Mark, Week 9 - New Wine Skin

Today we’re going to jump into our 9th week of studying the book of Mark. We’ve been studying Mark to better understand the life that Jesus calls us to. As we’ve said before, we’re laying the ground work for this winter when we’ll talk about the last aspect of the vision that God has given us. This last aspect is Life. The life that Jesus has, that he died for, and that we can now experience. 

In previous weeks, we have talked about two main points that the Gospel of Mark makes. These are: Jesus is God, and he is our example. Time and time again, we have seen Mark showing situations where Jesus is God. From John the Baptist’s declaration, to Jesus’ baptism, his authority, and even a demon calling Jesus God. And in a couple weeks, we’ll see Jesus again, pointing towards himself being God.

And for our example, we see time and time again, how Jesus does certain things so that we can understand what we are to do. Whether it be getting baptized to follow Jesus in obedience, or how we are to treat people, moving past what society thinks into loving without condition.

That brings us to the last time we looked at Mark. We talked about the tax collector Levi, and how he was an outcast to society. But when Jesus called him to be one of his disciples, Levi went from an outcast to someone greatly used by God. In fact, we talked about how he was one of the disciples whom Jesus actually changed the name of. Calling him Matthew, which means gift of God. From that, we talked about how we too are Levis; people who are sinners and outcasts, but by accepting Jesus’ work on the cross for the forgiveness of sins, we become Matthews.

Today we’re going to jump into Mark chapter 2 verses 18-22. And as we do, you’ll notice that we’ll be talking about fasting. But as we read through Mark 2:18-22, we’re not going to be getting into the act of fasting itself, but rather, Jesus’ societies view on fasting and how it wasn’t compatible with Jesus’ teachings. So let’s begin reading Mark chapter 2, starting in verse 18.

18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”

19 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.

21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.” 

Now, I have to tell you I struggled with this passage for a few days. Because Jesus’ answer to the these people asking about fasting, and Jesus’ additional response about the wine skins didn’t seem to fit until, I realized something.

So let’s break this passage down. You have three sets of disciples: 

The first is John’s. Now we’re talking about John the Baptist here, and we have to remember that John was the last of the Old Testament prophets. So for him, following the Old Testament with all it’s ceremonial restrictions is still part of the deal. 

Then you have the second set of disciples which are the followers of the Pharisees. If you remember, this was the group who wanted to get people back following God’s law, except they went overboard and added a lot more to God’s word. 

Finally, we have the last set of disciples, these were Jesus’. 

But before we get into Jesus’ disciples, let’s back track a bit and understand fasting in general. The term is used incorrectly a lot when someone uses it to say they’re fasting an activity, or a place. Fasting is meant to only reference not eating. Biblically speaking, when we see fasts in the Bible we’re seeing people fast food for a specific purpose. Usually the fast is to seek God for an answer to a problem, or a deeper revelation of who God is. We see this when Daniel fasts for an answer to a question in Daniel 9. We also See fasting used by Jesus to prepare for his ministry. 

But the fasting that is being talked about here is not a fast that is seeking a question, or preparation for anything. Instead it is a fast because of tradition. See the Pharisees had developed a tradition of fasting twice a week. This added to the prescribed fast of the Old Testament in Leviticus 16:29-31, where fasting was supposed to be for the Day of Atonement. 

Now here’s the thing that is interesting. We know that at this time John the Baptist is in prison. Some of his disciples moved on and became disciple of Jesus, but these are the ones that didn’t. We also know that John didn’t have any care for the way the Pharisees tried in added on to God’s word. We see that in Luke 3:7 where he calls these people a brood of vipers. But here we see his disciples leaderless,  and falling back into the traditions set down by the Pharisees.

Now this is where we come to Jesus and his disciples. Unlike the other two sets of disciples, Jesus’ disciples are not following the Pharisees’ tradition, and people are wondering why. So Jesus gives an answer contrasting fasting with a wedding celebration. The point of fasting, is to seek God when we don’t feel like he is there. Fasting is to exclude the very substance we need to survive and in a sense say, “God it is only you that I need to survive. And I will exclude food to seek you until I find you.”

But Jesus is telling these questioners, why do my disciples need to seek me when I’m already found? This is where the wedding comes in. Fasting was used in times of morning or times of trouble. But with Jesus there, it’s a time for neither, but rather it is a time for celebration. God has come, instead of depriving ourselves of substance, let us indulge ourselves in the God whom we seek.

But he does say there will come a time when his disciples will fast and it’s the first time we see Jesus reference his eventual death. 

But it doesn't end there, and it’s in this next section that I have been wrestling with this past week. At first read, verses 18-20 and 21-22 don’t seem to go together. One talks about fasting and celebration, while the other just seems to come out of no where. But as we have talked about, the Pharisees added these twice a week fasting times. onto the word of God.

This was done because they wanted to get closer to God, to shed the physical and to reach the spiritual. 

And once we understand that, we can understand where Jesus is coming from when he speaks in verses 21-22.

