In this sermon, Pastor Babij examines Jesus’ reaction to the Pharisees’ request for a heavenly sign. Pastor Babij explains how those who ask for miraculous signs in order to believe deceive themselves and how the great sign God ultimately provided in Jesus is a stumbling block and foolishness to the world.
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okay let’s figure our Bibles this morning and turn to yes the Gospel of Mark chapter 8 and we will continue on where I left off of course I’ll have to do some recap get us up to date but mark chapter 8 i’m going to be looking at verse number 10 up to verse number 26 although i don’t think i’ll get that far today let’s let’s have bow together in a word of prayer this morning let’s pray lord as we come before you this morning we open your word in this new year Lord we want to be followers Christ we want to know more about him and Lord we know that it takes more than just with it until Lord we understand who you are and what you want us to do and Lord sometimes we’re slow on the uptake we just pray Lord that you would continue to expand our knowledge and understanding of your word and who you are and what you have done and what you require us to do so we would do it and that we would do it in a way where we rejoice and give you praise because of how great you are and how good you are to us and I pray this morning you would do the same as we break open the bread of life we would break it open in a way to learn to examine ourselves to see Lord where we have sinned and where we need work and I pray Lord that we would work on the things that we need work on what we need to work on and we would repent of the sin that we need to repent of and we would continue to follow you i pray that or us this coming year and I ask it in Christ’s name Amen okay mark chapter 8 we are going to start with verse 10 but let me back up with you to verse number one of mark a just to reach app where i came from remember jesus was visiting again in the region of deca polis and he’s not being asked this time to leave last time he was asked to leave because of course the demon-possessed man was saved and the they lost their occupation by the pigs going over the side of the cliff and so this time they are actually bringing people to him and a great multitude comes to listen to him and he’s he healed the deaf man and with with a speech impediment and aroused it aroused interest in the people and they wanted to find out what was going on so last time we started to learn that spiritual blindness will exist among God’s people now spiritual blindness I mean that sometimes we are dull of mind and dull of thinking it doesn’t mean that we don’t believe it just means that we need more knowledge and understanding to grow but sometimes it does exist amongst God’s people so at times we just don’t see it as we ought to see it but the thing that cures that is can a continued exposure to the Word of God so remember as I mentioned before when you were in school you usually enjoy the subjects that you got quickly and you understood and grasped but other subjects were much more difficult and so you need it more instruction to learn them and you need more assistance before you actually got them and so that’s very true in the spiritual realm and the gospel of mark all the healings that we’ve been seeing in the miracles are really messianic acts of mercy to serve as a tool for exposing the hearts of the disciples scripture kind of pulls the layers back of our hearts to be able to identify the spiritual blindness that’s still in our life which is really sometimes very evident in our life but the scriptures are the things that bring it out it is the thing that brings it out so that the next several sections or messages are really to help us grow to help us to grow out of our our dough perception of ourselves and our dull perception of Jesus Christ so we would be able to see him more and more clearly the disciples are slow learners but so are we so gradually we move out of a dull perception of spiritual matters and the Spirit of God is the one that gradually sanctifies us by using the word of God to sanctify us so we we must all resist the temptation to believe that somehow there’s a quick method to spiritual growth there is not there is really no such thing as microwave spirituality you can’t just have it in a few minutes it takes the constant following engaging with the word of God until you understand it until you grasp it until you say I got it and then even then you’re still not done because there’s something else that you need to learn and I need to learn and so we’re constantly learning moving forward and growing in our knowledge and wisdom of Jesus Christ that will never end in our life so there’s no quick and easy path to spiritual maturity so so far to bring you up to date there were two marks of spiritual blindness that I mentioned the first mark was found in verse 1 through 5 and that mark was that spiritual my blindness is apparent when God’s people when God’s disciples are not moved with passion for others and so that’s what we saw let’s look at verse number one of mark chapter aid because Jesus calls his disciples together brings them to their attention that the crowd had been with them for three days and had not eaten anything and so Jesus chemist crowd for it says in verse number one in those days again when he had when there was a great multitude and they had nothing to eat he called his disciples and said to them I feel compassion for the multitude so compassion remember always has feelings connected to it and feelings that are kindled when one sees the desperate need in another person and then experiences within themselves a sense of sorrow and a sense of pity towards that person or group of people and at that point mercy kicks in because mercy wants to put into practice a plan to do something to relieve the need or remove the suffering so but first you have to see it and the interesting thing about our passage of scripture the disciples did not see it and they should have so in other words they needed to grow and what it meant to