Light on the Hill

Guest (Male): Today on Light on the Hill.

James Kaddis: I want you to notice the pattern. The generation is willing to throw away the substance that they have in the existence of the Messiah for a sign that they will never get that shows that the Messiah they're throwing away is the true and living Messiah that they've always been looking for.

You want to know why Jesus said this generation will get no such sign? He says it because He's there. He's in front of them. If He chooses to give in to the lie that they are seeking to continue to propagate, then in essence He feeds also into the lie that says what you don't have is more valuable than what you do.

Guest (Male): Set aside the next thirty minutes for a time in the Word with Pastor James Kaddis here on Light on the Hill. We're going through Mark's Gospel one verse at a time and are back in chapter eight today. In verses eight through twenty-one, Jesus is approached by the Pharisees who go on to ask Him for a sign from heaven. They made a terrible mistake in doing so, but it's something we can learn from if we're willing. Let's see how Jesus responds.

James Kaddis: All right, I absolutely love how the Gospels were written on a bunch of levels. I've talked a little bit about this, and actually in recent studies that I've done—I did a few with the women where I dug a little deeper and got into some of the more extensive reasoning behind the mindset of these Gospels and how they were written and how that all plays perfectly into the mind of Christ and the way Christ did things.

But one of the things that I think is really awesome is you can see a pattern in the way so many of these people wrote these books of the Bible, and you can see some serious commonalities that exist in all of them. They all have very strong common threads, and of course I believe it's because it's the same Author. It's the One who inspired them all who created these common threads.

But it is interesting because when you go into the Gospels, especially, and you begin to read one story in one area and then you read what happened after that story, you begin to see principles build on other principles. Or in some cases, what you'll end up seeing is you'll see certain lessons being emphasized through what happens in the moment after it takes place.

And when you look at the feeding of the four thousand, there were some pretty spectacular lessons that we learned from the feeding of the four thousand. Perhaps one of the most remarkable centers around what is blatantly obvious, and that is God can do anything with anybody anytime He wants for any purpose, and God never fails. He never gets things wrong. God can take a little and He can turn it into a lot. That's a very obvious lesson that we gain from going over the story of the four thousand that were fed.

But perhaps the one that might not be so obvious is the one that we spent an exorbitant amount of time discussing last week, and that's the fact that God designed us to live in such a way that we spend time, if we walk with Him the way He designed for us to walk with Him, that we spend time focusing on the resources and the assets He has given us rather than focus on what we don't have.

In other words, God says, "I've put something in your hand and your obligation that I have placed in front of you is that you will take what you perceive as being the little that you have and focus on that rather than focusing on what you don't have." And if you will learn to take the little that God puts in your hand and be faithful with the little that He's put in your hand, He will do the work of multiplying it. He will do the work of taking it and doing something with it that you never thought could ever be done.

I think that this is such an incredibly important principle for us all because I think that the enemy is doing an extensive work in trying to deceive us into thinking that we have to start with a massive foundation as opposed to the very little that we have in moving forward. I see this happening all the time.

I can give you one prime example of this that exists especially amongst the younger culture of people. They come to me all the time and they say, "James, I notice that you have a big following online and I want to do something like that. I want to start making videos and I want to make a big impact and I want people to follow me." I say, "Okay, well what do you need me for?" "Well, I was just hoping that maybe you could introduce me to somebody or I was just maybe hoping that you can help me do this or help me do that."

I tell them the same thing every single time: "You have a mouth, you have a camera in your phone, you have a makeshift stand that you can make. Open your mouth and do something. Hit the record button, do something, and put it out. Let's just see what happens." And every single time I go back to them a few days later, or a month later, or a few months later, I say, "Where is the thing that I asked you to do? Where are the videos that I asked you to start making? Where is the work you wanted to put in?"

They tell me this every single time: "Well, I didn't have the right lights for the room that I was in," or "I didn't really have the right people to get behind me on this," or "I haven't met the right person," or "I don't have this," or "I'm waiting on this," or "This hasn't happened yet." And every single time I try to reiterate to them: "Forget all that nonsense." All that nonsense is going to get in the way of what you are called to do. And if you are called by God to do this thing, then go do this thing. Do it in front of an audience of zero if you have to. Just do it. Do the work.

