The Letter to the Colossian Church- 2

Subtitle: A Prayer of Petition

Colossians 1:9-14.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, July 20, 2025.

We are continuing in Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae.  Last week, we looked at Paul’s prayer of thanksgiving for their faith, their love, and their hope in God.

In these verses, he moves into a prayer of petition on their behalf. 

Let’s look at our passage.

Paul asks for certain things in their lives (v. 9-11)

Just as prayers of thanksgiving are a kind of prayer, so we have prayers of petition, where we ask God for things.  The idea of petition may seem strange to connect to prayer.  However, think about how we use petitions in our society.  At its root, a petition is going before some authority and asking them for something.  Yet, due to the political nature of most authorities, we get as many people as possible to “sign” our petition, basically saying that they are asking for this also.    Thankfully, our prayers to God are not generally dependent upon getting enough people to agree with us.

We should recognize that there are different categories of things in our petitions to God.  Some things like food, money for bills, or healing from a sickness, if they are answered by God, will no longer be in our prayers of petition.  They will be a part of our prayers of thanksgiving, but we will no longer be asking God to heal someone who is already healed.

The things that Paul asks for them are not the kind of things that can be answered tomorrow and be done.  They are the kind of things that are being answered throughout our life and are completed through death and resurrection.

This brings up a side issue.  It is common for people to compare their petitions to those of others.  When we are praying for someone that has stage-4 cancer, it is common for people who are battling a cold to feel like their healing is too small to bother God.  We can find ourselves in a strange place of not praying because we are convinced God is too big to be bothered with us.  The problem here is this.  We don’t realize how we are diminishing God in thinking that He is too big to be bothered.  What we are really saying is that He is not quite big enough to be able to deal with the big and small things of life.  Your petitions are important to God because they are part of the way that He is working to make you like Jesus.

Before we get into what Paul is asking for them, he mentions that he has “not ceased to pray for” them (vs. 9).  To pray without ceasing is not so much about praying every second.  It is a prayer that is always in his heart for them.  He loves them, and he desires things that can’t be answered in a moment in time.  Thus, he continually prays that God will do these things in their lives.  He said the same thing to the Thessalonians and other churches.  Paul’s prayer for one is his prayer for all.

These are not prayers of empty (vain) repetitions.  Jesus didn’t say, “When you pray, do not repeat your prayers.”  Rather, he said, “When you pray, do not use vain repetitions.”  There is a repetition that has meaning.  It is when we are praying for things that take a life-time to complete, and we are doing so out of love.  However, empty repetitions happen when we think that we can get what we want by God through some mantra or mechanism of prayer.  People can build rituals of prayers and activities as a means of acquiring whatever they prayer.  This puts us in the driver seat and makes an answer to prayer all about our ability.  Prayer at its root needs to be a child coming to their father.  There is no way we can force our Father in heaven to give us what we ask.  But, we can seek His wisdom as we ask.

In our flesh, we can grow weary of praying for the same thing over and over.  However, the Spirit of God can stir in us a love for our family (biological or spiritual) to the point that we won’t give up praying, asking, these things for them.

Paul asks God to fill them with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

The word for knowledge here has a prefix that gives the added sense of a precise and correct knowledge.  How can we have a precise and correct knowledge of the God’s Will?  In fact, think of all the ways in which we are surrounded by imprecise and incorrect knowledge of God and His will.  The only way we can get this is if God reveals Himself to us, which He has been faithful to do.

Can you imagine this prayer being “answered” completely in this life?  I mean to the point where you never have to pray for it again.  This is the kind of thing that you will be asking God over and over again, not because He isn’t answering, but because the knowledge of God’s will has an incomprehensively large range.  It goes from the micro such as decisions for our individual life: jobs, marriage, kids, etc.  However, it stretches out to the macro, such as the response of our Republic and this world to the Gospel, to the point in time in which the saints will inherit the Kingdom of God.

God answers such a prayer as we live life and wrestle with it before Him in prayer.

Paul adds the modifiers of “spiritual wisdom” and “understanding.”  He calls it spiritual to highlight the source of the wisdom and understanding.  However, we know that Paul doesn’t mean just any spiritual source.  The devil is a spiritual source of false wisdom that many in the world embrace and call wisdom.  Paul clearly is pointing to a wisdom whose source is the Spirit of God.

