Jesus is All You Need | Who Do You Say Jesus Is? | Grace Community Church Willow Street

As I shared at the 8:00 clock service this morning what a privilege it is to carry everything to God in prayer. Amen. Let's bow together and talk to him. Father, we are so grateful for your work evidenced in so many ways this morning. I thank you for what you've brought to the forefront for us in the form of ambassadors football ministry. And we thank you for Jon and for JP and all that they've shared for what they're doing. We thank you for the staggering numbers that you have allowed us to witness through the effectiveness of their ministry. We thank you that your work is far reaching with them. And Lord, we look forward and we pray for the strengthening of both John and JP and the coaches and all of their partners. God, we pray for wisdom and endurance and God, as big as what the numbers of impact are that we hear from them, Father, I pray for even bigger. You're that kind of God that can take them further. Great God. So we pray for the expansion not only of territory for them, but the expansion of ministry that many people might find saving grace of Jesus Christ through what they offer. And we give you thanks for what they're doing. We give you thanks for what you're doing right here, right now in the sanctuary. It is good to be your church assembled together. It is good to have the freedoms that we do to be able to pray and interact with you, Lord God, knowing that you are faithful and that you hear our prayers. And I would pray that you just let our hearts and our minds and ultimately our actions overflow this morning with gratitude for you Christ, that we might be a people that is bursting forth with praise and allow that to just impact what transpires here in the room this morning. Father, we give you thanks for the fact that you've been at work in a powerful way in the lives of people of our congregation, that they have given their lives to you. And now this week we'll be declaring that saving grace through baptism. We thank you that that is such a momentous event. And I pray even now that you will safeguard these new converts, that you will grow them in faith and make them powerful in the Holy Spirit. We pray for the impact of their testimony even now, Great God, that the hearing of that would impact friends and families and neighbors and just allow that reach to be able to bring the Gospel powerfully and experientially to people. God, we think also of the new believers class and we give you thanks for that, that you are leading people into Christ and forming in them the desire to grow as Disciples. And so we pray for that up and coming work that you will allow for those people to be able to have the freedom to ask the questions on their hearts, to gain the answers from our leaders, to allow them to be rallied around and grown as effective and mature disciples in faith. God, we thank you for your work in so many ministries that we have here, work that helps the broken and the lost. We thank you for our cancer support groups, our grief support groups. We thank you for the dementia support groups and others. And especially in a week where there has been such profound tragedy among the young, we just commend these children to you knowing that your hand is upon their families now. Your grace is abundant and we pray in their pain and their loss and their grief and their brokenness that you can minister so specifically beyond even what we can ask or imagine that your presence can be made known to them. Christ, with abundant and deep love, would you cultivate them in a relationship with you, Great God, would you cultivate us as people, responsive and ready and reaching out to them that they would feel the embrace of Jesus through the people of gcc? We love them and we pray them blessing, Father. We think of the close of the collection for the offering of shoeboxes for Romania. We think of the impact that they will have through the hands of Lucien and Rebecca Avendani. And we pray for their ministry. My brother's keeper right now, that the administration of those shoeboxes to so many might bring not just blessing, but the gospel would be made so clear and prevalent and that you expand their territory and reach as a result, that many might come to know the saving grace of Jesus there. We think of the great work of children that they're doing. And we turn our eyes right here to the, to the confines of gcc and we recognize that you're doing good things there, that the upcoming parenting conference led by Kate and Brad Aldrich is going to be a powerful thing. And I pray for them in advance that you would empower them with wisdom and clarity in their teaching and that for the parents who attend there that you would bring them back to their homes encouraged and that they would be equipped to lead with love and with faith. Great God, we thank you that you have initiated things like our small groups and our fall Bible studies and the Bible Origins class and the devotional writing class. And I, I would pray even in advance of things that you would guard our participants in that from pride and unbelief and simultaneously God, would you deepen their understanding? Would you deepen our understanding as a church and make us willing to obey because of what your word says. And as we are here today anticipating your word, Father, I pray your blessing upon Pastor Mike. I pray that you will bring him clarity and conviction. I pray that you'll allow him to deliver in humility and great love. And I pray that you'll help his word to be faithfully communicated to us so that we can have direct response to you. Lord Jesus, I pray that you'll quiet the distractions of our hearts this morning. I pray that you'll also soften our resistances and let us hear and move and work so that the decisions and conversations and relationships of our lives are impacted by what you share with us today. Lord, would you just entrust all these needs, these people, these ministry, these leaders, these servants to you. We recognize that your compassion is so far reaching, it's greater than our own, and we praise you for that. We thank you that you have the wisdom to see beyond our own eyes. And we thank you that we belong to you because of Jesus. We thank you that we are able to rest in your care and remember and rely upon your great faith this morning. God, you are worthy of our love, you are worthy of our trust, and you are certainly worthy of all our praise now and always. And these things we lift to you in the powerful and the precious name of Jesus and all God's people said, amen. I have the privilege of sharing the Word with you. From the Book of Mark, we're looking at chapter eight, verses one through 21, and I'm sharing from the new international version. You could find that on our screens, on your devices, on the pages of your Bible. Let's read together. During those days, another large crowd gathered. And since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I have compassion for these people. They've already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way because some of them have come a very long distance. And his disciples answered, but where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them? How many loaves do you have? Jesus asked. Seven, they replied. And he told the crowd to sit down on the ground. And when he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. And they did so. They had a few small fish as well. He gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. And the people ate and they were satisfied. And afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. About 4,000 people were present, and he sent them away. And after he sent them away, he got into a boat with his disciples and went to the region of Dabanutha. The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him. They asked for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply and said, why does this generation look for a sign? Truly, I tell you, no sign will be given to it. And then he left them and got back into the boat and crossed to the other side. The disciples had forgotten to bring bread except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. Be careful. Jesus warned them, watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. And they discussed this with one another and said, it's because we have no bread. Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them, why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember when I broke up the five loaves for the 5,000, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? 12, they replied. And when I broke the seven loaves for the 4,000, how many basketfulS of pieces did you pick up? And they answered, seven. And he said to them, do you still not understand? Here ends the reading of God's word. May he add his blessing to it. Thank you very much, Pastor Bill. So I want to ask you a question this morning. Have you ever been unable to get a song out of your mind? Have you ever been in that position where it just running through your mind and you're just hearing that tune? Or maybe you're hearing the tune plus the lyrics. I had that experience this week as I was Studying Mark, chapter 8, verses 1 through 21. And when I have that experience, I often can't get the lyrics. And so I might be able to get one or two words or a brief phrase. And I have to go down the hall and I have to stop to see Patty or stop to see Alyssa. And then I try to whistle the tune and I try to give them the word or two. And if they're not available, on occasion, I've been known to call Jenny and say, listen to this. And then I try to whistle to her through the phone and then ask her what song I'm whistling. Well, this week it was a song that's a gospel song. Haven't heard it in years. I heard it by the Hemphills, and it kept going through my mind. And finally I tracked it down. Ah, this is the song. This is what I believe to be an appropriate theme song for Mark, chapter 8, verses 1 through 21. Here are the lyrics. He's still working on me to make me what I need to be. It took him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars. How loving and patient he must be. Cause he's still working on me. Can you read that with me? How loving and patient he must be because he's still working on me. Every one of us here are works in progress. Every one of us are works in progress. He's still working on Mike Sigmund. He's still working on you. We are not what we ought to be, but we are making progress day by day as we walk with Jesus Christ. Can you say Amen to that? Oh, boy. Yeah, you're on it. You know it. And so this morning, as we study Mark 8, 1 21, that's the theme. He is still working on us. And these verses cover roughly a day in the life of Jesus. I'm going to break them down as we study this morning into three scenes. And scene number one opens with Mark 8:1. During those days, another large crowd gathered. Now, it's an interesting phrase, those days. And he's referring actually back to the days that we left in Mark chapter 7, where Jesus was in the region of the Decapolis, a Gentile region, non Jewish region. He healed the daughter of a Syrophoenician woman. He healed a deaf and mute man. And you remember that the response was utter amazement, truly excitement from the crowd. The Word of God says in Mark 7:36, the more he did, the more they kept talking about it. And the more they talked about it, the larger