I had one person who hammered me again and again: "You just need to introduce me to somebody." I pulled him aside and I said, "There's a whole bunch of reasons why I won't introduce you to somebody. Do you want to know the main reason? Let me make it about myself: I don't want to be embarrassed. I don't want to put you in front of somebody and ruin the reputation that they worked very hard for because you, on my name, chose to step into something that you were never ready for."

He said, "What do you mean? What kind of a statement is that?" I said, "Stop. Here it is. Ready? Let's do some role-playing. Shall we do some role-playing? Let's pretend I'm the guy you want me to introduce you to. Can we just do that? Because I know the guy. I know how he acts. I know how he thinks. I know how he walks. I know how he talks. Let's just do some role-playing."

"Okay, okay." "Hey, what's your name, kid? Pastor James tells me you've got some talent, you're a pretty good guy. Where's your work? Show me the work you've done. Let me see some of the videos." "Oh, well, I don't have any videos." "James, I thought you said he was talented. Why are you wasting my time?" That's how it's going to go. Why?

I've learned this: the closer you get to God and the more successful you become at allowing God to do the work that He wants to do, and the more lives you begin to change as a result of your obedience, you begin to recognize something very important, and that is this: you don't waste your time figuring out on what you don't have or focusing on what you don't have. You spend your time making good with what you have been given.

That's a very important principle. You cannot keep telling yourself that you are not going to step into this vein because you don't see this or you don't have that. By the way, this is the principle that Jesus is wanting to emphasize again and again and again, and we're going to learn that in a very unique and a very powerful way in this Bible study. This principle is going to be reapplied in a very special way to help you understand how this works practically, how this is applied in a way that maybe most of us don't think about.

But if you understand and recognize what the supernatural rules are, you'll understand that navigating through the natural becomes easy. Doing what you do in this realm, the physical realm, becomes easy if you learn to understand what you're dealing with in the realm you can't see. And that's exactly what we're dealing with here.

So Jesus just finishes feeding the four thousand. Very interesting moment, pretty powerful. We'll jump into verse ten to establish some context here. It says, "And straightway He entered into a ship with His disciples and came into the parts of Dalmanutha." Verse eleven, let me just step into this. I'm not going to step into the trap of getting into the location issue because once we start fiddling with the Galilee stuff and some of the nuances there, we'll waste a bunch of time. We're not wasting time, but I want to focus on a bigger issue here, so let's dig into that.

Verse eleven: "And the Pharisees came forth and began to question with Him, seeking of Him a sign from heaven, tempting Him." Now, this is interesting. The Pharisees are asking Him to put on a dog and pony show that would show everybody evidence of the fact that He is God. Now, there's a broken mindset here, and I think you guys already see it. You probably can see through it, you can already understand it, and that is the fact that when you seek to ask for a sign concerning the existence of something that's already before you or something that you already have, you are acting foolishly.

Makes sense? Think of it like this. It would be like you saying, "God, please help me to get a hundred dollars." And you finish praying and all of a sudden there's a hundred dollars right in front of you. You pick it up and then you say, "Well, Lord, I need a sign that this hundred dollars was You." Really? It's in your hand. You need a sign for something that's already in your hand? You need a sign for something that's already obvious? You've already watched all of these things happen. What in the world are you talking about?

This is about to be a significant confrontation that Jesus is going to bring forth. And what He says is going to be so significantly important that if you miss it, you will miss something very valuable in your own walk. If you miss the significance of this statement, you will miss something that is pertinent in order for your walk to be able to run viably well in a way where you begin to see miraculous works at the hand of God moving.

Look at Jesus's answer. "And He sighed deeply in His spirit." So this isn't Jesus getting angry. This isn't Jesus getting weirdly emotional. No, this is Jesus almost exhausted in a way, almost weary because the principle is obvious. What is in front of them could not be more obvious. It's right there.

Look at what He says: "Why doth this generation seek after a sign? Verily I say unto you, there shall no sign be given unto this generation." And He left them and entering into the ship again, He departed to the other side. Let's just stop for one second and talk about this because there's a couple of natural questions that go through my head with respect to the dialogue.

The dialogue that we see here is interesting in that we see the Pharisees going to Jesus and asking for a sign. It's the Pharisees going to Jesus. When Jesus responds after sighing, He doesn't address the Pharisees. He addresses the generation.

