“Sanctification Takes Time” Mark 8:1-21 May 20, 2007

SCRIPTURE INTRO: When we read this story you are going to say:

Hey, I’ve heard this before.

That’s because this miracle, the feeding of the 4,000,

is very similar to an earlier miracle, the feeding of the 5,000.

Jesus repeats himself in order to teach the same faith lessons.

You will see that even though he repeats himself—disciples still don’t get it.

INTRO: There are scholars who are skeptical of the accuracy of the Gospels.

They read this miracle and say that it is just a repetition

of the feeding of the 5,000—with some of the details changed.

4,000 instead of 5,000,

seven loaves and a few fish, instead of five loaves and two fish.

The upshot of their analysis is that these are just legends,

and so the Gospel writers could take them and manipulate the details

any way they want in order to fit the story.

One interesting detail that skeptical scholars pounce on is when the disciples ask:

“But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?”

They say: This question is psychologically unrealistic.

If there had really been a miracle of the feeding of the 5,000.

The disciples would never have asked this question.

They would have remembered that miracle.

They would have realized they were in the same situation,

and they would have just asked Jesus to do the same miracle again.

This is evidence that this is just a legend.

We know that the Gospels are not legends.

They were written way to early to be legends

and they bear all the marks of being eyewitness accounts.

But what do you think about the comment by these skeptical scholars?

Is this question of the disciples psychologically unrealistic?

If these men had actually seen Jesus, just a few weeks or months earlier,

take five loaves and two fish, and break that bread,

and multiply it miraculously so that it fed 5,000 men,

not counting women and children—maybe 20,000 people.

If they had seen that with their own eyes—

and helped distribute that food, and picked up the leftovers—12 baskets.

Is it realistic to think that faced with the very same situation,

they would have asked this question?

Wouldn’t they have remembered the miracle?

Wouldn’t they have immediately turned to Jesus and said:

Jesus, do what you did last time? What do you think?

Mature Christians throughout the ages have read the disciples’ question

and have said—not only is this completely realistic—

I’ve done the very same thing myself many times.

There have been many, many times in my life when the Lord has taught

me something very clearly and then I find that I have completely forgotten it,

and have to learn it all over again.

That’s exactly the point of this passage, and subsequent scene in the boat.

Jesus trying to teach the disciples, and they are so slow to pick up his teaching.

So this story gives us a picture of the way the Lord works in our lives.

He works with us like he did with the disciples. Slow steps, one after another.

We have a very hard time learning. When we do learn, we tend to forget.

And then we have to be re-taught and learn all over again.

The Christian life does not progress with great leaps forward, bolts of lightning.

It is the life-long work of the Holy Spirit.

He teaches us the same lessons over and over—we forget, he teaches again.

Slowly, over a lifetime, we are transformed into Christlikeness.

So let’s look at this story in more detail.

See three ways the Lord works with slow people like us.

1. Warnings

2. Reminders

3. Repetition

It’s important for us to know how he works—

How our sanctification progresses so that we can keep in step

with the Holy Spirit and move ahead in the Christian life.

MP#1 Warnings

The Bible is full of warnings to believers so that we will wake up

and not fall into mistakes and go backwards in the Christian life.

Let’s look at the warning in this passage.

“Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”

What did the Pharisees and Herod have in common? They seemed like opposites.

Herod was a violent, power-hungry, immoral man, irreligious man.

Pharisees were moral, self-disciplined, law-abiding, religious people.

This is the connection—both Herod and the Pharisees refused to believe in Jesus.

Herod, you remember, arrested John the Baptist.

Liked to listen to him preach about sin, judgment, salvation—but never believed.

Finally killed John because prestige demanded it.

And when he heard about Jesus, felt some guilt and fear, but pushed it down

and kept on living the life of immorality and self-indulgence he had chosen.

Few years later, finally met Jesus at his trial, he mocked him.

The Pharisees were the religious leaders—but they rejected Jesus too.

Their demand for a sign was not an indication of faith—the opposite.

They did not want to believe. They were self righteous people.

Believed they could live lives good enough for God.

Trusting in their morality and religion.

So they had no use for Jesus and his message of sin and grace.

So even though the Pharisees and Herod had very different behavior—

they were alike in their unbelief. Jesus compared their unbelief to yeast.

In the ancient world, you couldn’t buy a packet of yeast in grocery store.

If you were baking or brewing you relied on wild yeast in the air.

Most of the time your dough would catch a good strain of wild yeast.

But sometimes a bad strain of wild yeast would get into the dough.

You wouldn’t know—because yeast is invisible, works beneath the surface.

But next morning, instead of nicely raised dough, smelling good, ready for oven,

you would find a slimy, stinking lump.

The bad yeast had worked all through it and made a mess.

Now here is Jesus, talking to his own disciples—warning them about unbelief.

