Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, we methodically teach verse by verse, even phrase by phrase.
We have completed many books of the Bible and offer free lesson plans for teachers. If you want to browse our entire library by book or topic, see our website www.ReasoningThroughTheBible.com.
We primarily do expository teaching but also include a good bit of theology and apologetics. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity must address both the ancient truths and the questions of the people today. Join Glenn and Steve every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S24 || Jesus Warns Against False Teaching || Mark 8:10-21 || Session 24 || Verse by Verse Bible Study
When confronted by religious leaders demanding a sign from heaven, Jesus sighs deeply - a profoundly human moment revealing his disappointment with their hardened hearts. Rather than jumping through their hoops, he firmly declines their request and moves on. This teaches us a crucial lesson: Christ never indulges those who approach him with cynicism rather than sincere inquiry.
The narrative shifts as Jesus warns his followers about "the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." This brilliant metaphor illustrates how false teaching - whether religious or worldly - can insidiously permeate our spiritual lives just as yeast spreads through dough. Religious falsehood distracts from authentic relationship with Jesus, while worldly values pull us away from kingdom priorities.
What daily worries might be preventing you from trusting God more fully today? Join us as we unpack these powerful lessons about discernment, trust, and the patient heart of our Savior who never gives up on teaching those who follow him.
Thank you for listening!! Please give us a five-star rating to help your podcast provider's algorithm spread RTTB among their listeners.
You can find free study and leader resources at the following link - Resource Page - Reasoning Through the Bible
Please prayerfully consider supporting RTTB to help us to continue providing content and free resources. You can do that at this link - Support RTTB - Reasoning Through the Bible
May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
The Lord Jesus was very busy in the Gospel of Mark. He's always meeting new people and going places and today's lesson is no different. Today we're going to find the Lord Jesus crossing again and he's going to cross over the sea and run into some Pharisees who are going to ask some hard questions of him. Hi, my name's Glenn. I'm here with Steve. We're in Mark, chapter 8. So if you have your copy of the Word of God, turn there. We're going to find that Jesus is very compassionate towards some people, but other people he's very short with them and will not perform on their demands. We'll learn that in today's lesson. Not perform on their demands. We'll learn that in today's lesson. Steve, can you start at Mark, chapter 8, verse 10, and go down to verse 15.
Speaker 2:And immediately he entered the boat with his disciples and came to this district of Dalmanutha. The Pharisees came out and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. Sighing deeply in his spirit, he said why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation, leaving them. He again embarked and went away to the other side and they had forgotten to take bread and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them. And he was giving orders to them saying Watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.
Speaker 1:So at the beginning of that, in verse 10, he gets in the boat and he goes to this region of Dalmanutha. He speaks very quickly to these Pharisees. Then, in verse 13, leaving them, he again departed and went back to the other side. So, steve, there's a lot of crossing over the sea here, a lot of traveling. Help us out a little bit about where he's coming from and where he's going. There's a lot of moving around. It's very fast action here, is it not it?
Speaker 2:is and this is an area up here. Capernaum was his kind of home base. Galilee was an area that he's operating in Once again. He's up there in this area because the official verdict on him from the Sanhedrin is that he is demon-possessed, that he is casting out demons with the power of Satan himself. They have been officially rejected him. There's a plot out there plotting ways to kill him. That's the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the scribes, the people of the Sanhedrin. We see different types of groups that are coming together the Herodians with the Pharisees and other factions that normally wouldn't work together.
Speaker 2:All of this is taking place. So Jesus is operating up in this northern area of Galilee and this area of Dalmanutha is apparently the same place as Magadon or Magdala that Matthew records after he goes from the 4,000 to. It's the same region and this was roughly about five miles or seven kilometers southwest of Capernaum. So he goes over here and then Mark records him to go back on the other side. We've talked about this, that Mark has all of this action of going and doing, whereas Matthew and some of the other gospels pause a little bit and give some of the long discourses of Jesus and some of his encounters and teachings there. Mark doesn't do this on this. He goes from the 4,000 to the west side to this Dalmanutha. Now he's going back over to the east side of the Sea of Galilee.
