A Deaf Man is Healed

Mark 7:31-37.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, November 24, 2019.

Last week we saw that Jesus was in the region of Tyre and Sidon, which is on the coast of what we would call Lebanon today.  Our story today has Jesus traveling all the way back to the Sea of Galilee and he heals a deaf man upon his arrival.

We should note up front that the parallel account in Matthew 15 focuses on the general activity of Jesus.  In general, Jesus comes back to Israel and begins healing people.  However, Mark focuses in on one of those miracles and gives us a specific account.  It is important to have both a wide, general view of what Jesus did, as well as the specific stories of how individuals were touched by him.  The same is true today.  Many people are coming to Christ around this world every day, and we should not be discouraged by the limitations on what we can see.  Also, each of these people are a story of how Christ stepped into their lives and transformed them in powerful ways.  Let’s look at our story.

A deaf person is brought to Jesus

Mark starts the story by describing the route that Jesus took from the coast northwest of Israel to the Sea of Galilee.  The route is interesting because it is not the most direct route.  The emphasis is placed upon the fact that Jesus purposefully came to the Sea of Galilee through the one region that was Gentile.  Here is a map from www.bibleatlas.org. 

The easiest path would be to travel south along the coast and come up the Jezreel valley past Nazareth and then drop down into the Galilee.  Alternatively, a person could travel east through the mountains and drop down into the Jordan River valley and then travel south through the region that was ruled by Herod Philip.  Both ways would leave Gentile territory and enter the Galilee through Israelite territory.

Jesus on the other hand starts out on the alternative route, but he then skirts around the sea and approaches it from the southeast, instead of heading south through Philip’s territory.

This area was called Decapolis and it bordered the southeast quarter of the Sea of Galilee.  Decapolis was not so much a political entity as it was an area where there were 10 cities on the frontier between Rome and the kingdoms of Parthia (northeast) and Nabatea (southeast).  When Rome had conquered the Syrian region in the First Century BC, they allowed these 10 Gentile cities to remain autonomous as long as they stayed loyal to Rome.  Though the story does not tell us where on the sea Jesus is specifically, it seems likely that he is on the southeast coast of it and therefore still in Gentile territory.  This area would have a mix of Jews and Gentiles, but would heavily favor Gentiles.  Why do I mention this?

All of this seems to be Mark’s way of highlighting or showing that more than a few crumbs were falling off of the table of the children towards the Gentiles (See the dialogue between Jesus and the Syro-Phoenician woman we talked about last week).  Jesus does care about the Gentiles and is preparing to send the remnant of Israel to all the nations of the earth, and this is part of the proof that he was already setting this up.

In our story, we are told that a group of people (either the crowd as a whole, or a group that is a part of it) bring a man to Jesus and beg him to lay his hands upon him.  This might be an insignificant detail.  However, we are told that Jesus removes the man from the crowd.  Why would he do this?  No, doubt the crowd wanted to see a miracle and witness it.

When you think about the history of deaf people, you will have to recognize that it has not been very nice, much like many other social minorities.  Deaf people were often seen as mentally deficient because they ranged from being unable to speak at all to those who could talk, but did so with a speech impediment.  Of course, such impeded speech is generally due to the effect that not being able to hear has upon our learning and mimicking of the sounds of speech.  In fact, the Middle English phrase, “Deaf and Dumb,” was used to describe that a person is deaf and unable to talk.  This is considered highly offensive by deaf people because it is not true.  Sure, deaf people are not all geniuses.  Yet, their troubles do not usually come from mental deficiency.  By the way, a number of years ago it became vogue to refer to them as hearing impaired.  Most deaf people do not like that phrase and would rather just be called deaf.

I mention all of this because there is no doubt that this man had a tough life of people abusing him, making fun of him, and generally ignoring him.  This social component would seem to be at least part of the reason that Jesus removes him from the crowd.  To them, he is just a hard case that they want to see if Jesus can fix.  Like setting up a series of hoops and asking a dog to jump through them, the crowd is wanting to see a show from Jesus.  We don’t know the state of mind of the man at this point.  It seems that Jesus recognizes that the crowd is an impediment to the man’s true need at this point.  So, Jesus takes the man aside and deals with him alone.  Jesus wants this to be something that is between him and the deaf man, instead of him and the crowd.

It is easy for those with full capability- which, if you think about it, is a lie- to see a disabled person as somehow less than human.  What is it that happens in our hearts to allow us to tell ourselves that a person is not worth treating with proper respect and dignity?  May God teach us to really see people who can often be masked behind physical disabilities that make it hard for us to do so.

