as fire from heaven, or the sun standing still, or some celestial event, but purely so that they might see it as some sort of proof that He was the Son of God. They want Him to perform for their benefit, not out of compassion for the sick, or in-firmed, or for those that were needing to be fed, but out of a selfish desire for Him to prove Himself to them, according to their standards and timing. Verse 11 says that it was to test Him. It’s the same idea that Satan tried on Jesus during His 40 days of testing in the wilderness. To get Him to act out of pride, out of a sense of self validation. And that would have been a sin. It would have been an act of pride on Jesus’s part. But He did not come to serve Himself, but to serve us. He was humble.

And so Jesus denied their request. It says He sighed deeply in His Spirit. Jesus could have sighed out of exasperation, but I tend to think it was a sigh of grief. I think His Spirit was grieved at the hardness of their heart. It is the response of love and compassion deep within Him, that His love is rejected and repulsed. Jesus knew their hearts, that they hated Him without a cause and wanted to find a way to put Him to death.

So sighing deeply in His spirit, He *said, “Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” I want to comment about this phrase “this generation” for a moment. I’m reminded of the similarity to the song by the Who, called “My Generation.” You remember the lyrics; “People try to put us d-down (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Just because we g-g-get around (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Yeah, I hope I die before I get old (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
This is my generation
This is my generation, baby
My my my generation.

That was a very popular song of my generation. And probably most of us here today are a part of that generation. I think it goes without saying that our generation was one of the most ego centric, self absorbed generations that ever walked the planet. And a lot of the problems of this present culture can be laid at the feet of my generation. My generation claimed to be seeking enlightenment, and yet they settled for an illusion. And I will tell you something that I was thinking about a lot this week. The church changed drastically in my generation. The local church is patterned after the synagogue of the Jews. There was one on every street corner, less than a Sabbath Day’s journey from it’s congregation. And in Jewish culture it was the cultural, religious and educational hub of the community. All religious, educational and social life was centered in the synagogue.

The same could be said about the local church in the generation of my father. It was the hub of Christian life. We went to church 4 or 5 times a week. We couldn’t live at the church, as they did right after Pentecost, but we pretty much were there all the time for one reason or another. Sunday’s we were there by 10 for Sunday School, and didn’t get out of church till 12:30. Then back that night at 6:30 until 8:30. Back again on Wednesday night. The men had visitation on Tuesday nights. Youth group was on Saturday nights. And every other month it seemed we had some sort of revival or mission’s conference or something that had us in church every night of the week. If you were a Christian, then church was at the center of your life.

But when my generation came up, we began to f-f-f-fade away. Sunday school fell away, Sunday night services fell away, Wednesday nights faded away. Church now is an hour long presentation on Sunday morning, which you attend occasionally only if it doesn’t conflict with family get togethers or sports or something, and then the rest of the week we live fully engaged in the world and the church is put on the back burner until we get into some sort of crisis. And even at our best, our attitude concerning the Lord is not far from those demanding, hard hearted Pharisees, who want to see something exciting, we want to see God answer our demands, when we want and how we want Him to respond. And yet, like the Pharisees, we make such demands without committing to follow Him completely and daily as His disciples. We show up when we want to show up, and make demands that He performs for our benefit.

Well, Jesus doesn’t work that way. He won’t dance to their tune. He says you’re not going to be given a sign, and He left them and got in the boat again and went to the other side of the lake. God has given you enough light to believe by faith. But if you reject that light, then He is under no compulsion to give you more. In fact, in Mark 4:25 Jesus says what you have will be taken away. But to him who has faith, then he will be given more light, culminating one day in the glory of Christ being revealed face to face.

As they were going away on the boat, the disciples begin to realize that they had forgotten to eat again, and they had only one loaf between all twelve of them. And Jesus begins to say, “Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” So they are trying to figure out what He is talking about, and they come to the conclusion that it must be that He is saying this because He is aware that they don’t have bread, and He doesn’t want them to get bread from the Pharisees or from the Herodians.

Vs17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see 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?”

The point Jesus makes with them is two fold, but one depends upon the other. The first point that Jesus makes is that they say they have no bread, but the Bread of Life is their Master who is with them in the boat. He took 5 loaves and made bread for 5000, leaving 12 baskets left over. He took 7 loaves and made bread for 4000 and had 7 baskets left over. How could they not see that He could take one loaf and make enough to feed just 12 of them, and still have plenty left over? Jesus want’s them to see that He is not only the source of life, but the supply of life. The Lord has promised to supply our needs according to His riches in glory. Phil. 4:19 “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” And yet how often do we worry about whether or not God will supply our needs?

The Lord supplies all our needs, not just financial needs. Not just physical needs. But He will supply our spiritual needs. He is the author and the finisher of our faith. He is the One who saves, who sanctifies, and who will glorify us.

And that leads us to the next point the Lord was making, that though the disciples had physical eyes, they could not see spiritual truths. Though they had physical ears, they could not hear spiritual truths. Their hearts were dull. Their spiritual senses were dulled because they were attuned to the physical, rather than the spiritual. They were so concerned about the physical, they could not understand the spiritual significance of what He was teaching them.

