The Sign

My name is Drew. I'm the pastor here at Hope Heights. It's really good to see all y'. All. Kelly and I. For Christmas, we got tickets to see a band we were very excited to see. And so on Friday night, we got to go see Drew and Ellie Holcomb, who are people we've just loved. And at the Fitzgerald, which is a magical place, too. And just the kind of music it was. And the place we had, front row at the highest balcony, which makes me nervous. I was actually tense afterwards because of the height, but made for a very magical view of the concert. We had a lot of fun. It was pretty awesome. Highly recommend. Probably one of my top ever. Very, very fun. But I had an interesting moment. The kind of music and band that. There's a bunch of kids there too, which gives you a little, like, feel of maybe what music it was. And next to us came a whole family of, like, parents and their kids. And next to me sat a fifth grader who would not tell me his name. I think there was stranger danger things going in effect, I was like, oh, what's your name? I'm Drew. And he's like, eh, it isn't. But told me all sorts of things. Where he lives, his address in Delano, and where. Where he likes to eat, what he likes to do when he's not at concerts, all of his family's names. Anyway, we got chatting. Cause we were waiting for the concert. He was very excited. It was one of his first live concerts ever, and it's one of his favorite bands ever. And so he was so excited. And he said, I'm so excited to hear a song. I cannot wait till they sing the song Family. The name of the song is Family. They're gonna sing it. It's like, my favorite. It's so good. And at certain points of the concert, they actually stopped and they took requests, and he would just scream out this song. And they weren't playing this song. And he was kind of sad in it. At one point, he moved. There were some empty seats behind us. He moved with his mom there, and they were having a discussion during the concert of how it's good to be patient and that you should enjoy maybe the other songs in it. And, like, you know some of these songs, and even if you don't, you can just enjoy a concert. When you're at a concert, you just enjoy being here. And let's not play Roblox on your phone, because we're at a concert right now. He was really kind of distraught. It was One of those moments at a live concert you think, oh, you kind of have to learn that, like, you go there not necessarily to, like, find the track you like and then leave. Which is probably. As a current fifth grader, that's all he's known probably right. Is music where you can find any song you want, anytime. But you just go and enjoy the whole thing and enjoy them playing it in person. Enjoy versions of songs we've never heard before. And how incredible it is that this group of people can play together all these things that I was enjoying. He just kept asking, let's play this song. I wanted a song and kind of was missing the rest of the show. And I'm thinking about our passage for this week, throughout the week. And there's this missing, this waiting that we're gonna see today come at the end of our passage today we're gonna see the Pharisees. So this is like a big spoiler, right? What we're going to talk today, what we're going to get to at the end here is a passage where some people are going to come to Jesus and say, show us what's going on. Show us who you are. And this is after many miracles, many incredible things. People being raised from the dead. They're going to come on the tails, on the tail end of another incredible miracle of Jesus feeding thousands of people with very little. And they're going to say, oh, cool, show me something that shows, like who you are and what's going on. They miss this the whole time. They're like, play family, Play family and just sit. You're missing this incredibly beautiful, moving moment because you're waiting and waiting and waiting for this one thing that so hits me right in the heart because there's so many moments that I'm waiting for the thing that I've already created. If this thing happens, God, then I guess you're really God. If this thing really happens, then I can really rest in you or find wholeness in you, or even find excitement and joy in you. And so today's passage reminds us of this moment and reminds us, I think, of the same issue in our own hearts, but we're not quite there yet. We're going to get there. That's what we're thinking about today. How are we really fifth graders who are waiting for a song, not realizing how the actual show works before we get there? We are in the Book of Mark. I want to give you a little introduction, a little reminder of where we're at so that we can see this moment what really is happening in this moment? Because as we're in the book of Mark, Mark was really written so that you could sit down and read it, like, hear the story of this coming king of the kingdom of God is finally here who Jesus is. And so you would have read it and kind of seen all these stories play out in these short little segments together usually. Right. It wasn't really written originally so that we would, like, meet for years and go through it. So I don't want us to miss this. So here's Mark right now. If you want to crack open your Mark, I'm going to start just in five. But as Mark's gone on, we've seen these incredible things. Jesus enters the scene. He's calling disciples, he's doing miracles. And I want us just to see the last few. Because Mark, inspired by the Holy Spirit, really writes a pretty cool story here. And Mark also isn't necessarily in chronological order. That wasn't like his primary. Primary goal here is to go like, these are exactly what happened in this exact order. When you're reading it, that's helpful. He writes in these, like, segments that help us understand this big kingdom of God. Moving in of this God being born, coming to earth, and then gathering his disciples, doing these miracles, establishing that he's king and moving not just from these Jewish