All posts for the month March, 2023

Mark 5:21-6:6 Sermon Manuscript

-Have you ever seen something amazing? Golden Gate Bridge, Ocean, mountains, I still remember the first time I saw the ocean and could hardly fathom how far it stretched! But hands down, the place that amazes me most is the mountains.

-Got to go backpacking for a week when I first started ministry, sunsets were amazing, and we would see a herd of elk cross on the other side of the valley every night. Caught fresh mountain trout that a couple hours after catching became fish tacos, it was absolutely gorgeous!

-Backyard of our house in CO, front yard of our house, our walking path, Estes Park. Pictures can’t even begin to do it justice! But you know what’s even crazier? The longer you live there the less you start to notice just how beautiful those mountains are. You become so used to it that you forget to take time to just look at them.

-We’re going to look today and what happens when you become so used to something you start to take it for granted, almost like receiving a vaccine where you’re given a small portion of the disease itself so that your body knows how to fight against it in the future. But what happens when you view Jesus that way?

READ/PRAY

Raising to New Life (21-43)

-Last week, Jesus took a little trip to the primarily Gentile area of the lake. Jesus was so tired from serving that He fell asleep in the front of the boat and slept through a giant storm. Eventually the disciples got so worried that they woke Him up and accused Him of not caring. After stopping the storm, He asked why they still have such little faith. Then he healed a man possessed by a large group of demons, and got run out of town, so they went back to the West side of the lake. Guess who was either there waiting for Him, or came as soon as they got back? There’s the crowd again! Once again, it appears that Jesus is doing what is typical of His ministry: teaching.

-I was thinking this past week of some of what we’ve learned about the kingdom of God through our study in Mark. Jesus arrival ushers in a new era of human history marked by holistic healing, it’s something that looks tiny and insignificant, but over time completely transforms everything that exists. It comes about by word-based ministry. Have you ever thought of that? The way God’s kingdom spreads is by people who take seriously the word (both the written and living Word), and share that word with everyone they come into contact with. And what made me think of this reality was readying a book about Revelation, because one of the descriptions of Jesus’ return says that a sword will come out of His mouth. That is the means God will slay His enemies: through His Word.

-Think of how tiny and insignificant we tend to think of words. “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” Yet words are the means God used to create everything, words are the means God uses to save people today, and we are commanded to be people of the Word! The Word that comes out as a sword at the end of time is the same word that is used to bring comfort to God’s people throughout history, so as we study the Word, let’s remember that it is God’s chosen means to transform us and make us more like Him. While it seems so insignificant (almost like a tiny little seed), we need more and more of it in our lives!

-This is the reason Jesus always brings things back to preaching. The Word is God’s chosen means of transformation in the world. And in the midst of another account of Jesus ministering (preaching) to the crowd, a desperate man falls in front of Jesus. But this isn’t just any old man, this is Jairus, a well-known man who just happened to be the ruler of the synagogue. What exactly is a ruler of the synagogue?

-Remember, the synagogue has been mentioned numerous times already in Mark’s Gospel. It’s the gathering place of the Jews for weekly Sabbath worship. This contained reading of the scroll, comments on the Scriptural reading, prayers, offerings, honestly pretty similar to what we do each week! But who do you think ensured the building was kept up? Who ensured the space was set up to accommodate people coming to meet? Who took care of the scrolls of God’s Word, and ensured the right scroll was pulled out for each week’s reading? That’s right, the rulers of the synagogue! This means these people would have been held in high regard, most likely wealthy, someone the local community would have looked up to. That’s communicated by the Mark recording his name! This was someone people knew!

-How does Jairus approach Jesus?

-falls at Jesus’ feet right in front of the crowd. The man whom everyone would have known, yet Jairus had no shame or embarrassment! He ignored all the cultural norms, disregarded the entire crowd of people flocking to Jesus, and threw Himself down at Jesus’ feet, and begins begging Him to come and save His child. Now notice what Jairus asks of Jesus: to come touch his daughter. Remember what I said earlier about God using words? That will come up as well! But as we think of Jarius’ response, we also need to ask the question:

-What would you do to take care of your child? We had to take Ellie in for a surgery this week (adenoidectomy and tubes in her ears), don’t worry she’s just fine! In fact, she bounced back FAR quicker than we were expecting, and she made sure she didn’t miss movie night at Awana this week! I’ve had friends lose children and I can’t imagine trying to navigate that space. As a father, I would do anything I possibly could to protect and preserve my children, including bucking any societal norm I needed to.

-Remember, these stories are true! This recounts real people who lived in real time and space who are wrestling with real world issues. This is yet another reason we should trust that the stories contained in here are true, this would be EXACTLY how someone would respond to a sick daughter during the time of Jesus! If Jesus has been healing so many people, surely He could heal Jairus’ daughter!

-Jesus goes with Jairus. The crowd is still there, but Jesus shifts his focus from the crowd to Jairus (not that they would be deterred), but we’re starting to see some of the ways people would interrupt Jesus’ ministry, yet He would still minister to them! Jesus isn’t trying to build a platform, isn’t seeking fame and recognition, He’s working to bring His Father glory, and the way that happens is by ministering to any and everyone He can! Keep that in mind for a minute, because that will come up again!

-Crowd once again serves as a foil! Pushing in from every side, but the crowd is merely there, the focus is on a woman.

