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if you turn on your TV at all and listen to any kind of social political commentary you will have heard people lamenting the fact that we can't all agree on the same facts and now fake news people saying something is news when it's not other people blowing up a story that shouldn't be news but it is and this problem comes down to one supreme truth seeing something and knowing that it's there that it's happening even having a video camera to record a certain event does not mean that everybody who watches that video will come to the same conclusion that's just the truth and this is nothing new in fact this is Jesus name point through the whole first part of Mark chapter 9 is kind of the the crescendo the tipping point where Jesus is trying to show everybody over and over and over again exactly who he is and what it means to follow him and there's been a lot of conjecture there's been a lot of oh he's this oh he's that Herod says he's John the Baptist come back because I cut off his head now he's gonna haunt me some people say you know he's like Elijah or no like another one of the prophets and some even dare to say this this Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Christ but the only way we can actually have revealed to us to understand deep in our hearts who Jesus is and what it means to follow him we have to have a move of God's Spirit inside of us it is not something that we can do Douce on our own we will always get it wrong the Spirit of God has to light the way for us it's not enough just to see we have to understand I was driving to my grandfather's house and he had built his retirement mansion just outside of Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island out in the Puget Sound takes forever to drive there and while you're driving there you come off of highway 20 and you go south down onto the island you cross the bridge and then right right as you're coming down to the cpo Club you take a right and head out towards the ocean then you drive along the ocean these roads that just go like this up down up down and as you're going down you'll see little placards on the side of the road and they say tsunami evacuation route this way now remember the first time I was driving by there myself I was in college I was driving there and I was seeing these signs and I thought what tsunami evacuation route and as I'm driving up to his house right before you turn up the windy road that goes up a long way up to the top of the bluff you can see the beach and and it's like right there and for some reason maybe because I played there when I was a kid I could look out and see whether the tide was in or the tide was out when the tide was in it's lapping up right against the concrete stairs that you go down to get onto the beach and when it's out there's like 30 meters thirty yards a long way that you can you can be out on the tidal flats what would it mean if we were driving together and we pulled into that little beach before we got up to grandpa's house and with God out and we had seen all these placards and the tide wasn't just out it was way out it wasn't just 30 meters it was like half a mile out what is that what does that mean well it means that the tides way out dummy anybody can see it but if you read those placards on the way in you would not hesitate you would hop in your kia sportage you would wind them out the motor up like an angry mosquito and you would start getting your tail all the way up to the top of the bluff because when the tides way way way way impossibly far out it means that there is a tsunami that is headed into Shore is sucking up all of that water and it's about to be unleashed and I knew in my heart of hearts that my grandpa that my grandpa was wise enough to take out the tsunami map and say I'll build my house up on the top of the hill so that all the all the other people get washed away I'll be fine get up to grandpa's house you see seeing that the tide is way way way way out is different than understanding that a tsunami is coming again I was stationed in Fort Sill Oklahoma I'm a Spokane boy grew up here they have something there that we don't have here and that's a tornado warning and we had driven down into Texas how we were driving along the road and all of a sudden every single radio station started playing this emergency thing and you could see the storm head overhead like right overhead my buddy gets a call he's the one who's driving and his mom or something is calling him I'm looking at the radar over where you're at right now please Lord Jesus tell me you're in a safe place he says nah mom we're actually just driving we were we were gonna go get some dinner she said pull over right now you got to get out of there and we started looking around and one of the rules when you're in a place that you don't know is whatever everybody else is doing you do that too if everybody else is like out playing around probably they understand what's going on better than you and we drove into I think it was Wichita Falls and it was a ghost town that nobody was there but we saw some cars in a parking lot at a Best Buy so we pulled in there and we walked into the store and the manager was just locking things up and we walked in he's like what are you doing here all right I don't know he heard the tornado warning we're not from around here he goes come on let's go to into the back and he and he took us into the back where they had a tornado defensive place and there were a bunch of other customers and other people working in there we're all sitting back there and the managers like don't worry we've been through this before here's some coffee and they were not disturbed very much I really was because the things that I was understanding was like I was thinking about that that movie twister which came out when I was a kid where these tornadoes just suck up everyone and everything you got to strap yourself to a pipe you know with a leather belt and and and try not to get sucked up into the clouds and I'm thinking about that we're all huddling together nervous as this tornado warning and and the funnel clouds are forming now Jesus is like that Jesus is like that we can see certain things but until the Holy Spirit allows us to understand until it clicks we we're kind of lost we're seeing things we're going oh I like that oh I like that and sometimes our introduction to Jesus is like that we go into church people are praising it sounds good and we're like you know what amen this feels right amen maybe we see some healings or or we hear about prayers that have been answered and we're like amen I like that I want to be a part of this I like what I'm seeing I like what what is being offered here but at some point the very person of Jesus will confront us and it's not going to be like an Oh a men it will be like drop your jaw wait what what I thought that when I was going to get saved it meant that I was going to stop doing all the bad things in my life and then I'd get all of these blessings everybody wouldn't like me and I get to shout amen everywhere I go what do you mean people won't like me what do you mean I'll have to get over myself what do you mean I'll have to sacrifice give of my time give of my talents sacrifice what I want for the greater good and for what God wants what now this is what the entire story is about the small it was about that point in time where we go you want what and it starts right here in Chapter 7 verse 31 you'll recall that Jesus just healed the Gentile lady's daughter and he's moving quick he's getting through marks so incredibly fast just blazing through the book he doesn't really stop moving and here in in verse 31 after this woman gets healed he just takes off he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee so he's come back into the territory of Israel gotten back on that sea that he likes to walk around on when it's storming and teaches disciples things and they go over to the other side this being the east side to a region called the Decapolis and they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment and they begged him to lay his hand on him and taking him aside from the crowd privately he put his fingers into his ears and after spitting touched his tongue and looking up to heaven he sighed and said to him you fafafa that is be opened I don't know if that sounds weird to you that sounds weird to me because we've seen Jesus working before people just got to touch the hem of His garment some people he just says be healed and then they're healed and here the whole crowd is bringing one person to Jesus whereas before it was crowds and crowds of people all coming to Jesus cuz they were all sick now it seems like he's healed a lot of these people and they're taking more sick people up to Jesus there's one guy here and and and the people bring him to Jesus and Jesus does one thing incredibly weird he takes the guy and they go you know kind of like around the corner where nobody's watching them Jesus wants this to be something that he does in private now the guy can't hear him and the guy can't speak and so Jesus takes his fingers like this and puts them into his ears not his hands on his ears which would make more sense to me because I'm one of those personal bubble type people and though he takes his fingers and puts them in his ears then he spits hopefully not on the guy but he puts his fingers in his ears and spits they takes his fingers out and he touches his tongue and he sighs and he looks up to heaven and he says be open which to me changes the whole thing and then his ears were open his tongue was released and he spoke blessing God brings him up he pulls him into private heals him privately and then says don't tell anybody now that this guy is now talking and hearing well I guess he just wants to leave it up to people's imagination when the guy comes around the corner Hey I can talk now no I can hear you fine Jesus don't tell anybody but the more he charged them the more zealously they proclaimed it and they were astonished beyond measure saying he's done all things well he even makes the Deaf hear and the mute speak and as we're trying to look and see the difference between people just seeing something and making sense of what's right in front of them versus actually understanding and going oh my goodness the tsunami is coming this is this is an important lesson to be learned I think one of the things we have to understand about Jesus is he is the figure who touches man and heaven and by doing so is able to open is able to heal one man on our own can do the people are astonished they're all about this Jesus guy if you were to ask this crowd if you were to walk up with your video camera right here in the book of Mark and say do you believe in Jesus each and every person would say yes oh man I got to tell you what he did but if you asked him the question do you believe in obeying Jesus the answer is no they're into being astonished they're into being touched they're into being healed but they're not into obeying in fact the more Jesus tells them don't tell anybody the more they go ah come see Jesus comes in Jesus yeah I think that true understanding of who Jesus is it means at least not just being touched by him but obeying him not just being astonished by him by listening to him and chapter 8 will move right along here we're gonna do quite a lot but I think a lot of chapter 8 is trying to make the same point so the story goes like this in those days when again a great crowd had gathered and they had nothing to eat he called his disciples to him and said to them so you just got to see one more time great big crowd add to it they're really hungry so he brings his disciples around into a little holy hoodie huddle and he says to them I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat and if I send them away hungry to their homes they will faint on the way some of them have come from far away and his disciples answered him how can one feed these people with gred here in this desolate place does this sound like something that's happened in the book of Mark before this is like almost word-for-word what we preached on just a couple of weeks ago she fed 5,000 now there's 4,000 but they're really hungry and Jesus says I'm I want it I want to have compassion on I want to feed these people and the disciples go what do you mean feed these people verse 5 he asked them how many loaves do you have again sound familiar yes this is the same thing playing out again they said 7 they brought along seven loaves and he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground and he took the seven loaves and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people and they set them before the crowd again nearly exactly the same circumstance and Jesus is acting the same way you would think the disciples would elbow one another and go we've been here before let's have a little faith but instead they're astonished they don't know what to do they don't they don't think it's possible verse 7 and they had a few small fish and having blessed them he said that these also should be set before them and they ate and were satisfied and they took up the broken pieces left over seven baskets full and there were about four thousand people and he sent them away and immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha these baskets is a different Greek word than the baskets we had before the the baskets in the previous story were like carry around in your arms kind of baskets different Greek word the one here is large man sized basket this this is like takes two dudes to carry kind of a basket it's the same basket that Saul was lowered down the wall when he was escaping from the riots they put him in one of these baskets so seven of the basket baskets that's what was left over and the Pharisees verse eleven here the Pharisees came and began to argue with him that being Jesus 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 truly I say to you no sign will be given to this generation and he left them got into the boat again and went to the other side I think that this says an awful lot mark is putting this story right in between many many many signs many signs this would be like if we go back to my analogy with the tsunami is I go down to the beach see the ocean way way way out see perhaps even the the rising horizon of of water and then I tell someone next to me a tsunami is coming and they go show me the evidence well this right here um that right over there ah could be anything no it's pretty much a tsunami how could you not put these things together the Pharisees here coming to Jesus and they're saying essentially if you want us to be a part of what you're doing then you got to do fill in the blank we want to see a miracle right now well it doesn't work like that never works like that because they weren't actually interested in following Jesus they were interested in testing Jesus but but not in actually seeing the signs I was watching a video of a national gathering of atheists and a very popular atheist stood up to start their ceremonies and he said we know that God doesn't exist can't exist and we are thoroughly convinced but just in case just in case God if you're there give us a sign we'll all believe in fact you can strike me dead right now lightning bolt from the sky and we'll all believe no well let's get on with our convocation and everybody clapped and laughed this is the same heart here there's loads of evidence all around just because you don't get to say look I want you to give me a new car and then I'll believe no no no it doesn't work like that now listen to this verse 14 now they being the disciples had forgotten to bring bread and they had only one loaf with them in the boat these guys just had seven basket baskets full they must have been some hungry disciples they had they had one loaf with them and he Jesus cautioned them saying watch out beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod now what is leaven especially in a biblical context leaven yeast is a picture of something that is a very very small ingredient that changes the nature of the whole so you take just a little bit of yeast you've got a great big ball of dough just a little tiny bit of yeast you put it in there you work it into the dough you let it work its magic and all of a sudden the dough is full of air bubbles it's been the the the bread has has risen it's it's a different thing now and if you've ever cooked a piece of bread and forgotten the leaven you know it really is a different thing one is good to eat and the other tastes like garbage he's saying watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees the leaven of Herod the Pharisees were into like the political game Herod was like into the violence and intimidation game and that was how they manipulated the outcome to their own benefit the Pharisees coming and giving Jesus a test another word would be a temptation is they're saying we want you to clay our game and Jesus wisely says no I'm not gonna play your game and as he's sailing away with his disciples he says watch out watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees the leaven of Herod now listen to how these guys respond to this verse 16 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 so hardened having eyes do you not see having ears do you not hear do you not remember when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up and they said to him twelve and the seven four four thousand how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up they said to him sir and he said to them do you not yet understand see they were seeing they were seeing all of this stuff about Jesus but it hadn't really hit here yet never really clicked yet they weren't able to understand that it wasn't just that the tide was out and that the horizon was was was raising up with water but that a tsunami was on its way they were like oh Jesus must be talking about how do you how do you think I'm talking about bread it's never been about bread the crowds had this relationship with Jesus where they loved the bread they loved the healings that's what Jesus was for I have a hard life I can have some sort of contact with Jesus he will make my life better he will make my life easier anything from just the miracle of now I get to eat today instead of not having something to eat or a disease that's been plaguing me for years and years and years has has now been healed but that's the value Jesus had to them that was what they saw the disciples saw something entirely different they saw a cash cow that they got to milk they valued not just the miracles but the miracle worker and they were like we got this dude we're going to be able to make some changes around here people are going to start listening to us because because their group of people they were not Roman citizens they had been tread underfoot by Rome for years and years and years and if you make too much trouble what the Romans do is they round you up and murder you by crucifixion so you got to make just like a little bit of trouble to get some results but not too much and now here's this guy who's like touch by the gods he's like he can touch you and look up to heaven and say be opened and you're open baby and they value what Jesus could do for their own visions of greatness and of course the Pharisees looked at him and immediately saw a threat he was dominating the God game and he wasn't playing it by their rules he would literally just turn around and walk away while they were trying to trap him who does that watch how the Bible shows us what the problem is through an actual thing that happens that's like it's a parable let's call this a historical parable verse 22 they came to Bethsaida and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him and he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village this is very similar to the earlier guys taking him kind of in private and when he had spit on his eyes oops and laid his hands on him he asked him do you see anything and he looked up and said I see people but they look like trees walking and I don't think we should miss that Jesus Christ does something that would in any culture at any place around the world spitting on someone is not a favorable thing there's no place you can go where you can spit on people and they shake your hand and say thank you and he spits not just on him but on his face not just on his face but in his eyes and then he takes his hands and puts them over the spit on his eyes and he gets like this awful thing if you this humiliating thing actually leads to this man scene but he can't make sense of what he's seeing it's nonsense I see people but they look like trees walking it's like his optical nerves have just been opened and they are receiving information and all that information is right and true and correct but he's like you know a two day old baby who has its eyes open and is just going whoa I can't make sense of this it takes sometimes years and years and years for your brain to be able to to make sense of what you're seeing and so verse 25 Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his eyes his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly and he sent him to his home saying do not even enter the village you see see it's not just it's not good enough to just see it's not gonna do you any good to just see to just have the facts you've got to be able to make sense of them you have to be able to make sense of who Jesus is and it's big it's huge it's mind-blowing and just to make the point make sure you're not gonna walk home going well gee what is the point Mark's gonna lay it out here really clear for us verse 27 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi and on the way he asked his disciples who do people say that I am and they told him John the Baptist others say Elijah others one of the prophets and he asked them but who do you say that I am I just as I imagined this moment they're walking along as they do day in day out they're walking they're sailing they're doing something like that Jesus is kind of like maybe out front a little bit all of his disciples walking behind him guys who do people say that I am and people are good and then Jesus just stops turns around and points his finger and interfaces who do you say that and he's kind of confrontational it's like Jesus has done with the let me show you let me show you let me show you let me show you hey don't tell anybody just let me show you let people see for themselves and now he's like it's decision time the tsunami is coming and you're either gonna get to high ground or you're gonna be wiped out who do you say that I am Peter answers him you are the Christ and he Jesus strictly charged them to tell no one about him good all right you got it I'll be quiet then he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again Jesus is saying it plainly clearly no more parables here no more like the truth is out there if you see if you'll find there in the presence of Christ and Jesus is just straight up telling them I'm going to Jerusalem I'm gonna have a confrontation they're gonna kill me it's God's will and after I'm dead on the third day I will come back and the disciples are going that's not the vision I have Jesus you see I dreamed a big dream I read all the books and I know how the spiritual thing works if I can exalt my vision what I think the best thing that could happen I'm gonna put it up out there Jesus you come along I grab a hold of you you make it happen for me so we're going to Jerusalem yeah we're gonna have a confrontation with the scribes and Pharisees yeah and we're gonna win yeah and then we're gonna take it to the Romans and nobody's going to be able to deny that we have the truth that you are the Christ that we are Israel and it's time for us to shine yeah so Peter verse 32 he said this plainly and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him just like Jesus took away the blind man took away the death and the unhear a man in order to hear them heal them and he had to heal them twice so Peter now is taking Jesus bold into private Jesus your vision is not what we had in mind that's not going to happen you get in line here and we're all going to be set up for life verse 33 but turning and seeing his disciple so I think Jesus might have been really gentle with Peter firm but gentle but he looks around and all the disciples are like yeah get him Peter don't let him screw this up for us and he sees that so he turns to Peter and says get behind me Satan for you are not setting your mind on the things of God but on the things of man now I'm not sure if you've ever had a moment like this in your spiritual walk with Jesus Christ where he turns to you and says get behind me Satan I'm leading this not you your flesh is doing the work of the devil not me you get behind me I'm not following you and we have to do what Peter did okay then I think to prove his point verse 34 calling the crowd to him with his disciples he said to them so this is how plain it is this is how this is how public this little get thee behind me Satan moment is Jesus says all right not just the disciples apparently there's a crowd that's been following them too hey everybody come up around here I got to tell you something if if anyone would come after me let him deny himself take up his cross and follow me this is the first time where Jesus not just like I'm gonna go die he's like I am going to be hung on a cross this is failure the mark that you have failed in your battle against Rome against the government against the man is that you're hanging on a cross that's what you avoid and Jesus had the way to avoid it you win them over with some sugar you win them over with with some mighty acts of God that people can't deny what are they gonna fight against God publicly like maybe Jesus got some fire you can bring down from heaven they're gonna win against Rome but this is inconceivable that Jesus Christ is saying no no we're gonna defeat them by taking the main value that they have death and torture and we are going to willingly submit to it you want to follow me go fashion yourself across and drag it behind you we're headed that way I don't know about you but I just sort of like get inspired and I wonder like what would have happened if Jesus's disciples and the people following him actually listen to him what would have happened if they would have obeyed him they would have gone out got the woodturning apparatus out fashioned themselves across put it on their back and jesus said his triumphal entry has thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people bearing their cross it's like a powerful image for me now Jesus has only given us these two things he said if you want to come after me let a man deny himself take up his cross and follow me kind of like one command those three steps in it deny himself take up his cross follow me then he's just going to give a bunch of fours a bunch of because --is a bunch of can't you see the evidences you want to see Jesus clearly it looks like this deny yourself pick up your cross follow me that's what understanding that's what making sense of it means now let me give you the evidence for whoever would save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it he's saying if you make it about you in the end it'll be about you and you're gonna die your vision Peter dies with you no matter how many people you cut up with your sword in the end if you're going to try to save your own skin make it all about you you're gonna lose but if you make it about me if you make it about what I'm asking you're gonna win 4 verse 36 for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul and Jesus not just saying this fresh in these people's minds would have been like Alexander the Great Caesar Augustus I mean I mean people who literally literally conquered the whole world and then died at like age 33 from alcohol poisoning what does it profit a man if you gain the whole world but you lose your soul that part of you that lives forever if you lose that then even the whole world it's not going to be satisfactory for what can a man give in return for his soul let's say you've got the whole world but you lost your soul do you think you're gonna be able to give back up the whole world to regain your soul no it doesn't it doesn't work like that you can't bargain a thing cannot get you your soul your soul you who you really are on the inside is about what you're about I'm not sure if I'm being confusing here it makes loads of sense to me that