All posts in category Life

Care for the Nations – Sermon Manuscript

-MLK Day tomorrow – read his ‘I have a dream speech’

-I preached on this issue last Spring, but thought it would be worth revisiting (ethnocentrism vs racism)

-You can go back and listen to that message if you want to hear more detail about it, but one of the biggest things I learned from my study then was the idea of “othering.” 

-Othering is at the core of relational strife and conflict, and all of us are guilty of it.

-Driving: anyone who drives slower than you is an idiot, anyone who drives faster than you is a maniac. We all condemn others while excusing ourselves. I heard someone say we view others through a judgment lens and view ourselves through a grace lens.

-Think back to Gen. 3 – the Fall. Instead of identifying himself with his wife, Adam removed himself from her and from God. “It wasn’t my fault! It was the woman you gave me!” And that sin has passed down to every child since then.

-Every person is trying to make sense of the world, and the differences between people are one of the easiest things to see! Tall vs. short, athletic vs. unathletic, smart vs. dumb, rich vs. poor. 

-Wherever you’re at, the human heart’s general drive is to look with suspicion on anyone who isn’t the same as you, and some of that is even taught in our culture! Think of sports where if you don’t adhere to a specific set of skills you’re out. Or school, which tends to reward those who can read and comprehend information, but penalizes those who are good at working with their hands.

-Every culture has a standard that it judges everyone by, and none of them align perfectly with God’s commands for how people are to live. But if we want to have God’s heart towards others, we need to recognize and confess of our own temptation to alienate others (“othering”)

READ/PRAY (pg. 511)

  1. The Problem of Othering (9-12)

-Notice who Jesus directs this parable to: “confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else” 

-What is righteousness? Someone who keeps the commands of God, or completely innocent, or someone who is truly accepted by God. It’s a loaded term! It means no one has anything against you. But it always comes about by a sliding scale, or grading on a curve, because if you really dig down into it all of us have areas where we’re not even living up to our own standards, but we don’t like to admit it.

-And this sense of righteousness tends to manifest itself in looking down on others. Why? Because you judge everyone based on your strengths while refusing to acknowledge any weakness or wrongdoing of your own. I think football gives a great picture of this because of the wide variety of body types required to play football. Think of last year, when “iced Kirk Cousins” went viral, I heard someone comment “He doesn’t have a football players body!” And they were right! If he were a running, receiver, or lineman! But he’s a quarterback, which requires a very different set of skills!

-How does this tie into “othering”? If Kirk decided he was tired of getting sacked and started lining up on the line how well do you think that would go? Not very! Cara and I just watched the documentary Kelce (really hoping she doesn’t become an Eagles fan) and Jason Kelce (center for the Eagles) has a VERY different body type than either his brother (TE) or Kirk. But if any of them got frustrated about it and tried playing the other’s position it would be a disaster! That’s the idea Jesus is getting at here. God has created us uniquely and differently, and we need to ensure we’re using the right standards when we engage with others. 

-Back to the text: prayers at the temple happened 2x a day, during atoning sacrifices. Believed that if you prayed during those times God would answer your prayers. So Jesus is providing the context for us to interpret this correctly. 2 men joined the crowd of people who were going up to have God answer their prayers.

-Describes the Pharisee as standing “by himself” 

-Removed from the scum, didn’t want to catch the sin from those nearby. Contrast that with Jesus! Bleeding woman, lepers, blind, deaf, even the dead! Instead of “othering” or standing far off by Himself, Jesus enters in.

-Think of the way the Pharisee prays vs. the way Jesus taught us to pray

-In the Greek, the personal pronoun “I” appears 5 times in these 2 verses. Some people even argue that this should be translated as Him praying to Himself. How many first person singular pronouns do you see in the Lord’s prayer? Zero. I see 8 first person plural pronouns! God’s design is for us to be in community! 

-This Pharisee thought he was righteous because of what he did. In the 1st century the Pharisees were the heroes! They gave generously, they followed the law perfectly. Jesus even acknowledged that: Matt. 5:20 “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” They were the gold standard by which everyone else would be judged! Yet Jesus is telling everyone that they’re using the wrong standard.

-Jesus goes on to say: Matt. 6:1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” If all we’re looking for is horizontal (explain the difference between horizontal and vertical relationship) recognition and acclaim it’s really easy to self-justify.

-The way we do it today is “authenticity.” I’m just being true to myself! You can’t speak that way about me! What if you being true to yourself leaves a mess of relationships in your wake? Is that still ok?

-On top of that culturally today we’re all becoming increasingly tribal and partisan, when Jesus can’t be easily contained by any of our cultural or sociological boxes (listen to last week’s sermon for that)

-Notice who the Pharisee compares himself to: all those who were disobedient to God’s law, which this Pharisee obviously didn’t do! Not only did he not do those evil things, he didn’t associate with the wrong people (tax collector)

-And he went above and beyond God’s commands: fasting was required 1/year, he did it twice a week. Tithing was just monetary, he would tithe on his spices! Think about that! He believed He had everything in life figured out, and that there was nothing lacking in his life.