What should we make of the strange things that Jesus does in healing the man?  First, Jesus sticks his fingers in the man’s ears.  Then, Jesus spits and touches the man’s tongue.  The story leaves us with the impression that Jesus may have put some of his spit upon the man’s tongue.  What is this about?

We know from countless other accounts that Jesus can heal without any touching, speaking, or even being present.  His power is not in a method, or the chemical properties of his spit, etc.  His power comes from who he is.  John tells us that nothing that was made was made without Jesus.  He was involved in the creation.  Jesus did certain things not because he had to do them to heal someone, but as an aid to their faith.  It is just how we are as humans.  We often don’t have faith until we can actually see something.  God often accommodates our weaknesses.  These outward actions like: laying hands upon a person, anointing them with oil, and praying for healing out loud, are simply that, aids to our faith.  They have no inherent power to heal people.

In this case, the man is hard of hearing.  When Jesus sticks his fingers in his ears, it leaves the clear impression that he is going to do something to the man’s ears.  This is the simplest form of communication.  Touching his tongue would similarly send a message that he is also going to do something about his ability to speak.  The spit may only be sending the message that something from within Christ is going to be the reason that the man is given full ability.  However, it is not his spit itself.  Jesus is the creator.  That same creative power that created the first ear and tongue of Adam is now hear to touch this son of Adam.  It is in this intersection of mortal man and divine man that he is going to be healed.

A common theme throughout the gospels is touching of people by Jesus.  Even lepers were touched by him.  This is important for us to understand today.  People need other people to touch them in appropriate and loving ways.  Studies have shown that newborns who are not touched, held, and cared for in that first year, are negatively impacted for the rest of their lives.  People often feel that the Creator does not care and yet in Jesus the Creator came down and touched us.  I am here.  You are valued and loved.  To Jesus, this man is not just a prop to be trotted out for the entertainment of the crowd.  He is not just a prop for the promotion of a ministry empire, or for a political agenda.  No, this man is a human being who was created to bear the image of the God of heaven.

Several things happen in rapid succession at this point.  Jesus looks up into heaven to let us know the source of the healing.  God Almighty is about to grant a healing to this man.  It also says that Jesus sighed or groaned.  This is the same word that Paul uses to speak of how we feel when we are burdened with this mortal body, longing to be clothed with our promised, immortal one.  I believe that Jesus is feeling the weight and heaviness of the effects of sin upon mankind in general, and this man specifically.  What a heavy burden this man had to carry up to this point, and Jesus is about to set him free.  We must understand that God fully empathizes with the burdens of this life, even those that are the effects of our own sin.  He is not just intellectually aware of them, but he groans with those who groan.

Jesus then says a simple command.  Mark tells us the Aramaic word that Jesus uses, “Ephphatha!”  The translation is the command to be opened.  Such a simple command tells us and any who see that the power does not come from long incantation or some healing spell.  This is the voice of authority that commands all of creation.  It is not normal, or as God created it to be, for a man’s ears to be closed and his tongue to be tied.  God did not make mankind to be deaf and unable to speak properly among many other things.  Thus, in a moment in time, Jesus commands the man’s body to come into conformity with the proper function and image for which God had created it. 

The man is completely healed

We are told that the healing takes place immediately upon the command of Jesus.  The man is able to hear, and even more incredible, he is able to speak without impediment.  The Greek word describing his speech is that is now “orthos.”  This is the word we use in orthodontics and orthodoxy.  It has the idea of something that is right, correct, and as it should be.  His sounds were now perfectly formed and easily understood.  How amazing must that have been for the man.

Yet, there are many who do not speak as they should and they do not have the excuse of being deaf upon which to blame it.  Yes, we all want full capability, but the greater question is what am I doing with it?  Oh, that God would touch our tongues and help us to speak the right things that we should speak, to speak correctly with one another, and not with the emotional and corrupt impediments of this world!  It is one thing to be able to speak and to be understood.  What a wonderful blessing and rejoicing was had by this man.  Yet, it is quite another thing to exercise this power that God has given us with correct and righteous intent, in the image of our Creator.  Oh, be careful little mouth what you say.  There’s a Father up above looking down in tender love.  So, be careful little mouth what you say.  Be careful ears what you hear.  Be careful in all that we do, that it reflects the Lord Jesus Christ, who alone was the perfect representation of our heavenly Father.

Jesus then tells the people not to tell others about this healing.  This is a similar dynamic throughout all the Gospels.  It did not always help the plan of God to promote everything that He has done.  The world promotes everything, but God has a timing all His own.  In our world of promotion and building of little empires, we don’t always understand this spiritual principle.  God’s purposes are not increased by the promotions of this world.  He will do and accomplish what He wants to do.  The real question is this.  Am I a part of it?  May God help us to go from seeing Jesus as a cosmic vending machine to seeing him as our pattern, more importantly, our Lord.  We were made to be like him, and he works by his Holy Spirit to create that image in us today and tomorrow.  God help us to give full cooperation with His Spirit, so that we can be a river of life to those around us!

