Kingdom Come

A Call to Steadiness and Readiness

April 28, 2024 • Andy Hoot • Mark 13:24–37

And so today, given the passage, I cannot jump into every detail of the passage, but what I do want to do is take a broad sweep of the passage and bring out the primary thrust of what Jesus wants us to take away as we discuss the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and the end of times, his second coming. And just want to say this comes in between ... We have community groups that meet every week. They discuss the sermons. And we do know when the end of times get brought up as people gather over the word, there's often confusion, disagreement. And so I'm trying to bring us to a simple, clear understanding of this chapter after maybe some people are coming out of last week with a little bit of confusion. I say Pasture Jan's presentation on those verses, I was chewing on it all week, was masterful from my studied perspective as someone who somehow had the blessing to go to seminary and read books for three years. But yeah, we're trying to bring clarity on this topic and bring out the main thrust. Let me read God's word. Mark 13 verses 24 to 27 to start us off. Mark 13 verses 24 through 37. "But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will be falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. From the fig tree, learn its lesson. As soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near at the very gates. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. "But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven nor the son, but only the father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge each with his work and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore, stay awake. For you do not know when the master of the house will come. In the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows or in the morning. Lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you, I say to all. Stay awake. The grass withers and the flower fades but the word of the Lord remains forever." Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you today living in a world full of wars and rumors of wars. Full of much conflict and confusion. Today we come to you with thanksgiving, that you have given us your word, the rock, the one, the only true place that a person can firmly stand. We pray that as we open your word, that it would bring courage to our hearts and strength to our feeble bodies. That we would go from this place renewed and invigorated to serve you and to face whatever may come in our lives with hope that you are behind it and that you will be with us through it. Grant us your peace and steadfastness for the journey to come. We come to you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. It's been a really special year with my middle child. My daughter, Clara. She's been three years old. She'll be four in a couple of months. And what's been really fun to experience with Clara in the season of life at three and a half is her engagement with holidays. Moving from age two to three throughout the past year now and closer to four, she started to remember her celebration of holidays in the past and to start look forward to celebrating them again in the future. And so with Christmas last year, six months out, five, four, three, two, one months out from Christmas, she was talking about Christmas all the time. She was asking, "Is Christmas today?" Just waking up and asking that several months out, multiple days a week. Asking how soon it will come. And she was planning to receive presents of course. And thankfully she was planning to give presents, not just receive. And because we couldn't celebrate it at the time, she was wrapping presents and giving them to her stuffies well in advance of the day. And Clara's excitement for the day was contagious. But more than that, her excitement and expectations around that day gave her a superpower. It gave her a willingness to endure anything that came her way until Christmas Day came. What was most amazing prior to Christmas occurred on Christmas Eve. And if you remember that Christmas Eve, it was a Sunday this year and so we had one service here at Mosaic and after service we packed up my Honda Odyssey. And I don't call it a minivan. It's just that great. It's an Odyssey. A very special vehicle. Minivan, Odyssey life is not as bad as its rep gets sometimes. But we packed up our Odyssey. And the miracle of the day that Clara's expectation around Christmas brought her through was that she endured a seven and a half hour ride from Boston to my parents' place outside of Philadelphia without a stop. And she was perfectly peaceful, perfectly content because she knew what was about to come. She knew that Christmas was tomorrow. She knew that she was going to celebrate Jesus' birthday. She knew that she was going to receive presents as part of that celebration. She knew that she was going to give presents. She was going to spend the day with her loved ones. We don't get to see my parents, my siblings that much. She knew that there was going to be a feast. And so Clara was ready to endure anything. So seven and a half hours. Even if it was just the five-hour trip, which is the fastest time you can get between here and Philadelphia, if she stayed peaceful for that amount of time, that would've been the Christmas miracle and the expression of her superpower. And Clara's fascination with the end and the reward that came with it helped her through her present situations. It gave her resilience to face anything as her hopes and expectations where she knew what was about to come as we formed them, as she reflected on her experiences that we gave her at Christmas in the past. And so I've thought about this. What's refreshed my mind had me thinking about this in recent weeks really the past couple months is her birthday's in a couple of months. And so since Christmas there's been a lot of waking up, "Daddy, is my birthday today?" And just a repeat. So she's been blowing out fake cakes and giving presents to her stuffies in preparation as she waits that day. I discussed Clara's typical childish fascination with Christmas and her birthday as an illustration. I bring it up for a couple of reasons. First, I mentioned this fascination to point out her childlike faith. We are going to speak in a specific topic on Christ's return and the end of times. But before we do that, I want to remind us of a broader principle of the kingdom of God that Jesus mentioned earlier on in Mark. What Clara exhibits around the day of Christmas, the expectations and hopes around it that we formed and set for her, she exhibits childlike faith. It's a sure fact that it's going to be as good as she thinks it is. And we need to have such faith as we walk through life and the kingdom. Mark 10: 14 and 15 says, "Let the children come to me. Do not hinder them. For to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." So Clara expects us to deliver on Christmas and her birthday, and that gives her superpowers to endure what is to come. And we as Christians, the Lord tells us of a specific day like the end of times and Christ's return as the same day. And we need to let him form our expectations around that topic. And there are going to be details that are not going to be perfectly clear. There are going to be questions around that day. And we can get lost in the pursuit of those answers. We can rest upon what the Lord has made clear in setting the expectations for us around that day. We can have childlike faith that our heavenly father has told us what we need to know as the day of the Lord comes. So we need to have childlike faith as we open up this topic a little bit more. But further, I want to just say Clara's fascination with Christmas ... We're in a topic today that there's a lot of fascination as we discuss the end of times. And while Clara's experienced her fascination with Christmas and her hopes and expectations around it, it's something that gives her joy, it gives her stamina, it gives her hope to face the present as she waits that day. Unfortunately, this topic on the day of Christ's return, it's something that really breeds the opposite response in us. A lot of times we naturally as Christians, we're interested in this day. For surely we await the benefits that come with the moment of Christ's return. We can't wait to be free. See this creation, see our flesh free from the power and influence of Satan. Free from the power of influence of sin. We can't wait to see an end natural disasters and wars. But we tend to take up this topic as a church and it really breeds a lot of anxiety and paranoia. It's because we're trying to go beyond what the Lord has told us and as he set our expectations in scripture. And so without a doubt, there's a fascination within the church about the end of time and when it will come and the manner in which it will come. It rarely leads to any good. And if anyone has been in the church for a while, I just want to elaborate on this. A lot of people, if you're in a church for a month or a year, you know the tendency for Christians. At a Christian gathering, people might be talking about faith, repentance, belief, obedience to Jesus Christ, how to apply just God's word to day-to-day life. But the end of times gets brought up and one little detail, one little hint of it, and it can derail the whole discussion. Everybody knows if you've been in a church with small groups ... We have community group here at Mosaic where we discuss the sermons together, God's word together. Everyone knows that experience of like, oh no, someone ... Conversation's been going, been fruitful, vibrant. Someone just brought it up. They did it. Maybe at that point, a couple of people in that conversation who have very passionate views on the end of times and the timing of it, they dominate conversation and it really becomes this a draining discussion and that everybody leaves more confused and really just too drained to go honor Jesus for the rest of the evening or the next day. And all people in the church know this tendency. And we Christians, we know that debates and conversations, they lead to real division normally. The talk on these topics can lead brothers and sisters to separate from brothers and sisters instead of continuing to gather as the people of God. And most Christians, they do know someone who got obsessed with figuring out the details about Christ's return. Who started losing their grip with reality. Who lost focus on working out their salvation with fear and trembling one day at a time. And in the end, maybe they just stumbled for an extended season or in the end they lost their faith altogether as they got lost in these details. Furthermore, we know there are whole in the Christian world ... And maybe some of you don't know this stuff. But as pastors we do engage a lot of these instances in our ministry. We know that there are whole churches and conferences and gatherings of supposed believers who meet not to praise God, not to preach his gospel, but to promote specific teachings, primarily promote specific teachings on the end of times. That's what they're gathering around. I've heard of several people giving large chunks of money to ... Or essentially their whole retirement savings saved for decades to supposed prophets who claim to elucidate the details of the timing and manner of Christ's return. In our day anybody can start teaching and give their take on YouTube, on social media. There's a tendency in the church today, there's people who will listen to these teachers at the cost of heeding the words of their pastors, their brothers and sisters in Christ and who they're gathering with in day-to-day real life. I've spoken to a few Christians who you dig into the details of their lives and they profess faith in Christ, but they have not read the gospels or most of the New Testament aside from the book of Revelation because they're reading the apocalyptic literature and verses of the Old Testament prophets and Revelation primarily. And this stuff happens. In a city like Boston who could get lost in that stuff? No. These are common tendencies. And so at Mosaic, if you've only been with us for two weeks, we've talked about ... We'll now take up this topic two weeks in a row. And you might think we have an unhealthy fixation on this topic, but I assure you we're taking it up as it naturally has come up in our scripture as we are going verse by verse through Mark. But before I go through it, I want to say at our church a little commentary, we generally are not guilty of unhealthy fixation on the end of times across our membership. We're not marked by neglect of coverage on the topic. We're facing it today. It's easier to skip over these chapters. As a pastor, we're here to face it as it's been brought up in our history in the text. We're not marked necessarily by widespread anxiety and paranoia that comes with fixation. If anything, at Mosaic, we're guilty of a tendency to think that the end is near because something bad happened in our personal lives or in society as a whole. And it leads to a distractedness that tends to decrease our level of day-to-day faithfulness a little bit. So 2020 Ukraine-Russia, Israel-Palestine death and health scares, cultural and political tensions. These tend to lead us to say nonchalantly and perhaps ignorantly that things are getting worse. It's clear. The end is near. And may we say that just a little naively or truly ignorantly. We continue to just carry forth our day-to-day responsibilities with some faithfulness. But I think even beneath that a tendency in our body is more of a hopeless spirit of resignation. When we face calamity, hardship in our lives, trials personally or internationally and nationally, we can assume a hopeless spirit of resignation that, oh, there's so much brokenness around us. Who am I as an individual to bring Jesus' light and redemption through my day-to-day faithfulness? And we still do the thing, do what we think God is calling to us but not with belief that he can use us to redeem brokenness in the world around us, in the relationships, in society through our small efforts. And so today you'll see that Christ has a word for engaging such circumstances for us as the natural disasters, the trials of society. And so yeah, we're going to see what that word is. And there's no question that this fascination with the end of times, it doesn't stop at the church. The world has wrestled with it. Again, everything I've mentioned from 2020 to 2024 I think it's safe to say we all have seen a lot more headlines talking about is this the end of society as a whole? Are things getting worse? Is America facing its doomsday? Is the current banking system a potential collapse? What's that going to lead to? There's a lot of anxiety, there's a lot of worry. There's always an ancient calendar. In 2012, the Mayan calendar ended. I remember articles around that. You think of year 2000 going into the new millennium, there's a lot of, is the world going to end? It just gets brought up whether there is seeming reason to appeal to or not. So there is a widespread fascination with the end. And really it normally leads to anxiety, fear, and paranoia and faithlessness. Especially when we start mining the details of what the Bible has a say about it. So Jesus today as we open up chapter 13 again, he speaks to the disciples about the end. And I want to say very clearly he has one easy message in this chapter that we want to focus on primarily as we study it. Stay awake and be ready. The theme sentence of this chapter, Christian lives shall be marked by steadiness and readiness as they await Christ's return. Christian lives shall be marked by steadiness and readiness as they await Christ's return. This message, you can find it just by appealing to the specifics of a few verses. Verse 33 Jesus says, "Be on guard, keep awake." Or perhaps I can claim that this is the theme of the chapter as the chapter ends in verse 37 by saying, "And what I say to you, I say to all. Stay awake." All of this chapter, it's pointing to the call for Christians to exhibit a steadiness, a coolness, a calmness as they face challenges, trials, conflicts, natural disasters in this life and readiness as they ponder the end of times. And so he declares, "Don't waste your time reading into all the things that could deceive you or prevent you from faithfulness to him in the things of God in day-to-day life." So stay awake and be ready. Verse 31 says, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." The world is going to fall down around us. We shouldn't be shocked when it happens. It's been happening throughout history. The Roman Empire, it did fall. Imagine how people fell when that truly fell. It's going to happen around us. It's happened throughout history. It'll keep happening. Everything will pass away but what will remain are Jesus' words and his assurances. And I want to pause right here. Think about the things. If they passed away, what are those things whose passing would shake you? In me It's honestly like news of what's happening in my small suburban town outside of Philadelphia. When I see the culture shaking, the schools shifting in my heart, it really stirs me to the point of almost hopelessness or God, what's happening here? When we think about America, are there major societal shifts? Are we heading in a bad direction? When we face political tensions. We've gotten upcoming election this year. When we face potential shifts in our country, does it stir us? Do we begin to question God's faithfulness to us in such moments? Jesus says we need to trust him. I was at the Inter Miami verse New England Revolution soccer game last night to see Lionel Messi and a couple of his former Barcelona players. It was my first time at Gillette Stadium. And part of it is to show my son, wow, look at this man who has used what God has given him and mastered it. But part of it is to say to my son, "Look, this man, he is going to die one day. I hope he doesn't have a great spiritual moral failure before all of us. I hope he professes his imperfections and faith in Jesus at some point and I do pray for him." But Messi's going to pass away and Gillette Stadium is going to pass away or they're going to blow it up. And I want them to so that they get rid of the turf field and put in a grass field because professional sports should be played on grass. But these figures of society, these people, these institutions, they're all going to fall. And how will that move you? What will your response be? Jesus says the only thing we place our faith in is his word. Everything will pass, but we are to trust his assurances. And so verse 13 in our chapter, the one who endures to the end will be saved. We place our hope in Jesus and his works and his promises. That's where our hope lies. So Jesus is saying broadly in this chapter, be ready for the end to come right now. Be ready for the end every moment of every day. Don't misuse your time getting lost in the meaningless things of the world. Don't misuse your time obsessing over predictions, dates, the left behind stuff, the book series, the movie series. Jesus comes when you don't know. So be ready. At every moment of your life be steady and be ready. And so I'm going to draw this point out as I try to speed through the chapter today. Chapter 13. I'll revisit some of the verses from one through 23 and glean over them. But it's all to remind you this point. Christian lives shall be marked by steadiness and readiness as they await Christ's return. I'm not going to necessarily pull out specifics of where I get that theme. You're going to have to come with me as I just keep emphasizing it. And I think it's important. This is a topic that's been convoluted, confused throughout church history, even within our own body. And we have to just get what is primary. And this is where we build our foundation and thinking on the end of times going forward. So chapter 13, we have Jesus falling of the temple, Jerusalem, the sign of the fig tree, a call to be ready. Let's try to explain it. What's Jesus talking about here? How do I come to this emphasis on steadiness and readiness? So let's step into this situation with the disciples. The day is still Tuesday. On that Friday, Jesus is going to be crucified. Jesus and his disciples have been in the temple most of the day. It's probably late afternoon. Jesus decides it's time to go. It's very likely this is Jesus' last time in the temple. And while they're walking away from the temple, one of his disciples is overcome with awe. They were admiring the size, the glory, the structure of the temple. And it really was a sight to behold. It was gargantuan and grandiose, huge and intimidating in its size and in its extravagance and ancient wonder of the world. And King Herod put a ton of money into it for several decades. We're talking in the billions of our current dollars. And so this temple, it's huge. It's ornate. The temple grounds and courts, they covered about one-sixth of the city of Jerusalem at the time. The individual stones that were used to build the temple were gigantic. Josephus, one of the historians of the day wrote down the size of the stones that they were about 45 feet by 15 feet by 18 inches thick. One stone. You could go and look at a stone that size and just be in awe. So these stones are massive. Ornately decorated. The text begins with a disciple saying, "Teacher, look at the size of these stones. Look at the majesty of the temple of Jerusalem. The whole city. Isn't this amazing?" Jesus says, "You see this giant beautiful building. You see this city. You see these massive stones. Not one stone will be left standing upon one another. This whole city is going to be destroyed." And this would've been a shocking statement. Definitely awkward silence afterwards. And it's shocking, especially when you consider the sides of these stones, saying not one will be left standing on another. And then they walk. Jesus says this, and they walk through the city of Jerusalem, they walk to the Mount of Olives to an elevated area where they sat down and they have another great view of the city. And as they thought about Jesus' pronouncement of the destruction of the temple, its complete devastation, the devastation of the city, they begin to naturally ask some questions. One asked in verse four, "Tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?" And so there's a lot more behind this question than first appears. The disciples regard this temple as a fixed structure. They look at it, they think this thing could last forever. They couldn't imagine its destruction. And so immediately they're tying the destruction of this temple with the end of the world. For surely that's the only way and time that it could be destroyed. And so with the question in verse four, they're not just asking when is the temple going to be destroyed, but how do we know that the end is near? This is affirmed in Matthew chapter 24 verse three where they ask in a parallel passage, "Tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" So they're asking, when will the temple be destroyed? When will Jerusalem be destroyed? That's one question. When will we know it's time for your return? When will the end come? That's what the disciples are asking in Mark as greater clarified in Matthew. They're seeking answers. And Jesus in response, he gives them a long, seemingly complicated answer. And the first part of his answer is a warning to not be led astray. Verse five, Jesus says, "See that no one leads you astray." In the NIV translation, "Watch out that no one deceives you." The disciples are assuming all of this is going to happen very soon based on Jesus's words. So they're eager. They're eager for the end to come. And as a result they're going to be tempted into reading into every little sign. So Jesus is anticipating that and he's given them some instructions to not be led astray. So in verse six he says, "Many will come in my name saying I am he and they will lead many astray." So he's saying, "There is definitely going to be a time where a lot of people say that they're sent by me or come in my name or bring greater revelation, greater word of God beyond what I've said." He says, "Don't be surprised. Don't follow them. Don't put your trust in them." And in the first century, history is captured. There's a lot of ... And scripture captures some of it. There are a number of false messiahs who appeared and they had followings, but in time they proved to be false prophets and the false prophets that they were. And it still happens today. It's happened all throughout history and it still happens today. Joseph Smith, a relatively recent false teacher, he started Mormonism. He said that Jesus appeared to him in 1820 in his backyard and he told him that all existing churches had turned from the gospel. And after that an angel of God appeared to him and essentially gave him a new source of revelation, a new word for man, true followers of Christ, the Lord to follow. And Jesus, which conflicts with our Bible, the 66 books of the Bible, Jesus is telling us, don't follow this kind of guy. More recently, I grew up in 90s public school hearing about David Koresh and the Branch Davidians who in the 80s and 90s said that he was one who was going to establish the Davidic kingdom. And so these figures keep appearing throughout history and we can't be so eager for the end to come that we follow anyone who is essentially pronouncing Jesus' return or new age in Christ. Jesus warns us about these men. Don't follow them. And then he goes on to warn them about something else. Next, he talks about disasters and wars. He says in verse seven, "And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place but the end is not yet." So he's saying, don't be deceived by natural disasters and wars. Don't be so eager for the end to come that you read into all these things. When you hear of hurricanes, tsunamis, wars, rumors of wars, don't claim this is the end. Don't just bluntly ignorantly claim things are getting worse. Verse eight says, "For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places. There will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains." So we shouldn't be shocked by such events. We shouldn't be distracted by these events and drop faithfulness in day-to-day life. So many people read into these events and conclude that the end is near but these things have been happening since the beginning. These are but the beginning of the birth pains. We think we're so unique as a generation, but like a lot of these things ... Not like. A lot of these things have been happening throughout history. Nothing new under the sun is happening in 2024. Even with Russia and Ukraine, Israel-Palestine, as I've mentioned earlier, nothing new is happening in 2020. Is what we've experienced recently more dramatic and traumatic than what has been dishonoring to God throughout history, through previous societal collapses, wars and earthly disasters. Just pausing about World War I, World War II is what we're facing right now really worse than that? The societal and cultural drama, severe natural phenomena, they've always been occurring. And it is. We should be heartbroken when we see it, but we shouldn't jump to conclusions that this means that the end is near and imminent. We lament the occurrence of these events. We long for Jesus to come back to put an end to them. But we don't get obsessed with finding specific meaning in them as they relate to the end of times. Third thing that Jesus warns us about is in verses nine through 13. I don't think I put them up on the slides, I'm going to skim through them. He says, "Don't be deceived by the persecution that you faced. The people of God are going to suffer. Just because you're persecuted doesn't mean that the end is near." Jesus tells them plainly that they're going to be flogged and judged by governors and authorities. They'll be hated as the gospel goes forth. The gospel divides. It has two effects. It draws people in as you stand on it, preach it and stand on it and it draws people away. It's a stench that they reject. They don't want to hear it. They harden their hearts against God. It divides even families. In verses 12 to 13, he elaborates that man will kill his own brother over Christianity, a father a child. Children will kill their parents. Christians will be killed by their own family members, but they are not specific signs that the end is near. These things have been happening, they'll continue to happen. So this fascination with the end should not cause us to look upon these three categories of just travesty as false teachers, natural events, wars and killing within families. They should not cause us to say immediately the world is coming to end. And Jesus is telling when these things happen, when people believe them, when people start taking others and saying, this is the end, a lot of people are led astray. We should not be led astray. And so we engage it. We engage it with a steadiness. We're not shocked by their occurrence. Verse 10, he's saying, "We live in the period of last days." But before the Lord returns, what we focus on is one thing. Verse 10. And the gospel must be first proclaimed to all nations. So this is going to take some time. It's taken 2000 or so years so far and we're not done yet. If you really want the world to come to an end, don't focus on reading into all of the events. Instead, focus yourself on applying the gospel to your own heart in a deeper way each day. Then when you do that, think about and pray about how the Lord could use you to transform your neighbor's heart. Then think about how he can use you to transform every country, every culture, every community, tribe, person, and do this work with much patience, humility, sobriety and self-control as things of the world are rising and falling around you. Jesus is saying, be steady, be ready. Be ready for a long race. Don't follow the likes of Joseph Smith, Joe Schmo who says he comes in the name of the Lord in desperation. Don't read into all the current events. Don't expend all your energy on that. There's an opportunity cost to spending time on this stuff at the cost of faithfulness to Jesus and loving God and loving your neighbor day-to-day. Focus on right now. That's what Christians are called to do. How can I be salt and light where the Lord has placed me right now with every relationship I have with every office he's called me to as a single, as a married, as a parent, as a worker, as a neighbor. How do I run faithfully and steady? Stay awake. This is what Christians are called to. And so I emphasize that. We're called to be steady. Called to be ready. The second part of Jesus' answer goes to verses 14 to 23. This section is the direct answer to the disciples question about the destruction of the temple. So Jesus before prophesying about anything that will happen in the future in this section, he's making a statement about the destruction of the temple. Remember the disciples asked him, when will the destruction of Jerusalem occur? And so he's given an answer. Jesus begins verse 14 with a cryptic statement. It's using terminology from the book of Daniel. He says, "But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be ..." Another translation says when you see the desolating, sacrilege, when something holy or sacred is profaned. When you see that you know the end is near. And so he's talking about the end of Jerusalem here first and foremost. Pastor Jan on in his second half of his sermon, he talked about there is a two-fold nature to prophecy that we see in scripture where first and foremost, a prophetic statement typically has that prophetic statement in the day. And that's what I'm saying. These verses 14 to 23 are talking specifically about the near the fall of Jerusalem in the near term, short term. Pastor Jan did open up the topic a little further to say there's abomination of desolation statement. Is this a statement for the future? And he talked primarily about what continues as a spirit. We are not saying history captures. There's a couple of points in time where we saw Gentiles in 168 B.C. Antiochus Epiphanes, a Roman general captured Jerusalem. He went to the temple and he profaned it by offering sacrifices to Roman false gods in the temple. And so a lot of people that is an abomination of desolation. Furthermore, history talks about after the Romans in this siege of 70 A.D. that I'm going to talk about in detail in a little bit. After they conquered Jerusalem and the temple, they did offer sacrifices to their gods in what remained of the temple space. But one of the things that Pastor Jan on really tried to focus us on is that the greatest travesty, the greatest abomination of desolation that ever occurred in history was done by those who were supposed to be the chosen people of God. The Jewish authorities, the Sanhedrin, the high priest rejected Jesus Christ, the anointed one, the son of God who showed who he was through his miracles, through his word, through his faithfulness and sacrifice and obedience. They rejected him. And for 40 years, what did they do? They rejected him so much to the point, the very presence of God, the word incarnate, they rejected him to the point that they conspired with their enemies, the Romans to send him to the cross. And so this destruction of Jerusalem that happened in 70 A.D. four decades after Christ, for four decades, they stood with hardness of heart against their standing on Jesus Christ. They desolated the perfect spotless land of God and the rejection of him. And what perhaps the continuation of that is anyone who claims that he was wrong. He was not who he said he was. In the local church, in authorities, religious authorities, those who reject Christ are in a way profaning what is holy in rejecting Jesus. And so this abomination of desolation ... Pasture Jan on goes in more detail. But specifically these verses, let me take us back, they're talking about the destruction of Jerusalem. When the holy temple is desecrated Luke chapter 20 verses 20 to 21 also adds to this phrase, when you see the city surrounded by armies flee. So when you see the temple being desecrated and you see the city of Jerusalem surrounded by armies, run as fast as you can run. This is verses 14 23. Don't pack up your belongings. There isn't any time. When you see these things run. Hopefully you're not pregnant. Hopefully it's not winter because that'll make the flee harder. Jesus is speaking very directly here about the destruction of the temple and he's warning his disciples about ... He's given warnings about how it'll happen. Mark verse 19 talks about it's a calamity tribulation that the world has never seen before. So 40 years after this discussion between Jesus and the disciples on the Mount of Olives again in year 70, the Romans completely demolished Jerusalem. The temple and Jerusalem. Josephus, the Jewish historian, recorded details of this event. He tells us that in response to a Jewish uprising in year 66, the Roman army laid siege to the city of Jerusalem. Romans built a high wall around the city. Almost every tree within miles of the city was cut down to build the wall, transforming the landscape of Jerusalem into a desert. And the Romans dug a deep trench all around the city. No one could get in, no one could get out, no food or water could be brought in. Any Jews who tried to flee Jerusalem were captured and crucified and placed on top of the wall for everyone to see. After four years of this, tens of thousands of Jews, sometimes 500 plus a day, who tried to escape were crucified on the wall. Just absolutely horrific. And the people who were left inside that were dying of starvation. Eventually the Roman army did breach the walls of Jerusalem and they slaughtered the surviving Jews and burned the entire city, including the temple. Josephus estimated that during the Roman siege of Jerusalem, over 1.1 million people were killed, mainly Jews, and that another 97,000 were captured and enslaved. And the temple, there's a lot of theories about why was every stone broken down. There's a theory that there was just such animosity through this long conflict that the Romans just with vehemence just wanted to sack the Jews. Sack the city. So in their anger, they destroyed every last stone. There's also theories that the gold all over the temple and perhaps in the homes there's gold in the walls, that they were seeking the treasure. There's a theory that they did burn the temple as part of the process and some of the gold melted into the cracks between the rocks. So perhaps that drove them to destroy each stone. But we do find history shows us that Christ's prophecy in verse one, verse two, "Do you see these great stone buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down." That happened. So think about the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Greece. The Romans didn't destroy it. We can still see it today. But the Romans actually, they initially wanted to preserve the temple, but they found they're just losing too many soldiers. So that's when they set fire to it. But not one stone was left upon another just as Jesus said. Even the foundation was taken up. So this verse 13, chapter 13, the first section is about warning to not be deceived, be steady as you face deception. This section, it talks about the destruction of the temple before anything else. The third section of Jesus' answer starts in verse 24, and this is our primary text for the day, and I'm going to try my best to speed through. He's transitioning from what is going to happen in the temple to discussion on the end of time and the coming of the son of man. So Jesus is answering the disciples questions about the timing of Jesus' return. When are you going to return? When's the last day coming? This is where Jesus answers that. "But in those days," verse 24 to 27, "after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and then the moon will not give its light and the stars will be falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken and they'll see the sun of men coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven." So all of this ... This is crucial to understand the passage. All of these verses here in the third section of the chapter state that God's power will be seen in an unmistakable way at the end of times. It will be very distinct from what we see upon war and travesty in our current times. An earthquake, a tsunami, a hurricane. Don't think those are things that will usher in the end. Those are small compared to what's going to happen in the end. He says you're going to see stars fall from the sky, the sun go dark. Jesus, the son of man will come in the clouds with power and glory. Angels probably visibly will be gathering the Lord's people. When you see God's power coming like it never did before in an unmistakable manner, that is the sign that the end is here. The end is imminent. That's what we watch for the end. And in the middle of this display of power, he's going to, as the skies break down, natural disasters that we've never seen before, the sun of man, in a split second, he'll appear. He'll come in the clouds and everyone is going to see him and they're going to know it's him. There's not going to be a question, who is this guy? Is this him? Should I follow him? Maybe I can keep eating right now. No. It's like we're going to know it's him. Christ is going to return and the fullness of his glory and he will complete the work that he began. He'll send his angels to gather all of his people, all the elect. Those who have received him by grace through faith. We as Christians can look forward ... As we understand this, as he returns and he is going to gather in his elect, we can look forward to this day if it happens in our lifetime. Like my daughter Clara looks forward to Christmas and her birthday, we can look forward to it. It'll be a good day for us. If we're dead, when that day happens, our sleeping bodies will rise and be united with our resurrected souls for ever. This is the great hope of the people of God, the elect. For those who are in Jesus Christ. This is the end of the present time, the current order of creation before Jesus makes all things new unblemished by sin and the enemy. So in the first section, don't be deceived. In the second section, temple will be destroyed very soon. The third section, Christ will return in glory in the midst of an unmistakable display of God's power. And now the last section, this section is a little different than the first three. The first three are primarily predictions. Jesus is telling the disciples when these things will occur in response to his questions. This is more prescriptive. Jesus is telling them what to do. The first part of this section, it's verses 28 to 31. It said ... This is very important to understand this passage. It said specifically with regard to the destruction of the temple, not the end of times. So he tells them, learn the lesson from the fig tree, verse 28. "From the fig tree, learn its lesson. As soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves you know that summer is near. So also when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near at the very gates." When you see these things happening, army surrounding Jerusalem, the temple desecrated, you know that destruction of the temple and Jerusalem is right around the corner. It will happen. As sure as you know, summer will happen when the fig tree puts out its leaves. So in an agricultural society, they would've understood when the fig tree is putting out its leaves, summer is coming. When these things happen, be assured the temple Jerusalem is going to be destroyed. That's verse 28 to 31. Be ready. And Jesus assures them that this destruction of Jerusalem will happen before this generation passes away. In verse 31, he says, "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place." So those who are alive right now, right then at the moment that Jesus is teaching, some of them will still be alive. That generation will be alive to witness the destruction of Jerusalem. He's given them the prescriptive order to be steady, be ready, flee when that time comes. They'll experience it or witness it. They need to be ready for it. And so this is crucial to the understanding of the text. And then in verse 32, he transitions to talk about the end of time again. His return. He says, "But concerning that day or that hour ..." Verse 32 literally begins, "But concerning that day or that hour ..." Another period of time, another moment in time. We're now speaking about the end of time Jesus second coming. He assures them, no one knows when that day or hour will come. Verse 32. "But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven nor the son, but only the father." No one knows when the end will come. Nobody knows when the day or hour will come. Nobody will be able to predict it or narrow it down to a time or a day. Nobody knows. Jesus even says that only the father knows when Christ will return. Not even the angels. Not even himself. And I don't know how that can be. This is a big question of the Trinity and just the recesses of how the Father, the son, the spirit relate. And we can't really answer that question right now. We take Jesus' word for it as the word of God, but we take now practical application. If Jesus doesn't know, then why are we in the church, in the world spending so much time trying to figure the timing and specific manner of this day out? If Jesus doesn't know, we're not going to figure it out. If we don't know the time, but Jesus gives orders ... We don't know the time, but Jesus, he gives us orders of prescription, a command for followers to await the last day, the day of his return by being steady and being ready. And that's what verses 33 to 37, that's how he closed the chapter. "Be on guard. Keep awake for you. Do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey when he leaves his home and puts his servants in charge each with his work and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake For you do not know when the master of the house will come. In the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows or in the morning. Lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you, I say to all, stay awake." So when you see that unmistakable display of God's power, you will know that the end is upon us. Jesus is saying, be ready for it. Don't be found sleeping. We need to expect and anticipate that moment without getting fixated upon the details of when it will be. The timing of it. When the end comes, when he does return, what does he want to see? He wants to see us awake and faithful. He needs to find us focused living by faith following him. Be ready for Christ's return by running the race steadily and faithfully. We don't chase the buzz about the end of time. We don't speculate about dates and predictions. We don't over-read into current events. Instead be ready. That's Christ's orders. That's his prescription. And what do we do day-to-day? We do what God is called us to do. We're about that task. He may return in a day or 10,000 years. Whenever he does, we need to be found ready. And so we live by faith, have our eyes fixed on Jesus, the only savior, our only king, the true prophet. We don't get drawn into the temptations of the world thinking, I can do this stuff and before I die or Christ comes, I can repent. We don't function like that. It could be today. We need to be ready. Furthermore, a lot of Christians are so obsessed with the end of times because they think that it'll wake people up to start living for Christ. That's why people have the signs out on the streets. They're trying to essentially scare people. Hey, the end is about to come. Repent. It's not all out of bad motives. They think if we know it's near, then it'll make us start living in the right way. But I asked if you knew that the end was in a year, would that change the way you live the next year? If you're a Christian in Christ today, it really shouldn't. You should be living this day, this moment, this year as if Christ is going to return in the very next moment. We're always being ready. We're always awake. We're not going to get focused on not getting caught sleeping, not scrolling around through TikTok shorts, YouTube media shorts, living just slovenly, slothful lives. We focus on the work that he's called us to. We say, "Lord, what would you have me do today?" And we seek faithfulness to and the power and blessing of his spirit as we try to do it for his glory. The return of Christ, it means both judgment and salvation. For those who are spiritually sleeping, those who are not following Christ, it will be a time of judgment and his wrath will crush you worse than the destruction of Jerusalem. And it's a destruction that you will not be able to flee. It will be worse than anything you could imagine. The good news is that what's amazing is that all you need to do to avoid such wrath is trust that Christ went to the cross to pay the penalty for your sin, your rebellion against him. The crucifixion scene of Mark in chapter 15 states that Christ faced darkness, an unnatural supernatural darkness in the middle of the day for three hours on the cross. Three hours of supernatural darkness as he drank the cup of God's wrath for all of the elect. After he drank that cup, drank the full wrath, the full punishment deserved, he shouted in victory and breathed his last. If you believe that he did that for you, you can be a saved and avoid the wrath of God at the last day. For those whose eyes and hearts are already fixed on Christ, who trust in him for the forgiveness of their sins, who follow him as Lord and Savior, this day will be a day of joyful salvation. It'll be like a great holiday, a holy day, the holiest of holy days that we look forward to where we will be gathered into the fullness of his glorified presence. Perhaps I dare say we should look forward to it like a small child looks forward to Christmas or a birthday for it will be, in a sense, a new birthday where we're gifted with our resurrected eternal bodies free from the influence of Satan and power of sin. If we pause like Clara to revel and meditate on the and gifts to come that's ahead on that day that are mentioned in Scripture, we would be willing to endure any hardship to get to that day. And so I ask, what kind of day is it going to be for you? Are you ready? Are you awake? Is your life marked by steadiness or steadfastness of faith that when Jesus does appear in an unmistakable fashion that you know have assurance that you'll be gathered by the angels or do you face death, darkness, wrath? Our world, even the church, it's guilty of speculating over the end of times, but Jesus says don't get caught up in it. Jesus says, "Watch, be steady, be ready. And in the meantime, may God, may he be glorified in all that you do." And I haven't talked too much about what that means practically speaking. What does it mean that God may be glorified as we're steady and ready one day at a time trusting him, awaiting his return with patience and self-control? I'm going to close by reading 12: 9 through 21 as this makes our daily tasks clear. This is what Christians do as we await Jesus's return. Romans 12: 9 through 21. "Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful and zeal but fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own say. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink for by doing, you'll heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we just come to you with humility to say that in our impatience, in our faithlessness, in our fear of man, fear of physical pain, fear of death, Lord, we confuse and conflate your promises about your presence with us through trials, through tribulations. We confuse and conflate just the joy, the reward that's ahead of us with Christ's return. Lord, we just pray forgive us and Jesus and help us to leave here steadfast in faith, knowing that you will be with us, whatever is to come in this life individually in our lives or as greater society rises and falls. Lord, give us faith that when we step out to honor you, that you can use us to bring redemption. Bring your grace, bring your mercy to the brokenness around us. Let us never grow weary of doing good for your glory. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Endure to the End

April 21, 2024 • Jan Vezikov • Mark 13:1–23

Heavenly Father, we thank you for a beautiful day to gather as your people to hear from your holy scriptures and pray, Holy Spirit, that you prepare us now to hear from you, to meditate on the end times, that the end is coming, the end of our life, or the end will come when, Christ, you return. And as true as your death, your burial, your resurrection was, so your Second Coming is as true, that day is already set. But as we meditate upon these things, Lord, let us focus on what you focus on, is that we endure to the end, and when we do that by living every single day ready to meet you as if you were to return today, or live as if your return isn't coming for another 1,000 years, or 10,000 years, for that matter. And help us see that it's the same way of living. To live faithfully today is to live in such a way that we long to leave a legacy of faithfulness. We long to do everything we can to proclaim the gospel, and live in a manner worthy of it, so that many of your elect come into the kingdom through our service. So Lord, use us and use this church to spark revival in our city, in our state, in our nation, in our world. And Lord, continue to empower us as we proclaim the Word. Continue to empower us by the power of the Spirit to speak your words unflinchingly, knowing that it is your Word, it's the gospel, it's the power of God unto salvation. There's nothing that we can do or manufacture, nor do we want to. We want to do your work your way, and see your elect drawn into the kingdom. Lord, bless our time in the holy scriptures. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series through the Gospel of Mark called Kingdom Come: The Gospel of Mark and the Secret of God's Kingdom. And the secret that we've seen is that Jesus Christ is Lord. And that is the secret to every single most important question in life. The title of the sermon today is Endure to the End. This past Monday was Marathon Monday, beautiful day for it. And usually, my family and I, we go watch the marathon. We live right down the street from Beacon. They block off Beacon, you can't cross it. And we usually do that, it's fun. But we've been in the city for almost 15 years, so I asked my daughters this Monday, "Do you want to go watch the marathon? It's kind of a big deal." And one of my daughters responded by saying, quote, "There's nothing fun about watching people run, Dad." And I was like, "Fair point, fair point." So, I got out of that thanks to her. But millions do watch. Millions from all over the world watch the marathon. Why? Because endurance is impressive. You're willingly subjecting your body to that much physical pain for how long? How many miles? And there's much to learn for us from that. The Lord Jesus Christ calls His followers to develop endurance for the long haul. He calls us to live a life of faithfulness for all of life and every aspect of life, to keep going, especially when we hit that pain barrier, to fight through the pain. And in a section where the Lord Jesus Christ talks about the signs of the end times, what does He emphasize? Not the precise date, no. What does He emphasize? He emphasizes endurance. "But the one who endures to the end will be saved." So, however you interpret the end times biblical passages, the most correct interpretation is the one that increases your spiritual endurance, not depletes it. Whatever your interpretation of the details, this is the forest that you must not miss. You must live your life in such a way that you're ready just in case Jesus returns today, because He might, and simultaneously, you live your life with the intention of leaving a Christ-honoring legacy for centuries to come, because Christ might not return for another 1,000 years, or another 10,000 years, for that matter. And the whole time, we have to keep praying, "Our Father, who art in heaven, may your name be holy in my life. May your kingdom come in my life. May your will be done in my life, on earth as it is in heaven." Today, we're in Mark 13:1-23, would you look at the text with me? "And as He came out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, 'Look, teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!' And Jesus said to him, 'Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.' And as He sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked Him privately, 'Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?' And Jesus began to say to them, 'See that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name saying, "I am He!" And they will lead many astray. And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains.'" "'But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. And brother will deliver brother over to death, and father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.'" "'But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be, let the reader understand, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not go down, nor enter his house, to take anything out, and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that it may not happen in winter. For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be. And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom He chose, He shortened the days.'" "'And then if anyone says to you, "Look, here is the Christ!" Or, "Look, there He is!" Do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But be on guard; I have told you all these things beforehand.'" This is the reading of God's holy and infallible authoritative Word, may He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. First, a word about interpreting prophetic passages. How should we read the holy scriptures in particular that are foretelling the future? Here, Jesus is describing widely separated events. On the one hand, He's describing the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD; on the other hand, He's talking about the end of the world. But He's painting them in such a way that they appear close to each other. Interpreters have invoked the idea of, quote, "prophetic perspective", that prophecy resembles a landscape painting, which marks, distinctly, there's houses and paths and bridges in the foreground, but in the background, in a narrow space, there's distant valleys and mountains, and they look like they're much closer together than they really are, they're very far apart. So, there's a two-dimensional aspect to biblical prophecy. Here, God's immediate judgment on His people is what's emphasized, and it's imperceptibly dovetailed into His universal judgment on all humanity at the Last Day. So, this opening section deals with the destruction of the temple, and by doing so, it gives us a little apocalypse, or a prototype of the apocalypse, and it comes cyclically. So, if we learn how the cycles come, we can see the cycles in the past, and then we can see how those cycles are manifesting in the present. And this text is designed to warn disciples against four spiritual dangers to avoid if we are to endure to the end. And I'm going to give you the four points in a positive framing, and I'll explain what the negative warnings are with each point. So, four points to frame our time. First, endure to the end by worshiping God, in spirit and truth. Second, endure to the end by discerning through deception. Third, endure to the end by not getting distracted by turmoil. And finally, endure to the end by expecting severe persecution. And Jesus says, "I'm warning you ahead of time to be forewarned, and each case is to be forearmed." This is how we take heed, this is how we remain on guard. First of all, endure to the end by worshiping God, in spirit and truth. Having entered Jerusalem and accepted the acclaim, the people that, "Hosanna, Hosanna, save us, Jesus is the Son of David, He is the Son of God." He has verbally battled the scribes in the Sanhedrin, the elders. He's denounced them for their hypocrisy, and He did that after cleansing the temple. And then at the end of chapter 12, Jesus points to a widow and says, "Look at her generosity, look at her piety. We have much to learn from her." And now He continues talking about denunciations of the temple. Jesus here, in the beginning of the text, He leaves the temple. And this is very symbolic, and is to be understood as an act of judgment. Jesus has said everything that He had to say, the leadership has not repented, He is leaving, and as He's leaving, He's taking the presence of God with Him. In Ezekiel 10, we see that the glory of God abandons the first temple before it's destroyed. And for the prophet, the departure of God's glory, and the consequent destruction of the temple, are punishments for, quote, "The abominations that the house of Israel practiced there." This is Ezekiel 8:6. "And He said to me, 'Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations.'" So, in that context, we come to Mark 13:1. "As He came out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, 'Look, teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!'" And the first danger in not enduring is the danger of too much reliance on the outward symbols of religion. Though they are venerable and loved by many, we must not lose sight that God is the point, not the temple. And the disciples are caught up with the beauty of the house of God, as it was called, the house that was supposed to proclaim the beauty of God, the beauty of His law, the beauty of His grace. However, instead of serving as a reflection to the one who should get our greatest praise, the temple had begun to overshadow God in the hearts of the people. The temple was finished, restored by King Herod, and was considered one of the architectural wonders of the Roman world, even though it was unfinished at the date of its destruction, 70 AD. And Herod did a great job, mostly because he had borrowed Roman engineers, and nothing could match the temple for splendor or its apparent permanence. Josephus, a historian of the time, he says, "The exterior of the building wanted nothing that could astound either mind or eye." He also said that the temple looked like a snow-capped mountain rising up in the midst of Jerusalem. The stones were beautiful, they had dressed margins, whose play of light and shade contributed to the beauty and dramatic appearance of massive walls. Some of the stones weighed up to 50 pounds. One was found that... Tons, excuse me, 50 tons, one was 300 tons. So, the reaction of the amazed disciples at the magnificent temple is natural, and they probably assumed that Jesus was going to second it, and say, "Yeah, that's my house." He doesn't do that. And we are wowed by beautiful religious buildings. My parents just came back from Rome, and then I went to visit them, and my dad, all he wanted do is show me pictures of buildings. And I was like, "Dad, you know what I'm preaching on today, this week." And then my mom, she showed me what I wanted to see: pictures of food, very delicious. And what Jesus here, all of a sudden, He shifts gears. "Oh yeah, you think they're beautiful?" And all of a sudden, He turns the conversation to chilling prophecy of the temple's destruction. This is verse 2. "And Jesus said to him, 'Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.'" The complete demolition of the Second Temple, down to its very foundations, happened in the year 70 AD, four decades after the crucifixion of Christ. And the destruction was so final and so vast that it became proverbial in rabbinic circles that the destruction was even greater than the destruction of the Second Temple by the Babylonians. Jesus' cursing of the fig tree in chapter 11 was the symbolism that preceded the destruction of the temple and the conversations over that. And Jesus came in to the temple after the welcoming crowds brought Him in, and the first thing He did was cleanse the temple. He made a whip, He cleanses the temple of their illicit commercial activity. They were using the temple for commercial gain, which defiled the sanctuary, and Jesus ended up calling it a "den of robbers". The prophecy of the temple destruction in the present context is probably meant to be understood as judgment upon the Sanhedrin, the Levites. That's who the scribes were, they were Levites, they were the religious working class. Instead of pointing people to the Lord, they used the people for their own gains, and this is why Jesus removed the presence of God. But as for Jews, the disciples even to think about the destruction of the temple was unthinkable. This was the shrine, this was the center of the divine presence. So, if the temple is going to be destroyed, what is that saying about Judaism? It's saying that the end has come, a new era has begun. Mark 13:3. "And He sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked Him privately." This sitting is symbolic, in the same way that Jesus exiting the temple is symbolic. In the previous text, Jesus said that He is the Lord that is seated at the right hand of God the Father. He's seated in judgment. Here, Jesus, in the same way, is seated in judgment as He's looking at the temple, the doomed structure. "On the Mount of Olives opposite the temple" is a phrase that recalls Zechariah 14:4, prophetic passage about judgment of Jerusalem. Zechariah 14:4. "On that day His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with Him." The problem with this temple was the temple was built as the worship center of the people of God, and the worship center became the center of worship. Unfortunately, God was no longer at the center, the temple was. And the people running the temple decided to play God. Therefore, we are to beware of falling in love with the outworkings of faith, to the point where those things overshadow our love for God. If we are to endure to the end, we must worship God in spirit and truth. Yes, we are to love the church, the gathering of the saints, but not more than Jesus. And I've learned that people who get the most out of church are those who come to church not for church, but come to church for God, to worship Him in spirit and truth. Jesus, in His conversation with the woman at the well in John 4, she says in verse 20, "'Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.' Jesus said to her, 'Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.' The woman said to Him, 'I know that Messiah is coming, He who is called Christ. When He comes, He will tell us all things.' Jesus said to her, 'I who speak to you am He.'" Point two is endure to the end by discerning through deception. The disciples say in verse 4, "Jesus, tell us!" "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?" We want to know when, and we want to know what should we be looking for? And instead of giving them what they're asking for, Jesus gives them what they actually need. He says in verse 5, and this is His answer, "See that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name, saying, 'I am He!' And they will lead many astray." He said, "You want a sign? A sign is there are people that will try to pull you away from the Lord, and your job isn't to focus on the sign, it isn't to focus on the time, it's to focus on not being led astray." The deceivers are probably self-proclaimed Christians who actually claim to be Jesus Christ. Many of them will say, "I am He." And behind them, obviously, is the great deceiver, that's Satan himself. Revelation 12:7-9. "Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who was called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him." And this is how Satan wages war against God, with the spirit of delusion, a spirit of deception. And he particularly focuses on the elect. His job is to pull the elect away, astray, because if they're no longer faithful, they won't be fruitful, and that's what he's trying to do. And this is the reign of delusion. And Jesus emphasized delusion twice in our text, He actually ends the text with another warning against the delusion, verse 21. "And then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here's the Christ!' Or, 'look, there He is!' Do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect.'" And this is fascinating, because this should be an easy test. If someone shows up and says, "I'm Jesus Christ!" They're like, "I see right through that. I saw that one coming." But people will believe it, because of the signs and wonders. So, this is what Jesus is saying, be careful when people come to you with signs and wonders. Sometimes the signs and wonders are from the Lord, and sometimes they are not. Focus on where the signs are pointing. Are they pointing you to Christ? Are they pointing you to glorifying God evermore? Or are they pointing you to leave the Lord? Deuteronomy warned about this, Deuteronomy 13:1-3, "If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and he says, 'Let us go after other gods,' which you have not known, 'and let us serve them.' You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul." So, the false prophets, then, are demonic imitators, just like when Moses went into Egypt. He did the miracles, and there were impersonators that did similar miracles. Jesus's saying do not put your trust in that power, supernatural power, unless you know where it's from. Because some false Christs and some false prophets come, and they actually speak the lies of the devil. John 8:44, "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and a father of lies." So, be careful with signs and wonders, that's the point here. We saw the signs and wonders in the Book of Acts, the Holy Spirit, this is how the Lord attested to the power of the apostles, through signs. In 1 Corinthians 12, there's a list of spiritual gifts and signs and miracles, signs and wonders is there, but those signs and wonders are ambivalent. They're only signs of the far greater working by God in Christ, which we must accept by faith or not at all. In Revelation, the false prophets work demonic signs, by which he deceives the people, Revelation 13. We see more of this in 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12. "And when the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of His mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who do not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." And what is Satan trying to do? He is trying to lead astray, if possible, the elect. And we know to succeed in deceiving the elect would be a contradiction in terms. If you are elect, you won't be deceived. But if you are deceived, that shows that you are non-elect. And think about that strategy, why is Satan trying to do that to the elect? He's trying to keep the elect from coming into the kingdom. Once the set number of God's chosen enter the kingdom, that's when Christ is coming. "The gospel must be proclaimed to all nations." So, he's trying to pull the elect away from preaching the gospel to more elect, and that's how he's trying to gain some more time. But 1 John 2:26 says, "I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about everything, and that is true and is no lie, just as He has taught you, abide in Him." And the way we keep abiding in Christ is by remaining guard, to know that Satan is trying to delude you, he's trying to pull you away. So, Mark 13:23, "Be on guard, I have told you all these things beforehand." And He's saying, "Look out, because even your status as God's chosen doesn't remove you from the realm of demonic opposition." 1 Corinthians 10:12. "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall." And at the same time, however, we are to be encouraged that we are God's chosen, and you may rest assured that He will ultimately deliver us from this realm. Third is endure to the end by not getting distracted by turmoil. Verses 7 and 8 warn that many Christians will not finish well, and won't endure until the end, because of distraction of world turmoil. Verse 7. "And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet." And verse 8, "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains." He's saying don't focus on the birth pains. You got to see past, you got to see through the birth pains, and focus on what's coming, and that's the birth of a child. And I've seen this all throughout church history, I've seen this in the modern era. There is turmoil in the world, there are wars in the world, there's rumors of wars of the world, and all of those things should bring us to a position where we should be on guard, we should be ready. But don't let those things distract you from the main point, from our mission, is to proclaim the gospel to all the nations, because that's our job, and we leave all this other stuff up to the Lord. So He says, be careful. There were earthquakes that preceded the destruction of the temple in the year 70 AD. In the '60s, for example, there was an earthquake so powerful in Asia Minor, in 61 AD, that 12 cities were leveled in a single night. And Dio Cassius records an earthquake at the flight of Nero, shortly before his death at 68. These things did happen in other times of the world, and they're continuing to happen. And Jesus here says, "Don't focus on the birth pains. When a woman goes into labor, one can be sure that a baby will shortly be born." He says, "Focus on that. Focus on what will be born from the birth pains." And by saying this is just the beginning of the new birth of creation, Jesus is saying, "Don't get caught up in the birth pains, it's just the beginning. Focus on getting through the birth pains to the new birth." And before that comes, there will be persecution, and this is point four: endure to the end by expecting severe persecution. And the warning here is that of being tripped up, because you weren't expecting the persecution to be as severe as it will be. And verses 14 through 20, Jesus gives a test case of the apocalyptic prototype, as it applies to the fall of temple. But verse 9 He says, "But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake to bear witness before them." He says, "Be on your guard, you'll look to yourselves, you will be delivered," is the phrase that He uses. That's the same phrase that's used in Isaiah 52-53, talking about the suffering servant will be delivered to ignominious death. And Jesus used that same word for Himself. And what He's saying is, explicitly, He's saying that you will be persecuted "for my sake, and because it's for my name's sake, don't expect the persecution to be much different than it was for me." In the same way Jesus endured to the end, He calls His followers to endure. Like His followers, He will be betrayed by a brother. Arrested, turned over to council, beaten, stood before the ruler of judgment, exposed to the contempt of masses, and killed. And in the end, however, He, like them, will be saved. Some of you "will be beaten in synagogues" and some of you "will stand before governors and kings". The apostle Paul, he did both. Before he became Paul, he was Saul, and God used Saul to persecute the church. He was doing the persecuting, and God actually sent the persecution. Perhaps the church was not doing its job. Jesus, before He ascended to heaven, He says, "The day of Pentecost is coming, I'm going to send the Holy Spirit. And then once you get the Spirit, go proclaim the gospel in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth." And they're like, "Okay, Jesus. Great." The first day of Pentecost, 3,000 people get saved, and then continues growing to thousands. And then you don't see any of those thousands mobilize and preaching the gospel anywhere but Jerusalem. They wanted to remain in Jerusalem, and it was the persecution that the Lord allowed that dispersed the church to then do what it was supposed to do. And then God saves Paul on the road to Damascus. He goes from being Saul to Paul, and then he was the one being persecuted. For Jesus' name, he stood before governors, he stood before kings. He preached to Felix, to Festus, to Agrippa, and some say perhaps even to Caesar himself. Jesus says, "For my sake, you will bear witness before them." The wrath of man was descending upon the church, but the Lord used the Christians' enemies, who wanted to eradicate the Christian movement, that persecution was just fuel on the flame of the preaching of the gospel to the ends of the earth. And that's what Jesus says explicitly in verse 10. "And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations." And the wording "to all nations" doesn't convey the full meaning, He's saying to all non-Jewish peoples. That this is our job, we proclaim the gospel to absolutely everybody, and the gospel must be proclaimed to all nations before the end. Verse 11. "And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit." So, verse 11 implies what I've already said, that the proclamation of the gospel is a result of persecution, not the cause. They didn't proclaim the gospel and that's why they got persecuted, because they're growing too fast. No, they were persecuted because they were hated for Jesus' name. And as they're getting persecuted, they were emboldened to become even more courageous to proclaim the gospel. And if you've ever experienced any form of persecution, you know this reality; where you're feeling discomfort, there is a cost, and then you have to sit down and say, "Is it worth it?" And then you go back to the faith and say, "Do I really believe this? Is it true? Is this true? Is all of this true? If all of it's true, then it's worth whatever cost the Lord calls me to pay." And speaking of persecution, I don't want to wish persecution upon anyone, but I do know when persecution comes, the church sobers up, and we get a lot more serious about our job, which is to proclaim the gospel. And Matthew 24 says this even more clearly, verse 9, "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." Jesus says, "Don't be anxious when you are arrested and dragged unexpectedly before authorities. Don't worry about writing a sermon." Introduction, three points, conclusion. He says that the Lord will give you all of that. But this is not an excuse, the context here is clear. The promise is specifically for those who are dragged unexpectedly to courts. Don't worry about the preparation time. But if you have time, you know you got to speak, you know you have time to prepare and pray, that's a completely different situation. Mark 13:12. "And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved." So, not only will Christians experience persecution from outsiders, kings, rulers, synagogue authorities, Sanhedrin members, but they will also be betrayed by members of their own families. Here, family hatred including that between brothers and parents, etc. It's a sign of the disintegration that comes in the last times. The disintegration of the family is the crescendo of horror. The fact that there is brother betraying brother, we see that in scripture. We see that Cain and Abel, we see that with Joseph and his brothers. But a father betraying a son or a daughter is much more unnatural. And worst of all is the prospect of a child betraying their parents and having them put to death. This sort of rebellion not only violates the fifth commandment, but reverses Deuteronomy 21, where the mutinous son is to be executed for his presumption. And then the word for brothers also probably relates to fellow Christians. And we do know that in the early church, apostate Christians, wolves in sheep clothing, did betray brothers and sisters, and many were persecuted and put to death. Jesus says, "But the one endures to the end will be saved." What does "saved" mean? It must mean something more than just being rescued from physical death, because Jesus already promised that many will die for the faith. No, the salvation that's promised here is so much deeper, so much more important than just the salvation of the body. It's the salvation of soul and body. Revelation 2:10, "Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for 10 days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life." Be faithful to the end, then you get the crown of life. Is it my being faithful to the end that gets me the crown of life? Is that's what's happening? No. It's the fact that God saved you, and that God will sustain you. He will persevere you to the end. He will make you stand. Romans 14:4, "Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand." So, Jesus is saying that disciple must hold fast to the end in order to be saved. But as Paul says, the true Christians will, in fact, hold fast, because God will hold them fast. It seems like a paradox, but it's a paradox that we hold reverently. It's solution, like that of similar theological paradoxes, isn't to be found in some mathematical equation, because we're not dealing with infinity. No, it's to be dealt with theology and truth, because we're dealing with eternity and God. And God used all of this wrath of man to build up the church. As Tertullian said, "The blood of Christians is the seed of the church." And church history testifies that ancient martyrs, they did testify to the Lord, even in the midst of suffering, and gave God glory, and that's partially how the church grew. And this is how the apostle Paul, in the Book of Acts, this is how his ministry went. He preaches, he's persecuted, he goes to another place. He preaches, he's persecuted. He stands before officials, he preaches the Word. In verse 14, Jesus identifies a mysterious abomination of desolation that signals a new stage of the apocalyptic cycle is beginning. So, there's birth pains, but then He says, "Watch out for the second stage, and it comes with an abomination of desolation." That's verse 14. "When you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be, let the reader understand, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." And the phrase "abomination of desolation", it's used first in Daniel 9:11-12. And it speaks of a king, a foreign king, going into the temple and establishing an idol. So, someone, something is standing in the place of holiness. And because of this thing, it's so sacrilegious, it's desecrating the holy place, so God's presence leaves and the people of God leave. But the word for "standing" here makes it seem like this is a person. The word for standing, the participle for standing is masculine in gender, despite its referent, abomination, being neuter. So, it suggests that the desolating abomination is a person rather than an event. Someone is standing defiantly in the holy place, and that person is so evil that he makes the holy place desolate of the presence of God because it's an abomination in the eyes of God. And to understand what He's saying here, we have to remember the context. The context says Jesus just left the temple. And by leaving the temple, Jesus is removing the presence of God from the temple. Why? Because by rejecting Jesus, the temple cast out the presence of God, and yet defiantly continued standing. The Sanhedrin destroys the Son of God, and then for four decades, continues standing as if they didn't do anything. As if they didn't reject the Messiah. Well, they did reject the Messiah, and because they rejected the Messiah, God rejected that system, the system of Judaism, emphatically, through the destruction of the temple. And that's what Ezekiel was talking about, Ezekiel 8:6. "And He said to me, 'Son of man, do you see what they're doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations.'" So, practically, what this means to us is be careful. We are to be aware. We are to be aware that in a place of holiness, a place that represents God, there it was the temple, here we have to be aware of the church. And you look at all the churches, you look at all the denominations, the same cycle. They let in this delusion, and they let in this false teaching. And all of a sudden, instead of worshiping Jesus, there's an abomination of desolation that anyone with the Holy Spirit, you walk in and you say, "I can't be a part of this." So, the prototype remains. In Jesus' warning here about taking flight to the mountains, not turning back, leaving in haste, it reminds us, it's an echo of Lot. Abraham's nephew, Lot, and his family were warned to flee to the hills because judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah had come, and Jesus' injunction not to turn around recalls the way in which Lot's wife did turn around, with disastrous consequences. Luke 17:28, "'Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all, so will it be on the day when the Son of man is revealed. On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will keep it. I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken, the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken, the other left.' And they said to Him, 'Where, Lord?' And He said to them, 'Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.'" Jesus here is comparing Jerusalem to what cities? He's comparing Jerusalem to Sodom and Gomorrah. And this inversion has Biblical precedent. Isaiah did the same thing, when he compared the rulers of the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah in Isaiah 1. Revelation does the same thing, Revelation 11:8, "And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified." Jerusalem is equated with Sodom and Gomorrah, that's how sinful they had become, because they had rejected God. Mark 13:15-16, "Let the one who was in the housetop not go down, nor enter his house to take anything out, and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak." And Jesus here is describing an emergency evacuation, such as becomes necessary when an army is advancing swiftly, which happened in June 68 AD. Roman legions were entering Jerusalem and most of Jericho, and the population, in anticipation, left. Verse 17, "And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days." Verse 18, "Pray that it may not happen in winter. For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of creation that God created until now, and never will be." And that phrase, this "tribulation that has never been from the beginning", that's an idiom, same one that's used when, through Moses, God sends curses upon Egypt. That same phrase is used in Exodus 11. "There will be a loud cry throughout the whole land of Egypt, such as has never been and never will be." Revelation 16:18 uses the same language. "And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake." And then verse 20, Jesus says, "And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom He chose, He shortened the days." He's saying that if the Lord had not restrained judgment, all of humanity would perish. There would be no elect. But the Lord is going to restrain judgment, and that's what salvation is. Instead of giving us what we deserve for all of eternity, instead of sending us on the path that we are set on, the Lord saves us. He pulls us back, regenerates. "No, you're not Satan, Satan's your mind." And if God had not decided to restrain, no one would be saved. If God didn't save anyone, no one would be saved. Isaiah 1:9-10 is similar to verse 20 of Mark 13. "If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we would have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah. Hear the Word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah." And the specter of Sodom's destruction then continues to haunt our passage. But there is hope. God has left a seed, He's preserved a remnant. And for the sake of the remnant, He will spare humanity from total destruction. And the phrase "for chosen ones are the elect" is the same phrase that St. Paul uses in Romans 9-11, and Colossians, 2 Timothy. "The chosen ones are those that the Lord before the foundation of the world chose to save." And he used the word for "save" here, and it's the same word that's used in the Daniel context in Daniel 12, to talk about the Book of Life. Who's saved? It's those whose names are written in the Book of Life. Daniel 12:1-3, "At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever." In verse 19 of Mark 13, "For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of creation that God created until now, and never will be." The affirmation that God created everything seems superfluous. Why does He even include that in a text about God's judgment falling down upon the earth? It's to say that God has not given up on His creation. The creation that God chose to bring into existence through His words, the same creation that will be tempted through tribulation, He will soon recreate. Indeed, He has already begun to do so. He shortened the days, and the curtailment of tribulation is fixed in the divine mind. God knows when the end is, He knows the exact day, and it's as sure for Him as anything else He's said. So, how do you develop endurance? You don't develop endurance by thinking just about getting to the end. If your only goal in running the Boston Marathon is, "I just got to get to the end." You're going to be one of those people falling apart on Beacon Street. It's not just about getting to the end, it's not about just running to the end, it's about running through the end. It's about powerfully running through the finish line. So the question isn't, "Will I make it to the end?" The question is, "Will I endure through the end?" Is your name written in the Book of Life? How do you ensure that it is? Repent of your sins, and turn to Jesus Christ, who died on a cross outside the city that rejected Him, a city that was too proud to repent, and therefore it was destroyed, and the Spirit of God left the temple. Repent of sinning against this holy God, a God of judgment. And as real as the wrath was that God poured out on Jerusalem in the year 70, and as real as the wrath of God was when it was poured out on His beloved Son in the year 33 or so AD, four decades prior, it will be poured out on you for eternity, if you reject the forgiveness that Christ offers you today. And once you receive God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and repentance of sin, you are saved. And once saved, always persevering, because the one who endures to the end will be saved, in Jesus' name, amen. Let us pray. Lord God, we thank you for even the gift, the chance of being saved. We thank you for paying for our salvation on the cross. And I pray if anyone here is not sure about where they stand before you, I pray, give them the gift of repentance, regeneration, reconciliation with you. And Lord, for us as believers, I pray, give us the gift of the Spirit to endure, to think about running through the end, no matter what the pain is, to not focus on the pain, but to focus on the faithfulness, the faithfulness of following you. Today, doing everything we can to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ today, and to live in manner worthy of it. And Lord, continue to use us as a church to bring revival in this city. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Love God; Hate Lies