This is what James speaks of in James 3:15.  He warns to have a wisdom from God, “from above,” versus a wisdom that is earthly, from the earth.   He uses two more words to describe a worthless wisdom.  The second is that it is sensual, that is, from our senses and flesh.  Lastly, James speaks of a wisdom that is demonic.  We can treat earthly, sensual, and demonic as three different kinds of wisdom, but they are tied together.  The devil uses our flesh and the world around us to manipulate us like he did to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  The wisdom of this world and the wisdom of our flesh simply becomes a proxy for the wisdom of the devil because he leads us by the nose through them.

What is the difference between understanding and wisdom?  Well, understanding is an aspect.  It is the moments when we gain insight into what God wants and why He wants it.  However, wisdom flows out of understanding and answers the question, “So, what should we do?”  The source of wisdom is critical because it will direct the things we do and don’t do.

How does God fill us with the knowledge of His will?  He does so through the written Word, through mature believers, and through the help of the Holy Spirit.  This means we must be a people who are reading the Word of God (seeking His wisdom), interacting and talking with mature believers, and seeking the leading of the Holy Spirit through prayer.

Paul also asks God that they walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in all respects. There is a lot of water under the bridge in this area within the Church.  There is a whole range of how people respond to a verse like this.  On one side of the range is a group that sees absolute obedience without failing as the meaning of this.  It is a legalistic perfectionism that typically has a group of elders who are the judges of how well you are doing.  On the other side of the range is a group that promotes Jesus as such a covering for our sins that we don’t even have to quit sinning.  They will even dissuade the desire to obey God because you are trying to save yourself.  This is the easy grace crowd that demands next to nothing for those who are in their group.

Let me be clear.  Jesus is worthy of absolute perfection, but Paul is not calling for this.  He is referencing the reality that we represent our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus to a world that doesn’t know them.  Part of the understanding of His will that we need is to see how God works through the way we live our lives in order to draw others to Him.  A manner “worthy of the Lord” is a focused life that seeks to please Him in everything.  Anyone who does this will find themselves failing in many things, not on purpose, but simply out of falling short of Jesus.  Yet, what do we do when we fall short?  God’s word tells us to heed the Holy Spirit, repent, and pray for His help.  We shouldn’t do this out of fear, but out of a desire to please our Lord and help his purposes.

In this area, it is important to distinguish between salvation issues and discipleship issues.  I will come back to this in a moment, but this is critical here.  This “worthy manner” phrase is not about obtaining or keeping our salvation.  It is about our discipleship in Jesus.

Paul also prays that they would bear fruit in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God.  There is a theme that begins in Genesis 1 and flows throughout the Bible.  God made humanity to be fruitful like He is.  Yet, he connects it to “every good work.”  God is the one who defines both what is fruitful and what is a good work.  He is the source of every good thing, and it is He who puts good things in front of us to do, whatever that be.  He is the teacher of both what is good and how to do it.

Some people can be picky and choosey about what they want to do or not to do.  This calls for yielding our fleshly desires and surrendering to His heavenly desires.

When we do the work that God gives us to do well, then it bears good fruit.  This involves pruning things that are not good out of our life.  It also involves pruning things that are fine in and of themselves.  However, there is too much crowded into our life, demanding our time.  It can squelch and inhibit good fruit.  Thus, a perfectly good branch can be cut off to give more sunlight and oxygen to the other branches around it.

A person led by the Spirit of God will have the very life of God springing up within their life and flowing out into the lives of others.  This fruitfulness has the by-product of increasing our knowledge of God. 

This brings us back to the tension between salvation and discipleship.  How can we do good works?  I thought all our works were as filthy rags?  The apostle Paul was not contradicting himself.  Rather, we need to distinguish between salvation and discipleship.  None of our works and worthy walking can save us.  In and of themselves they fall short of the absolute righteousness needed to save a person.  When it comes to salvation, it is the work and walk of Jesus that can save.  He creates a place within him that we can step into by faith.  It is a faith in him.  He is the One who performed the work of saving me.  However, now that we are in that saved and cleaned place, he wants us to learn of him, become like him, discipleship.  In that saved place of trusting Jesus, we can do good works and walk worthy.  Our works are no longer filthy rags because they are done by faith in Jesus, and they are stirred up by the Spirit of God.  The works that are done in Christ and by the leading of the Holy Spirit are cleansed by Jesus, and we now do them for the right reasons, to glorify God for Jesus as opposed to trying to impress Him with us.

