As most of you know, our family went to Santa Barbara, CA to spend the holidays with our kids. And it truly was a great time that we had there together. The weather was fantastic, we had all our children under one roof, the house we stayed in was cool, overlooking the ocean. You just couldn’t ask for a nicer time together. And I have to admit, that just the thought of getting on the plane to come back to Delaware during the middle of the winter here was kind of tough. Little did we realize just how tough it was going to be. The weather alone here has been almost unbearable.

The questions we always get after going away like that to California is usually very similar. “Why don’t you guys move out there? You would be close to your kids. It’s such a beautiful place, the weather, the waves are great, why don’t you move out there?” And the truth is, such thoughts are tempting, especially when the temperature is in the single digits like it was last night. But the reality is that we believe this is where God has called us to live and work and minister. And it is far better to live here and be in the Lord’s will, having the blessings of God upon us, than it would be to live in what we think might be paradise and not have the Lord with us.

So in that regard, I was struck by the opening phrase in today’s text; “As they were coming down from the mountain….” As a Christian, there will be more time spent in the valley than on the mountaintop. God has not called us to live on the mountain top but to toil in the valley. We need those mountaintop experiences from time to time, but they are not intended for us to live there, but to equip us to live in the valley.

You may remember what Peter said when they were on the mountain during the transfiguration, “Lord, it is good for us to be here.” “Let’s stay here and build tabernacles.” Peter was thinking, this is Paradise. Let’s stay right here. Let’s keep this going. There is no need to go back down the mountain. And I think most of us could identify with that. We would love to stay on the mountaintop. We yearn for the mountaintop experiences. Troubles and trials and heartaches are not something we want to experience. We want to avoid trials. Though God may occasionally take us to the mountaintop, yet He then leads us through the valley of death.

The Lord could not stay on the mountaintop. He had to come down the mountain and suffer and die on the cross in order to effect the salvation of mankind. Christ was in heaven with the Father before He came to earth. He left heaven to suffer and die on the cross. Peter and the disciples needed to see Christ transfigured on the mountain, and to hear the divine decree from the Father, and see the shekinah glory come down from God, but all of that was intended to equip them to be able to walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

So as they came down from the mountain, the Lord gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen. Why? Because they had a flawed understanding of the gospel. They had gotten a glimpse of the glory, they knew the theology of the glorious kingdom of the Messiah, but they did not understand the suffering of the cross that had to come first. So many Christians only want to see the glory. They are all in for getting stirred up by a rousing concert, or being whipped into a ecstatic frenzy in a camp meeting, or healed at a miracle service. But not many want to walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

Thus Jesus said, wait until the Son of Man has risen from the dead. Dying must have seemed so incongruous with what the disciples had just witnessed. It must have taken all Peter’s resolve not to blurt out, “Not so Lord. May it never be. We will not let you die.” They did not realize that though Jesus had come as the Messiah, yet He came to die. Salvation could not happen without the cross. The glory of the Kingdom of God could only prevail on earth if it was preceded first by the suffering of the King.

Mark said they seized upon that statement, wondering what rising from the dead meant. They might have thought it referred to the general resurrection. They wanted to focus on the glory. He wanted them to focus on the cross. Hence they ask about the glory of the Messiah, and how the prophecy stated that Elijah must come first. He, on the other hand, responds by asking a question of HIs own about the prophecy concerning the suffering of the Messiah. Vs.12 “And He said to them, ‘Elijah does first come and restore all things. And yet how is it written of the Son of Man that He will suffer many things and be treated with contempt?’”

That illustrates a good point. The gospel must be taken fully and completely to be the truth. We dare not capitalize on certain texts which we find appealing, and leave others dangling which are not quite to our liking. The disciples were undoubtedly referring to Malachi’s prophecy concerning Elijah who would prepare the way for the kingdom to be inaugurated by the Messiah. The language of Malachi evokes a picture of the glorious kingdom of the Messiah.

Malachi 3:1 “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of hosts.”

And then in Malachi 4:1-3, 5-6 it says “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.” 2 “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. 3 “You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the LORD of hosts. … 5 “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. 6 “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”

All of that prophecy indicates the Lord establishing His glorious kingdom by judgment and power, and that Israel will participate in that glory. But Jesus understands that there is another aspect of the gospel, that is that the Messiah will suffer and die so that He might bring about salvation for all men.

Jesus was probably referring to the prophecy in Isaiah 53 where it says in chapter 3 vs 3 “He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.” There were other such prophecies in the Old Testament, such as in the Psalms which talked of the suffering of the Messiah, but the theology of the Israelites had conveniently overlooked them.

So Jesus said Elijah did come already. He was speaking of John the Baptist. Jesus had already said in Matthew 11:14, “If you’re willing to accept it, or willing to accept the truth, John himself is Elijah who was to come.” And the angel had testified concerning John’s birth that John was coming in the spirit of Elijah as recorded in Luke 1:17 “It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

So Jesus said in vs 13 “But I say to you that Elijah has indeed come, and they did to him whatever they wished, just as it is written of him.” They put John the Baptist to death. They rejected the forerunner and herald of the Kingdom of God. They would also reject the King when He came and do unto Him as they pleased. They would put Him to death.

There is a sense in which Jesus is teaching them through John the Baptist’s example, that if you would follow Him, you also can expect persecution, even death. This was certainly not something that the disciples were thinking about or looking forward to. In fact, later on in this chapter, Jesus asks them what they were thinking about, and Mark says they had been discussing who would be the greatest among them. They were in effect, fighting over the chief seats in the rule of the Kingdom when it came in with glory. They had no concept of the suffering that must come first.

But the fact is, that Jesus had been teaching them that if you wanted to be His disciple, you had to take up your cross and follow Him. In the previous chapter, Jesus said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” Not only had Christ come to take up His cross, but all who will be His disciples must take up there cross as well. We must die to self. We must die to this world. And very often, that means that we will suffer the loss of much of what this world counts as dear, for the sake of knowing Christ Jesus and being counted as one of His own.

According to the gospel, glory follows suffering. Paul says in Romans 8:17 and if [we are] children, [then we are] heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

The cross represents suffering, which is equivalent to a life of faith; believing in what is not seen. The cross and resurrection would mean that Jesus would be absent. He would not be physically with the disciples continually, whenever they found themselves dealing with the trials of this world. So it would be necessary to learn to live by faith, which is a type of suffering, putting to death the physical and learning to live in the spiritual. When the cross is borne now, then glory will come later.

And yet the irony is that we fully expect glory now. When the cross comes, we find it unbearable, untenable with our tightly held expectations of what glories we believe are guaranteed to be the day to day experiences of the Christian life. We misunderstand the reality of our calling. We misunderstand the gospel.

So they came down the mountain, and they find there a vivid illustration of what is often the reality of the Christian life as we walk through the valley. They found scoffing, sarcastic scribes. They found disciples that are impotent of any power to heal a demonized boy. They found a person that is held captive by the devil, that is incapacitated in regards to life. They found a demon that wanted to destroy this young boy and ruin his father’s life. And they found a crowd that is watching. What a picture of the world that is waiting at the bottom of the mountain, as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. There are the scoffers, ridiculing us for our weaknesses. We find that we are often impotent to effect real change in the world around us. We find loved ones that are caught up in sin and held captive to the devil to do his will. We see a devil that is bent on destroying lives and seemingly be successful at it. And we see a world that is watching, wondering why these so called followers of Christ are so powerless to do anything to help.

So Jesus is going to use this situation to teach His disciples how to operate in such a fallen, hopeless world. He is going to teach them how to live by faith. So He asked his disciples, “What are you discussing with them?” I think it was the equivalent of “What’s going on here?” And a man from the crowd answered, “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.”

Some commentators have said that this was a case of simple epilepsy. But I don’t think so because his father says he was possessed with a spirit, he was mute, and Jesus adds later that he couldn’t hear either. And Mark adds that it was a spirit which threw him to the ground.

Vs. 20 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. 21 And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 “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!”

I want to point out that Jesus doesn’t ask these questions such as we see here in this text because He doesn’t know the answer, but because He wants to illustrate to the disciples the dire nature of the infirmity. He wants them to understand the complete hopelessness of the situation.

And that is important for us to realize as well. Before we can be successful in our walk of faith, we need to recognize the hopelessness of our condition. This young man and his father are a picture, albeit almost a caricature, of the sinful condition of the entire human race. I have often thought of this example in regards to the condition of an addict. They are so helpless many times to help themselves. The drugs or alcohol have completely taken over and the devil seems intent on destroying them. I think the hopelessness of the father is similar to the hopelessness of parents who see their child suffering the devastating effects of addiction.

But in reality, addiction is not so different than the effects of the sinful condition of us all. Though to us some sins don’t seem as destructive or damning as others, yet the fact is that Satan has duped us all to sin, and all sin is damning and ends in destruction.

So to the question, “If you can…” Jesus responds, “ ‘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.”

The first problem that Jesus identifies is that of unbelief. This is the real nature of sin; it is unbelief. Sin is not believing what God has said, and instead believing in your own interpretation, in your belief in yourself that you know what is best, that you can handle it, that you have it under control. Belief is simply surrendering control to God, who has the power to deliver us from sin on the basis of our belief in Christ.

That’s why Jesus starts out the conversation by saying, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you?” It’s not just the lack of faith of the disciples who could not heal, it’s not just the small faith of the father, or the unbelief of the crowd, but He is speaking of the unbelief of a generation, of the human race. The greatest unbelief is holding onto the lie of the devil that we can make our own decisions. That we can determine for ourselves good from evil. That we can know how to live life according to our terms. That’s the sin that Eve was tempted with. She was tempted to determine for herself what was good and evil. To be wise like God. We think we know better than God what is good and evil. And so we decide for ourselves, and the result is that we fall for the devil’s lies and eat of the forbidden fruit and as a result we are damned. And then the devil takes liberty through our sin and destroys us.

Belief then is not just believing that God exists, or even that Jesus exists. The people there that day could see Jesus. They believed He was real. But belief is believing that Christ is the Son of God, and that only through Him was their deliverance from sin, when one submits completely to His Lordship of their life.