Speaker 1:A lot of traveling around and a lot of meeting people. In verse 10 and 11, he lands on the boat. The Pharisees immediately come to him and it says they began to argue with him. Notice, they're not trying to get truth from him, they're arguing with him. They're arguing against him and it says, argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven. Steve, obviously they're not really looking for truth here. Right, they're asking for a sign, but it's not like because they're trying to decide about Jesus. What are they really trying to do?
Speaker 2:Well, it says it right there at the end of 11 to test him, because they are wanting to get something on him so that they can declare him to be killed, to be put to death. This is their motivation. They're wanting him to give them some sort of a sign and they put a requirement on it from heaven. Not just some type of a miracle or something, but one from heaven. They're wanting something so that they can accuse him of operating under the influence of Satan, just like what they've done before.
Speaker 1:These Pharisees came to Jesus arguing against him, trying to test him, trying to trap him, and he does not allow himself to be trapped. He gives them a short answer and then moves on. I think the same thing happened today. Jesus does not give any quarter, does not give any time to those who are intentionally just trying to test him or trap him. Where does he spend his time on? He spends his time on the people that were genuinely trying to seek the truth, that were genuinely trying to learn from godly wisdom, but he gives no time to those that were only purpose were trying to trap him.
Speaker 1:Still today, we have atheists and skeptics and critics that are sole purpose is to try to trap Jesus, and he will not allow himself to be trapped. He will not give them much of an answer and he'll move on. They will forever be unsatisfied because they will not find the answer that they're trying to get. He will not give them the ammunition to use against him. Jesus will not give the skeptics and the critics and the atheists an answer that will satisfy them. He will always move on to those that were genuinely trying to seek the truth. Anyone who is genuinely seeking that is genuinely trying to learn the truth. Seeking, that is, genuinely trying to learn the truth. Jesus will stop and he has compassion and he will give truth to this person. The Pharisees were trying to trap him and he does not allow that to happen. Just like today, jesus will not allow himself to be trapped. In verse 11, they were seeking a sign. Specifically, they were trying to test him in verse 11. Did they have enough evidence already, steve, in order to draw a conclusion?
Speaker 2:Well, according to them they did. He was doing a lot of things on the Sabbath and they were accusing him of doing things, but Jesus always gave them an answer and he always slipped away from them in his answer, in that he never was breaking the actual Mosaic law. The laws that they accused him of breaking were this Pharisaical Judaism, the traditions of the Pharisees, the oral laws, the oral traditions. The oral laws, the oral traditions those were the parts that he was accused of breaking and Jesus rejected that outright. That was the main rub between him and the Pharisees and others were this rejection of the oral traditions. They had enough, from the standpoint of their traditions of men, to convict him.
Speaker 2:But I think they were looking for something to try and test him on the Mosaic law, because the people were with him. We can see feeding 5,000, feeding 4,000, throngs of people going with him, pushing against him, against him, everywhere that he went. He couldn't operate without great crowds of people. The people are with him. The Pharisees know that if they're going to accuse him of something to where they want to put him to death, it has to be something very serious.
Speaker 1:Remember John chapter 3, Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee, went to Jesus by night and said we know that you are from heaven, we know that you're from God. They knew already. They just didn't want to accept the message. These Pharisees here in Mark, chapter 8, they already had seen plenty of evidence, they just didn't accept it. So now they're trying to test him, they're trying to trap him. To those who are always skeptical, there will never be enough evidence. But to those who are genuinely seeking, Jesus will reveal himself. Jesus will never perform on demand. He's not a puppet on a string. He's not a vending machine where you put in a coin and automatically pop something out.
Speaker 1:To people who are legitimately seeking the truth with an open mind, Jesus will provide plenty of evidence for who he is here. He had already shown plenty of signs. We've seen this as we've gone through the book. They were just seeking reasons to destroy him. There's nothing Jesus could say or do at this point that would convince these people. Their minds had already been made up. It's the same true for many people today that will always be unsatisfied because they don't approach Jesus with an open heart, trying to truly seek answers. They're just trying to trap him Now. People today, Steve, that have this kind of a cynical attitude. What do they turn into over time? What sort of a demeanor do these people end up having over time? Because they're still around today, right?
