Mark 8:22-26
The Most Unusual
We left Jesus on an evangelistic campaign. He had zig-zagged not only
across the three sides of the Sea of Galilee but also out of the
land of Israel into Tyre and Sidon. Jesus continued His journey in
tonight’s text.
I. \\#Mark 8:22-26\\ In Bethsaida, an unusual result.
A. It is hard to describe anything that Jesus does as unusual
because most everything He did was unusual!
1. He healed the sick, raised the dead, caused the lame to
walk, walked on water, and on the list goes.
2. Yet Mark, perhaps more than the other gospel writers,
recorded things that seem unusual even for Jesus.
3. This text has what to me is the most unusual of them all.
B. What is unusual?
Mark 8:22 And he cometh to Bethsaida….
1. \\#22\\ Bethsaida was an unusual place for Jesus to be.
a. Bethsaida was the closest Mark had recorded Jesus
coming to Capernaum in a while.
(1) We are not sure we know all the places Jesus
went, let alone the names of all the places; but
Bethsaida was only about 4 miles from
Capernaum.
(2) It makes sense that if Jesus were that close to
Capernaum, He would have stopped there.
(a) I am sure His disciples appreciate that.
(b) We know Peter had a wife and James and John
had a father.
(c) We suppose the others had family that they
wanted to see from time to time.
(3) Being this close to Capernaum, it seems logical
that Jesus completed another evangelistic
crusade, and His disciples got a little time off
to visit with their families.
b. Bethsaida was a cursed city.
(1) Matthew recorded the words of Jesus about this
city earlier.
Matthew 11:21 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto
thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which
were done in you, had been done in Tyre and
Sidon, they would have repented long ago in
sackcloth and ashes.
(2) Thankfully, Jesus did not write off the cursed!
(3) If He did, we’d all be in trouble! (The world is
cursed, even more I am!)
(4) The reason Jesus pronounced woe upon these cites
was because they had not responded to what they
had seen and heard.
(5) Remember that.
2. \\#23\\ It was an unusual manner for Jesus to heal.
a. \\#23, 26\\ Jesus took the man a part from the crowd,
and told the man healed not to tell anyone of his
healing, and told him not to return to the town,
apparently so the people would not be able to see
that he had been healed.
(1) This may not be as uncommon as it seems as Mark
recorded Jesus doing the same thing in
\\#Mark 7:33, 36\\.
(2) Perhaps Jesus did this often, especially when He
first arrived in an area so that He could
preach a while before the lines started forming
for miracles.
b. \\#23\\ Jesus "spit on his eyes."
(1) It was unusual for Jesus to use spit or any other
thing but His Word in healing.
(2) \\#Mark 7:33\\ Jesus put spit into a deaf man’s
ears to open them and on his tongue to loosen it.
(3) But even then, the man could not hear or speak
until Jesus gave a command for them to do so.
(4) I can only remember two miracles where Jesus did
give a command.
(a) The woman who touched the helm of His
garment
(b) This one.
(5) This is the only miracle I know where Jesus
Himself produced healing by His actions INSTEAD
of His words.
c. All I can say is, "That is unusual."
C. It was an unusual result from Jesus’ touch - The most unusual
thing is that the man’s eyes required two touches from Jesus
to be completely healed.
1. Review:
a. \\#23\\ Jesus spit in the man’s eyes.
b. \\#24\\ The blind man could see but people looked like
"trees, walking."
c. \\#25\\ Jesus touched the man’s eyes again and he saw
"clearly."
2. Why was a second touch needed?
a. I don’t know, and I don’t think anyone does.
b. What I have said in the past and still believe is that
Jesus did not fail.
(1) The power of the Potentate did not putter!
(2) However, that does not mean that Jesus did not
limit Himself.
c. It is worth noting that the miracles Jesus performed
were related to the faith the people had, and this
was Bethsaida, a place that had been cursed for not
believing and repenting.
(1) We have already read what happened in Nazareth,
Jesus’ home city.
Mark 6:5 And he could there do no mighty work,
save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk,
and healed them.
6 And he marvelled because of their unbelief.
And he went round about the villages, teaching.
(2) The people did not believe; therefore they did
not receive.
