Today’s passage is one of the best known stories of the gospels. It’s very simple truth, presented in a simple, straightforward way. So much so, that the full significance of this passage might be easily overlooked. I believe it contains some of the richest theology in regards to salvation that we might find anywhere in the scriptures, and so I want to focus on just these four verses this morning.

Let’s read it in it’s entirety first of all, and then I will try to comment on it. Vs 13, “And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it [at all.]” And He took them in His arms and [began] blessing them, laying His hands on them.”

This account is repeated in all three of the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, with very little variation. Another interesting thing to note is that the familiar story of the rich young ruler follows directly after the account of the children coming to Jesus, which serves as a stark contrast. If the subject of entering into eternal life is the point of that contrast, as evidenced by the rich young ruler’s question in vs 17, then the significance of this event with the children must be taken as instructive as to how one may enter the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus says here that the kingdom of God belongs to such as these children. And that whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all. Compare that to the rich young ruler who after asking how he could inherit eternal life went away sorrowing, even though he had kept the law, because he was not willing to forsake everything and follow Christ. And of course, the phrase “enter into the kingdom of God” is the equivalent to the phrase “inherit eternal life.” They are both speaking of the same thing; the kingdom of God is eternal life. Eternal life is not just a long, long, long life. It’s the abundant life that Jesus said He gives. “I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

The prosperity gospel preachers have bastardized the abundant life concept as something that you get when God blesses you with health, wealth and happiness. But Jesus wasn’t talking about that, or promising a heaven on earth type of existence for believers. But rather, Jesus was talking about a new life through Jesus Christ. He was talking about being born again of the Spirit into new life. And that life is everlasting life in the kingdom of God, as we live under the reign of Jesus Christ the Lord.

The passage begins by saying that they were bringing children to Jesus so that He might touch them. The idea was that He would bless them, laying hands on them and praying for them such as was the tradition passed down from the patriarchs. You can find examples of Isaac and Jacob doing the same for their children. Today we have somewhat of a tradition of bringing your baby to the church for dedication, which may have come from this sort of thing. But it would seem not to be out of place in Jewish society of that time to bring your baby to receive a blessing from the priest or rabbi.

So I think it was a sincere desire on the part of the parents to see the child grow up unto the Lord, to have a godly upbringing, to call upon God to protect and nurture the child, and to bless the child as he grew up. There was nothing wrong with such a thing, in fact, the parents are to be commended for their desire to raise their child up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

I would encourage you that are parents today to realize that you have a stewardship of the gift of children that should not be taken lightly. Your responsibility in raising a child is not merely to keep a roof over their head and feed and clothe them. Your responsibility is not just to save up money so that they can go to college. Your responsibility is to teach your children the fear of the Lord. To raise your children up in the church. To teach them the word of God.

When God gave the commandments to Moses He gave specific instructions to the parents saying in Deut. 6:6-9 “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Being raised by Christian parents to believe the Bible and follow the Lord should not be an option. I’ve heard parents say, “Well I am leaving it up to junior if he wants to come to church or not. I don’t want to push anything on him, you know.” I wonder if such parents leave it up to junior whether or not he wants to brush his teeth. Or whether or not he wants to go to school. I would suggest that their spiritual state is of greater importance than their grade point average or how many cavities they have. So I encourage you as parents, and as grandparents, to make the spiritual development of your child the highest priority.

These parents wanted the best spiritual advantage for their children and so they brought them to Jesus. Commentators tell us that Luke makes it clear in his account that the little children were actually infants. I would think it included infants up to the age of toddlers, because we see later in vs 16 that Jesus took them in His arms. So I doubt that they were much older than toddlers.

The disciples though rebuked the parents for what they perceived as bothering Jesus with their children. This is another example of the disciples exercising certain behavior that we can as arm chair quarterbacks easily criticize them for. Many preachers seem to love to point out the faults of the disciples, as if to show their own surpassing spiritual maturity. But in the disciples defense, there are multiple instances recorded in Mark when Jesus Himself attempted to get away from the crowds.They were constantly being hounded by people seeking to see some spectacular miracle, or people seeking healing, or all kinds of things that people wanted from Jesus. And so they were probably just trying to prevent what they thought were just another type of interruption. They certainly didn’t understand the full significance of what these parents were trying to do. I’m sure in their minds, blessing babies didn’t compare with the pressing business of healing blindness or casting out demons.

