Mark 7:24–8:21Scripture
If I haven't met you yet, I met some of you and I know some of you, but I'm Dan Kogan. I'm a church planter in the Kansas City area. Been friends with your pastors for about eight years now. And Pastor Sean texted yesterday, it was funny. I was telling Cath Kathy, right? I was telling Kathy, I'm a police chaplain up in North Kansas City.
And I was on a ride along last night with one of our officers and I was sitting in the squad car with Chris and I got a text from Pastor Shawn thanking me for coming and serving through the ministry of the word today and I appreciated his thanks sincerely but I also know the way your pastor thinks and I thought that was his last minute reminder to me so that I didn't forget.
It and you all show up this morning and go, "Well, I guess it's it's just a worship in song kind of day." But if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Mark's Gospel.
Give you a little glimpse of what I would consider a sister church of Echo. What we're walking through on Sunday evenings in North Kansas City. We're preaching through Mark's gospel and we're particularly giving a focus to the dual roles of Jesus not only as king but also as servant.
It's a one of my favorite $ five words. It's a juxtiposition when you put two things that seem very different next to each other, but in Jesus we see them find unity that
He's not only servant and he's not only king, he is the servant king and he invites us to follow him.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 1:32
Today we're going to be looking at Mark 7 beginning in verse 24.
We're going to go all the way through the next chapter, Mark 8 through to verse 21.
Introduction
And as you turn there, I was thinking about this morning, my wife and I have been married for almost 19 years.
And she is the most patient woman in the world to put up with me for 19 years. You don't know me as well as she does. You're like, "Oh, it can't be that bad. It's bad." But guys, it's she has a ton of patience to be able to put up with me for almost two decades. And I was thinking about the fact that when we dated, she thought I was hilarious.
I mean, every joke I told, she thought was so funny. And then something happened when we put these rings on each other's fingers that I don't know. I My joke formula didn't change, but they stopped being funny. Has anybody else ever experienced that? Anybody married and your jokes were funny before? This is mostly the guys. Your jokes were funny to your wife before and then after you get married, they're not funny anymore.
I figured out why. It's the element of surprise. My wife thought I was funny when we were dating because she didn't know me as well back then as she knows me now. And so the things that I said struck her as funny because she didn't know fully yet my sense of humor. But now that she's gotten to know it's less surprising.
It's not that she no longer finds it humorous. It's just that she's able to identify it before it happens. There have been several instances where before I get the chance to tell the classic dad joke, now she tells the joke. And she goes, "I knew you were thinking it, so I just thought I'd jump to the chase." Well, we find that in the person and work of Jesus.
Not the humor, but the surprise, the juxtiposition, the unexpected.
And it's one of the things that causes us to do what we just spent the last several minutes doing, worshiping, is that friends, we're going to do that for eternity. If we've trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, we're going to, if you read the book of Revelation, you see this refrain, holy. Why are they repeating it three times?
Well, there's several reasons why, but one of them is that
I think for eternity, we're going to be eternally surprised at how good Jesus is.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 4:08
Amen. That's what fuels our worship here on earth. But today, we're considering four encounters that Jesus had with people that show Jesus acting in surprising ways.
So read with me if you have your Bibles. We're going to read just verses 24-30 of Mark 7. It says this, and I'm reading from the Christian Standard Bible. He got up and departed from there to the region of Ty. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it. But he could not escape notice. Instead, immediately after hearing about him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit came and fell at his feet.
The woman was a gentile, a cyrophenician by birth, and she was asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, remember, we're thinking about Jesus acting in surprising ways. And he says to her, "Let the children be fed first." Because it isn't right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.
And when he says, "Let the children be fed first," he's not talking about this cirophenician woman's child. He's talking about the nation of Israel, the Jewish people. And this gentile woman knows that. She understands perfectly what he's saying. And in verse 28, it says, "But she replied to him, Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."
Then he told her, "Because of this reply, you may go. The demon has left your daughter." When she went back to her home, she found her child lying on the bed and the demon was gone.
Point 1Is it okay to argue with God?
This prompts a question for us. Is it okay to argue with God? If somebody before we came into this room this morning walked up to you as you were getting out of your car or earlier in the week as somebody walked up to you at the gas pump and said, "Is it okay to argue with God?" I think most of the time our response would be, "Well, it kind of depends on what you mean." Right?
