Speaker 1: Thank you Andrea and worship team.
Speaker 1: Turn in your bibles to mark Chapter Eight the gospel of mark the eighth chapter.
Speaker 1: I just while you're turning there when a highlight one more thing and your bulletin, you may have already seen it but we have formed a pastoral search team to uh, to be used by God to identify who the man is that God is preparing even now to be central's next lead teaching pastor.
Speaker 1: And that pastoral search team begins meeting today so you can see the members of the team listed in your bulletin there.
Speaker 1: I would encourage you to pray for them, pray for wisdom and discernment, pray for them as they seek God's will as they seek to identify again who God we believe has already selected to be the next lead teaching pastor.
Speaker 1: You can also see that a, the bottom of that announcement there is an email address, pastor search@centralchurch.com.
Speaker 1: If you have somebody that you know of that you would like the pastoral search team to consider, the pastoral search team will follow up on any name submitted to them.
Speaker 1: So that is the easiest way to submit a name to the pastoral search team is just by emailing the team at that address.
Speaker 1: Steven, as we bridge into where we are in Mark Chapter Eight today, let me just mention one thing in our pastoral profile that we're looking for really the, the guidelines for the grid through whom we're trying to identify God's man.
Speaker 1: Uh, this is, this is not necessarily the first thing, but this is an important thing.
Speaker 1: We are looking for a spirit led expository preacher.
Speaker 1: What do I mean by that?
Speaker 1: We were looking for a spirit led man as he preaches.
Speaker 1: We want him to be a walking with the Lord and listening to the Lord in such a way that, that, that he is moved by the spirit.
Speaker 1: Uh, and, and that is very evident in the passion in which he preaches.
Speaker 1: But we also want them to be at the same time and expository preacher and expository simply means that his primary content for what he preaches is what God has given us in his word.
Speaker 1: Old Testament and New Testament and expository preacher under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit preaches through sections of scripture consecutively.
Speaker 1: That's, that's what we believe in here.
Speaker 1: And if you're new to central, that's something you should know.
Speaker 1: That is one of our commitments.
Speaker 1: Why do we believe that?
Speaker 1: Because it's a style or a preference.
Speaker 1: No, because of our belief in the power of the word of God.
Speaker 1: We believe it is God's word and that that is, that has grabbed hold of by his spirit that has a transforming effect upon us.
Speaker 1: It has God's, we're not man's where not the man in the pulpit, but God's word is the spirit uses it in our hearts and our minds and our hearts.
Speaker 1: That actually has a transforming, changing effect upon us.
Speaker 1: So even as a, you know, we think about here, we are yet one more week going through the gospel of mark.
Speaker 1: That is why we believe we are actually changed by what we encounter of Jesus as we see him presented through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the gospel of mark.
Speaker 1: We come to the text, um, we come with a text wanting to be engaged at the heart level.
Speaker 1: I mean, it should move us.
Speaker 1: It should impact us if the Holy Spirit is working as it should impact us at the heart level, the level of the emotions, the level of the will.
Speaker 1: But it should also engage us at the level of the head, the level of the intellect we should seek to understand because it's her understanding that often the heart can become engaged.
Speaker 1: So as, as students, we're all students of scripture seeking to understand what it is that God is doing through the gospel of mark.
Speaker 1: I want to give you a little bit of a picture of the context, the what's going on around mark, chapter eight, that that really helps us see what is it that God is doing through mark to again, make that ultimate impact upon us.
Speaker 1: I want to show you a number of pairs and a, you'll see what I mean in just a moment.
Speaker 1: But there, there is an order.
Speaker 1: There is a, a logic to why this particular account and chapter eight, these accounts appear the way they do.
Speaker 1: Let me, let me just point out some of these pairs that show you the context and should make us wrestle with why.
Speaker 1: What is God doing?
Speaker 1: What does he want us to see?
Speaker 1: First of all, the first pair, there were two miraculous feedings.
Speaker 1: If you were here a number of weeks ago when we were at chapter six, you, you probably heard the account of the first miraculous feeding, the feeding of the 5,000, really more than 5,000.
