"Jesus: A Complete Savior" - Mark 8:1-21

All right, well, this morning may seem like a bit of a deja vu.

If you have your Bibles, you can turn over to Mark chapter 8.

Mark 8 · chapter mention

We are almost to the exact midpoint of Mark.

And I think it's been well said that when you read the book of Mark,

it does have a midpoint, a true midpoint.

And what Mark is doing, and I think what Peter is doing through Mark in this

gospel, is he spends the first half saying, this is who Jesus is.

This is who Jesus is. and the second half he's saying, this is what Jesus must do.

And next week, we'll talk about really the turning point in this whole book,

when Peter proclaims who Christ is.

It's an end point. When Peter, again, next week will say that you are the Christ,

the Son of the living God, what Mark is doing is saying, okay,

we've got that point. He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Now, what must the Christ, the Son of the living God do?

But this week, it's interesting.

It says Jesus in your Bibles, I would assume, says Jesus feeds the 4,000.

And you're like, this seems awfully familiar. And yeah, because not long ago,

we had Jesus feeding the 5,000.

Now, I think what's interesting too, is if I followed you around for a week.

Right. I'm not saying I will do this. We've got your trackers at the back.

Everybody pick one up. We're just going to listen to all your conversations.

But if I track you for a week and I followed you around, I imagine that depending

upon who you're talking to, who you're meeting, that you do change a little bit.

Right. Now, I'm not saying you're two face and I'm not saying you're,

you know, everybody always says the most authentic person is the same here as they are there.

Well, that's partly true, but I can tell you when I'm at work and I'm in charge

of people, there are certain things that I have to do, certain tones I have

to use, certain conversations I have to have that I don't have to have with my wife.

I've never once looked at my wife and said, hey, that's enough.

I would never do that. I've looked at my wife and said, hey,

I think it's time for you to leave. I've never said that, but I have said that at work.

I have said that to my kids.

That's enough, right? Depending on who I'm talking to, the kind of conversation

I'm going to have is going to look a little different. It's going to feel a little different.

And Jesus is the same. And this morning we're going to see that he talks to a crowd.

He talks to the Pharisees and he talks to his disciples and ultimately a blind

man. And he has a different conversation with all of them.

Does that make Jesus two-faced? Does that make Jesus different?

Does that make Jesus ungenuine. Well, no, none of those things are true,

right? Jesus is a person, but he's also God, but he understands that different

people need different conversations.

Different people are at different places. And so let me begin by just reading

this passage. We're going to read quite a bit this morning.

I'm probably going to stop here at verse 13. We'll continue later.

But it says, in those days, when again, a great crowd had gathered, they had nothing to eat.

Now, when it says, when again the great crowd had gathered, that's just like,

that's just every day for Jesus at this point. That's not a big deal, right?

But his location is, he called his disciples to him and said to them,

I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days

and have nothing to eat and.

And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way.

And some of them have come from far away. And his disciples answered him,

how can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?

And he asked them, how many loaves do you have? And they said, seven.

He directed the crowd to sit down on the ground and he took the seven loaves

and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set

before the people. And they set them before the crowd.

And they had a few small fish and they blessed them. And These also should be

set before them. And they ate and were satisfied. They took up the broken pieces

left over, seven baskets full.

There were about 4,000 people and he sent them away. And immediately he got

into the boat with his disciples and he went to the district of Dalmanutha.

Verse 11, the Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking for him a

sign from heaven to test him.

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

Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.

And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side. I'll stop there for now.

So again, if I were to read that story to you, and then I were to go back and,

read Jesus feeding the 5,000, there's a lot of similarities.

So much so that if you read critical scholarship on this passage,

most critical scholars would tell you this is the same passage.

Mark's just retelling it, right? It's the exact same thing.

Maybe the manuscripts got mixed up and that manuscript stopped at Jesus feeding the 5,000.

And then somebody else went to write another manuscript and they got the story

a little different, right? This is how they're going to say,

well, these are different stories to remember.

I think they are very much different stories, right? There's a lot of different things about them.

Though they sound familiar. Number one, the number, of course, 5,000 to 4,000.

The word for fish here used is specifically sardines, right? So not as good of a meal.

All right, they have some white fish in the first one, sardines in the second.

I know, I know. The Greek word for basket is different.

This is the same word that's used when Paul is lowered down in a basket. It's a big basket.