So what was He trying to teach them when He spoke about the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of the Herodians? Well, yeast in the Bible is always a picture of sin. In this case it might be the sin of false teaching. And Jesus was telling them to beware of it, because it is a deceptive doctrine and a damning one as well.

Yeast was taught in the unleavened bread of the Passover meal, that it represented sin. And to explain how that works, I was reminded of Donna’s sourdough bread. She shared her recipe for sourdough bread with Susie, but Susie couldn’t make it unless Donna first gave her some of her yeast left from the last batch of bread she had made. Then Susie took that starter yeast and added it to her dough and let the yeast activate her dough. And when Susie made her bread, she saves some of the dough to be the starter for the next time she makes it. Now yeast makes for some tasty bread, but it is a picture of sin in that it is a holdover from the past. It’s a picture of holding over or carrying over something from the past that corrupts the next batch.

And in this instance, Jesus is saying, I’m teaching you the doctrines of everlasting life, the abundant life that God has sent Me to declare to you and to provide for you. But beware of trying to carry over the traditions of the Pharisees which are not founded upon the word of God. And beware of trying to carry over the secularism from the Herodians in which they wanted to compartmentalize the sacred from the secular. They believed that they could have the benefits of being a child of God, and still enjoy the benefits as a citizen of the world, i.e., Herod.

And finally to the disciples, Jesus is saying, beware of the leaven of materialism. It’s the danger of wanting to hang on to the culture and attitudes of the world, and yet claim the benefits of Christianity. The nature of man to look at things physically and not see the unseen spiritual truth of life which is behind it. As Paul said in 2Cor. 5:7, “for we walk by faith and not by sight.” And again in 2Cor. 4:18 “we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” The admonition is to take care not to hold onto the things of this world, the cultural things, the material things, the physical things and try to add Christianity to it. True Christianity must be a new way, a new life. 2Cor. 5:17 “Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Jesus is the source of life, and the supply of life, He is the bread of life which has come down from heaven, that we who eat of it might live. But to live this life in Christ, we must have eyes to see that which is spiritual, and ears to hear that which is spiritual, that we might have new life more abundantly, even the life which satisfies our hearts. This is the life that Jesus came to earth to provide for us. I pray that you accept that gift of God, and that you may know the love of God which satisfies every restless heart.

This last week we put up our Christmas tree. We have a tradition around our house that we go to this farm where we get a living tree, have it cut down, and bring it home. I usually have the job of trimming it, and mounting it on it’s stand, and then we would light some candles, have some egg nog and play some Nat King Cole Christmas carols on the cd player. Susie would make cookies, and all the kids would help hang the decorations. That was our tradition. This year it didn’t seem to go that way. The tree we ended up getting had already been cut down some time ago. My older kids are not coming home this Christmas, so we ended up decorating the tree in stages, without a lot of the rituals that we used to have. I kind of found myself missing a lot of the ceremony surrounding putting up the tree, until I realized what I really missed was having our kids around.

The point that I want to make though is that sometimes we find certain rituals and ceremonies very comforting. Especially during the holidays. And the same is true in the church. People like familiarity. They like traditions. “This is the way it’s always been done.” They might not know why it has always been done that way, but that doesn’t seem to matter as much as the fact that they like it done that way.

There is nothing necessarily wrong with traditions or rituals or ceremonies, per se, but we have to be careful in the church, and in our Christian lives, that we are not attributing some measure of sacredness to something that was intended to be merely symbolic. Symbolism cannot save you. Rituals can never save you. Ceremonies, no matter how sincere, how soothing, or how holy they may seem, can never impute righteousness.

Now in this rather long text today, we are looking at the distinction between the external and the internal. We are looking at the distinction between traditions and the truth. Between the spiritual and the physical. I could break it up into two or three sermons, and I probably should for the sake of time and the volume of material. But I believe that it is all connected in such a way as to teach this important distinction, and so I am going to try to deliver it in the way it was intended to be received. All in one sitting. That means we will have to move rather quickly and not spend too much time on non essential details such as geography, and things like that.

The text starts with Jesus establishing the distinction between truth and tradition. Note vs3, the Pharisees have questioned Jesus, really they are accusing Him, of not keeping the traditions of the elders. Now that tradition was the ceremonial washing of hands before eating. This was not just a matter of hygiene. This was a ceremonial hand washing that had been established by the rabbis to purify the person involved. There had been a ceremonial washing in the law that was prescribed for the priests, but this was not that. This was in addition to that, which every good Jew was supposed to do, which acted as a sort of purification rite for the person involved. Vs3 “(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders; 4 and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.)” Note; there are many other things… which they observe. The point is that they attributed a certain degree of righteousness or holiness that they believed was obtained by observing these elaborate rituals.

But Jesus calls out them out on this, because He says, these are the traditions of men, and not of God. Vs 6 And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. 7 ‘BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’ 8 “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

So the litmus test, according to Jesus, is whether such a thing is of God or is it of men. It doesn’t matter if it is sincere, it doesn’t matter if it is well intended, it doesn’t matter if it makes you feel better about yourself, if it is not something dictated in scripture, then it is not of God, it is of men. And as such, it may or may not have any value in the spiritual realm. No amount of washing will make you clean spiritually. No baptism can save you, because baptism was never given to save. It was given as a symbol of being saved. Symbols cannot save, any more than the blood of bulls and goats could save.

