Welcome And Scripture Reading

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Good morning, Northgate. How are we doing today? Come on, we can do a little better than that. How are we doing today, Northgate? Yeah, that's that's what I like to hear from the 9 a.m. service. My name is Matthew Zimmerman, and today I'm gonna be your scripture reader. I'm over from Benesha High School. I'm gonna be reading Mark chapter 8, verses 14 through 21. Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they only had one loaf with them in the boat, and he cautioned them, saying, Watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod. 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 hardened? Having eyes do you not see? And having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember when I broke the five thousand loaves for the five thousand? How many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? They said to him, Twelve. And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they said to him, Seven. And he said to them, Do you not yet understand? This is the word of the Lord.

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Thank you, Matthew. Thanks be to

Mark’s Big Question About Jesus

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God. Uh well, I like what Ken said earlier. Don't be a loser. Some of you guys are just gonna write that down and be like, all right, church, so just don't be a loser, because you can win, win, win, win, win, win. Uh, my name's Lawrence, one of the pastors here. I'm so glad you're here with us. We're walking through the gospel of Mark uh verse by verse in this expository journey. That's what that's called. Uh, we're finding ourselves in chapter eight today. You heard those seven verses, and really Jesus is just gonna ask us a ton of questions. And so um, we're gonna let um ask us, not just the disciples, a ton of those questions.

Why Perception Shapes Reality

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Jeremy, hey, have you ever noticed uh that two people can witness like the exact same event, right? And walk away with completely different conclusions? Have you noticed it? Like all of you guys, like one person watches a movie and says, like, that was incredible. And the other person says, like, I don't know why everybody's talking about that, right? Or two people can uh attend a concert, one link is like super inspired, the other it's checking their watch halfway through, just wondering when this is over. Or get this one maybe you've been there or you're there right now. Two siblings grow up in the same house, same parents, same meals, same rules, same experiences. And then 20 years later, one describes their childhood as wonderful while the other describes it as painful, right? It's fascinating because we tend to assume that reality shapes perception. But more often than not, perception shapes reality. And what you expect to see influences what you actually see. Psychologists call it confirmation bias. So once your mind settles on framework, you instinctively begin interpreting like new information through that existing lens. You notice what confirms it, and then what you do is you overlook what challenges it. Like the evidence could be like sitting right in front of you, but your heart has already decided what it expects to find. This is true in politics, it's true in relationships and business, and it's especially true spiritually. Because every one of us walks into conversations about Jesus, I think, carrying assumptions. Some of you, you grew up in church, and so Jesus feels familiar and maybe honestly too familiar. Some of you grew up believing that religion was really just mostly about rules and guilt and like trying harder. Some of you walked away from church because frankly, the people that were representing Jesus looked nothing like Jesus. And some of you, you're skeptical, you're not angry. You just need evidence before you're willing to like believe extraordinary claims. Some of you maybe are Muslim and you have this tremendous respect for Jesus as a prophet, but you're wrestling with who he actually claim to be. Some of you maybe are Buddhists and you appreciate Jesus' compassion while wondering if he really is more than just another enlightened teacher. And some of you, I've had a conversation with quite a few of you that you call yourself maybe atheist or agnostic, and you're honestly trying to figure out whether any of this is true, whether you're we've just simply become really, really good at telling ourselves comforting stories. And I think there's a lot of people in here that simply you just follow Jesus for decades, but yet, if you're honest, you're still discovering that he continually challenges assumptions that you didn't even know you had. And the amazing thing is this, that Mark's gospel literally has room for every one of those people because Mark isn't trying to like win an argument. He's asking a question. And that's what we've been unpacking this whole time. The question is, who is Jesus? And perhaps the even deeper question is this why do some people recognize him while others, they just completely miss him. And that's exactly where today's passage takes us.

What Shapes The Heart

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And I think the controlling idea of everything we're about to read together could be summarized like this Whatever shapes your heart will eventually shape the way you understand Jesus. Now, notice I didn't say whatever shapes your mind. It's because of the Bible see, it goes deeper than that because in scripture, the heart isn't primarily like your emotions. It's literally the control center of your life, like the things you love, desire, like your fears, your loyalties, your assumptions, your deepest allegiances. The heart is where you decide like what matters the most, and whatever is shaping that place will eventually determine how you interpret Jesus. That's exactly what's happening in our passage today. The the disciples, these 12 guys, have literally just experienced one of the greatest miracles in scripturally. Actually, there was two of them, right? Jesus fed 5,000 men with five loaves and two fish. Then he fed 4,000 more with only seven loaves, thousands of hungry people, enough food for everyone, and then baskets left over both times. So if anyone should understand Jesus by now, it's these 12 dudes. Like they've watched storms obey, they've watched demons recognize him before people do, they've watched blind see and lame walk, sick recover, and deadliness, literally, of evil pushed back wherever he goes. They've been closer to Jesus than anyone else on earth, which makes this opening line of today's passage almost humorous. Let's hop