Speaker 2:Oh yes, absolutely, they're around. Their demeanor is one where the name of Jesus really gets them upset and they want to lash out at some of the people. I know that some of the comments that we've had and one of the trending things that I've seen, glenn from these atheists and skeptics in their comments they always want to work in the word lie and say you're lying, these people are lying, these two guys are lying. That's what they often want to work into the comments. I find that curious, because what is Satan? Satan is a liar and the father of all lies. I just find it curious that these atheists and skeptics in their comments they want to call you and I a liar on the things that we're putting out, which is really just the word of God. I think that here it is Satan is the father of all lies. We see these people influenced in such a way that they want to call us and other Christians, other apologists, liars. Now I don't know. What do you think about that?
Speaker 1:I think they're similar to the Pharisees now their mind's made up and all they're really doing is going around looking for evidence to use against them. Jesus will never allow that. He always slips away, just as he did here To those of us that are genuinely seeking the truth. He will indeed reveal the truth to us. Look at his answer again in verse 12. They came in in verse 11 with this question to test him show us a sign. And then his response was sighing deeply in his spirit.
Speaker 1:He said why does this generation seek for a sign? So he was sighing deeply in his spirit. That's a human emotion. It's a human emotion that is very disappointed that these people are so hard-hearted that he was trying to reach out to the leadership of the nation Israel, but they would not Remember. In Matthew he says I would have gone to you and given you all these things, but you would not. So he cries out in his spirit, he sighs in his spirit deeply, simply because of his disappointment and frustration with the hard-heartedness of these people. He wanted to bless them, but they would not. He says here why does this generation seek for a sign? No sign will be given to this generation. Over in Matthew he adds to that, except for the sign of Jonah, what was the ultimate sign that he provided to not only these Pharisees, but to everybody still today?
Speaker 2:In his death, burial and resurrection, that he was buried for three days and after that was resurrected. That's the sign of Jonah. We talked a little bit of detail of that when we went through Matthew during this part and there's indications that Jonah actually did die while he was in the belly of the great fish and then was resuscitated and came back to life. Jesus says this is the sign that they're going to see, the sign of Jonah, of me being buried and then coming back to life, resurrected three days later, just like Jonah, in the belly of the great fish.
Speaker 1:The resurrection of Jesus is proof that he was true in what he said and that he truly could lay down his life and pick it up again. That is enough. Sign for everyone is the resurrection of Christ. In verse 15, he speaks to the disciples and he tells them watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. Now, the leaven here.
Speaker 1:The disciples, their typical selves, didn't really understand immediately what he's talking about. It wasn't physical food. He's talking about the teaching of these things. So he's telling them to watch out for the teaching Leaven in the scriptures is always an evil thing. It's a. The teaching Leaven in the scriptures is always an evil thing, it's a bad thing. Leaven is always something you want to avoid and get out of something. He's saying watch out for the teaching of the Pharisees, the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. The Pharisees would be the religious teaching and Herod would be the secular, societal teachings. Steve, what would be the difference in our day between because the same advice was for us today? Right, there's things that we as Christians need to watch out for. Watch out for false religious teaching, but we also need to watch out for false secular, worldly teaching. What would be some practical advice for us today to avoid these things and watch out for the leaven of the world and the leaven of religion?
Speaker 2:The advice that we always give is to go to the Word of God and study the Word of God. Understand the Word of God, because that is the guide upon which we should live our lives. We have God's Word here, glenn. It's one reason why we think it's important to go, verse by verse, through the Bible and read it with a purpose and understand it with a purpose. This is something that we have Now. Those people that are there. They had the word of God in literal flesh that was among them. Jesus is speaking with authority. He's doing these miracles. They have God in the form of Jesus living and walking among them.
Speaker 2:John records it. It says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the Word was God. And he says that the Word became flesh and walked among them, but they didn't recognize him. That's the key, that's the foundation, that's the rock, that's the anchor that we should rally around. Is the Word of God that we should rally around is the Word of God. Then we can know who the false teachers are and we can know the false doctrines that they give to others, because it doesn't match up with the Word of God. The advice is follow the Word of God. Don't follow the Word or teachings of men. Make sure that they're teaching the Word of God.
