Sermon: A Sign From Heaven (Mark 8:1-21)

A Sign From Heaven
Sunday, August 27^th, 2023
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA

Mark 8:1-21

In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, ² I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: ³ And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far. ⁴ And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? ⁵ And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven. ⁶ And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people. ⁷ And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them. ⁸ So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets. ⁹ And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away.

¹⁰ And straightway he entered into a ship with his disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanutha. ¹¹ And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. ¹² And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation. ¹³ And he left them, and entering into the ship again departed to the other side.

¹⁴ Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. ¹⁵ And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod. ¹⁶ And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread. ¹⁷ And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened? ¹⁸ Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember? ¹⁹ When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. ²⁰ And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven. ²¹ And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?

Prayer

Father, you know how weak our minds are, you know how difficult it is for us to understand anything spiritual. We confess that we are often just as confused by Your Word as these disciples were, and so we ask for mercy, we ask for your compassion, and most of all for the gift of understanding and the love that comes from understanding. Give us these supreme gifts of the Holy Spirit, for we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

Introduction

Well if you have been with us for most of these sermons in Mark’s gospel, everything I just read should sound very familiar to you. And that is because, from Mark 6:31 to the end of Mark 7 mirrors and parallels everything in Mark 8. In both of these sections there is a very clear six-step sequence of events that gets repeated. Now why does Mark do this?

• The purpose of this repetition is twofold:
  • 1) First, it draws out for us certain points of similarity and dissimilarity that we might have overlooked on our first read, and by doing the work of comparing and contrasting these two cycles we are given further insight into the mystery of the kingdom.
  • 2) Second, this repetition drives home the fact that we are often just as clueless and forgetful as the disciples. The disciples are firsthand witnesses to Jesus’ miracles and teaching, and yet at this stage, they cannot see or understand the spiritual meaning of his miracles and teaching. They do not recognize that this is God dwelling amongst them, nor can they fathom that God is going to die and rise again for their sins.
    • This is the blindness, the deafness, the muteness that the disciples are suffering, and they need Jesus to heal them.
  • So Mark is giving us a second chance now as readers to try and catch what the disciples missed the first time. And so let me summarize that six-step sequence of events so we have it fresh in our minds.
• 1. Jesus feeds a multitude (He feeds 5,000 in Mark 6:31-44; and 4,000 in Mark 8:1-9).
• 2. Jesus gets into a ship and crosses the sea (Mark 6:45-56, Mark 8:10).
• 3. Jesus has a conflict with the Pharisees (In Mark 7:1-23 over handwashing, in Mark 8:11-13 over his credentials).
• 4. Jesus has a conversation about bread (In Mark 7:24-30 with the Syrophoenician woman, in Mark 8:14-21 with his disciples,).
• 5. Jesus heals somebody as a parable of his teaching (In Mark 7:31-36 it is a deaf/mute man, and next week in Mark 8:22-28 we’ll see him heal a blind man) Both healings result in a…
• 6. A confession of faith (the people confess “He has done all things well,” Mark 7:37, and Peter will confess, “Thou art the Christ,” Mark 8:27-30).
• So Jesus 1) feeds a crowd, 2) crosses the sea, 3) fights with Pharisees, 4) talks about bread, 5) heals someone, and then there is a 6) confession of faith. That’s the pattern and Mark repeats this cycle back-to-back.
• What all this repetition is leading to is the very center of the book, and that is Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, and then Jesus for the very time in Mark’s gospel, is going to teach that the Son of Man must die and rise again.
  • Mark 8:31-32 says, “And Jesus began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³² And he spake that saying openly.”
  • What has been concealed and kept secret for 8 chapters of Mark’s gospel, is starting to come out. It is not until this point, the halfway mark, that we are told how the Christ is going to bring about the kingdom of God. Jesus has been announcing “repent and believe for the kingdom of God is at hand,” but nobody knows how that kingdom is going to come.
  • So next week, we’ll look at that section in greater depth, but it is important for us to know that that is where our text is heading. This is the setup for that great confession and teaching from Jesus.
• Let us turn now to our text which divides neatly into three sections.

Division of the Text

• In verses 1-9, Jesus feeds the 4,000.
• In verses 10-13, Jesus has conflict with the Pharisees.
• In verses 14-21, Jesus talks with his disciples about bread.

Verses 1-3

In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, ² I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: ³ And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far.