But when the disciples rebuke the parents, Jesus rebukes the disciples. Actually it says He became indignant towards them. I think a better translation might be annoyed. I think Jesus thought the disciples were missing the point. Jesus came to give life, everlasting life. That was His purpose. His goal wasn’t to heal everyone of every disease in Israel. And as evidenced by Jesus’s statement, these children were the perfect recipients of the grace of God.

Jesus says to them, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” Previously, in chapter 9, Jesus had said that whoever puts a stumbling block in front of one of these little ones, (referencing a child that was among them) it would be better for him if a milestone was tied about his neck and he was thrown into the middle of the ocean. So when Jesus says don’t hinder the children from coming to Me, I suppose He is annoyed that they so quickly have forgotten that admonition.

The point is Jesus wants the children to come to Him. Listen, there is no better time to come to Jesus than when you are young. I read some statistics once that I can’t find now, but they spoke about the odds of coming to Christ at various ages. The percentage of the possibility of coming to Christ when you were below the age of 18 was quite high, but with every decade that passed the likelihood of coming to salvation dropped considerably. By the time someone had reached the age of 60 or more, and had not come to salvation, the likelihood dropped to the low single digits. So for you parents, you’re not doing your child any favors by waiting until they get older to make a decision about the Lord. The best opportunity to become a believer is while they are young.

Jesus says, “the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” John MacArthur preached a sermon on this text and the whole premise of the sermon was to say that children who die before the age of accountability are saved by the grace of God. I think he also wrote a book on that subject. And I think that has long been the traditional view of many conservative Bible teachers and scholars. John Calvin, for instance, seems to hold to that view. And they use this text and a number of other supplemental passages to support the idea that God bestows His grace upon those children that die before they have an understanding of right and wrong, and consequently are innocent of presumptuous sin. They have inherited the sin nature from their parents, but they haven’t had the cognizance to act upon it, and God grants those who die in that state grace. I would tend to agree with that view, but I don’t feel we can be dogmatic about it on the basis of this statement alone.

But Jesus does seem to make an unequivocal statement here; the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. He doesn’t qualify it by saying the kingdom of God belongs to such as these who are born of believing parents. He doesn’t say that the kingdom of God belongs to such as these who are baptized. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve. And these little children have nothing to offer God in exchange. They can’t even offer God faith. But God grants them grace.

But while the salvation of babies may be implied in what Jesus says, I don’t think that is the primary point of what Jesus is saying. He further explains His point by saying, “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” So He isn’t saying that only babies will enter the kingdom of God, but that unless you become like a child you will not enter it. Unless you become LIKE a child.

Well, what does that mean? How do you become like a child? It means to accept the gospel with genuine trust, with child like humility, knowing that you have nothing to offer in exchange. It’s complete trust in what Christ has done for us, and not trusting in your own righteousness, or your own accomplishments, or your own inherent goodness. To be like a child means simple, child like trust in Christ.

I heard the story of a wealthy shop owner that piled up gold coins on the window sill of his storefront. There was a sign in the window above it which said “Take one.” All day long people walked by the window and saw the coins and read the note, but inwardly they were thinking, “You can’t fool me.” And so they passed on by. When evening came, just before the shop owner was going to remove the coins, a child came by, read the sign, and reached out and took a coin. That’s child like faith.

How many people, I wonder, have refused to trust in Jesus as their Savior because they think that they are too smart for all this Christian stuff. I shudder to think of who might be here today who doubt in the validity of the gospel, who want to think about it, who want to believe that it can’t be that simple, that there must be more to entering into the kingdom of God. But Jesus said in Matt. 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

But there is yet another application that we could make from this statement of Jesus. To become like a child is to be born again. To be born again in spirit. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3: 3 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

So to be born again is to become a child again, but not in the flesh, but in the spirit. That is how you must become like a child in order to enter the kingdom of God. Being born again is to trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, the Holy Son of God, who came to die in your place, to pay the penalty for your sins, that whosoever believes in Him might be saved.