people to the rest of the world. And so that's what I want us to see here. This is some of the things that have been happening. We saw this story, if you remember, it was a while ago. But in Mark 5, there's this woman, this frail woman who'd been bleeding for many, many years came. He touches the hem of his garment, is healed. And then right after that, kind of in the same story, we hear he was on the way to see this girl who's sick and she actually dies. But he makes it there still says she's just sleeping. He raises this daughter from the dead. It's beautiful story. Jairus daughter. Remember this story? So cool. Right after that, we see, as Jesus continues moving, we see him come to a crowd of people. And he notices that they're people with. They're like sheep without a shepherd. And they're hungry. And this is that miracle where he takes just a few loaves of bread and a few fish and feeds 5,000 people. It's this beautiful thing. They're satisfied. They have leftovers. And then after that, he takes a little rest and his disciples go on a boat. There's all this wind and they can't get across. They're struggling, he walks out to them. Remember this? He kind of passes by them and they see him, and he comes in the boat and calms the storm. It's this moment again for them to see who he is. And at the end of that story, we hear him say, they didn't understand the loaves. They'd hardened hearts. They didn't understand the loaves like what had happened before. They're not. They're still, like, getting who Jesus really is. Then after this, we get to see a story in seven where the Pharisees come to him, these religious leaders come to him and they say, your disciples have done some unclean things. And he says, oh, you're missing it still. The issue is not that you're touching food and making things unclean. The issue is that you're unclean because of what's inside and coming out because of your heart. And so he gets to this. What's really dangerous here, friends, is not that you've set up enough rules that we'd eat clean food, but it's that our hearts are very unclean and we need them changed. So this marks this kind of interesting moment that happens. And then we see, almost like the story resets or we see the same story again. Mark says, hey, we're gonna meet another woman, this Gentile woman who's gonna come to him. She's so far in all categories from who should be hanging out with Jesus. Come. He should make him unclean. He should leave her and run away. This Gentile woman comes and says, my daughter is really sick. Sounds familiar, right? My daughter is sick, she needs help. And he actually heals her. She seems to kind of get it. He says, gentiles are like dogs. And she says, but even dogs get the scraps. It's an introduction to this part of Mark where we now are moving into Gentile place, just not non Jewish places. People who would have been seen as unclean or we shouldn't be around them. And all of a sudden, this thing that we had heard maybe could happen, God's kingdom is moving past even just this small group of Jewish people, but into the world. And we also see. Then this man come, his friends bring him, who's deaf and mute, and he's healed. Jesus, remember, touches his tongue and his ears and he. All of a sudden they're opened and he can hear. Then we get to today. Today, again, you might go, didn't we already read this story? He's gonna feed 4,000 again. A crowd's gonna be gathered. They're not Gonna have food. Jesus is gonna take a little bit. He's gonna feed them. After this, Jesus, the Pharisees are gonna come to him again and say, hey, we have a kind of a problem. What's going on here, Jesus? And then after that, next week, we're actually gonna hear another story about Jesus, about a boat and his disciples and not getting it still. So what I wanted you to see here and not miss this is Mark's doing something really cool here. And we're getting reminded of something that's very, very important. First, that this has moved. Now, we've seen the gospel not just go from Jewish communities, but now into the world. We just went through Acts last year. In Acts, we see the same thing, right? Acts actually is just doing what Jesus did. We did those flipped order, right? He acts as like, it's starting here in Jerusalem, Judea, ends of the earth. Jesus is starting here. He's going, ends of the earth. And we're actually seeing this happen in the book of Mark. And then we're seeing these cool connections. It's like he's going, hey, the thing that I can do in the Jewish community, in God's people and his children here, I'm actually going to do in all people. And so we see things like two stories. You're like, it's weird. There's two stories. Or even historically, people have said, I wonder if Mark, like, accidentally wrote them twice. I if wonder. I wonder if scribes throughout history wrote that story two times. And we just, like, someone didn't, like, catch it in the editing process. I think it's very important here. We're seeing Jesus can do the same thing in these other groups of people. Same thing, right? We see disciples get into boats. And in that story we hear Jesus say, you're not getting it. You're missing it here. You have hardened hearts. In their story in Mark 6, he says they don't understand the loaves. More bread talked to the same thing. We see the story of this woman who just gives this little tiny bit of indication of faith, even, right? Touches the edge of his clothes and just asks for a crumb of the bread to be healed. We see the same kind of story in the same pattern. And we see Pharisees come, religious leaders come and ask what's going on here. Jesus and him have to explain. Again, I don't think you're getting it. It's really important here. Just go, what Mark wants us to see and what we probably might not see, because we're not seeing people as like A Jewish community, a Gentile community. We're seeing Jesus is actually going to the ends of the earth. He's actually moving out into the world. And so today we get to see this