Forgetting Bread And Forgetting God

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in. Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they only had one loaf in the boat. Isn't that just wonderfully human, right? After watching Jesus feed thousands, they forgot lunch. Like you can almost picture the conversation, right? Just sit in the boat for a second. You know, like who was supposed to pack the bread? Like I thought you were doing it. Now I had the fishing gear, like I was carrying the baskets. Wait, like we only have one loaf right now, one loaf, 12 disciples and Jesus. So they're like starting to get in this little tizzy. Now, before we're too hard on them, let's be honest. This is exactly how life works, right? You can experience something incredible with God on Sunday and panic about Monday. Like you can provide, God can provide for you financially. And two weeks later, we lie awake wondering if he's going to do it again. You can pray for years about something and watch God answer in a way that only he could. And six months later, you're wondering if he even sees you at all. We have remarkably short spiritual memories. It's one of the reasons throughout the entire Old Testament, God constantly tells Israel, his people group, to remember. Remember the Exodus, remember the wilderness, remember the Passover. This is what we do even to this day is the communion. Remember what I have done. Because here's the deal human beings have an incredible ability to forget God's faithfulness the moment a new pressure arrives, right? So one loaf. And somewhere in that boat, anxiety starts growing. Not because they lack bread, but because they think bread is actually the problem. And that's exactly when Jesus says something that seems completely unrelated.

Leaven As Slow Hidden Influence

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And he cautioned them, saying, Watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. Now, I read this too, and you're like, it just feels like this came out of nowhere. Like they're talking about bread, and now Jesus starts talking about yeast, right? It's almost like somebody changed the subject in the middle of the conversation, except he didn't. He's talking about something much deeper than bread. And so to understand this verse, you have to understand what leaven or yeast represented in the ancient world. So unlike today, people didn't buy little packets of yeast from the grocery store. Uh, they would keep a small portion of fermented dough from yesterday's batch and work that in today's dough. Some of you guys, how many of you guys are bread people, right? I know. Do you keep how how old is your batch? Like, do you have a mother bread? How old is it? I just want to know. You don't want to tell. All right. Some of you, I've talked to you, you got them years. Like you go to uh San Francisco and the Bodine stuff, that thing is like a hundred years old, right? That they're taking off that thing. It's just a tiny amount, right? And that's all you need, a tiny amount where this is taking place, almost invisible, but given enough time, it'll spread through the whole loaf, right? And this tiny influence eventually transforms everything, which is why throughout scripture, leaven often becomes this metaphor for us. Not because yeast itself is evil, uh, but because influence spreads quietly, gradually, almost unnoticed, until one day everything's been affected. And so Jesus says, beware, literally, you need to pay attention, keep walking, watching, stay alert, pay attention, you know, because hearts are always being formed. Nobody drifts towards Jesus accidentally, but nobody drifts away accidentally either. Because why? Well, we're all being shaped. The question isn't whether something is influencing your heart, the question is what?

