Sep 24, 2010

Mark: The Person and Work of Jesus Christ #11

Jesus prays on purpose, Jesus prays in secret and Jesus prays in quietness.
Mark 1:32-35


Let's pray...

Okay, we are diving back into the Gospel of Mark. There are several verses but a lot of this is review, so it won’t take as long as you might think.

There’s just one Big Idea from this text tonight.
Let’s get into the text. Before this point in Mark, we saw the majority of one day in the life of Jesus (starting in v 21):
• He went to the Synagogue, because it was the Sabbath.
• As a visiting Rabbi, He was allowed to teach.
• People were blown away by the way He taught. He didn’t teach like the others. He taught with authority.
• A man who was controlled by an evil spirit interrupts Jesus and Jesus tells the demon to shut up and get out of the man – the demon does – the man is freed and the people are amazed again.
• Then Jesus and His crew go to Simon’s house for a Sabbath meal.
• Jesus finds Simon’s mother-in-law in bed with a mega fever, He heals her with a touch and she responds by serving Him.

Now that we are caught up, we’ll finish out Jesus’ day and see that the people in Capernaum flocked to Jesus. Within a day, they were coming to Him en masse. The buzz about Him was great.

This isn’t the Big Idea for the night, but I do want to touch on verses 33-34 real quick.
When the crowds heard about Jesus, they flocked to Him and went to Him for help with EVERY ailment.
Matthew Henry said about Jesus, as revealed in this passage:

Here’s my question, do we really believe that Jesus CAN heal every ailment in us. Do we really believe that He can heal our physical diseases – from cancer to the common cold?

Do we really believe that He can heal our emotional sickness from clinical depression to the broken heart of a teen’s first love? Do we really believe that Jesus can heal every sickness, every ailment?

What about the sicknesses of a neighborhood, a culture or a whole city?

IF we are truly Christians, we have believed and experienced our own soul-sickness, or better put, our spiritual death –we’ve witnessed that, we’ve experienced that first hand. And our dead spirit was regenerated by the power of Christ. We trust Him for that healing. Are we trusting Him for the little things after that?

I’m going to leave you hanging a little bit on that question – I’d love for you to search the Scriptures if you have doubts about God’s abilities in those areas. Dwell on that question in your quiet time with God this week. Do you believe that He CAN heal any and every ailment?

We'll discuss this more in a couple of weeks. For now, though, let’s move on.

We see again Jesus commanding the evil spirits to be quiet in verse 34. That is hugely significant, and we covered it at length a couple of weeks ago. If you weren’t here for that message, you can read it online OR see me after the service and we’ll walk through it together.

Let’s go on to verse 35. This is where we are camping out tonight:

The Big Idea for tonight is simple and straightforward. Pray.

Pray. Jesus Prayed. We are Jesus followers, therefore we should pray. We're going to unpack three aspects of prayer from Jesus' example in this passage. They are all interrelated, but there are some clear distinctions.

Jesus prays on purpose, Jesus prays in secret and Jesus prays in quietness. So should we. Let’s unpack that.

Pray on purpose. It would have been easy for Jesus to say, “Well, I had a lot of “God time” yesterday in the synagogue and last night at Simon’s house with his mother-in-law and the crowds…maybe I can just sleep in this morning.”

This is a struggle that I have, but not one that I can always see clearly. You see, since I do most of my studying and sermon prep at night, I often buy into the idea that, “Well, I’m spending that time in prayer to God and in the study of His Word, so maybe I can forego quiet time with God for my own needs.”

It doesn’t take long for that idea to be debunked because after some time of not going to the Lord on purpose for my own time with Him, I begin to feel spiritually dry.

And, when my spirit is dry it starts to react like dry skin. My spirit is more sensitive and irritated when things rub up against me. Whether that is my family, my co-workers, or the barrage of information and noise that the world sends my way each day. I just get irritated. I get mad.

And when my spirit gets dry enough and the irritations build I break out into a personality rash and I become unbearable (either in anger, frustration, whininess, or isolation).

But, when I go to the Lord in prayer and read what He has revealed of Himself in His Word, that disciplined turning toward God, is a salve for my dry spirit. I can be rejuvenated and I am able to find rest that escapes me when I try to find it anywhere else.

On a side note as I follow the dry skin/dry spirit analogy, we are all so much better off and our relationship with God and with others is so much healthier when we don’t wait to apply the salve until the rash happens.

In the wintertime, I can either apply a little lotion to my hands in the morning and at the end of the day and not deal with dry skin, or I can wait until my hands are cracked and bleeding.

If I wait, I will still have to put something on my hands, but now there is pain that comes with healing.

The same is true when I neglect going to God in Prayer as a disciplined maintenance that helps me to avoid the spiritual dryness. If I only wait until there is pain, then there will usually be a lot of unnecessary pain involved in the healing process as His truth penetrates my heart.

I may have taken this analogy too far, but do you see what I’m getting at? Let’s keep going. We’re still on the first point of Jesus praying on purpose.

Jesus didn’t see time with the Father as something to be tacked on a “To Do” list. He purposed to pursue God as a matter of first importance.

Now, if you know me and if you’ve heard me preach and teach, then you know that I want to fight legalism whenever I see it. But, I would weep if that fight that we have against legalism causes us to neglect the spiritual disciplines that Jesus, God Himself, demonstrated for us to follow.

He not only prayed on purpose, as His first priority in the morning, He also Prayed in Secret.

Let me start by clarifying, it is permissible, wise and good for us to pray as a body of believers – Praying together anytime we gather is wonderful. I am trying to move us to more prayer as a gathering.

It is good to pray together at meals, before ball games, before city council meetings, and all that.

But Jesus also taught us clearly that we need to have quiet time ALONE with the LORD. The passage tells us that Jesus went off to a solitary place to pray. This brings us back to the portion of the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus taught us to pray in secret to the Lord.

We all, as individual Christ followers, need to develop a personal prayer life with God that is away from the ears and eyes of others. And that needs to happen so that we don’t fall into a trap of praying for the audience of the people around us instead of the Audience of God, instead of the Audience our Father in Heaven.

And finally in regards to prayer, we need to Pray in Quietness. What I mean is we need to pray in a place that is not distracting us.

During the day, Jesus had the disciples around Him; the crowds came to hear him and to be healed by Him. Demons reacted loudly when He got near to them. His life was full of distractions.

I think that moms of toddlers can relate to this better than anyone else. From the time your children get up to the time they fall asleep, they are on you like jam on toast.

It is hard to pray when kids are climbing on you; and asking you why, why, why?

It’s hard to focus on the Lord when you are trying to keep your kids’ fingers out of power outlets and their eyes away from the many bad influences in the world.

But, listen whether you are a mom or a dad or a childless man or woman, or a teenager, the things that vie for your time and your attention are NOT valid excuses.

If He is the most important person in your life, then stop making excuses. Instead make a way to be near to Him in prayer.

Even Jesus – Holy, magnificent God in the flesh – Jesus who was totally in tune with the Will of the Father – Even Jesus understood that He needed to quiet all of the other distractions and be alone with God.

We need this so desperately. Until we are quiet until we are free from the distractions of the world and the people around us, we will only pray on the surface.

I’m all for the open dialogue with God, to pray to Him while you are driving, while you are working on a project, while you’re shaving and whatever else. But there also needs to be some “face on the ground” time, eyes closed time, noises off time - with God.

It is in those times that we begin to open up to God about the deep hurts, about the plaguing worries.

It’s in those times of quietness before the Lord, when His Word can finally start to break down the walls that we don’t really want to have broken down.

It’s in those times of quietness that we start to hear that still small voice that says, “It’s time to put that down. It’s time to set that aside. There’s a better wiser path here.”

Sometimes I avoid the quiet because I know that in the quiet, the Spirit of God confronts me in the deepest levels of my sin.

Mother’s of toddlers, busy workers of industry, white-collar businesspeople artists, craftsmen, make no more excuses. As Christians, as disciples of Jesus, we all need to follow Jesus’ disciplines and find a way to pray on purpose, in secret and in quietness.

Now before we close, let me say this, maybe you have tried prayer and it just didn’t move you like I am talking about. Maybe you’ve tried prayer for a season and you just didn’t get the answers that you wanted or maybe you just didn’t hear anything.

If you are here tonight and that is you, let me encourage you to keep at it. Start small with small prayers, but please Keep At It, don’t quit. Be faithful to God’s call on you to pray without ceasing.

But, these don’t have to be super eloquent prayers that are packed with every theological truth. Start where you are and move on where the Spirit leads you.

In fact, some of you should ease up on the technical side of the prayer and just keep it simple.
Start small, with small prayers. Start with small prayers, slowly moving through the words, and dwelling on the truth.
Maybe you can just begin praying through the Gospel.
Just let every word be a pointing for your straying heart to His glory.
“Help me Jesus.”
“I’m a sinner.”
“I need you and I always will”
“Jesus, Forgive me.”
“Jesus, my Lord, thank you for the cross.”
“Thank you Jesus.”
“You have freed me from sin and from death.”
“Jesus, my whole life is yours.”
“Jesus, thanks to you I have nothing to fear.”
“Give me boldness.”
“Jesus give me the right words for my friends.”
“Jesus give me the right words for my enemies.”

Those are just a few examples. Start there, and then in your purposed, secret, quiet time with the Lord, you can pray out in circles from the people closest to you to the people you only know from a far.

In that time you can pray for your pastors. And for this church, and for all of the churches and all of the Christians in the area…

And before we leave, let me remind you that you may not get the prayers just right. They will not be perfect. But, if you are in Christ you can be confident of this truth.

God the Father, whom we are praying to, has God the Son, Jesus, at His right side praying for you to the Father.
In Romans 8, it is written

And when we can’t even say the simple prayers. When the pain is too great, when our frustrations are overtaking us, when the brokenness of the world around us and our own hearts is too great we can cry out in indistinguishable tears and still know that we are heard and that He understands our situation even better than we do.

To that aim, let me leave you with this encouragement, which is also from Romans 8:

Christian, you are not alone. Pray on Purpose, Pray in Secret and Pray in Quietness. And
don’t pray because it is some religious duty. Pray because you are forgiven, the work is finished and there is a waterfall of grace pouring out over you. Pray to our perfect and loving Father in Heaven. He’s waiting to hear from you.

Let’s pray together…
Posted by

We’re It! We are the Sign! - Stand Alone Sermon

Matthew 12:38-40 & 1 Corinthians 15

Let’s Pray

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, in their book Total Church pointed out that, “The theology that MATTERS is not the theology that we PROFESS but the theology that we PRACTICE.” (Total Church, Page 18)

With that said, we are taking a break from the book of Mark tonight to address something that I have had put on my heart. But I will say at the outset, the book of Mark is connected to what we are going to talk about tonight.

See, the Gospel of Mark is not a book that is designed to simply allow us to KNOW more about God.

Instead it is a book that calls us to respond. It is a book that says, BELIEVE and then it spells out the ripple effects of belief in the daily life of the genuine Christian.

Tonight I want to talk about the action response to a genuine belief in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Before we get there, let me explain where I’m coming from and let me explain what brought me to THIS message.

Here’s the deal, on Thursday morning, as I was getting ready for work I was also in prayer. God had all of these lost people in my life pushing on my heart.
- Some were people who were in the church culture, but who drifted away because of their rebellion.
- Some were the fist shaking atheists and agnostics who are in my life.
- Some were the misled believers from other religions who believe in a “Higher Power” but who deny the exclusivity that Christ puts on faith in passages like John 4:16.
- Then there were other people that God had on my heart; other people who just don’t care about God. People who are content to go through life with seldom a thought spent on what’s after all of this; people who I love, who never think about who created all of this; people close to me who hardly ever try to wrap their minds around WHY there are concepts of good and evil that can be found in every culture across the world and throughout history. They don’t think those kinds of thoughts.

So God had all of these people from all those categories on my heart. People from my family, from my office, from the Church in the Grass, people from the Church, and people from our nation’s leadership all the way down to local politicians.

And listen, you know what it’s like to have one person on your heart right? But when face after face after face comes up, it just gets to be overwhelming.

So, I prayed I was praying for each individual until I got overwhelmed and then I prayed this, “God, I know that you said that it is a sinful and twisted generation that asks for a sign.” (Matthew 12:39 and 16:4) “But…”

I thought, that’s probably the wrong way to pray but it just spilled out, “I know you say it is a sinful generation to ask for a sign, but Father God, PLEASE make yourself known to all of these people on my heart – and truly all of the people in this world – people I love, people I can’t stand, people I don’t know – PLEASE make yourself known in an undeniable and unmistakable way before it is too late for them to repent and come to faith.”

That was the gist of my prayer.

And before the prayer was off of my heart the answer was given. I believe that God, through the Holy Spirit, made His response very, very clear. And it wasn’t a “soft pillow” of an answer.

Now, when I say that God made this clear to me. I’m not saying that the sky opened up or He knocked me down and spoke audibly.

It’s just, as Christians, the Spirit of God leads us. And in that “still small voice” the Spirit said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “I’ve already made a way for it to be clear, and you’re it. You are the sign.”

Now hold on for a minute, if you look to Scriptures to confirm what you hear in the Spirit you will be a lot less likely to fall into heresy and blasphemy.

I don’t believe He meant I am the sign. He didn’t mean Ken is the sign for the world to see.

He wasn’t saying, Ken you are the sign. I believe He was prompting me to understand that Ken, you are part of the body. Ken you are a part of the Church and the Church is the sign to unbelievers.

And so here’s where we are camping tonight, WE are the church. WE are the sign. WE are the one’s who God placed here to be the unmistakable evidence of His existence. And the time is NOW to make sure WE are actively living that out.

Did you see how many people were listed in the obituaries this week? This was a tough week. I believe that some passed on to see Christ, and others who are doomed to Hell.

The time is NOW to actively live out our calling as the Church to be the sign of His glory, and the evidence of His grace.

It’s a call to action over intention. And it's a call to prayer. It's a call for us to do the spurring on of one another toward love and good deeds that we read about in Hebrews 10.
By saying action over intention, I mean that IF our beliefs are more than head knowledge, IF it is theology that results in the practice of living it out, then the call to action over intention is a call to actively seek the good of our city and our workplaces and our homes, and a call to actions that help, rather than hinder the Gospel.

And by saying it’s a call to prayer – I mean first and foremost it’s a call to prayers of repentance from our negligence.

Now I want to go to a couple places in the Scriptures tonight and first address what the sign WAS for the people when Jesus was in the flesh and walking among the people.

And secondly, I want to address what the signs ARE NOW to all those faces that came to my mind on Thursday morning and the masses of humanity who don’t know or accept Jesus today, let’s get to the text.

Let’s start by turning to Matthew 12:38-40.


Okay remember earlier I said that all of these people – face after face after face – kept showing up on my mind and as I got overwhelmed I asked God to just show them a sign that would convince them to believe in Christ before it was too late.
And as I was praying, this passage came to mind and I said, “I know! I know it is a sinful generation that looks for a sign, but…”

And here’s what we see in the text. Jesus doesn’t tell the wicked Pharisees, or wicked Ken Ritchie that NO more signs would be given, He points to the ONE SIGN that matters most. He points them toward, and us back to, the resurrection!


Jesus was pointing the Pharisees toward (and points us back to) the three days that He would be in the tomb after His crucifixion.

In other words, Jesus, who had already shown sign after sign after sign: healing, casting out demons, etc. Jesus would show one more unmistakable sign to the people, but not before they crucified Him.

You see the resurrection was the sign that provided the ultimate confirmation of Jesus’ power and His authority.

Other leaders had come before Him, and other political and religious leaders have come after Him. But, only Jesus is still alive. Muhammad, Buddha, Confucius, Joseph Smith, David Koresh and others, they are ALL dead. But, Jesus died on the cross, was buried, and three days later, he arose.

Do we, as Christians really believe that? If we say we do, let me ask the question, is our belief in the resurrection only part of a theology that we PROFESS, or is it a key doctrine in the theology that we PRACTICE?

I may be overstating this, but I would say that if the early church, that we read about in the book of Acts and the historical accounts of the first few centuries of the church that we get from extra-biblical accounts – if that early church practiced what they believed the same way that we practice what we believe in most churches in the Western nations today, then I wonder whether there would have still been a church around 2,000 years later.

In the Bible we see that once the Resurrection of Christ happened, the lives of those who witnessed it were undeniably changed.
- Christ doubters like Thomas, and Jesus’ half-brothers James and Jude no longer doubted.
- The disciples, who had been slow to understand and quick to run away before Jesus went to the cross, were fearlessly and clearly preaching the Gospel and bringing people into the freedom of Christ after the resurrection.
- Saul of Tarsus, who hated the Christians, and believed that they we blasphemous sinners for calling Jesus God; Saul, who had people from the early church imprisoned and killed because he DIDN’T believe in Jesus; that same person was converted by a seeing the Risen Christ with His own eyes. This former killer of Christians then lived out his new and corrected theology in practice because the theology that he PROFESSED was the theology that he actually POSSESSED.

And in one of the first written accounts of the Resurrection that we have, in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul, formerly called Saul of Tarsus, just unpacks all of these truths about what the resurrection means.

It’s a long chapter, I would call you to read it through tonight and study it this week. We are just going to hit a couple of key passages here. In verses 1-9, Paul writes:

1 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

He takes us back to the life-changing effect of the Gospel in verse 9.
And, in what is very typical for Paul and the other writers of the New Testament, he gives us two great “if this, then” arguments.

The first one was alluded to in verse 2 and is unpacked in verses 14-19:

Then Paul says, BUT Christ was raised! And then goes into detail after detail about the resurrection. And again, go home study that, e-mail or call with any questions and we’ll work through that. To stay on point, lets skip down to the last “if, then” argument.

Remember the first argument was if there was NO RESURRECTION, then our faith is pointless and we should be pitied for our faith.

The second argument that Paul unpacks for the rest of the chapter is, since the RESURRECTION DID HAPPEN – SINCE THERE IS VERIFIABLE PROOF, (then) verse 58.

I would say to you and I was deeply convicted of this in my own life this week. IF you believe that the resurrection is true. IF we believe the truth claims of the Bible that Jesus is Lord, that He is God, that He came out of Heaven and down to earth and lived the sinless life that we could not live, that He died the death and took the punishment at the cross that was due to us for our sins, IF we believe that He was buried and that He rose again. IF THAT is all true, THEN Paul says, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we are called to ALWAYS, Give our LIVES FULLY TO THE WORK OF THE LORD.

The Resurrection is not a once a year message to be agreed upon when we gather at Easter. The Resurrection of Christ was the sign for the people of His time to propel the church from 12 misfits to the continually growing, spreading, thriving Kingdom movement that it is today across the globe.

If I want the people, the non-believers on my heart to believe the Gospel and be saved by grace through faith in Christ, then I and We the Church in the Grass and WE THE CHURCH OF ALL BELIEVERS EVERYWHERE need to put the theology that we PROFESS into an outward, tangible theology that is PRACTICED!

We cannot sit around complaining about the world.
We cannot keep on arguing about secondary issues with other believers.
We cannot keep on boycotting every new restaurant and media company.
We cannot keep on wasting our time - and closing people off from the message of the Gospel - and hindering our effectiveness by putting on publicity stunts like threatening to burn the Quran or other kinds of nonsense.
We cannot keep on spinning our wheels and pulling our hair out and acting like freaks when we see the sin of the World while at the same time ignoring or refusing to repent of our sin as believers.

We cannot pass this mission of spreading Christianity off to anyone else. Not to some dynamic speaker, not to the government, not to the bigger church up the street not to the para-church ministries and not to the media.

If you are a Christian, if you believe in the deity of Christ and His life, death, burial and resurrection to save sinners, then you are called and I am called to be the sign that people look to as the undeniable evidence of the truth claims that we hold to.

The Holy Spirit will still have to prepare their hearts, but we are the sign and Gospel messengers that are called to work with the Holy Spirit to do God’s work in this place and at this time.

And if like me, you have not been fulfilling your duty to live in this role as a sign of the truth as a messenger of the good News, then do not leave here throwing your hands up and saying woe is me or wondering what’s the use now.

No, remember, this message is a call to action over intention, but it is also a call to pray a prayer of repentance for our negligence leading up to tonight and a call to pray for God to do the work that only He can do.

Remember, He will not call you to anything that He is not equipping you for.

Wherever you have been living outside of His will, and in turn hindering the Gospel, pray for God to change your heart THERE now, tonight.

For some you have hindered the Gospel by not demonstrating a hope in Christ to conquer the large and small problems in your life and in the world, to some, it will be a prayer to defeat the historic sin in your life that keeps making you out to be the hypocrite.
For you it may be a prayer against lust, or drunkenness, or laziness and neglect as a parent, or greed, or whatever – You know your sin.

We are going to share in Communion tonight. It is for all believers in Christ, whether you are from the Church in the Grass or another church.

Before you eat the bread or drink from the cup. Go to the Lord pray a prayer of repentance. Turn away from your sin and turn to the risen Lord.

Let’s pray.
Posted by

Sep 8, 2010

Mark: The Person and Work of Jesus Christ #10

Are You Serving and Why?
Mark 1:29-31


Let's pray...

In one way or another, we are all reactionaries. When we are stimulated, we respond. Our responses are positive or negative, depending on what the stimulus is and our responses are mild or extreme depending how much of our heart is invested in what is being done.

For example, when I have found a quarter on the ground, I react with a smile. If I find $10 in a pocket when I unpack my winter coat, I might do a happy dance.

Likewise, if I am insulted, I shrug it off. But if you insult my wife or child, I had better go to the Lord quickly for strength or else I'll have to go to Him later in repentance.

We are all this way in one way or another. Tonight we are going to look at one woman's response to the compassionate and healing power of Jesus Christ.

Let's read it again together.


First, before we look at her response, let's look at what she was responding to. Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever.

Now, if we get a fever, we can take some Tylenol or Advil and usually go about our day – maybe a little slower, but still functional.

It is only if the fever is long lasting or doesn't respond to the meds that we give it any consideration at all.

But in the time that Jesus was doing ministry in Galilee, fever's were serious business. In fact, in Luke's Gospel account, he makes clear that this was a high fever or in the Greek, a MEGAS fever.