Deaf man healed audio

The Lord of All Creation

Mark 6:45-52.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, October 20, 2019.

In our story today, we have a miraculous event that makes it easy for some to scoff and discount it as a myth, at best.  There are even some Christians who will say that this didn’t actually happen, but that the story is designed to teach what the writer believes is the truth about Jesus.  To them, these mythical and miraculous stories are merely vehicles to take us to the truth.  They are not the truth themselves.

All of this may seem good in some halls of academia (note: not all schools of higher learning teach this), but these men were not university professors with the desire to make up and use myths in order to teach truth.  They were humble fishermen, hated tax collectors, and men who did not think in such ways.  Their world had been turned upside down by an almost incredible man named Jesus.

Something else we should keep in mind is this.  God does not present himself as an “ends justifies the means” being.  His Holy Spirit was not encouraging these disciples to spin mythic yarns in order to get some people to believe the truth.  This is important in our day and age because it is becoming an increasingly common method of “persuasion.”   In truth, such methods are actually manipulation.  No, God really is as great as He is presented in the Scriptures, even the miracles of Jesus.

In this life, we will face much difficulty.  Some of it is simply life; some of it is the effects of our choices; and some of it is spiritual opposition.  Regardless of what we are facing today, may God help us to trust His power over the natural and the supernatural creation that He has made by His power.

Jesus walks on the water

Last week we stopped with Jesus and his disciples picking up 12 baskets of leftovers from a miraculous provision of food for over 5,000 people.  We are then told that evening was upon them and dark was approaching.

There are two other narratives of this event in the other Gospels in Matthew 14, and John 6.  In John 6, we are told that Jesus recognized that the crowd wanted to take him by force in order to make him king.  This leads to Jesus doing two things.

First, Jesus makes his disciples leave in a boat without him.  Most likely, he doesn’t want them to get caught up in the fervor of the crowd, and he has other plans for why they will be on the water in a boat without him.

Second, Matthew records that Jesus sent the multitude away and went up on a nearby mountain alone in order to pray.  It was not the time for Jesus to present himself as king, and he was destined to be rejected by the nation.  Jesus was not looking to crowds as an opportunity for self-advancement.  He was looking to His Father for the proper advancement that comes from Him alone.  This is why it is a common theme throughout the Gospels that Jesus would get alone to pray.  Believe me, he had even less time to pray than you do.  Yet, he took time to commune with Father God late at night and early in the morning.

In light of the rest of this story, we must also recognize that Jesus knew that his disciples had not completely understood the magnitude of the miracle that had just happened with the feeding of the multitude.  He is setting them up to see just who he really is in an unmistakable way.

It appears from the different accounts that the disciples took off in their boat across the Sea of Galilee as it grew dark, and began rowing across the large lake.  It is around 6 to 7 miles across.  At some point, the winds begin to pick up and they are not tail winds.  Now, oaring is difficult enough without the resistance of the wind.  However, this wind becomes very hard and the waves very large.

This account is very similar to the storm we saw earlier in Mark 4.  There the storm was swamping the boat and the disciples feared that they would perish.  However here, the storm seems different.  It is impeding their progress and exhausting their efforts more than it is jeopardizing their lives.  This is important because, when you think about it, we face exhaustion and giving up far more often than we face physical threats against our lives.  When we become physically exhausted, it commonly leads to emotional and mental exhaustion.  This can then lead to spiritual exhaustion wherein we simply give up and quit.  It is a good thing to guard against spiritual exhaustion by taking care of ourselves physically, and making sure we are not physically exhausted.  We can be our own worst boss, driving ourselves harder than is good for us, and harder than God desires for us.  Yet, sometimes life does not give us a choice in this matter.  We can be assailed by ill winds that just won’t quit, and by things that sap our strength in every way.  The good news is that Jesus knows this.

Jesus wasn’t only praying on the mountain.  Verse 48 tells us that he was also watching the progress of the disciples across the lake.  Of course, he wanted to spend time with the Father and would not forgo that.  However, he also allows them to oar, and oar…, and oar, for hours against the wind.  Yet, he eventually does come to them in the last watch of the night.  The last night would be anywhere from 3 AM to 6 AM.  Clearly, these guys had been oaring for a long time and were not getting very far.

