Thursday is an important day. It's one of the days that we've set aside to remember a saint in our calendar. And properly so, we need to remember these saints of old because they encourage us, they challenge us. And so Thursday, I hope you'll remember Saint Cyril. He was a missionary who was sent out from Constantinople. And he wanted to go to Moravia to preach the gospel to reach the Slavic people there. And he had to create his own alphabet. And one of the issues in this day was that the Word of God, the Bible, can only be translated into holy languages. And so he was introducing a new language. He had to go get permission from the Pope. And with all the travel and the delay and the preparations, St. Cyril, he died before he even got to Moravia. But his brother, Methodius, he went on in the mission, and it ended up in Moravia. And he began a work there. But before it really ever took root, before he ever saw a lot of fruit, invaders came in, and they had to run off to Bulgaria. And so a small little gathering of Christians are there in Bulgaria, and Methodius dies. What we have here, St. Cyril and St. Methodius, they die looking like absolute failures. One didn't even make it to the place. One was driven out before they ever saw any fruit. But the church, the Christians that were there in Bulgaria, they grew, they flourished. It became really the central place for the Slavic people who became Christians. And then, in God's providence, they were able to go back up into Moravia, sending missionaries. And God's kingdom grew. But the men who started it, they never saw any of it. Now, I bring this up first because I want to make sure you remember we have a higher calling on Thursday with a saint in mind here, Saint Cyril. Saint Valentine's Day, I think, is an awkward holiday for us in terms of I don't like the idea of being forced to be romantic. That's a personal thing, so that's just me and taking a stab there. But really, the story captures so much about the kingdom of God. How God works. This humble, teachable man. You know, when we talk about a saint, everyone who's a believer is a saint. But when we see this humble, teachable man, he's used by God in a way he never saw. He was faithful, and God used his work. And what I want to highlight here is the humility. Even when he doesn't see what God is doing, even when he doesn't know what God is going to do, he's humble to just be faithful. And I highlight that also because it's really in contrast to the characters we're going to see this morning in our text. This morning we're coming to Mark 8. If you're new with us, we simply try to walk through the Scriptures, chapter by chapter, section by section. We want to make sure we're capturing the whole Word of God as much as we can, and we want to see here what Jesus is doing. And we have here three different stories, three different instances, three different discussions and interactions with Jesus, and they build up one big story. They're connected together. So if we look at verses one to 10, we see Jesus, he feeds the nations. Second, we see in verses 11 to 13, he leaves the Pharisees. He leaves the Pharisees. And then third, and finally 14 to 21, he challenges his disciples, he challenges his disciples. So three different interactions, three different groups of people, and we'll see how they're different, but they build up, Lord willing, one big story. Look with me in chapter 8 verse 1. In those days when again a great crowd had gathered and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. We see here the dilemmas introduced twice. There's nothing to eat. Thousands of people have gathered together, and it's important. These are Gentiles. These are not Jews who have gathered, like the previous feeding. These are Gentiles who have gathered. He's not left the area of the Gentiles. And Jesus, He has compassion on them. Over and over again, Mark gets us into the mind and emotions of Jesus and His posture towards people, and He's regularly having compassion. And again, the circumstance, they simply have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry, they'll faint before they're on their way. Some have come very far. Verse 4. Notice the disciples are always kind of focused on what's right in front of their nose. You know, they can't really look past the end of their nose. Well, how can we feed all these people? Now, if you've been with us for a while, Jesus just fed 5,000 men plus women and children. And so this question really should strike us as somewhat odd. Have they not understood yet? Jesus, He asked them the same question in the way they, as the previous feeding. How many loaves do you have? It is supposed to connect these two feedings together. The disciples, seven. He directs the crowd to sit down. Again, this is very similar. He took seven loaves. He broke them. gave them out and giving thanks. And then he found a few small fish from the crowd and divided those as well. And look at verse 8. If you're with us, this is very familiar. They ate and were satisfied. And even then, when they took up the baskets, the amount of bread left over is seven full baskets. 