The idea of the old and new wineskins was simple for the people to understand. When they would make wine they would put it in goatskins. As the wine fermented the goatskin would expand. New skins were necessary to allow for this expansion due to the fermentation process. If the unfermented wine were to go into old goatskins, the old skin did not have the elasticity necessary to allow the process to work. Therefore the old skins would break and the wine would fall on the ground and be lost.

Jesus draws a parallel between the Pharisees man-made tradition of fasting constantly, to God’s way. See man’s tradition becomes rigged and inflexible. Anytime God comes into work, breaks happen. 

And that’s the big problem that Jesus is tackling here: Our own presuppositions, our own baggage, our own traditions, and ways of thinking, hinder the work of God. We say things like, well this is what I believe. This is how I do things. This is the way I feel. But those can become inflexible positions. And when the Word of God comes in, there becomes the tendency for us to break. We break away from God because his ways don’t fit ours. We break away from God because it’s not socially acceptable. We break away from God’s word by changing it’s meaning. Our presuppositions don’t allow for the new life that God desires us to have, because we are not flexible enough to allow God’s life to happen. And then we wonder why the thrill of God we got at the beginning doesn’t last.

It is because the reality is this: at the beginning of our Christians walk, God’s new and transformative work happened in one area we were willing to be flexible in, but now that it’s moved on to other areas, areas that we are not so flexible in, we fight against it.

We become these questioners, wondering why some people are fasting when others are celebrating. In other words, we wonder why others are growing in their faith, and we’re not.  And the answer is: Jesus’ way has broken us and we don’t understand how to fix it.

I want to share a few of Jesus’ teachings that break our modern day societal skins:

1) The first teaching comes from Luke 6:27-30, “27 But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.”

In our society, love for oneself is the most important love, and that love can only be extended to those that are in lock step with us. Any deviation from it, to where we feel hurt in any way, means that love can no longer be given. Jesus’ teaching on loving those that hurt you, breaks our wine skins because we desire to hold on to the hurt, so that we may hurt others. Or, so that we may not be hurt again.

2) Another teaching comes from Matthew 5: 27-30, “27 You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”

In our society, sexual desire fuels every other aspect. From physical contact, to self identify, sex is the beginning and end all of our culture. But to be a disciple of Jesus means that we must get rid of those things in our lives that lead us into sin. That might mean staying away from social media, certain movies and TV shows, or even certain people. This teaching breaks our wine skins, because our sexual desire and societies acceptance of it, makes us feel good, but inevitably leads to broken relationships.

3) Finally, Matthew 6: 31-34, “31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

In our lives, a constant look toward the future and what it holds, holds us. What will happen with family, finances, and our own self-preservation, all haunts us. The worry it brings, leads us into a state of fear, and can cause depression. Jesus’ teaching breaks our wine skin because it says to let go. Let go of what could be, and trust the God who knows what will be. But we would rather hold to our worry because it gives us some sense of control in a world that seems out of control. 

So the question we should be asking is this: how then, do I go from old wine skins to new wine skins? How do I become flexible to the work of God in my life? And here’s the answer. Chose to follow. 

This happens by first allowing God’s word to be unchangeable. Meaning, I don’t change God’s word to what I want, I allow God’s word to change me to the way he wants. 

Then we put it into practice, by doing good to those who have hurt us, by getting rid of those things that lead us to sin, and by letting go of the worry that plagues us.

Finally, we praise. Worship, especially worship alongside other people who are dealing with the same thing, is important because it takes our eyes off ourselves and puts them on the God who has spoken. 

So today, here is your challenge: I gave you three teachings of Jesus, decided with Go which one you are least flexible in. Then, this week, I want you to take that teaching and let it break your wine skin. Let it change you, let it bring you closer to the God who spoke it.

Because that is where Jesus wants to take us, into new wine skins, that we may know him, and become the people he saved us to be. 

Now may the Lord, who desires that we come into everything he has saved us to experiences, grant you the ability by his Spirit to do so. That you may be the new wine skin that he intends you to be. Amen.

Mark, Week 8 - A Levi to a Matthew

I gotta say, it’s interesting how Scripture, and the movement of where the Holy Spirit takes us, builds on itself. 

In previous weeks we have brought up two points: First, Jesus is our example, and second, Jesus is God. From there we have seen several examples of both. Last week when we met together, and I asked you to share what you struggled with that came out of last week’s passage. In the passage we saw three things: People taking up space, Buildings being destroyed, and the authority of Jesus being challenged. 

We talked about how we are people taking up space, when we sit in church but we're not being used by God. Rather, we are taking up the time and resource that are needed to reach those who need Jesus. That’s not to say that we should be these holier than thou people, but rather people who recognize our own need and desire to grow, even it’s by small steps. 

We then talked about how the physical things that we hold onto, like buildings, are merely tools to be used to reach out to people. And if those tools become more important than people, then they need to be torn apart. 

Finally, we talked about how Jesus is the one that forgives sins and heals people. We are to be the ones that point others to him, and not to ourselves, a pastor, or a church.  We can help guide them, a pastor can help teach them, and a church can give them support, but in the end, it is Jesus whom they need.

After we talked about these things, I challenged you to respond to which one you struggled with most out of the three. I asked this, not strictly for your benefit, though it is good to get it out, but rather for the benefit of everyone.

