Only One Loaf

Before I pray, let me do our scripture reading for this morning, because I don't want to miss that. We've been reading through the Gospel of Mark, and we haven't missed that. And so I don't want to miss that. I think it's just kind of fun to be able to do that. So if you're able to, I can't tell you can cheat. But if you want to stand with me, you are more than welcome to do that. As we read Mark, chapter 8, 1421. And this is our passage for this morning. Now, they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, watch out. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. 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? Have your eyes, do you Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember when I broke the five loaves for the 5,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? They said to him, 12. And the seven for the 4,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they said to him, seven. And he said to them, do you not yet understand the Gospel of the Lord? Praise to you, Lord Christ. Let me go ahead and pray, and then we will jump into our text for this morning. Heavenly Father, you're good. You're in control. I thank you that we live in an age where we're able to even do this, that we can jump online onto a social media platform, that we can still in some way engage and interact and ultimately just turn our hearts towards you and that we would just focus on you. I pray that you would just everyone that's listening now or in the future, that you would just open our hearts, open our minds, to be receptive to what you have for us this morning as we look at a passage that is so practical for us right now, right here, today. I need this so bad this morning, and not just this morning, because I'm gonna forget. I'm so prone to forget. I'm so prone to wander, so prone to leave the God that I love. And so would you just help us throughout the week to just keep our eyes fixed on you and to see you for who you really are? We love you, and it's in Christ's name I pray. Amen. All right, well, let's just go ahead and jump into this. So we are in the Gospel of Mark. This is week 24 in the Gospel of Mark, believe it or not. And so if you're watching this or you're listening to this, if you don't know who I am, I'm Brian, the lead pastor of Hope Lowertown and excited to just jump back into this. So the verse, first verse of Mark is he says in the beginning of the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the son of God. This is good news. The gospel, that's what gospel means, is good news. And it's about Jesus. This isn't Mark's gospel. This is Mark's gospel about Jesus. It's the good news about Jesus. He is the Messiah. He's the anointed one. He's the one that everyone's been waiting for. And that's what he's going to do. And he's going to tell us about it. He's going to try to answer the question, kind of, who is this guy? Who is Jesus? Jesus is going to bust onto the scene and he's going to start making everything go crazy in the sense of just. People aren't expecting him to do everything that he's doing. They don't expect the Messiah to respond that way. And it's. That's not political, that he's has authority over his teaching, authority over demons, authority to forgive sins, and authority over nature. And so that's what John is really trying to. To get at. Sorry, my camera is being goofy. See if we can get it. Nope, doesn't matter. We'll leave it right there. Okay. So I asked you that question. What's your go to snack because of this? I don't know if you've ever done this. I have. Maybe because I have a weight problem. That was a Tommy boy reference that when you open the refrigerator and you're like, nothing to eat. There's nothing to eat in here, right? It's full of food, packed so many sauces, so much to eat. And you just go, nothing. There's nothing here. There's nothing to eat. It's not the food isn't the problem. The what is in the fridge. It's how I perceive it. It's how I see the food. Right. It's not what I want exactly at that moment, or it might just take too much work to make that thing. And so that's the problem. So today's passage, as I just read in Mark 8, 14, 21, that the disciples don't see the bread of life sitting in the boat with them. It's right there. The fridge is bursting with food, and they're like, ah, we don't have any bread. We don't have any food. So that's going to be the passage and the text and the sermon this morning. So the title is Only One Loaf. And so let's go and look at this. The first point is leaving his opponents. And. And I want to go back to the end of last week's passage that says this. This is chapter 8. Starting in verse 11, the Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, why does this generation seek a sign? This sign in the spirit is like deep, guttural, just like internal, just exhaustion of pity, of love and compassion. It's just in him. He sighs deeply and says, why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation. And he left them and he got into the boat and went to the other side. The point that I'm trying to make here is that Mark is setting this stage for the