4,000 people were fed. And then we see there immediately he gets up. Now I want us to see these two feedings, they're necessary. Mark is a very precise writer. He's a very concise writer as well. And so why would we need to have these two long feeding narratives that are so similar? Right? So they're out in the middle of, in a desolate place. They're far away. They lack food. Jesus has compassion. The disciples are worried about the logistics. Jesus says, how many loaves do you have? The crowd is put in order. A prayer is made. Food is passed out. Everyone's satisfied. There's leftovers. They're very similar stories. Why would Mark want to go about making this same story so significantly? First, I believe it's here, Jesus is feeding the Gentiles just like he fed the Jews. He has come to be the Savior of all nations. We also see there were 12 baskets left over from the feeding of the Jews, the Israelites, and now there's seven baskets left over from the Gentiles. I really wonder if there's some significance there. There are 12 tribes of Israel. I have come to fulfill and satisfy the calling to be the Savior of Israel first. But now, seven baskets, a number of completion, perfection. I've come to fulfill the true mission, the final mission. I'm the Savior of all peoples. If you think about the context, Jesus, He sought out tax collectors. He's, he's, he's gone, and he's gone to the, the, the land of the Gentiles, and, and just to heal one demon-possessed man, and then he leaves. Right? It seems like he just had this single focus. I need to heal this one man who is not an Israelite, who's being tormented by demons, and then I'm going to leave. He helps a synagogue ruler, but the bleeding woman is the one who's really the, the hero of that story. He feeds 5,000 men and their families, and then he has this fantastic discussion with the Pharisees. When the Pharisees are accusing Jesus, your disciples, they don't follow our traditions. They don't wash their hands. And here we really get to the significant point of the problem. It's not unwashed hands that defiles you or makes you unclean. It's not what you eat. It's not what happens to you. It's what bubbles forth from your sinful heart. There we see the main problem that's being addressed in Scriptures. Our problem comes from within. That our rebellious heart is what bursts forth sin. It's not what we eat. It's not what we do from the outside. We then have the Syrophoenician woman, that was last week, and this is that odd exchange in the Bible where a woman humbly comes and asks for help with a demon possessed child, a Gentile woman comes and asks for help, and Jesus responds, well, I'm here for the Jews first, the children should eat first, and we don't throw bread of the children to the dogs. And while that's a difficult passage, the priority there is making it very clear It's to the Jew first and the Gentile, but Jesus makes it very clear. He does heal her. He shows her that no, the Gentiles, they are going to get the bread, the crumbs from the bread. And here we have a feeding of all the Gentiles. I believe Mark is putting together this fantastic story of Jesus come to feed the Israelites. He's given this little synopsis, this little story of the star of Phoenician woman to show that the Gentiles, they will be helped by Jesus. And now we have the full feeding of 4,000 Gentiles. The story is strategic. He's making clear what his mission is. He's come to save all people. If you remember from the last feeding, Jesus then walks on water, and whenever he appears to the disciples, they're terrified, and he simply says, take heart. In his eye, do not fear. And then Mark gives us this explanation. They didn't understand because their hearts were hard. That they had seen Jesus provide all that food, and yet they're still terrified. Their hearts were hard. They had not yet received who Jesus is, even though they had seen him do great works. Now with 4,000 hungry people, they're still worried about how they get enough bread at the grocery store. Their hearts are still hard. They haven't yet seen who they're looking at. Jesus, they're just looking at a problem. One of the things we must see in this passage is that Jesus' grace abounds. He helps those who are hungry. He's not limited by our traditions. He's not limited by our birth. He's not limited by our behavior. He's not limited by our wicked hearts. His grace abounds and it's satisfied for those who believe. Those who are coming out to follow Him, those who are coming out hungry for His teaching, those who are coming out to know who is His Savior and how can we know who He is and follow Him, they came and they leave satisfied. A question I have for us this morning, Christians, are we satisfied in the grace of Christ? One of the most interesting ways I've seen Christ work is watching someone wrestle through being a miserable Christian. Someone who's just wrapped up in sin and it leads to just pure misery. That is a grace of God that He does not let us be satisfied in sin. We were created to know God and delight in Him. We were redeemed to know God and delight in Him. And yet, here's how twisted the heart is. We think something else is going to satisfy us. And God in His grace does not let us be satisfied in anything but Himself. In Augustine's confessions, my soul was restless till it found rest in You. If you're here this morning, if you're not a believer, or if you're a believer, if you're restless, if you realize whatever you've been trying, it just isn't working, humble yourself. Ask Christ to show you, how can I be satisfied in you? How can I come to you, put off this sin that is not satisfying? Here's how you know it's sin. You keep drinking, and you're only thirstier afterwards. That's what sin does. It only increases your thirst. It never satisfies. Restless Jesus, you want more, but it's because it's so satisfying. If you're not satisfied, if you're restless, turn to Christ. Ask Him how you come to Him properly. Our next section, our next story that develops here continually, We see the Pharisees. The Pharisees came and began to argue. Here, the point is Jesus leaves the Pharisees. It's very important to see how they come. So the Gentiles, they came out to a desolate place far away, willing to sacrifice hunger just to be with Jesus. But the Pharisees, when they find him, they come and they argue with him so that they might test him. They've already got a posture that we're right, you're wrong. They don't even want to ask questions. They just want to make their point made. This is just an unhelpful way to approach anybody at any time. But here we see the religious leaders of Israel are