Mark chapter 8, and we'll read all the way from verse 10 down to the end of the chapter, verse 26. And it says, immediately he entered the boat with his disciples and came to the district of Delmanutha. The Pharisees came out and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. Sighing deeply in his spirit, he said, why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation. Leaving them, he again abarked and went away to the other side. And they had forgotten to take bread and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them. And he was giving orders to them saying, watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And they began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you not have a hardened heart? Sorry, do you have a hardened heart? Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the 5,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up? And they said to him, 12. And when I broke the seven for the 4,000, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up? And they said to him, seven. And he was saying to them, do you not yet understand? And they came to Bethsaida and they brought him, sorry, brought a blind man to Jesus and implored him to touch him. Taking the blind man by the hand, he brought him out of the village and after spitting on his eyes and laying his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see men, for I see them like trees walking around. Then again, he laid his hands on his eyes and he looked intently and was restored and began to see everything clearly. And he sent him to his home saying, do not even enter the village. Let's ask for God's blessing again, shall we? Loving Father, this morning we come before you and we plead with you for help as we would open the scriptures together. And Father, we pray that the Holy Spirit would have freedom to speak to every heart in the room. And Father, you know the doubts and the fears. Father, you know those of us who are standing here this morning who truly know you and those of us who don't. And father, we pray that the spirit of God would have freedom to convict us of our sin, convict us of our need to have a savior. And father, we pray that he would give to us faith that we would believe and we would see Jesus clearly. Father, we ask you for help this morning as we come before you with our Bibles open. Father, we want to hear your voice speaking to us. And we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. Please have a seat. What is it that Jesus desires of us? It's not works, it's not rituals, it's not religious observances. In coming to know Jesus and coming to find him, the one thing that Jesus desires of all of us is simply this, faith. It's faith. Now, the outworking, the exercise of faith over the course of our lives may bring us to do great things from God. It may lead to establishing of godly traditions that we follow and use. It may even lead to great sacrifice of goods and family and kindred and so on. But coming to Jesus Christ for salvation requires one thing, faith. That's simply it. So the message title this morning is simply this, Do You Have the Faith to See Jesus? Now if you have that little brochure there, inside that there is a set of message notes and you can track along as we work our way through the message this morning. But the title is, Do You Have the Faith to See Jesus? Perhaps you're a believer here this morning and you're struggling in your faith. I want you to be encouraged today because this message will give you the fuel to encourage and strengthen and build up your faith in Jesus. Or perhaps you don't know. the Lord Jesus Christ personally. You've heard a lot about him. You've heard your friends talk about him and so on, but you don't know him personally. Well, this morning we want to introduce you to Jesus Christ. We want to point you to the evidence from the Bible for who Jesus is and to show you that he cares for all of us who are perishing, even you. Every single one of us. Jesus cares for us and Jesus loves us. So how are we going to see from this text here, this story before us, that Jesus desires faith from us? Well, first of all, we need to see how this part of the book is kind of put together. You've got to remember, Mark puts his book together not by order of events, one after the other. He takes and he arranges the different stories and different events and he puts them together in order to weave a story together. Well, this section of the book from 4 and verse 38, all the way to 8 and verse 26, kind of hangs on a framework of three specific scenes involving Jesus and the disciples. They all involve boat trips. Who here has got a boat? Just out of curiosity. Couple of you like going out on a boat, once in a while go fishing. Well, all of these scenes in the Book of Mark right now hang on a framework of three boat trips. And the first boat trip is over in the Book of Mark, chapter four and verse 38. We'll read that together. You might remember the story. They leave and they go across the boat with Jesus, cross the lake with Jesus, and he falls asleep in the stern. A great wind and waves rise up, and he's asleep in the stern. And verse 38 picks up, Jesus himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they awoke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? And he got up and rebuked the wind and said to it, the sea, hush, be still. And the wind died down, it became perfectly calm. And he said to them, why are you afraid? How is it that you have no faith? And they became very much afraid and said to one another, who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? Three very important questions are asked in the boat. Number one, do you not care? That's put to Jesus. The second one is this, or the disciples ask is this, who is this? Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey Jesus? And Jesus himself asks a great question, one that has to be considered. How is it that you have no faith? Those three questions kind of form the backdrop of all the stories that kind of work their way from this point to 8 in verse 26, and this is kind of 8 and verse 26 is kind of the end of the first major section of the book of Mark. It's the first half of the book completed. And it's all been working towards a great statement. We're going to see next week in verses 28 and 29 there that Peter answered and said to him, you are the Christ. And that's a very key point. The whole book's been moving towards that great statement. The rest of the book, the second half of the book, all moves towards another great statement, when a centurion will stand at the foot of the cross, and as Jesus dies, he will look up and say, truly, this man is the Son of God. Those two statements kind of form the main points of the book. But Jesus has asked this question. The disciples have asked their questions. The second boat trip is this in Mark 6 and verse 45. And Jesus sends the disciples across the sea by themselves. And he goes up on a mountaintop, and he prays for them. In the middle of the night, about the fourth watch of night, the sin Sorry, not the sea. The waves of the sea and the wind is blowing the boat around all over the place. And the Bible records that Jesus comes to them walking on the sea. And Jesus reveals the fact that he is the Son of God. And he walks across the sea. And that great moment, he stops and he speaks to them. He says, do not be afraid. It is I. You say, what's so key about that? It is I can also be read from the Greek as the words I am. It is the divine name of God. Jesus is walking up the sea, and he is declaring them, I am God, as he comes to meet them. And the last boat scene, of course, is the one right in front of us in Mark chapter 8. And he is here with his disciples, and he's rebuking his disciples for their slowness to see and understand two things, who he is and how much he cares for them and those who are perishing. Now, in between those stories, Those three ones there, Mark Weaves, all kinds of other stories that in fact answer the three questions of that boat trip. But now, for us, being readers of the book, we enjoy a kind of a form of omniscience. What I mean by that is, we can see what they can see, and we can see what the disciples can't see. We can hear the thoughts the disciples are thinking. We can see what Jesus is doing, even when the disciples can't see what Jesus is doing. We can skip back to the beginning and kind of pick up some points, and we can jump forward to the end and see how the story all works out. And we have that form of omniscience. But there's something else that being readers of a book does. It puts us, every once in a while, into the disciples' sandals. And we stand there, if you like, in the boat with them, and we watch what's going on. And as Jesus walks along with his disciples, we walk along behind with him, and we see what he's doing. But something else. When the disciples ask the questions of Jesus, it becomes like we're asking the same questions. We're given that privilege. And when Jesus asked the disciples questions, guess what? We're like them. We're compelled to answer the questions that he puts to them. They're put to us also. We're compelled to answer, and the reason, the title for the message this morning is simply, Do You Have Faith to See Jesus? Notice it's very much like, very similar to Jesus' own question, how is it that you have no faith? All I've really done is reword it into a positive statement. Do you have the faith to see Jesus? Now the main message points for the morning are this. Number one, there is the refusal to see Jesus. And we see that in the Pharisees' situation in Mark 8, verses 11 to 13. Secondly, there is the struggle to see Jesus. And that's a disciple's situation in Mark 8, 11 to 21. And finally, thirdly, there is the ability to see Jesus. And that's the blind man's situation as Jesus heals him and he is able So let's look first of all at the refusal to see Jesus. Let's read the story again, the first couple of verses there, 8, 11 through 15. It says this, the Pharisees came out and they began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him and sighing deeply in his spirit, he said, why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation." Leaving them, he again embarked and went away to the other side. And they had forgotten to take bread and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them. And he was giving orders to them saying, watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. The Pharisees came to Jesus. They didn't come in faith, they didn't come genuinely seeking to know Him. They came out arguing and testing Him, seeking a sign. Now, just as this is the midpoint of the book for us, so it's kind of a turning point for the Pharisees' relationship with Jesus. Up until this point, they have been asking him questions, or different kinds of questions. Now you all know there are different kinds of ways to ask questions, right? Like we can ask questions to somebody. We want to find out something. We want to learn something. So I ask a question to gain and learn information. I'm asking that question in