The Hungry Then the Difficult (Part C)

He sighed deeply in his spirit, why does this generation seek a sign?

Assuredly I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation. There's that sigh again. It came up in Chapter 7, when he was healing the deaf mute, and it was a sigh of, you know, sin has done this to people. If you felt that way about sin, you know God feels has the same idea.

Within this sin there is sorrow, there is regret, there is anger, there's not just one thing in this sigh. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Mark.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Today, Pastor Rick will continue teaching through Mark Chapter 8 and his study called The Hungry, then The Difficult. It says that he broke what he took from them. He took the seven loaves and gave thanks and he broke them. And what he takes from us oftentimes, in the interest of ministry, there is going to be things that break. Ministry causes pain, there's no way around it. Broken hearts, broken ambitions, broken friendships, broken expectations.

What are you going to do with those things? This is what determines the maturity of the saint. How are we going to respond to these letdowns and heartbreaks? Still waiting, these men is the grand disillusionment that's coming from an unlikely place, Jerusalem. There they will arrest their master who they never saw fail before and they will murder him and they will do it in public. And the disciples are going to have to deal with that.

I would not want to go through that. Eleven of them would handle it differently from just one of them. That one, Judas Iscariot, he was already outside of the twelve when it came to his heart. Christ talks about this. In John Chapter 6, Jesus answered them, and this is about the same time, the time stamp that we're reading our story here in John 6. Jesus answered, did I not choose you, the twelve? One of you is a devil.

Oh man, could you imagine being in that group hearing this from Christ? Later on they're going to ask when it comes to betraying, is it me? I don't want to be that guy.

You don't have to be that guy unless that's what you want to do. Again in John 12, and he said, speaking about Judas, not that he cared for the poor, John writing, but because he was a thief and had the money box and he used to take what was put in it. They didn't know this at the time, and they were pretty steamed when they found out. So my point is, Judas was not one of them at this point because he chose not to be. Christ gave him every opportunity to be like-minded with these men, and he bailed out.

But back to the eleven who did not bail out, they would be disillusioned. Judas was too, but for different reasons. Judas wanted Christ to come, set up the kingdom, whatever he was in his head, it was wrong. These men, they too thought Christ was going to set up the kingdom and were disillusioned.

And maybe you, maybe you come to Christ, you read your Bible, you see these great promises, this magnificent creator and savior, and then you are confronted with something in life and you're disillusioned by how he treats it. What are you supposed to do? Job, in his book, says it very clearly, though he slay me, I will trust him.

I trust him. There's nowhere else to go. Peter said, where else are we going to go? You have the words of life.

Nobody is saying what you're saying. Peter did not say, where else are we going to go? You've got the miracles.

You've got the goody bag. He said, what you say is true. That's the deciding factor. And so, being his disciple includes continuing in submission, regardless of whatever emotional or physical pain you may incur. Judas, again, refused these terms, but Job and Joseph embraced it. I mean, Joseph, his principle of faith did not save him. All the things he believed about the God of Abraham didn't seem to benefit him one bit. His own family threw him away, sent him into slavery.

If he died in the salt mines somewhere, tough luck. And then he gets arrested for a crime he didn't commit. And he just kept trusting God. He didn't like it. He tells the butler, when he's freed, the butler is freed and Joseph, stuck in the prison, still says, don't forget me in this place.

When you get back to Pharaoh, don't forget me. Because he wanted out. He just wanted his freedom so he could go home. How long he lived this way, we don't know. But it was years.

We do know that. I draw from that when I have my pity parties, and I want my pity parties. Gets a little hat, a little string, always pinches the skin, does it not? But anyway, I struggle with how much work I think I put into ministry over the decades and seemingly, to me, have a disproportionate fruit.

I read about the priests and how they would have the pomegranates on the bottom of their robe, which was to symbolize the fruit of ministry on behalf of the people. I struggle with personal shortcomings and lack of spiritual strength. Sometimes I'm just upset with God and I know I'm not supposed to be, which adds to me being upset. And yet, it's one foot in front of another for the king because I'm his man and I'm interested in him and he is interested in me. And if he takes me and he breaks me, then right over that, done.