The first step in growing as the people of God, is to recognize that we still have failings. We still struggle, and when we confront those failings, we begin to accept God’s transformative work in our lives.

And this is why I say, that it’s amazing how the Holy Spirit leads us to build on these ideas from week to week, because it’s recognizing our own failings that leads us into today’s passage. So if you have your Bibles, we’re going to be in the Gospel of Mark chapter 2, verse 13. And as we get into Mark 2:13, I want to give you a little background on some of the people that we’re going to be talking about today.

First, there are the Pharisees, these guys believed that God’s grace was only given to those who kept God’s law perfectly. Which is a kind of oxymoron if you think about it. But these guys actually started out with good intentions. They started about a hundred years before this time period, and it was to help the Jewish people regain their faith after a great defeat. They brought people back to worshiping and trusting God. But at this point, where we’re about to read, they had become unrelenting in making people act perfectly. This is called legalism. Making it more important that people act a certain way, instead of following God in faith. 

The second person we’ll see, are tax collectors. These guys were of course despised. They are the IRS of their day. And just like we tend to despise the IRS for taking our money, the people of Jesus’ day despised their tax collectors. And if you were a Jewish tax collector it was even worse for you. You would be kicked out of the synagogues, you couldn’t serve as a judge, nor could you even give a witness statement. This ostracism didn’t stop with the tax collector themselves, but extend to their entire family. In other words, no one liked them and the society made sure they knew it.

Finally, “sinners.” Air quotes included. These weren’t your run of the mill, told a white lie, thought a bad thought, kind of people. They were first people who refused to follow God’s law in the way the Pharisees interpreted it. They were also those who had committed sins that everyone knew about. People who committed robbery, adultery, and other things that were big enough that the the whole community knew what they had done.

Now that we have those three people out of the way, let’s jump into Mark chapter 2, verse 13.

13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

So let’s go through this and really get into what’s going on. It says, that once again Jesus was beside the lake. It says, once again because the last time we saw Jesus beside the lake, four of his followers were specifically called to respond to Jesus’ message. And here, Jesus is again calling someone to become one of his disciples. Except this time, it’s a little different. Before they were fisherman, not the greatest of jobs, but not looked down on either. Fisherman provided a needed service of collecting and selling fish to the people. It was an acceptable profession. But this time, Jesus speaks to a tax collector, where we’ve already established is a profession that is looked down upon and ostracized in this society. 

Now, let’s get a little insight into who Levi was. The name Levi basically means the accompanied. Not the most forceful or grandiose name in the Bible. But if you have flipped through the pages of the Bible you would actually have stumbled upon one of Levi’s writings. See this Levi that Jesus calls here, is known by the name Matthew, and is the writer of the Gospel that comes, positionally, before the gospel of Mark. Levi probably had his name changed to Matthew by Jesus somewhere along the line. The meaning of the name Matthew is “gift from Yahweh.” Now you might be asking, why are we spending so much time on names and their meanings? It’s because we need to understand the significance that is happening here, because later on in the passage we see it play out.

See, as Jesus eats with Levi, his tax collector friends, and with other “sinners,” the Pharisees start asking questions. They ask why is Jesus eating with these sinners. See before, when Jesus was sitting and healing people, the company Jesus kept wasn’t a problem. But now that he is eating with it, a problem has arose from the Pharisee’s point of view. See to eat with someone was to announce friendship with them. So in the Pharisee’s mind, if Jesus is eating with these “sinners” then he is a friend of theirs. And if he is their friend, then he is not following the Pharisee’s interpretation of God’s law. We see this in today’s society too. If a girl has a “butch” hair cut, they’re labeled a lesbian. If a pastor is at a bar, they’re a drinker. Looking a certain way, or being at a certain place, gives us the idea that someone is a part of that place or that group. In general, humans tend to do this. We make connections, even if those connections are false.

So the Pharisees make this connection with Jesus and these sinners: If Jesus is with them, he must be a sinner too. But Jesus isn’t one to back down from correcting a pre-supposition.

And this is where it all comes to a head. Jesus doesn’t allow the disciples to answer the question, but does it himself. And it’s great, because Jesus is not above putting people in their place. Jesus says to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

People that don’t see their need for a doctor, stay away from the doctor, right? We all have probably done it at some point. Guys probably more that gals. Unless there is something that we can feel is wrong, we try to avoid giving doctors our money and taking the chance they’ll find something worse. But when we feel like there is something wrong, we’re more willing to go and have it checked out.

Jesus understands this, and connects the sinners to people in need of a doctor. But he also connects healthy people to those who are righteous, or in other words, those who live in a right way. But here’s the thing, this isn’t true righteousness. What the Pharisees are doing is not truly right living. Instead it’s a facade, an illusion they have made around themselves. They see themselves as not needing a doctor, because they don’t see their need for it. But these “sinners,” these people who are cast out of society do see their need for Doctor Jesus. They see their need, because they live with it daily. They are reminded about it daily. Levi’s job keeps him out of acceptance and sidelined by people, society sees Levi as an unwanted part of the community, and they keep Levi’s need for God square in his face.

