Mark 8:17-21 – What Aggravated God? – Bible study

Mark 8:17-21 What Aggravated God? Have you ever noticed this text? It seems that Jesus was frustrated, perhaps even aggravated. What makes me think that? Several things: 1. The number of questions asked. I counted nine questionsright in a roll. 2. They came rapid fire, one right after another. 3. They were about the same basic topic. All of them seem to be expressing a similar frustration. Read them again while I paraphrase them. (1) \#17\ "Why reason ye, because ye have no bread?" – Why are you thinking about bread? (2) "perceive ye not yet, neither understand?" – Dont you get it? (3) "have ye your heart yet hardened?" – Are you deliberating being stubborn? (stupid) (4) \#18\ "Having eyes, see ye not? – Cant you see? (5) "and having ears, hear ye not?" – Cant you hear? (6) "do ye not remember?" – Have you forgotten already? (7) \#19\ How many baskets did you take up when I fed the 5,000? (8) \#20\ How many baskets did you take up when I fed the 4,000? (9) \#21\ Why dont you understand? To me, that is frustration and aggravation. What was aggravating Jesus? Lets notice some things. I. It was aggravating to Jesus that no one understood who He was. A. To understand we need to back up. B. \#Mark 8:1-9\, Jesus had fed 4,000. 1. Mark does not tell us but \#Matt 15:39, 16:5\ tells us that they were somewhere around the Sea of Galilee. 2. Apparently, they were in a desert place as \#Mark 8:2\ tells us that the people had been with Jesus for three full days and had not eaten ANYTHING. a. That indicates that they had come without preparation and that there was no place to get food. b. It also indicates there was some preaching going on for these people did not leave for THREE WHOLE DAYS even though they had no food. 3. That verse also tells us one of the reason why Jesus did a miracle that day. a. I believe Jesus always had at least two reason for doing every miracle that Jesus performed. b. One of the reasons was always to help the person or the people for whom the miracle is performed. c. Mark told us what Jesus said when He performed this miracle, "I have compassion on the multitude." d. Jesus did not want the people to pass out from lack of food on the way home. That is, He wanted to help them. e. That will always be one of the reasons why Jesus did a miracle. 4. When Jesus did this miracle, He started with nothing more than seven loaves of bread \#Mark 8:5\ and a few small fish \#Mark 8:7\. Yet from this small beginning, Jesus fed 4,000 people and then took up seven full baskets of left overs \#Mark 8:8\! a. One writer described the baskets as huge, perhaps large enough for a person to sit inside! b. That was just his opinion but there is merit to it. c. These were likely the baskets that the women used and they were both strong and large. (1) Women had no cars and few if any carts in that day. (2) Only the wealthy would have had camels, oxen, or mules to use. (3) So the women would have large baskets that they would carry on their heads to carry what they needed to carry. (4) These are likely the kind of baskets that were used both to distribute and to gather the food. (5) Yet, Jesus only started with seven loaves of bread and a few small fish! d. How did Jesus do this? (1) It is called a miracle. (2) Jesus used power that mankind does not possess. (3) Why? To show who He was. (4) And who was He? (5) He was God! C. \#10-11\ But look what happened just a short time after. Mark 8:10 And straightway he entered into a ship with his disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanutha. 11 And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. 1. The Pharisees wanted to see a sign, something that would show them that Jesus was from God! 2. Question – What had they just seen? 3. No wonder \#12\ says Mark 8:12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit. 4. You know what this is? a. That is frustration if not aggravation! b. Why? Because they would not accept who Jesus was. c. Dont you know God gets aggravated every time someone says, (1) "Im an atheist?" (a) So you know how many times people have said "There is no proof of God?" (b) Look around! (c) Do you really believe that something can come from nothing? (d) Do you really believe that lifethinking, reproducing, creative lifecan come from a THING? (e) Do you really believe that all life and all thingswith all of its order and structure and magnificencecame by random happen- stances over any amount of time? (f) How that must frustrate and aggravate God! (2) "I think Jesus was probably a good man but he was not God." (a) Really? Well you do know He claimed to be God, do you not? (b) He claimed on numerous occasions to be Gods Son, sent down from heaven to save the world from their sins. (c) The people to whom He was speaking understood what Jesus was saying. Why cant we? (d) By the way, since Jesus made those claims, He was either telling the truth or telling a lie. i. If He was telling the truth, believe Him. ii. If He was telling a lie, He was not a good Man. (e) How such illogical thinking must frustrate even aggravate God! D. But it gets worse. 1. \#Mark 8:13\ tells us that Jesus just walked away and left the Pharisees, then He and His disciples got on a boat to sail to yet another side of the Sea of Galilee and while they are sailing, Jesus warned the disciples of falling into the doubt and contempt of the religious leaders. 