SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/16/2012 7:40:29 AM
My
Worship Time Focus:
Warning
the Disciples
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Mark 8:10-21
Message of the verses: In Today’s SD we will again look at the eight
chapter of the book of Mark as we take a little break from the psalms. I have mentioned that it is my desire to
study the book of Mark, doing a chapter each month in addition to continue
looking at the different books of Old Testament that I have not looked at
before. The book of Mark was written by Mark with the aid of the Apostle Peter,
and he also was familiar with the Apostle Paul, so he may have helped Mark in
his preparation in writing this book.
Mark’s audience was Roman, and so he does not write about some of the
prophecies that are found in the other Gospels.
In this section we will see that when the Jewish leaders ask Jesus for a
sign that Mark will leave out what was in Matthew, where Jesus told them that
the only sign that He would give them was the sign of the prophet Jonah. Not let us begin to look at this section in
Mark’s Gospel.
Warning the Disciples (Mark 8:10-26): Before we begin this section from the view
point of this main point from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary I want to talk a bit
about how John MacArthur approached this section, and he did it by talking
about “spiritual blindness,” which comes up in this section. There are a couple of types of spiritual
blindness that come up here, and the first is the kind that the Pharisees had,
which was a permanent kind, and then there was the kind that the apostles had,
which is temporary spiritual blindness.
The Bible teaches us that we are all born spiritually blind, for we are
all born with a sin nature which makes us spiritually blind. John MacArthur speaks of five different kinds
of blindness in his sermon on this text and I only want to mention them and not
comment on them a lot.
“So every human being comes into the world blind in the
darkness by virtue of being human. Add to that the fact that sin compounds the
blindness, John 3:19 and 20, “Men love the darkness rather than light because
their deeds are evil.” Sin compounds natural blindness.
“According to 2 Corinthians 4:4, Satan then compounds
it again, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of them who do not
believe lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine under them.” Man is
naturally blinded, sinfully blinded, satanically blinded. There is a profound
blindness that engulfs the souls of all human beings. It can also become a
sovereign blindness. There are illustrations of that in the ministry of our
Lord Jesus as well as in other places in the Scripture, but in Luke 19 Jesus
basically said to the Jews, “No more, no more, it’s over. You ignored the day
of your heavenly visitation and now you have no opportunity.” And they were
confirmed in their darkness.
“That leads a fifth kind of
blindness, eternal blindness. Hell is outer darkness. We all come into the
world blind but we don’t all leave the world blind. Some of us come to see.
Some of us are delivered out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of
God’s dear Son. Some of us come to the light of the world in whom all darkness
is dispelled. Some of us who were in darkness have now become light. Some of us
walk in the light. We were all blind, some permanently and some
temporarily.” (John MacArthur)
“10 And immediately He
entered the boat with His disciples and came to the district of Dalmanutha. 11
The Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign
from heaven, to test Him. 12 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." 13 Leaving them, He again embarked and went away to
the other side. 14 And they had forgotten to take bread, and did not have more
than one loaf in the boat with them. 15 And He was giving orders to them,
saying, "Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven
of Herod." 16 They began to discuss with one another the fact that they
had no bread. 17 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 have a hardened heart? 18 “HAVING EYES, DO YOU NOT SEE? AND HAVING EARS, DO
YOU NOT HEAR? And do you not remember, 19 when I broke the five loaves for the
five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?" They
said to Him, "Twelve." 20 "When I broke the seven for the four
thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?"
And they said to Him, "Seven." 21 And He was saying to them, "Do
you not yet understand?’”
We see in verse ten Mark’s
favorite word, immediately, and he is saying that as soon as the miracle of
feeding the 4000 was completed that they left for the other side of the Sea of
Galilee. Remember that they were on the
Gentile side of the lake which is where this miracle took place and now they
will move to the Jewish side of the lake where they will come into a
confrontation with the Jewish leaders again.
We see in verse twelve that the Pharisees came out to meet him and they
wanted a sign from heaven to be given to them.
The Pharisees could see that Jesus had been doing great miracles, but
they believed that He was doing them in the power of Satan, and so they wanted
to see a sign that was in the heavens, something perhaps like the prophet Joes
describes and Peter uses in his sermon from Acts 2: 17 ’AND IT
SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,’ God says, ’THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON
ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG
MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS; 18 EVEN ON MY BONDSLAVES, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN, I
WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT And they shall prophesy. 19 ’AND I
WILL GRANT WONDERS IN THE SKY ABOVE AND SIGNS ON THE EARTH BELOW, BLOOD, AND
FIRE, AND VAPOR OF SMOKE. 20 ’THE SUN WILL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS AND THE MOON
INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME. 21 ’AND
IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.’” This asking of a sign actually put Jesus
between a rock and a hard place, for if He did not provide a sign for them then
they would say that He could not perform a sign. Jesus however had an agenda that was from His
Father, and so no sign would be given to them except from the prophet Jonah,
which is seen in Matthew’s account.
“What is ‘the sign of Jonah’? Death,
burial, and resurrection! The proof that
Jesus is what He claimed to be is the fact of His own, death, burial and
resurrection (Acts 2:22-36; 3:12-26)” (Warren Wiersbe)
Verse twelve speaks also of
the way that Jesus felt after they asked for a sign, for He had been in this
area for over a year doing many wonderful miracles and preaching about the
kingdom of God and because
of their blindness they could not see the true Light.
Jesus again gets into the
boat to cross the “lake” again and from verses 13-21 we will see the darkness
of the disciples, which again is surely upsetting to our Lord. Jesus speaks of the unbelief of the Scribes
and the Pharisees by speaking using leaven as a way to introduce their
unbelief. The disciples thought that
Jesus was speaking of the fact that they only had one loaf of bread, and so
Jesus reminds them of how many people that He had feed with a small amount of
bread and a few fish. Dr. Wiersbe writes
“God’s people often have a tendency to forget His blessings (Ps 103:1-2). He meets our needs, but then when the next
problem arises, we complain or become frightened. As long as we are with Him, we can be sure He
will care for us. It would do us all
good to pause occasionally and remind ourselves of His goodness and faithfulness.”
Dr. Wiersbe explains that in
most cases the Bible uses the term leaven as a symbol of evil. He says, “Evil, like leaven, is small and
hidden, but it spreads and soon infects the whole.” (“A little leaven leavens the whole lump of
dough.”) Gal. 5:9
The Bible also uses leaven
as a symbol of false teaching and if the false teaching of the Pharisees
penetrated the disciples then there would be trouble. This is what was happening to the Galatians
and was one of the reasons Paul wrote to them.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: The Bible is
without error and so I desire to continue to study it so that I can defend the
truth and to know when someone is trying to lie to me about false
doctrine. Putting on the belt of truth
is important because it shields me from those who are lying to me.
I am reminded again to
praise the Lord for His goodness to me, and remember that He is in charge and
that I can trust Him.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To continue to
abide in the Vine so that I am prepared to do the works that God has planned
for me to do from eternity past.
Memory verses for the week: 2Peter 1:1-6
1.Simon
Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To
those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness
of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in
the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3. seeing that His divine power has
granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true
knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4. For by these He has granted to us His
precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of
the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
5.Now
for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral
excellence, and in your moral excellence knowledge, and in your knowledge
self-control, and in your self-control perseverance, and in your perseverance,
godliness,
7/16/2012 8:46:36 AM
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