That is why Levi followed Jesus when told to, because Levi understood his need. Levi understood his shortcomings, his failings, and his sin. And that’s why Jesus sits in the middle of the “sinners” eating, because they have recognized their need for him. And this is why the name of Levi is so important. His name does not have gravitas, his name doesn’t have deep meaning, his name is a throw away. But Jesus gives him a new name, a name with greater meaning. Levi went from someone who's is just accompanying this world, to Matthew, a gift from God.

Levi went from a person who understood his need for God, to a person who had his need for God met.

And this is why it is important that we recognize our shortcomings, and our struggles. Why we need to have these things, that we talked about last week, brought up in our own lives. Because it would be so easy to become a Pharisee. It would be so easy to think, once we find Jesus that we’re done. It is so easy to have God work in our lives, bringing us so far, and to turn around and look down on other people. Even though we were once a Levi, it is so easy to become a Pharisee, and look down on the other Levis that are behind us.

So today, here is my challenge. Take a moment and recognize that you are a Levi, a person in need of God’s grace. In need of his love and mercy, because of your sin, because of your shortcomings, because of your struggles. And by recognizing this truth, recognize your need for a doctor. That your sin can be and is forgiven, and that your struggles would turn into victories. And recognize, that because of what Jesus has done on the cross, you have a new name, you are not a throw away of society, but you are a gift of God.

Let us not become Pharisees, holding others to unbearable standards, but rather be the Levi that we are. The people God has saves us to be, to point others to him, so that other Levis might become Matthews. Will you recognize your Levi name? Will you meet Jesus the Doctor and become a Matthew?

Father in heaven, you have done everything that is needed to bring us back into a right relationship with us. We are Levis, throwaways of this world, but you have not thrown us away. You have called us to be Matthews, people who have been given the gift of grace, so that we might show other sinners, that you can save them too. Let us be your people, pointing others to you, that they may know you and be healed. Amen.

Mark, Week 7 - Space Takers Not Welcomed

Today marks the seventh week in our study of Mark, and we’re finally entering into the second chapter. Now, when we started this series, we talked about the reason we were studying the Gospel of Mark. That reason is, we are laying the ground work on what we’ll be talking about during the winter months. Namely, the Life aspect of the vision of the church. And that life aspect is based on Jesus’ life. So, we are digging into the life that Jesus lived, so that when we get to the Life aspect this winter, we will be better prepared to understand the full implications of the it all.

While we have been studying Mark, we have covered a lot. And we’re doing this by following the author’s intent. We’re also doing this by returning to ideas that Mark keeps bringing up. A couple of these ideas are: Jesus lives to be an example for us, and Jesus is God. These two ideas will be the ones that speak to what we’re going to be talking about today. 

With the first idea, Jesus lived to be an example for us, we’ve been talking about how everything Jesus does is for our benefit. His actions in this life are to help us understand who he is, his relation to us, and how we are to live our lives. With the second idea, Jesus is God, we have seen on a multitude of occasions how Jesus is revealed to be God. First, it was John’s declaration of him, then it was the Father’s voice from heaven, then his authority over all human illness, and finally the demonic spirit who called him the Holy One of Israel. 

These ideas speak to what we’ll be coving today, because Mark again, is trying to help us understand who Jesus is, and what our response to him should be.

So today we’re going to read from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 2, starting in verse 1. As we begin Mark 2:1, let me bring us up to speed on where we are. When we last left Jesus, he was roaming the country side, healing people of various diseases, and getting rid of demons who were possessing people. One of the healings that Jesus did was to a man with leprosy. We talked about how this man understood who Jesus was and that this encounter showed us rubber meeting the road of God’s love. See, the verse that is said a lot in the Church is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him, shall not perish but have eternal life.” In the passage of the Jesus healing the man with leprosy, we see the willingness of God to heal the broken and mutilated body of man. Not only does God say he loves humanity, but we see that same God show it. But not only show it, God is willing. Which means that God isn’t about just saying things, he is a God of willful and intentional action.

This brings us to where we are, Jesus making his way back to a place he has been before, to, it seems, recuperate. Let’s read from Mark chapter 2, verse 1.

1 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

As we go back into this passage, I want to first ask you the question Jesus asked: Which is easier: to forgive sins, or to heal the paralyzed man? Before you move on make sure you answer this question. And second, as we get into the passage I want to share with you a couple of connections with the Life aspect. The Life aspect of the vision of our church is to point people back to the life that Jesus has for them. Not to the life of a church, or to an organization, or a pastor, or to anything else that isn’t Jesus. This passage has a lot of what that means, and as we return to it, I am going to stop and connect them as we go.

Now, if you’ve been here throughout most of our study you might remember the town of Capernaum. It is where Jesus first revealed his authority over the human body, and the spiritual realm. See, Jesus had healed one of his disciple’s mother-in-law. And it was to her house, that people brought many who were sick to be healed. 