story, the feeding of the 4,000. And we're going to see this moment where the Pharisees say, give us a sign, Jesus. Show us who you are. He's going to remind them, you're missing it. A very short version of Mark 7. Essentially, for us, that's where we're at today. We get to read another story. So listen, as you hear, it's going to be a little different than the other story. Listen as we read this story. How is this like or different than the feeding of the 5,000? Why would Mark have this? Why would he share a new community of people in the same miracle? I'm going to have you stand up, though. We're going to read. This is just the beginning of Mark 8, if you want to stand. I'm going to read the Word of God here. And we're going to read it through. And then we'll take a few minutes just to work through it a little bit together. In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered and they had nothing to eat, 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 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? They said, seven. And 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 the disciples to set before the people. And they set them before the crowd. And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. And they ate and were satisfied. And he took up the broken pieces left over seven baskets full. And there were about 4,000 people. And he sent them away. And immediately he got into a boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha. Then the Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit. And he 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. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. I pray today you'd use this to remind us of your goodness and your mercy. It would change our hearts, Lord, that we would come to know you more. Lord, if we don't know you, that we would be. Today would be the day we finally say yes to you. And, Lord, if we've known you a long time, I pray today we would afresh know this good mercy that we have from youm. Thank youk, Lord, for your word. Amen. All right, you can be seated. Let's just take a minute to look at this story. I want to look a lot more at the second part of this, but you may have noticed as we were reading, you may have been thinking, okay, what happened in the last one? He was with predominantly Jewish community. Do you remember there? There was 12 baskets left over of food. Maybe different numbers you heard throughout it. Here's some of the things that we see in this passage as he gathers with this group of people. First, in this one, he explicitly says, I have compassion on these people. The other one, we see it happen, but he doesn't necessarily say it. It's interesting. Mark wants us to hear that. It also tells us that he was with them three days. Or in the other story, he had just been with them for that day. So this time they've actually been with them a lot longer. That's a long time. I don't know if their food ran out or if they just haven't eaten for a few days. And he's like, these people are getting hungry. It's an interesting story. It's the same reaction from the disciples as last time. But this time you're like. When they're like, how are we going to feed all these people? Is there like a little pause there? One of the disciples look around like, last time, he fed them all. It's interesting. You go like, we're reading Mark as outside of the story, right? Like, as you're reading, you go, come on, how's he going to feed him? Last time you said the same exact thing. How do we feed these people in this desolate place? Well, Jesus makes a whole bunch of bread and fish, right? But same thing happens again. They share. How is this going to even happen? He asks them for the loaves again, and this time they say, seven. Interesting, right? It's weird. There's a number. There must be maybe a reason. This is a fun rabbit hole. Maybe not fun, but maybe sad. You type in Mark 8 feeding in the 4000 number 7 you get all sorts of wild reasons why the number seven would be there. Seven could be. Maybe there's a few that maybe are helpful. 7 sometimes is used in Scripture as like, a whole number. Like seven means, like, wholeness, like the mark of the beast. 666. Seven is like Jesus. I think there'll actually something more helpful here. In the other passage, he divides them into 12 groups. And that passage is giving us this picture of the Exodus. It's this moment where actually Moses sat them down in groups in the 12 tribes. And we're getting a lot from Mark. He's reminding us that Jesus is like, it's the new Exodus. It's the new deliverance. Jesus is the better Moses. And so that story, we get this picture like they were in the wilderness, a desolate place, into 12 groups. And so this is a number. Seven is significant because there were, like, considered 70 or seven Gentile tribes or groups. And so we see in the Old Testament, some seven is the number referred to, like the number of gentile groups, like 12 disciples. There would be seven gentile groups. So it might just be that. It might just be reminding us that the Gentiles work in groups. In these seven groups, I think maybe calling back to that, I don't think it's as important as, like, hours of research on the number seven. But he does say it sounds more fun than maybe actually just getting in the Gospel. But he does say seven, right? And that's still not a lot. Probably not enough to feed 4,000 people. Seven wouldn't be enough to feed one of your families, depending on how many children in your home, but seven, so not a lot. He directs the crowd to sit down, though, just like he did before. He takes the seven loaves and he gives thanks. In this passage, he gives thanks, but not the same give thanks. This phrase actually here is a word for Eucharist, which is what we would use. Like, I grew up calling communion the Eucharist. And so this is different. In the other one, he actually gives a prayer that would have been like a common Jewish prayer that you would give to, like, bless. We saw