In my mind, I think, what happened? Where's the disconnect? How does it go from the Pharisees that He's talking about to the generation? What happens there? There's a bunch of things we can learn from this. First and foremost, the generation that Jesus is talking about is cultivated by the spiritual leaders of that generation. The Pharisees ask a question, and the imposition of their question in and of itself is evidence of the condition of the generation.

The Pharisees are looking for some kind of a spectacular sign that something is as it is because they have cultivated a society and a culture that will not accept anything verbatim outside of their words unless there is a sign that would show that it is superseded. In other words, what's happened is they have gone so deeply into deceiving the generation that's in front of them that the only thing that could jar the generation awake to see that anything valid is happening would be something so out of the norm that it might cause them to break away from the brainwashing that they've experienced.

In other words, they have become so focused on what does not exist, they have become so focused on the abstract, that their sense of reality is completely warped. Sound familiar to any generation you've ever heard from? We've gotten to the point, and this is a tactic that the enemy loves to deploy—it's one that's a very common tactic and he's very good at it—and it's this: we love to deploy the type of mechanism that is not utilized in a way that runs with anything parallel to what's practical in this world.

Everything that we place value on, at least in this generation, is something that is contrary to that which is intrinsic. In other words, we value things that truly don't have any value at any level while throwing away the things that are the most valuable. That's a condition that's created in society. That's something that has been done to a society to train that society to think a different way so that they can throw away the things that they recognize or maybe even discern as being valuable.

Why? Because the more a society holds fast to the things that have intrinsic value based on God's definition, the closer to God they become. And the closer to God they become, the more aware of the things of God they become. And the more aware of the things of God they become, the better they become at living according to God's way. And the better they become at living according to God's way, the more fulfillment they experience in their life. And the more fulfillment they experience in their life, the more they begin to see the clear path to the God that created them and gave Himself for them.

It's a tactic of the enemy. The enemy wants you to focus on something that has no substance so that you will purposefully and willfully ignore and, dare I say, throw away the things that do have substance. We're seeing it again and again and again and again, and it is getting uglier at every level beyond what anybody can possibly imagine.

If you want tangible evidence of something like this, look at what we call reproductive health. Look at how we treat babies. Look at how we treat the elderly. They are perhaps the most valuable in our society. And if we render unto them the kind of value and treat them as such the way God designed for us to treat them, then we would find a certain level of fulfillment that cannot be described to the crowd of people who are trying to find fulfillment by destroying the things that are valuable.

I want you to notice the pattern. The generation is willing to throw away the substance that they have in the existence of the Messiah for a sign that they will never get that shows that the Messiah they're throwing away is the true and living Messiah that they've always been looking for.

You want to know why Jesus said this generation will get no such sign? He says it because He's there. He's in front of them. If He chooses to give in to the lie that they are seeking to continue to propagate, then in essence He feeds also into the lie that says what you don't have is more valuable than what you do.

That's what we're seeing here. Now, if you don't believe me and you think that this is some sort of an abstract thought that I'm having and you sort of leave it alone and put it away, forget the fact that the disciples did not focus on the two fish or the few fish and the seven loaves. They focused on the fact that they didn't have enough food to feed the men. And Jesus said, "What do you have?" And they told Him what they had, and He asked them to give it to Him, and He took what they did have and He turned it into what the disciples perceived they didn't have.

If they didn't start with the loaves and the fishes that they were discounting, they wouldn't have had any food to give to the people. So forget that evidence. Let's not even talk about that. Forget the fact that Jesus here is continuing to say, "I am the one that's in front of you. I'm the one you need to be focusing on."

Let's just say none of those things matter to you and what I'm saying is an abstract thought that came out of nowhere. Jesus is going to bring it right back to the lesson of the fishes and the loaves. Because look at what it says. He left back, he goes to the other side. Verse fourteen: "Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf." So the bread was left behind, basically.

"And He charged them, saying, 'Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.'" And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have no bread." Let's go over the facts, shall we? Because it's very important.

The disciples forgot to equip themselves with the bread that they needed to keep them through the journey. Anytime you go anywhere, you have to have food with you to be able to be sustained in order to be able to survive when you go on these trips. This wasn't like the way that we live today. You don't have food with you, no big deal. You could sit in a parking lot and have it delivered to you by going on an app and asking them to bring it to you. It's not the world in which we live. The world in which we live today is nothing like that which existed during the time of Christ.