Speaker 1: When you add in the, the families of, of the men who were at that, uh, at that event that happened in Galilee that happened near Bethsaida.
Speaker 1: We'll see the significance of that a little later.
Speaker 1: Now as we enter into chapter eight, we see a second feeding the feeding of the 4,000, again, more than 4,000.
Speaker 1: Uh, this happens on almost the opposite side of the Sea of Galilee down in the southeastern corner of the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
Speaker 1: And we'll see that these are remarkably similar.
Speaker 1: So one of the questions that we should begin wrestling with is why do we have both of these?
Speaker 1: What is it that God wants to see and to miraculous feedings?
Speaker 1: The next pair is this immediately following these two miraculous feedings, there were two challenges by the Pharisees.
Speaker 1: We see the first challenge by the fear of see following the feeding of the 5,000 and chapter seven where they challenged Jesus and his disciples about failing to follow what was called the tradition of the elders.
Speaker 1: There rules about what made you clean, acceptable to God and unclean, unacceptable, rejected by God.
Speaker 1: And then we see following the feeding of the 40,000 we'll look at today.
Speaker 1: In verses 11 through 13, the Pharisees again challenge Jesus right after this miraculous feeding, demanding a sign.
Speaker 1: We'll look at that in more detail in a moment.
Speaker 1: The third pair.
Speaker 1: Both of these conversations by the Pharisees led to Jesus talking about the subject of bread.
Speaker 1: Now Physical Brad, but more involved really spiritual bread.
Speaker 1: We, we looked last week kind of following the feeding of the 5,000 and the challenge of the Pharisees and the tradition of the elders.
Speaker 1: We saw Jesus in a conversation with Sarah Phoenician woman who who uh, to whom he makes he, he, he spins.
Speaker 1: The parable that I'm giving spiritual food to her is, is, is taking is like taking the children's bread.
Speaker 1: Well, we'll go into that in more and a moment and extending that to her or letting her share and the crumbs.
Speaker 1: Again, there, there was a picture there that is more than about just physically eating and this week actually it'll be next week by the time we get to it at the end of chapter eight verses 14 through 21 Jesus coming off the feeding of the 4,000 and that that challenged by the Pharisees has a conversation with his disciples and the boat about bread where they're worried physically they don't have enough bread for their next meal.
Speaker 1: Jesus speaks beyond their physical need for bread to their spiritual need for bread.
Speaker 1: Finally, one more pair.
Speaker 1: Both of these conversations about bread are immediately followed by Jesus' healing.
Speaker 1: Someone.
Speaker 1: There is a pair of healings following the feeding of the 5,000 and the challenged by the Pharisees and the the, the conversation with the Cyril Phoenician woman about bread.
Speaker 1: There is at the end of chapter seven, the healing of the death man.
Speaker 1: And now in chapter eight following the feeding of the 4,000 and the challenged by the Pharisees and the conversation with the disciples in the boat about bread, there is the healing of the blind man.
Speaker 1: This is not random.
Speaker 1: This is not just coincidence that this, this pairing that this ordering occurred in this way.
Speaker 1: It is very intentional on the part of mark.
Speaker 1: Remember who mark was.
Speaker 1: Mark was not one of the 12 disciples.
Speaker 1: Mark May have been a young man that, that the Gospel's referred to was in the garden of cassette.
Speaker 1: Many when Jesus was arrested and who, who, uh, who fled, leaving his robe behind.
Speaker 1: He may have had some snapshots of Jesus's earthly ministry, but much of what mark knows and includes in this gospel.
Speaker 1: He's heard from Peter and maybe other of the 12 disciples.
Speaker 1: Mark's an editor mark as a spirit inspired editor.
Speaker 1: He's taken what he's heard from Peter and the other apostles.
Speaker 1: He's taken the little bits that he may have seen himself and he's put those under the inspiration of the spirit together in a very deliberate order.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because when he's writing to people like you and me, he wants us to be impacted in certain ways.
Speaker 1: He wants us to get certain truths about Jesus and that's why we're going to look at the order and why he's done this.
Speaker 1: So I just want to give you my five questions right up front.
