I have titled this message this morning “War of the Worlds.” That title may sound familiar to some of you who may be aware of the Orson Welles science fiction radio program of that name that ran during World War 2. It was based on a book by H.G. Wells which was written around 1897. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, it was a book about the invasion of earth by Martian alien creatures. It was one of the first of it’s kind of that sort of science fiction.

One significant quote from that book says, “Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.” I found that scenario eerily similar to the conflict going on in our world which we are told about in Ephesians 6:11, [Eph 6:11 “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual [forces] of wickedness in the heavenly [places.]”

1 Cor. 2:12 says that there is a spirit of the world that is in opposition to the Spirit who is from God. 1 John 5:19 says that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. That’s pretty amazing, isn’t it? To think that the whole world is held in captivity to the dominion of darkness. 2 Cor. 4:4 says that the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. And consequently, because of Satan’s dominion over this world, Ephesians 2:2 says that man walks 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.

There is a battle for this world between God and Satan. Now we must understand that Satan is not equivalent to God in power or authority. He was actually created by God. But we must not underestimate him. He is undoubtedly the most powerful of all the angels created by God, and the fallen angels or demons under his dominion have supernatural power. We read in the Old Testament of a single angel that killed 185,000 men in one night.

But the scripture tells us that greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world. And so our only hope in doing battle against the forces of darkness is through Jesus Christ. He has complete authority over all things in heaven and in earth. Jesus spoke of the devil as the enemy, as a thief, saying in John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have [it] abundantly.” And so as Paul said in Eph 6:11-12 we must “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual [forces] of wickedness in the heavenly places (or the spiritual realm.)” And the armor that he says we must put on to fight this battle is truth, faith, salvation, the gospel, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

But battles in the spiritual realm are rarely fought in our mountain top experience, they are most often fought in the valley of the shadow of death. The disciples have just had a tremendous mountain top experience. The three disciples, Peter, James and John, got a glimpse behind the veil so to speak of the spiritual realm. They saw Jesus transfigured with the glory of God, His face and garments shining like the sun. They saw Moses and Elijah miraculously appear and talk to Jesus. They heard the voice of God speak saying, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him.” You just can’t imagine a greater mountain top spiritual experience than that.

But now they have come down the mountain. They have come back down to the realm of the god of this world. And the 9 disciples who had been left behind are surrounded by jeering critics. There are all sorts of things happening in this incident which are really expressions of the power of evil, the captivity by which Satan has blinded and held captive the world. We see an extreme example of demonic possession in the young boy by which Satan was trying to destroy his life. We see the failure of faith and discouragement of the disciples which rendered them fruitless and powerless. We see the pain and suffering of the father as he sees the hopeless situation of his son. We see the ridicule and criticism of the scribes.

The scribes are of the religious party about which Jesus said, “John 8:44 “You are of [your] father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own [nature,] for he is a liar and the father of lies.” And so rather than these religious leaders showing compassion on this young boy who is held captive by demonic power, they see that as something to gloat over, to lampoon the disciples who are confused and discouraged by this demonic power that they are facing.

Let’s read Mark’s account of what happened. Mark 9:14, “When they (Jesus and the three disciples) came [back] to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and [some] scribes arguing with them. Immediately, when the entire crowd saw Him, they were amazed and [began] running up to greet Him. And He asked them, “What are you discussing with them?” And one of the crowd answered Him, “Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; and whenever it seizes him, it slams him [to the ground] and he foams [at the mouth,] and grinds his teeth and stiffens out. I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not [do it.]”

The disciples are under attack from the scribes, the teachers of the law, the representatives of established religion. And all around them is this crowd of people, who are taking sides in the argument and adding to the general confusion. The disciples have lost control of the situation. That’s always a strategy of the devil. Confusion, chaos, disorder, discord, anger. All of these things which undermine the authority of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And at the center of it all, the predicament that gives rise to this confused melee is the dejected father and his son who is desperately in need of deliverance.

But then there’s something like a ripple that runs through the crowd, as the people looked in amazement at Jesus who had just showed up. And there’s a great surge in the crowd as some run forward to meet him. And in verse 16, Jesus asks a simple question: “What are you arguing with them about?” And the answer that he receives is actually only an indirect answer. It suggests to us the root of the problem, but the answer comes from the lips of a man who’s in the crowd, and Mark describes him as “A man in the crowd answered”—somebody shouts out from the group—“‘Teacher, I brought you my son.’”

The nature of what Jesus is asked to deal with is actually demonic possession, as we discover in verse 17. The result of the demonic possession is such that the boy cannot speak. When the evil spirit takes him, “it throws him to the ground,” he “foams at the mouth,” he “gnashes his teeth,” and he “becomes rigid.” This is a terrible situation, one in which the demon is undoubtedly trying to destroy this boy. It’s somewhat like what we know as a form of epilepsy. But you will notice from the text that this is not described as a medical condition; it is described in terms of demonic possession. This demonic force violently throws this boy to the ground repeatedly, undoubtedly causing him to have head trauma which results in seizures. Perhaps by this time there had been permanent damage to this boy.

There are primarily two views of demonic possession that you find prevalent in the church today. One is that it is absolutely everywhere, so look out, it may be behind your closet door; or, that it absolutely doesn’t exist, therefore don’t worry about it at all, because there is no such thing. And of course, science doesn’t believe in it either. But both views of the church are wrong. And it takes discernment to navigate from a first-century description to our twenty-first-century reality. But we can know this for sure: that the reality of demonic possession to any degree is always purposefully to deceive and to destroy the image of God in a man or in a woman. It is to destroy any hope of salvation. It is never in order to enhance life, it is never in order to fulfill life, it is never in order to make life better; it is always to deceive and to destroy. And that is the condition, of this son and only child, Luke tells us, of this father. He’s his only boy—his only son, who has been in this condition for his entire childhood.

And so this man, having obviously heard of the miracles of Jesus, had sought Him out to deliver his son from demon possession. But Jesus wasn’t there when he arrived at the place he had heard about. Instead, he found 9 of Jesus’s disciples. But the disciples had been unable to cast out the demon. They had a great experience casting out demons earlier when Jesus had sent them out two by two. The demons had been subject to the name of Jesus. But for some reason, they were unable to be successful on this occasion, and it was embarrassing to say the least, not to mention it was tragic for the father who had such high hopes. And it was an opportunity for the critics, the scribes, to embarrass and condemn the apostles for their lack of ability. You know, the devil cannot really find fault with Jesus, but he can criticize His followers. He can demoralize his followers so that they add error to error, so that people don’t believe the truth of the gospel. So that people might even turn away from the faith.

So look at Jesus’s answer. Vs 19 And He answered them and said, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!” They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he [began] rolling around and foaming [at the mouth.] And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. “It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” And Jesus said to him, ” ‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.”

I want you to notice here that Jesus is not rebuking the father of the boy. He is rebuking the disciples. The lack of faith, the lack of belief is on the part of the disciples who thought that they were faced with a superior force that they could not overpower. It really comes down to them thinking that Jesus was somehow insufficient. Now in their defense, these particular disciples had not been witnesses to the transfiguration. They had not seen the glory of God manifested in Jesus on the mountain. But still, they had seen Him deliver hundreds of people from demonic possession. I can only assume that since He was not there physically with them, they lacked confidence that He could still deliver this boy through them. So Jesus in effect says to them in exasperation, “How much longer am I going to be with you? You’re going to have to learn how to carry on My ministry without Me.” That requires faith on their part, and that faith is shown to be lacking.

And so he says, “Bring the boy to me.” Verse 20: “So they brought him.” And immediately you have a collision between the dominion of darkness and the kingdom of light. What takes place in the immediate response of the forces of evil within the boy as they recognize the Spirit of God in Jesus Christ. As soon as the spirit in the boy saw Jesus—look at verse 20—“it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.”

What we see here is the compassion of Jesus towards the boy and towards the father. This is what Jesus came to do, to save the world from sin, from the curse of sin, the captivity of sin. He is the light that shines in the darkness of the world, and the world does not overpower it.

And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” The devil was trying to destroy this boy, and by extension, to destroy this father who had to witness this for the entire childhood of his son. The strategy of Satan is to destroy as many people as possible. You know, the alcoholism of a man not only destroys him, but it often destroys his family, his wife, his kids. That’s the way sin works. And that’s the way the devil works to destroy.

Vs23 And Jesus said to him, ” ‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” That sentence “All things are possible to him who believes,” has to be one of the best examples of a verse of scripture which is often used out of context. That’s the slogan of the charismatic faith healers. That’s the proof text of the prosperity gospel preachers. But make sure you keep it in the context of which Jesus said it.

Who or what is the person to believe in? Is it to believe that whatever I can think of, or desire, I can have it if I just believe it really really hard? Is that what Jesus is saying here? I think not. I think in Jesus’s response you see first of all His repetition of the statement “if You can.” This man was saying If you Jesus can deliver my son… If You have the power Jesus. If You have the authority. It’s almost as if the man is maligning who Jesus is by casting doubt upon His authority.

And so Jesus response is “All things are possible to him who believes.” The point is that this man must believe in who Jesus Christ is. Not believe in the power of positive thinking, or even the power of prayer, or even in the power of faith. But believing in who Jesus is. And if you believe in Jesus Christ as Lord, the Son of God, you shall be saved. That is saving faith, to believe in who Jesus is, the Son of the living God.

Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please [Him,] for he who comes to God must believe that He is and [that] He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” So there is saving faith, and there is working faith. This man needs to show saving faith. The disciples were guilty of failing in working faith. Or we might better say, walking faith. Because the Bible says we walk by faith and not by sight. They failed to walk by faith. Jesus wasn’t around. They couldn’t see Him and so they didn’t have faith in His ability to heal this boy. Faith is not just something by which we are saved, but it’s the means by which we live, by which we work the works of righteousness.

The father at least recognizes that his faith is something that needs improvement. He says, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” That’s the other element about faith that needs to be mentioned. And that is that faith grows, faith matures. Faith is strengthened. And faith is a gift of God. So the father gets that right by asking Jesus to improve his faith, to give him faith to believe.

Vs25 “When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.” After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and [the boy] became so much like a corpse that most [of them] said, “He is dead!” But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up.”

We shouldn’t interpret that as if Jesus wanted to have a crowd and so He waited until a crowd formed and then began to heal the boy. No, just the opposite. Jesus wanted to avoid the sensationalism as much as possible, so He wanted to avoid the crowd.

But as He commands the evil spirit to come out of him, the spirit throws the boy into one last convulsion which is so devastating that it seems that the boy must have perished. He looks like a corpse, deathly white and perhaps not even breathing. But Jesus takes him by the hand and raises him up.

This is what Jesus does. This is what Jesus does in our day and time. He takes people whose lives are decimated, who have been deceived and who are being destroyed, and he does what only He can do and what no one else can do, that is, he enters into that spiritual deadness, and he takes the person by the hand, and raises them up, and they enter into new life.

Jesus is the one who says, “I am the resurrection and the life, and he who believes in Me, even though he dies, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” He’s the only one who can deliver us from death and sin. He’s either truth or He’s a liar. He’s either the God in the flesh who has the authority to forgive sin, to give life, or he’s a liar.