the crowds became. Until looking at Matthew 15, the companion to Mark chapter 8, great crowds came to Jesus, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the dumb, and many others, and laid them at his feet and he healed them. Now, Mark tells us that this experience went on for three full days. And on the third day, Jesus called his disciples to him. And he said this to I have compassion for these people. They've already been with me for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way. Because some of them have come a long distance. His disciples. His disciples. His disciples who've been walking with him especially Since Mark chapter six, when there were 5,000 men and women and children to be fed. His disciples responded to him. And they said, but where in this remote place, can anyone get enough bread to feed them? Now, we have the benefit of having read Mark 6, the feeding of the 5,000 men, plus women and children. We've had the benefit of studying it in a sermon just a few weeks ago. And when you read this question from the disciples, you should be saying to yourself, what's wrong with them? What do you mean? Where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread and to feed them? Don't you remember what happened just a few chapters ago? Well, of course they didn't have the chapters in Mark. They're concerned that they're in a remote place. And I will say this. All weekend I've been trying to contextualize this saying. You know, Kirkwood is a remote place and Holwood is a remote place, and you can't get bread in those places. There are apparently more rest. More places to get bread in those places than anybody ever knew. So I'm not even going to mention it because I've been caught up short on every one of those. This remote place, no bread. How in the world are we going to be able to feed these people? And it's so familiar to our ears. And you have to say, what's wrong with these men? They have already seen Jesus take five loaves of bread, break them into pieces, divide them among baskets and. And feed tens of thousands of people. And they're asking him, well, Jesus, how are we going to feed these people? There are 4,000 of them, by the way, so interesting that Dr. David Garland writes that the disciples are slow on the uptake. How many of you have ever. Don't raise your hand. How many of you have ever been slow on the uptake? How many of you who are here with your spouse would say, my spouse is often slow on the. Don't raise your hand on that one either. Garland writes, they are slow in the uptake and grope for answers in the dark, expecting nothing miraculous from Jesus. Where Jesus, are we going to get enough bread in this remote place to feed these 4,000 people who you have been talking to now and healing for three days? Where are we going to get that bread? You know what's so interesting about that? In the face of their scanty supplies, they have the bread of life with them who is able to feed the entire world? Jesus says to them, how many loaves do you have? And they say, seven. At which point Jesus does what only Jesus can do. The word of God tells us that he invited the crowd to be seated. He took the seven loaves of bread he broke them as he did the five loaves in Mark 6. He added, According to the Bible, two fish or several fish that they found. He gave thanks to his Father in heaven. He told the disciples then to distribute the food. And once again the disciples served thousands from what must have been bottomless baskets of bread. The word of God says this. The people ate and they were satisfied. It's interesting that one way to translate the Greek word for satisfied is that they were stuffed full. It relates to how you feel on Thanksgiving when you go back one time too many to the table. You're stuffed full and stuffed full of food and amazed by Jesus power. The Bible says that Jesus sent the crowd away. And as the crowd dispersed, he got into a boat and he invited the disciples to join him. And they launched out in the Sea of Galilee to a port of call called Dalmanutha. Now, we don't know where Dalmanutha was. We don't know where it is today. We're not sure how important it was that that's where they went. But what we do know is that when they got to Dalmanutha, the welcoming party there was anything but a welcome sight. Mark, chapter eight, verses 11 and 12 opens scene two of our story. The Pharisees came. The Pharisees came. The Pharisees came. You know who the Pharisees are? They're the people that you see in aisle number five at the grocery store, and you decide to go to aisle number seven. The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus, to test him. They asked him for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply and said, why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it. Now, the Pharisees may be designated as the spiritual leaders of Israel, but they are anything but spiritual. We Learned in Mark 1 through 7 that they hate Jesus, that they are threatened by Jesus. At one point in the Gospel of Mark, we learned that they were plotting to kill Jesus. But they're also clever and they're savvy. And they know that Jesus is popular. And they know that they need to be careful how they treat Jesus and how they act toward Jesus. And so maybe it's best if we test him to discredit him with the crowds so that they will disperse and not continue to follow him. After all, we've got to get rid of the influence of Jesus Christ. And so the Word of God says that to test him, they said to him, we want a sign from heaven. Now, what's interesting about this Verse is that the last time we read the word test in this particular form was In Mark chapter 1, verse 13, when the devil took him into the wilderness