So this was not some piddly sniffle she was dealing with. As far as the family knew and as far as we know reading back into it here, she may have been on death's door.

And so, seeing that she was sick, Jesus showed compassion and healed her. And, not only that He touched her while she was sick, which most of the Jewish leaders taught was not allowed, because then He would be made unclean.

We still see this in Christian circles today, don’t we? We bypass the very people we are called to help as if their sin might rub off on us and make us unclean. We need to squash that nonsense.

Jesus understood though that He was there to make unclean people clean again by His power. So He didn't hesitate, He healed her with love and compassion. As those with the Spirit of God in us, we need to take on the same attitude a s Christ in that respect.

Now back to the mother-in-law. What's her response?

Now the Greek word for waiting on them is the word deak-o-ne-o. It's where we get the word deacon in the church.

The same word is used later, in Mark 10:45, Jesus said He didn't come to be served (to be deaconed) but to serve (to deacon) and to give His life up as a ransom for many.

And the same word was used again in Acts 2, the Early church leaders appointed Deacons to take care of the service of the church that needed to be done, so that they could devote their energies to the ministry of the Word.

And in 1 Timothy 3, Paul sets out specific guidelines to determine the qualifications of a Deacon. But listen, whether or not you are appointed as a deacon for a particular service need of the local church here, YOU and I are to deacon – that is YOU and I are to serve others. It is an undeniable call on the life of EVERY true Christ follower.

Friends, this is the essence of what we are about on this side of eternity. You and I were not saved so that we could then have a clean conscious and a get out of Hell free card and then just go about our work-a-day lives till we die. We weren't saved to live the American dream of working hard for OUR benefit, for a bigger house, bigger car and better lawn than the next guy.

We were saved to serve: To serve Christ, His Bride (the Church) and the lost people around us. I listed that as three different areas, but really we serve Christ by serving the church and serving the lost.

And when (not if) we serve the lost people around us – we do it with the purpose of demonstrating Christ's love for them – so that we can find open doors to speak the Gospel into their lives AND have the Gospel that we speak match up to what they've seen in our lives.

Like we talked about last week – it's a matter of matching the message up with the messenger.

I'm telling you, He didn't come to make great lobbyists in order to make legislation that would transform hearts, He didn't come to make soldiers to force changed hearts with a gun to the head.
He came to make great servants.

He came to serve those who didn't deserve it (You and me and the good and bad people around you). He served us and called us to do the same to serve others. That's how He told us to live our lives.

In John 13, after washing His disciples feet, Jesus said:

And specifically, He taught in Matthew 25:31-46, that when we serve the most down and out people around us, the poor, the hungry, the homeless and the unclothed – that’s when we are really serving Him. AND, if we aren't serving Him in that way, it reveals that we are not truly believing in Him and that ends badly if you are in the camp with the faithless. Read that passage for yourself when you get home tonight, it's chilling.

Now I mention that passage and want you to review it later, but we are not going to dwell on it here tonight, because I don’t want to scare you into serving or guilt you into serving. That would violate the spirit of the text we are studying in Mark 1 tonight.

Alright, back to the mother-in-law, She served in response to Jesus' compassionate healing touch. That is good. She served because of what Jesus had done.

Now, turn with me to John 12:1-3 and we will see that there is more reason to serve Jesus.

Now, Mary served for the good reason, because of what Jesus had done. In her case, Jesus had raised her brother Lazarus, from the dead (John 11:43). That's reason enough to serve Jesus!
But she also serves Him as an act of worship to Who He IS! You see, before Jesus called Lazarus back from the dead, He told Mary that He was the Resurrection and the Life and she confessed that he was the Christ. The Son of God (John 11:25-27).

So she humbled herself in service, not only because of what Jesus had done, but also (and I would say, More Importantly) because of Who He is.

I say more importantly because, listen, there will be times in this life when we will see God's gracious hand upon us in awesome and wonderful ways. He will spill tangible blessings into our lives.

But, there will also be times of testing. Maybe like Job's times of testing and trial. Maybe like Stephen's time of testing.

If you only serve and worship Jesus, His Bride – the Church, and the lost when things are going well for you then you will dishonor God and hinder the Gospel in the rough times.

But, if your worship, if your servant focused life is a response mainly to WHO GOD IS – If you keep that in the forefront of your mind – If you continually remind yourself of His Holiness and His Love-for-you-ness in you most constant thoughts, than you will serve no matter what the circumstances.

Listen, we need an awakening, we need a move of God that transforms, individuals, neighborhoods, cities, states, nations and the world. If you don’t see that, you’re in denial or you are blind. BUT, Christian, it starts with you and I serving in season and out of season.

I'm not even going to talk to you about a particular kind of service. We need all kinds of serving workers here at the Church in the Grass, but I want you to see beyond that. If your heart is not transformed, then what you do one hour a week doesn't mean squat.

We want you to see every word you speak or write, every action you take, every hour you spend at your job or in the community or in the church as an opportunity to serve Christ and propel His kingdom mission.

Before you do anything, ask yourself, “Does this serve Jesus' purpose or does this hinder the message?”
Then act accordingly.

One more point and then we'll close it up with another look at the mother-in-law.

Last point is this. As much as I want you to serve, I am pleading with you – for you – don't serve if your heart is not in it for the right reason.

I used to be a person who encouraged people to “fake it until you make it.” But the Bible is pretty clearly against that.

As we grow, we will surely begin to have people who serve wonderfully with wretched motives - or at the very least misguided motives.

Some will serve with a great face, and volunteer for all the stuff in church, because in this country, it still pays to be a Christian.

A pastor friend of mine has a lot of known and influential people in his church. So, in that arena, there are also other “members” who rub elbows with them for career gain, societal gain or political gain. Sometimes it is obvious, sometimes not so much.