Just like he wanted because I trust him. And when I stand up in heaven and all the dust from this cursed life has settled somewhere else because it won't be in heaven, I will be in heaven, still the king's man. And this is true for every believer that there is.

And so Paul says that I may know him, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. That's what we're talking about. Disillusionment is a death of the flesh. Our view. I did this right, I did that right, and this is what I get from it?

Yep. Now what are you going to do? Well, I'm your man.

I'm your child. I'm your man-servant, I'm your maid-servant, whatever the case may be. And so it says here in verse 6, and he gave to his disciples to set before them. Fellowship in ministry. And they will drink from his cup also. They will suffer in Christ as in the years to come. So we, here we are seeing a picture of ourselves, he gave to his disciples to set before them. Now he gives us the gospel and all that it includes, he sets it before us. And we're to partake of that gospel. And then we're to give to others. But we can no more save souls than we can create a star.

But we can serve the gospel. We can do that, and that is more glorious than creating a star. To lead a soul, a star is to burn out and that's the end of it. Well, I mean I'm sure there's some scientific details about stardust.

But overall it perishes with the using, but the soul does not. And this lesson was what they needed and he was saying there's a need here and you can't fill it. I'm going to fill it, but I'm going to do it with you.

And I'm not going to do it without you. He could have just threw, you know, hamburgers in everybody's pocket and been done with it. Of course that'd be silly and he didn't do it that way. Ministry would not depend on their ability, but their availability. Anybody can hand out bread and fish pretty much, not anybody. I mean there's some exceptions, but overall these 12 men could. But it was their availability that made that happen.

And another lesson a lot of Christians don't get. Oh, I just don't have time. Oh, I'm not available. Well, there are things that need to get done. You come into the sanctuaries nice and clean. You come into the church, the bathrooms are clean.

Somebody's doing that. We don't have the bathroom-o-matic. We just, you know, kind of like shove it down the hallway and let it do its thing. We've got real servants that have to go in there with riot gear on and take care of business.

So, it's kind of goofy when you think about it. Christ working through those who made themselves available. Christ ministering to the multitudes through them.

And it's the same way today. Christ could use them as his instruments because they made themselves available. King Saul did not.

We talked about this Wednesday night. King Saul was supposed to be the leader as God's people were the instruments in God's hand to execute judgment on the Amalekite people for their wickedness was off the chart and now had to be dealt with. But because of selective obedience, King Saul hindered God's work, which caused problems generations later in the age of Mordecai and Esther.

And so, I don't want to be a King Saul on any level. It says here, and they set them before the multitude, which is the objective, verse 7. They also had a few small fish, and having blessed them, he said to set them also before them. You see, it's kind of the way it's written. It's like, why didn't Mark just put that with the fish? I mean the bread.

It's fragmented, it seems. And reading it, you start digging into this. In addition to the bread, taking the bread and blessing it, he does it with the fish also. I think it is true. The Lord does not do for us what we can do for ourselves, or else, you know, I would never have to go to a gas station again.

How nice would that be? You just drive by it and you're full. Or even better still, you just don't run out of gas.

So, anyway, it's a fact. If there's something that we're supposed to be doing, then we're supposed to be doing it. This was one of the problems with Moses when Moses wouldn't circumcise his son and God was going to kill him.

That's pretty serious. Moses was to be the leader of the covenant people and he was neglecting to do a critical task because Moses didn't care for it. Was it not for his wife? We would not have had the story of Moses, but God knew all of this, of course. So the disciples who could not multiply the fish and the bread, they could serve it to the multitudes, verse 8. So they ate and were filled and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments.

And I think verse 8 is a summary of what has already taken place. And there's a departure here, but with me and other commentators. Almost all, in fact, all of the commentators that I highly respect, I turn to their wisdom often. They're all dead and gone and in heaven. I disagree with them on this. I have to for conscience sake. And you make your choice, make the right choice.

Agree with me. So they ate and were filled. See, I think that's the disciples first.

And I'll tell you why in a moment. And they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments. Interesting. We don't read about the Lord eating during these multiplications of the bread and the fish. He told his disciples, I have, you know, food to eat.