• We should notice here a point of contrast between the feeding of the 5,000 and this feeding of the 4,000.
  • In both instances Jesus has great compassion on the multitude, but the reason for his compassion is different.
  • With the 5,000, Jesus is moved with compassion because they are like sheep without a shepherd and need teaching. And therefore, Jesus meets that spiritual need by teaching them before he does that miracle.
  • Here, the people have been with Jesus for so long, three days now, that Jesus is moved with compassion because they have nothing to literally eat. And so Jesus meets their physical need by feeding them.
• Already we have seen that physical food is an analogy for spiritual food, and Jesus continues to develop that theme here.
• Another thing we should note is that this feeding of the 4,000 takes place in predominately Gentile territory, and so this crowd is probably a mix of both Jews and Gentiles (at the very least the disciples are Jews and the crowd are Gentiles).
  • Remember the scene just prior to this one, Jesus was in Tyre and Sidon (up northwest from Galilee) and then came down to the coasts of the Decapolis. All predominately Gentile areas.
  • We remember also the example of the Greek-speaking Syrophoenician woman (a Gentile) who begs for scraps of bread from the master’s table. Well here now is a hungry crowd, here also is The Master, and we might wonder, are there enough scraps from the children’s bread to go around for so many people?
  • That is at least what the disciples are wondering in part.

Verse 4

⁴ And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these with bread here in the wilderness?

• This is a very dangerous question to ask. It is dangerous because this is the exact same question the unbelieving Israelites asked in the wilderness (and that was where they died).
  • Psalm 78:17-20 recalls this sin of unbelief saying, “And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness. And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, And the streams overflowed; Can he give bread also? Can he provide flesh for his people?”
• So just like the Israelites tested God and did not believe, the twelve disciples are committing the same sin.
  • The Israelites witnessed firsthand miracle upon miracle upon miracle: the ten plagues in Egypt, the Passover, the Red Sea crossing, miracle water flowing in the desert, a cloud by day and fire by night, and yet for all of those signs and wonders, that unbelieving generation did not believe or enter into God’s rest.
  • The Twelve are in danger of suffering that same fate. They have already seen Jesus heal the sick, cast out demons, even raise the dead. They just partook and handled miracle bread that Jesus multiplied to feed the 5,000. And yet they look God in the face and say to him, “From whence can a man satisfy these with bread here in the wilderness?”
  • They still do not know who Jesus is.
• How does Jesus respond?

Verses 5-9

⁵ And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven. ⁶ And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people. ⁷ And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them. ⁸ So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets. ⁹ And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away.

• Jesus repeats what he did with the 5,000. He takes the bread, he gives thanks, he breaks it, and gave it to his disciples to distribute. This is of course a foreshadowing of what happens in the Lord’s Supper.
• The major difference we notice is in the number of loaves, leftovers, and the people fed.
  • Jesus used 5 loaves and 2 fishes to feed 5,000 people, and there were 12 baskets left over.
  • Here he uses 7 loaves and a few small fishes to feed 4,000 people, and there are 7 baskets left over.
• There is debate over what these numbers mean, or if they have any significance at all.
  • The church fathers saw in the 5 loaves and 2 fishes a reference to the 5 books of Moses (the law), and Psalms and Prophets. You can take that or leave it, but at the very least the food signifies the Word of God.
  • Twelve is of course the number associated with Israel, and this suggests that the twelve baskets signify that there is an abundance of food for all Israel to be fed.
  • So if the feeding of the 5,000 was ultimately about Jesus giving himself and his word to feed the sheep/children of Israel, what does the feeding of the 4,000 signify?
  • Because this is predominately a crowd of Gentiles, and because we just saw Jesus “feed” the Gentile dog, the Syrophoenician woman, this feeding of the 4,000 suggests that the Gentiles are not only going to get scraps, they are eventually going to get a full meal right alongside the children of Israel. Which is what the New Testament explicitly says in many places.
    • It is those with the faith of Abraham who are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise (Gal. 3:29).
    • In Christ, both Jews and Gentiles die and rise again and are united into one new man, the body of Christ (Eph. 2:11-14).
    • Paul echoes Jesus’ order of feeding, when he says in Romans 1:16, that the gospel is “to the Jew first and then to the Greek.”
      • So Jesus feeds the sheep of Israel in abundance, there are twelve baskets leftover, one for each tribe. And now he feeds both Jew and Gentile together, 4,000 people perhaps signifying the four corners of the earth. Seven baskets left over, perhaps one for each day of the week. Twelve is the number of Israel’s fulness. Seven is the number of creational fullness.
• Whatever the significance of the numbers, Jesus gives a definitive answer to the disciples’ question: “From whence can a man satisfy this multitude with bread here in the wilderness?”
• Jesus’ answer is, from me. I am the bread that comes down from heaven, and I will give myself for the life of the world, both Jew and Gentile alike.
• Now before we hear the disciples’ response to this miracle, Mark inserts a discussion Jesus has with the Pharisees.

Verses 10-13

¹⁰ And straightway he entered into a ship with his disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanutha. ¹¹ And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. ¹² And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation. ¹³ And he left them, and entering into the ship again departed to the other side.