coming to the one they should be submitting to and recognize as the true Moses, the true prophet. They're trying to make their point. They came to argue, and notice they're seeking a sign. I'm not quite sure what the sign is, because Jesus has done many signs. The Gospel of John, actually you could organize it around seven signs. Every miracle is a sign in the sense that it's an event that took place to point people to who Jesus is. You went to Mark 2 when Jesus healed the paralytic. The healing wasn't just for the healing's sake. The healing was so you could know the Son of Man also has authority to forgive sins. It was a sign. I don't think the point here is that Jesus isn't willing to give signs. The point isn't that Jesus isn't willing to show you who He is. The point is, what more could He possibly do for you than what He's already done? The Pharisees come with hard hearts. They're coming with a rejection. Jesus sighs deeply. Our Savior is frustrated. Maybe He's frustrated because He created these people. He came to help these people, and yet all they want to do is come and argue with Him. There's a way to be lovingly frustrated. It's not the quality of sign that's the problem, it's the quality of the heart of those receiving it. And we need to realize, seeing is not believing. The heart is hard and twisted. It's pretty amazing. You know, we had snow weeks ago. The weather's gotten to 50, 70 degrees. You know, the sunshine felt wonderfully warm. It's rained. And yet, there's still some piles of ice in a few parking lots. How is that possible? because it's insulated. That, that, that, that ice has been insulated in a way that, that it's protected the, the frozenness. And that's how our hearts function. They get insulated. They, we become insular, and we just want to protect that sin. And this is the gospel. He comes in and he, he breaks open that heart. He warms it. He softens it. He untangles it. What's scary here with the Pharisees, and they're meant to be a warning, when we remain committed in our hardness, Jesus might leave. Notice how Jesus responds. He, He left them. No, no, they didn't lose salvation. I don't know about that. But, but if you're resisting God, if you're a child that's been sitting here in the pew regularly, and you're, you're, you're hearing the Gospel, and you're resisting it over and over again, God's welcoming arms are wide. But if you keep resisting, He, He might leave you. There's a warning here. Today is the day. If you hear the Word, soften your hearts and come to Him. There's actually a great grace here in leaving. Let me try to illustrate. My second semester of seminary, I was very committed to being a good student. The seminary I went to, it had a 12 point scale at that time. And I was committed to being a 12.0 grade average student, because I thought that would mean I was more spiritual. We'll talk about that another time. That's another lesson. I was taking this church historian of church historians. He's a fantastic man, Dr. Nettles. I took him for church history one, and there were some complications with the grades or the tasks. The grader used the wrong key. There was those complications. And I got an 11. I got an 8. 12 was A+. So, being the humble person I was at the time, I went to Dr. Nettles' first day of the next semester, taking Church History II, and tried to explain to him, attempting to explain to him, you know, I think I got the wrong grade. And being a nice, humble man, well, explain what happened, what did you get? And I said, well, I got an A, but I think I deserve an A+. Dr. Nettles, he put his things together. He then looked at me with this smile that was sweet and at the same time mocking. And it just walked away. He left me there in my pride. And honestly, there was about three instances, not exactly like that, but just three little conversations with professors that were way more impactful for me than all my classes together. Because at that moment, I first kind of, what do you mean just walking away? My pride was enhanced and strengthened. But then I realized, that was just a way of bringing shame on how prideful I am. Like how ridiculous this is that I, I think that I need to get a, you know, argue with a professor over, over this, this point because of my pride. Well then that walking away, there's, there's a way in which it, it helped me see how ridiculous it was. You don't answer a fool in his foolishness. And that's what he would have been doing if he had entertained my, my very approach. I can't believe Jesus walking away should be a sign to them. I can't even talk to you right now. Because your posture, your argument, your words are so opposed to the truth, you can't even listen. Walking away, I believe, was an act of grace. Our third section. He challenges his disciples. Notice here we have bread again. And the disciples, they forgot bread. Verse 14. They only have one loaf, and they're worried about this. That's the setting. We already have a problem introduced. The physical need is pressing. And notice verse 15. Jesus, in the middle of this dilemma, he cautioned them, watch out. Beware. Be on the lookout. There's a danger. That's what that is supposed to be capturing. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. Now, now just to make sure we're connecting all these things together. He, he needed to feed 4,000 people. He brought them bread. We now have the disciples without enough bread, and he's warning them of the leaven of the Pharisees. Well leaven is, is an ingredient that you put in bread to, to make it rise. And a little bit of leaven goes into a batch of dough, and it changes the entire nature and makeup of the dough. So Jesus here is taking the opportunity to teach his disciples about something very important. Watch out. Beware. The leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. Now, leaven is used once in a positive way in Matthew 13, 33. The kingdom of God is like leaven. It spreads and changes everything when it gets involved. But usually leaven is a reference to something evil and wicked. Leviticus 2.11. The, you were not supposed to take bread made with leaven, because it's unacceptable for an offering. Or, very clear, 1 Corinthians chapter 5, beginning in verse 6. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil. for the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Purge the evil from among you. And there Jesus is telling the church, be a pure body. But don't let practices of evil continue on. It's better to remove that than to go on with it. Because it corrupts everything. Be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. Now, these are some of the two different groups of people we could possibly imagine. The Pharisees were the very religious, very pious, studyers of God's Word. They definitely wanted influence and power, but it's not clear how they connect with those of Herod, because that's more of a political power of wealth. But what the two have in common, because I think whatever the leaven is, it's the same for the two of them, it's simply unbelief. It's doubting the Word of God as it's being declared through Jesus Christ. It's doubting Him who came to be the perfect image of God. The God Himself in the flesh. God Himself who's going to come down and take our penalty on the cross. The leaven to be afraid of is the leaven of doubt. Now, notice what, There's been this warning. There's been a challenge. And how do the disciples respond? Verse 16, they begin discussing with another the fact that they had no bread. Okay, there's no bread. Jesus gives them a very important spiritual warning. And all they're worried about is bread. They can't get past this circumstantial problem to actually listen to Him who can actually provide. They've seen Him now provide more than enough for thousands of people when they had almost nothing, and yet when He's speaking, all they're worried about is bread. Notice His questions and response. Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? He's asking a series of other very precise questions. Do you not get it? These are all rhetorical questions, trying to help them probe, do a self-inspection, so that they might actually receive what he's saying. He wants his disciples to grow, and here we just see their dullness. Their slowness. I want to just pause here for a second, because Mark is one of the books that most everybody recognizes as an authentic gospel of a disciple of Jesus Christ. And the reason it's recognized so highly is because the disciples look so poorly. Like, no one writes about themselves like this. It actually is a sign of how authentic this is, that, I mean, I want to be careful here, but the disciples, they just kind of look dumb. I mean, look at the words recorded. The only words we get to hear of them are, they're able to count. Right? How many loans do you have? Seven. How many baskets were left after Israel? Twelve. How many baskets were left after the Gentiles? Seven. Like, way to go guys. You passed kindergarten math. But that's their level of understanding. It's eye level. They can't see past their nose because their hearts are hardened. Jesus wants to go further. Do you not understand? These men are going to be handed over the kingdom by Jesus in the sense that they're going to be the ones who are going to start proclaiming the gospel so the churches are planted to continue the witness among the Jews and the Gentiles. And they don't get it. They have very little faith. Now, what's encouraging for us is that Jesus does not leave them. He's patient. There's a very different posture of Jesus towards his disciples who have to be frustrated, who are clearly frustrated, and his posture towards the Pharisees. I believe he is a compassionate Savior of all who come to him humbly, but they hear the disciples, they keep this tunnel vision focus on just the bread. They're not getting it. It's encouraging. to see how Christ is patient. It's actually quite encouraging to see how he works here because he's going to build up a message for them. One of the things that we try to teach in the members class, and many of you have not heard this because you took a members class a long time ago, or never have. There's three things that we really wanna emphasize in the culture of Jefferson Park. Gospel, safety, and time. You can write those down. Those are words we hope become part of our DNA. The Gospel, because that is the message, the truth that Jesus Christ has come to save us as sinners. It is His work, His abounding grace. It is what He's doing that really matters among us. Safety is, is the fact that we're all coming together as sinners, and we need to be able to confess sin. We need to be a people who are able to confess our sins and be restored, not condemned. And one of the interesting things about if you confess sin, if you go to a judge, you're going to be sentenced. If you go to a self-righteous friend, you're going to be shunned. If you come to a Christian, you should be received for reconciliation. The church is supposed to be a place of Christians receiving for reconciliation those who want to confess. And we all should be confessing sins. The third ingredient is time. Growth in Christ is urgent, it is not instant. And I believe here you see Jesus modeling what it looks like to be a disciple maker, to show the kind of kindness that other Christians need to see, that he's patient with them. Yeah, this is a strong rebuke. This is a, a hard challenge. And, and discipleship requires hard words. But here we see this, this glorious picture of Jesus loving them, not leaving them. And we can praise God that that's how he treats all of his children. What we need to see first is that we really should identify with the disciples. We're, we're on the hot seat here. Think about how much