April 14, 2024 • Jan Vezikov • Mark 12:35–44

This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com  Heavenly Father, we thank you that you, the God of love, the living and loving God, sent your son Jesus Christ to live the life that we were supposed to live, he did it in our stead, and to die the death that we deserve to die for our law breaking. Jesus, we thank you that through your resurrection on that third day, on that first Sunday, the first resurrection day, you triumph over Satan's sin and death. The greatest enemies, our greatest enemies were placed as a foothold under your feet. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are the life and the resurrection. You promise that whoever believes in you, though he die, will pass into eternal life. We thank you for the promise of the resurrection, that in the resurrection we will rise with glorified bodies, transformed bodies. We pray, Lord, that you continue to establish us by the power of the Holy Spirit in your will in obedience of faith. We thank you for the Holy Scriptures, Lord, and as we meditate on how Christ read the Scriptures, how he revered the Scriptures, how he submitted to them, I pray that you make us some people who love the holy Word of God and make us some people that long to be truly devout, sincere in our faith, knowing that your opinion of us is the one that matters most. Lord, make us the people that hate hypocrisy, hate hypocrisy within ourselves, that distance between what we show to the world and what we are inside and make us the people of integrity, integrated within loving you with all of our heart, with all of our strength, with all of our mind and strength. Lord bless our time, the Holy Word. We pray this in Christ's name, amen. We're continuing our sermon series through the Gospel of Mark called the Gospel of Mark and the Secret of God's Kingdom, Kingdom Come. The title of sermon today is Love God and Hate Lies. You've seen the yard sign, "Hate has no home here." Well, then God has no home there because God hates, and that sign hates God. God hates because God is love. Because he is love, there are things that he hates. In Proverbs 6:16-19 it says, "There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are in abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers." Our God is a God of perfect holiness; therefore, he must hate evil to remain in perfect holiness. And our God is a God of infinite love; therefore, he must hate that which destroys the object of his love lest he isn't loving. To love is to hate. To love God is to hate Satan. To love good is to hate evil. Proverbs 8:13 says, "The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance in the way of evil and perverted speech I hate." Or Romans 12:9, "Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good." So to love truth, we must hate lies. Psalm 119:163 says, "I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law." To love God's word is to hate any perversion of it, any adulteration of it, and to love the Gospel is to hate any false gospel. Galatians 1:8-9, "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed." Strong words. A false gospel dishonors the person and the work of Christ, and Christ is the supreme object of God's love, the supreme display of his infinite goodness, and the one who accomplishes God's ultimate purpose to display his glory. In false gospels, they lead people away from Christ and the gospel by which they may be saved and enjoy forgiveness of sin, new life, and eternal happiness with God. God's love for people leads him to a place where he does hate that which leads them astray, which destroys them. And that's sin. God hates sin. In addition to its ugliness and opposition to the beauty of his holiness, sin ruins people. Therefore, loving God who loves people, he hates that which ruins them. True love hates that which hurts the object of God's love. To love sincerity is to hate hypocrisy. That's what we see in our text today, that Jesus hates hypocrisy. To conform to the image of Jesus Christ is to love what he loves and hate what he hates. Jesus loves God's Word; therefore, we are to love God's Word. Jesus loves the bride, the church; therefore, we are to love the church as Jesus did. Today we're in Mark 12:35-44. Would you look at the text with me? "And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, 'How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?' David himself and the Holy Spirit declared, 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand until I your enemies under your feet. David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?"' And the great throng heard him gladly. And in his teaching he said, 'Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.' And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins which make a penny. He called his disciples to him and said to them, 'Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.'" This is the reading of God's holy and errant and fallible authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. First, love the Scriptures like Jesus; second, hate hypocrisy like Jesus; and third, love sacrificial devotion like Jesus. First, love the Scriptures like Jesus. Having vanquished his opponents in a series of verbal duels against the synagogue, the Sanhedrin, the scribes of the Sanhedrin, we see this in Chapter 11, Chapter 12, he silenced the crowd. He silenced the religious establishment, the religious leaders. We know that through entering Jerusalem to the adulation of the crowds who cried out "Hosanna!" Then by entering the temple courtyard and driving out the merchants and the money changers, Jesus is throwing down the gauntlet. "Sanhedrin religious leaders, what are you going to do with the one who claims that he is the son of David, with the one who claims that the Messiah is here?" Through his actions, Jesus is messing with the support and the cash flow of the Sanhedrin. So they confront him publicly, and privately they plot to kill him. Jesus overturns their tables, and now he turns the tables against them. After a day of them questioning him, now he questions them with the question of the day. And the question is, "Is Jesus Lord? If Jesus is Lord, Sanhedrin, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to submit to Christ as Lord?" This is Verse 35, "As Jesus taught in the temple, he said, 'How can the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of God?'" In the Greek where it says, "He taught in the temple," it says, "He answered," meaning, he's answering their silence. He has silenced them. They should have then humbled themselves and said, "Lord, we humble ourselves underneath your authority and the teaching of Scripture," But that's not what they do. So he now answers their proud silence by asking them a question. Jesus had already entered Jerusalem in triumph. He has been hailed as the vanguard of David's restored dominion. This is the Messiah. He's here. The people have accepted him. Now Jesus is asking, "How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?" He used the word Christ, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word for messiah, the one who is anointed to be king. Jesus had accepted the Messianic praises. He is the son of David. But by asking this question and by starting this conversation, what Jesus is getting at is, is the messiah only the son of David? Because if the messiah is only the son of David, then the messiah is only king of Israel. That's what they thought. That's what Israel thought that the messiah is going to be. Because David was the greatest king Israel ever had, the messiah is David's son; therefore, the messiah is going to be a king just like David, a king of only Israel. This is where they wrongly assumed that God was the God of only Israel, that God was the God of only their people, only their nation. So Jesus here is expanding the definition of the messiah by asking, "How can the messiah be only David's son?" What the people could not see is that while Jesus came as Israel's Messiah, he didn't come to save Israel from Rome. He didn't come to save them from the occupying forces. He didn't come to restore Israel to their former glory. He came to save them. He came to save them from their sins, but not just them, also people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. Their expectations were not too high for the Messiah. They were too low. The scribes of Jesus' day interpreted the messianic prophecies to mean that Israel's messiah would be a biological descendant of David and a great king to return Israel to its greatness. This makes all the more surprising what happens next. Jesus goes on the offensive, not against pagans, but against Jewish scribes who teach that the messiah is simply the son of David. So Jesus in Verse 36 says, "David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared, 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet."'" Here King Jesus quotes Psalm 1:10, which was authored by David, but Jesus doesn't say, "David himself declared." He says, "David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared." Here Jesus is revealing how he viewed Scripture, how he viewed the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, as we call it, that the Holy Spirit is the one that penned the Scriptures through David, through the authors. Here we see the Holy Trinity. The Spirit is writing through King David, and then it says the Lord, that first Lord in the Hebrew is Yahweh, that's God the Father, and the second Lord is Adonai, which is Lord, which is Jesus Christ. So God the Father says to God the Son, "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet." We have the Holy Trinity right there in that text. But how does this inform your understanding of Holy Scripture? Do you view Holy Scripture as Jesus did that it was written by the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. 2 Peter 1:16 says, "For we do not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was born to him by the Majestic Glory, 'This is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased,' we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns in the morning, star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." I find J.C. Ryle's comments here extremely relevant. He says the following, "Let us learn in the first place from these verses how much there is about Christ in the Old Testament Scriptures. Our Lord desires to expose the ignorance of the Jewish teachers about the true nature of the Messiah." He does it by referring to a passage in the Book of Psalms and showing that the scribes did not rightly understand it. In so doing, he shows us that one subject about which David was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write was Christ. We know from our Lord's own words in another place that the Old Testament Scriptures testify of Christ, John 5:39, "They were intended to teach men about Christ by types and figures and prophecy until he himself should appear on Earth." We should always keep this in mind in reading the Old Testament, but never so much as in reading the Psalms. Christ is undoubtedly to be found in every part of the law in the prophets, but nowhere is he so much to be found as in the Book of Psalms. His experience and sufferings as first coming into the world, his future glory and his final triumph as second coming are the chief subjects of many a passage in that wonderful part of God's word. It is a true saying that we should look for Christ quite as much as David in reading the Psalms. Let us beware of undervaluing or despising the Old Testament. In its place and proportion, the Old Testament is just as valuable as the New. There are probably many rich passages in that part of the Bible which have never yet been fully explored. There are deep things about Jesus in it, which many walk over like hidden gold mines and know not the treasures beneath their feet. Let us reverence all the Bible. All is given by inspiration and all is profitable. One part throws light upon another, and no part can ever be neglected without loss and damage to our souls. A boastful contempt for the Old Testament Scriptures has often proved the first step towards infidelity. So as Jesus quotes Psalm 110, one thing to note is that the New Testament quotes Psalm 110 more than any other text from the Old Testament. 33 times it quotes Psalm 110. I'll read the whole passage of Psalm 110:1, "The Lord says to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.' The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments; from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, 'You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.' The Lord is at your right hand; he shall shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he shall shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way; and therefore he will lift up his head." So the same Lord that is referred to in Verse 1 is also referred to in Verse 4. There we read, "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." So we see here that not only is the Lord on the throne, not only is the Lord the King, but he's also the priest. He's not a priest according to the order of Levi. He's a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. So whoever this Messiah is, yes, he's the son of David, but he's so much greater. His dignity is so much more profound because he is eternal. He's an eternal priest, an eternal king. "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet." The messiah was thought to be a biological ancestor of David. Yet, David here is saying, "No, the Messiah is greater than I am, much more exalted than I am." Possesses a far greater dignity than David's own. In fact, David calls the Messiah, "My Lord," and Jesus' question is here, "How is the son of David called Lord by David?" That's the question of Verse 37. "David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son? And the great throng heard him gladly." The logic seems to be that no father calls a child or calls a son Lord. Therefore, if David calls the Messiah Lord, is it appropriate to call the Messiah just the son of David? How can the Messiah fulfill these prophecies about an eternal Messiah if he is simply David's son? This is what Jesus here is questioning. He's not denying his physical descent from King David. No. Jesus is from the tribe of Judah. He is the Lion of Judah. What he's saying is, "I need to expand your definition of the messiah." He's not just the son of David. He's not just the messiah for Israel. He's also the Son of God. That's why David calls his son Lord. By asking this provocative question, Jesus is letting the people know he's the Lord. He's the Lord that David referred to. Yes, he's the son of David. He's also the Son of God. If he is David's Lord, then his messianic mission cannot be limited simply to restoring the nation of Israel to its former greatness. Jesus' kingdom is not of this world; therefore, his kingdom is for the whole world. Jesus isn't just king of the Jews. He's not just king of Israel. He's not just king of Christians. He is king over everything. The question is, are we going to submit to him here and now and say, "Lord Jesus, I'm yours. I want to serve you. I love you. What would you have me do?" or do we wait until all of the enemies of Jesus Christ will be placed under his feet, including those who reject the gospel in this life? The irony is that David's Lord and descendant is standing in the very same temple which was designed to point Israel to Jesus Christ, and they don't recognize him. Although the people were amazed at his words, they definitely didn't fully understand what Jesus is saying. If they had, in a few days they would not have cried out, "Crucify him!" They heard him greatly. They received him gladly. Romans 1:3-4 makes this clear that Jesus is both the son of David and the Son of God. "...concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of in by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord." In the next passage, Jesus will impugn the characters of the scribes in the Sanhedrin, accusing them bluntly of oppressing and of their hypocrisy. Meaning, they mouth the words, "Yes, Lord. Yes, you're Yahweh. Yes, you're Adonai," but deep inside they had no love for the Lord, and therefore, they were hypocrites. Jesus shows us how much he hates hypocrisy. In point two: hate hypocrisy like Jesus. Psalm 97:10, "O you who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked." One of the greatest forms of evil is hypocrisy because hypocrisy is evil masquerading as good. It's lies masquerading as truth. It's wolves in sheep clothing. How odious is the sin of hypocrisy in the sight of Jesus, so he says in Verse 38, "Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts." This is the irony of ironies that those who claim to love God the most, who claim to love the law of God the most, who view themselves as the guardian and defenders of the faith didn't know God. They didn't want the blessings of God as much as they wanted the trappings that came with religious service. They claimed to be zealots for God, but they devoted themselves entirely to presenting themselves as righteous, presenting themselves as holy. These men may strive to please God in some sense, but they love the perks of holiness. They love walking around in their flowing robes, receiving the greetings of the people, taking the seats of honor, talking as if they know the Lord when they don't. Then Jesus exposes that they're actually using this front, this façade, this posturing as a means to evil gain. When Jesus says, "Beware of the scribes," he's not just saying, "Okay, beware of those religious people out there." He's saying, "Beware of the same hypocrisy in their heart, beware of that same hypocrisy in your own." Hypocrisy is so dangerous because it's lies that people begin to believe themselves. It's self-delusion. If you think you're right with God, if you think you're righteous, if you think you're a good person, you start to begin believing that, and you want to be around people who think you're righteous. This is exactly what these people were doing. In an honor-conscious, Greco-Roman society, these distinctions about the robes and the seats and the positions of honor and the greetings, there were important signs of status. What Jesus is saying that that's what was most important to them than the delight of God the Father. Then Mark 12:40, "... who devour widows' houses and for pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation." They were devourers of the good of the poor saying they did so on the grounds of justice, but in reality they were destroying those on the fringes. Here Jesus rips off the scribes' mask of respectability to reveal the brutal, even demonic reality underneath. We see this in the words, "They love to be at feasts," where there was civilized dining, and then when no one's looking, they're devouring the houses of the widows. The same word for devour was used only one other time in Mark, in Mark 4:4 where Satan comes like the bird to eat the Word of God, the seed of the Word of God. These very pillars of society, men distinguished as such by dress and universal acclaim, they're revealed to be demonic abusers of the helpless, and then they use prayer as a means of veiling their assaults. To add insult to injury, in the book of Deuteronomy, the Levites were included along with the widows, the orphan, and the resident aliens as people who require societal support. So the Levites, they didn't own land, and because they didn't have land ownership, they relied on the people and the gifts of the people for their sustenance. But instead of relating to the widow and the orphan and the resident alien, they betrayed a sacred trust. They violated it and defrauded them. This is particularly heinous in the eyes of the Lord because God loves the widow, and he loves the orphan, and he loves the resident alien. The widow's house was often the sum total of her inheritance. That's all she had. What these scribes did was they would go to the widow and they'd say, "Well, have you paid your tithes to the temple? Oh, we see you have not." Then through their legalese, they would take the house away from the widow, and they would say, "We're giving it to the Lord." How does the Lord view this? He said they're going to receive great condemnation. They're going to receive God's justice. If you do not repent of your sin, justice will come down upon you for this law-breaking, for this heinous crime. The Old Testament often threatens with judgment those who oppress widows, orphans, and other helpless persons. The Lord hates defrauding. He hates robbing. If you've ever been robbed, if you've ever been defrauded, you know that feeling of violation. I was actually surprised by this. A neighbor ran up to me a little while back. He said, "Have you seen my daughter's bicycle?" They had parked it in the back of the condominium association, and then someone came and just took the bicycle. This is a very established, even-keeled gentleman. I will never forget the look of disgust as if he was violated. It's just a bicycle. Well, people defraud all the time, that we live in an evil world. The Lord sees and the Lord will bring justice. We as believers, we are to be thankful to the Lord for that, that the Lord hates evil and he will judge it. The question we got to ask, is there evil in my life, in my heart that the Lord hates, that the Lord wants to condemn? If so, I need to repent. That's how you battle hypocrisy. You battle hypocrisy by saying, "Lord, yes, I present myself as a follower of Christ, but when I get on my knees, I know my sin, I know my evil and you know it as well. Lord, forgive me. Lord give me grace and help me put this evil to death." These were people that used evil as... They used the excuse that good will come or we'll take the houses. We're going to build up the temple. Saint Paul writes in Romans 3:8, "Why not do evil that good may come? As some people slanderously charged us with saying, 'Their condemnation is just.'" Isaiah 10 makes this practice of the scribes as they oppress the widows clear. Isaiah 10:1, "Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil and that they may make the fatherless their prey! What will you do on the day of punishment in the ruin that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help and where will you leave your wealth? Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. For all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still." The oppressors are said to defraud their victims with evil writs or iniquitous decrees or documents, documents that would come from a scribe. They would seize the property because they said, "Look, according to our documents, you haven't paid the tithes, so we're taking it." Jesus Christ, he hates this hypocrisy, he hates this injustice, he hates this evil, and above all else, he hates the fact that these people presented themselves as righteous and they're using their pseudo-righteousness as a cover for evil. The Lord reserved his strongest language, his strongest and heaviest denunciations against hypocrisy. Yes, it's bad enough to be led away and captive to open sin and to serve diverse lusts and pleasures, but it's even worse to pretend like you're having a living faith, but in reality, you serve the world. So we as believers, we have to be aware, "Beware," Jesus says, "of falling into this abominable sin, beware of ever putting on a cloak of hypocrisy." Let us be real, honest, thorough, and sincere in our following of Christ. We can trick people for a little while, but we will never trick God. God is not mocked. He's the discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart and his all-seeing eye pierces through the varnish, the tinsel which cover the unsound heart. Having predicted judgment of the scribes who devour widows' houses, Jesus now turns his gaze to an impoverished widow. He's sitting there watching as she gives, and he commends her for her generosity. The two passages are meant to be taken together. They're an illustration of the age-old motif of the two ways. There's two ways. You can either pretend to be a follower of the Lord but deep down inside it's just corruption and sin, or the path is offered to be like this widow where she is serving the Lord. No one sees, she thinks. It's all hidden, and her poverty is matched by her generosity. So we are to be careful to, yes, believe the right things but also live our lives in a way that our lives adorn the doctrine of Christ. This brings us to the third point: love sacrificial devotion like Jesus, Verse 41, "He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums." It says he sat down, and the sitting could be significant, especially after Jesus just claimed to be the Lord sitting at the right hand of Yahweh, and he sits opposite the treasury. Most exegesis say this treasury is part of the Woman's Court that had 13 brass receptacles shaped like trumpets. You would come up to the brass receptacle that's shaped like a trumpet, and you'll put your coins in. There was no paper currency at the time. So when people threw the coins in, the more coins, the bigger the coins, the heavier the coins, the more noise they made. When this poor widow brings her money, there's not much noise. Verse 42, "A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny." This is the least valuable of the Roman coins, the smallest coin in circulation. She's giving all she has, but it's not much. Jesus is there. He's watching and he's sitting. Verse 43, "He called his disciples to him and said to them, 'Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box.'" All those contributing, Jesus is using that phrase collectively, that this one widow gave more, according to Jesus, than everyone else combined. Why? Because of Verse 44, "They all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on." All she had to live on, that phrase is even her whole living. The word bios is used. It literally means life. She's given all she has. She's given her life, everything she had for her life. The crucial thing we learned is not the quantity that gives, but the scarcity from which one gives, what's subsequently left over. It's more commendable to give out of poverty than out of abundance, according to the Lord. I do want to point out that the Lord notices. The most sacrifices that we make for the Lord, no one sees, but the Lord does see, and the Lord does notice, and the Lord does keep track. The depth of the widow's sacrifice is emphasized by the repetition at the end. "She gives everything she has." When the rich young ruler came to Jesus Christ and said, "How can I obtain eternal life? How can I inherit eternal life?" Jesus says, "Go sell all that you have, all that you have." Here she gives all that she has. One thing to point out is, on the one hand, Jesus excoriates the Sanhedrin and the temple and the institution in this corruption. On the other hand, he points to this precious soul within the institution that doesn't know about all of the corruption. She's giving out of her love for the Lord. We see this example all throughout the Scriptures. In the Book of Luke, we see Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna, all who go to the temple to pray as expressions of their piety. But then also in the Book of Acts, we see Stephen get up and preach a sermon in which he excoriates the temple and predicts its destruction by God. So it is possible to recognize the corruption of an institution, the venality of its officers, at the same time to admire the piety of the simple souls who devote themselves to an innocent faith. Jesus' point is that what sinful men and women regard as piety like the scribes did, well, Jesus doesn't really care about that. The scribes had their robes and they had their seats and they had their greetings. They thought they gave a lot to the Lord. But the Lord is saying he cares more about the precious state of the heart of this woman. When the kingdom of God comes in power, God reverses everything sinful. Yet, religious people think about what God expects. This week I celebrated my birthday. Someone asked me, "What'd you do?" I said, "I did my favorite thing. I did nothing." That's my favorite thing. I went for a walk. Then we had Raising Cane's with my girls in the evening. It was a very nice. Raising Cane's shout out with the secret sauce. Then my daughters gave me a little gifts, little note cards. My youngest daughter gives me this card that she drew. It's beautiful. "Dad, you're the best dad ever," thank you, thank you, and a big picture, beautiful, we're holding hands. Then I open it up. There's a dollar bill inside. I was like, "No way!" I was like, "A dollar bill?" I'm looking at it, I was like, "It's a dollar bill. Baby, do you know inflation? Come on. It's not worth anything. You can't buy a thing." Maybe that's why she gave it to me. "Dad, I know inflation." No, she's in the first grade. She doesn't know about that. It's all she had. This is like her greatest treasure. "I'm six. What can I get my dad? I'm going to make him a card, and I'm going to give him my net worth. Here you go, a dollar." I'm never going to spend that dollar. I've got it on my mantle. I'm never going to spend it. It's so precious to me. That's what the Lord is saying. God looks at the heart. God notices not how much, but from how much. God does not look at the size of the gift but the dimensions of the sacrifice behind it. God looks at the heart of the giver. The depth of the widow's sacrifice is emphasized by the repetition at the end. "She gives everything she has, even her whole living all of her life." The widow is a fitting conclusion to the Lord's public ministry and is called to discipleship. Jesus said, "This is what it means to follow me. You take up your cross, deny yourself daily, and follow me." Here she is, a true disciple because she's lost her life for his sake, as Jesus says all true disciples will do. He, like her, will also give everything he has for the temple, but not the second temple, but the third temple. With his sacrifice on the cross, he's redeeming for himself a new people. Through those people, he creates a temple of the Spirit of God and a sanctuary not made by hands. This combination of self-sacrifice and eschatological construction will confound human ways of knowing. Jesus raises this contrast not to encourage us to give all that we have away, but rather to make the point that true piety, true faithfulness, true following of the Lord will often go unnoticed. True devotion will often go unnoticed because it's unassuming, because it's private. True piety is not a matter of mere external conformity to the law. Rather, true piety results from that faith to trust God to provide no matter what because he is a good God. But as Jesus insists, true righteousness isn't a matter of just outward demonstration. It's all about the heart. Then ultimately, we don't... Even with this widow, even this widow needed a righteousness that is not her own. She needed someone to die for her sins, to ransom her from the condemnation that we deserve. That's exactly what Jesus will do on the cross. So who is the Lord? Well, he is David's son, and he is also David's Lord. In other words, our Lord Jesus Christ here is saying that he is the Lord that demands that we love him with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. In the previous text, the scribe says, "What's the greatest commandment?" and Jesus says, "Here O Israel, the Lord our God. The Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind." In our text, Jesus says, "I'm the Lord. Yahweh says to me, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.'" So what Jesus here is saying is that he is the ultimate object of worship. The fact that Jesus of Nazareth was and is Almighty God is the single fact that unlocks the secret of your existence and the secret of the existence of every human being. It is the single reason why we as Christians have every right, not just right, every duty, obligation, we have every right and duty to say that every human being must become a Christian, every human being must become a follower of Christ. It's for this reason that Jesus, the first century man, has no rivals. He has no successors. His life is unique and it is final. If you make the crucial discovery that Jesus is God, you can't avoid the conclusion that all of the other religions are not true. That Islam, which regards Jesus just as a prophet, but not even the ultimate prophet, that Islam and, for that matter, Judaism or Buddhism or any other human religion or philosophy is wrong at the very key point. They may be right about many things, but they're wrong about the most essential point. It is the fact that Jesus Christ is God that makes the Christian faith true and all the other religions and philosophies false at the bottom. In this text, we have two mysteries for the price of one. We have the plurality of the persons within the unity of the Godhead. We have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and we have the union of the Godhead and the manhood in the person of Jesus. He is the son of David; therefore, he is fully man. He is the Son of God; therefore, he is God himself. But mysterious as all this may be, the logic is clear and the logic is irresistible. If Jesus is God and died for the sins of the elect and obviously that and only that is the way of salvation, Jesus is the only way that we can be reconciled with God. For someone who has embraced Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the fact that he is both God and man makes him unquestionably deserving of our absolute and unquestioning loyalty. There's only two ways. Either you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind in this age, either you love Jesus Christ; or you are his enemy and you will be placed under his feet for all eternity. If you're not sure, today we urge you, we plead with you, turn to Jesus Christ in your heart of hearts in prayer and say, "Lord Jesus, forgive me for my sins. You are Lord. I am not. I have sinned. And Lord Jesus, forgive me. Give me grace and make me a person that is fully devoted to you no matter the sacrifice." 1 Corinthians 12:3, "Therefore, I want you to understand that no one's speaking in the spirit of God ever says 'Jesus is accursed!' and no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit." Then the concluding words of 1 Corinthians 16:22, "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen." Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this text and we thank you that you are a God who loves us; therefore, you hate sin. On the cross, Lord, we see both your love for us in that you sent your Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for our sin. We also see your hatred of sin as you pour out your wrath on your Son as he bore our sins, the penalty for our sins. Lord Jesus, we pray that you continue to make us the people that love you, love your word, love the truth, and hate lies. Make us the people who long to be sincere in our walk with you. Make us the people who hate hypocrisy, beginning with the hypocrisy that's so close to our hearts. The Holy Spirit, continue to build us up as your church, the church of Jesus Christ. Continue to draw the elect and continue to use us powerfully as a witness here in the city. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