it in the Old Testament to bless the food. Thank God for the food. In this one, he gives a different kind of blessing, which is unique. I think it's just to the people he's with. It's a different kind of giving thanks kind of for them in their place. He broke it. He gives it to them the same way as before. He makes this stuff. He gives it to his disciples to then distribute. It's this cool picture of what the church looks like, what God's people look like, hey, I'm going to provide for. And then you get to bring this out to people. They're in this desolate place, Jesus is feeding them. Those things are very similar, right? It's very incredible. At the end there's still baskets left over. This one is different. The word baskets is a different basket. So in the Jewish one, the baskets meant a small basket that you'd think of that might have bread in it. This one actually means large baskets. It's the same basket that later in Acts we hear a story about a person being lowered in a basket. It's that kind. It's a big old basket. And so there's actually a bunch of seven big baskets, which some commentators are like, maybe that's an indication that now, like he's going to the world. And so we need some big baskets because there's a whole lot of people left over, right? Which maybe it's interesting, he doesn't use the same thing. We might say he had a bowl of bread or like a. What would we use? Like a tub of bread? A tote of bread. You'd say, oh, if you say tote, that's a different thing. Like a 55 gallon barrel of bread. Oh, that means he's got a lot of bread left over for a whole lot of people, which really would indicate, right. There's bread left over for all of these people. Same though it kind of ends, right? They get into a boat and head out. Very similar to our other story. So we see some things different, some the same. I think it's helpful for us to see those not get too stuck on, like, these are very different. Let's go down the trail of figuring out all the numbers. But we see one's mostly Jewish, one's mostly gentile. There's 12 and 7. Both of them essentially are just hungry people. One's been with them for one day, one has three days with them. Maybe they need to be a little longer to better understand him and get to know him, because they really have no context for Jesus, which is similar. If you think of like people who did not wouldn't have grown up Jewish, wouldn't have understand who Yahweh was, wouldn't understand who God is or even understood who a messiah was that was coming. He would had to. Maybe there have been more time to even understand who he was. He even says in there, right, there are people who are far. Some of these people are from far away that would. That would be a phrase that would be used for Gentile people. It'd be, those are people who are far away from God, so maybe you need a little more time with them. One of them, he refers to them as sheep without a shepherd, and one of them refers to as the faraway people. So seems like he's just describing the different people. One commentator described him as Israel in the wilderness, and one is the world in the wilderness. But both essentially hungry people in the wilderness, fed by Jesus, satisfied, and there's leftovers. That's the headline of the story here from our friend Mark. Now these also, if. If you remember when we first talked about this is weeks ago, we looked at a passage in Ezekiel, and it was a passage where God warns his shepherds. He says, hey, you're actually not shepherding your sheep. It's when we looked at this first passage of feeding the 5,000, and he says, you're not actually. You're sheep without shepherds. And your shepherds aren't just like bad shepherds, they're actually like herding you. They're shepherds who are eating the flock. They're herding the flock. They're using the flock. They're really bad shepherds. He actually says, there's going to be judgment for these shepherds. There's a warning in Ezekiel 34, and then right after that warning, we actually hear something really beautiful, which if you read this after you just read Mark, you see how incredible this is, that God, so long before Mark happens, before Jesus comes on the scene, tells us that this is going to happen, that these group of people are going to gather and eat. It says this in Ezekiel 34. For Thus says the Lord God. Behold, I. I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out as a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered. So I will seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places, that all there actually means all, like everywhere, where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out of the peoples and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land, and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed in the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares The Lord, I will seek the lost and I'll bring back the strayed. And I will bind up the injured and I will strengthen the weak. Sounds like what was happening there. And the fat and the strong I will destroy. He's referring to these shepherds who got fat and strong because they're eating the sheep. I will feed them injustice. So we got this picture a long time ago. What happens when there's people without a sheep, without a shepherd. God actually comes himself to take care of them, heals them, finds them, binds them up, strengthens them. And he also doesn't do that, but protects them from the sheep who are hurting them. This is what we saw. Jesus do this with the 5,000, with the Jewish people. And now we're seeing him say, I also. Maybe this is a bit of a twist for some of you, a surprise. I'm doing it for everybody. When I say scattered, I don't mean just my people were scattered in neighborhood. I mean they're far, far, far away. And I got to bring them back home. It's a beautiful picture. This is the picture you say, what's this Jesus like that you hang out with? Well, he's like a shepherd who came to find sheep who were hurt and lost, injured, who