His warning is that even believers can fall into seasons of unbelief.

That doesn’t mean you quit believing that Jesus is the Son of God,

or that he died for your sins—you still believe.

But practically speaking, you quit believing in Christ.

And you start to live like a Herod or a Pharisee.

Herod thought that prestige and self-indulgence and power and wealth

would make him happy. He was too busy doing that to think about Jesus.

Have you ever fallen into that kind of unbelief?

Have you ever thought you could arrange your own happiness? That’s unbelief.

If I can just get the right house, decorated right, right work,

bigger income, more prestige, perfect children—whatever—I will be happy.

If I indulge in this particular sin or immorality—just this once—

that will take the edge off, give me some happiness.

It’s a delusion. Your soul is too big to be made happy with things of this world.

But you go through seasons when you enjoy the delusion—

and quit believing that Jesus alone is your joy and happiness.

The Pharisees thought their religion and morality make them right with God.

Their self-righteousness turned them away from Jesus.

This is the unbelief that just focuses on outward behavior.

Have you ever said to yourself: If I can just change this bad habit.

If I can just deal with my anger problem or whatever—then I’ll be good?

Or, look at him/her, her immoral, messed-up life. I’m glad I’m a good person.

That’s unbelief. If you keep it up, leads to the stink of self-righteousness.

Do you ever look at your well-behaved children. Say—What good children.

But you’ve never really probed beneath the surface.

If did, you might find you’ve raised a little Pharisee who doesn’t need Jesus.

Or, if your children are wild and disobedient—Do you get defensive and say:

He’s a good kid deep down. Really? Then you don’t believe he needs Jesus.

And all of us are tempted to both kinds of unbelief.

We like to sit in judgment of other people, and

we have sinful indulgences that we excuse and can’t change.

Jesus warns us over and over—Beware of unbelief—even for a season.

Don’t ever think that you can be happy or good apart from me.

You can’t. That kind of unbelief will make a mess.

MP#2 Reminders

The Bible is full of reminders of God’s faithfulness.

Constantly tells believers to remember—remember God’s faithfulness in the past.

We have to be reminded because we so easily forget.

Let’s look at the reminder in this passage—it happens in the boat.

As they set sail across the Sea of Galilee the disciples suddenly became agitated

because somehow, in all the hubbub, none of them had grabbed any of the seven

baskets of broken bread left over from the miracle—all they had was one loaf.

So they were facing the unpleasant prospect of missing lunch.

Jesus had deeper things on his mind. He was troubled by the unbelief of Pharisees.

So he turned to the disciples and gave them the warning we just studied.

“Beware the yeast of the Pharisees.”

Well, the disciples were so out of tune with what Jesus was saying—

so bothered by the lunch they were going to miss that they thought

he was getting on to them for forgetting to bring bread.

Start “discussing” this with one another—I thought you were bringing bread . . .

I never saw the humor of this until few years ago we went and heard

Max Maclain recite the Gospel of Mark in a dramatic one man presentation.

Realize how bothered they were about missing lunch,

when right here in the boat with them is the Son of God,

who just fed 4,000 with seven loaves.

Jesus turns to them and fires off a series of questions.

Don’t you understand?

When I broke bread for 5,000 how many baskets? 12

When I broke bread for 4,000 how many baskets? 7

Do you still not understand?

What’s he doing? He’s reminding them of his faithfulness.

He’s saying—remember our history together.

I have always provided an abundance.

Don’t forget.

Don’t get so worked up over present crisis

that you miss the big things trying to teach you right now.

In a way, the whole Bible is just one reminder after another—story after story

of God’s faithfulness to his people in every circumstance and storm of life.

I do the chapel service for our Covenant School—

every Friday, bunch of Kindergarteners. We’ve studied Exodus this year.

Last chapel this past Friday I said: Who is the most important person in Exodus.

Answer I was fishing for was Moses.

We’ve studied Moses for weeks—all the things he did for Israel.

But they all shouted out “God.” And I thought—that’s right.

God is the hero of Exodus. He works through Moses, faithful when Moses fails.

There is not a single situation Israelites face where he does not rescue them.

He parts the Red Sea, gives water from the rock, manna in the desert.

Now, before you get too impressed with these kids,

they have learned that whenever the preacher asks them a question,

if they shout out God or Jesus, will be right 80% of the time!

Reminds me of my favorite SS joke.

SS teacher says to her class:

Boys and girls, what’s the little animal with bushy tail that lives in trees?

Silence. You know, it’s brown, furry, eats nuts.

Silence. Boys and girls, come on, this is not a hard question.

Boy raises his hand: It sounds like a squirrel, but I’m going to say Jesus.

We laugh at that, but we so often forget that Jesus Christ and his faithfulness is the

answer to every question. He fills the Bible and our lives from beginning to end.