Other times, there will be wolves who come to church and serve and play the part well – not to glorify God – but, to prowl for weak willed men or women. Some will come in to the church for financial gain, not a problem here yet, since we have hardly anything for them to take, but stick around. You will see it all in the life of a church.

It was no different in Jesus' time or in the early church after He ascended to Heaven.

In John 12, right after Mary served in response to what Jesus had done and in response to Who Jesus was, Judas slams her for wasting the perfume, because he wanted to sell it. He didn't want to sell it to give the money to the poor (though that was the false front he put up) No, Judas wanted to sell it because he handled the money for Jesus and His crew and Judas was skimming off the top.

In the early church, in Acts 8, we see a guy who wanted to BUY the power of the holy Spirit for his own gain, so that he could be made much of instead of making much of Jesus. Thankfully, Peter was there to rebuke the guy and call him to repent. Listen that is the job of the church leaders. If we see you serving for selfish reasons, we are going to call you out and call you to repent. It's what you are called to do for us if we need it. Correction in the body of Christ is one of the most loving things that you can be a part of. So correct lovingly and take correction with love.

Now, before we dismiss you to go out and serve tonight and this week in your spheres of influence, I want you to think back to Simon Peter's mother-in-law.
Christian, if you are listening to these words with a regenerated heart, then you were in the same boat as this woman. Do you remember?

What Jesus healed in you and healed in me was much more than a sickness in our body- It was so much more than a fever, that might take our lives from this world. He healed our soul sickness that would have taken us to Hell.

Actually, more than sick we were dead in our spirit, unable to revive ourselves (Ephesians 2).

But He touched us though the power of the Holy Spirit just like He touched Simon Peter's mother-in-law with His hands, and we were made alive again. And, once alive we could respond by His grace, we could respond with FAITH. With Faith in Jesus Christ.

We placed our faith in Him and believed in the work He did for us at the cross. We believe that He took our sin and replaced it with LIFE.

If you have forgotten that, if you let that slip out of view in your heart and mind, then you will lose sight of the “why.” The WHY you serve. I fear some of you have lost sight of that already.

Remember that the mother-in-law served as a response to Christ. Everything else that was going on in her life took a back seat to her Christ-consciousness and so she responded to what was closest to her heart.

Like I said at the beginning, we are all reactionaries. What I would submit to you is that you are reacting with the greatest fervency to what is uppermost in your heart and your concern.

This week, I am calling you to reflect on what you have been responding to in the greatest volume. What things have come up that have caused you to be angry, or happy? What has caused you to physically or verbally respond? In other words, what made you want to yell or caused you to laugh? What made you want to hug someone or punch someone?

And listen, even the good responses should be evaluated. Is a joy in God the owner of your heart?

What has taken up the most space in your mind (when you have time to let you mind drift, what are you dwelling on)?

What is at the root of those reactions? I'm asking you to go beyond the surface this week – maybe you will need to journal and keep track of the things that cause a reaction – especially BIG reactions.

Are your most intense reactions coming as a response to the glory and power of God? Or are you only reacting strongly when your toes are stepped on, when your money is messed with (or with the season coming up – when “your team” wins or loses)?

Our reactions reveal our hearts. If you do what I'm calling you to do this week and you find something dark, call me or another Christian friend – one that won't shrug it off OR help you make excuses – call someone you can confess that darkness to – someone who won’t judge or condemn – someone who can pray for you and plead with God to turn your heart back to Christ.
I am praying that we as the Church in the Grass and WE as the CHURCH of all Christ followers everywhere will begin to live lives – STARTING NOW – that we will live lives that make non-believers say, “They must really believe all that stuff they say about having an awesome God who loves them.”

Lord forgive us. Lord forgive ME. That is not the first thing people say when they see our lives right now.

If that's not what people see in you it's not too late. The Gospel doesn't say do all of these good things and then God will save you. The Gospel doesn't say, serve Jesus, serve His Bride – the Church, and serve the lost and THEN God will save you.

No! The Gospel is that God loves you and has saved you so that you can serve Him with the right heart.

Our lives of rebellion are redeemed at the cross and your life of service that honors God, our lives of service that TRULY reflect His service to the world that service BEGINS at the cross.

If you have wandered away, go back to God. If you have never before believed in what Christ has done for you then I'm pleading with you tonight to repent and believe.
I love you. Let's pray...
Posted by

Sep 2, 2010

Mark: The Person and Work of Jesus Christ #9

The Message & The Messenger
Mark 1:21-28

Let's pray...
If you were here with us last week you will hopefully remember our main point from Mark 1:21-22. The main point was that the Author has the Authority. Everybody say it with me, The Author Has The Authority.

In other words God's Word as He actually spoke it and taught it in the flesh (Jesus) and as He has revealed in the 66 books of our Bible – His Word has an authority over our lives.

It did THEN. It does NOW. It Will ALWAYS have authority over our lives.

We can talk all day about any topic (politics, church government, finances, pop culture, the sciences, food, alcohol, family, etc) and we can spout off our our best guesses and our feelings and what we think should be true or fair or whatever – but at the end of the day, if our thoughts, actions, reactions, words, choices – if our LIVES don't match up to God's Word, we need to submit ourselves and fit into His mold instead of trying to twist the Scriptures or reinterpret them or ignore them to suit our wants or to validate parts of our lives that are being lived OUTSIDE of His will.

Like I said last week, we are not in a position to change God's mind any more than a character in a book is in a position to change the next chapter that its creator has written.

Now that was the main point and it carries through the rest of this passage, to verse 28. So keep it in mind as we continue, we'll point back to that point that “The Author Has The Authority” throughout the night.