And by extension that doctrine of faith speaks to the time when Christ would die and be resurrected and no longer be with them on earth. What the Lord was trying to teach the disciples, is that belief, or faith, is believing in what you cannot see. Heb. 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” After His resurrection, when He would no longer be there with them, there would be a need for an increased faith on their part, to believe that He was with them, when they no longer could see Him. Faith is living not on the basis of what we can experience on a physical level, but living according to the word of God, believing what He has promised, when there is no physical evidence to support it.

So the answer of Jesus to their unbelief was that all things are possible to him that believes. Such a broad, all encompassing statement. We have to be careful not to make it a doctrine that stands alone, isolated from other scripture. But we need to recognize that it is meant as an explanation of the doctrine of faith. In other words, what is possible to him who has faith? All things. The Bible says that whatever is not from faith is sin. So faith is the means of righteousness. Romans 1:17 says, The righteous man shall live by faith.” And then in Romans 4:5 it says, “faith is credited as righteousness.” Romans 9:30 says “righteousness is by faith.” So it is clear then that all things, all good things, the life which is from God, is available by faith.

Now the answer of the father is a great answer and one that speaks for all of us; “I do believe; help my unbelief.” A little faith is all that is required for receiving more faith, when that faith is centered on Jesus Christ. In other words, to him who has, more shall be given. We see that expressed in Romans 1:16-17 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” Our faith in Christ’s righteousness, results in our righteousness, which increases our faith, as we go from faith to faith, that we may do even greater works.

Now Mark goes on to record how the Lord delivered this boy from the power of the unclean spirit. And it’s worth noting that the demon screamed and threw him into such terrible convulsions that the boy seemed to have died. You know, as we saw in our study of Daniel a few weeks ago, there are some demonic angels that are more powerful than other angels. Jesus Himself seems to infer to the disciples when they ask why they could not cast him out, that there are varying degrees of strength in demonic forces, by use of the phrase, “this kind.” As if to infer that there are various kinds. Ephesians 6 gives us the same sense of hierarchies of demonic forces.

But the point of this miracle is not to teach about demons, because Jesus has authority over all demons, stronger or weaker as they may be. But the point is to teach the disciples the necessity of living by faith, especially in light of the fact that He would soon be leaving them. So when they ask Him why they could not cast out this demon, He says, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”

What Jesus is teaching is not a prayer formula for casting out demons. Notice that Jesus Himself doesn’t pray to cast out the demon. So there is no formula. What He is teaching is the necessity for a dependent relationship with Jesus Christ. The King James Version adds, “prayer and fasting.” More modern translations don’t include the phrase “and fasting.” But the important thing is not whether you eat or don’t eat, but that you have an intimate, continual relationship with the Lord that is exemplary of the principle of “faith to faith.” Where you are in a continual, constant communication with the Lord, dependent upon His leading and guiding in all situations. And that relationship for us is only achievable through faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And faith is expressed through prayer, as we talk to the Lord and commune with Him.

If you will remember, at the transfiguration God gives the disciples the first key to being able to walk through the valley when they would come down from the mountain. God said, “This is My Beloved Son, listen to Him!” The first key to our walk when we come down off the mountain is that we rely totally upon the written word of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to listen continually to the Word.

The second key that we see illustrated here is that we must understand the doctrine of the cross must be central in our lives. Not just the atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins, but the cross that we must bear as well, as we die to the world and walk by faith in the power of Christ.

The third key is that of faith. Believing and trusting in His power and His promises that will not fail, in spite of what the world seems to tell us.

And finally, the last key is to stay in communion with the Lord through prayer. Prayer is the connection back to God, it completes the circuit of our faith through which we have power in the darkness. This world is a dark place. But we are called to be lights in a dark world, to be lights on a hill. The world is watching. We are to be working for the kingdom. We are to carry on the business of the kingdom until the King returns. And if we are to be successful we must stay in the word, listening to the Lord through His word. We must take up our cross, realizing that glory follows suffering for His sake, and dying to the lusts of the world. We walk by faith and not by sight, and we must maintain prayer without ceasing as we rely constantly on the leading of the Holy Spirit.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So in vs 31 “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vs17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? “HAVING EYES, DO YOU NOT SEE? AND HAVING EARS, DO YOU NOT HEAR? And do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?” They said to Him, “Twelve.” “When I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?” And they said to Him, “Seven.” And He was saying to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let me start today by posing a hypothetical situation to you. If you were able to live a truly exemplary Christian life, a life of ministry, a life of righteousness, a life that pointed people to Christ – if that was something that not only your friends said about you, but also more importantly something that God said about you, how would you expect your life to turn out? Wouldn’t you think that for such a person, there would be the proverbial “showers of blessings?” Wouldn’t you expect at the very least, a long life, all your financial needs met, your health assured, your family’s well being?

I think if you are honest, deep down in your subconscious heart you would expect all those things on the life of someone who was truly a man or woman after God’s own heart. That’s what the majority Christian view teaches, for the most part. That if you live for the Lord, He will bless your life here on earth, and in fact, those blessings will be pressed down, shaken, and running over.

I must confess that there is a part of me still that holds to that view as well. In spite of having experiences to the contrary many times in my life. I think we want to believe that a blessed life is the norm for the Christian life, and though times of tribulation and even distress like that which befell Job, for instance, are sometimes encountered, they are due to extenuating circumstances, and we should not expect that as the normal situation for the Christian.

Well, as a counter point to that subconscious or conscious mindset, I offer you today the example of John the Baptist. I’m sure that most of you are well familiar with his life and need no review. But some review is necessary, if only to illustrate the kind of man that John the Baptist was. Because the end of his life does not bear testimony to the degree with which he was regarded by God.

In fact, leaving aside a lot of the historical details of John’s life, the ultimate testimony as to what kind of man John was is recorded as spoken by Jesus in Matthew 11:11 where He said, “Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist!” There can be no higher accolade given to men that that statement by none other than the Lord Jesus Himself. No one up to that day had been born who was greater than John the Baptist.

Yet, consider how this man died. Alone, after having spent a year and four months in prison according to some commentators. He wasted away all that time in a dungeon, practically forgotten about, finally to be beheaded at the request of a viciously angry woman. Something doesn’t seem fair about that. The very people that he preached against, managed to have him killed. And if some historians are to be believed, his decapitated head served on a charger was treated with public contempt by this same woman.

So how are we to view this man’s life? There is no evidence of sin that he committed which would have brought on such an ignominious end. And we cannot believe that God was so unjust as to forget about the good works that John did while on the earth. So what are we to think in regards to this story? 

I will confess something to you. I read several sermons in preparing for this message, secretly hoping that I might find a nice, tight little three point outline and a poem that I could borrow which would have answered my own questions regarding this event, as well as solve my dilemma on how to present it. But as I reviewed several messages from my favorite stable of pastors out there whom I like to listen to, I found that they avoided the why, and just expanded on the what. They took the parallel passages in the other gospels and added a lot of historical details and simply retold the story with a lot more in depth material than what Mark gives us. But that approach doesn’t answer my questions. And I think that perhaps it doesn’t answer your questions either.

My purpose then today is not to teach a history lesson, or a geography lesson. If you want that you can find it in most study Bibles. But my purpose is to try to understand the principles of the gospel that Mark is giving us today. Of all people, Mark could easily have embellished the story with a lot of biographical details about the Herods. He could easily have given us more history connected with this event. But Mark, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, gives us this account, in all it’s brevity, for the purpose of teaching us some important lessons – the life principles of the gospel. And so I want to try to examine that aspect today. Though I admit that perhaps I will raise more questions than I will answer.

I would like to build on the questions I started out with concerning our preconceptions about the blessings of God in regards to our lives. There are two men in the Bible that we are told who never died. One was a man named Enoch, who it was said in Genesis 5:24 walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. The other was Elijah, who was taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire, while Elisha was looking on. This is the same Elijah, by the way, that some said had come back to life in the form of Jesus, as we read in vs 15.

So to expand on my earlier question, obviously these two men were special in the sight of God. God enjoyed fellowship with Enoch to such a degree that He took Him to be with Him. How, we do not know. But one minute he was on the earth, and the next God took Him to be with Him. Hebrews 11:5 tells us that ‘By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God.”

I remember my Dad attempting to dramatize it by saying that Enoch and the Lord used to walk together, perhaps in the cool of the evening as He had done with Adam and Eve before the fall. And one evening, as they were walking and their conversation was particularly engaging, darkness began to fall. And perhaps Enoch said, “Lord, it’s getting late. Martha probably has dinner on the table. I guess I better get back.” And the Lord said, “Enoch, why don’t you come home to dinner with Me tonight. I’ll send word to Martha so she won’t worry.” And so Enoch and the Lord kept on walking and talking and just kind of faded into the evening dusk. And Enoch was not, for the Lord took him.

Now that would be a nice way to go, wouldn’t it? Just be walking with the Lord, and you go around the bend out of sight, still walking and talking with the Lord. And you walk out of this world into the next.

Or how about Elijah? What a triumphal way to end your life. Elijah lived a life with supernatural power. He performed mighty miracles. He was a mighty man of God, and he left this world in a blaze of glory, with the thunder of horses hooves, and the rattle of chariot’s wheels, and a flaming fire enveloping all of it. I can imagine that there was a special angel driving the chariot, and one minute Elijah is standing there talking to Elisha, and the next there is this whirlwind and fire and the chariot appears in a rush, and the strong arm of the angel reaches out and swoops Elijah off his feet into the chariot and they fly away into the clouds, leaving poor old Elisha standing there dumfounded.

Those are great stories. They are true stories. And we are excited at hearing about such things which happened to mighty men of God. But if the truth be known, and the Lord was to say to me or to you today, “You are highly favored among men. You have walked faithfully with Me during your time here on the earth, and come tomorrow at this time, I will come and take you away from this earth to be with Me.” Well, I hate to say it, but I think a lot of us might tell the Lord, “You know, I am flattered that you think so well of me and the ministry that I have done here on the earth, but the truth is I am not really all that anxious to leave right now. I would rather spend a long life here on earth, and enjoy all the blessings that you can give me here on earth with my family and friends. After all, I still have a lot of things I want to do before I leave. Thanks for the offer though.”