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Through the cross of Jesus Christ, my sins are transferred to Jesus, and His righteousness is transferred to my account. And by faith in that sacrifice on His part, I am given new life, I am born again. I have become like a child born into the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God is the rule of Christ in your heart and life, together with all the blessings that result from His rule. Entering the kingdom means receiving new life, that is, everlasting life. John 17:3 says, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Once you come to know and believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, you enter into eternal life and all the blessings that come from being a child of the King.

Then after stating how you must become like a child to enter the kingdom of God, Jesus took the children in His arms and blessed them. Vs.16, “And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them.”

John 1:12-13 says, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” The Bible tells us in several places that salvation is of the Lord. God is the author and the finisher of our salvation. Do we have a part, a responsibility in salvation? Yes, our responsibility is to believe. To come to Jesus. And He will do the rest. As many as receive Him, He will give you the power to become the sons and daughters of God, even to them that believe on His name.

You are born again by believing in Jesus Christ, believing in who He is, and what He accomplished for us, and you are born again not of flesh, nor by the will of man, but you are born of God. You become like a child, born for the second time, born of the Spirit, and as a child of God, you are granted an inheritance in the kingdom of God, even everlasting life.

Today the ruler of the world has left a coin of the greatest value on the window ledge of the kingdom of heaven. He has put a sign there which says, Take one. What is your response? I urge you – in child like faith to receive His gift of eternal life, the greatest treasure.

As you know, our tradition at the Beach Fellowship is that we study the scriptures verse by verse. That tends to keep us from over emphasizing some things, or under emphasizing other things, depending on what we think people want to hear. Last week I said that the subject matter of Jesus’ teaching on hell at the end of chapter 9 was very unpopular, and if I were a smarter, more popularity conscious preacher, I would have skipped over it.

Well, I suppose that today’s passage of scripture is even more unpopular than the subject of hell. Today Jesus speaks against divorce, and for the sanctity of marriage. And so in all likelihood, I will be offending at least half of you here today. According to the American Psychological Association, approximately 40-50% of first marriages end in divorce. The divorce rate for second marriages is even higher, with approximately 60-67% of second marriages ending in divorce. I have also heard that the statistic for divorce is about the same in the church as it is in the world. So I’m sure that in our representative congregation here this morning, about half of you have been divorced.

That being said, I have already resigned myself to the fact that I will never win any popularity contest. And I believe that it’s far more important that I try to please God rather than men, so I will simply tell you what Jesus had to say on the subject and you can take it up with Him if you find it unsettling.

Let’s look at our text beginning in Mark chapter 10, vs 1: “Getting up, He went from there to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan; crowds gathered around Him again, and, according to His custom, He once more [began] to teach them. [Some] Pharisees came up to Jesus, testing Him, and [began] to question Him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife.”

Jesus is deliberately and slowly moving closer to HIs destination which is Jerusalem and to His destiny which is the cross. He now leaves Galilee and enters Judea and once again the crowds flock to Him. And as was His custom, He began to teach them. The subject of His teaching is the gospel of the Kingdom of God. The only means by which people can enter the Kingdom of God is through Jesus Christ, through faith in Him as the Son of God, the Messiah, and what He will accomplish for them on the cross.

One of the main points of His teaching is to help people come to the realization that they are lost. That is why in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus spends a great deal of His message expounding the law. The purpose of the law was to make man understand that he is a sinner in need of salvation. I think it was Billy Graham who said, that the difficulty is not in getting people saved, the difficulty is in first getting people to understand that they are lost. Most people tend to think that they actually are not such a bad person. And so they make excuses for themselves while condemning others. But in reality all men are sinners and hopelessly lost, outside of the kingdom of God.