Paul also asks that they be strengthened with all power for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience.  We can get excited about the idea of having power.  Visions of creating worlds and vanquishing the armies of Pharaoh may dance in our heads.  Yet, Paul speaks of a power that is “according to His glorious might.”  This is the power displayed by Jesus when he went to the cross.  It is in contrast to the power that the Corinthian Christians desired.  There desire was all about a power that would distinguish them above each other.  The power of Christ is distinguished by it penchant to place ourselves beneath others in order to lift them up.  It is the strength to die to what our flesh wants.  This is at the root of any good work that we may do for Christ.

Paul sees a connection between the exercise of spiritual strength and something that it produces in us.  It will make us steadfast and patient.  These two words are really about patience, but it is patience looked at from a different facet.  Steadfastness pictures patience as the ability to remain under a heavy load, rather than quitting.  It is perseverance, endurance.  The second word translated patience is the picture of not easily losing your temper and blowing your top.

Only the power of God’s Holy Spirit can help us to persevere and not lose our cool, whether this is with others or towards God.  Yet, we will need to die to the cries of our flesh to quit and get angry.  We will have to picture Jesus on the cross and choose to join Him there.

Some translations connect the phrase “with joy” to patience, i.e., having patience with joy.  Others connect it to the next verse, “joyously giving thanks…”  It is one of those strange cases where the grammar can actually allow for both interpretations.  Whether we can determine which of these Paul intended, I think the difficulty is moot in the end.  Think about it.  Is there ever a time when we shouldn’t be patient with joy?  Or is it okay for our thanksgiving to be without joy?  Regardless of which of these you think is most likely, we should do all things with joy. 

Give thanks to the Father for what He has done (v. 12-14)

We should see this as the last thing that he is praying for them.  Just as He gave thanks for them, he desires that they too become a people giving thanks to the Father, and with joy.  We should notice how all of these things tie together.  Our growing in spiritual wisdom and understanding helps us to know the Lord and be joyful for all that He does in our lives, even just for our lives.

Yet, Paul is transitioning out of what he prays for them and into a treatise about God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Thus, verses 12 through 14 describe what the Father has done for us.  When we understand what He has done for us, we will joyfully give thanks to Him even in difficult times.

He points out that our Heavenly Father has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints of light.  This could also be translated as, “qualified us for a share [a portion, a lot] in the inheritance.”  What is this inheritance of the saints?  It is the promise throughout the Old Testament that God will give the Kingdoms of the world to His representative and the saints.  This is most clearly described in Daniel 7.  Verses 13 to 14 focus on the Son of Man (aka the Messiah) who receives full dominion over the kingdoms of the world and a Kingdom that will never end.  However, later in verse 22, it explicitly states that the saints will take possession of the Kingdom.  Thus, this singular person, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the One through whom the saints can participate in the Dominion of Messiah.

By ourselves, we were (are) not worthy to receive this kingdom.  At the tower of Babel, God casts off the nations and creates a nation for Himself out of Abraham.  The nations failed to qualify.  However, we have a similar dynamic at the cross of Jesus.  Israel is cast out of the land because it has disqualified itself as a recipient of the Kingdom.  Christ then takes a remnant of Israel and uses them to be a light to the Gentile nations.  The key to this is that Jesus was the only one, Gentile or Jew, who qualified to receive the Kingdom from the Father.  Yet, the good news is that we can participate in his qualification.

There is a present aspect to the portion that we are qualified to obtain, and there is a future aspect to it, but more on that in a moment.

Why does he use the phrase, “the saints of light?”  Saints is a reference to the fact that we are set apart for God’s purpose.  This makes us holy, holy ones, and that is what the word “saints” means.  Light here is used to refer to the God of all Light.  It is symbolic of the way that truth helps us to see the realities that exist around us.  Jesus is the light of the world.  Yet, he in turn tells us that we are the light of the world. How is that?  When we put our faith in Jesus, and his Holy Spirit takes up residence within us, the light of Jesus shines through us like a clay lamp.  In and of ourselves, we are just a clay lamp.  However, with the oil and flame of God within us, we can be used of God to shine the light, the truth, of Christ to the world.