-Some kind of hemorrhage for 12 years, look at all the ways Mark describes her situation: suffered much, spent all she had, grew worse. This would have led to her being a literal outcast, very similar to the leper in Mark 1. A woman’s bleeding rendered her (according to the Levitical code) unclean, and if anyone else touched her they were also viewed as religiously unclean. But if this bleeding never stopped it meant that she was never clean! She couldn’t even think of approaching the temple! On top of that, no one else would want to touch her because it would cause them to become unclean, so she would not only be a religious outcast, but a social outcast as well. How lonely do you think she was? Text doesn’t give us any specific history to this woman, but could have faced divorce, inability to have children, as well as trying to survive on her own for these past 12 years. How desperate do you think she was to get to Jesus? She was willing to risk making the entire crowd unclean just to try to be healed!

-Let’s not forget where Jesus is going: to help Jairus! Let’s compare this woman to him. We know Jairus’ name, we know his occupation which makes him a leader in the society, well-known, well respected, in the people’s minds if anyone deserved healing or help, it would be Jairus! The woman isn’t even named. She was a cast off, forgotten, left out of anyone’s minds attempting to survive on her own. Isn’t purely sexist (plenty of women named in the Gospels and the demon possessed man doesn’t get named either), but portrays the point that no one is too low for Jesus’ attention .

-Throughout this Gospel, we’ve seen Jesus’ interactions with both those on the inside, and those on the outside, but not yet in such close proximity to each other! And Mark puts these 2 stories next to each other like this so that we compare them to each other. Jesus goes to help Jairus, but even in his greatest hour of need, Jesus isn’t too busy to care for an unclean woman.

-Continuing that idea of the difference between these 2 people, note how the woman approaches Jesus: tries to sneak in behind Jesus.

-This is complete conjecture on my part, but I could very easily see the woman not daring to approach Jesus like Jairus did. She’s so used to being cast off that she doesn’t want to risk Jesus refusing her, so she tries the sneak attack! If I can just grab a piece of his garment, the lowliest thing connected to Jesus. She doesn’t feel the need to talk to Him, doesn’t even want Him to know that she was there! Get as close as possible, touch his clothing, and sneak out. No one will know, no one will dismiss her, but her life will be completely different. And that’s exactly what happened! At first. The instant she touched Jesus, she was changed, but Jesus wasn’t going to let her off that easily! As soon as she touches Jesus, He starts looking for her.

-Imagine the scene: huge crowd pressing in just to get near to Jesus, they’ve been following Him throughout His ministry, potentially waiting days for Him to return from His journey to the other side of the lake. They will not be deterred! The closest I’ve experienced something like this was back in the day when we’d go to Sonshine! Multiple stages, your favorite bands playing for a full week, camping together, eating terrible food, who wouldn’t want to go? But when you’re waiting for the band to start, the moment the first note begins there’s a huge surge of energy, people all around you, you feel like you’re suffocating, and in the midst of a situation like that, Jesus stops everything and asks “who touched me?”

-His disciples would have thought He was crazy! Jesus: everyone is touching you! You’re in the middle of a mob, everyone wants a piece of you, and you want to figure out who touched you? Look around, they’re all still here, AND they’re still touching you!

-Jesus is undeterred, He continues asking the question, and the woman knows it. How do you think she was feeling as soon as she realized she hadn’t gotten away with it? The whole point was to sneak in and sneak out with no one else being the wiser! Notice how it describes the emotional state of the woman: fear and trembling. Just as she had been cast off for the past 12 years, is Jesus going to cast her off too?

-She realizes Jesus won’t stop until she admits it was her, so she has the same response as Jairus now: falls down before Him. There’s an interesting phrase Mark uses here to describe what the woman tells Jesus: “The whole truth.” She laid everything out for Jesus: the way she’s been bleeding, the abuse she faced at the hands of doctors, and anything else connected to that!

-Jesus doesn’t stop her, doesn’t brush by her to get to the more “important” things, He remains engaged and cares for this woman who had been healed.

-This leads to a question for us: do you believe that Jesus can handle your whole truth?

-There’s a tendency to try to keep certain things hidden, to not acknowledge the way you’re really feeling, to be afraid that the whole truth will come out and people will dismiss you. Did you know that Jesus can actually handle “the whole truth”? Nothing you’ve ever done has ever surprised Him! Think about this: every sin you’ve ever committed came after Jesus died, and the penalty has already been paid for them! There’s nothing to keep hidden, nothing that Jesus doesn’t already know, why is there a tendency to try to keep “the whole truth” to just ourselves? This is a temptation for everyone! Before you’re saved the temptation is that Jesus couldn’t save someone like you so you’re convinced you need to clean yourself up before you come to Jesus, then when you’re saved you’re tempted to doubt your salvation when you sin so you continue trying to clean yourself up. This story is meant to remind us that we can’t clean ourselves up! We can’t sneak up on Jesus and just try to get the benefits, He wants us completely healed, and that comes about by being in a relationship with Him. Church: stop trying to clean yourself up, and instead fall on your face at the feet of the only one who can completely heal you.

-As Jesus ends his comments to this woman, all it takes is faith, put your entire hope, trust, and confidence in Jesus, and He will restore everything broken by sin.

-Mark then shift back to Jairus, this unclean woman has been healed, but it led to the death of his daughter. Do you think Jairus was frustrated by the women or by Jesus at this point? He was so close to having his daughter healed, if only Jesus had just set His face forward to what He had agreed to do and not been distracted by this unnamed, unclean woman!

-Yet God’s timing is always perfect. Nothing is a distraction to God and nothing can thwart God’s perfect timing, which Jairus is about to learn. But I also think it’s something we would do well to learn ourselves! People aren’t a distraction, people aren’t the problem, God has called us to go to people and give them the Words of life! Just as God’s timing is perfect, His plan is also perfect, and His plan involves you and I being faithful to sow the seeds of His word as frequently as we can.