Jesus calls the Pharisees hypocrites. Hypocrite means literally an actor on a stage. That’s the problem with such public rituals which are man made. They give an appearance of religion, of holiness, but actually they are a fake persona that is put up for the sake of men. And while men may applaud you, God sees the heart and knows that it is only an external affectation.

That leads us to the second point which I see here in the text, and that is the distinctives of true worship. Notice Jesus says in quoting from Isaiah 29, “But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.”

God is saying through Isaiah that such traditions do not constitute true worship if they are merely ceremonies and traditions made by men and not by God. Jesus said in John 4:24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The Psalmist David said God desires truth in the innermost being, in the heart. So it is not what is on the outside that counts towards God, but what is on the inside.

The heart, by the way, is one of those Christian words that some of you may not understand. The heart is the soul of man, or the seat of the will, intellect and emotions. And the way that operates is like the muscle or mechanism between the spirit and the body. Man was made spirit, soul or heart, and body. Either the spirit or the body is going to be dominant. The heart responds to the leading of either the body or the spirit. As Christians, we are to be living according to the spirit, not according to the flesh. The heart puts into action the desire of either the spirit or the desire of the flesh. So to worship God, our heart must be yielded completely to the spirit, to do the will of God.

One of the great travesties subjected upon the evangelical church today is this modern concept of worship, or praise and worship. I hate to rain on anyone’s parade, but most of what constitutes worship today in the church is not founded upon the whole truth, but is a distortion of worship. I’ve heard pastors and especially so called worship pastors, berate congregations for not “getting into it” enough in the “worship service” because some people didn’t want to raise their hands or clap their hands. If that’s not an example of external, ceremonial traditions then I don’t know what is. Now granted, there may have been older traditions just as intrenched in the church which had no basis in scripture either. But the fact remains, that you cannot achieve holiness by singing the word holy seventy times seven in a worship service. You cannot achieve righteousness by raising your hands, or closing your eyes, or having some sort of ecstatic experience. Holiness is not an outward expression, but a matter of the heart.

In vs6, Jesus says that you cannot honor Him with your lips, if you don’t honor Him first in your heart. Out of the heart comes the actions that show the condition of your heart. Now Jesus is a preacher, and as a preacher He knows the value of a good illustration. So He illustrates this point by referring to a commandment of Moses, which of course was given to Moses by God.

Vs.9-13 He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. “For Moses said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER’; and, ‘HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER, IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH’; but you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given to God),’ you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”

Now notice first of all that Jesus accuses them for setting aside the commandment of God in favor of keeping the tradition of men. I once had someone leave this church over the fact that I rebuked them for exactly that thing. I wasn’t trying to be mean, I simply tried to show this person that their attempt to keep lent was in violation of Jesus’s commands concerning fasting in Matthew 5 in His Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said to not broadcast it when you fast, and the Lord who sees the secrets of men’s hearts will reward you. But if you fast to be seen of men, then you have your reward in full. This person wanted to participate in a local church’s Lent program, where they then walked around town for three days with a cross marked on their forehead so everyone could see they were fasting. And for some reason, when I countered that with scripture, he got very incensed, and left the church in a huff. That’s an example of setting aside the commandment of God for the tradition of men.

And Jesus gives another example, one that was being implemented by the Pharisees. They conveniently set aside the commandment to honor your father and mother, by some tradition that if you said that your money was dedicated to God, then you could ignore the needs of your parents. They said it was dedicated to God, “Corban,” but the fact is it was only something that was said and not acted upon. They denied the command to honor their parents who were in need. And Jesus said that you do many such things as that. It’s interesting that Jesus obviously thinks that it is the responsibility of the child to honor their parent when they are old and have financial needs or physical needs.

And I have to say something about this commandment. Jesus said I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. We were studying Ephesians a number of years ago when we came upon Ephesians 6:1 which says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (which is the first commandment with a promise), SO THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH YOU, AND THAT YOU MAY LIVE LONG ON THE EARTH.” And I commented that as new covenant Christians, we are still to keep the moral law of God. And once again we had someone leave the church over that. They wanted to say that grace eliminated the requirement of the law. But Paul makes it clear that our children are to still honor their father and mother. And here in this passage, Jesus makes it clear as well. We are still to keep the moral law of God. The ceremonial laws of God have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ and there is therefore no longer any need to keep them. They were symbols, ceremonies, rituals for their instruction before the cross. And Hebrews 10 makes it clear that once the perfect sacrifice had come, the need for the pictures and the symbols was done away with. Hence, we do not keep the Sabbath, or sacrifice bulls and goats, or keep any number of feast days and ceremonies which the Jews were required to keep. But we still are not to murder, or bear false witness, or covet our neighbors goods, and we still are to honor our mother and father. Jesus identifies such things in vs21,22 as defilements or sins. The difference in the new covenant is that though we are still to keep the law, we are no longer under the penalty of the law. Jesus has paid the penalty, so that we might keep His commandments out of our love for Him, and not out of fear of punishment which is death.

Jesus said in Luke 6:46 “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” It’s not enough to give him worship of your lips, but also in deeds. Jesus said in John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And so John says that’s how we may know that we are Christ’s, by our keeping the commandments. 1John 2:3-5 “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him.” So true worship then is loving God, which is keeping His commandments.