The Living & Loving God

April 7, 2024 • Jan Vezikov • Mark 12:18–34

The Insanity of Killing God

March 24, 2024 • Mark 12:1–17

Speaker 1: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicoston.com Speaker 2: Heavenly Father, we're so thankful for the privilege and the blessing it is to gather. As Your people, we don't take this for granted. What a blessing it is to gather and experience Your presence and give You Your due glory. We worship You, Father, and we thank You that the only way that we were allowed back into the Father's house, into the Father's presence was because of the sacrifice of the Son. And Jesus, we thank You that You came and You lived a perfect life obedient to the Father, to the very last drop on the cross. And we thank You that You did that to provide a way, to provide a gateway into the Father's house. And we thank You that when we repent of sin, You do forgive us of our rebellion, of our hostility toward You, and we do acknowledge that that's real. In many ways, often we live as if You don't exist or as if You're not God over certain parts of our life where we just block that section out and live in indifference toward You and Your will. So we ask for forgiveness for that. We pray from the holy Scriptures today that You teach us, that You, Holy Spirit, minister to us in a way that only You can. And I pray, do point out those places of rebellion in our hearts and in our lives and give us the grace to submit ourselves holistically to You. Lord, bless our time with the holy Scriptures, and we pray all this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series through the incredible Gospel of Mark, and the title of the sermon today is The Insanity of Killing God. A few years back, I remember reading about a famous child actor who upon growing up claimed that he had divorced his parents. He claimed to have divorced himself from his parents. He said the words and perhaps he even filed some of the official legal documents, but of course he could not divorce himself from the reality of the origin of life. As we meditate on Holy Week, the most important week in all of human history, we're given a front row to what happened to God when He became one of us. A few years ago, there was a famous song and there's a line that went, "What if God were one of us?" Well, He was and we killed him. And just imagine the insanity of doing this to really think that you can get rid of God. And you might not live in just complete outright vocal rebellion toward God, but you might live as if God is dead to you. Meaning the idea of God is so distant from your life, He might as well be dead to you. And aren't you doing the same thing as the Jews and the Romans? Aren't you attempting to kill God? But you can't kill God. He's eternal, of course. Jesus, when they tried to keep Him down, they couldn't. He came back from the dead. And that shouldn't be surprising knowing who Christ was. We should have all seen that one coming. What is surprising is that anybody would want to kill God. Why would you try to liquidate the one who gave you life? You literally bear His image. His image is printed upon you. You're His. You belong to Him. Why do we have this hostility in our hearts? Because we don't want to give up authority to govern our lives as we please. The stubborn grip on the throne of our lives leads to our self-destruction. Because you can't kill God, you can't get rid of the stubborn fact that God is, He always will be. And it would be wise of us to make peace with God while we still have a chance, while we're still alive, to accept His fatherly authority, to accept His love, to accept his provision and His protection, and to give Him His due, which is obedience of faith from the heart, to glorify Him, honor and worship Him. And if you meditate upon it, it is absolutely insane to rebel against God because you won't win. He always wins. He's God. And rebelling against God will always lead to self-destruction, but still there's a desire to rebel. Edgar Allan Poe, one of America's greatest writers who knew all about self-destruction intimately, he coined the phenomenon of willful self-destruction as, quote, perverseness. In one of his works, the Imp of the Perverse, Poe contends that just knowing something is wrong is the one unconquerable force that makes us do it. We all have an overwhelming tendency to do wrong for wrong's sake. We're all tempted by the forbidden fruit. And often, it's not the fruit itself that irresistibly draws us but the fact that it's forbidden. Don't do this is sometimes the only reason why we're tempted to do it. The forbidden is a powerful magnet pulling on our sinful hearts because deep inside, if we're honest, we absolutely despise someone telling us what to do, even if it is God, especially if it is God. And in our text today, Jesus reveals this innate suicidal enmity toward God and He graciously offers to save us, and He does it by allowing his own destruction, His own self-destruction, so to speak, to save us from our self-destruction. And thereby, He provides the means to replace, to plant that enmity toward God with love and obedience. Today, we're in Mark 12:1-17. Would you look at the text with me? "And He began to speak to them in parables. 'A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the wine press and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again, he sent to them another servant and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally, he sent him to them saying, "They will respect my son." But those tenants said to one another, "This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours." And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.' What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture? "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes."' And they were seeking to arrest Him but feared the people for they perceived that He had told the parable against them. So they left Him and went away. And they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians to trap Him in his talk. And they came and said to Him, 'Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or should we not?' But knowing their hypocrisy, He said to them, 'Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.' And they brought one and He said to them, 'Whose likeness and inscription is this?' They said to Him, 'Caesar's.' Jesus said to them, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.' And they marveled at him." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative Word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. First, our three points to frame over our time. First, suicidal enmity toward the Father. Second, suicidal enmity toward the messengers. And third, suicidal enmity toward the Son. First, suicidal enmity toward the Father. After Jesus had entered Jerusalem on Passover week, Holy Week, and He entered by receiving the worship from the people, they cried out, "Hosanna, God save us." He received their acclamations and did not reject them. And by doing so, He's throwing down the gauntlet. The time has come for Him to do a face-off with the spiritual authorities of the day. And after deflecting the religious leader's hostile challenge to His authority in the previous text, Jesus tells a parable here, and it's a powerful parable. And a lot of people think parables are just stories. They're not. Parables are used as verbal weapons. And here, Jesus Christ is leveling a wrecking ball of a parable. And what are they weapons against? Against the people, not the people themselves, but the ideas that they are promulgating, the ideas that they represent. And what are the ideas that Jesus is wrecking here with His words? They're ideas of authority. He's demolishing their man-made authority structures which put them higher than God. And this, friends, of course is very highly relevant because this is every single person's problem. We put human authority above God's authority, and no one is higher than God and no one is higher in authority than God the Father. Read Matthew 23 this week as you prepare for Good Friday. Matthew 23 is the sermon that got Jesus crucified. He was murdered because of His words. That's how powerful of a wrecking ball they were. Jesus' sermon, Matthew 23, destroys all of the authority structures of Israel of that day. And in Matthew 23:8-9, Jesus says this, "But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth for you have one Father who is in heaven." Now, anyone listening at that time was incredibly offended by these words. In one sentence, Jesus dismantles the Jewish system of authority showing them no, a rabbi is not higher than God himself. God's word and not human tradition is preeminent in authority. And then He says don't call anyone father in one fell swoop. He is dismantling the system of authority in the Catholic Church that has a man at the very top of the system of authority. Jesus says don't call anyone father. And I've always found it confusing that Catholics call priests father but don't let them ever become a father. That's all confusing and Jesus knocks all that http://down.how did Jesus teach us to pray to the Father? Our Father. Jesus didn't pray to Jesus. Jesus prayed to the Father. And this is important that when you do pray, pray to God the Father because it reminds us who's in charge. It reminds us who has ultimate authority over us. He created us, He cultivates us, He protects us, and He owns us. Mark 12:1, "Jesus began to speak to them in parables. 'A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the wine press and built a tower and leased it to tenants and went into another country.'" We're not told how the man got the capital that was needed to buy the land and buy the equipment, the infrastructure, et cetera. Most likely this is a man that had to work for years, maybe a decade plus, to accumulate the capital, and he takes on risk and he works really hard and he does this in order to reap a harvest from his work. And the main purpose of verse 1 isn't just to elaborate details of the allegory, et cetera. The details here are to show that this is all done in love. This is a man who worked hard with the land, with his hands, with what the Lord has given him to create something beautiful. And what's the fence for? The fence is to protect what this man has lovingly created. He of course here represents God the Father. Later on in the text, we know that he sends a son. Therefore, he is a father. The man represents God the Father, and the Father is a creator, he's a cultivator, and he's a protector. The fence was there to protect from external threats, but it turned out that the threats were internal. And this is a good reminder of every father's job. If you've been given the blessing of being a father, your job is to create, to cultivate, and to protect. Protect the child from threats, external and internal. We are to teach our children about sin within and we are to protect. We are teach them about the sinful flesh that is hostile toward God, and we are to teach them that there are consequences for sin. Yes, God does give grace, He does forgive, but we want to prevent you from the consequences of sin. And we are to teach them about grace and teach them how to flee sin and pursue righteousness because living righteously delights God the Father's heart. And when God is delighted, He delights to bless. The imagery and the details used in this text are taken from Isaiah 5 where the vineyard stands for Israel and the man for God. An ancient Jewish and Christian texts interpret the tower and the wine vat in Isaiah 5 as the temple and its altar and defense may stand for the walls of Jerusalem. Would you look at Isaiah 5:1-7 with me? "Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines. He built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out a wine vat in it. And he looked forward it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, oh, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I looked forward to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do in my vineyard. I will remove its hedge and it shall be devoured. I will break down its wall and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste. It shall not be pruned or hoed and briars and thorns shall grow up. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting. And he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed for righteousness, but behold, an outcry." So God is saying He's entrusted His people, the people of Israel, with His law, with His prophets, with His temple, with His priests and with land. And the expectation was that they would bear fruit for the Lord. The religious leaders were expected to govern Israel by God's Word, and the people were to be self-governed by God's Word. That didn't happen. So this man that planted this vineyard built the walls around it. He leases it out to tenants. They draft a lease with clear expectations, a clear payment for the rent, for leasing the land, and then the man went into another country. The application for all of us, the broader application is very clear. What this parable is telling us is that we are not our own. That we are not owners. That we do not own our lives. No, our time is leased to us. Our health is leased to us. Our bodies are leased to us from God the Father. You are a tenant, not an owner. And verse 2, "When the season came, he," the father, "sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard." So at the proper time, at time of harvest, he goes. And his graciousness, his generosity is evident in the text in that he doesn't demand most of the crop. He doesn't even demand half of the crop. No, he just wants some, some of the fruit of the vineyard. In biblical narrative, fruit is often a term to designate a life that's lived in obedience to God, a life in which people use the talents, the opportunities, the gifts that God has given us, our very lives for the Lord. And then the Lord loves to bless the fruitful life with more fruit. And here, what we see, one of the things that we notice here is there is a clear relationship between the tenants and the owner. It's a hierarchical relationship. It's a vertical relationship. A lot of people when they think about Christianity and they say, "No, Christianity is not a religion. It's a relationship." And I say, "Yes, it is a relationship. We are called to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind and love your neighbor as yourself." And to love the Lord, and that's the summary of the commandments, we keep His commandments. That's what Jesus said. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." And so we are not to forget that our relationship with the Lord is not horizontal and He is in charge, He is God, He is in authority. The relationship is offered to us by the grace of Jesus Christ. And the only way you enter into relationship with God the Father is on your knees, in humble repentance, forever defying His authority. And do the tenants pay their rent? No, of course not. Verse 3, "And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed." What are the tenants doing here? They start acting like owners. Why should we pay you? We did all the work." And they forget that they were gifted, so to speak, that all this work that was done prior. In a sense, they disown the owner. It's almost as if the owner doesn't exist. And this is happening nowadays with squatter's rights, et cetera. That's exactly what they do. The tenants decide that they're the owners and they're exercising so-called squatter's rights. How does this appear in our lives, in our world? Well, it's when people start looking at reality and think, "I'm going to decide how reality is. I get to decide what truth is. I'm going to live my truth. I am in authority of the definition. These are the values that I've chosen for myself, the reality that I've created. It's my body, therefore my sexuality, therefore my moral code. I decide. I'm a master of my own fate, the captain of my own soul." And here, what Jesus is doing is exposing the sinfulness in our rebellious hearts, this desire to claim ownership. But to claim ownership of yourself, to live as if you are your own, you're usurping the owner. And why do they act like this? Why do we act like this? Because we are born in a flesh that is hostile to God. Romans 8:7, "For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot." So the hostility has to do with the law. When we see God's law, we see God's demands upon us and we're hostile that God, You would demand these things. The owner just wanted a portion. He wanted some of the fruit of the harvest. And how does that apply to us? Well, the Lord wants all of us. He wants our whole life. But you know that you are living in ordered worship to the Lord. You are living underneath the authority of the Lord when you do govern yourself by the Ten Commandments. And you realize that the commandments are the way of life. This is the path of freedom. And one of them, the first commandments says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." That's the very first one. The fourth commandment says, "Thou shalt keep the Sabbath day holy." And there God makes a very specific, very clear demand. "One-seventh of your time, one day a week is mine." And by the way, this is how you grow. This is one of the greatest means of grace where you just commit and say, "Lord, I'm going to give you Sunday. Lord, I'm going to go to church on Sunday. Lord, I'm going to devote myself to the scriptures in prayer on Sunday." The Lord also tells us in the commandment, "Thou shall not steal." And God Himself, in Malachi 2, points to the commandment and he says, "You're stealing from me by not bringing the tithes to me." And there, we get very specific that God does want 10% of our earned income that we give to Him, give to His kingdom, or give to His church. Well, once you start getting very precise that this is what the commands demand of us, well, this is where people begin to experience the hostility within our hearts. For most of us, unbelief in God or lack of belief, it's not a head issue. It's not that there's not enough evidence. No, it's a will issue. Do we want to do the will of God? And there's hostility there. Intellectual skepticism for Christianity is often nothing more than a flimsy veneer covering deep-seated hostility. Aldous Huxley, the philosopher who coined the term agnostic and author of Brave New World, he said this, "I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning. For myself has, no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaningless was essentially an instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality of Christianity because it interfered with our sexual freedom. There was one admirably, simple method of justifying ourselves, agnosticism." Thomas Nagel in The Last Word writes, "I want atheism to be true. It isn't just that I don't believe in God, I don't want there to be a God. I don't want the universe to be like that." These tenants know that they are tenants and they hate it. They want to work for their own profit. They want to be the owners. And in many ways, we would rather like them live with this illusion of independence or self-sufficiency. But the day of reckoning is coming and the owner was sending messengers to try to get the tenants to come to their senses. And this is point 2, a suicidal enmity toward the messengers. In verse 4 of Mark 12 says, "Again, he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully." Sometimes when I preach a sermon, someone comes up to me and say, "Pastor, that was a great sermon, good sermon." And I always say the same thing. I say, "Praise be to God. And also, I'm just the messenger. Just the messenger. I'm like the mail man. I'm like UPS guy. I like that I'm bringing you packages." I like the UPS guy because he can park anywhere he wants, sidewalks, et cetera. But I say that tongue-in-cheek because I'm always thinking about this parable. "Oh, you like that? Keep coming back." We're going to continue preaching the text. And there will be messages in which you realize that, "I don't like that message. It doesn't make me feel good. It offends my sensibilities." So when you hear a sermon like that, for me, I'm just a messenger. I'm just the UPS guy. Don't kill me. If you try, there's many a lesson here, if you are called to proclaim the Word of God and to do it very publicly, do it out front, if you are called as a man of God to proclaim the Word of God, become a pastor, I just want you to know you will get opposition and the opposition is going to be hostile. And as the world becomes more and more in hostility toward the Lord, just know there will be a cost for bringing the clear message. They struck him in the head. They wounded this gentleman. And here, this series of messengers are echoes of the prophets that the Lord sent to his people and they suffered ill-treatment from their fellow Israelites. And Jesus also taught in the Sermon of the Mount. He said, "Blessed are you when others persecute you and revile you for my name's sake. Great is your reward in heaven." Mark 12:5, "And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others, some they beat and some they killed." The immediate application is that God sent prophets to the religious leaders to tell them, "Hey, stop acting like owners. Tend God's vineyard with God's Word for His prophet." And you see the incredible grace of this owner. He could have just called the authorities on these people. They could have been thrown out. No, he sends a messenger. He sends another messenger. He sends another messenger. Just incredible patience on this man's part. And this is what God had been doing all throughout salvific history of holy Scripture. He promised, "I will not leave myself without a witness." So He kept sending them. Jeremiah sent to the people, was beaten on multiple occasions, thrown into a pit, and finally stoned to death. Elijah, Amos, both of them were banished and forced to hide in caves. Ezekiel was murdered after a sermon. Habakkuk was stoned. Zechariah got chased into the temple and stoned near the altar. Uriah who prophesied around the same time as Jeremiah, he tried to escape into exile but the king tracked him down, brought him back to Israel, and ran him through with a sword. The prophet Micah was punched in the face by false prophets. Isaiah was put into a log and cut in half. And that's not even to mention what happened to the apostles. The religious people of the day, as they're hearing the sermon, they thought they looked at their past and the past of Israel's relation to the prophets and they thought it was something that they had grown past, that they were too righteous, that they were too morally upright to do something like this. And the irony, of course, was that they're about to do something much worse than their fathers had done in that they're going to kill the Son of God. There's an important lesson here for us. When you hear about the sins of people before us or sins of people today, it's so easy to look on people with disdain as if we've somehow progressed past sin. We have not. We do all each. We have a fallen heart. So when we see someone who sins, we shouldn't say, "What's wrong with them?" We should say, "What's wrong with the human heart? What's wrong with my heart? There go I, but for the grace of God." And it is grace that God sends messengers into our lives, and what do they tell us? They remind us that there is a God who is over us. He's the owner, we're the tenants. And if we've been living as owners, we are to repent because a day of reckoning, a day of judgment is coming. There will be times, dear Christian, that you won't like the message, the message of Scripture. You won't like when a brother or sister, they bring the message to you. And by the way, this is why it's so important to be part of a church, be plugged into a church, be part of a community group where you're walking with brothers and sisters, where you've covenanted together. So that when there does come a moment where you need someone to call you out, your brother and sister are there and they say, "You've given me permission to do this by joining the church. I need to bring this message to you." At those moments, do not reject the messenger. At those moments, receive the message humbly and bring it to the Lord and say, "Lord, is there truth to this?" If you don't like the message, don't just leave. It is tempting in those moments when someone calls out your sin to just bounce, to go find a church who don't really talk about sin, where they tickle your ears, where they give you a palatable message, where you just feel good about yourself all the time. No, no. You need a church that calls you out. You need a church to remind you of how much of a wicked sinner you are so that the cross of Jesus Christ is so much more meaningful. Lord Jesus, You save me from the sin. We need this reminder that we are not the owners and that God is a God who makes demands of us. There's many a church today that preaches a message about a God that demands nothing, a God that does nothing, one whom we can control with a modest investment of time and money. In those churches, those people aren't really seeking the true God of the universe. Romans 3:10 says, "None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God." Now, CS Lewis in his work called he Miracles, he has this tremendous low quote. "An impersonal God, well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth, and goodness inside our own heads better still. A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap, best of all. But God himself alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband, that is quite another matter. There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hushed suddenly. Was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion, man's search for God, suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found him? We never meant it to come to that. Worse still, supposing he had found us?" God sends us messengers. Sometimes it's through preachers or pastors. Sometimes it's through brothers and sisters. Sometimes it's through providential life circumstances that they shatter the illusion that you're in control. Sometimes it's just looking in the mirror and you're like, "Oh, what happened?" We're aging. That's what happened. The fragility of life where you get that phone call where a beloved has cancer, a beloved is in the hospital, all of a sudden your worldview just shatters. And those are all gracious reminders that we are living on borrowed time. Sometimes it's unfulfilled longings where you work for years, you work for a goal to become something, to become a person, to achieve something, and then you get it and then all you feel is emptiness inside because you realize, "I worked so hard for so long for something that doesn't satisfy." Lewis writes elsewhere. "If I find myself desires which nothing in this world will satisfy, the only explanation is that I was created for another world." God shows His grace toward us in this story in repeated ways. He sends messengers, messengers to remind them, "Hey, you want to be in a right relationship with the owner. It's for your good. You're going to flourish." And also, this is a good owner. He gives him a vineyard. I don't know if anyone's ever done a vineyard tour in California, Napa Valley. I've never done it. I've driven by. I've looked over covetously. No, I've repented. But this is majestic. This is the reason why lots of these great movies, the end with a vineyard, it's almost like heaven. It smells nice. There's grapes. There's wine, and praise be to God. But this shows the graciousness of the owner. What a great God we have. He's not just a lawgiver. He could have just created a prison, thrown them inside and said, "You're going to do what I say." That's not what he does. In love, He says, "Okay, here's everything that I have created, I've cultivated, I've protected. I'm entrusting it to you. Keep growing it. And all I ask for is a portion in return." If God were merely a lawgiver, I could in a sense understand people against Him. But He's not just a lawgiver. He's the giver of every good and perfect gift, including His law. He is the source and fount of every blessing and yet people spurn Him. The tenants don't listen to the messengers so the owner sends his son, and this is point 3, suicidal enmity toward the Son. Verse 6, "He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally, he sent him to them saying, "They will respect my son." The phrase "beloved son" echoes a story of Abraham's near sacrifice of his son Isaac. God came to him and said, "Take your son, your only son, your long-awaited son, your beloved son, and sacrifice him." Finally, He sent him to them last of all eschaton in the Greek. It's a technical term for the end of days. "Perhaps they'll respect my son." In verse 7, "But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours.'" "This is the heir, come." And readers, if you're reading this for the first time, you would imagine that okay, tenants, they finally come to their senses when they recognize the son as the father's surrogate. And perhaps if they sat down and reason things out, they would say, "Come on, let's get out of here. What are we doing? The judgment of the owner is coming down upon us." But instead of adopting the prudent course of respecting the son, they adopt the insane one of murdering him. And it's absolutely insane because there is no court that would've accepted the fact that their owners, especially if the owner was killed or the owner's son was killed. And this is a very well resourced father. What do they think is going to happen if they kill the father's beloved son? Here, we see suicidal enmity has blinded them to the insanity of this plan. And what are they longing for? For freedom from the owner. And this is what a lot of people want today. They want freedom from God, not recognizing that there is no freedom from God. We are designed to find our true freedom and right relationship with God and right relationship with his laws. True freedom isn't found when we usurp all control or all rules. It's found when we find the God who created us. We're created in His image. He knows how we're wired and He knows how we are to operate, to flourish. And we do that according to His law. The world says there is no truth. You make your own truth. And Jesus responds and He says, "No, I am the truth. And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." And what's the truth? The truth is that you are a sinner. I'm a sinner. We've transgressed God's law. But Jesus is a savior and He loves you. His love frees you to love Him back. And if we love Him, we keep His commandments. And here again, we see just how incomprehensible the mercy of this owner is and how incomprehensible the mercy of God is. After they kill messenger after messenger after messenger, He sends His beloved Son. "Come, let us kill him." That phrase is an echo of the biblical story of Joseph and his brothers. And since the tenant's words are identical with those of Joseph's evil brothers, we see a connection. The tenants of course act irrationally. And that's what God charges Israel with in doing in Isaiah 1:2-3. Chapter 1:2-3, "Hear, oh heavens, and give ear, oh earth, for the Lord has spoken. 'Children have I reared and brought up but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner and the donkey it's master's crib, but Israel does not know. My people do not understand.'" What do they do with the son? Verse 8, "And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard." The language here is reminiscent of the cross that Jesus Christ was crucified outside the gates of Jerusalem. The greatest evidence for our deep-seated hostility to God is the one time in the history of the world when God made himself physically vulnerable, people arrested Him, beat Him, tortured, crucified, and murdered Him. John 15:23-25 says, the words of Christ, "Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father, but the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled. 'They hated me without cause.'" It's like the Lord of the sheep, the great Shepherd, Jesus Christ. It says if He summons a few sheep from the flock and sends them back to the flock and say, "Teach the sheep how to live, teach the sheep my ways." And what do the sheep do? The sheep take them and begin to kill them. And then the shepherd becomes the sheep and the sheep slaughter him. Well, it turned out these weren't sheep at all. They're wolves in sheep's clothing. And what do you do with wolves who destroy sheep? You destroy them. And that's Mark 12:9, "What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others." The owner of the vineyard and the greatest courtyards is the Lord, the Lord of the vineyard. It's the same word that's used for God in the Old Testament, Yahweh. There will be a time when Yahweh comes back. There will be a time where the Lord of the vineyard is going to come and He's going to judge. He'll come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Who are the tenants in the immediate context? The Jewish leaders recognize that Jesus is talking about them. They view themselves as the tenants. They realize exactly what he's saying and they want to kill him. That's the insanity of it. He's calling the shots. He's telling the parable, "Do not do this. Do not kill the son." And they plan to kill the son. And if you follow this parable closely, you realize the removal of the tenants from the vineyard and transferring it to others. Jesus here is talking about deposing the Jewish leadership from spiritual authority over the people of God and then transferring that spiritual leadership to the church where Jesus Christ is the head of His body, the church. She is His bride. He is the head. And all throughout the Book of Acts, we see them wielding that authority. And you see that through the history of Jerusalem when it was destroyed in the Jewish war in years 66 through 73 as the church grew by the power of the Spirit. Therefore, the banished tenants represent Israel and the favored others, the early church which was the fusion of Jews and Gentiles who represent true Israel. Israel has lost its status as the people of God as symbolized by the catastrophic defeat in the Jewish war and has been replaced by the church. In Mark 12:10, Jesus continues, "Have you not read this Scripture? 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and this was the Lord's doing and it was marvelous in our eyes.'" Jesus here quotes Psalm 1:18, one of the five Psalms of the Hallel sung throughout Passover week. And when he entered in Jerusalem and everyone cried out, "Hosanna in the highest," they were quoting from the Psalm as well. So Jesus here quotes Psalm 1:18 and He says, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone." He's talking about Himself. "I will be rejected but I am actually a foundational stone, the cornerstone for the church, for the people of God." And that cornerstone imagery, it's very clear. That's the most important stone in the foundation. But here in this text, in particular in Isaiah 28, it talks about Jesus as the foundational stone. But here for cornerstone, the Greek word for head is used. It's the head stone. And some commentators have argued that this is the elevated cornerstone or the key stone in the arch of the temple. And evidence for this is there was a head of the corner crowning the temple of God. So in one sense, Jesus Christ is our foundation, but he's also the crown of our lives. He's a crown of the church. He is the head of our lives. He was rejected, but his rejection led to our acceptance. Therefore, it's marvelous in our eyes. The father, when he sent the son, He said, "They will respect my son." And in a sense you read that and you're like, "That seems highly naive. Messenger after messenger was killed. Why do you think they're going to respect your son?" In a sense, yeah, they didn't respect him. But in a sense this is also prophetic. There will come a time when everybody will respect the name of Jesus Christ. Either we accept His name, either we accept His authority and lordship over our lives now in humility, we come humbly, or we will be humbled when He returns for the second judgment. When the son shows up, he's killed out of enmity. But the wisdom and the beauty of the glory of the gospel is the very killing that comes from their enmity is the very way in which God slays that enmity. Verse 12, "When they were seeking to arrest Him but fear the people for they perceived that He had told the parable against them, so they left Him and went away." They still fear the crowd because the crowd is still with Jesus so they need to hatch a plan where they take the crowd support away from Jesus. And that's what the next part of the text is about in verse 13. "And they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians to trap him in his talk." The Herodians are mentioned here because Herod was a proxy of Caesar. So he would collect the taxes from the Jewish people and the taxes then funneled through his coffers would go to Caesar. Obviously, he made a killing off of it. So the Herodians, they wanted the people to pay the taxes, hot button issue. And they know it's a trick because Jesus, if you say, "No, don't pay your taxes," now we can appeal to Caesar and he's going to kill you. If you say, "Go and pay your taxes," now the people will say, "Oh Jesus said you were the king. Why are we supporting Rome?" So that's the trap. Mark 12:14, "They came and said to Him, 'Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? And should we pay them or should we not?'" They start by saying, "You are true," which is hypocritical because he is true. They're unwittingly witnessing to the truth. But a few lines earlier, the chief scribes sent a question. They said through their proxies, they said, "By whose authority are you doing the things you're doing?" And here, all of a sudden they're like, "Oh, we know you are true. We know whose authority." Obviously they're being hypocritical. "You are true." That means there's no sin, there's no lies, there's no prevarication. "You do not care about anyone's opinion," meaning you fear God over people. So when people's opinions contradict the will of God or the teaching of God, you don't care. "And you are not swayed by appearances," meaning you don't judge by appearances. You don't show partiality. And in that, in this, he's reflecting God Himself for Samuel 16:7. "But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look on his appearance on the height of his stature because I've rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.'" And the trap here is they're saying, "Lord, if you don't care about anyone's opinions, you definitely don't care about the emperor's opinions." And the Messiah according to Isaiah 11:3 would imitate God in making impartial judgments. Isaiah 11:3, "And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his ears hear." And Jesus, we know that You truly teach the way of God. That's what Jesus came to do, teach the way of God. And then the question, is it lawful to pay tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or should we not? And then here are the taxes, the poll tax that Caesar demanded off of every person. How does Jesus respond? Verse 15. "But knowing their hypocrisy, their pretense, He said to them, 'Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.'" Denarius was a Roman currency. You pay Roman taxes with Roman currency. Denarius represented a day's wage. And if you take the coin, on the front, it was inscription. There was Tiberius with a laurel crowned head. And then the inscription around his head said "Tiberius Caesar, son of the deified Augustus, himself Augustus". And on the reverse side it would say Pontifex Maximus, which is high priest. On the one side it says he is Dei. They were deifying Caesar, and he's also our high priest. Blasphemous. And this is why the Jews had a problem with these coins is blasphemous. And Jesus said, "Bring me one." In verse 16, "They brought one and he said to them, 'Whose likeness and inscription is this?' They said to him, 'Caesar's.' Jesus said to them, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.' And they marveled at him." I remember when I read this for the first time as a kid. I fell in love with Jesus because I was like, "Ah, Jesus is the best trash talker. He's better than anybody. He puts it." But the deeper you study the Scripture, you realize just the profound depth of the wisdom of God. They start the conversation with a battle for authority and He ends the conversation with a battle of authority. Who wins? God Himself. What is Jesus saying here? He's saying, "Whose image is on that coin? Caesar's. Okay, give unto Caesar's what is Caesar's." And then he says, "Whose image is on you? Whose image is on you? Whose image and likeness is on you? Give unto God's yourself what is God's genius." The coin which bears the image of Caesar, we give to Caesar. We however, as men and women who bear the image of God, we owe ourselves to God. We will give Caesar's unto Caesar but we will not render unto Caesar what is God's even if Caesar demands it. No, we won't. So this is a reminder for us friends to give what is God's to God. Give your whole life as a living sacrifice to the Lord. Bring your Sabbath to the Lord. Give your tithes to the Lord. Use your talents for the Lord's kingdom. And we do this because we long to, not just because we're obligated to. Know that duty has become a choice. John Newton in Amazing Grace writes, "Our pleasure and our duty, the opposite before. Since we have seen His beauty, are joined, depart no more." Our pleasure and our duty, it is our pleasure to do our duty for the Lord. Newton's friend William Cowper wrote, "To see the law by Christ fulfilled and to hear His pardoning voice changes a slave into a child and duty into choice." And what's the only thing that can heal our hearts of our enmity and hostility toward God? It's recognizing and accepting the love of God for us. Corinthians 5:18 says, "All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that is in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, He made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." If you're here today and you're not sure where you stand before God, if you were to die today and you're not sure where you would go, today, you have a decision to make. If you do not repent of your sins, if you do not place your faith in Christ, if you do not accept the gospel of Jesus Christ and His grace, if you died today, you are going to be separated from God for all eternity and His wrath will be upon you in a place called hell. But thankfully, you're not dead yet. Thankfully, we still have a chance to repent. And thanks be to the work of Christ, we can be forgiven. If you don't admit you're an enemy, you'll stay one and you'll be crushed when Christ returns to judge. If you admit you're an enemy, you'll no longer be one Lord, I have been an enemy. I have been in rebellion. Lord, forgive me. I accept your amnesty. Lord, welcome me into your kingdom. Matthew 21:44, "And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces. And when it falls on anyone, it will crush him." Either allow your hard heart to be shattered by His love and then He heals it or remain at war with God, which is suicidal and you will be crushed. We come humbly to the Lord or we will be humbled in the judgment. Either you say to God, "God, Thy will be done. I'm not my own," or God will one day say to you, "Thy will be done. You are your own. Go." I'm going to close by praying the Lord's prayer as Jesus taught us to pray. And you're welcome to pray in your heart with me. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not in temptation, but deliver us from evil. Father, we thank You for sending your Son, and Lord Jesus, we thank You that You went to the cross with eyes wide open. You knew the cost and it was a terrible cost, but You did that in order to atone for our sins. And we thank You, Holy Spirit, that You're with us today. And I pray, if there's anyone who is still stuck in their rebellious ways, I pray, Lord, melt their hearts. I pray give them spiritual resurrection of their souls in this Holy Week. I pray that this week will be holy in their lives, that they will be drawn into Your kingdom and into Your church. And Lord, bless us this week as we meditate upon your final week before the crucifixion. And Lord, give us opportunities to share the great gospel with our friends, neighbors, or anyone else who would listen. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Deeply Rooted

March 17, 2024 • Mark 11:12–33

Tyler Burns: Thank you. Thank you, Pastor. Wow, thank you. I've never had so many nice things said about me before. I don't know how to respond to that, but thank you. Thank you. As Pastor Andy mentioned, my name is Tyler. It's the first time that I'm up here without a job title at Mosaic to introduce myself with, so I guess I will just introduce myself as I'm a church planter in Salem, Massachusetts. And whenever I get to preach the word, it is always my honor and my privilege to be able to deliver God's word for all of us today. And before we get started, I have a confession. Even though I am 25% Irish, and even though my son's name is Killian and it's as Irish as it can be, I don't like St. Patrick's Day. Happy St. Paddy's day by the way. I don't like St. Patrick's day, but I do like and I love the man, St. Patrick. And the reason why I don't like the day is because it kind of goes against who the man was. Many of us know who St. Patrick is as the patron saint of Ireland, which is true. But what many people don't know about St. Patrick is that how he was brought to Ireland was that he was actually kidnapped and brought into slavery and forced to be a shepherd there in slavery and was while in slavery that he found his faith in God and decided, "I am going to pursue preaching the gospel in this nation that does not know Jesus." And that took him hostage and captive. And he ultimately succeeded in his goal of bringing about cultural change in a society that kidnapped him and brought him into slavery. It's the kind of change that at the time would've seemed completely inconceivable beyond even a thought. How could a man love this nation so much that he would seek to bring about that kind of change? And that's the story we're going to be looking at today. We're going to be seeing a story in the Gospel of Mark of inconceivable change, change that no one could even think would ever happen. And so we are continuing in the book of Mark in chapter 11 through this series that we've entitled Kingdom Come. And we call it that because it's all about Jesus coming to establish His kingdom here on earth and calling us to be partners with Him in the establishment of his kingdom. We have a lot of texts to get through so we're going to jump in, we're going to go through and we're going to break it down section by section. We'll read a section, we will discuss it and then we'll continue going through. But before I begin, will you pray with me over the preaching of God's word? Heavenly Father, Lord, you are good and you are powerful. You have authority over all of creation and over all things. So Lord, we ask that you bring about change, you bring about change in our lives to be more and more like you. We ask that you bring about change in our city and in our world and in our culture to become a city and a place that loves you, that is known and characterized by our faith and trust in you. Use this time, use your word to teach us, to encourage us and to convict us where we need to be convicted, to go forth and walk in your authority as we usher in your kingdom here on earth. In Jesus' name, amen. So we'll be spending our time looking at three ideas in our section. We'll be in Mark chapter 11 verses 12 through 33. And the three ideas we're going to be looking at is first, deeply rooted in rebellion, now deeply rooted in faith, to walk in authority. So the first idea we're going to look at is deeply rooted in rebellion. This is Mark chapter 11, starting in verse 12 it says this, "On the following day when they came from Bethany, he, Jesus, was hungry. And seeing in the distance of fig tree and leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, 'May no one ever eat fruit from you again.' And the disciples heard it." We'll stop there for a second. If you're like me, you're like, "What are you doing, Jesus?" This is not what we think of when we think of Jesus, right? We don't think of him cursing a tree and saying, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And if you're like me, you're like, "Well, it says he was hungry." So he was probably just a little hangry. He probably was this word that my wife is not allowed to call me, cranky, when you haven't eaten in a little while. Is Jesus hangry? Is he cranky? Well, what's going on? The context is that he's coming from Bethany. Where is Bethany? It's just outside the city of Jerusalem. And Jesus was staying there for the high holidays. Last week, Pastor Jan preached on the verses in this chapter that came before that, it was the triumphal entry. It was Jesus riding in on a donkey. Palm leaves, people saying, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." And he gets into Jerusalem, and it took so long for him to get there that it was night by the time he gets there. So he goes back out to Bethany and he says, "I'm going to go in early now." So he leaves early, likely before breakfast, before time to eat. And so he's traveling and walking to Jerusalem and he comes across a tree with leaves and he goes and sees if there's any fruit. It says there's none because it's not the season for figs. One of the things that they don't teach you in seminary is that you have to understand how plants work. This is an unqualified area, but that is extremely necessary for pastors because what happens with fig trees is that they start by budding these little fruits, but they're really tiny, they're hard, but they are edible and they're actually a delicacy because they're so much smaller than a fig that you have to be lavish to be willing to eat them and not be patient to wait for larger fruit where you could get more. And how fig trees grow is that they first bud these small, tiny, hard fruits. Then the leaves come in at the same time that the full fruits come in. Well, there's leaves, but it says it's not time for figs. What's happening? This tree stood out to Jesus because it was likely the only tree with leaves on it. It was a fig tree masquerading as one with fruit. It was sending all signals to anyone who knew anything about fig trees. "There are fruit on this tree." Fruit for fig trees gathered August through October. This is the week of Passover, so it's roughly March, April. It's extremely early. There shouldn't be leaves, there shouldn't be figs. But the tree itself is saying, "I have leaves, therefore I have fruit." So Jesus has every right to expect that there is fruit on this tree. So he goes to this tree looking for fruit and he sees there is none and he curses it. Well, what we will quickly find out is that this fig tree, it's not actually the fig tree, it's a symbol for Jerusalem. It's a symbol for the people of God. Historically throughout scripture and the Jewish culture, fig trees were a symbol of the people of Israel. But one of the things that I love about the book of Mark is that the structure makes it completely clear. When you think of the fig tree, think of Jerusalem, think of the people of God. Again, the beginning of this chapter, Mark 1 through 11, Jesus is going into Jerusalem. Then we have our text of the fig tree. The next text we're about to see is Jesus in Jerusalem. Then the next text after that is Jesus with the fig tree again. And then after that, it's back with Jesus in Jerusalem. Jerusalem, fig tree. Jerusalem, fig tree. Jerusalem. When you think of the fig tree, think of God's people and Jerusalem. So what is the issue that is going on with Jerusalem that Jesus is showing through this example of the fig tree? We see it in Mark 11, verse 15. It says this, "And they came to Jerusalem and he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons and would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, 'Is it not written my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?' But you have made it a den of robbers. And the chief priests and scribes heard it and they were seeking a way to destroy him for they feared Him because all the crowd was astonished at His teaching. And when evening came, they went out of the city." So what is the issue we see here in Jerusalem? I would summarize it as they are deeply rooted in rebellion. As the fig tree was masquerading as one with fruit showing off its leaves saying, "Look, there's fruit here," and there was none, Jerusalem was doing the same. The people of God were doing the same. There were thousands of people in the city there to worship, there to sacrifice offerings to the Lord. For Passover. They ushered Jesus in on a donkey saying "Praise him." In verses 9 and 10, it says, "And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, 'Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our Father David. Hosanna in the highest!'." It seemed like they were worshiping Jesus. They masqueraded as having fruit. But upon closer expectation, there was no fruit at all. This house that was made to be a house of prayer, Jesus calls a den of robbers, it's a house of extortion. What is going on here? It talks about the money changes. Jesus overthrowing the tables of the money changers. Well, according to Jewish law, the people of Israel had to pay a tax to the temple. And so at the high holidays, they would collect this tax because it was the time for people to come from all over the world. And so they were like, "Now's a great time to collect the tax from people." But what is unclear in the text, but it was culturally clear, was that the money changers were like the exchange rate people. You travel abroad, you go to another nation, you need to exchange money to be able to pay the fees. And foreign coins were not accepted in the temple, so they would do an exchange, say, "Hey, you give me however much of your money that equals this much of ours" and you'll pay your tax. But the money changers were the ones who were responsible for establishing that exchange rate. Well, what does that mean? It means that they had all the power to extort people, said, "Oh sure, it's really 10 of this coin for one of ours. Well, we'll say it's a hundred and we'll make 10 times the money and we'll keep the profit for ourselves." It's in conjunction with those who sold pigeons, it says. Well, what is that? Pigeons were the offering of the poor. And so they're extorting specifically the poor as well. What they would do is they'd say, "Oh, the pigeon you brought, that's not clean enough. We have a pigeon for you that is clean enough. Here, we'll buy your pigeon and you can buy one of ours for 10 times the cost." And then they would turn around and sell that same pigeon to the next person in line and make a profit off of this. So Jesus prevents them from carrying anything in because they are making the House of God a marketplace of extortion. They were rebelling against the authority of Jesus, but they were rebelling against even the very nature of the temple itself, which is why Jesus calls him out saying, "This is supposed to be a house of prayer for all nations. All the nations are coming here now to worship, and you're using it for your own game. You're using it for selfish ambition." Even more than that, this was just the norm. This is not something that people were concerned about or worried about in any manner. See, what is the historical context of this is that this is the second building of the temple. This building of the temple was built about 50 years before these events of Jesus by a man named Herod the Great. What Herod the Great Biblically is most famous for is seeking to kill Jesus when the wise men are coming looking for him. That's Herod the Great. And historically, Historian Flavius Josephus has written the history of the Jewish people in Rome and he says that Herod built the temple for making his name great. He put his name on the building of the temple so that when the people from all over the world came to worship God at the temple, it was not just God's temple, it was Herod the Great's temple for God. He was great at marketing for building up his own name. But what it shows is again, they were rebelling against the authority of God and seeking their own benefit. And this way the money changers are working by charging more and exchanging rate, that's built after and modeled after the Roman tax collectors. The Roman tax collectors would do the same. They would say, "Oh, we need to bring in this much money for taxes. We'll charge you a little bit more and we could keep the profits for ourselves." And the people of Israel had been under Roman rule for about 90 years at this point. So what's happening is the people of God, the leaders of the temple said, "These Romans got it pretty good. They're successful. They're the ones with power. They're the ones with money. Maybe we should model this place of worship after them." And so the entire time that this temple has been built, the only temple that the people of God had known in their lifetime, this was how it functioned, this rebellion, this sin was so deeply rooted within their culture, they never knew anything but this level of extortion. It was just normal. It was expected. It was not an issue. Well, the question then comes how can change come when there is that level of rebellion against God? When it is so deeply rooted, how can there be change? Well, change is hard. I want to point out that this is actually even more crazy because this is the second time Jesus cleansed the temple. Jesus, many people know, the first... Does anyone know the first miracle that Jesus did the first thing he did to start his ministry? Shout it out. Water into wine. Everyone's favorite. Jesus threw a great party. He turned water into wine, kept the party going. The second thing Jesus did in his ministry, he cleansed the temple. What Jesus was setting his ministry on is he's like, "I'm going to celebrate things that are good and I'm going to change the way we worship God back to how it's supposed to be." And so the second thing that Jesus does in his ministry is cleansing the temple. And three years later, in the last week of his life before his crucifixion, he cleanses the temple again. And in the middle, there's this really important parable about a fig tree. It's interesting. In Luke 13 verses 6 through 9 it says this, "And he, Jesus, told this parable. 'A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, 'Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?' And he answered him, 'Sir, let it alone this year also until I dig it, dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good. But if not, you can cut it down'." See, Jesus went into the temple at the beginning and saw no fruit and cleansed it and said, "I want to establish. I'm teaching and preaching the way we are to worship God. It's not about money, it's not about wealth. It's not about individual prosperity. It's about submission to the authority of God and praying and worshiping Him." Three years later, patiently waiting for change, teaching, proclaiming the gospel, doing miracles. And while he's doing miracles, the people welcome him. "Great. Jesus, yes, come. Come into Jerusalem." When they think he's going to be a messiah that overthrows Rome, "Welcome. Come on Jesus. Come on into Jerusalem." And then when he reiterates, "No, the issue is worship. How are you worshiping God?" And he cleanses the temple again, the people are like, "Whoa, wait, wait, Jesus. This isn't what we thought you were going to do" because it was so deeply rooted in them, they didn't even realize they needed change. And so how does change come when we are deeply rooted in rebellion? It comes through faith. Maybe you're here today, maybe you're not a Christian and you're saying, "I am here to tell you that if you're not a Christian, you have been in rebellion from God. You have been rejecting the authority of God over your life." And I'm also here to tell you that you can change. Change can happen through faith in Jesus Christ. And I call and I urge you to change because the faith and trust in Jesus Christ is the only thing that allows us to have a life that is fruitful, a life that is meaningful, a life that is valuable, and because it brings greater honor and worship to him. And so we are called to change from that deep-seated rebellion into a deep-rooted faith. And this is verse 20 of our text. Verse 20 says this, "As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, 'Rabbi, look, the fig tree that you cursed has withered.' And Jesus answered him, 'Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain be taken up and thrown into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone so that your father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses'." So they go back out to Bethany, they're headed back into Jerusalem and they see the tree and Peter's like, "Look, Jesus, you cursed it. I thought just there probably wouldn't be fruit anymore, but it's actually withering away to the roots" What is showing is that Jesus has the power to bring about complete change, not just change to the exterior, change to the facade, but change to the deepest of the roots of the tree, deepest to the roots of the problem. And Jesus' response is, "|How did that change happen? Have faith in God." In other parallel gospels, texts telling the same story as this, it talks about having the faith the size of a mustard seed, the smallest seed, the smallest amount of faith. This is not a statement about the magnitude of our faith. It's a statement about the genuineness of our faith. Jesus does encourage us to grow in faith. We are encouraged to grow in faith, but this is not him saying become more faithful. This is him saying, "Purify that faith. Make it a true faith, one that is not filled with doubt but of true belief." So much so that you could say to this mountain, "Be cast into the sea" and it will. Now, this section contains two of the most taken out of context verses in scripture, the casting of the mountain into the sea. And the, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe you have received it and it will be yours." These two verses are so often taken out of context. The second one, I didn't realize this, but I have a Bible software that I do my studying and note-taking on. There was a dotted line under that verse. I was like, "I've never seen that before. What is that?" And it tells you how many people that have this software highlight that verse. I've never noticed it before, but that was one of the most highlighted verses in all of scripture by people using the software. It just shows how prominent of a verse it is, but also how much it is taken out of context. Because when Jesus says, say to this mountain, he's not making a statement that we are called to make mountains change so we can move landscapes. If you path the trajectory of their journey from Bethany to Jerusalem, the only mountain within view is the mount of Jerusalem itself. So when Jesus says, "You could say to this mountain, be cast into the sea," he's not talking about physical earthly changes. He's saying, "You can say to this deep-rooted systemic rebellion against the worship of God and you could say, cast it into the sea and it will be done." Move the rebellion, the rejection, the lack of worship of God and cast it out and it will be done if you believe that it will be done. And don't doubt. And verse 25 is not a clause that's required, but it's a clarification about how we are to pray when it says, "And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone so that your father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." This idea is saying that it's when you're in the right frame of heart, the right posture of hear., it's not that, "Okay, I forgive people so therefore I can ask for what I want and I get what I want." No, it's not about asking for what we want, telling God to move what we want. No. It's about having a frame of heart that is focused on forgiveness, that is focused on forgiveness of others, grace and mercy towards others, and being forgiven yourself, seeking for forgiveness for your own sins, having the humility to recognize our own faults and saying, "God, I'm trying to align my will with yours, align my will with yours. Help me know what you desire and that's what I'm going to ask for." And no matter how crazy that seems, God is able to do it. So I have to ask, where are you in rebellion to Jesus? Again, I already said, if you're not a Christian, you are in rebellion. If you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are in rebellion to Him. And I urge you to come to Him. Have faith in Him. Ask him to move that mountain of rebellion in your life and trust in him because He willingly, lovingly and joyfully went to the cross for you, to die to pay that penalty of sins for you, to forgive you of your rebellion. Maybe you're a Christian here that is still in rebellion. You have a stronghold, a sin that has been permeating within you, that is in rebellion to God. Are you willing to go to Jesus? Ask Him to move that mountain of rebellion, forgive you and heal you of your sins. Sometimes there's sin in our lives that you might be saying, "Tyler, you don't know how long this has been there. You don't know how long I have been under the oppression of the sin. And every time temptation comes, I try, but I fail." Do you go to Jesus and ask him and believe without a doubt that He has power over that sin, has power to save you from that you are not bound to that sin anymore? Roman 6:12 says this, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as an instrument for unrighteousness, but present yourself to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness, for sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law, but under grace." Don't let sin reign in your mortal body, Christian. Don't let sin exist there. So I know none of us are perfect. There's always grace, there's always forgiveness. Sure. But we are called to live like Christ who was perfect. We are given authority over sin because it has no dominion. We can refuse temptation. Do you actually believe that when temptation comes, you can say to it, "No, you have no authority over me. You have no power here"? And it's not a sheepish fear of when is temptation going to come next, but it's a confident boldness saying, "Jesus has defeated you, sin. Jesus has already paid my penalty for you." I can say no. I can refuse to sin and live a life of holy worship and submission to God. Wherever that sin is in your life, I urge you say to it, "move." Say to it, "Mountain, be gone, because Jesus has paid the penalty for you on the cross. You have no authority over me. And it says, "And then live in it. Believe it will be done for you." Live in that assurance that Jesus has forgiven you and Jesus has paid the penalty and freed you from that sin. It has no power over you anymore. But why this text is my favorite in Mark... One of my favorites in Mark. I love the book of Mark. Mark's my favorite book of the New Testament. But why I love this text so much in particular, it's because Jesus isn't just talking about individuals. Jesus is addressing societal rebellion as well. Yes, society is made up of individuals. And in order to change a society, individuals must change. Sure. But Jesus is primarily talking about a change that affects an entire culture saying Jerusalem, this establishment, this city where rebellion is so deep-rooted, you don't even think to ask questions. That can be changed. So I ask you, church, do you believe the systematic rebellion of Boston, of Brookline can change? I believe without a doubt that God seeks and desires and will establish his kingdom here in Brookline, here in Boston. And that is not a lofty hope of one day in the future most likely after Jesus's second coming. No. It's a reality that I believe is possible now. I know Pastor Jan, I know Pastor Andy feel that calling, feel that assurance, but I'm asking church, do you believe that? Is that even a goal within your mind? I know it seems hard. We look at the world around us and it is broken. It is fallen. It's hard to imagine a city that loves Jesus, is characterized by faith in Jesus Christ, but that should be one of our goals. That should be our aim. Why? Because Jesus came to establish his kingdom and has called us to be deeply rooted in that faith in Him and to live in that faith. But part of why I'm up here today is because I also believe that God is going to change the nature of Salem. Now, Pastor Andy mentioned briefly about Salem and I want to dig into it just very quickly. Salem is known first and foremost for witchcraft. Not for cute little pointed hats, Halloween witches, but for actual practice of casting spells and curses and witchcraft. The international headquarters for witches is in Salem. I didn't realize this. Pastor Jan mentioned that he met missionaries or heard of missionaries from Brazil who said the witches in Brazil are sent to Salem, Massachusetts for training and then they go back to Brazil to do their evil work. The other thing Salem is known for is for the international headquarters of the temple of Satan. Oh, boy. Fun place, yeah. It's where they have brought in the worship of not just witchcraft but of Satan himself and said, "This is what we are establishing our identity on." They have built their tourism, they have built their finances like the Pharisees, selfishly, on wrongful worship, on worship of witchcraft and of Satan. It's a place that is known for old church buildings with no one in them. But I am here to tell you, I know God's going to change that. And that's the call he has put on my heart and on my life and that's why I'm here today. And I can tell you it's not because of me, it's because of Him. And it's a work that he is already doing in the city independent of me. There's a church, a First Baptist Church of Salem. Pray for them. Pray for Pastor Stephen and his wife Sarah. They're doing faithful work there. They're having three baptisms this Thursday. Praise God for that. The church is growing from three years ago, from 20 people to now about 50 people by conversion. Not by Christians coming and moving from other areas, but by people hearing the gospel and being saved and their lives being changed. And it's people that never thought it was possible. It's people that have been practicing witchcraft their whole life and then said, "I just knew it wasn't good. I needed a way out." And they come to church for the first time in their lives and they commit their lives to Christ. It's people that have been in jail their entire lives coming to Him. It's people that have never walked in a church and said, "I need something different. I'm going in" and God changes them. It's on my heart to also mention pray for a woman named Lauren. She's practicing witchcraft for 20 years. She reached out to Pastor Stephen and said, "Pray for me. I need to get out. I don't know how. I'm trying." She's been trying for a month to come to church, but there are spiritual barriers preventing her from coming. And as they've been meeting and praying for her, they're tearing down those barriers one by one. And now family's coming in and saying, "You don't need church. You need therapy." Therapy is good. There's a purpose and a place for therapy. Nothing against therapy. If you need it, praise God, it's a tool to use. But the answer is God. The answer that she needs is Jesus to save her from her sin. And so pray for Lauren. Pray that God will bring her to saving faith in Him. This coming Thursday, the same day as the baptism, we're tearing down a satanic altar in someone's home. Not like a cute little toy, like something that they actually offer sacrifice. This is the culture of Salem. The school mascots are witches. The school logos are witches. No one can imagine a city without witchcraft and Satan in it. But I can. Something I didn't mention about First Baptist Church, they were the first church to send missionaries from the United States. They were the first church to establish in 1804 that sent missionaries abroad. I can see a city back with that. I can see a city established built on faith, trusting in God, submitting to his authority, being characterized by a love and trust of Jesus Christ. And it's not because of anything in me, it's because I'm called to walk in the authority of Jesus Christ. And that's the last idea here. We are called to walk in authority of Jesus. And this is in verse 27 it says, "And they came again to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and elders came to him and they said to him, 'By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?' Jesus said to them, 'I will ask you one question, answer me and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.' And they discussed it with one another saying, 'If we say from heaven,' he will say, 'Why then did you not believe him? But shall we say from man?' They were afraid of the people for they all held that John really was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, 'We do not know.' And Jesus said to them, 'Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things'." See, it was so clear that the Pharisees knew. Their first response was, "Are we supposed to say from heaven? He's going to challenge our authority. Our reputation will be at stake if we say that Jesus and John's authority was of God and was of heaven. But we can't say it was from man either because we know that's wrong and we're fearful of people." See, they were seeking their own authority. Don't walk in your own authority. Don't walk in your own power or your own might. Walk in the authority of Jesus who went back to Jerusalem when it said that they were seeking a way to destroy Him. Jesus knew walking back to Jerusalem very well would mean his death, even his death on a cross. He knew it. But he also knew the authority he was walking in, and he was not afraid to do it. And he did it willingly and joyfully. I have two more verses I just want to share with us in Zechariah chapter 4 verse 6 Let me see if I... I didn't mark it. Let me see if I could find it. There it is. Zechariah chapter 4 verse 6, prophecy about the building of the temple. So very relevant to our text here today. It says, "Then he said to me, 'This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel. Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,' says the Lord of hosts. 'Who are you, oh great mountain? Before Zerubbabel, you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone among shouts of 'Grace! Grace to it!'." They're seeking to build the temple. They're wondering how is it going to be possible? And God says to them, "It's not by power. It's not by might. It's by my spirit that this will be done." And when we say to walk in authority, I'm not saying to walk in power. I'm not saying to walk in might. I'm saying to walk by the spirit of the living God, knowing that wherever you go, wherever you walk, if you are a faithful Christian, you are bringing the spirit of God with you with his authority, with his power that can bring about real lasting change. And lastly, the last thing I would like to read is Matthew 28:18 through 20, the great commission. Many of us know this. It says, "And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age'." Jesus has all authority over everything. And what does he do without authority? He tells us to go. He tells us to go in his authority to bring the gospel to all nations, baptize, make disciples and teaching them to observe His commandments, to show what true worship of the one living God really is. I urge you, church, today, be rooted in faith. Know that change is possible and walk in the authority of Jesus Christ bringing His spirit with you wherever you go. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you. We know you and we trust you. Lord, give us faith to know that you will change us. You will remove sin from our lives and sanctify us, make us more like you. But help us to also know and believe that you are bringing your kingdom here, you are establishing your ways on earth. Give us faith and help our unbelief Lord. Help us to walk in authority, have eyes to see your will and know what you are calling us to do, how we can each be a part of your kingdom, whether in Brookline, whether in Salem, whether in any other part of the world. Give us clear directives, give us clear calling to walk in your might and establish your kingdom here. In Jesus' name, amen.

The King Comes for His Worship

March 10, 2024 • Jan Vezikov • Mark 11:1–11

What Do You Want?

