Mark 8:14  Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf.
15  And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.
16  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread.
17  And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened?
18  Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?
19  When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve.
20  And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven.
21  And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?

The disciples were still quite materialistically minded at this time. They were constantly travelling with Jesus. There was no time to waste in proclaiming the truth. The people needed to be given all the opportunity possible to see that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. They needed to know that the long awaited Messiah had indeed come. They needed to know that He was the Saviour of mankind.
Jesus was concerned about the constant attacks from the Pharisees. They had just challenged Him for a sign. They were not willing to accept His teaching, nor accept the many miracles He did. They rejected His deity. If Jesus was not all that He said He was, then He could not be our Saviour. The fact was that He proved His deity over and over again. The Pharisees were the losers here and they were trying to keep the Jews from trusting in Jesus.
Jesus knew that the disciples were weak at this time. He knew they were not yet convinced that He was the Messiah. We see in our text that the Pharisees had teamed up with one of their enemies — King Herod. Herod saw Jesus as a rival to his throne. He did not realize that he was not as independent as he thought he was. He was limited by God in what he could do. Jesus did not come to overthrow the Roman government. However, His teaching did expose the corruption within that government.
Today as well, Christians are not called to overthrow the government. We are called to teach the truth. The truth is definitely opposed to much in our current government. Our system needs to be turned upside down. That is not going to happen, but those who are saved are called on to teach the truth, which will expose the corruption in our system. It is when we have compromised people who claim to be Christians, running in politics and voting for corrupt men and women, that things get quite muddy.
People have stated that if you do not vote, you cannot speak out about what is happening in government. That is a strange position. That is just a tool of the devil to try to coerce true Christians to compromise with one or another politician. How can Christians speak out on the murder of unborn children if they vote for people who support the murder of unborn children? The same goes for the sodomite agenda and the hatred for Jews, among other important matters.
Christians are called to be a light in this dark world. A light is a contrast to the darkness. The darker the world is, the more the contrast will be. The world was quite dark at Jesus’ time. According to the Bible it is darker now.
In verse 16 we see that the disciples reasoned among themselves about their lack of bread. Jesus addressed their hardened hearts. He had just fed four thousand people with a very small amount of original supply. Earlier He fed about five thousand men besides women and children, also with a limited original supply. He magnified that which was there. He certainly was not concerned about physical food. He knew how to make food.
The disciples were right there with Jesus. They had distributed the food to the people. They witnessed how the people were all satisfied and they gathered up the left-overs. Physical food was certainly not the issue here.
The issue was in their spiritual hearts and in their spiritual insight. They were lacking in these crucial areas. It was not that they could not know better. Jesus rebuked them for their lack of perception and understanding.
We see again here, that God does expect His children to grow. We are studying the book of Hebrews in our Sunday afternoon service. God challenged the saved with the need to get into the meat of God’s Word. The lost need to hear the Gospel and be saved. The saved need to be taught all things that the Bible has. We need to be growing in the Lord. As we grow in the Lord, we should see things from a different perspective. Unity should come through submission to the truth, not through compromise. That is an important distinction.
It is important to understand that the Scriptures are our authority. No man can stand in the place of the truth. There should be discussion on the things we believe. The pastor needs to be able to teach the truth. He needs to know why he believes as he does. He needs to be able to prove what he believes is according to the Scriptures.
Years ago, as a much younger pastor, I asked another pastor about his position on church discipline. There was a man we knew that was being disciplined in that church, and I was not trying to interfere with that local church. I was just trying to understand the approach the pastor was using. He gave me a reply from some material he copied. I asked him for the source of that material and he would not give it to me. We need to make sure what we believe is grounded in the Scriptures. We can make the Scriptures agree with us if we do not use them for God’s glory. We can proof text just about anything we want to if we want to act in the flesh. Man’s opinions do not equal God’s truth. God’s truth stands above all that we think. We need to humbly submit to God’s truth and ask God to help us to live by the truth, if we are truly saved.
In Philippians 2 we read:

Philippians 2:5  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

Jesus expected more from the disciples than they were demonstrating. When we are given the truth, we must receive it if we are saved. True saints walk by faith, not by sight. Trusting in the Lord is not a blind faith. It is a faith that has substance. The problem with the disciples was not that they did not have the facts. The problem was their hard hearts. The truth is completely different than the lie. The truth will seem strange at times. However, the truth is just that; it is the truth.
The disciples should have known that Jesus was completely truthful. Today as well, we can have complete trust in God’s Word. The problem today is that there are many perversions and the double minded man will not settle on what the truth is. We cannot go by our feelings. We must submit to God’s Word and if we are truly saved, we can do that. The confusion that reigns within modern day “Christendom” is not of God. The solution posed by many to forget about doctrine is not the answer. The solution is to humble ourselves and believe the truth. Those who are truly saved have the indwelling Holy Spirit. He will open our eyes to see the truth. There will be further agreement among those who are truly saved. Those who are pretenders will dig in their heels and refuse to accept the truth. We must submit to the Word of God as the TRUTH. Where there is disagreement among true saints, we need to be in prayer that we might come to the truth. When we have the truth, we need to settle there. True Biblical unity is important to God and it should be important to those who call themselves His children.
Pastor Bartel