That fits better with our paradigm of the Christian life, doesn’t it? That God’s blessings on good people means that we get to enjoy life more abundantly, right here, for many, many years to come. Well, I would suggest that such an attitude reveals much about our commitment to our Christianity and our walk with the Lord. I would suggest that our commitment to the Lord is based more on what He can do for me in the here and now, rather than what kind of benefit I might receive in the hereafter.

So John the Baptist illustrates for us first and foremost the kind of dedication and commitment that pleases the Lord. John’s whole purpose was to introduce people to Jesus Christ. He went about preaching repentance in order to prepare the way for the Lord’s ministry. He said about Christ, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” He had the right perspective about his purpose in life. Jesus was to be lifted up, exalted, and he was to decrease. In other words, he wasn’t interested in Jesus blessing his earthly life, increasing his horizons, building his kingdom. But just the opposite, he was interested in blessing the Lord, increasing the reach of the gospel, building the kingdom of God.

Not only did he have the right perspective, but he gave the right testimony. He was salt and light to the world. Not only did John preach righteousness, but he preached repentance, he preached about sin. In fact, John got pretty personal. In vs.18, John told King Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” That kind of preaching did not go over too well. John called the Pharisees who came to his church service on the beach, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come!” (Matt.3:7) John was salt and light to a dark and corrupt world. He called sin what it was. He called people who sinned sinners. And he called people to repentance.

Furthermore, John eschewed the benefits of this life in favor of the benefits of the kingdom. John didn’t concern himself with the niceties of this life. He dressed badly. He ate badly. He didn’t live in fancy houses, but he lived in the wilderness. Matt. 3:4 “Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.” He was one of the giants of faith described in Hebrews 11 as one who lived as an exile on earth, who “desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.”

And ultimately, his life was about showing people Jesus. John 1:29 When he saw Jesus coming to him he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” When that part of his ministry was completed, John soon faded off the stage, and found himself arrested and put in Herod’s dungeon for 16 months. Mark tells us that Herod liked to listen to John preach. I imagine that it’s possible Herod would call him up out of the prison to preach a sermon to him, and maybe have some fun at his expense. He considered John a novelty, sort of entertainment. But in the course of doing so, Herod became convinced of John’s righteousness, and holiness. Maybe it was like the way some of you like watching scary movies, you don’t really believe them, but they scare you and entertain you at the same time. And sometimes, late at night, they cause you to worry that there may be some truth to them after all. Herod may have been like that with John. He found his message disconcerting.

But John’s incarceration raises the question, where is God in all of that? John is a faithful servant of the Lord, and yet he finds himself suffering in prison for months on end, forgotten and forlorn. And so we see in Matthew 11:3 that John sent word by his disciples to Jesus to ask Him, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” John, though more highly thought of by God than any other man up to this point, has a moment of doubt. He must have been suffering discouragement. He was not having a good day, or week or month, for that matter. Jesus wasn’t doing what John though the Messiah would do. John probably expected Jesus to overthrow the kingdoms of the world and in due time He would set things right with John. He would set him free from the dungeon.

But Jesus doesn’t give him the answer he expects. Jesus just confirms that He is doing the works of God. Jesus said according to Matt. 11:5 “the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM.” I can almost imagine what I would have said at that, if I had been in John’s place. “Well that’s great! If you are doing miracles over there, then how about doing one in here? Get me out of here!” How many of us, reading of the miracles that Jesus performed, do not expect that He should do the same for us? It may be a logical conclusion to the human mind, but it does not always fulfill the purposes of God. The purpose of the gospel is not to make our lives here on earth better, to do away with our suffering, do enable us to live a trial free life, but to give us a sure hope of a better life beyond this world.

So John is left there in the prison, left there to suffer the horrors of life in a dungeon with the rats and bad food, and the indignities of being in chains. But while he is there, I believe John comes to terms with God’s purposes, he is convinced that Jesus is the Christ, and he is satisfied to know that he did his job well, and that the gospel is progressing according to the will of God. So John doesn’t send any more messages. His disciples come less often. And John must have turned his thoughts to going home to be with the Lord. The things of earth became strangely dim, in the light of the glory that awaited him.

Well, not long after that, Herod’s birthday approaches. And as Mark has told us in his gospel Herodias’s daughter comes in to dance before the dignitaries that Herod has assembled for his banquet. And she so pleases Herod by her dance that he offers her anything she might want, even up to half of his kingdom. So this girl goes to her mother, Herodias, and asks her what she should ask for. Mark says that her mother has carried a grudge against John because of his rebuke of her marriage to Herod, and so she asked for John’s head to be brought upon a platter. Vs26 “And although the king was very sorry, yet because of his oaths and because of his dinner guests, he was unwilling to refuse her. 27 Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded him to bring back his head. And he went and had him beheaded in the prison.”

Here is the part that is so hard for us to understand. Given the exemplary life of John the Baptist, why would God let him die like this? Beheaded at the request of a villainous, sinful queen, a woman who lived in incest, a woman who controlled her weak, evil husband. Why did God allow such a good man to die such an ignoble death, and perhaps an untimely death at the hands of such evil people? After all, John was probably only about 33 years of age at this point. He had only preached about a year and a half. What sense does this make?

Well, the only sense is that John the Baptist walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. Whether God took him by flight into the heavens by means of a chariot, or by freeing his spirit in one fell swoop of the executioner’s sword, the end result is the same. John finished the purpose here on earth that God had given him, and so the Lord took him home to be with Him. One minute, he was bending his body over the stone and laying his head upon the chopping block, his mouth moving in conversation to God, and the next minute, the angels are ushering him into the presence of the Lord Himself, to hear “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” (Matt.25:21)

I think that this story of John’s execution is put here for a number of reasons. One of which is that it reinforces a principle we have seen twice so far in this chapter, and that is that the gospel will be rejected. The very hometown of Jesus rejected Him in the opening verses of this chapter. And then we see that various towns rejected His disciples as well, so that Jesus told them to expect it, and to shake the dust off their sandals as an indictment of their rejection. Now we see this rejection of the gospel taken to another level, to even that of murder so that Herod and his wife might try to maintain their sinful life style and might eliminate the reproach of the preacher of righteousness. And so I believe that Mark has given us these examples, that he might illustrate the nature of the ministry of the gospel. It is an adversarial gospel. It is an offense to the sinner. It forces people to examine themselves in the light of the truth, and some people are going to reject it, and some will go so far as event to take vengeance upon you for your ministry.

The other reason that this story is given is to illustrate the purpose of the Christian life, to be willing to die to this world and offer up our lives as a living and holy sacrifice to God. And even if we are killed for the sake of the gospel, we see that even a king cannot kill the gospel. In vs 16 we see evidence that the fire that John the Baptist lit was fanned into even greater flames by Jesus Christ, and then in vs30 we foresee that same fire which will become a blazing inferno that would engulf the world through the ministry of the disciples. Satan cannot stop the gospel, though he might even put some of us to death.

But even though some of us might die an inglorious death such as John did at the hands of our detractors, yet even that accomplishes the purposes of God. For the purposes of God in such lives has been accomplished, and in killing us Satan only serves to usher us into the arms of God. He cannot stop the spread of the gospel. And he can only hasten our home going by the permission of the Lord.

It is human to worry about death. After all, none of us have experienced it. Fanciful tales to the contrary no one in our lifetime has died and come back to tell us about it. So death is a mystery that is worrisome to us. But let’s remember what Paul said in 2Cor. 5:6-8 “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord– for we walk by faith, not by sight– we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” The hope of the gospel gives us courage in the face of death, knowing that to be absent from the body means we will be home with the Lord.

I won’t take the time today to expand upon what I believe the Bible says about heaven, or what it means to be at home with the Lord. Other than to say as Paul said in 1Cor. 2:9 “but just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”

The point we need to be concerned with is that if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die we go to be with the Lord. In Phil. 1:21-23 Paul says, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better.”

And I guess that is where we come full circle. To depart and be with Christ is very much better than to stay on in the flesh. That is what Paul was able to confidently say, having seen the Lord, having been caught up into the third heaven and seen inexpressible things he wasn’t allowed to disclose. Paul knew that what the Lord had prepared for us was more than worth all that this world might have to offer. Everything, including life itself, is worth forsaking for the joy of knowing Christ, for the joy of being with the Lord.

Listen, this story of John’s execution reminds us that while it may look like sometimes that evil wins and the life of righteousness fails, the truth is that God’s plan will prevail. His people will prevail. The gates of Hell will not prevail against His church. Whether by Christ’s second coming, or by our death – and all of us will die unless the Lord returns in our lifetime – whether by being taken up in the air or by being laid down in the grave, we go immediately to be with the Lord, and we will not miss this earth, nor the things of this earth, for to be with the Lord is very much better.

I will close by reading 1Thessalonians 5:9-11 “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.”

I’m going to try to tackle two sermons in one this morning. I should perhaps have broken the text into two messages. But somehow I felt that the faster pace of Mark’s gospel lends itself to a faster paced exposition. We can spend a lot of time on historical details, and so forth, and not place the proper emphasis on the principles being taught. And I don’t want to teach you a prolonged history lesson this morning. But I want to present what I think are life changing principles in regards to the gospel of Christ, which I believe are evident in these verses.

So as we have previously noted, Mark is not writing a biographical history here, but a gospel. That is; the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who came to earth as a man, in order to present the truth of God concerning His plan to redeem mankind from the penalty of death and to give him life. In the passage before us today we see first the example of Jesus presenting the gospel, and then in the following verses we see the application of the disicples taking the gospel to the surrounding region. This good news of God’s plan is meant to be shared, and in these 13 verses, we see that plan practically worked out, first by Jesus returning to His hometown, the place where He grew up and lived, and then His delegation of the ministry of the gospel to His disciples. And as a commentary on how the gospel is carried out, I have called today’s message the denigration and the delegation of the gospel.