The word for basket that's used in Jesus feeding the 5,000, completely different.

But I think the greatest difference and the reason that it's told this way is the location.

The location is different. When Jesus feeds the 5,000, he is in mainly a Jewish place.

These are mainly Jewish people. And this is why he looks at the Jewish people. And what does he say?

He says, they're like a sheep without a shepherd.

That's what he says about these Jewish people. What does he say in this story?

He doesn't say anything about sheep. He doesn't say anything about shepherds.

He simply says in verse two, I have of compassion on the crowd because they

have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.

He has compassion, right? This motivation seems more tangible, more physical.

Not as much, right? They wouldn't have understood the sheep shepherd analogy.

They wouldn't have understand how that worked. They're Gentiles.

They don't know the Jewish scriptures.

But what Jesus does is he looks at them and he has compassion.

John Gill, a 17th century Baptist pastor says this, Christ is a compassionate

savior, both of the bodies and souls of men.

He had compassion on the souls of this multitude, and therefore he had been

teaching them sound doctrine for three days.

And he had compassion on the bodies of many of them, and he fed them because

his bowels yearned toward them all.

That Greek word compassion literally means that Jesus's bowels are turning within

him when he sees these people. Splegizomai.

You want to impress somebody with some Greek words, right? Splegizomai.

It's like a splitting emotion that Jesus has.

I think there's a lesson here for this in us. The compassion that Jesus shows is twofold.

All of us know that we're better at certain things than others.

For some of us, meeting someone's felt need, their physical need comes very natural, very natural.

We're good in hard situations. We can meet people emotionally.

We can meet people physically.

Maybe we have physical means, we have some money, we have some time, we have some stuff.

And when people have physical needs, we meet them well. If somebody needs food, we'll feed them.

If somebody needs a shoulder to cry on, we'll cry with them.

And those are great things. For others of us, we're really good at the spiritual needs.

If somebody comes to us crying, we don't know what to do. But if they ask us

a question about church history or the falloquia or medieval times,

popes, we can answer that question.

And so people come to us with a physical need and our response is often just

to try and meet them with spiritual theological knowledge.

Now, are either of those things wrong? I don't think so. I don't think so.

But I think what we often do is when people need physical help,

we give them spiritual help. Or when people need spiritual help,

we give them physical help.

And Jesus does neither of those things, right? Jesus meets both needs. He doesn't pick a lane.

He's not some Mid-Eastern guru mystic that when people come to him with problems

and they're going, man, we're really hungry and thirsty. He goes,

you don't need any of that. You're totally fine.

But he also doesn't have people come out to him and just go,

you know, the most important thing that I can do for these people is give them

something to eat. I just need to feed them.

Right. Jesus does both. Jesus does both. And we should do both.

All right. If we know that we're drawn more towards a physical need,

we need to watch ourselves and say, hey, am I just giving people what they want

to make them feel better?

Am I willing to have a hard spiritual conversation?

Jesus has spent three days calling them to repent. and they have stayed with him.

He has taught them for three days and so he has compassion on them.

By the same token, and I think this may apply to more of us in here,

when someone has a physical need, are you trying to meet that with a theological

reason, with a theological argument?

Man, sometimes people just need a meal.

They really do. Sometimes people just need a hug.

Sometimes people just need you to listen.

That is a real tangible thing that Jesus does.

He is compassionate and he meets both needs.

Psalm 103 says this, as a father shows compassion to his children,

so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

Why does he do that? Why does Jesus treat you that way?

For he knows our frame and he remembers that we are dust.

Every person you meet, including the person you meet in the mirror every morning, is but dust.

You're a big ball of dust that God is giving life to right now,

right? That's your frame. That's who you are.

And you need compassion. And you've been shown compassion by Christ.

And our call is to show compassion to others.

That doesn't mean we neglect saying hard things. It doesn't mean we neglect hard truths.

It doesn't mean we shy away from doing what needs to be done or what needs to

be said. But what it does mean is we are compassionate.

And we try and meet the needs of the people that God has placed around us.

For most of this, Jesus feeding the 5,000, my application would be the exact same as it was before.

Again, I did want you to know specifically though that this is a group of Gentiles.

This is a different place. And I think one of the things Jesus is trying to

do with his disciples is when he feeds 5,000 Jews, I think his disciples are

kind of going, that's awesome, that makes sense, right? These are your people,

these are your sheep, they don't have a shepherd.

