Study of MARK 8:

And Jesus cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto Him, and besought Him to touch him. 23. And He took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when He had spit on his eyes, and put His hands upon Him, He asked him if he saw ought. 24. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. 25. After that He put His hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.(Mark 8L 22-25)

This miracle, which is only recorded by the Evangelist Mark, has about it several very peculiar features. Some of these it shares with one other of our Lord’s miracles, which also is found only in this Gospel, and which occurred nearly about the same time—that miracle of healing the deaf and dumb man recorded in the previous chapter. Both of them have these points in common: that our Lord takes the sufferer apart and works His miracle in privacy; that in both there is an abundant use of the same singular means—our Lord’s touch and the saliva upon His finger; and that in both there is the urgent injunction of entire secrecy laid upon the recipient of the benefit.
But this miracle had another peculiarity in which it stands absolutely alone, and that is that the work is done in stages; that the power which at other times has but to speak and it is done, here seems to labour, and the cure comes slowly; that in the middle Christ pauses, and, like a physician trying the experiment of a drug, asks the patient if any effect is produced, and, getting the answer that some mitigation is realised, repeats the application, and perfect recovery is the result.
Now, how unlike that is to all the rest of Christ’s miraculous working we do not need to point out; but the question may arise, What is the meaning, and what the reason, and what the lessons of this unique and anomalous form of miraculous working? It is to that question that I wish to turn now; for I think that the answer will open up to us some very precious things in regard to that great Lord, the revelation of whose heart and character is the inmost and the loftiest meaning of both His words and His works.
I take these three points of peculiarity to which I have referred: the privacy, the strange and abundant use of means veiling the miraculous power, and the gradual, slow nature of the cure. I see in them these three things: Christ isolating the man that He would heal; Christ stooping to the sense-bound nature by using outward means; and Christ making His power work slowly, to keep abreast of the man’s slow faith.
I. First, then, here we have Christ isolating the man whom He wanted to heal.
Now, there may have been something about our Lord’s circumstances and purposes at the time of this miracle which accounted for the great urgency with which at this period He impressed secrecy upon all around Him. What that was it is not necessary for us to inquire here, but this is worth noticing, that in obedience to this wish, on His own part, for privacy at the time, He covers over with a veil His miraculous working, and does it quietly, as one might almost say, in a corner. He never sought to display His miraculous working; here He absolutely tries to hide it. That fact of Christ’s taking pains to conceal His miracle carries in it two great truths—first, about the purpose and nature of miracles in general, and second, about His character—as to each of which a few words may be said.
This fact, of a miracle done in intended secrecy, and shrouded in deep darkness, suggests to us the true point of view from which to look at the whole subject of miracles.
People say they were meant to be attestations of His divine mission. Yes, no doubt that is true partially; but that was never the sole nor even the main purpose for which they were wrought; and when any one asked Jesus Christ to work a miracle for that purpose only, He rebuked the desire and refused to gratify it. He wrought His miracles, not coldly, in order to witness to His mission, but every one of them was the token, because it was the outcome, of His own sympathetic heart brought into contact with human need. And instead of the miracles of Jesus Christ being cold, logical proofs of His mission, they were all glowing with the earnestness of a loving sympathy, and came from Him at sight of sorrow as naturally as rays beam out from the sun.
Then, on the other hand, the same fact carries with it, too, a lesson about His character. Is not He here doing what He tells us to do; ‘Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth’? He dares not wrap His talent in a napkin, He would be unfaithful to His mission if He hid His light under a bushel. All goodness ‘does good by stealth,’ even if it does not ‘blush to find it fame’—and that universal mark of true benevolence marked His. He had to solve in His human life what we have to solve, the problem of keeping the narrow path between ostentation of powers and selfish concealment of faculty; and He solved it thus, ‘leaving us an example that we should follow in His steps.’
But that is somewhat aside from the main purpose to which I intended to turn in these first remarks. Christ did not invest the miracle with any of its peculiarities for His own sake only. All that is singular about it, will, I think, find its best explanation in the condition and character of the subject, the man on whom it was wrought. What sort of a man was he? Well, the narrative does not tell us much, but if we use our historical imagination and our eyes we may learn something about him. First he was a Gentile; the land in which the miracle was wrought was the half-heathen country on the east side of the Sea of Galilee. In the second place, it was other people that brought him; he did not come of his own accord. Then again, it is their prayer that is mentioned, not his—he asked nothing.
You see him standing there hopeless, listless; not believing that this Jewish stranger is going to do anything for him; with his impassive blind face glowing with no entreaty to reinforce his companions’ prayers. And suppose he was a man of that sort, with no expectation of anything from this Rabbi, how was Christ to get at him? It is of no use to speak to him. His eyes are shut, so cannot see the sympathy beaming in His face. There is one thing possible—to lay hold of Him by the hand; and the touch, gentle, loving, firm, says this at least: ‘Here is a man that has some interest in me, and whether He can do anything or not for me, He is going to try something.’ Would not that kindle an expectation in him? And is it not in parable just exactly what Jesus Christ does for the whole world? Is not that act of His by which He put out His hand and seized the unbelieving limp hand of the blind man that hung by his side, the very same in principle as that by which He ‘taketh hold of the seed of Abraham,’ and is made like to His brethren? Are not the mystery of the Incarnation and the meaning of it wrapped up as in a germ in that little simple incident, ‘He put out His hand and touched him’?
Is there not in it, too, a lesson for all you good-hearted Christian men and women, in all your work? If you want to do anything for your afflicted brethren, there is only one way to do it-to come down to their level and get hold of their hands, and then there is some chance of doing them good. We must be content to take the hands of beggars if we are to make the blind to see.
And then, having thus drawn near to the man, and established in his heart some dim expectation of something coming, He gently led him away out of the little village. I wonder no painter has ever painted that, instead of repeating ad nauseam two or three scenes out of the Gospels. I wonder none of them has ever seen what a parable it is—the Christ leading the blind man out into solitude before He can say to him, ‘Behold!’ How, as they went, step by step, the poor blind eyes not telling the man where they were going, or how far away he was being taken from his friends, his conscious dependence upon this stranger would grow! How he would feel more and more at each step, ‘I am at His mercy; what is He going to do with me?’ And how thus there would be kindled in his heart some beginnings of an expectation, as well as some surrendering of himself to Christ’s guidance! These two things, the expectation and the surrender, have in them, at all events, some faint beginnings and rude germs of the highest faith, to lead up to which is the purpose of all that Christ here does.
And is not that what He does for us all? Sometimes by sorrows, sometimes by sick-beds, sometimes by shutting us out from chosen spheres of activity, sometimes by striking down the dear ones at our sides, and leaving us lonely in the desert-is He not saying to us in a thousand ways, ‘Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place’? As Israel was led into the wilderness that God might ‘speak to her heart,’ so often Christ draws us aside, if not by outward providences such as these, yet by awaking in us the solemn sense of personal responsibility and making us feel our solitude, that He may lead us to feel His all-sufficient companionship.
Ah! brethren, here is a lesson from all this—if you wish Jesus Christ to give you His highest gifts and to reveal to you His fairest beauty, you must be alone with Him. He loves to deal with single souls. Our lives, many of them, can never be outwardly alone. We are jammed up against one another in such a fashion, and the hurry and pressure of city life is so great with us all, that it is often impossible for us to secure outward secrecy and solitude. But a man maybe alone in a crowd; the heart may be gathered up into itself, and there may be a still atmosphere round about us in the shop and in the market and amongst the busy ways of men, in which we and Christ shall be alone together. Unless there be, I do not think any of us will see the King in His beauty or the far-off land. ‘I was left alone, and I saw this great vision,’ is the law for all true beholding.
So, dear brethren, try to feel how awful this earthly life of ours is in its necessary solitude; that each of us by himself must shape out his own destiny, and make his own character; that every unit of the swarms upon our streets is a unit that has to face the solemn facts of life for and by itself; that alone we live, that alone we shall die; that alone we shall have to give account of ourselves before God, and in the solitude let the hand of your heart feel for His hand that is stretched out to grasp yours, and listen to Him saying, ‘Lo! I am with you always, even to the end of the world.’ There was no dreariness in the solitude when it was Christ that ‘took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the city.’
II. We have Christ stooping to a sense-bound nature by the use of material helps.
No doubt there was something in the man, as I have said, which made it advisable that these methods should be adopted. If he were the sort of person that I have described, slow of faith, not much caring about the possibility of cure, and not having much hope that any cure would come to pass—then we can see the fitness of the means adopted: the hand laid upon the eyes, the finger, possibly moistened with saliva, touching the ball, the pausing to question, the repeated application. These make a ladder by which his hope and confidence might climb to the apprehension of the blessing. And that points to a general principle of the divine dealings. God stoops to a feeble faith, and gives to it outward things by which it may rise to an apprehension of spiritual realities.
Is not that the meaning of the whole complicated system of Old Testament revelation? Is not that the meaning of the altars, and priests, and sacrifices, and the old cumbrous apparatus of the Mosaic law? Was it not all a picture-book in which the infant eyes of the race might see in a material form deep spiritual realities? Was not that the meaning and explanation of our Lord’s parabolic teaching? He veils spiritual truth in common things that He may reveal it by common things—taking fishermen’s boats, their nets, a sower’s basket, a baker’s dough, and many another homely article, and finding in them the emblems of the loftiest truth.
Is not that the meaning of His own Incarnation? It is of no use to talk to men about God—let them see Him; no use to preach about principles—give them the facts of His life. Revelation does not consist in the setting forth of certain propositions about God, but in the exhibition of the acts of God in a human life.
‘And so the Word had breath, and wrought
With human hands the creed of creeds.’
And still further, may we not say that this is the inmost meaning and purpose of the whole frame of the material universe? It exists in order that, as a parable and a symbol, it may proclaim the things that are unseen and eternal. Its depths and heights, its splendours and its energies are all in order that through them spirits may climb to the apprehension of the ‘King, eternal, immortal, invisible,’ and the realities of His spiritual kingdom.
So in regard to all the externals of Christianity, forms of worship, ordinances, and so on—all these, in like manner, are provided in condescension to our weakness, in order that by them we may be lifted above themselves; for the purpose of the Temple is to prepare for the time and the place where the seer ‘saw no temple therein.’ They are but the cups that carry the wine, the flowers whose chalices bear the honey, the ladders by which the soul may climb to God Himself, the rafts upon which the precious treasure may be floated into our hearts.
If Christ’s touch and Christ’s saliva healed, it was not because of anything in them; but because He willed it so; and He Himself is the source of all the healing energy. Therefore, let us keep these externals in their proper place of subordination, and remember that in Him, not in them, lies the healing power; and that even Christ’s touch may become the object of superstitious regard, as it was when that poor woman came through the crowd to lay her finger on the hem of His garment, thinking that she could bear away a surreptitious blessing without the conscious outgoing of His power. He healed her because there was a spark of faith in her superstition, but she had to I earn that it was not the hem of the garment but the loving will of Christ that cured, in order that the dross of superstitious reliance on the outward vehicle might be melted away, and the pure gold of faith in His love and power might remain.
III. Lastly, we have Christ accommodating the pace of His power to the slowness of the man’s faith.
The whole story, as I have said, is unique, and especially this part of it—‘He put His hands upon him, and asked him if he saw aught.’ One might have expected an answer with a little more gratitude in it, with a little more wonder in it, with a little more emotion in it. Instead of these it is almost surly, or at any rate strangely reticent-a matter-of-fact answer to the question, and there an end. As our Revised Version reads it better: ‘I see men, for I behold them as trees walking.’ Curiously accurate! A dim glimmer had come into the eye, but there is not yet distinctness of outline nor sense of magnitude, which must be acquired by practice. The eye has not yet been educated, and it was only because these blurred figures were in motion that he knew they were not trees. ‘After that He put His hands upon his eyes and made him look up,’ or, as the Revised Version has it with a better reading, ‘and he looked steadfastly,’ with an eager straining of the new faculty to make sure that he had got it, and to test its limits and its perfection. ‘And he was restored and saw all things clearly.’
Now I take it that the worthiest view of that strangely protracted process, broken up into two halves by the question that is dropped into the middle, is this, that it was determined by the man’s faith, and was meant to increase it. He was healed slowly because he believed slowly. His faith was a condition of his cure, and the measure of it determined the measure of the restoration; and the rate of the growth of his faith settled the rate of the perfecting of Christ’s work on him. As a rule, faith in His power to heal was a condition of Christ’s healing, and that mainly because our Lord would rather make men believing than sound of body. They often wanted only the outward miracle, but He wanted to make it the means of insinuating a better healing into their spirits. And so, not that there was any necessary connection between their faith and the exercise of His miraculous power, but in order that He might bless them with His best gifts, He usually worked on the principle ‘According to your faith be it unto you.’ And here, as a nurse or a mother with her child might do, He keeps step with the little steps, and goes slowly because the man goes slowly.
Now, both the gradual process of illumination and the rate of that process as determined by faith, are true for us. How dim and partial a glimmer of light comes to many a soul at the outset of the Christian life! How little a new convert knows about God and self and the starry truths of His great revelation! Christian progress does not consist in seeing new things, but in seeing the old things more clearly: the same Christ, the same Cross, only more distinctly and deeply apprehended, and more closely incorporated into my very being. We do not grow away from Him, but we grow into knowledge of Him. The first lesson that we get is the last lesson that we shall learn, and He is the ‘Alpha’ at the beginning, and the ‘Omega’ at the end of that alphabet, the letters of which make up our knowledge for earth and heaven.
But then let me remind you that just in the measure in which you expect blessing of any kind, illumination and purifying and help of all sorts from Jesus Christ, just in that measure will you get it. You can limit the working of Almighty power, and can determine the rate at which it shall work on you. God fills the water-pots ‘to the brim,’ but not beyond the brim; and if, like the woman in the Old Testament story, we stop bringing vessels, the oil will stop flowing. It is an awful thing to think that we have the power, as it were, to turn a stopcock, and so increase or diminish, or cut off altogether, the supply of God’s mercy and Christ’s healing and cleansing love in our hearts. You will get as much of God as you want and no more. The measure of your desire is the measure of your capacity, and the measure of your capacity is the measure of God’s gift. ‘Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it!’ And if your faith is heavily shod and steps slowly, His power and His grace will step slowly along with it, keeping rank and step. ‘According to your faith shall it be unto you.’
Ah! dear friends, ‘Ye are not straitened in Me, ye are straitened in yourselves.’ Desire Him to help and bless you, and He will do it. Expect Him to do it, and He will do it. Go to Him like the other blind man and say to Him—‘Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me, that I may receive my sight,’ and He will lay His hand upon you, and at any rate a glimmer will come, which will grow in the measure of your humble, confident desire, until at last He takes you by the hand and leads you out of this poor little village of a world and lays His finger for a brief moment of blindness upon your eyes and asks you if you see aught. Then you will look up, and the first face that you will behold will be His, whom you saw ‘as through a glass darkly’ with your dim eyes in this twilight world.
May that be your experience and mine, through His mercy!