Now, Jesus has returned, most likely to this same lady’s house, and the people are excited. Jesus is back, and the sick people start coming in droves. So much so that they can’t all fit into the house. It’s packed. And I love the fact, that there are some people there just taking up space. You have these teacher’s of the law, who are probably there to quiz Jesus, or to see if there’s anything that they can get him on, but there because of their own need. And we learn that there is a paralyzed man who can’t get to Jesus, because there are people who aren’t interested in Jesus, just taking up room at his feet.

Let’s stop for a moment and make a connection: So many times in church work, we stand in the way of someone needing Jesus. We are guilty of doing the same thing that these teacher’s of the law are doing. We take up needed space, we take up the room of the ones that need Jesus. We stifle Jesus’ work in the lives of others, because we tend to not realize what our role should be. Instead of being the ones sitting there taking up space, we should be the ones at the door ushering the needing in. We should be the ones in the street carrying people to Jesus. Instead we think that we don’t need to do the grunt work, but rather just need to sit at Jesus’ feet, and get and get and get. It’s almost like we feel like Jesus is a magic refrigerator that we need to sit in front of and snack on all day. But that leads us to being lazy and a gluten, where we try to keep Jesus all to ourselves. But what we’re really supposed to do is bring others in front of Jesus, so they can be healed and filled. So, to connect this to the Life aspect is this: We need to make room for people who need Jesus.

Let’s continue back into the passage. We see this crowd of people, some of which, like we talked about, need to get out of there and let the really sick people in. This crowd is so huge that when these men bring their paralyzed friend to the house, it’s too packed to get through. So they take him up to the roof, dig through the clay, leaves, and wood that is there, and bring the paralyzed man to Jesus. Remember how we just said we shouldn’t be people that just take up room? These guys show us who we are supposed to be. People finding any way possible to bring people to Jesus, even if it means wrecking a building. And this is where I say welcome to the Alliance Church. This building gets used, and used well. We have people come in and spill coffee on the floor. We’ve had teens put holes in the walls. We’ve had glass break, lights broken, carpet cut, and the list goes on.

Personally, I would rather see this place burn to the ground if it meant one person would come to know Jesus, than to have a pristine building that saw no one meet the Risen Savior. What is worth destroying so that a person can have eternal life? I think a building is a small sacrifice. In the passage, I don’t know if Peter’s mother-in-law would agree. But we never find that out. But that brings us to our second connection: Buildings are tools to be used, not locations for decoration.

Alright, back to the passage. So the paralyzed man’s friends rip into the roof, and lower the man down right in front of Jesus. Jesus looks, sees the man and the friend’s faith, and he doesn’t heal him, but he says, your sins are forgiven. Now if I was the paralyzed man or one of the friends, the first thought going through my mind would probably be, “Hey thanks for that, but we didn’t do all this for you to get rid of our sin. We want this man to walk!”

But, like we said before, Jesus does everything with purpose and for our benefit, and here is another example of that. Because when he says this, those guys taking up space start to murmur. They start to detract from Jesus, and really if we’re people just taking up space in church, then really that’s all we end up doing. We get mad and we murmur. We get upset at the leader, the building, the whatever it is, because we’re not sold on what God is doing, so we focus on ways to make problems happen. Again, another reason why it’s important for us to not just take up space.

But these men don’t even have to vocalize their disdain for Jesus saying that this man’s sins are forgiven. Jesus knows it. And when these men think, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus is right there to bring their murmuring to light. Now these men make a correct theological question, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” But, as Mark has shown to us on many occasions, Jesus can make this statement, because he is in fact God.

And the way Jesus address this is priceless. Listen to how this plays out, “Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? Let’s stop right there, and let me ask you that question. What is easier, to tell someone they’re free from sin, or to heal someone? Isn’t it to tell someone they’re free from sin? Because to heal someone, there’s a physical change, and to do it in front of other people means that the physical change has to be seen by others. Whereas, anyone can say your free from sin, because that’s a spiritual reality, and no one has to see a physical change.

And that’s where Jesus takes this. Jesus takes these guys, who are taking up space, and challenges them to witness who he really is. He does this when we says, “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” And this part is classic Jesus. I can just imagine it, Jesus is looking straight into these guys eyes, these space takers, and says I’ll show you who I am and that you are right in saying only God can forgive sins. And then he turns to the paralyzed man and says, “I tell you get up, take your mat and go home.” And bam! The man does it.

In the previous section when Jesus heals the man with leprosy, Jesus kind of plays it coy. He tells the man who got healed, go and present yourself to the priest so that they can see the healing. Here, Jesus takes off the gloves. He looks at these space takers, and says do you want to see who I truly am? I can forgive sins, because I’ll show you something that is physically harder to do. Paralyzed guy, get up and walk yourself home. 

This brings us to our final connection to the Life aspect of the vision of this church: It’s Jesus’, not us, who holds the authority. We can be his agents. People can be healed through us. Amazing miracles can be done through God’s church. But in the end, it is Jesus who holds the authority to both heal and forgive. Our job is to constantly point people to him, and never to ourselves.

And let’s bring this all back to basics. Jesus fixes two problems in this man’s life: the man’s broken body is one, and it’s the most grand in the eyes of the people. It’s the hardest to physically do, and it’s the most public. But this man’s body will fail eventually, and he will die. Jesus’ bigger fix is the man’s eternal state with God. Because even with a fully functional body, this man would still be spending eternity separated from God and in eternal punishment. But, by having his sins forgiven, his eternal life is now in paradise with the God who came down from heaven for that very purpose.