March 3, 2024 • Jan Vezikov • Mark 10:32–42

Father, we thank you that you with the great God of the universe, created us in your image and you gave us desires, the ultimate of which is only satisfied with your presence. And Lord, we do take time now to confess that we have loved things, creature, creation more than we have loved you, and that misordered desire is the root cause of sin, of our fallenness, of our depravity. And we pray, Lord Jesus, that you focus our attention on the cross today, the work of Christ. And Christ, through the gospel, I pray that you turn our hearts to you, deepen our affection for you. Before calling us to allegiance to you, you give us new hearts and you deepen our affection for you. And we pray that you deepen our affection and love for you. We pray by the power of the spirit that you minister to us from your holy scriptures. Help us understand the scriptures, help our souls be satiated of the scriptures, and help us live in a manner worthy of the gospel. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series through the gospel of Mark called Kingdom Come. And the idea is that Jesus has come, the king of the universe, to inaugurate his kingdom, to establish it. And he says that we are to pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So we are to pray, Lord. We want more of your will in our life. And as we pray and as we seek his will, he establishes his kingdom in our lives. The title of the servant today is What Do You Want? Your life story is a history of your competing desires. Each one of us is a creature of desires. We want, we long, we dream, we desire, and we act on those desires for good or ill. And then we must live with the consequences of those desires. And there are, of course, different orders of desire, all competing for our attention, our resources, our energy. And which one wins out? Well, the greatest desire, of course, wins out. And so we are to rank our desires. And how should we do that? By the value of the objects of those desires. The longer I'm a believer, the longer I am a pastor, I'm more convinced that the battle for faith is the battle for desire. We've all heard the imperative fight the good fight of faith. Well, how do we do that? How does one battle in the arena of faith? Well, you battle for desire. You strive to desire the greatest and the most noble object of desire. And that, of course, is the Lord, is God. He alone is glorious enough to satisfy your greatest desire. His very presence is greater in value than anything in all of creation, which makes sense because he's the creator. He created you, and he created you with desire, a desire that cannot be satisfied with anything in creation. It's a desire that he alone can satisfy. And you might know this theoretically, but do you know this experientially? And the only way to really understand this experientially is to come to the realization of just how, really, how little you want God. When you're absolutely honest with yourself and you look at your life, you look at the scriptures, and you say, "Lord, why is it that I don't love you with all my heart, soul, strength? And my why is it that that's not natural?" What's impeding this desire for the Lord? It's sin. Sin suffocates your desire for God. And then what's the antidote for sin? It's repentance. Lord, I repent that I've desired creation more than creator. I repent that I've acted on desires that have transgressed your will. Lord, I want to desire you. I want to desire your presence. Lord, I pray that you give me a grace to do that. Lord, thy will be done. May your desire be done in my life. I desire what you desire. And that's what our text is about today, where Mark chapter 10 verses 32 through 52, would you look at the text with me? And they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the 12 again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, "See, we are going to Jerusalem. And the son of man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, and spit on him, and flog him, and kill him. And after three days he will rise." And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." And he said to them, "What do you want me to do for you?" And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory." Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I'm baptized?" And they said to him, "We are able." And Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink, you will drink." And with the baptism with which I'm baptized, you will be baptized. But to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared." And when the 10 heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, "You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles Lord it over them, and they're great ones, exercise authority over them, but it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples in a great crowd, Bartimaeus the blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, son of David have mercy on me." And many rebuked him telling him to be silent, but he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me." And Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." And they called the blind man saying to him, "Take heart. Get up. He's calling you." And throwing off his cloak, he's spraying up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man said to him, "Rabbi, let me recover my sight." And Jesus said to him, "Go your way. Your faith has made you well." And immediately, he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. First, Jesus set his face like Flint upon suffering. Second, James and John set their sights on glory. And third, Bartimaeus set his sight upon Jesus. First, Jesus set his face like Flint upon suffering. And I get that phrase from Isaiah. And Isaiah promises that the king will come, the Messiah will come, the son of David will come, and he's going to come like a suffering servant. And it speaks of his steeled resolve to fulfill his mission and obey the father's will until the very last drop. Isaiah 50, verse 7, "But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore, I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame." Flint is a very hard dark rock and it's used figuratively to express hardness. And here, this phrase is used to describe Jesus' unwavering determination to persevere in the face of his excruciating mission given to him by the Father. In the beginning of our text it says they were on the road, verse 32a, "Going up to Jerusalem, Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid." Jesus going up to Jerusalem to fulfill his ministry. And the phrase to go up to Jerusalem, it's not just a phrase of geography, no. Jesus is here depicted as fulfilling his destiny. He's set his face like flint. He's walking ahead of his disciples in a crowd. And the disciples were afraid, it says. They were amazed, and most likely because they remembered Jesus' two previous prophecies about his suffering and death. They foresaw the consequences of an irrevocable decision to go to Jerusalem and face the inevitable hostility. Pain is on the horizon. Verse 32b, "And taking the 12, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, 'See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the son of man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him. After three days, he will rise.'" Notice that Jesus says we. We are going to Jerusalem. He's including the disciples and the prospect of the terrible days ahead. Following Jesus means having a share in his suffering in life, and here in particular with the disciples. Jesus foretells at least four details here about his death. First, he predicts that he will be delivered. Delivered how? Well, he will be betrayed, and he will be betrayed by one of his disciples, the treasure, Judas. And this probably includes the fact that Jesus will be deserted by the other disciples. Jesus also tells the 12 that he will end up at the mercy of the Sanhedrin, which in part may explain the solemn nature of the procession to Jerusalem. Second, Jesus makes it clear in this prophecy that he will be sentenced to death, that they will kill him. And this is the plan of the Sanhedrin was to charge Jesus with the capital offense. But it wasn't just the religious Jews, it was also the Gentiles. He'll be handed over to the Gentiles, including the Romans. And this is new information hasn't been mentioned in the previous prophecies. And this, of course, is tough for the disciples to accept the Romans. Jesus, you could calm a storm. Jesus, you could bring people back from the dead. Why can't you protect yourself from the Roman oppressors? And fourth, Jesus tells them that after he will be put to death, he will be raised on the third day. The bad news has so overshadowed the mood that this doesn't even register the fact that he will be raised. The resurrection is the ultimate and determined of reality, but they can't grasp how significant it is, and it seems to be dwarfed by the massiveness of the suffering that precedes it. Jesus knew all too well what he was walking into, the excruciating pain and suffering that would be ahead, and even the fact of the resurrection wasn't enough for the disciples to really understand what's happening. How does Jesus feel in this moment? Well, he doesn't reveal here in the text, but he's struggling. There's weight in every single step. He knows exactly what he's doing. The garden of Gethsemane scene in Matthew 26 reveals what was happening on the inside. Matthew 26, "Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, 'Sit here while I go over there and pray.' And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. He said to him, 'My soul is very sorrowful even to death. Remain here and watch with me.' And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed saying, 'My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass for me, nevertheless not as I will, but as you will.'. And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, 'So could you not watch with me one hour? Watch him pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing and the flesh is weak.'. Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, 'My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.' And again, he came and found them sleeping for their eyes were heavy. So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, 'Sleep and take your rest later on. See the hours at hand. And the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.'" What did Jesus want? What did the Son of God want? What did Jesus desire? Did Jesus desire betrayal? Did he desire being condemned to death? Did he desire to be mocked and spat at? Did Jesus desire to be flogged? Did he desire to be scorched, crucified? Did he desire to drink this cup of God's wrath down to the dregs? No, he did not. It was not his will. In Gethsemane, he's wrestling with the father's will. "Lord, I know this is my mission, I know this is my destiny, but if there's any other way, let this cup pass from me." It was not the father's will for the cup to pass. It was the father's will for the son to die. And why was it the father's will? Well, it was the only way to save us from our sins. It was the only way to save us from desiring our will more than the father's will. The son puts down his will and takes up the father's to save us from desiring our own will more than the fathers. This brings us to point two. After his solemn conversation, James and John set their sights on glory in verse 35. And James and John, the sons of Zebedee came up to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." Now, contextually, this is hard to understand what's going on because it's like, weren't you guys listening? He just told us he's going to be crucified. And then all of a sudden, you come up and you start asking for positions of power. And the gall, the audacity is kind of striking. They attempt to manipulate Jesus. "Jesus, please give us whatever we..." It's like a little kid coming up to my mom and dad. "Just say yes. Just promise to say yes, whatever I ask." And then Matthew 20, it's even more ironical. They send their mom. It's not even them asking. They're like, "Mom, you're really nice. Jesus likes you. Can you go ask for thrones, please?" It's ridiculous because it's like they don't understand what the kingdom is all about. They don't understand that the king has come to serve, and he's come to serve by suffering. And when he calls us to follow him, he does call us to follow the path of the cross. And what scripture here is doing is showing is that after every single one of the predictions of his suffering and of his resurrection, there's an idea of glory. And the disciples have caught onto that idea, and they want to capitalize upon it. In here, you do see that they are themselves battling for faith, and Jesus is helping them battle in their faith in the Lord, but it's a faith that needs to be clarified with spiritual vision. In verse 36, he said to them, "What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus wisely doesn't say yes. He says, "Ask. What do you want?" And this is a tremendous question. Imagine if Jesus came up to you and he said, "Ask whatever you want." It's like when God comes to Solomon in a dream, and he's like, "Ask whatever you want and you'll receive it from me." And Solomon asked for a heart of wisdom and a heart of understanding so he can discern what is right and wrong. So what do these gentlemen ask for in verse 37? They said to him, "Grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left and your glory." Now, on the face of it, this isn't a bad request. They love Christ, clearly, and they want to be as close to him as possible. They do believe that he's the king of kings. They have seen his glory in the mountain of transfiguration was Peter, James and John, and they got a taste of that glory, the glory that satisfied their souls, and they want to be as close to Jesus as possible in the resurrection, they say in your glory. And then in the text, they have heard that Jesus says in the kingdom of God, the first shall be last and the last shall be first. And they have heard that Jesus said that there are those who are greater in the kingdom of God, and then there are those who are least in the kingdom of God. So they understand that there's a hierarchy, and they understand that there's a reward system. And Jesus did say clearly, there are thrones. In Matthew 19:27, the parallel passage. "Then Peter said in reply, 'See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?' Jesus said to them, 'Truly, I say to you in the new world when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also stay on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundred fold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.'" So they heard about the thrones, and they decided, you know what? Jesus did say ask and you shall receive, and they waited until Peter was out of the conversation. They understood with Peter, they're the big three, but there's only two thrones, Peter. Sorry. The brotherly relationship takes precedence. And they come to the Lord and they say, "We want the thrones." And this is talking about prominence. It is talking about the presence of the Lord, but it is talking about authority. A throne is a place of authority. From the throne, you exercise authority. And in their mind they say, "Jesus, we followed you so we should get some kind of authority to represent our sacrifice." And verse 38, Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you were asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism with which I'm baptized?" So what's the connection here between thrones and suffering? Jesus here by talking about the cup, the cup that I have to drink, what's he talking about? He's talking about the poison chalice of the Lord's wrath. In the Old Testament, there are occasions where the Lord says, "The cup of my wrath is full. Now, it's time to meet out justice." It's a cup of suffering. It's a cup of disgrace. And what's the connection between authority and suffering? Well, they want authority, and they think that the way to get authority and position of authority is to claim it. Jesus, we're going to ask for it, or they think this is where we jostle for it. I have to go around the other disciples to get this, or you demand it. And Jesus says, "No, no, no, authority in the kingdom of God is completely different than authority in the world." So he talks about the cup of bitter suffering. In the book of Isaiah, the book of Jeremiah, the cup of God's holy wrath and condemnation is mentioned. Often, it's God's indignation at our sin in the cup that Jesus will drink, and he will drink it to the bitter end. And he'll take our place and he'll become our substitute in the sin bearer. And as he takes our sin upon himself on the cross, God the father's holy righteous reflex is poured down upon his son and we see a separation between the father and the son upon the cross. The eternal son is separated from the eternal father. In Gethsemane, he's praying three times. How does he address God? "My father, my father, my father." And then we see Christ on the cross, and he doesn't say my father, he says, "My God, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It's as though the consciousness of his native sonship has been obliterated from him, and all that he was conscious of now was his frail condition as a servant of the Lord. So he tells James and John, "Can you take that cup? Can you take the cup which is your own sin and your own guilt? Can you bear that cup? No, of course not. You can't even bear it for yourself. Can you bear that cup for hundreds of people? How about thousands? How about millions of people?" And Jesus bore that sin, that collective sin and shame and guilt upon the cross as he stood before a holy God. He says, "Can you be baptized with the baptism with which I'm baptized." And baptism in the Old Testament is a picture of undergoing the wrath of God. It's often seen in terms of getting caught in a storm. And we've seen that acceptance by Jesus of John's baptism may have been the symbolic acceptance of his judgment, but what Jesus here is referring to is to the negative side of baptism, the sign of the curse of the covenant. For a covenant to be made, there was the blessing of the covenant, and there was the curse of the covenant, and Jesus' baptism was baptism into death, is talking about the fact that he will die. And for him to offer baptism to us, baptism as a symbol of the fact that we have died with Christ been raised with him, it's a sign that our sins have been washed away, for that to happen, Jesus had to die. He had to drink the cup. He had to be baptized and to death. In verse 39, "They said to him, 'We are able.' And Jesus said to them, 'The cup that I drink, you will drink. And with the baptism with which I'm baptized, you will be baptized. But to sit in my right hand or my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.'" We are able. The two men were not named Sons of Thunder for nothing. And they did suffer. James lost his life in Jerusalem later on after the resurrection. He won't make it past the 12th chapter of the book of Acts. Roman soldiers will come to him, church history tells us. And if he died according to tradition, three soldiers come to him. Two would hold up his hands, and the other would thrust a sword into his abdomen and pierce his solar plexus. James died first, and then John, after losing his brother, continued to serve the Lord. He did suffer himself, was whipped by the Sanhedrin and the acts of the apostles. And then ultimately, he was banished to the island of Patmos dying somewhere around AD 95. It will cost them something to follow the Lord, just like it costs each of us. And Jesus does say that the Father does prepare the thrones. There are thrones, there is authority, there is a hierarchy. But the way to work your way up isn't just to claim it or just to ask. No, it's service. Mark 10:41, The 10 heard it, and they began to be indignant at James and John." I think Peter was probably the most mad, like we're the big three. We're supposed to be together. We were on the mountain. And the fact that they're angry shows that they themselves didn't really understand. It reveals that the 10 are very much concerned with their status, as were James and John. So Jesus has to do a little more spiritual eye surgery. Verse 42. "And Jesus called them to him and said to them, 'You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles Lord over them, and they're great ones, exercise authority over them.'" Those who are considered, he says, 'so-called rulers, they think authority is given, it's demanded, it's claimed. And then it's exercise. It's top down. But in Mark 10:43 he says, "But it shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all." So there clearly is a hierarchy. There's a way to progress in the hierarchy. There's a way to grow in authority and power, but the path isn't seeking personal gain. No, it's service. It's service to the king in God's economy of redemption, those who wish to be great must renounce all claims of greatness. They must seek to serve others, not claim authority and seek control. He's saying if anyone wants to be great, you're going to be a servant. But if you even want to be greater than that, if you want to be first, you got to be everyone's slave. And really, what he's getting at is, you guys asked for the wrong thing. You guys want the thrones. I promise the thrones. You want proximity to me. If you want that, then you need to come and say, "Lord Jesus, how can we serve you? Lord Jesus, give us opportunities to serve. Wherever we are, we want to bring glory to your name." And he says... Look at the example of Christ verse 45, "For even the son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." He's the son of man. He's the one with all authority. And what does he do with his authority? He uses his authority in service. He's the servant king. Therefore, service doesn't nullify authority. Authority assumes just a greater level of service with more implications. The more people that you serve, the more authority the Lord and trusts to do what? To serve more. And the fact that Jesus calls each of us to serve doesn't mean that we all serve with the same authority. He says the son of man came. He doesn't say the son of man was born. He says the son of man came, and the emphasis on the fact that it was his choice. He chose to come. He chose the life, he chose the death, and he came to serve. This is his kingly service. Jesus the Son came as the servant of the father, serving the father's will and serving the elect and to give his life. This is a phrase that's used to describe a soldier giving their life for fellow soldiers or for those that they protect. So Jesus came to serve. How? By giving his life. Why? That's the only way to provide ransom. And the word for ransom here is to release. It's used for sums being paid to secure the freedom of prisoners of war or return of captives or slaves. One of the most famous erroneous interpretations regarding the death of Jesus Christ is some look at this ransom language and they think, well, Jesus is paying ransom to Satan in order to get souls, and it's erroneous because God owes Satan absolutely nothing. No, the language of ransom is illusioned to the Old Testament where ransom, the price was paid to free slaves. And this has to do with our spiritual economy in the sense that in order for us to be freed, someone needs to atone for our sins. A guilt offering needs to be brought. And that's what Jesus is. Jesus is the great Passover lamb, lamb of God that had no blemish, and he alone can represent us on the cross. And he pays the price, he pays the ransom for whom? And he says, as a ransom for many, a ransom for many. The Bible says that He died for many. Jesus died for many, not all. The Bible says he died for his elect because our God is a God who accomplishes his purposes. He is nonfrustratable, He does not try and fail in any of his atoning work. He accomplished precisely what he intends to accomplish. One theologian writes, "For whom it, the ransom, for whom it is intended, to them, it is applied. For whom it is intended, for them, it is applied, but not to all is it applied, therefore not to all is it intended. And you say, well, how do I know I'm elect? How do I know that Jesus died on the cross for me, that he paid the ransom for me. If you believe that Jesus Christ died for you, then Jesus Christ died for you. If you believe in him, Christ died for you, that's the easiest way to confirm your election. And there is no other way. This is the way scripture presents it, that Christ died for you. You know Christ died for you because you believe that he died for you. And we do have a responsibility to believe. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes, whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Christ gave himself for believers. That's it. If you are a believer, you're one of the elect. And this puts us right in the place where we ought to be, that we do have a responsibility to believe. And if you're here today and you hear my voice and you feel desires in your heart, desires for God, desires for salvation, desire for election, desire to know the truth, well, I'm here to tell you that those desires are not natural. Those desires are from the Lord. It's a sign that the Holy Spirit already working in your life. And if you've recognized that you're lost, if you're recognized that you're a sinner, if you recognize the guilt and the shame, well, trust in Jesus Christ today, believe in Christ today and know that he has died for you. And when you come and when you receive his grace and you receive him as your savior, well, that settles the question. Point three is Bartimaeus set his sight upon Jesus in verse 46, and they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus was sitting by the roadside. Jericho is important biblically. If you remember, this was the first city that Israel, as they entered the promised land, this is the first city that they captured. And then from this city, they took conquest of the rest of Canaan. And who was their leader at the time? It was Joshua. Joshua was the leader of the people of God. Joshua was the one that brings the freed captives into the promised land. Joshua's name in Hebrew is Yeshua, which is the same name as Jesus Christ. Jesus is Yeshua. Jesus is the new Joshua. Likewise, he begins his climactic invasion evasion of Jerusalem, so to speak. Jesus Christ, the son of God, the son of man, the Son of David marches through Jericho like the new Joshua on his way to free people from sin. And on the margin of this battle, as he's going down the road, sits a blind man who has lived in the realm of darkness. But now he is heard a rumor of a liberator, a liberator that's come to free him. And he thinks, who might this be? This might be the son of David. This might be the Messiah. And Isaiah 35, it's promised that when the Messiah comes, he's going to open the eyes of the blinds. So Bartimaeus realizes he has an opportunity. He has one weapon, one weapon, and he's been honing this weapon. It's his voice. And he realizes, "You know what? I can't see him. I hear there's a commotion, and I am going to make the biggest scene ever. I'm going to scream at the top of my lungs, and no one's going to stop me." And that's what he does. Verse 47, when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, son of David have mercy on me." He isn't claiming his rights. He isn't claiming his status. He isn't claiming any privileges. He doesn't have any. He doesn't come to Jesus and say, "Jesus, you owe me something. You're the son of David, meaning you've been sent by God. Why have you allowed me to suffer as much as I've been suffering? Why this life that you've given me?" He doesn't come with a list of complaints. He doesn't bring him a list of how hard life is, how unfair things have been. No, he just recognizes, I need mercy, and he can give it to me. Verse 48, "And many rebuked him telling him to be silent, but he cried out all the more, 'Son of David, have mercy on me.'" He sees this one shot, and he'll do absolutely anything and everything to prevent his chance for delivering slipping away. The blind man's unwavering persistence is exemplary. How does he confirm his election? He cries out to the Lord. He knows that his cause is hopeless apart from the Lord. One commentator says what Bartimaeus lacks in eyesight, he makes up for in insight. He understands Jesus is the Son of David, the promised one, the Messiah figure who will come to deliver his people. In Mark 10:49, "Jesus stopped and said, 'Call him." And they called the blind man, saying to him, 'Take heart. Get up. He's calling you.' And throwing off his cloak, he's sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, 'What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man said to him, 'Rabbi, let me recover my sight.'" I find it fascinating that Jesus asked him, "What do you want?" It's like it's obvious. Jesus, I want to see. I want what they have. Lord, isn't this clear? Why does Jesus ask him the question? I think it's partially because he wants Bartimaeus to articulate it, say it, because it takes faith to say something as crazy as this out loud. Lord, this is what I'm praying for. I pray that you heal me. I pray that you give me eyesight. And to speak to articulate is to express the faith. And Jesus said to him, verse 52, "Go your way. Your faith has made you well.' And immediately, he recovered his sight and followed him on the way." He says, "Your faith, your faith in me is what made all the difference and made you well." It's the Greek "σοζο". It means not just healing, it means salvation. You have been saved. It's the same phrase that Jesus uses when he heals the woman with the issue of blood. He says, Your faith has healed you or saved you. And the Lord Jesus Christ here gave the gentleman a physical eyesight, but he also gave him spiritual eyesight. He enlightened him. And the placement of this miracle right after Jesus' teaching section of the disciples is important. The disciples, they know about Christ. They've walked with him for three years, but they still haven't seen clearly. They still haven't comprehended the truth. Their eyesight spiritually needs to be healed. And healing of spiritual blindness happens when your eyes are open and you see things as they are. When you see God as he is, you desire him as you ought to desire. You desire to do his will because doing so delights him and clears your vision to see him purely what made the difference in Bartimaeus life? It was faith in Christ. Faith is the beginning, the middle, and the end of salvation and the Christian life. It's the beginning because it is by faith that we receive forgiveness of our sins and peace with God. Faith is the middle of our walk with the Lord, because as Paul says, we live by faith, and in the son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. And faith is the end of everything we do, as Hebrews 10:35 says. "Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward, for you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. For yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay, but my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls." The Christian walk begins with faith, continues with faith, ends with faith. One saved always persevering. As one writer said, faith is the hand of the soul by which we take hold of Christ. It is the mouth of the soul by which we feed on Christ and are nourished by him. It is the foot of the soul, which as we read, the righteous runs to the Lord and find safety. And faith is the eye of the soul by which we look to him and live. Faith is what makes you a disciple of Christ and what keeps you a disciple of Christ, and what sustains you as a disciple of Christ to the end. Faith is the knowledge that certain things are true. The man knows things about himself. He knows things about Jesus, but he doesn't know much. But he does know the most important things. What does he know? Well, first, he knows that he's blind. He knows that others have something that he does not have, and he wants that eyesight. And I think the reason the majority of people do not come to Christ, hold on to Christ, ask for forgiveness from Christ is because they don't see themselves as they really are. Th ey don't see themselves as disabled, blind, needing to be healed. In the book of Revelation, Jesus is speaking to the church in Laodecia, a group of people who consider themselves believers. And he says to them, "You think you are rich, but you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked." They weren't physically blind, but they were spiritually blind. And here, Bartimaeus, he knows exactly his situation. "Lord, I need healing." And he also knows something about Jesus. He calls Jesus rabbi. In the original, it's the emphasis on these Lord, that you are in a position of authority over me. Lord, you have power to heal me. I've heard it. Lord, I know that you are the son of David. You're the Messiah. Lord, I want you to be my messiah. And I want you to notice that Jesus does put the emphasis on the personal pronouns. Your faith has made you well. Your faith has saved you. And Martin Luther commenting on this text, he says, "But who is this me?" Your faith has saved you. "Who is this me?" Martin Luther writes, "It is even I, Martin Luther, a wretched and a condemned sinner. This word me is full of saving faith. He who will utter or write this little word, me shall be a good advocate and a disputer against all the accusations of the law and of his own conscience, for Christ delivered up for me. Neither sheep nor ox, nor gold, nor silver, but himself, and that entirely in holy for me. Yes, even for me who am such a rich and miserable sinner, say me with all your might and print this pronoun me indelibly in your heart." There's a difference between saying the Lord is a shepherd and saying, the Lord is my shepherd. There's a difference between saying Father God and saying, you're my Father, heavenly Father, you're my father. It's an extraordinary statement of personal commitment that Bartimaeus makes to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus heals him, gives him what he wants, and says, "Go your way." And Bartimaeus, at this point, it's expected, he's, okay. Thank you. I'm going to go home. God bless you. And he follows Jesus. He follows Jesus on Jesus' way. What's he doing? He's committing his life to Jesus Christ. It's an extraordinary statement of personal commitment when he calls Jesus, rabbi, my master. And what we see here is that Bartimaeus above all else, didn't just want physical vision. Above all else, he wanted Christ. He wanted to be with Christ. He wanted to follow Christ. And Bartimaeus, with his life, what is he doing? "Jesus, you gave me eyesight." And twice in this text and our text, Jesus asked, "What do you want me to do for you? What do you want me to do for you?" He says, James and John. He says it to Bartimaeus. And now Bartimaeus with his life, what does he do? He's saying, "Lord Jesus, what do you want me to do for you? Lord Jesus? How can I serve you?" Freely pardoned, he gives himself to Christ's service. But at so mighty of Christ as the blood of Christ, he devotes himself, heartily and thoroughly to the one who redeemed him. And this isn't what grace does. When you get a glimpse of grace, a taste of grace, you want to say to Lord Jesus, "Lord Jesus, what would you have me do?" And this is the love of Christ. The love of Christ is what changes your desires to want to obey Christ. Second Corinthians 5:14, "For the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised."Bartimaeus, the first days of his life where he sees are days where he follows Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. The very next text is Jesus Christ going to Jerusalem and the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. And Bartimaeus went with him. So with his eyes, he's beginning to see for the first time. What does he see? What is he an eyewitness too? He's an eyewitness. To the last week of Christ's earthly ministry. As he was mocked, spat at, scorched crucified, he got to witness that with his eyes. But above all else, he received the salvation that the Lord Jesus Christ offered him. At this time, we're going to transition to celebrating holy communion. And holy communion is for whom? Holy communion is for repentant believers in Jesus Christ. So if you're not a Christian or you're not sure if you're a Christian, we ask that you refrain from this part of the service. Or if you are living in unrepentant sin as a follower of Christ, we ask that you refrain. Instead, take time to repent. But if you do repent as a believer in Christ, you're welcome to partake. If you have not received the elements and you would like to participate, please raise your hand and one of the ushers will bring you the elements. And as they're dispersed, I'm going to pray over Holy communion. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the incredible text today that reminds us of the battle within the heart of the Son of God. We thank you, Jesus, that you saw exactly what you were going into and you set your face like Flint. And even, Lord, when you wrestled with the father's will in the garden of Gethsemane, ultimately, you said, "It's not my will, but yours be done." Lord Jesus, today we are reminded of your sufferings. We remember your suffering in our behalf. This is the price that you paid to ransom us from our sins and to atone for our forgiveness. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you offer us salvation by grace through faith. It's free to us because you paid for it with your suffering. And Lord, we take some time now to repent of sin, repent of transgression, repent of pride, repent of lackluster desire for you. And we pray that as we partake in communion, that you use this as means of grace to stoke our hearts to love you ever more. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

Shocked and Searched by the King

February 25, 2024 • Andy Hoot • Mark 10:17–31

Speaker 1: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com Pastor Andy: Today, we are, if you have not been with us, we are continuing in our service in our series Kingdom Come, The Gospel of Mark and The Secrets of God's Kingdom. Today, I'm giving Pastor Jan a preaching break, and just want to just take up this text with you right now. We are in Mark 10:17-31, the gospel of Mark 10:17-31. Follow along in your bibles or on the screen as I read. This is the Word of our Lord.  "And as He was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before Him and asked Him, 'Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' and Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments. Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother,' and he said to Him, 'Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth,' and Jesus looking at him, loved him and said to him, 'You lack one thing. Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor and you have treasure in heaven and come follow Me.'  Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, 'How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God," and the disciples were amazed at His words, but Jesus said to them again, 'Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.' And they were exceedingly astonished and said to Him, 'Then who can be saved?' Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man, it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.' Peter began to say to Him, 'See, we have left everything and followed you.' Jesus said, 'Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for My sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundred fold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life, but many who are first will be last and the last first.'" This is the word of our Lord. Let me pray before I start my sermon. Heavenly Father, we praise You for creating this day. God, You are the creator of all of the heavens and the earth. You pulled from abundance of authority and power and made all that we see. You have made us in Your image and Your creation is glorious, but, Lord, we as people, this creation is tainted by sin, Lord, for we can see Your majesty in all of creation, but we do not turn and worship You, Lord. Further, You show us Your goodness and offering the gospel to us. You sent your Son to communicate Your glory and Your love to us, yet we do not receive it. Lord, we choose just idols, things to worship, things that we think will satisfy us, broken cisterns that never satisfy at the cost of honoring You and putting You in the proper position as lead in our life. Holy Spirit, show us all now just what is gripping our heart, what is trying to pull us away from You, and Lord, just give us the strength and power to follow You, to choose the better portion in Jesus. I pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.  To start, I want to direct our attention to the famous verses in this text. I feel like most verses could be, you could say about that, but verses Mark 10:23-25, "And Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, 'How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God,' and the disciples were amazed at His words, but Jesus said to them again, 'Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.'" It's hard to not get distracted by the talk of a camel going through the eye of a needle, but these words here contain a talk of the biggest theme of the New Testament. Here in the Lord's famous comments on the case of the rich young ruler who had just turned his back against him and had gone away from him grieved and sorrowful, in these verses, we concentrate, actually, not on the camel going through the eye of the needle or on wealth and possessions primarily, but we are forced to draw our attention to the theme that's really at the heart of all of the New Testament in Mark, the theme of the kingdom of God, the theme of Christ's kingdom, the kingdom of heaven put in other parts of scripture.  Our series is called Kingdom Come, The Gospel of Mark and the Secrets of God's Kingdom. All of the message we've been going through, whether we've blatantly discussed this theme and described the kingdom or just talked about specific teachings and aspects in it, they're all about this theme. For Jesus, He Himself told us entry into this kingdom is the most important thing we should seek in this life. Matthew 6:33 says, "Seek you first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you." Jesus said these verses in the midst of a larger comment in Matthew 6:25-34. "Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you'll eat or what you'll drink nor about your body, what you'll put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about your clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so closed the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, do not be anxious saying, 'What shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear?' for the Gentiles seek after all these things and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." You see, to Jesus, to us here at Mosaic, the world is in trouble. Men and women are in trouble. The impacts of sin, corruption, folly, and death reign at large despite of all mankind's wisest innovations. We have all that we need and more. In our passage, we talk about in ancient, rich, young ruler. Realistically, all of us probably live better than the ancient rich young ruler, yet we are still unhappy and we're looking for a relief. We're seeking solutions and we're troubled and we're worried and constantly anxious about will we be satisfied in this life.  To sum our solution to this constant fight with dissatisfaction and worry, it's a matter of diet, it's a matter of clothing, it's a matter of having the right relationship, it's a matter of technology easing things for us, it's a matter of obtaining more knowledge, it's a matter of going to space to tap its resources, and so on, but what the Lord says, this shall not be. It's all wrong. He's the creator. We're not to live in a state of worry and anxiety or fear of what we'll have today or tomorrow.  Jesus says, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things will be added unto you." Jesus came specifically to tell us that nothing is more important than entering the kingdom, and that entry into the kingdom is possible. In Mark 1:15, perhaps the theme sentence of the whole book, Jesus says, "The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel." It's the repentance of faith turning from rebellious sin, turning from idolatry and things that we think will satisfy us apart from God and believing that Jesus will. That's how we can be saved, but as we have seen through Jesus' message and His engagement throughout Mark, the men and women of His own times of His own age and generation, they struggled over this. You would've thought that with such a messenger, that with such miracles that He paired with His message to show His authority, to show that they could trust Him, that everybody would've listened and believed, and that they've gone just running, running into the kingdom of God saying, "Lord, how can I serve You?" but they didn't. They stumbled in Jesus. They questioned, they argued, and the same is today. We are blessed people who get to look back at history and say this happened. There's a reason why history is marked by this Man's coming, the God Man's coming, and we can trust Him. He is on the throne today, especially after He's gone to the cross risen and ascended into heaven.  So the lesson behind of what I'm saying so far is that mankind, by nature, we struggle to trust God. As a result of sin, altogether our approach to life is entirely wrong in all its ideas and all of its thinking and the way that we pursue satisfaction, the way that we pursue peace, the way we engage the creation that God wanted us to enjoy and cultivate in communion with Him, and it's because this problem happened in Jesus' time, and today, we have to focus our attention on the matter. Jesus is talking about how can one enter the kingdom of God. That's the question He is answering in Mark. He's talking again about entry in one of the last passages while He's on His path to Jerusalem going to the cross. This is of utmost important to Jesus. What we've been talking about throughout Mark is the kingdom of God, a common element that comes out is that it's always surprising. Jesus, one of the things about the kingdom of God is that you can't really describe it in terms that, one, a fallen believer who because of his sin doesn't have ears to hear, can't really understand it. You have to be in the kingdom to really start understanding what Jesus is talking about. He has to describe, but no single word can describe the joy of salvation. No single word can describe the process and experience of sanctification in a believer's life, the growth and maturity and holiness in the faith.  So Jesus has to keep coming up with parables and stories to get us to understand entry into the kingdom and life in the kingdom. Today, our text tells us a tragic story. This is a story about the greatest of natural non-believing men. We have a good man, the rich young ruler, the best of his time, the best of Boston just engaging with Jesus Christ. The result, the start is amazing, the ending of the narrative, ultra depressing. We see that this kingdom of God, it's upside down, it's inside out. It just destroys, bursts our expectations.  So this first point, it's surprising, it's shocking. I'm going to break up this topic today talking about when you come to Jesus, when you seek entry into the kingdom of God, get ready to be shocked, searched, and blessed or grieved. When you come to Jesus, when you seek entry into the kingdom of God, get ready to be shocked, searched, and blessed or grieved. I intentionally have very simple language here in the outline because the people who really want very complex outlines and creative outlines and a lot of alliteration, the lofty thinkers, they're the ones who need to be humbled and be brought. You can't see because you're looking for those lofty things in everything the church does. So we're going to make it challenge your senses and humble you as we go through this. You need to be shocked by Jesus, searched and blessed, and you will be blessed or grieved after that happens. So let me go on. When you come to Jesus Christ, get ready to be shocked. By shocked I mean you're going to be surprised. Many of your expectations when you truly come to Jesus and have an encounter with Him, with His word, your expectations of who God is, who Christ is, how you enter the kingdom, how you grow in the kingdom and how you're rewarded for life in the kingdom are going to burst, and you're going to be shocked in the sense that oftentimes what you learn about entry and life in the kingdom, it's going to go against your natural sensitivities and preferences. It's going to insult you and get you angry at times.  I emphasize this point because this text, there's a whole lot of shock within it. In specific verses, we have very clearly the Lord just broadly, He's using shocking language just through that intro verse, "It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to go enter the kingdom of God." That's a sign. He's trying to get us ready to really be surprised, but specific verses beyond that, verse 23, "And Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, 'How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God,' and the disciples were amazed at His words." These guys who have been walking on missions trips with Him, sitting at His feet, living with Him at the end of His ministry before He gets to Jerusalem, they're shocked by His words and teachings here.  Furthermore in verse 26, Jesus repeats Himself, "How difficult it will be for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," and they were exceedingly astonished and said to Him, "Then who can be saved?" They were exceedingly astonished. They're floored. Further, they asked the question, "Then who can be saved?" This isn't a question. This is an exclamation of Jesus, "This guy is better than me. If He can't get in, how can we get in?" This is offensive. This is absurd. So specifically, these verses mention it, the last verse though, and this verse 31 could be a whole sermon on its own, "But many who are first will be last and the last first."  This is Jesus trying to just stir our sensitivity, stir our senses to say, "Things are going to be different. I've established this kingdom through My life, through My faithfulness, through My death, through My resurrection. That's where I'm going and be prepared. It's a call that those who are lowly and humble and deny themselves in this life in My way will be exalted by Me in eternity." This is just to think like this. Those who are last will be first and first last. It's completely contradictory how man thinks, how traditional religion thinks. Only the strong survive. God helps those who help themselves.  In the Jewish system, Jewish thought was if you climb a ladder, your goal as a Jew of that day was if you were blessed to get more formal education and training, you became a synagogue ruler, you became a scribe or Pharisee, you made it. So Jesus prepares us with specific shock in these verses, but just broadly, the whole story of the rich young ruler, it's really to shock us, to startle us and get us concerned about our candidacy for entry in the kingdom of God.  The tragedy, what the Lord is trying to teach us is a shocking lesson that goodness is not enough to enter the kingdom of God. Goodness, riches, wealth, these things that the world says are indicators of righteousness are at that time they're not good enough. So what do we do? How do you get in? Yes, for us it's easy for believers and non-believers to say bad people shouldn't get in. Those who blatantly rebel, they commit murder, they do heinous, perverted crimes, very clearly, if God's real, if He's good, very clearly they're not getting in. Christian, non-Christian, it's easy to get unity on that.  This text, it brings out that not badness, not that badness is wrong, but even goodness is not enough. We can exclude ourselves from badness, but when we hear that goodness is not enough, it's offensive because we're good people. We generally do more good than bad. We try to give more than we receive. When we mess up, we try to correct ourselves, we recycle, we buy local, we try to help our neighbor, we go to church, we give to nonprofits, but the tragedy of the rich young ruler confronts this thinking, for we're to read this passage and see that this guy at the start of the passage, he's presented to be better than us, but he's not good enough to enter. So look at him, look at how well he starts. Verse 17, "And as he was setting out on his journey, a man came up and knelt before Him and asked Him, 'Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'" This is just an astounding engagement. First of all, the text says a man. There's two parallel passages that tell the same story, Luke 18, Matthew 19, and he's just called a man here. Later on in the text it says he had great wealth, but we find out he's young in one of the other parallel passages. He's labeled as a ruler in one of the others. So he's wealthy, he's young.  In that day, youth as in our day, youth, who doesn't want a nice charismatic young man saying, "Lord, what must I do to serve you?" How happy are we when we see young people taking an initiative in the community, taking initiative in the church slash synagogue, which is our exact situation now? How often are we excited to see young people, let alone wealthy? This guy would've been the perfect man to run a $5 million campaign to get a church building. This guy was perfect just with these broad descriptions, but looking at the text, look at how he comes to the Lord.  All of Mark, we've been dealing with situations where even Jesus, His own disciples are not recognizing Him as Lord. They are essentially questioning His authority or not willing to trust in Him over and over again. It's really only the Gentiles, the people outside of the promises of God who are approaching Jesus with humility and trust and a heart to receive His kingdom and follow Him, but look at His approach. The man, he comes running up to Jesus as Jesus is leaving after a speaking and service engagement. If this man really was a ruler in his day, he was breaking custom here.  First of all, it's really hot there, but no, rich man, wealthy man, man of honor did not run. When the visiting teacher came in that society, the leaders of the synagogue weren't going down just running straight to Him. That would've brought some shame and maybe people would've questioned their authority and integrity.  Furthermore, it says he ran up and knelt before Him. He gets on his knees. That's just incredible. That is over the top and, again, not something that a man of honor does. Then what's even more notable is that this is a man who sees his need. He's willing to face potential public shame from his esteemed position because he says, "It's Jesus, this teacher, I've been hearing about this." The guy just thought, "He's talking about something that I don't have, eternal life." How many people do you share the gospel with, bring to church and they're like, "Yeah, I don't think I have that," but then they just never come back? They're content to just sit not knowing how to address that need, at least this guy's doing something.  Furthermore, he's showing Jesus respect through the running, through the bowing. He's saying, "I see you're a good teacher. I see you've got something." He eagerly wants to hear what Jesus has to say. Then his question, it's not perfect, and I'll get to that later, but he asks a question. He's interested in eternal life. So this guy, he's a very good, exceptional, young man who cares about spiritual matters, and he is approaching Jesus with great eagerness, great zeal to find out the truth.  I just want to say, as Christians, we pray for opportunities to share the gospel. We know God's love. We want everyone in our lives to have it if you really know it, and you're praying, "Lord, give me opportunities to share the gospel." How many of you, how thrilled would you be if someone at the lunch table at work said to you, "Andy, I know you're Christian. What must I do to inherit eternal life?" That'd be amazing. We dream for these opportunities. Most of the time we feel like a nag in the sharing and proclamation in public or in relationship.  I was flying a couple weeks ago. I like to sit with my Bible open on the airplanes like, "Maybe this person will ask me a question. Lord, Lord, just prepare me and just humble this person. Let them see that I might have an answer for them." I was literally thinking like that reading my Bible on the plane, but it didn't happen, unfortunately, but we pray for these situations.  So this guy's approach, it's good. There's something honorable and respectable about him, and you could not imagine anything more from a natural man, a non-believer. This is your friend who works at the biotech company in Boston saying, "There's something in your life that I don't have. What do I do to get it?" So Jesus, He's exposed this need. The man tries to find out how to address this thing that he's lacking and to get it. This is as good as a start as anybody could have.  To the disciples of his day, they would've thought that this guy would've walked right into the kingdom of God. That's why they're so amazed that the story ends differently. So can you imagine a better start, but that is not the story. This is not the way the engagement goes. He doesn't walk right into the kingdom. Verse 22 says, "Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions." We're just forced to ask the question, "Why? What's the matter with this young man? What's the matter with his approach? Why did he go away? Why did he not enter the kingdom? Why is he left grieving and despondent, grieving in heart? What's the trouble?" The one phrase answer is this man went away because of his profound misunderstanding of the kingdom of God. That's why the Lord makes the comment in verse 23, "How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God." He says it again, "Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." It's impossible for a righteous man seemingly perfect on the outside by his own works, by his own volition to enter the kingdom of God, but with God all things are possible. So this grace, we can only be saved by grace. So that's part of goodness does not matter, it's God's grace, but to focus on the shock, Jesus, He shocks with specific verses in this and Jesus shocks broadly with this tragedy.  When people draw nears to Jesus, He shocks them. If you really have an encounter with Jesus, if you dig into scripture, if you hear a truly biblical, faithful sermon, if you come to Jesus with a heart and say, "Show me. I want to know who You are. I want to know what Your call on my life is," it's going to be a drastic engagement. There's only one of two directions. If you feel like you've never really been shocked by Jesus, you probably have not gotten close to Him. You're not really understanding the heart of His message. You're not really understanding the impossibility of entering His kingdom and the call to follow Him.  So Jesus, He shocks those who draw near to him and He contends that their views of Him need to change, as well as their views of the kingdom need to be shaken up. So a lot of people, they talk about Jesus only as if He was a good man of history. Just like the man in our story, He's a good man. He was a great teacher, a great voice for the poor, great among the philosophers, a great social revolutionary. This is how I used to talk about Jesus when I was insecure to identify as a Christian at my liberal arts college. Perhaps they say He was a prophet among the great prophets, Buddha, Confucius. They say He was one of the greatest the world has ever seen. They think when you talk about Jesus in these ways but don't call Him the Lord, the Savior of man who came to die on the cross to bear the wrath for their sin and rise that they might have resurrection life and joyful, abundant life in eternity. When they say these comparisons, it's really an insult. They're really showing that they don't know who He really is. Jesus is not just any good teacher. He's the Son of God and Son of Man, the living God, the omnipotent God taken on flesh. He can't be categorized in the same genre as fallen man. We need to view Him this way because that's how He viewed Himself. So He's shown us that here a little bit in this text, but He wants us to confront our views of the kingdom of God. A lot of people come to Christianity think that it's just an add-on to what they're already doing in life. This is exactly what the rich young ruler was guilty of. He says, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What must I do?" This is a man who wants to be doing something. He wants to keep doing what he's already doing, but maybe add a little bit more by his own effort to attain eternal life. We can see right away his approach. He seems flawless, but in his words, there's this pride saying, "I want to be a part of my own salvation. I want to be a part of my entry." He isn't coming as a child. He's not helpless and needy and humble. He is presenting himself as someone who's capable. He's successful in business. He's got good financial capital, not just cash, he's got capital. That's what possessions means later on in the text. He's socially respected in the community. He's got religious success. He wants Jesus to give him what is lacking and maintain the status quo of his life, and that's just not how the kingdom of God works.  Jesus says to him, "You lack one thing. Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor and you have treasure in heaven. Come follow me." He's saying, "I'm here to uphold, just overturn your whole life. I'm here to cause upheaval," and it's not really on the outside first, it's on the inside first. Now, I'll elaborate more on that later, but Christianity, it's not an add-on. Jesus said, Mark 2:21-22, "No one sows a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old and a worst tear is made, and no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins and the wine is destroyed and so are the skins, but new wine is fresh for wineskins."  Jesus is the fresh wine. If you put Him into an old wineskin, it's going to burst. When you enter the kingdom of God, it's not just like any other habit or study that you take up casually or leisurely or see, "What more could it bring to my life?" He wants to make you entirely new. He is not content to play second fiddle to anything in your life. This is really important because a lot of people, I know people in my life who have engaged Christianity for decades and they're just approaching it as if it's just any old study of history. It's just like any other philosophy, "Let me see what more it can add to my repertoire." No. Jesus says, "I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me." When you enter into the kingdom by this great gift of faith, you should expect your life to some change, some transformation. The rich young ruler knew that what Jesus called him to was so much more than he wanted to do. He thought, "It's just a little bit of sprinkle, a little bit of Jesus into my life and I'll just keep going with everything else." So Jesus, this is all under the point of when you come to Jesus, expect to be shocked. This is when you come to Jesus, expect to be shocked and, really, as you continue in life, expect to be shocked. He's going to keep pushing you toward greater levels of holiness, greater levels of maturity. A lot of people, they don't understand how far, how serious He is about holiness. When you're saved, praise God, you've probably left something, probably a sin that gripped the surface of your life and heart, but He just keeps digging and digging deeper and deeper. A lot of people are shocked how the Lord through marriage puts two people with complimentary parts together, and as iron sharpens iron, they see the endless, endless way that the Lord is just calling them to greater holiness by one day at a time not lashing out at their spouse.  When you're a member of a church and you're called to in sickness and in health, stay faithful, continue to gather with one another, continue to love one another as Jesus has loved you and you find out these people are sinners, these leaders are flawed, the Lord is not just calling them to repent and trying to train everybody, He's calling you to greater levels of holiness in the way that you engage the tensions. It's shocking at how far the Lord digs into our identity to get us to grow in the faith, but when you're coming to the faith, when the Lord is shocking you when you're in the faith, how do you respond to that? This text, I think the response is you let Jesus search you. When you come to Jesus, get ready to be searched. By search I mean that Jesus probes your entire being and He looks for defilement, He looks for impurities on the surface of your life and at the heart, and He has perfect vision and He's going to reveal what He sees.  If you look at the text, three times in the text it said that Jesus looked at someone. Verse 21, "Jesus looked at him and loved him." Verse 23, "Jesus looked around at His disciples and said ..." Again in verse 27, "Jesus looked at them and said ..." Three times there's this idea of Jesus looking, and I don't think that this is there as an accident. This is one of the unique elements of this presentation, of this story that is not in the other two gospel presentations of it. What we have here in this text is that Jesus, when He's looking at the young man, when He's looking at his disciples, it's a sense of He's giving a holy gaze. It's the Almighty God looking right at us and right through us. In Revelation 1, Jesus is depicted in radiant glory. We just think of a refining fire and having eyes of blazing fire. The apostle John said, the one who had the vision, the Holy Spirit gave the vision to for the Book of Revelation, he says, "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead." You're just exposed when Jesus looks at your life and you realize you can't stand before Him in His holiness. In the next two chapters of Revelation after chapter one, Revelation 2 and 3, Jesus, He looks at seven churches and it seems as if He looks right through them. He understands what's happening. He calls them out for their sin, for their grievances for Him, and it seems like He's speaking into the minds and hearts of the individuals of the body. We think of Jesus telling Nathaniel when He's gathering His disciples, "Nathaniel, I saw you under the tree," and Nathaniel's shaken. The Lord has a special vision. In today's account, we see Jesus as looking, searching the rich young ruler, perceiving what his genuine spiritual sickness was, probing the core of his corruption, and it's amazing.  I think his vision, it's just incisive. Within a few lines in an instant, Jesus just shatters this man's identity, reveals his greatest heart issues. So He sees this first and the man approaches Him. He finds one little mistake in his presentation when he says, "What must I do to inherit eternal life? What must I do?" Jesus takes that clue, which suggests that this man thinks he deserves entry into the kingdom based on his own righteousness that he's billed out by his works, by his observance of God's law, and He immediately questions the man's understanding for why he thinks he's a good candidate about the law.  He says, "You know the commandments, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother," and he said to Him, "Teacher, all these I've kept for my youth." The man's answer affirms Jesus' suspicion that he thinks he can enter the kingdom upon his own merit, but you see, Jesus' wisdom, His genius in these verses were in the list of commandments that He mentioned, he's only acknowledging the second table of the law that is summarized by love your neighbor as yourself. He's not bringing up any of the first four commandments that talk about love of God.  So this man thinks that he's one who should garner entry based on his good status in the community, based on his upholding of the commandments. Jesus, He sees that and He looks at him. He loves him, "There's almost something like something really likable about you. It's cute how you're presenting yourself to me, but you are so unobservant of yourself," and He looks at him and He asks him about one of the heart commandments, "What's the first commandment? You shall have no other god before Me." Jesus, He asks him this, He doesn't ask him this, He just puts His finger on the dot of where his idolatry when he says ... "And Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said to him, 'You lack one thing. Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor and you'll have treasure in heaven. Come follow me.'" He's pressing right on the center of the target, that thing that the man is holding onto that is preventing him from full submission to Christ's lordship, repentance and faith before him. This is what Jesus does. Further, the man says, it says, "Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions." So Jesus, like a surgeon, incisively reveals that this man who's perfect on the outside, he's an idolator. He does not love God first and foremost above everything in his life. He does not think that he was made to worship God and be satisfied by life of communion with Him, and so much so, his grasp on his money, his wealth, and perhaps all the things that it brought was so great that God is standing there right before him inviting him to follow Him, to care for Him, promising him riches in heaven and he wouldn't let go of it. So God, He just searches this man, Christ searches this man super quickly and nothing. This is what he does with all of us. Regardless of whatever good appearances or law-abiding appearances that we can conjure up, Christ can see what our heart truly longs for, and if it's not Him, He's going to expose it. In the case of the rich young ruler, it was his grip on his money. Jesus, He's not revealing that money is an inherently bad thing. There are great saints of history who have had money in scripture. We have Job, we have Joseph of Arimathea, the man who donated his tomb upon Christ's crucifixion. We think of Zacchaeus, who in his repentance used his wealth for God's glory, but money is not evil, but the text shows us that money is something so powerful that it can blind us to its control over us.  It's money, there's something specific in Christ bringing this out in this passage. There's a special authority that it can have to us. This man clearly had no self-awareness, but everybody is tempted to clinging to something in this life for satisfaction that is not Jesus. Jesus wants to reveal that to us and root it out.  I remember hearing about a story where there were monkey hunters in a jungle somewhere, and the monkeys were so ... What they did was, the hunters, they basically just had to put nuts in a jar and essentially fasten the container to where they put it. The monkeys were so greedy about getting the nuts. Their desire was so set on the nuts that when the hunters would arrive, they just kept their hand and stood there even though it led to their capture, their demise. We are just like the monkeys. People today, we hear the gospel go out, we hear it, we feel its call. We see the peel of a life with Christ, the joy of salvation, but we're unwilling to come when Christ calls us because we won't let go of our grasp around that thing that our heart is in love with. We tend to make, and it's not just rebellious sin, it's often good things that we put in the place of God.  So what is it for you? What are you holding onto? If Christ came and He just looked at you, He didn't have to play around with the man with talk of goodness, He says, "You want to talk goodness? God is good. Let's not confuse categories here. Let's not talk about goodness. Your sense of goodness, you don't see it, but it's decided by your culture, your preferences. You want to talk about the law? Okay. I'm going to use the law to try to show your own blindness. That clearly doesn't work. Then we'll look at you and put it, bring you right to your idol." Christ, He could just look at us and call it out. So if He was here today, what would be that thing that you were thinking, that thing, that relationship, that experience, that lifestyle that you think could satisfy you more than Him? He's going to search us and probe us and try to get us to relinquish our grip on such things.  Notice the text says, "Jesus looked at him and loved him," when he brought out the man's idolatrous relationship with his wealth, with his possessions. The text says this is loving, this act by Jesus is loving. It's tough love. This is Jesus with the holy gaze trying to help someone come out of their blindness, come out of the slavery to that thing that is dominating their life, that thing that they structure all of their life around to keeping, to retaining, that thing that's preventing them from worshiping Him, and He's trying to free them to come receive forgiveness for their sin, enjoy a life of freedom, a life entrusting Christ to provide for you one day at a time, and it's what is He calling you to let go of. I think we all have those things. Is it a relationship? Is it wealth and the control of your life that it could bring? Is it having a child? Is it your children? What is it? How do we ask? We ask, "Jesus Lord, search me and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there'll be any grievous way in me." If anyone has walked closely to me, you know that was my verse of 2023. The Christian, you get frightened by this searching at the start of faith because you see what Jesus is going to call you to leave to come and follow Him, but actually, you see the goodness of it and you grow in your profession. You grow in this prayer, "Lord, search me because if there's anything in me that is going to separate, tempt me to leave You, stop following You, if there's anything in me that's going to get in the way of this relationship that I have with You, just root it out, and please be gentle, but if You have to be painful and I'm that blind, just do it."  We should grow to appreciate this searching. The Christian should grow, but the thing that happens when you feel the Lord, He's shocking you, He's searching you, it's offensive because our flesh, until Jesus returns, is going to fight and resist. It's going to want to look back and be tempted to cling to those idols. So when we come to Jesus, you should get ready to be blessed or grieved. This is when Jesus is shocking you, He's searching you, you've got two directions to go.  We see in this text, these two results. With verse 22, we see the grief in the reaction of the ruler, "Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions." The word for grief used here, it's the word used in the gospels to describe the same grief that Jesus felt on the cross when the Father with whom He dwelt in perfect communion, loving, eternal communion, turns His face away, does not respond to His cries of, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me on the cross?" That same word for grief that talks about just a grief that we cannot fathom, that is the same word used to describe the grief that this rich young ruler felt when he's walking away from Jesus, when Jesus is pressing on that idol.  The irony is, this is after he's walking away, he feels this grief. Jesus is actually letting him have what he wants, yet he's walking away despondent, in despair. He's clinging with a vice grip to that idol. It's tearing him apart, yet he's still holding onto it. We don't know. The text says, "Jesus looked at him and loved him." The only way Jesus can actually look at a sinner and idolator and love him is by grace. A lot of people say, "This guy definitely was not saved." The prayer is, hopefully, he saw the folly of his ways, and what did he have to do? He had to repent, go to Jesus, confess his sin of idolatry, of thinking that his wealth could satisfy him more than Jesus, and by confessing his sin, he could have been saved. That's the same with all of us if we catch ourselves in such idolatry.  Then when we do that, whether it's in the initial first time that the Lord is searching us or later on perhaps, hopefully in the way that the ruler did, we can experience God's blessing. We see God's blessing, Mark 10:26-31, "And they were exceedingly astonished," the disciples, "and said to Him after the rich young ruler goes away, 'Then who can be saved?' Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.' Peter began to say to Him, 'See, we have left everything and followed you.' Jesus said, 'Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for My sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundred fold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life, but many who are first will be last and the last first.'"  For the person who has been searched by Jesus, who repents of their grip on the idols of their heart and follows Him and trusts His position in this life and eternity with Him, these are the most encouraging words. This is not prosperity gospel. These are Jesus' words. We read them at face value. As you engage the shock of just the difficulty of leaving stuff to enter into the kingdom as Jesus instructs you, when you engage Jesus' probing, when you relinquish your grip on these things that keep you away from following Him, He promises to reward you. These verses give us assurance that He sees your sacrifice. He sees your effort to leave, to say goodbye to the old man and live in a resurrected new way when you follow Him. Further, He says, He's not just going to honor in eternity, He's going to honor it in this life. What we're called by Christians upon the moment that we're saved is to follow Him, to trust Him that He will satisfy. We were made for worship for Him. That's what Adam and Eve, they're made to worship and dwell in the garden in perfect communion with the Lord, but they sinned against Him thinking that Satan said, "There's fruit of this world. Taste it. He's withholding something from you," but when we come to Christ and say, "No, God, I see You are enough," He promises to satisfy.  Anyone who receives Jesus' call to follow Him and allows Him to stay in the position of Lord of their life and follows Him one day at a time, they know that actually a lot of these earthly things don't matter. The joy of salvation, the joy of peace, the peace that comes when you know that you're right before God, the Father through Jesus Christ, the perfect mediator, the knowledge that God loves you despite having full knowledge of your sin because of Jesus, you know that the joy of salvation is better. These extra benefits, these are just words and promises to give us hope to persevere until the end, but we can ask Him expectantly that He will offer them. There is an element, Mark says with persecutions. So it's not going to be perfect. Our hearts can be tempted towards sin. The creation is still crying out for Jesus' return. We're still in a fallen world, and these persecutions, they're means to test us, to grow us, and we're called to endure through them.  I have had the pleasure in the past few weeks of having a rich young ruler of Boston of our congregation approach me and say, "Pastor Andy, I've had this relationship with you for five years, and just want to be honest with you. These whole five years I've checked in with you occasionally once a year, every year, year and a half, and what the Lord has shown me in the past couple months is I've been in grievous sin, just finding my satisfaction and building my kingdom, building my resume, grasping, having a vice grip on relationships that did not honor Him, and I see that that is sin. I see that I was committing idolatry, thinking these things could satisfy me more than God."  What did he ask me? He set an appointment with me and he said, "How can I serve?" He knew that the work was finished in his life. He asked me, "How can I serve?" Then he told me he also went online. He heard about Mosaic's campaign for the building fund, and he said, "The Lord blessed me while I was in this period of sin and I just really want to serve Him with my life. I sold the stock that I had." I don't know what a lot meant to him. I don't know the specific amount, but he sold stock that he acquired over this period and he gave it toward the kingdom of God. So praise God, I got to see the Lord move.  It's a miracle anytime the Lord does this in a person's life, but we need to trust that Jesus Christ, He is on His throne because He has lived, He has died, He has resurrected, He has ascended, He is in charge still, and He does save people. He gives people conviction by the Holy Spirit to repent of their idolatry, repent of their sin, repent of their self-dependence before Him and convinces them to repent and follow Him.  So what was the rich young ruler called to? He was called to faith. It's confusing when you think Jesus has this perfect evangelistic opportunity and he's like, "Why didn't he just tell him to repent and believe?" Well, have faith in Christ. Well, Jesus, He's wiser than us. He knew the hard work that He needed to do on this guy, but we're basically called to be saved and trust Him and trust Him with our salvation and trust Him with provision to help us persevere to the end.  When God saved Israel, He said, "People forget the preamble of the 10 Commandments." It's, "I am the Lord thy God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me." When we fully believe that God and Christ has met our deepest need, our guilt, our shame, our sin, our idolatry before Him, our hopelessness, our condemnation, that we are just walking towards apart from Him. When we see that God has met our deepest need through sending Christ to be the propitiation for our sins on the cross, we can trust Him with everything else. Israel was called to trust God after they're delivered from slavery. We are called to trust God when we realized He delivered us from the slavery to our sin. So we seek first His kingdom and all things will be added to us. Let me pray and close there. Heavenly Father, we praise You that You sent Your Son Jesus Christ for we know by Your word and by our personal experience of salvation and His provision as we've walked forward in faith, we know that He is the real rich, young ruler. Lord, we thank You for giving us the perspective to look upon this instance in history, the story, this tragedy, to learn more about how we may enter, to learn that we, by our own efforts, cannot enter, but through Christ, through His efforts, through faith in them we can, but Lord, please embolden our faith, grow our faith, grow our trust that You, as You have saved us, You will always provide for us. You see our effort today to honor You. We ask that You would bless us, preserve us, provide the comfort and strength and care we need to continue to honor You. Lord, we just ask, we pray, sustain us until we receive our reward in heaven. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. 

