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 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 not 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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