And when Jesus says, which is harder, and I asked you to answer that at the beginning, the reality is, it is the forgiving of sin that is the harder of the two. Because the forgiving of sin that Jesus just spoke, rests on the breaking of Jesus’ body. The healing takes a word, but the forgiveness of sin takes the mutilation and destruction of Jesus’ own body on the cross.

Here is the challenge: Out of the three connections to the Life aspect that we talked about today, which one do you find yourself failing in? Are you someone who struggles with being a space taker, not working in any capacity for the God’s kingdom? Are you someone who struggles with putting the building’s pristine look before the people? Or are you someone that struggles with living under the authority of Jesus? Let’s be honest before God, take an inventory of your life. 

Has it been a life that has done it’s duty for God, and now is just waiting around to be taken to heaven? If it is, then your being a space taker. There’s not one of us that is suppose to be just sitting around. We are to be actively working in whatever area God would have us work. Or, do you have  a high view of the physical things of this life that are used for God’s glory? Are those physical things more important than the souls that are in need of the Gospel? If they are, there’s a problem. We need to be people that use the physical things of this world to point people back to Jesus. But when they become more important than the salvation of a person, they become idols, and should be cast away.

Or maybe, it’s submitting to Jesus. It’s hard to not point to ourselves and want recognition for the hard work we do. But the reality is, it’s not about us, it’s only about Jesus. People don’t need us, because we are frail, they need Jesus who is mighty to save.

Kneel, stand, bow before God and ask him to reveal where you lack. And then put it aside to be better used by him to point people to him.

Now may the Lord who heals both the spirit and the body grant you understanding, so that you might be better used as an ambassador to the lost. Amen.

Mark, Week 6 - The Grittiness of God's Love

At the beginning of the Mark study, I shared with you that this is preparing us for what we are going to talk about in the winter time. How the life that Jesus has for us, is on display through his own life.

The points that we have covered so far, and that are important for us to remembered today, is first, Jesus is God. We’ll dive into why this is important later, but for now, it is important because at least three times so far in the first chapter of Mark, we have seen that Jesus is put forth as being God. From John’s message about Jesus, to Jesus’ baptism, and to the demon’s statement. Mark is trying to emphasize that Jesus is God.

The second point that is important for today is, Jesus’ life is an example for us. Again, this will become important later on. But time and time again, we see Jesus doing things for our benefit. His baptism, his temptations, and his empowering by the Holy Spirit. All are examples for us.

Finally, we need to remember that Jesus did not want the demon to tell who he was. When we talked about this point two weeks ago, we talked about how the realization of who Jesus is has to come from a revealing by God. Jesus being the Savior of the world, the one who died because we rebelled against God because of our desire to do things our way, and now offers each of us a new life with God; this understanding can only come from our experience with him, and not from anyone just telling us. Sure we can be told that Jesus is the Savior, but until it moves from a head understanding to a heart change, it’s just all talk.

But how these connect to our passage today, we’ll discover in a little bit. So let’s get into our passage, which is in Mark 1 starting in verse 40, and see how these three points manifest. Like last week, Mark 1:40-45 is a short passage, it is also the last passage in chapter 1. And I have to say, this passage is probably my second favorite passage in the Bible. So, let’s get into Mark 1 starting in verse 40.

40 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

41 Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.

43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

One of the reasons I love this passage, is because it shows who God really is. The most common scripture verse that is memorized and repeated in the Church is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but has eternal life.”

It’s a great passage, that tells us about the love of God, the plan of God, and the goal of God. But it can be one of those passages that is so big, it’s hard to make real. It’s kind of like how we took the teens to San Francisco several years ago. When people hear of San Francisco it seems like a beautiful city. With it’s night life, attractions, the Golden Gate bridge, and sitting on the shores of California. But when you visit San Francisco, you realize that there’s more to it. You see the garbage in the streets, the homeless population, and the isolation that is there. Hearing about San Francisco, and experiencing it, are two different things. Merely hearing about the grandness, is one thing. Experiencing the reality is another. 

And I feel like that’s the difference between John 3:16, and Mark 1:40-45. The John passage gives us the grandness view, whereas our passage today gives us the reality. But what does that mean? Let’s take a look at the passage again.

Verses 40-42 say, “40 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’

41 Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.”

Here’s a guy that has an incurable disease. A disease that has made him an outcast, someone that is so rejected by his community, that the idea of touching such a person, was seen as unclean and possibly hazardous to one’s health. And you can feel this man’s plea for help. It says he begged on his knees. Do you hear the desperation? Then the man makes a statement that shows his understanding of who Jesus is. Remember the first point that we said was important today? Jesus is God? This man recognized that. He recognized that Jesus was God descended into human flesh, and he recognized that power that Jesus had.

The man’s statement presupposed Jesus’ ability and identity. He says, “If you are will, you can make me clean.” By saying, if you are willing, the man says, I know who you are. I know what you’re capable of. And I know what the end result would be if you desired me to be healed. 

