Mark & Friends

Complete Proofread Transcript

Reading from Mark 8, verse 11.

The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. That is Mark 8, verse 11.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt his name together. It is Monday, July 13, 2026. Welcome to Mark & Friends.

Today, we continue our study through the Gospel of Mark as we discover that Jesus isn't looking for people who simply want another sign. He's looking for hearts that will trust him. Join us as we explore the difference between seeking miracles and truly following Jesus.

Here's Pastor Jason Epperson of CU Church. In this process, what we found the last couple of weeks, so if you remember, is he's done all these crazy miracles and these religious leaders, the Pharisees, is what they were called. These Pharisees, religious leaders, they come to ask him a question and they literally have just heard about him calming a storm.

They heard about him walking on water, but they saw him feed 5,000. They saw him heal a leper. They saw him heal the blind.

They saw him heal a girl who was dead. Y'all, they've seen crazy stuff. And remember their question? Hey, bro, why don't you wash your hands? We talked about that, right? We talked about is like they were looking for something wrong versus looking for who he was.

And then Jesus looked at him and was like, you guys care about the outside appearance, but the inside is rotten. Well, then last week, what does Jesus do? He like tries to go on a little vacation, which Jesus didn't get those, by the way. And he went up to Sidon, which is outside of Israel, north, probably as far outside of Israel as he went, besides when he went to Egypt as a refugee as a kid.

And so he's outside of Israel in this moment. This woman comes to him needing help. And we talked about this last week.

And Jesus is like testing his disciples. He's testing his apostles. They're like, send her away, send her away.

Jesus and her had this incredibly awkward, crazy interaction. And the truth is in that interaction, she ends up having her daughter become healed. But Jesus says some things that make us all a little uncomfortable in that moment.

But then you fast forward, Jesus then walks into another place that's not Israel. And he heals another dude, right? He heals another dude who is deaf and couldn't talk. Remember how he healed him? Puts his fingers in his ears and heals him.

But Jesus does all these things. But remember, the point is, Jesus said, man, I was born like the God of all creation. His like feet were in Israel, like that's where he was born.

So that was the people he was called to. But he did that to save who? The rest of us. Well, in this passage, here's what's crazy cool.

After Jesus tells these stories, after all these things have happened, Jesus then moves into another area called the Decapolis. And the last time he was in the Decapolis is when he healed the man who had been demon-possessed. So Jesus is coming back into the city, and that's where we find him today.

And it says these words, it says, in those days when again a great crowd had gathered and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, I have compassion on the crowd because they've been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. Jesus rolls into town and all of a sudden thousands of people show up. Well, how these thousands of people find out about him? Because of the demoniac, the man who had been demon-possessed told his buddies.

It's all these people show up. Jesus is in this process. And it tells us in Matthew, the reason they came is because they wanted to be taught by Jesus.

Well, what was Jesus's message? Jesus's message was repent. The kingdom of God is here. Repent and follow me.

That's what he said. Repent and follow me. Repent and follow me.

What's repentance mean? We've talked about this before is if I'm walking in this direction and it's to my selfishness, it's to a worldly pleasure, just to whatever. And Jesus is over there. When I repent, I do what? I turn the other direction and I follow Jesus.

So that was his message. My question today is you walked in this room today. What were you looking for? We're going to look at that a lot today because these Pharisees, these religious leaders, they're not done yet.

They're about to say some other things, even his apostles in this moment. But Jesus has compassion on them because he's teaching them the truth of his word. Hey, fam, I want you to know there's a reason why every single week you walk into this place.

I open up this book. There really is. There's a reason.

There's a reason why every single week we walk through a different part of the passage, right? We've been in Mark for about six months now. Guess what? We got another six months or so left. We're going to be in Mark for a while.

And you always think, well, what's what's the next thing? Well, next week we're going to start covering verse 14 because it's the next part of the book. But the reason is this is I know in this room because I know lots of you. Some of you are walking in this room and you're not sure how your marriage is going to make it.

Some of you are walking in this room and you can't believe that in the last couple of days you went back on an addiction that you thought you'd given up. Some of you have walked in this room and you just lost a family member that you didn't expect. And it's just tragic and awful.

