Those Who See but Do Not Perceive and Those Who See and Believe
Truth Taught- The Pharisees did not see who Jesus was, while our Lord’s disciples were beginning to perceive the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God
In our text for today, Mark contrasts two groups of people. Both groups begin in about the same place but Jesus will lead one group out of darkness and into light and the other is left in the darkness.
The difference between these two groups is the calling and choosing of God.
I want to speak to you this morning about spiritual blindness or what the Bible often calls the darkness. This is the condition of the natural man. All people begin here. All people are born spiritually blind. The Bible teaches us that because of the Fall of Adam and Eve and then the curse, all of Adam’s descendants are born with original sin. This state of being born sinful and under God’s curse is darkness.
Adam’s sin has resulted not only in our having a sin nature, born in Adam’s likeness but also in our incurring guilt before God for which we deserve punishment. Being conceived with original sin upon us
Psalm 51:5 (ESV)
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
This results in our inheriting a sin nature so wicked that Jeremiah 17:9 describes the human heart as “deceitful above all things and beyond cure.” Not only was Adam found guilty because he sinned, but his sin was imputed to us, making us guilty and deserving of his punishment (death) as well. This is the state of darkness and blindness toward the things of God.
Romans 5:12–14 (ESV)
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
These verses not only spell out the reality of the effects of original sin but they also condemn us as sinners. We can question fairness at times, why am I held guilty for Adam’s sin? However, this verse shows us that we too are sinners just like Adam.
So, we drift down further into darkness. The darkness of original sin and the darkness of our own sin.
Not only are we sinners by nature and sinners by choice, we love sin. This takes us further down into darkness. The natural man loves His sin.
John 3:18–20 (ESV)
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
Because we love sin, we are led by our own desires and affections into idolatry. We have been speaking about this for a few weeks now, how that we become what we worship from places like Psalm 115. We have ears but do not hear and eyes but do not see just like the idols we worship.
So, we descend even further into darkness and blindness.
Now, we read from John’s prologue that our darkness is so dark and spiritual blindness so blind that when the Light namely, Jesus comes into the world, fallen humanity does not and cannot comprehend the Light.
John 1:3–5 (ESV)
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:9–11 (ESV)
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
This passage tells us that His very own people did not receive Him or comprehend the Light.
When mankind is in this state, Satan also works very hard to cause us to be even more blind.
2 Corinthians 4:3–4 (ESV)
3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Do you see these insurmountable layers of darkness? There is no way the natural man on his own could ever peel away the layers and rise above this darkness. The reason goes even deeper than external sources working against us. We are blind on the inside. The Bible tells us of our complete fall and hopeless state.
Here, Paul writes to former lost people, the Church in Ephesus…
Formerly they weren’t just blind and in utter darkness but the true reality of all people outside of Christ is that they were spiritually dead…
Ephesians 2:1–10 (ESV)
2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
I pray we see how thoroughly blind we are and how hopeless our case is. Because we are completely and utterly in darkness and blind to everything spiritual that we need to see in order to be saved it must be God who ends our blindness.
God receives the glory and praise and we receive life and sight and all this is through Jesus Christ our Lord!!
So, today, let’s see one group God will leave in their natural state of death and blindness and the other He will lead to life and sight. What makes this so striking for us, it was the ultra-religious Jesus leaves to themselves and it is a group of fishermen, a Tax Collector and sinners He brings to life.
Please Stand…
Mark 8:11–21 (ESV)
11 The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. 12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” 13 And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side.
14 Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. 15 And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” 16 And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. 17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” 20 “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” 21 And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”
1. The Blindness of Christ’s Enemies (8:11-13)
11 The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. 12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”
Our Lord has just healed a little girl of demon possession and fed 4,000 who had been with Him to hear Him preach and teach them. He had great compassion on all those people most of them being Gentiles. Now He’s heading back to His homeland and area around Capernaum where He is immediately confronted with His enemies the Religious rulers of Israel.
11 The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.
The issue really is Jesus had already given them many signs that pointed to who He is. So many that the average peasant could see who He was but the staunchly religious refused to acknowledge these signs and instead wanted more. Every time Jesus had given them a sign, they said He was doing these miraculous signs by the power of Beelzebul.
Mark 3:22 (ESV)
22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.”
These Pharisees showed the similar tactic of their father, Satan. It’s a practice of the antagonists to accuse Jesus of the very thing true of them.
Someone else said, If You are the Son of God then give me a sign…
Matthew 4:3 (ESV)
3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
The evil generation who takes after their father the devil will always ask for a miraculous sign.
The time for signs was over. Jesus will in very short order walk away from these accusers and curse them forever.
2. The Sight Being Restored in Jesus’ Disciples (8:14-21)
14 Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. 15 And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” 16 And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. 17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” 20 “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” 21 And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”
There were times in the ministry of Jesus when He had to aggressively awaken His disciples from their spiritual slumber. He did this when Peter tried to propose an alternative to the cross. Jesus replied Get behind Me Satan! There was the time when His disciples slept when they should have been praying. They did not see the importance of the event before them. Here is another time Jesus comes at them because of their dimly lit eyes. He’s going to wake them up. This is as if He smacks them across the cheek.
The Church today needs Jesus to awaken them.
Do you see what He is doing? All they could see was the material world. If we get hungry Jesus can make more bread. Our Lord tells them,
“Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
What the point here is, Jesus is waking them up to the fact that He is the Bread and He has come for the world, both Jew and Gentile alike. They were blind to that spiritual reality.
Then Jesus begins to show them the true state of their hearts.
Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?
For the disciples, it was a process to come to the realization that Jesus was the Son of God the Messiah. Our Lord was telling them that because of their fallenness and sin, they had eyes but could not see and ears but could not hear. He also told them they had hearts but their hearts did not perceive these wonderful truths about Jesus.
19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” 20 “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” 21 And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”
Our Lord is so very patient with His people. He showed great kindness and longsuffering here as He deals so kindly with His disciples. I pray you are thankful that our Lord is patient with us. He is kind and very longsuffering. Over and over again we are shown the same thing until we get it. Here too, He showed the disciples multiple times and then explained things to them slowly and purposefully. One day they finally got it.
So, we are blessed to have the total account before us. Based on these Feeding Miracles we are shown that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah and the Manna, Bread of Life.
We can also learn here in Jesus’ dealings with His disciples how He showed great patience. This is a great lesson for us with each other, with our children and grandchildren. To act as Jesus did, we too must be patient and show kindness and love. Our Lord, not only spoke truth to them but also took the time to take them aside and teach them and show them.
So, today, we learned that before Jesus brings us to life, we are blind and in complete darkness. God must do a work to bring us to spiritual life. Apart from God working, like the disciples, we have eyes but do not see and ears but do not hear. Only with our senses working on the spiritual level will we understand that Jesus is the Bread of Life for all people. The disciples were dull in their thinking. Father, open our eyes to see and give us ears to hear!! I pray we embrace this reality, that we understand it and completely trust the Scriptures and our Lord. Jesus is the Bread of Life, Son of God…
Resources
Mark by R. Kent Hughes
Mark by JC Ryle
Mark by William Lane
Words of grace
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