# 34 The Hardhearted and the Thickheaded
Series: Mark
Chuck Sligh
November 8, 2020
TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Mark 8:10-21 – “And straightway he entered into a ship with his disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanutha. 11 And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. 12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation. 13 And he left them, and entering into the ship again departed to the other side. 14 Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. 15 And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod. 16 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread. 17 And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened? 18 Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember? 19 When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. 20 And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven. 21 And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?”
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – A businessman was late to an important meeting and couldn’t find a parking space. As he frantically circled the block, the man got so desperate that he decided to pray. Looking up toward heaven, he said, “Lord, take pity on me. If you find me a parking space, I’ll go to church every Sunday for the rest of my life, and not only that, I’ll give up drinking.” Miraculously, a parking space suddenly appeared. The guy looked up again and said, “Never mind, Lord, I found one.”
Some people are looking for a sign, but it doesn’t mean anything to them even if God gives them one because their hearts have become hardened.
Also, some people are actually “thickheaded.” A recent study has found that women who carry a little extra weight live longer than the men who mention it. Men, if you haven’t learned to bite your tongue on things like that, you’re thickheaded!
Jesus speaks to both hardhearted sign-seekers and thickheaded disciple in today’s text. Let’s jump into our text to see what I’m talking about.
I. FIRST, NOTE ANTAGONISTS TOO HARDHEARTED TO SEE IN VERSES 10-13 – “And immediately he got into a boat with his disciples, and came to the region of Dalmanutha. 11 And the Pharisees came and began to question with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven, testing him. 12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and said, ‘Why does this generation seek after a sign? Truly I say to you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation.’ 13 And he left them, and getting into the boat again, departed to the other side.”
After the feeding of the 4,000 in verses 1-9, Jesus and His disciples got into a boat and went to the region of Dalmanutha. As we’ve seen, in the Gospels seemingly unimportant details we tend to gloss over actually help us understand parts the stories better. Such is the case when we’re told in verses 10 that Jesus and the disciples went to Dalmanutha, which was on the far western shore of the Sea of Galilee. The significance of this detail is that having spent a significant amount of time in largely Gentile territories, Jesus and His disciples now arrive back in Galilee, which is in Jewish territory.
And guess who was there in short order to greet Him?—The Pharisees, the implacable foes of Jesus! And this legalistic religious gang came ready to fight!
According to commentator James R. Edwards, our English versions do not quite capture the antagonistic nature of the words used in the Greek.
• Mark tells us the Pharisees came—a Greek word Edwards says the Greek verb used means they came out “as if in military rank.”
• They came out to “question with Him,” which according to the Greek word used means to “dispute,” or “oppose” Him.
• Where it says they were “seeking from him a sign from heaven” the Greek word for seeking means “to attempt to gain control over someone.”
• Finally, the word for test “does not mean an objective test to discover the merit of something, but an obstacle or stumbling block to discredit.”
In other words, as we say down South, they came “loaded for bear!”
Mark tell us in verse 11 they demanded that Jesus show them a sign from heaven. Verse 12 says that Jesus’ response was to “sigh deeply in His spirit.” We saw last week how Jesus sighed deeply on several occasions over those suffering the effects of the Fall—demon possession, disease and death. Here He sighed over the Pharisees’ entrenched hard-heartedness and rebellion. These so-called spiritual leaders could not see who Jesus was and what He was about NOT because they COULD not see, but because they WOULD not see. Their mind was made up, so they opposed Jesus at every hand…and this caused Jesus to utter a deep groan of exasperation at their attitude and behavior.
Did Jesus give them the sign from heaven they demanded? No way was He going to show them a sign! Jesus used signs and wonders in response to faith; but He would not be badgered to jump when His enemies said jump…because their demand stemmed from a lack of faith.
Don’t get me wrong: He could easily have given them a miraculous sign. He could have called a host of angels from heaven to smite them or to sing the Hallelujah chorus for them if He wanted to But Jesus was not a travelling magician to perform at people’s whim. Each miracle He performed had a purpose and was calibrated, on the one hand to bring relief to suffering people in this world, and on the other hand, to back up His deity for when He would begin to openly profess it later in the Gospel story.
Besides, He had been doing miracles for several months now. That was enough proof for anyone who truly was open to belief. These defiant Pharisees wouldn’t have believed in Jesus if Jesus had given them 20 miraculous signs from heaven.
Illus. – This was one of the lessons in Luke 16 when Jesus told the story of the rich man and Lazarus. They both died and Lazarus went to Paradise, that temporary abode of the saved until Christ’s resurrection, while the rich man was in the flames of Hades. He could see Lazarus with Abraham, so he said, “Father Abraham, please send Lazarus to my home to warn my five brothers so they won’t come to this place.”
Abraham responded, if I can paraphrase a little, “Sorry. Ain’t gonna happen.”