And you've walked in this room and some of you walked in this room and you just found out you have a disease or a sickness. Or you walked in this room and you just won the lottery. I don't know if that happened, actually.

But you've walked in this room and there's good things. You've walked in this room and your family did the fireworks last night. And you sang a little Toby Keith and you watched the fireworks and you enjoyed your life.

And you went to bed last night thanking the Lord for all the beautiful things. Listen to me, I know this room is covered with a group of different people that are all coming in in completely different places. And you're looking at a dude and guess what I can't do? I can't meet any of your needs.

I have zero ability to get into your heart, into your head and allow the transformation. I can't. But you know what I can do? I can give you the one that is the way, the truth and the life.

And so every week you walk in this room. The reason why I teach out of God's word is because like how cool is it that the creator of the universe wrote a love letter? And he wrote to us. And how cool is it that the spirit of God, like I said that really funny because it just makes me so happy.

God Himself lives in me. And that when I read this, that God lives in you and God's Spirit is in this place. He allows you to understand it.

That's crazy. And that's why we come into this place and we can all hear the same message. But all of us in our different moments have our needs met in different ways.

I just want to encourage you with something that's like in your life. Are we always just looking to trying to fix something or trying to find the thing that fixes it? When the reality is the creator of the universe has written a love letter and he has written a message that he tells us. He's actually the one that will comfort your wounded heart.

He's actually the one that will heal your marriage. He's actually the one that will give you power and strength in your singleness. He's actually the one that will raise you out of depression, that will cast away your anxiety.

He's the one that can heal you from your sicknesses. He's the one that saves you in your death. He's the one that brings you home in life.

Like y'all, it's him. Remember in the book of John, I'm preaching now. Sorry, I didn't plan on this.

In the book of John, John says it this way every week. Remember, every single week. We did the book of John for over a year.

It's been two years ago, but some of you are here. In the book of John, I would say this every week. I would literally stand right here.

I would say, John's going to tell you the truth. Remember, he's going to tell you the truth. And he's going to tell you the truth and tell you the truth and tell you the truth.

And then if you are willing to believe that truth, if you're willing to repent, to surrender to the truth of Jesus, then you find life, and life abundantly. It doesn't mean it's easy, right? We walked in this room and lots of us have had hard weeks. But the abundance that we have is knowing that no matter how hard it is, he is with us.

And he has conquered death, he has conquered sin, and he is for us. So the first thing I want to ask you in this moment is if we're in this crowd, what are we looking for? So he has compassion on the crowd. Now this crowd is full of a group of people called Gentiles.

They're non-Jewish people. There might have been some Jewish people, but it's mostly Gentiles. Then Jesus says these words, And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way, and some of them have come from far away.

How did they find out about this? We mentioned this already, kind of a spoiler, my bad. But the reality is they found out because the man who had been demon-possessed, remember? Jesus with the disciples across the Sea of Galilee. There's a storm, he calms the storm.

All the disciples are like, hey, there's a group of Jewish people over there. There's a really rich dude. This kid is sick.

We should go back and help the Jewish people because that's how we're going to overthrow Rome. That's the strategy. Y'all don't miss the strategy.

Ever tried to give God a strategy? You're looking at someone who spent 20 years of his life trying to give God a strategy. Then they roll up on the shore and Peter's like, we ain't getting off this boat. We get off this boat.

We're unclean. James is like, bro, we can't do this. And Jesus steps out of the boat.

As soon as he steps out of the boat, this man who had been demon-possessed comes running out. And they're like, told you so. Then Jesus heals him.

After Jesus heals him, what does he say to this guy? It's different than almost any other healing. What's he say to this man who had been demon-possessed? This is what he says to him. Hey, I want you to go tell people what's happened.

Go tell people what I've done. So what's he do? A couple months later, there's 4,000 people. There is this gal.

I'm going to call her Lish. That's not her name. But I remember the day that she came to know Jesus.

She grew up in a home that was really, really hard. At one point in her life, her dad had left. She was abused as a child by someone else.

Her family was just, it was just hard. Does that make sense? Every day was hard. They didn't know who Jesus was.

They hated the church because they felt judged by the church, which lots of people feel. She was in and out of school. She was struggling really bad.

And one Sunday, she was in a room that I was preaching in. And I remember preaching this sermon. As I preached this sermon, at the end of it, she came up and said, I need forgiven, and I need purpose, and I need hope, and I need life.

And I believe that Jesus is what's going to give me that. I was like, absolutely. And so we talk in this moment.

We pray in this moment. One of the people on our staff meet with her. They're talking with her.

The next thing I know, the next week, I come into church. And guess what? She's got like six friends with her. And she's like, Jason, Jason, Jason.

I'm like, hey, girl, what's good? And she's like, it's good. I'm great. And she goes, here's my friends.

And she introduced me to her friends. And the next week, more friends. The next week, more friends.

And then all of a sudden, she starts baptizing these friends. I mean, literally, the girl had to wear a swimsuit to church, y'all. I mean, like she was baptizing everybody.

Like I've never seen anyone in a two- or three-month period of time introduce more of their people to who Jesus is. And I remember she was sitting in an office area. And we're talking.

I was like, hey, let's turn to the book of John. She's like, there's a book called John. Yeah, like the book of John, like Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.

I've heard of Matthew, and Mark, and Luke. I didn't hear of John. And first off, I want her to know who John is.

I want her to know about the book of the Bible called John. But why am I telling you this story? What do you think the demoniac knew about Jesus? So many of you in this room, us in this room, are afraid to be excited about something we don't completely understand. I'm 49 years old.

I've spent 40 years of my life pursuing Jesus. And I still don't understand everything. But when I get excited about Jesus, people around me get to what? Excited about Jesus.

The reason why we teach out of it every week, we want you to know it. But some of you think, well, once I learn this, or once I learn this, and if that's the way you live your life, there's always going to be something else you need to learn. Y'all, this sweet girl just got excited about what God did in her life.

Just like the demoniac. I was here, and now I'm here. And her friends are like, well, I'm in.

Let's talk. So Jesus says, hey, we need to feed these people. And all of a sudden it says, and the disciples answered him, how can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place? Did you hear that? I'm going to read that again.

I need all of you to listen with your ears and look at me once I'm done with your eyes. Like this. Listen, look.

Okay, that's what you're going to do. I'm going to read this again. What's just happened two months ago? Jesus just fed 5,000 people two months ago.

The same dudes, the same girls, were the ones passing out the food and had baskets left over. Same people. I'm going to read this to you.

It says this. And his disciples answered him, how can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place? What? What? Okay, you're going to be those people. You over here.

You're the 20-ish people. The rest of you are hungry. You got like hungry mouth.

You're hungry. It's been three days. You had just had it happen in your life two months ago when people were hungry and Jesus took a Happy Meal and fed 5,000 people.

And all of a sudden there's all these people that need food and Jesus is like, hey, let's feed these people. And your statement is, where are we going to get the food? We ain't got enough. All we got in our town, we just got a Happy Meal.

Did you hear that? What were they thinking? There's a word you read all through the Old Testament, and the word is remember. What did they forget? It's not the first time this has happened in history, y'all. Remember Moses, Egypt, Israel? Moses says to Pharaoh, let my people go.

Pharaoh's like, no. All of a sudden there's these ten plagues of basically God flexing on these false gods. And then all of a sudden there's this night called the Passover when the death angel comes through.

They put blood over the door and they went from being slaves, right? They went from being slaves to being free. Then in that moment then, they've seen all these incredible, miraculous things happen. They go out and not only are they free, but the Egyptians do what? They give them their possessions, y'all.

They have all the food, all the money, all the horses. They got it all and so they're marching out. Literally, they took all the stuff they've been working for all those years.

That's called grace. He forgives you and then he gives you a gift. And so we're walking out and all of a sudden we get to the Red Sea.

The chariots start coming after us and what do they say? Why did you bring us out here? You should have left us there to die. We want to go back. Because they didn't what? Remember.

They literally followed a cloud by day and a fire by night. Like literally God was like, had a little bubble saying, this is what you should do. Like, y'all.

And they forgot. Then what does God do? He parts the Red Sea. They go across the Red Sea.

When they go across the Red Sea, he swallows them up. They get to the other side. And what do they do? They forgot.

And they started worshiping a golden calf. Then literally, God's like, he forgives them. He has this thing called the Tent of Meeting.

It's like God's RV. They meet in it. Moses comes out.

He's like one of those little glow toys that when you squeeze it, their head lights up. And so Moses comes out. He veils his face.

Literally, how did they get food? How are they going to get? Jason, where are you going to get the food to feed everybody? I don't know. And Moses this time, they just walked outside. Their tents fell on their face and ate the manna on the ground.

If they're thirsty, they just smack the rock and water came out. And they forgot. And then God's like, hey, I want to give you this whole area.

I want to give you your nation. I want to give you the promised land. And then they go.

They send the spies out to the promised land. Remember what happens? They come back. And almost every single one of those spies are like, oh, those giants are too big.

We'll get our defeated. Let's just stay out here and eat manna. What do you forget? Do you have like in your house somewhere the things that God has done so you can remember? Remember when your plans didn't work out the exact way you wanted to and then God did something greater? Remember when you had to die to a dream to step into a new destiny? Man, I got lists of those.

Remember the moment they told you that this was the case, but then God did this and now this is the case? Remember the moment your husband or your wife sat next to you and said, I don't know if I can love you anymore. And now you're holding hands and walking down the street and loving each other. Do you remember the moment this child who walked away now is walking back towards Jesus? Do you remember the moment that you couldn't overcome this addiction and now you are 20 years sober? I just going to ask the question, what do we forget? Because if we would remember those things, we would be a church full of people that wouldn't be searching for the same things we're searching for every week.

The passage goes on and this is what happens. And his disciples answered him, how can one feed those people with bread here in this desolate place? And he asked them, how many loaves do we have? He said, seven. And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground and he took the seven loaves and he given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people.

Here's something super cool. God does the miracle, but he lets us be a part of it. That's so, I like that, by the way.

Guess what I'm doing right now? In your life right now, God is giving you bread. Like in this room, there is almost a thousand different conversations with God going on right now in your head. And I'm just like a part of it.

And all I'm doing is holding baskets. But he lets me be a part of it. Like that's so cool.

But God's the one that's transforming your life. God's the one that's speaking to you. It ain't me.

And he wants to do the same thing in your life. He wants you to join him in the miraculous work of loving the people around you. It goes on and says this.

And so he said before the crowd, and they had a few small fish. By the way, they didn't tell him, but he didn't tell me he had fish. Thanks for the heads up, y'all.

They had a few small fish, and having blessed them, he said to these, all set before them, and they ate until they were satisfied. They ate until they were full. It was like old school Bonanza, y'all, like buffet Shoney's.

I mean, they were throwing down. Young people are like, Shoney's? What's Shoney's? Bonanza. And they ate and were satisfied.

They took the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Just going to make one statement. When you invite Jesus into something, not only will you be satisfied, but there's always more of him than you can handle.

And there were about 4,000 people, and he sent them away, and immediately he got into the boat with the disciples and went to the district. And when it says he sent them away, normally I don't break it down this much, but I want you to know, when he sent them away, it was like a Midwestern goodbye. Like he was sending them away, and he hugged them on the way out.

He sent them away. He walked them to the car, and they had five different conversations. He sent them away, and he's like, hey, take some food with you.

He sent them away, and when they went away, they knew they were what? They knew they were loved. I just don't want you to miss that, because here in a second, these religious leaders are going to be sent away in a different way. So then this happens.

The Pharisees came. The Pharisees, religious leaders. The Pharisees, the one that put rules and regulations around themselves to make themselves feel good and make people on the outside feel like they can't belong.

Religion. So the Pharisees then come up, and it says, the Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. Like they just watched him take a double cheeseburger and some chicken nuggets and feed 4,000 people.

And they walk up to him, and they say, we know you say that you're God. We know that you say you're the Messiah. We know that you say that you're the King of Kings, but we need a sign.

That's like that comedian, here's your sign. It's like you pull into a gas station, and you get a flat tire, and someone's walking up, hey, you got a flat tire? No, the other three just swelled up. Yes, I have a flat tire.

But it's like in life right now in this moment, by the way, that was not in my notes either. I'm rolling today, y'all. Like you might be sleeping, but I'm having some fun right now.

Me, just me really. But I just want you to know, like guys, how in the world is that their perspective? We're going to get to it. When it says they want a sign from him, it's used in another place in Scripture, and it's used when Satan wanted a sign from Jesus in the wilderness.

So these religious leaders, they knew their Bible. They went to Sunday school. They had stars by their name, y'all.

When they say to Jesus, we want a sign, what they're saying is they wanted to test God. They wanted him to turn rock into bread. They wanted him to throw himself off a cliff so the angels could catch him.

I'm going to know God's Word enough to know this isn't how I roll. I need to point this out that sometimes very religious people, sometimes we in this room, when we get sideways and our mindset is not where it should be, we can do the work of the enemy versus the work of Jesus. Today, a lot of you came in this room looking for something.

Some of you came in this room looking to prove to someone else why Jesus isn't real, or looking why you shouldn't be a part of this community of believers. And I want to tell you something real clearly. If you came in here looking for reasons not to believe in Jesus, and you're using us as your reasons, I promise you, you found reasons.

If you came in this room looking why you shouldn't be a part of this church, I promise you, you found reasons. But if you came in this room looking for Jesus, you found Him. The simplicity of do we really believe he is who he says he is? Do we really believe we are who he says we are? Because he's the only one who can comfort.

The only one that gives hope. In verse 12 it says, 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 he went to the other side.

There was no Midwestern goodbye. It was this. He loved them.

I don't want you to miss this. He loved them. He loved them so much the last week of his life.

He was two days late to see Lazarus. Fast forward. He was two days late to rescue his best friend because he spent time with these same people.

He loved them. But boy, they wore him out. He sighed deeply and he asked them, Why are you looking for a sign? Hey, family, I don't know when you walked in this room today what sign you're looking for.

But the only sign that matters is Jesus is the way. Jesus is the truth and Jesus is the life. The sign they wanted him to give was actually not the healing of a blind man.

The sign they wanted him to give was not the healing of a deaf man. The sign that they wanted him to give was not walking on water, feeding 5,000 people. The sign that they wanted him to give was the sign when fire came down from heaven.

They wanted to see a sign in the cosmos. They wanted to see a star telling them the king was there in Bethlehem. They wanted to see that kind of sign.

And Jesus says, what's the end? He says, no, this generation is not going to receive this sign. The only sign they're going to get is the sign of Jonah, which is Jesus being killed, being thrown into a tomb for three days and raising from the dead. Pretty good sign, y'all.

Pretty good sign. But the sign they wanted was the sky to open. The sign that they wanted was one day soon you'll split the sky.

You're coming for a spotless bride. Until my faith has been made sight, I believe, I believe. We've sang about it today.

That's the sign they were looking for. That's the sign that my prayer is this room. I want to see that sign.

But family, in order for us to see that sign, in order for us to find the healing, the comfort, the hope, the power, the newness, the restoration we need to find is not in a how-to manual. It's not in a group of sermon slides that you write down and try to behave better. It's in the saving power of Jesus and the Holy Spirit who dwells inside of you.

Hey, family, if we will surrender, believe in that truth, then heaven comes to this earth and we get to experience life, and life abundantly. Today's message reminds us that Jesus is still the answer for every heart searching for hope, healing, purpose, and life. Instead of chasing signs, we're invited to trust the one who is the way, the truth, and the life.

Thank you for joining us for today's edition of Mark & Friends. We invite you to continue learning by visiting the Mark & Friends page at GreatNewsRadio.org or WLUJ.org. There you'll find today's broadcast along with a growing collection of resources to help you dig deeper into God's Word and continue your walk with Jesus. It's a wonderful place to revisit today's message or share it with family and friends.

Thanks for listening. Thanks for being a part of our radio listening family. This is Mark Burns with the Ministry of Great News Media.

God bless you and have a great day and night.