Chapter # 8 Paragraph # 2 Study # 1
August 23, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis: "Sign-seeking" is, sometimes, a good thing; but it is also, under certain circumstances, a great evil that will inevitably result in condemnation without remedy.
Introduction: In our earlier studies we saw that Mark had a deliberate pattern in his records that lets us see a bit behind the veil. We have regularly pointed out that there was something critically wrong with Herod and The Pharisees in regard to which Jesus wanted to warn His disciples. It was a big enough issue in Mark's mind that he committed to spend chapters six through eight dealing with it. His summary word regarding its essential identity is "leaven" because, as Paul warned, "leaven" has the ability to permeate, and thus dominate, a person's heart and mind.
In respect to this pattern, Mark initially closely tied "the leaven of Herod" to the initial feeding of a massive crowd that included 5,000 men by recording a body of extended text concerning Herod and then, immediately, recording the Feeding of the 5,000 so that the two records were the "context" for each other. But, when it came to "the leaven of the Pharisees" there is an extended separation contextually: the "Pharisee" material is in 7:1-16, but the "conceptually linked" Feeding of the 4,000 is not given until 8:1-9. That the two are "linked" is given in Jesus' deliberate tying of the "leavens" to the "feedings" in 8:15-21.
Thus, in our study this evening we are going to follow Mark as he moves from the feeding of the 4,000 to a very short return to the Pharisee issue in 8:11-13. This "return" is simply Mark's way of reminding his readers that "The Pharisees" have already been shown to be "leavened" and that this short insertion of more "Pharisee" material is just a reminder of what he is so concerned about -- that his readers will fall into the trap into which the Pharisees had already fallen.
- I. The Details.
- A. It is "The Pharisees" that are the focal point of this short record.
- 1. This is important because this mention of "The Pharisees" is the next time Mark mentions them since his extended presentation of the reality of their "leaven" in 7:1-16 (it's a kind of "you remember those guys called Pharisees back in chapter seven?" thing).
- 2. This is also important because, earlier in 3:6, we were told that "The Pharisees" joined themselves with the Herodians to see if they could find a way to "destroy" Jesus.
- 3. And it is important that, from that early beginning of cooperation with the "Herodians", "The Pharisees" have been linked together is their "leaven" issues.
- 4. And, finally, it is important that, in 2:16 the Pharisees are tied to "the Scribes" and it was that group that Jesus "consigned to eternal condemnation in 3:28 [This is all a part of the teaching of Jesus that He intended by using "parables" to keep certain ones from being able to be forgiven: 4:12].
- B. It is the motivation of "The Pharisees" that is front and center is this brief record.
- 1. This "motivation" thesis is introduced by their "argumentative" attitude.
- a. The concept of an "argumentative attitude" is given in the term translated "to argue".
- b. This word means "to press for details so that a discernible picture might surface"; it assumes either a lack of understanding (as in 9:10 where the disciples do not know what "rising from the dead" might mean), or an overweening confidence that "understanding" is possessed in spades.
- c. This "pressing for details" in this case is an attempt to trip Jesus up so that they can destroy His influence as a Teacher in Israel.
- 1) Mark says that they were seeking a sign from The Heaven in order to "test" Him.
- 2) The word "test" is typically used when a person is "pressed to the absolute foundations of their beliefs" in order to expose what is really there as to motivation.
- d. That they were seeking a "sign from The Heaven" to do this "testing" indicates that they were confident that whatever He did as such a "sign" could be exposed as an evil.
- 1) This was rooted in their decision of chapter three that He was in league with Satan.
- 2) They thought of themselves that they would be able to show how what He did was of the devil; an indication of their overweening self-confidence.
- 2. It is this motivation issue that sponsors Jesus' refusal to "give them a sign" because He knows that nothing will convince them of His true identity; they have too much invested in their own goals of self-promotion to be "savable".
- 3. Jesus is proving that there is a "generation" that is beyond saving.
- a. This "generation" is not a "block of time" that certain people share with each other as a "generation" of 40 years, or so (such generations are hopelessly intertwined because, at any point of time, there are multiple generations of those kinds present).
- b. This "generation" is "the production of" a "father"; the sowing of his seed and producing children.
- c. This concept is clear in John 8:44 where the issue is a "father" "generating" offspring.
- d. Jesus' concept of "this generation" is that of a group within the people at large who are a "generation of vipers" who are beyond redemption.
- e. Thus, though He had done, and would do, many "signs", He said "no sign" would be given to "this generation".
- 1) In the biblical concept of "a sign", it is the ability to change the minds of people (John 20:30-31) unto salvation.
- 2) When people are "too far gone" (leavened), nothing will be given them to bring them out of that condition: "no sign will be given".