But when he's out in this desolate place and there's a bunch of Gentiles,

I don't think the disciples would have the same mindset. And so it's like he

tells them, he tells them. It's interesting. He called his disciples to him

and said, I have compassion on them.

Jesus didn't have to tell his disciples anything, but he makes a point to bring

his disciples over and to tell his disciples, I have compassion on this group of Gentiles.

I have compassion on this group of pagan worshiping, false God worshiping,

possibly sacrificing to false God group of people. I have compassion on these people.

Again, as if to tell his disciples, you need to have compassion on these people.

Do not look at them as second-class citizens. Just because they aren't Jews

and they're not Hebrews doesn't mean that I do not love and care for them.

Again, the people that we think deserve love the least are often the people

that Jesus looks at us and says, hey, I have compassion on them too.

That's Jesus' response to feeding the 4,000. Again, he has some leftover.

The disciples take in bread.

But let's jump to verse 11.

It says, the Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking for him a sign.

It's as if the Pharisees are waiting for him when he gets off the boat.

Like, man, they find out that he was over there in Gentile regions again.

They see that he's coming across the lake and they meet him at the dock and

they're gonna argue with him.

It says, seeking for him a sign to test him.

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

They're not really there to test him. They're there to berate him.

And what do they want to berate him with? A sign.

Another sign. Goodness gracious. How much more signs do you need?

They don't ever say that Jesus isn't doing miracles.

They ascribe his miracles to Satan, but they don't ever say he's not doing them.

They see him do miracles. They hear about his miracles.

There's thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people following Jesus around,

namely because he's healing sick people and he's raising dead people and he's

feeding thousands upon thousands of people everywhere he goes.

They don't want Jesus to do another sign. They want Jesus to do what they want him to do.

This is the Pharisees issue over and over and over again is they want control.

And to them, Jesus is a rabbi that they can't control.

They can't get their hands on him. He goes where he wants to go.

He does what he wants to do.

He says what he wants to say, almost as if he's God.

And that's what they don't like.

And so what do they do? They meet him at the shore and they say,

hey, we want another sign. If you're really who you say you are,

give me another sign. Do you know anyone like this?

Maybe you've been like this. Maybe you are like this, right?

Where no matter what God does in your life, no matter what good things he's

accomplished in your life, no matter what signs you've seen him do,

what miracles he's worked in your life, you are always looking for him to do another one.

You know, Jesus, if you would just do this, if you would just make this happen,

if you could just fix this issue, If you could just give me this one thing,

Jesus, then, man, I would follow you.

And Jesus, I know, just sits up there and goes, I've given you every single

breath you've ever taken.

I've done plenty of things in your life that you should be able to look to and know.

That's why Paul, commenting on this same attitude in 1 Corinthians 1,

22-23 says, For Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom.

Again, we see this over and over again in the gospel. The Jews are constantly

coming to Jesus and saying, hey, I need more. I need more.

Literally poking and prodding Jesus like he's some sort of animal at the fair,

right? It's time to jump up on the ball, Jesus, and balance on there because we need a show.

And these Greeks, these pagans are constantly following Jesus around and what

are they asking him to do? Hey, we need more knowledge.

Help us understand. Give us more information. Give us more things.

If you get on the internet today and you type in Christian versus atheist debate,

you'll see this constantly.

These people debating atheists and pagans and all these things.

It's like talking to a brick wall and everyone thinks if I could talk to him,

I could convince him, right?

Yeah. I mean, he's an unbeliever, but he hasn't met me yet. He doesn't know about my knowledge.

He doesn't know how much I know. He doesn't know how much I can show him.

He doesn't know my apologetics.

He doesn't know what I know about the young earth, the old earth.

He doesn't know what I know about history.

He doesn't know what I know. And if he knew what I knew, I would be able to convert him. Not true.

Paul says, Jews demand signs and Greek seeks wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified,

a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.

We preach Christ crucified. Why is it a stumbling block to Jews?

Because it is the sign that is undeniable. There is no greater sign that Jesus

is who he says he is more than the crucified Christ, the crucified and raised Christ.

There's no sign that Jesus could ever do that could prove that he is who he is more than that sign.

It's a stumbling block to choose because they can keep asking for signs and

we will keep saying Christ crucified. That's the sign.

Well, what about this? And what about that? Doesn't matter. Christ crucified is the sign.

It says folly to Gentiles. You could say foolishness. The gospel doesn't make any sense.