The Pharisees were a religious order of the Jews that prided themselves on their self righteousness. They believed that they kept the law as they had determined it. They had lawyers and scribes and rabbis who had studied the law and wrote a commentary upon it called the Mishna which they held in higher regard than the scriptures. So believing that they had kept the law according to their interpretations, they were not exactly fond of Jesus’ teaching which suggested that they were actually guilty of breaking the law.

And so the Pharisees routinely showed up whenever Jesus was teaching to try to catch Him with a trick question, or to catch Him or His disciples in some infraction according to their understanding of the law, with the ultimate goal of discrediting Jesus in the eyes of the people.

Their question then was a trick question, one that was designed to get Him in trouble with half the people, regardless of how He answered it. The question was whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife for any reason. According to one school of rabbinic teaching, Moses, whom they considered the author of the law, permitted a man to divorce his wife for unchastity, or adultery. The other school interpreted that Moses wrote that a man could divorce for any thing that he found distasteful. For instance, he could divorce her for burning his toast. And the majority of Jews favored that interpretation, and possibly that was also the accepted view of the disciples.

So if Jesus answered in such a way as to take the stricter position, He would undoubtedly offend the majority of people that favored the more lax view. But if He sided with the more liberal view then they could accuse Him of accommodating sinners and being morally lax.
Either way He answered, the Pharisees weren’t interested in keeping the commandment as He understood it, but only in trying to embarrass Him and discredit Him before the people.

But in response to their trick question, Jesus turns them to the scriptures, not to the rabbinic traditions. He says in vs3 “And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?” The scripture, though written by human hands, in this case Moses, is the inspired word of God. So the scripture is authoritative, because it is the word of God. The rabbinic traditions were the word of man as he interpreted scripture. But Jesus turns their attention to the word of God. It’s the authority, not the rabbinic traditions.

By the way, that’s why we preach through the scripture, verse by verse. There is no other authority. Science is not an authority. Philosophy or psychiatry is not authoritative. All of the sciences are evolving, ever changing. But God’s word never changes. It is forever settled in heaven. 2Tim 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” And Peter says in 2 Peter 1:20-21 “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is [a matter] of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

The Pharisees answer Jesus in vs 4 They said, “Moses permitted [a man] TO WRITE A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND [her] AWAY.” What they give is an abbreviated synopsis of what Moses said, and in so shortening it, turn the intention of the law into something that indicates permissiveness. They say Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce. That is not actually what Moses says.

The original commandment can be found in Deut. 24:1-4 which says 1 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts [it] in her hand and sends her out from his house, and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man’s [wife,] and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts [it] in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife, [then] her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance.”

Moses, while recognizing that the common practice was to write a certificate of divorce and send her away, does not condone that practice, but is merely addressing the additional responsibility of possible sin after a man has divorced his wife. Moses is saying that if you divorce your wife, and she becomes the wife of another man, then the former husband is not allowed to take her back again to be his wife. That’s a sin, an abomination before God. But Moses does not encourage or condone divorce. They had misinterpreted the law to accommodate their sinful desire.

So Jesus answers them in vs 5, But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.” See, Jesus says that Moses didn’t permit divorce, but he is writing a commandment in response to the hardness of their heart in carrying out their sinful desire to divorce their wife. In Malachi 2:16 God says, I hate divorce. God said, “the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.”

So God didn’t condone or give permission for divorce. Sometime before, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke to this same issue saying, Matt. 5:31-32 “It was said, ‘WHOEVER SENDS HIS WIFE AWAY, LET HIM GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE’; but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for [the] reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” So Jesus had taken a position on divorce and according to Him, who is the Word made incarnate, the only reason for divorce would be unchastity. But even then, I think that the will of God is that there would not be divorce. He does allow for it in the case of unchastity, but He does not order it.

