Class Notes: 1/12/2014

Mark 8:16-21; Jesus' disciples have difficulty comprehending spritual things

In our study of Mark last time we stopped in Mark 8:16; where Jesus is trying to explain to His disciples about the "yeast" or "leaven" of the Pharisees but the disciples could not make the spiritual connection because of they could not get past their focus on the bread they had forgotten.

Mark 8:16; Jesus had spoken to them using yeast or leaven as a metonymy in His reference to the Pharisees false value system and false doctrine and they were unable to understand the figurative meaning.

They did not understand His use of the figure of speech because they had almost no spiritual perception. They took it literally and thought He actually meant bread and they had forgotten it so they began to discuss among themselves as trying to figure out what He meant.

"They were discussing" is an imperfect tense that means they kept on discussing it they kept on saying that they had no bread. They were so fixated on literal bread that they completely missed the doctrinal point He was trying to make.

The disciples totally missed Jesus' reference to the Pharisees and Herod. All they heard was "yeast" so they incorrectly assumed that Jesus was referring to the fact that they forgot to get bread. They were completely focused on the temporal He was completely unconcerned with it.

They have no doctrinal frame of reference because they have no concentration and no recall of doctrine they have no doctrinal norms and standards, and no categorical recall. They have nothing with which to establish a stable system of doctrinal thinking. They have no stability from divine viewpoint thinking.

Mark 8:17; Jesus was aware of their discussion and He rebukes them not because of their failure to grasp the meaning of His warning but because of their failure to understand the meaning of His presence with them and what they had seen Him do over and over again.

He rebukes them for their inability to recall the doctrine related to His identity. " Why do you discuss that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart?"

They haven't advanced doctrinally since Peter briefly walked on the water. The most miserable believers in the world are the people who are saved but have no doctrine, no memory, no power of concentration, no ability to assimilate doctrine, and no desire to. If you have the desire to you can learn to concentrate and you can learn.

The word "discuss" is translated from the Greek word "dialogizomai that is transliterated "dialog" and means to think and talk about or to discuss but all the thinking and dialog among themselves is not getting them anywhere because they have no doctrinal recall and therefore no doctrinal frame of reference in their dialog.

If you do not have doctrine in your thinking you can't think divine viewpoint. So they are doing a lot of thinking, a lot discussion a lot of dialog, but it's all meaningless. It was just a lot of noise and a waste of time. There is no benefit to talking about things unless there is understanding from doctrinal viewpoint.

Mark 8:18-20; Though they had eyes they didn't really see and though they had ears they did not hear with understanding and they could not recall the doctrinal implications of the miracles of the manufacture of bread for the 5000 and the 4000.

Understanding requires the application of the doctrine that they learned by observing the healings, followed by the miracles of multiplying the food where Jesus manufactured food on the spot as he broke off pieces.

The procurement of food was no problem. Jesus can manufacture it. It is easy to get bread in the stomach but getting doctrine in the stream of consciousness is a completely different problem because that requires positive volition, concentration and faith recall and they had short memories.

Jesus' emphasis is on doctrine because doctrinal application is the power to deal with any and every problem every time. That is what He wants His disciples to be able to do.

That is what he wants us to be able to do also. That 's why we focus on doctrine.

After feeding the five thousand, there were twelve hand baskets left over after feeding the four thousand, there were seven large baskets left over. The number twelve is generally used in Scripture for administrative completeness, the number seven is the number of spiritual perfection.

The twelve baskets signified the abundant provision that will be enjoyed under Messiah's reign. The seven large baskets represent the perfection of spiritual blessing when we learn that we do not live simply by bread, but by every spoken Word (rhema) of God. Matt 4:4;

One of the names for God in the Tnach was "El Shaddai" that means "God all sufficient". Our Lord was manifesting Himself as this Eternal God incarnate who is able to abundantly meet every need.

His supplies are unlimited. All we need is faith to rest in His riches, His mercy to help in time of need, and to draw from His abundant provision. The bread He gave pictured Himself as the Bread of God come down from heaven and gives spiritual (zoe) life to the world. John 6:33;

Mark 8:21; So He asks them "Do you still not get it?" and of course they didn't. Net note 25 Their problem was that their rate of forgetting doctrine exceeded the rate that they were learning and they were spiritually hard of hearing.

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