-He was comparing purely horizontally, neglecting (what Jesus described as) the weightier matters of the law. Matt. 23:23-24 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!” How does Jesus summarize the weightier matters of the law? Justice, mercy, and faithfulness. 

-Jesus is saying if we truly want to obey the law, we need to practice justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Justice is a loaded term today! We’ll get there in a bit, but if Jesus is ok using it, so should we! 

-Now here’s where this gets difficult: if as we worked through this you started thinking of someone else who needed to hear this message, you’ve missed the point of what Jesus is saying.

-One of the commentaries I read shared a Sunday School lesson where the teacher worked through this passage and then asked Johnny to pray at the end, and he prayed “Lord I thank you that we are not like the Pharisee.” But then our tendency is to chuckle and say “Lord I thank you that I’m not like Johnny” and on and on the “othering” goes! 

-Instead, we need a (Copernican) complete revolution in where we looking and to whom we’re comparing.

  • The Solution to Othering (13-14)

-Tax collector oriented his life in a different direction. Where the Pharisee only looked at others, the tax collector couldn’t even bring himself to look up.

-He’s standing off too, but not because he’s worried about infection, but because he didn’t dare approach God in his current state. Not necessarily demeaning himself, but recognition that he is a sinner in need of grace.

-What’s your approach when you wake up in the mornings? Self-justifying or self-demeaning? See if we only look at others or inward we’re going to remain broken, either looking down on others or looking down on ourselves.

-It’s only when you orient your gaze in the right direction that you can start to have a proper understanding and ordering of everything in the world.

-Tax collector faced othering all the time. Scorn, ridicule, belittled by everyone in his community. The Pharisee faced claim and recognition, and both are dangerous.

-Pharisee pursues othering from being good, tax pursue othering from the way he collected taxes and using finances as his way of achieving some level of acceptance.

-How does he respond?

-Beating your breast was very uncommon for men. Signified profound sadness and mourning, typically reserved for women at funerals. Yet here in public he’s demonstrating how broken he is and in need of help.

-The word used for “mercy” was better translated “atoning sacrifice,” he’s asking for someone to take his place because he knows that apart from that his situation is hopeless. Unless someone become “othered” for him, he has no hope of coming near God.

-The story leaves us on a cliffhanger for the man! He doesn’t know if he’s placing his hope in the right place! But we do. And that’s where Jesus’ othering is completely different than the way we other.

-Jesus provides a model for how we’re to view “othering” that takes place today. It has no standing apart from His atoning sacrifice (mercy)

-How is this man justified? He asks. Similar to the man crucified next to Jesus. The solution to othering is to ask Jesus to change your heart, perspective, and orientation. And the reality we’ll never fully get it right! We know that to be justified means we need to stop “othering,” we recognize that’s only possible because Jesus became “othered” for us, but what do we do with that now? 

  • The Othering in Our Lives

-There are a lot of buzzwords that are thrown around today when we get to this idea of “othering” that tend to create even more divides in people than were in place before. 

-Additionally, the words themselves have almost become useless, and a way of merely stopping conversation than actually having a meaningful impact. Last year when I preached on this issue, I didn’t engage any of them, but this year we’re going to look at 3 of them: social justice, woke, and CRT (critical race theory).

-Please don’t immediately jump to conclusions or get nervous. Church, we NEED to be willing to talk about these issues here because otherwise we won’t have be able to be the faithful presence God has called us to be in the world He has created. Just as the Pharisee stood far off as if other’s sin would somehow taint him, we can have a tendency to not engage for fear of being tainted. We need Christians who are educated and equipped to bring the solution to everyone’s problems into the world, including ethnocentrism!

-I’ve shared this quote before, but I want to begin with it again: “If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. He’s saying that in order to deal with the evil in the world, it must begin with us dealing with the evil in our heart, which means if we want to actually see justice taking place, we need the gospel.

-To deal with othering today, we need to admit and acknowledge that we’re no better than anyone else. Rom. 3:23 says ALL have sinned, they have fallen short of how God has created and commanded us to live. No one’s immune to sins effects! 

-In the midst of a lot of the noise that has been thrown around over the past few years, the EFCA this summer released a document titled “Where we stand in the EFCA: Denials and Affirmations” to provide an overview of what the EFCA believes and how we engage divisive cultural issues today. Hence why social justice, woke, and CRT is what I want to engage today! There’s more than I have time for today, so I will again be doing a Sunday School class walking through all of these issues in more detail starting in March.

-First up: social justice. Notice the quotes around that phrase (not scare quotes) and the capitalization. It’s referring to a specific ideology that runs contrary to the way Scripture tells us the world operates. By itself, that phrase is beautifully biblical! The gospel message is by definition social in that God restores a broken relationship with us, Jesus’ death allows us to be social again with God. 

-But that being said, biblical justice also has societal implications for us. Think of the story Jesus tells of his return in Matt. 25. Who does he invite into his glory? Those who gave him food when he was hungry, drink when he was thirsty, welcomed him when he was a stranger, etc. When asked when they did that, Jesus says it was whenever you did it to the least of these, the poor and the marginalized. We can’t do everything for everyone, but one thing we can do is pray for everyone, and start looking for opportunities in your life to care for those others aren’t (schools, neighborhoods, work)

-Justice video 

-Second, woke! Some big words here: critical theory, not CRT yet (humanities study that focuses on societal power dynamics looking for previously unnoticed power dynamics that marginalize people). It has become a whole way of studying humanities with all sorts of implications.