And that principle finds it’s in the sanctity of marriage as given by God. If marriage is a holy union between a man and a woman and in the sight of God they become one flesh, then what God has joined together let not man separate. So Jesus expounds the principle of divorce by stating the ordinance of marriage. He says in vs 6 “But from the beginning of creation, [God] MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE. “FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

So in answer to this question of divorce Jesus goes back to the original ordinance of God in regards to marriage, and once again, Jesus uses scripture as His authority. The first scripture reference is taken partially from Genesis 1:27 which says in full, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” The world has a whole bunch of problems with that verse, don’t they? First of all, the world doesn’t believe in creation. It doesn’t believe in intelligent design. The world believes in evolution, which is that man evolved over billions of years from some microorganism and random chance.

But if you believe that God designed and created man in His own image, and created them male and female, then that sets the parameters for everything that comes after. God didn’t make three or four or ten genders, He made two genders, male and female. But if you take God out of the equation, then I guess anything goes. If evolution were actually possible, then it’s conceivable that man could evolve into many different genders or variations of genders. But I don’t believe evolution is even possible, and if it were to happen that gender evolved then it would mean the end of our species. But I believe the Bible, and that God created man male and female and He said it was good. And that settles a lot of questions for me right there.

But that raises the question, do you believe in God, or more to the point, do you believe God? A lot of people claim to believe in God. However, they don’t believe in the God of the Bible. But the Bible says that Abraham believed God, not believed in God, and He credited it to him as righteousness. Abraham believed what God said. And like Abraham we gain righteousness by believing in the God of the Bible and believing what He said and what He promised and what He accomplished.

So having established that God made man male and female, Jesus goes on to show that God established marriage. Vs 7 “FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” Again, Jesus quotes scripture. This time He quotes from Genesis 2:24 which says, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”

The whole context of that scripture should be considered though. God had said that it was not good for man to be alone. And then “the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” God designed marriage as part of creation to complete man and accomplish God’s purposes in creation.

So the indissolubility of marriage is stated by Jesus in very forceful terms. Jesus is summarizing the divine ordinance concerning the marriage bond. In God’s eyes, they form a partnership, one completing the other, each complementing the other, so that they individually are better together through their union. For a man to separate what God has joined together, means to arrogantly defy the work of God. And I would add to that, that when a couple make their vows to come together in marriage, that they make such vows to God and not just to each other. It is a three party covenant. So when you break that vow to your wife or husband, you are also breaking a vow to God. And that is a fearful thing, to break a vow to God.

Well, after Jesus said these things, they go into a nearby house, whose house we are not told, and the disciples take the opportunity to question Him further about this teaching. Vs.10 “In the house the disciples [began] questioning Him about this again. And He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery.”

What Jesus is saying here is that a husband who divorces his wife, thereby separating what God has joined together, is committing a grievous sin, and that he adds to that grievous sin a further condemnation by marrying another woman. Such a man is sinning not just against God but against his wife, for he is involving himself in adultery against her, or if she remarries, causes her to commit adultery.

So in very simple terms, using scripture as the authority, Jesus denounces divorce, refutes the rabbinical misinterpretation of the law, reaffirms the laws true meaning, condemns the guilty party, defends the innocent, and throughout it all reaffirms the sacredness and inviolability of marriage as ordained by God between a man and a woman.

So we are to understand that Jesus regards the break up of a marriage to be an abomination before God. Yet on the other hand, that same uncompromising Lord Jesus Christ is the merciful Savior, who says to the woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more.” For most people listening here today that have had a divorce, it’s too late to undo it. In fact, you can add to the injury by divorcing once again to try to rectify the old divorce. But we can go and sin no more. if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The law exposes the fact that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But if we turn in repentance to the Savior, and believe that He died on the cross to pay the penalty of our sins, then as Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, so we by faith believe in what God has done and we receive the righteousness of Christ applied by grace to our account that we might gain eternal life and escape the condemnation that we deserve.
If you’re here this morning and you have been considering divorce I pray that God’s word has convinced you that God’s plan does not accommodate divorce and you will keep your vows to God. But if you’re here today and you are considering marriage, I hope that you realize that marriage is a covenant between you and God and your future spouse. It’s not something to be entered into lightly, or with a cavalier attitude. And if you are here this morning and you recognize that you have sinned against your spouse and against God by divorcing your spouse, then I hope you recognize that if you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins, and cleanse you from all unrighteousness, and by faith in His work on the cross, God can make all things new in your life.

As I so often tell you, I preach through the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter.  In so doing, we end up dealing with the attractive parts of the gospel, and the not so attractive parts of the gospel.  But irregardless of a particular scripture’s agreeableness, we know that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I suppose that I preach through the gospel verse by verse, is because I’m not smart enough to write out a series of sermons on popular topics such as loving relationships, or on God is love, or about how to live your best life now.  However, I suppose that if I were really smart, I would skip right over this passage before us today and move on to chapter 10 as if nothing was amiss. 

This passage and subject matter would have to be one of the most difficult to speak on in light of the attitude of our present culture, and the incongruity of speaking on such a unpopular subject of divine judgement and the punishment of hell.  I’m sure that speaking on these subjects will certainly disqualify me from any popularity contest. Those of you visiting here will probably go home and tell all your friends of this horrid experience you had, when you visited a church  on the beach on a really delightful morning, with the sun shining and the waves breaking and the dolphins jumping, and then this awful preacher started ranting on about hell fire and damnation.  Really quite a terrible scene.

But you know what’s really weird, is that Bible scholars tell us that Jesus spoke more on hell than He did about heaven.  So if you are going to preach through the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, then you will have to hear a lot about hell.  And so I really don’t see how we can avoid this for long.  So let’s just get to it, and deal with it, as best we can.

Thankfully, this passage doesn’t start with that subject, however.  It starts with the apostle John asking Jesus about someone they had seen casting out demons in Jesus’ name, and they had told him to stop doing it, because he was not one of them.  It seems a bit out of context with the rest of the passage, but I think there is a thread of continuity that runs through these verses and we see it all come together at the end.

Vs. 38 John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.”  But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is for us. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as [followers] of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.”

It’s important to read this keeping in mind that the disciples had just had an embarrassing incident which we looked at a couple of weeks ago in which they had been unable to cast out a particular nasty demon.  Actually, it wasn’t so much that the demon was particularly powerful, but that the disciples had neglected to spend enough time in prayer, recognizing their utter dependence upon Jesus Christ to do any mighty works.   Pride, or a lack of humility on the part of the disciples were really the problem, not the power of the demon.  Remember Jesus had cast out  thousands of demons that were in the demoniac of the Gerasenes. So the difficulty wasn’t the demon, the difficulty had been their lack of reliance upon God for their authority.

So then the disciples see a man casting out demons who aren’t a part of their group and they have a problem with him, perhaps due to jealousy on their part.  In fact, they tried to stop him.  But what they failed to pick up on was that this man was not some Jewish exorcist, he was casting out demons by the name of Jesus Christ.  In other words, this man was a believer in Jesus Christ.  He was working the works of God through the power of Jesus Christ.  That’s what it means when Jesus said, “in my name.”  In the power and authority of Jesus Christ.  And he could only do that because he was a believer in Christ. Just because he wasn’t a member of the 12, didn’t mean that he was not a disciple of Jesus.

And Jesus speaks to that, saying, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is for us.”  The key to understanding that saying is that this man was working “in My name,” or “in Jesus name.” The power of Christ works in us that believe in Him to bring about any righteousness that we do.  Our ability to live the Christian life lies not in our power of discipline, or our power of self control, but in having given our life to Christ, so that the power of Christ lives in Me.  That’s what it means to be saved, to be born again, it’s to have new life in Christ, Christ living in me.  That’s what Paul speaks of in 2Co 12:9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”

And that power of Christ in us is the reason that we do good works. As Paul says in Eph 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Now there is a special significance to that phrase, “in My name,” or “in Christ’s name.”  What it means is that it is true to the gospel of Christ, it is according to the truth of Christ, it is by the authority of Christ, it is in the power of Christ.  Jesus, as the Son of God,  omnipotently knew that this man was speaking the truth of Christ and working in the genuine authority and power of Christ.  We may see someone today who claims to be speaking and working in the power of Christ but we may wonder if the person is truly representing correctly the gospel of Christ.  And sometimes that is a justifiable concern.  Because the devil often masquerades as an angel of light, as we are told in the scripture. 