Covenantal Love

February 18, 2024 • Jan Vezikov • Mark 10:1–16

One quick announcement. We are in the middle of a building campaign and we're trying to raise $5 million for space that the Lord has sent to us. We've signed a purchase and sale agreement on half of it, and we're trying to raise funds for the rest. So I say that because we need prayer. The church of God, if we ask you to pray for the Lord to send us a miracle, it's a miracle that we got here. We're praying for the second iteration of the miracle is like the blind man. If you remember, he got the first touch from Jesus and Jesus says, "Do you see?" And he says, "I see people walking like trees." And he needed a second miracle. So that's what we need. Our first miracle is the space is located, we know where it is. Down Kent Street, you take a left on Longwood, three towers, it's right there. So pray. And then also if the Lord brings anyone to mind, perhaps a rich uncle or something like that, and then connect us with them. With that said, would you please pray with us for the preaching of God's Holy word. Heavenly Father, we come to your word with fear and trepidation, knowing that you are holy and your commandments are holy. And we recognize that we are sinful, we are commandment breakers, we are covenant breakers, unfaithful. Lord, but we thank you for Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior who out of his great love for you and out of his great love for us went to a cross to shed blood for the covenant. The covenant that welcomes us in for whoever would repent of sin, of transgression, everyone can be forgiven, purified, sanctified, and filled with the spirit to live lives of obedience. Lord, as we consider the topics before us in the text on marriage and divorce and children, someone of the most intimate spheres of life, Lord, we ask that you send us the Holy Spirit that you minister to us, to our hearts. If there's hardness of heart, remove it. If there's brokenness, mend it and heal it. If there's a lack of zeal for your word, I pray, Lord, fire up our hearts and bless us in the Holy Word in our time together, amen. We are continuing our sermon series through the Gospel of Mark called Kingdom Come. And the idea is that Jesus has come, the king has inaugurated His kingdom, but then He teaches us to pray. Our Father who in heaven hallowed be your name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So the more God's will is done in our lives, the more of His kingdom we usher into the world. The title of the sermon today is Covenantal Love. I will never leave you nor forsake you. These are some of the most powerful words that you can hear and they're some of the most powerful words that you can speak. These are words of eternal love, a love that will never end. And who's the only one who can make that promise and we can completely trust Him to keep it always? Well, that's God of course, because God alone is eternal. God alone is perfectly faithful. And this love, this faithful love is a costly love. And that's why the conversation about marriage happens right after Jesus informed his disciples that there's a cost to following him. There's a cost to loving like Jesus loved. There's a cost to faithful love and that's denying self daily, dying to self daily, taking up the cross daily. The way of Christ is the way of love and that's how most of people in the world view Christ and God. God is love and we all know that. It's love for God and love for neighbor. But if you look at the way of Christ, how Christ lived, the way of Christ is the way of the cross, the way of self-sacrifice and service. Therefore, the way to love and the way of love is self-sacrifice. All of me for all of you. And that's what covenantal love is. You say, "I love you so much that I will die to self to serve you." And how was the greatest covenant ratified? The greatest promise of love? Well, with the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus tells us, "Drink of it all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." What was Jesus saying on the cross? On the cross, He opened up his arms and He said, "I love you this much and I love you so much that I am willing to bleed for you." That's what covenantal love costs. And receiving God's covenantal love, well, it's transformative. It changes your very essence. It melts your heart, it melts the hardness and his love fills your heart with a supernatural love to love the way He loved you with blood, sweat, and tears. And when you realize that He loved you with that kind of love and promises to love you like that for all of eternity, despite your sin, despite your unfaithfulness, despite your idolatry, despite your adultery, it stretches your heart expanding it and then your heart's filled with his love, ready to fill the hearts of the closest people in your life, your closest neighbors, your family, your wife, your husband, your children. Today we're in Mark 10:1-16, would you look at the text with me? And He left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan and crowds gathered to Him again. Again as was His custom he taught them. And Pharisees came up and in order to test Him asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" He answered them. "What did Moses command you?" They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away." Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart He wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast his wife and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." And in the house the disciples asked Him again about this matter and He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery." And they were bringing children to him that He might touch them and the disciples rebuked them. And when Jesus saw it, He was indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to me. Do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." And He took them in His arms and blessed them, laying His hands on them. This is the reading of God's holy, inherent, and fallible authoritative word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. First marriage is being joined together by God. Second, adultery is breaching of the marital covenant. And third, God loves humanity, therefore Jesus loves children. First of all, marriage is being joined together by God. Before Jesus Christ embarks on His journey to Jerusalem, embarks on the way of the cross, the Via Dolorosa, He tells us and the disciples how to follow Him in some of the most important areas of life. The next part of the chapter is about money and wealth and how do we interact with how Jesus wants us to be faithful with finances? And later He'll talk about a relationship to work and faithfulness there. But here He says, "I'm going to teach you how to follow me in the relationship between a husband and a wife and the relationship between parents and children." Jesus wants to follow Him needs to impact every single area of life, specifically the most important areas of our lives. He's Lord of all. And today Jesus concentrates His teaching of what it means to be a disciple in the most fundamental areas of life, one's marriage, one's children. In verse one of chapter 10, it says, "He left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan and crowds gathered to Him again. And again as was His custom, He taught them." So Jesus has finished the private discourse with the 12 disciples and what it means to follow Him. And probably that took place in Peter's house in Capernaum. Now Jesus is leaving everything familiar and He's beginning His fateful journey toward Jerusalem. And one of the fascinating things is Jesus here in His final journey toward Jerusalem, passes directly through the same area where John the Baptist conducted his work in preparing the way for the one who is to come after him. So the crowds gather and the Pharisees seeing another opportunity to test Jesus Christ. And the phrase here for test Jesus, shows that the inquiry is hostile. They're seeking to trap Him, therefore they ask a question about divorce. They come to Him in verse two and they say, "Pharisees came up in order to test Him and asked, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?'" They try to trip Jesus up with a loaded question designed to expose Jesus Christ as a lawbreaker. They had heard Jesus teaching on family, on marriage, on children. And Jesus has been emphasizing the fact that it's one man, one woman, one covenant, one lifetime, and there wasn't any talk about divorce. And they believe virtually everyone in the first century, Palestine, was in agreement that you could get a divorce. Husbands could be granted divorces for trivial things if the wife didn't please them, since the law of Moses allowed for divorce. If Jesus here says, "Moses allowed for it, but I go against Moses," then Jesus can be charged with being a lawbreaker. So that's the trick behind what they're doing. And Matthew 9:3, it's more explicit, the parallel passage, "The Pharisees came up to Him and they tested Him by asking, 'Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?'" So they saw that Moses allowed for divorce and we'll get into that text in just a little bit, but then they reinterpreted in their schools of thought as for any cause. And the question is about marriage. So we're not dealing with a ceremonial ordinance, but with the moral law. And Jesus already warned not to think that He had come to destroy the law or nullify it. He has come to teach it and fulfill it. Verse three, "He answered them, 'What did Moses command you?'" They ask a question, Jesus answers with a counter question. And some early Christian commentators interpret this question as Jesus way of playing Moses commandments off against God's. Moses commanded this, but God did not. And that's clearly an unsustainable path exegesis, because in Mark 7, Jesus clearly identifies the 10 commandments as God's law. He's going to do the same with the conversation about the rich young ruler. And Jesus affirmed the binding character of the 10 commandments, the decalogue, as the central part of the mosaic teaching. If you remember, He revealed himself on the Mount of Transfiguration. He went up there with Peter, James, and John and He met with Elijah and Moses. And one of the reasons why He met with Moses was because the law was given by Moses. Therefore, Jesus is affirming the law that was given by Moses. And Elijah was given the job to then go tell the people of Israel that they need to repent and turn back to the 10 commandments. Moses wrote the whole Pentateuch concluding the Genesis narrative that Jesus will quote. So verse four, "They said, 'Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.'" And some exegesis have found a key to the passage in the contrast between Jesus' question, which asked about what Moses commanded and the Pharisees that reply, which only talks about what he allowed, as if in Jesus' opinion God permits divorce as a concession, but He never commanded it. And again, this exegesis is unsustainable and the Pharisees here are merely using common terminology of what may or may not be done. And this question in reference to divorce comes from Deuteronomy 24. If you know about Jesus and the way He quotes scripture, go back and see how often He quotes the book of Deuteronomy. When He meets with Satan, when Satan comes to tempt Jesus in the wilderness, when He's fasting for 40 days, three times Jesus' response to Satan and all three times they're verses from Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 24:1, "When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes, because he has found some indecency in her and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of the house and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man's wife and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies who took her to be his wife, then her former husband who sent her away may not take her again to be his wife after she has been defiled. For that is an abomination before the Lord and you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance." So Deuteronomy 24 is a classic example of the Torah's casuistic or case law. The case law that interpreted the 10 commandments and occasions that would arise in real life. Here in this text there's no denunciation of the divorce. In fact, it's not the divorce that's being denunciation by taking a divorce wife back after she has subsequently married and divorced another man. In verse one it says, "If he finds some kind of indecency in her," another translation says, "Nakedness." Leviticus 18 uses this phrase 18 to 20 times. It has to do with illicit sexual activity. So when Deuteronomy 4:4 says that the woman has been defiled by her second marriage, it's because there was still the option of reconciliation before she actually had sexual relations with her second husband. On the one hand, the divorce of the wife was legitimate though not mandatory. On the other hand, her second marriage is categorized as defilement, which in this case must of necessity refer to adultery. And the second marriage is simultaneously categorized as both permissible and adultery at the same time. And you say how? Well the explanation is that the second marriage permanently and irrevocably severs the first one flesh marital union with her first husband, there can be no more reconciliation. It is in this sense an aspect of the second marriage constitutes adultery. And though this constitutes adultery and though the woman is set to be defiled, her defilement is in regard to her first husband. It's not defilement in regard to the second husband. It says he is to write her a certificate of divorce and send her away to make it official. So they quote Moses, Moses permitted, Moses allowed. In verse five it says, "Because of your hardness of heart," Jesus says, "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment." In the parallel passage in Matthew 19:8, "He said to them, 'Because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.'" And some people look at this text and they say, "Well, because God foresaw hardness of heart or sinfulness, He wrote into the law a concession to sin." And this of course cannot be the right interpretation, because God never writes into the law concession to sin, though He does write into the law consequences of sin. So the divorce writing in Deuteronomy 24 is not a concession to sin, but it's consequences of sin. If adultery is to happen in a marriage, there are consequences that can be taken. Consequence number one for adultery in marriage was execution. But the husband sometimes, because of grace toward his wife, didn't pursue the execution. Like Joseph, if you remember Joseph, when his wife Mary was found to be with child, Joseph didn't hear from the Holy Spirit yet, he didn't hear from the angel yet, and he quietly wanted to divorce her and then the Lord stopped that. So divorce sometimes was a lesser consequence that was pursued instead of execution. So what then does Jesus mean, "From the beginning it was not." What does he mean, "Because of your hardness of heart?" Well, quite simply that from the beginning when there was no sin, there was no provision for divorce, but man fell into sin and subsequently hardhearted men and women commit adultery. Divorce comes in on the heels of sin, because it is necessary to punish sin, which is what divorce is. It's a punishment or a sanction for sin. So divorce legislation is authorized or permitted in order to deal with this hard heartedness. Divorce is not presented as an inherent or absolute right, but as a remedy for sin and a right only ensuing upon sin. Verse six, "But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female." He goes to the very beginning. So in a sense, in the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Eden was ruled under God's will perfectly. And in a sense Jesus Christ comes in order to save us from our sins and He points to the 10 commandments, this is how we are to govern ourselves if we are to live a life that creates a semblance, a taste, a foretaste of heaven on earth. So He goes from the beginning, He goes to the very beginning and He says, "God made them male and female." The first service I almost passed out. I know what was happening. 15 years I've been doing this long enough and I know there are topics where you are just over the target. You put yourself over the target and in the spiritual realm there is war. And whoever was in the first service, you know exactly what was happening. My wife almost called 911. She said, "I had my phone ready," because I know where we're standing. We're standing in the demonic epicenter of ideologies, demonic ideologies that seek to pervert the design of God from the very beginning. We stand, this synagogue celebrated the fact that they had one of the first same sex marriages ever officiated in this country right here, right here in a place where the 10 commandments are right there. So people standing right with the 10 commandments, the law of God over them as they make a mockery of it. I also understand this moment in time that we're in. We are in a synagogue with the 10 commandments in back of me and the latest iteration of the pride flag outside, that's not our flag. And what is that flag? The new iteration is confusion on gender. Alistair Begg recently, he was a faithful expository for years, but he was asked recently, "Hey, my grandchild is having a same sex wedding, can I go to the wedding?" And his response was, "Not only should you go, but you should bring a present. In effect with your presence you're celebrating or you're partaking in the ceremony of the covenant that's being made." And I was blown away by that, because those are conversations that we were having a decade ago here. The conversations we're having now aren't about that. The conversations we're having now with people here, real people, we're asking can my child be friends with a trans child? Our kids go to school with parents that dress boys in girls clothing. That's where we are in this moment in time. So even to get up and say, "No, there's two genders, male and female, He created them. And He designed sexuality for the flourishing of humanity." Why is this topic so important to God? Because this is the topic that explains how we got here. We're talking about the act of creation itself. And what does Satan want to do above all else? He wants to murky the waters of the design of God so people say, "Is there a designer? Look at us." So Jesus goes and He says, "From the beginning of creation, God made them male and female." And the emphasis here is on the complimentary sexual equipment of the first couple designed for each other whose result in sexual union is part of an indelible marital bond created by God. The presupposition of this argument seems to be that sexual union creates a permanent ontological fusion of the individuals involved. That on a spiritual level something is happening that you can't even explain, a unifying experience. When one body enters or is entered by another, a transaction of eternal significance has taken place. One that in its merging of opposites and resolutions of contradictions. And in a culture in which sex is often trivialized and used merely as just fun, private gratification, we have to heed the words of Christ. Verse seven, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. So they have no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." Jesus doesn't use the word marriage here. He uses it later in the private discussion with the disciples, but clearly that's the subject at hand. And what is marriage? Marriage is a man and a woman becoming one in recognition that God has joined them together for life, therefore they vow not to separate. I remember as a young pastor freshly ordained out of seminary, I was really excited to move to Boston, plant a church 15 years ago. And I remember being asked to do my first wedding and people always say, "Pastor Jan, will you marry us?" And I always say, "No, I'm already married. Thank you." And what they mean is, "Will you officiate our ceremony?" And I remember sitting down and saying, "I just spent three years in seminary, which is like law school and not once was there not even one class on how to lead a wedding ceremony." I had to write some pastors, "What do you do?" And they're like, "Well, I cobbled this together from some other pastors. And you go back into history." And so you put in some kind of formula that looks like it works. You greet everybody, the bride comes down the aisle and you say, "Who gives this bride to marry this groom?" And the father says, "Her mother and I do." And then you get up and you say, "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in the sight of God, in the face of this matrimony," you do that whole spiel. And we got that from the book of Common Prayer from England. I don't know why we use that. Then you read a little homily. And I realized that with a lot of weddings, you ask people, "How's the wedding?" And if they say it was good, it's only for two reasons. They're like, "Yeah, the wedding was great. Number one, the bride looked great. And then number two, the food. Oh, the food, the food was..." And what I tell people in the ceremony, I was like, "That's all good and well, that's not the most important part of the ceremony. The most important part of the ceremony is that this couple, this man, this woman are making a covenant, speaking with their eyes, with their mouth, sorry." And in the same way that Jesus Christ says, "You need to confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that He rose from the dead." The speaking in some sense makes it a reality. And where do we get that idea, is because God spoke and His word has creative effect. So when the groom and the bride, they say I do, they make the vows. What are they doing? They're not just confessing past love and they're not professing current love, they're promising future love. That's the covenant. That's the most important part. But regarding engagements and wedding ceremonies, there's very little detail in the Bible. There are no prescriptive commands in the Bible whatsoever concerning ceremonial procedures, rituals, civil and ecclesiastical requirements, public oaths. And you say why? Why is the Bible silent on this issue? Oaths and vows and rituals and ceremonies are numerous in the Bible, but marriage oaths and ceremonies are conspicuous by their absence. Well, why? Because what is Jesus saying marriage is? He's saying the man shall leave his father and mother, leaving a household. I'm going to start my own family. And then you hold fast to your wife and two shall become one. So in a sense, sexual union is marriage properly defined. Betrothal or spousal is actually an agreement or covenant pertaining to the marriage, not marriage itself. Such agreements, however, are presented in the Bible in covenantal terms. So the sexual union to becoming one is the consummation of the covenant made with God and one another, what God has joined together. You're recognizing we are under the eyes of God. God before the foundation of the world has predestined us to come together. We're recognizing, we're making a covenant to God and we're making a covenant with one another before the eyes of God. The reason why we hold marriage ceremony in the church is for the church to come alongside of the couple and hold them accountable to the covenant made. Because why make the covenant? Because you are anticipating moments where you will be tempted to break the covenant, that's why you make it. And you need the church to come alongside you and say, "We were there, we were witnesses, we heard the vows. You are one and you are one for life." In Genesis 1:26-28, we find God creating man and woman and blessing them with the words, be fruitful and multiply. And this was in essence the betrothal of Adam and Eve by their father. And there was no question here of any ceremony or ritual to solemnized or authorize their union, only the authoritative command of God that you have been joined together. Moreover, the Apostle Paul in the New Testament explicitly interprets the phrase one flesh as sexual relations. And while many have rightly pointed out that the phrase is not restricted to sexual relations, but includes the whole personal relationship of man and wife, it's a very great error not to see that this is its core meaning and central focus. Look at 1 Corinthians 6:16, "Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, 'The two will become one flesh.'" So Paul uses Genesis 2:24 to argue for the permanence of the union created by sexual intercourse even with prostitutes. So meaning the commencement of sexual relations begins a marriage, because sex is a covenant making ceremony and covenant making and covenant renewal. And we live in a day and age where people just want to make the covenant, just act out the covenant and then never... I mean, not for the beginning. Think about what are we agreeing to? One regarding the building that we are purchasing, there's going to be a building plug in every sermon from now on until we raise $5 million or move into the building, and/or. I get the purchase and sale agreement from our lawyer and Adobe DocuSign, very tremendous. I get on my phone, I was actually at the gym getting into my truck right after working out and I was like, "Oh sweet, I get to sign a contract." I open it up, not reading a thing, not a thing. I mean, I kind of knew what was... The small letters I was not reading. And then it says, "Okay, there was a blue arrow, initial here, click and then you write the JV. And then sign here, I did the thing. And then you just go through a whole document and that part was so fun, it's so gratifying, so incredible. I'm just signing stuff. What am I signing? What am I signing? What am I agreeing to? There's a cost, obviously. I signed a contract. There's terms, there's an agreement, I know exactly the cost involved in this... And that's a contract. A contract is so much less important than a covenant. A covenant is before the watchful eyes of God. So when people are just going around doing it, what are you doing? What are you promising to the other person? And there is something happening on a spiritual level that you can't even make sense of. So if you are going to consummate the covenant, you just got to be really, really clear on what it is. So therefore sex is sacred and should be not treated as profane. And if we have not made a covenant with God that He has joined us together, then we must not join together. And in biblical scripture this is how they viewed marriage. If you think about Jacob and Leah, the story of Jacob and Leah. He married Rachel, worked a long time for her and then goes to sleep. And then there's that fateful verse and he wakes up in the morning and it wasn't Rachel, it was Leah. And does he go to Laban and say, "No, we didn't have a ceremony, therefore we're not married. You tricked me." No, he realized what happened. We're married, I'm married to her. And this is how scripture presents a marriage. A marriage is a covenant. Virtually every reference in the Bible to covenant shows them to be a weighty matter and that the evidence is overwhelming. In Genesis 2:24, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast his wife and they shall become one flesh." So this verse imputes a legal covenantal significance to their coming together physically. And this is actually how scripture talks about God's relationship with His people. Ezekiel 16:8, for example, God says, "When I pass by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I made my vow to you and entered into covenant with you, declares the Lord God and you became mine." So man shall leave his father and mother, he's leaving one family to start his own. And then with the wife, they're joined together and he says, "What therefore God joined together, let no man separate." For the idea that God brings man and wife together, it's an idea. The phrase here is yoke me. That God in a sense yokes mates together, puts a yoke on them and says, "You together now are going in this direction." And it displays the idea of mates predestined for each other from the beginning of the world. Someone recently asked me, "Do you believe that God predestined people to get married?" I say, "Yeah, of course, of course." If God predestined people to salvation before the foundation of the world, then he certainly predestines how they are created and by whom and through what means. When I met my wife, I met her in Philadelphia at church and I tell everyone was love at first sight. And that's the romantic way to look at it. The theological way is I knew she's the one that I was predestined to marry before the foundation of the world. How did I know? I knew. And so that's part of choosing a mate. You pray and you say, "God, whom have you predestined for me?" And what God has joined together we are not to separate. And so Christ is refuting divorce on demand. He's also refuting making covenants on demand without thinking about it. Point two, and this brings us to adultery. Adultery is breaching of the marital covenant. In the house, the disciples ask for clarification in verse 10, in the house of the disciples asked him again about this matter, meaning they were puzzled like the teaching of Jesus was so radical, it's almost like they've never heard it before. It's like how did you not hear this clear teaching of scripture? Because the teaching was presented by Pharisees who wanted the loophole of divorce on demand. So the teachings of scripture, which are normative, this is how things should be, weren't normal. They weren't normal at that time. And this was the pattern in all of Israel. When people would move away from the law, they moved away from what's normative. And then what was normal was just sin and consequences of a debased mind. So verse 11, "And he said to them, 'Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.'" And what word best describes the violation of the marital bond than adultery? And that's why Jesus uses the word for adultery to explain the breaking of that covenant. And Matthew 5, Jesus gives us more comments on this. Verse 31, "It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery." Note what Jesus asserts, that such a man causes his wife to commit adultery. If he divorces her for non-biblical grounds for anything other than adultery, he causes her to commit adultery. Now note first what Jesus simply presupposes. He presupposes that the woman in question will remarry. Else there would be no adultery to speak of. And secondly, Jesus clearly places the guilt of the adultery upon the man who divorces his wife without valid grounds. And though the woman and her new husband commit the act, the guilt of the adultery, the violation of the one flesh bond is imputed to the divorcing husband. He, the divorcing husband, is declared to be the cause of adultery. And the wife who remarries in such a situation and the man who marries her are not imputed with the guilt of adultery. And the law of God always distinguishes between a perpetrator of sin and a victim of sin. A wife who is unjustly divorced by an unrepentant husband is a victim and would be permanently victimized and consigned to a life of singleness if she were required to remain unmarried. So Jesus clearly imputes to the divorcing husband as the causative agent of the adultery guilt thereof. In Matthew 19:9, in the parallel passage it says, "And I say to, whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery." And the word for sexual immorality in the Greek is pornea. And what's happening here is this exception, this clause, sexual immorality, is the parallel to the indecency language in Deuteronomy 24. That for adultery, if a married woman commits adultery, that act of adultery, that word is used to describe the severing of the one covenant with her first husband. Adultery is the transgression of the seventh commandment and it is punishable by death. But sometimes divorce was the chosen path. If you remember like with Joseph, and this is how God speaks of his relationship with even Israel. That Israel deserved execution, capital punishment. God should have wiped them off the face of the earth, but God had mercy on them. So instead of execution for their spiritual adultery, idolatry, he gave Israel a certificate of divorce in Isaiah 50, "Thus says the Lord, 'Where is your mother's certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold for your iniquities, you were sold and for your transgression your mother was sent away.'" And the conquest and exile of the northern kingdom of Israel by Assyria is allegorically characterized by God as a bill of divorcement. For what? For adultery. In Jeremiah 3:8 he makes that explicit, "She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she went and played the whore." So divorce in God's law is not just permitted, but sometimes it is a manifestation of God's holiness and wrath against sin. And since divorce is a manifestation of God's holiness and God calls his people to be holy for I am holy, it follows by good and necessary consequence from this that God's example of divorcing his wife for the cause of adultery was normative and the lawful basis and redress on a human level. And that was His grace. It was His grace. They deserved execution, He didn't give them that. Execution was not the only lawful means of dealing with adultery. So adultery is a breach of the marriage covenant and divorce is confirmation of that breach. It was allowed for God by God not as a concession but as a consequence for sin. Verse 12, "And she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery." In Exodus it says that the failure to provide for the wife on the part of the man constitutes a breach of the one flesh covenant as well and by implication that includes extreme offenses such as physical abuse. But groundless divorce itself constitutes adultery, because adultery is the breaking of the covenant. "Pastor Jan, we are seeking a divorce. What do you think?" I had this conversation recently. I said, "Why? What are the biblical grounds?" "Well, I think God wants us to be happy and we'll be happier apart from each other." God's primary will is not your happiness. It's not my happiness. God's primary will for you is your obedience and your obedience of faith. And with that obedience, God gives us the power of the Holy Spirit to be obedient and fills your heart with joy. Now the fact that we made the covenant husband and wife, made the covenant, your covenant together that no matter the season, no matter what happened, we're going to stay together, because it's God's will. This is God's will. We confirmed it's God's will and we made that vow. And then point three is, God loves humanity, therefore Jesus loves children. So marriage and heterosexual sex are inextricably linked with the divine gift of children. And indeed in Genesis 1:28, God's first blessing on humanity after he created the male and female is be fruitful and multiply. And it's no accident that our passage in which Jesus traces the institution of marriage back to the beginning of creation is immediately followed by His blessing of children. So having proclaimed the permanence of marriage, Jesus now turns to the related theme of children on natural progression. And this is partially why God has designed marriage the way He has and sex the way He has so that there's never any question on who's the father. One of the greatest epidemics in our culture and in the world in general is the epidemic of fatherlessness. Where children growing up not knowing who their father is or not having a father in the house. The reason why God designed it is so that children would not be brought up that way with so much pain. And Mark 10:13, "And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, 'Let the children come to me. Do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God, like a child shall not enter it.'" The main Old Testament background to the saying of entering the dominion of God is the image of the Israelites as they were poised on the brink of entering the Promised Land, but they didn't believe God. And then God tells them, "Your children who today do not know right from wrong, they shall enter there." And Jesus makes it an emphasis that the only way to enter the kingdom of God is to receive it. And in scripture, people frequently enter into action that was prepared for them by another. Others have labored and you have entered into their kingdom. So when He says enter the dominion of God, he's saying enter into the work of God. He's prepared the kingdom. And little children are the model of how people enter the kingdom. That God bestows the kingdom upon the low, upon the helpless, upon those who can do nothing to gain entrance. And entrance into the kingdom of God is not something which can be earned or gained, because of the basis of human merit. As one commentator aptly put it, to receive the kingdom is to allow oneself to be given it. We see Jesus revealing his heart. And that's the heart of a father, because he knows God the Father, he knows God the Father's heart. He welcomes the children, He takes them in His arms, He blesses them, He hugs them, and He loves them. In Malachi 2:13-16, all these themes are summarized by the following and the Lord God says, "And this second thing you do, you cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand." "But you say, 'Why does he not?' Because the Lord was witnessed between you and the wife of your youth to whom you have been faithless. Though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Did He not make them one with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. 'For the man who does not love his wife, but divorces her,' says the Lord God of Israel, 'covers his garment with violence,' says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless." The Lord Jesus Christ knew what his teaching was doing as He was explicating the commandments of God. He knows exactly what was happening. That the straight edge of the sword of God's commandments was piercing the hearts of the listeners. And that's exactly what regeneration is. Regeneration is when you hear the word of God, when you hear the law of God and you feel in your heart how much you have transgressed the holy, pure law of God. It's like the commandment goes down into your heart, pierces it, and that's exactly what it's supposed to do. The more precise, the sharper the edge of the sword, the more clean the incision. And then what does God do? He gives us a heart transplant. He takes the hard heart of stone and He removes it and replaces it with a heart that's tender toward God, tender toward the people He calls us to love. Ezekiel 11:19, "And I will give them one heart and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them and they shall be my people and I will be their God. But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, declares the Lord God." So today, however you're feeling about this message or the subject matter, if you are feeling condemnation or shame or guilt, or if you are feeling the stirring of the Holy Spirit, calling you to repentance, calling you to ever greater levels of holiness, just know that's the Lord working in you. Here I want to read 1 Corinthians 6, and as Paul deals with this subject matter, I want to put the emphasis on the fact that he's speaking to Christians. He's speaking to people who were saved out of this worldly idea of what it means to be a man, a woman, sexuality, et cetera. And he says, "Such were some of you," were. Such were some of you. So 1 Corinthians 6:9, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything. Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy both one and the other." "The body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your are bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For as it is written, the two will become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ we're part of the church, the bride of Christ. That's why the new building is a ballroom. And I like that idea, because we're the bride of Christ and Jesus is going to... We're going to dance with Jesus following His lead. He's going to lead us. How did Jesus choose His bride? Did He choose His bride for her beauty? Did He choose us because of our purity and holiness? Did He choose us because we were lovely? Did He choose us for our godliness? No. God chose His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And we, the bride of Christ, we've all been unfaithful to the Lord. Therefore, in the covenant we make with Christ, it's now we who spill the blood of virginity, it's He who spills the blood to redeem us. And Jesus Christ loved the church, not because she was lovely, but because He is loving and He gave himself up for her to save her and to make her lovely. He forgives us and redeems us and makes a covenant with us. And then what does He do? He begins to sanctify the church. And in Ephesians 5 says that He does so by cleansing the church, cleansing His bride by the washing of water with the word. I love that picture. That's how I view my job. I view my job as I am here to wash you with the water of the word. And some texts feel like I've got a power washer. Have you ever seen those videos on power washing? They're very satisfying. I can watch those things for a long time. Power washing videos, all the mildew coming off the house. And I used to do that as a kid. I used to paint with my dad, he's got a painting business, and my job was the power washing, because it takes a lot of work. And I remember as a 13-year-old kid, I'm on the 40-foot ladder at the very top trying to hold the power wash. But it's so strong that it's blowing you off. That's what we need sometimes. That there's sin, that there's cobwebs, that there's mildew of sin in us. And the Lord has given us His word and He cleanses us by the washing of water with the word. Why? So that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish. So today, if you have felt the sharp edge of the commandment of God coming down upon you, because of commandment number seven or whatever commandment, and we've broken commandment seven, because we broke commandment number one. What's commandment number one? Thou shall have no other gods before me. If we have other gods before God, either ourselves or someone else, well of course we're going to shirk the other commandments. So if you felt the commandments of God coming down on you, revealing sin, revealing that we're all transgressors today, look to the cross of Christ. Look and see the covenantal love of Christ as His blood is pouring down in order to redeem us and save us. And as you repent of your sin, receive the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe that you have been forgiven, purified, sanctified, as pure as snow. And then receive this promise from the Lord Jesus Christ that He is speaking to you. And this promise will satisfy your soul with a love that you will never experience from another human being. Receive this promise. I will never leave you nor forsake you. He proved it on the cross. That's true. He's faithful. Then He calls us to follow him. Let us pray. Lord God, we thank you for this word and we thank you for this time together. We thank you Holy Spirit, that you are with us and you are ministering to us. Lord, if our hearts are broken, mend them. If our hearts are hardened, soften them. If our hearts have grown tepid toward you and toward your word today, Lord, set our hearts on fire so that we will be people of God seeking holiness in absolutely every area of life, including the most intimate ones. We pray all this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

God or Hell

February 11, 2024 • Jan Vezikov • Mark 9:30–50

One quick announcement, an update on the life of the church. The Lord has led us, as a church, to take a step of faith to purchase, to acquire, a worship space, a 24/7 location that we can use to build the glory of God. In the history of Mosaic, 12 and a half years, we have never had our own location. We only rent this space just on Sundays. So the Lord has... Miracle of miracles that we're even in this position. Praise be to God. If you know anything about real estate in Austin, the property is right down the street on Kent Street. If you take a right here and a left on Longwood, you'll see three towers on a hill, and within the hill there's the entrance to the lobby and then there's a left wing and a right wing. We signed the purchase and sale agreement on the left wing, and as a step of faith, we are praying for the Lord to send resources for the right wing as well. We are closing in September. We have seven months to raise $5 million and it's a lot of money, but we learned from the Gospel of Mark that even crumbs from the King's table are more than enough. So Lord, we need some crumbs. So we're asking you to pray, pray with faith, pray boldly, audaciously on a daily basis for the Lord to send the funds. From now on until the funds come in, if anyone asks, "Pastor Jan, what's your prayer request?" This is it. This is the only one to the glory of God. So pray for the Lord to send the funds. Second, pray how the Lord might use you in raising the funds or giving and then pray as well. If you know any connections for the Lord to bring to mind, maybe a great uncle who wants to invest in the kingdom of God. Our church, a home, church, foundations, etc, please connect us with them. And we do believe the Lord will provide. I'll share one story. My wife and her family immigrated here over 20 years ago from Ukraine. The parents had six children. They come here and they worked hard and they said, "The Lord is leading us to buy a house." It was a town home and they were missing $5,000 to close on the deal. And they prayed, "Lord, send us $5,000. Lord send us $5,000." And then Tanya's mom went for a walk on the street, comes up to garbage containers, and next to it is something wrapped in newspaper. And she kicks it and it's hard and she opens it up little by little, layer by layer and it's a nugget of gold. Yeah, true story. And then they go to the place where you can sell nuggets of gold, and the guy said "$5,000." And then they end up purchasing the house and Tanya's sister still lives there. Praise be to God. So I am praying that the Lord sends you nuggets. I am praying that in your fishing endeavors, so to speak, you catch one fish, you open it up and there's a gold coin inside. That's how I'm praying. So it's a very exciting season of the church, a lot of faith. We need a lot of prayer, a lot of hard work. So we are going to pray and believe for the Lord to raise the funding and for the next season of the church's life. With that said, would you at least pray with me over this need and for the preaching of God's holy word. Heavenly Father, we're so thankful that you have saved us. What a great gift. This is the greatest gift, that you give yourself to us on account of your son Jesus Christ. And Lord Jesus, we thank you that because of your great love for us, you lay down your life. And we thank you that you didn't stay on the cross, you didn't stay dead, that you rose on the third day vanquishing Satan, sin, and death. And we thank you that you give us the power of the Holy Spirit. And when you call us to yourself, you call us to life of service to the kingdom. And Lord, we as a church, we long to continue serving you. And we thank you for providing every step of the way these 12 and a half years. And we thank you for leading us to this juncture. And we do pray, Lord, that you provide the necessary resources to acquire both the spaces, the left and the right wing from which we pray the truth of your Holy word will be proclaimed to the nations. And I pray, Lord, that you do send us people that understand the importance of a church like Mosaic being rooted and grounded and planted in a place like Boston. Lord, we do believe that Boston is of incredible importance to your kingdom work. This is a city of ideas and many of the ideas are evil. So we are countering those demonic ideas with the truth of your word. Boston is pound for pound, the most influential city in the world. We are at the intersection of the nations and we pray, Lord, continue to establish your kingdom here, continue build up this church. And we pray, Lord, that you provide the resources. We thank you in advance for how you're going to do that. And we pray that you anoint those spaces even now with your Holy Spirit. We pray that thousands and tens of thousands hear your word there, are converted follow Jesus. We pray lives are transformed, pray families are formed. We pray children are born and raised in the faith, and we pray all this for the glory of your holy name and use us in the process. And we thank you in advance. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We're continue our sermon series through the Gospel of Mark. Today, the sermon is entitled God or Hell. And over the years I've found that truth is always simple. And the most honest people speak with the greatest clarity. There's no obfuscation, there's no word salads, there's nothing to hide. And when God speaks, it's true, and you know it's true because of how clear it is. God speaks and Satan obfuscates. Satan questions. Satan undermines the truth. God speaks and Satan complicates, and he does it with lies. And the worst lies are half-truths. Thanks be to God, Jesus Christ did not speak in half-truths. He spoke the truth, the full truth. He told people that there are only two options. There's only two ways. There's only two paths. There's only two destinies, God or Hell. You either choose God and spend eternity in His glory or you choose hell and spend eternity in His wrath. And we're so fortunate to be alive today here and now and still have a chance to choose. We're so blessed to even be offered the choice. Many don't make the choice or don't think about the choice because we don't understand the gravity, the importance of the choice that eternity is at stake. Many people today plan their vacation destinations with more detail than they think about their eternal destination. We all deserve God's wrath. He created us, He designed us. He gave us laws by which to glorify Him and enjoy His glory here on earth. And that's what Eden was. It was heaven on earth. He designed life to be lived like heaven on earth. And that's what the kingdom of God is. You begin to experience the glory of God here by living for His glory, by glorifying Him with your obedience of faith. But we all rebelled, every single one of us. We all rejected His law, we transgressed it. We became outlaws. We became sinners. And in rejecting God's law, we rejected God Himself. Well, what is the absence of God's glory? It's hell. By rejecting God, we choose hell here on earth and we start living that out. And what does that create? More hell on earth. Therefore, Jesus came to rescue us from hell and to destine us for heaven here on earth. Eternal life begins here and now. He came to rescue you from the hell inside your soul, to plant the seeds of the kingdom in your soul, to give you a taste of heaven. And this radically changes the course of your life. Now you're not your own. You exist to glorify God, to live for His name, to serve Him, love Him, fear and praise Him. And this kind of life of obeying God, submitting to Him, it's a life that demands sacrifice. Why? Because when you really start fighting hell on earth, when you really start fighting the sin within mortifying it, well what happens? You're bound to feel the flames of hell. You're bound to get burned. So what do we do? We keep fighting. We fight the lies of the enemy with the truth by knowing the truth, loving it, living it and speaking it. And that's what Jesus is talking about today. We're in Mark 9:30-50. Would you look at the text with me? "They went on from there and passed through Galilee and He did not want anyone to know, for He was teaching His disciples saying to them, 'The son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him. And when he is killed after three days he will rise.' But they did not understand the saying and were afraid to ask him. And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, 'What were you discussing on the way?' But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And He sat down and called the 12 and He said to them, 'If anyone would be put first, he must be last of all and servant of all.' And he took a child and put him in the midst of them and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 'Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me but Him who sent me.' John said to him, 'Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to stop him because he was not following us.' But Jesus said, 'Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water or drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It's better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.' For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another." This is the reading of God's holy and errant, fallible, authoritative word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Four points to frame up our time. First life through death. Second, greatness through service. Third, power through loyalty. And fourth, God or hell. First, life through death. In the first half of chapter nine, King Jesus takes his big three disciples, Peter, James and John to the top of a mountain. And there He transfigured himself. He revealed His divine glory and they bask in it. They were satisfied with it, mesmerized by the glorious king. So much so that Peter said, "No, no, no." Excuse me, I get excited about the glory of God. He said, "We're not going down. We're not going down the mountain. We're not descending. This is too good. We're staying here forever." And no, they had to leave. Descend, they must, down from the glorious mountaintop experience after they have tasted heaven on earth. Why do they have to go down? Well, why did Jesus come down? Jesus Christ came down from heaven to earth and he does it to save people from hell, from eternal damnation. The kingdom of God must be established. And to do this, the King must first take on Satan's sin and death. After vanquishing the stubborn demon that his disciples were unable to conquer, Jesus continues to instruct his disciples. Chapter 8, chapter 9, and chapter 10 are about discipleship. This is what it means to follow Jesus Christ. And Jesus spends significant time with them before embarking on His mission. In verse 30, it says, "They went on from there and passed through Galilee and He did not want anyone to know." The phrases like this, we see often where Jesus is sovereign over the truth. He's sovereign in regulating the truth. He reveals the truth to whomever He chooses. Who gets how much revelation? Well, who decides this? Does the seeker himself decide? No, because scripture clearly teaches that no one searches after God not on their own. So if you are searching for God, if you're asking questions about God, if you're interested in God, in the divine and eternity in Holy Scripture, well friend, let me tell you, that's already a sign of the Holy Spirit working on you and working in your heart. Look at Romans 3:9, "What then, are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks are under sin. As it is written, no one is righteous. No not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There's no fear of God before their eyes." Well, the disciples were just like this. The disciples were chosen by Jesus. Jesus chooses to reveal to His disciples the truth and the truths of God's kingdom. How does one become a disciple of Jesus Christ? Well, Jesus is the one that approached them and Jesus is the one that told them, "Follow me.: And then he communicates to them in John 15:16, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give it to you." Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ? Are you a follower of Christ? Well, if you are, praise be to God. It's because He chose you. Salvation is bestowed on you. It's never earned. He appointed you and for what? For work, for service, for sacrifice. Bearing fruit comes through, bearing a cross and bearing it daily. And He promises to resource you. He says, "Ask whatever you will in my name to become more fruitful." But this usually includes a heavier cross and a steeper more narrow path to climb. My third daughter turned nine recently and I told her, I said, "Nine is, I think that's the perfect age. It's just what are your worries in life? You're in third grade," and I didn't want to say it's all downhill from here because that's kind of a terrible thing to say to a nine-year-old. So I said the opposite. I said, "It's all uphill from here," and I don't think that's much better. But that's kind of what Christianity is. If you want to level up, if you want to grow in faithfulness, if you want to grow in obedience, if you want to grow in fruitfulness, it's all uphill from here. But that's what we were chosen for. We were chosen for service, for sacrifice because we were chosen by the one who came to sacrifice Himself. He says, "The son of man is going to be delivered." That's the conversation turned over, handed over, betrayed. And part of the background to this prophecy lies in Isaiah 53. The same terminology is used in Isaiah 53 as in our text, the language of being turned over, handed over, betrayed. And Isaiah 53 was written centuries before Jesus Christ was even born. The Lord promised in Isaiah 53 that the Messiah would come as a suffering servant. Jews to this day reject the clear true reading of Isaiah 53. But the ones who read Isaiah 53 with open hearts are converted to Christ immediately. And that's who the early church was. Jews who read Isaiah 53 and said, "We witnessed it happen. We watched it happen. He predicted that He was going to die. He predicted that He was going to be betrayed. He predicted that He's going to be crucified and He predicted that He would come back from the dead. We saw Christ crucified and He did that for us." That was the testimony of the earliest church and He did it to save us from hell on earth and from hell for all of eternity. And even more than that, He did it to save us from our sins. So now the chasm between us and God will be removed. So He offers himself to us for eternity. I'm going to read Isaiah 53, and as I read, just think about the fact centuries before Christ was born, this was written. It's as if Isaiah is sitting at the foot of the cross watching it being done. "Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him, stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. And like a sheep that before its sheers is silent. So He opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment, He was taken away. And as for His generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. And they made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man and his death, although He had done no violence and there was no deceit in His mouth. Yet, it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put Him to grief. When His soul makes an offering for guilt, He will see his offspring. He will prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. Out of the anguish of His soul, He shall see and be satisfied. By His knowledge, shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide Him a portion with the many and He shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out His soul to death. And was numbered with the transgressors. Yet He bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressions." Mark 9:31, "For he was teaching His disciples saying to them, ''The son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill Him. And when He is killed, after three days He will rise.' But they did not understand the saying and were afraid to ask Him." Well, of course they didn't understand. Jesus had already proven that He's God. They have believed him that He's God. Well, you're God. You've come to take over everything. You've come to take the place back from Satan. You've come to destroy the kingdom of Satan. So Jesus, do it, die. What happens to our cause if you die? Why would you need to rise again? How's this for an idea? Let's not die. Let's use the powers that you have. We know you God, you changed the weather, we watched you. You've walked through hostile crowds before we know you've done it. What do you mean you're going to be delivered? As in you're going to give yourself over, you're going to let them take you. And Jesus' answer of course is, "Yes. I didn't come just to save you from hell on earth. I didn't come just to save you from the hell of the Romans, or the hell of the Pharisees, or even the hell of your own sin-infected bodies. I've come to save your soul from eternal hell. And I've come to offer eternal life," which only comes through the death of the eternal son of God who chose to become son of man. So yes, life comes only through death and eternal life comes only through the death of the eternal one, Jesus Christ. And since life comes through death, of course, point two, greatness comes through service. The disciples didn't get this yet. How could they? It's so counterintuitive. Greatness is through rank, and greatness is through degrees and greatness is through accomplishments, and greatness is through a position. What do you mean greatness is through service? It's counterintuitive. Well, it's counterintuitive because our intuition is clouded with sin and we need washing with the word. In verse 33, they came to Capernaum and when He was in the house He asked them, "What were you discussing?" Capernaum is the Galilean village from which Peter James and John came. And whenever Jesus was in Capernaum, he would stay at Peter's house. Peter had a home there. He was married, he had a mother-in-law and perhaps he even had children. And perhaps that's the child that Jesus puts front and center. And Jesus in His outward ministry, He had encounters with over enemies, the scribes and the Pharisees. But now he's engaged with the enemy inside the hearts of his own disciples, the enemy that will rear its ugly head throughout church history. It's this desire to jostle for greatness. That's what they're doing. He asked them, "What were you arguing about?" And verse 34, "They kept silent for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest." As soon as Jesus asks the question, they realize just with the question, "Oh, we were way off. They don't even want to share. They don't want talk about what are... They're embarrassed. They realize just a question from Jesus reveals how embarrassing this is to talk about who's the greatest. They argued with one... who's the greatest. This was after Jesus just talked about self-denial, the hard-hitting instruction of taking up your cross and following Him daily. And here they're having a senseless argument about their relative greatness, and they've confused greatness because they don't really understand what Jesus is coming to do. They don't understand that how humble you have to be. They saw a glimpse of His glory and then He veils that glory and then He descends, but they don't really understand the distance between the glory of heaven and the humiliation of the cross. And these two are interconnected. If you don't understand the vast difference between Jesus glory and His humiliation, you'll never understand how much He had to humble Himself in order to save us. And this was part of the process of transforming and saving humanity. Why? Because Jesus did not just come to deal with the consequences of sin. He came to deal with the very root itself. And what is the root of all sin? It's pride. Pride is the fuel that fires all of hell. Pride is what made Satan Satan, where Satan goes out of his rank and says, "No God, I am greater than you are, therefore you serve me. You worship me. Therefore, the way..." And that inclination's in every single heart, that pride. The pride of, "No, I don't want to submit to God." The pride of, "Who is God to tell me what to do." The pride that starts the rebellion of us against God. Look at Philippians 2:1-10 and see this distance, this humility as the way that Jesus saves us from our pride. Philippians 2:1, "So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father." In verse 35, "He sat down and He called the 12." This is how Jesus often taught. He would sit down, but here perhaps He's exasperated and He wants to draw their attention, sits down. And He said to them, "If anyone would be first, He must be last of all and servant of all." Matthew 23:11, the parallel passage, "The greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." First, I want to point out what Jesus does not say. He does not say there is no greatness in the kingdom of God. Jesus' view of the kingdom of God is not just some egalitarian view where everyone is of the same greatness, of the same rank, of the same hierarchy. No, that's not what He's saying. He's assuming that there is a hierarchy, there is a path to greatness. There is a path to greater usefulness and fruitfulness, but that path to greatness is counter to the path of greatness in the world. The path of greatness in the world is make your name great. The path of greatness in the kingdom of God is seek first the name of Jesus Christ to exalt him. And the way that you grow in greatness is service, humble service to the King, and to his servants, and to people. So we can rack up stats, so to speak in the kingdom of God, and we do it through service. And the greatest disciple is the greatest servant and the one who sacrifices the most is the greatest in the kingdom of God. That's the one that serves the most. The more you sacrifice, the more you serve, the more you are like your master who is great. Humility is the best policy. Jesus is teaching. Self aggrandizement always leads to humiliation. But what is humility? The opposite of humility is pride. And the first encounter of pride we see is with Satan, where Satan is not content with his place. Humility is knowing your place. It's knowing your role. It's knowing what God has called you to do and what God has called you to be. As we serve the Lord, as we grow in the faith, there are promotions, so to speak, but it's all for Him. He's the one that does it. All the talents that He gives us, all the opportunities that He gives us, the health and strength, it's all from Him and it's all for Him and service to Him. We're called to be servants. And here it's the Greek word diakonos from which the English word deacon comes from. And in Greek literature, it just means someone who's not afraid of the menial work, such as a waiter at a table, humble service. We're here. At Chick-fil-A, they say, "It's my pleasure." It's my pleasure to serve you. That should be the sentiment of every Christian. It's my pleasure to serve because that's my role. And that's really the heartbeat of humility. I know my role, I know my place, I know what God has called me to do. And sometimes things get hard and you start wondering if the sacrifice worth it. No one really notices or you don't get accolades in the world. But Luke 17 puts everything in its place. I love this passage. It's one of these passages very jarring as you read it for the first time. But as you walk in the faith, you realize this is exactly the posture of heart that the Lord calls us to. Luke 17:7, "Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and recline at table?' Will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me and dress properly and serve me while I eat and drink. And afterward you'll eat and drink.' Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you are commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants. We have only done what was our duty.'" And that's really the posture of heart, that He's the master, He's the Lord. We're the servants. He saves us, he saves us for service. So of course we're going to do it. It is our duty. Mark 9:36, "Jesus took a child and put him in the midst of them and taking him in His arms, He said to them, 'Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. And whoever receives me receives not me but Him who sent me.'" This word for child can refer anywhere from a newborn infant to an older child. Perhaps this is Peter's child. We know that Peter was married, he had a mother-in-law, and perhaps it was his son or daughter. And Jesus takes the child, embraces the child, hugs the child, and reveals that He loves the child. I love this image that Jesus loves children. In chapter 10, Jesus loves children. Jesus, the God, man loves kids. He's hugging kids, blessing kids, praying for kids. Why does Jesus love children? Because God, Jesus loves humanity and He cares about the next generation. So we as believers, we are to be people marked by a love for children. John the Baptist who came in the spirit of Elijah, it says that He will come and one of His jobs is going to be turn the hearts of the fathers to their children. And yes, it assumes fathers who are already fathers, they love their children. We are to love our children. It also assumes those who are not yet fathers. And the Lord puts this fatherly desire in your heart and the world does not know of this. It's kind of popular not to like kids. It's kind of popular to complain about kids, especially on planes. I remember when my kids were little, I'd carry my kid into the plane with one of my kids and just look around at the unhappy faces. Come on, we were all this at some point, can everyone relax? And so why does Jesus take a child? He takes a child and He says, "This right here, you want the epitome of how you grow in greatness in the kingdom of God is through service. Service to whom those who need it the most." Why a child? Because it's the most helpless stage of being a human. Children need to be served. Kids are wonderful, praise be to God. And they are also a lot of work, a lot of time, energy, money, resources, lost sleep, REM cycles that you will never get back. And it's ministry. That's how you have to view children. It's ministry, it's service, it's service to the King in the name of Jesus Christ. And by serving kids in Jesus' name, you're not just serving the child, you're serving Jesus. So he says, "Receive children, receive them into your life. Serve them, and by serving them, you're serving the King." And he continues, "Whoever receives me receives not me, but Him who sent me." By receiving children in Jesus' name, you're receiving Jesus, you're receiving God the Father. And this is important because God, the Father loves children, especially... He loves His children, especially when they are children." Point three is power through loyalty. A service of course takes energy and it takes power. And where do we draw that power? From the source of power, and that's Jesus Christ. And the more loyal you are to Him, the more loyal you are to His cause, the more useful you are to Him, the more power He gives you. The disciples thought they were the only ones with access to the power of God because of their proximity to Jesus. So they're blown away by the fact that there's someone else casting out demons in Jesus' name, someone other than the 12. Verse 38, "John said to Him, 'Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name. And we tried to stop him because he was following, and he was not following us.'" He said, "Someone's casting out demons in your name, by the power of Jesus." They're invoking the power of Jesus by using His name. The would-be exorcist, pronounces Jesus name in order to bring His spiritual force to bear on demons, and the disciples don't like this. "The people aren't following us, Jesus," and that's really the emphasis. They don't say, "They're not following you." They say, "They're not following us." And Jesus' response in verse 39, "Do not stop him. For no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me." Says, "Don't stop him. Don't forbid this person. He's casting out demons in the name of Jesus, so don't worry about him. He's doing my work. Is he a disciple in the same exact way that you are the 12? No. So help the person grow as a disciple, but don't stop the fight against evil. Don't stop those who cast out demons differently than you do. It's all in the name of Christ." In Numbers 11, there's a similar passage where Moses chooses 70 elders and the Spirit descends upon them. And there's two gentlemen that weren't there during that ceremony. And then afterwards they get the Spirit too. And then the people come to Moses and says, "Stop them. They're not part of the 70." This Numbers 11:24. So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord and he gathered 70 men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was on him and put down the 70 elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not continue doing it. Now, two men who remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other named Medad, and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent. And so they prophesied in the camp and a young man ran and told Moses, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth said, My Lord, Moses, stop them." But Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit on them?" And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp. Here, Moses said, "I wish everyone had the Holy Spirit. I wish everyone prophesied. I wish everyone proclaimed the word of the Lord." And Jesus here is saying something similar effect like, why would you be against someone casting out demons? We're against demons. He says, "No one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me." These outsiders are not like the scribes or the Pharisees who blasphemed against the Holy Spirit by attributing Jesus exorcisms to Satan. No, these people are people that are on the side of Jesus because they're against demons. And it seems like exorcism is a make-or-break issue. It's almost as this exorcism and one's attitude toward the demonic is a defining characteristic if you're inside or outside the dominion of God. Are you for demons or are you against them? Are you for demons or are you against them? Are you for Satan or are you against him? Are you for Christ or against Christ? Are you for hell on earth or are you against hell on earth? Well, if you're against hell on earth, you're against those who make hell on earth. And that's the demons. No, we're against hell, so we're for heaven. We're against demons, so we're for Christ. Verse 40, "For the one who is not against us is for us." Are they against Jesus? No, of course not. They're doing the same work. They're battling the same demons, fighting the same Satan and doing it all in the name of Christ. And fourth, God or Hell. And here Jesus turns to a conversation about reward and punishment in the afterlife. And what He reveals is God is keeping very close tabs on our service to Him. Every single little thing you do for Christ, for His glory will be rewarded with greater revelation of His glory starting this life and for eternity in heaven. Look at verse 41, "For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward."Even a cup of water. If you give someone a cup of water in the name of Jesus Christ saying Jesus is going to keep track of that. And what is that reward? The reward is more of God, more of His presence, more of His glory. Revelation 22:12-13, "Behold, I'm coming soon bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done. I'm the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, and the beginning and the end." And if the Lord keeps track of our work for Him so He knows how much to reward us as believers in Christ, well, the Lord also keeps track of the sin and iniquity of those who are not in Christ, as a way to mark how much condemnation they get in hell. Revelation 11:15-18, "Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet and there were loud voices in heaven saying, 'The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.' And the 24 elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God saying, we give thanks to you Lord God, Almighty. Who is and who was for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came and the time for the dead to be judged and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name both small and great and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.'" God is going to reward his prophets, the servants, and saints in the same way he's going to reward so to speak, or bring the deserved condemnation on the destroyers, it says. And here Jesus continues that thought of the destroyers of the faith. Verse 42, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea." If anyone causes one of these little ones to sin, if anyone causes or scandalizes their faith, causes them to stumble, Jesus says, it's better that they would die here and die of very graphic death with a massive stone tied to their neck and thrown into the sea. Why? Because death is going to keep them from continuing to heap up condemnation for themselves, for eternity. And specifically he says, "Whoever causes one of these little ones, who believe in me, to sin,: who's the little ones? Commentators here say most likely He's talking about believers in general because the same word for little ones is used later where Jesus talks about, "Little flock, fear not." But Jesus had just been talking in context about a child. That the way to greatness is service, in particular service to the least of these, a little one. So if Jesus is talking about if anyone causes a Christian to sin, he is including Christians who are children. Anyone that destroys the faith of a child, destroys the innocent faith of a child, Jesus says that person is heaping up condemnation for themselves for all eternity in hell. And this is a very, very sobering verse. And if you look at what's happening in our culture where we're trying to remove any idea of innocence of children. Children are being tempted with sin in ways that centuries ago people wouldn't even comprehend. And this is happening left and right. And Jesus is saying, Be careful. Be careful that you're not heaping up condemnation for all of eternity causing believers in Christ to sin is a grave sin. And the penalty for this sin is unquenchable, hellfire, the conversation Jesus is about to embark upon. So what are we to do? We're to take these sobering words about the reality of heaven and hell, but the reality of reward or condemnation that continues for eternity. And we are to sit down and say, "Where am I? Am I on the side of demons or I'm on the side of Jesus, I'm on the side of hell or on the side of heaven, where am I?" And there is no neutrality. If you're not with Christ, you're against Him. If you're not against Him, you're with Him. Mark 9:43, "And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell to the unquenchable fire." This is hyperbolic language. He's not saying cut off your hand because if he meant physically, he would say both hands or both eyes or both feet. He's saying one. What he's saying is if there is a desire in your heart to sin, if there is a desire in your heart to do evil and to lead others into sin, at that, you need to stop and say, "Where is this desire leading me? Is this desire leading me to heaven or to hell? Is this desire from the kingdom of God or from the kingdom of Satan?" And you got to take radical action. You got to cut yourself off from anything that would even tempt you to sin. Make no provision for the flesh Scripture speaks. You're new creation in Christ, therefore put sin to death. You have died to sin, how can you continue living in it? So drastic action cut off your hand and he says, "Better for you to enter life crippled or maimed." And the presupposition here is that those who enter heaven get a glorified body. And the glorified resurrected body is a body without any bodily defects. So even if the hand is cut off in this life, it's going to be restored in the next. And He talks about hell here. And it's the word Gehenna. It's the most common name for the place of eternal punishment. And the name comes from the Valley of Hinnom in the Old Testament. And the Valley of Hinnom was a depression running south-southwest of the old city of Jerusalem. And it was at this place, the Valley of Hinnom, where according to the Scriptures, the covenant people of God, Israel and engaged in idolatrous worship of the Canaanite God, Molech. And Molech demanded that the people sacrifice their children. So this is where Israel at the altar of Molech at this place called Valley of Hinnom, we get the word of Gehenna or hell from it. They would sacrifice their children by fire. Therefore, when God sends kings like Josiah to bring reform, one of the things he did was destroy this place. 2 Kings 23:10, "And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech." Or Jeremiah 7:30, "For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name to defile it. And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind." Or Jeremiah 32:35, "They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech. Though I did not command them, nor to enter my mind, that they should do this abomination to cause Judah to sin." Because of these sacrifices of the children, the valley came to be viewed as the gate to the underworld. And hell is named after this place. Hell is named after the place where children were sacrificed. So what is Jesus saying? He's saying, "Do you want a glimpse of hell on earth? Well, think about child sacrifice. Think about abortion. He's just said that the way to create heaven on earth is to sacrifice self for the most helpless." Therefore, the way to create hell on earth is to sacrifice the most helpless for self. And the prophet Jeremiah denounces the sacrifice, but continues to associate the valley with death and judgment. And Jesus here says that it's an unquenchable fire in this place called hell. Verse 45, "If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life than with two feet to be thrown into hell." Verse 47, "If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It's better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell." Verse 48, "Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. The torment continues for eternity. The fire burns for eternity." Verse 49, "For everyone will be salted with fire."And this is a language that's used for judgment. Sodom and Gomorrah, fire and brimstone came from heaven engulfing the cities in fire. And it says in Deuteronomy 29:23, "All its soil burned out by sulfur and salt." It's a sign of complete destruction because judgment had come and judgment is going to come for each of us. Judgment day is going to come, and the question is, will we receive that judgment which we deserve, or has Christ already received it on our behalf on the cross?" Verse 50, "Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another." And here the Lord changes the metaphors. There, He said the salt would be a sign of judgment, but here he's saying the salt is a sign of your redemption. Salt as an influence against the decay in our culture, the decay of the evil in the world. And he said, That's our job. We are to be salt and light. Salt is good, but make sure we haven't lost our saltiness. Make sure that we are separate from the world, that we are influencing the world more than the world is influencing us. He says, "Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. And he closes this section with a comment about having salt in yourselves and being at peace. What's the connection? Well, in Acts 1:4, Jesus shares a meal with his disciples. And it was the same word that's used here. To share a meal with someone was to take salt together. If you go to a Russian village, they come out and they bring you bread, a loaf of bread, and they bring you salt. And what they're saying, "Come on in, welcome. There's peace." And what Jesus here is saying, "Make sure you continue to have fellowship with one another, love with one another, peace with one another." Why? Because when you battle the fires of hell and you do get burned, oftentimes you get so focused on the enemy that you start looking at everyone around you as an enemy. And He's saying, "Disciples, hold on. Make sure that doesn't happen. Have salt in yourselves, break bread together, have peace with one another." We as a church want to do this more often. Therefore, the bagels are back. Praise be to God. Break bagels together. A church that breaks bagels together stays together. And so praise be to God for that. And last week we had our first community lunch that we're doing to coincide with Communion Sunday. And it was a great success, a lot of people with a lot of joy. So we pray that the Lord continues to bless us to have salt in ourselves and to be at peace with one another. I'll close it with Matthew 11:16. And Matthew 11:16, the Lord said, "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall saltiness be restored? And it was no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. You know how Boston started, the city? John Winthrop and his group of believers in Jesus Christ gets off a ship in Boston, before it was Boston. And before he got off a ship, he preached a sermon on Matthew 5, and he said, "We are going to be a city set on a hill. We're going to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the nations. And that lasted for a little bit." And then they lost their saltiness. And that's what we're here for. But that's what Mosaic is. We are to be a city set on a hill proclaiming the excellencies of our Lord and Savior. With that said, would you please pray with me to the Lord? Lord Jesus, we thank you for this word and we thank you for the reminder that sacrifices, no matter what you call us to, they're worth it. In the same way that you sacrificed all in order to save us for the joy that was set before you, I pray for the joy that is before us, the joy of obedience, the joy of your delight, the joy of glorifying you. I pray that you give us strength to overcome any sacrifice. And Lord, we pray that you continue to establish your church, continue to build it up and continue to use us as you build your kingdom. We pray save many souls, disciple many, draw many to yourself in and through the work of this church in and then through every single faithful church in the area. We pray that you do send revival, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit save many. Save many from eternal hell and save them for eternal life. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

