Concerning Jesus the Bible says in Mark
8:13-21, And he left them, and entering into the ship again departed to
the other side. Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they
in the ship with them more than one loaf. And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the
leaven of Herod. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It
is because we have no bread. And when Jesus knew it, he said unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? Perceive ye not,
neither understand? Have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not?
And having ears, hear ye not? And do you not remember? When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets
full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, twelve. And when the seven
among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they
said, Seven. And he said unto them, How is it that you
do not understand?
Two things are expressed by Jesus in this passage: a warning to
the disciples, and then an expression of surprise that they do not understand
the symbolism that He used. Actually, Jesus gave two warnings. He warned the
disciples of the leaven of the Pharisees, and He also warned them of the leaven
of Herod. The Pharisees were religious leaders. Herod was a political leader.
There are two different kinds of leaven that apply to two different situations,
but they are both leaven. The leaven first of all has
a symbolism all its own. Leaven is like yeast: its what is put into bread to
cause it to rise. If you put just a little bit of leaven into the dough, all
the dough becomes affected by it.
The leaven of the Pharisees refers to something that got into the
Pharisees and totally corrupted them. It may have started small, but when it
was finished, it controlled and dominated and permeated everything that the
Pharisees were. The leaven of the Pharisees refers to those who are involved in
religious activities, but in the wrong way and for the wrong reason. The leaven
of the Pharisees is human religion without true spirituality. Beware of the
leaven of the Pharisees: of human self-will, grabbing what it can grab in the context
of organized religion. There are many in the clergy today of every denomination
who did not beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. They took a little bit of
the leaven unto them and it has permeated them every bit. Instead of being
followers of God, they use their religious activities to pursue their own
selfish will.
Of course, one does not have to be involved in organized religion
to compromise and follow ones selfish desires. Jesus spoke to those in secular
careers and He said, Beware of the leaven of Herod. In the eyes
of God there is no difference between the secular and the sacred. The person
who has chosen a secular career is just as responsible before God to do the
right thing as someone who has entered the clergy or a ministry. There is something
that can corrupt the secular that Jesus called the leaven of Herod. Herod
became ambitious. Herod desired to please man more than to please God. Herods
priority was this life. Beware of the leaven of Herod. There are many in the
business world and in politics who have compromised themselves because they
have chosen a selfish and an ambitious way. If they do not choose to please God
first of all, they will have been taken over by the leaven of the Herod.
The Bible says in Mark 8:22-26, And he cometh to Bethsaida; and
they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. 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. And he looked
up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that he put his hands again
upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man
clearly. And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither
go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town. One thing that is different
about the healing of this blind man compared to other healing that Jesus did is
the fact that Jesus actually touched the man two times before the man could see
perfectly well. The first time that Jesus touched the man, the man saw men as
trees walking. In other words, he could see, but not as clearly as a normal
person could see.
We do not know for sure why Jesus did this healing in this way
because the Bible does not tell us, but there is one possible spiritual lesson
that I can think of. Sometimes we come to the Lord more than once to get all
that we really need. Some people have gone to the Lord for salvation, but those
that know them wonder if they have ever gone to Him for anything else. A parent
cannot go to the Lord just one time and ask for wisdom in the raising of their
child. That parent may have to go to the Lord many times every single day in
order to see clearly how to be the parent that they need to be. Beware of
pride. Maybe you do not see as clearly as you need to on a certain matter.
Maybe you need to be touched by the Lord anew.
In Mark 8:27-30 the Bible says, And Jesus went out, and his
disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his
disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I
am? And they answered, John the Baptist: but some say, Elias; and others, One
of the prophets. And he said unto them, But whom say
ye that I am? And Peter answered and said unto him, Thou art the Christ. And he
charged them that they should tell no man of him. At this time in the life of
Jesus He had come to be very famous and very popular. Everyone was talking
about Him. Everyone wanted to see Him. Great crowds gathered wherever he went.
One of the problems that Jesus was having from this popularity was being able
to find any time to rest or to be alone. Thats one of the reasons that in
almost every incident in Mark that when Jesus helped someone or healed someone,
He told them, Tell no man. Another reason was because of His humility. He did not
come to the world to seek fame. He came to perfectly fulfill the will of the
Father, something that each of us should also seek. As a young man at the prime
of life, He was heading to the cross of Calvary and He knew it. He did not seek
the fame that this world offers.