(a) The word used in \\#5\\ is that Jesus COULD
not do a mighty work there.
(b) The Greek word means "to be able or
possible."
(b) I am supposing that Jesus was not able to a
mighty work there because the people did
not bring a mighty work for Him to do.
(3) However, IF there is anything that could limit
Jesus COULD do, it would be the lack of faith.
(a) Faith is a Self-imposed limit.
(b) I am not one that believes in having faith
in faith (as some of our Pentecostal
brethren seem to believe).
(c) However, faith is the highway that carries
all of our prayers to God and brings all of
God’s answer to us.
(d) God has degreed this as a limitation on
Himself.
(e) God is the only One who can limit Himself,
and He has limited Himself to the faith we
have and to the obedience we render.
d. Regardless of why two touches were required for this
man’s sight to be given, I am glad that Jesus came to
the cursed city among a doubting people to touch the
man as many times as was needed—for I also live in a
cursed place among doubting people and need His many
and repeated touches!
II. \\#Mark 8:27-38\\ In Caesarea Philippi, an unusual question.
Mark 8:27 And Jesus went out, and his disciples,
into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the
way he asked his disciples, saying unto them,
Whom do men say that I am?
A. Mark recorded that Jesus moved from Bethsaida north to
Caesarea Philippi for this event.
1. Caesarea Philippi was about 23 miles north of Bethsaida
and on Israel’s northern border.
2. Caesarea Philippi was a pagan city where false gods were
worshipped.
3. It was just after this trip that Matthew wrote of Jesus:
Matt 16:21 From that time forth began Jesus to
shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto
Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders
and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and
be raised again the third day.
4. Mark wrote it this way:
Mark 8:31 And he began to teach them, that the
Son of man must suffer many things, and be
rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests,
and scribes, and be killed, and after three days
rise again.
5. It would appear that from that time on, Jesus set His face
like a flint \\#Is 50:7\\ to go to Jerusalem.
6. The Bible does not tell us for certain why Jesus went
there or what else He may have done at that place.
B. But He did ask an unusual question there.
Mark 8:27 …Whom do men say that I am?
1. The question was who do "men" say that I am and that was
the question they answered. \\#28\\ Some say John the
Baptist, some Elias, some say one of the prophets.
2. But then Jesus asked the important question:
Mark 8:29 And he saith unto them, But whom say
ye that I am?…
3. And Peter was the one who nailed the answer:
Mark 8:29 …And Peter answereth and saith unto
him, Thou art the Christ.
C. Mark recorded some things that happened that I would call
unusual.
1. The disciples are just now figuring this out.
a. They have been together around three years!
b. They saw His miracles, listened to His sermons,
talked along the way, and slept under the stars,
and they are just now figuring this out!
c. If the disciples are just now getting it, what of
the world at large, the nation of Israel, even the
religious leaders?
d. We are extremely dull!
2. Peter answered without even knowing how important what he
said was.
Matt 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him,
Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my
Father which is in heaven.
a. Peter had not figured that out.
b. The Holy Spirit was giving it to Peter as he spoke.
c. That is what the Holy Ghost does and had done in the
past, but it was the first time we know of that the
Spirit had moved on the disciples.
3. \\#20\\ Jesus told the disciples to keep that truth to
themselves—at least for then.
Mark 8:30 And he charged them that they should
tell no man of him.
a. Why? No one knows for sure.
b. I imagine it was because Jesus knew what kind of
people that news would draw, i.e. the political
seekers.
4. Then the same man whom the Holy Ghost used to reveal that
great truth got rebuked by Jesus for the next statement
that came out of his mouth.
a. \\#31\\ Jesus told what would happen to Him and Peter
responded:
Mark 8:32 …And Peter took him, and began to
rebuke him.
b. So Jesus rebuked Peter.
33 But when he had turned about and looked on
his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get
thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not
the things that be of God, but the things that
be of men.
c. Here the man speaking with the presence of the Holy
Ghost one minute was speaking with the presence of
the devil the next.
d. How is that possible?
(1) It is possible because there is no such thing as
good flesh!
(2) We must each do what we can to present these
bodies of flesh a useable sacrifice to God, but
it WILL fail because it is flesh.
<Outline
Index> <Close Window>