Speaker 1: We're only going to tackle the first to have this morning and we'll tackle the next three next week.
Speaker 1: The first question, what sets apart, what distinguishes these two miraculous feedings, the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000 secondly, what is significant about the Pharisees opposition?
Speaker 1: I mean we've seen it all along.
Speaker 1: Up to this point.
Speaker 1: Is there something that mark wants us particularly to see now after the feeding of the 40,000 and then next week we'll look about what is significant about the dullness, the spiritual dullness of the disciples that we see in the boat?
Speaker 1: What is a well, how were these two miracles, the healing of the deaf man, the healing of the blind man related to all this.
Speaker 1: And finally, where's this all leading?
Speaker 1: What is it that that God wants you and me to understand and to be changed by?
Speaker 1: But let's just go to the first two questions this morning.
Speaker 1: The first question, what distinguishes the feeding of the 40,000 in chapter eight from the feeding of the 5,000 in chapter six let's look at the feeding of the 40,000 beginning in verse one of Chapter Eight in those days there was again a large crowd and they have nothing to eat.
Speaker 1: Jesus summoned the disciples and he said to them, I have compassion on the crowd because they've already stayed with me three days and have nothing to eat.
Speaker 1: If I send them home famish they will collapse.
Speaker 1: On the way, and some of them have come a long distance.
Speaker 1: His discipled answer them, where can anyone get enough bread here in this desolate place to fill these people?
Speaker 1: How many loaves do you have?
Speaker 1: He asked them, seven, they said, and Jesus commanded the crowd to sit down on the ground taking the seven loaves he gave thanks.
Speaker 1: He broke the loaves and he kept on giving them to his disciples to set before the people, so they serve the loaves to the crowd.
Speaker 1: They also had a few small fish and when he had blessed them, he said, these were to be served as well.
Speaker 1: They that is the crowd ate and were filled and then they, the disciples collected seven large baskets of leftover pieces.
Speaker 1: About 4,000 men and probably many other women and children were there.
Speaker 1: He dismissed them and immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalman Noosa.
Speaker 1: Now there's a lot of similarities between the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000 I mean the first, the first similarity that that is obvious is two episodes of thousands of people coming to hear Jesus preach in a wilderness place where there is no immediate resources for food.
Speaker 1: Secondly, another similarity and both of those instances, spiritually peep, excuse me, spiritually hungry people come to hear Jesus teach and in the course of being with him and sitting under his teaching for a period of time, they become physically hungry.
Speaker 1: And then the third similarity follows from that.
Speaker 1: Then in both of these cases, Jesus has compassion upon these people, not just their, their, their spiritual needs, but their physical needs and he miraculously multiplies a very small amount of bread and fish to feed a large group of people.
Speaker 1: And then another similarity in both instances, his, his miracle is so overflowing.
Speaker 1: It is so super abundant that there are baskets of leftover food.
Speaker 1: Now there are some minor differences in by minor, I mean I think they're insignificant.
Speaker 1: You might disagree with me.
Speaker 1: I think it's insignificant the size of the crowd, you know, a difference of a thousand when you're talking about several thousand, I don't think that diminishes the miracle at all.
Speaker 1: There is an insignificant minor difference of the number of loaves and fish that were offered.
Speaker 1: Um, even though a little bit more was offered for the feeding of the 40,000, it's, it's, it's still, it's still so small.
Speaker 1: I couldn't even possibly feed the 12 disciples much less that entire crowd and the number of baskets of leftover food there.
Speaker 1: There have been people in Church history of attempted to take those numbers and allegorize them and get some kind of meeting out of that.
Speaker 1: I, I don't see that.
Speaker 1: So in asking what distinguishes these two miraculous feedings, I'm really asking is there a difference that mark wants us to see or is there a difference that the Holy Spirit wants us to see?
Speaker 1: Is there something significant that, that um, that God wants to impact your life in my life today with it?
Speaker 1: And I think there is, and it may be subtle how you get there, but here's the difference.
Speaker 1: There were in these two feedings to very different crowds.