faith that the person who is going to answer me will be able to give me a good, honest, straight answer, and I will grow and learn and be informed. Then there are other questions, like lawyers' questions. Lawyers are known for one thing about questions. They never ask a question they don't already know the answer to. And their questions aren't designed to learn and gain information and grow in their understanding. Those kind of questions are designed to trip you up and trap you and have you admitting that you committed the crime that supposedly you're on charge for, or something like that. And the Pharisees questions are exactly those kind of questions. They've come out to Jesus and every time they meet him, they're not looking to learn about who he is. They don't wanna know who Jesus is. They don't wanna know anything about him. All they wanna do is discredit him and pull him down and somehow try and expose him as a fraud. For example, in chapter two and verse 16, the Pharisees questioned Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners in their opinion. Godly men do not associate with sinners, but Jesus' answer is so cool. You know what he says? I didn't come to call the righteous, I came to call sinners to repentance. And he completely undoes what they're trying to get at. In verse 18, same chapter, the Pharisees questioned Jesus' disciples, why aren't they fasting like everybody else? They saw ritual fasting, whether it had a point or not, as a practice of godliness. But Jesus answers, you know what? There's no need to fast when the bridegroom, the Savior is here with us. We're here together. We're going to enjoy. If I may say, we're going to party together. But a day is coming when the bridegroom will be taken away and then you can fast and then you can mourn. And again, he undoes their intent. In verse 24, the Pharisees questioned Jesus again. Why his disciples harvest grain on the Sabbath? They saw Sabbath keeping as a strict, unwielding, unwavering law that they couldn't go against. It would cost them everything. And Jesus turns around in one of those great statements that Mark records. He says, you know what? I am the Lord of the Sabbath. It's mine, not yours. And again, Jesus undoes their questions. But now in our passage, what do they do? Notice verse 11, they come out and they begin to argue with him. No longer are they asking him questions. No longer are they trying to find out more about who he is. Now they're disputing. And when you get in an argument with somebody and you get going and all you're trying to do is prove how your opponent's viewpoint is completely wrong. And that's what they're doing. Their refusal to see who Jesus is has now developed in them a hardened heart. And now they're doing everything they can to tear down and destroy what Jesus says about himself. They're disputing and they're arguing. They're also coming out with a purpose of testing Jesus. What those tests mean is the idea of demanding a sign, not just a miracle he performed. The idea they're assigned from heaven is to demand a miraculous event directly from heaven itself that will prove to them once and for all who he is. But there's no faith involved. There's no desire to see Jesus glorified, nothing of the sort. And Jesus doesn't respond. In fact, he refuses to have anything to do with it. And then when we're in the boat, he turns to his disciples and says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Now, of course, he's not talking about yeast that you put in bread to make it grow up and all airy and light and all the rest of it. He's talking about the influence Watch out for the influence of the Pharisees. He sees his disciples and how they've had so much given to them, so much evidence to compel them to believe, and they're still not getting it. And he's saying, you know what? It's dangerous that you not follow the way of the Pharisees. They have refused to believe. You have been given so much reason to believe, and you're still not getting it. Beware the influence of the Pharisees. Beware of the influence of the Pharisees who questioned Jesus. Listen, KC Bible Church, I'll say it this way. Beware of asking questions of God motivated not by a desire to know God. By all means, in your prayers, ask the questions of God if there's a desire to know and to learn. There are times when I'm in my studies or just in my own personal time with the Lord, I'm pleading with God to open the scriptures to me, to explain them to me. And sometimes I ask, Lord, I don't know why you put this story here. Lord, I don't know why you did this. Help me to understand. That's entirely different, but it's a whole lot different thing to come before God and begin to question Him, His person, His word, His works, all the things that He does. Beware of questioning God with a reason not to know Him more, but to just bring Him down. Beware the influence of the Pharisees who seek signs from Jesus. All they want to do is have God prove to them who He is. Listen, God does not have to prove to us anything. Any desire for having God prove to us who He is, it means we're standing as the judge in the seat, and He is sitting before us, and He is trying to present evidence to us of who He is, that we might weigh up the evidence and decide, well, is He reason to believe Him or not? That puts us in the judge's seat and it puts Jesus, in a sense, in the accused's seat. Completely wrong and completely reversed. Beware of the influence of the Pharisees. The Pharisees refused to see Jesus, and they developed a hardened heart because