QUESTIONS THAT JESUS ASKED

Mark Chapter Eight

Sermon of the Week #200908 – March 8, 2009

Ladies and Gentlemen, in the eighth chapter of the gospel according to Mark the Lord Jesus taught the people both then, and now, by asking questions. So here are some of the questions. The first one is at the feeding of the four thousand when Jesus said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with Me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I would not send them away fasting, lest haply they faint on the way, and some of them have come from afar. The apostles wanted to know whence shall one be able to feed these men with bread in a desert place. Then Jesus asked the first question, “How many loaves have ye?”

HOW MANY LOAVES HAVE YE?

This is a very simple question and with a simple answer, “Seven loaves and a few small fishes.” Jesus looked at the four thousand people, and gave thanks to God for the seven loaves and the few small fishes, even though four thousand hungry people needed to be fed. What can be done with such a small amount? The answer is very simple. When Jesus needs something to be done, He is always willing to use what He has on hand.

When David went out to fight Goliath, he did not have an elephant gun, or a bazooka. God said, “What is that in thy hand?” All he had was a sling, and God said, “I think I can work with that.” God told Moses to go down into Egypt and deliver the people from bondage, and Moses said he could not do it. God said, “What is that in thy hand?” And he said, “A rod”, and God said, “I think I can work with that.” All the apostles had was seven loaves and a few fishes, and Jesus said, “If seven loaves and a few fishes is all you have, I think I can work with that.”

Now what does this question mean to us today? Considering the population of billions in the world, it may seem hopeless that Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives and left the apostles with orders for worldwide conquest when they had no resources. Most any eleven of us at this moment has on our persons more money than they had when Jesus gave them these orders for worldwide conquest. Yet, they never asked, “Where is the money?” because they knew they were talking to the risen Lord, and if He could raise the dead, raising the money was a minor problem. How many loaves do you have? A definition of a modern-day miracle in four words is: MAN’S BEST, GOD BLEST. How many loaves have ye?

WHY DOTH THIS GENERATION SEEK A SIGN?

Now here is question number two, “Why doth this generation seek a sign?” That is another good question. People are always looking for signs. These people in Mark chapter eight had seen many signs, and yet they were not satisfied. They wanted more. They had seen the dead raised. The multitudes had been fed. The demons had been cast out, the lepers had been cleansed, and yet they ask for a sign. What more could they want?

According to the parallel account in Matthew 16:4 Jesus responded to their request for a sign when He said, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of Jonah the prophet.” And Jonah was the sign of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

The resurrection of Jesus is our sign today from heaven, and the evidence of that sign is the existence of the church. But not only the existence of the church, but the fact that the church meets every Sunday for worship, and Sunday reminds us that Jesus arose from the dead on that day; the day that John calls the Lord’s Day in Revelation 1:10, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.”

The ordinance of baptism is also a sign of the resurrection of Jesus when we note the words of Paul in Romans 6:4, “We were buried therefore with Him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.” Jesus died, was buried, and arose from the dead; and in baptism, we died to sin and were buried, and arose to walk in the newness of life.

There is the sign also of the resurrection in the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. Jesus told the apostles when He broke the loaf, “This is My body, which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of Me; in like manner also the cup that is poured out for many unto remission of sins;” and then He said, “As oft as ye do this, ye proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”

Then one more example, the calendar is also a continual reminder of the resurrection of Jesus, for every time you write a check or sign any kind of document, you write the date and the date is a reminder that this is the year of our Lord. Everything that happens was either BC (before Christ), or AD (in the year of our Lord). These are real signs that tell us all we need to know about the signs of the times. Why doth this generation seek after signs?

DO YE NOT YET REMEMBER?

Another question Jesus asked was when He said to the apostles on a boat trip across the Sea of Galilee, “And do ye not yet remember?” They had forgotten to take bread. They did have one loaf, and that was not enough to feed twelve hungry men, plus the Lord. They had seen Jesus feed the five thousand with five loaves and two fishes. And Jesus said, “Do ye not yet remember the five loaves, and the five thousand and how many baskets ye took up, nor the seven loaves and the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?” They had seen Jesus feed five thousand with five loaves and two fishes; they had seen Jesus feed four thousand with seven loaves and a few fishes. And now here they are only thirteen altogether with one loaf of bread, and it never occurred to them that the Lord could do it again. Think of it; He could feed twelve thousand, but they could not see how He could feed thirteen. That is why Jesus asked that question, “And do ye not yet remember?”

That is a good question we can ponder regarding our progress in the ongoing of the Kingdom of God. Do ye not yet remember that you made the confession that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God? How come you can miss the Lord’s Supper any time without any qualms at all? Do ye not yet remember?

Lord, I know that you told us to give and it should be given to us pressed down and running over shall men give unto your bosom. But Lord, in this day of inflation when a family has to have two jobs to stay afloat, are You sure You can still do it? Do ye not yet remember?

SEEST THOU OUGHT?

The next question on the docket is when a blind man of Bethsaida was brought to Jesus with the request to touch him. Jesus took him by the hand, and led him out of the village and when He spit on his eyes, Jesus asked him that question, “Seest thou ought?”  He said, “I see men as trees, walking.” He touched him again, and this time he had twenty-twenty vision.

This is the only miracle that the Lord worked in stages. Most of the time today when the Lord answers our prayers regarding sickness, the healing is done the same way. A person may be sick unto death, and to everyone’s amazement the sick person recovers. Generally the recovery is by a gradual process.