Well, Jesus distinguished true worship, and then He distinguishes what is true defilement. Vs14 After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.” Now it is important to understand the context in which Jesus is making these remarks. He has been talking about ceremonial cleanness. The Jews were concerned about uncleanness, such as unclean hands, unclean foods, and unclean people. The Gentiles were considered unclean. Certain diseases could make you unclean.

But Jesus is talking about spiritual uncleanness. There were ceremonial laws given by Moses which declared certain things as unclean. But they were given as pictures, or symbols of spiritual uncleanness. And that is what Jesus is explaining. From the Jews perspective, defilement worked it’s way from the outside to the inside. Jesus is saying that the opposite is true; not what goes into a man defiles him, but what comes out of him. Defilement comes from the heart.

An example of that may be seen in Adam and Eve. Before the fall, they were naked and unashamed, because they were pure in heart. But when sin entered into their heart, suddenly they see their nakedness with impure eyes, and they were ashamed. Sin, or defilement, is a matter of the heart. Thus, the scriptures say that whatever is not of faith is a sin.

Well, the disciples, like some of us perhaps, don’t fully understand what He is saying. So they ask Him privately what it meant. Vs18 And He said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?” (Thus He declared all foods clean.)” So first, Jesus is saying what does not defile a man. Mark says that He was declaring all foods clean by this statement.

There are a few church denominations today which seek to put Christians back under the Jewish dietary laws of the Old Testament. And once again, they are resorting to the invalid principle that what goes into the body defiles the heart. But Jesus is saying that a basic understanding of the physiology of the human body illustrates that isn’t true. We have total freedom today to eat whatever we want. Now you can still sin through the sin of gluttony, but the food itself, is not a sin.

Mark as you know was tutored by Peter. And you will remember that Peter had a vision on the roof recorded in Acts 10 of a giant sheet coming down out of heaven filled with all kinds of unclean animals, and God said, “Arise Peter, kill and eat.” But Peter said, “No Lord, I have never eaten anything unholy or unclean.” And God said, ““What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” And that happened three times, that Peter might not only know that all food was permissible to eat, but also that Gentiles who were considered unclean were no longer to be treated as outside of God’s grace, but were to be given the gospel that they might be saved as well. So it is likely that Peter’s retelling of that event to Mark gave further impetus to his clarifying remarks about Jesus’s statement, that He declared all foods clean.

So if unclean hands or unclean food does not defile, then what does defile a man? Well Jesus answers that question in vs20 by saying it is an unclean heart. And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

Jesus gives us 12 things which are evil. I don’t believe the intent to define sin, but to give examples of it. In many other places writers of scripture give a different list, maybe longer or shorter, including some but not all. Paul gives a long list of 15 sins in Galatians 5:19. Solomon gives seven abominations in Proverbs 6:16. But they are examples, not a definitive list. Now I could spend an entire sermon discussing the characteristics of these 12 defilements. But I don’t think that is necessary. I think most of us understand what they are. I just don’t think most of us recognize them when they are apparent in us.

It’s noteworthy to point out that Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount sharpened the edge of every commandment. He doesn’t do as the Pharisees did, which was to find loopholes in the law, such as honoring your parents, so that you could get around the law. But instead, Jesus said if you lust after a woman in your heart, you were guilty of adultery. If you hated someone, you were guilty of murder. The problems is that our hearts are wicked. We were born in sin, David said. Jeremiah the prophet says in Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately wicked; Who can know it?” And a heart given over to rebellion produces the fruit of that rebellion which is sin. Sin defiles the heart, which gives rise to sinful actions. Sin starts in the heart and works it’s way outside. So the origin of defilement is the heart which is desperately wicked.

Well, I want to turn quickly to the last two paragraphs in this chapter, and we will look briefly at two miracles that serve as illustrations or parables of these principles. The first is that of a Gentile woman who comes to Jesus on behalf of her child who Mark says has an unclean spirit. I think that description is appropriate, because Jesus has been talking about uncleanness. The girl has an unclean spirit, and in addition she was a Gentile. Gentiles were considered unclean. Much of the washing of hands that the Pharisees did after going into the market place was because they were afraid that they might have bumped into a Gentile. They called Gentiles, dogs. It was a term of disdain. And surprisingly, Jesus uses this epithet when responding to this woman.

Jesus says in vs 27 “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Jesus’s ministry was to the Jews first. But there were some instances of Gentiles being healed. Even in the OT you see Naaman healed, and you see the harlot of Jericho saved. And this instance is another one of them. It’s important to note that the Gentiles are saved by faith just as the Jews are. There is not one means of salvation for the Jews and another for the Gentiles. But the “just shall live by faith.” “For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”

But she answered and *said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.” Jesus hearing the answer of this woman, falling at His feet, calling Him Lord, calling on Him as the One who has authority over the realm of the devil, the One who has come to set the captives free, Jesus says to her, “Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.” And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.

The point of this parable then is that the uncleanness of this woman and her child was able to be washed away by Christ. Ceremony and ritual were unable to save her. She was outside of the covenant of Israel, and her daughter doubly so as she was unclean not only through birth, but by the devil’s design. And yet the mercy of Christ was sufficient to cleanse her and make her whole and holy. Not by her righteousness, but through His righteousness applied to her.