Study of MARK 8: 10-21

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. 12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation. 13 And he left them, and entering into the ship again departed to the other side. 14 Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. 15 And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod. 16 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread. 17 And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened? 18 Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember? 19 When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. 20 And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven. 21 And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?

Still Christ is upon motion; now he visits the parts of Dalmanutha, that no corner of the land of Israel might say that they had not had his presence with them. He came thither by ship (Mark 8:10); but, meeting with occasions of dispute there, and not with opportunities of doing good, he entered into the ship again (Mark 8:13), and came back. In these verses, we are told,

I. How he refused to gratify the Pharisees, who challenged him to give them a sign from heaven. They came forth on purpose to question with him; not to propose questions to him, that they might learn of him, but to cross question with him, that they might ensnare him.

1. They demanded of him a sign from heaven, as if the signs he gave them on earth, which were more familiar to them, and were more capable of being examined and enquired into, were not sufficient. There was a sign from heaven at his baptism, in the descent of the dove, and the voice (Matthew 3:16,17); it was public enough; and if they had attended John's baptism as they ought to have done, they might themselves have seen it. Afterward, when he was nailed to the cross, they prescribed a new sign; Let him come down from the cross, and we will believe him; thus obstinate infidelity will still have something to say, though ever so unreasonable. They demanded this sign, tempting him; not in hopes that he would give it them, that they might be satisfied, but in hopes that he would not, that they might imagine themselves to have a pretence for their infidelity.

2. He denied them their demand; He sighed deeply in his spirit, Mark 8:12. He groaned (so some), being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, and the little influence that his preaching and miracles had had upon them. The infidelity of those that have long enjoyed the means of conviction, is a great grief to the Lord Jesus; it troubles him, that sinners should thus stand in their own light, and put a bar in their own door. (1.) He expostulates with them upon this demand; "Why doth this generation seek after a sign; this generation, that is so unworthy to have the gospel brought to it, and to have any sign accompanying it; this generation, that so greedily swallows the traditions of the elders, without the confirmation of any sign at all; this generation, into which, by the calculating of the times prefixed in the Old Testament, they might easily perceive that the coming of the Messiah must fall; this generation, that has had such plenty of sensible and merciful signs given them in the cure of their sick? What an absurdity is it for them to desire a sign!" (2.) He refuses to answer their demand; Verily, I say unto you, there shall no sign, no such sign, be given to this generation. When God spoke to particular persons in a particular case, out of the road of his common dispensation, they were encouraged to ask a sign, as Gideon and Ahaz; but when he speaks in general to all, as in the law and the gospel, sending each with their own evidence, it is presumption to prescribe other signs than what he has given. Shall any teach God knowledge? He denied them, and then left them, as men not fit to be talked with; if they will not be convinced, they shall not; leave them to their strong delusions.