-Jairus is told that while Jesus was “distracted” by this woman, his daughter has died. But Jesus is right there! The word “overhearing” could also be translated “ignoring.” Jesus has an ulterior motive here, and He takes time to remind Jairus that things are still ok, and once again connects the healing to faith.

-Who’s on the inside this time? Peter, James, and John, the closest 3 to Jesus.

-As they approached they saw a commotion, which included people weeping and wailing. It was customary during the 1^st. cent. to hire professional mourners. They served as a sign to the community to what had transpired, it was a reminder that death had visited this house. Yet in this case, the mourning was premature, and Jesus tells them so!

-At first blush, this seems like a cruel joke from Jesus, doesn’t it? Seems to be flippant towards Jairus’ concern and He calls out the mourners who respond by laughing at Him (everyone seems fairly careless toward the needs of Jairus and his family) So Jesus responds by kicking everyone out (except the mother and father and 3 disciples) and moves toward this little girl.

-Jesus grabs her hand, which would once again make him unclean, then speaks a gentle word: little sheep, wake up. (Jesus spoke Aramaic, that mostly got translated to Greek, which we have now translated into English) We then see another connection to the unnamed woman: she had been bleeding for the same amount of time Jairus’ daughter had been alive! Everyone who saw it was amazed, yet Jesus wouldn’t let them tell, He’s still waiting for His glory to be revealed.

-Both Jairus (the well to do) and the unclean woman (whose name wasn’t even mentioned) were in need of healing from Jesus, healing that only He can provide if there is belief in Him. But this isn’t the only story! Jairus and this woman respond as they should, but then we see a group of people who outright dismiss Jesus:

Rejection of True Life (6:1-6)

-Jesus goes home, for what is likely the last time. Brought the whole crew! Nazareth would have been about 30 miles southwest of Capernaum, not too far away. But don’t forget about the last time we saw His family in Mark 3, they were trying to take Him away because they thought He was out of His mind! Can you imagine the tension at family dinner?

-As always, He goes to teach in the synagogue, people are amazed, but differently than after seeing Jairus’ daughter.

-They all knew his family, had seen Him grow up, knew his background, and didn’t believe what He was saying!

-These people have become overly familiar with Jesus without a recognition of who He actually was. Once again, this is a normal thing to happen in the course of human events! How would you respond to that friend from high school claiming to be God? Or imagine being one of His brothers!

-And this is true of many people today! They grow up learning facts about Jesus, just enough to get inoculated against Him, but they don’t have any understanding who He REALLY is, and how that transforms everything. It’s not enough to just know facts about Him, it’s not enough to memorize every verse of the Bible, it’s not enough to go to church every week, it’s not enough to tithe every penny you own! What matters is your relationship with Jesus.

-And because of their unbelief, Jesus couldn’t do any mighty works, which is slightly ironic, because look at what Mark says next.

-Think of how noteworthy these miracles would have been if we hadn’t just read about all the healings that took place, but for Jesus they’re a footnote. Healing has become so commonplace that healing a few sick people is hardly worth mentioning!

-2 accounts of Jesus marveling: here and Luke 7:9 the Centurion’s faith. The polar opposites cause Jesus to marvel.

-Do we assume things about Jesus, getting just enough to be inoculated against him and force Him to be amazed at our unbelief? Or do we continue to be amazed by Him and fall at His feet in worship of Him?

Mark 4:1-34 – Sermon Manuscript

-Have you ever been hanging out with a group of people that’s new to you that have what feels like a different language that they speak?

-One of the things I’ve noticed since as my family has expanded by adding in-laws is that we have to take time to bring the new family members up to speed. We’ve got inside jokes, family stories, favorite movie quotes that unless you’re on the “in” just go right over the in-laws heads!

-When I first got here, Pastor Jeramy and I would often speak in movie quotes to each other! Heather and Tami didn’t even try to keep up.

-One of my favorite TV shows has an iconic line: “I love inside jokes”

-Inside jokes are great when you’re inside! But what about when you’re on the outside looking in?

-In today’s passage, Jesus is going to use stories to train those who are “in” and confuse those who are “out.”

READ/PRAY

A Sower (1-20)

-Does anyone remember the primary focus of Jesus’ ministry yet? Teaching! So guess what Jesus does again here? Teaches! Once again, the crowd has discovered Him, and once again it’s a HUGE crowd, so he leaves the land to get into a boat.

-Every author of the Gospels has a specific point to their writing, including Mark. None of them are trying to include every single story about Jesus, or provide a biography in the way we think of them today. (John 21:25 “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”)

-Matthew, Mark & Luke all have this exact same story, and Mark actually tells us why we need to understand this story, as we’ll see in vs. 13, which also means we’ll be spending most of our time today in these first 20 verses, because Jesus says we need to understand this parable to able to understand the rest of them!

-Jesus tells a story about a farmer who goes out to plant his seed. As the farmer goes about his work, the seed is scattered across 4 different types of soils that all lead to different outcomes for the seed.