And what a picture for us all, who are born entirely in our sins, our hearts are naturally deceitfully wicked, and doubly so we are unclean due to our repeated sins of rebellion, having all of us broken all twelve of Christ’s list of defilements. And yet the Lord is able to create in us a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within us, by transferring our sins upon Himself, and placing His righteousness upon us.

One more picture and then we are through. Vs32, “They brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they implored Him to lay His hand on him.” This person is most unusual. Of all the invalids and demon possessed and impaired people that Jesus healed, this one seems the least encumbered. He was deaf and did not speak very well. It can be assumed that this man was a Greek, which means he was a Gentile as well. He was from Decapolis, a group of 10 Greek cities. And so perhaps that uncleanness is the reason that this person was highlighted in Mark’s gospel, because though his infirmity was not the worst, his condition as a Gentile made him exceedingly hopeless to be healed by the Jewish Messiah.

But what’s even more interesting is the last person healed was done so without even being present. This person whose infirmity seems not that difficult, Jesus does more physical things in healing him than in any other person. Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva.”

Now all of that is hard for me to understand. Why would Jesus, who could heal with a word, do all these physical things with spittle and so forth? Why put HIs fingers in his ears, and touch His tongue? I cannot say for sure. But I have to think that Jesus is illustrating how our ears must be opened, and our tongue must be loosened by the Spirit of God, if we are to have a new life in Christ. It illustrates that righteousness is not a work of man, but a work of God. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saves us.

I think that there is a passage in Ezekiel which speaks to this principle. Ezekiel 11:19-20 says, ”And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.”

The point being illustrated in the healing of this man who was deaf and mute, was that when the Lord gave him a new heart, when he was made new on the inside, he became new on the outside. What he was unable to do in his old flesh, he is now able to do clearly and completely in his new spirit. That is the picture of salvation that I think we are to understand from this passage. That without a new heart all the outward cleansing and ceremonies and rituals can never get inside to the source of our sin. But with a new heart, comes a new life in the spirit by which we can please God.

Jesus Christ the Son of God came to earth in the form of a man, to die on the cross for our sins, that all who believe in Him and come to Him in repentance of their sins might be given a new heart and a reborn spirit, so that we might have new life in His name. That is the invitation that we extend to you today. Jesus has paid the price, if you are willing you can be made clean. Simply come to Him today and call on Him to remake you and transform you. To give you a new heart.

I will close with a portion of David’s prayer in Psalm 51 which is a good template for those seeking this clean heart, O Lord, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. … Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. … Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. … O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise. For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. Amen.

Today we are looking at two events which I believe are designed to be looked at as a couplet. I’m sure many of you have heard messages on both of these events; the feeding of the five thousand, and Jesus walking on the water, and in most cases I think they are presented independently of one another. But as someone observed, my job is to be a preacher, not a commentator. I am looking for Biblical principles which are presented in the text, and I’m trying to extract them and expound them. I’m not interested in giving a commentary on the text, per se. My goal is to preach the principles being taught by the text.

And so I see these two incidents in the Lord’s ministry as connected and the truths taught in them building upon one another. So I think that Mark intended them to be viewed concurrently. And I think that the Holy Spirit also intended for them to be studied together. One clue that this is so is found by the fact that at the beginning of each incident, the disciples get into a boat and travel to another side of the lake. In both accounts, Jesus orders His disciples to cross over to the other side of the sea. And I think that is significant, in that it shows a parallel of sorts that is instructive in helping us understand the spiritual principles being taught through both events.

Now as I said, there are two events; the feeding of the five thousand, and Jesus walking on water. And I would like to suggest that we could further classify those events by the title of the tutorial and the test of the gospel. That is how we learn when we go to school, is it not? The teacher teaches, and then there is a test. The purpose of the teaching is to instruct, and the purpose of the test is to gage your knowledge. And I think that is what the Lord is doing here; there is a day of teaching, and a night of testing. And testing by the way is not always so that there might be given a score. Testing in it’s Biblical format is often used to move the information from the head to the heart. From knowledge to faith. To come to trust that which you have believed. To prove that which you have learned. That is the purpose of testing.

When David was about to face Goliath and Saul wanted him to wear his armor, David said “I cannot wear this, for I have not tested it.” The idea was that he had not proven it. He had not exercised it, he had not practiced fighting in it. So it was of no real use to him. That is the purpose of our spiritual testing. God uses it to prove our faith, to strengthen our faith, and to give us confidence in our faith so that we might accomplish more as a result of our trust.

So let’s look first at the tutorial. Note the context; the disciples had just returned from being sent out in pairs throughout Galilee to prepare the way for the Lord. They had been given specific power and authority to preach, to heal and cast out demons. In vs 12 and 13 we see that they did just that. In the meantime Mark gives a side note about the death of John the Baptist which may have happened concurrently as they were afield doing the ministry of the gospel. Now in vs30 the disciples have returned, and they jubilantly report to Jesus all that they had done and taught.