II. How he warned his disciples against the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. Observe here,

1. What the caution was (Mark 8:15); "Take heed, beware, lest ye partake of the leaven of the Pharisees, lest ye embrace the tradition of the elders, which they are so wedded to, lest ye be proud, and hypocritical, and ceremonious, like them." Matthew adds, and of the Sadducees; Mark adds, and of Herod: whence some gather, that Herod, and his courtiers were generally Sadducees, that is, deists, men of no religion. Others give this sense, The Pharisees demanded a sign from heaven; and Herod was long desirous to see some miracle wrought by Christ (Luke 23:8); such as he should prescribe, so that the leaven of both was the same; they were unsatisfied with the signs they had, and would have others of their own devising; "Take heed of this leaven" (saith Christ), "be convinced by the miracles ye have seen, and covet not to see more."

2. How they misunderstood this caution. It seems, at their putting to sea this time, they had forgotten to take bread, and had not in their ship more than one loaf, Mark 8:14. When therefore Christ bid them beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, they understood it as an intimation to them, not to apply themselves to any of the Pharisees for relief, when they came to the other side, for they had lately been offended at them for eating with unwashen hands. They reasoned among themselves, what should be the meaning of this caution, and concluded, "It is because we have no bread; he saith this, to reproach us for being so careless as to go to sea, and go among strangers, with but one loaf of bread; he doth, in effect, tell us, we must be brought to short allowance, and must eat our bread by weight." They reasoned it--dielogizonto, they disputed about it; one said, "It was owing to you;" and the other said, "It was owing to you, that we are so ill provided for this voyage." Thus distrust of God makes Christ's disciples quarrel among themselves.

3. The reproof Christ gave them for their uneasiness in this matter, as it argued a disbelief of his power to supply them, notwithstanding the abundant experience they had had of it. The reproof is given with some warmth, for he knew their hearts, and knew they needed to be thus soundly chidden; "Perceive ye not yet, neither understand, that which you have had so many demonstrations of? Have ye your hearts yet hardened, so as that nothing will make any impression upon them, or bring them to compliance with your Master's designs? Having eyes, see ye not that which is plain before your eyes? Having ears, hear ye not that which you have been so often told? How strangely stupid and senseless are ye! Do ye not remember that which was done but the other day, when I broke the five loaves among the five thousand, and soon after, the seven loaves among the four thousand? Do ye not remember how many baskets full ye took up of the fragments?" Yes, they did remember, and could tell that they took up twelve baskets full one time, and seven another; "Why then," said he, "how is it that ye do not understand? As if he that multiplied five loaves, and seven, could not multiply one." They seemed to suspect that the one was not matter enough to work upon, if he should have a mind to entertain his hearers a third time: and if that was their thought, it was indeed a very senseless one, as if it were not all alike to the Lord, to save by many or few, and as easy to make one loaf to feed five thousand as five. It was therefore proper to remind them, not only of the sufficiency, but of the overplus, of the former meals; and justly were they chidden for not understanding what Christ therein designed, and what they from thence might have learned. Note, (1.) The experiences we have had of God's goodness to us in the way of duty, greatly aggravate our distrust of him, which is therefore very provoking to the Lord Jesus. (2.) Our not understanding of the true intent and meaning of God's favours to us, is equivalent to our not remembering of them. (3.) We are therefore overwhelmed with present cares and distrusts, because we do not understand, and remember, what we have known and seen of the power and goodness of our Lord Jesus. It would be a great support to us, to consider the days of old, and we are wanting both to God and ourselves if we do not. (4.) When we thus forgot the works of God, and distrust him, we should chide ourselves severely for it, as Christ doth his disciples here; "Am I thus without understanding? How is it that my heart is thus hardened?"

Study of MARK 8:1-9

Jesus Feeds 4,000
1 In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, 2 I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: 3 And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far. 4 And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? 5 And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven. 6 And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people. 7 And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them. 8 So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets. 9 And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away. (Mark 8:1-9)

We had the story of a miracle very like this before, in this gospel (Mark 6:35), and of this same miracle (Matthew 15:32), and here is little or no addition or alternation as to the circumstances. Yet observe,

1. That our Lord Jesus was greatly followed; The multitude was very great (Mark 8:1); notwithstanding the wicked arts of the scribes and Pharisees to blemish him, and to blast his interest, the common people, who had more honesty, and therefore more true wisdom, than their leaders, kept up their high thoughts of him. We may suppose that this multitude were generally of the meaner sort of people, with such Christ conversed, and was familiar; for thus he humbled himself, and made himself of no reputation, and thus encouraged the meanest to come to him for life and grace.

2. Those that followed him, underwent a great deal of difficulty in following him; They were with him three days, and had nothing to eat, that was hard service. Never let the Pharisee say, that Christ's disciples fast not. There were those, probably, that brought some food with them from home; but by this time it was all spent, and they had a great way home; and yet they continued with Christ, and did not speak of leaving him till he spoke of dismissing them. Note, True zeal makes nothing of hardships in the way of duty. They that have a full feast for their souls may be content with slender provision for their bodies. It was an old saying among the Puritans, Grown bread and the gospel are good fare.

3. As Christ has a compassion for all that are in wants and straits, so he has a special concern for those that are reduced to straits by their zeal and diligence in attending on him. Christ said, I have compassion on the multitude. Whom the proud Pharisees looked upon with disdain, the humble Jesus looked upon with pity and tenderness; and thus must we honour all men. But that which he chiefly considers, is, They have been with me three days, and have nothing to eat. Whatever losses we sustain, or hardships we go through, for Christ's sake, and in love to him, he will take care that they shall be made up to us one way or other. They that seek the Lord, shall not long want any good thing, Psalms 34:10. Observe with what sympathy Christ saith (Mark 8:3), If I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way, for hunger. Christ knows and considers our frame; and he is for the body, if we glorify him, verily we shall be fed. He considered that many of them came from afar, and had a great way home. When we see multitudes attending upon the word preached, it is comfortable to think that Christ knows whence they all come, though we do not. I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, Revelation 2:13. Christ would by no means have them go home fasting, for it is not his manner to send those empty way from him, that in a right manner attend on him.

4. The doubts of Christians are sometimes made to work for the magnifying of the power of Christ. The disciples could not imagine whence so many men should be satisfied with bread here in the wilderness, Mark 8:4. That therefore must needs be wonderful, and appear so much the more so, which the disciples looked upon as impossible.

5. Christ's time to act for the relief of his people, is, when things are brought to the last extremity; when they were ready to faint, Christ provided for them. That he might not invite them to follow him for the loaves, he did not supply them but when they were utterly reduced, and then he sent them away.

6. The bounty of Christ is inexhaustible, and, to evidence that, Christ repeated this miracle, to show that he is still the same for the succour and supply of his people that attend upon him. His favours are renewed, as our wants and necessities are. In the former miracle, Christ used all the bread he had, which was five loaves, and fed all the guests he had, which were five thousand, and so he did now; though he might have said, "If five loaves would feed five thousand, four may feed four thousand;" he took all the seven loaves, and fed with them the four thousand; for he would teach us to take things as they are, and accommodate ourselves to them; to use what we have, and make the best of that which is. Here it was, as in the dispensing of manna, He that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack.

7. In our Father's house, in our Master's house, there is bread enough, and to spare; there is a fulness in Christ, which he communicates to all that passes through his hands; so that from it we receive, and grace for grace, John 1:16. Those need not fear wanting, that have Christ to live upon.

8. It is good for those that follow Christ, to keep together; these followers of Christ continued in a body, four thousand of them together, and Christ fed them all. Christ's sheep must abide by the flock, and go forth by their footsteps, and verily they shall be fed.

Study of MARK 7:31-37

WELL DONE! Sermon from Alan Carr

Intro: The passage opens with Jesus leaving the Gentile cities of Tyre and Sidon headed back to Galilee. But, Jesus and His men do not go straight back to Jewish country. Verse 31 tells us that they went to “Decapolis”.

If you look at where they were and where they were headed to, you would see that Jesus and His men took the long way around. In fact, going through Decapolis to get to Galilee is like going through Atlanta to get to Charlotte! Scholars tell us that a journey of this nature might have taken as long as eight months on foot.

If this trip took that long, it would have represented about 20% of the Lord’s total earthly ministry! That is eight months of the Lord’s ministry of which we have no record. What was He doing? We can only speculate, but I would imagine that He was teaching them and training them for the difficult days ahead. When He and His men return, Jesus finds Himself under increasing attack by the Jews. This will be one of the last opportunities that He will have to be alone with His men before He goes to Calvary to die.