Part of what qualifies us is that the Father has rescued us from the domain of darkness.  This is external imagery that takes on a military feel.  His people have been stuck in a kingdom of darkness and need to be rescued, like Israel in Egypt.  However, this is not a rescue from a geographical place or a particular government. 

A child born into this world starts out innocent of any evil.  Yet, the darkness of this world presses in upon them.  It seeks entrance by any means.  By the time we become adults, the darkness of this world has made us a part of its dominion.  In the end, each of our hearts is where the domain of darkness reigns.

It is the Father who sent the Son to take on the nature of a man in order to rescue us from the grip of the devil.  These people in Colossae were under the dominion of the Beast Kingdom of Rome, but now they have been rescued and are no longer at the mercy of that darkness.

Finally, the Father has transferred us to the Kingdom of the Son of His love.  God hasn’t just rescued us.  He has put us in the Kingdom of Jesus.  Of course, they are still in Colossae and must deal with the Roman governance.  This is due to the “now but not yet fully” nature of the Kingdom of Jesus. 

This kingdom will never end, but it will go through phases.  We are in the phase where he is offering terms of peace to his enemies.  “Join me!  Why will you die?  Take my hand!”

He is called the Beloved Son, or Son of His Love, because it is tying into the prophecies about the ultimate son of David.  God promised a forever kingdom ruled by one who would be a son to God and God would be a Father to him.  These prophecies of an Anointed King are fulfilled in Jesus.  He is the One who has a perfect relationship of love with the Father.  It is God’s love for Jesus that is the bedrock of our hope.  If I was alone, then I could fear that He would deny me.  However, when I am with Jesus, God will not deny Himself!

Paul ends by stating that in Jesus we have redemption and forgiveness of sins.  These are also things that the Father has done, through the work of Jesus.  These are the foundation of our qualifying to inherit the Kingdom of God. 

Those who are in Christ have forgiveness of their sins.  However, this is not so that we can go out and sin more, but so that we not lose heart and give up when we fail.  Jesus cleanses us from our sins.  Yet, our cleansed state is only as we stand in Jesus.  Yes, I can be cleansed, but I am also standing within a cleansed place, the Lord Jesus.

How can we be sure that we have been redeemed and forgiven?  It is not because you have never failed, that is for sure.  We can be sure because we are obeying what the word says: put your faith in Jesus, turn from your sin, and follow him by the help of the Holy Spirit.

I pray that you have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness and are firmly in the Kingdom of the Beloved Son, Jesus.  Yes, your geography hasn’t changed, but your soul has changed!

Prayer of Thanks audio

The Acts of the Apostles 71

Subtitle: Fervor & Understanding

Acts 18:23-28.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 7, 2024.

Our passage is split between the start of Paul’s third missionary journey and an introduction to Apollos.  Apollos was to become a fellow minister.  However, his story also coincides with a story we will look at next week.  It has to do with people who have believed the message of John the Baptist, but have not heard the full teaching of the Apostles.

Let’s get into our passage.

Paul begins his third missionary journey

Verse 23 tells us that Paul stayed at Antioch for “some time” before he went back out on the road.  Some versions say that he “went over” the region of Galatia and Phrygia.  To be clear, Paul went throughout these regions.

You will notice a nice thin line of his travel on maps of the journey, but that should be seen as an average direction of travel.  We are not told how long he spent in each region and all of the towns he visited. 

It is clear that Paul wants to connect with the churches that they had started during the prior missionary journeys.  It is also possible that new ones had started through further evangelistic activity from those churches. 

Paul feels a responsibility for them.  He can make sure that their teaching is correct and hasn’t been corrupted.  He can minister to them with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit that were prevalent in his ministry.  He could also give wisdom, or a word of knowledge, for any issues they were facing.

Whether you start a church or not, may God put in us a heart to actively lead people to faith in Jesus.  May he touch our heart with the same sense of responsibility to care for them like a spiritual father or mother.  Christ has sent us to be a light.  We  may plant the seed of the Word of God, water seeds that others have planted, or even bring in a harvest of those who believe.  All of this is the work of God that we need to keep focused upon.