-1 – The Path. As the field wasn’t used for a few months, paths would have been worn by people walking through the field. If you’ve ever gone to college you’ve seen this! Colleges should never begin with any sidewalks, because over time the students will show you where the sidewalks should be placed! At my alma mater, there were sidewalks running in (what looked like) all these crazy directions because the students refused to be bound by things like cement! Eventually the administration figured that out. But if seed were to be planted on one of those paths, how successful would it be? I guess if you’re trying to feed birds, this was the best one! But if you’re hoping to get a harvest and plant these seeds into the ground you’ve got a terrible success rate, because Jesus says these seed all become bird food! There goes that group of seeds. Let’s look at the next one:

-2 – Rocky ground. When I grew up in North Dakota, by best friend’s dad was a farmer, and do you know what the boys got to do when they were growing up? Rock picking! If you drive by fields look and see, many of them have a huge rock pile somewhere nearby in order to make sure they don’t break the plow or interfere with the growth of the seeds. The issue with trying to plant seeds in rocky ground is it’s deceptive. Until you actually start doing some work on the field, it looks like it’s good soil, so you’d be tempted to double down on that area and plant a bunch of seeds there! Unfortunately, it’s shallow soil. Initially it would probably look like that will be the most fertile area, but as soon as the heat of the summer sun comes (which should give life to plants who have a good base to build from), the plants die, leaving the farmer with 0 for 2 on his sowing!

-3 – Thorns. This one is tricky just like the rocky ground, because you once again can’t tell that there’s going to be a problem! In fact, this may look even better than the good soil initially, because weeds just don’t give up, and as seedlings you can’t tell much of a difference between the weed and the what you’re trying to go (at least when you’re as good at planting as I am!). Just like the previous 3 soils, this seed dies because of the competition from the thorns, so I’m not liking this farmers shooting average so far! He’s at a solid 0%! Thankfully, there’s 1 more:

-4 – Good soil. Now we’re at the good stuff! The place where he should have been sowing the whole time! This is literally the entire purpose of planting seeds, to get a harvest, to help the seed to flourish, and these seeds make up for the deficiency of the others, giving 30, 60, 100 times the return!

-This would have been a well understood story to the people of the day. An agrarian society would have seen farmers going to work every year, the effort it takes to take care of the seeds, the plowing of the fields. To those listening it would have been common sense! Obviously, that’s how sowing works! It’s a basic as being told today: invest in the stock market, ride out the highs and lows, you’ll get a solid return if you keep your money there!

-There is something unique about the way this sowing takes place: the farmer sows the seed before plowing. Generally you plow the field first in order to rip out the thorns and pull out the rocks, but not this one. This has led some people to argue that this is normal Palestinian planting method: sow seed first, then plow after. Others argue that’s only one of the methods. The point remains: Sower sows indiscriminately! And once we get to Jesus’ explanation of the parable, I think you’ll see that there’s a reason why Jesus doesn’t talk about the plowing

-At some point after the teaching, the 12 needed to ask Jesus what in the world He was talking about! No one had any idea what Jesus was talking about, including those were closest to Jesus. But don’t worry, Jesus will explain it to them! And the purpose is so that there can be a distinction between those who are Jesus’ disciples, and those who are not.

-Essentially, those who are “in” will be able to understand and apply the parables, those who are outside are left in the dark. It’s not enough just to know what Jesus meant, you need to believe and apply the truths Jesus is saying. Why is this? It’s the fulfillment of a prophecy from Isaiah 6.

-All of this is meant to confirm for those who are believers what their lives should look like, and until someone repents of their sin (180 turn), they won’t be forgiven and able to understand and apply God’s message. This tells us there’s only 2 way to live: either for Jesus, or opposed to Him, there is no in between when it comes to Jesus! If someone were to turn away from opposition to Jesus and put their hope and faith in Him, they would begin to understand these parables!

-So let’s look at the meaning of this parable:

-Sower has 1 job: sow the seed, which means the Word! Church: don’t miss this! A disciple of Jesus is someone who is marked by faithful sowing of the Word. This is why Paul talks about the need to preach the Word “in season and out of season” (that is when people are for the message or when they’re against the message) Here are some of the responses you’re going to get:

-Path is a hard heart, this is someone who refuses to acknowledge what is true and are thus taken away by Satan. Has no time to germinate, no time to plant roots, it’s in one ear and out the other as quickly as possible.

-Rocky ground is someone who looks like they’re all in! But as soon as something difficult happens, they blame God, who does and will allow testing to come! If you’ve heard the phrase “God won’t let you be tempted beyond what you are able” just tell that person to stop lying! God will absolutely let you be tested beyond what you’re able so that you realize the only think that will last is Him!

-Story of someone who was saved, dog died the next week and he quit following Jesus. Or a friend I have who used to be a pastor, and then realized that the world wouldn’t judge him by the same standards as the church, so he’d rather use someone else’s standards, and last time I talked to him, he wasn’t any happier than he was before he gave up following Christ!

-Thorns is someone who hears, looks like they respond, but then they also want to add in other things to their faith (care of the world, riches, desire for things not from God)

-This is where you’ll often see Christian “social media influencers” (I feel like I dunk of social media a lot, it’s not all bad, but it’s definitely not all good either) Jesus tells us that the world will hate us, just like it hated him, why would we want recognition from the things that are going to pass away at some point? I feel like you see examples of this all over! Musicians who now claim to be agnostic, “pastors” who have shipwrecked their faith, you don’t have to look far to see this lived out today!

-Good soil are those who respond in faith and trust in God, and “bear fruit,” that is the multiplication that comes about from being in Christ.