A Foretaste of Glory

February 4, 2024 • Jan Vezikov • Mark 9:1–29

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a glorious God. And everything you created, you created to reflect your glory. And sometimes, Lord, when we look at the beauty of creation, a stunning sunrise or sunset, when we look into the ocean or when we look at the mountains, we're mesmerized by how beautiful it is. And all of that is just a mere reflection of your glory. You created us, male and female, in your image to image forth your glory. And Lord, we chose not to. In our rebellion recalcitrants, we chose to live for our own glory, our own name. And we do live in a city where many devote themselves to the pursuit of their own personal glory, be it through education or through athletics or through career in many other ways. And Lord, once we attain that personal glory, we know it's doesn't satisfy. There's only one glory that does. And then that's the glory of the Son of God. We thank you Jesus that you revealed your glory, but you also veiled it in your incarnation. You took on flesh. The eternal son of God took on flesh to represent us on the cross to pay an eternal penalty that we deserve for falling short of the glory of God with our sin. And then Lord, because of your death, burial, and resurrection, you promise that whoever believes in you repent of sin, you wipe out that record of condemnation. You replace it with imputed righteousness. And then you call us to live in a manner worthy of the glory of the name you've given us, the name of Christ. We are Christians, we are followers of Christ. And Lord Jesus, today I pray that you empower us to live whatever path you've called us to to bring the most glory to your name. Because we know that in the path of self-denial and living for your glory, that's when we begin to experience what our souls long for most, which is your glory. Bless our time, the holy scriptures, we pray all this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series through the Gospel of Mark called Kingdom Come. The gospel Mark, the secret of God's kingdom. Today, Jesus Christ reveals one of the greatest secrets, which is he is the glorious God. The title of the sermon is a Foretaste of Glory. Os Guinness once said, "We have too much to live with and too little to live for. Everything is permitted and nothing is important." In many ways, life is difficult. And to get through the difficulties of life, you need a why. Why am I going through what I'm going through? Or why should I get up in the morning? What gets you up in the morning? What do you live for? What gives you energy to keep striving, keep working, keep grinding. In chapter 8 of the previous chapter, Jesus Christ said, "Whoever would follow me, take up your cross and follow me daily. Deny self that the way to life is self-denial, death of your own selfish ambitions." And the disciples have to decide, is it worth it? Deny self, is it worth it? "Why? Why should I deny myself?" Take up your cross daily and follow Jesus Christ? Why? "Follow me." Why Jesus? Take up the good fight. Fight the good fight of faith. Why? Repent of sin and mortify sin. Why? Well, the answer is that you get more of God, you get more of God's presence, more of His power. You get more of Jesus Christ, you get more of God's glory the more you live to glorify Him. Jesus Christ said, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." In some sense, we have the ability to see God with the eyes of faith, the eyes of our soul, even today what gets in the way impurities of heart. The author of Hebrew says, "Strive for holiness without which no one will see God." Today we are Mark chapter 9, verses 1-29. Would you look at the text with me? "And he said to them, 'Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.' And after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them. And his clothes became radiant, intensely white as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them, Elijah and Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, 'Rabbi, it's good that we are here. Let us make three tents and one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah, for he did not know what to say for they were terrified.' A cloud overshadowed them and a voice came out of the cloud, 'This is my beloved son. Listen to Him.' And suddenly looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only." "And as they were coming down the mountain, He charged them to tell no one what they had seen until the son of man had risen from the dead. So they kept a matter to themselves questioning what this rising from the dead might mean. And they asked him, 'Why did the scribes say that first Elijah must come?' And he said to them, 'Elijah does come first to restore all things and how is it written of the son of man that he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt. But I tell you that Elijah has come and they did to him whatever they pleased as it is written'." "And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd when they saw Him were greatly amazed and ran up and greeted him. And he asked them, 'What are you arguing about with them?' And someone from the crowd answered him, 'Teacher, I brought my son to you for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out and they were not able.' And he answered them, 'Oh, faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me'." "They brought the boy to him and when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy and he fell on the ground and rolled about foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, 'How long has this been happening to him?' And he said, 'From childhood. It has often cast him into fire and into water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.' And Jesus said to him, 'If you can, all things are possible for one who believes.' Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, 'I believe. Help my unbelief.' And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit saying to it, 'You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again'." "And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out and the boy was like a corpse so that most of them said, 'He is dead.' But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose. And when he entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, 'Why could we not cast it out?' And he said to them, 'This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer'." This is the reading of God's holy narrative and fallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time, a foretaste of heaven. Second, Jesus suffered hell to give you heaven. And third, a foretaste of hell. First is a foretaste of heaven. Why did I use the term foretaste? My wife was making a cake this week and it looked delicious. I was very tempted to come up, stick my finger right in and taste it, a foretaste of the glory of the cake. Here we have a foretaste of the glory of heaven. What's the greatest thing about heaven? It's not just that we get to enjoy existence for all of eternity. No, the greatest thing about heaven is God. It's the glory of God, proximity to God. And in Mark 9:1, Jesus promises prophesies to the disciples. Some of you are going to see that glory, the kingdom of God come in power. He says in verse 1, "Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power." So He, Jesus, is going to show Peter, James and John, the big three disciples, his inner circle. He's going to show them what the greatest thing about the kingdom of God is. It's the glory of Jesus Christ as He reveals His glory. In verse 2, "After six days, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain by themselves and He was transfigured before them." After six days, time indications are rare in Mark. Mark usually, when he talks about time, says something like, "In those days" or "That day" or "Several days later," or his favorite word "immediately," that's his favorite word. But here he says six days. Very specific. Most likely it is symbolic. Six days. If you remember, God created the world in six days and he rested on the seventh day. The seventh day, the Sabbath day was set apart as a sanctuary in time, a day that was holy. And Jesus Christ chooses to reveal His glory to His closest disciples on the Sabbath day. The symbolism is also seen if you read in Exodus 24 where Moses goes up on the mountain. For six days, he waited and then on the seventh day, that's when the Lord revealed himself to Moses and says He was transfigured before Him. He was transformed. Transformed from what? From his earthly body. Jesus is the glorious son of God, eternal. He took on flesh in his incarnation, which veiled his glory. That was part of the humbling experience. He humbled Himself by taking on flesh. And here he reveals who he truly is. Verse 3, "And his clothes became radiant, intensely white as no one on earth could bleach them." His clothes even became radiant, a dazzling, extremely white. When Moses went up in the mountain and he came down, His face shone. He reflected the glory of God. Well, here this is different. Jesus is not reflecting glory. No, it's his own glory. It's emanating from within Him. It's to symbolize what? That this man is God. He is the son of man and He is the son of God. It was the only way. We have transgressed a holy law of an eternal God and the punishment for transgressing the eternal law of an eternal God is eternal punishment. It's eternal damnation in hell. Therefore, if anyone is going to save us, that person has to be holy and eternal and he has to be a person. Only Jesus Christ could do it. Here, Jesus is reassuming his true form. This is who He's always been. It's who He always will be. This is his prehuman glory and it's His eternal glory. This is partially why Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." Not just light morally speaking, not just that He speaks the truth. He's literally the light of the world. He is Yahweh incarnate. Despite the fact that he was human, he had to be to represent us, He grew tired, He walked, He talked, He got sick. He knew some things, others he had to learn through study and observation. He laughed, He wept. He experienced pain and exasperation, melancholy. He bled and he died, but he was God. He's the same God that Isaiah saw in Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6, it says, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him, stood the seraphim. Each had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. One called to another and said, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory'." And who was this Lord that is sitting on a throne? And John 12:41, Jesus said that Isaiah was speaking of Him. Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of Him. Therefore, as you meditate on the glory of God and you say, "Imagine the humility," I was thinking about Superman. The humility that Superman had and walking around looking like a normal guy and he had the glasses and everything, but he's superman. Anytime he can use his power. Jesus are like that to the end, that's times' infinity. Jesus Christ veiled his glory. In order to stoop down, He took on flesh in order to represent us. John 1:14, "The Lord became flesh. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory. Glory as of the only son from the Father full of grace and truth and dwelt among us." In the Greek gets tabernacle with us. He pitched his tent with us. It's as if he came down and hid His glory. But hear the disciples are given a fresh glimpse of the unsurpassable glory, of unimaginable majesty, of the dignity and transcendence and otherness of Jesus. When he walked with them on a daily basis, there was this hiddenness. On the one hand, He's saying He's the son of God. On the other hand, they completely forget. They're oblivious sometimes. He teaches and then all of a sudden it says they're hardened in their heart. They don't understand. He teaches, they don't understand. And part of it was they're looking at a human being. And he's right with them. He looks just like them. And in a sense, familiarity does breed contempt, but Jesus here is showing them disciples. "It is worth it to die for me. It is worth it to sacrifice anything and everything for me. I'm here with you on your level, which does not mean we are equals. Let me show you how much other than you I am." And he reveals his glory to them. And as He's transfigured, verse 4, there appear to them Elijah with Moses and they were talking with Jesus. Now at this point, Moses had been dead over 1,400 years. He died in a secluded place and he was buried by the very hand of God. Elijah had been gone for about 900 years. He didn't die. God took Him while he was still alive. And both Moses and Elijah are mentioned in Malachi 4, which is a prophecy about the one who would come to prepare the way for the Messiah. In Malachi 4:4, it says, "Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes and he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest thy come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction." God promised that through the preparation, the preparing work of the one who will come in the spirit of Elijah and that's John the Baptist. We'll get to that in the second point. Why Moses and Elijah? Because both of them saw the glory of God on Mount Sinai. And also Moses himself prophesied that there will come a day when God will send a prophet, "Just like me," in Deuteronomy 18:15, "the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, from among you, from your brothers. It is to Him you shall listen." Moses was the great prophet because he was given the law of God, the decalogue, the 10 commandments, which is God's pattern. This is how humanity is to live. And Moses taught the people of Israel. This is how you glorify God in your life by living according to the commandments out of hearts of love toward God and neighbor. And then Elijah, what was his ministry? He went to very stubborn people of God, covenant people of God who were not living according to the commandments and he called them back to worshiping God, not Baal, back to following the commandments of God, not the desires of the heart. And what did Jesus Christ come to do? Well, he didn't come to abolish the law. Matthew 5:17, "Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them." And when he says fulfill them, that means live according to them. Jesus did not abrogate the law. He actually lived according to the law in order to represent us on the cross as he bore the wrath of God for our lawbreaking. And I wonder what they were talking about, Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. I think they were talking about the death of Jesus Christ. We get that from Luke chapter 9, the parallel passage. "Behold two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep and when they became fully awake, they saw his glory. And the two men who stood with him." Moses and Elijah were talking to Jesus in his glorified state about his departure. What's the word departure mean? It means his death. He, the glorious son of God, is going to die. And Moses and Elijah, they were dumbfounded by this. "How is the son of the eternal son of God, how is he going to die? Why would he die?" And God's response is "Because Moses, you weren't capable of changing people's hearts to obey the commandments from within. You could tell them what to do. You could tell them demands of God. You couldn't change their hearts to do it out of hearts of love. And Elijah, you could yell at the people of God and try to muster their zeal for the holiness of God, but even that was temporary. And Elijah, you yourself, what did you do? You prophesied that there will be a new covenant. And in the new covenant God will remove hearts of stone, replace them with hearts of flesh and write his law on those new hearts." That's what they were talking about Christ departure. And it's the word exodus, the same word exodus that's used about Moses is the word for departure here. Moses, in the same way that you led millions of people out of slavery, out of captivity, Jesus is going to lead the elect out of the captivity of the nets of Satan and sin. In verse 5, Peter said to Jesus... This is a very, very important moment. Peter's terrified and when he's terrified, he just did not speak. But he decides to speak as the representative and he says, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here." He doesn't know what to say. Verse 6 says that he was terrified. He had no idea. But he knows what he feels. Someone said, most people aren't going to remember what you said, but they're going to remember how you made them feel. At this moment, he feels something he's never felt. He feels a satisfaction, a satiation of the soul. He realized this is the whole point. This is the whole purpose of life. It's to bask in the glory of God. And Jesus, why would we leave? I don't want to go back to that. Let's stay here. And he has an idea. "Let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah." Why the tents idea? Maybe he thought, "You know what? Moses likes tents. He lived in tents. The tabernacle was a tent. The people of God knew about the festival of booths to remember the fact that they lived in tents. I think he just wanted to stay up here." And I think his ploy was, because it was his idea with the tents, "James, you get to bunk with Moses. And John, you get to bunk with Elijah. You guys are same. And Jesus, come here. Come here. Jesus. I am going to bask in the glory of God." He got a foretaste of heaven and he didn't want to leave. In verse 6, "For he did not know what to say for they were terrified." And verse 7, "And a cloud overshadowed them and a voice came out of that cloud, 'This is my beloved son. Listen to him'." So we've got the glory of Jesus Christ emanating from within him. And then we get a cloud which also is a representative of the glory of God. The cloud in the Old Testament was a sign of the presence of God, the Shekinah glory of God. That cloud is what led the people during the day and a pillar of fire during the night out of Egypt. Imagine what this all looked like from the ground, the mountain capped with divine incandescent and it is overshadowing them a gesture of protection. And then you hear the voice of the Father, God the Father. He says, "This is my beloved son. Listen to him." And listen to Him in allusion to Deuteronomy 18 where Moses said, "Listen to the prophet." And this is how God speaks to us. God, very rarely does he speak audibly and most likely it's because he's already spoken the most important truths to us through his son Jesus Christ. Hebrews 1 says, "Long ago, at many times in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by His son whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom also He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs." Do you want to hear from God? Well, God has spoken through His son. Go to the Son, ask the son to reveal himself to you, to reveal his glorious nature to you. King Herod, he heard about the work of Jesus and he said, "Who's that?" I think it might be Elijah come back from the dead after Herod executed him. The disciples, Jesus asked, "What do the people say that I am?" And he said, "Some think that you're a great prophet. Others think that you are Elijah." And here God the father's gives us the ultimate definition, the ultimate identity of Jesus. "This is my son, my beloved son. This is my chosen one." The Father loves the son so much that the very first time he speaks in the presence of the glory of His son, the first thing he wants to say is how much he loves him. This is my beloved son. Listen to Him." Moses and Elijah, they were the king's servants, God's servants. "This is God's son." So obviously, He's the one worth living for. This is the greatest purpose that there is. He's worth denying yourself for. He's better than self. There's no one like Him, no one greater, no one equal, no one even close. And He's the only one who can satisfy your soul. We know we long for that satisfaction. We know you can't just live for self. Anyone that's done that for any period of time, you know it doesn't satisfy, living for yourself, living for your own appetites, living for your own desires. We all know we need a greater purpose than self. But the greatest purpose, the absolute greatest purpose is Jesus Christ. Everything points to Him. And here the father overshadows them. And in response maybe to Peter's desire to stay up in the mountain and just forget about all the work below, the Father says, Listen to him." And what does Jesus say? He says, "It's time for us to go down the mountain." After he gives him a foretaste of the indescribable glory, they descend down to earth to deal with the hell below. And point 2 is that Jesus suffered hell to give you heaven. In verse 9, "As they were coming down the mountain, He charged them to tell no one what they had seen until the son of man had risen from the dead." We're having a conversation community group about why Jesus just keeps telling them, "Don't tell anyone. Don't tell anyone." He does a miracle and he's like, "Don't tell anyone." I think it's more than just reverse psychology. In the beginning he told him don't tell anyone because he knew as soon as they proclaim the full truth, that both Rome and the Sanhedrin will attempt to kill Jesus and do it before the appointed time. But this is the last of the nine commands in the Gospel of Mark for silence. After this moment, after the transfiguration, it's as if Jesus is descending from the mountain and say, "Yes, now is the time, gloves are off, I'm going to fulfill the mission." In verse 10, "So they kept the matter to themselves questioning what this rising from the dead might mean." Why do they have questions about Jesus rising from the dead? Well, because they didn't really understand why Jesus had to die. "Jesus, why would you have to? You're the Messiah. You're here to establish your physical kingdom. We want to be in your court of that kingdom. We want thrones next to you. What do you mean die? What do you mean rise from the dead? Let's not talk about rise from the dead because we don't want you to die." But Jesus knew that this was the only way for salvation to be procured because scripture teaches that the penalty for sin is death. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. We have all disobeyed. The penalty is death. So if someone is going to save us from the execution that we deserve, well that person has to die in our stead. And that's what Jesus had to do. The eternal son of God had to pay the eternal penalty on the cross on our behalf. The disciples didn't want to ask about the resurrection because that wasn't even a category for them so they start asking about Elijah. And why Elijah? Because the two issues are related. If Jesus is to die and rise and the scriptures taught that Elijah must come, or one in the spirit of Elijah must come before the Messiah, their question is, "Well, if you're going to die, did Elijah already come?" And verse 11, "They asked him, 'Why did the scribes say that first Elijah must come?'." They expected the Elijah to come and to restore all things to fix everything. The same way that they thought that the Messiah was going to fix everything physically with the physical kingdom, they thought Elijah was going to prepare the way for the Messiah in the same way. But Jesus points out in verse 12, "Elijah does come first to restore all things. And how is it written of the son of man that he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt?" He's saying Elijah will go before the Messiah, but you need to understand that the way of the Messiah, the ministry of the Messiah is a ministry of death. So if Elijah comes before the Messiah and the servant is not greater than the teacher, well, if the teacher dies, then the Elijah figure must die as well. So Jesus is working backwards and he's correcting their false understanding of the Messiah. The Messiah is eternal, but the Messiah must also die. And this has been prophesied. He must suffer at the hands of men. He must suffer being treated with contempt because God promised this. In the scriptures, thousands of years before even the coming of Christ, one of the clearest prophetic passages about the Messiah suffering is Psalm 22. Psalm 22, in such an uncanny detailed way, talks about the crucifixion as if the psalmist is sitting at the foot of the cross eyewitness to everything that's happening and watching the suffering of the Messiah. And Jesus quotes the psalm on the cross, Psalm 22 verse 1, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning?" The Son does not address God the Father is Father. The Son on the cross feels such a chasm between him and the Father that he just cries out to him as God. "God, why have you forsaken me? For what purpose have you forsaken? You forsaken me because Jesus Christ took our sin upon himself." Being forsaken by God is to experience the wrath of God. So if you reject Jesus Christ, if you reject God and you say, "I just want to be neutral, I want to be neutral toward God, I don't want heaven, I don't want hell and I'll just cease to exist." That's not true. It's either heaven or it's hell. It's either God or itself. And self and pursuit of self, that's ultimately Satanic. And Jesus Christ there on the cross, what's he experiencing? He's experiencing cosmic alienation that the father has removed. The Father who loved his beloved son so much, he's removed his affection. He's removed the presence of his love and Christ suffering. That's the hell that he's experiencing on the cross. Verse 16 of Psalm 22, "For dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircles me. They have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them. And for my clothing they cast lots. They have pierced my hands and feet." Centuries before crucifixion was even invented as a method of torture and execution, Jesus Christ on the cross, that's what was happening. And this was prophesied centuries before. So obviously the son of man, the Son of God had to suffer to fulfill the prophecies and as the only means of our salvation. Verse 13. "But I tell you that Elijah has come. And they did to him whatever they pleased as it is written of me." If the son of man is to be a suffering Messiah, then Elijah must be a suffering forerunner to prepare the way for the Lord. And this is what Jesus is saying. He's saying that John the Baptist is the Elijah figure who found his Jezebel in Herodes. And this is promised by the angel when the angel came to John the Baptist parents, Elizabeth and Zachariah, in Luke 1:14. "And you ill have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth for he'll be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink and he'll be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the Lord a people prepared." So Jesus says that, "Elijah has come, Elijah has suffered, Elijah has died, and now it's my turn to fulfill my ministry." And as they descend from the mountain, that's the conversation they're having. The scene turns from glory of the mountaintop and to the darkness of the shadow of death. The Vatican hangs Raphael's last painting, he was commissioned before his death, to paint the transfiguration and he actually didn't finish the painting. Some of his students did. But the top of the painting is the transfiguration. It's Jesus Christ in his glory, light emanating from him. And you've got Moses and you've got Elijah, you've got the disciples, the three of them blinded by the brilliance. And then below and everything changes drastically from light to darkness. And below you have the disciples trying to fight a demon that's possessed a little boy with his father by his side. It's an overwhelming contrast. It's as if they've experienced heaven and now they have to return to hell on earth, but the only way to heaven is to overcome hell. And that's what Jesus came to do. So this is point 3, a foretaste of hell. In verse 14, "When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd when they saw Him were greatly amazed and ran up to Him and greeted Him." They were amazed. We're not sure why. Perhaps it's because there was an after glow of the radiance as we saw with Moses, as he descends from Sinai. So they're all mesmerized by Him. In the verse 16, "He asked them, 'What are you arguing about with them to the disciples? What are you arguing with the crowds and the scribes?'." In verse 17, "And someone from the crowd answered Him, 'Teacher I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out and they were not able'." The father here provides a detailed description of what the demon was doing to the child. The demon was trying to destroy the child through mutanus, through indulgence, through foaming at the mouth, teeth, grinding rigidity. And the father has spent enough time with the son to know it's not just physical. This isn't just medical intervention that's needed in this case. In this case, we need something more and we need a greater power than the power of the demonic. He understood he was powerless against the demon. The child is powerless so we needed a power greater than the demon. He brought the child to Jesus. He said, "I brought him to you." But Jesus wasn't here. Jesus was on the mountain. So he turned to the disciples and he says the disciples were not able. They didn't have the strength, they didn't have the power. And in verse 19, "Jesus turns to disciples, he answered them, 'Oh, faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me'." Why couldn't the rest of the disciples, the nine that were left, why couldn't they cast out this demon? And Jesus says lack of faith, faithless generation. And you say, "Lack of faith?" We've already seen the disciples casting out demons. The disciples went on a mission trip where they cast out demons. They came back to Jesus and they were pumped about it. And Jesus says, "Rejoice not that the demons listen to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." So they've done it before, but he says, "You faithless generation, the reason why you didn't have power over the demonic was disbelief. You weren't believing." And if you ever considered exorcisms or casting out demons, to even attempt to cast out a demon is an act of faith. You know you can't do it. It's an act of faith to do it. So as they tried, they were believing, but the faith was wrongheaded. It wasn't directed in the right object of faith. Well, where was their faith directed? It wasn't directed at Christ. Christ wasn't here. They felt his absence. All of a sudden, what are they relying on? Perhaps their past experience. "We've done this before." All of a sudden they're believing in themselves or they're believing in their calling or they're believing in their anointing. But they stop believing in Jesus Christ, the lack of faith. And this echoes other times where Jesus calls them out, rebukes them for their lack of faith, meaning he expected more of them. But because of the absence of Christ physically, they lost faith. Verse 20, "They brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy and he fell on the ground and rolled about foaming at the mouth." The demon recognizes who Jesus is immediately and musters his last attack. He's an entrenched demon, a self-confident demon. He's defeated the disciples and their attempts to oust him. He thinks he might be able to do it again before Christ. And he attacks the boy. Verse 21. "And Jesus asked his father, 'How long has this been happening to him?' And he said, 'From childhood. And it has often cast him into fire and into water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us'." Why is Jesus asking the question? He knows everything. He's asking the question to elicit information from the man for the crowd. So everyone else hears. Hears what? Hears the fact that a demon has possessed the boy from when the boy was a child. And here you got to pause and start meditating a little bit, that demons want to possess even children. Why? Because demons like Satan, their leader, they hate humans, they hate humanity. They hate anyone and everyone created in the image of God. They hate the glory of God and they hate anyone who might glorify God. And they want to destroy human beings as soon as possible. That's why he took over the boy. And here, this needs to inform the way that we think of children, the way that we think of parenting. The parents, we need to pray over our children. Lord, protect them from the evil one, protect them from oppression, protect them from demonic possession. And we have to pray over and pray to Lord. Lord, fill my child with the power of the Spirit from youth just like John the Baptist, there is a real spiritual war happening behind the scenes for every single soul and Satan wants to get them as soon as possible. And the Father cries out, "Have compassion on us. Help us. Have mercy on us if you can." And by saying if you can, he is questioning the ability of Jesus. He had believed in Jesus enough to bring his son to Jesus, but Jesus wasn't there and all he could see were the disciples. And the disciples, through their lack of faith, actually sow doubt in the man's heart about the ability of Jesus. Jesus catches onto that phrase in verse 23. Jesus said, "If you can?" And in the original text, we don't have punctuation. So in the Greek there's no periods and exclamation marks. So here it could be a question mark, "If you can?" Or it could be a question mark with exclamation mark, "If you can?!" Or it could be just multiple exclamation marks like, "Bro, if you..." What's he doing? He's saying, "Look, I just said that this demon can't be cast out with a lack of faith. If this is going to happen, you have to believe. You have to believe that I can do this." And the Father gets it. In the second part of verse 23, "All things are possible for one who believes." One who believes in what? The disciples had believed, but they weren't believing in Christ. All things are possible for the one who believes in Christ. This is the same thing Paul said in Philippians chapter 4, verse 13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." So the power isn't in your faith, the power is in Christ. And when you direct your faith at Christ as imperfect as that faith is, Christ releases his power. And the man gets it in verse 24, "Immediately, the father of the child cried out and said, 'I believe. Help my unbelief. Lord, I believe'." I believe when we started the church, we did T ads on the T. And this is back before we had any professionals at the church. I put the first campaign together. One of the ads was a pretty good one. It said a sign from God. I thought that was pretty good. Another one said, "Don't stop believing." It had a picture of piano. One said, "I believe. Help my own belief." And you know why? Because I think that is one of the greatest professions of faith. It's like, "Lord, yes, I believe, but I still wrestle with doubt. Lord, I am simultaneously a believer and a doubter. Lord, I understand that faith is a gift and I need more of that faith. I need more of the gift." He understands that he doesn't have enough. So Lord, can you please fill that gap? It's the same sentiment in Martin Luther's great phrase, "Simul Justus et Peccator." Lord, I'm a simultaneously righteous and a sinner. I am simultaneously justified by the blood of Jesus Christ, but I'm still a sinner. I still struggle. Lord, I want to see more of you. I want more of your power released in my life and in the lives of the people around me. Lord, help my unbelief. We are a mixture of sinner saints. We're sinner saints. We were driving yesterday. When I have all the girls in the suburban, it gets very chatty. And we were chatting about birth, they wanted to talk about. My second daughter is like, "Did you name me Elizabeth because I was born in St. Elizabeth's hospital?" I said, "If that were the case, we would've named you Saint Elizabeth to live up to that name." But Jesus does call us saints, although we're still sinners. He calls us to be more and more evermore sanctify. And that's exactly what's happening in the father's heart. Logically, faith and unbelief, it's as if they're opposites. But in the Christian experience, they're simultaneous realities. Jesus told his disciples in Gethsemane, in Mark 14:38, "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." The battle for faith is evident in the disciples, and it's a battle that continues in the father's heart, and it's a battle that continues in our hearts. But the father's unbelief is different than the scribe's unbelief. The father's unbelief is different than the Pharisees unbelief or the Herodians unbelief. His unbelief is not stubborn. His unbelief is humble. It's repentant. It's, "Lord, help me. Lord, I want to believe more, but I can't do it apart from you." 2 Corinthians 4:16 says, "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." In Mark 9:25, "And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit saying to it, 'You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.' And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out and the boy was like a corpse. So that most of them said, 'He is dead'." In exorcisms, the reality of the cure is often demonstrated through a final act of violence by the departing demon. And here this was the end goal to begin with, he wanted to kill the child through self-harm. And then as he's leaving, because Jesus had commanded him, he tries to kill the child. But verse 27, "Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, 'Why could we not cast it out?' And he said to them, 'This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer'." Most texts also add in fasting, "This kind cannot be driven out anything by prayer and fasting." But the oldest manuscripts do not have the word fasting in there. We do believe in the power of fasting. Fasting is abstaining from food for a period of time in order to do what? In order to pray. The power isn't in the fasting, the power is in the prayer. So either way, if you add fasting or not, the power is in the prayer. Fasting helps heighten prayer. And once you start feeling the hunger pangs, you start crying out to God in a more desperate way. But Jesus here emphasizes that the demon is cast out by prayer. You were faithless. And how does that reveal itself? In the fact that you did not pray. And you stop here and you say, "How in the world did the disciples forget to pray? Jesus, why couldn't we cast out a demon?" You forgot to pray. You say, "Oh, we forgot to pray. We forgot the most important part." Oh my goodness. And you say, "Why? Why did that happen?" I'll tell you why. Whenever you have a situation like this, it's heightened spiritual battle. It's chaos, a lot of emotions, a lot of people, a lot of commotion and everyone's demanding, "Disciples help us. Disciples help us." And then the scribes are there and they're like, "Yeah, you're losers. You can't help us." And they can't do anything either. And in moments like that, you try to fix the situation in your power and you start relying on your strength. You start relying on your past experience. You start relying on anointing and you forget the most important part of the equation, which is God. You forget to pray to the Lord. So friends, this is the punchline of the story. The punchline of the story is, if you want to be used powerfully in the kingdom of God, do not forget to pray. We are to be people of prayer, patterned by prayer. When Jesus Christ and Moses and Elijah then, when they were talking about his departure, when they were talking about His death, they understood that apart from Jesus Christ, prayer doesn't mean anything. A lot of people who don't believe in Christ, they pray. And Jesus here is revealing that apart from His death, burial, and resurrection, we do not have access to God apart from the substitutionary atone of Christ. So apart from Christ's departure, we can't experience his glory. One of the most interesting things that Jesus ever said in the Gospel of Matthew, the very last thing he says before he departs from earth, he says, "Lo, I'm with you to the end of the age. I'm with you. I am with you until the end of the age." And then he leaves. You say, "How does that make any sense?" The disciples lost faith because they couldn't see the physical Christ in their presence. When he comes down, all of a sudden the lights come on. But Jesus Christ had to depart first with his death, then burial, resurrection. Then through his ascension, he had to depart in order to send us the Holy Spirit. And now the very moment that you repent of sin and you trust in Jesus Christ and when you pray in Jesus' name, we have access to God because of the power of the Holy Spirit. Peter was on that mountain of transfiguration and he saw the glory of Jesus Christ. And then when he is writing to the early church about that experience, watch where he puts the emphasis, "Do you want to experience more glory?" He puts the emphasis on the scriptures. That it's through the holy scriptures, the deeper we go in the scriptures, the more we know the scriptures, the more glory of God is revealed to us. Look at 2 Peter 1:16, "For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we meet known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty, for when he received honor and glory from God the father and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." The more we know the scriptures, love the scriptures, the more we love the word of God, the more we see the word of God, the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, in the scriptures and the gospel. At this time, we're going to transition to holy communion in which we remember the suffering of Christ on our behalf. For whom is holy communion? It is for repentant believers in Jesus Christ. It's for those who have turned from self-righteousness and turned from earning salvation, turned from sin turned to Christ. Recognizing our faith isn't perfect, but when it's directed in the perfect one, it's a salvific faith. So if you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, we ask that you refrain from this part of the service. Or if you are living in unrepentant sin as one who carries the name of Christ, we ask that you refrain as well. Unless right now you repent and believe in Christ, receive grace and then you're welcome to partake. If you haven't received the elements, please raise your hand and one of the ushers will bring the elements to you. And I also need some elements. I forgot my second service elements. I'll read 1 Corinthians 9:23-32 to prepare us. "For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed, he took bread." Thank you. "And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, also, he took the cup after supper saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then'." "So eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. This is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly we would not be judged. And when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world." You pray with me over holy communion. Oh heavenly father, we thank you for the gift of your beloved son, Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you were willing to go to the cross, you were willing to endure the wrath of God, that you were willing to endure eternal hell to offer us heaven for eternity. And Lord, we repent of our sins now. We repent of our self-reliance. We repent of pride. We repent of seeking our glory above yours, falling short of your glory. And Lord, we receive your grace right now. We receive your mercy, your forgiveness, and your compassion. And Lord, by the power of the Spirit, bring to mind the suffering of Christ now as we remember his sufferings. And we pray this in the name of Christ, amen. There are two lids, one on top. If you pull it back, it opens the cup and there's one below to open the bread. On the night that Jesus Christ was betrayed, he took the bread and after breaking it, he said, "This is my body, broken for you, take, eat and do this in remembrance of me." He then proceeded to take the cup and he said, "This cup is a cup of the new covenant of my blood, which poured out for the sins of many. Take, drink, and do this in remembrance of me." Lord Jesus, we thank you that you were willing to endure the cross. Why? To glorify your beloved Father and for the joy that was set before you, the joy of bringing us into your kingdom, the joy of saving us, stubborn sinners, stubborn rebels. You saw the joy you would experience and bringing us into the household of God, regenerating us, removing hearts of stone, replacing them hearts that beat for you, hearts that long to glorify you by living lives of obedience and lives of faith. Lord, continue to empower us by the Spirit, to do your work here on earth. And Lord, whatever demons there are around us, whatever demons and the people around us, whatever demons in this city, we pray in the name of Jesus Christ and we plead the blood of Jesus Christ, cast them out. And we pray, Lord, use us in the process. And we don't trust in ourselves or in our experience, or in our anointing, or in our calling. We trust only in the name of Jesus Christ, the name above all names, the name that is more powerful than any demons. And we pray this in Christ's name, amen.