passage that we're looking at now. Right. Two thousand years ago, Mark was like, you know what? This will. This will preach. This will be a really good stopping point to set up the next sermon for the next week. Obviously, that's not the case, but it would seem that at first glance that Jesus leaves his opponents on the beach, right? He's like, Pharisees, you stay. I'm going to get with my guys and we're going to get in the boat and we're going to go to their side. It seems like he. He leaves his opponents on the beach, but the truth is 12 other opponents stay in the boat with him. And that's what we're going to see in the passage today. They just don't see Jesus for who he is. They don't hear his message. Peter here again is most likely the one that's in he. Well, he is, as far as tradition and everything we know historically is sharing all of this with Mark, who's writing this down, who's the gospel that we have. So Peter is the one in the boat, and we're going to see Peter specifically, especially over the next couple weeks, really put his foot in his mouth. And this is just to get nerdy. Historical authenticity, which is called the criterion of embarrassment, meaning Peter is the one sharing the story to Mark. And yet it is incredibly embarrassing for Peter, like the first pope to make himself look like a fool. And that adds to the credibility and the authenticity of the story. And that's exactly what's going on here. So let's look at this loaf. Second point is one. One loaf. So just the first part of verse 14. Now, they had forgotten to bring bread. Okay, this should just. Again, most people, when they were reading this in the first century, were reading the gospel quickly through that. There wasn't weeks of little portions. There might have been at some point, but you have to imagine Mark is making his point. He just got done talking about the feeding of the 5,000. He just got done talking about the feeding of the 4,000. He just got done talking about the Pharisees demanding a sign and then jumping it over to the parallel passage in John. Let me go ahead and read that. Just talking about the bread, he says. And they said to him, all right. He says, I am like the bread. He multiplies the bread as the feeding of the 5,000. And he says, what must we do to be doing the works of God? Okay, what do we got to do to do the works of God? Jesus answered them, this is the work of God. Ready? Here's the work of God. You want to be saved. You want to make sure that you have salvation or you're. Your sins are forgiven in God, that you are made righteous. You want that? Here's what you do. These are the works. These are the works that you believe in him whom he has sent. Jesus says, you want righteousness? Believe in me. Believe in me. That. That's the work. So they said to him, well, what sign do you have? What sign do you have that we may see and believe you? He just fed the 5,000 bread. What sign do you have? What work do you perform? And they say, our fathers ate manna in the wilderness. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Like, yeah, Jesus, it's really cool. You fed us once. Ooh, can you do it for 40 years? Can you sustain us for that long? Then Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. The bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And they said to him, sir, give us this bread always. And Jesus said, I am e go I me. This ancient phrase of the name of God he invokes again, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. And whoever believes in me shall not thirst. And so we go back to our passage and says, now, they had forgotten to bring bread. Then Mark adds, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. Now, what does Mark mean by that phrase, they only had one loaf with them, the boat? It means they only had one loaf with them in the boat. Okay, we don't want to over allegorize or over spiritualize or symbolize what Mark is saying about the bread. Bread in the Gospel of Mark always means bread. It just does. It's always a physical bread. Mark is not referring to Jesus being the loaf of bread in the boat. That's John, really, that looks at that of, I am the bread of life. They forgot physical bread. And they're worried then about not bringing enough actual bread. After all the bread stuff that happened, they're worried about not having bread. That's what Mark's point is trying to make. However, even though we don't want to over allegorize this, we know the rest of the story. We have John. And so even though Mark specifically in this passage isn't saying they forgot all the bread, but they only had one loaf. But Jesus is the loaf. He's the fridge full of food right in front of him. They're like, we got nothing to eat. It's right there. They don't see him clearly. They get glimpses of who he is. They hear his teachings, they hear about his parables, but they don't understand who he is and what he's all about. The disciples are worried about physical bread. When the bread of life is in the boat, who has been multiplying bread? The fridge is full, but they just don't see anything to eat. So let's go to the third point, the leaven. What's going on with