Let’s look first at the denigration of the gospel. To denigrate someone means to disparage, to criticize unfairly, to slander or defame someone. And we see that here as Jesus returns to His hometown and the reception of Him there is to denigrate Him and scorn His message. Now you will remember that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, He grew up in Nazareth, and He lived during His ministry in Capernaum. Nazareth was about 20 miles from Capernaum. It was an extremely small town, only about 500 people at that time.

This is the second time that Jesus came to His hometown. About a year earlier He had come there, and if you remember that account in Luke chapter 4, when He had finished speaking in the synagogue they tried to kill Him. Luke 4:28-29 “And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.” I’ve had some bad reactions to some of my messages before, but so far no one has tried to kill me. So I guess I shouldn’t feel so bad when people reject my message, because they also rejected Jesus’s message. And perhaps that is the primary reason that we are given this incident, so that we may know to expect opposition to the gospel, even hostility towards the messenger. For if they were offended at Christ, then it stands to reason they will be offended at us. I think it illustrates that rejection of the message and denigration of the messenger is often the first response to the presentation of the gospel.

Well now it’s a year later since that first visit, they have obviously heard of the fame of Jesus during that time. They have heard all the amazing things He had been doing. And so Jesus comes back again, to give them one more opportunity to respond to the gospel. And as was His practice, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath and preached.

And notice the response. They don’t necessarily try to kill Him anymore, but they are incredulous at the wisdom of His teaching. They say, ““Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him.

They admit that Jesus taught with a special wisdom, they admit that He has performed miracles, and yet their recognition of such things is overshadowed by their disdain for Him. And I think that the reasons for their disdain is evident in their comments. First of all, they call Him the carpenter. I think the purpose in that title is to emphasize that He is not a priest, He is not someone classically trained in the school of the rabbi’s. But He is a mere blue collar worker, a common carpenter. Whether or not Jesus actually spent much time practicing carpentry is a matter of speculation. No where else in the scriptures is this statement made. In Matthew’s version of this event, He says that they said Jesus was the carpenter’s son. Mark has a different emphasis which would be consistent with the practice in those days of a father passing on his trade to his son. But we don’t know if that was necessarily true or not, it was just their accusation. And while there is nothing wrong with being a carpenter, I think the emphasis was on discrediting Him as not being of the right school, not being backed up by the right institutions.

And I can confess that sort of criticism can take you down a notch. I never graduated from seminary. I never even completed university. And from time to time someone will approach me after a message and ask questions about my training or lack of it. So I understand the criticism and how it can be intended to denigrate you.

Secondly, they try to discredit Him by inferring that He was the illegitimate son of Mary. You need to remember that Mary was technically unmarried when she gave birth to Jesus. And the public perception was such that Joseph her husband sought to put her away privately. So this charge of being born out of wedlock was something that was hurled at Jesus from time to time, and now here it is again in His hometown. And this is a small town. Everyone knew everything about everyone. And his own family, His mother and brothers and sisters, were undoubtedly right there in attendance.

There is a possibility that the whole family clan wasn’t thought of all that highly. They seem to disparage Jesus because they not only know Him and had known Him all His life, but they know HIs family. Sometimes some members of our family can give the whole clan a black eye, can’t they? We don’t know much about a couple of members of His family. We know James, who became the leader of the church of Jerusalem a few years after Pentecost, who also wrote the book of James. And we know Jude, who wrote the book of Jude. But the other two brothers, Joses and Simon, are not known. Perhaps they were the black sheep that hurt the family reputation, I don’t know. And of course, they mention that Jesus had sisters. Now there is some controversy about this, because the Catholic Church contends that Mary was a perpetual virgin. So they say that these were either children from another marriage of Joseph, or they were cousins. I don’t find any reason to believe they were not Jesus’s natural born half brothers and sisters. The Bible doesn’t teach that Mary was a perpetual virgin.

By this time, it is believed that Joseph was long dead. And so Jesus as the oldest child would have responsibility for the family as the head of the house over seven or more other siblings. Therefore, it is possible that Jesus worked at carpentry until the other sons were old enough to take responsibility before leaving home. Under those circumstances they probably were very poor. But that is speculation. In fact, the only Biblical record we have of Christ’s activities prior to His public ministry is when He was 12 years old, and then we see Him in the temple, about His Father’s business. And afterwards He returned to Nazareth, where it is said in Luke 2: 52 “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”

But as we see, when Jesus left Nazareth to begin His ministry, He fell out of favor with His hometown. They became offended at Him. And so in response to their criticism, Jesus said, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.” Sometimes your own family, your neighbors, have the hardest time accepting the fact that God decided to use you in some way. They think they know all about you, and certainly God wouldn’t have passed over them to reach you. I guess the modern equivalent of that is the saying we have today, which is familiarity breeds contempt. Having grown up around them, even though His behavior was beyond reproach, they find it offensive that He should now be in the position of teaching them concerning righteousness. They find it impossible that He could be the Messiah. He was too common looking. He wasn’t the type of person that they thought the Messiah would be like.

Whether they realized it or not, they were fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 53 which says, “He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”

I find such critical attitudes prevalent today in the church. I often hear people begin a sentence with the phrase, “I am looking for a church that….” The idea often expressed is a personal preference based on a perception of what they think constitutes the perfect pastor or the perfect church. It’s a dangerous thing, actually, to look for a church that fits your template. God doesn’t necessarily work that way. He picks the foolish to shame the wise. The weak things, to shame the mighty. (1Cor.1)

These Nazarenes identified the one thing which was the definitive thing about Christ. And that was His teaching was the wisdom of God. It was the truth. And Jesus taught in John chapter 7 that if you believed His word, then you would believe that He had come from the Father. His message was truth, and truth was of God, and so therefore, He was of God. That is the opposite of how we would approach a messenger, isn’t it? If someone came to your door and said I have a message from God, we would probably say we want to see some identification. Some sort of proof that they were from God. And if we could validate their credentials to our satisfaction, then we would be more inclined to believe the message. But Jesus came with the message, and He says the message is the truth and it authenticates Me. Believe the truth and you will believe in Me.

But people don’t look for the truth like that. People look at the presentation, they look at the packaging. They are more interested in presentation than it’s substance. And Jesus didn’t have the right pedigree. He didn’t have the right package for them. So Mark says that Jesus was amazed at their unbelief. Let me tell you what constitutes this great sin called unbelief. Unbelief is prejudiced rejection of the truth. It doesn’t mean that you don’t understand, but that you reject it based on prior prejudice against it. Unbelief is nothing short of hatred. It’s the kind of prejudice which causes things like racism. It’s a refusal to see the truth, because you don’t want to believe it, not because it isn’t so.

And so it says that Jesus could not do no mighty works there, because of their unbelief. Not that Christ had no power in himself to work miracles, because of their unbelief, but it was not fit and proper that he should do any there, since such were their prejudices against him. Faith wasn’t required for the miracle, but belief was the means by which Christ was pleased to exercise miracles. So it was not that He could not do miracles, but that He would not do any mighty works in such a hostile climate.

But if some will not believe, then Jesus leaves those and goes to other villages where He might find a more receptive audience. If those who were first invited will not come in, then we are to go into the highways and byways and seek others. Jesus is the sower, and He sows the seed in fields here and abroad in hopes of finding fertile soil where it will be received and take root. So to that end, Jesus not only goes to preach in other villages, but He sends out His 12 disciples to do as He does, preaching and healing and casting out unclean spirits throughout the farthest regions of Galilee.

Now there are seven characteristics of the disciples ministry that are given to us. And I have to believe that since Jesus sets these standards, they are applicable for us in the church today. After all, we are commissioned to do the same thing they were doing, to go into our neighborhoods, our hometowns, and to the surrounding regions and preach the gospel, to make disciples of all men. So as we look at this last section, I want to identify these seven areas that are fundamental to the ministry which the Lord has delegated to us. And that is what the church is to be about. Proclaiming the gospel to the world. That’s job one.

So the first point I want to make is that there were 12 ordinary men. Even as Jesus was criticized for a lack of pedigree, you can lay the same charge against these men. They are ordinary men. They are mostly blue collar types, fishermen, tax collectors, guys without any formal training other than they had been with the Lord now for about 2 years. Not a priest among them. No rulers of the synagogues. No saved rock stars or ex pro athletes. Just 12 regular guys that were probably the last guys you would have picked to set the world on fire. Now they were not just following Jesus anymore, but they were stepping out on their own, and following the example that He had given them in ministry.

Notice Jesus sent them out two by two. That’s a good model for ministry by the way. You can encourage one another. You can help one another. You gain strength from one another. But I hope that the lack of a companion doesn’t hinder you from proclaiming the gospel. As they become more mature in the days after Pentecost, you will see more of them stepping out alone. So don’t fail in ministry because you don’t have a partner.

Secondly, they were to be in total dependence upon the Lord. Jesus told them not to bring money, or food, or even a change of clothes. I think this principle is probably the least employed today in the church. If you’re looking for an excuse not to minister, then you are probably going to claim the lack of funds, or the lack of resources, or the lack of support as a reason that God is not leading you in it. You’ve heard the quote, “where God guides, He provides.” Well, my suggestion is that is overused. God wants us to step out in faith, without a safety net, so that we might be totally dependent upon Him. It doesn’t mean that we don’t plan, or that we don’t prepare, but that we don’t rely upon favorable circumstances or favorable winds before embarking on ministry. If God says go, we say, how far. We just go, and let God take care of the provision.

I’ve found in 16 years of ministry that more often than not God has let me think I was going to starve, that I was going to run out of gas, or whatever my fear in the circumstances provoked, but in reality God never left me without enough to do what He wanted me to do.