Well, after the boy is healed, after all the drama is over, the disciples go back to the house with Jesus and they ask Him a question. Vs 28 When He came into [the] house, His disciples [began] questioning Him privately, “Why could we not drive it out?” And He said to them, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”

What Jesus is basically saying is, “You didn’t pray.” Or perhaps, “you didn’t pray enough.” When do you not pray? When you don’t think you need to. Or when you don’t want to. Or when you’re presumptuous. Or when you think you can do it by yourself. So, if you think you can preach by yourself, there’s no need to pray before you preach. If you think you can do everything, just go ahead and do it, and see how it goes. That’s what he’s saying: “And you tried it. You tried it without prayer; next time, be sure to pray.”

Prayer is expressing your dependence upon God. Prayer is calling upon the power of God. Prayer is saying it’s not by some power that I have, but by the power of Jesus Christ that this boy would be healed. Prayer is communication from us to God that the power might come from God through us.

You see, prayer is ultimately aligning our wills with the will of God. It is simply acknowledging that God must do these things, that we don’t possess these things in and of ourselves. It’s not that our will be done, but that His will be done. And I think these disciples were getting a little too self important, and therefore they needed a little reminder. Just a little bit further in this chapter we will see that they were discussing among themselves who was the greatest. So perhaps they needed a little public humiliation as a necessary part of their training, a reminder of where their power came from.

We need remind ourselves that the faith that is fundamental to this story is not a faith that reaches out into some vague void—a belief in belief, or a belief in something—but it is a faith that resolutely trusts in the Lord Jesus. And in a world that scoffs at our belief in Christ and is quick to criticize our failures, we’re able to turn to One who says, “Bring the boy to me. Bring the girl to me. Suffer the little children to come unto me.” You can’t educate them out of this present darkness. You won’t be able to therapy them out of this snare and trap of the world that Satan has set for them. Actually, it’s good that you know you can’t do this. Bring them to Jesus. And some of us, as parents and grandparents, might want to take that in a very personal way. And if we can’t physically bring our children and grandchildren face-to-face with Christ, we can go face-to-face with Christ in prayer and bring them into his presence and trust in His power to make that which seems impossible, possible.

Last week I said that we were entering a stage of Jesus’s ministry in which there was a transition. It was a transition from Him primarily preaching and ministering to the multitudes, to His ministry primarily being focused on the disciples. Jesus knew that it would be less than a year until He is taken away from them, and they must continue to carry out His ministry. And so He wants to prepare them for His departure.

But there is another transition in His ministry, and that is that He is slowly but inexorably heading for the cross. In this passage we see that He has gone far to the north, to Caesarea Philippi;, but from this point on He will be moving from north to south, on the way to Jerusalem to be crucified. That is His goal, His purpose, His mission. To present Himself as an offering for sin, by His death on the cross, so that He might save those that are lost.

It’s noteworthy that this event is preceded by the healing of the blind man, who was healed in two stages. You remember last week we looked at the healing of this man, who when Jesus first anointed His eyes, he said he saw men like trees walking around. Then Jesus touched his eyes again, and the man began to see clearly.

That incident illustrates what happens as Jesus ministers particularly to the disciples. They are given spiritual discernment so that they might recognize that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. And yet their spiritual vision is still not clear. They see Jesus in an unclear way, as pertaining to the interests of man, but not the mission of God. However, for three of the disciples, Peter, John, and James, they will receive even more insight when they see Jesus after this event, transfigured before them on the mount of transfiguration.

But today we’re going to look at the first stage of their spiritual discernment. Let’s read starting in verse 27, Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, “Who do people say that I am?” They told Him, saying, “John the Baptist; and others [say] Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.”

This has obviously been a source of great debate during the ministry of Jesus. We’ve seen this sort of question voiced time and again by the multitudes and by the Pharisees, and by everyone that heard Jesus teach and saw the great miracles which He was doing. Some have said, “never a man spoke like this man,” when they heard Him speak. Others, such as the Pharisees, said that He performed miracles by the power of Beelzebub. That is by the power of Satan. It seems everyone had an opinion about Him, but there seemed to be no consensus.

The disciples echo answer Him, saying some say You are John the Baptist, others Elijah, and others one of the prophets. It seemed evident to the people that John the Baptist was a prophet of God. And yet it’s odd that they would think Jesus was John the Baptist, because one, John had baptized Jesus, and two, John was now dead. But nevertheless, some such as Herod thought that John had risen from the dead and was now ministering as Jesus.

Malachi, the last Old Testament prophet, had prophesied that Elijah the prophet would arise before the coming of the Messiah. Many people failed to see that John the Baptist was that prophet, and instead thought that Jesus was actually Elijah. And the fact that Elijah never died, but was taken bodily up to heaven gave credence to the idea that he had returned.

But bottom line, the majority of the people thought that Jesus was a prophet, whether a prophet risen from the dead or not, they believed He was a no more than a prophet. Though it’s doubtful that the Pharisees even accepted that. But they knew the common people believed that.

Even today, most religions of the world believe that Jesus was a prophet of God. Islam, for instance, believes that Jesus was a prophet, and that Mohammed was a prophet. Jesus, in their view, is no greater than Mohammed. He is just a prophet. The Bahai Faith believes Jesus was a prophet, as well as Mohammed and others. Many religions accept that Jesus is a prophet. The Jews believed the greatest prophet was Moses. But Jesus is far greater than even Moses. Heb. 3:3 says, For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house.

So then Jesus asks another question to the disciples. Vs 29 And He [continued] by questioning them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.” Matthew’s account says that Peter added “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

Matthew’s account also says that Jesus responds to Peter in Mat 16:17 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. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

Now unfortunately, the Roman Catholic Church has completely misinterpreted this passage and somehow deduced that Jesus was instituting Peter as the first pope and whatever the pope said ex cathedra was as the vicar of Christ and had as much authority as the words of Christ. And I don’t have time this morning to deal with all of that, except to say that is not the meaning of this statement, and that’s not what Jesus was saying.

But let’s consider what Jesus did say. First of all, Jesus said that His identity could only be discerned spiritually. You must be given spiritual eyes to see spiritual truth. Jesus is saying that the logic and reason of man cannot discern spiritual things. If one is saved by believing in Jesus Christ, then there must be a supernatural healing that takes place, whereby the blind are given sight, so that they might see and believe.

According to human reason, His own townspeople had become incensed at Him and said, Who does He think He is? We knew Him when He grew up here, with His brothers and sisters and His mother. And they tried to throw Him off a cliff. So there must be spiritual sight given in order to believe. And Peter and the disciples had been given that sight.

The negative thing about Peter’s confession is not seen that clearly on our part, but it becomes more clear from the text following. That is that Peter and the disciples had an incomplete view of the Messiah. All the Jews had been looking for and yearning for the Messiah for hundreds of years. Isaiah and other prophets seemed to promise that when the Messiah came, He would set all things right. He would be the royal Son of David, who would resume the throne, who would vanquish Israel’s enemies, who would rule the over the world from His throne in Jerusalem. He would usher in a time of peace and prosperity such as the world had never seen.

Peter and the disciples do not understand that the Messiah must die for the sins of the world in order to be our Savior. They could not comprehend that. And so in that respect his confession is lacking because his knowledge is incomplete.

So while Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God may be limited by their incorrect theology about the Messiah, it is nevertheless marvelous, it’s spiritually discerning, it recognizes not only that Jesus is the Messiah, which is the Hebrew word that is rendered here in the Greek as Christ, but Peter also recognizes that Jesus is the Son of the Living God. He recognizes the deity of Christ, that He is God incarnate.

And that confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God is the confession of our faith, by which men are saved. Jesus said in Matthew’s account, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Now I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of sermons about Peter, which means stone, being a little rock and Jesus being the cornerstone upon which the church is built. And that is correct. But it’s also true that Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of the Living God is the bed rock that Jesus builds His church upon. Because that confession is the means by which a sinner is brought into the church. The church is not a building, but a body of believers. And to be a believer you must believe that Jesus is Lord.

Paul says in Romans 10:9-10 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

That confession is how you are saved, and being saved is how you are brought into the church of Christ. It’s not by walking an aisle and being voted in, or taking a membership class, or even being baptized. Being saved is confessing that Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, is your Lord and Savior.

It’s interesting that many years later, as Peter writes his epistle to the church, he uses that same metaphor of a stone, saying in 1Peter 2:4-5 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Now back in our text, in keeping with this transition in Jesus’s ministry to teach the disciples, Mark says in vs 31 And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”

Notice here that Jesus begins to teach them the real mission of the Messiah. They had a wrong view of the ministry of the Messiah as a King who would restore Israel to a place of prominence and prosperity. But Jesus tells them in very plain terms that He would suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. This must have gone in one ear and out the other. Because after His crucifixion, the disciples don’t seem to remember this. They weren’t looking for Jesus to rise from the dead. They were mourning after His death, wondering what it all meant and what they were to do now. But yet Mark says Jesus was stating the matter plainly.

And Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him. What does that mean? Matthew says that Peter said, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” Maybe he meant, I won’t let it happen to you. Remember Peter would be the one to take a sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest when they came to arrest Jesus before His crucifixion. But I think he is speaking that way because his theology didn’t include Jesus dying for the sins of the world. His theology was more like the prosperity gospel of today, that sees the blessings of God as primarily material and physical. The Messiah is supposed to be their political Savior who creates utopia, not the sacrificial lamb who takes away the sin of the world.

But Jesus turns around and rebukes Peter, and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” I spoke of this incident a couple of weeks ago as an example of Satan’s influence on a person. Peter is a believer. He has just made the greatest confession of His faith. And yet literally moments later Jesus is calling him Satan. Now you can say that is hyperbole if you want. You can try to explain it any way you want. But the clear meaning of scripture cannot be altered. Jesus called Peter Satan, either addressing directly Satan who is behind Peter’s remarks, or addressing Peter who is perversely influenced by the power of Satan. That doesn’t mean that Peter was demon possessed. But it does mean that even a Christian can be demonically influenced or even controlled to the degree that they give in to him.

Why does Jesus speak this way to him? Why does Jesus speak to Peter as Satan? Because, according to Jesus, he is not setting his mind on God’s interests, but on man’s interests. Satan’s mission is to glorify man. To glorify the flesh. To say that man can be like God. That he can decide between good and evil. That he can decide what is best for himself. Satan’s mission is to glorify man, to make him a god, that can control his fate, that can enjoy his creation, that can reap the fruit of his labor.

You know, these so called Satanists of our day are fools. They think that Satan wants to receive their worship, that they would glorify him. No, Satan’s strategy since the beginning is to get man to glorify himself. His first lie to Eve was to say that you can be like God, to know good and evil. His goal is to get man to worship man. To make man think he is like god. And in so doing, Satan’s strategy is to cause man to rebel against the sovereignty of God and thus condemn himself to eternal hell. Satan’s strategy isn’t to get people to worship him per se, but to get people to worship themselves. He wants to destroy mankind. And getting them to reject God is the most sure way to bring destruction upon the world.

Peter thinks he is being smart. He may even think he is being theologically erudite. But behind his theology is a focus on what he thinks is good for man, not on God’s interests. God’s interest is what is good for man, which is his salvation from his sins that he may receive new life. But Peter’s interests are on what he thinks is good for man, what he thinks God must do in order to bless man.