Speaker 1:He cautions the disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. The leaven of the Pharisees is the religious false teaching and the leaven of Herod is the worldly false teaching. There's some similarities and some differences in these two areas. Both of them are trying to pull us away from the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The person of Jesus is the way to God. John 14, 6,. Jesus says I am the way, I am the truth. No one gets to the Father but by me. So a religious false teaching would be finding some religious way to distract us from the person of Jesus, and there's many churches today that do this. They focus on religious activities. They focus on what they interpret to be the truth of religion and not what the Bible says is the truth of religion. They focus on doing things other than through Jesus and his death and resurrection to try to get to God. There's a lot of churches that focus on religious activity, but it has nothing to do with the person of Jesus Christ. That's the leaven of religion. The leaven of the world is different, but it has a similar goal, which is to pull us away from the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The leaven of the world gets us to focus on political power or money or fleshly desires or worldly things in order to get us to not focus on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Both of them are false teachings, both of them are leaven. Both of them get us away from the person of Jesus. But we need to focus on him. Christianity, if it's anything, it's the person of Jesus. That's why he's telling his disciples there to beware of the leaven.
Speaker 1:The leaven again. A little bit of yeast, a little bit of leaven mixed in with the dough will permeate the entire dough. Initially it'll taste good Initially, that leaven. I always liked big fluffy biscuits. Don't like the flat matzo bread. It doesn't taste good, but the fluffy biscuits sure taste good. But he's saying watch out, because a little bit of leaven will leaven the entire lump of dough. You take a little bit of worldliness and mix it into your life, or a little bit of false religion and mix it into your life. It'll grow and it'll permeate everything you do. How do we avoid these things? It's by constantly focusing on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and his teachings in particular and what he says. We open our Bibles and learn about Christ. That's the way we avoid this leaven. Just to reiterate leaven is always a symbol of sin and pollution. It talks about leaven. It's talking about something bad.
Speaker 2:The word behind beware there means to be able to see, just like what we've been talking about and what you've been saying, glenn, is that we have to be able to see. He's telling them. Be able to see the leaven, be able to see the false teachings or the false doctrines. He named specifically the Pharisees inherit here. But it's a warning. Warning is watch out, be able to see. So that's really a commandment, I think, to believers. It is something that he's telling his disciples directly, but I think it applies to our life today too.
Speaker 1:When we read this next section we find the disciples. They had been living with Jesus for a while now and they still don't get it. This makes me feel not quite so bad, because I don't always get what Jesus is teaching either. He had patience with them. Maybe he'll have patience with me and maybe he'll have patience with you. But the next section we find where the disciples kind of missed it and starting in verse 16, says this they began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread and Jesus, aware of this, said to them why do you discuss the fact you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? 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 you picked up? And they said to him 12. When I broke the seven for the 4,000, how many large baskets full of broken pieces you picked up? And they said to him seven.
Speaker 1:And he was saying to them do you not yet understand? So in this passage, steve, he tells them there that they possibly have hard hearts. That's why they're not understanding. In verse 16, the disciples are only focused on their bellies, for they're talking about food. He's saying do you not yet understand? Isn't it great that Jesus has patience with us when we don't understand? The disciples were with him. They didn't understand. Well, sometimes I have a thick head and it takes a while for me to learn these lessons also.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the word hardened here could also be looked at dull or insensible, kind of get the picture of building up a callus on the hand to where those calluses dead in the area that's repeatedly used a tool on your hand. So it's curious that the heart here, as he's describing it, is that it's being calloused, but it's not being calloused in such a way from the good things that he's doing and understanding. It's being calloused because they're not understanding. I do find the usage of that word a little bit curious that he uses there. But we can also see that maybe a little bit of frustration from him in that I've fed these 5,000, I fed these 4,000.