But He did ask the disciples, Whom do men say that I am, for a very
important reason. This is a critically important question, and the answer to
the question will decide the eternal destiny of the human race. Some people
knew the answer and some did not. Jesus was famous, and He was well-known; but
some people made a major mistake of misunderstanding how and why Jesus
accomplished what He accomplished. From a human standpoint to say that Jesus
was equivalent to Elijah or one of the prophets sounds like a compliment; but
in fact, it is a major spiritual error. Only the Spirit of God can reveal to
someone the true nature of Jesus. Anyone who does not recognize that Jesus is
the divine Son of God is not of the truth, and they need to turn to God and
find the truth before it is too late. Jesus asked the question, Whom do men
say that I am? Peter had the right answer and hopefully you do also, Thou art the
Christ.
The Bible says concerning Jesus in Mark 8:31-33, And he began
to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of
the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after
three days rise again. And he spake that saying
openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned
about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get
thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the
things that be of God, but the things that be of men. Remember that
right now we are at the height of Jesus popularity. He knew that things would
not stay that way, and He tried to prepare the disciples for the changes that
were coming to His life and thus also to theirs. We know that Jesus suffered
the torture of Roman crucifixion, and in this passage
Jesus said that He would suffer many things.
The first thing that is mentioned that Jesus would suffer was
rejection by the religious leaders. This rejection is what led to the final
thing that Jesus suffered: his death. If the religious leaders had not rejected
Him, He would not have been put to death. The reason that Jesus accepted these
sufferings and this death was because of His love for the human race. Thats
why He called Himself in this passage and elsewhere the Son of man. He was
emphasizing His association with the human race and all of its sins and pains
and sufferings. Isaiah 53:3-5 prophesied of the Messiah and said, He is despised
and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as
it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:
yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was
wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the
chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
This is a subject that must be understood: of Jesus following the
will of God, and the will of God taking Him to His destiny of great suffering,
and evil men with their jealousy and hatred seeming to win the day. How do we
accept this fact that evil men are sometimes given a free rein to do their evil
deeds? The way to understand it is by understanding the vastness of the power
of God. God is so powerful that He will somehow even turn the deeds of the
wicked to serve His eternal purposes. God is so powerful that He will still
hold men responsible for their deeds and for their choices, but God will not
allow any action of man to subvert Gods plan for the universe. This principle
is stated clearly in Acts 2:23, Him, being delivered by the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. Concerning the crucifixion of Christ, somehow the plan of
God was brought to fruition even using the wicked deeds of wicked men. In order
to live by faith, we have to be able to believe the same things for the bad
things that happen in our lives. Romans 8:28 says, And we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to his purpose.
This is sometimes a difficult lesson to learn, but it is essential
that we remember it when the difficult times come into our lives or else we will not live by faith, and we will be living our
lives the way that people live who do not serve God. Thats the problem that
Peter had. He was still evaluating things from too much of a human standpoint
and not enough of a spiritual standpoint. Thats why Jesus said to him, Thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things
that be of men.
When Christian people are not spiritually minded, they can do a
lot of damage. In this situation Jesus said to Peter, Get thee
behind me, Satan. The word satan means adversary. The
ultimate adversary to the work of God is the devil himself. But anyone who is
not spiritually minded, that includes believers and non-believers, will even
without knowing it be working against the will of God. To be spiritually minded
is life: to be humanistic is death. Jesus said, He that gathers not with me
scatters abroad.
Jesus made it clear what was going to happen to Him in this world
and in this life. From a human standpoint it did not sound good, but Jesus came
to do the will of the Father: not His own will. This principle of giving up
ones own will is central to serving God. To the degree that you go after your
own will and your own desires and your own plans and your own intentions, you
will be an adversary to the real work of God in this world. You must learn this
if you are going to serve God. In Mark 8:34 Jesus said, And when he
had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take
up his cross, and follow me.
Earlier in this chapter Jesus asked the question, Whom do men
say that I am. You must get that answer right in order to have your eternal
destiny settled. Now there is another important question, Who wants to follow
Jesus? You must understand what it means to follow Jesus if you are going to
find and fulfill Gods purpose for you in this life. One of the most important
principles to following Jesus was given in this verse. Jesus said, Whosoever will
come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. The world
will tell you to go after your own desires. Beware. If you do, your life will
end up being empty and wasted. You are here for a purpose. You will only
fulfill that purpose by learning to deny yourself, taking up your cross, and
following Jesus.
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Copyright; 2002 by Charles
F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved