Mark 8:11-21

Please note: This transcript is provided as a reading aid and is not a verbatim record of the sermon.

Mark 8:11–21 — “Do You Not Yet Understand?” Learning to See, Hear, and Remember

Introduction and Opening Prayer

Good morning. This morning we are so glad and happy to have amongst us the family of God—from many nations and speaking many tongues—coming together to worship the Lord. Before we go into the message, let us pray.

Our heavenly Father, we thank You for this hour of remembrance. We thank You for the thoughts of our Lord Jesus Christ—of how much we owe Him. It is something that we can never fathom, for He paid for our redemption with His own precious blood. And as we look into a portion of Scripture, we pray that You’ll help us to receive a message from Your Word. In the Lord Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Passage and Theme

Our passage is from Mark chapter 8:11–21, just ten verses. This is another account of the learning journey of the disciples—at the earlier part of their learning curve.

They had followed the Lord since He started His ministry after the arrest of John the Baptist and his beheading. Along the way, they had been present as the Lord started from Galilee preaching the gospel of God, healing people of many diseases, and performing several miracles.

Much was happening, and the disciples were swept along by the events and had not digested fully the significance of what they had witnessed. So as we look at the two incidents recorded in this passage, may we be able to relate what the disciples went through to our own experiences in the process of growing in the knowledge of the Lord.

Reading: Mark 8:11–21 (ESV)

The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side.

Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

Overview: Two Conversations, One Lesson

This passage contains two conversations.

1. The encounter between the Lord and the Pharisees (verses 11–13), witnessed by the disciples.
2. The subsequent discourse between the Lord and the disciples (verses 14–21).

These two conversations took place sometime apart, separated by a boat journey across the Sea of Galilee mentioned in verse 13.

But they are connected. The disciples were present and witnessed the first encounter. And the second conversation was, in some ways, a continuation of it. By the time the second conversation took place, the disciples still did not understand what the Lord had meant after the first encounter with the Pharisees.

1) The First Encounter: The Pharisees Demand a Sign (Mark 8:11–13)

1.1 They Came to Argue, Not to Learn

Verse 11: “The Pharisees came and began to argue with him.”

This was not the first brush with them. In chapter 7, we saw how the Pharisees came all the way from Jerusalem to confront the Lord. They were teachers of the law and sought to use their knowledge of the Old Testament and rabbinic regulations to discredit Him.

They criticized His disciples for not observing the traditions of the elders in the Talmud. His reply was a stern rebuke from Isaiah: they were hypocrites—teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. They were counterfeits.

They used a “bait and switch,” pushing laws they created themselves and passing them off as God’s commandments. They were supposed to present the commandments of God, but they replaced them with the commandments of men.

Now in today’s passage they return—defeated in chapter 7, but back again for another round. They demanded a sign from heaven to test Him. They wanted Him to prove His credentials and authority.

1.2 The Ironies in Their Demand

In Mark 1, the Lord began His ministry proclaiming the gospel of God: the kingdom of God is at hand. When the Pharisees asked for a sign, there were many ironies in their actions—ironies lost to them.

First irony: one of their major doctrines was belief in the coming of Messiah. And here they were, standing before the Messiah, demanding a sign—thinking He could not produce one, so they could disqualify Him and stop His ministry.

They studied the Old Testament Scriptures about the Messiah who would liberate Israel from the oppressive Romans. They had schools of rabbinic thought—Shammai and Hillel—debating and interpreting the Talmud. The details of the Messiah were extensively studied.

And yet, despite this supposed deep understanding, they failed to recognize the Messiah in His very presence.

Does this not warn us? We can be heavily involved in studying Scripture, discussing doctrines, and being around the people of God—and yet be in the same condition as the Pharisees.

Like the Pharisees, we can mistake knowledge of Scripture as an end in itself. But the real purpose of knowing Scripture is to know the God of Scripture—to know the Lord Jesus Christ. This is relevant to us, especially in an assembly with a long history of Sunday school and study of the Word.

Second irony: they already knew—or at least had heard—about the signs and miracles the Lord had done. In Mark 6 and 7 He fed 5,000, walked on water, healed the sick in villages and cities, healed the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter, healed the deaf man with a speech impediment, and fed 4,000.

Yet the Pharisees treated these miracles as no big deal. They wanted something more spectacular. They demanded a sign “from heaven,” ignoring that signs from heaven had already been given.

At His baptism, the heavens were torn open, the Spirit descended like a dove, and a voice came: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Wasn’t that a sign from heaven?

1.3 A Warning to Us: Do We Relate to God Like the Pharisees?

Before we laugh at the Pharisees and condemn them, we should examine ourselves. Are we guilty of similar attitudes toward the Lord?

The Pharisees came with a fixed agenda. They demanded narrowly defined outcomes. They were not prepared for anything else. Their minds were closed; they were determined to discredit Him. In modern terms, we call this confirmation bias—an echo chamber that reinforces what we already want to believe.

Here are some tests—questions to ask ourselves:

First: if your prayers are just a shopping list of demands—expecting God to deliver exactly what you want, exactly how you want it, with nothing missing—then you have the same kind of attitude. There is little room for the sovereignty of God to operate. It becomes “my will and my plans,” not “Your will be done.”

Second: when things don’t turn out right—when life is a mess—do you catch yourself thinking or saying: “What is the use of praying, trusting God, and reading His Word, when my prayers are not answered and I continue to suffer?”

I have heard people express this in frustration and disappointment. They say, “What’s the use?”

Brothers and sisters, that reveals that our trust is often conditioned upon how well things turn out for us.

In contrast, let us draw encouragement from Habakkuk 3:17–19:

Though the fig tree should not blossom… though the fields yield no food… yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation… God, the Lord, is my strength.