the leaven? And he cautioned them, saying, this is verse 15. Watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. There's two very strong warnings of even commands. Commands of warning or warnings of command. The watch out and beware. But what is Jesus warning about? He says, the leaven or the yeast, Right? Watch out for the yeast or the leaven of the Pharisees. There's a parallel passage in Matthew chapter 16. That talks about that. This teaching, the warning. He gives a warning of the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He says it's the teaching of. Of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. But here in Mark, it's a little bit different. And so we got to try to figure out why. I don't think it's just the fact that Peter misremembered or Matthew remembered differently. I think that this could be a similar warning in that Jesus taught in different ways at different times. And so I really do think it is the Pharisees in Herod here that Jesus is talking about. But why? We don't need to get into like a super explicit, you know, teaching of what is yeast and get into a science class. But we know the difference between a flat bread and a bread that has yeast, that it. It expands, it ferments, it grows. And so we got to be able to say, well, what's the difference? If we go back to Exodus, that when, when the Israelites were leaving Egypt, after God had set them free, they were commanded to not put yeast in their bread, they had a quick fry bread, matzo or tortilla or pita bread. It's all kind of the same type of style of dough that's fried quickly and it doesn't need time to rise. So God said, don't even put yeast. I don't want you to wait for it to rise. You got to go. It's time to go. Yeast takes time. It's going to grow. But the whole point that Jesus is making is that a little bit of yeast will spread and go through the whole thing. Could be a natural yeast just from the air or whatever, but it doesn't matter. That's not important. What's important is that he's saying that a little bit of yeast can totally change the whole thing. So just beware of what's going on between these two parties, the Pharisees and Herod. So what in the world is Jesus warning about? Or maybe another way that we could ask that, or to think about it, is what do the Pharisees and Herod Antipas have in common? Because they don't have a whole lot in common. So if we can find the common denominator, then we can maybe find. Hone in on what Jesus is warning about. The first thing that I don't think it is, some commentaries will go there. Maybe you've heard this before. Hey, look, there's a plow truck. We're free. It's not true. What? Squirrel. Sorry. So what was the warning about? Most likely not about Roman occupation. Okay, here's why it most likely wasn't Roman occupation is that the Pharisees don't really care a whole lot about Roman occupation. They care about God. They care about Yahweh, they care about obeying the Torah and then the Mishnah and the Talmud, as those of you who've been around Lower Town understand that. So they didn't really care about the Romans other than, hey, they're occupying our land. We don't really like them. We'd rather be free in our own land. But as long as they don't interfere with our faith, well, then it doesn't really matter a whole lot. And that's where they were. Whereas Herod. Herod Antipas lives off of the power of Rome. He is groveling at Emperor Tiberius feet. And this is a really big deal. So they don't really have that in common. Another thing they don't have in common is their demand for signs. The Pharisees will demand signs, and Herod Antipas is definitely interested and curious in Jesus, but Mark doesn't really get into that a whole lot. And even at the crucifixion, it's lacking a little bit compared to other passages to show Antipas intrigue in Jesus. So I don't think it's this idea of demanding aside what I do think and what other commentaries. And our boy James Edwards would agree or I would agree with him. Most likely their opposition is the result of disbelief in Jesus. And disbelief is also fermenting among the disciples in the boat. Okay, hear what James is doing there, right? Like, he's using this double entendre here of the yeast, right? The yeast is spreading. It's fermenting among the disciples in the boat. The yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod appears to be the misunderstanding or even disbelief of the disciples. That would be, in effect, as adversarial as that of Antipas and the Pharisees. Okay? This is a big deal that this disbelief that they have. They're in the boat, just left the Pharisees on the shore, and Jesus says, oh, no, no, you, You. You're still here. My. My adversaries, my opponents are still in the boat with me. The fourth point is not seen clearly. And it says this in verse 16, Jesus is going to ask seven questions. You can hear a little bit of his weariness as he asked his disciples this question. And they began to discuss one another, the fact that they had no bread, okay? So they say, we don't have any bread. We just got this one loaf. And he's like, who is supposed to bring bread, right? Peter's