of it. Secondly, there is this, the struggle to see Jesus. And that's a disciple situation. Jesus has warned them about the Pharisees' influence, and as usual, they misunderstand, talking about bread again. And Jesus, of course, he's aware in his spirit of their misunderstanding, And he asked them three very pointed questions or some very pointed questions. And listen to what he asked them. He says, do you not yet see? Do you not yet understand? I don't mean to put inflection on it to give you the sense of it, but I almost sense that Jesus was getting frustrated. Don't you get it? Don't you see? Don't you understand? Do you yet have a hardened heart? Having eyes, do you not see? Having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? And they're sitting there looking at him. And you know what? It's the very same phrasing he uses back in chapter 4 and verse 12 when he describes those who are outside the group of faith. They have eyes to see, but do not see. They have ears to hear, but do not hear. He's describing the disciples now in the same terms of those who are outside the faith. That's a tremendous and terrible and serious warning. Watch out, disciples. Beware the influence of the Pharisees, that you do not develop a hardened heart, because not only can you not see, you are now almost refusing to see. And he brings back to their minds two stories. And what I want to do this morning is go back and kind of pick up all those little stories in between the three boat trips and show you how Jesus answered those questions. Remember the questions? Who is this? Number one, do you not care? Number two, and Jesus' own question, how is it that you have not got faith? Okay, so keep those questions in your back of mind. We're going to see how all those stories, we'll just go through them quick, and we'll see how they answer those questions. In chapter five, the demoniac of the Gadarenes is healed. And first, by casting the demon out, Jesus answers their question, I am God I'm omnipotent over the host of the demonic forces and he reminds them I care that my people are Perishing I care so much I came across a boat trip all the way to here to make this one poor man And I'm gonna put the demons out of him. I care about him You asked me if I care. He's an example. I care I Still in chapter five, Jesus raises Jairus' daughter from the dead. He first of all urges Jairus to believe, to have faith in God. And then Jesus displays that he is God, omnipotent over the power of death. He cares deeply that his people are perishing, even a 12-year-old girl. Hey, listen, if you're here this morning and you're thinking, I'm not sure about God's love, There are days I look at my circumstance, I look at what's going on in my life, I don't know that God really cares. In fact, sometimes I find myself almost asking God, do you really care about me? Is all just a farce? Is it real or not? Listen. Look to the scriptures and see how Jesus cares. We're going to see the greatest example of Jesus love and Jesus care for his people at the end. But see in these stories, Jesus care, not just for great crowds, but individual people. A little 12 year old girl had no social standing whatsoever in that time and that place. And he took the time and went all the way to her home. He put his hand on her hand and he lifted her up off the couch to show you, look, disciples, I care. I love. In chapter six, sorry, Jesus feeds 5,000 men with five loaves and two fish. And Jesus has compassion for the people because they are like sheep without a shepherd. He cares for them. He answers the disciple's question as he breaks five loaves into food for 20 to 25,000 people. At the same time, he's saying, look, break, I'm God. Break, I'm God. Look, I'm God. He's handing the loaves, and he just keeps breaking them off and breaking them off and breaking them off. I don't know how much bread you can eat. I can eat, well, I guess I can probably eat a fair bit of bread. But 25,000 people with five loaves of bread. He just keeps breaking it and handing it to them. And every time he breaks off a loaf, he's saying, look, I'm God. I care. Look. I'm answering your question, disciples. You're standing in front of me. You're coming back again and again. More bread, more fish. Going out, handing it out. More bread, more fish. Go back and hand it out. And when it's all done, Jesus says, go pick up all the pieces. There's 12 baskets full of pieces for the disciples to share and eat. And every one of those bites were said, you know what? Jesus cares and Jesus is God. Who is this? He's God. Does he care? Yeah, he cares. He loves. The second boat trip again, Jesus sends the disciples across the sea and he answers their questions again in the most powerful form he can. He comes from the middle of the night walking on the sea. The Old Testament describes that's one of the characteristics of God is that He can walk on the sea and then He pronounces the name of God, I am to them. He shows them in no uncertain terms. And the Bible describes that He gets into the boat with them and they're utterly astonished and yet they have no faith. Syrophoenician woman comes to Jesus. She's a Gentile. And she's pleading with him, Lord, heal my daughter. She's possessed by a demon, cast the demon out of her. And Jesus again answers the disciples' questions, I am God. I'm omnipotent to cast out demons, even from a distance. I care about all my people, even those of the Gentiles. And once again, he points back to his question, how is it that you have no faith? And you know how he does it? He looks