-The reality is we don’t need critical theory to tell us that people are sinners and will sin, even against each other! That’s page 2 of the Bible! This means that even the institutions and organizations that we build will be affected by sin in ways that we probably won’t even fully understand until glory. 

-We also see that part of what we’re called to as God’s people is pursuing reconciliation (2 Cor. 5) and restoration (1 Peter 5:10)

-I think it’s also important for us to remember that we don’t fight against flesh and blood. 2 Cor. 4:4 “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel.” We need to implore people to be awakened from their blindness! Think of Eph. 5:14“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” That’s the “wokeness” we want! Spiritually awake to the realities of what God is actually doing around us.

-Finally, for today, CRT. 

-Part of the difficulty with all of these ideologies is they’re great at pointing out problems, but terrible at providing legitimate solutions. For example, if everything becomes a struggle between oppressed and oppressor, what happens if the roles actually do become reversed, where those who were once oppressed now have all the power and privilege. Aren’t we now in the exact same spot we were before, we’ve just switched groups.

-Some of this is because we as the church haven’t been good at reading the whole Bible and bringing it to bear in our world and culture today. We pick and choose the issues we want to make primary and neglect the rest. 

-I think of someone like CH Spurgeon who faced death threats for speaking against the slavery of the US. We need at admit and acknowledge where we’ve gotten in wrong in the past, and be willing to admit where we’ve gotten it wrong today so that we can have a better understanding of what God has actually said to us in His Word.

-We’re all accidental heretics 

-We’re called to unity in the midst of diversity (John 17:20-23). Revelation talks about people from every tribe and tongue gathered around the throne. (7:9) We should celebrate where our culture starts to see sin manifesting itself, and then look to jump in with the gospel message, the only true hope we have!

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by mikethestrand on January 14, 2024  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Life, Relationships, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on January 14, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/01/14/care-for-the-nations-sermon-manuscript/

Politics Sermon Manuscript

Christians and Politics

-Disclaimer: I am not and will not claim to be an expert in political theory. I didn’t really want to approach this topic, but I feel like I need to. I am a pastoral theologian who sees it as my job to read, study, and pray so that I can help us as this local people think through how to live in this world God has created.

-As I’ve processed and thought through this issue I have been heavily influenced by 2 books, and a Podcast. Politics After Christendom, How the Nations Rage, Every Square Inch

-We’ve all lost friends and some have lost family to this issue. There’s been a sense of betrayal and for some of us a lot of questions and doubt because of the ways politics has been engaged in our world today. 

-For today, don’t let me be one of those friends you lose! I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: don’t jump to conclusions based on something I’m not saying as we navigate this issue. There are some areas where I’ll speak very strongly, and others less emphatically, which I think we need to do. We all have a tendency to take 1 issue as our only view and neglect other areas that we need to give special attention to

-Remember theological triage! Just as we need to give more significant attention to theological issues, we also need to give more significant attention to political issues, we need to have political triage too.

-We’re entering another Presidential election year, I think it’s important for us to think about this now so we’re not completely reactionary (which is where I think we in the church tend to be!)

-Politics has become too important in our world.

-For many people, as church engagement has waned, political engagement has taken its’ place. For many people, politics has become their religion! They give their time, money, and talents to furthering the cause of their side. They look to their elected leaders as their priests who will help them usher them into their idea of a “promised land.” There’s a language that you must adopt to be affiliated, a way of living that accompanies it, and if the election doesn’t go their way they become despondent, questioning their entire existence. That’s too far.

-At the root, this is a worship issue, as you’ll see when as we walk through today’s message. When people don’t worship God, they’ll worship anything. That’s at the root of so many of the issues in our world today! (Topic for another time!) 

-Also doing a class starting the 21st looking at a number of these issues in much more detail (using How the Nations Rage as our textbook for it), so if you want to dialogue about this issue further, that’s the class for you!

-Lots of texts, view this as more of a lecture than a sermon because I think we need a biblical foundation to build on, then the last point will get to what this means for us today. But the phrase I want you to keep in the back of your mind throughout this whole message: FAITHFUL PRESENCE

READ/PRAY 

  1. Politics is TEMPORARY

–Gen. 8:20-9:7

-God is a covenant making God, but there’s something unique about this covenant. God previously made a covenant with Adam, He’ll go on to make covenants with Abraham, Moses, David, and finally us in what’s often called the “New Covenant.” But there’s something different and unique about the Noahic covenant. It’s post-Fall, but it’s also universal in it’s scope. Every other covenant is geared toward a specific people group (holy, set apart, different from the world). Noah’s covenant doesn’t leave anyone or anything out. This is why we need to begin with this text to understand the role and purpose of government: it’s for all peoples of the earth. But there’s a couple other things that this text tells us. 

-Universal, preservative, and temporary.