minister to people so Jesus compassion for their hopelessness the group this group of people that were hopeless first he taught this crowd spiritual truth and fed their souls and then because they were hungry he fed their stomachs so as we grow more like Jesus we will see ministry to people’s temporal meat needs not as competing with but as complementing the meaning of people’s spiritual needs they kind of go together it can’t do one without the other so the principle would be under this particular point is that increased growth in Christian and maturity is relieved by a heartfelt compassion towards people who have spiritual physical and emotional needs see we need to see that that’s part of growing as a believer now unfortunately the disciples were deficient in their compassion because they didn’t see they didn’t even bring it up because when Jesus said they were hungry it says in verse number 4 it says in his disciples answers him where where will anyone be able to find enough to satisfy these men with bread here in this desolate place see there in other words saying who can’t feed such a great crowd with such so little in such a desert place and of course the answer is really obvious because remember Jesus already fed thousands of people already and so they the answer is obvious and the answer is Jesus can but they didn’t see that they did not see that yet you think it would be so obvious but it is not that obvious the quantity of bread needed to be obtained to feed the crowd is beyond human ability but Jesus Christ can can meet that need because Jesus can provide enough to feed the entire world both spiritually and physically so see our spiritual eyes are not always yet perfect to be able to see what is before us what is around us what the Lord may want us to do so you must keep going to the to the Lord Jesus Christ so he would be able to continue to open our eyes to be able to see the needs that we need to provide see in other words we need spiritual LASIK surgery to see as God wants us to see that was the first mark the second mark which already mentioned was spiritual blindness is apparent when God’s people do not remember that God provide sites for his people with abundant blessing of course remember what our Lord has done in the past not only to his disciples but even in our own life helps us to trust them in the present wait a minute God’s God’s been blessing me in providing for me for my for my work for my to pay my bills for my food for my family with for my education all my life that wasn’t something we just did that was something God provided and when God provides that over and over and over again it should help us to trust him so but that’s not always apparent either as the disciples really didn’t see much in the miracles of the feeding of the 5,000 in mark chapter 6 it was viewed as the bread of God to the Jews in mark chapter 8 it was the bread of God to the Gentiles so they didn’t really learn very much but what they ought to have learned what they should see but they didn’t see was really quite obvious number one that Jesus provides verse six and seven look what it says there it says and he directed the multitude to sit down on the ground and taking the seven loaves he gave thanks he broke them he started giving them to the disciples to serve them and they served them to the multitudes they also had a few small fishing after he had blessed them he ordered these to be served as well see Jesus gives thanks to the Father for the bread and the fish and he acknowledges where the provisions of bread and fish actually came from and he acknowledged the father’s presence and all that is happening in all that he is doing so the presence of God in other words is all around them and so we need to use our eyes to look where God is working see Jesus always recognizes the father’s presence and in recognizing the father’s presence she turns around and he gift that he gives thanks for where the food comes from and how he’s going to multiply it so they didn’t see that Jesus provides they also didn’t see that jesus satisfies in verse number 8 it says they ate and were satisfied everyone was full in other words everyone was stuff they didn’t really need anything else to eat they were satisfied and they were strengthened for their journey back home the disciples also did not see that they specifically did not see how Jesus supplies abundantly for in verse number 8 and 9 in the middle of verse number 8 and they picked up seven large baskets full of what was left over a broken pieces in about four thousand were there and he sent them away see the reason for this point is because the second miracle that Jesus performs before them in the feeding of the four thousand they actually took up more leftovers than they did in the first miracle and yet they didn’t see it the Bible says that they gained little knowledge from these events how is that how is it you can be right in the presence of Jesus Christ how is it you can be right there looking at and experiencing this multiplication of the small amount of food into to feed this vast amount of a company of people and miss it how is it that could happen well it happens all the time matter of fact it happens in our lives all the time but the principle here is that the increased growth in Christian maturity is revealed by a heart which trusts God will supply his children’s needs and his children then expressed their trust by regular prayerful and thankful acknowledgment of his presence of his presence about all things about the very food that we need every day that we sit at our tables two or three times a day we eat food what do we do with that for where’d that food come from that food just come from shoprite from you know foo town or whatever place you buy your food at know ultimately that food came from the hand of God to your table so for us every day to acknowledge that the very bread we eat the very very things we put in our body to nourish our bodies come from God and then we turn around and Express regular ongoing thankful prayer acknowledging the presence of God in him giving us that food to eat so we’re