Then Jesus says that they should come away with Him to a secluded place for a while, so that they might be refreshed. Mark says that they did not even have time to eat because of the crush of the multitudes. So they all got in a boat and crossed the lake in an attempt to escape the crowds. But the people saw them, perhaps figured out their course, and ran around the lake to get ahead of them so that the crowds met them on the other side. I can’t help but think that the Lord Jesus knew that would happen. And the reason that He allowed it to happen, or even orchestrated it in this way, was to make an opportunity for a greater ministry occasion. And even more of an opportunity for the disciples to learn, because they are now removed from familiar places, or their homes or friends to whom they could have relied upon to help them in the upcoming situation.

So in vs 34 it says “When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.” Listen, that is what Jesus came for. In John 9:4 Jesus is recorded as saying, ”We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.” Jesus knew His ministry in Galilee was coming to an end. So He has orchestrated a great ministry opportunity here in this secluded place, where not only is He able to spend all day teaching the multitudes, but is able to teach the disciples some important lessons as well.

And notice that is what Mark records; that Jesus taught the crowds many things. Other gospel writers include that He also performed healing. But Mark wants us to see the priority of teaching. Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” The word of Christ is the basis for faith, and faith is the means of knowing God and the things of God. Faith is the basis for acceptance with God. But faith must come by hearing the word of God. It must be grounded in the word of God. Faith not backed up with the promise of God is just wishful thinking. It has no relevance in spiritual matters. Faith must be grounded in the word. So Jesus spent the day teaching them many things, doctrine, principles of the kingdom of God. Listen, just because you sincerely believe something to be true does not make it true, unless it is the truth of God. Faith, in order to be valid, must be founded on the word of God.

And notice that Jesus seeing the multitude had compassion on them, seeing them as sheep without a shepherd. So His first priority is to feed the sheep. He feeds the sheep with spiritual food. He teaches them the word of God. That is the pastor’s job, is it not? Pastor is a title which comes from the Greek word poimen, which means shepherd. That’s the same word Jesus uses here. And a shepherd’s job is to feed his sheep, to guard his sheep, and to pasture his sheep. The primary way that is done is to teach sound doctrine, and warn the flock of false prophets and false teaching. Everything else is secondary to that. So Jesus shows by example the way a shepherd is to show compassion. To teach the word, to feed the flock with spiritual food. And by the way, it’s a very dangerous thing to be a sheep without a shepherd. There is a great deceit prevailing in Christianity today that we can be independent, outside of a local flock and outside of the authority which God has given to His shepherds. But the fact is that a sheep outside of the flock and without a shepherd is ripe pickings for the ravenous wolves of the devil. (Eph.4:11, 2Tim.3:6)

So we see the preeminence of the spiritual need over the physical as illustrated in the incident which follows. First, Jesus feeds them spiritually. Even the disciple’s physical need for rest is put secondary to the spiritual needs of the crowds. Then, when it is late in the day, the disciples say to Jesus in vs 35, “This place is desolate and it is already quite late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” There are no WaWa’s out in that part of the country. No supermarkets. So it’s going on towards evening, and the disciples are probably hungry too, so they know the crowd will be hungry and there is no where close by to get food.

But Jesus turns instead to the disciples and says in vs37, “You give them something to eat!” And they said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them something to eat?” And He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”

Now I think that the temptation here is to make the same mistake that the disciples make in this incident. I think Jesus is attempting to illustrate a spiritual principle by physical means. It’s kind of like a parable; a parable uses an earthly illustration for spiritual purposes. I have said many times before, that every miracle in the gospels is presented to teach us a spiritual principle. And so I think we have to understand this as such. The point here is not just to teach that Jesus is able to take the gift of a little boy’s lunch and make it feed 5000. (John’s gospel tells us that it was a boy’s lunch). But the principle being taught here is that Jesus Himself is the Bread of Life. He is the manna which comes down out of heaven, which if you eat of it, you will have life everlasting, even spiritual life which is from God. That is the purpose. Jesus could make bread out of stones if He wanted. The point is not feeding the hungry. The point is that the disciples come to see Jesus as the Bread of Life, and that as they offer that food to the crowd then they receive spiritual life. That is the ministry that God has called His disciples to perform. Not just to feed the hungry at Thanksgiving. Or to operate a food pantry. But to offer the bread of life to every person.

Well, this is a very familiar story to all of you and Mark told it quite well. I need not embellish it. But let me hopefully add some spiritual insight into what was happening. As I have already said, Jesus is the Bread of Life. And Jesus wants to teach the disciples to administer that spiritual food. Thus He has the disciples bring to Jesus what they had. It wasn’t much. But it was enough, when coupled by faith in Christ. For those of us that are disciples, the Lord has given us enough knowledge to share with others what we have. I heard someone say the other day that the best witness of a Christian to the lost is just to tell what Jesus has done for you. “I once was blind, but now I see.” That may be all you know, but share that. You have a responsibility in the kingdom of God to share what God has given you so far. Not to wait until one day when you think you have finally got every question answered. Just share Jesus with those you come into contact with. He will take what you have and magnify it by His power.

Notice also, the disciples say we could never afford enough food to feed all these people. The fact is, spiritually speaking, Jesus has already purchased what we could never pay for. Salvation is a gift of God, purchased through the blood of Jesus Christ the Righteous. None of us could buy salvation by money or by good works. Only Jesus is able to purchase our redemption, and God grants it to us by grace on the basis of our faith in Christ.