You know nothing about. They probably did, but it's just not said. But back to, and they took up the seven large baskets of leftover fragments. Where did they get the baskets? I already mentioned the carts. The different Greek word used for baskets here than in Mark chapter 6.

These are the larger ones, large enough to put a human in. When Paul was lowered from the wall in Damascus and fleeing for his life, it was the same Greek word, that type of basket, like a hamper, which is consistent with, as I mentioned, the Gentiles. Anyway, the part that becomes a little difficult is the leftover fragments. Leftover fragments from whom?

Are you telling me? And this is where the commentators treat this this way. The people, the 4,000 plus people ate, and then the disciples went and picked up the fragments and filled up these seven baskets with fragments of bread and fish. I have a big problem with that.

Because just think about it. I mean, you just go to a stadium and go pick up the breadcrumbs and then what do you do with it? I think it's work enough feeding these people. That was the objective, is to feed the people. How did they get the food? Well, they didn't stand in line.

There was no drive-thru. So the disciples had to eat, collect their fragments, and then into the baskets, and then that is what they shared from. I've always approached it this way. I approached the other miracles this way. You may differ with it. Those who say these are leftover fragments don't see Marcus summarizing and out of sequence now.

But logistically, I don't see how you do it. Clearly, the disciples did not take any of this with them because when we get to verse 14, Jesus is going to say, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and the disciples are going to say, oh, because we didn't bring bread with us, he's getting on our case. Did I lose you on this? I'm like, what are you talking about? See, hands raising.

Question. So, just to summarize what I'm saying, going back to verse 8. And as a Bible student, I can't dismiss these things. I need to crack the case.

And if I can't crack it, then finally I'll surrender and I'll tap out and say, I don't know what that means. But that's not here. Here I look at this. So they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments. The question is, who is them? And most commentators say it is the 4,000 plus people, and I say it can't be. Because, how long would it be out there all day collecting? What do you do?

I mean, it would just get a hamper full, seven baskets, it just not working. Okay, you might be saying, listen, okay, I got the point. I've made my decision. I'm not telling you what my decision is. But let's move on to verse 9. And I know, now after service, if you come up to me and want to talk about this, I'm very open to it.

I mean, I'm going to smile and grin if you don't see my opinion and just, when are they going to leave? Kidding. Now those who had eaten were about, no pastor, you can't be human. Oh yeah, I can. Now those who had eaten were about 4,000, and he sent them away.

It's done. I think they ate, tapped their belly like the rest of us do, and left. It was an amazing time. Who in the history of the world has ever done anything like this not once but twice? Anything man can do, Jesus Christ could do better.

That's why we love him so much. Matthew 15 verse 38, now those who ate were 4,000 men besides women and children. I read it because Mark doesn't mention the women and children. Matthew does. They did not live by bread alone.

Here's another interesting thing. The blessing was big. He taught them, he healed them, he spent time with them, and then he feeds them miraculously. Jabez, you know the prayer of Jabez in 1 Chronicles? We read it this way. This is a man that starts off, he's introduced to us as an honorable man, and Jabez called on God, the God of Israel, saying, oh, that you would bless me indeed.

We stop there. In the Hebrew, it is, we would bless me, bless me. It's emphatic. Jabez believed God could bless him, bless him.

Not a morsel of a blessing, but a lot of a blessing. And he doesn't say, then, that you would then, you know, enlarge my garage. Give me that in-ground swimming pool with servants. Because that, I mean, if you're going to get these things, who wants to maintain it?

You need folks to do it. So let's go back to his prayer. Oh, that you would bless me indeed.

That's how the translators have dealt with it. And enlarge my territory. He wasn't an introvert. And that's really what it is. Expand my influence, that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil.

That I may not cause pain. Oh, man, this guy was not mean. He was treated that way. He wasn't treated so his brothers, nobody knows their names. He's sort of the guy, his name means pain.

He's sort of the guy who was the outcast. He doesn't want to hurt anybody. That I may not cause pain. And then it says this. So God granted him what he requested. Is this guy just, you know, living life, and he makes this prayer and somebody captures it. And God preserves it forever.