Speaker 1: The people were very, very different from the first to the second and the feeding of the 5,000 and chapter six this took place, as I said earlier in Galilee, it took place near Bethsaida.
Speaker 1: That is Jewish territory.
Speaker 1: Those 5,000 men plus their wives and their children, they were probably exclusively Jewish people, but now in chapter eight we have a very different crowd and we get a hint of this even in the opening verse of verse one of Chapter Eight when mark writes in those days, what is he doing?
Speaker 1: He's connecting the feeding of the 4,000 with what has just happened at the end of chapter seven where Jesus has left Galilee and he's gone up to tire inciden and then around east to the region known as the Decapolis.
Speaker 1: That is all gentile territory and where are the feeding of the 4,000 we believe takes place is way down on the South Eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.
Speaker 1: That is the heart of gentile territory.
Speaker 1: What do we, what can we reasonably infer?
Speaker 1: This crowd is either entirely or almost entirely gentile, two very different crowds.
Speaker 1: And why is this important?
Speaker 1: Why is this important is because this is the first time that Jesus has gone be be beyond the Jewish people.
Speaker 1: There've been a few isolated incidences of him having interaction with where the gentile, uh, up to this point, but never in such a significant intentional way.
Speaker 1: Jesus is, I've got on the outline up on the screen there.
Speaker 1: Jesus is now doing for the gentiles what he has done for the Jews.
Speaker 1: And you think of that image last week, if you were here from that parable with a Ciro Phoenician woman, Jesus is inviting gentiles, non Jews to the table.
Speaker 1: Jesus is offering them the spiritual bread of his children, of the children of Israel.
Speaker 1: In other words, Jesus's offering now to non Jews, to gentiles, God's salvation promises.
Speaker 1: This is no surprise if, if, if we read Old Testament prophecy, but it certainly was a surprise to them.
Speaker 1: The profits moved by God said this long ago, Isaiah, we looked at this briefly last week.
Speaker 1: Isaiah 49 God is speaking to the Christ, the Messiah, and he says, you will do more than restore the people of Israel.
Speaker 1: To me.
Speaker 1: In other words, your mission is more about than just going to the Jews.
Speaker 1: I will make you a light to the gentiles.
Speaker 1: The reason you and I if we know Jesus as savior and Lord have that light of truth in our life is because that was the Messiah's mission from the beginning.
Speaker 1: You will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 1: So you know we can tend to speed read over the feeding of the 4,000 I mean it can seem because it is so similar like it's just, you know, I don't know, loaves and fishes 2.0 but it is not an accident.
Speaker 1: It is not a, it is not just a coincidence.
Speaker 1: Mark under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is writing to gentiles like you and like May and he wants us to see that Jesus is inviting us to the banquet table of God.
Speaker 1: He wants us to see that Jesus is offering the bread of salvation to us.
Speaker 1: I've made this point before, but I just want to underline it this morning.
Speaker 1: You and I are gentiles.
Speaker 1: I there, there may be somebody in here who, who ethnically has some Jewish blood in them, but for the most part, if not all of us, uh, at least most of us are ethnically.
Speaker 1: We are non Jewish people.
Speaker 1: So consider from the apostle Paul's argument in Ephesians writing to believers like you and me, believers in the church, consider what our situation is before Christ as gentiles.
Speaker 1: He says, Ephesians two two you were separate from Christ.
Speaker 1: We had no part where the Messiah as gentiles before Christ came.
Speaker 1: You were excluded from citizenship in Israel.
Speaker 1: We were not part of the Jewish nation.
Speaker 1: We were not part of God's promise people.
Speaker 1: You were foreigners or alien and s to the covenants of promise.
Speaker 1: We read the, the, the blessings that God promised in Genesis to Abraham and his descendants and none of those extend us before Christ.
Speaker 1: You were really a summary Statement.
Speaker 1: You where we were without hope and without God in the world.
Speaker 1: That's who you and I naturally are as non Jews as gentiles.
Speaker 1: So when you think about how Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, he left the boundaries of Jewish territory.
Speaker 1: He crossed over into gentile, unclean people territory.
Speaker 1: How he intentionally brought the same physical and spiritual bread to the gentiles that he brought to the Jews left.