-Preservative: first notice 8:21-22 – never will everything be wiped out, and the seasons will continue. Also in 9:1, 5-6 – families are commanded to multiply, and humans are to be treated honorably (death is opposed to God’s intent). God’s intent is for the preservation of His creation. Combine this with the Adamic covenant, we are commissioned by God to steward His creation, preserving it, working it, bringing food and flourishing from it.

-Finally, this is one that I hadn’t really noticed before, but this is temporary. Look at 8:22 “while the earth remains.” This world won’t remain forever. History is moving in a specific direction (which we’ll start studying next month in Revelation). This means that politics is only a temporary endeavor. It’s worth investing in, we’re actually commanded by other passages to remain engaged politically, but don’t treat politics as the ultimate solution to a broken world.

-The reason we need to remain engaged is because we are commanded to “be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth,” and if we’re going to pursue that, what do we need? Some kind of structures that will allow us to raise families. I found the language from Politics After Christendom helpful. I’m just going to mention them briefly, and then move on because if you want to engage further, come to the Equip Class! 

-familial: procreation and raising of children

-enterprise: as procreation takes place we need ways to feed and provide for the growing population (farming, building, technology)

-judicial: ensuring justice is just and reasonable. Provides a way to settle disputes among people

-3 things we see from Genesis: 1-God’s plan post-fall is for humans to expand, filling the earth. 2- To do that means we need some system or way of working together. 3- Governments role in that is preservative in nature, and these governmental structures are only as long as this earth endures. But then what that means for us today is:

  • The CHURCH is Political (and not in the way you think!)

-In order to have politics (structure for a society) you need: laws, regulations, leadership of some sort. And what’s crazy is the church has all that! Let’s start in the OT:

-Jer. 31:31-34

-Notice the covenantal language here. God is providing a framework for His people to exist in the world, which means this is the way God wants politics to work. But this covenant is different from the covenant with Noah. Who does this apply to? “The house of Israel” aka God’s people. 

-Unlike every other nation, this time the laws won’t be on stone tablets, or long legal documents, or a constitution, or a monarchy, or tradition. This time the laws will be on our hearts, which means people’s orientation, drive, desire will be correct. It’s not that everyone will be guided by their hearts to do whatever they feel is right, but that we will always only want to do what pleases Him.

-We also see that God will be our ultimate ruler, which means there’s no need for anyone else to tell us how to live. A true theocracy where Jesus it the King!

-Lastly there’s no need for judicial courts. Since everyone is being led by the Lord, and because it’s a theocracy, sin has already been dealt with. There’s justice, but only because God has dealt with it when he took the penalty for everyone’s sin on the cross.

-This is true today! In the church. The church is meant to be a counter-kingdom to the kingdoms of this world. And Jesus gives us some pictures of what that looks like:

-Matt. 5:2-12

-Do you see Jesus tells you how to enter the everlasting kingdom of heaven: being poor in spirit – that is understanding that we aren’t self-sufficient, that we can’t save ourselves and that we need the help of someone else.

-A contrary ethic to the world. I read a blog once that flipped these around to describe the world, and unfortunately some worldly churches. If you want to see what the kingdom of earth looks like, it’s like this. 

-But if you want to be a part of the kingdom of heaven, it looks different. How do stop someone who is meek, merciful, pure in heart, and a peacemaker? You could kill them, which is what Jesus says! But these means of living are meant to describe us in EVERY situation (including political discussions). Are you meek in those talks? Are you merciful (extending charity toward others), pure in heart (assuming the best of others even when they disagree), peacemaker (instead of constantly fighting and bickering).

-Expect persecution! THIS WORLD ISN’T OUR HOME! NO NATION IS MEANT TO BE OUR HOME! We are sojourners, strangers, aliens. We also see this in the way Jesus taught us to pray:

-Matt. 6:9-13

-“Your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

-The goal is for earth to look like heaven. But it doesn’t and it won’t because earth doesn’t recognize who the true ruler is (yet!)

-The way Jesus literally commands us to pray is to begin with a recognition that this world and its’ rulers will pass away. Did you know (we’ll get to it in Revelation) the kings of the world will bring the glory they developed into heaven? Rev. 21:26 “They will bring into it the glory and honor of the nations.” How cool is that? The technological advances will be purified such that they will no longer be used as objects to sin, but ways to better and further glorify God! 

-What I want you to take away from these 2 passages is the church is meant to be a counter-kingdom to the kingdoms of this world. There are different expectations, different hopes, different leaders, and there’s an eternal direction to them. That means that instead of operating as the world tries to get us to operate, we’re now citizens of heaven! But how do we engage as we’re also still citizens of earth?

-Rom. 13:1-7

-The Bible is explicit in a couple places about the role and function of government, and it’s one that people often run to before they’ve done any of this other work to get there! AND there was a whole HOST of debates about this very text when COVID was going on!

-Begins with a reminder that every earthly ruler is ultimately accountable to God (remember, we saw the basic instructions for earthly rulers back in Gen. 9), which means the default for Christians is to look for opportunities to obey the government. Yes, there are times and places where disobedience is required (think of our brothers and sisters in N Korea, China, Iraq), but the default should be obedience. Christians should be the best citizens! This was true in the early church. Letter to Diognetus, AD 130. 