And I can’t help but see another principle hidden in this instruction of vs 8, He added, “Do not put on two tunics.” They weren’t even to have a change of clothes. That’s pretty radical evangelism there folks. But the principle I think is this, that as Christians, we are not to be about collecting wardrobes, collecting cars, or houses – all the financial emblems of success in the world. Not tied down by things, by financial commitments that keep us from being devoted to the business of the kingdom. These things of the world keep us so busy that we are of little use to the kingdom. The point is that the extra weight of this world’s goods will slow you down. Hebrews 12:1 says “let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

Well, for that principle to be effective, it must be tied to the third principle. Third, they encouraged hospitality. Vs.10 And He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town.” Fellowship is essential to the practicality of the gospel. Fellowship or communion was to be the ordinance of the church in a formal congregation, but there is also a need in practical everyday Christian fellowship. It’s the principle of sharing, and providing for one another’s needs. It’s important to spend time with one another and get to know one another. Christian doctrine is not all just theory, but it also needs to be practiced. And the way you do that is to practice hospitality with one another. Invite someone to your home to eat, to hang out, to get to know one another. And I will suggest that you reach out to a broader spectrum of people than you would in a secular setting. Don’t just gravitate towards the kind of people that you like. Deliberately seek out the person that never gets asked out to a meal. Deliberately seek out those who might be alone. Christian love is to be made practical by practicing hospitality and putting the needs of others above your own.

Fourth, they experienced rejection. Jesus told them in vs.11 “Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them.” Listen, Jesus was rejected by His own family, by His hometown. So they would experience no less. In John 15:20 Jesus said “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.”

There are going to be some that reject the truth, or reject the messenger of the truth, and there will be some that will believe. But we are not responsible for their belief or unbelief. Results are not due to our charisma, or to our personality or lack of it. We are responsible to sow the seed. God is responsible for the growth.

But notice that Jesus said to shake off the dust off the soles of your feet as a testimony against them. That was a practice among Jews that they would do when they had to walk across a Gentile area. They had a view of anyone that wasn’t a Jew, that they were dogs, like wild, snarling, dirty dogs, and so when they could they avoided walking through a Gentile area, but when they couldn’t avoid it, they would stop on the other side, in plain view of the Gentiles of course, and ceremoniously take off their sandal and shake the dust off them as if to say “I don’t want to even track your dust back into Israel.” It was a kind of condemning thing to do. And so here Jesus is instructing HIs disciples to use that same method against the Jews who did not accept His gospel.

But in the Lord’s case, it wasn’t meant to be mean, it was meant as a judgment against the unbelieving town. In Matthew’s version of this event we read that He adds, “It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city.” In other words, Sodom would have repented at the preaching of the gospel and the accompanying signs that were given in Galilee. Jesus would give that same judgment against Capernaum, the other hometown of Christ, in Matt. 11:23-24 where He says “And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.”

Listen, not everyone who hears will believe. But God has sent us to preach the gospel to everyone, so that everyone will be without an excuse on the day of judgment. There are many people that have rejected my preaching, but I still fulfill my ministry that they might be judged for their unbelief. A lot of people are not going to have an excuse on the day of judgment because they heard the truth and they rejected it. And it’s not going to matter if they didn’t like the preacher, or they didn’t think he was funny enough, or nice enough or refined enough. They will be held accountable for hearing the truth and walking away from it, just as the people of Nazareth and Capernaum will be judged for looking at Christ and saying, “Nah, He doesn’t look like a Messiah to me.”

Fifth, they preached repentance. Ah! that’s why people rejected them. Vs 12 “They went out and preached that men should repent.” It’s not simply enough to believe, it’s also necessary to repent. That was the message of John the Baptist, he preached a baptism of repentance. That was the message of Christ, “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” And that is the message of the disciples. On the day of Pentecost, it was still the message of the Apostles. Acts 2:38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Repentance needs no interpretation here. I preach it every week. But once again I say that to repent is not merely to feel sorry that you were caught, or to feel sorry about the consequences of your sin, but a desire to turn from your sin and go in the opposite direction. And perhaps your sin has such a hold on you that you don’t feel that you can turn, then turn to God and confess your sinfulness and that you need Him to change your heart, and change your mind and will and take away your desire for that sin. Call on Him with all your heart and mourn for your sin. That is repentance.

And I got news for you. Repentance is a daily exercise for most of us mortals. Recognizing how we have fallen and asking God to renew us , to purify us, so that we might be useful to His kingdom. David prayed in Psalm 51 a prayer of repentance. It’s a good template if you want to repent. He prayed, “Renew a right spirit within me. Create in me a clean heart O God.” That’s the attitude of repentance that makes us useful to the Master.

Sixth, they showed compassion. Vs 13 “And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.” Listen, there is a need for Christian compassion for those that are sick with the sickness of sin. James 2:15-17 “If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”

There is a danger in Christianity today to look down upon the sinner from our lofty perch in the church of righteousness and see that poor soul in addiction, or adultery, or poverty and say that their sin has brought this consequence upon them and it is not really helping them to try to relieve their circumstances. We see their circumstances as a just judgment of God. But our position is not to be a judge, but a giver of mercy. What mercy you have received, give it to others who need mercy. Jesus healed out of compassion for the souls who were enslaved by Satan to sin and were reaping indirectly or directly the consequences of sin. All suffering ultimately is a consequence of sin. And all of us are sinners. All sin leads to death. And all of us need mercy. There will be a judgment of us all one day. But James says, in chapter 2:13 “For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.”

And then finally number seven, they were obedient. Vs30 “The apostles gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught.” That’s kind of what church ought to be like. You come back together every week and report all that you have accomplished as ministers of the church during the previous week. I suggested the other night at Bible study that we all make a commitment that we will ask at least one person a week to come to church. You don’t have to ask just one, but you at least ask one. And I suggested that if we did that every week, then in a month we could expect to see at least one person come to church as a result of our asking. I can’t guarantee what kind of results we might see. But I can guarantee you that if you will believe in the power of the gospel, and you are obedient to the mandate of our Lord, then we will see some people respond to the truth. We will see a lot of rejection as well. But that is part of the plan. We just need to be faithful to do our part, and let God take care of His. I pray that you will be obedient to your ministry this week. Go out and proclaim the gospel and come again next week and give your report of what the Lord has done.

Today we are looking at a tale of two daughters. Two females, both referred to here in the text as daughters. One is older, having been sick with a serious ailment for 12 years, and one who was only 12 years old, being sick unto death. Mark doesn’t give us insight into why these two daughters are connected in this way, but it is evident that they are connected for posterity by the very chronology of the events described. There are two separate events recorded here, but the second plays out in parentheses, so to speak, after the first incident has already begun. And I have to believe that in the providence of God, these two events are meant to be looked at as a couplet. They are not intended to be studied separately, but concurrently, because together they will provide a clearer, more detailed picture of what God intends for us to understand.

I have said on numerous occasions, that every miracle presented in the gospels is intended as a spiritual parable designed to teach us a spiritual lesson. Now that is a very important principle to understand, otherwise you will miss the point of the passage altogether. Do you remember what Jesus said in chapter 4 what a parable was designed to do? It was used to deliver truth to a larger audience, while at the same time veiling it to those who are not spiritually appraised. Real spiritual truth can only be discerned by those with spiritual insight who receive spiritual illumination from God.

So that principle applies here as well in studying this spiritual parable. If you do not have spiritual insight when studying this text, then you are likely to assume that Mark’s purpose is just to record the supernatural miracles that Jesus was able to perform. And that superficial understanding is going to lead to an attempt at a superficial application, which is that you will expect God to do the same miracles today at every occasion of illness or death. And yet nothing can be further from the truth or the point of the text. If that was the goal of these miracles, then why would Jesus drive everyone out of the house, so that no one witnessed Him raising Jarius’s daughter from the dead, except for His three closest disciples? Why would Jesus command them not to make known what He had done? Isn’t that counter productive? I mean, if that power was available today, then we would broadcast it, wouldn’t we? We would go into every hospital, every funeral home, and deliver people from sickness and death. We would use miracles as an evangelization tool to reach the masses. That is the logical extension of that kind of application.

But in fact, Jesus does the exact opposite. He illustrates in the way that He performs these miracles that they are intended to be spiritual parables designed to teach spiritual principles to those who are seeking spiritual truth. Thus, His statement in the previous chapter, (Mark 4:25) Jesus says “For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.” And in vs11 He said “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN.” In other words, the parables are meant to veil truth from the masses, while revealing truth to the believer. Jesus isn’t interested in attracting the masses just for the sake of drawing a crowd.

The purpose then of the truth contained in parables according to 4:12, whether a parable in word or in deed, is to illustrate salvation. And in this illustrative couplet we are looking at today, we see two aspects of salvation illustrated; one, salvation from sin, and two, salvation from death.

Now then let’s take a look at both of these miracles as Mark lays them out for us, and let’s see what principles of salvation Jesus is teaching us through these incidents. The text starts with a man named Jairus, a synagogue official, coming to Jesus about his daughter that was lying at the point of death. And he implores Jesus to come home with him and heal her.
The fact that he is a synagogue official is interesting, because for the most part, such people were part of the same class of religious officials such as priests, scribes, Pharisees, etc, who were hostile towards Jesus. Jesus threatened the livelihood and power of such people, because He exposed the corruption and hypocrisy of the Judiastic system. A synagogue was the primary religious meeting place for religious Jews who were living outside of Jerusalem. A synagogue would be the equivalent of the local church. So this high ranking official, who is probably hostile to what Jesus is teaching, suddenly is confronted with the impending mortality of his daughter. And as many of us that are parents know, perhaps by experience, all prejudice, all reservations go out the window when the life of your child is on the line. You are willing to do anything to get help in that kind of situation. So we see this official suddenly break rank, and having every certainty that Jesus can heal, go and throw himself at the mercy of Jesus.

That attitude on the part of Jairus illustrates an essential prerequisite to salvation. There has to be a humbling of yourself, relinquishing of your authority, of your pride, and bowing down at the feet of the Savior. When times are good, when everyone’s healthy, it’s easy to think you don’t need the Lord. But when you or your loved one is staring at death’s door, then a lot of times that rebellious facade falls away. And that sort of humbling of oneself is a prerequisite. Bowing down at the feet of someone is the posture of a beggar. And that is the attitude which we are to have in regards to salvation. In Matt.5:3, in the sermon on the mount, Jesus said “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” He is speaking of the need for a person to realize their abject poverty in coming to Christ for salvation.