Habakkuk saw devastation coming—economic and national collapse. Yet he did not interpret it as God’s powerlessness or God’s unwillingness to care. He resolved to rejoice in the Lord, lean on Him for strength, and trust Him to lead him to higher ground.

1.4 The Lord’s Response: A Deep Sigh and a Departure

What did the Lord do?

Verse 12: “He sighed deeply in his spirit.”

He was grieved by the hardened hearts of the Pharisees. It was pointless to give them a sign—they would never be satisfied. Even if He gave them something like Elijah’s fire from the sky, they would not believe. They were obsessed with protecting their authority and power.

Brothers and sisters, if we relate to the Lord with the same prideful insistence—always wanting our way—there is no room for the Lord to do great things in our lives. Like the Pharisees, we will only see what we want to see. There will be no room for what the Lord can do.

So the Lord left them, got into the boat, and went to the other side.

2) The Second Conversation: The Disciples and the Forgotten Bread (Mark 8:14–21)

2.1 Distracted by Physical Lack

Now we move to verses 14–21.

After crossing the lake, the disciples realize they forgot to bring bread. They had only one loaf for thirteen people. They were hungry, and their minds were occupied with food.

I would add: the disciples, in their preoccupation with hunger, were not digesting and absorbing the significant things that had happened—the feeding of the 5,000, the feeding of the 4,000, the healings. They also missed the significance of what Jesus had just said to the Pharisees. It went over their heads.

So the Lord cautions them:

“Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”

He was saying: you are distracted by bread, but you should be focused on a far more important spiritual issue. You have a spiritual lack more serious than your physical lack.

This is a call for us to be conscious of the spiritual dimension of our lives—not to be oblivious to sin and pride that clouds our judgment. When we fix our eyes only on the world and our immediate needs, we miss spiritual blessings.

Many day-to-day needs cry out for our attention, but they must not crowd out the Lord.

2.2 Why “Pharisees and Herod”?

In Mark 8, Jesus warns about the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod.

In Matthew 16, the parallel passage mentions the Pharisees and Sadducees. Why?

The Sadducees were connected to the temple leadership, and under Roman rule the high priesthood became something purchased—no longer purely spiritual, but political and commercial. The Sadducees and the Herodians represented the commercial and political elite, while the Pharisees held religious power.

Different spheres, different emphases, but the same leaven.

2.3 What Is the “Leaven”?

The disciples missed the message. They heard the word “leaven” and assumed Jesus was scolding them for not having bread. They started blaming one another: how did we drop the ball?

They never paused to ask: what is the leaven He is warning us about? What danger is He pointing to?

Jesus was not talking about physical leaven. He was talking about a spiritual leaven—something corrupted, far more serious than a bad batch of dough.

Leaven in those days was a pinch of dough saved from the previous batch. A little bit spreads through the whole lump. It becomes a picture of pride—something that puffs up—and of corruption that spreads.

The warning was: beware of the evil way the Pharisees and Herodians think about the kingdom. They saw the kingdom as power—political domination for Herod, religious domination for the Pharisees. Both were protecting their privileges, threatened by Jesus’ ministry.

They took a pinch from their old man-made traditions—the fake stuff—and tried to infuse their influence into people to preserve their power base. That produces bad spiritual consequences.

And brothers and sisters, in our school, business, and social circles, we meet people who appear impressive. They may have elaborate systems and persuasive explanations. Be wary—not only of what they say, but of their underlying attitudes. Look beyond their words; look at their walk. Otherwise we can be undermined and corrupted by their leaven.

2.4 The Lord’s Remedy: Seven Questions to Awaken Their Memory

What does the Lord do to remedy the disciples’ condition?

He asks them seven questions—to force them to recall what they had seen and experienced with Him. He wanted them to replay their memories so they would gain insight.

They could answer the facts: twelve baskets left over from the 5,000; seven baskets from the 4,000. But they missed the meaning behind the numbers. Their hands were busy distributing bread and collecting baskets, but their hearts and minds were unmoved.

So Jesus presses them:

“Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? … Do you not yet understand?”

Application: Have We Been Sleepwalking Through Life With God?

The lesson to us is this: would it be fair to say that, as we look back at the way we have gone through life, there were many times we sleepwalked through episodes in our lives?

We did not have the presence of mind to lay hold of the lessons the Lord wanted to teach us—whether in busy seasons of success, or in dark valleys of trials and tribulations.

Many times I myself have been guilty. Things happened in my life that I did not notice, neglected to see, failed to understand. I had eyes but did not see. I had ears but did not hear. I failed to perceive what the Lord was doing.

Perhaps you too can recall similar experiences—perhaps even with deep regret.

But there is good news: the Lord was patient with the disciples. “Do you not yet understand?” Even with front-row seats to miracles, they did not yet fully understand who He was. Yet He gave them time—time to recall, to replay, to reconsider what they missed.

Later in chapter 8, on the road to Caesarea Philippi, He would ask, “Who do you say I am?” and Peter would answer, “You are the Christ.”

But here, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, their Master said: “Do you not yet understand?”

Closing Prayer

Let us pray.

Our heavenly Father, we thank You for the great love that You have shown to us in calling us to Your Son, who came in the humility of a baby to be Emmanuel, God with us. In a life lived without sin, He was the spotless Lamb of God come to take away the sins of the world through His sacrifice on the cross.

As we have received the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we seek to walk in a manner worthy of Him—fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Lord, we confess that we are so often slow to learn, slow to see You at work in our lives—yet You are patient with us. As we look back and recall Your dealings with us, recall Your grace toward us each time. May we, in due season, realize the work that You have done in us and give You all praise and glory.

We pray this in the name of our Lord and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.