Do you ever wish that God would show up sooner than he does?  Of course, we all do.  Yet, the testimony of saints through the ages is that God’s timing was always for their good in retrospect.  The problem with hindsight is that you don’t get it until you reach the other side of the story.  Can we keep faith and trust in Christ in the midst of difficulty, or will we quit oaring the direction Jesus sent us and go back?  These stories, the stories of other believers today, and our own past experiences, all teach us that God can be trusted to take care of us.

This time, Jesus is not going to dramatically tell the storm to stop.  He is going to come to them in a way that will help them understand that the storm is not bigger than him.  This may seem cliché, but God help us to hold on to the truth that He really is bigger than all of our problems.  We don’t have to fear.  He doesn’t always help us in the way that we want, or in the same way, but help He will and none too late!

The disciples are rowing as best they can, probably taking shifts, but they are making little progress if any.  It is at this point that Jesus comes walking on the water looking as if he is going to pass on by them.  This is an important point.  Jesus is coming for them, yet they need to recognize his presence and call out to him.  We can get so caught up in our difficulties, with our head down towards the ground, and not see him in our situation, and not cry out to him.

The comedy of this situation should not escape us as these grown men think they are seeing a ghost, and give a cry of fear.  This is not anything they would expect to see.  Someone is walking on the water, and, as if that wasn’t enough, it is in the middle of a storm.  Another boat would have been surprising to see, but normal.  However, this scared them.

When we come face to face with the mighty power and ability of God, it can be a hair-raising experience.  He is more powerful than we can imagine, and we definitely do not want to be His enemy.  Yet, even His children can be caught by surprise and have a sense of fear at how great His power really is.  It is not God’s intention to cause us to fear, but it will happen nonetheless.  Thus, Jesus states, “Be of good cheer!  It is I; do not be afraid.”  Ah yes, the classic statement of angels, and now Jesus, to those freaked out by their presence.  “It is I” is the promise Christ makes to all who trust him.  “I will never leave you nor forsake you…I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  These are the words he gives to us.  God help us to hold on to them in our storms, and even when we are exhausted.

We should note that the episode of Peter, sort of walking on the sea, happens at this point, but only Matthew 14 records this event, and so we will not go into it now.

Essentially, the disciples go from fear that Jesus is a ghost (some kind of shade from the Hebrew equivalent of Davey Jones’ Locker) to amazement at what they had just witnessed.  The waves, the wind, and the water that impeded them so greatly were no such impediment to Jesus.  We can almost hear those words again, “What manner of man is this?”  Mark uses three different ways of telling us their minds were blown: they were “greatly amazed,” “beyond measure,” and “marveled.”  That is our God, and we must never forget it.  When He needs to do so, He can blow our minds with His power and ability.

When Jesus gets into the boat, the winds cease.  There was no command of Jesus.  It just simply calms down.  There is a good historical reason to believe that Peter was the main source for Mark in these stories.  So, it is interesting that Mark’s account is the one that points out that their inability to grasp that Jesus was more than a man was due to their hearts being hard.  After they saw Jesus speak to the storm, cast out the legion of demons, feed the multitude with a paltry amount of food, surely then they should have understood the power of Christ and what it says about him. 

We are used to seeing the phrase “hard hearts” with unbelievers like Pharaoh, but not with believers.  They were believers in Jesus, but they were also disciples, which implies that they had much to learn (that we have much to learn).  Discipleship is not easy, and is filled with moments that challenge our faith to step up to the next level.  May God help us to understand that no force of nature is greater than He is.

There is a final point to be made with this story.  Jesus literally walked on water and that is a tribute to His power as the Son of God.  Yet, there is some purposeful symbolism here that also gives tribute to His power over supernatural forces as well.

Revelation 17:15 clues us in to the fact that the waters of the sea are sometimes used as symbols of the peoples of the earth.  The waves picture the forces from within humanity and beyond it that cause a turbulent movement of societies in every which way.  Ill winds blowing upon the waters is often a picture of supernatural forces, whether good or evil, interacting and affecting the nations of the earth.  Also, there is a theme of the Bible that is explicitly seen in Isaiah 27:1, where the devil is pictured as an aquatic reptile, or a water dragon.  He is like a sea monster, slithering throughout the peoples of the earth, mastering the chaotic seas, and causing havoc wherever he wishes.

These are the kind of things that scare us and make us feel puny, but Jesus is the Lord of all creation, both its natural aspects and its supernatural ones.  He will slay the fleeing serpent and we need not fear even when all the forces of hell are marshalled against us.  How?  We can know that Christ is always watching over us, and praying for us.  He will come to us at just the right time, and we will grow to know His power and grace even more.

Lord of Creation Audio

Jesus Feeds 5,000 People

We will have the audio up Tuesday around noon.

Mark 6:30-44.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner, October 13, 2019.