Then look at the illustration further. The Lord performs this miracle to strengthen their faith. When there was only five loaves and two fish, and 5000 men, (Matthew says not including women and children, maybe 10,000+) He has the disciples make them sit down in rows of fifty. I used to be in the hotel restaurant business. And I used to have nightmares from time to time of a giant banquet hall where all these people kept filing in, and I was the only waiter. It was a real nightmare. I couldn’t keep up. I would wake up like Daniel from his vision; sweating and exhausted. I think that some of that might have been going on with the disciples. But Jesus is teaching them to obey even when there is no evidence. Tell everyone to sit down so that you can serve them dinner. But they know there is no food.

Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” That is what Jesus is illustrating here, the essence of faith. Faith is comprehending the spiritual, when there is little to go on. Faith is obedience to Christ, it is believing in His word, when it doesn’t always make sense.

So they go to Jesus, who first blesses the food. He gives thanks to God. Something we all ought to do. Yes, sometimes it may be a thoughtless ritual, but it’s a good ritual. Jesus then takes the bread and the fish and begins to break it and distribute it to each disciple. Someone has said that it was customary in those days to have a basket that you carried on your back similar to the way people carry a backpack today. So it’s possible that each disciple has his own basket which he brings to Jesus, and Jesus keeps breaking these loaves and fish in His hands until the basket is filled, and the disciple goes to the rows of people and starts passing it out.

And I want to say that is a picture of effective evangelism. Yes, there is a great crowd there. But salvation is an individual thing whereby a disciple of Christ passes on that knowledge which leads to salvation to one individual after another. And notice that Jesus doesn’t set up a buffet and let everyone come up and help themselves. But the gospel is distributed piece by piece until everyone has had enough. There is a progressive nature to the gospel, where you believe and act upon the truth as you have received it, and then more is given.

Notice also Jesus instructs the disciples to take up what was left over. I almost choked on my ice cream the other night when I read a commentary which said this was done to illustrate that littering is a sin. That’s seriously what they said. Jesus was teaching not to be a litterbug. Well, to that I say humbug! No, we shouldn’t litter, but that is hardly the point. The point is that there were 12 disciples and after they fed everyone else, they had 12 baskets left over. In other words, each disciple had more than enough for his daily need, as well as some for the next day. God provides for our needs, as we are obedient to Him and put him first. Don’t take an inventory of your needs and then determine what you have left to give the Lord. But put the Lord’s work first and give liberally, and then you will find that you have more than enough for your own needs left over.

Now notice that immediately following this miracle Jesus sends the disciples away. Jesus sends them off in the boat again, this time to be tested and to prove some important lessons in the process. Jesus stays behind and deals with the crowd. Notice though that in vs45 Jesus sends them ahead of them. That means that He made it clear that He would meet them on the other side. Now that’s important, because the promises of the Lord are the foundation of our faith. The disciples should have remembered that when they were in the middle of the test. Jesus said He would meet them on the other side.

That’s where the church is today, is it not? We are in the boat, rowing for the other shore, and Jesus has promised to meet us there. The wind is contrary, the forces of this world seem to be against us, Jesus seems to be absent, and we are being tested, and our faith is being stretched day by day. I don’t know about you, but I told my wife the other day I sometimes feel like I am alone in a dark room, blindfolded, and trying to find the door. And I’m being tripped and punched, and kicked from all directions. That’s often the experience of my Christian life. Now maybe I shouldn’t confess that. I’m sure you don’t ever feel that way. God probably speaks to some of you face to face. But for me, I can tell you, I sympathize with these disciples. They were rowing for 6 hours or more on a dark night, the wind is fiercely against them so that they make practically no progress, and Jesus is no where around. They are cold, tired and probably never got a chance to eat their bucket lunch which they had to throw out because they needed the buckets to bail water.

Well, I’m getting ahead of myself. Jesus sends the disciples away on the boat ahead of Him, and He dismisses the crowd and goes up into the mountain to be alone in prayer. Now why would He dismiss the crowd? Well, John 6:15 tells us that it was because they wanted to take Jesus by force and make Him king. They wanted a king that would feed them, heal them, minister to their earthly needs. They were interested in the carnal but not the spiritual. And that is where so many are today in the church. They want a carnal Jesus. They want Jesus to heal them. They want Jesus to perform for them, to entertain them, to feed them, to prosper them. The church is interested in carnal, material, temporal things. And Jesus dismisses such people. He wants the disciples to learn the spiritual principles that He is teaching. And so He orchestrates a test, not to give them a failing grade, but to enlarge their faith, to enable their carnal eyes to see the spiritual truth and to live the spiritual life.

So the disciples start trying to be obedient, and what happens? A four or five mile journey turns into a night of frustration and fear. They are rowing against a contrary wind. I said a couple of weeks ago that I think that the devil has a certain degree of control of the wind. I would even go so far as to say that the devil has control over much of what happens in the natural realm on this earth. And I back that up with Ephesians 2:2 which says about us who have been saved but once were dead in our sins, “in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” Notice that Paul calls him the prince of the power of the air, and that the world is set on it’s course by him. Satan orchestrates the world, that natural, carnal effects of this world to entrap and ensnare people in sin and rebellion against God. And he is given a lot of authority and dominion in this world. God is the Sovereign of all the Universe, but He has given dominion of this world to Satan for a time, and the human race when it fell into sin became enslaved to this world and it’s master.