So we have to balance this admonition of Jesus to not hinder someone who is preaching in Jesus name on the one hand, with another admonition against those who claim the name of Jesus, according to Matthew 7:21-23, but their sinful life betrays them as not being of Christ.  Jesus said,  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven [will enter.]  “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’  “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’

So we must use spiritual discernment to know when someone is truly working in Jesus name, and when someone falsely claims Jesus name, but they aren’t preaching the truth of Jesus’s gospel.

But for those who truly work in Jesus name, Jesus says in vs41 “For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as [followers] of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.”  So as we do the works of righteousness which God prepared beforehand, that we might walk in them, even to the very minor work of giving a cup of water to another believer, Jesus says that such work will be rewarded.  Heaven is a place of rewards, as well as a place of rest.  It’s a place where we are given rewards for the works that we have done on this earth.

But at the judgement seat of God which is in heaven, it will on the last day be a place for the judgement of wickedness.  And just as a minor thing as giving a cup of water will have a reward, so will every thought and deed, no matter how trivial it may seem now, have a consequence or a reward in the judgment.

Jesus spoke of that in Matt. 12:35-36 saying “The good man brings out of [his] good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of [his] evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.”

And so having spoken of the reward of the righteous works,  at this point Jesus turns His attention to that judgment of the unrighteous works, those who have rejected Him, and who hindered those who would come to Him.

Jesus says in Vs42  “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.”  These little ones that Jesus speaks of are the children of God, those who have believed in Jesus Christ, who have believed His gospel and been converted.  This statement relates back to vs 37 “Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.”   Matthew’s account of this saying gives further amplification of this – “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”  So little children are the children of God, made so by conversion, being born again.

But those that hinder a child of God, that cause a child of God to stumble, to fall into sin, Jesus says that having a millstone tied around your neck and being dumped into the ocean to drown would be a much better alternative than the judgment that you will face when you are called to give an account for your life.  I think that there will be a hottest part of hell reserved for people who lead others, especially young naive people, even children, into sin. And yet I believe the devil has especially targeted children today in our society, and he’s using people of influence in the media and entertainment industry to put a stumbling block in front of them.  Jesus says that such people will deserve the most severe punishment. And Jesus promises that God will judge such with the fullest measure of His wrath.

Jesus goes on to say that the disciples must be on their guard lest they cause others or themselves to stumble, to fall into sin. If any bodily organ, hand, foot, eye or anything, no matter how dear to us it may seem, if it threatens to become a trap or a stumbling block to someone, they must immediately take drastic action to be rid of it.  Jesus correlates this back in chapter 8 vs 34 as taking up your cross, being willing to die to  physical lusts of the flesh.  Here he relates it as cutting off your hand, or plucking out your eye.   In other words, you don’t try to mollify sin, to condone sin, to accommodate sin.  You cut it off. You mortify the flesh.

Jesus says, in vs43 “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, [where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.]  If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell, [where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.] If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell,  where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.”

There are some theological issues that are raised by this teaching which I want to address, and yet I am sure I cannot answer to everyone’s satisfaction.  The primary question to my mind that arises is the reality of hell.  Is hell a real place?  I would say that according to Jesus, it is very much a reality.  Is hell eternal or is it a place of annihilation? I would say that according to Jesus’ statement, it is eternal.  Is hell a place of fire and burning? I would say that according to Jesus, it is an unquenchable fire. Then another question is, who will go to hell? According to what Jesus indicates here, it is for those who have rejected Christ and continued in rebellion against Him.  Sin is rebellion.  And hell is reserved as the punishment for sin.

I wish to God that there was not a hell. I wish that no one would ever end up in hell.  I hope and pray with all my heart and soul that none of my loved ones or friends would ever find themselves in hell.  I heard one preacher say that we should never be able to speak of hell without tears in our eyes. No one in their right mind wishes hell on anyone.  Even our worst  enemies we should love enough to do everything possible to keep them from hell.  