We are forgetful people, need to be reminded over and over of his faithfulness.

Have you ever panicked over a money situation, let’s say.

You were sure this was a disaster that would ruin you—

but Lord brought you through.

Then another crisis came along and you panicked again.

Why? Because you forgot the Lord’s faithfulness.

It’s so easy to poke fun at the disciples and to think—I would have gotten it.

I would have said: Don’t worry, y’all. Jesus is with us.

He’s going to provide all we need.

Let’s enjoy the ride and the great thing’s he’s teaching us.

But you probably would have been just as bothered by the missing bread.

Sanctification is slow. We are slow. Need lots of reminders.

Let’s pay attention when the Lord—through Word, Spirit, providence reminds us.

Warnings, Reminders, and

MP#3 Repetition

Slow learners need things to be repeated over and over—

and the Lord in his wisdom has planned the rhythm of the Christian life

to be one of repetition, so that the great truths are brought home again and again.

Let’s look at the miracle itself. Verse 36

When Jesus had given thanks, he broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples.

That same language is found not only in the feeding of the 5,000

found four times in the New Testament in reference to the Lord’s Supper.

Clearly, when we see this miracle, we are to be reminded of Communion.

Being told just as Jesus fed the people miraculously,

he feeds us miraculously at his Table.

I want you to think about the Lord’s Supper for a few minutes.

Think about all the places and times you have taken it.

The first time I took Communion. I was 12, Easter Sunday.

Two kids in Communicants class—girl named Mary Elizabeth and me.

Before church we met with the elders—these were elders—

very old and wore black suits. Tell us, are you trusting Jesus for your salvation?

I said, yes. Mary Elizabeth so nervous stated crying. Admitted both of us.

There on that Easter Sunday in little church in Tuscumbia, took Communion.

I’ve taken it many times since.

In all the churches I attended in college and seminary.

In a garden outside Jerusalem, where there is a tomb that some say is Christ’s.

I took communion at a church in Saigon while on mission trip.

And I’ve shared the Lord’s Supper with you in this congregation for over 10 years.

I love our practice of weekly communion which we started about 8 years ago.

It would be hard for me to go back to quarterly or monthly communion.

I’ve grown to love it more and I need that time with Christ.

Jesus has given us the Lord’s Supper for our spiritual nourishment,

our encouragement, and to strengthen our faith.

But like everything else in the Christian life,

it does its work over a long time, slowly, surely—with lots of repetition.

We would like every Lord’s Supper to be an earthshaking event.

We would like the Lord Jesus to reveal himself to us in power and love,

We would like to experience the bread and cup as living powers in our souls,

transporting us to the cross, melting our hearts in joy and love.

But that’s not the way it usually is.

It’s just a little nourishment—a little reminder of Christ’s sacrifice,

a little reminder that he is coming again, we will feast with him,

a little communion with him and reflection on the word.

But it’s repeated over and over as the Lord has commanded.

And it is in that repetition, not automatically, but as we partake in faith,

and as the Holy Spirit works, that the great truths of the Gospel

go down deeper and deeper and we are changed.

It’s the same way with sermons.

There will rarely be one sermon that changes your life.

Instead it is the cumulative effect of a lifetime of sermons

that feeds you and nourishes you.

It’s the same way with prayer.

There will rarely be one prayer that changes your life.

It will be the cumulative effect of a lifetime of prayer,

that will bring about the changes you want in your life.

The means of grace—Word, prayer, sacraments don’t usually

come like tidal waves, washing away besetting sins,

sweeping in new habits and ways of thinking.

It’s the regular repetition,

weekly preaching of the word and celebration of the table,

the daily prayers that we lift up to the throne of God,

that remind us of who we are, who Christ is, who we are in Christ.

And that moves us a little bit forward.

CONC: Once a quarter our Presbytery meets, we examine men for ordination.

One question often asked: Is sanctification a work or an act?

There is a lot to that question.

What’s the difference between a work and an act?

An act happens once and then it is over, work goes on for a long time.

Our catechism says that justification is an act of God’s free grace.

We are saved once. In a dramatic, one time event our sins are pardoned,

we are declared righteous in God’s sight, Christ’s righteousness imputed.

Our justification is a one-time act.

But then our catechism says that sanctification is a work of God’s free grace.

Over a long time, through a lifetime of warnings, reminders, and repetition

God shapes us into image of his Son,

he enables us to die to sin and live to righteousness.

That’s an important distinction. It keeps us from getting discouraged.

We are justified. That has happened once and will never change.

But our sanctification is a slow process—just like it was with the disciples.

Perhaps the motion is undetectable to us, but not to the Lord.

He does not despair in the slow progress of his disciples,

and neither should we.

But what we should do is get in step with the Lord’s program,

accept his way with our souls and his pace of our sanctification.