• Do you notice the irony here? Jesus has been doing miracles for the last 7 chapters, showing forth his divinity, and now here come the Pharisees, asking for a sign.
• Jesus, however, knows that what they want is not a sign, they want him dead (Mark 3:6). And therefore, the only reason they ask for a sign is to tempt him (like the devil) to do something that will get him into trouble with the authorities.The Pharisees are goading Jesus, they are provoking him to reveal openly that He is king, and Caesar is not. This is why Mark says they were “seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him.” What does Jesus do?
  • He does not take the bait. Instead he declares that no sign is going to be given to this generation, and then he leaves.
• Why does Jesus do this?
  • Jesus is on a mission to expose just how wicked and sinful this generation is. He is on a mission to expose the sinfulness of sin. Like the prophets of old, Jesus calls them to repent, he performs signs and wonders, and he gives them ample opportunity and reason to turn and be saved. But for all of that patience and condescension, there are some people, like the Pharisees, there are even entire generations, like the Jews of his day, who are committed to wickedness, so that even if Jesus gave them a sign from heaven, it would only further harden them in unbelief.
• The Pharisees have become Pharoah, and they don’t even know it. They are so hardened in sin, that no sign can persuade them otherwise. We’ve already seen them attribute Jesus’ miracles to the power of the devil. So why should doing some new sign from heaven be treated any differently?
• Jesus says in Luke 16:31, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead.” If someone does not believe God’s Word when it’s read from the Old Testament, they won’t believe even if they see with their own eyes a man rise from the dead.
• Many unbelievers think that if God would just give them a sign, then they would believe in Him. But the testimony of Scripture and history is that signs do not do what people think they do.
• Asking for a sign is in reality, just a front, just a cover, just another excuse, for willful unbelief.
• Jesus says in Matthew’s version of this same story, that “an evil and adulterous generation” seeks for a sign.
  • In other words, people lie to themselves and think that if God were only to give me a sign, then I would stop sleeping around, then I would go to church, then I would get clean.
  • Sinners are so proud and self-centered that they think God owes them a sign, that He must save them on their own terms, and if He does not meet their criteria, their demands, then they have no responsibility to believe.
  • But Jesus says, if you don’t believe the words of the Old Testament, then you won’t believe even if God gives you a sign.
  • The proof of Jesus’ words is that someone did die and came back from the dead, and yet still people don’t believe. This is the nature of sin, and this is what Jesus comes to expose.
• As he says in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.”
  • If you want to be saved, you must utterly abhor and forsake your flesh. And if you find in yourself that temptation to ask God for a sign in order to believe, beware.Because you are like a fish asking for proof of water. There are signs of God everywhere, you are a living sign and walking image of God. Your conscience testifies to His moral law. Your desires testify that you were made to life forever. If you look up at the sky, the heavens are shouting the glory of God, the sky above proclaims His handiwork. And the fact that the world is full of Christians is a perpetual witness that Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead.
  • We are those who Jesus spoke of when he said to Thomas, “blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29).
• An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, and no sign from heaven will be given to them, only the sign of Jonah descending into the earth.
• Well as bad as the Pharisees are, the disciples are hardly better. In verses 14-21, they continue to miss the point of Jesus’ miracles and teaching.

Verses 14-16

¹⁴ Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. ¹⁵ And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod. ¹⁶ And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread.

• So what is the disciples’ problem? They are not like the Pharisees who are trying to get Jesus killed or tempting him for a sign. The disciples’ blindness is of a different sort.
• They see the signs, they eat the bread, they hear the teaching, but they do not understand what it means.
• Jesus says to them, “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod,” and they think he’s warning them about getting bread from those bad guys. But what Jesus is actually warning them about is the false doctrine and hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Herod.
  • The Pharisees elevated their traditions above the Word of God. Their leaven is to appear orthodox, to appear righteous, while inwardly nursing an adulterous and covetous heart.
  • Pharisaic leaven cloaks wickedness under the guise and appearance of righteousness.
  • The leaven of Herod on the other hand is uncloaked pomp and perversity. It is the delusional grandeur that styles oneself above one’s true rank. The Herodians and perhaps Herod himself thought that he was the Messiah, he was the king the Old Testament spoke of. But of course, anyone who inquired into Moses and the Prophet would know that this Herod does not qualify. And yet the “orthodox” Pharisees found an ally in Herod and the Herodians, because they had common cause together to destroy Jesus.
  • So Jesus says, beware of just a little bit of that leaven entering into you, because as the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5:6, “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?”
• The Pharisees and the Herodians represent the decadence and depravity of that generation. They are the elite amongst that evil and adulterous generation who demands a sign.
• And although we might think ourselves, like the disciples, immune to that leaven of the Pharisees and Herod, Jesus knows how weak our wills are. Jesus knows how easily we forget all the miracles he has performed. Jesus knows that we need to get bread daily from him.
• For man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Deut. 8:3).

Conclusion

In verse 14 it says the disciples forgot to take bread, and had only one loaf with them in the boat.

• Jesus is that one loaf. He is the bread. He is the multiplier of bread. He is the Creator of bread. And if Jesus is in the boat with us, if the leaven of Christ (the gospel) is in our hearts, then we have food for eternal life.
• So repent of your unbelief, seek not a sign from heaven, for the sign of salvation has already been given, Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
• In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.