like, hey, I know I'm not the bread guy who was supposed to bring bread, right? And Mark, John's like, I think it was Judas. Judas was supposed to bring the bread. And he's like, why am I always the bad guy, right? They don't have any bread. Like, well, I've got one loaf. Well, there's a bunch of us. One loaf's not going to do it. And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Why are we even talking about this? That's the first question, do you not yet perceive? Second question, do you not yet understand? Third question, are your hearts hardened? Fourth question, fifth question is, having eyes, do you not see? And six, having ears, do you not hear? And seven, and do you not remember seven questions? Now, Mark doesn't record the Lord's Prayer, but the disciples at this stage of their life would have already heard this. It was a very familiar teaching. Jesus didn't just say it one time. It was something that he would have repeated multiple times. And so in Matthew, chapter 6, 9, 11. Let me read this part of our Lord's Prayer, something that we're all very familiar with. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Jesus isn't teaching about just our physical bread. He is the bread. He is the fridge that's there. There's plenty to go around daily. And this is something that really hit me this week as I was studying this passage, is that I wholeheartedly, completely trust God with all of my being, that he has saved my soul for eternity. And yet I struggle to believe that he is in control of Tuesday. You know what I mean, that I trust him with my soul. But I know that on Tuesday, I'm going to go pick up a rental car. And I know I am going to be an emotional wreck. I'm going to be sweating, I'm going to be anxious, I'm going to ruin the whole vacation if I don't get this car thing figured out. I just know it. I know that's how I get when I'm not in control of something. I'm not in control of my salvation, and I trust him with that. So why in the world do I get so worked up and thinking that Jesus can't control this thing, that he isn't my daily bread, that he isn't the bread that is right in the boat with me? I need control. I need this thing. So why should I, in comparison, get worked up about something infinite, infinitely smaller and more Insignificant these issues right here right in front of me than I. Than I wouldn't about my salvation. I just don't see Jesus the same as the disciples. Jesus is teaching the disciples a lesson. But we are disciples of Jesus and we can look at him say, yeah, you're the Messiah. Yeah, but I don't. Yeah, this thing, that thing. I don't know if you're in really in control of that. I think I need to own that. The last point that I have for us is not yet verse 19. When I broke the five loaves and the. For the 5,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they said to him, 12. And then for the seven to 4,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you not take up? And they said to him, 7. Again, I mentioned this last week. Let's not get caught up in what numbers mean. Mark doesn't really seem to do that a whole lot. I think that the 12 baskets means 12 baskets, the 7 baskets means 7 baskets. Or they're actually different size baskets if you really want to get technical. So just, let's just not get worked up in the numbers. But this. I love what Jesus says to them, right? So they respond, 12 baskets, seven baskets. And then he said to them, do you not yet understand? Do you not yet understand? The answer to my problem has been right next to me the whole time. I know that I talk about my Jeep probably a little bit too often. Former Jeep, obviously. RIP Miss it a lot. Actually just last night was talking to Angela, I was like, man, these, these are the days I missed that Jeep because I used to just drive around in the deep snow for fun. I'd have my tow rope with me and I would pull people out of the snow. I love doing that. I miss that. But there was a little bit of a love hate relationship with that Jeep, right? I was always working on it. I. I remember distinctly years ago, back when we, you know, 10 years ago. And I had. It wouldn't start. Jeep would not turn on and I would tinker with it. And I was just outside. It felt like all day working on this, trying to figure out why is this thing not. It just nothing. You'd turn it and it wouldn't click. It wouldn't nothing. And it wasn't the battery. It wasn't. I couldn't figure it out. And I was already a fan of this YouTube channel called Bleeping Jeep. And. And I went on there and I'm looking around. What in the world, what in the world could it be. And I finally stumbled on it, what the problem was. And it's called a neutral safety switch. And basically there's this control safety thing that's on the. The transmission that won't. It just won't send a signal if this thing is bad. And as I looked at it, it was just covered in corrosion and oil and all that. And it said, yeah, you can clean it up. You can replace it for a couple hundred bucks, or you could put your jeep in neutral and it'll bypass that signal and it'll start right up, put it in neutral, fired right up. And every once in