And note a couple of more things indicated in his approach to Christ. Jairus recognizes that his daughter is dying. No one can receive salvation unless he first recognizes that they are lost and they will die in their sins, eternally estranged from God. Death is the punishment for sin for which all men are destined. Romans teaches us that the wages of sin is death, and death has passed upon all men, because all have sinned. So there needs to be a recognition of that penalty of death.

But that leads to the other thing indicated in Jairus’s approach; a belief that Christ has the power over life and death. Jesus taught that He was the way, the truth and the life. And somehow Jairus has believed this and come to Jesus as the source of life for his daughter. I want to elaborate for a second on that statement though, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. That statement could have equal signs between the three aspects of Christ. The way = the truth = the life. God has established a way for man to live. That way is the truth of God. And following that truth produces life with God; vibrant, meaningful, fulfilled, joyous, abundant and eternal.

Well, at this point in the story, we come to an interruption, what might be considered as a parentheses. In writing, when you add parentheses it is for the purposes of further explanation. And so I think that is what is intended here. This parenthetical interruption provides further explanation of this sinful state that produces death. And that parenthetical explanation comes in the form of a woman who approaches Jesus who has had a hemorrhage for 12 years. And I think that the significance of the 12 years is that it ties her to the daughter of Jairus who Mark tells us in vs42 was 12 years old. So, in that sense, it would seem that this woman, whom Jesus calls “daughter” in vs.34, is to be looked at as a further commentary or exposition of the condition of the first daughter. As the first daughter is dying, the second daughter serves as a more in depth look at that condition.

So notice what Mark tells us about her condition. First of all, we are told she has a hemorrhage for 12 years. What this probably was, according to many people that are a whole lot smarter than I am, is a vaginal hemorrhage, which not only was a serious physical ailment, but in Jewish society, especially according to Jewish law, it would have made her a social outcast. She would have been unable to go to the temple, she would have been excluded from relations with her husband, and she would be considered “unclean.” Now I am not going to comment on all of that beyond what has been said already, except to say that this concept of being unclean is another prerequisite for salvation. The law of God reveals that all of us are sinners, and as such, all of us are considered unclean. Our sins have made us unclean in the sight of God. Our sins have put up a wall between us and God and we are helpless to remove it.

Notice that this woman had used all her money to try to have her condition helped by doctors, and yet it had only gotten worse. What a picture of our sin situation! We spend all our resources trying to get better a better life, trying for self improvement, trying to improve our standing, and yet, if we are honest, we just end up going from bad to worse. Sin is an affliction that curses life. Our situation is hopeless. We hopelessly estranged from God and all our efforts can do nothing to alleviate our affliction.

But, thankfully for this woman, vs27 tells us that she had heard about Christ. Someone told her about the Lord, and in her hopelessness, she suddenly sees a ray of hope. Listen, we all believe that everyone needs to be saved, don’t we? But do we realize that if they are to be saved, then they must hear about the Lord? And if they will hear, then we must tell them? Or are you hoping that someone else will tell them? Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” Jesus later in vs34 will say, “Daughter, your faith has saved you.” But before her faith could save her, she had to hear about the Lord.

Imagine if you knew the solution to cancer and didn’t tell anyone about it. That would be almost criminal, wouldn’t it? And yet you know the way of life, but you keep it to yourself. I have a feeling that will one day be considered almost criminal as well. That you hid the truth under a bushel, and did not let the world know that there was a solution to their deadly infirmity.

Well, this woman heard enough about Jesus to desperately want to see Him. And then an even more bold plan took form in her mind; “If I just can touch his garment, then I can get well.” Some of you may have a translation which shows the literal meaning of a word, when it is different than the editors have translated it. And in this case, you might see an asterisk or something which indicates the phrase “get well” has another literal meaning. Well, the Greek word is sōzō, which means to be saved. And I think that is just further justification for my exposition of this miracle as a parable teaching a greater spiritual truth. Our salvation is accomplished by the power of salvation which comes through Jesus Christ.

Notice that when she touches His cloak, in vs30, it says, “Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth.” Her touch of Jesus’s garment is symbolic. It represents first of all that we must apprehend what He has done for us on the cross. Jesus died for the sins of the world upon the cross, but the sins of the world are not expunged, unless one personally looks upon the serpent on the tree. We must apprehend by faith in what Jesus did on the cross, FOR US. We must receive Him. We must believe that His blood avails for me. That Christ died for my sins. I must take Him to be my Savior.

And then I think the fact that she touches His garment is an illustration that we are clothed in His righteousness. Jesus’s righteous robe, you will remember, was not torn, but it was left there at the foot of the cross to be worn by the worst of sinners. And by laying our hand upon Him, our sins are transferred to Christ, and His righteousness is transferred to us. Just as in the Passover lamb, their hands were laid upon the innocent lamb, which signified that their sins were passed on to him, and the lamb would be slain for the forgiveness of sins.

Well, as the story tells us, the woman was healed instantly of her disease, and the blood flow stopped. And Jesus calls out to the crowd pressing around Him, “Who touched Me?” Now the way this is written reveals the way that it looked to those in attendance, but certainly Jesus already knew who touched Him. He knew everything about this woman. He was fully man, but He was also fully God. So He knew, when hundreds of bodies were jostling about Him, when many hands were reaching out to Him, He knew that this one trembling hand had reached out to Him in faith, and power had come from Him to her in response to that faith, and she had been saved from her disease. And so He asks this question not because He does not know who touched Him, but because He wants her to know the full extent of her healing.

Vs. 33 “But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.” Notice, first of all, her confession. Romans 10:9 tells us that confession is necessary for salvation: “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.” And James speaking in chapter 5 vs16 says, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” Confession of your sins is a necessary component of salvation.

And then notice “Your faith has made you well.” Actually, this is the same word as we looked at before, sozo, “your faith has saved you.” Jesus is indicating much more than just physical healing, but spiritual salvation as a result of faith. Mark, more so I think than all the other gospel authors, makes much of the principle of faith. Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please Him.” Faith is the conduit of our salvation. In Hebrews 11, all the heroes of the faith are displayed for us, that we might know that we, even as Abraham and all the rest, are saved on the basis of faith, even as this daughter of Israel.

Well, we can put the other parentheses after vs.34, and we return in vs 35, as they say in television, to the previously scheduled presentation. That is, we return to the dire situation of Jairus’s daughter, who is lying near death. Jesus has been delayed for some time with the woman. That incident was probably summarized for us by Mark, and could well have taken some time to be concluded and all the while the 12 year old girl lay dying. But now there are people who come running up to Jairus to tell him that it’s too late, his daughter had died.

I can only imagine the impact that must have made on poor Jairus. Here he had the cure, he had the Healer, and they were on the way, and yet they were too late. His beloved daughter had died. “Why trouble the Teacher any longer?” What’s the point? It’s too late, everyone go home.

But I think Jesus planned it this way all along. He had a greater purpose, a greater glory in mind. So Jesus, “overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, ‘Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.’” Now that’s a really significant statement there by Jesus. “Do not be afraid any longer.” What had Jairus been afraid of? His daughter dying. There was no longer any reason to be afraid, she was dead. But only believe? What did that mean? 

Well, faith and belief are the two ways of saying the same thing. And belief means not only believing who He is, but what He came to do. I suggest that it meant that through Christ, we who had been under the fear of death are set free from that enslavement, through faith in Christ. Hebrews 2:14-15 says, “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

Listen, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and that life in Christ is far more abundant life than we can imagine. But one thing we can know for sure, that as Jesus said in John 11:26 “everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” God is able to raise the dead. He is able to give life to those things which are dead. And all of us, the Bible says, were dead in our trespasses and sins. But through the blood of Jesus Christ our sins are washed away, and we receive everlasting, eternal, abundant life, even the life of God. So that we no longer need to fear death of the body, because He is the source and sustainer of our life.

Well, Mark tells us that when they came to the house, Jesus allows only Peter, James and John to accompany Him inside. I addressed the reason for this in the introduction. Jesus is not interested in attracting people through a miracle ministry. He is interested in teaching the saving truth of the gospel. And so He chooses these three to impart a deeper spiritual truth to, who will then teach others.

And notice the commotion, the professional wailers, that’s what they were. Whether they were already hired, or these were just neighbors that responded in the typical fashion of the culture, to wail and rip their clothes as a show of mourning and grief. They are in stark contrast to Jesus who is composed, in control, and confident that the girl is not dead, but sleeping.

Listen, I don’t have time to belabor this point too much this morning, but it’s important to understand that the death of a believer is referred to in the New Testament as sleeping, or entering their rest. The death of an unbeliever though is referred to as dying. Now the Bible is not teaching soul sleep as some people have erroneously inferred from such references, but rather it’s teaching that the body sleeps, while the soul and spirit are alive.

So Jesus says that this little girl is not dead, but that she is sleeping. I think that is some indication that the age of accountability is not until sometime after the age of 12. It’s possible that this girl was a believer, that somehow though there is no indication that her father was a believer at this point, yet somehow the girl had been. But I think it’s more likely that she was saved by virtue of her age. The Bible teaches that children under the age of accountability are safe from condemnation. And so this girl is brought back from the abode of the dead, which is Paradise, and is given back to her parents.

But as He approaches the house and says this statement that she is not dead, notice that the mourners start laughing at Jesus. That would indicate that even in their mourning these people were not sincere. A lot of commotion and noise does not necessarily indicate sincerity nor truth.

Jesus gets the people together who are interested in truth, who believe in Him; her parents and His three disciples, and He puts the rest out. The believers are privy to a greater revelation, but for the skeptics, even what they had would be taken away.

So Jesus holds the little girl’s hand and says, “Talitha kum!” (which translated means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were completely astounded.” I want to just point out one more essential point of salvation that is taught here. And that is the power of the word. The word of God is powerful unto salvation. It is living, and active, and able to pierce the hardest heart, even a dead heart. Christ is the Word made flesh, the word incarnate. And so the Creator of Life, the Giver of Life speaks to her, and she responds. Her soul and spirit immediately return to her body, and she gets up and starts to walk.