It is also interesting that Jesus goes to Decapolis. If you will remember, the people of that region had asked Jesus to leave their country, Mark 5:17. Jesus had cast a legion of demons out of the Gaderene Demoniac. Those demons had entered into a herd of swine and the pigs had all drowned. The people of Decapolis had rejected Jesus and forced Him to leave.

Now He returns and they receive Him with open arms. Why the change? What made the difference? The answer can be found in Mark 5:19-20. That redeemed demoniac went home and told everyone he met what Jesus had done for him. He was such an effective witness that the people were eager for Jesus to come back to town, and when He did, they embraced Him. What a lesson for those who know the Lord. We should be in the business of magnifying Him!

By the way, it thrills my heart that Jesus went back! They rejected Him and He would have been justified had He never returned. But, Jesus came back and gave them a second chance! Aren’t you grateful that He didn’t write you off the first time you rejected Him? I praise His name that He keeps on loving; He keeps wooing; He keeps drawing; He keeps calling; until He gets what He’s after! Praise His name!

In this passage, Jesus comes to Decapolis and the people bring a deaf man to Jesus for healing. Jesus heals this poor man and the crowds marveled. They saw His power and they were amazed. They said, “He hath done all things well.” I want to take this passage and preach on the thought “Well Done Jesus!” I want you to see that He still has the power to amaze those who come to Him. Let’s watch Him work in this miracle and learn the lessons contained here.



I. v. 32 THE MAN AND

HIS CONDITION

· The Bible tells us that this man was “deaf”. The word means “to blunt or to dull”. It may have been that this man lost his hearing as the result of an injury; or he may have been born deaf. Either way, this poor man cannot hear. Not only was he deaf, but he also had a speech impediment. He could talk, but his speech was impaired. These two conditions seem to go hand in hand. Because a deaf person cannot hear themselves saying words, they tend to have trouble using verbal language correctly. I will say more about his condition in a minute.

· While this man’s condition is tragic, his verse is a blessing. This man, even though he was handicapped, had people around him that cared about him. They heard that Jesus was passing by and they brought their deaf friend to Jesus. They just believed that the man Who had cast a legion of demons out of the demoniac could heal this poor handicapped man!

· Let me make a few observations about this business of physical handicaps before we move to the next verses.

First, there was something in the heart of Jesus that drew Him to the handicapped. He loved people who were often cast aside by others. Jesus spent much time ministering to those with physical infirmities because He had a heart full of love and compassion for their needs. I would say that if you want to be like Jesus you should reach out to the handicapped! He loved them and ministered to them and we should do the same.

Besides that, handicapped people seem to be drawn to Jesus. And do you know why? It is because He accepts them and loves them just like they are. They are looking for that kind of love and acceptance from a society that rejects them because they are different. Jesus loves them like they are and so should we! There are many handicapped people who would love to hear the Gospel, if someone only cared enough to tell them.

Another observation that arises from these verses has to do with Heaven. I am glad to report to you that there will not be a single handicapped individual in glory! There will not be a shriveled body, a feeble mind or a paralyzed frame in that glorious land! Those precious people, who have suffered so much in this world and have trusted Jesus, will be delivered forever from their wheelchairs, their crutches, their beds and their institutions. Their bodies will be made whole and their minds will be renewed! Praise the Lord!

A third observation serves to remind us that the physical healings Jesus performed are but illustrations of what He can do in the spiritual realm. You may have a good mind and a healthy body today. You might not be blind, deaf, crippled, paralyzed or mentally challenged today, but if you are lost, you have a far more serious handicap than any physical handicap ever endured by anyone in the history of the world. If you are lost, you cannot hear God. You cannot see what He is doing. You cannot serve Him. You cannot walk for Him. Your spiritual body is crippled and if you die in that condition, you will be lost forever! That is a serious condition to be in today!

One of these days the physically and mentally handicapped persons who have trusted Jesus will leave their infirmities behind forever. They will go to Heaven where they will get new bodies and perfect minds. But, if a person dies without Jesus, they will leave this world and drop off into Hell! That is far more serious than any physical handicap a person can endure here!



II. v. 33-35 THE MASTER

AND HIS CURE

· The people bring this poor man to Jesus and He does a great work in the man’s life. I want to take a few minutes to watch how Jesus ministered to this man.

· The first thing I notice is that Jesus “took him aside”. The crowd expected Jesus to just touch him right there and heal him. But, Jesus is a gentleman! He does not embarrass the man more than he already is. This man is deaf! He probably has no idea what is going on.

The deaf will tell you that their affliction makes them a special class of people. Blindness and most other physical handicaps can be seen by others, and those who see the handicap make special allowance for the handicapped person. But, you can’t see that a person is deaf! Often people will grow impatient with a deaf person because they are having trouble understanding something. Sometimes people treat the deaf like they are less intelligent than others just because they cannot hear. Often, the deaf are embarrassed by their condition and they withdraw into themselves rather than face a harsh staring public.

Jesus refuses to make a spectacle of this man. Jesus takes him aside and does a great work in his life. By taking him aside, Jesus is saying, “you are more than a problem, you are an individual and you are important to me! I care about you!”



(Note: Thank God for the personal ministry of Jesus! He doesn’t treat people like they are mere numbers. Just look at the ministry of Jesus. He healed many people, but His methods varied from case to case. He touched a leper. He put spit and dirt in a blind man’s eye. He made one blind fellow go to a pool and wash his eyes. Others He healed from a distance. Every case was different and every case merited special attention from the Master!

He may have saved you and me by the same blood and the same Gospel, but I guarantee you that He used different methods in each of our lives. I love that about God! You can’t put Him in a box! He doesn’t always work the same way! But, there is one constant that you can depend on: Jesus cares for you on a personal level. He will work in your life in a manner unique to you! You are special to Him and He will honor that special relationship in His dealings with you!)



· Jesus continues His special ministry in this man’s life. He cannot tell the man verbally what He is about to do, so Jesus uses a rough form of sign language to communicate His intentions. First, He sticks His fingers in the man’s ears to let him know that He is going to do something about his deafness. He spits on His finger and touches the man’s tongue to let him know that He is about to lubricate his speech. That’s gross, but that is what Jesus did!

It would seem that Jesus is attempting to awaken faith in this man’s heart. He is trying to get the man to understand that something is about to happen in his life and that Jesus is going to bring about the changes. Whatever the reason for His actions, Jesus reaches out and touches this man!



(Note: Praise the Lord for the Master’s touch! He touched the sick and made them well! He touched the rot of leprosy and made it clean! He touched the black pallor of death and made it live! Jesus wasn’t afraid to touch the defiled. He wasn’t afraid of being defiled. He knew that sickness and death had to yield to His holiness and power. Jesus just walked up to this poor man and touched him!

Praise the Lord for His touch! When we could not get to Him, He left Heaven and came into this world to die for our sins. We could not touch Him, but He came to our world, lived among us, died on the cross to save us, and He touched us! Glory to God! He didn’t shy away from our defilement, but He took our sins upon Himself so that we might be saved, 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:24. The redeemed are saved, and the lost can be saved, because Jesus was willing to touch us where we were, Ill. Job. 9:33.

By the way, if we are going to reach the lost for Jesus, we are going to have to go where they are. We are going to have to touch them where they live. We cannot isolate ourselves from them. We must not be partakers of their sins, but we must make the vital connection of touch if we would be effective for Jesus.)



· After touching him, Jesus looks toward Heaven. This act served two purposes. First, it told the deaf man where the healing was coming from. Jesus was looking to His Father and He was telling this man, via sign language, that his healing was coming from above.

This act of looking toward Heaven also demonstrated the Son’s dependence upon the Father. Jesus often looked to Heaven for the help He needed. He did this at the tomb of Lazarus, John 11:41. Jesus lived a life of close communion and the Father used Him!



(Note: If you and I would be as effective as we could be, we must also live lives of close communion with the Father. We will be more effective in our outreach and we will be more effective in our ministry to others if we live close to the Lord. If you want to be used of the Lord, stay close and stay clean! Spend time with Him and spend time in His Word. He blesses those who make Him a priority!)



· After looking toward Heaven, Jesus “sighed”. This word means “to groan”. The deaf man could not hear the sigh, but he could see Jesus when He did it and it spoke volume to him. The sigh said “I care about you and what you are going through!”



(Note: I praise the Lord that we have a Savior Who cares! He is “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief”, Isa. 53:3. He is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities”, Heb. 4:15. He cares about you and what you are facing in your life, 1 Pet. 5:7; Matt. 11:28. Regardless of what you are facing today, you will find help and hope in Him!

Did you notice that His sigh of compassion immediately follows a time of communion with His Father? When one has been in the presence of the Almighty, the harshness of the human experience will become even clearer. The closer we live to the heart of God the more we can feel the heartache of our fellow man! The secret of compassion is a life of close communion with the heavenly Father! The closer our communion with Him the more effective our ministry to the world around us!

