Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How Is God Letting You Down Right Now? | Mark | Mark 8.11-26

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. If this podcast has been helping you in your walk with God, would you take five seconds to help us? Hop onto Twitter and follow our new Twitter account at TMBT Podcast. If you go there, you can see our latest episodes. You can also follow Keith and I and send us messages. We'd love to follow you back and see what's happening in your life.

Starting point is 00:00:34 life. Right now we are asking, who is Jesus? How do you see Jesus? What do you want to see from Jesus? Years ago, I had a friend who wanted a sign from Jesus. He'd been following Jesus since he was a teenager, but life hadn't been what he'd wanted. You know, he had a wife, he had kids, a successful career, but he wanted something more. And then when his wife was diagnosed with MS, that was that. He was done serving Jesus. If Jesus wasn't going to show himself to him, him, he wasn't going to have anything to do with him. So my friend, he took a piece of blank paper, and he put it in a picture frame, and he set it on his desk, and he told God, if you're real, make something appear on this piece of paper. That empty picture frame stood as a constant reminder

Starting point is 00:01:21 to him of the empty reality of God. How do you see Jesus? What do you want from him? The easiest way to know is to ask where you feel like God is letting you down right now. Where is God not showing up? Maybe you're single and you don't want to be. Or maybe you hate your job, or you're battling with constant anxiety. And of course, the question is, did Jesus come to give us spouses, jobs, and an anxiety-free life? Mark was fascinated with this question, how do we see Jesus, and what do we expect from him? And he does an amazing job of smashing together three stories, which are all about how people see, or maybe more aptly, how they miss see Jesus. Let's pick up a Mark 8.11. The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from

Starting point is 00:02:11 heaven. He sighed deeply. I just love that. He was like sighed. He's over it at this point. He sighed deeply and he said, why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly, I tell you, no sign will be given to it. So what did the Pharisees want to see? They want to see an act of power, a proof that Jesus is who he really says that he is. But this is totally ironic because the Pharisees have already seen him heal people who are blind, people who have leprosy, people who are paralyzed. They've seen this guy cast out demons, feed 5,000 people with a few loaves of bread and fish. At every juncture, they have criticized him for his miracles. And they say that he cast out demons by the power of Satan, that he heals on the Sabbath. Jesus isn't a magician. He doesn't just do signs on demand for people,

Starting point is 00:03:01 but they've been given more than enough opportunity to see and to trust. But the point here that Mark's trying to make is even broader. The Pharisees can see nothing, which will actually convince them that Jesus really is the promised king. Sometimes this is true of our hearts, too. I remember meeting a guy who was sleeping with his girlfriend, and he said, Jesus knows that what we're doing, it's not hurting us. We're in love.

Starting point is 00:03:26 And I would stop it if Jesus gave me a sign that we should stop. But if we're not hurting anyone, what's the harm? Now, of course, Jesus had already given him a sign. He explicitly commanded us to keep sex and marriage in Matthew 5 and John 4 and many other places, but that's not the point. No amount of signs would convince this guy that he wasn't the king of his own life. He thought I am the king of my life, and there was no amount of signs that was going to convince them that Jesus was actually the king, and that Jesus actually knew what was best. Where are you waiting for Jesus just to make himself more clear? Oh, if he just give me a clear sign on this, then I would listen to him and obey him. Maybe it's with your money.

Starting point is 00:04:06 Maybe it's with your words, with your anger, with your free time. But the Pharisees weren't alone in misseeing Jesus. We all do it. And guess what? Mark's got another story. So let's pick up in verse 13. Then Jesus left them, got back into a boat, and crossed to the other side. The disciples had forgotten to bring bread except for one love that they had with them in a boat. Be careful, Jesus warned them, watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. They discussed with one another and said, oh, is it because we haven't brought any bread? Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them, why are you guys talking about having no bread? Do you still not see and understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see and ears but fail to hear? And do you not remember?

Starting point is 00:04:51 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? Twelve, they replied. And when I broke the seven loaves, for the 4,000, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? They answered, seven? He said to them, do you still not understand? You get the story. Even Jesus's own disciples miss see Jesus. They're so fixated on their immediate situation. Oh shoot, guys, we forgot the bread today, that they can't be bothered by Jesus's presence in the boat. This seems supposed to be comical, I think. It's like Jesus is over here. He's trying to teach them about the Pharisees and Herod. He's trying to give them lessons, but it's like he's just speaking to thin air. The disciples are talking.

Starting point is 00:05:34 They just don't even hear him. They don't even get it. And when he warns them about the Pharisees, they only keep talking about the bread. When he reminds them that he fed 5,000 people with a few loves, they're still worried about their bread. Again, it's so easy to fall into this exact same trap. We get so fixated on this business deal, on that problem with our child, on this conflict between us and a friend, on that bill that needs to get paid, on that thing that we think we need to by, with that anxiety that we can't shake, that we forget that we're in the boat with King Jesus. Sure, we rarely know exactly what he's going to do. He's not bound by our desires. But nonetheless, King Jesus is in the boat with you. Jesus is in the boat with you, and that means that everything

Starting point is 00:06:18 is going to be okay. That means you don't have to have your situation go perfectly. If he's with you, he will provide, he will guide. He fed 5,000 people with a few loves of bread. and Jesus said to them, do you not still understand? And sometimes I think he says the exact same thing to us. Do you not still understand? I'm in the boat with you. Don't get worried about your bread. I am with you. All of this leads to a final story about seeing Jesus clearly. Verse 22, they came to Beth Sida. And some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus. Jesus, Jesus asked, do you see anything? And he looked up and he said, I see people, but they look like trees walking around. Once more, Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. And then his eyes were opened. His sight was restored and he saw everything clearly. There've been a lot of rather dull minds who point to this passage. And they say this. They say, see Jesus fails sometimes at his miracles. He didn't get it right on the first time. Now, I call them dull because they don't have any

Starting point is 00:07:26 literary sense. In context, Mark and Jesus are making a point. The Pharisees are like the blind man before he's healed. They are totally blind to Jesus. The disciples are like the blind man after he's healed the first time. They see Jesus, but it's blurry. They're still missing the point. But what we all need more than anything else is to be like the blind man in the final stage of healing. To quote Mark, that we would see everything clearly. What you need is to see everything. in particular to see Jesus clearly. And there's only one way for that to happen. Jesus has to heal our inner eyes,

Starting point is 00:08:05 the way that he healed the outer eyes of that blind man. The only way for you to see Jesus clearly is for Jesus to act in your heart, to heal the places where you are anxious and doubting, to grab and refocus you on his grandeur and his goodness. So you need to ask Jesus to allow you to see him clearly, to heal your heart. Because when you see him clearly,

Starting point is 00:08:25 as the king of creation right there in the boat with you, wherever you're at, your life will look totally different. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with? Texting an episode to a friend or a family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How Is God Letting You Down Right Now? | Mark | Mark 8.11-26

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