-Let’s take all this back to the beginning: we need to be actively sowing the word if we’re disciples of Jesus, so as we sow, we should be paying attention to:

-How and where is this person’s heart? Where are you sowing the seed? (The need to sow doesn’t change! Did you notice that! Even those who are good soil will regularly need more seed added to help continue bearing fruit)

-A helpful way of summarizing where people at (continuing with the arrow that I used for our ‘Demystifying Discipleship’ series back in Nov/Dec.) is with 4 Es:

-Engage: this is someone who’s heart is the rocky soil. They’re not yet ready to be given an explicit gospel message and invitation to turn to Jesus, they just need a Christian to reach out to them and befriend them. Then as the Spirit works in them, they’ll slowly move to:

-Evangelize: this would be that moment where now they’re ready to be given more explicit calls of the Word, and more intentional sowing then you may have been doing up until that point. After someone hears the message and responds by putting their faith, hope, and confidence in Jesus, then we need to help them become:

-Established: this is help them learn, grow, and understand what it means to follow Jesus so their hearts don’t become either rocky soil or thorny soil. If you work with someone to help them understand where the thorns or rocks are in their life, they’ll be able to grow seed there instead of fall away.

-Finally, those who have weathered storms, been tempted by the cares of this world and endured, they’ll need help being equipped (think of Eph. 4:12), more intentionally and carefully trained so that we can have multiplication happening instead of just addition. The Christian faith isn’t a spectator sport, everyone has a job to do and a necessary role to play, otherwise God would take you somewhere else!

-There’s also the caution to be careful how you’re receiving the Word. Which soil is your heart?

-Even for those of us who are in Christ, we need to ensure we’re bearing fruit as we read, study, and apply the full breadth of God’s Word. As Micah reminded us in the NCC devotional this past week, we must submit ourselves to the full way God has revealed Himself to us through His Word. Where is your heart?

-Lastly, we need to acknowledge that the softening of the soil is the job of the Holy Spirit. Remember I said early that I think Jesus intentionally left the plowing out? That’s because it’s not our job! We sow the seed wherever and whenever we can, but it’s the job of the Holy Spirit to have been plowing the soil of someone’s heart to make them receptive to the seed! And that’s true of our hearts too: pray for the softening of your heart!

A Mystery (21-29)

-Jesus asked His disciples in vs. 13 why they couldn’t understand that first parable, because if they don’t get that one, none of the others will make sense. We don’t see Mark going back to the boat, but can be understood that these are examples of the kinds of parables Jesus would have used to teach the crowd. So view this as a cut scene back to Jesus teaching from the boat!

-The next parable relates to a lamp. What is the point of a lamp? To bring light. It would be a waste of time (and money) to buy a lamp and stick it under a basket or under a bed. (Hate to say it, but kind of like the superfluous pillows that get added around the house, ESPECIALLY to beds)

-The point is that Jesus is the light of the world, He has come to reveal the truths of who God is and what it means to be in relationship with Him, or what the kingdom of God is like. It’s like a light that shines into the darkness of the world, drawing people in, and exposing the darkness for what it really is

-This is an idea that I’ve really been captivated by over the past few months: Jesus, and thus Christianity, provides the ultimate answer to every longing in the human heart. Jesus is both the source and end to every desire people have. Think of your favorite food (nice medium rare steak with all the fixings, if it’s anything more than medium just get a hamburger!) Did you know that when Jesus comes back, He’s planning a feast with us? Think of taste buds that haven’t been ruined by age or sin! And that’s just a small piece! The eating of your favorite food is meant to serve to remind you who gave you those tastebuds in the first place. Food isn’t meant to be an end in and of itself.

-We have a tendency to view God as some cosmic killjoy who sits in heaven looking down at us frowning. No! God wants what’s best for us AND wants us to be in relationship with Him forever! Not to belittle or demean us, but to provide for us everything we need, and then some! It’s not a coincidence that He refers to Himself as our Father (not to say those who have strained relationship with their fathers should get over it)

-The next parable Jesus tells (24-25) means we need to pay careful attention to Jesus’ message! To those who pay careful attention to Jesus’ message, and obey it, they will get even more of that message! And if their hearts remain like the hardened soil, they’ll have nothing left.

-Jesus then adds another parable of sowing seeds. Think of the seeming insignificance of a seed! I remember one summer my parents decided to plant a big garden. My sister and I were each given a little portion to plant whatever we wanted, and I excited got my bag of seeds, opened the bag, and was super disappointed because they’re TINY! How in the world am I supposed to take care of these? But miraculously, they turned out! And it was exactly as Jesus described it here: I stuck it in the ground, watered it, and out came the corn, cucumbers, and peas that I had planted! It was a miracle! And then at the end of the summer we got to eat our food!

-How does seed work? At some level it is a mystery! (especially when you’re not good at taking care of plants!) I remember in science class in elementary school planting seeds and then being amazed as the roots would always go down, and the leaves would always go up, even changing direction as you moved the cup!

-How does the gospel work? At some level, it’s a mystery! I remember being an 8 year old kid meeting some neighbors and asking them why they didn’t go to church. Guess who showed up at church the next week! See our job is to be faithfully sowing, then watch in amazement as we see fruit being born from ordinary people like you and me.

-The outcome of the planting is bearing a harvest. It seems like a miracle, and it is from our perspective, because it’s completely a work of God. The kingdom of God is like that: seems little, seems like such a basic ordinary thing, but what comes out of it is nothing short of a miracle.

The Smallest Seed (30-34)

-That brings us to our final parable, that of a mustard seed.

-Once again, no small amount of ink has been spilled on this issue! Mostly related to mustard seeds definitely NOT being the smallest in the world, and it’s not SO big that a bird can plant itself in it!