2. Their reply tells us that they did not really understand who Jesus was either! a. \#14\ They realized that they had forgotten to get any of bread from the seven baskets for themselves and \#15\ they thought Jesus was rebuking them for forgetting to bring bread. b. Hello, disciples? What did Jesus just do? (1) He feed 4,000 with almost nothingand you are worried that you didnt bring any bread with you? (2) That is like standing in a warehouse of bread that rises to the moon with pockets full of all the riches of the world and being worried about whether you will ever eat again or not. (3) They were standing in the presence of God! c. Thats when Jesus began asking all of the questions! (1) It is one thing when the world forgets who Jesus is but it is something totally different for His own to forget! (2) Is that not what the children of Israel did (a) When they stood at the Red Sea frightened of Pharaohs puny armies? (b) When they stood at edge of the Promised Land and refused to enter? (3) Isnt that what we do whenever there is a problem in our life? Oh, how that must frustrate and aggravate our God! II. It was aggravating to Jesus that no one understood His enemies. A. The statement that Jesus made which got the disciple thinking about bread is found in verse 15. Mark 8:15 And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod. 1. The word that got them thinking about bread in that verse was "leaven." 2. Leaven was and is a yeast, an ingredient that makes bread rise. 3. But in the Bible, leaven is sometimes used as a symbol for sin. a. We cant take the time to study that but you can look up some Bible verses if you want to check me out. b. \#1Cor 5:6-7, Luke 12:1\ c. For that reason, bread offered to God in the Bible did not have leaven in it and the bread that we use for the Lords Supper does not have yeast in it. B. So Jesus was not talking about bread but about the God- doubting, antagonistic, hypocritical behavior of the religious leaders. C. It was just after the disciples started talking about bread that Jesus began asking the nine questions. 1. Why? 2. Because the disciples did not understand that Jesus was warning the disciples about the enemies of the cross not talking about bread. D. Consider those that were Jesus enemies. 1. They were the religious and political lost of that day. 2. Jesus specifically called them out, the Pharisees (the religious lost) and the Herodians (the political lost). 3. Why would Jesus warn His disciples about these? a. The religious lost do much damage to souls of mankind. b. The political lost do much damage to the lives of mankind. III. It was aggravating to Jesus that no one understood the significance of the bread miracles. A. It is interesting to me how many people are still missing the significance of the bread miracles. 1. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard or read of a person claiming that the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000 were actually the same miracle. 2. No, they were not. 3. How do I know? a. Because the Bible says that Jesus fed 5,000 at one and 4,000 at the other and that is not the same! b. But also because Jesus started and ended with 12 baskets when He fed the 5,000 and 7 when He started with the 4,000. c. \#19-20\ But one of the best reasons is because Jesus mentioned them both right here. 4. This should help every Christian to understand that Jesus said and did some things more than once. a. We do not have to reconcile everything that does not match exactly. b. Jesus fed more than one multitude. Jesus preached the same sermons more than once. Jesus healed more than one person with the same disease. B. Why did Jesus fed more than one great multitude with bread? 1. As we have already seen, in part because they were hungry. 2. But in part, because Jesus wanted the Jews to connect the God of the New Testament with the God of the Old Testament. a. Do you remember another time when a lot of Jews were in the wilderness and were hungry, needing to be fed? b. Sure, when they came out of Egypt and wondered in the wilderness for 40 years. c. What did Jehovah do? (1) God fed them. (2) Six days every week, they found manna on the ground. 3. In the Old Testament, the Jews seemed to want a physical god to worship. a. I remember what the false god makers said when they made the golden calves. "Behold, Israel, these are the gods that brought you up out of the land of Egypt." b. They were liars. c. God in the Ten Commandments told the Jews to never make an image of Him, that doing so would always be idolatry. d. Why was God so adamant that no physical object every be worshipped? e. Because God did not want anything to lessen the impact the appearance of Jesus Christ would have. f. Jesus was feeding the multitudes bread in the wilderness wanting someone to stand up and say, "Behold, Israel, this is the God that brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" g. But no one did. h. How frustrating and aggravating that must have been to God! i. They missed the connection all together. What about us? Have we been a frustration, an aggravation to God? Are we part of the religious lost? Are we part of those that frustrate God.