Mark 8

CHAPTER 8THEME: Four thousand fed; leaven explained; blind man of Bethsaida healed; death of ChristThe eighth chapter is about the same length as the seventh chapter. It still carries out the great theme of Mark with the emphasis upon action. Jesus feeds the four thousand in the coasts of Decapolis, the Pharisees ask for a sign at Dalmanutha, the friends of a blind man ask Jesus to touch his eyes at Bethsaida, and Peter makes his confession of faith in Caesarea Philippi. What the Lord Jesus did was important to the Romans, and it is important to us today. Is the Lord Jesus able to save to the uttermost ? Can He do the job? He is the Servant of Jehovah, and we find that He can do the job. We find in this chapter that our Lord does a lot of moving around, and there weren’t good highways in that day. That land is a small land, but when you reduce the speed down to walking speed, it’s a pretty sizable land. And He traveled by walking.

Mark 8:1

FOUR THOUSAND FEDSome people feel that the feeding of the four thousand, which opens this chapter, is a duplication of the feeding of the five thousand, and they practically ignore it. This has caused some to say that the feeding of the four thousand is the neglected miracle of Jesus. When the critic comes to this parable, in his usual way he seeks to rid the Bible of the supernatural. His explanation of this miracle is that it was included after the feeding of the five thousand to strengthen the claim of the apostles that Jesus was a miracle worker. Obviously, if this were true, the second miracle would be greater than the firstinstead of four thousand, it would be nearer ten thousandbecause when men fabricate, they exaggerate. But here it is restraint, by the way. The two miracles of feeding the multitudes are strikingly similar in several features. He feeds the thousands, one time it is five and the next time it is four. But there are seven points of dissimilarity that we need to call to your attention:

1. In the first instance the multitude had been with the Lord one day; in the second instance it had been three days.
2. Upon the first occasion the disciples were told to “go and see” what supplies were available, while upon the other they were ready with the information before they were asked.
3. When the five thousand were fed there were five loaves and two fishes, while for the four thousand there were seven loaves and a few fishes.
4. The first time, which was near the Passover, the multitude was told to sit in companies “upon the green grass,” while the second time, later in the year when the green of the Near East would be burnt by the oriental sun, they were instructed to sit “on the ground” (literally, “on the earth”).
5. In the first instance our Lord is said to have “blessed …the loaves,” while upon the second occasion He is said to have given thanks, first for the loaves, and later to have “blessed” the fish.
6. After the five thousand were fed twelve baskets of fragments remained, but when the four thousand were satisfied there were seven baskets left over.
7. Obviously, the number that was fed was different in each instance. It seems that the sharp contrast between the two is found in the time that Jesus fed the multitudes. In the feeding of the five thousand, it was at the conclusion of the first day. Jesus had been teaching them, but according to John, He followed the feeding of the five thousand with the discourse of the Bread of Life. This important discourse was sort of an after-dinner speech, you see. In the feeding of the four thousand, the multitude had been with Jesus for three days listening to His teaching. The physical food followed the teaching. In other words, the crowd had not come out to eat but to hear the teaching of Jesus. I think this is an important lesson for us. Are we using church dinners to get the crowd? If so, then our motive is wrong. Many churches can get people out in the middle of the week only if they have a banquet. Some Bible classes depend upon the food to draw people in for the message. Can God bless such efforts regardless of how pure the motive? Well, I’ll let you answer it. The end does not always justify the means. As we begin to read now, notice that “in those days” places this incident during the time He was in the Decapolis. The multitude evidently had followed Jesus into a desert place which was convenient for teaching but not readily accessible to supplies. Great multitudes are following Him now. There is something quite interesting here. It looks as though the disciples had forgotten about His feeding of the five thousand. I’m of the opinion that many of us have the same kind of experience. God does some very gracious and good thing for us, and we forget it by the next time. When a new emergency arises, we find ourselves neophytes; that is, it is all brand new to us again. That has been my experience as I have periodic X-rays made of my lungs to see whether the cancer has spread. And every time it is a new experience for me and I must confess that every time I am frightened. So I have really a fellow-feeling for these disciples. They had made an inventory of the crowd, though, because they knew how many loaves there were. Maybe they were expecting Jesus to repeat the miracle of the five thousand. This time there were more loaves for fewer people but it was still true, “What are these among so many?” And who had the loaves this time? We don’t know. Some unknown person had them, and even though we don’t know who he was, he will have his reward someday. In this instance they sat on the bare ground, while at the feeding of the five thousand they had been told to sit on the grass, as I have mentioned. And how many fish? It just says “a few small fishes.” The number really is unimportant, and He’s not counting the fish. When God is in it, you will notice, there is always a surplus. Whether He feeds five or four thousand, He doesn’t give them just a snack; He gives them a full dinner. Incidentally, if we add one woman and one child for each of the men, we probably would be nearer to the actual number of people who were fedabout twelve thousand.