Pharisees And Herod Heart Lenses

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And then Jesus names two kinds of yeast. He says, the yeast of Pharisees, and then the yeast of Herod. These two groups, I'm telling you, friends, could hardly have been more different. The Pharisees were deeply religious. Herod was deeply political. The Pharisees emphasized purity. Herod emphasized power. The Pharisees believed righteousness actually came through perfect religious performance, where Herod believed security came through influence and control and self-preservation, different lifestyles, different priorities, different worldviews. Yet Jesus puts them together. Why? Because underneath their differences, they shared the same heart, that neither actually recognized Jesus. The Pharisees had spent their lives like studying scripture. Like if anyone should recognize the Messiah, it should have been them. Like they knew the promises, they memorized the law, they debated with other people theology, they could quote prophets. And yet, when God himself stood in front of them, what happened last week? They demanded another sign. Not because there wasn't enough evidence, but because their hearts had already decided that the Messiah, what it should look like. And Jesus, he didn't fit their framework. Herod had the opposite problem. He he wasn't interested in holiness, he was interested in maintaining his power. And so everything was uh evaluated through one question. Does this thing that's taking place actually threaten my position of power? And so when he actually heard about Jesus, and we saw that he was he wasn't drawn towards worshiping him. He was actually haunted by the guilt of John the Baptist and what he had done in that situation. And so his heart interpreted Jesus actually through fear. See, that's the danger of yeast. It doesn't just change what you think, it actually changes how you interpret everything else. A proud heart reads Jesus differently than a humble heart. A fearful heart, sorry about that, hears Jesus differently than a trusting heart. And a cynical heart listens differently than an open heart. But whatever has been shaping your heart will eventually shape the way you understand Jesus. And maybe that's the question we need to ask ourselves before we go any further. What's been discipling you lately? Something always has to be. What's that thing? I mean, your news feed is preaching a gospel. Your social media algorithm is preaching a gospel, your favorite podcast is preaching a gospel, your political party is preaching a gospel, your career ambitions are preaching a gospel, your fears, your fears are preaching a gospel, your wounds are preaching a gospel, your past experiences are preaching a gospel, and every one of them is quietly teaching you what matters most, what literally deserves your trust, deserves your fear, deserves your devotion. And Jesus says, Watch out, be careful. Because whatever shapes your heart will eventually shape the way you understand him. And the tragedy is that the disciples, they don't recognize he's talking about their hearts. They're still thinking about sandwiches. And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. I mean, like I almost laugh every time I read that verse because Jesus has just given them one of the deepest warnings in the gospel of Mark. And the disciples, they just completely miss it, right? They're whispering back and forth, like, I told you somebody should have back watch, right? And you know, Peter's like, this is why we need Costco, right? Like we knew we forgot something. Like, imagine Jesus sitting there, like listening to this conversation, watching him, right?

Jesus Questions Our Inner Dialogue

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They're worried about bread while they're sitting next to the one who has twice created enough bread to feed thousands. So then Mark tells us, and Jesus, aware of this, said to him, I just want to stop right there. I love that phrase. Jesus is aware. I mean, come on, he always is. Let's just go ahead and get that out of there right now. He knows the conversation that they haven't included them in. He knows the fears that they haven't actually spoken aloud. He knows the assumptions underneath their words. And he doesn't simply hear that they're talking about bread. He knows why. Because the issue isn't bread, the issue is their hearts. And so then he begins asking questions. Here we go. It's a bunch of questions. Not because he actually needs information, because, friends, some of you guys learn this. Questions actually reveal the heart, right? One of the best things you can do, and you watch Jesus deal the time, you can just become an expert question asker. You'll get to the heart of things. Listen to him. These are his questions. Why are you discussing the fact that you have known bread? Like that's the first question. Notice he doesn't answer their concern. Hey, like, guys, I got it. One bread, that's easy. One loaf. There's only 13 of us, right? He doesn't do that. He questions the concern itself. See, sometimes Jesus doesn't immediately solve our problem. I think sometimes because maybe he wants to expose the assumption underneath it. He's asking, why is that the thing that you're focused on? Why has that become the biggest thing on your mind? Why have you let that capture so much of your attention? And I really think that's a good question for us. What dominates your internal conversations? Because whenever whatever's like constantly occupying your mind is usually, frankly, revealing what's occupying your heart. I mean, let's just be honest in the room. I mean, for some people, you know, it's money. Like it's just constantly it's occupying. For others, it's relationships. It's constantly, others, it's politics, right? Or someone that, you know, that we don't agree with. Or some of it's just success or approval or it's failure. You're just replaying that failure or security or control. None of these things are insignificant, but they become dangerous when they become the lens through which everything we interpret everything else. And so then he asked a second question. Do you not perceive or understand? Now that word perceive right here means to see what's really happening. And understand right here means to put now the pieces together. So Jesus is saying, guys, you've seen everything I've done. Why are you not like connecting the dots? Right? How many of you guys remember when Six Sense came out for the first time? You know the movie? It's like, I see dead people, right? That one. Sorry, that was kind of creepy, right? But that was like one of the first like gotcha moments where we're like, how did we not connect all of this stuff? This is one of the themes literally running throughout Mark's gospel, right? People keep seeing miracles without seeing Jesus. Because miracles were never actually the destination. They're signposts, they're literally supposed to be signposts towards his identity. So the feeding of the 5,000 wasn't ultimately about lunch. The calming of the storm wasn't ultimately about weather, right? Healing the deaf man wasn't ultimately about his ears. Every miracle has been asking one question. Who is this? If all you see is the miracle, you've missed the point. The miracle is just introducing you and I to the miracle worker. And so then he continues. Another question Are your hearts hardened? That's a startling question. Because throughout Mark, who has Jesus described as having hard hearts? I'll remind you, it's been the Pharisees, the religious leaders, the people that are opposing him. And now he's asking his own disciples, like the guys he's been hanging out with this whole time, not because they're enemies, because hardness doesn't just happen overnight. It happens gradually. Remember this yeast and leaven thing? It happens quietly. The Greek word describes something becoming uh callused, right? Insensitive, like uh less responsive over time. So those of you who maybe played an instrument or you work a lot with your hands, um, right? Uh you you work with tools every day. Eventually, callus is a form, and you don't notice them developing until one day you simply realize you you can't feel things the way you used to, right? The same thing happens to us spiritually. You don't just wake up one morning deciding that um I'm gonna be cynical. You don't intentionally become like less compassionate. You don't plan on becoming like more anxious than trusting. It happens just little by little, one disappointment, like one unresolved hurt, one compromise, one disappointment really after another. And then until eventually what happens is your heart begins interpreting life differently. This is why Jesus warns about the yeast, because influence is subtle, hearts are formed like really slowly.