a while, I'd get in my Jeep, nothing. I go, oh, I know how to solve this. The answer has been here the whole time. Jesus has been in the boat the entire time. We just don't see him clearly yet. Yet. It's an ongoing, lifelong thing that we need to see. And so disbelief or unbelief doesn't always look like the Pharisees or Herod of just like, get out of here, Jesus. Get out of here. We don't want you. Sometimes unbelief, disbelief is worrying that he just isn't there. It's not just, oh, Jesus isn't in the boat. He's just. He's gone. Just get out of here. It's just saying, yeah, I don't know if you're actually here. I don't know if you're actually here with me. You're not really in the boat. I mean, you're here physically, but are you really here for me? Do you really care for me? And so just our Gospel application. In closing, I just have this phrase that I took from the passage in John that I read, and that is believe in him whom he has sent. It's simple, really. There's two ways of looking at this. One is for eternity. Yes, that feels so out of my control. But, yes, I can put my faith in Jesus. I can believe in Him. Yeah, he's got that. He has to have that, because I can't do that on my own. But then there are other things that pop up in my life on an almost daily basis. Well, for sure, on a daily basis that I feel like I should be able to control, or I have a little bit of control, and that makes me think I want all the control. And that's when we don't believe in him, who he has sent, we take our eyes off of Jesus. Eternity. Sure, no problem. Tuesday. Yikes. This might. I don't normally do this, but I just, for whatever reason, it popped in my head. And I'm going to say it to you. If there are going to be times this week, today even, where you're going to get a little worked up about something, maybe it's. Maybe it comes out as anger, anxiety, frustration, whatever it may be. And I want you to, like. I mean, maybe actually do this. Like, close your eyes, and I want you to picture yourself on a boat. And you're looking, you're searching for that thing. That if you found that thing, you would feel satiated, you'd feel satisfied, not necessarily happy, right? That if everything goes well with the rental car and I get there and they're like, Mr. Silver, we've been waiting for you. Here's your card, right. That might not. I mean, I might. That might make me happy. It probably would make me happy, but it would make me feel calm. It'd make me feel at peace, right? So when I'm closing my eyes and I'm thinking about that thing that I'm looking for, a lot of times it's not even like a tangible thing. Sometimes it is a physical thing, like a neutral safety switch. But a lot of times it's not. It's intangible. It's peace, it's comfort, it's safety, it's security, it's financial, it's whatever, all these different things. And I want you to think about that. You're searching for this thing, you're searching for bread, right in the boat with you, and you just can't find it. And then as you're looking down at your feet, looking for this bread, and then all of a sudden, you look up and Jesus is standing there and he's looking at you, and he just smiles at. And he says, I've been here the whole time. Like, I'm right here. And maybe, just maybe that will just help us. It'll help me just to go, yeah, man, He's. He's right here in the boat with me. I just need to see him more clearly. If he's got my soul, he's got this thing, too. For whatever reason, this thing, too is just a little bit harder for me to believe. We're not going to have communion this morning, obviously, I mentioned at the beginning. And so I want you just to spend some time in prayer. Might be individual prayer of repentance. It could be corporate prayer. Repentance of forgiveness, of joy, of thanking God for who he is, of singing. But then belief, he says, believe in me. And so would we believe that he's in the boat with us. So let me go ahead and pray and then we'll close this thing down. Thank you all for coming to this and listening, but let me go ahead and pray and then we'll be done with this morning. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for sending Jesus. We read about that today in John, that. That he is the one whom you have sent. And not just for our eternal salvation and our righteousness that he gives to us, but for Tuesday as well. That moment by moment, I just want control. I want to completely do things on my own. And then I get anxious and worried when I can't fix it, when I can't find it. And Jesus is saying, I'm right here. I'm on the boat with you. Believe in me. Look at me. See me clearly. So, God, would that be us this morning as we move forward throughout our lives and just this week and even today, even that, we would just keep our eyes fixed on you, the. The bread of life. Thank you for who you are. Thank you for what you're doing. Thank you for the snow. Thank you for keeping everyone safe. And I pray that we would just honor and glorify you now as we stay home, as we redeem the time, the rest of our day. For your honor and your glory. We love you. And it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.