We pick back up in the Gospel according to Mark where we left off.  As we look at this passage, we are going to recognize that God has ministry for us to do, but He also wants us to have rest.  It is not always easy to find that balance, and no one does it perfectly. 

In our story today, the time of rest for the disciples is interrupted by the crowds who want to see Jesus.

Jesus seeks rest for his disciples

Verses 30 through 33 focus on a reunion scene with Jesus and his disciples.  In verses 7-12 of this chapter, we were told that Jesus had sent them out in pairs to go through the towns of Israel.  They were to preach that people should repent because the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand.  They also were to cast out any evil spirits, and heal those who were sick.  We are not told how long they were gone, but here we have their return, and the excitement that they had as they tell their stories to Jesus.

Meanwhile there are other people who keep coming and going who want to interact with Jesus as well.  We are told that it was so hectic that the disciples didn’t even have time to eat.

At this point, Jesus recognizes that they need to go to a place where there aren’t any people, so that he can spend some time with The Twelve.  They then get in a boat and head towards an area that Jesus has in mind where they could fellowship and rest.

There is an interesting interplay surrounding the concept of rest in the Bible.  It is clear that we physically need rest every day, and that we also need rest in others ways: emotional rest, rest from activity (even if it is ministry), and especially spiritual rest.  In this case, they needed a physical break from ministry and attending to the needs of other people.  If we are always helping others, and never taking time to get alone with God, then we will come to a point of emotional and spiritual exhaustion.  We need rest and relationship with Jesus in order to recharge.  Even just sharing with Jesus and having him encourage them would be a powerful rest or refreshing of their souls.

Ask yourself, do I take time to be refreshed by Jesus?  If we will take the time to talk with Jesus about our day and ask his help, we will find a source of power that cannot come any other way.  In fact, this helps us to understand the fourth commandment of The Ten Commandments.  In the days of Moses, it was normal to work seven days a week.  However, God tells his people to take one day off from trying to make it by their own labor and trust God to bless the other six days of labor.  It is not intended to be a harsh command, but rather a blessing from God.  Part of resting is being able to trust that God will take care of things if I take a break.  Isn’t that amazing?  The universe won’t fall apart if I take a break.  The Gospel won’t fail if I take a break. 

Yet, there is a caveat.  Our flesh can come to love taking a break.  Just as a good rest can turn into laziness and lethargy, so we can be lazy about the work of God in our lives.  We can be spiritually sleeping when it is time to work.  This is where we need to be in tune with the Holy Spirit.  If He is moving then we need to be moving.  Moreover, if He is telling us to stand still then we should do so even if there are other people telling us to move.

The crowds see Jesus and his disciples leaving and figure out where they are headed.  We are told that they ran by foot around the lake to go where they believed Jesus and the disciples were going.  No doubt, they were spreading the word as they went.  Thus, by the boat arrives, there is quite a large crowd awaiting Jesus.

At this point, it would be easy to see crowds as a bad thing.  However, these people are just desperate people who sense in Jesus something that can help them.  The group is mixed with many who just want a miracle, some who want to see the man who may be the Messiah, and others who are working as spies for the Pharisees.  Remember that the crowd is always a mixed bag, and therefore it can be a good thing or a bad thing.  The people within the crowd are not thinking about the disciples need of rest.  They are only thinking about their own desire for Jesus.

Jesus has compassion on the crowds

In our flesh, we would probably disperse the crowds with some choice words, but we are told that Jesus was moved with compassion for them.  He saw them like one who sees sheep who have no shepherd.  Their religious leaders were not feeding them the truth and the spiritual food that God had supplied.  Instead, they were being abused and used as a means to an end.  Sheep without a shepherd would have all kinds of wounds and diseases from all the harassing predators.

Do you believe that God’s heart is moved with compassion when he looks upon the crowds of this world?  Sure, crowds can be capable of quite evil things.  It was a crowd that day that chanted, “Crucify him!”  Even the mobs of rioting youth, that we see in our cities, are only lost people who are hopeless in a world that sees them as a means to an end.  I do not want to romanticize the crowd in any way.  It can be a dangerous tool in the hands of evil people and the devil.  Yet, it is filled with people who don’t know their right hand from their left spiritually.  Otherwise, why would they be standing in a crowd?  May we first understand God’s compassion for us, so that we can then see His compassion for others, not because they are good or even doing good, but because often they are just sheep without a good shepherd.

We are told that Jesus takes time to teach them many things.  Probably it was something like the Sermon on the Mount.  We are not told of any healing, but that may only be due to their location in a remote place.  Sick people are not often able to travel to remote places.  However, the teaching of Christ is far more important than the healing of Christ.  A person may be healed and yet never learn from Christ what they need for spiritual life.  Make sure in your own life that you are not failing the accusation that Satan made against Job.  He accused Job of only serving God because God blessed him materially and protected him. 