Speaker 1: That reminds you, let that underline for you that Jesus has crossed boundaries to bring the bread of salvation to you.
Speaker 1: To me, that's Ephesians two three the very next verse, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off far off is gentiles.
Speaker 1: You have been brought near by the blood of Christ and that very honestly, brothers and sisters every everyday that fact alone, that truth alone should inspire our Thanksgiving in our praise and our worship.
Speaker 1: But I believe there's even more application for us here, Jesus and going to the gentiles to feed the 4,000 Jesus took his disciples with him and these were Jewish men.
Speaker 1: This is taking Jewish men who were used to administering the Jewish people who are expecting a Jewish Messiah to bring deliverance to a Jewish people and really put down gentile people, particularly the Roman gentile people.
Speaker 1: This, taking them out of their comfort zone.
Speaker 1: This is taking them deep into gentile territory.
Speaker 1: This is taking them away from, you know, we think of people just like us.
Speaker 1: That's that's what it means to be stretched out of our comfort zone.
Speaker 1: We're no longer around people like us.
Speaker 1: We're around people not like us, and he led them into settings just like this where they had to serve gentiles.
Speaker 1: Here's the truth.
Speaker 1: If you are a follower of Jesus, he makes the same call upon you.
Speaker 1: He makes the same call upon me.
Speaker 1: Think of that term.
Speaker 1: Gentile is a little more broadly than than about blood, than about ethnicity.
Speaker 1: Think about gentiles as as people that that God has put in your life or God has given you at least influence with and the different circles and spheres that you are in who are separated from Christ in one way or another that that may be from various reasons.
Speaker 1: Who Do you know?
Speaker 1: Who does the Holy Spirit bring to mind that is separated from Christ and where they stand with Jesus right now?
Speaker 1: Who Do you know that is excluded from Christ's kingdom?
Speaker 1: That if Christ came back today or if they died today, they would go to hell.
Speaker 1: They would not be part of Christ's kingdom because of where they presently stand in relation to Jesus.
Speaker 1: Who Do you know that is a forerunner to Christ promises not only his salvation promises but his promises of new life.
Speaker 1: Who Do you know that is the summary statement without God and without or without hope and without God and this world, you know individually the there is application for each of us.
Speaker 1: You work with people like this.
Speaker 1: You live next door to people like this.
Speaker 1: You go to school with people like this.
Speaker 1: There may be people in your immediate or extended family like this.
Speaker 1: Those are the people that God calls you and me individually to cross boundaries.
Speaker 1: As Jesus led these disciples across boundaries to get outside our comfort zone, to bring the invitation come to the table too.
Speaker 1: I think as well, there's congregational applications of this.
Speaker 1: When you think of the gentiles, those who are people not like us, who, who comes to mind do our neighbors as a congregation come to mind?
Speaker 1: Those who live really uneven on the other side of our parking lot who come from different nationalities, different religious backgrounds.
Speaker 1: What does it mean to cross boundaries to them?
Speaker 1: When we think of the Greater Collierville area and we think, and we read the statistics, we had been researching some of these statistics for information for our pastoral search, and we see the percentage of households that have no faith at all.
Speaker 1: The nuns.
Speaker 1: What does it mean to cross boundaries, to reach to the unchurched?
Speaker 1: People not like us because they've not been raised in the church culture.
Speaker 1: Jesus is inviting.
Speaker 1: Jesus is calling you and me to cross boundaries individually.
Speaker 1: He's inviting us as a church even as we prepare for the next chapter of central's history before the Lord returns, he's inviting us to follow him as weaker has as he leads us across boundaries.
Speaker 1: One last question I want to wrestle with today.
Speaker 1: The opposition of the Pharisees.
Speaker 1: We read in verse 11, that immediately after the feeding of the 40,000, he's met, uh, as he gets out of the boat, he's met by a party of Pharisees who, who come and they come out and they began to argue with him.
Speaker 1: So he's met with immediate opposition.
Speaker 1: This is not a discussion.
Speaker 1: That word argue means to dispute or to oppose.