at the woman and he says, great is your faith. And off she goes. He's showing them, look, this is what faith is. He's showing them, look, I am God. I'm powerful to do these things. Look, I'm God. I'm omnipotent even over death, over demons cast out from a distance. All those events were miraculous events given to communicate a message. They're signs, and the message is this. I am God. Have faith in me. I'm God. I greatly care for those that are perishing. The disciples, just like us, need to understand and comprehend the message in order to have faith in God. Jesus' reminder of those two events, the disciples show us that faith is not separate from understanding the facts. Faith is not blind. You just throw yourself on God with no information. That's not what God ever calls us to do. He, first of all, brings a prophet. He brings a message for us to understand who He is. And then He calls us to trust in Him. Faith is not separate from understanding the facts. Faith is based on the evidence provided. Faith understands the evidence provided. But more than that, faith clings to its object. Faith clings to God. But he understands who God is. He understands what God can do, but he still clings to him and still hangs on. Faith is not just an intellectual thing where we understand all the facts. If you can say to yourself, you know what? I believe that Jesus died and was buried and rose again, and therefore I'm saved. Guess what? That's a false statement. That's not true. Knowing all those facts does not save you. It's faith in God. It's knowing the facts and in result on the basis of those facts, reaching out to God with both hands, if you like, and hanging on to him for dear life and saying, you're the only one that can rescue me. That's what faith is. It's based on facts and it clings to its object. Disciples are struggling to see and understand because they're failing to comprehend. They're in great danger. their failure to comprehend and understand could produce the hardness of heart that is clearly in the Pharisees. They've seen the evidence, they've heard his words, and yet they struggle to both comprehend and understand. Now, Jesus knows. He knows full well sitting in the boat as he's warning them about their failure to comprehend. He knows in a day to come they will believe. He knows that you'll do more than that. Sorry. It will take more than their own striving to believe. It will take a miraculous intervention that only God can perform. Genuine faith is not something we simply muster up and build up by ourselves. Genuine faith requires the touch of God himself, and that brings us to the last part of our message, the ability to see Jesus. Scene closes, Jesus gets out of the boat with his disciples, they go to Bethsaida, and they bring to him a blind man. And Jesus spits on his eyes and then lays his hands on them, and the man sees a little bit, a bit unclearly. He looks up and says, you know, the men look like trees walking around. Daniel Weinberg was here, we'd say, yeah, some of them do look like trees walking around. They're kind of tall and skinny and all the rest of it. But he can't see clearly. And the first question that comes to mind is, is it possible that Jesus has lost the ability to heal? Has something gone wrong? Maybe it is after all this doubt and struggle and all these days that Jesus is losing something. And the answer is, of course, that's not the answer. And what it is is this. Mark gives us the story as an illustration, a reflection of the disciple's heart, and what he's showing us is this. Notice how often the word see, eyes, blind, see, eyes, eyes, eyes, see comes up in the passage. It weaves the two passages, the two stories together like a thread through them both. And he's showing us that, look, although the disciples right now are struggling to see, one day at the intervention of God himself, they will be able to see properly, and they'll see fully who Jesus is. And we know the story, right? Go to the book of Acts, they come out in the streets that Pentecost morning, and they're preaching the gospel to anybody that will listen, and they carry the gospel to the remote parts of the earth. But right now, they're not able to listen. The reason that his eyes are slow to regain their sight is this, it's a slowness, it's an illustration of what is happening in the disciple's life. And again, we're reminded that faith in God is not mustered up. It's not the result of our efforts or works. Faith in God is the result of God's work in us. If I've quoted one verse at Casey Bible Church more than any other verse, I think it's this one for it is God who works in us both to will and to do for his good pleasure. Faith comes. It's built on the evidence of scripture. The stories of scripture is built on the facts, but it comes as God works in us both to will and to do. Ephesians 2.8 and 9, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Salvation is God's gift. Grace is God's gift. Faith is also God's gift. Everything that we have as believers is entirely a gift of God. But He still calls us to open our eyes and see. He still calls us to look and see. Now, in the story in front of us, it just ends the part of the Pharisees about, truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation and just stops right there. You go to the book of Matthew and you know what happens? Matthew encodes a couple of more phrases that are very important. He says that no sign will be given to this generation but one sign, the sign of Jonah, the prophet. And Jesus has given the disciples all these