Hardened Hearts And Spiritual Deafness

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And this is also a direct connection, if you haven't picked up on this, from the Exodus story with Pharaoh and the ten plagues, where uh Pharaoh kept seeing God work in miraculous ways. And he kept being like, Nope, not taking it. And so it talked about how he was hardening his heart over and over again. So he's like, Well, you're just literally trying not to experience this. So then Jesus continues and he's like, Oh, let me ask you another question. Having eyes to see, and ears, do you not hear? Now, every Jewish person in the boat would have recognized those words because it echoes the prophets. So specifically and especially uh Isaiah in the Old Testament. Throughout the Israel's history, uh, the problem wasn't that God failed to speak, the problem was that people stopped hearing. So not physically hearing, but spiritually, which is fascinating because just one chapter earlier, Jesus healed a man who couldn't hear. Now, the disciples, they can hear physically, but they're struggling spiritually. And so Mark is intentionally connecting these stories. The deepest blindness isn't in your eyes, the deepest deafness isn't in your ears. Again, it's in your heart. It's possible to literally uh sit through sermons for years and still not hear Jesus. It's possible to know the Bible verses and still completely misunderstand him. It's possible to attend church every single week and still interpret life exactly like everyone else because information alone doesn't transform people. We've been talking about this. Formation does. And Jesus is asking, why aren't you seeing what has been what was been right in front of You the whole time. And then comes another question. Do you not remember? So remember, remember, remember that remember here has been God's invitation throughout scripture to remember, not because he forgets, because again, who forgets? We do, right? And then Jesus reminds them two specific moments. He's like, go ahead, I'll help you. We're going to remember. When I broke the five loaves for the 5,000, how many baskets full were left of broken pieces? You know, this is a great trivia game for this. And so somebody hops in, I don't know who it is, but they just all answer, like 12, right? We remember 12, one for each one of us. Dang it. Yeah. So think about that. I mean, every one of them carried evidence in their own hands that Jesus provides beyond what anyone had imagined. Like every disciple had personally handed out the left, like handed the leftovers, right? This wasn't like secondhand information. This was somebody else's testimony. It wasn't this far away. Like this is actually their story, not just something they're reading about. Then Jesus asked them again another question. And the seven for the 4,000? How many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up in? And I mean, literally, they've just done this. They're in the boat right afterwards. I mean, can you imagine how they answered? You know, like kind of like your kid does, like, seven, excuse me? What did you just say? Right? Yeah, seven. Notice something. Jesus doesn't remind them of abstract theology, he reminds them of experiences. I think because theology disconnected from memory just can become information for us, but remembered faithfulness over time becomes trust. Sometimes when you're like struggling today or tomorrow or the next day, the healthiest thing that you can do is remember yesterday. Remember the conversation where God met you. Remember the season. If you got to hang on to it, that you thought you would never survive. Remember the provision that you couldn't explain. Remember the healing. Remember the peace. Remember the forgiveness. Remember who Jesus has already proven himself to be. And you guys know this is so true. And I just keep reiterating, like, this is why people have more than one kid, because we forget things. We forget the pain that was involved. Right? Like we're like, uh, the woman is like, heck no, right. Then later it's like, eh, it wasn't that bad, right? I had a major back surgery. I remember I was in so much pain all the time. At this point, I mean, that I do thank God that I don't remember pain like we do. A lot of us, it's the gift of forgetting about pain, but we have to remember too uh the celebration, the goodness in there to be able to do it. Not because the past solves the present, but because remembering shapes trust. Then comes the final