In verse 24, Luke introduces Apollos.  This is the same Apollos that Paul mentions in his letter, 1 Corinthians.  This passage will give us the background to Apollos, but it is also important for another reason.  This is the first of two stories that Luke shares regarding people who were following the teaching of John the Baptist, but had not received the full Gospel of Jesus (the second follows this in Acts 19:1-7).  They seem to be focused on a repentant life and faith in Messiah.

It is good to live a repentant life.  However, God intends us to then move into faith in Jesus and the work that he would do for our sins and the giving of the Holy Spirit.  John himself told his disciples, “He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30.  We will come back to this point.

It is interesting that Apollos is going to travel to Corinth and be used of God to encourage the saints there.  The letter of 1 Corinthians shows us that saved people still have mentalities and pathways of thinking that affect their actions.  A division would develop in the church because some people were overly proud of Apollos versus Paul, and vice versa.  This carnal mentality regarding the people God uses to bring the Gospel into our lives will be challenged by the Apostle Paul.  But, let us look at who this Apollos was.

Apollos is a Jew who had been born in Alexandria.  He most likely was impacted by John the Baptist’s ministry on a trip to Jerusalem, whether for a feast or otherwise.  This would have been around 20 years earlier.

Luke also tells us that Apollos was an eloquent man.  He had a knack for keeping a crowd interested in his speaking.  This is one of the reasons some in Corinth seemed to like him better than Paul.

We are also told that Apollos was mighty in the Scriptures.  Do you know how you become mighty in the Scriptures?  You spend a lot of time studying them and being taught how they point towards Messiah.  Christians should not be content to remain weak in the Scriptures.  We need to study them to show ourselves approved of God.

Luke also says that he was “instructed in the way of the Lord.”  Because of what is going to be said in a moment, the intention of this phrase must be pointed toward God’s will in general, as revealed by John the Baptist.  They knew that the Messiah was now here.  John had even identified Jesus as the One.  So it seems likely that Apollos knew that Jesus was the Messiah, and yet had been killed.  He may have also been familiar with some of the teachings of Christ, such as the Sermon on the Mount, etc.

Finally, Luke tells us that Apollos was fervent in spirit.  The word has the sense of boiling with heat.  Figuratively it refers to a person who is full of passion.  There is a certain passion that comes from a living relationship with God’s Word and the leading of His Spirit.

This Apollos arrives in Ephesus.  We are not aware of his full mission.  Was it only ministry, or was it part business?  Regardless, God was working to bring this man’s passion and desire to a greater understanding that had been made available in Jesus and his Apostles.  Apollos is basically doing the same thing as Paul.  He came to Ephesus and went to the synagogue to speak to the brethren about Repentance and faith in Jesus Messiah.  This is where his ministry intersects with the ministry of the Apostle Paul.

Fervor is good, but it needs to be on a foundation of knowledge.  When Aquila and Priscilla hear the teaching of Apollos, they recognize that he has some gaps in his knowledge. 

They take him aside later in order to explain the Gospel of Jesus more accurately.  It is good to note that they did not publicly rebuke him, or humiliate him in the synagogue.  They didn’t do it in such a way as to make themselves look better.  It is good to explain the way of Christ more accurately to people, but be careful that you do not smash the work of the Holy Spirit in them. 

So what was it that Apollos was missing?  We are only told this.  “He knew only the baptism of John.”  It appears that John’s preaching was mainly about repentance.  It may also have included the identity of Jesus as Messiah, but we aren’t told that positively. 

You see, Apollos is being faithful to the light that he has received from God.  The Holy Spirit is working in his life to eventually bring him to the place where his knowledge gaps can be filled in, and this is the day.  If we are hungry for God, then we will listen to “John the Baptist” when he comes preaching.  We will even more listen to the Lord Jesus when he comes speaking.  Most likely Apollos was unaware of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the command to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

He was also missing the understanding of water baptism as a means of identifying with Jesus.  This identification is more than just his role as Messiah, but also the means by which he deals with our sins.  Water Baptism speaks of dying to the flesh life and being raised up by the Spirit to live for Christ.  This is the immediate symbol.  However, it also points to a day when we will die and be buried in the ground.  It testifies of our faith that the Lord Jesus will resurrect us on the day of Resurrection.

Paul and Apollos will not be at odds with one another.  Paul will recognize how God brought Apollos to Corinth to help the church.  It was worldly Christians who tried to exalt Apollos as an apostle that was greater than Paul.  Is this true? 