So Jesus must explain God’s mission more clearly to the disciples which he does starting in 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. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 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.”

Jesus has just said that He must die and be raised from the dead. And now He explains what that death means, which is death on a cross. But not only is Jesus going to the cross, He says those that wish to come after Him must also take up their cross and follow Him. These disciples were following Jesus. If they didn’t want Him to go to the cross, then it stands to reason they didn’t want to go to the cross either.

But we know that the disciples weren’t crucified with Christ on Golgotha. So what did Jesus mean by that saying? Well, I think He means that if you follow Christ, you have to set your mind on God’s interests and not mans. You must deny the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, and even die to those desires, so that you might live for God’s desires. That speaks of true repentance, ladies and gentlemen. To die to sinful lifestyles, to die to envy, greed, and pride, so that you might live for God’s interests, you might live for righteousness.

Paul speaks of this necessity of death in Col.3:2-5 “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

Jesus explains it further saying in Mark, For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. I think He means there that the man who wishes to preserve his sinful way of life, who wishes to succeed in life irregardless of God’s interests, but focusing on his own worldly, materialistic success, will in fact lose that which he is trying to save.

I was talking to a woman the other day who had lost her brother to an untimely death due to illness. And she was explaining how her brother who was a military veteran was a prepper. A prepper is someone who is preparing for the apocalypse. He is preparing for a melt down of society and law and order, and all the social chaos that would come as a result of it. This man had saved a small fortune in gold and silver bars. He had purchased many guns and lots and lots of ammunition. He had all kinds of generators and battery chargers and supplies. He had even bought these giant metal shipping containers and built an underground compound that he could live in until it was safe to come out. And then he got cancer and died at a relatively early age. He had made every preparation in order to survive, in order to live regardless of what happened. But I can’t help but wonder if he was prepared to die. I can’t help but wonder if he prepared to meet God.

Jesus said to His disciples, For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? The media seems to make so much out of billionaires and the movie stars and whoever has the most money. And yet what reward is it really to die a billionaire and not be right with God? You can’t take your money with you. A billion dollars on earth doesn’t have any value in heaven. Hebrews 9 says, it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.

Jesus spoke of that judgment in the parallel account in Mat 16:27 “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS. There is going to be a judgment for every man, when every thought and every deed will be examined in light of what you believed about Jesus Christ.

Jesus went on to say in Mark’s account, vs38 “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 are you trusting in today? Are you trusting in the value of your 401K, your IRA? Are you trusting in your ability to be financially independent? Or have you trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, who has forgiven your sins and given you eternal life? I urge you to repent and confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior, that you might obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.

I want to emphasize something about Mark’s gospel as we continue in our verse by verse study of it this morning. And that is that Mark is not writing a biography of Jesus, he is not writing a history of Jesus Christ nor His ministry. But Mark is writing the gospel. The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ. The good news is God’s plan of salvation for His people, brought about and manifested through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Now I emphasize that point because understanding that helps us to discern why some things are stated in the gospels and some things may have been left out. So that we might understand that some things that might seem merely biographical on the surface may be intended to be used to teach certain principles of the gospel. We have to be careful not to over-spiritualize every thing that happened, and yet we do need to recognize some things that have spiritual significance and not just read it in a superficial way.

And Jesus Himself emphasizes the necessity of that, of having eyes that see spiritually, and not just see the physical implications of an event. In fact, He rebukes the disciples for their lack of spiritual insight in vs17 saying, “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?”

Now that’s pertinent especially because of the fact that Jesus has reached a transition point in His ministry. From this point on, He is not so much focused on preaching the gospel to the multitudes as He is focused on teaching the disciples. He will be crucified within a year’s time, and He must prepare the disciples to carry on His work once He is gone from them. And so we will consider this passage in light of this transition in HIs ministry, and that Jesus is using these events to teach the disciples especially. To prepare them for ministry when He is taken away from them.

So then, the chapter opens with yet another feeding of the multitudes. You will remember we looked a few weeks ago at the feeding of the 5000 in chapter 6. This is a few weeks or so later, we’re not sure exactly. It’s in another location, which may have been in the Decapolis region, a largely Gentile region.

Look at vs 1, “In those days, when there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples and said to them, I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come from a great distance.”

Though Jesus is now focusing on teaching the disciples, that doesn’t mean that He has abandoned the multitudes. Mark says He has compassion on them. But perhaps Jesus also wants to pass on that compassion to His disciples. He wants to teach them what it means to have compassion. And so He does that by example. That really is the best method of teaching a lot of the time, isn’t it? Not just to preach doctrine, but to show by your actions the life changing doctrines of our faith. For out of a changed heart come a change in actions and behavior.

Jesus had taught that principle previously as recorded in Luke 6: 44-45 “For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil [man] out of the evil [treasure] brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”

So how better to teach compassion than to once again feed the hungry multitudes who have no possibility of feeding themselves. And even more to the point, to engage the disciples in that process.

But the disciples are slow to learn. Vs. 4 And His disciples answered Him, “Where will anyone be able [to find enough] bread here in [this] desolate place to satisfy these people?” They have already forgotten what happened a few weeks earlier when they were in another desolate place, and there were 5000 people there who had not eaten. But let’s not criticize too severely the disciples when we are often guilty of the same thing. Isn’t it amazing how quickly we forget the provision and blessing of God in the past when faced with a new trial in our lives? We are so caught up in the moment of crisis that we forget how often God has delivered us or provided for us in previous trials.

But let’s continue the story in vs 5 And He was asking them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven.” And He directed the people to sit down on the ground; and taking the seven loaves, He gave thanks and broke them, and started giving them to His disciples to serve to them, and they served them to the people. 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.”

Now when Jesus fed the 5000 there were 5 loaves and two fish. In this feeding of the 4000 there are seven bread cakes, which were like flat bread, and some fish. I don’t think there is anything significant about the amount of food available. But what is significant is that Jesus asks the disciples how much bread that they had. Again, the emphasis of Christ’s teaching is to instill compassion for the multitudes in the hearts of the disciples, and to consider what they had as the means of supplying the need of the multitude.

Spiritually speaking, this miracle illustrates that Jesus is the bread of life that comes down out of heaven, which God gives to men who are desperate for the spiritual food which gives life. And the disciples take the bread of life from Christ and serve it to the multitudes, and God is able to make it sufficient for everyone that will receive it.

So the disciples serve the people and after everyone has eaten, they pick up 7 bushel baskets full of the leftovers. There is more than enough for the multitudes and for themselves. These baskets are quite a bit larger than the 12 baskets they picked up after feeding the 5000. In the previous case, the baskets were more like the size of a personal lunch basket. There were 12 disciples and 12 baskets left over for them to be able to eat. In this feeding, Mark uses a word that is also later used to describe the basket that the apostle Paul was let down from the wall in. That’s a pretty big basket, to be big enough to hold a man. It reminds us of the promise that in regards to ministry, that God will provide all your needs according to His riches in glory. Perhaps it also speaks to the abundant, super sufficiency of the gospel.

It illustrates the principle Jesus gave in the Sermon on the Mount, “Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure–pressed down, shaken together, [and] running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”

Immediately after this event, they get back in the boat and leave this region to go to the region of Dalmanutha. And it is after leaving the predominately Gentile region, and going back to an area more populated by the Jews, that they run into the Pharisees again. Vs11 “The Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, to test Him. 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’ve said before that the Pharisees were like the game, “whack a mole”. They were always popping out from behind a tree or something, hoping to catch Jesus or His disciples in some error. In this case, they come asking for a sign from heaven. Jesus has been doing hundreds if not thousands of miraculous works. But they want something more. They want to tempt Jesus to do something prideful or self validating. And if He should do what they ask, then they would use that against Him as well. Because they have already decided not to believe in Him. I think they recognized that there was already more than enough evidence to prove that He was the Messiah. But they have rejected Him because they do not want this man to rule over them. They have attributed His miraculous powers to Satan. And so in a similar fashion as Satan did in the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, they want to tempt Him to sin in some way in order to publicly discredit Him. For instance, to sin like when Moses struck the rock in anger so that water came out. They hope to discredit Jesus in a similar way.

Matthew adds in his account in chapter 16 vs 4, that Jesus said “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away.” That miraculous sign that Jesus speaks of was likened to the sign of Jonah, where Jesus was three days in the belly of the earth and would rise again from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus was the sign from God that Jesus was indeed the Holy One of God and that God had considered Him righteous and His atonement had been considered sufficient for the sins of the world.

But when Jesus says this generation will not be given a sign, He is speaking of the Jewish people living in His day. Particularly, He is speaking of the Pharisees and other religious leaders that have rejected the truth of the gospel. When Jesus appeared after His resurrection, He doesn’t appear to the Pharisees, or temple priests. He only appears to those who had believed in Him, His disciples.

But isn’t it also true that our evil generation seeks for a sign? Isn’t it true that people today say that if God is real, then why doesn’t He show Himself? Why doesn’t God prove Himself to me? But one day God will reveal Himself in all His glory, with flaming angels of fire, and yet that display of His glory will not be for their salvation, but for their damnation. God has established that it is by faith and not by sight, that we are saved.

Let’s look next at vs 13 “Leaving them (that is the Pharisees), He (Jesus) again embarked and went away to the other side. And they had forgotten to take bread, and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them. And He was giving orders to them, saying, “Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” They [began] to discuss with one another [the fact] that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you discuss [the fact] that you have no bread? Do you not yet 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?”

Once again, we see the emphasis here is on Jesus teaching the disciples, and He uses the incident with the Pharisees. Jesus is trying to teach spiritual discernment to the disciples. Discernment is not something that is easy to teach. Yet it’s something vital for a spiritual teacher or leader to have.

But when Jesus is warning them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, the disciples think that He is upset because they forgot to bring enough bread for lunch. I”m not sure how they made that correlation, except it seems that they are always thinking about their stomachs. I suppose we are guilty of the same thing a lot of times. The Lord may be teaching us a spiritual principle in the Word, and we interpret it as a physical thing. I was trying to explain to someone the other day about that principle in regards to what we consider blessings. We tend to see blessings only in the realm of the physical. In fact, we most often consider God’s blessings as being financial. But actually, God’s blessings are much more than simply financial. In fact, you might argue that financial “blessings” are more often than not really a curse.

So Jesus was warning them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Herodians. The Herodians were the party of Herod who were conniving with the Pharisees how to discredit Jesus and ultimately how to kill Him. Leaven in scripture is always a picture of sin. That’s why they ate unleavened bread at Passover. So in this case, Jesus means that the teaching of the Pharisees and Herodians is evil, in that it has the corrupting influence of sin in what appears to be spiritual food. The gospel is spiritual food, the bread of heaven, given to the multitude. But the spiritual food that the Pharisees fed the people was in fact corrupted by sin. It was corrupted by unbelief and hatred and the desire to murder of the Son of God.

And it would seem that Jesus is a little exasperated that the disciples cannot see that, but instead interpret His warning as saying something about not having enough bread for their lunch. So Jesus reminds them that He had supplied enough bread to feed 5000 people and 4000 people and still have plenty left over. Don’t they understand that He could easily feed 12 disciples from one loaf of bread? Don’t be focused on physical things when you need to be focused on spiritual things. If you comprehend the spiritual, then God will take care of the physical.