It's not supposed to make sense. When you tell people the gospel,

we talk about this often here.

It's normal for us to say, well, there was a Jewish guy named Jesus that's actually

God that was born of a virgin that lived a perfect life and died on a cross, but he didn't stay dead.

Then he rose again. And then 40 days later, he arose and he sits at the right

hand of God, the father, and he rules and reigns and he's going to come back

and there's going to be a new Jerusalem like that. I say that in this room and

everyone's like, well, yeah, that's just life. I totally know that's true.

For most of the world, that's the most outlandish thing you could ever say out loud.

It makes no sense. It means nothing to them. Again, they hear that and they

go, that sounds like the most foolish thing in the world.

It's like when we hear some of the things that other places believe.

We hear about these other religions, right? I don't know if you've ever looked

into things like Hinduism or Buddhism, and some of the things they hold to,

you listen to and you go, that is the most ridiculous.

Cows are sacred. Have you been around a cow, right? Like, have you seen them?

And they look at us and go, yeah, that Jesus story, that's just ridiculous. What is Paul's point?

At Jesus's point, people will always say that they need more knowledge and they

will say that they need another sign. That's not what they need.

They need their eyes to be opened.

They need their ears to be opened. They need a new heart. They need a new mind.

And how is Jesus gonna prove that point? Well, he's gonna talk to his disciples.

He says in verse 14, now they had forgotten to bring bread and they had only

one loaf with them in the boat, which again, huge missed opportunity.

He just fed 4,000 people, guys. grab a couple loaves like i'm guessing their

tunics don't have pockets it's a whole thing.

Maybe that's where the lady's dress comes from now. Y'all never have pockets.

It's the most outlandish thing ever. I don't know why they're doing that to you guys.

Meanwhile, guys can buy pockets with like nine things on there.

So yeah, all the pockets.

But he says, and he cautioned them saying, watch out. Beware of the leaven of

the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod.

Now, again, this all has happened, right? They watched Jesus feed 5,000.

Now they've watched him feed 4,000. They've watched him have this confrontation

with the Pharisees. and now he sits them down.

They only have one piece of bread and Jesus goes, using the bread as an illustration,

watch out, who are of the leaven of the Pharisees? And what do they say?

They begin discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread.

This is the most realistic conversation I've ever seen in my life,

especially if you've ever been around kids that are hungry.

If you've ever been around yourself when you're hungry, it doesn't matter what

somebody's trying to tell you.

They could be giving you thermonuclear codes and you can be looking at them

and listening and then you'll see a billboard of your favorite restaurant and

they're like, hey, this is the most important thing I've ever told you.

And you're like, they have honey butter biscuits.

Like, oh, it's just, you know, that's exactly what the disciples are doing.

They're hungry and they only have one piece of bread and they're looking around

at each other and they're going, who was supposed to bring the bread?

Peter, you're the bread guy. You know this, like you have one job.

Bartholomew, no one even knows what you do here. Can you bring the bread?

Like, can you literally just bring the bread?

Right, Peter's the ear cut off guy, right? Matthew's the tax collector. You're the bread guy.

They're all upset. And Jesus gives them this teaching. And what do they respond

with? You know, we're just hungry. We're just hungry.

Now, 10 verses before this, we saw how Jesus dealt with a hungry crowd.

What did he do? Oh, I have compassion on them.

Compassion on them because they've been listening to me three days and I don't

want them to pass out on the way home.

And now his hungry disciples say, we've only got one loaf of bread.

And what does he say? Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread?

Do you not yet perceive? Listen, six questions.

Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?

Having eyes, do you not see? Having ears, do you not hear?

And do you not remember when I broke the five lobes for the 5,000.

And how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?

They said to him, 12, which you know, at this point, they're all looking at the ground, 12.

And the seven for the 4,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?

They said to him, seven. And he said to them, do you not understand?

Man, I bet the disciples are saying, hey, how about some of that compassion, Jesus?

Right? Like we could use some compassion, right? These are different people.

His disciples have been with him. They have watched more miracles than anyone else has watched.

They have heard more teaching than anyone else has heard. And so Jesus' response

to them is different than the crowd.

Now it's different than the Pharisees as well.

He doesn't look at his disciples and go, you know what? I'm done.

I'm not doing anything else for you.

You can see that in verse 21, he says to them, and he said to them,

do you not yet understand?