illustrations and examples of what it means to answer those questions, who he is and how much he cares and loves us. But the story also points toward the greatest example, the greatest illustration of God's love for us and how much he cares for us. And that story simply, as you can already guess, it's what we've been singing about all morning. It's the cross. Before we close up today, I want to take us to the cross. I want you to join with me and I want you to stand at the foot of the cross and look up and see the greatest display, the greatest sign, if you like, of God's love for us and how much he cares for us and who Jesus really is. Jesus died to display the love of God for sinners. Jesus' death with a single greatest display of the way in which God loves us. Perishing in a storm in a boat on a sea is one thing. Perishing eternally at the hands of God as he pours out his wrath against sin is entirely another thing. Jesus died to answer once and eternally for all the question, do you not care that we are perishing? I think it's marvelous the way the Spirit of God chose those words, perishing. It hits so much more than just dying in a boat. It reflects the whole point of the gospel that we are sinners and we are perishing because of that sin, and Jesus cares. 1 Peter 3.18 describes the cross and says that Jesus died for our sin. His excruciatingly violent death was a sacrifice in blood required to pay our sin-produced debts. Every sin, every lie, every theft, every disobedient act toward a parent, every lustful thought and word and deed, every act of adultery, Every expression of pride and selfishness, every single time we fail to glorify God in everything that we do, they're all sin before God. And they all demand a wage. They all demand a payment. They all demand death, my death. Jesus' death on the cross was a sacrifice to pay the debt, to pay my debts. In 1 Peter 3.18, Jesus died once for all. His lonely, horrific, forsaken death on the cross was the satisfactory offering accepted by God. There were thousands of sheep and cattle and goats throughout all the Old Testament that were offered. Millions of gallons of blood was poured out and splattered and sprinkled all across the Old Testament pages. And not one of those things, not one sin could be purchased by all that blood put together that was shed. But Jesus' death was enough. It was enough to pay the debt for my sin, for your sin, for every sin ever committed. It was enough to pay every sin from the moment that Eve bit into the fruit and that first sin was enacted to the very last sin of the very last person before the end of the age. Jesus' death on the cross was enough to pay it all. He died once for all. In 1 Peter 3, 18, Jesus died the just for the unjust. He was our substitute. He took my place and your place. There was a cross prepared for me. It was mine, but Jesus took it. If it wasn't a sin, I could almost say Jesus stole my cross. But he didn't. He willingly and voluntarily took it. Jesus' hands were nailed where my hands should have been nailed. Jesus' feet were nailed where mine should have been. Jesus' back was carved open by the unrelenting bite of the scourge as it crashed down his back and shoulders and legs again and again and again. So that by his stripes, we and I am healed. It should have been my back that was carved open like that. He, the perfect, just, holy, righteous, glorious God-man, He who is God, took on flesh and blood for me. He became perfect, flawless humanity. He was tested in every way the same way that I am, and where I have sinned and failed, He never once failed. He once stood before all the Jews, not just His friends, not His family. He stood before all those that hate Him and said, which one of you convicts me of sin? If I was to ask the same question in this room with just my family there, they'd be sitting there for hours listing them all off. But all of his enemies, all those who hated him, he offered them a chance. You show me my sin. And they couldn't say a word. He was the just dying for the unjust. In 1 Peter 3.18, Jesus died to bring us to God. Jesus' death reconciled us. We who were completely cut off from God, we're unable to approach, we're unable to come near to God. The entire tabernacle and temple structure in the Old Testament, all it does is says, no access, don't come close, keep away, stay away. And once a year, but not without blood, one man only in perfect attire, Ritual and tradition could go behind that veil with smoke rising up in front of his face so he could not look upon the holiness of God before him. Only one man, only once a year. But what do we do today? We come together, we sit down, we're in the presence of the living God and we have full access. We have been reconciled to God. Because Jesus died. And all of these things, they're all shouting. If you look at the cross, it's shouting the answer to those two questions. Who is this? Only one. One only could be up there on that cross, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And you say, yeah, but man, there are thousands of people that died on crosses. What are you talking about one? Because there's one more scene. Three days and three nights later, the stone rolled away from the entrance of the tomb and Jesus walked out. And the Bible says that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God with power by His resurrection from the dead. His resurrection proved that every single thing He did and said was justified. Everything shows that He is who He claimed to be. He is the Son of God. All those signs and