And Jesus’ response brings the John 3:16 passage into gritty reality. “I am willing.” These three words fly in the face of every religion in the world. The God of the Bible is a willing God. A.B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination, tells an allegory, about three religions. Let me paraphrase that story. 

A traveler on a road falls into a trap made by thieves and breaks his leg. He could easily climb out of the hole if it wasn’t for his broken leg, and as he cries out in pain the religious teacher Buddha arrives at the top of the hole. “Revered Buddha, please help me out of this hole.” Buddha replies, “My son, there is no hole, only the illusion of the hole. Once you come to this understanding you will conquer that which holds you here.” Buddha disappears from the man’s sight and continues on his way. The man continues to cry out for help. A short time later, Muhammed the prophet of Islam arrives at the hole. Again the traveler cries out, “Honorable Muhammed, please help me out of this hole.” To which Muhammed replies, “You wouldn’t be in that hole if Allah thought you worthy. You are experiencing your deserved punishment.” And he too moved quickly on. Finally when the traveler thought he was done, Jesus of Nazareth appears. And before the traveler was able to call out, Jesus jumped into the hole, lifted the traveler out, mended his broken leg, lifted him onto his shoulder and said, “From hear on out, I will walk with you the rest of the way.”

“I am willing.” If this doesn’t give you chills, I don’t know what will. This is who God is, he is the God who is willing. Willing to come down from his perfect throne in heaven to be with us. Willing to heal our diseases and sufferings. Willing to die, so that we might have an opportunity to come back to him. The God of the Bible is the God who is willing to do what is needed for his creation. No other religion in the world can say that. And he does everything for our benefit. Which is the point Mark is trying to get across to us. Jesus is here for our benefit, for our example. So that we can know who God really is, and what he is willing to do. 

And I love the two responses to this healing. The first is Jesus’. “43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 ‘See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.’”

Which is pretty standard for Jesus right? I mean, this goes back to the idea that Jesus wants us to have a self-revelation of who he is, because that’s how it becomes real in our lives. But the guy will have none of that. Because it reads, “45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.”

And really, what did Jesus really expect this guy to do? This amazing disease has been lifted from this man. This man who had been shunned by his community, who probably hadn’t had human contact for years, was now free. Free to return to society, free to touch other people, free to look at himself and not feel disgust and shame. What other response could there be but to tell people. 

When the willingness of God, meets the need of our lives, letting people know seems to happen automatically. This is why the Church is so important. We must share with each other the hurts and victories of our lives. We must share, so that we might see God’s willingness within our community. If we hold our need to ourselves, how can we see God do anything? And when that need has been met, how can we hold back telling others? 

This week I want us to be like the man with leprosy, and say to God if you are willing. Let us go to God and seek his healing. It might be from a physical disease, it might be from an inward hurt, an emotional struggle, a worry or something that just scares us. Let us not shy away from God, but rather fall on our knees and call out for his willingness to heal our lives. 

Let’s put aside everything else, and seek God’s willingness. Let’s have the grandness of God’s love, become his gritty willingness in our lives.

Father in heaven, you sent your Son to die for us. Not that we deserved or that you are in need of us, but rather, because you are willing that none of us should parish. Help us to seek your willingness, and be satisfied with your will. Let us see your amazing works in our lives, so that we may proclaim them to the world. For you glory and not our own. Amen.

Mark, Week 5 - Alone Time With God

In the first three weeks of our Mark study, we were given an introduction of Jesus. And in that introduction, we saw that from the beginning of Mark’s book, Jesus is fully God. The way that John talks about him, the scene we saw at the baptism, and then last week, as we started moving into the work of Jesus, we saw his godhood pointed out by the demon. 

At this same time, we have seen Jesus do things so that an example would be set for us to follow. We saw the baptism that he undertook, even though he himself didn’t need to. We saw him be empowered by the Holy Spirit, even though since he is God, wouldn’t need to rely on the Spirit. These two examples are for our benefit. The first teaches us obedience to God, the second teaches us that we cannot walk this Christian life on our own. We must live it by relying on the Holy Spirit.

And when we talked about relying on the Holy Spirit, I mentioned that we would talk more on the subject. And it’s now, only about 20 verses later that we return to this reality of our need to rely on the Spirit.

Today we’ll be in Mark chapter 1 verse 35, but as we get into Mark 1:35, I want to warn you that this is going to be short. We’re only going to be covering five verses, and to tell you the truth these verses do not contain a lot of theology. Yet, even though this is a short section, the practical application of it is where we will spend the bulk of our time.

Let’s see what I’m talking about by reading chapter 1 of Mark, starting in verse 35.

35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

See? Short. And not much by way of theology. There’s no display of power. We see no healing, we only hear of more demons being cast out. We don’t get any insights into who Jesus is. But what we do see, are two points that the passage is making. The first point is that we get an example. Throughout are study so far, we have been talking about how Jesus is our example. If Jesus does it, there’s a good chance that we need to follow in his footsteps. And in this section of Scripture, it’s no different.