-Mustard seed is representing the smallest seed in the world. It looks so insignificant when you think about the size of the plant it becomes. Some mustard plants can grow as high as 20-30 feet! No small plant! Birds could easily find a safe place to nest in a group of these!

-Like that seemingly insignificant seed, the kingdom of God begins by looking like something that is tiny and insignificant (a baby being born in a manger), but eventually will grow to the point of encompassing everything in the world!

-One of the commentators I read this week summarized Jesus’ point helpfully by saying: “The paradox of the gospel—indeed, the scandal of the Incarnation—is disguised in such commonplaces.” (James Edwards, Pillar)

-Think about that: the way God’s kingdom works is by using things that appear trivial, like you could throw it away and it wouldn’t matter at all, but then over time it slowly grows and grows to the point that it literally casts its shadow over everything else that exists. Do you want to know what that looks like? Look at our world today! I talked in Sermon Scraps last week about all the ways the world tries to say Christians are backwards, bigots, opposed to progress, yet they don’t realize that every advancement of human rights is connected directly to Christian ethics and a Christian worldview. This little message that Jesus shared 2,000 years ago has literally changed the entire course of human civilization. I was just listening to a podcast yesterday on just war theory, which has profoundly influenced the way the Western world has generally approached war. Do you know where that comes from? The Bible! Do you want to know the places in the world that have the most rights for women in the world today? Look to the places that had 19^th Century Protestant missionaries! Jesus’ message has shaped everything we live on today, and it’s only because of Jesus that we have any hope for a more blessed future.

-These parables were meant to help Jesus’ followers understand and believe in the truths of what He says! The kingdom of God can’t be summarized in a few word descriptions, it will never be fully understood (until Jesus returns), but it is like a tiny seed that seems trivial until it’s planted in someone’s life and takes root. And once it’s taken root, there’s no turning back! If you let it, it will literally transform you from the inside out. So as we saw in the first parable: what kind of soil do you have? Is your heart letting the kingdom of God grow in you? Are you on Jesus’ side, or are you opposed to Him?

Mark 3:20-35 Sermon Manuscript

PLEASE NOTE: these are the notes I use to preach from, if you would like to hear them in context, please watch our YouTube video.

-One of Cara’s and my favorite genre of movie to watch is sports movies. Generally leave you inspired, feeling like you can take over the world! One of the best is Remember the Titans. It follows a football team from a recently unsegregated school in Virginia. While tensions are high at the beginning and racial biases are repeatedly brought to the forefront, by the end of the season the guys are all best friends. One of the pivotal scenes in the movie is when one of the white players gets in a pretty serious car accident. His best friend from the team (who happens to be black) comes to visit him. As he walks into the room, the nurse says: “Only kins allowed in here” The player lying on the bed says: “Alice, are you blind? Don’t you see the family resemblance? That’s my brother.”

-In today’s text, we’re going to look at what it means to be family. You may have heard the church referred to as “the family of God,” but what is that? Why would we want to be a part of family that’s as broken and messed up as the church?

READ/PRAY (489)

Family Opposition, Part 1 (20-21)

-Last week we saw Jesus call the 12 disciples/apostles. He’s constituting a new Israel, a new people of God to represent Him to the world. Remember that they’re represented by: time with, sent by Him, and preaching with authority to fight against the devil.

-Those are the markers of faithful ministry even down to today. We’re supposed to be marked by time with Jesus, if we’re a disciple we have been sent by Jesus, and our role as being sent is to preach/share the gospel message far and wide! (we’ll look at that idea in more detail next week)

-But what do you think happens if someone misses what it means to follow after God? We’ve seen increasing opposition to Jesus’ ministry throughout the Gospel, but it takes a unique turn in today’s passage, as you should have heard as we read it, because who adds to the opposition today? Let’s look and see:

-Home: back to Capernaum at Peter’s house.

-Last week Jesus went up to the mountains to get away from the crowds and began his specific ministry to the 12 disciples. Lots of options for where those mountains could have been, Capernaum is basically in the middle of a mountainous region (think more CO than MN)

-I said this a few weeks ago, but keep in mind that Jesus’ early ministry is VERY localized! He hasn’t gone too far outside of Capernaum yet, but the surrounding areas keep flocking to Him, as we see by the return of the character:

-The crowd: once again, getting in Jesus’ way. The crowd keeps showing up again and again and keeps interfering with Jesus’ ministry. A couple notes on this:

-Size does not equal success. Size can be measured a few different ways: ABCs (adults, buildings, cash), today it can by YouTube views (or Insta likes, depending on your social of choice). People I’ve talked to today have tried building a “platform” to expand their following, I talked to some friends at a recent conference who were complaining about someone wanting to plug their book to them (and then someone at the conference told me he wanted to send me his new book!).

-But there’s also a flip side to this that is just as much a problem in the church: viewing decline as the biggest pursuit because you’re being “persecuted.” Or you see it with someone being antagonistic on the socials actively looking to stir up division. Both of these are over emphasizing numbers and missing what Jesus has actually called us to: faithfulness & fruitfulness (are you a little fruity?)

-Faithful to the faith once for all delivered to the saints, fruitful in having an eternal impact on those around you. Once again, we have this point of tension that we need to be comfortable in! Speaking the truth in love is hard!

-This crowd, as we’ve seen multiple times so far want something from Jesus. They’ve seen the miracles, they’ve witnessed the exorcisms, maybe some people are just around for the show! They’ve heard Jesus best the smartest people of the day and they’re hoping for another showdown. But it forces us to ask the question: what do you want from Jesus? Do you just come for the show? Are you expecting Him to magically fix all your problems and you’ll stick around until those are solved? Or do you want Jesus and nothing else? Think of the old spiritual ‘Give Me Jesus’ that said “You can have all this world, but give me Jesus.” And to be honest, Jesus won’t stop pushing at you until He’s all you have left!