you cannot give something in exchange for your soul except for your very life you can't have a massive bank account and exchange that for your soul you can't have conquered the entire world and hand the entire world over and say now give me my soul it doesn't work like that you only have you to offer first 37 for what can a man give in return for his soul for whoever is ashamed of me and my word words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the Holy Angels now this was a biblical picture that they knew quite well the Son of Man ascending into the glory of the Father at the end of time to claim all things and he's saying these are my plain clear words that embarrasses you that makes you want to get up and leave I'm gonna pursue my own vision for my life then that's your choice well my words aren't going to change I am the son of man let me close with this what then is the cross that we're supposed to pick up and bear I mean Jesus might have been speaking very literally to the people here but even Christ Himself doesn't fashion a cross in march into jerusalem clearly he means something for his followers to reflect on after he has resurrected and and and has conquered sin and death and hell and I think those three things in the one statement is what gives us the clue first it's about denying self but this doesn't mean just doing painful things for no reason that's not what it means it means making what you want subservient what God wants it's the prayer that jesus prayed not my will but your will be done God that is a part of picking up your cross and follow you have to deny ourselves a lot of people turn away at those words right there I think the cross at least represents the values of mankind the values of the flesh to dominate to terrify to exact wealth to be in charge have all of the stuff to be able to oppress someone else put that on your back that's not that's not our way you don't do that to other people that's what you want you want to use the power of Rome in your life you want to manipulate other people you want to turn things towards your favor at any cost to someone else you're not following Jesus it's I want God's will at any cost to me I don't care what it costs me now I don't care what it costs you I don't care what cost me I will be faithful I will do what God is asking me to do I'll never just point the finger at everybody else and say you're not doing what God wants you to do and I'll do anything to motivate you no and then finally he she gives us when he says follow me I think at least we have to then look at the life of Christ and go oh it's like that it's about loving other people it's about communing with God deeply and he gives us this promise he says that the promise is not about you it's not about conquering the world but it is about Jesus it is about the good news it is about the gospel and you do have when you do this you have the right and the ability to be proud not of yourself but of Jesus Christ and if your life what you are doing what you're about makes you proud of Jesus and Jesus proud of you than you're doing the right thing let me ask just a few questions on how this idea of picking up the cross in your life might make sense because it doesn't mean just being a doormat it doesn't mean that anybody can just walk all over you and you go oh well it's not about me it's not about me I mean that's kind of like just a little part of it it's not about me because it's about him so take any difficulty in your life any crossroads that you are at any place where you're going what am I supposed to do and you ask God what am I supposed to do make this clear to me what is right here and when he reveals that to you at any cost to yourself do it even if it's really hard even if you're going to lose friends even if you're going to lose your job lose a place any difficulty the way of the Cross is what God wants it's God's will take any place in your life where you deeply care that the thing turns out in your favor where you deeply care that it comes out and you're on time any place in your life where it going your way is very very important to you you have an opportunity to ask God but is this important to you but is this important to you and to let go any personal passion that you have any pet cause anything that makes you get up in the morning get all fired up you have the opportunity to say but is this your will am I getting fired up for the right thing and you will find that God's will is very easy to know for the people who want to do it imagine with me for a moment people of large stature and of small people of much means end of little bound together as one people as one group as a church they've all got their cross they're not afraid of it they're committed to it imagine what would happen if Jesus led us into Jerusalem metaphorically speaking because that is what is happening and we do have an opportunity to follow him with our cross being carried let's pray Jesus Christ son of God son of man I thank you for the opportunity to look into your word and to see that there are areas in my life areas in each one of our lives where we struggle where we wrestle with our will versus your will we thank you for how gentle yet firm you are and we ask Lord Jesus would you please give us your Holy Spirit to show us what your will is to give us the opportunity to not just see things but to understand them to be able to to put into our hearts and our minds that truth that Jesus Christ is not just a miracle worker he's the king and he has come not to be lord over everyone the way that the nation's do but to lead by service to milah tea and power give us your power of God which so often times is hard to understand we pray this in your name Amen