At a gut level, we'd want to say no. But intellectually, we know God can handle our arguments, can't he? We know he's not surprised. He can handle our arguments. But when we read this story about this gentile woman from Cyrofenicia and we ask the question, is it okay to argue with God? I think the answer is a resounding yes.
Because if we don't if we don't come like the prophet Isaiah says and reason together with him, it's not that we're changing his mind, but we're not engaging meaningfully in conversation.
You see, our God is so kind and merciful. He invites us to express our concerns.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 7:13
Not only can he handle it, but when we argue with God, we start to think through our own shortcomings.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 7:20
I think some of you know, Kathy and I were talking about this, that I was in town a few years ago and our church, I was part of Grace Family Fellowship and we went through a hard season of ministry and I as a result I sought some counseling.
There was a time I'm I'm one of the oldest millennials, okay? So I'm on that cusp of Gen X and millennials. They call us exenials and I'm like part of a generation that was like just start like okay for example when I turned 16 my first order of business was to go get my license that day and then I drove to the pager shop and I got a beeper.
So like I identify a bit with Gen X but I also was an early adopter and I got one of the first generation iPhones. Like I'm that generation, right? I was also as a part of that cusp generation. There was this thinking that you if you go to a psychologist or a counselor that you're just being weak.
And I'm so grateful that's not true. That God gives us the gift of godly counselors in his kindness. He gives us that gift. And so following that season of difficult ministry here in Pleasant Hill, I sought some counseling and it was so helpful. And what I learned in that counseling, among many other things, was that
A good counselor is asking questions not to feed you the answer, but to help you get there.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 8:50
When we argue with God, the Holy Spirit is being our counselor and he's helping us work through things like this Syrphenician woman is doing where she goes, I get it because culturally what Jesus is saying is that my primary ministry, he says to this woman, is to the Jewish people and it wouldn't be right for me to say to my children, you guys go hungry, I'm going to give your food to the animals.
He's not insulting her. He's not calling her a dog. We read that and we're like, man, Jesus says she's a dog. Like in our context, that's pretty offensive. It's not offensive here, but it is surprising because we see Jesus as so compassionate, so benevolent, so gracious, so kind, and he says, "I can't take my children's food and give it to the pets." And she goes, "Yeah, but the Holy Spirit's counseling her and walking through this with her." And she goes, "Yeah, but don't even the pet dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the table?
Could I just get some of those, Jesus?" Maybe you can think of a time in your life when you've asked God for something. And the answer seems to have been no.
It's okay to press. It's okay to say, "Okay, maybe it's not exactly what I thought it was going to be, Lord, but isn't there something?
Pastor Dan Cogan · 10:25
Don't you have something for me?" And
That's what this woman does. That's what honest faith looks like. It doesn't back down.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 10:42
My children do it all the time when they come to me. My four-year-old has been doing this lately, and I love it. When we tuck him into bed at night, he goes, "Dad, tomorrow morning, instead of turning on the news, can we just start playing?"
Now, the problem with it in particular is that I'm up significantly earlier than him because if I don't, I've got no time in the house where it's just me and the Bible. So, I get up earlier than all of the rest of the family. And by the time he comes down, I've finished my reading for the day. I've finished my first cup of coffee and I've got the news turned on, but he keeps asking why.
Because he loves time with his dad. And I think that's what this Phoenician woman is doing. She's not backing down. She's pushing in because she desires something. And it's not even for herself. It's for her daughter who's afflicted with this unclean spirit.
But here's something that's important for us to note is that she doesn't ask based on her worth.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 11:48
She asks based on his mercy. Now, I don't know about you, but I know that I have done this when I've asked God for something that I want, good, bad, or indifferent, and have inserted into the request, I deserve this.
I'm a pastor. I deserve this. You know, and maybe your answer is something different. I'm a worship leader. I deserve this. I'm a grandma. I deserve this. I'm a good parent. I deserve this. I'm a good employee. I deserve this. But that's not what this woman's doing. She's not saying, "Yes, Rabbi, but I'm a good mom, and surely you can look at me and see that." She doesn't do that.