Going back into the passage we see that it says, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

From this one sentence we have our example. Some people call this a devotional, some people call this a quiet time, whatever you call it, it is Jesus giving us the example of one-on-one  time with God. Now let’s step back for a moment. Why does Mark include this? Well if Peter taught on it, then that gives us the answer. But then why did Peter teach on it? I mean let’s be investigative here. In the previous passages we have seen Jesus as being proclaimed as the long awaited Savior of the world. We have seen Jesus go toe-to-toe with Satan. We have seen him muzzle and rip demons from people. And we have seen Jesus heal people of many different diseases.

It’s almost like everything is getting built up and then we’re thrown a curve ball, with an, “oh yeah and he went off by himself to be alone.”

The way I hear Peter saying this is: “Man, Jesus is amazing. John was all like, he’s coming people, the Savior is coming. Then BOOM, Jesus walks on the scene. He gets baptized, God the Father comes down, speaks to everyone saying this is my SON! He gets tempted by Satan, but shuts that guy down hard. The Holy Spirit powers him up, and he starts casting out demons, shutting them up, and heals people, even my mother-in-law got healed. Which is, you know cool, for my wife that is.”

But then,  after all that, he throws in, “Oh yea, and there would be times he would go off alone, and we would have to go after him. Kind of weird, but hey Jesus. Am I right?” This is probably not how Peter said it, but follow me here.

If we read this passage like this, it’s almost a throw away portion of Scripture. But within the passages of the Bible, every word, every phrase, every period and comma has it’s meaning. And like every other part of Scripture, this is not to be thrown away, or to be glossed over. But we have a tendency to do just that.

Taking time out of our day to sit in prayer, to sit reading God’s word, to sit and interact with the God of the Universe, is as easily dismissed as putting on deodorant. Or brushing our teeth. Or wearing mismatch socks. We have a tendency to skip over solitary time with God, because the world is so busy. There are people calling for us and saying, people need you. You need to be at work. You need to make breakfast for your family. You need to be here, or be there. And there is always a need, there is always someone looking for us, and that means things fall off as priorities. And the easiest one to fall first, is our solitary time with God.

Yet, without the solitary time with God, how can we hope to live out this life God has saved us to? We talked a couple weeks ago about how we need to live this life in the power of the Holy Spirit, how is that possible without the solitary time that we are given the example to take?

We talked about how we need to rely on the Holy Spirit, now what we’re getting through Peter’s teaching, is that we need to take time and be solely focused on God. So let me give you a couple of practical steps for solitary time with God.

First, it has to be solitary. Solitary means, “alone; without companions; unattended” No one attends this, its just you and God. Jesus says in Matthew 6:6 when talking about prayer, “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

So, to have a solitary time with God, we need to find a place that makes it alone time. That might be a bedroom. That might be a car. That might be an outside place, but probably not during summer in Quartzsite. But what it cannot be, is a place with distractions, a place where our attention will be divided between the people that are in need, and the God whom we need.

The second practical aspect of a solitary time with God is, total focus on God. This can be done by reading a passage in the Bible, and asking questions of it. This is praying, but with active listening. Not just telling God our problems and requesting help, but sitting in silence and waiting for his response. This type of prayer takes a lot of practice and patience. This could be writing in a journal our questions, prayers, answers we receive, or a host of other things. This could be singing songs to God. The only requirement is our focus stays on God. Not our job, not the people out there looking for us, nothing else, only God.

Now, it’s really telling what happened in that solitary time Jesus took, by what he tells his disciples when they find him. Just like in our lives, there was a need that had to be met, a place Jesus had to be. Just like we have needs that we need to meet and places we need to be. And  Jesus responded with, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”

And from what Jesus says, we get the second point of the passage. Solitary time with God, puts the work of God into prospective. All the stuff we do, all the needs we meet, all the things we accomplish throughout the day need to have, at their core, an answer to this question: Did I get closer to the kingdom through this, or further away? Are those things that I think are so important, helpful to God’s work, or did they distract from it. 

In other words: us spending solitary time with God helps us realize that the stuff we do, should be spent to fulfill God’s goals and not our own. Our solitary time should affect our work, and how we interact with people. Our solitary time should affect our interactions with our family. Our solitary time should affect our relationships with our friends and neighbors. From our solitary time with God, he molds us to be better used for his work, and he places that work ahead of us. 

We wouldn’t go to work naked, or hang out with our friends with no clothes on, but we do this spiritual when we don’t take time in a solitary place. We face this world spiritually naked, and then we wonder, why did this or that happen? Jesus faced down sickness, demons, and spoke God’s freeing word to people, because he went to a solitary place. And we need to do the same.

So this week my challenge is this: We have one week, that’s seven days to do this challenge. Take five minutes everyday to have solitary time. Five minutes, that’s it. Pray, sing, read, vent, journal. But whatever you, solely focus on the God who desires to meet you in a solitary place.

Jesus set the example for us, and if we truly desire to follow him, we need to do as he does. And that means to meet with him in a solitary place. 

Father in heaven, I ask that you meet with us. That we would take the time to meet with you. And that through our meeting, you would change us. Make us into the people whom you saved us to be. Give us the strength to set aside this time, and may it be honoring to you. Amen.