Now let's move on. I said last week that there were a couple of other important points from this passage. From our, “What does this clearly say what is happening?” questions let's cover the other points again.

Point one: Jesus is recognized as who He truly is by a demon (vv. 23-24) and the demon is controlled by Jesus without a real fight (vv. 25-26).

Point two (Rounding back from last week and vv. 21-22): The crowd is amazed by Jesus' teaching AND His power to cast out demons (v. 27).

Point three: Jesus gets quick fame (v. 28).

Now with the question of “What?” answered, what do we ask next?

“So What?” Let's walk through what we can in the time we've got and then be done for the night...

Point one: Jesus is recognized as who He truly is by a demon (vv. 23-24) and the demon is controlled by Jesus without a real fight (vv. 25-26). Really it's two points, let's dive in.


Before we really dig into this, let me just say, I spent hours and hours this week reading about demons in the bible and evil spirits and their origin from the fallen third of the angels who along with Satan rebelled against God.

And with all of the times that the Bible talks about demons, I can say, yes, I really believe in demons.
Sometimes Bible teachers try to deny the supernatural elements of the bible or at least downplay them because they say that things like angels and demons are hard to believe. And so they try to explain away these evil spirits and simply call it schizophrenia or some other kind of illness.

The problem with that is the fact that sickness is talked about as sickness in a clearly different way than encounters with demons.

So, I don't want to shrug this off as something other than what it clearly is.

At the same time. I know that we have people who come to this church from a wide range of theological backgrounds and there are some people who want to take the reality of demons and push it to an extreme to where everything and anything that goes wrong in your life is caused by an evil spirit.

Listen, sometimes – I would be so bold as to say most of the times in our lives, it is us who are fronting against God. Most of the time, Satan doesn't even need to bother with us because we are already doing enough on our own to hinder the gospel in the lives of people around us that we aren't a threat to him.

But, with all that said, let's approach this from what the passage clearly says. This dude stands up in the gathering and freaks out when He hears Jesus – the God of the Universe – teaching the truth.

Now, the demon who had control of this man recognized Jesus from the start. And because the demon understood the Lordship (the Authority) of Jesus, there was no thought of really fighting back or resisting JESUS! It's Jesus! It's the God of the Universe! What was that demon, what are we going to bring to the fight?!

He addresses Jesus, but then he is gone just as quick.
This is something that I think about often. I think that OUR main problem as humans – Christians and non-Christians – is that we do not have a proper view of the Holiness of God.

It is something that I've mentioned more than once. When you look at the reaction of men who encountered even a small taste of the AWESOMENESS of God – the Holiness that is God, there is a common reaction.

It's not, “Hey! What's the deal with my suffering?!” Or, “Why don't you do something about that king, president, spouse, or serial killer?!”

And it's not some flippant reaction where the person gives Him a nudge and a wink about their own sin.

No! Some of the holiest men in history and some of the most brutal and strong all shut their mouths in awe or cried out in repentance and for mercy.

The demons react in surprise and terror. Over and over it is “Oh! No! What are you doing here?! Are you here to Destroy us?!” Sometimes they begged for a reprieve, but standing up to the God of the Universe is never a serious option in their minds.

I believe that if we could begin to understand the full on greatness and holiness of God. If we, in the Church, will just begin to see Him as He has revealed Himself instead of imagining Him as some kind of push-over god, then our lives as Christians would be undeniably different than that of the world.

I'm not saying that we should learn from the demons, but I will say that there is truth to be found in the Scriptures like Proverbs 1:7, which tell us “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”

That word fear in Hebrew is yir'ah. It means to have a respect or reverence for someone that comes from an understanding of that person's (God's) Awesomeness.

Listen, I'm calling you to remember what it was that you and I were saved FROM. Ultimately, we didn't need to be saved from sin, and we definitely don't need saved from the Devil as much as we needed to be saved from God Himself.

It was God's wrath that was due to us because of OUR sin that we needed rescued from. That wrath - That's what Jesus absorbed on the cross for us.

When Jesus took all of our sin to the cross, God poured out all of the punishment and wrath that was due to you and to me for our sin and because justice was served through and to Christ, mercy could then be poured out on you and me.

When we see the Holy God of the Universe and see His infinite love for us. When we see the Bad news that makes the Gospel the Good news that it is, it changes everything.

Truly, every time we open our mouths, or dwell in a particular area of thoughts or feelings, what we are doing is revealing what we are truly believing about God.

Back to the point from this passage. The demon hates and is terrified by God, so the demon torments a person who was made in God's image and the demon freaks out when he sees that Jesus – with all of the power of the universe on His side – is there to cast him out.

Now there's a sub point, we need to ask, “Why did Jesus tell the demon to be quiet before He cast the the demon out of the man?”

The demon, was telling the TRUTH when he called Jesus the Holy One of God. So why shut that down? Why not let EVERYONE hear it?

First off, we will see in other parts of Jesus' life when He says, Do not to talk about the full character and nature of who He is. A lot of times it was simply that Jesus didn't want to reveal everything until the appointed time.

But I believe there's a bigger issue at hand. You see the problem was not so much the message as it was the messenger. Anything coming from the mouth of a demon is tainted.

I used to be a class warrior. I had a tangible hatred for people of higher economic and social levels than my own. Honestly there are still times when I see someone rolling by in a Hummer or a Lexus and I have to repent of this all over again.

Anyway, while I am getting much better with this class war nonsense; there was a time when I would not have listened to a word that a person said – no matter how true it may have been – because of what they drove, how much money they made, where they lived or whatever.

Some of us still fight this when we talk to people of different political persuasions, people from different places in the country or from other countries, and sadly, I fear that even in a crowd this size there are some who will discount a message because of the gender, age or race of the messenger.