He doesn't say it to the Pharisees.

He doesn't say no sign will be given to you yet. He says, I'm never giving you

a sign. You'll never see it.

But to his disciples, he is frustrated.

He knows that they don't get it. But he says to them, do you not yet understand?

Now, Mark does something brilliant here in these questions that Jesus asked.

I should say Jesus does something brilliant and Mark records it for us.

That's a better way to say that.

But Mark is making a point and he's doing it with structure, right?

If you're an English major in here, you're going to love this.

It's great. This is how he puts it together.

But do you notice how he sandwiches, again, no pun intended with the bread here,

but how he sandwiches this story of the 4,000 between two other miracles.

At the end of chapter seven, what's the miracle?

He heals a deaf man. And then in chapter eight, verse 22, he heals a blind man.

And right in the middle, he asked the disciples, having ears, do you not hear?

Having eyes, do you not see?

Even more important than the miracle of unplugging ears or opening eyes is the

miracle of giving spiritual sight and spiritual ears to the unbelieving.

And Jesus asked them again.

Do you not hear? Do you not see? And he sandwiches that between a deaf man and a blind man.

And it's as if Jesus is asking these questions. And what he's really asking

them is not, why don't you understand?

He's trying to get them to see, you can't understand.

You will never hear. You will never see because you are just like the deaf man

that I healed. And you're just like the blind man that I'm about to heal.

You are incapable of doing these things unless I touch you.

Unless I do something for you, you'll never get it.

Because the disciples at this point are looking at the crowd and looking at

the Pharisees and they're going, we're better than the crowd,

we know more than them. And we're better than the Pharisees because we're not as religious as them.

And so we're the ones that should get it. And Jesus goes, you don't get it.

You still don't get it. You still think you're going to figure this out.

You still think that one day you're going to wake up and all this is going to

make sense to you because you're with me. But that's not how it works.

That's not how it works.

Most poignantly, Judas heard this warning just like every other disciple. Judas wasn't an idiot.

Judas wasn't a fool. Judas was no more prideful than Peter, right?

He was no more doubtful than Thomas.

He was no more fearful than any of the other disciples that in Jesus's crucifixion

ended up hiding themselves in a room because they were scared.

He's certainly no more cowardice than Peter who can't even admit that he knows Jesus to a slave girl.

What made Judas Judas and what

made Peter Peter was not anything that they did, it was this. It was this.

Why do people see? Why do people hear?

Why do you know who Jesus is? You know who Jesus is because he's touched your

ears and he has touched your mouth and he has literally given you a new heart

to understand and to hear and to see his word,

right? The disciples don't get it.

They just, they miss it. And we're just as guilty of this.

For so many of us, our head knowledge is great. Even our belief is great.

If I were to say, do you believe in the plagues of Egypt? You'd say, yes, I do.

I'd say, do you believe in the ark? Yeah, I do. Do you believe that God saved

Joseph from the well and from the prison? You'd go, yeah, absolutely.

What about Daniel the lion's den? Do you believe that? Absolutely.

I love Daniel the lion's den.

Do you believe that he parted the Red Sea? Of course I believe he did that.

You believe Samson? You believe these stories? Yes. What about the own things

in your life? Do you believe that he's done things for you?

Do you believe he's answered prayers? Do you believe he's come through for you

time after time again? Do you believe he's solved problems for you?

Do you believe he's fixed things for you that you didn't even know he fixed?

There's this cynic in all of us that says, what about the times he didn't?

And what about right now if he doesn't? And that's the disciples.

They've seen Jesus feed over 20,000 people with essentially 14 loaves of bread and some fish.

And yet they're holding a piece of bread and they look at each other and go,

how are we going to eat today? How are we going to eat today?

We are all at times in our lives this way.

When we look at our lives and we look at our circumstances and we go,

how can I have peace? How can I have joy?

How can I have rest? How am I going to make it?

How is this next season of my life going to go? If I don't figure this out,

if I can't make it work, if I don't go out and do everything that I could possibly do, right?

I'm going to have to work 90 hours a week and I'm going to have to figure,

I'm going to have to have the conversation. I'm going to have to do all of these things.

Never looking at Jesus and going, man, I've got one piece of bread,

but I've seen him feed 5,000 with seven.

So I think he can feed 12 with one.

Why don't they do that? How can the disciples not do that at this point?

Again, they are no different than the blind guy, than the deaf guy.