If we compare the two we see that God’s calling on Paul was indeed greater.  Apollos was a man that was full of passion, but was also deficient in a full understanding of the Gospel of Christ.  Paul on the other hand had been taught the Gospel by Jesus himself, and he had been preaching and establishing churches among the Gentiles for nearly 20 years at this point.  Paul was not deficient in understanding in any means.

Do any of us lack understanding?  If you feel like you lack understanding, then take heart.  God is working in your life to intersect you with teaching and His Word.  You most likely won’t have a vision of Jesus teaching you every night.  However, he is being faithful to give you instruction every day by his Holy Spirit.  If you need something, then God is working to bring you to it.  Trust Him and keep faithful with what you do have.

As a caution, we don’t foolishly go to YouTube and swallow every teaching that we find there because we believe “God is leading us.”  God may also be testing you to see if you will remain faithful to his sure proven words in the Bible.  Be a Berean and search the Scriptures to make sure those things you are taught by others are really true.  To know the Word is to know Jesus, and to know Jesus is to be a person who is in the Word.  They are not separated.  The written word is a picture of Jesus who is the Eternal Word that was with the Father in the beginning of all things.

I mentioned it earlier, but Apollos most likely didn’t know about Spirit Baptism either.  He would have been aware of the Promise of the Father spoken of by the prophet Joel, but he clearly hadn’t been a part of the Jerusalem community as the Spirit was poured out and helped the Apostles to lay down the foundation of faith in Jesus.

At some point, Apollos desires to go over to Achaia.  Corinth was the capital of that province, and in Acts 19:1, we are told that Apollos would be in that city.  He is given a letter vouching for his legitimacy as a Gospel teacher.  It was common for charlatans to come along teaching people for gain, whether wealth or fame.  His ministry is now different because he was better instructed, and because he was teachable.  He will now be more useful for Jesus.

When Apollos arrives in Corinth, we are told that he “greatly helped those who had believed through grace.”  The help here is emphasized as his ability to use the Old Testament Scriptures to show Jews that Jesus is the Messiah that they had been waiting for.  He would “refute” the Jews publicly who were not believing in Jesus.

Fervor and understanding need to be hand in hand.  Don’t settle for fervor without accurate and thorough knowledge.  To guarantee that this doesn’t happen, Become a person who receives teaching and studies the word of God for yourself.  Don’t rely on the knowledge that others have of Jesus.  Come to know Jesus for yourself.

Yet, we must not settle for understanding without fervor.  We might point to the Pharisees, but in truth, their understanding was lacking.  They read the Scriptures and memorized them, but the system of tradition drowned out the voice of the Spirit of God.  To guarantee that this doesn’t happen, become a person of prayer.  Prayer is where knowledge is hammered into a passion from the Holy Spirit.  A real relationship with Jesus through prayer and studying the word will give the Holy Spirit the podium in your inner life.  He will come in and help you in every way.

In God, good things require small actions over a long time.  Faithfulness to the things of God is not loved by your flesh.  Your flesh seeks to short-cut that process.  Whether financially, professionally, in your marriage, or raising kids, no good work in these areas can be done in a mere 5 minutes.  May God help us to see His faithfulness, and may we be inspired to a life of faithfulness ourselves so that we can make a difference in our families, communities, this Republic, and the world.

Fervor & Understanding audio

How is it You Do Not Understand?

Mark 8:11-21.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, December 08, 2019.

In this passage, we will look at two examples of unbelief, or lack of faith in Jesus.  One will come from religious people who refuse to follow Christ, and the other will come from those who have made the decision to follow Christ, but are not doing such a good job in learning from Him.

Maybe that is you today and maybe it is not.  However, we can all learn from today’s lesson.  It is not enough to settle for the fact that we made a decision to follow Jesus.  We must actually do it, and following Jesus will test us all in many difficult ways. 

Yet, let’s give praise to God because, even though following Jesus is extremely hard on our flesh, he promises supernatural help to those who put their trust in him.  Let’s look at our passage.

The Pharisees seek a sign

In verses 11- 13, we have a portion of Scripture in which Jesus is challenged to give the Pharisees a sign.  However, it starts out with their questioning of him.  We are told that they are arguing with him.  This argument would involve discussions of why they reject him as a true teacher.  However, they are not really interested in hearing his side of the argument.  Instead, they seek for him to give a sign from heaven in order to prove his credentials.