Speaker 1: Why this immediate opposition?
Speaker 1: Uh, if we look back at the feeding of the, of the 5,000 that were, there were Jewish people.
Speaker 1: We don't see the, the, the, the Pharisees showing up immediately and taking issue with him.
Speaker 1: But here they show up right after Jesus feeds the 4,000 plus gentiles.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: I believe it's because the pharisees were offended by the fact that he went in to gentile territory and he again, made that invitation to come to the table.
Speaker 1: He extended them the bread of salvation to gentiles.
Speaker 1: Culturally, the cultural beliefs and prejudices of the Pharisees Lock them into thinking that the gentiles were beyond the reach of God's saving work.
Speaker 1: They did believe the Messiah was coming, but they believe that the Messiah was coming to deliver.
Speaker 1: The Jews and they believe that the gentiles, specifically the Roman gentiles who had, uh, who, who were oppressing the Jews were actually going to be condemned and destroyed when the Messiah came.
Speaker 1: So their concept of the Messiah coming and, and who he would save and who he would rescue was limited to the Jews.
Speaker 1: They understood the implications of Jesus then going into gentile territory and feeding the 4,000 gentiles.
Speaker 1: And we're very much the same way that he fed the 5,000 Jewish people.
Speaker 1: They understood the implications of the spiritual implications and it was inconceivable to them that the Jewish Messiah would, would do this.
Speaker 1: So their response, we see in verse 11 they demand of him a sign from heaven to test him.
Speaker 1: This is not, you know, this is not the kind of sign that sometimes that a we are prone to ask for is we pray.
Speaker 1: There's nothing inherently sinful about asking for a sign.
Speaker 1: We see good examples and we see bad examples of that in scripture.
Speaker 1: But this is more, they are going beyond asking God for a sign.
Speaker 1: They are demanding that Jesus prove his authority to do what he has just done.
Speaker 1: He is in essence again, invited gentiles to God's salvation banquet.
Speaker 1: He has.
Speaker 1: He has opened the Kingdom of God to gentiles to offer them salvation.
Speaker 1: And the Pharisees demand that he showed them in some cosmic way that he has the authority to do this.
Speaker 1: We've seen in the first seven chapters, we've seen Jesus do I think what I would consider signs what you would consider authenticating signs.
Speaker 1: We've seen him heal person after person.
Speaker 1: We've seen him even raise someone from the dead.
Speaker 1: We've seen him exercise his power over nature.
Speaker 1: Uh, we've seen him cast out demons.
Speaker 1: All of these cumulatively, if not individually, would be signs that he is who he says he is.
Speaker 1: That what he says has the authority of God, the father behind him.
Speaker 1: But what they want is more than that.
Speaker 1: They want in some way, some cosmic apocalyptic act by God that gives irrefutable proof of Jesus has authority.
Speaker 1: This is the kind of hardness of heart towards Jesus that the Apostle Paul spoke of in First Corinthians one when he says that Jews demand miraculous signs.
Speaker 1: Again, it is one thing, God, I'm struggling in this area of my faith.
Speaker 1: Uh, if, if it would please you could I have a sign, could you some way indicate to me something that that would help me Lord, exercise even greater faith in you.
Speaker 1: I, that's a prayer of faith.
Speaker 1: That's not necessarily a sinful prayer asking for a sign in this way, but to demand assigned to, to presume that we can establish the conditions.
Speaker 1: Lord, I will believe if you meet these conditions, I won't believe if you fail to meet these conditions for us to presume that we can, uh, the weekend against set the conditions on whether Jesus is who he says he is, whether he has authority of as Lord over our lives by dictating that God needs to demonstrate cosmically or however we might define it.
Speaker 1: Some kind of sign is not just send it as open rebellion against God.
Speaker 1: That's that's really the way that that, that Jesus responds in Verse 12 but sighing deeply in a spirit, groan and groaning, groaning from frustration, groaning from really spiritual agony.
Speaker 1: He said, why does this generation, why does this generation of Jews to man assign?
Speaker 1: I assure you, no sign will be given to this generation.