were weak, who had been hurt by these other shepherds not protected alone. He came and brought them back together and healed them. That's the good news. That's the gospel that we get to preach every week to ourselves and to each other. That's the good news that we get to hear that our God actually came and was willing to do that, and in fact was willing to die himself as a sheep, give his own life so that we could have life. That's incredible news, right? And think about the people here have witnessed this happening, witnessed people raising from the dead, witnessed Jesus from a distance doing some remote work, and. And being like, your daughter's healed over there. I'm not even there. She's healed, right? Incredible stuff. Remember the guy who came out of the tombs who was like, almost dead? He was like this demon possessed man, and he cast all the demons out of him and the pigs. That was incredible. That was actually in the same place that we're in now. All these incredible things, one after another. And if you read Mark, you're going, holy cow, holy cow. He's the one. He's Ezekiel 34. He's the shepherd. He's here. It's so good. And so then the Pharisees come to see him and they say and argue with him and Seek a sign from Him. Seeking from Him. A sign from heaven to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit. There are just all these people for another time. Second time. Hey, all these people, I'm going to feed all of you. And you leave satisfied. It's a beautiful picture. You'd hope. The Pharisees of anyone, they're just. They're very passionate people who, like, know the word of God and hold holiness so high. And they want these people to be holy and close to God and know God. And you think they would have read Ezekiel 36, 34, and they would have went, this guy. This is the guy. And then they're like, we gotta talk to you, Jesus. And you'd hope they might go, jesus, that's you, isn't it? And they say, hey, Jesus, show us something so we know who you are. He's like, huh? Like this, all this. I got a whole list of people you could talk to. A lot of good references for what's going on here. So I love it. I love. In Mark, he says, in 12, he sighed deeply in his spirit. That's a little bit of how I felt reading it. If I read this summer, as I read, I just read all Mark. I wanted to sit and read the whole thing in one sitting. And I felt that more than I've ever felt that. As I got to mark 8 and I heard them say, give us a sign. I went, oh, come on, guys. What does he have to do? There's something. What's going on that you. That you're, like, blocking. That you're not allowing those things to show you that he is the king, he is the she is shepherd. He's the good one who has come. He's the better Moses. He's the one you've been looking for. He's the one who can make you holy like you want. He sighs deeply. I think there's. There's even like a grace in his sigh. I don't see it as, like, oh, you guys are just so dumb. I see it like, still not. Still not getting it. And then he says, why does this generation. He's referring to these people seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this. Really, what he's saying here is no sign. This kind of sign you're looking for, you're not going to get. If you haven't seen it, you're not going to get it. And he leaves them also here. They're asking for a sign. They say, actually specifically a sign from heaven, which probably Meant like they're thinking Old Testament stories where fire comes down from heaven and starts wet wood on fire. Or one of those. Right. The seas are parted. I guess that's probably what they're thinking, like a sign from heaven. Like, we need to see one of these. These other ones that you're showing us really are versions of those, but they're not getting it right. This is where I want us to pause for a little bit. I started thinking, what kind of signs do I need and do we need? And so I came up with a few because this is easy to go. Oh, come on, you Pharisees. There is day after day, I need some signs. So let's just pause and think about if you need a sign. Here's five kind of signs I find myself. And I would guess maybe some of us as well has found it. I need the deal. I need the spectacle, the circumstance, the feeling and the certainty. And usually, like one big puzzle potluck of all these is what happens in my life. But I just want to take a moment to go through each one of these and talk about maybe you have a certain kind of sign you're always looking for to go. I want to follow you. I want to believe. I want you to give me rest. But I need. Can you at least do this? I need this in order to believe. Or later in Mark, we're going to actually hear someone come to him and say, help me with my unbelief. That's what we're saying. Jesus. I will. If you just do this. The first one, the deal. The deal is if you said, if you do this, then I'll believe. If you can heal this thing or this person, then I promise I'll come back to church. If I get this job, then I know it's you, and then I can believe. If you fix this, then I can trust you. It's like we're treating God like some kind of cosmic sort of vending machine or maybe contractor who's working on the project. Like, if you can make this happen, then I'll refer you to others. We see this all over scripture. We see this in Exodus as God's people are in the wilderness, and he's providing manna for them and water for them. And they say, oh, it was so good back in Egypt. Remember that? When we had all the food, we had so much food. We were enslaved there. But remember how much food we had there and how great it was there? Oh, God. If you just. If you just gave us, like, more, then we would believe in You. It's just kind of like, I need God to show me some favor before I can really put my faith in there. We see this in Jesus Tempts. When the Satan tempts Jesus, he says, do this thing. They're like, show me that you're God. If you're the son of God, then do this thing for me, right? This is the premise