I want to pray like this man. Well the point, the connection is, God blessed them, he blessed them. He didn't just feed them food. Verse 10, immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha. No storm?

Whenever they get in the boat, either somebody's not going to catch anything or there's going to be a rocking of the boat. This location is not really known, but they're now returning, heading back to the area where the Jews are the predominant people. Verse 11, then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven, testing him.

Yeah, why? Satan from the start tempted and tested Christ, wanted some great sign. Matthew chapter 4, then the devil took him up into the holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the son of God, which is God the son, throw yourself down for it is written, he shall give his angels charge over you and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your little foot against a stone. That's the kind of idea Satan's coming with. Jesus said to him, it is written again, you shall not tempt the Lord your God.

So Satan takes the scripture, takes it out of context, abuses the scripture, Christ says, yeah the Bible also says this, and he shuts him down. People who demand signs are usually in the habit of demanding more signs. That demand is not a noble act. These men were not sincere. As the tendency is of the legalists, the one that lives by rules and regulations as opposed to the grace and love of God, they came to pick a fight. You know any religious folks like that? They love to pick a fight. They're just waiting for the conversation to get to their pet point so they can hammer you with it. A kick in the shin usually handles that.

No it does not. That would not be, that was the flesh crying out. The spiritual man, never mind. Let's go to verse 12. But he sighed deeply in his spirit, why does this generation seek a sign?

Assuredly I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation. There's that sigh again. It came up in chapter 7 when he was healing the deaf mute and it was the sigh of, you know, sin has done this to people. If you felt that way about sin, you know God feels it has the same idea. Within this sin there is sorrow, there is regret, there is anger.

There's not just one thing in this sigh. Anger towards those who are making it easy for Satan to damn their souls. And how do they make it easy for Satan to damn their souls? By rejecting truth and the very scripture that they claim to hold so high. Jesus will later say, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one that kills the prophet stones those who were sent to her. And he says, how often I wanted to gather your children as a hen gathers her brood under her wing but you were not willing.

He's willing to bless these men too. They're not willing. And the deep sighs are because of the hardness of their hearts. The dishonesty in their minds.

How many people come to church like that? Stubbornness of their wills. No, they have no, they can't refute anything he's saying but that's not going to stop them from refuting him anyway.

What's he supposed to do, pin a medal on these men? The language is very strong and it is a glimpse into the heart of God. When he is faced with those who are dishonest and damning their own soul by helping Satan damn them, what can God do but sigh? And he said, why does this generation seek a sign? Knowing that they have no interest in believing him, they'll get their signs. They already had many signs. Surely I say to you, no signs shall be given to this generation. So flat out he says, no.

You've got to love it because they needed to hear that. And who else would tell them no? Everybody else was afraid to disagree with them, especially in public. Those who, this sign, always looking for sign. There are those who are always looking for omens, reading omens into everything, ignoring faith. In fact, mingling faith with faithlessness leaves you with faithlessness.

And we guard against that. The Bible tells us in the Old Testament, the just shall live by faith. Paul grabs that three times, he tells us. The just shall live by faith, Romans and Galatians and I believe Hebrews. I believe Paul wrote Hebrews.

So anyway, I can go on but we're about out of time. Verse 13, and he left them and getting into the boat, departed to the other side. He sailed away from them. They were a waste of his time. There were other people that he could reach.

What he had to offer, they weren't interested in. And so he does what he told his disciples in Matthew 10, and whoever will not receive you nor hear your word when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. I close with this verse from Philippians, Paul writing from jail. Again, I like to think whenever we read Paul's letters, he doesn't, he's not saying, hey, get me a good lawyer. He's concentrating on ministry where he is. Like a lily among thorns, so is my beloved. He grows where God planted him. You guys need to get that kind of faith.

And when you get it, tell me how you did it. Philippians 2, that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, amen, among whom you shine as lights in the world. Don't forget that you're not supposed to be many politicians, you're supposed, or many pundits, you're supposed to be witnesses of Jesus Christ.

So am I. May God help us to do it. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the Book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the Book of Mark, right here on Cross Reference Radio.