There’s one final illustration of this principle of the necessity of spiritual discernment. And that’s found in the healing of the blind man. Vs 22 “And they came to Bethsaida. (This is the same place where Jesus fed the 5000) And they brought a blind man to Jesus and implored Him to touch him. Taking the blind man by the hand, He brought him out of the village; and after spitting on his eyes and laying His hands on him, He asked him, “Do you see anything?” And he looked up and said, “I see men, for I see [them] like trees, walking around.” Then again He laid His hands on his eyes; and he looked intently and was restored, and [began] to see everything clearly. And He sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”

Taken at face value, this is one of the most confusing and difficult to understand miracles that Jesus performs. Jesus who has by now healed probably hundreds of blind persons, who has healed countless others from every sort of disease, who has even raised dead people to life, heals this blind man in two stages. And no one seems to know why. Some commentators just say that God has His purposes and we are not privy to them. And that may be true to some extent.

But when you consider the context of this whole passage, we might get some insight into why Jesus heals this way. One thing is for sure, it’s not because this man doesn’t have enough faith to be healed, as the charismatic faith healers like to say. It’s not because Jesus doesn’t have enough power to heal in one sitting this particular brand of blindness in this man. As I just said, Jesus has healed thousands of people, even dead people. You can’t find less faith than in a dead person, nor a more difficult illness than death. So you can disregard those possible reasons.

I think we must use a bit of spiritual discernment ourselves in considering all that Mark has related that happened so far in this chapter, which gives us the only possible reason that Jesus heals this way. And that is to illustrate that spiritual discernment, or spiritual maturity comes by sanctification, which is progressive in nature. See, salvation comes to us in three stages. The first stage is justification, whereby by faith we are judged in Christ, where He takes our sin upon Himself and we receive His righteousness. At this point we are born again, made alive in Christ Jesus by faith in who He is and what He has done. We are given a new heart.

Then the second stage of our salvation begins at that moment. And that is the process of sanctification. Sanctification is the process of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. It is the process of living out the righteousness that has been imputed to us. It is learning to be obedient. It is learning about the Lord. It is contemplating on His word and applying it to your life. It is the fruit of righteousness produced in our life from having been given a new heart. As Jesus said, “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good.”

I read recently about a man who was saved out of a pagan culture. And as he grew in his faith he decided he wanted to memorize the Sermon on the Mount. He said, “I had a really difficult time memorizing the Sermon on the Mount until I committed to live out those principles in my daily practice.” Sanctification is living out our salvation, bearing the fruit of righteousness in our life.

The third phase of our salvation is glorification. When we shall see the Lord face to face, and we will be made like Him, given a new body in the new heaven and the new earth. But the second stage is the one we live in now. It’s a stage of spiritual progression. And that stage is the one in which you grow in spiritual discernment and maturity. And I think that’s what Jesus was illustrating by His two stage healing of the blind man.

Remember, He has given two illustrations of feeding the multitudes from His hands to the disciples hands to the hands of the multitudes. Then He rebuked the Pharisees for not seeing Him for who He was despite having seen the miracles and signs that He had done. Then He rebuked the disciples for not having eyes to see, for being spiritually dull and only thinking of the physical, when they should have been focused on the spiritual. And now He heals the blind man in the first stage, so that he sees, but not clearly. And then laying His hands on Him again, the man begins to see clearly.

I think there is a correlation indicated there in the progressive nature of our sanctification. Whereby as we follow Christ, as we do as He instructs us, as we follow in His footsteps, as we listen to His word, our eyes are made more clear, so that we understand more distinctly the truth of the gospel, so that we might be more closely conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

That is the goal of our salvation. We will not be made perfect here in this life, but as Paul said in Phil. 3:12-14 “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Paul’s speaking of the process of sanctification, of becoming more like Christ, and then he goes on to speak of our glorification. 17 “Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, [that they are] the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end [is] destruction, whose god [is their] belly, and [whose] glory [is] in their shame–who set their mind on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”

Let us strive to follow in Christ’s footsteps, that we “may be found in Him not having a righteousness of my own derived from [the] Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which [comes] from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Phil. 3:9)

Last Sunday we looked at the passage in Mark where Jesus rebuked the Pharisees because of their hypocrisy.  These religious leaders cleaned the outside of the cup, so to speak, but the inside was full of corruption.  They publicly made a great show of  following the traditions of men, which presumably had their basis in religious law, but inwardly they broke the commandments of God.  And so Jesus taught the disciples that it was necessary to have a clean heart, for out of the heart proceeds all evil.

Now a clean heart or a new heart speaks of a spiritual transformation.  A leper cannot change it’s spots.  Neither can man change his heart.  We sometimes speak of “having a change of heart.”  We mean by that a change of mind, or a change of attitude.  And it’s possible to do that.  My wife says it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind. I’m just supposed to accept it and go along with it, I suppose.

But spiritually speaking, to have a change of heart is much more than simply deciding to do wear the blue shirt rather than the red shirt.  The Bible uses the word “heart” to denote the will and emotions and intellect of a man.  In Biblical terms, you can even use the word soul as a synonym for heart.  So when the Bible speaks of the heart, it speaks of the innate desires of man, the intrinsic nature of a man.

Jeremiah 17:9 says that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it? In that saying, we see that man in his fallen state is sinful, and he is sinful because his heart is sinful, inclined to sin.  And he cannot know it, which means comprehend it, or control it.  This condition is the result of the fall. When Adam and Eve sinned, they caused their sin nature to be passed on to their children, and to all succeeding generations.  So man is born with a sin nature, a sinful heart, which produces a sinful life.  So immediately following the fall, it says in Genesis 6:5 “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every intent of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually.”

The heart is the source of all evil.  As Jesus said in the previous section, vs 20 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.”

The great problem of the world is not pollution. It’s not poverty.  It’s not a lack of education or a lack of health care.  The great problem of the world is that the world is held in the bondage of sin. Sin is the snare and condemnation that is brought upon the world through the enemy of God and man, who is Satan.  And the only way to be freed from that captivity of sin is through Jesus Christ.  

Now Mark is going to use two events in the ministry of Jesus to illustrate this principle of salvation, which is that a change of heart must come through faith in Jesus Christ. There must be a spiritual transformation, and only Jesus has the power to change hearts.  That is illustrated here in two episodes following this teaching about the heart.

The first episode is described for us starting in vs 24 “Jesus got up and went away from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know [of it;] yet He could not escape notice.  But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet.  Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.”

Now remember Jesus has just finished teaching about the heart being unclean and now Mark records Jesus as going into the Gentile region, a region that the Jews considered unclean. Traditionally, they avoided Gentile regions, and avoided as much contact as possible with Gentile people.  But Jesus deliberately travels to Tyre and Sidon, a Gentile region and enters a house there, presumably to stay with the occupants.  Who they are we are not told, but we might suppose that they were Gentiles, though they might have been Jews living in a Gentile region.

But irregardless of who He was staying with, word gets out that He is there, and a Syrophoenician woman comes to see Him. Now she is undoubtedly a Gentile.  And for the most part, Jews did not converse or have fellowship with Gentiles.  She knows this.  But she is desperate for help.  And she knows that only Jesus can help her.

Matthew’s account in Matthew 15 tells us more about this woman’s faith than we see here in Mark.  Matthew says that she says to Jesus, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.”  Notice she calls Him Lord, Son of David.  It’s evident from that appeal that she believes that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.  She has a right understanding of Biblical prophecy, better than the Pharisees by the way. And as this event unfolds she continues to call Him Lord. 

The scriptures had been given to the Jews.  And the covenants were given to the Jews. Jesus would say in Matthews account in chapter 15: 24 “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  Jesus would say to the Samaritan woman, “salvation is of the Jews.”  So the gospel is first given to the Jews, even as the old covenant was given to the Jews.  But that did not mean that the other nationalities could not obtain salvation.  There was such a thing as becoming a proselyte, which was to convert to the Jewish faith and practice.  And the scriptures show many examples of Gentiles converting, such as with Rehab the harlot, with Naaman the Syrian, with Ruth the Moabite.  So there was a way for a Gentile to become saved.  But it was through the Jews.  And Jesus had limited His ministry to the Jews.  But we have already seen other examples of His ministry reaching beyond that border, such as with the Samaritan woman and the Roman centurion whose servant was healed. But Jesus’s primary ministry at this time is to the Jews.

But this woman has come to Jesus believing in who He was, as prophesied in scripture, and she is seeking His help in the deliverance of her daughter from demonic possession.  We have been talking about demonic influences or demonic control or demonic possession for a couple of weeks now in our Bible studies.  And I think it is a matter of concern for our times as well. As we become more and more a pagan society, as we reject good and embrace evil, we open up our hearts to demonic control.  And I believe we are seeing more and more evidence of demonic control, and even demon possession occurring in our society today. In fact, demon worship and Satanic practices are not only becoming more common, but are more acceptable today and even trendy.  I heard a popular female movie star the other day refer to herself as a witch.  And she seemed proud of that title. 

Scripture tells us in the last days men will worship demons and sorcery will become more and more commonplace. Rev. 9:20-21 “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk;  and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.” It’s interesting to note that the word sorceries comes from the Greek word “pharmakia” which is where we get the word pharmacy from. The scripture shows that sorcery and drugs are closely connected. No wonder our society is manifesting more and more demonic influence.

I’m afraid that we tend to try to explain away a lot of what is really demonic control over a person’s life by trying to attribute it to other factors, such as an emotional or psychiatric disorder, or a drug or alcohol problem.  And I will agree that sometimes unnatural behavior is a psychiatric or emotional disorder and we it’s not always easy to be able to discern the difference.  But I also believe that a lot of behavior is demonic in origin and we don’t recognize it as such.

I don’t know what the specific characteristics of demonic possession was with this girl.  But we know that she was a young girl. Mark says she had an unclean spirit.  Matthew says she was cruelly demon possessed.  I would suspect from other accounts of demon possessed people that one manifestation of being demon possessed was that she was hurting herself. Another mother came to Jesus on another occasion about her demon possessed son who threw himself in the fire and tried to harm himself.  And we recently studied the story of the demoniac in the tombs who cut himself and constantly was screaming.  So in the case of this young girl there was probably some very evident manifestation of demonic possession which her mother knew was of the devil.

But I will tell you that there are varying degrees of demonic control, and not all of them show signs that we might attribute to that.  For instance, there is an event that happens not long after this, where Jesus tells Peter, “Get behind Me Satan.”  Peter showed no outward signs of demonic influence. He was a disciple. He had just made a great statement about Jesus Christ being the Son of God. And yet Jesus sees enough of the devil in him at that moment to call him Satan.  And I don’t think Jesus was joking when he said that.  I don’t think he was exaggerating either.  So we must believe that Jesus meant what He said. 

So not all demonic control manifests itself in someone by having a demonic look about them.  They don’t always have horns on their head or fangs or some evil look about them. And yet we need to be discerning.  In Peter’s case, the evidence was simply according to Jesus, “you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”  God sees the heart, and He knows our thoughts.  And He could see that Peter’s thoughts were influenced by Satan.