They're no different than the

dead girl. They're no different than anybody that Jesus has come across.

They're no different than the lame man that can't walk.

They're no different than the lepers that Jesus has seen. They are just as unclean

as lepers, and they are just as lame as people who can't walk,

and they're just as deaf as people who can't hear. They're just as mute as people that can't talk.

They are all of those things. They just don't realize it.

So how can they look at Jesus after seeing him do those things?

The same way you can look at Jesus and not trust him.

The same way I can look at Jesus and not trust him.

And so the next time that, man, we get short on bread, may we be aware that

we would not be like the disciples and grumble and murmur and complain and say,

Jesus, what are you going to do with one loaf?

What in the world could you do with this?

And it's an interesting story as we're out on the back patio for the first time,

me and Avisa were talking.

Last time we were on the back patio, it was 105 degrees and there was about

15 of us. And to our credit, no one complained.

We just text afterwards. We're like, hey, it was a little hot.

It's like, yeah, I had sweat in my eyes the whole time. I was joking about to

get like a preacher cloth and just wipe myself off. I was really getting excited about that part.

But it is tempting even in those moments to look at Jesus and go,

what are you going to do with that? What could you ever do with that?

It's tempting to do that with your own life, to look at Jesus and go, I'm just not that smart.

I get around these other guys, I get in rooms with other people,

and they start talking about the gospel, and they start talking about the Bible,

and they're using words I don't understand, and they're talking about stories

in the Bible I've never even heard.

I don't know any Greek words. I don't know any Hebrew words.

I'm not even real sure where Genesis is in the Bible. Well, the people tell

me it's at the beginning, but I, you know...

Never has a problem with that. The flip side of that is also true.

You get around, like we said earlier, and you go, listen, I'm a pretty smart guy.

I know a lot of information. I know a lot of things I can tell people,

but when it comes to just being compassionate and kind, I have a hard time.

Have you ever met guys like this? Women like this? I know people like this all

the time in my life. They're so smart, they can't be nice.

Because every sentence that comes out of people's mouths, they're constantly analyzing.

Like, no, that's wrong. You're like, what were you talking about?

So he's talking about peanut butter and jelly, but he's actually wrong about

it. And you're like, who cares? He's like, I care. I have to tell them when they're wrong.

These are the same people that

like, if you're hanging out with them and you go, man, that was lucky.

You'll see them like poke out from out of the corner, like, look,

that is not real. And you're like, we know, we know.

But whatever it's hard for you to do, wherever it's hard for you to be compassionate,

it, that compassion that Jesus has isn't just something that he pulls out of the sky.

The compassion that Jesus has and the compassion that all of these disciples

minus one will eventually have comes from them knowing the kind of compassion

that they've been shown.

We can trust him not because we know what he's done or what he can do.

Those are great reminders.

You should remind yourself often of what God has done for you and what he can

do for you, but that's not why you should trust him.

You don't trust God based on what he can or can't do because he may or may not

do that for you, but you trust God based on who he is, who he is,

that he has compassion on you.

He is gracious and kind to you, that he has been those things from before you were born.

He has known you and he has loved you. And every single thing that's ever happened

to you has happened to you out of the goodness and compassion of your savior. Even the worst things.

Again, we didn't really get into this story. We won't really next week,

but Jesus heals a blind man at Bethesda to finish out this section.

I think generally speaking, again, the reason this story is included in Mark

is because he's wanting to bookend these things to say, I'm gonna heal a deaf man.

My disciples won't get it. The Pharisees won't get it.

I'm gonna heal a blind man. And it's like, hey, the reason that these people

in the middle don't get it and these people at the end do, because I've healed

the people on the end and the people in the middle haven't gotten it yet.

They're about to. Well, Peter's about to, but they don't get it yet.

So quick applications here. Number one, the crowds. Do you have compassion on crowds?

Do you have compassion on people that are hard to have compassion for?

They're just hard to have compassion.

They're rough. They're mean. They're upsetting. right what kind of anger issues

do you have towards people like that,

right most of us in here just knowing most of the room we're in charge of people

we work in situations where we're the boss of certain people how do we treat

those people that we're in charge of,

if i were to ask people that work with you would you say man that person he

meets me with compassion every time.

Even when he even when they have to get on to me even when she has to tell me

something i don't want to hear I know it's coming from a place of compassion, right?