Was Blind, but Now I See

January 28, 2024 • Jan Vezikov • Mark 8:22–38

Heavenly father, we come to you with hearts of gratefulness thanksgiving and hearts of love. We thank you that you are a glorious God, a great God and a gracious God, and we thank you heavenly Father, that despite our spiritual blindness, the veils over our eyes, the lies of Satan over the eyes of our faith. Lord, you offer us vision, the vision that is gifted to us when we look to the cross of Jesus Christ. Christ, when we look to the cross, we see God, the Son of God and the Son of man bearing the full condemnation that we deserve for our sins, for our blindness, our willful ignorance. And Lord, you offer us by grace through faith, sight of you, you promise us that those who are pure in heart will see God. And Lord, we today ask for the purity of heart. We repent of our sins, of our pride, of anything that gets in the way of seeing you. And Lord, if there are other veils over our hearts, over our minds, over our faith, I pray today, unwrap them, unravel them, and give us a clear sight of who you are, what you've called us to do. Lord, we thank you for the holy scriptures. We thank you that in the scriptures we meet Christ and in the scriptures we hear from Christ. And in the scriptures we learn that Christ calls us to a life of self-denial. Lord, you'd call us to take up our crosses on a daily basis and follow you. That's what it means to be a believer. And I pray, Lord, if there's areas in our life where we deny you instead of self, I pray, you give us grace to switch that and deny self and follow you. And Lord, if there's anyone who is not yet a believer, who has not seen the truth of who you are and the truth that there is a chasm between every sinner and the holy God, and only Jesus Christ is powerful enough to bridge that chasm and he does so with his work on the cross. I pray, Lord, if anyone is still blind to you, that you give them eyes to see today, regenerate their hearts, save them, draw them to yourself and give them the gift of eternal life. Save their soul and save their soul for eternity and make us the people that continue to care about the lost souls around us as we look at them with compassion. I pray, Lord Jesus, pour out the Holy Spirit and save many, send a great awakening and a great revival in this land and beyond. And we pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series through the incredible work, the Gospel of Mark and we've entitled the series Kingdom Come the Gospel of Mark in the Secret of God's Kingdom. And the idea comes from the fact that Jesus Christ has come. He has inaugurated his kingdom with the gospel message. He says, repent and believe for the kingdom of God is here. And then, once we follow him, Jesus calls us to pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So Lord, already your kingdom is here, but we want your kingdom to expand in our lives, in our hearts with our faith, and the Lord does that. The title of sermon today is What's Blind But Now, I See and that's a lyric from the beloved hymn, Amazing Grace. Anytime anyone gets baptized at Mosaic, we sing this downstairs. "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see." Blindness is one of the most precise metaphors to describe our spiritual condition apart from God's grace. In our natural, sinful, unconverted, unregenerated state, we're blind to the most important dimension of reality. And that's the spiritual realm. We're blind to the truth about the existence of God, the person of God, the will of God, and coming to the realization of the truth, the veracity, the reality of God, who he truly is. What happens is the Lord opens up the eyes of your heart, eyes that you had never even known to exist. The eyes of faith. CS Lewis once presented a paper at the Oxford Socratic Club entitled, Is Theology Poetry? And in that paper he has this one line where he says, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." And when you see Christ for who he truly is, you begin to see reality as it truly is. With that said, would you look at our text today, Mark chapter eight verses 22 through 38, "And they came to Bethsaida and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him and he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. And when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see people but they look like trees walking. Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly." "And he sent him to his home saying, do not even enter the village. And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, who do people say that I am? And they told him, John the Baptist and others say Elijah and others, one of the prophets. And he asked them, but who do you say that I am? Peter answered Him, you are the Christ. And he strictly charged him to tell no one about him. And he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him." But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, get behind me Satan, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it for what is the prophet of man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul for what can man give in return for his soul, for whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him, will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels? This is the reading of God's holy and infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time today. First, a blind man healed progressively. Second, a blind disciple sanctified incrementally and finally, follow Christ with eyes wide open to the cost. First, a blind man healed progressively. The scene right before this text is one in which Jesus was continuing to teach his disciples and the scene in which they had a difficulty grasping the truths of who Christ is, of what it means that he is the Messiah. And in chapter eight verse 18, he says to them, "Having eyes do you not see?" And immediately after that text, we get a symbolic healing of a blind man, but it's not instantaneous. He's healed after first passing through an intermediate state of indistinct vision. And there's a deliberate juxtaposition here that the Holy Spirit is giving us in showing us that the disciples don't really see yet because they are approaching the teaching of Jesus with their own manmade categories of teachings they had received from the scribes and the Pharisees. So not only does he have to dismantle their categories and then, fill them in order to give them sight, but he has to give them grace to actually do that. And the juxtaposition is deliberately reinforced by showing us that in the same way that Jesus needs to touch a blind man twice, he needs to touch his disciples over and over to give them clarity of sight. And the theme before us is distortion of vision. Spiritually speaking, that's every single one of us, all of the time. That apart from God's grace, apart from the spiritual eye surgery that the Lord offers us from his word and through his spirit, we don't see as we ought to see things get in the way the world gets in the way, the flesh gets in the way, our own misguided ideas of what God is get in the way. And then also, there are layers of demonic lives that the Lord needs to unravel, not to mention our sin. Jesus Christ and the sermon in the mountain, what did he say? He said, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God," that there is a purity that is necessitated for us to see God with clarity. Verse 22, we pick up the story. They, the disciples in Jesus came to Bethsaida and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him once again. We see this pattern that we've seen often in the Gospel of Mark, that it's friends who see their friend. Friends whose hearts are filled with compassion for a friend who's ailing and they do everything to bring that person to Jesus. And they beg Jesus, "Please heal our friend." They believe enough. They believe enough that Jesus in his power to bring their friend to Christ and then, they beg him to heal him. The faith of others here besides the inflicted man is involved. And this shows that the importance of intercessory prayer to God on behalf of others, on behalf of the physically and the spiritually blind. In the same way that it's a miracle that Jesus heals the blind man, gives him sight. It's even a greater miracle that God gives spiritual sight to anybody. It's an incredible miracle that he saves anybody. He's almighty. He can save anyone. Yes, we must pray. We must pray for our friends, our neighbors, those people in our lives, in our spheres of influence that do not yet know the Lord, can we give them eyesight to see Christ for who he is, we cannot. We are helpless, but can we bring them to the Lord? Can we beg the Lord? Lord in my prayers, I'm interceding on behalf of my neighbors, of my community, of the people that I see every day rub shoulders with every day who are so far from you. They have souls, eternal souls and their eternity hangs in the balance. Lord save them, and we see this pattern and that's incredible pattern for us. A lot of people like talking about the compassion of Jesus Christ that before he heals anyone, he does feel compassion for them. While the greatest level of compassion that you can feel for anybody is, have a compassion for their souls, for their eternity. Verse 23, "And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. And when he had spit in his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything? He takes the blind man by the hand and leads him out of the village. Why? He doesn't want to make a spectacle of this in a village, a small village. There are no secrets. The Lord wants to deal with this man privately and the seclusion away from the crowd. In the same way, that Jesus here takes the man by the hand, God took Israel by the hand, led them out of Egypt to shows his care for the person. The word for eyes here in the Greek is the more poetic term, it's not just physical eyes, but it also has a spiritual dimension. And Jesus is in the business not just of healing physically, he wants to heal the person's soul. The saliva was to draw the man's attention to what Jesus is about to do. The laying on of hands has the same effect. Touch means something incredibly profound to a blind man. In verse 24, he looked up and he said, "I see people but they look like trees, walking." He says, "I see, but it's indistinct. I see, but something is off." And here you pause and you say, despite Christ's touch, there's still an obstacle to the blind man's complete healing. His perception is still fractured. The healing isn't complete. The man is not blind anymore, but neither does he see with fully functional eyes. In contrast to all the other healings in the gospel, this is the only one that comes in a two-step process. It's not instantaneous. And the intermediate state of the man's vision after Jesus' first touch is symbolic. It is symbolic, what happens with the disciples? They see Jesus, but they don't really understand who he is. Not fully, not truly. There is an understanding of seeing but not seeing of already but not yet. There is an understanding that we are to grow in our vision and our spiritual insight. And the Christian walk is compared to life to begin a walk with the Lord Jesus Christ to be regenerated. It's as if you were born again, Jesus uses that language and that metaphor. It's as if you were spiritually dead inside, blind did not see. And the moment you come to the Lord Jesus Christ, you repent of your sin. You believe in him, and you're born. You're born again. And then as a baby needs to grow as we too as believers need to grow in maturity and understanding and in health, First Corinthians 13, a famous passage, but verses nine through 12 here are particularly relevant. St. Paul says, "For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child, I reason like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face-to-face. Now I know in part and then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known, will we know God fully in this life? No, but we are to attempt to grow as much as we possibly can. Seek the Lord's illumination from the holy scriptures and from his Holy Spirit. Darkness has begun to give way to light, but there's still demonic resistance in this world. There's still demonic lies that we have been fed that we need unveiled from our faith. Another contact with Christ is necessary and we are to be believers that say, Lord, I want to grow. I want to grow beyond where I am. I want to see you more clearly. I want to know you in a deeper way, in a fresher way. Lord, give me a fresh encounter. Give me a fresh touch, Lord, I see, but not the way I know I'm supposed to see. And when we come to the Lord with that posture of heart, he loves to answer that prayer of Lord, give me another touch from your hand. Mark 8:25, then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly. Jesus again lays his hands on the man's eyes and it says His sight was restored. Perhaps this is explaining to us that he had seen at one time had sight at one time, he knew what trees looked like subsequently had lost his sight. We're not sure. Either way, he now sees everything, clearly. There's restoration of physical sight and then also a Lord willing spiritual health. The Lord loves to reveal secrets and mysteries that are profound, that beyond our understanding when we come to him in First Corinthians 13:2 for example. It says, "If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing." And a lot of us we love to put the emphasis on the love part. Don't forget the love part. That's the most important. Yes, don't forget the love part, but here in this text it's showing us that there are mysteries and there is a knowledge that the Lord does reveal and he can reveal to those who continue to seek him and seek him humbly. Gradual growth and vision is a symbol for a progression and spiritual understanding. Verse 26, and Jesus sent him to his home saying, do not even enter the village. Jesus doesn't want to be known as just a miracle worker. He doesn't want to be known as just the person you go to, to have your physical needs met. He's not a divine pinata or a vending machine. He isn't Santa Claus upgraded. No, he's here to save souls sin six souls and illuminate the eyes of the heart. And that brings us to 0.2, a blind disciple sanctified incrementally. Verse 27, "And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, who do people say that I am?" What he's getting at is what's the public opinion? Jesus has been ministering for quite some time. He's done miracles, he's taught many sermons. And Jesus is saying what's the consensus? In verse 28, they told him John the Baptist and others say Elijah and others, one of the prophets. It's not surprising that Jesus would be identified as a great figure of the past, returned from the dead even, given the widespread ancient Jewish belief that saints were alive. All these roles of the prophets of John the Baptist of Elijah, they were roles of preparation, not fulfillment, not consummation. John the Baptist came to prepare the way for Jesus Christ and he did that by saying, repent, believe. The king is here, turn to the king. And now, the king has come and there is a fulfillment of the prophecies. Mark 8:29, "And he asked them, but who do you say that I am? Peter answered him, you are the Christ." Here in the Greek, there's an emphatic you but you. You, who do you say that I am? This is the most important question that every single human being needs to answer while still alive. Who do you say that Jesus is? And Peter correctly says, "You're the Christ." That's the Greek translation of the Aramaic Messiah. You're the Messiah. You're the anointed expected king of Israel. You're the one who's going to come to teach us the righteous ways of God and established God's dominion. And in the Jewish theology, the scribes and the Pharisees had come up with a whole theology of what the Messiah would come to do. In Jewish theology of the time, the Messiah was expected to be entirely human, like King David was a great king and he loved the Lord. He knew the Lord and he established the kingdom of Israel. They thought the son of David would be much greater than David, but he would just be a son of David. He would just be human. And for a human being to establish his kingdom, the human being has to be alive. A human being builds a kingdom through victory, through taking dominion. And here, Jesus Christ, "Yes, Peter, you're correct," but later he is going to continue to restore and heal Peter's wrongheaded spiritual vision and definition of the Messiah. There was no general expectation that the Messiah would suffer or die. What kind of king dies as he's establishing a kingdom? If the king dies, the kingdom dies. If Jesus, you are the Messiah and you die, the movement is over. It's done. Peter gets the title, right, as we see, but he has no understanding of what the Messiah has come to do. And Peter, where did you get this understanding that Jesus is the Messiah. It was given to him through divine revelation. In Matthew 16, the parallel passage verse 16, "Simon Peter replied, You're the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter. And on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." "I'll give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you lose on earth shall be loose in heaven. Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ." And that's how our paragraph ends in Mark 8:30. He strictly charged them to tell no one about him, strictly charged. Another translation says vehemently ordered. It's the same word for rebuke, used later in verse 33. He rebukes them. Don't tell anyone that I'm the Messiah, partially because Peter doesn't fully understand what that means. And by teaching people that Jesus is the Messiah would be the blind leading the blind, so to speak. Mark 8:31, "And he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again." This is the first three of the passion predictions in the Gospel of Mark, and Jesus here continues to teach. He has come to teach. And what is he doing by teaching? He's establishing his kingdom because his kingdom is a kingdom of truth. The way that he dismantles the kingdom of the evil one is by dismantling the lies, supplanting the lies, replacing them with truth. And what is he teaching? He's teaching Peter. He's teaching the crowds. What kind of Messiah he is? He says, "The son of man must suffer." It's necessary. He used the word must. He must suffer. He must be rejected. He must be killed. He must rise again. What's the word must mean? It means there's no other way. This is the only possibility. This is the only potential path for human redemption. There is a divine compulsion. Why? Because this is the will of God. This is the will of God the Father. There's divine necessity. He begins to teach them because they needed to be taught because no human could come up with an idea like this, that God would come and die. How can God die? How can the Son of God die? That Jesus Christ, the incarnate Lord is to be beaten, scorched, mocked, tried, tested, forsake and crucified dead and would be buried. And the necessity of Jesus' death is also ... it is a necessity because he is to fulfill the scriptures. The scriptures prophesied that the suffering servant will come, Isaiah 52, Isaiah 53. Clearly, it's about Jesus Christ. And then, Jesus uses the title Son of Man and part of the background for the son of man is Adam. When Adam and Eve sinned, they were cursed with various sufferings by God. So if God is going to redeem humanity, one who is like human, who is the son of man, the son of Adam, who needs to represent the people. He needs to be fully man and fully God and Daniel seven is a great prophecy that this ancient of days, son of man, son of God is coming and he's coming to redeem humanity. He will be rejected by the elders, the Sanhedrin, the priestly court of Israel will scrutinize the claims of Jesus and then deliberately reject him. And he says, "After three days will rise again." The phrase after three days and on the third day, our equivalent phrases is because of how they measured time in that culture. Mark 8:32, "And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him." Now, Peter was the first apostle chosen by Jesus. Peter was in the inner group of the big three of the disciples. It was Peter, James and John. The sons of thunder that Jesus called him. And Peter perhaps, because he thought of that proximity, allowed him to speak into Jesus' life. All of a sudden he feels bold enough to take Jesus' aside, and there is a sense of the fact that, in the language, that he's patronizing Jesus. And then, the word says that he began to rebuke Jesus and as soon as Jesus specifies the kind of Messiah he is, Peter, he can't fit that definition of the Messiah into his mind, and he begins to wonder, "You know what, Jesus, perhaps your mom was right, perhaps your siblings were right. Perhaps you are out of your mind. The Messiah to suffer, that doesn't make any sense." It seemed so nonsensical to Peter that it was almost demonic, what kind of paradoxical Messiah is this? He begins to rebuke Jesus Christ. And the same word for rebuke is what Jesus used when he cast out demons, he rebuked them. It's almost as if Peter here is rebuking a demonic idea. "Jesus, what are you talking about? You're the Messiah. We're here. We follow you. You're supposed to be the king, you're going to establish the kingdom and we're going to have positions in your kingdom. And you're talking about death. What are you talking about?" As soon as Jesus begins to define what kind of Messiah he is, as soon as Jesus begins to specify the kind of Messiah he is, everything changes for Peter. And we live in a day and age where people are fine talking about God in general. They're fine talking about faith in general, fine talking about even Jesus in general. As soon as you begin to specify, as soon as you begin to define terms, that's when people take up arms, and that's what's happening with Peter, a Messiah who will suffer, die and rise again. Peter has the gall to rebuke Jesus and to rebuke Jesus in the strongest of terms. He sees what God's will is. And he's like, "No, no, no, no. Lord, you're doing it wrong." I don't know if you've ever rebuked the Lord. We've all had that temptation where you ask for something and the Lord gives you something diametrically opposed to what you asked for. You're like, "Lord, you're not doing your job right, Lord. Let me help you do your job. Perhaps I'm better being God than you are." That's what's going on here. He is correcting Jesus. He is rebuking Jesus and it doesn't go well. And Mark 8:33, "But turning and seeing his disciples, he Jesus rebuked Peter and said, get behind me Satan, for you're not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." Peter rebukes Jesus, Jesus rebukes Peter. Guess who won? Jesus wins. Don't rebuke Jesus, be careful of rebuking the Lord. Apparently, this idea that the Messiah would not suffer, it had taken root even in the other disciple's hearts, so Jesus turns to everyone and makes an example of Peter. Peter wasn't unique in his obtuseness. They had inherited this interpretation of the Messiah, inherited it from people. It's not from the holy scriptures and the holy scriptures is clear. Isaiah 52, Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, clearly prophetic passages that show that the Messiah will suffer. And here what Jesus is doing is he's nullifying the lie and he's nullifying this lie with the truth. He's telling Peter, so to speak, "Peter, you have come to me with old wineskins of a definition of the Messiah." An old wine skin of the definition of God, of how God works, but if you are to have new wine, new wine means that this is completely new and the new wine needs to come in new wine skins. So it's truth that we want to accept from the Lord, but we can't just accept it into our lives without having the Lord completely change the receptacle of that truth. He says, "Get behind me Satan." Harsh words, but I do want to pause here and show the grace in it that Jesus isn't rejecting Peter. "Peter, you're wrong. You're so wrong and you've actually ... you're trying to rebuke me with a lie of Satan," but he's not rejecting Peter. Peter remains a disciple of Jesus Christ and we see the grace of God there. How often have we been so misguided about the Lord, so misguided about understanding who he is and understanding what it means to follow him and he continues to give us grace. Later on chapter nine, actually Jesus takes Peter, James and John onto the Mount and he transfigure in front of them, reveals who he truly is and reveals that he has given Peter more grace. By saying, "Get behind me, Satan." Jesus isn't saying get away from me. He's not banishing Peter forever with this rebuke. No, what he's saying is, get behind me. I am God. I am the Messiah. You are to follow me. Get behind me. Resume the path of following a path that you have momentarily forsaken. I'm the Lord and you are not. And this is a command to Peter. "Resume the path of discipleship rather than trying to lead Jesus Christ." When Jesus used the word Satan, he means, adversary, adversary of divine purpose. Peter here, at least temporarily is opposing the will of God and he needs to understand that he is on the side of Satan when he opposes God. Jesus reveals truth to Peter and as new truth is revealed, old lies must be rooted out. And who does Peter look like here? Well, Peter is half percipient, half insensible condition is similar to the sufferer that we had just read about in the previous narrative. The person who was half seeing, half blinded. And Jesus reveals to Peter that he needs another touch from Christ. He needs more teaching, more revelation. He says to Peter, "You're not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." This is where Peter was demonic and that Peter, you're offering me the same path that Satan offered me. And if you remember Jesus when he was fasting in the wilderness for 40 days and Satan comes to tempt him and Satan takes him to the top of the mountain, he says, "Look at all the cities, look at the kingdoms." I'll give everything to you if you fall down and worship me." And what's Satan tempting him with? Jesus, you've come to get the crown. I'll give you the crown. Just don't go to the cross. He understood that if Jesus goes to the cross, he's going to ultimately defeat Satan's sin and death. He's like, "Jesus, let's not do that. You can have all the kingdoms, but let me reign through sin," and Jesus telling Peter, "Peter, you're on the side of Satan. You're tempting me with the same path." The holy scripture often talks about the blinding power of Satan over unbelievers. That apart from the grace of Jesus Christ, we're all blinded to the truth. St. Paul, when he shares his testimony to King Agrippa in Acts 26. This is what the text says in Acts 26:12, "In this connection I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priest. At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun that shone around me in those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It's hard for you to kick against the goads. And I said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I'm Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the gentiles to whom I am sending you." To open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Saul, before he becomes Paul, he was so zealous for the Lord, but he was so blind in his zeal. He was on a path to Damascus to go and persecute Christians, to murder Christians, and he thought he was doing this in the name of the Lord. And then Jesus appears to him and says, "Why are you persecuting me?" And at that point, Saul could have been like, "I'm not persecuting you Jesus. I got nothing against you. I'm persecuting your followers." Jesus so closely connects himself with his followers, with his church. He says, "By persecuting the church, you're persecuting me." And then Paul gets saved and God gives him a mission to do what? To proclaim the gospel and to help people begin to see God for who he is. Second Corinthians four, continues this theme, "And even if our gospel is veiled, it has veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ is Lord. With ourselves as your servants, for Jesus' sake, for God who said, let light shine out of the darkness has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." How does Satan blind people? He blinds them with lies. If you don't believe in God, you're believing a lie and all of a sudden you're closed off to even the possibility of who God is. If you don't believe in Christ, if you don't believe in what Christ has come to do, you're blinded to the reality of Christ. If you don't believe in the scriptures, you're blinded to the reality of the truth of God's word. And only divine grace permits us to escape this condition of satanic blindness. And demonic blindness is only countered with divine revelation. There's nothing capable of ending this alienation between us and God and the blindness of humanity to God's will except to look to Christ on the cross. As Messiah, Jesus is not only God's holy warrior, but he's also the teacher. And this is why Jesus came to teach. His primary role in his ministry was to teach in order to combat the lies of the enemy so that when people come to know the truth, they begin to see God for who he is. Isaiah 11:2, "And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him and the spirit of wisdom and understanding and the spirit of counsel and might." When we grow closer to Christ, we grow closer to the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit longs to reveal wisdom and understanding and counsel and might. Modern Christians today, we've been cushioned by 2000 years of church teaching to the point where we understand the Messiah is supposed to suffer. That idea is unremarkable. To the Jewish people of that time, the idea of a Messiah was the idea of triumph, not of suffering, not of death. And Peter agrees, "Jesus, you are the Messiah," but the question is, how does the Messiah triumph over his enemies? Well, at this point, Peter, we have to have a conversation. Who are your greatest enemies? Peter and Peter, in that frame of mind, before Jesus corrects him, he would say Caesar Augustus or he would say Pontius Pilate or King Herod, these are our greatest enemies, Lord Jesus. Let's build an army together. You are the king, clearly. You just fed 5,000 men. They're pretty happy about it. Just continue doing that and then, we can take over. We're going to take over Jerusalem and then from there, we're going to build your kingdom, because those are our greatest enemies. It's evil people out there. It's evil people in positions of power. Jesus, that's who we need you to get rid of, put us in positions of power and all of a sudden, we're just going to take over. And Jesus will push back and say, "Peter, those aren't your greatest enemies." Before this Caesar, there was another Caesar and many more before that and there will be Caesars after. No, that's not your greatest enemy. It's not, people in politics. It's not your greatest enemy, your greatest enemies. And unless you know this, then you've already lost, but your greatest enemies are Satan, sin and death. Well, if Satan is your greatest enemy, how do you take Satan out? That's a really important question. Well, you take him out by taking his greatest hit. You take Satan's greatest hit, and that's exactly what happened on the cross. Jesus Christ allowed Satan through his human pawns to crucify him. Satan, that's the greatest weapon. You have to kill me. He takes on Satan, but he wasn't just taking on Satan, he was also taking on sin. Well, Peter, if we take over this Caesar, what happens to sin? What happens to the sin in your own heart, Peter? A lot of people say if there's a good God and all powerful God, why does he allow evil to happen in the world? Well, if Jesus Christ could annihilate evil in one second, he can do that. How many of us would still be alive? We'd all be dead. So for Christ to counter evil, to dismantle evil, to take a sin head on, he had to pay the penalty for sin on the cross. And that's why Jesus Christ on the cross, he quotes Psalm 22, which is one of the most profound texts in all of the scripture. He says, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And you say, "How can the first person of the trinity forsake the second person of the trinity? How can the father turn his back on the Son just abandoned him on the cross and this hellacious suffering?" Well because the son had taken our sin upon himself. He who knew no sin became sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God. And then, Jesus Christ dies and through his death, what is he doing? He's giving death itself the death blow By God's grace. He didn't stay dead, he was raised. So on the cross, Jesus takes Satan head on. Takes his fiercest attack, takes on the sin of the elect and its wages and takes on death itself with his death. And praise be to God, he wins. From Peter's limited perspective, all he was thinking about was, "Jesus, I got to preserve you. Jesus, I can't let you die because if I let you die from his limited perspective, everything dies. All my dreams die. All my aspirations die." And from God's perspective, that wasn't the way. God's thoughts are so much greater than our thoughts. Praise be to God. Isaiah 55:8, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways than my thoughts than your thoughts?" Jesus fought Peter's believing of lies. This demonic delusion, and he does it with the truth. He does it by teaching the truth. And now, he challenges Peter and he challenges the other disciples because in their faulty understanding, if we're following an earthly political king, then what does that make us? We are your closest followers, Jesus. We're going to be in your cabinet. We're going to have thrones next to you, but if the Messiah is one who suffers. One who dies and dies a gory death on a cross. Well then what about us? If that's the kind of king that we're following, is he worth following? And Jesus proclaims here in the text, the gains and losses of following him, having prophesied his own suffering, death and resurrection, Jesus now proclaims a similar fate for his followers, and that's 0.3. Follow Christ with eyes wide open to the cost. Mark 8:34, "And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." He calls the crowd, you've been following me. You see my miracles, you see the signs. Now, I'm calling you to become my disciples. I'm calling you to follow me, and if you are to follow me, you need to know what it's going to cost you. First of all, deny yourself. He says there's a sense of existential immediacy. Jesus is confronting the crowd. So you do you want to follow me? Well, you need to deny yourself. You need to turn from your selfish ways, deny yourself and follow me. And just how far is this self-denial expected to go? Jesus brings in the word cross. He says, "Take up your cross," and we're so accustomed to the image and the idea of the cross. There's an aura of sanctity and beauty that surrounds the idea of the cross. And it's hard for us to understand how repugnant the idea of a cross was to the people of the time. The symbol of the hated Roman occupation, a form of death so cruel, so dehumanizing, so shameful that even the most debauched regimes in human history since have not employed crucifixion as a means of executing enemies. It was the preeminent means of Rome's terror apparatus and to liken the following of Christ, the bearing of cross was as powerful way as Jesus could explain, that If you follow me, here's the terms. You must be willing to sacrifice anything and everything. You must be willing to endure anything and everything to be a follower of Jesus Christ. One of the cruel and shameful aspects of crucifixion was the criminal was forced to carry the cross or a part of the instrument to the place of crucifixion, most likely a horizontal cross beam you had to carry, which itself was called a cross, the same thing that Jesus had to carry after he was scorched, his back was torn up from the cat of nine tails, and then, he has to carry the beam across his back on the Via Dolorosa to Calvary. When his strength ended, Simon of Cyrene took over. And Jesus is saying, "Take up your cross and follow me in the same way." It's an exhortation to surrender life and saying, my life is not my own. "And Jesus is upfront about the cost, completely upfront. All of you, for all of me." If you go to the restaurant and they're like, "Yeah, lobster, it's market price, like what's market price? I don't know. Just tell me market price, order of magnitude," or you go to a medical office and you're like, "How much is this procedure?" They're like, "I don't know. We'll bill you." Jesus doesn't do that. The cost is upfront completely. He's saying it's going to take your whole life. Your life is no longer your own, and the idea that you thought your life was your own was actually sinful, and that's how we got here in the first place. And what Jesus here is doing is he's just informing the disciples that I'm Yahweh who has given the 10 commandments, and this right here is just definition of the first commandment. The first commandment is thou shall have no other gods before me. That means you'll not live for anyone more than you love God. It's a matter of reprioritizing. God, you are the greatest treasure of my life. I'm going to live for you completely. Everything in my life is secondary to that. You are God and you alone. He says, "Follow me." And the image of following Jesus is used twice here in the first clause if anyone wants to follow me. And what Jesus is saying is you either denounce self or you denounce Christ. You either denounce self or you denounce God. You can't live for God and yourself in a competing set of priorities. Verse 35, "And whoever would save his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it." It's counterintuitive, but it's true. He's saying that life, eternal life is found, true life, life to the full is found in treading the path of self death, of self-denial. Death is the way to life and the cross, the way of victory. It makes all the sense in the world. If you live for yourself and if you live for pleasure, for comfort, for self-preservation, and then you die. Well, what happens to your soul? Well, for eternity, you are experiencing condemnation. Your soul spends eternity apart from the presence of God. Why would you expect to spend eternity in the presence of God if you rejected his presence in this life? Obviously, if you live for self, you're going to experience ... you're going to lose your life. If you lose your life now and say, "Lord, I don't want to live for myself. That's not going that well. Lord, I want to live for you. I want to follow you. I want eternal life. I want it to begin now." The moment you die, it's just a transition from experiencing eternal life here to eternal life in the presence of God. Counterintuitive as it is the truth of Jesus' words about finding life on the pathway to death has not lacked witness. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was in the Soviet gulags, as a political prisoner. And there in the gulags, he actually met the Lord. The Lord revealed himself to him. And he often wrote about this, of this experience of self death as a means of getting through whatever sacrifice he had to. He writes this in the gulag. He says, "From the moment you go to prison, you must put your cozy past firmly behind you. At the very threshold, you must say to yourself, my life is over, a little early to be sure, but there's nothing to be done about it. I shall never return to freedom. I'm condemned to die, now or a little later. I no longer have any property whatsoever. For me, those I love have died, and for them I have died. From today on, my body is useless and alien to me. Only my spirit and my conscience remain precious and important to me. And confronted by such a prisoner, the interrogator will tremble. Only the man who has renounced everything can win that victory." In verse 36, Jesus continues for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?" And Jesus here is saying that all the wealth of all the world, if you could accumulate all of it, all of that would not be more valuable than one human soul. And each person is confronted with the dramatic choice between death and life, between the world and his or her soul. Is anything worth more than the soul? No. The soul is more precious than all. Psalm 49 verse seven, "Truly no man can ransom another or give to God the price of his life for the ransom of their life as costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit." Verse 38, "For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father and with the holy angels." There is a tendency both outside and within the Christian community to gloss over the crucifixion, to downplay or take offense at Jesus' crucifixion. Isaiah 52 and 53 alludes repeatedly to the onlooker's shame. They see Christ's suffering. There's a humiliation in that ... we're following him. That's our God, and Jesus says, whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation. Yes, some of his words are very difficult to receive, especially upon first hearing. Some of these words that define what sin is. Our culture shirks at it. Bristles, there's a visceral reaction. What? No, we understand that the adulterous generation, those that want nothing to do with the Lord would bristle, but what about believers? What about those who take on the name of Christ, who profess themselves to be followers of Christ? And do people do this today or are people Christians, self profess Christians, are they ashamed of the Lord's words? All too often, way too often. I saw a video clip of a sermon that a pastor has given recently and the pastor got up and said, "I think you noticed we skipped a passage of First Corinthians. We read a little bit and then skipped a passage and then continued." And the pastor said, "The reason why we skipped that passage is because, quote-unquote, yikes. That was the answer. We don't want to read the word of God out loud because yikes, because of how it makes us feel. What are you doing? You're being ashamed of the word of God. You're being ashamed of the words of Christ." And Jesus says, whoever is ashamed of me and my works, I will be ashamed of them. It's as if the son of man will be as second coming called as a witness to answer the question, are these people who profess to be yours, are they truly yours? And the answer, no, indeed, I am ashamed that they should take my name on their lips. In Matthew 7:21, the sermon in the mountain, Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." "On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." Jesus says when he comes and he will come in the Second Coming, and he will come in the glory of his father and he will come with the angels. The first time he came to inaugurate his kingdom, to establish his kingdom and offer amnesty, offer forgiveness to anyone who would turn from sin and turn to him. The second time he's coming and he's not coming to offer amnesty, he's coming in judgment. For those who are found to be in Christ, that'll be a tremendous day of rejoicing, a day of glory. For those who are found outside of Christ, that will be the worst day in all of eternity for any one of them, any one of you who are not in Christ. So today, friend, if you do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, if you're not sure that he knows you, if you're not sure that you are known by him, today in prayer, as we're singing, as we're praying, respond to the Lord in your heart of hearts and cry out, "Lord Jesus, I'm blind. Help me see. Lord Jesus, I'm lost. Find me. Save me." And he will. He promises to. I'll close with Daniel 7:13 through 14, "I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory in a kingdom that all people's nations and languages should serve him." "His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." The Lord Jesus Christ offers each one of us grace today. Another touch, another encounter, another touch of healing so that we can sing amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now, I see. Let us pray. Lord God, we thank you for the holy scriptures. We thank you Jesus that you were so gracious as to reveal yourself to us. I pray, Lord, if there's anyone here who has not been regenerated, has not been justified, I pray, save them today and put them on the path of following you the path of sanctification. And those of us who are believers, Lord I pray, clarify our sight. Give us a clear vision of who you are and a clear vision of what means to follow you. Lord, if there are areas in our life where we have not denied self, I pray, give us grace to deny self. If there are areas in our life where we have not taken up the cross that you have called us to take up, I pray, give us the grace to do that. And I pray, Lord, that as we follow you, that you give us a boldness, the courage to never be ashamed of your word, never be ashamed of you, but just be daily blown away by incredible mercy that you would choose us before the foundation of the world. That you will write our names in the book of life that you would choose to save us and sanctify us by the power of the Holy Spirit, that you would choose to use us to establish your kingdom. And I pray that you do so, evermore here and beyond. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Beware Stiff-Neckedness

January 21, 2024 • Jan Vezikov • Mark 8:11–21

Father, we thank you for your holy word and we thank you that you are a holy God and we have transgressed your holy law. And it's because of our rebellion. It's because we do have, every single one of us, a problem with authority, a problem with your authority in particular when you call us to do things that go against our own will. And Lord, you didn't leave us in our sins and trespasses. You didn't leave us in our rebellious, recalcitrant, our stubborn stiff-neckedness. Instead, you sent your son Jesus Christ, who submitted perfectly to every single facet of the law, every single tenant of the law, every single law. And you submitted Jesus to the will of the Father like no one before you, like no one after you. And you did that in order to provide a way for us to be saved. And you went to the cross instead of experiencing the blessing that you deserved for your law keeping, you took the curse that we deserve for our lawbreaking. And Lord, you were crucified, you died and you were buried. And we thank you that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you were resurrected. And now you call every single one of us to repentance in particular the areas of our life where we do want to seek our own will instead of yours. You call us to repent and not be stiff neck and I pray today, soften our hearts, soften our necks, soften our wills, and make us a people that long to obey you because your will is good and your will is perfect and your will is holy. You do not call us to anything that is short of your blessed will. Everything you call us to is for our good and it's ultimately for your glory. And when we glorify you the most, that's when we experience your presence the most and we experience the joy that you would have for us. Lord bless our time, the holy scriptures today. Holy Spirit, we love you. If there's any places in our lives where we are grieving you or where we are in our obstinacy, turning from your leading, I pray today, Lord, make us filled with the Holy Spirit to keep in step with the Spirit. Doing nothing to grieve your spirit. Lord bless our time in the holy scriptures and give us grace and give us your presence. We pray this in Christ's name, amen. We're continuing our sermon series through the Gospel of Mark called the Gospel of Mark and the Secret of God's Kingdom. And the title of the sermon today is Beware Stiff Nakedness. A few years ago, my third daughter at Katharina, Ecat for short, she started a dog sitting business and she got this dog that was small yet incredibly strong to watch for a few days and she loves dogs and she loves dog sitting. And dog sitting is the closest that she's going to get to having a dog, although she is hoping for a miracle and praying for one. So though it was Ecat's responsibility to watch this dog, I don't know what happened, but it wasn't her walking the dog, it was my second daughter, Elizabeth, went out to give the dog a walk and it was winter time, it was cold outside and 20 minutes goes by, she's not home in 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and we got to worrying and we went to look for her and we found her stuck on a street corner trying with all her might to drag this dog, to turn this dog in the direction of home to no veil. She tried talking to the dog, pleading with the dog, cajoling the dog, bribing the dog with snacks. And every time she would pull on the leash to turn her home, the dog stiffened its neck and dug in. And it took a strong word of command to get the dog to come, a stronger yank of the leash to get the dog to turn right. And from the side, if you saw what was happening here like that looks like excessive force, but it wasn't excessive and force was the only thing that the dog could understand, it was actually loving force. What was the goal? The goal was to get the dog home where it's warm and toasty and by itself the dog wouldn't make it out on the streets. The dog was stiff-necked. And that's the same phrase that God uses to describe the behavior of unbelieving people, people who see God's work, see sign after sign and don't take God at his Word. People who intentionally reject God's Word to do their own will. There's a curious passage in Nehemiah where Nehemiah summarizes quick in a pithy way the history of the people of Israel. In Nehemiah 9:13, speaking of God, "You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments, and you made known to them your Holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses, your servant. You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst. And you told them to go into possess the land that you had sworn to give them. But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. They refuse to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you've performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love and did not forsake them." You read this and you say it's unbelievable. These people saw miracle after miracle with a crescendo of parting the Red Sea and they walked through and the armies of the Egyptians, they were swallowed up by the water. They saw miracle after miracle, they heard the voice of God, they saw the evidence of God's work. And then as soon as they realized that to be free from captivity means to be in submission to God and his word, they say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I prefer slavery. And they appointed a leader to bring them back. And you say, how could they ever do that? Well, friends, just look into your own heart, look at your own history, how often do we come to Christ, have our sins forgiven? And then the Lord says, "Repent, believe, and follow me." And we start following and realize, "Oh, this is so much harder than I'd ever anticipated. The sacrifice is so much greater than I'm willing to make." And you turn back to sin, the word of God presents hardheartedness as the root cause of stiff nakedness. Why? Because in the scriptures, the heart isn't just the seed of emotions, it's the center of the will. So you end up doing exactly what you love most. And if you love yourself more than you love God, you place yourself in the position of God. And if you take God's rightful place on the throne of your life, the very life that God gave you, then there will never be evidence enough for the existence of God, for the veracity of his word, for his clear commandments. God is the ultimate authority. And to believe in God is to love His authority. To believe in God is to submit to His authority no matter how we feel about the commandment. Even when every fiber in your being bristles with rebellion, at those moments, we must cry out to the Lord. Lord, soften my heart, Lord relax my stiff neck. And those sticking points are the places where if we receive God's will, the absolute greatest transformation happens in our lives. However, if the Lord reveals a point in our lives where our necks have stiffened up against His will where we remain recalcitrant, when he pulls on the leash, there is potential for the neck to break. Proverbs 29:1 says, "He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck will suddenly be broken beyond healing." And today we approach a text where Jesus deals with the hard hardness of the stiff nakedness of those who should have known better, the Pharisees, the religious leaders, the politicians, those who followed Herod and the Herodians. And then he turns His attention to the disciples and He says that rebellious spirit that you see in the Pharisees and the Herodians, watch out that that spirit does not grow in your hearts. So today in Mark 8:11-22, would you look at the text with me? "The Pharisees came and began to argue with Him, seeking for 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 this generation" and He left them, gotten to 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 5,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? They said to Him "twelve." And the seven for the 4,000, 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?" This is the reading of God's holy, inert and fallible authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts, three points of the frame up our time, be not a stiff-necked sign seeker. Second, beware the leaven of stiff-neckedness. And three battle hardheartedness by remembering. First be not a stiff-necked sign seeker. After Jesus feeds the 4,000 Gentiles, Mark tells us that he gets in the boat and they went to the region of Dalmanutha on the western, more Jewish shore of the lake. And that's where the Pharisees meet Him. And that's verse 11. The Pharisees came and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven to test him. Now, if you haven't been with us, the Pharisees, just a quick recap, were the religious leaders. They're the gatekeepers of the Jewish faith. They're the self-proclaimed representatives of God. So when Jesus shows up and starts telling people the Pharisees, He starts telling them that he's the promised Messiah and actually he's the Son of God. While they've got concerns. He can't be God they reason. Why? Because they know God. God is on our side, they figured. We have God figured out. We're the professionals here, Jesus. Moreover, if Jesus is right, then they're wrong, but they can't be wrong, not this wrong, not this wrong about the most important question in the universe. Who is God and what does He demand of me? And moreover, if Jesus is right, then they have to change their lives and they don't want to change their lives. They like their lives. They like their prestigious, lucrative positions. They like the honor that the people give them. They like the glory they receive and the praise from the people. Moreover, Jesus is preaching not just that they are to obey God more, he's preaching that they can't save themselves at all. He's preaching that apart from repentance, that they have no standing before God. He's preaching repentance, which means a change of life, but they don't want to change their life. And also Jesus, who are you to teach us about God? You didn't even go to rabbinical school and we don't even know who your father is. And they cast all kinds of insinuations upon Him. So they come to Jesus and they begin to argue with Him. This is a phrase that's used with a nuance of hostility. They're saying, "Jesus, prove your authority. Prove that you are who you say you are. And prove it in exactly how we say it." Here's the marching orders, Jesus, obey them dutifully and then maybe we'll follow you. But here's the thing, God doesn't take commands from us. We can pray to God and we can bring our requests to God, but we can't command God. And by definition, God does not obey humans and the posture of their heart behind this phrase "Prove to me that you're God," well, it's a posture of authority over a subject. They're standing in authority over Jesus, Jesus we're telling you what to do if you want us to believe. He's God and which means He doesn't obey us, we obey him. And the very second he starts to obey us is the very second we usurp his throne, which He doesn't allow. They came to test Him seeking from him a sign from heaven what Jesus had just been doing, sign after sign after sign. Perhaps they weren't privy or witness to the sign of feeding of the 4,000, but they had definitely heard about it. If you feed 5,000 men, if you give 5,000 men a free lunch, it doesn't even have to be that great, a free mediocre lunch, they're going to tell everybody about it. I got a free lunch. It was awesome. It was free. Partially our strategy behind feeding people. February 4th is our first monthly community lunch, make sure to come at 1:00 PM February 4th and bring your friends so they tell all their friends about it. No. And then also they saw some of the miracles. They saw the exorcism in chapter three. Jesus cast out a demon from a person and the Pharisees charged Jesus with doing this spiritual work by the power of Satan himself. And Jesus calls them out and says, "No, no, no, you are on the side of Satan actually and you've blasphemed the Holy Spirit," and seeking a sign despite the existence of previous signs, despite the eyewitness accounts of different signs. What the Pharisees do is they demonstrate that they're spiritual heirs of the disobedient wilderness generation, the generation that was led out of captivity from Egypt and led into the wilderness and they did not believe God, and God turned from them. In the Old Testament, it's not always a mark of disobedience to request a sign from God. If you remember Gideon, he famously laid a fleece before the Lord to ascertain whether God was going to choose him as an instrument in military deliverance. Hezekiah asked for a sign and received it that he would be healed of his grave illness. Isaiah seven, God insists that Ahaz actually asked for a sign from heaven and God sends it. In other places, signs seeking is presented negatively in particular with false prophets. God did warn that false prophets will come and they will try to verify their teaching with signs and miracles, but if they give signs and lead people into apostasy, those people aren't from God. Deuteronomy 13:1-5, "If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder and the sign or a wonder that he tells you comes to pass. And if He says, let us go after other gods which you have not known, and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord, your God, is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him and keep His commandments and obey His voice and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dream shall be put to death because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst." And perhaps this was at the heart of the strategy of the Pharisees to accuse Jesus of being a false prophet. So that was their assumption that you're teaching something false, something against the scriptures, and here's the sign that you did. Therefore, Deuteronomy 13, we have reason to condemn you. They were seeking a sign to test Him. And this phrase to test is a phrase that's used often to describe Satan. Satan was a tester of the tempter in Matthew chapter four, where Jesus has been fasting for 40 days. Satan comes to tempt Jesus Christ with signs. He said, take these stones and turn them into bread to prove that you are who you say you are. And then Jesus responds with a quotation of Deuteronomy chapter 6:16, which is a reference to the incident at Massa and marimba. We'll get to that. But Deuteronomy 6:16, "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested Him at Massah. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and His testimonies and His statutes, which He has commanded you." You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, he's the one that gives us tests. He's the one that puts us to the test. We don't return the favor. Sometimes people ask me, you want to go bungee jumping? You want to go jump out of a plane with a parachute? And I say, I don't have enough faith. I don't have enough faith in that stuff. And my verse that every time that comes to mind, whenever that whole category of I don't want to put the Lord to the test, like, oh, this is a great opportunity. That's not what he's talking about, he's talking about don't test the veracity of God's word, especially if God's already proven it time and time and time again, don't test Him. And this wasn't a request, it was a test similar to the testing of God by the Israelites at Massah and Meribah in Exodus 17. So Exodus 16, God sends manna from heaven, an incredible miracle, people see that God is providing. And then chapter 17, they test Moses again, they want water. And their question is, does God love us? Is God even with us? And they're testing God. And the same phrase that's used here in Mark where the Pharisees test God, peirazō, peirazein, that same saying, that same phrase is used in Exodus 17 in the Septuagint which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. Exodus 17:1, "All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages according to the commandment of the Lord and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses and said, give us water to drink. And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me?" "Why do you test the Lord?" But the people thirsted there for water and the people grumbled against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?" So Moses cried to the Lord, "What shall I do with these people?" They're almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said to Moses, "Pass on before the people taking with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand, the staff, with which you struck the Nile and go." "Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb and you shall strike the rock and the water shall come out of it and the people will drink." And Moses did so on the sight of the elders of Israel and he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, because they tested the Lord by saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?" Is the Lord among us or not? After miracle, after miracle, after miracle and they were just fed with manna the day before, but it's just a human need, thirst, they suffer just a little bit and all of a sudden they're questioning God. They're grumbling against the Lord. And we see that all throughout the scriptures. This episode is brought to the forefront just to remind the people of Israel do not be like your forefathers. Psalm 95:7-11, "For He is our God and we are the people of his pastor and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness. When your father's put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For 40 years, I loathed that generation and said, "They are people who go astray in their heart and they have not known my ways." Therefore, I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest." The parallels are clear between what Jesus was doing here and Mark and what God was doing with the people of Israel. Moses fed people with manna, in the same way Jesus feeds the 5,000 and then the 4,000, and then we have this text about not testing God and not being stiff-necked. Numbers 14, God swears that the wilderness generation that tested him will not enter Canaan. So in a sense you can diminish blessing from your own life by testing God. Through our own stiffness we actually keep ourselves from blessings that the Lord would have for us. The people resisted God and were stiff-necked against God and they missed out on the promised land. Numbers 14:21, "But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these 10 times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers and none of those who despise me shall see it." And the Lord was keeping track 10 times, he says they were stiff-necked and didn't obey. And why? Because they weren't just testing Moses, they were testing God. To test God is to undermine his authority and to undermine his authority is to hate him. And in our text, the Pharisees weren't just testing a representative of God, they were testing God himself, God incarnate. Psalm 78:17, "Yet they sinned still more against Him, rebelling against the most high in the desert. They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved. They spoke against God saying, "Can God spread a table in the wilderness?" He struck the rock so that the water gushed out and streams overflowed. "Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?" What's Jesus' reaction to their testing? Verse 12, "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." He sighed deeply in His spirit. If you remember when He healed a deaf man before He healed the deaf man, he looked up to heaven and he sighed deeply, partially because He is exasperated by the consequences of the fall, the repercussions of the fall, which includes sickness. And here He's exasperated at their unbelief, people that should have known better, people who have received God's Word and God here is exasperated with them. Scripture teaches us to not grieve the Holy Spirit, meaning when the Holy Spirit tells us what to do, it leads us in a certain direction and we say no, we're stiff-necked against the Holy Spirit. He does grieve. He is grieved by our disobedience and we are told not to quench the spirit or grieve the spirit but be filled with the spirit. Similar reaction Jesus feels in the next chapter where a gentleman comes and he says to the disciples of Jesus, "Can you cast out a demon from my son?" And the disciples couldn't do it. Jesus comes down the mountain of transfiguration and He says this in Mark 9:19, "Oh faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?" The stubborn refusal to believe lay at the root of the Pharisees attitude. To those in such a state of unbelief, even a sign, if it was given, it wouldn't convince because a lack of belief, the root cause of the lack of belief in God is not a lack of evidence, and it's not a difficulty of the intellect or the reason. No, it's a difficulty of the will. John 7:17 says, "If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I'm speaking on my own authority." And Jesus is saying, "Do you want proof that the words that I'm saying are true?" Well, do you want to do God's will? Because if I prove to you that God exists but you don't want to do God's will, it's actually more condemnation. I don't want to give you illumination that will lead to more condemnation if you want nothing to do with God's will. And certainty in the faith deepening of the faith, it is a gift of those who are obedient to the Lord. Is your will to do God's will, and that is the way to deepen your faith. The Pharisees were blind and as someone said, none are so blind as those who will not see. That's their attitude and such an attitude of sign seeking runs diametrically opposed to the biblical concept of the nature of faith. Jesus told Thomas when Thomas said, "Until I put my hands in the wounds of the resurrected Christ, I'm not going to believe." And then he sees Christ and Christ showed him the wounds he didn't even have to touch. He believed and he said, "Blessed are you Thomas." But more blessed are those who have not seen. You've seen and you've believed, but more blessed are those who have not seen and believe. Why? Because if you see a miracle, if Jesus gave the Pharisees another miracle, another sign at this moment, it's not faith that leads them to believe in God. No, it's just a logical conclusion. Of course this is God. Of course I'm going to place my faith in God because I've seen the evidence. It's a logical conclusion and the Lord wants a deeper faith and he wants us to take a step of faith given the evidence that he's given us. And he says, "This generation, truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation." And that's a phrase that's used before the flood in Genesis six where there's an evil and adulterous generation and same phrase that's used for Israel in the wilderness. And he says that you're not going to get a sign. Another translation says, God forbid that a sign should be given you. Perish the thought that I would do such a thing. There's an intense emotion. And what He's saying is, "No, I'm not doing it." God's not in the business of sending authenticating signs on demand. God isn't a pinata. God isn't a vending machine. God clearly tells us these are the terms on which you come to me, and you don't get to dictate the terms. Jesus has given them all the evidence they need to come to faith. The Pharisees are without excuse.,They can't plead ignorance, nor can they say that God hadn't given them enough information. You're alive. Why are you alive? Where did you come from? Where did life come from? You live in a material world, where did all of this come from? It didn't come from nothing. Nothing can come from nothing. And then on top of that, the moral law is written on your heart. When you read the 10 Commandments, you're like, yes, life would be better if everyone lived like this. And no, I have not lived like this. So what's the penalty for transgressing on the holy law of God? The penalty is damnation. The penalty is to be rejected by God. Therefore, I need grace. And this is exactly what they were unwilling to ask for. And it's not as though these people are unintelligent, on the contrary, they were probably some of the smartest people in Israel at the time. They knew the prophetic passages about the Messiah and Jesus fulfilled them perfectly. But they refused to believe. Why? Partially because Jesus called them out for their self-righteousness. You present yourself as righteous, but you are far from it and it's all facades of righteousness and it's all hypocrisy. And Jesus called them to repentance and they didn't want to be called to repentance. You're calling us sinners, Jesus, we're not sinners, we do all the right things, you're probably the sinner. A lot of us, today, we want miracles to believe in the Lord. And sometimes it is fine to ask for a miracle. It's fine to ask for a sign from the Lord. It really depends on what posture of heart that you ask the miracle with which you ask for the miracle. And then the point, are you looking for a miracle so that you can deepen your obedience and submission to the Lord? Or are you looking for an excuse to rebel against him? We do have miracles. We experience miracles every time a person comes to faith, especially in a place like Boston, one of the greatest miracles, the fact that anyone would turn from sin and believe in Jesus Christ. Regeneration incredible miracle. Another miracle is the holy scriptures, the word of God, the Bible, two million miracles, two million words, give or take order of magnitude. 66 books, 1,189 chapters written by 40 different authors over 1,500 years, three different languages used Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, every jaw, every tittle of it given by the inspiration of God that holy men of old Roe as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. It's incredible through the centuries that the Lord has preserved the holy scriptures. This is the miracle. It's right before us, right before us supervised by the Holy Spirit and it tells us everything we need, everything we need to know about God, who he is, about the person of God. It tells us everything we need to know about how we can be reconciled with Him, saved from sin, saved from eternal damnation and tells us how we are to live in order to glorify God and honor him. Mark 8:13, "And he left them and got into the boat again and went to the other side." So in the beginning of the passage, Jesus crosses over from gentile land to Jewish land, exchanges a few sentences with the Pharisees. They're like, "We want to sign?" They're like, "I'm not giving you a sign." Gets in the boat and leaves. And here it is just a reminiscent of the departure of God and Deuteronomy where He turns his face away from rebellious people. Deuteronomy 32:20 and He said, "I will hide my face from them and I'll see what their end will be for they're a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness." Point two is beware the leaven of stiff-neckedness. Here now Jesus turns from the Pharisees to His own disciples. In verse 14, 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." The word leaven, it's not synonymous with yeast. In ancient times, yeast was rare. Dough was rather made by leavening or mixing into a small amount of dough, a piece of the previous week's dough that had been leavened. It was kept back for that purpose. If you make yogurt at home, it's the same process. Kombucha, kombucha, really delicious, really good for you apparently. But it's like you make a batch but you save a little bit of that batch to make the next batch, that's what the leaven is. And the power of the leaven is that it has power to permeate the whole dough. This is what Jesus is talking about. And in context of the Hebrew scriptures, during Passover, they had unleavened bread and they would cleanse their house from any leaven because the leaven was a sign of something that could permeate the whole thing. And here in this context that leaven is evil, it's stubbornness, it's stiff ness. And Jesus saying, "Disciples, be careful if even a little bit of this bitterness in your heart, even a little bit of the stiff-neckedness in your heart and any tiny aspect of your life because it has the power to take over. Unbelief because of non-submissive hearts is the unseen pervasive influence. 1st Corinthians 5:6 says, "Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven, leavens the whole lump?" Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are on leaven for Christ? Our passover lamb has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So he says, be careful of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Herodians. In verse 16, they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. They just witnessed Jesus feed 5,000 men and then they witnessed Jesus feed 4,000. Jesus is clearly talking about spiritual matters, but they missed the point. To show us just how far they are from understanding who Christ is completely what his ultimate goal was in coming, which is to save us from the leaven of sin within, to give us new hearts that long to obey God. And in response to their misunderstanding, Jesus unleashes a series of questions. He ask eight questions, five critical questions that echo passages from the Old Testament, then two additional questions that recall the two miraculous feedings and then a final critical question. But the point is watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. "Watch out, beware." It's a double warning meaning this is how important it is to heeded this warning. Beware that you do not get infected with the stubborn unbelief. The stiff-neckedness of the Pharisees and the Herodians. Both were stiff-necked but seemingly in opposite waves. If you look at the surface, if you just look at their appearance and their lives, it seemed like the Pharisees were the religious ones. The Herodians wanted nothing to do with religion. But Jesus calls both of them stiff-necked. The Pharisees played the religious game. They pretended to be followers of God, they pretended to do all the right things. They pretended to go through the motions, but they weren't following God's law, they were following human interpretations of God's law and they were following human traditions, thus proving that they didn't love God, nor did they want to submit to his authority. They thought that they knew God, but when God showed up, they didn't even recognize Him. And here the word is particularly relevant for those who have been in the church for a while or perhaps you've grown up in the faith or perhaps you come from a Christian family where your parents believed or your grandparents believed. You know the lingo. You know what to say, when to say it, you know how to behave in church, how to behave around believers, but deep down inside your stiff-necked and you want nothing to do with God. And here the lesson is, don't stiffen your neck when the Lord corrects you or when he corrects your traditional thought patterns. Patterns that we inherit from the world, inherit from the school system, inherit from the university system. Where you learn one pattern or thinking and you come to the scripture and you're like, "Whoa" it rubs you the wrong way. You're offended by it. And what do you do at those moments of offense? Do you stiffen your neck or do you say, "Lord, help me understand, Lord, give me eyes to see? Lord, help me receive your word." Don't say, I could never believe that. Don't say, I could never believe in a God that commands that. Herod, on the other hand, he didn't even pretend to be obedient to God. He was the king, who was God to tell him what to do? He did as he pleased. He was Allah unto himself. When John the Baptist confronted King Herod, king Herod loved the sermons. He's like, "Oh, great sermon John, Mr. Baptist, now you're imprisoned. I'll call you again when I want another sermon." And John shows up again and Herod's like, "Give me a different sermon." He's like, "Nope, I got one sermon for you, Herod, repent of your adultery, you shouldn't do this." And Herod wanted to listen to the sermons, but he wanted nothing to do with submitting to God. John called him to repentance, which assumed a change of lifestyle, Herod wanted nothing to do with that. Both the Pharisees and the Herodians had the same leaven, a refusal to release power over their life and a stubborn refusal to believe and obey. So how do we fight the hardheartedness, the stiff-neckedness? This is 0.3, battle hardheartedness by remembering, remembering what? Remembering the work of God in your life. We are to document the work of God in our life. We are to remember, force ourselves to be reminded. Verse 17 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?" Jesus is warning the disciples against being infected by the same evil impulse that the Herodians and the Pharisees were infected with. But He gives them questions which assumes that there is hope for them to learn. He doesn't just rebuke them and say, "You are hardhearted." He asks them, "Are you hardhearted?" Because at that moment their hearts perhaps were hard, but they didn't think the hearts were hard. Just like it shows us the blinding effect of sin to its own reality in our lives, it is a blind spot. When you are in sin, until someone confronts you of that sin, usually you don't even realize. And He does assume that they're going to grow. He's given them evidence upon evidence and He continues to do so. But until now, if you just think about how much they've seen, they witnessed Jesus heal, they witnessed Jesus cast out demons. They witnessed Jesus comma storm. They witnessed Jesus confound the Pharisees as He ate with tax collectors and sinners. They heard about Jesus preach about the kingdom. They even preached sermons themselves. They went on a mission trip. They preached the word of God. But here in the presence of Jesus Christ, it's almost like all of that has been wiped clean. This shows us that spiritual amnesia is real. It's almost like we have a physical memory what happens in our life and then we have a spiritual memory. What happens in our soul? What happens when the Holy Spirit moves us, the work of God and our lives? And it's almost as if sometimes the spiritual memory just turns off. It's wiped clean. Back in the day, I remember there was a movie called Men in Black with Will Smith and they're like the memory thing, the memory stick, it's like you just don't remember anything. It's like Satan has this stick and he comes to us and like I have been born again, I have experienced God. I love the word of God. I go to church, and say, "Am I even a believer?" Does God even exist? That's what Jesus is getting at, that this is real and we are to remind ourselves of the realities of God's work in our life. Verse 18, "Having eyes, do you not see and having ears? Do you not hear and do you not remember?" Do you not remember? And he's calling them to remind themselves of the work of God in their lives. Jesus questions echo Moses words and to Israel and Deuteronomy 29:2. And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, you have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants and to all his land. The great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and those great wonders. But to this day, the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. And we see the same themes of the insensitive heart, the blind eyes and the deaf ears. Same references we see in Jeremiah 5:21. "Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but see not who have ears but hear not. "Do you not fear me," declares the Lord? Do you not tremble before me?" Ezekiel was told this in Ezekiel 12:2, "Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house who have eyes to see but see not and have ears to hear but hear not for they are a rebellious house." And do you not remember... At our community group a couple of weeks ago, someone said, we do whenever there's new people, we say name, where you're from. And then someone said, tell us the date you were baptized. And I was like, you know what? That's a great question. I should know exactly the date that I was baptized. And for me it was October 29th, 1996. I was baptized at age 16 outside in a lake in Connecticut, in Ashford, Connecticut. I was raised in a Russian Baptist church. The lake was freezing. There was little bits of ice. And the pastor told me, well, it's better than hell. And then he baptized me. So that was my upbringing. But you should know, you should know when the Lord called you to himself. You should know when you were baptized, you should know about how God has answered prayer in your life. A prayer journal is very useful where whatever your prayers are, you write them down and then go back to the prayer journal three, six months, a year, and it's uncanny how God answers prayer sometimes precisely everything we asked for and precisely the same way. Sometimes he answered the prayer and it was absolutely the opposite of what you asked for. But you're like, oh, given time has passed, this is exactly what I would have prayed for had I known everything that the Lord knows, and it's incredible. We are to remind ourselves, I can't help but think of the words of Moses in the book of Deuteronomy when the people of Israel are about to enter the promised land and they're standing on the planes of Moab and Moses is explaining, your life is going to change dramatically. You're no longer going to have the provision of the manna that the Lord was sending you on a daily basis, but you are entering into the promised land, the land of splendor that's flowing with milk and honey. And he says, when you do and when you get comfortable, make sure at those moments and particularly those moments that you remind yourself of where you came from and what it took to get you here. Deuteronomy 8:11, "Take care lest you forget the Lord your God, by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them. And when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who led you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know. That he might humble you and test you to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. You shall remember the Lord your God for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may confirm his covenant, that He swore to your fathers as it is this day. And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God." We are to remind ourselves of the great work of God in our life. And then when the people of Israel passed over the river, Jordan, Joshua who was the military leader, he sets up memorial stones in the river and on the bank of the river. Why? Because he says, when your children, the next generation, when they come to you and say, "Hey, what are those stones all about?" And you are to remind them and say, those stones are to remind us of the mighty acts of God that we have witnessed his greatness. He's done it in our generation. He will do it in your generation if you keep submitting. And we love the song, come Thou Fount, I love that song. It's tremendous. Come Thou Fount of every blessing. And there's a line about Ebenezer and everyone always thinks about Ebenezer Scrooge. That's not in the Bible, but the Ebenezer stone is and it just means stone of help. And it's a story where Samuel is bringing sacrifice to the Lord and then the Philistines descend upon Israel and the people of Israel go to Samuel and say, pray for us. He continues to pray for them. And then when they're about to get defeated, wiped out, the Lord miraculously intervenes and saves them from disaster. And they realized at the moment when they were outmanned, outgunned, outnumbered outmaneuvered. That's when the Lord showed up in the nick of time precisely the way they needed the help at the precise moment. And the stone of Ebenezer was to remind them, yes, God showed up before exactly as we had asked and he will show up again. Mark 8:19, Jesus continues. "When I broke the five loaves for the 5,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" They said to Him "Twelve". "And the seven for the 4,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" And they said "Seven." He did the feeding twice. One time there were 12 baskets, the second time there were seven. And just in case the disciples forgot that there was seven, he gives them the answer in the question. And the number seven we know is important because the number seven is number of completion. The number 12 is important. The 12 tribes of Israel, 12 disciples and Jesus, impartially I think he did that so they would remember, I fed the 5,000, there were 12 baskets. I fed the 4,000, there were seven baskets. It's to say when you needed the Lord, He came through and He came through in a way that you couldn't even imagine with leftovers. And then verse 21, He said to them, "Do you not yet understand?" The phrase here not yet implies the disciples will eventually understand. One of the truths about holy scripture is we never know the way we ought to know. There's always room left for growth. In 1st Corinthians 8:2 it says, "If anyone imagines that he knows something he does not yet know as he ought to know." The very second you believe I got it, I read the Bible, I know this story. You don't know the way you ought to know. And I do this on a weekly basis, on a professional way, it'll make professional hours spent studying the word of God. The more I study, the more I read, my goodness, there's so much to know. And then I get blown away by how perfect scripture is. For example, here in this text, the seventh question, the last word of the seventh question is the number seven or God's just winking at us? Yeah, it is my book, I wrote it. So there's always room for growth. And Philippians 3:2 tells us, "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way. And if anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you, only let us hold true to what we have attained." He's saying the mature believer always understands that I have not known God the way I ought to. You're always pursuing God, you're always pursuing sanctification. You're always pursuing holiness. He's saying the immature person thinks that they've arrived and he says, but the Lord will reveal that also to you assuming they need revelation. The problem is the disciples have a hard heart because they don't realize the depth of the ministry of Jesus Christ. He isn't just a messiah who came just to fulfill prophecy and just to reinstate the glory of Israel and just to bring Gentiles to himself. No, he's come to save sinners. And the assumption there is sinners who can't save themselves. Pharisees cannot save themselves no matter how much they posture themselves as being religious. Herodians, they can't save disciples. You can't save yourself. Jesus came to save us from sin, which assumes that we need saving in a way that we cannot save ourselves. Why did Jesus cast out demons? To prove to us that there's a greater power than us out there vow of Satan, the power of demons. And if we are not protected by the Holy Spirit, we are vulnerable and susceptible to the attacks and oppression and even possession. Why did Jesus heal certain illnesses in the public settings? To prove that in the same way that the blind man can't give himself sight, we can't give ourselves sight of God. We need Him to do a miracle in us. Why does Jesus challenge the Pharisees on their self-righteousness? To show them that their self-righteous isn't enough to entrust them to God. It's not enough to bring them to heaven, they need to trust in Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ didn't just preach, repent and believe, he also mirrored, he showed us the example of what it means at the breaking point, the moment where you do not want to obey what to do, Jesus Christ in the garden of Gethsemane, he knows exactly the mission that God has given. God, the Father gave him the mission to go to the cross and bear the penalty for the sins of all the elect, all who were trust in Him. And Jesus at that breaking point, He told the disciples, go pray for Him because this is the breaking point. There's so much stress that Jesus was enduring that says that the capillaries in his face were bursting and the blood mixed with sweat. It's as if he was sweating blood. He understood the immense pressure of what it means, not just to bear the excruciating pain physically of the crucifixion, but to bear the condemnation from God the Father for all of our sins. Jesus knew all of that. And He's on his knees and He says, father, if there's any other way, if there's any other way, let this cup pass for me. What's going on in his own heart? The same battle that goes on in our own hearts when we don't want to obey. He said, F, let this cup pass for me. And then what does he say? Not my will but yours be done. That's it. He didn't stiffen his neck and he went to the cross and he went to the cross to die, to be broken, for the blood to be shed, to provide a way for us to have grace, have access to grace. For all the times that we would not obey, for all the times that we said, Lord, not your will, my will be done. And that's the essence of sin. So, friend, today, if you are not a Christian, a follower of Christ, if you have not ever repented of your sin today, we're calling you today, accept the grace of Jesus Christ. Today accept the mercy of Jesus Christ. And when Jesus tells you that you're a sinner, just know He's telling you because he loves you. He's saying, you are sinner. You're a sinner, you're my beloved sinner. I love you so much to tell you you're a sinner. So repent, believe, and obey. Don't harden your heart. When you hear that message, don't stiffen your neck. I'll close it with the words of Isaiah, the prophet in Isaiah 55. Come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters and he who has no money, come by and eat. Come by wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me and eat what is good and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear and come to me; hear that your soul may live and I'll make with you an everlasting covenant, My steadfast, sure love for David. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this incredible word, a word of rebuke, but it's a loving rebuke because you want the best for us. And Lord, make us the people that when we hear your word, when we study your commandments, when we study your law, that we are quick to soften our hearts, that we are quick to soften our necks and say, yes Lord, your will be done not mine. And Lord, whenever we have doubts about if your will is good, let us quell those doubts by looking to the cross of Jesus Christ. Well, of course His will is good. Look how much He loves us, that he was willing to suffer in our stead on the cross. Lord Jesus, continue to give us the power of the Holy Spirit to be people who walk in the manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.