we stay focused, tunnel vision, on our circumstances. Think about how often we turn inward and just listen to ourselves and what we think we need and what we think we know, and we're not willing to be judged by Christ, submitting to His Word under it, and say, God, what would you have me know? What would you have me believe? What would you have me do? We quench the Spirit, rather than humbly desire to hear Jesus speak. What we see here is a call to hear God. Receive Him. This word remember is so important at the end of verse 18. Do you not remember? There's an important spiritual practice of remembering all that God has said in His Word. An important spiritual practice of remembering all that God has done. You know, the focus on the bread, the focus on circumstances, that only leads to one thing, and that is anxiety. So the inward turn that we normally do to try to figure things out ourselves, that only leads to a harder heart. What Christ calls us is to look up to Him to be changed. This story is very strategic because if you look at the next section, you're going to see a blind man healed. And if you look over to chapter 10, you're going to see another blind man healed. That's a bookended section. We're transitioning now in the Gospel of Mark, and in the next section, it's focused solely on the disciples. Mark is this brilliant writer, and we're concluding a section here where Jesus has been doing ministry among the peoples while training his disciples, and now he's gonna come to that point where the key focus there is, will the disciples remain blind? Or is Jesus going to give them sight? There are three major focuses there within that section, where Jesus predicts His death and resurrection. These disciples are going to need to see with their eyes Jesus on the cross. And they're still not going to get it. They're going to need to see with their own eyes, and even, one, be challenged to touch Him, to put His hands in their very wound because He's a doubter. They're going to see Him, and they're going to have to believe that hard heart's going to have to be softened for these disciples are going to receive Jesus, to be the ones who are going to go out and proclaim Him, to be part of His mission. Let us ask, there are questions as we always ask after the end of a section. What Mark wants us to do, who is Jesus? He's full of compassion. It's the first thing we see. He has compassion. The people have a need and He desires to meet that need. All human beings are made in His image. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory. And all can come to Him through faith, humble faith, and be saved. The only thing that disqualifies us is not coming to Him. Not seeing our need for Him. Remaining proud in our sin. There's one death for all kinds of people and every kind of sinner. He has compassion on us. Secondly, he resists the proud. We don't approach Jesus like the Pharisee. Here's my list. Here's how you can prove yourself. If you need something more than he's willing to lay down his life for you, there's nothing to be proven. We don't add tests to Jesus. We humbly come to Him and ask Him, show us to help us see. Enlighten the eyes of our hearts so that we might see how great Your love is. Third, He is patient and persistent with His disciples. Praise God. Here's where we just rejoice that He is patient and persistent with us who come to Him in faith. We need to make sure we're growing in Christ. We all come immature. We all come full of sin and twisted hearts and entangled hearts, but the call is to grow in Christ. So how do we respond? First, I believe we should remember with gratitude. Remember with gratitude. An essential Christian discipline, one that you cannot grow in Christ without, is gratitude. To be thankful regularly. He saved a sinner such as I. To grow with gratitude that He's been patient, that He set forth such a clear word in the Bible. He sent forth His Holy Spirit to renew and to convict and to change. Gratitude. Whenever we find ourselves not being thankful for what God has done, that typically is going to show us that there's some sin that we're being, that we're seeking satisfaction from. Remember with gratitude. Secondly, perceive by looking up. Not around or in. perceive, understand their lack of understanding, this rebuke of having a hard heart, not perceiving, not seeing. It's because they can only think about bread and their stomach. They're only looking in at what they think they want, and what they think they need. They're not listening to Jesus. He's literally warning them about having doubt, and they're doubting. giving them the Word, they actually hear right there that moment. Look up. If we look around, it's only going to stir up more worry, because the world is just not the way it's supposed to be. Looking around, looking in, our hearts are not the way it's supposed to be. But if you look up, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He does not change, being the perfect Savior with perfect love and perfect guidance for those who follow Him. The third thing we do is join in His mission. I do believe this passage is connecting these disciples to being challenged at the very end to know how to follow Him and His mission. We grow so that we might help others grow. We grow so that we might be glorifiers of God, depending upon His grace, helping others grow in grace. As we conclude, we have to remember, we have no control over what happens. Like St. Cyril. He had a mission, but he never got to see it. But we know now, looking back, we can see how God was at work, and we can glorify Him. The call is not to control what happens, which is what I like to do. I won't project myself there. The call is to humbly just trust God. Follow Him in faithfulness and obedience. And see how He's going to work out His glory. As we conclude, let's take a moment to reflect, and I will close this in prayer.