really actually of guilty of expecting far too little from Jesus and but it should be a reminder that God will provide for us people and give them an overabundance of blessing but do we really learn to understand or do we still have hard hearts steeped in spiritual blindness well if you look at verse number 17 of Mark chapter 8 it says in Jesus aware of this said to them why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread do you not see or understand you have hardened heart you have a hardened heart so I see he is not speaking here to the religious leaders at least not yet he is speaking to his own disciples the ones they’ve been following him around for months the ones who have experienced and heard his preaching the one who’s who’s heard his his teaching the one who’s were able to view his life the ones who viewed his miracles see the disciples in The words were anxious about the lack of bread and their minds are stuck on just the earthly just the mundane the disciples are not though chastised by the Lord for not believing they are chastised for not seeing and understanding that’s a difference there’s a difference we must go into the realm of advanced spiritual growth we just can’t stick on the basics we have to keep going and learning and so everything we’re being taught just remember there’s something else to be learned there’s something else to be added to what we already know in our Christian lives so that means that spiritual blindness really cannot be overcome by our own doing a failure to come to full faith about who Jesus is cannot be resolved by us alone it can only be overcome by the Holy Spirit’s gradual sanctifying process and the repeated the repeated teaching of Jesus who can alone enable his disciples to see clearly and this whole section of Scripture is is really based on that foundation that Jesus is pulling pulling his disciples to understand and it’s not coming easy they’re not getting it you know I think that if the Lord can’t do that or the Lord at least in this context is not doing it yet he will do it how is it for us to try to teach our kids spiritual things it doesn’t come easy we in our minds may think hey I get this III can articulate it but when you articulate it even clearly to someone else they don’t seem to get it or even believers who should know by now how to live the Christian life because they’ve been a Christian for some time hope that wherever you’re at in your Christian walk God is going to add to your knowledge right so you can continue to grow in spiritual things so that brings me to a third mark of spiritual blindness which I have not covered yet and it’s found in chapter 10 of chapter eight verse of beginning in verse number ten and that’s this that spiritual blindness is evident when God’s people are not grieved by the evil of unbelief in their generation and sometimes they are even influenced by that unbelief by and that unbelief is really defined as seeking signs seeking wonders seeking something from God greater than what God has already supplied see that is actually evil that is not actually some legitimate argument to say to God if you do this then I’ll believe no gods provided plenty for us to believe from creation the general revelation to the special revelation it found in the Word of God he supplied way more than we need to believe and we need to grow but I’ll see the thing is that we have to give ourselves to that we have to make sure that we are interacting with that so I want you to notice in verse number 10 because in these this this scripture jesus is getting into the boat and he’s going different places on the lake of Galilee and he’s teaching his disciples as he as he goes and that’s what we find in verse number 10 it says immediately entered the boat with his disciples and came to the district of Dalmanutha now in the book gospel of matthew the district of Dalmanutha is referred to as the region of Magadan alright that is near Capernaum this is where Jesus been ministering in the northern part of the Sea of Galilee the northwestern part of the Sea of Galilee which means they left deca polis got into the boat and headed for a small fishing village on the northwest side of the Sea of Galilee near copernum now as soon as Jesus gets out of the boat here’s something else that they need to learn in verse number 11 he’s met right away with his opponents now remember his opponents are the Pharisees right the Sadducees and the Pharisees are the opposition crowd now up until this point described in the Pharisees have been pre yeah they’ve been in Jesus face a lot but they’ve been kind of docile but here you notice what happens in verse number 11 and in the Pharisees came out and began to argue with him seeking from him a sign from heaven to test them see now of course this was not a test to see if Jesus was a true prophet because that’s what they ought to have been doing this is actually a temptation for entrapment they were trying to entrap Jesus they wanted to discredit Jesus and expose him as some fraud or some deceiving magician that’s what they wanted to do they were antagonistic and argumentative towards Jesus now his opponents after all this time still thought Satan was the source of his power they did not believe they did not think Jesus miracles were from heaven they wanted though in the scripture assigned from heaven that is a kind of a grand demonstration that Jesus was truly the Messiah they wanted to wanted Jesus to prove that he indeed was from above and his opponents of course at this point were not open to the possibility that God the Father had sent Jesus and that his miracles that he already performed were valid and enough proof of who he was all you had to do is go back to the Old Testament and see when the Messiah came what he would do and Jesus did all those things that the Prophet said and more and and yet they want now a sign from heaven see they want more they’re not satisfied by what God had already given they’re not satisfied that by that they want more and so a sign from heaven was referring to more than just a local miracle they were kind of saying Lord show