She appeals to his mercy. We live in a culture that tells you to speak your truth, right? The Disney mindset. Follow your heart. I was just reading in Jeremiah this morning. I think it's chapter 17 that says the heart is wickedly deceitful above all things. And yet we live in a culture that says follow your heart. Speak your truth.
But friend, what are you going to do when you speak your truth and your truth butts up against the truth?
Pastor Dan Cogan · 13:09
Are you going to back down and say, "Okay, that was a bad request." Or are you going to go, "Why does my thinking not align with the truth?
Because you're presented then with a unique opportunity. And I think that happens in this instant with this woman is that she goes, "Okay, yes, it would be unjust and unfair for you to take from your children and to give to the dogs, but don't even the dogs eat the crumbs from the table." And he commends her.
What does he commend her for?
Pastor Dan Cogan · 13:55
He commends her for leaning into that tension and honestly stating her need and her status.
She doesn't challenge him on her status. She doesn't say, "I'm not a dog." She goes, "You're right. I am." But doesn't God provide for all of his creatures?
Point 2What do we do when things get awkward with Jesus?
So this brings us to a second question. The first question was, is it okay to argue with God? The second question I want to ask you is, what do we do when things get awkward with Jesus? Have things ever gotten awkward between you and Jesus? Well, we see that here in the next passage beginning in verse 31 when it says this again.
Leaving the region of Ty, he went by the way of Siden to the Sea of Galilee through the region of the Decapus.
They brought to him a deaf man who had difficulty speaking and begged Jesus to lay his hands on him. So he took him away from the crowd in private. That's significant. After putting his fingers in the man's ears.
What? Has anybody ever done that to you? Now granted, you most of you have probably not ask someone to pray for your hearing, but Jesus puts his fingers in the man's ear ears.
And what does he do next? Spitting. He touched his tongue. This is getting weird. If you've read this passage in your daily Bible reading, and I hope that you're in the discipline of doing that. If you're not, I want to encourage you to because there's blessing and there's treasure here for you. If you read this and you just glossed past that, you're like, and he put his fingers in the man's ears and spitting.
He touched his tongue and you just keep reading. You need to stop and go, "This is awkward." What do we do when things get awkward with Jesus? Verse 34, looking up to heaven, he sighed deeply and said to him, Ephatha, that means in Aramaic, be opened.
Immediately, this is Mark's favorite word. He says it over and over through this biography of Jesus. Immediately his ears were open, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak clearly.
And Jesus ordered them to tell no one. But the more he ordered them, the more they proclaimed it. They were extremely astonished and said, "He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak." So, what do we do when things get awkward with Jesus? Do you agree that was a bit awkward? If somebody walked up to you and put their fingers in your ears and spit and touched your tongue, most of us would probably file a restraining order.
Now, it reminds me of a story I heard once because, you know, pastors, not all the time, but sometimes through the week, we're here at the church building and a pastor had somebody stop by the church building one day and asked the pastor to pray for his hearing. And of course, the pastor wanting to be like Jesus did so.
And he didn't put his fingers in the guy's ears, but he did put his hands on the man's ears and he prayed and he was very charismatic and he began to raise his voice and Lord, I pray for this man's hearing and I pray that you would restore his hearing to perfect health in Jesus name. Amen. And he stepped back and he goes, "How's your hearing now?"
And he goes, "I don't know. My hearing is Tuesday down at the courthouse." See, Jesus knew what he was doing with this man. The pastor in that story clearly didn't understand the assignment, but Jesus knew what he was doing with this man, and it was very personalized.
God knows how to get through to you.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 18:16
Search the four gospels to find another time when Jesus healed in this particular way.
It's unique. And friend, he knows how to get through to you.
And sometimes we need someone else to bring us to the master.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 18:39
We see that here when it says that they brought to him a deaf man in verse 32. Who? It doesn't say just they.
You are they. Sometimes you're the deaf man. Sometimes you're the they who bring the deaf man to Jesus.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 18:56
I want to invite you to do something. I want to challenge you to this. And maybe this is a regular rhythm of your life. But if it's not, I want to I want to encourage you to make this a regular rhythm of your life to pray for one person or one family that is far from the master and make it your mission to see them come to faith in Christ.
And if all you can do evangelistically, if you go, I don't speak well, like Moses said, and God used him anyway. If all you can do is just say, "Will you just please come and hear about the one who has changed my life and invite them to your worship service here with you on the Lord's day?"