But while Jesus can read the heart, I don’t think we have the ability to read minds.  My wife thinks she can read my mind.  And maybe she is the exception and can actually do that. But most of us mere mortals can’t read minds. But nevertheless I think we can be more discerning sometimes when it comes to demonic behavior.  I had an experience recently where someone I encountered I believe was being demonically controlled.  And one of the primary reasons I believe that was that their mouth was spewing the most vile curse words and profanity that you have ever heard. I’ve had a few encounters like that over the years in ministry and I believe that when you have that kind of the vilest profanity being used, being screamed at you in a unreasoning manner, you can be sure that the person at that time is being controlled by a demon.  They may not even be aware of it, such as Peter wasn’t aware of it Im sure, but nevertheless, it’s a manifestation of evil that has it’s source in demons. It may not be a permanent condition, but it may come on for a while and then it’s influence may seem to wane. In the case of this young girl, it seems to have metastasized to a permanent condition.

Well, Jesus responds in a way to the request of the woman that may seem atypical. Vs27 But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw [it] to the little dogs.”  There are a couple of things that seem inappropriate with Jesus’s answer. For one, it would seem that Jesus was calling this woman a dog.  A dog was a euphemism that the Jews used to refer to Gentiles. It showed the disdain that they had towards Gentiles.

But Jesus actually uses a different phrase to describe the position of the woman. He says “little dogs” or some translations have it, “house dogs.”  The derogative word dogs that the Jews used indicated that Gentiles were like mangy dogs that ran the streets, practically wild and ravenous. But the dogs that Jesus speaks of is a house pet. Being called a house pet is not quite as bad as being called a mangy wild dog.  But we might suppose that Jesus is not making a derogatory statement to this woman about being of an inferior race, but rather to  show her relationship and position in the kingdom of God.

An even better understanding of His intent is shown in His mention of “first,” ie, “let the children be filled first…” A first obviously precedes and acknowledges that there will be a “second.” So Jesus is indicating that there will be a time or opportunity for the Gentiles, which will come after the gospel is preached to the Jews.

But this woman, percieving that Jesus has opened the door slightly, is bold enough to try to push it open even wider.  Vs 28 And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.”  She recognized that her position was that of the house dogs, but also knew that even they receive some of the scraps from the table. She had faith that God could still help her and deliver her daughter, though the Gentiles were not the primary object of Christ’s ministry.

And Matthew says in  15:28 Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great [is] your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.  Mark’s account has in vs 29 Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”  And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.”  Even by her leaving Jesus to go back to her house was an act of faith, as she had no evidence that Jesus had delivered her from the demon until she arrived and saw her daughter. But she believed in Him and in His word.

But let’s make sure we understand Jesus’s commendation of her faith. It was faith in Jesus Christ, in who He is.  Not faith in herself, or faith in the power of faith.  She believed in who Jesus was, and in HIs word.  And Jesus rewarded her faith in Him by delivering her little daughter from demonic possession.

The second event that illustrates the power of Christ to change our hearts, is found in the next episode that Mark selects for us.  Vs 31 “Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.”  Now the geography described here is a little confusing for me, but Decapolis was ten cities that were primarily inhabited by the Greeks.  So again there is this idea of Jesus visiting these unclean regions, or unclean people.  The principle being taught of course is that only Jesus can make the unclean, clean. 

Vs 32 “Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him.  And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”  Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.’”

In every case of Jesus healing or delivering someone, He seems to use a different method.  We just read about Jesus delivering the demon possessed daughter and yet He didn’t touch her or even visit her personally.  He delivered her from a distance. But in this case, Jesus not only touches this man, but he puts His fingers in the man’s ears, and spat on his finger and touched the man’s tongue.  In chapter 8, in another healing of a blind man,  Jesus will spit on a man’s eyes, in the process of healing him. 

Now trying to understand why Jesus did some things some times, and other things other times, and sometimes did nothing at all, is beyond our pay grade.  Except to show us that there is no secret formula for healing.  And I don’t think that there is some medicinal value in spittle. I don’t think that there was some special holiness in Christ’s spit which had healing properties. I really don’t know why He did it that way though, when He could easily heal someone without doing anything at all, as we have clearly seen. 

But what is evident is that as He puts His fingers in his ears, and touches his spittle to his tongue, He shows that He is changing those specific impediments by the power which comes from Him. The elements of Jesus’s body enters this mute and deaf man’s body which then changes him.  Isn’t that what is represented by taking the Lord’s supper?  When we eat of the elements which represent Christ’s body, we symbolically show the means by which we are saved through His sacrifice on the cross.  We receive the Spirit of God who gives us life, who changes our heart, so that we might have life more abundantly.

The fact that Mark says that Jesus sighed as He looked up to heaven, indicates that Jesus took the man’s condition upon Himself.  He sympathized with this man’s condition. I am reminded of Isaiah 53 which says, “Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He [was] wounded for our transgressions, [He was] bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace [was] upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. …  Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put [Him] to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see [His] seed, He shall prolong [His] days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.  He shall see the labor of His soul, [and] be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.”

Jesus came to save sinners.  That was His purpose.  To offer Himself as our substitute, to offer Himself as a sacrifice to atone for our sins, that we might be given life.  Jesus did not come to earth just to heal as many people as possible and miraculously feed tens of thousands of people.  But He came to fulfill the prophecy of One who would crush Satan’s head, who would set the captives free, and who would rule over the kingdom of God.

And so Mark tells us in vs 36 “Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed [it].  And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.’”

Jesus told them not to tell anyone because He did not want to be overwhelmed by people wanting to be healed, to the point that He was not able to preach the gospel. But nevertheless, His healings did provide evidence that He was the Son of God.  If they would have believed that, then they could have been saved.   But though HIs healing astonished them, most of them stopped short of believing unto salvation.

Believing in Jesus as Lord is believing first and foremost in who He is, the Son of God, in what He has done, which is to provide atonement for our sins through His death on the cross, and believing in what He has promised, which is eternal life.  When Jesus was preaching in a house and they opened up the ceiling to drop a paralytic man in front of Him, Jesus said to him, “Son your sins are forgiven you.” And the Pharisees became indignant because they said no one has the power to forgive sins but God alone.  So Jesus said, “But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”–then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”

That’s the reason Jesus healed and casts out demons, so that men might know that He has the power and authority to forgive sins, to create in them a clean heart and renew a right spirit within them,  and give them everlasting life.  I hope that you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, that you might be given  a new heart and a new life through Him.

How to walk on water, Mark 6: 45-52

As it is our practice to preach through the Bible verse by verse, I rarely have much opportunity to preach messages that are of a more instructional or motivational nature. Many pastors tend to preach nothing but motivational type of messages, like “How to have your best life now.” Or “You are very powerful.” Or “How to find success in life.” Those are actual messages from pastors that purvey the prosperity gospel, which is very popular.

And Lord knows, I would like to be popular. So as I prepared for todays sermon, I couldn’t help myself. I thought of a great title for a motivational message, and I figured if I contort the scriptures enough, I think I can find four points and a poem to support it. The title I have chosen for todays message is, “How to walk on water.” After all, Jesus did it. Even Peter did it for a few seconds. And so, I figured that we should be able to find four steps to be successful at walking on water. That would be a pretty impressive thing to do, wouldn’t it? Maybe we could use that to cause people to become believers.

I have the same email I have used for at least 25 years. It’s with AOL. That tells you how old my email is. It’s from the old dial up days, when you would hear, “you’ve got mail!” They made a movie about it. My email address is roywow@aol.com. it stands for Roy walks on water. There were two reasons I picked that. One was that I surfed, and I wanted to make a reference to surfing, ie, walks on water. Secondly, it was a veiled reference to the Apostle Peter, who almost drowned while attempting to walk on water. I meant it as a reference to me walking by faith. So now everyone should be able to remember my email. I can’t wait to see what kind of mail I get after this revelation.

You know, once I was talking to some surfer about the last days, who said that there will be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days that will enable us that are Christians to do miraculous things, and he seemed to think that included walking on water. He was especially excited about that. That seemed like a big deal to him. And so, I suppose it might be something of interest to many Christians. Perhaps that’s what the world needs in order to believe, to see Christians walking on water.

So today I want to examine this text and see if we can find some steps to make this dream of walking on water a reality for all of us. Now I hope you realize that I am being sarcastic this morning. But there is an element of truth in what I am saying. However, I don’t intend on contorting the scriptures in order to prove my title. What I will say at the outset though, is that I intend to use walking on water as a metaphor for walking by faith, or walking in the Spirit. And I think I can find support for that by referring to Jesus’s statement to Peter when he attempted to walk on water. Jesus said to Peter, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Jesus attributes the ability to walk on water to a walk of faith.

So to walk on water is to walk by faith, or walk in the Spirit. It is the means by which we can by the grace of God walk through the storms of life, walk through difficulties which the devil may raise against us, and accomplish God’s will through the power of the Holy Spirit. So that is what I think we can learn from this story, how we are to walk in the power of the Spirt, how we are to walk by faith.

We find this instruction to walk by the Spirit, or walk by faith, again and again in scripture. For instance, Romans 8:4 says, “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” And in Gal 5:16, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” Galatians 5: 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. And 2Cor. 5:7 “for we walk by faith, not by sight—“ The question is, how do we do that in practical ways? Is it just having a certain mindset, or having a spiritual attitude, or hearing some still small voice in your head? How do we walk in the Spirit, or walk by faith? Well I believe this passage will give us some steps that we can follow so that we may have that experience.

You all are familiar with the story, I’m sure. Jesus sends the disciples away after the feeding of the 5000 or 15000, if you include women and children. And He sends them away on a boat to the other side of the Lake, which is about a 5 mile trip. In the meantime, Jesus disperses the crowd and goes away by Himself to the mountain to pray.

We find that in vs 45 “Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of [Him] to the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself was sending the crowd away. After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray.”

The first step to walking on water is found in the disciple’s obedience. People love to harp on the disciples shortcomings. I can’t ever remember hearing a message about Peter walking on water without hearing a lot of disparaging remarks about Peter and also the other disciples. They make fun of Peter because got scared and fell in the water. And then they poke fun at the rest of the disciples because they were too afraid to get out of the boat. And so all kinds of messages have been written that basically disparage the disciples.

But I don’t intend to do that. I want to commend the fact that when Jesus told them to do something, they did it. Earlier that day they had rowed their boat across the Sea of Galilee before the feeding of the 5000. They had listened to Jesus preach all day. Then they had served up to 15000 people dinner. And then Jesus made them go pick up all the leftovers. Now it’s evening, and I’m sure they would have liked to find a nice spot to curl up and go to sleep, and instead Jesus says get back in the boat and row back over to the other side of the Sea.

But they don’t complain. They don’t mutiny. They don’t question His command. They don’t ask why. They don’t say, “OK, we will. Just not right now.” That’s what we often say to the Lord’s commands, don’t we? “Yes Lord, but I’m busy right now.. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow.” No, step number one to walking on water is being obedient to the Lord’s commands. Jesus said in John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” I”m not going to take the time to list all the commandments that we are given in the New Testament. But I urge you to give heed to them as you study the scriptures. To walk in the Spirit is to be obedient to the Spirit. There isn’t always some emotional, ecstatic experience that marks walking in the Spirit. It’s sometimes difficult. It’s sometimes not that exciting. It sometimes feels like duty, rather than the pursuit of your personal liberty and something that you enjoy.