us a sign in the sky so that we will believe they wanted something miraculous see the Pharisees specifically asked for a sign from heaven and they had in mind a particular type of sign they’re asking Jesus to do something that will signal Israel’s deliverance from their enemies and aside from heaven in their mind was some apple apical look I can’t really remember the word right now a triumphal istic type of sign that had that kind of character and it was embodied by mighty deeds of deliverance like for example looking back to the Egypt when the Lord sent you know turned the water into blood and brought the frogs in the lice and the Nats and the Flies and the boils and the hell on the locusts in the darkness and you know the death of the firstborn upon Egypt something miraculous but they even wanted more than that they wanted something like Jonah’s prophecy where the moon would turn to blood something in the heavens they wanted to see but you know what signs to that extent is no guarantee of belief at all whatsoever if we are if people are not satisfied for what God has already given them why would God give them more if they don’t believe what God has already done why would God want to give you are in fact it says in numbers chapter 14 verse 11 the lord said to moses how long will this people spurn me and how long will they not believe in me despite all the signs which I have performed in there in the middle of them what they still don’t believe all these things and they want more so really Jesus further warns in the Gospel of Mark that there will be plenty of others who will pander to the desires of a generation that wants a sign now what what do I mean by that look look to mark chapter 13 verse 22 what it says there and I think we have to take this to heart in our day for it says in mark 13 22 actually the signs given here will not substantiate faith but actually lead people deeper into unbelief where it says in mark 13 22 for false Christ’s and false prophets will arise and will show signs and wonders in order if possible to lead the elect astray these are going to be some powerful things that happen when these things happen yet when they do happen it will not be to bolster faith it will be actually to contend people in their unbelief because number one they did not believe what the Lord had offered them they wanted something more than what God had already given so it just goes to show that blind unbelief always wants more and more evidence and they always ask more and more questions but will not admit the truth about Jesus let alone embrace him as their Lord and Savior well there is a time where nothing else by way of will be given in fact the signs that God already performed through Jesus was sufficient proof to prove who he was so how does the Lord actually answer these argumentative Pharisees these people who always want to see more well they expect God to answer them on their terms and that’s a big mistake he did not and he will not see pouncing on Jesus showed really they’re escalating hostility confirming their blatant unbelief and let me just mention to you that these guys they had blatant unbelief but as far as the disciples are concerned it wasn’t unbelief for them it was dull mindedness it was littleness of faith so we have to keep those separate in this context but these Pharisees were outright not believing an evil unbelief caused the Lord to be grieved in his spirit while withholding any more signs if you notice in verse 12 of chapter 8 it says and sighing deeply in his spirit he said why does this generation seek for a sign truly I said to you no sign shall be given to this generation well when God is ignored and Jesus has repudiated God gives nothing more to them then he’s already given in fact even in our day God’s given all the revelation he’s going to give right it’s all in the revelation of creation it’s all in the special revelation of the word of God he’s not going to write another book he has no other book the Lord doesn’t have plan B because plan a was quite sufficient right he didn’t have to add to anything it’s already there so the message is already there there is nothing more that is needed so jesus said no sign shall be given to this generation now if a sign is to be given it will be assigned much different than they would ever expect and the reason why is because they don’t believe the only sign this generation will be given one commentator said it like this garland david says the wind whistling through an empty tune after Jesus crucifixion right now that’s not at all far from what the Bible already says because if you take your Bible and I like you to turn here turn back to Matthew and I want you to notice in Matthew chapter 12 in verse number 38 down to verse number thirty or forty two because it says it right there this is the same situation in Matthew and notice what it says in verse 38 of Matthew chapter 12 it says then some of the scribes and Pharisees set them teacher we want to see a sign from you but he answered and said to them an evil and an adulterous generation craves for a sign and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the profit for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth and the men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold something greater than Jonah is here verse 42 and the queen of the south will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold something greater than Solomon is here now that means that the sign of Jonah the Prophet is both the sign of mercy and at the same time it is a sign of judgment it is a sign of mercy for those who repent and believe God’s wisdom especially the wisdom that God has in salvation how one gets right with God how one becomes a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ but it is also one of judgment judgment for who for those who disbelieve and reject the one greater than Jonah and the one greater than Solomon well who is that well especially of a people who think a crucified Messiah is foolishness who do not believe that God’s plan of salvation is focused in on a person and centered in on the cross so who