That's what this man's friends seem to do. They brought him to Jesus. Sometimes we need someone else to bring us to Jesus. Sometimes we're the ones that are going to bring someone else. I unfortunately spend too much time on social media. You know, as a church planter, I do think it's strategically missional because that's where people are. Statistics show that people spend upwards of 20 hours a week on social media.
And that's probably pretty conservative. We just know that's where people are. And so, as a missionary, I end up spending a lot of time on social media. I end up spending more time on it than I need to because you get in there and the algorithm starts to work, right? I get on there to post provocative questions like, "If God is good, why does he allow suffering in the world?" And engage in conversation with people in and around our metro area and then I get sucked into the cat videos.
What's
My point here? My point is that social media proves to us that our culture thrives in noise.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 20:54
We live in a noisy world, friend. There are messages coming at you from every angle. There is no shortage of messages coming at you. Gospels even, but they're false gospels.
And yet, God is able to cut through the noise like he does with this man and meet us in still quiet moments.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 21:19
What does Jesus do? He takes this man away from the crowd.
When was the last time you went away from the crowd with Jesus?
Pastor Dan Cogan · 21:33
This gathering is sacred. Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves as is the habit of some. The author of Hebrews tells us this is sacred. But outside of this sacred gathering once a week, when was the last time you went away from the crowd and got alone with Jesus?
Because the crowds want a spectacle. Hopefully not this crowd, but the crowds represented by our social media feeds. They want a spectacle. They're looking for the next big argument, the next big fight, the next big breaking news. They want to know who's going to prison. They want to know who's doing this overseas. They want to know who's doing that here in our state.
The crowd is seeking a spectacle. And Jesus knowing that takes this man away from the crowd and meets him where he is and ministers to him in a frankly strange way.
Now, what I'm not asking us to do is to look for Jesus to just do something absurd and weird in our lives. But don't be closed off to it.
If he wants to minister to you or in your life or through you in a strange and unique way, who are we to say no?
Pastor Dan Cogan · 23:02
I love the song that we sang this morning. It was one I hadn't heard for a while. It's one of my all-time favorites. Refiner's Fire. Ready to do your will, not mine. Set apart for you, my Lord. Set apart for you, my master. And it's just comical, I think, where that part of this interaction ends is that he ordered them in verse 36 to tell no one.
But the more he ordered them, the more they proclaimed it. There's a there's a very specific reason that Jesus was telling the witnesses to this miracle not to speak about it yet.
And it's the juxiposition that we began our time with this morning. Is that right now he is walking as king. He's proving himself as king. And about halfway through Mark's gospel, he switches and he goes, "I'm not only king, I'm also the suffering servant."
And he starts talking to his 12 closest followers, the disciples, about going to the cross, about laying down his life. And it's at that moment when Peter says, "May it never be." And Jesus says, ' Get behind me, Satan. You talk about Jesus acting in surprising ways. When he called one of his closest friends, Simon Peter, Satan, why does he call him that?
It says because you're thinking like mankind and not like God.
The reason, and we're not in that section just yet. We're not we're not to the point where Jesus is telling Satan that he's acting or telling Peter that he's acting like Satan. Telling Satan that he's acting like Peter. That'd be another extra biblical but really comical. We're not to that point yet. But part of the reason that does take place is because of what we see next.
Point 3Why do we forget what Jesus has done?
And it's our third question this morning. Why do we forget what Jesus has done? Listen with me to the first 10 verses of Mark chapter 8. In those days, there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat. Why does it say again a large crowd? Because just two chapters ago in Mark chapter 6, we read about a time when Jesus had a large crowd gathered.
He called the disciples here in Mark 8 and said to them, "I have compassion on the crowd because they've already stayed with me three days and have nothing to eat.
If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way and some of them have come a long distance. Now, without looking at Mark chapter 6, can you remember what happened? He fed 5,000 families miraculously with only five loaves and two fish.
So when Jesus looks at this large crowd and has compassion on them because they've come a long way, they've already been with him a long time and they have nothing to eat. I think Jesus is going remember.
And his disciples in verse four answered him, "Where can anyone get enough bread here in this desolate place to feed these people?"
And Jesus has to be going, "Guys, it was two chapters ago, guys."