The Compassion of Jesus

January 14, 2024 • Andy Hoot • Mark 8:1–10

Today, we are continuing in our series in the Gospel of Mark. It's called Kingdom Come, the Gospel of Mark and the Secrets of God's Kingdom. And I just want to say I get to preach about every five or six weeks. I'm here to give passing on a break, a week off from the pulpit this week. And I just pray that you have been blessed as I have been blessed, as we've gone through this book. I hope that that continues today. We thought we'd go through a little bit faster and maybe close to the end of Mark, but we're about halfway through. Given just the satisfaction, the refinement we're getting from it as individuals in a body, we're just happy to meditate on it again today. Today we are in Mark 8, chapter 8 of Mark verses 1 through 10. Open, with me, if you have a Bible and if you don't, you can follow along on the screen. So Mark 8 verses 1 through 10. This is the word of our Lord. "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 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. And his disciples answered him, how can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place? And he asked them, how many loaves do you have? They said seven." "And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground and he took the seven loaves and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the people and they set them before the crowd and they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them and they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces, left over seven baskets full and there were about 4,000 people and he sent them away and immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha." Let's pray. This is a word of our Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you this day that we can come together as a people, as a multitude to learn about you, to hear from you, to hear the living word that we have in scripture. We thank you Lord that you have not left us in darkness, but those of us who know we are saved in Jesus are those who live in the light. And we thank you for the guide that your word is to us. We pray today that as you have been faithful to do throughout the course of Mosaic's history, we pray, bless us with a great sense of your presence. Enliven our hearts to just hear the lessons that you have for us, the comfort we need, the conviction, we need, the growth, the holiness that we need. Lord, open our eyes and just give us receptive hearts. We pray, Lord, that we would be satisfied, that we do pray that the thoughts and anxieties about the previous week, about the week to come would just leave our minds. And when you enable that Lord that you would fill us with gladness and joy in Jesus. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, the primary phrase in our text today comes from verse two and it says, "And Jesus said to them, I have compassion on the crowd." Jesus has compassion on the crowd and this is the primary theme of the text. I'll talk about Jesus' compassion. And as I enter into this, I want to admit to you that when I opened up the text this week just preparing, in preparation early on to preach this Sunday, I read this text, I saw the topic of compassion and I really wanted to avoid it. To be honest, my heart coming back from the holidays, I had a great time, got to see my parents, a couple siblings, my in-laws. I got to be in my hometown where I grew up, my wife's hometown. It was a great time, but in many ways it was ... I don't know if it's similar for you, but it was kind of a family missions trip and a catch-up time between me and the wife, me and the kids, and driving to Philly and DC, a lot of my week was spent on I-95 and Highway 15 in Connecticut and came back tired last Tuesday, getting back to work. And I've been a little bit on autopilot where my body has been going forward, but my soul just feeling a little dry and I saw this topic of compassion or really wanted to avoid it. I basically wrote three sermons as I was trying to justify Pastor Jan preached on this topic a little bit, thoroughly enough a few weeks ago when talking about the other feeding. The Lord just corrected me. And how did I ... when I identified I was avoiding this, I did spend time in prayer to really just get softened and be receptive to what the Lord wanted me to engage and what wanted all of us to engage through this text this week. And I'll just prepare you, it might not be stimulating to the brain, but just as important as Christians is, we need our heart engaged and this text certainly does it as we cover the topic of compassion and to really ... if you're not really with me on compassion, you're feeling a little cold today, I want to warm your heart a little bit, attempt to very quickly, by reading First Corinthians 13, one to seven, this famous passage that we often hear at weddings on love. For Jesus said, the sum of God's command is the love God and love our neighbor and talking about compassion, about practically meeting the needs of others, praying that God would use us to meet the spiritual needs of others in the process. Just want to pause and remind us, we can't do any of that without love in our hearts. And if we do so, what do we resemble? We resound noisy gongs, clanging symbols, people who talk a lot but hypocritically don't back that talk with action, with loving action. So let me just read First Corinthians 13:1-7 with the hopes that the Lord prepares you for the rest of the passage. "If I speak in the tongues of men and angels but have not love, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I'm nothing. If I give away all I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." So I just really want to say we need to love and why ... the sum of Christianity is that we love, we extend compassion to the loss, to the needy around us because Jesus Christ has been loving and compassionate. And merciful and gracious to us in our needs and primarily in the way that he has met our need to engage our sin, the guilt and shame we carry before the Lord. He provides the means of peace with our father. And so we should go forward with love on our minds and engaging with people with compassionate love. So this morning engaging in the text as is obvious from the scripture I read, we're going to study the miraculous feeding of the 4,000. I think it's best to cover this text going through verse by verse. For those of you who like checkpoints in the sermon, I want to know three points. The compassion of Jesus will be my first section, the power of Jesus will be my second section and the satisfaction of Jesus will be my third. So for those of you who are very attentive listeners to Mosaic sermons, thank you. We're glad you're here and following. You've been with us the past couple of months in Mark. You'll notice that today's text is not very different than the text on the feeding of the 5,000 that we covered on December 10th in Mark, when we studied Mark 30 through 44, Pastor Jan preached an incredible sermon. You should listen to it. As we open up this text, if it sounds really similar, you're not experiencing deja vu, we haven't gone backwards. We are just going forward in the text trying to be faithful to the scripture that the Holy Spirit is bringing our body to today. Now, the stories are very similar between the feeding of the 5,000 and 4,000, the accounts, both accounts mentioned the compassion of Jesus on the crowd. Both accounts take place in a wilderness. In both accounts, Jesus inquires about how many loaves the disciples have. In both accounts, the people are asked to sit down. In both accounts, Jesus prays over the food and miraculously creates massive amounts of food. In both accounts, there's a distribution process where Jesus has the disciples, involves them in bringing the bread to the people. In both accounts, the people are very satisfied. In both accounts, Jesus dismisses the crowd before leaving on a boat on the Sea Galilee to continue his ministry with his disciples. Both accounts, there are only two chapters apart and because of these similarities, the text is often criticized by scholars and critics of scripture, those who criticize the deity, question the deity of Jesus Christ. They say that this repetition of these similar stories or many of them say this one story gives reason to believe that the book of Mark, it's just a messy work. The guy who wrote it, who edited it was really just trying to trick people into thinking that there were two separate accounts, two separate events in order to get his literary intentions through, to get the lessons that he wanted to get through forward. And essentially, he concocted the stories, he wove them together to build this myth of the deity of the God man, Jesus. So we say, just want to leave that battle because at Mosaic we believe in the inerrancy and in the infallibility and the divine inspiration of the scriptures. We're not troubled by this. There certainly are many similarities between the passages, but many differences as well. In the first account, there are 5,000 people running around the lake with Jesus and spending a day with him. In the second account, it's 4,000 in the wilderness of the Decapolis for three days. In this account, we find people who have been with him ... Sorry, three days instead of one, after one day in the first feeding, Jesus feeds the multitude. In the first account, there's five loaves and two fish. In this account, there's seven loaves and a few small fish, probably sardines. After the first feeding they picked up 12 small baskets of leftovers. In this account, they pick up seven large baskets. It's kind of frustrating because every time you read on this passage, every time you listen to a sermon, everybody has to spend like five minutes, as I just did, saying that there's a lot of debate here, but we rest in the authority of Scripture, the most important and conclusive evidence that these are two separate accounts as Mark shows us, comes from later in chapter 8 verses 19 and 20, when Jesus Christ himself says, "When I broke the five loaves for the 5,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" They said to him, 12, and the seven for the 4,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they said to him, seven. So that's it. Case closed. Jesus himself refers to these events as two separate events. This is a separate feeding of a multitude of 4,000 taking place at a different time than the feeding of the 5,000 chronicled in Mark 6. So this account, it does teach some of the same lessons as the feeding of the 5,000, but there are unique details in this one and that's what we want to pull out because that is what differentiates some of the meaning between the two accounts. So I want to bring out these differences and the primary lessons that we see here in the text through these three main headings and first the compassion of Jesus. So we begin here at 8:1, chapter eight verse one. It says, "In those days, and I say ..." okay, we're through that required part that I was frustrated that I had to go through, but so come back, listen to me now. We begin now at chapter 8:1, "In those days when again, a great crowd had gathered. In those days." So what mark means is that there was not a great passing of time since that last feeding. Remember Jesus ... these are the days where Jesus, he has traveled recently to Capernaum, to Tyre, to Sidon and now, he is south in the Decapolis. Jesus in those days, it's these days where he is in this Gentile region more prominently Gentile, less Jewish region and he's met by many who are bringing to him throughout his travels, the sick and the needy. And he is healing a lot of them. He's teaching a lot of them. So Mark is saying, this is what is happening in the Decapolis. Many translations say a multitude has gathered. Verse nine tells us there are 4,000 people. The parallel account in Matthew mentions that ... of the same feeding, that it's 4,000 people not including women and children. So this easily could be a crowd of 10 to 12,000, 15,000, 20,000 would not be unreasonable estimates. A huge congregation has sought Jesus once again as has been the case over and over again to this point in Mark since Jesus started his ministry. So we have the 12 disciples. Jesus, a large crowd of people. And why did these crowds come? To be healed, to see miracles. Most of all, we expect they came to hear him preach the word in three days with him. It's pretty clear that he would've been teaching them. It was said, why was Jesus ... what was the appeal? John 7:46 has a Gentile say. It was said of Jesus that no man ever spoke like him. People said that he preached in a way that they'd never heard before. People would hear him speak and they're there hanging on to every word that he said. And what would they do? A lot of them ... what we'd see in Mark is they'd hear him speak and if he got up and traveled they would follow him. We see here that he's probably preaching in a single area and just they are camped out for three days. It's like a revival scene, and that is what seems to be taken here in the Decapolis. Verse two says, they've been with me now three days. In the Greek, the translation for these words, been with me, three words, it's actually one word. It can be translated more precisely that they've been strongly attached to me. They've been committed to me. The people hear Jesus preaching and they want to stay to him, as close to him as possible. They don't want to leave. They hear Jesus preach his message of the arrival of the kingdom of God and the mercy and grace and forgiveness and his call to repent and they'd never want to leave. It's as if time has stopped and all their needs are being met. Their soul is experiencing satisfaction that it's never encountered before. And all earthly concerns don't matter for three days. Do you know this feeling? I don't know it for three days. I wish I did, but I remember when I first arrived in Mosaic in August of 2011, a year out of college, I grew up in a church ... before I come to Mosaic, I grew up and attended a church where the pastor had a strict rule for himself that he went 18 minutes with his sermons. And I was one of those people that was counting down those 18 minutes. When I arrived at Mosaic and I really think I was saved in those initial weeks where for the first time, I finally saw I'm a sinner, God is holy, I have no access, no right to go into his presence by my own means. By my own actions, by my own record, but Jesus is perfect and I can have his record applied to me by faith. That's when I started hearing the word and when I heard it was if time stopped, a 45-minute to an hour long sermon, that was like nothing to me. Time felt like it flew by and when it was over I was sad. Do you know this? This is the experience really of every true believer is going to have a love and this kind of deep satisfaction in the word of God, and I would say I still feel it. I'm not saying I don't feel this right now. I love to come to church on Sunday. I want to get filled my soul during Christmas time. I went home and ate all my favorite takeout foods, Philadelphia hoagies and soft pretzels and lots of local spots and I just had to come back and fast because that ... a few days of that satisfaction that really didn't satisfy, I wanted the Lord. And when I come to church each Sunday, I feel this spiritual exhaustion and need to get filled up. And I elaborate on this to tell you what it was like when I first encountered it. Do you know this? If not, ask the Lord to just give you this experience. Have the humility to say that, "Lord I don't know this and please give it to me." And Pastor Jan and I we're trying to recreate this timeless experience for you each week as we preach the word. As you hear me speak so slowly, you're like, "I don't know if that's possible with you Andy," but I say, "Go home and list to me at two times speed. I've got the perfect voice for it. You won't miss a detail." My sermons are the same length and pages as Pastor Jan, he just speaks 1.5 times faster than me. Do you know this? Pray, Lord, I want to know and love your word and be satisfied like this. So, people, they were so astonished at the teaching of Christ, they feel such deep soul satisfaction that they seemingly ran out of food. Some of them probably had food. The existence of baskets there means, they probably ... some people probably brought some, but they probably ran out and there were probably others who went, "I'm just going to go hear you guys speak. I've got nothing." They still stayed and had an unplanned three-day fast. And I also have these experiences. When I first arrived at Mosaic ... and I'm saying this, if you feel like you have experienced this, when I'm not experiencing this, I go to a new believer in Mosaic and I hear them tell me of their experience of just the newness of the kingdom of God spreading and there's this old rain in their heart as they serve the Lord. When I was saved, first saved, when I was born again, it was go, I want to go serve. I want to want more people to know this word and have this peace, this joy from the Lord. I'm going to go serve. I'm going to go help us set up. I'm going to go worship and drink in that sermon, I'm going to sit in the front so that I'm not distracted at all. And well, naturally back seater, but then I'd spend my whole day just how do I help with tear down? How do I help with spending time with people? It's not to call attention to myself, it's to say again, "Can you get lost in this?" And I still have this experience, I still do it here basically in the building all day. It's now my job. So I do get paid for it. I still kind of get lost and I don't eat all day and then, I go home and I get in trouble with my wife because I'm starving and ask her where her food is. Do you know this wilderness, this satisfaction in the wilderness experience that these people in the Decapolis are experiencing when Christ is preaching to them for three days and we can believe it's the middle of summer. These people, they're experiencing ... they know what Peter 2 to 3 says ... it's talking about, it says like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. They're living out the fulfillment of man shalt not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God, Matthew 4:4. If you study world history, Christianity is not in existence because it was just propagated by people who maintained it over time. It's that, Christianity is the most popular religion in world history because believers have had this experience with the Lord through the engagement with him, through his word throughout history. It's real, it's satisfying, and we should pray. We should pray that if we don't know this, Lord, give me this experience. Give me this love and satisfaction of you and we should pray. Lord, help us to live in a day where we get to see masses of people, revival, people confessing sin, repenting of it, turning and receiving grace from God at a mass level. Have you read church history? Do you read it? I read it for fun because it's hard, we do live in a pretty desolate place. So I go to scripture, I go to church history to read real life accounts of people who not only we read in scripture of this multitude, this revival among the masses when Christ walked the earth, but over and over again in our nation. In almost every nation of the world, every region of the world, maybe not modern nation, you can learn about revivals where people are filled and satisfied by God's word and just give their lives to him. So we need to pray for this and God has not changed. He can still do it. His word, his power has not diminished since Jesus ascended into heaven. In fact, his spirit is now poured out on us in a uniquely powerful way and we can experience this today. One of my favorite stories is in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin, who would not identify as a Christian, when George Whitfield, a great faithful preacher of history, supposedly preached tens of thousands of sermons in his life just walking around Europe and Britain and the states. Benjamin Franklin at one point scientifically measured the radius of the crowd of people that came to hear George Whitfield speak in a day where they didn't have microphones to hear him preach and just Franklin was no believer, but he said he could feel this cleansing effect on his soul and he measured that it was probably 30,000 people gathering in a Philadelphia square open space to hear the word preach. And so we should long to have these experiences with the multitudes and pray that they come. So the people forget their needs, but Jesus hasn't forgotten, and this is the compassion of Jesus. So in verse two he says, "I have compassion on the crowd because they've been with me now three days and have nothing to eat." 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. Jesus knows people have come a long way. They're in the wilderness. There isn't a Chipotle nearby, there isn't a new H Mart in the area. There's no DoorDash carts that are willing to travel as far as they are into the wilderness. He knows that if he sends the people home through after this long experience in the wilderness without food, that the people could faint along the way. This is the compassionate Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, the God of the universe, cares not just for the people's spiritual needs but for their physical needs as well. God, Christ, he caress for body and soul. We see this Christ's true concern and he gives us permission to care for our body and soul. And when he instructs us how to play with the Lord's prayer, we address spiritual needs. Our Father who is in heaven hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done all earth as it is in heaven. Skip a section, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others, lead us not in temptation but deliver us from evil. These are our spiritual needs that we should pray for, but then, he gives us ... he acknowledges that we should pray for our practical concerns. Give us this day our daily bread. God, Christ, he caress about them. Philippians 4, 6 and 7 says, do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication, but thanks to him. Let your requests be made known to God. God wants us to ask for our spiritual needs and for our physical needs. I think a lot of reformed Bible believing Christians really struggle to enter that practical area to admit when they need God to provide one of their needs, food, clothing, health, a safe place to live, we can ask for that and actually so much more and that's kind of another sermon when we ask for things in Jesus' name. Through Jesus' concern for the physical needs, we get a deeper sense of his compassion, and when he says in verse two, I have compassion on the crowd, the word for compassion in the Greek. It's one that refers to feeling in his inner organs in the guts, this word, it's roots, talk about the guts. This feeling that arises in this guts out of sympathy, true empathy, true sincere concern for the condition of others. As he becomes aware of it. It's more than a feeling, but it's a feeling that makes him ... that moves him. It's not the kind of compassion that we show when we sign up for a 5K and pay $25 last minute on a Saturday morning just because that's what all of our friends are doing. It's not the kind of compassion that when we donate five or $10 for a friend for their Facebook birthday nonprofit drive, just because we're like, "Oh, well this person's finally into something good." I want to support this. No, the Lord's passion is so much deeper. It's the kind of compassion that says, I'm not going to leave here until I find out a solution. Disciples, do you have any food? Okay, I can work with this. Let's get moving. People sit down. Jesus has this gut wrench in compassion and has the Lord given you this gut wrench and compassion for anyone, for any cause lately? What are you doing about it? We have to pause and really ask ourselves that there are many instances in scripture where Jesus is marked with compassion for the multitude. Matthew 9, 14, Mark 6 and 8 here. What's a note in Mark's gospel is that he uses this word compassion. This compassion for surprising groups of people. And Mark Jesus who is Jewish is moved with compassion for people that an ordinary Jew would not have compassion for or any association with. He's moved for Gentiles, lepers, demon possessed, even his own disciples were not moved like Jesus. There are several instances where the disciples, they respond to someone who approaches Jesus, a needy person and quickly reacting by telling him to send them away. This is what they did last week when we studied the text with the Syrophoenician women, they essentially say, "Can't you just get rid of her, send her away?" In the feeding of the 5,000, what did they do at the end of the day? This is before the miracle, the feeding occurred. They say Jesus send them away to get food. And they're probably thinking about themselves because they want some food. They're not really compassionate. Even in the amount, this account of the feeding of the 4,000, the disciples don't seem to care too much for the people. At least after one day at the last feeding with the Jewish crowd, they actually approached Jesus and said, "Hey, nobody has any food." This is after three days in the wilderness with this Gentile crowd. They don't point out the crowd's need for food. Who does that? It's Jesus. So, the comparison between the reactions to the poor, the needy and of the disciples in Christ, it helps us through this appreciation, Christ compassion so much more. The disciples are very often attempting to send people away, seemingly showing cold self-focused hearts. Jesus is always open and concerned for the wellbeing of the people around him. As we reflect on this point, we really have to ask ourselves if we, the churc, as a body, as individuals, make the same mistakes as the disciples today, especially those of us, we are church. We really have dignity in the fact that we are rooted on the rock of Jesus Christ and his word. We're biblical. We are reformed. Part of this world, theological world, we say, we need to preach the word. The word is what matters. My church, yeah, preaches the word and we love that. We love the correct framing of the doctrine, but we need to really back our commitment to the word with deed and this is something that churches throughout history have really struggled with. I grew up in the United Methodist Church as biggest denomination in the country still, though it's breaking apart and I do miss my experience in the Methodist church sometimes because they were so good at deed, just very loving people. The problem was a long time ago they really left scripture and left its authority and they're being torn apart because a lot of what they're teaching resembles just what modern isms of the world modern trends are teaching. We as churches, we as individuals, we love the word, but we also love to commit good deeds that are inspired by our commitment to the word, out of thanksgiving for Christ's compassion and love and kindness to us. Just as a church passing on, I think Mark has really got our thoughts going. We've also had to think about the church budget for 2024, a lot in the past month, month and a half. And just a few things we're focusing on to try to correct ourselves a little bit, is we just want to pray over those in our body who are sick more. James 5:14 says, is anyone among you sick? Let them call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. If you're sick, we want to be faithful to this and we want to call for the Lord's help and just make sure people are not struggling out there without our knowledge. Furthermore, we have plans to offer meals. Pastor Jan mentioned for the first time last week, we're piloting lunches on the first week of every month and it's just open invite, if you can, RSVP ahead of time that get us ... help us estimate how much food we need to order, please do so, but this is a chance to just create a space where members, guests, people are starving for food, can come and sit and share a catered meal, provided by the giving of others and build the fellowship and really have greater opportunity to really get to know each other and get to understand each other's needs, where this is part of the heart, this heart of compassion. Furthermore, Jesus, he talks to his disciples about ... He does this miracle around bread and fish twice. So furthermore, we are going to add another form of food in the near future. We're bringing back bagels for the first time before services in the lobby, for the first time since COVID. We are trying to create a warm, loving, compassionate space and feel to match just the commitment to scripture that we have, and just ... I say all of this, meditate on the compassion of Jesus to hopefully get you to meditate on whether or not you're showing compassion to Christ here, Christ with your life here at our church. John 13 says, "The world will know you by your love for one another." Christ further instructs his disciples to serve one another by washing each other's feet and just that symbolic, it's where to go that far in your engagements in your personal life. Are you compassionate to others? Is there anyone that the Lord is asking you to serve? Any needs for any neighbors that the Lord is calling you to address? And I live in a building of ... here in Brookline of 30 something units and there's a lot of people three decades older than me and I know they've made me the president of the building to hand over maintenance and the board ... because I'm young. That's it. Hopefully, I've shown them a good neighbor. Yeah., I learned these needs and a guy just got a hip replacement on Friday. I forgot to pray for him. I know of all these ways where I can just show Christ's kindness and compassionate and I try to turn a blind eye from them sometimes, but I'm trying to faithfully step into those situations. And so what is that for you? We've got to focus on the word. That's true. That's what Jesus did here with the 4,000. He preached the word for three days, but he knows that he can't send them away in the condition that they're in. He sees the need to administer to their bodies as well as their souls. And Jesus is trying to ... he's doing this if ... there's two main focuses of Mark. It's Mark, the author, he's trying to present Christology. Who is Jesus the Messiah? What is this kingdom he's established and all throughout the book, but the second most important motive he has is to prepare his disciples throughout the book, for life without him. He wants his disciples to equally feel compassion in the way that he feels it and to equally act upon that feeling. He wants to grow their heart and love for others, especially those who are undeserving of them, who they think are undeserving of their compassion. And scripture gives us the example of the good Samaritan, the priest and Levi, those who have God's word in the parable, they walk by the person in need. And then, who addresses the person in need. So the religious people, they walk right by the person in need. The Good Samaritan, the man outside the covenant promises of God. He's the one. The good Samaritan takes care of those needs. We as a church, we can't do that. There are so many opportunities to show love and compassion to people as Christ has done for us in meeting our deepest spiritual needs on the cross. So often, just meeting our daily needs abundantly in this life. Just some scriptures that really hammer this. Philippians 2, 3, 4. "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also the interests of others." Second Corinthians one, three to four, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of all mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. Do you have a heart like Jesus? And yes, we want people to have compassion for the people in Africa, people in Asia, people in Eastern Europe, people in the Middle East, those areas where Christianity does not have a stronghold or the church does not have a large presence. More importantly, do you have compassion for the people right next to you? Jesus commands love God, love your neighbor. Are you blessing people, looking to bless people as you have been blessed by God? It's oftentimes what do you offer, your presence that goes a long way to a lot of hurting people. What do you have to offer? Prayer. That's even before presence. There's prayer. So many of us say, I'm going to pray for you but don't. And then, from your resources, what do you have? And I want to say extending compassion is art. I'm a pastor and a lot of my job is engaging people who are volunteering to admit their needs. There's a lot of people who quietly have needs but don't tell us. And you need to have humility to share them with people in the CG and the pastors in your community group. One of the things is we often ... when we try to extend compassion with people, sometimes we do it a little blindly. We do it without getting close to people. And that's really important. Sometimes we assume people have specific needs because we just see what their needs are on the surface, but because we're not getting close, we're not given the time, the attention that Jesus does to the multitude here, we really kind of go in and we try to act, we try to serve but we make things worse or we kind of offend the person. We need to really be willing to take time to hear people, to get to know their situation before we act. And then when we make mistakes, it's a learned, extending compassion, serving others. It takes time to learn how to do it well. And you can be a pastor for years and really still make mistakes. Sometimes we have to confess our mistakes to people and we have to learn from them, repent of them. So one thing I do want to say about Mosaic is it's a very generous body. One of the things as a pastor with a bird's eye view of what's going on across our membership and community groups is I find out often several months after the fact that people in our church have financially met the material needs of others. They've given money to people, hundreds, thousands of dollars. They're seeking clothing, shelter, care, legal support. We have members often paying for legal counsel for when there are others who need it. It is amazing. It is, just love Jesus simple. Our motto here at Mosaic being applied, what do we want happening as we preach the word, we want people to hear the word be changed from the inside out as the Holy Spirit just awakens people and softens their hearts. And we want people to organically see the needs of people and offer what they have, their loaves, few loaves and fish and try to meet them in faith. And our body is great in doing Matthew 6:3 to 4, "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you." I hear about a lot of stuff that community groups and members do weeks or months after the fact and we need to keep doing this. I will say though, sometimes it's easy to just give money. We have to give people time and presence as we extend compassion. So let's keep this up. Last, to close out the thought, Galatians the section ... Galatians 6:9 to 10, "And let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household of faith." Jesus says, I have compassion on the crowd. We need to similarly extend compassion. Now, I move on to my next point. So if you've drifted for me, come back with me and my first point is a lot longer than the next two. So the power of Jesus. Jesus is about to meet the needs of people with his infinite power. And I want to just cover four points as we walk through this discussion of Jesus power. First, look at how Jesus brings out the human inadequacy of the disciples before he gives them the ... offers them the solution to the problem. In verse five, he asks, "How many loaves do you have?" He knows he's got, he knows the answer. He's asking because he's getting them to see their own inadequacy. He wants them to see how little they have to offer in this situation. Seven loaves, a few fish when they really spend time to see that fully, gather that, they see that they have nothing to offer to feed this multitude. Jesus, when he calls his disciples to do his work, part of the process is first showing them how utterly inadequate they are in and of themselves to carry out his mission. He brings them to the end of themselves, to the end of their strength, the end of their capacities, the end of their material resources. And he gets them, primes them, primes their hearts to get to this position where they know that they cannot go forward unless he blesses them, unless he gives them power, unless he steps in and offers the solution. This is how God works when he calls people to do anything for his kingdom. And this is kind of paradoxical, the sermon series, Kingdom Come the Gospel of Mark and Secrets of the Kingdom. We need to really understand this is one of the secrets. God functions in this way. The rest of the world tells you, promote your strengths, let them be made known. God says, I want you to work in weakness. The apostle Paul said of preaching the word, who is sufficient for these things. Preaching the word, doing the tasks of ministry. Christians are to work from the position of weakness. Paul knew this. Paul grew in this. Paul learned to really love this situation of I am brought to my limits, but I know that God is going to supply, he supplied grace to save me. He's going to supply grace I need to do this thing that he has called me to do. And he says, "But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my powers made perfect and weakness. Therefore, I'll boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities for when I am weak, then I'm strong." And as a pastor, I know this is me. I do not bring anything to the table. Any part of my role, I am outside of my comfort zone. I really am not that gifted. I'm a good generalist, but I'm not that specifically gifted anywhere, but I'm learning to grow in this. This is us as pastors. This needs to be everybody in our church taking up calls and trusting that the Lord will supply our ability to carry out those missions that he's called us to. Those things, those people, those needs for which we have much compassion. So God uses those who he brings to their absolute inadequacy who are aware of it. Next, as we discuss the power of Christ, I want to think about Christ's power and how it requires ... I think a good framing and it's our receptive compliance, not just compliance, but receptive compliance. This is really part of a message that we have ... part of the message today that is for anyone who wants to be a Christian, you're thinking, how do I become a Christian? You need to allow Jesus to be lured of your life. You need to receive his commands with compliance. Verse six says, "And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground." I want to emphasize the reception of his commands and compliance. In the feeding of the 5,000, the disciples are instructed to sit the people down, so in the last feeding. In this feeding account, Jesus directs the crowd to sit down. To receive Jesus's saving food. In this process, he is active, they are passive. The people aren't to do anything to receive this food that will save them. They're there to look for him ... look him for and receive it from him. So people might be saying today, "Will the Lord receive me? Can I be saved? You don't know what I've done. You don't know what ... I can't stop myself from doing." The Lord says ... yes, he's offering you, come and receive his command to come and sit at his feet. And let him offer you the food that saves. And so he says, look at the passage. He fed all these Gentile pagans, along with his prideful disciples, all these people who turned to him and all they had to do was receive the blessing of the saving bread that he offered in these conditions. They had to sit, wait and receive, not run up and claim they could help him in the process. The people relied completely on Jesus to supply the saving bread to them. And this connects to our salvation. There's nothing we can do. We simply look to Christ. He has finished the work that is necessary for salvation. We trust in him and rest upon his work on the cross. Next in this section, on the power of Christ, I want to consider Christ continual ... the continual sufficiency of his power. He saved us with his power, but then there is a supply that is never ending, verse six and he took the loaves, the seven loaves and haven't given thanks. He broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people. Jesus broke the bread and he gave, it was a continuous action. Jesus broke the bread, he gave it to the disciples, to a disciple, and he just kept giving. He gave one disciple a bread and another arrived. And then, he gave another disciple of bread and he gave, another arrived and he gave another disciple a bread and they went and served it, until all 15,000 or so people were fed and satisfied. And it doesn't matter how many people were there, there could have been 5,000, 10,000, a million more people, and there would've been enough bread. There is sufficiency ... Christ always has a provision for us that is sufficient. This is his infinite, continual sufficiency of his power. And what does this do? It teaches us that Jesus is God. This text shows us that Jesus is the same one as he's making these fish anew and making these loaves anew. In that moment, he shows us that he's the same one that was there at the beginning of creation. He spoke creation into existence. He said, be fruitful and multiply. He made a grown woman out of the rib of a grown man. This is the same God, Jesus here breaking loaves over and over and over in the Decapolis. The same God is alive and living today. And so this is a lesson that teaches that He is God, but it's also a lesson for the disciples as well. It's a lesson for us as well. They're going to live a life on ministry. They're called to be fruitful for the kingdom of God, to go and make disciples of all nations. And they're taking living water, living bread to people. Do they need to worry that Christ's supply of salvific power is ever going to run out? No. There's inexhaustible supply from Christ's power. So lastly, as we think about the power of Christ, think about the room that Jesus leaves for his disciples to be involved. The human involvement in his great saving work, verse six says, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people. So Jesus, he incorporates the disciples into the process of distributing the bread. He doesn't need them to do this. He could easily find a way to get the job done by himself in a much quicker manner, but in his grace, in his humility, he wants to give the disciples the opportunity to be a part of his work. The disciples weren't bringing anything to the table. They weren't bringing anything from themselves to the people. They're solely bringing what Jesus gave to them, what Jesus gave to them, to the people. That's all that we do as Christians. We don't have to come up with a new message. We don't have to come up with a new way to save people. Every time that there's a shift in the isms of academia, every time that there's a major challenge in world history. We continue to stand on the word, to preach the word, to trust that it is the power of God and to salvation to the Jew first and also the Greek. We deliver that to people with faith that God will keep using the same method that he always has. Praise God. Praise God. We don't have to come up with a new message, new way to get the word out. I look at churches that have left the word and I feel bad for those pastors who are in churches that are not standing on the word. And I'm actually kind of very impressed with anybody who can somehow come up with a new message to keep the interest of people week after week in such churches. I'm thankful to Mosaic. What decides what we say? The word, and that's what God uses to save people, to sustain his saints, to give them satisfaction and power for the work for him. And it's a blessing to administer the word, and that's not just for preachers, it's all of you. You're all ambassadors of a great king and you're called to go into the world and share the gospel with people, to deliver it with joy, to give a reason for the hope within you to tell people of your love for God and it's an honor. Do you feel honored to just extend such compassion to others, to see them in their deepest ... see their deepest speed. To be aware of it, to know it, and to have what satisfies them? Every Christian will know, will admit it's not my physical needs. It was the darkness, the depravity, the depression. I was in my sin that needed to be addressed. And then, someone shared the gospel with me. So do you feel honored? And so we get to the Lord works, shares his power, dispels it through us as we are faithful in the delivery. Now, to my final point, we've talked about the compassion of Jesus, the power of Jesus. Now we'll talk about the satisfaction of Jesus. The bread that Jesus brings gives full satisfaction, verse eight, "And they ate and we're satisfied." You can draw this lesson out from both miracles. In John 6, which is a parallel passage of the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus goes to the wilderness area. He feeds the people with bread. And this was to point, explains. To point people back to Moses. And Moses had done the same in the wilderness. Remember, God uses Moses to rescue people out of bondage from Egypt. And he parts the sea at the exodus for them to go into the wilderness. And God, during Moses ministry supplies manna, kind of a bread that reigns from heaven. And Mark has shown in these gospels ... the authors have shown that Jesus is the greater Moses who provides living bread. Even more, Jesus is himself the bread. He's the living bread that John talks about at the end of his account of the feeding of the 5,000. John 6:51 says ... Jesus says, "I'm the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I'll give for the life of the world is my flesh." So Jesus provides physical sustenance for people. He provides also spiritual sustenance for his people. Does he provide it for the Jews? Yes. If they'll have it, does he provide it for the Gentiles? Yes. If they'll have it. And one of the great themes of the Old Testament scriptures is that there's going to be a time in history where there's a great feast of Jew and Gentile where the Lord brings the Messiah, brings sustenance, life, bread for the Gentiles. Isaiah 55:1 to 3, the Lord gives a great invitation to this meal. "Come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters and he who has no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me and eat what is good and delight yourselves in rich food." I think other translations are fat foods. "Incline your ear and come to me. Hear that your soul may live and I will make you with you an everlasting covenant." So the rest of Isaiah 55 continues just inviting people to this feast banquet with Jews and Gentiles, Jews and people from the nations, gathering together. And Jesus at his first coming, he initiates this period and in heaven, in the new earth, we're going to be dining together, feasting together. Jew and Gentile in the presence of God. Remember last week we talked about the Syrophoenician woman and she goes hard to get the Lord's blessing to receive healing for her daughter. And there's this engagement where she says it's not right to give the children's bread to the dogs. He says, I've come to bring food but to bring it to the Jews first, they're my children. She said, "I know who you are, but even the dogs eat the crumbs of the children when they fall to the ground." The woman knows that at Christ table there's space for both Jew and Gentile. This is shown ... and that both Jew and Gentile will be satisfied. This is shown in that Jesus feeds the 5,000 in a largely Jewish area. They eat and are satisfied. This is shown in this narrative in the Decapolis, a largely Gentile area. The 4,000 eat his loaves and are satisfied. They're stuffed, is the proper translation. Engorged, because of the filling. On both occasions, the people either fill and in both occasions there are leftovers. In the instance of the leftovers, there are 12 baskets full of leftovers that they collect. 12, it's a number that represents fullness in the Jewish community. Think of the 12 tribes of Israel. It indicates that Jesus offers full satisfaction to the Jews who believe in him. And the instance of the leftovers with the Gentiles, there are seven baskets and it's a number of completeness. When before Moses brought the people ... before the people of Israel entered the promised land, there's a line in the scripture that talks about these seven nations. These seven Gentile nations will be driven out of the promised land. So this number seven, it indicates fullness of the Gentiles, and this verse shows that seven basketfuls of fragments being left over, there's space for the Gentiles. All of them can be satisfied in God's kingdom at his table. Jew or Gentile, Mark teaches us that ... Jesus teaches us that he is enough. He can abundantly, he can generously satisfy any need that you can have in this barren, empty spiritual wilderness, only Jesus can provide satisfaction for one's body and soul. In verse four, the disciples ask, "Where will we ever find anyone who can satisfy these people in a desolate place like this?" And that's answered in verse eight when it tells us, because Jesus fed them, they ate and were satisfied. Satisfied in verse four and ate, they're the same word. The disciples found their answer in Jesus. Jesus provides the loaves of fish he satisfies in this barren, empty place. In the Decapolis, Jesus is the only one who can provide satisfaction for the people. 2000 years later, Mark is saying, "In this barren, empty wilderness of the world, only Jesus can satisfy the needs of all the people." No one else can. No other religion can. No other form of spirituality, no money can, no chemical experience, food, foodie experience can satisfy like Jesus. You can have everything that the world has to offer, but it won't satisfy your soul. And when you have it, you'll even feel emptier, because when it doesn't deliver, you really feel the pain. Jesus is the living bread. He can satisfy your soul and continue to satisfy your soul. If you continue to feed on him, your desire and capacity to feed on him will grow. Think of Mark four, Jesus teaches the disciples about the kingdom of God. And he says that when it takes root in good soil, it grows 30 fold, 60 fold, 100 fold. When someone is satisfied by the word of God, it takes root in their heart. Their desire for it grows, their understanding of it grows and it grows exponentially. And your desire and capacity to feed on it, grows. Jesus can feed your soul to the point that there are leftovers. This pastor is a seven, basketfuls of leftovers. An interesting note that separates the two feedings again is that these are big baskets, seven big baskets for the feeding of the 5,000. There's 12 small hand baskets, lunch baskets, this large basket. It's the same size basket that the apostle, Paul was lowered down from a wall when he was fleeing a city in Acts 9. So the English word is the same in both accounts, but the word for basket is bigger. In the feedings of the 5,000, it's all to show Jesus provides super abundant provision for the Jews and super abundant provision for the Gentiles. All people can come to him and be satisfied. And I do want to say one note is that there's a special ... Jesus, Mark again, he has the first motive of showing us who Jesus is, as the Christ, as the Messiah in these verses. Those verses I mentioned from Mark 8:19 to 20, where Jesus asked, "Do you remember how many basketfuls of leftovers you had when I fed the 5,000? Yes. 12." "Do you remember how many basketfuls you had when I fed the 4,000? Yes. Seven." Jesus says, "Do you not yet understand?" He wants the disciples to think about the leftovers. And this is a lesson for those of us who are living a life on mission, those who are disciples and stretching themselves in service in the wilderness to people who are hard to serve. People who we often find are undeserving of God's mercy and grace, but we can keep serving them because we also are. He says, "Look at the leftovers. There a sign that I am always going to take care of those people. I'm going to satisfy them abundantly when they're stretching themselves on mission for you." So the Lord is always going to provide. And Jesus, this is why Isaiah extend the invitation to come to the Jews and Gentiles, we're all invited to come eat, delight our soul and fatness in Jesus the Messiah. That's everything we could need. So to close, I ask, do you have it? Do you have the living bread? Are you feeding on Jesus Christ, the bread sent down from heaven? If not, he is offering you himself this morning, and if you have fed on him before and you know you're saved in him, you have been satisfied in him, but you've gone off and eaten a lot of junk food of the world that's just intoxicated your mind and body. He's invited you, come back, feet on me, rest in me. Let me serve you and satisfy you. And all you need to do is obey, receive me and obey. And Jesus he sees your life. He sees the journey ahead of you. He sees that it's a long journey and he sees the difficulties ahead and he says, you need bread, you need sustenance. You need food. You need something that will keep satisfying you. And you don't just need bread. You need broken bread. If you want the bread to be good, to actually give you the power to keep going, you need it to be broken. He breaks the loaves in the feedings. That's what Jesus was on the cross. His body was broken in a desolate place on the cross so that he could invite us into a life of abundant satisfaction and feasting in him and the eternal feasting in his presence. Jesus, he bought our redemption. He earned our redemption. He purchased our pardon. He gives us peace, forgiveness, eternity in his presence. So that when we look to him by faith and feed upon him, it gives us life. It gives us strength. It gives us hope for the journey that we'll make for him the rest of our lives. Let's trust in him and extend compassion like him. Let me pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you for your compassion toward us. For we are like those in the crowd. We are those who are famished, those who have come or are at the end of our capacities, and we need your saving food. We need your bread. We need your loaves, and we need you physically to provide for us, but deep down, we need you to spiritually provide for us. Save us, satisfy us. Continue to give us your power as we walk this journey home to you. Lord, we just acknowledge that we often turn and consume things that are not good for us. Taste the fruit of the world that Satan tempts us with. And Lord, we just come back to you just trusting that you will satisfy. And Lord, we just pray as we turn to you and you politely involve us in your work. Just take our loaves, take these few loaves, take our little fish and use them, multiply them so that we might have an impact on a multitude of people. Please use us to save many in the rest on the rest of our journey. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.