At some point, the disciples recognize that they should send the people away, so that they will have enough time to go into the villages around there in order to find food for the night.  Yet, Jesus tells the disciples to give the people something to eat.  Believe it or not, God does care about your material needs.  He does supply for us both physically and spiritually.  Our problem is that we often neglect the spiritual in pursuit of material things, and this highlights the folly of our understanding.  It is better to lack material things and have God then to have material things and yet lack God.  Without God, no amount of provisions and possessions can satisfy and protect us.  However, with God, I can be destitute in the desert and still be filled by His provision.  Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Jesus miraculously feeds the people

It is clear that Jesus has decided to do a miracle.  Just as Israel wandered in the desert and God miraculously fed them with Manna, so Jesus would miraculously provide bread for multitudes in a deserted place.  Yet, he does so by asking his disciples to feed the people, knowing full well that this is beyond their ability.

The disciples complain that the request is unreasonable.  Do you expect us to go into the villages and buy up food for everybody?  Now, a denarion was equivalent to a day’s wage for the average laborer.  So, 200 denarii would be just over half a year’s income.  Most likely they were not carrying 200 denarii along with them.  Their point is that Jesus is asking them to do something that is ludicrous.  Have you ever felt yourself in this place?

Jesus then tells the disciples to check their inventory of food items.  They only have 5 loaves of bread and 2 small fish.  Instead of saying, “Wow, that is not nearly enough!” Jesus moves forward like they are going to feed all of these people with this small amount.  The people are instructed to sit down in groups to make it easier to serve and thus we are told that there were groups of 50 and groups of 100. 

Have you ever neglected to serve others for God because you could only see what you were lacking?  Yet, Jesus instructs them to take the five loaves and 2 fish and proceed to feed the multitude.  What is the worst that can happen here?  They would feed a couple of people and there would be no more food.  Why not just step out in faith and obey the Lord?

Now, the point of this story is not about how we can get a miracle when we want.  Rather, it is about how to change your mindset from one that can only see what you can’t do to one that is faithful to respond to the Lord with what little you have.

Before they serve, Jesus takes the bread and the fish, and he blesses them.  This is clearly a prayer of blessing over the food, which most likely involves thanks to God for His provision.  This is important because it shows to the disciples and to the crowd just who actually be serving this crowd of people.  Without the blessing of God, the disciples and their small amount of food are not at all enough, but with God it is enough.  Yes, it will be the hands and feet of the disciples that bring the food to the people, but it is God who will be providing the increase and the blessing.

Now, the blessing is not solely about the amount.  It is even more about the strength that we gain from it.  What will I do with this strength that God has given me?  Will I use it to do the works of God, or will I use it for my own fleshly ends?  As we eat the bread of heaven, we should then use that strength for the purposes of God and not just for ourselves.  The disciples probably felt pretty sheepish (pun intended) as Jesus broke the food into pieces and gave it to them to hand out.

Yet, as they obeyed, God supernaturally added to what they lacked.  The mechanics of how God supplied so much food from such little amount is not explained, most likely because no one knew how it happened.  It just did!  As one person received and passed on to the other, there continued to be more to pass on.  The same God who can form man from the dust of the earth and breathe the breath of life into him is able to cause bread and fish to appear as well. 

We are told two things to help us see the magnitude of this miracle.  First, there are actually 12 baskets of leftovers when they are done.  There is probably 12 because Jesus is reminding the tribes of Israel that God has not forgotten them.  There shouldn’t even have been enough to feed The Twelve, much less the crowds.

Second, we are told that there were about 5,000 men in the crowd.  This was a typical way of counting crowds in those days.  This means with women and children there were more than that.  Now, we get a sense of what the disciples were thinking as they approached the crowds with the little food that they had.

Jesus is called the bread of heaven who is sent down from heaven to feed the souls of men.  Here the people are miraculously fed natural bread and natural fish, but the true needs of the people are much deeper and much greater than this.  It would be a tragedy to feed people’s bellies and yet leave them destitute of the truth of salvation.  Jesus cared for both.  We must learn to care for people’s natural needs, but not lose sight of their spiritual needs, and our spiritual needs.  We must quit looking at what little we have and simply pray this prayer.  “Lord, bless this little that I have so that it may accomplish the work that you intend it to do.”  May we learn to quickly say, “Yes!” to our Lord’s command to serve (even when we are tired), and trust Him to provide the increase.  Do you believe that little is much when God is in it?

You might be interested in meditating on the lyrics of the old song found here: https://hymnary.org/text/in_the_harvest_field_now_ripened.