is the greater than Jonah and the greater than Solomon the answer is Jesus Christ he is the greater so that in other words that is the sign I like with the paul the apostle paul actually keenly identified this kind of flaw on perception when he said this in Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18 for the word of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God and then in verse 22 he says for indeed Jews asked for signs and Greeks seek for wisdom but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block to Gentiles foolishness but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God see in other words that is the sign which provides deliverance for God’s people that’s it and how can we add to that how can anyone add to that we cannot add to that we cannot add to that stubborn disobedient generation of the people of the desert found in Deuteronomy where it’s recorded there then he says I will hide my face from them I will see what their end shall be for they are a perverse generation sons in whom is no faithfulness so an evil adulterous generation that seeks for a sign is a generation that it’s following the wicked one a generation that is unfaithful to the Covenant God and believes nothing of what God has revealed so that means that there are a generation ignorant of Scripture and a generation that are spiritually dead and blind to what God has done and will do it seems like our generation fits that category maybe every generation fits that category to some extent so what’s needed you know it’s needed increased knowledge is needed alright you know we were at an advantage the disciples are not at such an advantage you know why because there before the cross in fact if you look in chapter 8 in verse number 31 of the Gospel of Mark you’re going to find something we’re not there yet but I want you to I want to destroy your attention to what Jesus is going to t have a little pneus what we need is more knowledge we need more knowledge from the Word of God and so the disciples were in that situation so what knowledge does he give them look at verse number 31 of chapter 8 it says and he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again see this is the first pronouncement to his disciples about his death his suffering and then ultimately he ultimately his resurrection so see they needed that knowledge and he keeps telling them and telling them and telling them before the cross all right and of course then after the cross and after the resurrection odd things become clearer so we really don’t have the excuse that they had and then I want you to notice in verse number 32 and he he was stating the matter plainly it says rebuked Peter and said get behind me Satan for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests but man’s interests see there’s the difference between seeing something spiritually and seeing something just from the eyes of men see there’s a danger just as if our minds are being transformed by the Word of God because as our minds are transformed by the Word of God what does it say in Romans 12 we will be able to know the good and the acceptable and the perfect will of God and isn’t that the big question what is the will of God learn the word of God and you’ll find the prescribed will of God in it and then you know what when you understand it you do it that’s what we ought to be doing so in other words even though the disciples are dull minded they are still following Jesus the Pharisees have outright rejected Jesus so they’re in their own state of blindness and deadness but not so for Christ’s disciples so that’s why I’m saying that we have hope we have hope that we can learn what we need to learn so our lives can conform to the image of Christ and to the holiness and godliness he wants in our lives so in other words in the under this point increased growth in Christian maturity is revealed by a heart that is grieved and understands that the sign of Jesus death on the cross and resurrection from the dead are sufficient and final to deliver his people from the slavery of sin and the condemnation of that same there is no other things the Lord needs to do and you know what if the Lord performed great signs and miracles in the heavens thought people still won’t believe but the next one who’s going to do that is on they’re going to be under the power of Satan so we must beware when that generation comes that we don’t get deceived and the only way that you’re not going to get to see this if you know God’s Word so that’s the third one there are three other ones but i’ll pick that up next week let’s pray lord thank you again this morning that found in the Word of God are the things sufficient for our knowledge and for our wisdom sufficient for us to be able to live for you and to give you honor and glory for the things that you have done will do so I pray Lord that each and every one of us this year would be diligent not only to read the Word of God but also to be diligent and be ready to listen to the Word of God and I pray Lord that we would be viewing our life in a way that we see where we need to grow and that we lured you would provide that particular area of growth for us so we would continue to advance in our knowledge and wisdom of Jesus Christ so we can grow strong and we could do it with the peace of God in our heart and the joy of God in our heart and our mind Lord and that we ultimately would know the good and the perfect will of God I prayed that for us I ask you Lord that we’ve not led up we’d not give up and we not stop pursuing you and pursuing the truth Thank You Holy Spirit that it is your job to make us holy I pray that we’d give ourselves over to you for that task to make us into holy people and we know Lord that holiness and godliness has a powerful influence in an ungodly society and so I pray that you would bless us thank you Lord for the encouragement we get to know we have not arrived or have not learned yet the possibilities of learning are a hundred percent and I just thank you Lord do that work in our life and help us to glorify our name and I prayed it pray in Christ’s name Amen