I pray the Lord will help us develop a heart of compassion that desires to alleviate the needs it sees. That is His will for us, Phil. 2:4; Rom. 12:15; James 2:8.

Ill. One day a little boy came home from school and he looked rather sad. His mother said, “Honey, is everything all right?”

He said, “Well, I guess so. But, Billy came to school today and told the class that his daddy had died. They just buried his daddy yesterday, mama.”

Then he said, “Mama, Billy was so upset about his daddy dying that he just cried and cried.”

His mother said, “Well, what did you do?”

He said, “I just laid my head on my desk and cried with him!”

That is the kind of heart that Jesus had, and that is the kind of heart that we need!)



· Then, Jesus said one word, “Ephphatha”, which means “be opened”. When Jesus said this, the man’s ears were healed and his tongue was loosed. He could hear! He could speak! Oh, what a miracle! One command from Jesus and his life changed forever! That is the power of the Word of God!



(Note: I have seen spiritually deaf ears opened by the Word of God! I have seen spiritually blind eyes opened by the Word of God! I have seen spiritually dead people raised to life by the Word of God! I have seen lives changed by the power of the Word of God! That is what our Savior can do when He moves in power! He can do that for you today!)



III. v. 36-37 THE MULTITUDE AND

THEIR CONFESSION

· As soon as He has accomplished the miracle, Jesus tells the multitudes not to tell anyone else. He does not want to identified as a Gentile Messiah. Jesus came to the Jew first and then the Greek, Rom. 1:16. So, He tells them to keep quiet. The tense of the phrase “charged them” suggests that He kept on commanding them to keep the matter quiet. But, they did just the opposite. He told them to tell no one and they told everyone!



(Note: What a contrast that is with the way we are. He told them to tell no one and they told everyone. He commands us to tell everyone and we tell no one! Like those folks, every child of God should be in the publishing business. We should be spreading the news that Jesus is a life-changing, soul-saving Lord! That is His command, Mark 16:15. That is our obligation, Matt. 28:19-20. That is what He has equipped us to do, Acts 1:8.

Jesus did not tell us to witness just when we “feel led” to witness. He expects us to tell the world about Him. Get up and get at it, you’ve got a story to tell!



· The Bible tells us that these people were “beyond measure astonished”. What they saw Jesus do was more than their minds could comprehend. It left them with their mouths hanging open in amazement. They summed up what they felt about Jesus by saying, “He hath done all things well!”

That statement was a statement of faith. They looked at all they knew about Jesus and they voiced their approval of Him and His ministry. They considered His miracles and His ministry and they said, “He hath done all things well!”



(Note: I can echo the words of that multitude in my own heart today. He hath done all things well! I can look back at the past and tell you that He has never failed me! Even when I was a sinner, He was patiently leading me along to that moment in time when He would save my soul. Praise His name! Since that day, He has been better to me than I deserve. He has blessed me, used me and let me see His power time and time again! He hath done all things well! I look back over the days of my life and I lift my voice in praise to the Lord and I say, “Well Done Jesus!”

As I stand here and look to the future, it gives me confidence to know that He will continue to do all things well. We may not understand all the twists and turns of the road of life. We may wonder why some of terrible events in life take place. We may wonder why people have to get sick and others have to die. We do wonder about many of those things. Right now, some of you have question marks as tall as mountains in your mind over certain events in your life. I can’t tell you why life as gone like it has for you. I will venture to say that when you leave this world either by death or the rapture and you stand in His presence in Heaven, you will look back over the days of your life and you will say, “He hath done all things well!” And, when you stand before Him in glory, your voice will join the chorus of all the saints of the ages and together will praise Him for His grace and His goodness and we will shout, “Well done! Well done! Well done!” We will praise Him for His patient, loving, sovereign work in your life!)



Conc: The man in this text met Jesus that day and his life was never the same again. Meeting Jesus changed everything forever for this man. He can do the same thing for any person who will come to Him today! Why? He does all things well!

If there is a lost person here, let me speak to you for just a moment. If you will come to Jesus today, you will find that He does all things well. He can save your soul from sin and from Hell. He can change your life. He can give you eternal life. He does all things well. Come to Jesus and see for yourself.

Whatever your spiritual condition, whether you are saved or lost, Jesus can help you today! He can deliver you from addiction and lust. He does all things well. He can forgive your sins and help you to live a godly life. He does all things well. He can lift your burden and give you peace in your heart. He does all things well.

“All” is a mighty big word! It covers a lot of territory. He does all things well. Come to Him and let Him teach you that truth today! He can fix it so you leave here today saying, “Well done! Well done! Well done!”

Study of MARK 7:24-30

And from thence He arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered Into an house, and would have no man know it: but He could not be hid. 25. For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of Him, and came and fell at His feet: 26. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought Him that He would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. 87. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. 28. And she answered and said unto Him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs. 29. And He said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. 30. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.(Mark 7:24-30)
Our Lord desired to withdraw from the excited crowds who were flocking after Him as a mere miracle-worker and from the hostile espionage of emissaries of the Pharisees, ‘which had come from Jerusalem.’ Therefore He sought seclusion in heathen territory. He, too, knew the need of quiet, and felt the longing to plunge into privacy, to escape for a time from the pressure of admirers and of foes, and to go where no man knew Him. How near to us that brings Him! And how the remembrance of it helps to explain His demeanour to the Syrophcenician woman, so unlike His usual tone! Naturally the presence of Jesus leaked out, and perhaps the very effort to avoid notice attracted it. Rumour would have carried His name across the border, and the tidings of His being among them would stir hope in some hearts that felt the need of His help. Of such was this woman, whom Mark describes first, generally, as a ‘Greek’ (that is, a Gentile), and then particularly as ‘a Syrophcenician by race’; that is, one of that branch of the Phoenician race who inhabited maritime Syria, in contradistinction from the other branch inhabiting North-eastern Africa, Carthage, and its neighbourhood. Her deep need made her bold and persistent, as we learn in detail from Matthew, who is in this narrative more graphic than Mark. He tells us that she attacked Jesus in the way, and followed Him, pouring out her loud petitions, to the annoyance of the disciples. They thought that they were carrying out His wish for privacy in suggesting that it would be best to ‘send her away’ with her prayer granted, and so stop her ‘crying after us,’ which might raise a crowd, and defeat the wish. We owe to Matthew the further facts of the woman’s recognition of Jesus as ‘the Son of David,’ and of the strange ignoring of her cries, and of His answer to the disciples’ suggestion, in which He limited His mission to Israel, and so explained to them His silence to her. Mark omits all these points, and focuses all the light on the two things—Christ’s strange and apparently harsh refusal, and the woman’s answer, which won her cause.
Certainly our Lord’s words are startlingly unlike Him, and as startlingly like the Jewish pride of race and contempt for Gentiles. But that the woman did not take them so is clear; and that was not due only to her faith, but to something in Him which gave her faith a foothold. We are surely not to suppose that she drew from His words an inference which He did not perceive in them, and that He was, as some commentators put it, ‘caught in His own words.’ Mark alone gives us the first clause of Christ’s answer to the woman’s petition: ‘Let the children first be filled.’ And that ‘first’ distinctly says that their prerogative is priority, not monopoly. If there is a ‘first,’ there will follow a second. The very image of the great house in which the children sit at the table, and the ‘little dogs’ are in the room, implies that children and dogs are part of one household; and Jesus meant by it just what the woman found in it,—the assurance that the meal-time for the dogs would come when the children had done. That is but a picturesque way of stating the method of divine revelation through the medium of the chosen people, and the objections to Christ’s words come at last to be objections to the ‘committing’ of the ‘oracles of God’ to the Jewish race; that is to say, objections to the only possible way by which a historical revelation could be given. It must have personal mediums, a place and a sequence. It must prepare fit vehicles for itself and gradually grow in clearness and contents. And all this is just to say that revelation for the world must be first the possession of a race. The fire must have a hearth on which it can be kindled and burn, till it is sufficient to bear being carried thence.
Universalism was the goal of the necessary restriction. Pharisaism sought to make the restriction permanent. Jesus really threw open the gates to all in this very saying, which at first sounds so harsh. ‘First’ implies second, children and little dogs are all parts of the one household. Christ’s personal ministry was confined to Israel for obvious and weighty reasons. He felt, as Matthew tells us, that He said in this incident that He was not sent but to the lost sheep of that nation. But His world-wide mission was as clear to Him as its temporary limit, and in His first discourse in the synagogue at Nazareth He proclaimed it to a scowling crowd. We cannot doubt that His sympathetic heart yearned over this poor woman, and His seemingly rough speech was meant partly to honour the law which ruled His mission even in the act of making an exception to it, and partly to test, and so to increase, her faith.
Her swift laying of her finger on the vulnerable point in the apparent refusal of her prayer may have been due to a woman’s quick wit, but it was much more due to a mother’s misery and to a suppliant’s faith. There must have been something in Christ’s look, or in the cadence of His voice, which helped to soften the surface harshness of His words, and emboldened her to confront Him with the plain implications of His own words. What a constellation of graces sparkles in her ready reply! There is humility in accepting the place He gives her; insight in seeing at once a new plea in what might have sent her away despairing; persistence in pleading; confidence that He can grant her request and that He would gladly do so. Our Lord’s treatment of her was amply justified by its effects. His words were like the hard steel that strikes the flint and brings out a shower of sparks. Faith makes obstacles into helps, and stones of stumbling into ‘stepping-stones to higher things.’ If we will take the place which He gives us, and hold fast our trust in Him even when He seems silent to us, and will so far penetrate His designs as to find the hidden purpose of good in apparent repulses, the honey secreted deep in the flower, we shall share in this woman’s blessing in the measure in which we share in her faith.
Jesus obviously delighted in being at liberty to stretch His commission so as to include her in its scope. Joyful recognition of the ingenuity of her pleading, and of her faith’s bringing her within the circle of the ‘children,’ are apparent in His word, ‘For this saying go thy way.’ He ever looks for the disposition in us which will let Him, in accordance with His great purpose, pour on us His full-flowing tide of blessing, and nothing gladdens Him more than that, by humble acceptance of our assigned place, and persistent pleading, and trust that will not be shaken, we should make it possible for Him to see in us recipients of His mercy and healing grace.

Study of MARK 7:1-23

Mark 7:1-23

CLEAN HANDS OR A CLEAN HEART? Sermon from Alan Carr

Intro: One Sunday a man sat through a church service and then on the way home he fussed about the sermon, he griped about the traffic, he complained about the heat, and he made a big fuss about how late the lunch meal was served. Then he bowed and prayed, giving God thanks for the food.

His son was watching him all the way through this post-church experience. Just as they were beginning to pass the food he said, “Daddy, did God hear you when we left the church and you started fussin’ about the sermon and about the traffic and about the heat?”

The father blushed and said, “Well, yes, son, He heard me.”

“Well, Daddy, did God hear you when you just prayed for this food right now?”

And he says, “Well, yes, son, He … He … He heard me.”

“Well, Daddy, which one did God believe?”

That little story showcases a problem that afflicts far too many church people. Too often what we claim to be and what we really are is miles apart. We call this condition “hypocrisy”.

This word comes to us from the ancient Greek language. It was used to describe actors in a play. Ancient actors would carry different masks in their hands as they acted. The masks were attached to sticks and could be held before the face as needed. A smiling mask suggested humor, a frowning mask suggested sadness, etc. These actors were called the “hypocritos”. This word means “one who wears a mask”.

We use the word today to refer to people who pretend to be one thing when they are actually something else. People who pretend to be your friend while stabbing you in the back are hypocrites. People who live one way at church and another way at home are hypocrites. People who attempt to do wicked things under the radar while acting like all is well are hypocrites. Now, there should be no people like that in the church, but sadly, there are some in every congregation.

Ill. Some people claim there are too many hypocrites in the church. I say there aren’t as many as they claim. It is just an excuse they use for not coming to church. When you hear that kind of talk just say, “Oh come on, one more won’t make any difference”. Just say, “It is better to spend a few hours with them in church and to spend eternity with them in Hell”. Just say, “If a hypocrite is standing between you and God, the hypocrite is closer to God than you are.”

Hypocrites are nothing new! In this passage, Jesus has an encounter with a whole group of hypocrites. They have come from Jerusalem, v. 1, which was like the Vatican of its day. They came to watch Him in order to find fault with Him and His ministry. When they arrive and begin to watch Jesus, it does not take them long to find something to complain about.

These men see the disciples of Jesus eating food without washing their hands and they are offended. They attack Jesus over this issue, but He turns the tables on them. They think the issue is one of clean hands, but Jesus shows them that the issue is really about clean hearts.

This text has something to say to us today. We still have those people who are more concerned about clean hands than they are about clean hearts. Jesus is going to teach us that the inside of a person should match the outside of that person. He is going to teach us that what we are in our heart is what we really are! He is going to teach us that hypocrisy and legalism have no place in our lives. He is going to teach us that true defilement comes from the inside, but from the outside!

I want to these verses and preach on Clean Hands Or Clean Hearts. Let’s watch Jesus as He reveals these religious hypocrites for what they are. As we do, let Him speak to your heart today. It may be that you will see that in your quest for clean hands, you still have a dirty heart.



I. v. 1-5 THE PROBLEM

CONFRONTED

As these Pharisees and scribes watched Jesus and His men, they noticed that His disciples were eating without washing their hands. When they saw this, they found fault.

The word “fault” means “to place blame”. They then turned their attention to Jesus, because He was the leader of the disciples. He was their Rabbi, and as such, He was responsible for their behavior.

Now, the disciples were not eating with dirty hands. The problem is brought to light as Mark continues His narrative. According to verses 3-4, the Pharisees and all religious Jews would not eat unless they had washed their hands a certain way. This was especially true when they returned from the marketplace, as they might has brushed shoulders with a Gentile and been defiled. For the Jews, and all religious people, everything revolves around ritual.

This washing had nothing to do with cleaning the hands. It was a ceremonial cleansing. John MacArthur describes it this way. “This washing had nothing to do with cleaning dirty hands but with a ceremonial rinsing. The ceremony involved someone pouring water out of a jar onto another’s hands, whose fingers must be pointing up. As long as the water dripped off at the wrist, the person could proceed to the next step. He then had water poured over both hands with the fingers pointing down. Then each hand was to be rubbed with the fist of the other hand.”

It is said that one Jewish rabbi was arrested by the Romans and nearly died in prison because he used up his daily ration of water trying to wash his hands after the prescribed manner. According to Mark, they not only had rules about their hands, they also had elaborate rules about washing pots, pans, plates, etc. I all, the Jewish Mishnah, a compilation of Jewish oral laws made around 200 AD has over 35 pages of instructions devoted to washing alone.

The problem with their rules is that they were not from God, they were “the traditions of the elders”. The “traditions of the elders” came into being with good intentions. The Mishnah says that “tradition is a fence around the Law”.

In an effort to protect the Law from people, the ancient Jews added to that Law. They added restrictions that went beyond the letter of the Law. The Jewish leaders believed that their traditions helped people keep the Law better and they believed their traditions protected the Law from the people.

One writer shares the following “fences” created by the Jews. “For example, looking in the mirror was forbidden, because if you looked into the mirror on the Sabbath day and saw a gray hair, you might be tempted to pull it out and thus perform work on the Sabbath. You also could not wear your false teeth; if they fell out, you would have to pick them up and you would be working. In regard to carrying a burden, you could not carry a handkerchief on the Sabbath, but you could wear a handkerchief. That meant if you were upstairs and wanted to take the handkerchief downstairs, you would have to tie it around your neck, walk downstairs, and untie it. Then you could blow your nose downstairs!

The rabbis debated about a man with a wooden leg: if his home caught on fire, could he carry his wooden leg out of the house on the Sabbath? One could spit on the Sabbath, but you had to be careful where. If it landed on the dirt and you scuffed it with your sandal, you would be cultivating the soil and thus performing work.”

It’s easy to see how foolish such man made rules had become. Again, the problem with their rules is they were not from God, but from man. Their rules were not God’s rules; they were rules made by men seeking to control other men.



(Note: We still have the Pharisees with us today. There are plenty of people who would try to force you to live by their rules. They want to tell you how you can dress; where you can go; what you can do etc. You can’t wear a tie chain because it is worldly. You can’t wear open toed shoes because they are worldly. You can’t go to the beach because it’s worldly. Your hair is too long. Your hair is too short. You can’t eat here, etc. Silly rules by silly Pharisees is all they are!

The problem with man’s rules is just that. They are man’s rules and not the Lord’s. When God’s Word says something is wrong, then it is wrong without question. When the Bible is silent on an issue, you have liberty in the Lord.

God’s way is for us to weigh every action against the following considerations:

· 1 Cor. 6:12, “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”

· 1 Cor. 10:23, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.”

· 1 Thes. 5:22, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.”

· 1 Cor. 8:13, “Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.” Remember, the person with all the rules is a weak believer, Rom. 14:1-15:1. They use rules as fences to restrain their flesh, just as the ancient Jews did. Their manmade rules are not binding on you. But, you are free to live for the Lord as He leads you. We must not forget, however, that we should not offend our brother in the things we do.)



II. v. 6-14 THE PROBLEM

CONDEMNED

(Ill. So, these men are upset with Jesus because His disciples do not perform the ritual washings of the Jews. In these verses, Jesus reveals the hypocrisy of their hearts.)

