Anti-faith Blows Up! Mark 8:11-13
Back in about 1965 me and some friends were 16 years old and had driver's licenses and cars. For us the call of the teen years was to cause some trouble by way of being pranksters.
One of the guys came up with some cherry bombs and M-80 firecrackers. We had heard great tales about what an M-80 would do to the typical metal mailbox of the time.
It occurred to us that blowing up the mailboxes at the homes of some of the girls in our class would be exciting. We knew where several of them lived and went out on a Saturday night and went through the appropriate protocol required to blow up a mailbox with an M-80.
It was important to park the car down the street from the mailbox to be blown up. A team of two would approach the mailbox. One would open the mailbox door, while the other terrorist would light the M-80 and toss it in the mailbox.
The first terrorist would slam the door to the mailbox shut and both would run toward the car to avoid shrapnel wounds!
A few seconds after taking cover behind the car the M-80 would go off and blow the mailbox into smithereens while splintering the mailbox post several inches below the box.
On the front page of the local paper Monday morning was a story about an assault on mailboxes in a neighborhood in Flagstaff that was under investigation by the local police department.
Fortunately, we never got caught and were wise enough not to repeat our folly!
A mailbox being blown up by an M-80 has become a picture of a life being blown up by anti-faith.
Mark 8:11-13 is the history of anti-faith!
The Pharisees come to Jesus and want Him to give them a sign from Heaven. Notice that they were testing Jesus! They were not looking for a way to believe in Jesus. They were trying to catch Him and disprove that He was who He said He was. They were operating out of anti-faith to hold on to political and religious power.
Notice that they wanted a sign from Heaven!
Just review briefly some of what Jesus had done in the last few chapters. In chapter 6 Jesus fed upward to 20,000 people with five biscuits and two sardines, then the disciples picked up twelve small baskets of leftovers.
The very next thing that Jesus does is to walk on water out to the boat the disciples were in crossing the Sea of Galilee. In chapter 7 Jesus does a longdistance demon removal from the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman!
Next Jesus heals a deaf and dumb man by sticking His finger in his ears and putting some spit on the guy's tongue and adds a bullet prayer for his mouth to be opened and he could hear and spoke plainly for the first time in his life!
We are not done, yet! Next Jesus feeds 4,000 men, plus women and children with 7 biscuits and a few small fish and seven large baskets of leftovers are taken up.
After all these miracles, the Pharisees are asking for a sign from Heaven so they can believe? Notice that the text says that they were testing Him. That means that they were trying to get something on Him and had no inclination to come to faith in Jesus!
What was going on was that the Pharisees wanted to bring charges against Jesus to have him killed! This entire exercise was about anti-faith to get something on Jesus. I was totally insincere!
What does Jesus tell them? Mark 8:12 tells us, “He sighed deeply and said, ‘Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sing? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it.'” (NIV)
Jesus is making the point that if they don't get it yet, He was not even going to try to provide any more signs.
A sign from Heaven would be an outward compelling proof of divine authority! Some scholars would fuss about the use of the word for “sign” here, but if the miracles Jesus did didn't make for compelling proof of divine authority from Heaven what could?
Jesus tells the Pharisees they are not getting any signs, jumps in the boat and heads for the other side of the lake.
The anti-faith of the Pharisees blows up, just like the mailboxes blew up in 1965 when the M-80 went off!
What sign when combined with faith puts life back together?
1 Corinthians 1:2223, “(22) Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, (23) but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block for Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” (NIV)
Different cultures look for different things to authenticate the movement of Heaven. Jews want miraculous signs, while Greeks want to see human wisdom.
Today, there is a move toward human wisdom and a philosophy or narrative that is culturally acceptable. A problem in this country is that the more we seek culturally acceptable wisdom the more people blow their lives up with sinful behavior and drugs and alcohol!
Why is that? We are seeking anti-faith things that blow up!
The basis of the things of faith is “Christ Crucified.” Notice how 1 Corinthians 1:24 puts it, “but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (NIV)
The sign that puts life back together when combined with faith is Christ and what He paid on the cross! Why? Because Christ is personally the power and wisdom of God!
We need power and wisdom from God so that when faith is applied life comes back together when it has been blown apart.
Power and wisdom from God begin with Christ crucified! Why is that?
When Jesus was crucified, He took our sin and removed it. With sin gone we are no longer separated from God, and He gets involved in our life! In the absence of sin, we can get close to God!
When you get close to God you are on the receiving end of His power and wisdom. He can take what blew up under anti-faith and put it back together under faith.
I pray Ephesians 3:20 three times a day. It says this, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurable more than all we ask for imagine, according to his power that is at work in us.' (NIV)
With sin gone because of Christ's crucifixion God's power and wisdom show up in your life. God can take the life that was blown up, like the mailbox was blown up, and put it back together with His power that is at work in us.
His power lives in your because sin is gone because of Christ crucified! Look what His power can do in you! The power of Christ in you can do immeasurably more!
Let me tell you what that means. His power that is available because sin is gone due to Christ taking it on Himself when He was crucified, can do more in your life than you can measure!
How much good and blessing could you measure? Guess what. You don't know because you can't measure it! God can put your life together in such a way that it will be more than you can measure!
That is what God can do with you when you combine faith with the sign of His crucifixion!
I'll tell you what else He can do. He can do more than you can ask. What could you ask God to do in your life? He can do that with His power in you because He is there because sin is gone because of Jesus's crucifixion.
His power can do more than you could ever ask with His power in you.
Let me tell you what else He could do. He can do more in your life than you could ever imagine! What is the most amazing image you can conceive of what God could do in your life? He can do more than that because His power is in you because the barrier of sin is gone for good because of what Jesus paid for you at the cross.
Anti-faith blows up, while faith in Christ builds up because of His power working in us because Jesus took all our sin on the cross and removed it opening us up to God's transforming power.
See your life as a metal mailbox that was blown to smithereens, that is blown into tiny bits all over the street.
You come to Jesus in faith and what He did at the cross removes all your sin and engages the power of God. Instead of blowing up like anti-faith He starts putting you back together with His power that kicks into gear by faith!
You are operating in the opposite mode from the anti-faith Pharisees. When He is done putting you back together you are not just an average mailbox on the street. You are the finest and most decorative mailbox anyone ever saw!
Turn your life over to Jesus for a power reassembly of life by faith and He will do more in you that you could ever conceive!
Tom West works in advanced planning with Myers Funeral Service in Porterville and can be reached on His cell phone at 602.758.1168. You can see Tom’s messages on his Youtube channel at Life In The God Lane.