Jesus Feeds audio

His Own Did Not Receive Him

Mark 6:1-6.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday August 11, 2019.

In John 1:10-12, we are told that Jesus came into the world that he created, but the world did not know him.  It also says that he came to his own [people] and his own did not know him.  However, as many as received, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in his name.  Now, it is proper to see the story of Jesus and his Church as something that started small, but has become a large thing over time.  This may give us a misunderstanding about its popularity.  The overall testimony of Scripture is that the world has not received Jesus as a whole.  He is a rejected savior.  Even within the ranks of Christianity, there are many who will not accept Jesus as he is presented in the Scriptures.  Instead, they use him as an inspiring idea that can be a springboard for the philosophy and wisdom of man that they love.

Yes, the true story of Jesus is one of rejection.  We will see in our story today that Jesus goes to his hometown of Nazareth in order to minister there.  What he experiences there is rejection, the same rejection that God has experienced from mankind from the beginning.  Adam and Eve followed the serpent and rejected God’s wisdom, which led mankind into sin and death.  As a world, we cried out for help and a savior.  Eventually God sent Jesus, but most rejected him.  In his mercy, God has left the door of grace open for the last two millennia.  However, eventually his judgment will come.  So the question is this.  Am I ready?

Today I pray that we will all search our hearts and recognize any unbelief and resistance that we may have towards the true Jesus of the Scriptures.  I pray that we will fully embrace Jesus, the one who was rejected by men, but accepted by God the Father.

Jesus teaches in Nazareth

Though Nazareth is not stated explicitly in the text (regardless of the NLT), it is the clear intention.  Some versions say “his own country,” and others use the word “hometown.”  The word literally means “fatherland,” and can be interpreted differently depending on the scope of the context.  In this passage the scope is viewing one particular town in Israel versus all the others.  Thus, hometown would be a good interpretation.  If this word was used in the context of one nation among many then “his own country” would be a good interpretation. So, we are clearly talking about Nazareth, a village on a small hill halfway between the southern shores of the Sea of Galilee and the shores of the Mediterranean.  This is approximately 30 miles from Capernaum.

Quickly let me remind the reader that Jesus did spend most of his first two years in Bethlehem where he was born.  When King Herod sent the soldiers to kill the babies in that village, the family of Jesus escaped to Egypt and spent at most two years there and maybe only several months.  This makes Jesus somewhere between 4 years old and 2 years old when they move back to Joseph and Mary’s home in Nazareth.  Jesus grows up there and doesn’t begin his ministry until he is about 30 years old.  This gives Jesus 26-28 years of history with the people in this story, it is his hometown.

Let me also state that Luke 4:16-30 is a parallel passage (telling the same story) and it gives us much more detail about this event than Mark does.  So, I will refer to Luke’s passage quite a bit throughout this sermon.

We are told that Jesus goes to the synagogue in Nazareth on the Sabbath.  This was the gathering day, but it is tough to say how many were there that day.  Although we do not know the population of Nazareth at this time, we do know that it was not a large city.  It was a service community for the nearby provincial capital named Sepphoris.

Mark only tells us that Jesus teaches, but does not give any detail on what he said.  Luke 4 gives us some of the details here.  Either Jesus volunteers to read or he is asked to read.  They would have heard stories and rumors of the kinds of things that Jesus had been doing over in the Galilee.  Apparently they hand him the scroll of Isaiah and he opens it to the part that we call chapter 61 and he reads the opening lines.  Here is the passage:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,”

At this point Jesus hands the scroll back and sits down.  With every eye looking at him, he then states, ““Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  It seems likely that he had taught some on the passage before he sits down because it says they were astonished at his teaching and wisdom.  Of course that last statement is the clincher.  Who does Jesus think he is?

For our purposes, it is interesting to note that Jesus cuts off his quote in mid-sentence.  The verse at the end states, “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God.”  Jesus had come to offer grace to God’s people and ultimately to the whole world.  This part of the passage wasn’t being fulfilled that day.  No, this was a day of grace and Jesus had come to offer God’s peace to whosoever would take hold of it.

We should also note that Isaiah contrasts the acceptable year of the Lord (or the year of his favor) with the day of his vengeance.   All throughout Scripture, it emphasizes the grace of God lasting a long time and the wrath or vengeance of God being short.  Ultimately God is far more gracious than his is wrathful.  In fact, the wrath is proportionally very small.  The world has had almost 2,000 years of God’s grace and withholding of the judgment of the nations.  During this time, he has offered peace to all people.  We must not take God’s grace for granted.  He gives us grace because he is good and he offers it for a long time because he is good, but eventually he will judge because he is good.