In verses 6-9 Jesus condemns their legalism. He accuses these men of being hypocrites. He quotes Isaiah 29:13 and accuses them of elevating their traditions to the point that they carry more weight that the Word of God. History reveals that the Jewish religious leaders came to honor their traditions far above the Word of God. According to Warren Weirsbe, “Rabbi Eleazer said, ‘He who expounds the Scriptures in opposition to the tradition has no share in the world to come.’ The Mishna, a collection of Jewish traditions in the Talmud, records, ‘It is a greater offense to teach anything contrary to the voice of the Rabbis than to contradict Scripture itself.’”

In verse 8, He even tells them that they have “laid aside the commandments of God” in favor of their manmade rules and traditions. In verse 9, He tells them they have actually “rejected” the commandments of God so that they can keep their traditions! Jesus condemns their blatant hypocrisy!

These men are rank legalists. They teach the people that the way to be right with God is to keep all the rules. If you can do everything right, God will be pleased with your life and He will accept you. Nothing could be farther from the truth!



(Note: That crowd is still with us today! They think their little, petty rules are more important than anything else. If people walk like they think a person should walk then that person is accepted by them. If they wear their hair just right; have on the right kind of clothes; stay away from the right places; do the right things on certain days, etc, they are accepted. If not, then they are condemned.

Just so you know, legalism, Phariseeism and those who try to enforce their rules on others make me sick! Of course, it’s not just me they bother. Jesus hates that attitude too, Matt. 23:1-36.)



Not only does Jesus condemn their legalism, He also exposes the liberties they take with the Law. In verse 10-13, Jesus blows the lid off one of their traditions that allows them to side step a commandment.

Jesus talks about the practice of “Corban”. That word means “a gift offered to God”. The commandments of God are very clear. God said this in the fifth commandment, “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee,” Ex. 20:12. And, Ex. 21:17 says, “And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.”

Part of this idea of honoring one’s parents included the necessity of providing for their needs as long as they lived. Most of us still believe in that today. Well, the Jews found a way around it. If they said that their money or possessions was “Corban”, “a gift offered to God”. They could only use that money or goods in sacred matters. Thus, they were off the hook regarding the care of their parents. They would just tell Mom and Dad that their stuff was dedicated to the Lord and they wouldn’t be getting anything. Talk about cold hearts! Jesus tells them that they have made the Laws of God ineffective by their traditions, v. 13.



(Note: Again, this same attitude still exists today! People have their rules, but they don’t live by them totally. When the rules become an inconvenience, they find a way around them. That is called hypocrisy!

Another problem with the “rule makers” is that they are the most mean-spirited people in the world! They try to keep all the rules, but they condemn those who don’t keep their rules. They are busy crossing their T’s and dotting their I’s, but they are not too busy to pass judgment on those who don’t keep the same rules. That’s why there is often more compassion, sympathy and acceptance at the local pool hall than there is at the local church! This is called hypocrisy!)



(Note: There had never arisen a prophet like Jesus. He spoke with divine authority. He acted with sovereign power. He literally fulfilled the Scriptures. Love, wisdom and power filled everything He did. He performed many amazing and startling miracles. Yet, the legalistic Pharisees could not believe that He was from God because He allowed His men to eat without washing their hands. How utterly hypocritical and spiritually blind they were! Sadly, that same attitude is still with us today!

Jesus is about to teach us that it does not matter what you do on the outside; true spirituality is what you are on the inside!)



III. v. 14-23 THE PROBLEM CLARIFIED

In these verses Jesus sheds some much needed light on this subject. First, Jesus tells the crowds, v. 14-16, that it is not what comes into the body, like eating with unwashed hands, that causes spiritual defilement; it is those things that arise from within the heart of a person that defile him or her.

The disciples are confused by this, v. 17, and they ask Jesus about what He means. He gives them a quick lesson in anatomy, v. 18-19 and reminds them that what goes into the body passes through the body. It goes in one end and comes out the other, but it does not affect the heart, or the inner man. It may cause sickness of the body, but it cannot cause sickness in the soul. Jesus is telling us that external things cannot cause spiritual defilement!

In verse 20, Jesus reveals that spiritual defilement is always the result of a defiled heart. Every sin we commit, whether it is a sin of the body or of the mind, has its birth in our heart. We do the things we do because of defilement within.

Keeping external rules will not change the heart. The heart can only be changed, and spiritual defilement cleansed away, by the new birth, John 3:3, 7. Jesus is able to take a defiles sinner and wash them in His blood. He is able to make them a “new creature”, 2 Cor. 5:17.

In verses 21-23, Jesus gives us a partial list of the attitudes and actions that cause spiritual defilement. These are the things that make us unclean in the sight of God, not breaking the foolish rules made up by foolish men. Let’s examine this list and see what condition our own hearts are in today.

· Evil Thoughts – This is the root of all that follows. When an evil heart conjures up evil intentions, the evil person will carry them out.

· Adulteries – Illicit sexual activity by married persons.

· Fornications – This word translates the Greek word “porneia” and it refers to any illicit sexual activity. The origin of sexual sin in not in the body, it is the result of a defiled heart!

· Murders – The taking of another’s life. By the way, you are guilty of murder if you have hatred in your heart toward another person, 1 John 3:15.

· Thefts – Taking that which belongs to another for your own use. This covers a lot of territory, even the tithe, Mal. 3:8-9.

· Covetousness – An insatiable craving for that which belongs to another.

· Wickedness – This word means “malice” and it refers to all the ways that evil thought manifest themselves in a person’s life. It is deliberate acts of meanness!

· Deceit – This word refers to cunning maneuvers designed to ensnare someone for one’s personal advantage. It is the idea of someone trying to work undercover to bring someone else down. Sneaky, deceptive people fall into this category.

· Lasciviousness – This word refers to unrestrained, shameless behavior. It is an attitude that says, “I will do as I please and I do not care what anyone thinks about it!”

· An Evil Eye – This is a Hebrew expression that speaks of envy and jealousy. It looks at the blessings of another and desires them for itself. It is envious when others prosper.

· Blasphemy – injurious or defaming speech directed at either God or man. Gossip and curing fall into this category.

· Pride – The boastful exalting of oneself. It’s the attitude that says, “Look at me, see what I have done. No one is a good or as great as I am.” This is an overbearing attitude that is the opposite of humility.

· Foolishness – This word refers to those who are morally and spiritually desensitized. They cannot see their sins; neither can they sense the Lord working in and around them. With this kind of person, there is no spiritual illumination. There is no spiritual discernment. They do not know God and there is no desire to know Him.

· Even if the outside is right, these things will defile you when they reside in your heart.

· Here’s the problem, slapping a religious patch on a defiled heart will not make things right. The religious Jews did everything by the book, but they were still responsible for sending Jesus to the cross. Outwardly, they were clean, inwardly, they were defiled.

(Ill. I have a friend, a man I used to work with who drove an old, beat up Firebird. That thing smoked like a chimney. So did he. He was always trying everything to stop smoking. He even tried those patches when they first came out. One day, after work, we were in the parking lot and he has one of those nicotine patches on his car. He said, “Well, they are supposed to stop smoking, aren’t they?”

He was just messing around having a good time. But, his external efforts did nothing to fix the heart of the problem. It would have taken a new engine to solve that car’s problem.

That same is true with man. A religious patch will not fix the problem of the heart. A new heart is what is needed, Eze. 36:26.)



Jesus was not fooled by human nature. He knew that men were sinners and that they were capable of any sin imaginable. Men are still sinners, Rom. 3:10-23; 1:29-32. Every person in this room in capable of every sin in the list we just covered, and more. In fact, some here today are guilty of some of these things and you know it. There are defiled hearts in this room and they need to be cleansed.

If that is to happen, there must be acceptance of the truth of your condition and there must be repentance of your sins. If these things are in your heart today, you are spiritually defiled dirty and in deep trouble today.



Conc: Once a grouchy old Deacon was teaching a boy’s Sunday School class. He wanted to help them understand what a Christian was, so he asked them a question. He asked, “Why do people call me a Christian?” There was a moment of silence and then one of the boys said, “Maybe it’s because they don’t know you.”

Just like that little boy, Jesus always told it just like it was. He told the Pharisees and the scribes exactly what they were. He told His disciples exactly what resided within the hearts of men. Right in the middle of our text is verse 16. In that verse Jesus said this, “If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.” What has the Lord spoken to your heart today?

The whole point of this passage is this: The problem with mankind is a problem of the heart, Jer. 17:9. That is where the Lord looks upon us, 1 Sam. 16:7. That is where sin originates, Matt. 12:34-35. That is the part of man that needs to be changed, Eze. 36:26!

Are you a hypocrite? Do you hide behind a mask, pretending to be one thing when, in reality, you are another? You’re not hiding it all that well. Your secret is not safe! Are you a hypocrite? I would rather be called anything than a hypocrite!