Three times, in John 12, John 14 and John 16 Jesus refers to Satan as the ruler of this world. That’s pretty clear, isn’t it? And 1John 5:19 says, “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” Well, enough said. I think the contrary wind is of the devil. But I want you to know that God is able to take what is meant towards us as evil, and use it for good. Jesus is going to use the testing that the disciples are going through for God’s purposes, and His purposes are for good. Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

And how is that accomplished? Well, while the disciples are out there in the dark, toiling against the contrary violent wind and seemingly getting nowhere, the Lord Jesus is on the mountain watching them and praying for them. Vs46 “After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray. When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land. Seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, at about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them.”

Folks, this ought to make you want to shout “Hallelujah!” When you are going through the trials of your life, when it’s dark, when you don’t seem to be making any headway, when you’re trying to be obedient to the Lord but it seems like the devil is winning, take courage, Jesus is on the mountain praying for you and watching you. Notice it is dark, they are miles out in the middle of the lake, it’s a storm out there, and yet Jesus on top of this mountain is watching them. Anyone want to deny the deity of Jesus Christ after reading that needs to go find another religion.

And I’m struck by the similarity here of another time of trial, when Jesus told Peter in Luke 22:31-32 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” That passage illustrates again that Satan does have a little authority. He has a little power for a short time. But Christ is omniscient, omnipotent, and Satan is not. Christ is All Mighty God, the Creator, but Satan is a creature. Christ is the Eternal Righteous King over all, and Satan is merely the prince of the air. And Christ is praying for us that are His, that our faith may not fail even though we are sifted like wheat, even though the winds are contrary and we are not making much headway, even though it’s dark and we feel all alone – we are never alone. Christ is with us, watching us, praying for us, interceding on our behalf. And He is going to see to it that our trials do not sink us, but that they will only serve to strengthen us, so that we might strengthen our brethren. It only makes us stronger and more effective and complete. James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

I’m not a Greek scholar, but commentators tell me that in Matt. 16:24 the word for “battered” by the waves is actually “harassed.” That’s a good illustration of how the devil attacks us. He wants to discourage us, to distract us, to defeat us by harassment, by torturous circumstances, by unceasing toil to no avail. But Christ is watching us, and praying for us, and in His own timing, He will come to help us.

Notice that when Jesus comes walking on the water He looks like He is going to pass them by. First of all they think He is a ghost. They begin screaming in fear, frightened. They let superstition and fear almost deprive them of their deliverance. The point is that we must take care not to let trials so alarm us that we do not recognize the salvation that comes through Christ. Our tendency is to panic in trials, to respond to crisis in fear, in hysteria, forgetting the promises of God to be with us, to watch over us, and to meet us on the other side. God gives us trials to strengthen us, not to defeat us. To make us more useful, not to make us unusable. To complete us, not defeat us. So don’t give in to fear in trials, but remember the promises of God to be with us, to never leave us nor forsake us. Jesus said to the fearful disciples, “Take courage, it is I, don’t be afraid.” And His message to us is “Take courage, I am here, don’t be afraid.”

And when you have Jesus with you in your trial, then you will have peace. Vs 51 “Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished.” Listen, when you have Jesus, it doesn’t mean that you won’t have any storms in your life, you won’t have any contrary circumstances in your life. It simply means that you will have Jesus with you in the storm. You will have Jesus with you in the contrary circumstances. And that is how we have peace. We have peace though the storm is raging around us, though the wind is contrary, though the darkness is fearful. We have peace because the Prince of Peace is in our boat, and He is our captain, and we are sailing where He told us to sail, and going where He told us to go. And He is Lord even of the storms.

We have an advantage that the disciples did not have. They did not have the end of the story. We do. We have the complete revelation, the complete scriptures. We know the end of the story and the story that never ends. But the disciples did not. Mark says that “they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened.” That means that they were still seeing things from a carnal perspective. They though the food was just food. They thought the miracle was cool, but it was just because they were hungry. They thought that Jesus walked on water because He was looking for a quicker way across the lake than walking around it. I don’t know, but I do know that they failed to understand the spiritual implications of much of the doctrines that Christ was teaching them. And it was because they were too focused on what they could see, as opposed to what they could not see.

And that was the problem with the multitudes that met them again on the shore. They see Him as the One who makes bread and fish, who feeds 10000 people, who heals the lame and the sick. They like the physical benefits of the gospel. They are attracted to the miracles, but they have no insight into the spiritual. They fail to understand the spiritual dimension of the bread of life, that comes down out of heaven.

John 6:33, 35-36 Jesus says, “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” … and Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. “But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.”

The question for you this morning is do you believe? Do you only believe in what you can see, what you can taste and feel and experience? Are you still carnal? Or will you believe in what you cannot see, that Jesus Christ is the bread of life which came down out of heaven, which was broken for me and for you on the cross, and if you believe in Him, and in His purchase of our redemption through His death, you will be granted His righteousness, that you might have life in His name? That is why He came, and that is what we are to proclaim. If you do not know Him, then come to Him. He will never cast you out. And if you know Him, then tell of Him, and share Him with the world, that the world may know how to be saved.