The disciples weren’t overjoyed, I’m sure, at the prospect of rowing their boat again. I don’t think they were singing the popular KLOVE song, “Row row row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream.” I”m sorry to have to break this to you, but doing the will of God is not always a merry, dreamlike experience. Sometimes being obedient, doing what is right, it not always exciting or even fun. But to walk by faith you must first be walking in obedience.

The second step to successfully walking on water is found in what Jesus does. He goes to the mountain by Himself to pray. Of all the people that probably didn’t need to spend a lot of time in prayer, you would think it would be Jesus. And yet He prioritizes prayer above His much needed rest. He prioritizes prayer above comfort. He prioritizes prayer above fellowship.

I said something to the men yesterday at the Men’s Prayer Breakfast about this. And what I said was that one’s prayer life is a barometer for how you’re doing spiritually. Prayer is spiritual communication with God who is Spirit. And I believe if you examine how much time you spend in prayer each day, you will get a pretty good reading on where you are spiritually.

You know, Paul said we are to pray without ceasing. So I try to do that by praying little bullet prayers in my mind or under my breath as I go throughout the day. I think that’s good. And I’m sure that Jesus did that much more often than I do. But that’s not enough for Jesus. He set aside hours of uninterrupted communion with the Father on a regular basis. This isn’t the first time nor the last time we see Jesus do this. And I’m sure He did it much more often than it’s recorded.

You cannot walk in the Spirit if you aren’t communicating in the Spirit. And I don’t mean speaking in tongues either. I mean profitable speech, that is intelligent, and understandable. Where you are pouring out your heart to the Lord and He is speaking to your heart in return. You can’t see the Spirit. So how do you know you’re walking in the Spirt unless you are speaking to Him. Prayer is not an option if you want to walk on water. It’s not negotiable. It’s mandatory practice.

Now there are a couple of interesting things that occurred as the disciples were being obedient. Notice vs 47, “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.”

First of all, when it was evening means that it was late at night. Mark says that Jesus came to them about the fourth watch of the night. That’s between 3am and 6am. That means that the disciples have been rowing their boat against the wind for about 9 hours. And they had only progressed about 3 miles.

You know, I thought that the prosperity preachers told us that when you say yes to Jesus everything is going to start working out for you. I thought that when you are serving the Lord there’s always fair wind and following seas. The sun is always shining. Life is but a dream. But I don’t want you to miss this. The disciples were being obedient, they were doing what the Lord told them to do, and this tremendous storm comes out of nowhere and they end up going nowhere for 9 hours. Actually, I think we can say that Jesus deliberately sent them into a storm, knowing what was ahead of them. And I’ll give the disciples another commendation for this; they didn’t turn around and go back to where they started. They didn’t give up. They kept rowing into the wind for 9 hours.

I think we can add another step to the process of walking on water from the disciples example. And that is perseverance. Perseverance means persistence in doing something despite difficulty. Paul said in Rom 5:3-5 “And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

James describes it as endurance. Means pretty much the same thing as perseverance. He said in 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.” One old time evangelist said it this way, “Do right until the stars fall.” Be obedient to God’s will and persevere in it even when it’s difficult and you don’t seem to be making any headway.

Notice another interesting thing in this passage. Mark says Jesus saw the disciples straining at the oars. Wait a minute. It’s night time. There is a storm. The disciples are three miles from land. How does that work? It works because Jesus Christ is LORD. He is omnipotent, all knowing, all seeing God in human flesh. And in His deity He sees everything. And as we talked about last week, He is the shepherd of His sheep. He is watching over the disciples as they rowed in the darkness against the wind. God sees us always. He constantly is aware of all that pertains to us. If we are His children, then we can count on the fact that He is always on the job.

Last Wednesday at our Bonfire Bible study, we looked at this principle in Psalm 121. I don’t have time to read the whole Psalm, but it speaks to this principle. I particularly like the part that says, Psalm 121:2-4 “My help [comes] from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep.”

In the middle of the storm, in the middle of the night, the Lord Jesus comes to them walking on the water. Jesus came to help them. Psalm 54:4 says, “Behold, God is my helper; The Lord is the sustainer of my soul.” Because the disciples were doing what He told them to do, because He sent them into the storm, because He saw them straining at the oars, because He is their keeper, He came to them. The Lord came to them walking on the water.

Listen, the fact that the Lord can walk on water should not be surprising. Psalm 77:19 says “Your way was in the sea And Your paths in the mighty waters, And Your footprints may not be known.” William Cowper wrote a hymn in 1774 which has the famous line, “God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.” 

Jesus walks on the water, not just a calm smooth expanse of water, but walking upon the rising and falling of large crashing waves. He’s probably going up one swell and then down the other side, His robe billowing behind him. He’s probably soaked to the skin by the spray off the waves. No wonder that the disciples think it’s a ghost.

Vs49 “But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out; for they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke with them and said to them, “Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid.”

So another key then we can learn so that we may walk on water, is not only that the Lord is watching us, but that the Lord is near. Psalm 145:18 “The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.” The Lord gives us courage so that we are not afraid. Listen, we can have courage, we can not fear when we go through the storms, because the Lord is with us. If we did not have the Lord with us, then it makes perfect sense to be afraid. I see rookie surfers sometimes going out after a big storm and the waves are really big, and they should be afraid to go out. But they are naive, they don’t know any better. There is such a thing as a healthy fear. It’s prudent to be fearful of some things. But as Phil. 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” If I am doing the will of God, He will give me the strength to do it, and He will help me to do it.

And that segues into another aspect of the story that Mark has left out. According to many Bible scholars, Mark was the apprentice so to speak to Peter. And perhaps there is some desire on Mark’s part to protect Peter from criticism, which may be why he leaves this part out. But Matthew fills in the missing pieces by giving us the story of Peter’s attempt to walk on water.

It’s found in Matt. 14:28-31 Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Notice first that Peter doesn’t demand that Christ give him the power to walk on water. He says Lord, command me to come to you on the water. If it’s the Lord’s will, then you can walk on water. We know its the Lord’s will that we walk in the Spirit, that we walk by faith. We know that the Lord has commanded us to do that. And so, like Peter, we can step out of the boat with courage, without fear.

And we should also notice that Matthew says Peter walked on the water and came toward Jesus. Many people want to mock Peter because he started sinking. But I think he deserves a lot of credit to have taken at least a few steps. Even one step on top of the water is a miracle. So Peter deserves a lot of credit for his faith.

But I can’t help but question though Peter’s motivation. I wonder why he wanted to walk on the water. And maybe the answer to that question is the reason Peter might have been embarrassed by the whole episode. Perhaps that’s what Jesus is alluding to when He says, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Because faith is not believing in yourself, faith is faith in Christ, that He will sustain you. Doubt is believing in yourself that you are somehow sufficiently skilled or superior or something other than being totally dependent upon the Lord.

So I question Peter’s motivation, because I can’t help but think that Peter wanted to out bravado the other apostles. Or he wanted to show off his supernatural ability. I really can’t imagine that he just wanted to be close to Jesus. Though I think Jesus was gracious enough to overlook Peter’s pride and allow him to come to him. Or maybe Jesus wanted to use it as a lesson for Peter.

The Scripture says “Pride goes before a fall.” When you’re locked eyes with Jesus and taking each step on the water as He is sustaining you, then you can walk on water. But when you look back at the boys on the boat and wave, then you’ve taken your eyes off Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and in that moment of pride, you start to go under. I imagine it was just like walking off a dock. One minute he’s looking at Jesus and taking a gingerly step and then two and then three on top of the water, and then the next second he looks back to wave to his friends in the boat, and he immediately sinks like a rock. No pun intended.

And when he comes back to the surface, he calls out “Lord save me!” Now that’s an effective prayer. Short and to the point. You don’t gain favor with the Lord because of long, flowery prayers. Just talk to the Lord like you would talk to a friend. And that’s the kind of prayer the Lord answers.

Notice, the Lord reached out His hand and took hold of Peter. The Lord is able to save. The Lord is ready to save all who call upon Him. Isa 59:1 says, “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear.” When the Lord took Peter by the hand, they both walked on water and came to the boat. And that’s another step for us in walking on water. When the Lord holds our hand, we can walk on water. We need to be walking so close to the Lord that He is able to hold our hand. When He holds us, we have no fear of falling. We have no fear of drowning. We have no fear of the storm.

Vs51 “Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, for they had not gained any insight from the [incident of] the loaves, but their heart was hardened.”

John adds that when they got into the boat, not only did the wind stop, but they were immediately at the land. No wonder the disciples were astonished. This is just a full on display of God’s power through Jesus. Mark says that they were astonished because their heart was hardened and they hadn’t learned from Jesus feeding the multitude that He was fully God and fully man. That the creative power of God was in Christ Jesus. That He was the Creator God.

Now they have been given another glimpse of HIs glory. And this time they fully believed in who He was. And so Matthew adds in his account in Matt. 14:33 And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!” Now they understand who Jesus is more completely. And Jesus accepts their worship.

So to wrap it up then, I think we have learned that we can walk on water, or walk by faith, or walk in the Spirit when we follow certain principles given here in this story. First we need to walk in obedience. If we are doing what God said, then we are walking in the Spirit. Second, we need to pray as if our life depended upon it. Because it does. Third, we need to persevere in doing what is right, even in difficulty. Fourth, we need to recognize that Jesus is near. Fifth we need to know that Christ has commanded us to walk in the Spirit, to walk in faith. And then we need to keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He will sustain us, and keep us from falling. Then we need to call upon the Lord, and He will save us, He will help us. And finally we need to walk closely with Jesus, holding onto His hand.

The Lord doesn’t want us to walk by sight. He wants us to walk by faith. He wants us to walk by the Spirit, so that we don’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh. He wants us to walk on water in the midst of the storms, in the midst of the trials, knowing that He is watching over us and will take care of us as we are obedient to His will. Walking on water is not a magic trick that we do to impress our friends. But it’s the only way we get through this world without falling. It’s the only way we do the will of God. The Lord will help us, and sustain us, as we walk with Him and do His will.

Today we have come in our study of Mark to a story that I’m sure is familiar to anyone who has been to church for any length of time or to Sunday school. It’s one of the favorite stories of the Bible that is often taught to children. It’s the story of Jesus feeding the 5000.

And there is plenty to consider and learn about Jesus even if the story is told in a straightforward, simple retelling. On just a rudimentary level, even a child can understand that the Lord is compassionate and is able to do miracles.

But this morning I hope to help you gain more insight to this story and what Mark is teaching us through it. You see, Mark is not writing a biography here, though there are biographical elements to his book. He is not writing history, though the story does give us historical facts. Mark is writing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is the good news about Jesus Christ, which is that God has sent His Son to earth, in the form of a man, to tell us the truth about God, and to provide the sacrifice for our sins, so that they who believe in Him and accept Him as their Lord might have everlasting life.

So this story then, looked at through that prism, is much more than a simple story about taking 5 loaves and two fish and feeding 5000. This event is no less than a living parable which illustrates for us several aspects of the gospel.

The story starts with the apostles coming back from their mission trip, where they had gone out two by two throughout the region of Galilee as emissaries of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is the expression of the kingdom of God, and Christ is the King, who sent His emissaries out to spread the good news of the kingdom. As the authorized representatives of the King, they were given the news of the gospel which they were to proclaim in every town, and they were given the power and authority to heal the sick and cast out demons in His name. They were living on the road for probably a couple of months, and then they came back most likely to Capernaum to reunite with Jesus and the other apostles.