The bottom line is a message can always be compromised by the messenger. Sometimes that is because of OUR sinfulness when we receive the message with unfair, or untrue thoughts about the messenger.

But what I want you to look at – what I want us to look at – is how we as Christians in Jefferson County and Trimble County, compromise the message of reconciliation and the message of God's love when WE as the messengers taint the truth by our own lives – when we taint the truth by living lives contrary to the Gospel – Lives that deny a hope in God by our worries about the things of this world,

lives that don't reflect the grace and mercy He showed us because we hold so tight to unforgiveness and hate,

lives that deny the humility of the Christian life lived out because we operate so fully and foolishly in our old worldly pride.

In all those areas, when you and I go back to our old operating system, then we are not so different than that demon. We may be people with a great message that we SAY, that is lost because WE are saying it out of evil lives.

Now let's get some Gospel in here. Jesus tells the demon to do what? He tells him to be quiet. Jesus says SHUT UP!

But He doesn't tell you and me to SHUT UP!

NO! Instead He says keep speaking the truth! Shout it from the rooftops.

It's true that we may not HAVE BEEN so different than one of those demons, EXCEPT for the GOSPEL!
Except for Jesus dying for the sins we committed before we were saved AND except for the Holy Spirit who now empowers you and me to overcome those old sins that hinder our ability to Witness to the lost world.

Jesus doesn't tell us to SHUT UP! We aren't like that demon, eternally lost. We ARE FORGIVEN and We Have the Good News.

So get up tonight, go out and Say it! Say it Loud and by the power of the Holy Spirit, start LIVING IT so that in you the message and the messenger will work in partnership to bring your lost friends and family and coworkers and enemies out of death and into life.

Now two more points, we're going to hit these pretty quick they are really just review.

Point two (Rounding back from last week and vv. 21-22): The crowd is amazed by Jesus' teaching AND His power to cast out demons (v. 27).

Anytime you see a miracle from Jesus it goes hand in hand with His teaching. Truly, the miracles are pointers saying, in case you have doubts, this is a guy you should pay attention to, trust and follow.

If we lose sight of that, we will see Jesus as a wonder worker, or a compassionate healer or whatever and listen, He is a wonder worker, and He is compassionate. But OH! He is so much more. He is the God of the universe totally other – totally Holy, with all of the power to create and sustain the cosmos – and despite His infiniteness and our little finiteness, He chose to and still chooses to stoop down into our lives.

He still does miracles today. One of the men who cleans the newspaper office with his wife has been out because of some serous problems with his lungs. Part of the problem was a large mass, that was most likely a tumor in His lung.

We had been praying for him at work and a few weeks ago when the doctors where set to operate and remove the mass, they did a final scan and found out that the mass was gone. Completely gone. But listen. If you look at that miracle and miss God. Then you miss everything. Everything.

Alright, final Point: Jesus gets quick fame (v. 28).

Andy talked a few weeks back about the tragic cycle of fame - Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, and back through pop culture history – what we see in the headlines now is what we see in Scripture too. As we continue through the Gospel of Mark and as we follow Jesus to the cross, we will see ourselves in the fickle crowds of His time.

They will flock to Jesus for the show and for the treats. They flock to Jesus the healer, and the one who feeds the 5,000 people. They love the power of His teaching and some no doubt love to hear Him give the religious leaders a hard time.

But eventually they begin to fall away as they start really listening to that teaching and they start to catch on to the fact that following Jesus has very real and sometimes painful consequences.

Now, I've talked at length about how some of us maybe and some believers around the world for sure, will be martyred. They will be killed by others because of their faith. They will die because of the Gospel. But tonight I want to take this in another very real direction.

The truth is that most of the people of Jesus' time who followed for a while, then turned away and most of the people today, maybe some of you here, who will turn away, most did not and most now will not turn away and deny Christ in their life and their words because of external conflicts. Instead it will be an internal fight.

In The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes that "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."

If you walk in the path of Jesus- if you are His, then you can live with faith that because of His resurrection, that you will also be resurrected. But you will also follow the path that He traveled on this side of the cross as well.

To one degree or another, The Spirit of God will do a work on you and will call you to die to your old way of thinking, speaking, acting and LIVING when those things contradict the truth of God.
In a very real way, Sanctification is the process of conforming the messenger (the Christian - you) to the message (The truth of God's Holiness).

So, Christian, will you follow God? Will you trust God? Will you listen and submit to His Word? Will you show your love and gratitude for Him by leaving those old fights and follow Him?

Or will you join the crowd that says, “No, this is too high a cost.”

Listen, when the culture turns away from the bubble-gum pop stars, it crushes the pop star, no the crowd. The opposite is true when we turn away and stop following God.

It was true for Adam and Eve. It was true for the Israelites in the wilderness. It was true for King Saul. It was true for Judas. It has been true for us.

Look inside. Look at your life when you have turned away. We do it even as the Church.

And as you look inside and when you find those areas (maybe you are in the middle of this battle right now) don't sit down and give up, No remember Ephesians 2 and elsewhere that says yes. We WERE sinners, we WERE enemies of God, We WERE strangers, BUT GOD – by His grace and mercy and not by our works – He reconciled us to Himself through Christ.

And “...he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)

So don't give up. Don't go on defeated in sin. Take action in the Spirit and Kill that Pride. Kill that Fear. Kill that Idolatry. Kill that Laziness. Kill that complaining. Kill that Gossip. Because those things hinder the message by discrediting you as the messenger.

As my old pastor was often heard saying, “You know the right thing to do. So (by the power of God that is in you) Do IT!
I love you. Let's pray...
Posted by
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)