And we don't know that this was, you know, just a matter of days later. This could have been a year later, but the entire earthly ministry of Jesus was only about three and a half years long. So even if the feeding of the 5000 chronologically took place at the very beginning of his ministry and this feeding of this next large crowd is taking place, you know, let's say three years later, Jesus still has to be going like seriously, you don't remember.
But he's patient and he's kind. And in verse five, he says, "How many loaves do you have?" What do you have?
Say, "I don't have enough." Okay, I didn't ask if you have enough. What do you have?
Pastor Dan Cogan · 27:48
How many loaves do you have? Seven, they said. He commanded the crowd to sit down on the ground. Taking the seven loaves, he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people.
So they served them to the crowd. What? What just happened? Taking the how many loaves? The seven loaves. Is that enough to feed a crowd? And he gave thanks and he broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. So they served them to the crowd. They didn't serve them to seven people in the crowd.
They didn't serve them to split them in half and serve them to 14 people. They served them to the crowd. They also had a few small fish. This is all sounding very familiar to Mark chapter 6 when they had five loaves and two fish. Here it's a different number, but not nearly enough to feed this multitude. In verse eight, they ate well and were satisfied.
Then they collected seven what? Seven large baskets of leftover pieces. About 4,000 were there. 4,000. What? Historically, our English translations have rendered this, at least we've understood it to mean 4,000 people.
Think of it like this. 4,000 heads of household. 4,000 families were fed and there were seven large baskets of leftovers and everyone there ate well and were satisfied.
And he dismissed them and he immediately got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dal Manua. Why do we forget what Jesus has done? You sit there and think, I've never forgotten how Jesus has changed my life. Never. I would be willing to venture a guess that every person who has followed Jesus more than several minutes has at some point in their journey forgotten what Jesus has done.
It's easy for us to look at the disciples in Mark 8 and go, "Guys, remember he just did this?" Let's be conservative and say he just did this within the last three years. And yet we do what the disciples did here all the time.
Spiritual amnesia is real. We forget the good work of God in our lives.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 30:35
Do you know what animal has the shortest memory?
What is it? I can't I'm sorry. I just can't hear. No, they have the longest memory. An elephant has a very good memory. The shortest memory is a goldfish. They swim around and they maybe bonk into the side of the aquarium and they're like, "That hurt." And they swim around and then they do it again. Oh man. Oh, I forgot about that.
But they're happy little creatures, right? They're idiots, but they're happy. We're happy idiots.
So often in our walk with the Lord, we're happy idiots, swimming around, forgetting what God has done just moments before.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 31:26
Friend, if you have put your trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, you have been the recipient of the greatest miracle of all.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 31:32
All of us have known people who have received terminal diagnosis and we've prayed for their healing and we have I think genuinely thought God if you heal this disease like you just healed this blind and deaf and mute man if you heal my father's cancer if you heal my spouse's diabetes if you heal my grandmother's hearing whatever the case may be then all of these people around will see your power and they'll know what you're capable of.
All the while forgetting that we've received the greatest miracle of all and that is that he has transferred us from the domain of darkness into this kingdom of light.
He's brought us from death to life. And we go, but if you heal miraculously this physical sickness, then people will know what you're capable of. Can he do that? Yes. Does he do that? Often. But we forget with spiritual amnesia. We're happy idiots forgetting the work of God. And we need to be like the elephant. I don't know if they never forget.
But the reputation that they've received is that they have very good memories. We need to be that for the kingdom of God.
We need the world to look at us and go, "Those people never stop talking about what their God did for them."
Pastor Dan Cogan · 33:07
Have you stopped talking about what God has done for you? It's not too late to start talking about it again.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 33:15
Think of someone you know in your neighborhood, at your workplace, the places that you hang out. Think of one person or one family that you can go to this week and begin to say, "Hey, you know, maybe I've never told you about this, but I want to tell you about this Jesus that I follow, and I want to tell you what he's done in my life."
You don't have to tell them that you don't want to be a happy idiot anymore, but keep that in mind.
I don't want to be a happy idiot. I want to be a grateful elephant.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 33:46
Because spiritual amnesia is real and we tend to be like goldfish when we need to be like the elephant.
You don't need the next miracle.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 34:00
You need to be reminded and be thankful for what God has already done.
Point 4Why are we so drawn to things that aren't good for us?