The astonishment of the people is expressed in a series of questions.  Where did he get this wisdom to teach and this ability to do powerful works (healing, exorcisms, etc.)?  Isn’t this the carpenter who is the son of Mary?  (Note:  It is here that we are told that Jesus definitely learned Joseph’s trade and had practiced it until he was 30 and began to minister).  They also mention his brothers (they would be half-brothers) James, Joses, Judas, and Simon.  Plus, it mentions “sisters” plural, so we know that there are at least two of them.  To me, this passage throws a wet blanket on the idea that Jesus did miracles throughout his childhood.  They are astonished at what they hear about him.  Behind all of these questions is the idea that Jesus is just another person from Nazareth.  He seems too common to be something as great as the Messiah.

We are told that they are “offended” by Jesus (end of verse 3).  This does not mean that Jesus was being insensitive and hurt their feelings.  The word means to be made to stumble.  This is meant metaphorically.  God had sent Jesus for Israel and the whole world to embrace as the Messiah, Lord and Savior.  Yet, they are rejecting this decree because they can’t conceive of this local boy becoming something great.  They are caused to stumble by their own stubbornness and unwillingness to accept what Jesus was.  We can see this same principle when a person changes from a bad life, and yet, people continue to hold their past against them.  God has given them the thing, for which they have been praying, but it doesn’t fit their preconceived notions and so they stumble over him.  He is the stumbling stone. 

He is rejected by his hometown

In Mark we have a proverb that Jesus quotes.  However, Luke adds another proverb previous to it.  Jesus sees their incredulous looks and responds by saying, “Surely you will say this proverb to me, ‘Physician, heal yourself.  Whatever you have done in Capernaum, do here in your hometown.’”  This may sound like people were open to believing, but it is not coming from such a place.  Rather, it is coming from a skeptical, unbelieving attitude.  Instead of saying that they believe and want to be healed, it is more like “show us what you got.”

Jesus then reminds them that a prophet generally is not honored in his own town, among his relatives, and in his own home.  No doubt the brothers of Jesus were there that day.  They were probably in their 20’s and late teens.  We know that they were just as resistant to this new, older brother of theirs as the towns people were.  Luke adds some further dialogue.  Jesus reminds them that there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah the prophet, but he was sent to a widow in Zarephath of Sidon in Lebanon.  He also reminds them that there were many lepers in Israel during the days of Elisha the prophet, and yet only Namaan the Syrian general was cleansed.  Both examples beg the question.  Why were these gentiles healed and not the Israelites?  His implication is that the problem back then is the same problem now.  In the days of Elijah and Elisha, the wicked king Ahab and his wicked queen Jezebel were leading the people to worship the foreign god Baal.  People had quit believing in Yahweh, the God of Israel.    They refused to worship and serve the God of Israel and so they went after idols of their own making and the gods of the nations around them.  Nazareth was going to miss out, not because God didn’t care and didn’t provide, but because they would not believe and receive Jesus as God’s answer for them.

We are then told by Mark that Jesus was unable to do miracles, other than healing a couple of sick people because of their unbelief.  This statement is made after the fact and is a general statement, so it is unclear when Jesus healed these people.  It doesn’t seem likely that a whole bunch of sick people came forward to be healed, but when Jesus prayed for them, only two were healed.  More likely, Jesus offered to heal people and only two came forward.  The key is that they do not believe as a whole.  This unbelief is not because there is no evidence, but rather it is in the face of the evidence.  They do not believe because they will not believe.  They cannot accept Jesus as Lord and Savior because they are too familiar with him.

Others today refuse to believe in Jesus because he is too gracious, or some because he is not gracious enough.  Some do not believe because he does not stroke their ego in the way that they believe it should be.  Some resist because he came in an age that was not nearly as enlightened as our age.  There are many more besides these.  Let me challenge you today.  Unbelief is powerful, but it is also easily conquered when we see the flimsy nature of the objections that we make and the things about Jesus that cause us to stumble.  Jesus is a challenge from God, a stumbling block to our flesh.  Will I let go of my pride and believe, or will I stumble?

Mark ends the story here with Jesus leaving and going to other villages to teach, but Luke tells us more.  There we find that the people became so filled with wrath that they rose up to push Jesus out of the city and off a cliff next to the town.  They were going to kill him, but it wasn’t the time.  We are simply told that Jesus passed through the middle of them and went his own way.  Were they paralyzed by the power of God in him?  Or, did he hide himself from them by the same power?  We are not told.  It is bad enough not to believe in Jesus.  This is much worse.  They are actively rejecting him and trying to remove him from before them.  You cannot run from Jesus.  God has set him before the whole world and demands a verdict from us.  Will you embrace him and live, or will you reject him and die?  I pray that you will choose life with me!

His Own audio