-Fame continues to spread, even those in Nazareth are hearing about what Jesus has been doing, which includes His family.

-“seize him” is overly passive, better translation would be “arrest” or “coerce”, one translation put “restrain him.” This wasn’t a friendly visit!

-What were they saying about Jesus? Out of his mind! But then Mark moves quickly on, leaving us hanging:

-Markan sandwich, connects another story to it. Throughout this book, Mark will begin one story, stick a different story in the middle of it that is connected thematically, then return to the original story, so we’ll take a look at a similar idea from a different perspective. Not only was His family opposed to Him:

Legal Opposition (22-30)

-Scribes from Jerusalem

-Up until this point he would have been a bit of a local nuisance, but as His fame spreads, the news eventually gets to the main office in Jerusalem. This would signify that the highest people would have started seeing it as a legitimate threat to their authority. So not only were regular people coming all the way from Jerusalem, now the authorities are getting involved!

-They’ve seen Jesus’ miracles, the exorcisms, the healings (or at the very least word has reached them) and have come up with a solution: possessed by Beelzebul. No one’s sure where this name came from, could have been a way of referring to the prince of demons (which connects it to the rest of the phrase). A literal translation is the “prince of dung.” Not a kind way of referring to Jesus!

-Once again, Jesus knows exactly what’s going on so He invites them in and welcomes the conversation.

-I think this is one of those areas we would do well to take note of! Is Jesus too scared to bring up or talk about any issue? Not that I’ve found yet, and I’ve been reading the Bible through for a while at this point! Why do we have a tendency to act like some topics are off limits for the church to talk about? If we believe Jesus is THE way THE truth and THE life, that means that He is the source of all truth, meaning no topic is too taboo, no issue is disconnected, and nothing is too trivial to address and bring it back to the ultimate source of that truth.

-When I was growing up that issue was sex. As long as it wasn’t brought up kids wouldn’t find out about it, or as long as our kids were sheltered enough they wouldn’t have to deal with certain sins. Hate to break it to you, but I first learned about sex in the church with other kids my age! Whether or not we wanted to admit it, kids were going to be kids and talk about it! Today we’ve got more things we’re not supposed to talk about: race issues (better: ethnic issues), money, and politics. Once again, let me ask: do you think Jesus had any problem talking about any of those issues? In just a couple chapters, Jesus is going to break all sorts of ethnic barriers down and begin ministering to Gentiles. He talks about money more than He talks about heaven, and as I mentioned last week, He intentionally chose 2 of His 12 disciples from the polar opposite ends of the political spectrum (imagine the conversations/debates they had as they walked everywhere!)

-So if Jesus is willing to engage any and every topic imaginable, what do you think His disciples should be willing to do? Probably engage every issue that comes our way! The reality is: if we’re careful and pay attention to what issue is being address, we’ll find some way it connects to the truth, and use that as a bridge to point someone to Jesus. It’s not hard, it just takes a little bit of intentionality and paying careful attention to what someone is saying!

-Now, Jesus was a master of this! He knew how to provide the solutions that no one else was anticipating, and how to get to the underlying issues that were actually going on. Which means, the scribes should have brought their A-game to interact with Him! Instead, they just picked 1 dumb argument (as we’ll see) and stuck with it! Made the most sense to them, but didn’t actually make a lick of sense!

-What are parables? We often think of them as connected to the Sermon on the Mount, or short stories that drive home a point, but the original word contains a much wider range of interpretations, from stories, to pithy sayings, to riddles or even illustrations! Almost anything to make a point.

-Jesus basically tells 3 stories, 1 that communicates the absurdity of the logic, the second that communicates what Jesus is ACTUALLY doing, and then lands on what the scribes are doing, which is important to understand what is being said about the unforgivable sin!

-First stories connect to the absurdity of what the scribes are saying. Those who are demon possessed are out of their minds! No control, lashing out at others, and when Jesus comes, He brings compassion, self-control, understanding, and holistic healing. Satan comes to kill, steal, and destroy. He’s the ultimate author or leprosy, of a man having a lame hand, of a cripple being unable to walk! Why in the world would Satan fight against himself? It’s a terrible argument! It’s the same thing with a kingdom divided against itself, and a house, and then again back to Satan. I’ve seen this happen before with sports! Think of the iconic play where Chris Webber is playing for Michigan in the national championship against North Carolina. With seconds left, he called a timeout when the team was out of timeouts, leading to him receiving a technical foul and giving the other team 2 free throws. Or other times where someone completely forgot which basket they were supposed to be shooting at and shoot in the wrong hoop and score for the other team. They’re only hurting themselves, and that’s the exact point Jesus is making in this section! If Jesus is really the “prince of demons” wouldn’t He just be fighting against Himself? It’s a terrible argument! Now I don’t have time to dig into this today, but there are all sorts of examples of this in the world around us today! People using terrible logic to try to argue against Christianity, I’ll be talking about some of them in Sermon Scraps tomorrow, but I’d also be interested in some of the reasons you’ve heard! Email me if you think of some!

-The second story is about a strong man (27). Spent a whole week studying this verse in college! Who is the strong man? Why does he need to be bound up? In context, the strong man is Satan, and Jesus coming to earth has bound Satan for this season. So instead of Satan fighting against Satan, Jesus is the stronger man who came to earth to bind Satan for a season by bringing healings, exorcisms and preaching the good news of the kingdom of heaven. That’s what Jesus is accomplishing through His ministry! He’s not in cahoots with Satan, He’s actively fighting against Him!