So our fourth and final question this morning is why are we so drawn to things that aren't good for us?
Mark 8, beginning in verse 11, it says, 'The Pharisees came and began to argue with him demanding a sign from heaven. Does that sound familiar? Like us, saying, "If God, if you would just do this sign, the Pharisees were doing that." We like to think of ourselves in the best possible light. But I think we see a glimpse of ourselves here demanding of him a sign from heaven to test him.
Here's that phrase again. Sighing deeply in his spirit, he said, "Why does this generation demand a sign? Truly, I tell you, no sign will be given this generation." Well, that's weird because he just performed miracles, didn't he? And yet here he says, "No sign will be given to this generation." Then he left them, got back into the boat, and went to the other side.
We're talking about when Jesus acts in surprising ways. That's that's a little bit surprising. When these religious leaders of Jesus day say, "All right, Rabbi, we're going to give you a chance to prove yourself to us. Show us that you are who you say you are." And he just goes, "No." And he gets in his car and he drives to the other side of town.
I think we would be like, "All right, let me warm up my magic skills. I'm going to show you who I am." But Jesus doesn't do that. He just leaves.
Because he's not there to perform at their demand.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 35:56
And in verse 14, it says, 'The disciples had forgotten to take bread and had only one loaf with them in the boat.
Oh no, what are we going to do? We're with Jesus and oh, we've only got one loaf. Like, if I were the disciples, I'd be like, "Hey, Jesus, can you multiply? You just did with the crowd. Can you just do that on the boat because I'm I'm getting hungry then? Verse 15, he gave them strict orders. They're like, "Jesus, can I have a sandwich?" And he goes, "Listen."
If Jesus leans in and says, "Listen, what should we do?" It's pretty simple, isn't it? He says, "Watch out. Beware of the leavenven of the Pharisees and the leavenven of Herod. And in verse 16, it says, they were discussing among themselves that they did not have any bread. We've got the advantage of having probably many of us, if not most of us in this room having read this passage.
So, we know what Jesus is talking about when he says the leavenven of the Pharisees and the leavenven of Herod. But verse 16 says, the disciples were discussing among themselves that they didn't have any bread. And Jesus obviously is aware of this. And he said to them,"Wh are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Don't you understand or comprehend?
Do you have hardened hearts? Do you have eyes and not see? Do you have ears and not hear? And don't you remember when I broke the five loaves for the 5,000? How many baskets full of leftovers did you collect?" And they're thinking back again to Mark chapter 6. 12. They told him, "When I broke the seven loaves for the 4,000, how many baskets full of pieces did you collect?" "Seven," they said.
And he said to them, "Don't you understand yet?" Why am I asking the question, "Why are we so drawn to things that aren't good for us?" Jesus warns about the leaven of the Pharisees. What is the leavenven of the Pharisees?
It's the mindset, the religious mindset that says, "I can do enough. I can be enough to make myself right with God."
Pastor Dan Cogan · 38:26
That's the leaven of the Pharisees. For any bakers, you know that leaven is a necessary ingredient for that bread to puff up and be fluffy, right? Unleavened bread is flat bread. At the church plant where I pastor, we use unleavened bread in communion. And if we added leaven to that recipe, it would make it be more like the bread that we know today, a loaf.
And Jesus warns about that ingredient, but as a metaphor, the leaven of the Pharisees. Well, what were the Pharisees doing? They were opposing Jesus, God himself in human flesh, who came to do what we couldn't accomplish on our own, which was to pay the price for our sin.
And the Pharisees said, "We don't want you. We can do it on our own." Jesus said, "If that ingredient in that kind of spiritual bread gets into you're you're going to commit the unforgivable sin."
You know, in the gospels where Jesus says that all sins will be forgiven the son of man, son of men accept blasphemy against the holy spirit. This is just a sidebar. Have you ever, and you can raise your hand for this, have you ever worried that maybe you've committed the unpardonable sin? I want to set your mind at ease.
What is the work of the Holy Spirit? The work of the Holy Spirit in John chapter 14 and 16 tells us that the Holy Spirit convicts the world concerning sin and righteousness.
He points us to Jesus. So to blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to throughout the course of one's life to deny conviction to deny the righteousness that the Holy Spirit alone can provide and to deny him pointing us to Jesus.