-Would this be true of you today?

-Do good and not bad, be good citizens! 

-1 Peter 2:13-17

-“Punish those who do evil and praise those who do good.” I love that description! Now I don’t have time today to get into situations where the government is praising evil and punishing those who do good, come to my class if you want to talk more about that!

-Part of the reason we’re called to be good citizens is vs. 15. Think of that letter I just read – if we’re living as God has commanded us our very lives should be the primary explanation and example for what it means to follow Jesus. Remember, if He is our Lord and King (which He is) that has implications in how we should live here and now.

-Both recognition of the legitimacy of the emperor, but he is supposed to be treated differently than God. Peter uses the same word towards the emperor as everyone else, thus affirming the sole Lordship of God and the emperor’s place in our allegiance.

  • How CHRISTIANS Should Be Political

-Church has tended to experience either persecution or power. We’ve seen this swing throughout history, and the church has struggled with both of these extremes.

-The Christian church as a political party isn’t the ideal. America is unique in that: protects from persecution, but doesn’t give the church power. 

-That means that imperfections in our society are manifested in a partisan way: everyone plays partisan games, church is tempted to the same idea and ends up fighting the same “wars.” The trend is when the church is exempt from persecution and power to become partisan, that is identified solely with one political party. Politicians LOVE this! Because it means they can claim hold to an entire demographic of people. I onetime heard someone say: politicians are going to politic, we should expect no less. 

-“Jesus is political, but He is not partisan. The kingdom of God has political implications, but it is not a political kingdom.”  Cunningham, ESI

–Jer. 29:4-7

-Seek the welfare of the city “for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” We must remain engaged as a faithful presence in the world. Jesus describes us a salt, that is a preservative. We’re looking to preserve the things of earth that are signposts of heaven. So if God calls you into politics, do so with a different approach than the world. It’s not for power, but for presence. If God calls you to just be a good citizen, be the best citizen you can be, not for power but to be a faithful presence. (the church as an embassy?)

–Matt. 22:15-22

-Christian political vision: 

-Government legislates morality. Christians aren’t the only one who push their morality, everyone does. Intersection of faith and politics is unavoidable. 

-Jews heavily tax. Rome had “head” tax (a quarter), a reminder of their oppression, on the coin “Caesar, the son of god, the great high priest.” Let Caesar have his silly little tax, politicians prey on this. Jesus has no problem operating in the political realm, but He also operates above them.

-What belongs to God? Everything! Every kingdom is subject to Him. “Give Caesar his little coin, give Rome to God.” We cannot be indifferent or apathetic. My presence belongs in the culture, because the culture belongs to God. Our ambition is a world made right. 

-What is our strategy? We have God’s image on us, so therefore we need to give ourselves to God. His people, as citizens of His kingdom, rendering their lives unto the purposes of His kingdom. Seemed completely indifferent to the politics of the day, because it wasn’t worth His time. Partisan politicians can’t solve the world’s problems!

-We build a rival kingdom! How do you stop the politics of Jesus? If it’s partisan, just vote against Him. We don’t play that game. We don’t pursue power, we don’t ask permission, we don’t care what people say, how do you stop beatitudes, sermon on the Mount, love? Jesus is impervious to worldly games of power.

–Eph. 1:19-23

-Jesus as head of the nations, but especially the church. The church is the only political institution that is going to last into eternity, and it’s the only institution that has a ruler who can’t be outvoted, who can’t be outlasted, and whose entire ethic is one of love.

-Which gets us to this last passage.

–Rev. 19:11-16

-We always have hope, not in the nation states of earth, but because of the nation state when heaven comes down to earth. When Jesus comes to right every wrong and user in His perfect rule and reign.

-We just came off a week where we reflected in Isa. 9 which prophecies that His government will never stop expanding! 

-I want my government to reflect my worldview, but the way our government is built leads to competition. How do we do politics without falling into political idolatry?

1-Though our faith is political, it is not partisan. You can hold strongly, but don’t act as if Jesus fits perfectly in either partisan camp. Both sides try to claim Him, but neither can perfectly represent Him. 

-Consistency (attack both sides equally) & Commonality (more in common with religious convictions or political convictions?)

2-Deemphasize federal politics, high concern for local politics. Life of our local community is has the most on our local lives. Treat federal more like a TV show: county before country political approach.

3-Be the change you long to see, see the limits of political sovereignty. Can’t run a church like a business, can’t run a family like a school. Can’t run the church like the state. We ask the politicians to be the change we long to see, politicians love that! We must make use of our liberties to enact positive changes in our world.

4-Be gracious in conversations with others that disagree with you who are a part of the kingdom of God. We can have disagreements (strongly!) and still be brothers and sisters in Christ. Keep things in perspective, don’t let earthly politics become your entire worldview, let everything you do be done in love (1 Cor. 16:14)

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by mikethestrand on January 7, 2024  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Life, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on January 7, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/01/07/politics-sermon-manuscript/

Simeon’s Song – Sermon Manuscript Luke 2:22-35

-LOTR “Something happened that the ring did not intend, it was picked up by the most unlikely creature imaginable: a hobbit, Bilbo Baggins of the Shire.”