If they wanted to have food when they traveled, they had to bring it with them. They had to prepare to be able to have it. If they forgot, it could be deadly. It could be something that was very, very bad. The disciples were busy. I get it. They had a lot going on. They're serving the Creator of the universe. There's a lot going on, lots of people, lots of pressing issues. They're in a rush. They get on the boat, they forget to make preparations and bring bread with them.

Somehow, some way, there's a little bit of bread amongst them. Probably some guy took a loaf with him. We don't know. But Jesus, after having just dealt with the Pharisees and telling them, "I'm not going to give this generation any signs," chooses to take a moment and to minister to His disciples, saying, "Beware." Beware of what? "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod."

It's a pretty powerful statement, by the way. "Take heed, beware." What does that mean? The leaven of the Pharisees, the leaven of Herod. Well, the first thing that happens is automatically the place that the disciples gravitate to is, "Jesus is making a very spiritual symbol because we forgot to take the bread," right?

But what they didn't realize is that Jesus just finished rebuking the Pharisees and they should know about the connection of Herod because Jesus was with them when they had a confrontation with Herod or were talking about Herod. And what's the one thing that Herod and the Pharisees had in common? They were constantly asking Jesus for a sign. They wanted Jesus to put on a show. They wanted a sign.

They failed to embrace and acknowledge what was before them and instead they wanted something that was going to end up becoming worthless, vain. "Give me the fleeting, momentary entertainment that I want instead of embracing the Creator of the universe." They had an incredible opportunity in front of them, and instead of taking advantage of the incredible opportunity put in front of them, what they chose to do was use Him in perhaps one of the most nominal ways possible and give them some kind of an appeasing or entertaining sign that would only last for a moment.

Think about that. You think about the possibility of how all of that works and what that all means. When you're given the opportunity of a lifetime, why in the world would you want to throw it away just so you could be entertained for ten minutes? Doesn't make sense.

Jesus sees this quality within the Pharisees. He sees this quality within Herod, aka the generation that he's talking about. They all have this in common. They're sign seekers. And Jesus tells His Pharisees, "Beware. Beware of the decay that this will bring. Beware of the destruction. Beware of the sin that will decay the society that you find in the Pharisees and in Herod. The ones who will so desperately seek to sensationalize the very things that they don't have that they will do it at the expense of what is in essence intrinsically valuable. They'll throw away the precious gift and tool that's in their hand so that they can experience some momentary, fleeting thing that they've never had or have never seen or won't see."

That's what he's telling the disciples. He's saying, "Don't be sensationalists. Don't be the type of people that are seeking a thrill when you have what you need to do what you're going to do."

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us today for Light on the Hill. What you just heard is one part of a study in Mark's Gospel from Pastor James Kaddis. You can hear it again at LightOnTheHillRadio.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Pastor James, you did a good job helping us understand the big mistake the Pharisees made in seeking a sign. Sign seekers and sensationalists are still around today. I'm sure you've heard this before: "If God would only show me a sign from heaven to prove Himself, then I'd believe." How would you reply to a statement like that?

James Kaddis: Almost always I would point out the fact that they're absolute fools in the imposition of the question. Not that I want to embarrass anybody or humiliate them or belittle them for making such a statement, but they have to understand that the very nature that they stand in the midst of is some of the most remarkable evidence of the existence of God Almighty. The fact that we are here and standing in the midst of incredible ecosystems is not something that was done on accident.

If I went up to you and I told you that my Apple Watch evolved on my arm, you would call that as obscene. You would say that's absolutely ridiculous. Why? Because you see the design elements in the watch and you are convinced that somebody created it. Yet when you have a watch like that that has some complicated circuitry in it thinking that it was created and built and manufactured and designed by somebody, yet you have a hard time imagining that the more complicated set of circuits and perhaps the more sophisticated construct, which is the wrist that it sits on, had to evolve? It's obscene. The reality of it is it's people who don't want to believe that God exists because they would rather live the sinful lifestyle that they live. It's that simple.

Guest (Male): Well said. Thanks, Pastor James. Not long ago, Pastor James released his new book on the first half of Revelation. It's entitled "The Last Book." He points out that Revelation isn't a book of fear but rather a book of hope. Pastor James will help you understand the world we live in and current events through a biblical lens, preparing your heart for what lies ahead. Get a copy by going to LightOnTheHillRadio.com or through Amazon.

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