Speaker 1: You know, up until this point, Jesus had been willing to engage with the Pharisees and conversation when they came to him with a different challenges, they came to him.
Speaker 1: This, this is a turning point here in mark chapter eight here, Jesus reaches a turning point where now he refuses to give them any more evidence since they refuse to believe, no matter what he says and what he does.
Speaker 1: And the ironic thing is they will receive their sign.
Speaker 1: Mark tells us, says in Mark Chapter 13 that there sign will come and it will come when it's too late at the end of time, at what's known as the day of the Lord, when the Sun will be darkened and the stars will fall from the sky.
Speaker 1: When Jesus returns in all of his glory, they will see everyone on earth will see the son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
Speaker 1: They will receive their sign all who denied Christ all refuse him as savior and Lord will receive their sign.
Speaker 1: But it comes too late to repent at that point, a leans only to judgment at that point.
Speaker 1: You know, again, this is not just something historical that happened between the Pharisees and Jesus back and Mark Chapter Eight.
Speaker 1: This is a, a kind of hardness of heart that, that it, it can happen to us.
Speaker 1: Uh, before we come to true saving faith.
Speaker 1: It is a kind of hardness of heart that we are increasingly seeing.
Speaker 1: I believe in our culture, every culture and every age has had their, uh, their, their particular brands of hardness of heart or resistance to the Gospel.
Speaker 1: But it seems, I think what we're seeing culturally around us, this has become more and more prevalent.
Speaker 1: Uh, David Garland, a commentator says it better than I can.
Speaker 1: He says, sign seekers and scoffers appear in every age, including the present one that we live in.
Speaker 1: They continue to make their demands asking for proof and ridiculing of faith that trusts God's faithfulness against all evidence.
Speaker 1: Who in your life you know fits that description?
Speaker 1: Who, who in your life continues to move the goalpost you.
Speaker 1: You testified in them about the reality of Jesus at work in your life.
Speaker 1: You, you share with them what you understand of apologetics making a case for the faith and they continue to move the goalpost.
Speaker 1: You could do actual miracles and it would not move their heart to embrace Jesus as savior and Lord Garland goes on to say every generation of Christians must resist the temptation to satisfy the standards of evidence that the world demands.
Speaker 1: Spiritual truth does not lend itself to such demands.
Speaker 1: That is not saying to you or me that there's not a place to understand apologetics, to be able to present our faith intelligently, to be able to open scripture and show what the scripture say.
Speaker 1: It does say that many, many people will not.
Speaker 1: That'll never be enough.
Speaker 1: It does communicate that it is open rebellion against God for any person to presume that they can set the conditions under which they will or they will not believe.
Speaker 1: Let me leave you with one closing application today.
Speaker 1: When you think of the Pharisees, objection of Jesus going into gentile territory and and extending what he's extended to the Jews now to the gentiles, what was he doing?
Speaker 1: He was challenging their belief that that there are people who are beyond the reach of God's salvation.
Speaker 1: I mean that that was the pharisees belief the Jews got intended to save anybody who was not Jewish, who is a gentile.
Speaker 1: You are beyond the reach of God's saving work.
Speaker 1: We may not think of those in those terms today in the terms of Jews and gentiles, but I would challenge each of us as we think about the ways that we were raised, the cultural prejudices, the cultural beliefs that that that were, that we were socialized with.
Speaker 1: Even what we get from our culture today, I would challenge us.
Speaker 1: How do we fall into the same kind of thinking as the Pharisees, that there are categories of people who because of whatever it may be, their lifestyle or where they are, that they are beyond God's saving reach.
Speaker 1: I mean, who comes to mind when I say that?
Speaker 1: I'll tell you who, who comes to my mind, you, you could develop a much longer list.
Speaker 1: Do we believe that abortionists are beyond God's saving reach, God's ability to regenerate their heart and draw them to a saving knowledge of Jesus as Savior and Lord?
Speaker 1: Do we believe that homosexuals are transsexuals are beyond God's saving reach beyond the ability of Christ to not only save but transform?
Speaker 1: Do we believe that militant atheists are beyond God's ability to reach that is beyond God's ability to even change their minds?