Your waiters, your people you run into at doctor's offices, the people you run

into at front counters, right?

A lot of times these people can be really hard people to have compassion on.

Have compassion on them. Be gracious and kind.

Meet their physical needs and spiritual needs, whatever is needed at the time.

That's the first thing. Number two.

You meet Pharisees, don't expect to change their mind. When you meet Pharisees,

don't expect to change their mind. Jesus didn't.

When you meet people in your life that are constantly wanting you to prove to

them that Jesus is who he is, well, if Jesus would do this and if Jesus would

do that, if Jesus was God, wouldn't he just do this?

Wouldn't he just heal these people? Wouldn't he just go these places?

When you meet those people, listen, my encouragement to you is to be compassionate and leave.

Don't argue. Don't fight. If anything, go pray for him. That's the best thing you can do.

You fighting and arguing with them and trying to convince them of things is

simply putting you in a position that you think you're someone that you're not. You are not God.

Jesus was God, and he rightly said to them, there is no sign that will work for you.

He is risen from the dead. That is what we put in front of you.

We preach the gospel. We preach Christ crucified. And lastly.

Are you a disciple that has a hard time trusting Jesus with one love?

Do you look at your life at times, and maybe it's your bank account,

or your temper, the sins that so beset your heart and mind, the shortfalls in

your life, the things that you wish were different, the situations that you

wish were different, and you

look at Jesus, you go, Jesus, what are you going to do with this one loaf?

What could you possibly do with one loaf and neglect what he's already done? Are you prone to that?

Well, my encouragement to you

is not to get over it or have more faith or why don't you just fix that.

My encouragement to you is to go to Jesus and ask for his compassion.

To go to Jesus and ask that he would heal your heart, that he would heal your

eyes, that he would heal your ears, that you would hear him anew,

that you would be able to speak about him in a new way.

Ultimately, that you would be given more faith. Faith is a gift. Ask for more of it.

Whether you're in the crowds, a Pharisee, a disciple, or listen,

maybe you're just the blind man or the deaf man.

If you're in here and you're not a believer and that's where you would fall

down, listen, Jesus can heal you.

But the answer in all of these different things is when Jesus is ready to make

himself known to someone, they will know him.

Your job and my job is to preach the gospel, to keep putting Jesus in front

of people, to keep talking about him, to keep preaching about him,

to keep putting his gospel on display.

And then by God's grace, we will be able to see what the disciples are going

to see Peter do next week.

People come to the Lord and proclaim he is the Christ, the son of the living God. Let's pray.

Father, again, thank you for this morning. Thank you for the chance to be here with your people.

Thank you that you are compassionate, that you have been compassionate on us.

You're compassionate on the crowds.

God, I pray first and foremost that we would be a compassionate people. I think we are.

I think for many people in the room, compassion is not their biggest issue, and that's a blessing.

If it is, Lord, would you make us compassionate? Would you help us to see people

for where they're at, that they're hungry and thirsty?

God, we meet people every day, every single one of us walking around that we

have no idea what they're going through, but we know the fatherlessness epidemic, right?

We know the family epidemic. We know that there are relationships and situations

that are broken all around us.

God, will we be compassionate on those people?

Will we not find ourselves in arguments with Pharisees? Will we not waste our

lives trying to argue people into the kingdom and trying to convince Pharisees

that they're wrong and we're right so that we can feel better about ourselves?

Will we just preach the gospel?

Will we just preach the gospel and pray for Pharisees?

Will we not be a Pharisee? Will we not be people constantly looking for another

sign, looking for you to do something else, a new thing, a new work,

a new miracle in our life, but trust that your work,

your death, burial, and resurrection from the cross is the only sign that we ever need.

We would trust in that. Lastly, Lord, would we not be like the disciples?

Would you soften our hearts? Would you open our ears and our mouths so that

when we look at ourselves with

one piece of bread, know the Lord is here and he'll take care of that.

He's fed thousands upon thousands with much less. He can feed us with anything.

Christ, you're the bread of life. You're the bread of life.

Not only do you feed us physically, but you give us yourself.

You tell us, take, eat, this is my body.

That we would eat your bread. You would eat your body so that we might live.

God, you give that to us freely. We don't have to work for it.

We don't have to pay for it. You lay down your life. You break your body in

half so that it can be poured out and given to your people so that they might

have life. We thank you for that.

More than anything, we love you. In the name I pray, amen.