It is not clear in the context what exactly they had in mind.  It also begs the question.  What is wrong with all the other signs that Jesus is giving?  He is healing the sick, casting out demons from the possessed, and feeding thousands of people with a small amount of bread.  Perhaps, it is more the aspect of giving a sign on demand and with a clear supernatural source that they are testing.

It is also possible that they have a particular sign in mind, such as the prophet Elijah who called down fire from heaven to show which God was the real God (and which prophets were the true prophets).  This is a clear biblical episode within the Old Testament that gives a precedent for settling if a person really is from God.  That might sound like a very good test.  However, the book of Revelation chapter 13 warns us that the end times False Prophet will perform powerful signs, even making fire come down from heaven in the sight of the people.

Ultimately, their line of reasoning is that they won’t believe unless Jesus does something that they will accept upon their demand.  This is the heart of unbelief.  It refuses to receive the multitude of signs that God is giving every day, trying to get our attention.  It makes up all manner of tests that God should jump through in order to prove himself to me.  In fact, it dishonors God by requiring Him to jump to our whims and tests, and every unique person would have very different ideas on what that should be.  They are not interested in believing.  They are only interested in proving that their unbelief is right.

We are then told that Jesus sighed deeply in his spirit.  This is the second time that Mark describes Jesus in such a way.  This word has the same root as the previous one, but has a preposition added to intensify the word.  The first context was when the crowd brought the deaf man to Jesus and begged him to heal him (chapter 7).  There the grief of Jesus seems to be more about the effect of sin upon mankind in general and this man in particular.  However, here his grief is much deeper, and is connected to the unbelief and hard-heartedness of the religious leaders who should be the ones who are leading people to him.  It is a heavy weight to work yourself to the brink of death trying to help someone who then still questions your motives and rejects you.

It is here that we should note something.  Sin is a heavy weight upon the heart of God.  However, obstinate resistance in the face of His great mercy is heavier by far.  He will deal with our sins, but He cannot make our hearts believe.

We are then told that Jesus basically rejects their request.  Yet, he does so by first asking a question and then making a statement.

The question is about their motives.  “Why does this generation seek a sign?”  It is more than an exasperation because of their unbelief.  It really does emphasize the origin of the question.  They would believe that they ask a sign because they are strong believers in God and they do not want to be taken astray by a deceiver teaching falsehood. 

The truth is far darker though.  In the parallel account of Matthew 16, Jesus states that it is a wicked and adulterous generation that seeks a sign.  The problem is that God is giving signs all the time in every generation.  Sure, some generations have received some spectacular signs that we haven’t.  The problem is that they are never good enough for the wicked and adulterous heart.  It will not listen or see God’s signs for what they are, and it will continually up the ante in things God must do to prove himself.  God has no problem helping our unbelief when it is out of weakness, but He will not coddle our unbelief when it is out of rebellious rejection and adulterous desires.

Thus, Jesus states that no sign will be given to them.  It is interesting that, in Matthew 16, Jesus adds the phrase, “but the sign of Jonah.”  The point of the previous statement is not that there will be zero signs, but that they will not get any signs that they are seeking.  They are not going to get their way and tell God how to prove Himself.

The sign of Jonah is telling us to recall the story.  Jonah was thrown into the sea to drown and yet he was swallowed by a great fish.  I believe that Jonah was dying in the belly of the fish and prayed to God (his prayer is recorded in Jonah chapter 2.  God had mercy on him.  We know of the miracle that the fish vomited Jonah upon the beach.  However, it is also very likely that God literally gave life back to Jonah’s dead body.  The image is that Jonah goes into the depths of Sheol (the grave) and is brought back up again alive by God.  In the same way, Jesus will be put to death and brought back from it alive.  They would receive the greatest sign of all and it would definitely be from heaven.  If God jumped through their hoops, it would not help them believe.  They would only find another reason not to believe.  Their request is denied.

At this point Jesus leaves them and heads to the other side of the lake.

Jesus warns against the yeast of the Pharisees

As they cross the lake in a boat, Jesus still seems to be bothered by his run in with the Pharisees.  While they are on the water, he warns them to avoid the yeast of the Pharisees and the Herodians (Matthew adds “the Sadducees”).  The yeast is being used as an analogy that we will deal with later.