The rich man was persistent, and said, “But Father Abraham, I just know that if someone came back from the dead to warn them, they would repent.”
Listen carefully to Jesus’ reply: “If they won’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, they won’t repent even if someone comes back from the dead.” (Luke 16:31)
In other words, faith doesn’t come from signs and wonders—it come from God’s Word. – Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
So it’s no surprise that Jesus would not show the Pharisees a sign…except in Matthew’s telling of the story, Jesus did promise one particular sign to come. We’ll see what that sign was when we get to the end of this sermon.
Jesus’ statement that no sign would be given to that generation inaugurates the beginning of Israel’s rejection of Jesus as their King which culminates in the crucifixion of Christ. Verse 13 says that Jesus and His disciples abruptly left the Pharisees and crossed the Sea of Galilee to the northeastern shore once more. This ended once-and-for-all His public ministry in Galilee.
II. IN VERSES 14-21, WE SEE DISCIPLES TOO THICKHEADED TO UNDERSTAND.
Look at verse 14 – “Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.”
Once in the boat, one of the disciples says, “Hey, who brought the bread?” No one had remembered it, so they only had one little loaf between them. Remember that we learned in an earlier sermon that what is referred to as a “loaf” was really about the size of a large muffin. The disciples were either forgetful, or the haste with which they departed kept them from going down their mental list of things to bring on the trip. Either way, they realized one big muffin wasn’t going be enough for thirteen people—twelve disciples and Jesus.
While they were being earthly minded, Jesus was focused on a spiritual lesson He wanted to teach them in verse 15: “And he cautioned them, saying, ‘Take heed; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.’”
A small amount of leaven, or yeast, spreads and affects a whole loaf of bread dough when they’re mixed together. Yeast was a common metaphor for an invisible, pervasive influence. Sometimes the Bible refers to this influence in positive terms, but often it was used to symbolize a corrupting influence in someone’s life.
Here, Jesus was referring to the gradual increase of unbelief of the Pharisees whom He had encountered earlier in the story. They asked for a sign, yet their minds were already set against Jesus. So Jesus warned the disciples of the corrupting nature of the Pharisees’ unbelief. Refusing to believe would have a corrosive effect on their souls. We have already seen that Jesus taught that unbelief leads to more unbelief and more unbelief leads to God taking away what light has been given and rejected. It’s a dangerous slippery slope.
Did the disciples grasp what Jesus meant?—Nope; not even a little Verse 16 says, “And they began discussing among themselves, saying, ‘It is because we have no bread.’”
Everything Jesus was trying to teach them about the danger of the leaven of the Pharisees went totally over their heads. They heard the word yeast and they immediately jumped to the conclusion Jesus was reproving them for forgetting to bring bread. As if they even NEEDED to bring bread if Jesus was with them. He had already fed a crowd of 5,000 and later a crowd of 4,000 with just a few loaves and fish. It didn’t even occur to them that with Jesus on the boat, it would be nothing for Him to feed 13 hungry men with a muffin-sized loaf of bread!
Look at how Jesus reacted in verses 17-20 – “And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, ‘Why are you talking about not having bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still 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 fragments did you take up?’ They said to him, ‘Twelve.’ 20 ‘And when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?’ And they said, ‘Seven.’”
Illus. – Some people need some extra help, like the man who went into a bank and said he wanted some money. The teller asked him to make out a check, but the man wouldn’t do it.
So he said, “If you won’t sign the check, I can’t give you any money.”
The man went across the street to another bank, where the same conversation took place. But after this exchange the teller reached across the counter, grabbed him by the ears and banged his head three times on the counter, after which the man took out a pen and calmly signed a check.
The man then returned to the first bank and said, “They gave me money across the street.”
The teller asked, “How did that happen?”
The man answered: “They explained it to me!”
Jesus explained it to His disciples by banging their noggins against a bombardment of penetrating questions as a stinging rebuke. In His questions, Jesus departs from the metaphor of the leaven of the Pharisees and rebukes them for their thickheadedness in not thinking beyond temporal matters and not paying attention to the spiritual matters Jesus wanted them to grasp. He was saying in essence: “Why in the world are you talking about BREAD? I’m talking about the pervasive corruption of unbelief, and you’re focused on who forgot the bread? Do you still not see? Do you still not understand? Are your hearts hardened? Can you not see? Can you not hear? don’t you remember?
Then, as if that was not enough, Jesus reminds them of the results of the feeding of the five thousand and the four thousand. He asked them about when He fed the four and the five thousand, how many baskets of fragments did they take up? They answered Him correctly, and yet you get the idea that they sit there with mouths agape thinking, Wow! What was THAT all about? They’re clueless!
Look at verse 21: “And he said to them, ‘Do you still not understand?’”