And so Mark says in vs30, The apostles gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught. And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” (For there were many [people] coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.) They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves.

The apostles had great success on their journeys. We read back in vs 12 They went out and preached that [men] should repent. They had been casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.” They had been given a foretaste of what their mission would be like once the Lord Jesus would be taken away from them. Upon the foundation of the apostles, the church would be built. So I’m sure it was exciting stuff that they reported to Jesus, but He recognized that they needed some rest. In Capernaum there were so many people constantly coming and going, so that they didn’t even have time to eat. And so they went away by boat to a secluded place to get away from the crowds and find some much needed rest.

But the crowds weren’t about to let them get away that easily. Mark says that they ran around the lake and got there before Jesus and the disciples crossed over on the boat. Vs.33 [The people] saw them going, and many recognized [them] and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them.

From what I understand, that would have been an eight to 10 mile trip around the lake on foot, or a four mile crossing on water. That’s pretty amazing isn’t it? To think that people wanted to see Jesus so badly that they ran about 10 miles around the lake to beat his boat to the other side. I suppose the disciples were rowing their boat, and perhaps the wind was contrary like it is today. That can make for slow going. And where they ended up is near the town of Bethsaida, which was really a small village. The disciples and Jesus must have landed somewhere near the outskirts of that town. It was an out of the way place. Not any Holiday Inns there, or fast food restaurants or convenience stores. Just a small fishing village.

But when they got out of the boat, they see that the crowd is already there waiting for them. Vs34 “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.”

I think this is one of the most significant verses in this story. Because it reveals a principle that is so fundamental to our salvation. And that principle is revealed by the phrase “He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”

Jesus sees these people as sheep without a shepherd. Without a shepherd, a domesticated sheep is an animal that is prone to becoming lost, disoriented, an easy prey for wolves and succumbing to disease. They simply cannot survive for very long without a shepherd. They can’t even find water without a shepherd, and neither can they find good pasture.

What’s interesting is that the Lord correlates humans to being like sheep without a shepherd. And I think that indicates that man was created for God, to be guided and cared for by God, and without God, man is lost, he is doomed to succumb to difficulties in life. He cannot provide for his ultimate welfare.

And yet the greatest fallacy of humankind persists in thinking that we are independent, self sufficient, that we have life and vitality, and somewhere in our subconscious we are oblivious to our mortality. I heard a quote the other day from the 19th century poet William Earnest Hensley, from his poem Inviticus, which in Latin means unconquered. It’s quite a motivational speech. The poet says, ““Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”

I guess after hearing that we’re all supposed to yell hooyah! And charge up the mountain. That sounds coureageous, brave and bold. And we like to think that if you are strong and brave enough you can conquer life and bend it to your will. To the victor belongs the spoils. That mindset says only the weak have a need for God, the strong are their own god. But the fact is that is a lie from hell. Satan has deceived men into thinking that they are the master of their fate, the captain of their soul. They can somehow wrest fulfillment and even immortality from this life if they just believe in themselves. But it’s a lie.

Man was made to live with God and for God. He was designed to live with God as His shepherd, and to be under the care of the shepherd. The Westminster Shorter Catechism’s first question is what is the chief end of man? And the answer is; Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. But sin broke that fellowship man had with God. Sin made man independent from God, estranged from God, and thus without truth, without life, without guidance, without protection. And that fragile, fleeting, tenuous existence is like being a sheep without a shepherd. Man is in constant peril and has been marked for death. His life is fleeting, and in his dumbness, like a sheep lost and alone in the wilderness, he is mostly unaware of the danger that he is in.

So the Savior, seeing these people like sheep without a shepherd, has compassion on them. That’s the gospel in a nutshell, ladies and gentlemen. “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 Lord having compassion on them, seeing their desperate condition, goes to them and begins to teach them the truth about the gospel of the kingdom. How they can be made right with God, and receive life from God, and have forgiveness of their sin, and have the Spirit of God to guide them and lead them into the path of life.

At a later time, Peter will respond to the Lord Jesus saying, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.” The gospel is the words of life. It is the means which by believing, the condemnation of death is taken away, and you are given everlasting life. And so Jesus gives them these words of life. And His teaching goes on until late in the day.

But when evening approaches, the apostles get hungry. They were already hungry before they got in the boat. They hadn’t had the time to even eat. And now after they rowed across the lake, and they have been all day with the Lord as He is teaching the people, they are hungry and tired. But they manage to tell Jesus in such a way as to make it seem they are concerned about the people eating.

Vs.35 When it was already quite late, His disciples came to Him and said, “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.” Now maybe they were really concerned about the people being able to find something to eat. But I think that they might have been hungry themselves. And there is nothing wrong with being hungry. That’s natural, and we all need to eat. But I think the disciples tendency was to be more concerned about physical needs than spiritual needs.

So Jesus said in vs 37 “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?” I can’t help but wonder if Jesus wasn’t telling them to provide food for the people through miraculous means. After all, they have just got back from this long mission trip in which they were given the authority to do miracles, to heal, to cast out demons. And so Jesus might have been extending them the authority to miraculously feed the people. But the disciples don’t seem to see it that way.

Instead, the disciples respond to Jesus with what I think was a sarcastic question. “Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them something to eat?” A denarius was considered a day’s wage in those days. So they are saying should we take 200 days worth of wages and buy food so they can eat? To them that was the only possible answer, but it was ludicrous. It’s doubtful on the one hand that they even had 200 denarii. That’s why they asked it that way, because it made the point that they could somehow feed the people was ludicrous. But I don’t think Jesus was joking around by saying “you give them something to eat.” I think He really wanted the disciples to feed the people. They just didn’t see how it could be done. Even if they had the money, there was no where to buy such a huge quantity of food necessary to feed this multitude.

So Jesus teaches them by example. He says in vs 38 “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” The account in John 6 vs 8 tells us that it was Andrew who found the lad who had five loaves and two fish. It might have taken the 12 disciples awhile to canvas the crowd to see what kind of food was available. And out of 5000 plus people, there is only one boy’s dinner that is available.

Most Sunday school lessons and Bible studies focus on this aspect of the story. They say that the moral of the story is that if we bring our little bit to the Lord, then He can multiply it and make it useful far beyond it’s original limit. Maybe they are trying to make it a sermon about tithing or something, I don’t know.

But I think what Jesus is really teaching here is that the apostles are to be the means by which God supplies the spiritual needs of the people. Their meager supply, when blessed by God and used for the glory of God, will supply the bread of life to those who are hungry for the truth. God will use the weakness of man, the foolishness of preaching, to provide salvation for the lost and hungry sheep.

So to further illustrate this fact, Jesus has the crowd sit down in companies of 100. Vs39 “And He commanded them all to sit down by groups on the green grass. They sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties.” I know I might be criticized as grasping at straws here, but I believe this is an illustration of the conduct of the church, that everything will be done decently and in order. God is not the author of confusion. When it comes to the gifts God has given to the church, if He is orchestrating them, then they will be marked by being decent and in order. God is not in charge of a melee. The Spirit of God does not oversee confusion and chaos. The outpouring of the gifts of God is not a feeding frenzy. And when you see that sort of frenzy in the church I think it should be met by a great degree of skepticism on our part, that the Lord is in such a thing at all.

When everyone then was seated on the grass in order and according to groups of 100, Jesus blessed the food. He gave thanks for the food. God is the provider of our daily bread. God feeds the deer, the birds of the air. He certainly cares more about His sheep than He cares about the birds. Jesus said, You are of more value than many sparrows.

Vs 41 “And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed [the food] and broke the loaves and He kept giving [them] to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up the two fish among them all.” The point that shouldn’t be missed is that Jesus kept giving the broken pieces to the disciples to set before them. Jesus is using the disciples to give them something to eat. This is a lesson for the apostles. There is also a lesson here for the 5000 that Jesus is the bread of life that came down out of heaven. But the apostles are the ones to which has been given the authority and commission to take the gospel to the world, to build the church. And Jesus is using the passing out of the bread and fish to teach the disciples how they are to do that.

I can’t help but wish though I could have seen the hands of Jesus breaking the fish and bread. I imagine it’s kind of like watching a magician do a trick and you try to watch his hands carefully to see how it is done. Of course, Jesus wasn’t doing a card trick. He was creating food in his hands. He was creating cooked fish in His hands. Baked bread appeared in His hands as He broke it and gave it to the apostles. I can’t help but correlate this to another incident where Jesus broke bread at the Lord’s Supper on the night before His crucifixion.

1 Cor. 11:23 says, the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Perhaps that very act of sacrifice was being symbolized in Jesus’s breaking of the bread and then giving it to the disciples to give to the multitude.

In John’s gospel we read that the next morning after this miraculous event, the people seek Christ out again hoping to get breakfast. And Jesus says on that occasion, in John 6:32-35 “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” 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.” That was the lesson that Jesus intended for the multitudes, that His body would be broken so that they might have life.

Well, back to the story of the feeding of the 5000, Mark says everyone ate until full. Vs 42 “They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces, and also of the fish. There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.” Mark says there were 5000 men, but Matthew says that didn’t include women and children. So there were very likely at least 15000 people that were fed dinner that night. Amazing. 15000 sheep that were fed by the providence and power of God. We should certainly not question if God can meet our needs, if we believe that He was able to feed 15000 people.

But again, the significant point to notice in that passage is that there were 12 baskets of food left over. One commentator I read said that was a lesson about the importance of not littering. I hardly think that’s what is being taught there. The real lesson is again having to do with the apostles. There are 12 apostles, and 12 baskets of food left over. Someone has said the original language is speaking of a something like a lunch basket. But the point is that the apostles were fed in their feeding of the multitude. As they served the church, the Lord provided for their needs as well.

So in summary, I think the whole miracle of the feeding of the 5000 or 15000 was intended to be a living parable about the ministry of the gospel. Jesus is the bread of life, which God gave to man. But it is also a teaching moment for the apostles and the role that they were to take in the ministry of the gospel. The training that they had practiced on their mission trip was continued in the feeding of the 5000. The gospel was entrusted to them, to serve to the world, that they might build the church of Jesus Christ, that they might be shepherds, which is the source of the word pastors, to the church. And by their ministry, the kingdom of God would be expanded, and souls would be added to the church.

We are not commissioned or called to be apostles today. But we are commissioned to go into the world and proclaim the gospel. God wants to use us to manifest His gospel to a lost and dying world. Let us be willing and eager to serve the Lord, presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people in our world. We don’t have to have a seminary degree to be witnesses. We don’t have to have the gift of preaching or teaching. But take the truth of the gospel, which everyone who has been saved knows, and simply giving that to our friends and neighbors. And trust that the Lord will multiply your seed into a fruitful harvest.

2Cor. 9:10-11 “Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God.”

Tertullian, who lived as a Christian preacher and theologian in the second century, is credited with the expression, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” He wrote this phrase in a treatise which he sent to the governors of the Roman Empire, in to hope to quell the persecution of the early Christians. What he was basically saying is that the blood of Christians is a seed which multiplies the converts to Christianity, so rather than their persecution stopping Christianity, it causes the church to flourish.