The disciples miss his point, and think that he is talking about bread and natural yeast.  They had only brought 1 loaf of bread and thus would need to buy some on the other side.  They think that Jesus is warning them not to eat raised bread from the Pharisees, and that he is rebuking them for putting them in this situation by not bringing enough bread.

Jesus wasn’t rebuking them.  He was trying to warn them about the Pharisees.  However, now he does rebuke them for being slow to understand what he means.  He then proceeds to examine their slow understanding with nine questions that are given rapid fire without time to respond, and that center on their lack of good reasoning.  We all know that this is a tense situation where they know they are in trouble for not learning and making the connections that they should.  Why would they think they are in trouble for not bringing enough bread when Jesus has proven that he can feed thousands with only a few loaves?  He clearly cannot be concerned that they only have one loaf.  God expects us to pay attention in our life, but also to the recorded experiences of the Scriptures.  He has given us plenty of information upon which to make a rational decision.

Jesus then points out several parts of the human body, that we use to take in evidence, and asks them if there is a problem with them.  The first has to do with their reasoning skills.  In English we would call it being thick-skulled.  Are you thick-skulled?  Is my teaching not penetrating through to the gray matter underneath?

The second part is the heart.  Are you hard-hearted?  It would be sad to have a soft enough heart to follow Jesus, but then be hard towards what he is trying to teach you.

The third part is the eye.  Are you dim-eyed?  They are seeing the things that Jesus is doing, but they aren’t making the connections to what it means.  It is as if they are not actually seeing.

The fourth is the ears.  Are you hard of hearing?  The teachings of Jesus are going into their ears, but somehow the signal is not making it to the mind.

Or perhaps the problem is in the mind itself.  Do you not remember?  This is the fifth part.  Are you becoming senile and forgetful?  Didn’t he just feed the 4,000 with seven loaves, and prior to that, 5,000 with 5 loaves?  Of course, he had.  So, where is the problem?

Here we see that being a disciple of Jesus is no ward against unbelief.  It is sad to see those who do not believe and will not follow Christ.  However, there is a certain level of unbelief even among those who choose to follow Christ.  We must all learn to see this in ourselves and wrestle with it.  May we be careful about the condition of our hearts, eyes, ears, and memory in this day and age.  Everything in this world is designed to dull your spiritual senses so that you will be those who see, but don’t see, and hear, but don’t hear.

The yeast was not natural yeast, but an analogy.  Mark leaves it hanging.  What is it?  In Matthew 16, we are told that the yeast is the teaching of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Herodians.  Of course, their warped teaching comes from the sin and unbelief that is in their heart.

The Apostle Paul uses yeast as an analogy for sin in 1 Corinthians 5:6. He warns the Corinthian church that a little sin, within a person or a group, will spread throughout the whole group and affect it just like yeast does to bread.  This is why it is so important to be aggressive with our own sin, and that churches must lovingly deal with members who are outwardly sinning without repentance.  If we do not deal with it then we will send the message to all watching that it is not important.  When our standards are lax and the definition of sin is relaxed, or completely redefined, the morals and self-control of the average believer will suffer.  Are we not seeing this in our own country, and in our own churches?

However, not all sinners want to teach others.  Thus, the warning is about false teachers who come offering you their teaching, but their hearts are full of sin.  Their teaching is corrupted by the yeast of sin in their heart and lives.  A corrupt teacher may say some things that are right, but there will always be that amount of yeast that corrupts and affects the whole.  Throughout the history of the Church, we see the rise of many corrupt teachers.  Whole groups of teachers have embraced corruption upon corruption over time, to the point that they neither preach the true Gospel of Christ, nor help people spiritually.

You have believed in Christ, that is a wonderful thing!  However, you must continue believing, watching, praying, and paying attention to the Word, your life, and the teaching of the Holy Spirit.  Without these things, we will end up in the same place as those who refused to follow Christ at all.  What a tragedy to make the right choice to join God’s people, but to only do so in the natural.  Sin infected their whole life, their teaching, and the way they lived.  It will do so to ours as well if we do not go to battle against it by the help of the Holy Spirit. 

May he give us the help we need to see what he is teaching and to learn the paths of righteousness from him.

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