Speaker 1: Do we believe that radical Muslims are beyond God's saving reach?
Speaker 1: You could add to that list, I'm sure based upon people that you encounter, that you see in our culture and world around us who is beyond God's saving reach.
Speaker 1: The answer is no one, because I guarantee you if there was anybody beyond God's saving reach, we would fall into that category.
Speaker 1: No one is beyond God's saving reach.
Speaker 1: And so if that is the truth, let me ask you this individual question.
Speaker 1: Who Do you, by the way you think, who do you buy?
Speaker 1: Maybe the way you were raised to think, who do you treat like they are?
Speaker 1: In what ways are you and what ways am I like the farracies thinking?
Speaker 1: You don't cross that border.
Speaker 1: You don't cross that boundary.
Speaker 1: You don't associate with those people.
Speaker 1: You don't put yourself in that setting.
Speaker 1: In what ways do we restrict ourselves to our comfort zone?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll minister.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll share the gospel.
Speaker 1: But with people like us, people from our culture, people who are similar to us.
Speaker 1: Let me one more congregational application of this.
Speaker 1: Who Do we as a church treat?
Speaker 1: Uh, but even by our inaction, who do we treat like they are beyond God's saving reach?
Speaker 1: I reflected a lot on this question this week.
Speaker 1: I've had the privilege, uh, as your interim pastor leading a transition process to study the history of central a rich 123 year history, one thing that is rich in central's history is what I would say using that same phrase, a going beyond the boundaries, going beyond the boundaries, racially, going beyond the boundaries, reaching out to homosexuals, going on beyond the boundaries, reaching out to unwed, pregnant mothers.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can add to that list if you know a little bit about centrals history over the years, but, but here's, here's the conviction as I was praying this week, is that just our history or does that, who does that reflect to?
Speaker 1: We presently are, we will be representing ourselves soon to, um, to whatever candidates that God raises up as our potential next lead teaching pastor.
Speaker 1: As we try to communicate what our values are, what is really important, what drives us as a congregation is going beyond the boundaries.
Speaker 1: Is that a historic value or is that a present value?
Speaker 1: And, and if it's not a present value, do we aspire that to be the culture?
Speaker 1: Once again, have central do we believe in the great commission enough that it's not just about taking short term missions trips as important as those are to go to the other, to the ends of the earth, but it has to go across boundaries, even in the Memphis metropolitan area, racial boundaries, socioeconomic boundaries, even moral sexual boundaries to take the Gospel, to invite people to God's table to share and the bread of salvation.
Speaker 1: I hope this moves you as this.
Speaker 1: This text moves you as it does me.
Speaker 1: I need to pray individually.
Speaker 1: Where have I set boundaries around who I reach out to and I hope it moves us to pray as a congregation, particularly as we think about the next chapter, that God is preparing us for even more.
Speaker 1: Where do we have boundaries that we need to break through?
Speaker 1: Once again, let's pray.
Speaker 1: Lord.
Speaker 1: Uh, Ephesians two, I, I just use that as the model for our prayer.
Speaker 1: Lord, this is who we were, Lord Jesus.
Speaker 1: Before you came, before you broke into our lives, we were separate from you.
Speaker 1: We were excluded from your being, your chosen people.
Speaker 1: We were alienated from your kingdom promises and we were really without hope and without God and this world, Lord, that was our state.
Speaker 1: And so we are so thankful this morning, and this is really the reason we gathered a worship that now in Christ Jesus, we who were far off, we have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Speaker 1: Father, we pray that that not only moves us with Thanksgiving and praise, but that it convicts us that if we're not beyond the reach of your saving work, that no one is no one racially, no one's socioeconomically, no one in their lifestyle choices, no one in their politics, whatever it may be, where we were, we in error, set up boundaries, forgive us, Lord God individually and as a congregation for letting our fears and our prejudices, harden our hearts to people who need your Gospel, make us boundary core.
Speaker 1: I'm crossers Lord Jesus, lead us to people, lead us across boundaries to people who need you.
Speaker 1: We pray this, that you would be lifted up and glorified.
Speaker 1: Amen.