-Evil does not have absolute power, a normal, everyday, (we may even say) boring creature picked it up.

  1. Complete Obedience (22-24)

-Painstaking attention to detail

-“They” went together. 

-Joseph went with her even though he didn’t need to offer a sacrifice. Joseph is the often-forgotten person in the nativity. As a kid doing the plays, you never wanted to be Joseph! The guy just stood there! But he is the unsung hero. His fiancé gets pregnant (doesn’t take much math to figure out what happened) but he gets a special visit from an angel, which he obeys!

-Luke has demonstrated the righteousness of Zechariah & Elizabeth, and Mary & Joseph

Ex 13:2 “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”

Lev. 12:6-8 “And when the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering,and he shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement for her. Then she shall be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, either male or female.And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean.”

-Jesus was born in poverty

-Material wealth does not necessarily signify blessing from God, one of the biggest heresies of our modern day is the health & wealth prosperity “gospel”

-For a good critique, watch “American Gospel” documentary 

-God NEVER promises an easy, pain free life this side of eternity, in fact we’re guaranteed the opposite! We’ll also see this as a theme in Jesus’ life that will affect his mother in vs. 34. 

-Listened to an audiobook to Walking with God Through Pain & Suffering, Christianity alone offers an only conclusive worldview that makes sense out of suffering

-Christmas isn’t about presents, it’s about God being present with his people

-What’s fascinating about this story is that no offering is listed for Jesus. He was already purified, had nothing to be cleansed from, that’s why He can actually take the weight of sin upon Himself.

  • Christ the Consolation (25-35)
    • Paraclete (25-28)

-Chapter 1 was basically all these unbelievably legit people that we should be amazed by (OF COURSE, the PRIEST gets his answer to prayer!). Chapter 2 is where we all would find ourselves in the story! We now see all the boring, normal people leading their boring, normal, everyday lives. First part is the shepherds out in the fields, this part is those who had been waiting for this Messiah

-Luke begins “Some random dude in Jerusalem…” does say he was “righteous and devout” so even random dudes can be faithful to God’s commands! That should give us hope! (“There’s nothing my God cannot do FOR YOU!”)

-Waiting for the consolation of Israel: consolation-comfort after difficulty, light at the end of the tunnel (Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the earth Thou Art – Come Thou Long Expected Jesus)

Isaiah 40:1 “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.”

Isaiah 49:13 “Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.”

-Also, Holy Spirit was upon him. Just like the eventual NT believers (i.e. us!) So we can be like Simeon! 

-Simeon had some top-secret info. He would see the Messiah, the Anointed One before he died (that’s the meaning of Christ). 

-Sidenote: “Keep the Xristos in X-Mas”

-The one that had been promised for centuries, first seen in Gen. 3 with the proto-eungelion is here!

-Imagine what this day would have been like. Minding his own business when he got an inkling to go to the temple. That inkling grew stronger and stronger until he finally gave in. Text doesn’t say how long ago he’d been promised to see the Messiah, but think of all the babies he’d seen come through those doors. “Hey, they look like a young family! Is that the one?” each time to be told Nope! Then finally, there he is!

-The hope of the entire nation was able to be held in his hands. So that’s exactly what he did, he lifted baby Jesus up in his arms. 

-Early church called him Theodoches the God receiver. He blessed God and said:

  • Peace (29-32)

-Everything in history was leading up to this point, just like everything in Simeon’s life was leading up to this moment. God’s perfect plan to reconcile the broken cosmos was coming to fruition.

-And now that this moment was here, Simeon was content to die, to “depart in peace” That theme has popped up in almost all the songs we’ve looked at this month. This Prince of Peace would bring true, lasting peace to a world gone mad! And Simeon recognized and realized that, which allowed him to face even death with perfect peace. This peace is the promised peace “according to your word” 

Isaiah 9:6 “To us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

30 “For my eyes have seen your salvation”

-Jesus’ arrival begins a new era in human history where salvation can now be given! Simeon is playing on the name of our Savior here. 

-Jesus’ name was Yeshua, where we get Joshua, meaning “Yahweh saves” 

Matt. 1:21 “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

-Every time we so much as mention Jesus’ name, we’re reminding each other of the truth that God saves, even normal, boring people like us!

-Think of what that would have meant as Jesus was growing up! Every time his parents spoke his name, they would be reminded of the truth of the gospel!

-And this salvation is not just for the nation of Israel, this salvation would be worked out “in the presence of all peoples”

-Isaiah 52:10 “The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”

-This is for both Jew and Gentile (thankfully) because Gentile includes most of us!

  • Persecution (33-35)

-Mary and Joseph were (understandably) amazed, once again. This is not quite how they expected the day to go!

-After praising God, Simeon also blesses Mary and Joseph. 

-Jesus divides. Some will fall and some will accept him as the Lord and rise. 

-This is the antithesis of universalism, which has become a trendy idea in our culture once again. There isn’t multiple options to pursue human flourishing, there’s only 1 way, and it comes from believing in Jesus as the Christ!

-Opposition to Jesus is the norm in the human heart, we saw that all throughout Mark’s Gospel this past year, and we’ll see it next year as we walk through Revelation! 