But I also heard another preacher say that a person will have to walk over the cross of Christ in order to get to hell. They are going to have to trample on Jesus as He is dying on the cross for your sins, in order to get to hell. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus suffered our punishment so that we might be delivered from the hell we were destined for.  The good news of the gospel is that salvation is a free gift of God, if we will just believe in what Jesus did for us, that as the Son of God He became our substitute, and was punished for our sins, so that we might be forgiven and receive the righteousness of God, and we might have eternal life.  

But Jesus makes it clear that for those who reject Him, there is reserved for them a place in hell.  Then Jesus continues to talk about the judgment of fire, which I think is directed towards His disciples, or believers,  in vs 49 saying,  “For everyone will be salted with fire.”  He isn’t saying that everyone will go to hell.  But it’s not easy to understand what He is speaking of.  He probably is speaking of a trial by fire, what Peter calls a fiery trial, which will come upon everyone for the purpose of purification.  In believers, this fiery trial will be the means by which sin is purged, our iniquity is burned away so that our righteousness may be revealed.  Jesus correlates fire with the metaphor of salt to represent a curative, a preservative against the corruption of sin. If you rub salt into a wound, it burns like fire, but it also cleans and preserves against corruption.  So is the work of a fiery trial in a believer.

In Isaiah, when the prophet saw the glory of God on His throne, he said, “woe is me for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.” And an angel of the Lord took a lump of coal from the fire before the altar and put it on his lips, and said, ““Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.”

The hymn How Firm A Foundation that we sing here so often says, “when through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, my grace all sufficient shall be thy supply, the flames shall not hurt thee, I only design, thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.”

Peter says in 1Peter 4:12-13, 17 “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;  but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. … 17 For the time [has come] for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if [it begins] with us first, what will [be] the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” 

So there is either a fire of punishment for the wicked or a fire of refining for the believer.  But everyone will be salted by fire. But Jesus leaves the idea of fire and continues with the metaphor of salt, saying in vs 50 “Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty [again?] Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

It’s easy to see that salt is good. It’s a preservative, it cleanses, it was even used as currency, as a measure for money.  The saying that someone is “worth their salt” means worth their wage.  It comes from Roman times when soldiers were paid in salt.  Salt was considered of such great value that the soldiers were paid with it.

However according to Jesus, salt could become worthless. It could lose it’s saltiness. And He asks the rhetorical question, “how can you make it salty again? Jesus said in Matt. 5:13  “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty [again?] It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.”

You might say then that salt is the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in your life, the refining fire of the Holy Spirit in your life.  But if you disregard the Spirit’s warnings, and sin against God and man, then you effectively quench the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, and righteousness and judgment.  But it’s possible to quench the Holy Spirit and rebel against the Lord, to continue in sin.  And if that occurs in your life, then your physical life is  no longer good for anything godly, but to be trampled under foot by men.  Reminds us of trampling over the cross of Christ in order to get to hell, doesn’t it? 

Heb 10:28-31 says,  “Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on [the testimony of] two or three witnesses.  How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?  For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.”  It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

So as a preservative against the temptation to sin, Jesus says, “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”  It’s useless for a man to try to do good works unless by the grace of God he has been made good within. That is unless he has been converted into a true child of God. It’s having the power of the Spirit of Christ in you. To have salt within oneself means then, to have the sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, working to conform you into the image of Jesus Christ.  Romans 8:9 says, “But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” So having the Spirit within you,  then you become, as Jesus said in Matt. 5:13, the salt of the world. And therefore also, your speech is always seasoned with salt. 

To that end, Jesus said, be at peace with each other.  Having the Holy Spirit in us as the salt that cures us from quarreling, from envy, from strife, from anger, from jealousy, from trying to outdo each other, but instead learning to love one another and serve one another, and value the other more highly than yourself.  That is the means of peace.  As Paul said in Rom 12:18 “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.”  That is how we become the salt of the earth. Being at peace with one another is how we manifest Christ who is in us,  to the world.   As Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.” (Matt.5:9)

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.”