Remembering Past Provision To Trust

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question. And this is uh maybe one of the saddest questions Jesus asks anywhere. And Mark, he said to him, Do you not yet understand? So notice he doesn't explain it. I want you to notice it's like Mark leaves the silence hanging. No answers from the disciples here, no speech from Peter, right? No clarification, just the question Do you still not understand? I think it's haunting because Jesus isn't asking whether you've seen enough miracles. They have. He's asking whether everything that they've seen has actually transformed the way that they see him. That's the issue. The feeding miracles weren't ultimately about the bread. They were about Jesus. The warning about the yeast wasn't ultimately about false teaching. It was about hearts. Whatever shapes your heart will eventually shape the way you understand Jesus. Have you heard me say that a few times today? That's why two people can hear the same gospel and respond differently. It's why one person hears grace and another hears obligation. One hears invitation and another hears accusation. One sees a savior, another sees merely another religious leader. And the difference isn't always the evidence. Sometimes it's the heart interpreting the evidence. And that should humble every one of us because none of us has outgrown this passage. I'm telling you, the lifelong Christian hasn't, the pastor doesn't, the skeptic doesn't, the atheist, the Muslim, the Buddhist, the D-church person doesn't, the brand new believer doesn't. Every one of us has to continually ask, What am I letting shape my heart? Because whatever shapes your heart will eventually shape the way you understand Jesus. Maybe your greatest obstacle isn't actually intellectual. Maybe it isn't lack of evidence. Maybe uh it isn't that Jesus has actually been unclear. Maybe the deeper question is whether something else has been discipling your imagination more than he has. Maybe that's fear and it's become your teacher. Maybe outrage has become your teacher. Or disappointment has become your teacher. Success has become your teacher. Religion has become your teacher. Maybe politics has become your teacher. Maybe your past you've let be a little too much of your teacher. Jesus looks at the 12 men who have spent every day with him for nearly three years and asks one question, not angrily, not dismissively, almost tenderly, almost with sadness. Do you not yet understand? And Mark intentionally refuses to answer this. Because before we rush to the answer for the disciples, I think we need to answer it ourselves. What if the question isn't only for them? What if Mark intends this to literally echo across the centuries into every generation, every church, every skeptical heart, searching mind into every one of us? Do you not yet understand? And with that question still hanging in the air, Mark takes us immediately into the next story where Jesus will begin answering that question in a way that no one in the boat could have anticipated.

Live With The Question This Week

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So here's what I want us to ask all of us to do this week. Don't rush to answer Jesus. Sit with this question. Because I think we're just so quick to move on. We want to hear a sermon, we want to take a few notes, we want to close the Bible, head to lunch, and immediately start asking, like, okay, what's next? Right. Maybe this week there isn't a what's next. Maybe this week there's just a question. Do you not yet understand? Uh two weeks ago, um, we go every, I don't know, six, eight weeks, it seems like, to the Solano um prison and uh get to do like a short teach there. And this last time, two weeks ago, I decided like, I'm just gonna come in and bring what I think these dudes need. Um, I'm gonna let them ask some questions. And so we started out with like QA. It was fascinating, right? Because it literally was me asking the question too. Like, do you not yet understand? Letting you all ask. What do you not yet understand? And before you answer too quickly, ask yourself this form in question. What has been shaping your heart? What voice have you been listening to the most? What story have you been leaving? What fear has been discipling you? What disappointment has quietly become your theology? What success has convinced you that you're actually self-sufficient? What hurt has convinced you to stop trusting? What version of Jesus have you created that feels comfortable enough not to challenge you anymore? So this week, don't answer it too quickly. Live with the question. When you wake up tomorrow morning, here it is. Jesus, where am I still misunderstanding you? When fear starts to talk louder than faith, Jesus, where am I still misunderstanding you? When disappointment begins shaping how you see him, Jesus, where am I still misunderstanding you in this? Don't answer it today. I'm telling you, let Jesus ask it all week of you. Pray the question. Don't rush past the discomfort because sometimes the greatest work Jesus does isn't giving you immediate answers. Sometimes it's exposing the questions that we've been avoiding. So let it follow you on your commute. Or am I still misunderstanding you? Into your meetings, into your conversations, into your prayers, and ask the Holy Spirit to do what only He can do. Not simply give you more information about Jesus, but to shape your heart until you begin seeing Jesus more clearly.