and tested him seems to put the Pharisees in league with the devil himself. Both of them hating Jesus, both of them trying to discredit Jesus, both of them trying to cause Jesus to be tempted and to do something that Jesus was not sent by his Father to do. We want a sign from heaven. The miracles that you perform. This is another way of saying the miracles that you performed heretofore are not enough for us. Well, we already know what they think of those miracles, don't we? They thought that they were generated by the power of the devil in Jesus. No, those miracles aren't enough. We want a sign from heaven. We want you to perform a dazzling sign, an apocalyptic sign that is so incredible that it cannot be interpreted in any other way than to say this is clearly from God. William Barclay, English commentator, writes, they wish to see something, some shattering event blazing across the horizon, defying the laws of nature and astonishing people. Oh, then, then they might believe that he's the Messiah. But Jesus saw through their evil plan as he sees through us and knows exactly what we're thinking and even the intent of our hearts. He saw the evil, defiant intent of the Pharisaic hearts. No amount of signs would convince them because they didn't want to be convinced. They wanted rid of Jesus. And notice what Jesus did. He sighed deeply. He was grieved by their stubborn unbelief. He was wearied by their bitter efforts to discredit him. One scholar simply writes the Pharisees challenge his faithfulness and provoke his irritation. And what does Jesus do Next? Mark chapter 8, verse 13. Then he left them, got back in the boat and crossed on the other side. He turned his back on them and he went in a different direction. Scene 3 Scene 3 finds the Disciples back in the boat with Jesus. But incredibly, the disciples are still fixated on bread. Incredibly, back in the boat, the disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf that they had with them. In the boat, Jesus has just fed 4,000 people with seven loaves and a few fish. The baskets, the word for basket that was used for the leftovers and the feeding of the 4,000 in Mark chapter eight. It's actually a word for a larger basket than the one in Mark chapter six. Filled with leftovers. Incredible miracle of God. And the disciples were right there in the front line. They're feeding out of these baskets and they don't go Dry. They're filled with bread. They've seen Jesus take five loaves and two fish and feed tens of thousands. They've seen Jesus take seven loaves, a few fish and and feed 4,000. They have, by the way, in the course of all that, watched Jesus still the winds and the waves walk on top of the winds and the waves. They have seen him do incredible, miraculous work. They get back in the boat, hey, we only have one loaf of bread with us. And they're worried about their lunch. And Jesus is concerned about their lives. They're worried about their lunch. And Jesus is concerned about their lives. Having just interacted with the Pharisees and witnessed the evil intent of their hearts, Jesus doesn't want his disciples to become like the Pharisees. Mark 8, 15. Be careful. Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. Jesus is taking a common, everyday ingredient, bread making. And he's using it to communicate a powerful truth and a warning. Yeast has an unseen but pervasive influence in bread dough, causing it to rise and change. Be careful of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod in your life, because their yeast is unseen, but it is pervasive and it can change you. What is the yeast of the Pharisees? It is their sinful hypocrisy. Righteous on the exterior. They wear the right clothes, they say the right things, they do the right acts. But their hearts are wicked and deceitful, corrupt beyond measure. Beware of the sin and the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, that it not lodge inside of you and become pervasive in your heart and your life. Beware of the yeast of Herod. Some scholars choose to define it as separate from others say it's similar to when we studied Herod. We know that he was double minded. We know that he loved to listen to the word of God as preached by John the Baptist. But oh my, he was concerned most for his own reputation. And so when the opportunity came to preserve himself, he had John beheaded. Double minded. A form of hypocrisy. Don't you get it yet? You're concerned about lunch. I'm concerned about your life. Be careful. Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod. I don't want you to fall into that trap. I don't want you to become hypocrites, sinners nursing evil in your hearts. On the night that he was betrayed, one of them fell to this Judas. Don't. Don't. But what's not surprising is that Jesus is warning went right over their head. The word of God says that after he warned them, they looked at each other and said, is he talking about bread? No. They were fixated on bread and he was focused on their lives and so wondering what Jesus was saying. This is what he said to them. Mark 8:17. Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them, why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see? And ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the 5,000, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? 