Mark 8:10

The location of Dalmanutha cannot be ascertained accurately. Apparently it was on the coast of the Sea of Galilee and they had to cross the sea to get to it, which means they came to the west side. They traveled by boat and evidently the spot was somewhere on the northwest coast. Now the bloodhounds of hate are on His trail again.

Mark 8:11

LEAVEN EXPLAINEDIn the Scriptures leaven represents wrong or evil teaching; it never means the gospel. One of the fallacious things that is being taught today is that leaven represents the gospel in the parable of the woman who hid leaven in three measures of meal (Mat_13:33). The meal symbolizes the gospel, and the leaven, which represents wrong teaching, was hidden in it. It is the process of making something taste good to the natural man. Actually, what is liberalism? It all came into existence by the pulpit trying to please the unsaved church members.

And today we have a lot of men trying to please the congregation, even when they are unsaved. And that, may I say, is putting leaven inthat is, mixing wrong teaching with the truth of the gospel. The only kind of bread they will eat is that which has leaven because leaven makes bread taste good. I was brought up on hot biscuits, friend, and the natural man likes them. Leaven is the evil that is put in. And here He is warning them about the wrong teaching of the Pharisees and Herod.

Mark 8:18

I’ve been a preacher for a long time, and sometimes I discover something that startles me. There will be some person who I think knows spiritual truth; yet they have missed the entire thought. They don’t get it at all and one wonders where they have been. There are people who have been studying the Bible for years and who are like that. They are like these apostles who have ears, yet hear not.

Mark 8:19

The Word of God is the Bread of Life because the Word of God reveals Him. We are to feed on the Bible and to beware of false teaching. I think that ought to be clear to us here in the teaching that He gives.

Mark 8:22

BLIND MAN OF BETHSAIDA HEALEDHere is another one of these remarkable miracles of our Lord. He assented to their request by touching his eyes. But you notice that He led the blind man out of town. Had Bethsaida, where many of His mighty works had been performed, become like Nazareth where He could no longer perform mighty works? Surely there is no medicinal value in saliva, but the Lord uses this to increase the faith of this man. Let us read this and learn the spiritual truth for us here.

Mark 8:23

This place of Bethsaida had already had judgment pronounced upon it (Mat_11:21). Now there’s something in this miracle we want to look at very carefully. Why did He use this method? Couldn’t He have opened the eyes of this man as He did in other instances? Of course, He could have. He could have made this man see clearly at the very beginning. But there is a lesson for the man and a lesson here for us. There are three stages in this case:

1. Blindness. We are all first spiritually blind. Like the blind man we can say, “Once I was blind, but now I can see.” But you’ll notice that He gained only partial sight, and only Mark tells us this.
2. Partial sight. Is this not our condition today? “For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face …” (1Co_13:12). Every now and then I get a letter from some person who gives me to understand that they have great spiritual discernment. They are way up there with the upper ten, and sometimes they say they think that’s where I am. But I have a confession to make to you. I only see through a glass darkly. There are many things I don’t understand. There are some people who don’t feel that way. They think that they know all there is to know about everything. That is one of the curses of some of our good Bible-teaching churches. I was a pastor for a great many years, and I had members who never bothered to come to mid-week Bible study. Do you know why? They already knew more than I did. While that may have been true, the tragic thing was that they thought they knew more than they actually knew. Socrates, in his day, made the statement that he was the wisest of the Athenians. That shocked everybody because he was a very humble man. So they asked him what he meant. And he said something like this, “Well there are a great many of the Athenians who think they know, and I know I do not know. And since I know that I do not know, I am the wisest of the Athenians.” May I say to you that there are a lot of the saints today who think they know. But Paul says that we see through a glass darkly, and that is our state in this life. But eventually when we come into His presence we shall know as we are known. I’ll surely be glad when I get over there where I’m going to know something!
3. Perfect sight. The third stage is perfect vision. We’ll get our 20-20 spiritual vision when we come into His presence, and that’s when we’ll really be able to see. You’ll notice that when our Lord had finished, He had healed this man perfectly. There is something here that I don’t have time to develop fully today, but have you ever noticed the different methods that our Lord used in opening the eyes of the blind? Here at Bethsaida when He healed the blind man, He touched his eyes. So this man had an experience. I imagine that he would have organized the “Metho-rene” church and they would sing “The Touch of His Hand on Mine.” When Jesus healed blind Bartimaeus, He didn’t touch him at all but just told him from a distance, and faith alone opened his eyes. I suppose he would have organized the “Congreterian” church and they would sing, of course, “Only Believe.” But the man who had been born blind was told to go and wash in the pool of Siloam and that’s an entirely different method according to John, chapter 9. So this man would have organized a “Siloam-Baptian” church and they would sing, “Shall We Gather at the River.” You say that that is absurd.

Sure is. Absurd for that day, but today that is exactly what is being done. May I say to you that here is a lesson for us.

Mark 8:27

DEATH OF CHRISTThe important thing here is, who is Jesus? Jesus wanted to know men’s estimate of Him. WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? “What think ye of Christ” is the test To try both your state and your scheme; You cannot be right in the rest, Unless you think rightly of Him. Friend, to be united to Him, joined to Him, is the important thing. We are to enjoy a right relationship with Jesus Christ. If you look on a map, you will find three Caesareas. Caesarea Philippi is located to the north of the Sea of Galilee. The Lord Jesus was in the north and He was in a position from which He was going to turn and begin a movement directly toward Jerusalem and the Cross.

Mark 8:28

There was much confusion regarding His person. All opinions were high but fell short of who He is.

Mark 8:29

This was their final examination for the first phase of His ministry. They were within six months now of the Cross. This is the finest thing that Simon Peter ever said. He spoke for the group. Mark gives us only a fragment of the confession. Christ is not a name. Jesus is His name. Christ is a titlein the Hebrew, it was the Messiah, which means the “Anointed One.” This title gathers up all the rich meaning of the Old Testament. It is a fragment with fulness (cf. Mic_5:2; Isa_7:14; Psa_2:2; Psa_45:6-7; and Mal_3:1). These are but a few of the many Old Testament references. Jesus came to reveal God.

Mark 8:30

Why this strange admonition? They were to wait until the gospel story was complete. Notice the next verse.

Mark 8:31

Jesus did not reveal His person apart from His work of redemption. Salvation depends on who He is and what He did. The final phase of their training begins here. It was at Caesarea Philippi that He first revealed His Cross to them.

Mark 8:32

Even now they were unprepared to receive it. This is the worst thing Simon Peter ever said.

Mark 8:33

Jesus attributed this statement to Satan. Satan denies the value of the death of Jesus.

Mark 8:34

The Lord does not reveal His person apart from His work of redemption. After Peter confessed who He was and they truly recognized Him, He immediately told them, “…the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mar_8:31). And then He gives the passage we have quoted. Here He is not putting down a condition of salvation, but stating the position of those who are saved. This is what He is talking about. “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me.” What kind of a Christian are you today? Are you one who acknowledges Him and serves Him and attempts to glorify Him? My friend, this is all important in these days in which we live.