miracles point and shout the fact that He is the living God. And the resurrection of the dead proved it and satisfied it once and for all. So what the disciples ask, who is this? He is Jesus, the son of the living God. Do you not care that we are perishing, Lord? Jesus cared beyond anything any one of us will ever really know and understand. So what's the message for us, for KC Bible Church today? Do you have the faith to see Jesus? The Pharisees refused to see Jesus. They would not, had nothing to do with it, put away. The disciples were struggling to see Jesus, and Jesus had answered their questions repeatedly. He reminded them of the miracles and signs he had done to display who he is and that he cares. KC Bible Church, listen. If you're struggling in your faith, believer, or if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, here's what I'm calling you to do. Look at the evidence that Jesus has provided. Look to the miracles and see and understand. Beyond all that, look to the cross. See in Jesus' death the love of God displayed. See in Jesus' death the wrath of God absorbed, your wrath, that you rightly deserve to feel and bear. See in Jesus' death the payment made for your sin. Look also, don't just look to the cross, look also to the empty tomb. I don't know what it is with our age of Christianity. In the first century, the empty tomb was the biggest point. Because it showed, it proved everything that he said and did. But for us, we've sort of moved back and we look at the cross and we focus on the cross a lot. We need to keep them together and realize the cross and the empty tomb together tell the greatest story of all. Look to the empty tomb and realize that in Jesus Christ, he has been risen from the dead. He is God. And like Daryl was showing us in Revelation chapter five, he is the lamb standing as if it had been slain. He's triumphant. He's victorious. And they fall before him and shout those songs of praise before the lamb. He is God with power to save you. He is God with power to give you the faith to believe. He is God with power to bring you all the way through this life. Listen, you're here this morning and you're looking at your situation and wondering, does God really care? Don't ever doubt the love of God, no matter what you're facing. And I don't know, I bet you every person in the room, we went around and we were all brutally honest for five minutes and we all told our story. We'd all say, I'm facing this and I just don't know how to do it. And there's a part of us that's tempted to say, does God really love me because I'm in this situation? Listen, look back at the cross and realize once and for all, the love of God, that question has been settled. He loves you. He cares. Look at all those stories and the way he dealt with people. He cares for you. Come to God and cry out to God to understand better. Come to God and cry out to God for the faith to believe. He is the God with the power to enable to you live by faith, pleasing him all the way through. Do you have the faith to see Jesus this morning? That's my question to you. Are you like the Pharisees, refusing, pushing him away? Like the disciples, struggling? Look at the evidence. Look to the cross and plead with God to give you the gift of faith. He will. Would you stand with me? We're going to pray. Let's pray together. Loving Father, we give you thanks again for the cross. Father, we thank you that Jesus Christ, our Savior, he declared himself to be God omnipotent over power, over death, over sin. over sickness, over disease, over demons. And Father, he showed us how much he loves and how much he cares for the perishing by going to the cross. Father, this morning I pray, I plead with you, O God, for those that are here that are struggling in their faith. They're not sure what the situation they're in is all about. Father, remind them of those two simple things. I am God and I love you. Father, I plead with you also for those who are here and they're struggling because they're seeing the evidence, they're seeing the questions answered, but they're still not coming to faith. Father, I plead with you that you would work in their hearts. Father, may the Holy Spirit have freedom to work in their hearts, to bring them to the point of complete conviction about who Jesus is and his power to get them through this life, to finish the race. Father, we thank you so much that he died for us, the just for the unjust, once for all. But Father, we thank you and we rejoice even beyond all that, that he has risen again. He has conquered and he has triumphed over all. Father, we thank you indeed that our Savior is reigning on high. Father, we thank you and we praise you that even when we don't have the words to say to pray, he prays for us. Father, we rejoice this morning because God is sovereign over all. Father, we pray that you would work in the hearts of all of us to rejoice, no matter what the circumstances are, to trust you, that you have everything in control. Father, give faith to those whose faith is lagging. And Father, we pray for those that still don't know you, that still have not come to the point where they believe and they're trusting you, they're clinging to you based on the facts they see in scripture. Father, we pray that the Spirit of God would provoke and convict them of their need. Bring them, O God, to the foot of the cross where they will see love poured out, where they will see for themselves, O God, that the debt has been paid. Father, we ask you for your help, and we give you thanks now, in Jesus' name, amen.