And then Jesus tells her parents to give her something to eat in vs.43. I’m sure she needed to eat after her ordeal. Who knows how long her little body had probably been without food in the days of her illness. But it’s also a sign that she was now completely revived and healthy. You know, there have been reports of people in some countries who sat up in the coffin at their funeral. And there have been incidents where it seemed someone came alive only to find out later that it was some sort of muscle spasm. But when Jesus speaks life into her, she walks, and she eats. She is totally alive and acting normal for a 12 year old kid. She probably had a lot to tell her parents as well. I would have liked to be in on that conversation.

But if there is one other application you can make from that, it’s that when the Lord gives life it’s not just to be propped up in a chair, like there is hardly any spiritual life in you whatsoever. My daughter brought home some old tintypes she found at an antique store yesterday. And there we’re two photographs that were very unusual. They were both photographs of dead people who were all dressed up and propped up on a stand. And the only way you could tell that they were dead and not alive was that you could see the bottom part of the stand on the floor behind their feet. They were all dressed up, their eyes were open, but they were stone cold dead. One of the photographs she found was of a little girl dressed up in a little fancy dress and shoes. It was kind of sad.

But I couldn’t help but think that’s like a lot of people in church today. They are all dressed up, their eyes are open, they look alive, but in reality they are dead. There is no spiritual life there whatsoever. But when God makes someone alive, they walk, they talk, they eat. They exhibit spiritual life, walking after the Lord, working for His kingdom, speaking the word of God to those who are in need.

Well, let’s be sure that we have the life of God living in us. What a tragedy to go through life, spending all your time and resources, filling your life with activity, with work, with even religious activities, and yet be unsaved. These two daughters illustrate all that is necessary for salvation, for real life in Christ. I hope that everyone hearing me today have been saved; that you have entered that life; you have humbled yourself, you recognize the uncleanness of your condition, you know you are a hopeless sinner whose only hope is in Christ. And by faith in what He has done, you have received His righteousness in exchange for your sins. And if that is true in your life, then the evidence will be that you have spiritual life, and you can have confidence that this life extends beyond the grave, even into eternity.

There is no doubt that we live in an age when occult practices and an interest in the occult has skyrocketed. One look at the cable television lineup and popular movies shows an unprecedented resurgence in the popularity of occult themes such as witchcraft and vampires and so forth. A couple of days ago I read an article from the New York Times called the Season of the Witch. I want to read a few excerpts from this article by a woman named Michelle Goldberg, just to illustrate the current popularity and acceptance by the culture of demonic practices today.

She says, “On a Wednesday evening last week, I sat in on a class called “Witchcraft 101: Curses, Hexes and Jinxes,” at Catland, a fashionable occult boutique in Bushwick, Brooklyn. More than a dozen people, most of them young women, sat in folding chairs in the store’s black-walled event space. The instructor was one of Catland’s co-owners, Dakota Bracciale, a charismatic, foul-mouthed 28-year-old former M.A.C. makeup artist dressed in flowing black, with a beard and long, lavender nails.

The author goes on to explain the well-documented resurgence of occultism among millennials. “Some of this vogue is about witch-as-metaphor, an icon that captures the boiling rage and determined independence of legions of nasty women. But some of it is a real, if eclectic, spiritual practice, adopted by people skeptical of organized religion but unfulfilled by atheism.

Bracciale, who uses the gender-neutral pronouns they and them, grew up in an evangelical household — somewhere “between ‘Jesus Camp’ and snake handlers” — and said that the new atheism of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens had a profound effect on their generation. But atheism wasn’t enough, said Bracciale: “It left this huge vacuum, and that vacuum had to be filled with something.” (so atheism produces a vacuum which has to be filled, and rather than filling that with God, they chose the devil).

The author goes on later in the article to give some of the history behind this resurgence of interest in the occult. “Theosophy, the mother of all new age movements, was founded in the 19th century as the discoveries of Charles Darwin undermined faith in Christian creation stories, which led some to abandon religion altogether but others to embrace new forms of mysticism. The rise of occultism among the counterculture of the 1960s and ’70s befuddled scholars who assumed that American society was moving toward ever-greater secularism.”End of quote.

I would agree with the writer that the origins of much of what we see today as an explosion of interest in the occult, and open practice of witchcraft and sorcery, found it’s origin in the 60’s and 70’s, when counter culteralists thought that they had become enlightened through drugs, and had discovered real truth. In fact, they had discovered nothing new, but rather through mind altering drugs rediscovered the occult practices and spiritism disguised as yoga, transcendental meditation, hypnotism, Wicka and other far eastern practices which were repackaged as New Age Spiritism.

But if I might demystify demonology for a moment, it is nothing more than the effect of sin and rebellion against God taken to it’s next level. And with the hippie revolution, sex, drugs and rock and roll became the vehicle of choice by which rebellion reached it’s apex, and demonic influence pervaded the culture en masse. The word in the Greek used in the Bible in places like Rev.9:21 which is translated as sorceries, is from the Greek word pharmakea. Its the root word from which we get our word pharmacy. And so we can understand from the Bible that drugs were used as a means of sorcery, of entering into a state where demons can work on the mind. And I firmly believe that this widespread use of drugs in our society today has opened up our culture to a new level of Satanic control.

While the news media reports that overt demonstrations of occultic influence are becoming ever more frequent in our society, the fact is that demons prefer to work in secrecy. The Bible says that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. In fact, the Bible really doesn’t use the term demon possession. The idea expressed is more of someone being demonized. In other words, they are under the influence of Satan. The Bible teaches that to some degree or another, all the world that are unsaved are under the influence of the devil. Paul, speaking to Christians in Ephesus concerning their prior manner of life in Ephesians 2:1 says, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”

So note that Paul is saying that everyone who is unsaved is under the control of the prince of the air, that is Satan, and he is presently working in the sons of disobedience, which is to say all those who are unbelievers. Another reference is found in Colossians 1, and again Paul is speaking to believers, who, he says, were rescued from the domain of darkness. Unbelievers are enslaved in the domain of darkness, evil authorities in the spiritual realm, that’s what that means. And in vs 21 he goes on to say that in that state they “were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.“

So all those who are unsaved are under the domain, or authority of darkness, under the realm of the devil, and they are alienated in their minds from God, and engaged in evil deeds, and are hostile to God. But as I alluded to earlier, the hosts of darkness prefer to work in secret. They prefer to disguise lies as truth, to twist the truth into a lie, and by such practices cause men and women to be duped into captivity, while thinking themselves to be enlightened.

Though the gospel accounts make it seem that demons or evil spirits were acting out all the time, the truth is that a study of the entire Bible shows very little demonic activity in the Old Testament, other than in Genesis 6 and the book of Job and a couple of other minor instances. And even those incidents are very sparsely described, interspersed over hundreds of years. Yet during the time of Christ there was a period when demonic influence was manifest to a great degree. But I would suggest that was because these evil spirits recognized the Spirit of Christ. Spirits recognize spirits. And so they became manifest when Jesus came around because they knew that He knew them and could not only reveal them, but disarm them because He had authority over them. And by extension, Jesus gave His apostles authority over demons, and I believe that had to include the ability to recognize demonic influence, and as such we see the activity of Satan manifested in the times of the apostles. But after that age passed, we see very little of that kind of activity.

Now speaking of that ability of Christ to recognize demons and have authority over them, we look at this passage before us as an extreme example of demonic control over a person. Jesus and the disciples have just landed on the other side of the Sea of Galilee after weathering an extremely violent, intense storm that may have served as a prologue to this event, going from a violent wind to a violent manifestation of evil in human form. But as I indicated, the demons recognize Jesus and the man in whom they reside runs down to Jesus and falls down before Him imploring Him not to send them out into the abyss.

Now this poor man who is presented here is really to be pitied more than anything else. It says the townspeople feared him, and I’m sure that they should have. He had superhuman strength, he was a wild person living in the tombs, screaming night and day, cutting himself with stones and running around naked according to Luke’s gospel. He was certainly a scary person. But I want you to notice that while the townspeople were scared of him, Jesus has compassion on him and goes to him, calling out the demons.

I want to emphasize that for a moment. I have seen people that I thought were very scary looking. I’ve seen people in San Diego or Los Angeles that were walking down the street screaming, smashing things, cursing people out. People that looked like they had been living in the tombs. People that were pierced and tatted who had altered their bodies in such a way as to be as hideous as possible. And it’s natural to be intimidated by such people and head the other way. And I’m not suggesting that we be ignorant or flippant of the supernatural powers that might be at work in such people. They can be dangerous. But at the same time, we need to be compassionate, and realize that we know the One who has authority over the demonic realm, and that He came to set the captives free. Jesus has compassion on this man. Others would have fled from him, but Jesus goes to him. Alienated, alone, hurting, out of control. And as I said, I have seen people such as this man. He is a tragic, caricature, an extreme illustration of a man apart from God and left to Satan’s destructive power.

I toyed with the idea of trying to introduce a 500 year old hymn by Martin Luther to you this morning, with the hope that we might be able to sing it. However, I didn’t think I could do it justice with the guitar at this point, so instead I will read the first few stanzas from “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” written hundreds of years ago by the great reformer who certainly had experience in dealing with demonic forces and which I think gives great insight into the way we should deal with them.

“A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; our helper he, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe, does seek to work us woe; his craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing, were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing. You ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he; Lord Sabaoth his name, from age to age the same; and he must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God has willed his truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure, for lo! his doom is sure; one little word shall fell him.”

Now while this demoniac in our text is an example of an extreme case of demonic control, I believe we can find several characteristics exhibited in this man that parallel a perhaps more subtle, if not hidden, demonic influence in people today. I hope that maybe a look at these characteristics may reveal that even some of us may have similar areas of our life that Satan has exerted his control over, in his continuing efforts to render us unfruitful for the kingdom. So I am going to give you six characteristics that we see in this demoniac, there are probably more, but let’s look at them in hopes of identifying common areas in which Satan operates in varying degrees in people today, albeit covertly.