-This brings us to the final story, and a passage that has brought no small amount of debate over the centuries: the unpardonable or unforgiveable sin. Jesus even says every other sin will be forgive EXCEPT this one. And why is it worse to blaspheme the HS than Jesus?

-First time we’ve seen Jesus begin a statement with the word “Truly” (lit. Amen) This word is used all over the OT to give validity to what was said, but it’s always at the end of a statement. Jesus beginning a phrase with it signifies that Jesus is speaking with His own authority, and can almost be thought of as saying “Thus says the Lord”

-As for the unforgiveable sin, notice that Mark adds a descriptive piece in vs. 30. This tells us that this unforgiveable sin is connected to seeing Jesus’ works (which are done by the HS, remember we saw Jesus submit Himself to the Spirit right after His baptism), and attributing them to the devil. One author summarized it by saying “It is deliberately repudiating the truth about Jesus.” (Andy Naselli)

-What about someone who is antagonizing over whether that inadvertently said something that they’re convinced was this sin? I’ve talked to multiple people in my time in ministry who have worried about this! Yet here’s the reality: if you are at all worried you have committed this sin, I can almost guarantee you haven’t committed it. Those who have committed this sin don’t care. They remain callous and hard hearted toward the works of the Lord. So instead of living in fear of future condemnation, we need to remember that there is NO condemnation for anyone who is in Christ Jesus. So: do you trust Jesus today? And do you trust Him today more than you did yesterday? Great! You haven’t committed this sin!

Yet at the same time, we would do well to view this as a warning: keep short accounts. Keep living a life of repentance and keep in step with the Spirit.

-As for why it’s worse to blaspheme the HS and not the Father or the Son, I think John Piper has a helpful summary:

-The Holy Spirit is the one who softens our hearts, who awakens our hearts to the realities of the gospel message, and if we refuse to acknowledge Him, we will be condemned.

-Jesus doesn’t say these scribes have committed it, but He’s warning them of the implications of what they’re saying! Be careful of what you say and who you’re accusing of being in league with the devil!

-All that just served to signify the opposition Jesus faces, because then Mark shifts right back to where we cut in vs. 21:

Family Opposition, Part 2 (31-35)

-Jesus dealt with the opposition of the scribes, no surprise there, the family tension is much more difficult and acute.

-Notice who’s described here: mother and brothers. Think back to December where we studied Jesus’ birth. How long would it take you to forget the arrival of the angels, the miraculous inception, the crazy shepherds showing up, the Magi from the East? How long does it take you to forget what God has done in your life?

-Not just Mary, Jesus’ brothers come too! (anti-Catholic idea of perpetual virginity of Mary) Jesus had at least 4 brothers, and an unknown number of sisters (Mark 6:3). Now, I don’t know about you, but I would have struggled with my brother claiming to be God! On top of that, imagine what growing up with Him would have been like!

-Once again, the crowd is playing a role: this time they serve as a buffer between Jesus and His biological family. Just as the crowd wanted something from Him, His family isn’t trying to figure out Jesus’ ultimate aim, they’re trying to save face. Remember, we saw at the beginning of the chapter that Jesus didn’t even have time to eat, the crowd was so thick. So the word would have started in the back, slowly traveled person by person until they reach Jesus, who once again would have been doing what He’d been sent to earth to do: preach!

-Not completely dismissing of family, but redirects the conversation. This would have been completely unthinkable in the 1^st century context! We’re so individualized here today that we can’t fathom this, but in this time family was EVERYTHING. We saw in chapter 6 that people knew His whole family! The Jews were especially conscientious of family lineage. And Jesus wants to take that good idea, and put a new spin on it.

-Just as He was creating a new Israel with the 12 apostles, now He’s creating a new lineage, a new genealogy defined by a spiritual reality instead of a physical reality. God’s family is no longer comprised of ethnic distinctions, but spiritual distinctions, that’s what God wanted at the beginning anyway! Transformed lives, not just external obedience!

-I shared at the beginning an illustration from Remember the Titans: Jesus is telling us here that our primary allegiances today need to change! If we’re a part of God’s family, our allegiance is to our brothers and sister in the church. Honestly, I don’t know how people survive without the church! We had people come help us clean our house when we moved in, paint every wall, replace toilets, flooring. Even this past week: our van died and next thing I know, Eric Zaske is offering one of his vehicles for me to use and Chris and Ian Wolfgram came over to help me replace the starter on the van!

-Those are small things, but they mean the world to me! But think about what it means that we’re a part of God’s family:

-What religion would allow you to approach God (creator and sustainer of everything that exists) as a family member? Keller tweet. Do you know that Jesus is your perfect Heavenly Father who cares more about you than you could ever realize? That nothing is too trivial to ask, and nothing is left out of His oversight?

-The reality is: we’re all a part of a family, the question is which family are you a part of? The scribes today demonstrated that they’re a part of the wrong family, and joining the right family is so simply a child can do it. Yet it takes a choice, so the question in front of us all today is: do you want to be a part of God’s family? It’s easy! As we saw in today’s text, it’s whoever does the will of God. So repent of your sin, believe in Jesus and you will be saved!

Pastor Mike's Musings

All posts for the month March, 2023

Mark 5:21-6:6 Sermon Manuscript

Mark 4:1-34 – Sermon Manuscript

Mark 3:20-35 Sermon Manuscript

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