essentially of the movie Bruce Almighty. Now that's an old movie now, but I think we know, right? In that movie, essentially he's like, if you're God, prove it. And then he makes him God and then he realizes, oh, there's so many requests. I can't do all the emails. That's the whole movie of Bruce Almighty. I just gave you the whole plot. But right, there's this, the deal, right? I need the deal. God, if you do this, then I know, then you've said, oh. Then I go, oh, he's God because he did this thing. When I put it that way, I think like, oh, I'm just telling God what to do. We see that all over. Secondly, right, we keep moving here. The spectacle. Show me something dramatic. I think this might be more of what the Pharisees, if I had to pick one of these, I think this might be more where they're leaning in Mark 8 here. This would be like in the story of Elijah, there's a story where the prophets of BAAL say, like, show us your God. And he's like, I'll show you my God. And so they are trying to call. They do all the dancing and stuff and they call down the fire on the wood and the altar, and it doesn't happen. Elijah pours water all over the wood and is like, my God can still do it. And then the flames come to heaven. It's just really dramatic, really famous, greatest hits of things God did. I wonder if they're looking for that Jesus, could you do something like that to really make it clear? Maybe defeat a giant that. Does it have a child boy? Defeat a giant with a rock. That would be pretty spectacular. Maybe part some waters for us. Maybe we think of Thomas, I believe. Can you show me the wounds in your hand? I want to see that you actually were pierced and crucified in rose. Like, I gotta. I gotta see this. I think I often want something bigger. And even when I get to that bigger, it's not always big enough. Maybe you just need to see God, be obvious. God, this seems pretty incredible, this miracle, but I can't. It's still. Maybe not. And if I still could explain it. Maybe. It's ironic because we just saw very spectacular things with Jesus throughout the book of Mark. Casting out demons, healing people, feeding thousands. And it's not enough. It seems like even this one, the spectacle, maybe there's never enough spectacle, but we still want that, right? Only faith with bigger spectacle. I need to see it. The next one. I feel like the sign. I want not just the deal or spectacle. I want a circumstance. This one feels a little sneaky. This one sometimes is like God, if I essentially want you to kind of make things happen the way I need them to happen, similar to the deal, right? Things are difficult now. This is. Feels more like an all day, every day, the maintenance of life kind of thing. Feels very connected to comfort. For me, if things are uncomfortable, if my circumstances aren't favorable or comfortable or painful, then I don't know, I feel like maybe you're giving. Maybe it's a sign that God isn't here or real or for me or true. I gotta move, I gotta be comfortable. And then I know this is where God wants me or that he's even here. This often confuses comfort as what God has come to give me, rather than just a confirmation of who he is in the gospel. And in Mark we see all sorts of suffering happen. Storms, eventually, a cross from following Jesus. And so I think the circumstance needs to go smoothly. And that shows me, oh, there is a God. And often actually when it goes smoothly, I go, man, I must have done the right thing to make things comfortable. We see this in the story of Jonah. At the end of the story of Jonah, you see Jonah under this branch, under this little tree, and he seems to be pretty comfortable and happy. And then the tree dies and he becomes pretty angry. There's just this like, gray little picture of, oh, God, you're so good. And oh, wait, now it's getting hot. Now you're that good. I think he's still good. It didn't change the character of God, but often that suffering does. For me, if my life feels like it's maybe falling apart, then God must also be falling apart. We also have the feeling, I think culturally, maybe this is just a big part of the culture that we swim in. Right? It needs to feel right. Good vibe. Things are a good vibe. They're good. I was in a actual, like, let's call professional meeting with someone who was talking to me this week. This is a meeting with someone I've never met before. He is trying to talk to us about some stuff for church. And like, I'm like, I've never met you. You're trying to convince me of something, and maybe even our church be a part of something. And at one point, he goes like, come on, man. It's just good vibes, right? I was like, can we say that now? It's in, like, professional settings. That's okay. I'm like, tell me more, like, why we should maybe connect to your ministry. And he's like, just because. Good vibes, like, okay, well, that doesn't help me want to do stuff, actually, a little more. I need a little more of that. I just needed to, like, feel right in my gut. Maybe. Maybe just worship didn't, like, move me today. I came and I sang, and it was like. And then it's like, man, what's God there? It's often, I think, for me, connected to experiences I had at camp or in college or moments when I thought, like, whoa, I'm overwhelmed. I'm crying and I'm feeling overwhelmed. I'm tingly from this moment, this holy moment I had. And then later I go, if I'm not having that, he must not be the same. I gotta find that again. I need my heart to be stirring in that way. I think Scripture keeps calling us, though, to trust God, even if it doesn't feel right, even if the vibes are right. Think of the amount of times just already we've seen the disciples and Jesus and his people be uncomfortable, hungry in a storm, and God very much show up, and they're still very much uncomfortable. We actually see this happen to Elijah right after the fire. Fire comes down, starts wet wood on fire. Unbelievable, right? It's the coolest thing. We even see some of these people who are, like, prophets