I think this last question was not a continuation of His previous rebuke, but a searching appeal to the disciples. He was saying, “Now that I have reminded you of the twelve baskets left over in the Jewish feeding and the seven baskets from the Gentile feeding, do you not understand what being with me means? Get your mind off of the things of this life and realize that with me with you, I will supply all your needs. I will take care of you. I will be your spiritual bread. Start listening and understanding who I am and what I can do in your life and this nation and this world.”
The Pharisees were those who WOULD not understand because of their hardheartedness and rebellion, but the disciples COULD not understand because of their focus on the things of this life.
CONCLUSION
What should we take away from today’s sermon?
I have two thoughts:
First, I want you to see that the key to not becoming spiritually dull like the disciples is the practice of REMEMBERING.
When they were worrying about bread, what did Jesus do? – He reminded them of what He had done in the past to provide for them. There’s no better shield against spiritual decline than Christian remembering.
Illus. – In the Old Testament, whenever God did a great miracle or delivered God’s people in a miraculous way, they set up mounds of stones as memorials to remind them of what God had done and to be a teaching tool to show their children and grandchildren what God had done in their midst.
That would be a good practice for us. I wish I had kept a journal of all the wonderful things God has done in my life. It would have helped me through some tough spots when I was lacking in faith.
REMEMBER the times when God delivered you in some great crisis when you go through a crisis today. REMEMBER how God blessed you in the past when you find yourself in want today. REMEMBER God’s comfort in times of discouragement in the past when you find yourself discouraged and downhearted today.
The second thing I want you to see is this: Don’t be a sign-seeker.
There are people like that today—people who say they cannot believe until they see a sign from heaven. But why do any of us really need a sign? The whole world is already full of signs in God’s creation. The greatest signs are revealed in the amazing intricacy of the tiniest cell parts, in the extraordinary power locked up in every single atom, in the magnificence and wonder of the great diversity of all the creatures of the earth, in the splendor of all the universe’s stars and planets, all working in perfect harmony and order and design, in the power of our minds to think and create and build and love and help others.
Paul tells us in Romans 1:19-21 about the lost, “for what may be known of God is plain to them; for God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made, so that they are without excuse.”
The very universe itself is a sign of the reality of God and anyone who will follow that physical revelation of God, God will give that person more light. We need no other sign.
Let’s go back to the Pharisees for a moment. They demanded a sign. In Mark’s account, Jesus just told them that no sign would be given, but that was only part of what Jesus said. Both Matthew and Luke record the full response Jesus gave. Matthew’s account in Matthew 12:38-41 says: “Then some of the scribes and…Pharisees answered, saying, ‘Master, we would see a sign from you.’ 39 But he answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seek after a sign; and there will no sign be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah: 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and, behold, something greater than Jonas is here.’”
Illus. – Comedian Bill Engvall had a hilarious gig pointing out dumb questions that demonstrate the questioner deserves to wear a sign that says, “Not too smart.”
For instance, he says he and his wife were moving from Texas to California, so they were loading a U-Haul truck in front of his house. A neighbor stopped by and asked, “Hey, are you moving?” Bill replied, “Nope. We just pack our stuff up every couple of weeks to see how many boxes it takes. Here’s your sign.”
Another time he says he drove into a service station with a flat tire. The attendant came out and said, “Got a flat tire there?” Bill said, “Nope. While I was driving around these other three tires just swelled up on me. Here’s your sign.”
Jesus must have looked at the Pharisees and thought, You’ve seen my miracles. You’ve heard my teaching. But you still don’t believe? Here’s your sign…it’s the sign of Jonah.
Illus. – A pastor once asked a group of kids, “What is the sign of Jonah?” One kid answered, “A fish.”
He said, “Here’s your sign.”
No, I’m just kidding. That was a good answer for a little kid.
We don’t have to wonder what the sign of Jonah is because Jesus told us what it is. Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a fish, Jesus would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth—in a tomb. Just as Jonah showed up alive on the beach near Nineveh, Jesus was going to walk out of the grave ALIVE FOREVERMORE! That’s your sign.
The single miracle of Jesus that you MUST believe to be saved is His resurrection. In Romans 10:9 Jesus said, “If you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Why didn’t Paul say you must believe in the feeding of the 5,000 or the 4,000, or that Jesus walked on water or that Jesus healed the blind and deaf and lame? It’s because the resurrection of Jesus proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that He is who He claimed to be, the Son of the Living God, alive forevermore. That’s why we celebrate the Lord’s resurrection every Easter.
Illus. – I read about a Texas pastor who begins his church’s Easter celebration at a cemetery every year. A reporter once asked him why they hold the service there instead of in a garden or a beautiful park. He said, “We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus in a cemetery because for 364 days a year, it is a place of sorrow and tears. But on one morning a year, we laugh in the face of death because Jesus has conquered death and the grave.”
Here’s your sign: Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives all fear is gone. Because I know He holds my future and life is worth the living JUST BECAUSE He lives.