12, they replied. And when I broke the seven loaves for the 4,000, how many basketfulS of pieces did you pick up? Seven, they answered. And Jesus said to them, do you still not understand? Now do the math. Eight questions. Why? Because Jesus wanted to bring the disciples face to face with their hard hearts and their dull minds. He wanted them to remember what he has done for them and from those mighty acts to remember who he is. He is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Lord of all. Amen. Say it with me. He is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Lord of all. Nothing is impossible with Jesus. Do you still not understand? And the answer to that question apparently is no, not yet. But he's still working on them. He's still working on them to make them what they need to be. To make them what they ought to be. Many scholars have pointed to the word still as being a very important word. And do you still not understand it? It sort of communicates, I'm with you and I'm going to stay with you. If you don't understand now, I trust you will. And so it is with you and me. He is still working on me. I'm just talking about Mike Sigmund, not this song. When I think about my Christian life, I am grateful today that Jesus is long suffering. Now that is not a word that we commonly use. I would suspect that none of us have used it this week. You didn't walk around the west lane, Peter Fair saying, you know, she is so long suffering. What does it mean? It means long tempered. It means slow to anger, quick to be patient. Cool man. Given the right circumstances and ingredients, I am quick to anger and slow to be patient. How about you? But Jesus is long suffering. He shows Mike Sigmund great patience. When I am slow on the uptake, and I'll raise my hand on that one when it takes me a long Time to understand something that is obvious or to trust Jesus in an area where he has already shown himself to be faithful. What's wrong with you, Sigmund? Here's a stumbling block for me. Just be vulnerable with you worry. It has been for years. I was a young preacher in Baltimore preaching from Matthew chapter six. In my first six months in ministry until I got to the end of the message, I gave an altar call and I was the one who went first because it's a stumbling block for me. I find myself worrying about things in the present that Jesus has brought me through in the past. He's been faithful before. Why in the world am I worrying about it now? Am I like he can or he won't be faithful again? English commentator William Barclay summarized Jesus conversation with the disciples about their lack of bread on the boat. This way, he wrote, it is as if he said, why all the worry? Don't you remember what happened before? Hasn't experience taught you that you don't need to worry about things like that if you are with me? And it was that last question that grabbed me. On Friday I was done with the sermon. I was happy with it. I didn't want to have to change anything. And I read this because I was sitting in my office. I wonder what Barclay says. Oh my goodness. Hasn't experience taught you, Mike Sigmund, that you don't need to worry about things like that if you are with me, Jesus? I want experience to teach me that. I know that that's true. But when I worry, I behave as if I don't understand that you are with me, that you care about me, that you are powerful to work in my life and and that I can trust you whatever challenges I face in life. What I worry I behave as if Jesus has not cared for me in the past. And that's a lie because no one has ever cared for me like Jesus. Barclay writes that if we would remember that when we reached the breaking point, before we did not break, when a problem seemed insoluble before it was able to be solved, when temptation came before we did not fail, when we were at our wits ends, before we were able to go on, all because Jesus was with us and is at work in our lives. And Jesus never fails. If we would only read the lessons of experience aright, it would teach us not the pessimism of the things that cannot be, but the hope which stands amazed that God has brought us thus far in safety and in certainty and the confidence that God can bring us through anything that may happen in our lives, present and in the future. And so I want to ask you a question today. What challenge are you facing today in your life? What worry are you carrying alone? What burden are you bearing? Because you've somehow convinced yourself that you've got to figure it out? And could you? Would you be willing to hear Jesus Christ, the son of God, the Lord of all, say to you, come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest? Would you take my yoke upon you? And would you understand that in taking my yoke upon you, I will do the heavy lifting? I will bear what is overwhelming to you. I will see you through what you cannot see yourself. I've done it before for you. I want to do it again. You understand that? I read the I fed the 5,000 plus all their families. I fed the 4,000. I stilled the wind and the waves. I walked on top of them. Remember who I am. And remember I love you. This is how Jesus speaks. I love you more than anyone else. Would you give him your challenge, your worry and your burden and let him bear it? Let's pray together. Jesus, I stand here, I believe in the gap for a lot of folks who are gathered in the sanctuary today, confessing that I am too often thick, dull. Rather than having an immediate response of surrender to you and pleading my case with you and giving my challenge to you and surrendering my worry to you and bending over and letting the cares, the burdens that I'm bearing, roll off onto you, I try to bear them myself. I sit and wring my hands in worry, thinking, how will this ever work out, forgetting that, oh my goodness, it's worked out many times in the past. Different circumstances, different ways, same God, same power. With heads bowed and eyes closed, I want to invite you in the next moments of silence, God has convicted you. He's pointed out a challenge, a worry, a burden that you're bearing that needs to be given totally.