Are you a legalist? Do you expect everyone to live just like you do? Do you stand in judgment of them when they don’t?

Do you have a defiled heart? What if God were to drag the contents of your heart out into the open today? Would you ever recover from the shame and the embarrassment of being exposed for what you really are?

Have you truly been born again? Has Jesus saved your soul and changed your life? Or, have you just been pretending to be a believer?

“If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.” What is the Lord saying to you today? This altar is open, if He has spoken to you. If He has, then you need to come and get it right today. This might be your last warning before the storm of God’s judgment breaks on the bow of your life!

Look into your heart right now. What do you find there? Anger? Lust? Divisiveness? Unforgiveness? Pride? Hatred? Deviousness? Or, do you find, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance? What dwells in your heart is what you really are! Let’s obey His voice right now.

Study of MARK 6: 30-44

And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told Him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught. 31. And He said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. 32. And they departed into a desert place by ship privately. 33. And the people saw them departing, and many knew Him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together unto Him. 34. And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and He began to teach them many things. 35. And when the day was now far spent, His disciples came unto Him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: 36. Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat. 37. He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto Him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat? 38. He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes. 39. And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. 40. And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties. 41. And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, He looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided He among them all. 42. And they did all eat, and were filled. 43. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. 44. And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men. Mark 6:30-44.

This is the only miracle recorded by all four Evangelists. Matthew brings it into immediate connection with John’s martyrdom, while Mark links it with the Apostles’ return from their first mission. His account is, as usual, full of graphic touches, while John shows more intimate knowledge of the parts played by the Apostles, and sets the whole incident in a clearer light.
I. Mark brings out the preceding events, and especially the seeking for solitude, which was baulked by popular enthusiasm. The Apostles came back to Jesus full of wondering joy, and were eager to tell what they had done and taught. Note that order, which hints that they thought more of the miracles than of the message. They were flushed and excited by success, and needed calming down even more than physical rest. So Jesus, knowing their need, bids them come with Him into healing solitude, and rest awhile.
After any great effort, the body cries for repose, but still more does the soul’s health demand quiet after exciting and successful work for Christ. Without much solitary communion with Jesus, effort for Him tends to become mechanical, and to lose the elevation of motive and the suppression of self which give it all its power. It is not wasted time which the busiest worker, confronted with the most imperative calls for service, gives to still fellowship in secret with God. There can never be too much activity in Christian work, but there is often disproportioned activity, which is too much for the amount of time given to meditation and communion. That is one reason why there is so much sowing and so little reaping in Christian work to-day.
But, on the other hand, we have sometimes to do as Jesus was driven to do in this incident; namely, to forgo cheerfully, after brief repose, the blessed and strengthening hour of quiet. The motives of the crowds that hurried round the head of the lake while the boat was pulled across, and so got to the other side before it, were not very pure. Curiosity drove them as much as any nobler impulse. But we must not be too particular about the reasons that induce men to resort to Jesus, and if we can give them more than they sought, so much the better. Let us be thankful if, for any reason, we can get them to listen.
Jesus ‘came forth’; that is, probably from a short withdrawal with the Twelve. Brief repose snatched, He turned again to the work. The ‘great multitude’ did not make Him impatient, though, no doubt, some of the Apostles were annoyed. But He saw deeply into their condition, and pity welled in His heart. If we looked on the crowds in our great cities with Christ’s eyes, their spiritual state would be the most prominent thing in sight. And if we saw that as He saw it, disgust, condemnation, indifference, would not be uppermost, as they too often are, but some drop of His great compassion would trickle into our hearts. The masses are still ‘as sheep without a shepherd,’ ignorant of the way, and defenceless against their worst foes. Do we habitually try to cultivate as ours Christ’s way of looking at men, and Christ’s emotions towards men? If we do, we shall imitate Christ’s actions for men, and shall recognise that, to reproduce as well as we can the ‘many things’ which He taught them, is the best contribution which His disciples can make to healing the misery of a Christless world.
II. The difference between John and Mark in regard to the conversation of Jesus with the disciples about finding food for the crowd, is easily harmonised. John tells us what Jesus said at the first sight of the multitude; Mark takes up the narrative at the close of the day. We owe to John the knowledge that the exigency was not first pointed out by the disciples, but that His calm, loving prescience saw it, and determined to meet it, long before they spoke. No needs arise unforeseen by Christ, and He requires no prompting to help. Difficulties which seem insoluble to us, when we too late wake to perceive them, have long ago been taken into account and solved by Him.
The Apostles, according to Mark, came with a suggestion of helpless embarrassment. They could think of nothing but to disperse the crowd, and so get rid of responsibility. He answers with a paradox of conscious power, which commands a seeming impossibility, and therein prophesies endowment that will make it possible. Has not the Church ever since been but too often faithless enough to let the multitudes drift away to ‘the cities and villages round about,’ and there, amid human remedies for their sore needs, ‘buy themselves,’ with much expenditure, a scanty provision? Are we not all tempted to shuffle off responsibility for the world’s hunger? Do we not often think that our resources are absurdly insufficient, and so, faintheartedly make them still less? Is not His command still, ‘Give ye them to eat’? Let us rise to the height of our duties and of our power, and be sure that whoever has Christ has enough for the world’s hunger, and is bound to call men from ‘that which is not bread,’ and to feed them with Him who is.
Philip’s morning calculation (curiously in keeping with his character) seems to have been repeated by the Apostles, as, no doubt, he had been saying the same thing all day at intervals. They had made a rough calculation of how much would be wanted. It was a sum far beyond their means. It was as much as about ?7. And where was such wealth as that in that company? But calculations which leave out Christ’s power are not quite conclusive. The Apostles had reckoned up the requirement, but they had not taken stock of their resources. So they were sent to hunt up what they could, and John tells us that it was Andrew who found the boy with five barley loaves and two fishes. How came a boy to be so provident? Probably he had come to try a bit of trade on his own account. At all events, the Twelve seem to have been able to buy his little stock, which done, they went back to tell Jesus, no doubt thinking that such a meagre supply would end all talk of their giving the crowd to eat. Jesus would have us count our own resources, not that we may fling up His work in despair, but that we may realise our dependence on Him, and that the consciousness of our own insufficiency may not diminish one jot our sense of obligation to feed the multitude. It is good to learn our own weakness if it drives us to lean on His strength. ‘Five loaves and two fishes,’ plus Jesus Christ, come to a good deal more than ‘two hundred pennyworth of bread.’
III. The miracle is told with beautiful vividness and simplicity. Mark’s picturesque words show the groups sitting by companies of hundreds or of fifties. He uses a word which means ‘the square garden plots in which herbs are grown.’ So they sat on the green grass, which at that Passover season would be fresh and abundant. What half-amused and more than half-incredulous wonder as to what would come next would be in the people! Many of them would be saying in their hearts, and perhaps some in words, ‘Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?’ (Ps. lxxviii. 19). In that small matter Jesus shows that He is ‘not the Author of confusion,’ but of order. The rush of five thousand hungry men struggling to get a share of what seemed an insufficient supply would have been unseemly and dangerous to the women and children, but the seated groups become as companies of guests, and He the orderer of the feast. To get at the numbers would be easy, while the passage of the Apostles through the groups was facilitated, and none would be likely to remain unsupplied or passed over.
The point at which the miraculous element entered is not definitely stated, but if each portion passed through the hands of Christ to the servers, and from them to the partakers, the multiplication of the bread must have been effected while it lay in His hand; that is to say, the loaves were not diminished by His giving. That is true about all divine gifts. He bestows, and is none the poorer. The streams flow from the golden vase, and, after all outpouring, it is brimful.
Many irrelevant difficulties have been raised about the mode of the miracle, and many lame analogies have been suggested, as if it but hastened ordinary processes. But these need not detain us. Note rather the great lesson which John records that our Lord Himself drew from this miracle. It was a symbol, in the material region, of His work in the spiritual, as all His miracles were. He is the Bread of the world. Ho gives Himself still, and in a yet more wonderful sense He gave His flesh for the life of the world. He gives us Himself for our own nourishment, and also that we may give Him to others. It was an honour to the Twelve that they should be chosen to be His almoners. It should be felt an honour by all Christians that through them Christ wills to feed a hungry world.
A somewhat different application of the miracle reminds us that Jesus uses our resources, scanty and coarse as five barley loaves, for the basis of His wonders. He did not create the bread, but multiplied it. Our small abilities, humbly acknowledged to be small, and laid in His hands, will grow. There is power enough in the Church, if the power were consecrated, to feed the world.
All four Gospels tell the command to gather up the ‘broken pieces’ (not the fragments left by the eaters, but the unused pieces broken by Christ). This union of economy with creative power could never have been invented. Unused resources are retained. The exercise of Christian powers multiplies them, and after the feeding of thousands more remains than was possessed before. ‘There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth.’