That’s a counterintuitive thing to consider, that persecution makes the church stronger, not weaker. But a study of the history of the church makes that clear. Jesus said that the Jews had from ancient times murdered the prophets in His denouncement of the Pharisees and scribes and that such persecution would continue. He said in Matthew 23:29, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had been [living] in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in [shedding] the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure [of the guilt] of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, so that upon you may fall [the guilt of] all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.”

Today we are looking at the account of yet another prophet of God that was martyred for the sake of the gospel. John the Baptist was considered the greatest prophet that ever lived up to Jesus Christ. And yet in the wisdom and providence of God, He allowed one of His greatest servants to be decapitated at the whim of a hateful, spiteful woman. And of course, we know that not long after this event, they crucified Jesus, the greatest prophet, the Lord God Incarnate. We also know that of His twelve apostles, eleven of them were martyred for their faith. And yet the church of Jesus Christ continued to multiply, to grow and spread so that it was said that from this tiny seed of the apostles, the gospel had spread throughout the entire world.

Now Mark’s account of the death of John the Baptist does not lend itself very well to a three point outline, but our purpose is to preach the word and let God take care of the application of it. But I think there are some instructive points that we can take from it as we work through it.

Let’s pick it up in vs 14, “And King Herod heard [of it,] for His name had become well known; and [people] were saying, “John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him.” The context demands that we must connect this verse to the preceding verses which describe the ministry that the apostles were doing as the emissaries of Christ.

In the preceding passage which we looked at last week, Jesus had sent His disciples throughout Galilee two by two, to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom and had given them authority to cast out demons and perform miracles. The gospel of the kingdom is that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One from God, the King of the Kingdom of God, and that by believing in Him, and believing His word, you would be saved from the wrath to come.

And the apostles were so successful in their ministry, that King Herod heard of it. He heard of the mighty works that were being done in the power of Jesus’ name. Perhaps Herod perceives this as threat to his own power and position as king. However, Herod was not really a king. He wants to be a king, and the people under him refer to him as king, but in actuality he is the tetrarch, which is more like a governor of Galilee.

This Herod is actually one of four sons of Herod the Great, the same Herod that was king when Jesus was born. You will remember that bloodthirsty tyrant had all the Jewish baby boys murdered who were under the age of two, in an attempt to put Jesus to death, because he was worried that Jesus might be a threat to his throne.

That same bloodthirsty, demented type of personality seems to have been passed on to his sons as well. Herod the Great had many sons with many wives, but upon his death his domain was split into four sections, with each section being ruled by one of his sons. The King Herod we are looking at today was one of his sons, whose name was actually Herod Antipas. He was the ruler over Galilee, but each of these four sons answered to the emperor of Rome. They had very little power and authority other than what was extended to them by the emperor. So even though Mark calls him king, which was the popular title, Herod was not really a true sovereign in the full sense of the word.

But when he hears about Jesus’ ministry and mighty works, his guilty imagination wonders if it’s possible that John the Baptist, whom he had put to death, had come back from the dead and now possessed supernatural powers. Vs.15 But others were saying, “He is Elijah.” And others were saying, “[He is] a prophet, like one of the prophets [of old.]” But when Herod heard [of it,] he kept saying, “John, whom I beheaded, has risen!”

So everyone was speculating about Jesus, some saying He was Elijah, who was prophesied in Malachi to come before the coming of the Messiah to turn the people’s hearts toward the Lord. Others thought that some great prophet of old had come back to life. But Herod thinks it’s John the Baptist, whom he had beheaded.

Then in vs 17 Mark recounts how it came about that Herod had beheaded John the Baptist. Vs17 “For Herod himself had sent and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death and could not [do so;] for Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed; but he used to enjoy listening to him.”

A little background on Herod’s marital situation might help us understand what was going on here. Herod had a brother named Philip, actually he had two brothers named Philip. But one was in Rome who had taken a wife who was the daughter of another mother but was technically his sister. So Herod Antipas came to visit, he has an affair with his brother’s wife and the two agree to divorce their spouses so they can get married. And that’s what they do.

But everyone knows about it, and everyone knows that it was wrong. John the Baptist somehow has an opportunity to preach to Herod, presumably with his new wife Herodius there with him, and he denounces Herod for taking his brother’s wife in an adulterous and incestuous relationship. John doesn’t refer to Herodius as Herod’s wife but as Philips wife. He said, “”It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”

You know, it’s entirely appropriate for a preacher to call out sin, and to call sin, sin. It’s not popular, and people might get offended by it, but that is what God has commissioned us to do. If people don’t come to understand that they are lost, that they are sinners, then they will have no need for salvation.

But for the most part, people are not sorry for their sin when you confront them with it, but they end up hating you for telling them they are sinners. That’s the response you see so often in our culture today. They don’t want to think that what they want to do is sinful, and so they hate those who say that it is sin. Herodius has that same response towards John the Baptist. Mark says she had it in for him, and wanted to kill him. That’s the same response that the Pharisees had towards Jesus. They plotted to kill Him. And Herodius wants to kill John the Baptist but she lacks opportunity. But finally she convinced her husband to arrest John and put him in prison.

Mark says Herod her husband was afraid of John the Baptist. I actually wonder who he was most afraid of. I believe he was more afraid of his wife. But he is afraid of John because he knows that John is a prophet of God, that he is a righteous and holy man. And so he kept him safe in his prison. And by some accounts, he was probably kept in prison for about a year.

That was probably longer or just as long as John had been in ministry. That’s one of the hardest things for me to understand about the wisdom of God. That God allows His prophets and preachers to often undergo incarceration or something like that for a long time, when it would seem to us that it would serve the kingdom purposes much better if that man of God were able to continue in ministry. I think of Joseph, who spent 13 years in prison. Or Moses, who lived in exile in the wilderness for 40 years. Or the Apostle Paul, who spent most of his final years of ministry in prison. Or the Apostle John who was exiled on the isle of Patmos. It doesn’t make sense to us, but in the wisdom of God, it must somehow serve His purposes.

A couple of interesting things though happened while John was in prison. One was his disciples were able to visit him. And the other interesting thing was that he regularly preached to Herod. Of course, Herod’s court, his government officials, would have also been that audience. God doesn’t just want the gospel preached to those who will repent, but also to those who won’t repent. And that is so that they will have no excuse. Contrary to what those who hold an extreme view of the doctrine of election might teach, God desires everyone to be saved.

1Tim. 2:3-4 says, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” And another passage in 2Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slack concerning [His] promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

So God wants the gospel preached to everyone, but of course, not everyone will come to repentance. In fact, not many will come to repentance. And one of the reasons is that they don’t see their sin as sinful. We might read between the lines and assume that perhaps Herod had some remorse about his sin. His conscience bothered him about it. Mark says he enjoyed listening to John but greatly disturbed. But not so with Herodius. She just became more prideful and more hateful and wanted to add to her sin by killing John the Baptist.

Well her desire to kill John gave birth to a plot to kill John, and then one day came a strategic opportunity to bring her plan to pass. Vs.21 “A strategic day came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his lords and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee; and when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you want and I will give it to you.” And he swore to her, “Whatever you ask of me, I will give it to you; up to half of my kingdom.” And she went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.” Immediately she came in a hurry to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” And although the king was very sorry, [yet] because of his oaths and because of his dinner guests, he was unwilling to refuse her. Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded [him] to bring [back] his head. And he went and had him beheaded in the prison.”

Herod threw a birthday party for himself. That shows some of the extent of his vanity. He invites all the dignitaries of Galilee, all the military commanders and all the lords in his realm. it’s the equivalent of a state dinner which he throws in his honor. And when they had eaten their fill and were drunk with wine, the daughter of Herodius came out and dance for them. This was really a depraved situation. I think Herodius was complicit in sending out her daughter to dance for these men. It would have been a men only dinner. And she was probably only a teenager, who danced provacatively and was more than likely at least partially undressed. She’s not Herod’s true daughter, but his niece. However such a family relationship was not ever a hindrance for the Herod’s. They seemed to have no problem with incest.

Herod and his guests are obviously pleased with the girl’s dance. And perhaps because of his illicit desire or intoxication or both, he makes a foolish offer to the girl. He says whatever you want I will give you, even up to half the kingdom. It was foolish because he really didn’t have a kingdom to give. But perhaps he meant it monetarily.

But the girl begs leave of the king, in order to speak to her mother. And that’s another reason why I think Herodius was behind it all along. Herodius is watching and waiting in the wings. Salome goes to her mother what shall I ask for? And her mother said, “the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” She wants John’s decapitated head served to her on a plate. This was not only a hateful woman, but a barbaric one. No wonder Herod was afraid of her.

And Herod, weak, fearful man that he was, immediately did what she demanded. He was afraid of what she might do, and what his dinner guests might think if he didn’t fulfill her demand. I guess in some respects that’s what we would call peer pressure today. I can’t help but wonder how many people ended up in hell because they were afraid of peer pressure.

You know, it’s not cool today to be a Christian. The culture thinks eastern religions are cool. If you’re into transcendental meditation or Zen or some sort of spiritism, then that’s cool. You can talk about it all you want. You can openly try to convert people to your philosophy and that’s acceptable. But if you believe in the God of the Bible, if you believe in the gospel of salvation, then you’re a kook or worse, you’re a fascist. At the very least you will be ostracized from society. And I think the day is coming soon when you will be imprisoned for believing in and speaking about the gospel. It’s already happening in Canada and Western Europe and it’s starting to happen in America.

Well, Herod sent an executioner to the prison cell of John the Baptist and he had him decapitated and his head brought to to Herodius on a platter. He went against his conscience and against God in order to save face in front of his wife and peers, but in so doing he condemned his soul to eternal hell.

What about John though? What must have he been thinking as he went through this ordeal? How unjust must he have thought this whole thing was working out. I wonder if he expected God to deliver him at the last moment as God had done with Daniel or other prophets. I wonder if he was disappointed in God that after all he had done for the Lord, the Lord would let him die in such miserable circumstances. After all, the bad people seemed to win. Evil seemed to win over good. Doesn’t God care?

Well the Bible teaches us that in heaven we will receive rewards commensurate with our works here on earth. Jesus gave a parable explaining that principle in which he said in Matt. 25:21 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’”

John the Baptist was faithful unto death. And he will receive a martyr’s reward, which I think will be the highest reward given in heaven. I’m reminded of Jesus’s last message to the 7 churches in Revelation. And he said to the church of Smyrna, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

John was faithful unto death and he entered into his eternal reward. I hope that we do not count the temporary pleasures of this world as worth holding onto, or the acclaim of friends as more important, and thus end up rejecting Jesus Christ. I hope that we are willing to follow the example of the prophets and the apostles, that we might declare as Paul did, saying in Phil. 3:7-11 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9\ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from [the] Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which [comes] from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

I don’t believe that John the Baptist was doubting the goodness or fairness or justice of God when he knelt to receive the axe upon his neck. But I think he was rejoicing that he had been counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ. John had said to his disciples earlier, that “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. He must increase, but I must decrease.”

God has purposed in HIs divine wisdom that as the children of God, we should share in the sufferings of Christ, that we might be exalted in heaven. Rom 8:16-18 says, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with [Him] so that we may also be glorified with [Him.] For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”