Speaker 2:Those are the two illustrations that he gives. They also have their history of God providing manna whenever they came out from Egypt, and even with the manna they would go out and pick up everything that they needed for the day to satisfy them. Jesus is really coming back on them and saying I have given you information that shows I will provide for us. Yet you continue to ask these kind of open-ended questions where is there bread for us to eat? Rather than maybe coming to Jesus and saying when is it that we're going to eat? Or, lord, how is it that you're going to eat, or Lord, how is it that you're going to provide for us today those type of things?
Speaker 1:They're concerned about food. Nothing wrong with being concerned about food, necessarily, at least per se. I don't know about you, steve, but I'm kind of addicted to it. It's sort of a necessary need here, right, because we all need food. His point is that they were concerned about these daily needs food, shelter, clothing, things like this. He's trying to teach them don't worry about these things, because I'm with you, I will provide. Can you and I truly trust Jesus and get to the point where our daily needs food, shelter, clothing, these kind of things? Can we truly trust him for these things? Or how much worry do we have to go through life, worried about our daily needs?
Speaker 2:In the model prayer that he gave on the question of Lord, teach us to pray, he said give us our daily bread. In this prayer that he said this is the way that you should pray, we should ask for God to provide for us daily, and that it's not a bad thing for us to ask for God to provide for us daily. I agree with you, glenn. He's trying to teach them to not be worried about this. This know, this is one of the things of the cares of the world that would come up and choke out the soil that would accept the seed at the beginning. Then the cares of the world would come up.
Speaker 2:I think you're right on point. He's trying to tell them don't worry about the cares of the world, especially when I'm here, I'm being Jesus. Don't worry about the cares of the world because you will be provided for. It is a lesson, I think, for us to be able to go to God daily and say, god, just provide for me today. Just provide for me today, lord, and take me to the next day and the next day. We ask him to provide for us then and take me to the next day, and the next day we ask him to provide for us.
Speaker 1:Then Jesus had been showing them that he would provide for them, yet they were concerned about their bellies. The end of verse 17, he says do you have a hardened heart? And in 18, having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? Well, he's actually quoting there in verse 18, a couple of verses from the Old Testament Jeremiah 521 and Ezekiel 12.2. And in those places God accused Israel of the same things not understanding about God's provisions for them and not trusting him, both in the Old Testament. At least two places in the Old Testament God says you're not trusting me to provide for you. Having eyes, you're not seeing, and having ears, you don't hear. I have been good to you, I brought you out of Egypt, I took you through the wilderness, I did all these things and you're still not trusting me. And it seems that God is giving this same lesson to the disciples. If we're not seems that God is giving this same lesson to the disciples. If we're not careful, he'll give the same lesson to me and he'll give the same lesson to you.
Speaker 1:As humans, we need to learn to trust Jesus Christ because he will provide for us. We are his children. We are heirs according to the king. He will provide our needs. We can rest in him and we don't have to worry about the cares of the world Doesn't mean there's not going to be cares of the world. He's not going to just lavish down bread from heaven on every occasion. What did Paul say? There's many times he had gone through hardship, but the message is that God will take you through these things. The Christian life is not always an easy chair. It's not always downhill on greased grooves. There's going to be some rough patches, but what he's saying here is trust me, because I'll get you through this. That's the lesson for the day, is it not? It is the lesson for the day.
Speaker 2:And the lesson of teaching them is in the latter verses that you read there you can see him. He asked this rhetorical questions. He said when I broke the five lows for the 5,000, how many baskets did I have left over? And they said 12. When I broke the five lows for the 4,000, how many baskets did I have left over? They said seven. And of course this is where the two different types of baskets are used that you brought out before that. The first one was smaller baskets that were used around the home and taken for food between houses, and the second of the 4,000 were large baskets that were used maybe for harvesting grain or something like that. But then he finishes up with the teaching moment of saying do you not understand Meaning? Don't you perceive, don't you get it yet in that I'm here and I can provide for you. Don't worry about the daily things of this world. I'm here and can provide for you.
Speaker 1:Isn't it great to know that the Lord Jesus will provide for us and we can rest in him. We don't have to worry about getting us through situations. We'll still have to go through some situations, but we don't have to worry because he'll be there with us to get us through it. That's one of the great, great lessons that we found back here in Mark, and we'll continue to reason through this next time.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for watching and listening, as always. May God bless you.