-And those “out there” won’t be the only ones affected, Mary will too. She’ll see her firstborn son go through suffering, difficulty, persecution, and ultimately death. I don’t know of anyone who would wish that on any of their kids!

-“Hearts will be revealed.” There are only 2 ways to live, either For God or Against God. Jesus divides people against each other, against their own sinful flesh! But the amazing thing is, all we need to do to be saved is be like Simeon. Kent Hughes in his commentary said, “To receive salvation, all one has to do is to take Jesus in his or her arms as Lord.” (Hughes, 99)

-Have you received him? If you have received him, then we have the joy of having a peace-filled life. No longer afraid of what others think, because according to God we’re enough!

-And then we respond as Simeon does here, by blessing God and blessing others. You can summarize this by taking 1 step closer to God, and helping others take 1 step closer to God. Ask yourself each day: what can I do today to grow closer to God and help others grow closer to God? That’s how you can depart in peace too!

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by mikethestrand on December 24, 2023  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Life, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on December 24, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/12/24/simeons-song-sermon-manuscript-luke-222-35/

Mary’s Song – Sermon Manuscript

-I want you to think about your favorite story. My guess is it has something to do with the little guy totally winning against the big guy. 

-I think of all my favorite stories: growing up was the Hardy Boys, as Joe and Frank (as high schoolers) would solve mysteries none of the adults could figure out

-Harry Potter, the chosen child who is able to defeat Voldemort and his whole army

-Katniss Everdeen who stood up to the Capital in defiance and sparked a revolution

-And on and on the list could go! But what if all those stories were viewed as abnormal? What if that wasn’t the reality? What if every story or movie that you saw told you that whoever’s biggest always wins. So the Capital crushes Katniss, Harry is overwhelmed by Voldemort, and the Hardy Boys spend their days focusing on their studies because the adults are in fact smarter. 

-Until we got the Jesus story that was the norm. The gods ruled everything (think of the stories of Zeus or Hercules) If you wanted to be something special you had to rise to the top! The reason those other stories become so beloved is because they point us to the bigger truth of the greatest story of all time, where God came as a baby, took on flesh and moved into the neighborhood (MSG)

-There are 4 songs recorded in Luke’s Gospel that summarize Jesus’ birth. We begin this week looking at Mary’s.

READ/PRAY (pg. 499)

  1. Elizabeth Confirms (39-45)

-Some background needed:

-Luke begins this book with a dedication. He has sought to put together the story of what had happened with this Jesus guy

-The story begins with a priest named Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth who were “advanced in years” and childless. In the course of Zechariah’s priestly duties, an angel appears to him and promises that after all these years they’ll have a child! His wife (obviously) gets pregnant, and then remains in isolation for 5 months. 

-In the 6th month, another angel is sent to a young girl named Mary in Nazareth, aka the sticks! Just as a child was promised to Zechariah, a child is promised to her, but this child won’t be conceived through normal means. As a witness to this, the angel tells Mary that her relative Elizabeth is pregnant!

-Mary goes to visit her “with haste”

-Why haste? Scholars aren’t sure. Some say to hide from her community, some think it is a mistranslation, other say it’s in response to God leading. I think it’s a lot more basic than that.

-If an angel came to you and told you something was going to happen in the future, then gave you a nugget of something that had already happened, wouldn’t you want to go test out what he said?

-Mary wants confirmation about what’s going to happen, if Elizabeth is REALLY pregnant, than maybe she really is going to have an immaculate conception. Now, typically that doctrine is used to refer to Mary being immaculately conceived, but that’s not what I’m talking about here! There is 1 immaculate conception, and it only happened to Jesus.

-She gets to the house and…

41 -John LEAPS in Elizabeth’s womb.

         -Shortly after Mary conceives (80-100 miles away, 3-4 day journey)

-A fetus is responding to the arrival of a zygote. What does that tell you about when a person becomes a person? 

-One of the most fascinating aspects of the biblical storyline is how it’s full of barren wombs (or wombs that should have been barren in Mary’s case!)

-Think back to the father of the nation of Israel: Abraham. Everything that I just shared about Zechariah and Elizabeth is also true of them!

-Abraham to Isaac to Jacob who had 2 wives, one of those wives was childless. 

-In Egypt, after the Israelites are enslaved what does Pharoah command the midwives to do? Kill the babies, destroy the wombs.

-Think of the story of the birth of the prophet Samuel, when his mother Hannah begged God for a baby

-Ruth, whose frail husband died, and then moved to a foreign land with her MIL with no hope of survival or prospective husbands on the horizon.

-Now, with all that in mind, think about the curse in Gen. 3. Notice the fight that begins between the serpent and the woman, and then continues between their 2 offspring. Do you think that maybe Satan knows about this curse, and then views it as his mission to attack the womb of anyone in the line of Jesus? Or do you think it’s any wonder today that Satanic attacks are demeaning and belittling to people? 

-Think of how carelessly life is tossed aside today (abortion and physician assisted suicide). We live in a culture of death, but it’s sterilized and hidden from us. Just a few years ago, after the death of Ulrich Klopfer, 2,411 fetuses were found in boxes in his garage. And he’s not the only one! How a country treats it’s most vulnerable citizens is a good marker of the health of that country (both in the womb and end of life). 