And yet that's what the Pharisees are engaging in. They're saying, "No, I don't need your righteousness. I've got my own. I don't need your conviction. I've got my own. You see how all I've added all these laws to God's law because I figure if I keep God's law as well as I can and then I add man's law on top of that, I surely must be in good standing with God.
And the Holy Spirit is pointing humanity to Jesus and they go, "We don't want you, Jesus."
The only sin that can't be forgiven is rejecting Jesus.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 41:15
That's what he means when he says blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. So that's the leavenven of the Pharisees is a spiritual mindset. What's the leavenven of Herod? It's a desire for power, particularly political power, because it implies that Jesus isn't truly king.
Just recently, they've passed some laws that allow pastors to endorse political candidates in the pulpit without risk of losing a church's nonprofit status.
And some pastors rejoice and others go, "I don't care. I was doing it anyway." And I look at it and I go, neither of the primary political parties in our culture are our hope.
I'm unashamedly conservative theologically and politically. But the conservative party is not my hope. I think we could look at this warning of Jesus to the disciples, warning against the leavenan of Herod, and go, "Well, sure, if you vote for the other guy, but not my guy. No.
Any desire for political power that could even potentially imply that Jesus is not truly king is the leavenven of Herod.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 42:36
And that's what Jesus warns against. Why are we so drawn to things that aren't good for us? Because it feels good in the moment. Why do you grab that donut instead of cooking up an egg for breakfast? Well, it's easier. It probably tastes better, right? I love me a good donut. Is daylight still here in town? I love a good donut.
It's easier. It's tastier, but it's not as healthy.
We're drawn to things that aren't good for us because they satisfy us in the here and now.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 43:13
I want power. Now, I want to be able to know that I'm I'm in good standing with God because I deserve it. That goes back to the Serenician woman. She wasn't saying, "Give me this request because I deserve it." Instead, will you give me this request because I could never deserve it.
I could never earn this. And while the disciples on the boat on the way back across the sea are talking about sandwiches, Jesus is talking about spiritual formation. They're not on the same page. We obsess many times over what we eat. As I drove through town this morning to the building and I saw restaurants and small businesses that had opened up just since the time that I've been here with a focus on health and healthy eating.
That's that those are good things. We obsess over what we eat. I personally like to tinker around with different kinds of ways of eating. I've done keto and paleo and intermittent fasting and tracking macros. Has anybody else done stuff like that? And it's kind of fun because it's like pulling levers and we're like, "Oh, wow. If I eat this number of protein and this number of carbs and this number of fat, I can start to see a difference in the way that I feel and even look."
We obsess over these things, but largely ignore what we're feeding our souls.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 44:30
So, let me ask you, what are you consuming? Are you consuming cynicism, shallow spirituality, selfishness, laziness, lust?
We've seen in our text this morning Jesus interacting with an outsider, the Serenician woman. We've seen him interacting with a silent person, the mutant deaf man. We've seen him interacting with forgetful followers. So whether you are the outsider fighting for a breakthrough like the Seraphenician, whether you're the silent one like the mute and deaf man who is just longing to be heard, or you're the forgetful follower like the disciples needing to be reminded, spiritually hungry but eating the wrong kind of bread.
Wherever you find yourself today, we have a savior who cares and who meets us where we are.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 45:50
There's one thing that you don't see Jesus doing with any of the categories that we see him interacting with here, and that is denying them. The only one that he walks away from are the crowds and the religiously prideful.
So where are you today?
What will you do when Jesus acts in surprising ways? Will you trust him? Will you surrender to him?
Pastor Dan Cogan · 46:22
Or will you, like the Pharisees, say, "Perform for me, and then I'll consider your claims.
36:16
34:03
40:58
43:06
38:28
36:29
53:31
46:21
50:56
50:14
50:59
50:16
50:33
1:01:14
55:11
58:45
48:40
53:36
50:01
48:24
46:58
53:46
48:09
47:47
48:22
48:05
49:51
44:16
43:00
36:15
31:13
52:55
50:14
58:33
49:41
46:19
44:54
43:02
38:08
30:23
45:14
45:45
44:48
38:14
45:30
43:08
26:04
47:18
37:25
30:49
43:11
47:01Now playing
40:41
44:50
33:29
53:32