The first word we see in reference to this poor man is “unclean” in vs.2. This demoniac was considered unclean because he lived among the dead. Such was against the law of God, and a person that touched a dead person was considered unclean. But remember the verse from Ephesians 2 which we referenced earlier which said, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins…” Touching a dead person is not a sin, but having sin in your life is equated with being dead. And thus someone who harbors sin, who lives in sin, who doesn’t renounce their sin, is dead spiritually and they are unclean in the sight of God. Let me make something very, very clear. The person that harbors sin, that lives in sin in an unrepentant state, is opening up their mind and body to demons. And the devil will come in like a lion through the gate which you have opened up and take over completely. It’s a very dangerous thing for a person to live in defiant, open sin in rebellion against what the Bible has identified as sin. I can’t emphasize that enough. 1Samuel 15:23 says, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” Even as a Christian, if you deliberately turn back to sin and don’t repent of it, you just took off your armor and invited Satan to come in an make himself at home. And it will have tragic consequences.

Secondly, notice he was living in isolation. He was living away from his community. He lived in the tombs, in the mountains. Listen, I don’t want to over stretch a metaphor here, but there is a tremendous danger to isolation. God designed us to live in fellowship with one another. And as Christians, that fellowship takes on even more importance. When a Christian lives in isolation from the rest of the body, that is the church, then they set themselves up for demonic attack and control. I was watching this cable show the other night with Susie about animals in the wild, and especially these wolves which were filmed while they were hunting. And their technique which is instinctive with them, is to separate one animal from the herd. They get them isolated from the herd and then they can conquer them. The same is true of the devil, who 1Peter 2:8 tells us goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And those in isolation are prime targets for the devil.

Third, he had supernatural strength. Let us be wary of seeking the supernatural, folks. There is a danger in seeking the supernatural. Many people have been led astray in the devil’s schemes by seeing some supernatural thing and finding it exciting, thrilling. They will even go so far as to attribute such things to God or the Holy Spirit, regardless of whether or not it agrees with scripture. God IS a God of supernatural power. But not everything supernatural is from God. Satan is able to counterfeit, just as Pharoah’s magicians counterfeited Moses’ miracles. Satan also has supernatural power. Beware of the supernatural. 1John 4:1 says, Test the spirits, because many spirits have gone out into the world, and not all are of God.

Fourth, he was in torment. Notice he is described as screaming day and night, and cutting himself with stones. There are obviously degrees of torment. At the one end there is a lack of peace, and a searching for peace using anything that they can to try to find it. Often today it involves alcohol or drugs, searching for that peace that can only come from the Lord. At the other end of the spectrum, instead of finding that peace through drugs or alcohol, they end up tormented by the demons of those drugs which rob them of their sanity. I can’t even begin to tell you about all the people that I know of who have lost their mind because of drugs. This demoniac had obviously ended up tormented to the point of losing his mind. He was out of control. And that is where sin always leads; to tormented souls who search for more and more and yet can find no peace. And a lot of times that leads to suicidal tendencies, as we see here with this man hurting himself. Satan is a destroyer, and that is his end game strategy for those he can control through sin.

Fifthly, there is the immediate recognition of the authority of Jesus Christ. This man comes to Jesus and bows down to Him as the Son of God, even as he is resisting and crying out. It’s amazing to me how so many people that manifest demonic influence in their lives come from some sort of so called Christian background. And their rejection of Christ as Lord spurs their further enslavement to the devil. Though these demons recognize Jesus as God, they do not recognize Him as their Lord. Notice the distinction in this passage. The demoniac under the influence of demons call Jesus the Son of the Most High God. Yet that recognition doesn’t save him. But at the end of the passage in vs19, Jesus says to tell your family what the Lord has done for you. James says that the demons believe and tremble, but they do not accept Jesus as Lord. That recognition of God yet rejection of Jesus as Lord of their life is a key component of demonic control. Refusing to surrender your will to the Lord.

Sixth, note that there is a duplicity or multiplicity of personalities exhibited by this man. And while his case may be extreme, there is often a sense of a Jekyll and Hyde personality in someone who is being influenced by the devil. One way I think that is common is a tendency to project one persona at church, or around other Christians, and yet live a different sort of life in secret, or out of sight of the church. I’m not talking about schizophrenia necessarily, but living a double life. And I think that is a lot more common than what it may appear. The scripture says as a man thinks in his heart so is he. It’s possible to put on a front in public, but live a completely different life in private. And furthermore, I have seen a number of instances where someone seemed sort of normal, and then one day this other side of them just erupts in a way that is nothing short of demonic. And when that happens it reveals that Satan has a foothold in that person that has reached a point where it is becoming manifest. Luke 12:2-3 “The time is coming when everything that is covered up will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all. Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear!” That’s a warning that surely your sins will find you out. They will become manifest.

The good news is that Jesus has compassion on such people, as illustrated towards that demoniac, obviously tormented by his sin and under the control of the devil. Jesus came to seek and to save those that are lost. And I would suggest that the text indicates that the only reason Jesus came to this region was to save this poor man. He went through a fierce storm, exhausted and robbed of his sleep, to come to this pagan region and deliver this man from Satan’s captivity. What a wonderful illustration of the compassion and mercy of God for lost sinners.

Jesus fulfills the prophecy in Genesis 3:15 of the promised One who will crush the serpent’s head, and He was demonstrating His power over the kingdom of darkness. You remember 1 John 3:8 says, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”

Now let’s look briefly how Jesus accomplished this deliverance. Note first of all that Jesus asked “what is your name?” Many people mistakenly take this as an indication that we should go around asking demons for their name as a means of binding them. It is silly if not downright dangerous for people to think they can tell demons what to do -binding demons here, or binding Satan here. You don’t have that authority, they’re laughing at you like they laughed at the sons of Sceva and say, “Jesus we know, and Paul, we know, but who are you?” And if you remember those sons of Sceva ran out wounded and naked because they had no authority. Such people are as those described in Jude vs10 “But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.”
I think that Jesus asks him “what is your name?” for our sake, not for HIs sake. Jesus knew their name, just as He knows your name. He asked him so that we might know that there were thousands of demons in this poor soul, so that we might know the extent of Christ’s power and authority over the demonic realm. So they answered “Legion, for we are many.” A legion was up to 6000 soldiers in the Roman army. Some think that since the number of pigs were two thousand, then there were 2000 demons. Or perhaps there were three demons per pig. I don’t know. All I know is there were thousands of demons. And yet Christ Jesus is victorious over thousands of evil spirits.

Next, notice that they ask not to be cast out of the country. Luke 8:31 tells us that the demons begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss. I am not a Greek expert, but I found it interesting that the word translated as country is a derivative of a word that means an empty expanse. And Strong’s concordance defines it as the space lying between two places or limits. So there is really no conflict between the two terms. I think they are speaking of the pit, or the abyss where 2 Peter 2:4 says the angels who were disobedient during the days of Noah were put under chains until the judgment.

Now these evil spirits know what God did to those disobedient fallen angels, and so they do not want that fate for themselves, they want to be free to roam the earth, particularly in this pagan country. And for these demons to have their greatest expression, they need to have a body to live in. So lacking anywhere else to go, they ask to be cast into a herd of swine. I want to point out something here. They ask Jesus for permission to enter the swine. Just as Satan asked permission to sift Peter like wheat. Or Satan asked permission of God to afflict Job. Satan has no authority, no power that God does not first give him.

So Jesus gave permission to the demons to enter the pigs. Now I don’t look for animals to be possessed by demons. I don’t think you have to worry that one day your little pooch could turn into Cujo or something. I think this passage indicates that the demons needed special permission to go into the pigs. And I think that is born out by the result, which undoubtedly came as a surprise to the demons, which was that the pigs committed suicide. If they had any experience with animals before, they would not have asked to be cast into the pigs.

Well, the herdsmen run away and report it to the townspeople. And the result is that the entire town comes out to see the former demoniac sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And this is the really crazy part. You would think that they would have bowed themselves down and worshipped the Lord as a result of seeing this man delivered from the power of darkness. But instead, it says that they were frightened.

It’s interesting to note that the disciples were afraid during the storm, but they became even more afraid when Jesus stilled the storm. And in this incident, the townspeople were afraid of the demoniac, but they became even more afraid of Jesus who cast out the demons.

Most of us would like to believe that that kind of miracle would cause a revival. But instead they tell Jesus to go away. They’re more comfortable with living in darkness than they are living in the light. They love their sin more than holiness. Such is the nature of depravity, that’s the nature of sin. It is more comfortable to be in the presence of evil than to be in the presence of righteousness. That’s one of the reasons that the world hates Christians. The forces of evil are more welcome than the mighty power of God. How often do we find it pleasant to talk about things of the world, but uncomfortable when the conversation turns to things of God?

Well, as we see in this passage, sometimes the judgment of God is to give people what they want. And so Jesus gets in the boat to leave, and as far as we know, He never came back to that region. The people get to continue in their sin and reject Jesus. And God’s judgment is that they get what they want. And I think that carnal interest on the part of the townspeople is indicated by the request of the demons. They say don’t cast us out of the country. They knew that this pagan country of the Gerasenes was a ripe area for their controlling influence because they had no interest in righteousness.

But the man who had been delivered comes to Jesus in the boat and is begging to go with them. But Jesus tells him to stay there and be a witness. Prior to his deliverance, he bore witness to the destructive power of Satan. After his deliverance, he bore witness to the transforming power of God. And so Jesus does not leave the area without a witness. You know, that is what we are called to be; witnesses. Some people misunderstand what a witness is. They think that it’s a well contrived plan of evangelism. Maybe some of that can be incorporated into being a witness. But really it was pretty simple mission for this guy. He had been a Christian just a few hours. He didn’t know all the do’s and don’ts of evangelism. He didn’t have all the answers. He certainly hadn’t taken any classes in evangelizing. But he could be a powerful witness to the saving power of the gospel of Christ. He could tell all his friends and neighbors who knew what he had been, what he had now become by the power of Christ. His life was a witness to the transforming power of salvation. He was forgiven, he was a new creation in Christ. He could tell them that.

Listen, Jesus wants you to be a witness today as well. I am going to leave you with the same commandment that Jesus left with the demoniac; “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.”