Then think too, of how many ways the Lord works in our lives by a gradual process. When a person is born he knows nothing at all. His learning is by a gradual process, and he does not come to the place where he knows it all, until he is about fifteen years old.

Then God also worked with the human race in stages. God did not give a leather-bound completed copy of the Bible to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Paul tells us in the first chapter of Hebrews that God spoke to the fathers in different portions, and in divers’ manners.

Sometimes God spoke to men in various ways. In a vision to Belshazzar of the fingers of a man’s hand at a drunken feast writing on the wall in Daniel 5:5. Daniel was called in, and he preached a message to the king that was right off the wall. One time He even spoke to a disobedient preacher in a very appropriate manner, through the mouth of a donkey-“Heehaw, Heehaw, Heehaw.” That looks like a good device the Lord might use regarding preachers who reject His Word today. Heehaw, Heehaw, Heehaw.

However, when Jesus came and made purification for sins, and arose from the dead, His revelation was complete; and the man of God was furnished completely unto every good work. Everything we need to know about heaven or hell, the Judgment Day, the question as to what must I do to be saved is in the New Testament. The next message from God will be that day when the trumpet sounds.

Many of you listening to this broadcast are like this man. Your vision is distorted. You have a distorted view of the Bible. To you it looks like something less than the actual Word of God. Read it again, you need a second touch, seest thou ought? Many today have a distorted vision. They do not see men as trees, walking; they see men as animals, walking. Sounds like evolution. I don’t know how to answer a person who believes in evolution, and says he descended from monkeys. If evolution has made a monkey out of him, I am not going to argue with him. Others do not see men as trees, walking, but they see men as gods, walking. The humanist thinks men are gods. Man makes his own rules. This is the twenty-first century; we make our own rules of morality. That is what the Devil said to Eve at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “This is good stuff, Eve, eat it. Ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil.” Seest thou ought?

WHO DO MEN SAY THAT I AM?

BUT WHO SAY YE THAT I AM?

The next question came as a pair, “Who do men say that I am?” and, “Who say ye that I am?” In answer to the first question they said, “Some say that you are John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” That is what men said. Jesus then asked, “But what do you say?” Simon Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” In Matthew 16:17 Jesus told him that he had not received this statement from flesh and blood, but from the Father who is in Heaven. Jesus said to Peter, “Blessed art thou.”

Most people prefer flesh and blood answers to heavenly answers. John 12:42 gives us the reason why, “Nevertheless even many of the rulers believed on Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess it, less they should be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God.” For most people, there is always more glory in flesh and blood answers than a heavenly answer.

This may seem hard for some to understand, but you are not alone. Jesus was baffled Himself why this is true. In John 5:43 He said, “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive Me not; if another comes in his own name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe, who receive glory one from another, and the glory that cometh from the only God, ye seek not?”

If a denomination numbers three million people or a hundred million people, whatever they believe, and whatever they say is believed, irregardless of what God says in His Holy Word, because that much flesh and that much blood cannot be wrong. One popular example is the flesh and blood plan of salvation, often expressed as ‘just bow your head and ask Jesus to come into your heart.’ That verse is not found in the Word of God, but that does not make any difference, because millions believe it, and if millions believe it, that much flesh and blood cannot be wrong. Jesus said in Mark 16:16, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” If you believe that, blessed art thou; and now for the last two questions.

WHAT PROFIT YOU TO GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD AND LOSE YOUR SOUL?

WHAT SHOULD A MAN GIVE IN EXCHANGE FOR HIS SOUL?

Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.” Simply put, our bodies will die, but our souls cannot; our souls are eternal. A thousand years from now we will all be just as conscious of where we are as we are at this moment. So what does it profit, if you have all else and lose your own soul?

In Luke 12:19 Jesus told the story of a rich man who told himself, “I have much goods laid up for many years, eat, drink and be merry.” God said, “Thou fool, this night is thy soul required of thee, and the things which thou hast prepared, who’s shall they be?”

The world adopts the philosophy that the man who has the most toys when he dies, wins. Think of your clothes; most of them are hanging most of the time in the closet. You can only wear one suit at a time. How about that new car with all the latest gadgets? Most of the time it sits in the driveway. How about all that electric power which makes life so easy? Most of the time the power is turned off.

Acts 2:41 is an interesting verse. The first gospel sermon had been preached concerning the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, His death, burial, resurrection, ascension to heaven to sit at the right hand of God had been vividly portrayed. And then that forty-first verse tells us, “They then that gladly received His Word were baptized: and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls.” Their eternal, imperishable, ever-living, never-dying souls were added to the church that day, with the additional millions added unto this day. Hebrews 6:18-19 gives strong encouragement to all who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us, which we have as an anchor of the soul; a hope both sure and steadfast. The gospel song tells us: “We have an anchor that keeps the soul;  steadfast and sure while the billows roll.”

So these two questions of Jesus in Mark chapter eight are questions that need our consideration: “What shall a man be profited if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul, or What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

There’s a line that is drawn by rejecting our Lord,

Where the call of His Spirit is lost;

As you hurry along with the pleasure mad throng

Have you counted, have you counted the cost?

You may barter your hope for eternity’s morn,

For a moment of joy at the most;

For the glitter of sin and the things it will win

Have you counted, have you counted the cost?

While the door of His mercy is open to you

And the depth of His love you exhaust

Won’t you come and be healed, won’t you whisper, I yield?

Have you counted, have you counted the cost?