of baal, people who are like the big dogs, the religious leaders say, oh, your God is true. This is true. Right after that, he has this serious valley moment where he goes and, like, sits by a cave, and he's like, what is life? And has pretty bad vibes, right? Pretty sad in that, he says, in that, like, there's still thousands that don't know you in that moment. Like, if you just let his feelings in that moment take over, right? Because feelings are very real. They very much help us, but often cannot dictate, cannot be the only sign, right? And then lastly, we have certainty. Now you're gonna start. As we get in here, you're like, oh, that sounds like the other ones. Oh, yeah. They're just a stew of signs that we need to turn to God. This kind of combines intellectual and control in Us. If I. If you could just explain this thing to me clearly. If I could have some verses and maybe listen to some things that explain exactly how this works and how it all fits in. And if you could add, like, how my biology fits into that and. And my neurology fits into that. Like, all these things. If I listen to, like, four podcasts and they all, like. And I just go, okay, now it all makes sense. I see the plan. I see all the parts. I'm good now. I open my Bible and I'm studying with friends. And there's a part where, like, I'm not sure why it says, this is strange. We spent four hours trying to figure out what seven meant, and we didn't get anywhere. And then it looks like there's lots of views on it. Maybe it's a sign that maybe this isn't true. I think our certainty. We want to know. We essentially are asking the question. I want to have the wisdom of God. I want to be God, and then I'll believe there's a God. Well, then it's me. Not that faith doesn't. We don't hear great explanations and understandings of things, right? And my faith is based on evidence that I've heard and seen and God has laid on my heart. But I think there's a chasing of certainty that, like, never ends. I've seen this in. As couples are trying to. Are dating and they're deciding if they want to get married sometimes. And people will sell you a lot of things, assessments of things, and meeting. I remember many years ago meeting with friends who had been dating a long time. And she was like, I think we need to get married or maybe stop dating. And he was like, I'm all on board with this. And he had found online on an article, a list of, like, 100 things. And as long as these things are all in line, then you can feel good about getting married. And they were spending their dates going through these lists, and they were fighting every single time. And he was like, I think we're like 93%. What percent should we be? And I was like, oh, man. Kelly and I are like 20% maybe, like, Jesus, you love each other, you're attracted to each other. You know you're both sinners. You know that this list is going to change. There's a certainty, right? You're like, but I can't. With what? If I don't commit to this, if I commit to this thing, right? There's a certainty that we want so badly to know before we can Step towards, right. I think all of these are what we see the Pharisees dealing with, right? All of them are what I deal with. It's like a new sign I need. It's like one of these, like, okay, God, I can trust you. I don't know all of it, but I can trust what I do know about you is what I need. And I trust you. And then I go, but it's not feeling right now. And so I do not allow the gospel to wash over me. I do not allow the truths of who God is and who I am to wash over me. And so I continue looking for a sign. I think of the amount of days and hours and heart that is spent waiting and trying to figure out if there's a sign. When I know so much about who God is and so much of his mercy each day, in each moment. But I'm waiting, I'm waiting, I'm waiting. I'm so much that Pharisee. Here's what's beautiful, right? In just a few weeks, in the book of Mark and eight, he's going to actually tell us the sign. There's a lot of signs, right? There's a lot of God showing us each. I mean, Colin just shared as he was praying, like the amount of mercy that we see all day long that enough, right, would change me if I could see it and believe it. But God's going to give us like the sign of signs. He's going to actually go to a cross. He's going to volunteer himself, our God who came, our shepherd who came from heaven. He's going to go to a cross, be crucified on a cross. Just the worst of executions. His own people, the local governments, all people there, the Jewish people and the Gentile people are going to say, we're going to put you on a cross and you're going to die and you're going to be put into the ground. And then he says, I'm not going to stay in the ground. He's going to come out of the ground and defeat death. That's a pretty cool sign. Hey, Jesus, give us a sign. I can defeat death. Pretty good. Resurrection is pretty good. In his miracles and his authority and ultimately in his resurrection, he is going to give us the sign in Mark 8. We are going to hear in a few weeks the Son of Man is going to suffer, be killed and he is going to rise again. Help me with my unbelief, Lord. Resurrection is true. It's enough. That's the ultimate exchange. God, if you would Just rescue me from my sin and death. Maybe I could believe in you. Done. I need a spectacular sign that, like, sure. That no one else could do. How about resurrection? I fed a whole lot of people. That was pretty amazing, right? How about this? Defeat death. The thing no one else could defeat. The thing that. That every day haunts us. I got it. I'm gonna pull you all out of the grave with me. How about a circumstance? What if I gave you the ability to have great comfort in the midst of sorrow? Wow. What if I could change your heart? Remember the story of the men who are on the road after Jesus was crucified? Love this story. They're walking on the road and he comes and they don't see who he is at first. And he starts telling them the stories. And of this Jesus, their heads are down and they're like, we're really sad. This Jesus guy we thought was this guy and he wasn't. And we thought he maybe was the sign and he wasn't. And he's like, oh, really? I heard he rose from the dead and he says, and he opens the scriptures to them and he goes, you know all the scripture, you know it's all about him. And they go, whoa, it's true. It's all points to him. And he sits down with them and they have a meal together. They break bread together and they see it's him in the moment that he breaks bread, they see it's like all floods over. He's the bread of life. It says their hearts burned within them. You don't get a better vibe than your heart burning within you when Jesus is sitting amongst you. That's a pretty good feeling, pretty good certainty. A God who's come from heaven, who fulfilled all the prophecies, all the promises to us, and will again come back and return is really, really good news. Like, we miss. We so miss these. And we go, give me another sign. It'd be really nice if it, like, wasn't cold this week. You make it that cold. And he's like, ah, it probably will be cold. But I resurrected. And you go, oh, that's pretty good news. Yeah, I guess I could deal with the cold because resurrection is real. I miss. I miss it all because I'm just waiting for the thing that I think I need. And I miss the magic of the beauty of all who Jesus is. I'm going to call our worship team up so we can sing together. I know you've been waiting the whole morning. They did play family. It was actually the last song thank God they played it. Cause I thought this kid was gonna cry. They're like, we're gonna play one more song. And he was like, oh, please, oh please. They played his song and he screamed. Every single word of Was extra magical to be next to a kid who's like, first concert, they play the song, it's the big finale, it's the encore. He didn't know what encores were, so. So they left and he was like, they didn't play my song. And we're like, okay, there's an encore. It's this thing where they leave and it's fake. And then they come back, try to explain, it's okay, bud. And he's walking out. We get to walk out kind of. And he's walking out and he's like, it was the best concert ever. It was all so good. Every song was so amazing, right? He's seeing the whole thing kind of now. He almost missed it because they weren't playing his thing, his sign that he needed. But then he heard the whole thing. He listens to the whole concert, enjoys the whole thing, all the parts of it, the quiet stuff, the loud stuff, the just two of them singing together. The requests that were made. All the parts he gets to now enjoy because he didn't miss the whole thing. I think we'd be careful we don't miss the whole thing. We don't miss the real true bread of life. Because we're looking for a sign. As we continue here in our service, we're going to respond to this good news, this gospel. A couple things to consider here. We're going to sing together, which is good news. We're going to pray together. There's people who would love to pray for you. They're in the back of the room. They'll have a yellow lanyard on you can. They'd love to pray for you for anything. It's a great opportunity just to get some grace over you today. Can always give in response out on the table, out here online. And we're going to take communion as well. A couple things to consider, to just ponder, to reflect on. Will you take and eat of the bread of life? They're saying, oh, they don't understand the loaves. And they're saying, we don't get it, Jesus. And he's like, I'm the bread. You're standing in front of the sign. Maybe what sign is stopping you from enjoying Jesus? Bread sign are you looking for? You're missing enjoying him. And who do you get to bring this good Bread to. We also get to take Communion, which for us is every single week. We get to celebrate the most spectacular deal of all time, that Jesus came and his body was broken and his blood was shed so that yours would not be. And he gives that to us each week. And so we get to take communion, we get to take the grape juice and the cracker and be reminded of this spectacular, wonderful thing that happened that changes everything, all of history and all of your life, and brings you life. So I encourage you to take that opportunity out in the hallways as well. As we sing, I want to end with just praying this prayer. I'm always hyping the every moment holy because I love this book. In the third edition of it, there is a liturgy to pray while you're baking bread, all the different parts of it, making it, kneading it, whatever, I don't know. I don't make bread, so. But this is the end of it. And I love this. And so I want to pray this as a prayer of us as we head to communion, as it reminds us of our not just baking bread, but now taking communion and reminding us, as you eat bread, what that bread reminds you of the even greater thing. I also printed some of these out. If you want to take them. I think they're on the tables out there. If you want to take one home, make some bread today. Pray this. Let's pray this as we move into a time of singing together. Lord, as you walked this earth, you broke bread with your disciples and said, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. We know that no matter how nourishing and delightful the taste and texture of this loaf is, and all who eat of it will hunger again. But, oh, what eternal fulfillment is found in tasting of your goodness, what healing hope there is in your finished work. You prepare a feast for those who would taste of your mercy and grace, so that they would hunger no more. We have baked this bread to feed the few. Would it please you, through us, to offer a grace that would feed souls of many even now, as we savor the scent and flavor of this freshly baked bread, may our lives be ever more sweetened by the pleasing aroma of Christ as we prepared this bread to nourish the body, O bread of life, nurture our hearts. Amen.