-But I also think it’s a marker of the serpent’s work anytime the womb is attacked. The technological advances we’ve had over the past 50 years are astounding! Babies can feel pain at least by 15 weeks of gestation. Women are barely showing at that point! Think of the pictures we can see of children in utero today. Unfortunately this conversation has just become a political talking point instead of a legitimate moral conversation. We must be pro-life in every aspect and implication, from conception to natural death.

-This isn’t the only time a baby in the womb is described as jumping, is way back in Gen. 25:22 “The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.””

-All the way back in the founding of the Israelite people there was tension, division, brother against brother

-Now, here for the first time someone is leaping, struggling in the womb because he can’t contain his excitement that the Messiah has finally come!

-This arrival, instead of bringing about division will bring reconciliation, unity, peace, creating a new family of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation to come together under 1 banner

-Elizabeth, just as her husband Zechariah did earlier, becomes a prophetess for the Lord.

-We often make a great deal out of Peter being the first person to recognize that Jesus is the Christ in Mark 8, but Elizabeth saw and acknowledged it even before Peter. Refers to Jesus as “my Lord” in 43

44 -John leaped for joy, unlike Jacob & Esau who leaped with contention. Yet just as with J&E, the older would serve the younger. Instead of undermining, cutting, biting, fighting, John embraces his role as one who came to prepare the way, realizing it even from the womb (where he’s filled with the HS)

-This is meant to demonstrate the way the gospel message (the Good News that Jesus’ arrival changes everything) undermines and then replaces everyone’s deepest longings and desires.

-Think of the way we’re taught from our world that bigger is always better. But is it? Let’s take a bigger house, that you then have to heat, and clean, and fill, and use. Is it really that much better? 

-Or think of any celebrity. When news leaks about their addictions or broken relationships do you really think they have life figured out? 

-I love the way Augustine talked about this in the 4th century (and people haven’t really changed at all since then). He argued that we’re far more led by our emotions than we realize (can’t claim to be purely a logical person, talk to Micah). And because of that, we all have an internal drive and desire that will never be fully met until we meet Jesus. Then once we have Jesus everything else makes sense. Our longings/desires will change, our motivations will change, and that will ultimately make a change in the way we live the rest of our lives.

-I say all that, because at Christmas time we’re celebrating what seems like a foolish thing. Have you ever compared the Christian story to the arrival of other gods? Rome was founded by Romulus, who was descended from the gods, nursed by a wolf, and then single-handedly creates the walls that form the city. If you go back further, ANE creation share all the fights the gods were having that led to the creation of the world. And in all these competitions for people’s allegiance, comes a little baby. Who in their right mind would come up with a story like this as THE solution for the problems in the world? It just doesn’t make sense! Unless it’s true.

-I share all that, because that’s exactly what Mary’s song focuses on.

  • Mary Rejoices (46-55)

-Comparison to Hannah’s praise in 1 Samuel 2

-Hannah had led a life of lack. Her husband had another wife who had multiple kids, but Hannah had none. She had begged God for years for a child, but had he hadn’t answered. Every year the family would go to the temple to sacrifice, and one year Hannah was observed by the priest who thought she was drunk (silently praying to herself) But God answered her prayers, and she had a child named Samuel.

-As we read it, pay attention to the way God works. Bows of the mighty broken, feeble are bound with strength, raises the poor so they sit with princes. Doesn’t it sound like God’s work is subverting the expectations of the world and then fulfilling them in ways no one would have expected?

  1. In God’s Blessings (46-49)

-Just as Hannah praised God for who He is, which leads to His blessings, Mary begins by recounting the ways God has blessed.

-Mary realizes she hasn’t done anything to achieve this nor is she worthy of this, no this is all because God “has looked on the humble estate of his servant.” (48) 

-How often do you take for granted all that God has done for you? Paul asks this very question in 1 Cor. 4:7 “What do you have that you did not receive?” It’s a rhetorical question: answer is NOTHING! Everything we have and are is a gift from our Father in heaven. 

-Mary realizes this is a gift from God, even though she may be socially ostracized, looked down upon by her friends and family, God is enough.

-I think it’s worth looking at vs. 48 as we think about the rest of this song. Notice that Mary says ALL generations will call her blessed.

-I listened to a podcast over the summer that talked about this fact: that we are supposed to bless Mary. Now, this isn’t supposed to be a veneration to her as RCC does, but she does give birth to the Son of God who came to earth to take away our sins. It was because Mary was willing to bear the scorn and shame of the world that we have salvation today. Do you thank God for Mary’s faithful obedience? I worded that very carefully: not thanking Mary for her obedience, thanking God for her obedience. 

-But this gift isn’t just a blessing to Mary, it’s a blessing to the whole world:

  • In God’s Mercy (50-53)

-God coming to earth is going to lead to a moral, political, and social revolution the likes of which won’t be seen again until he comes for a second time.

-First, moral 51. He has the full strength necessary, morality is defined in relation to him (holy is his name vs 49).

-This is what God has also said in 1 Peter “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5). Humility is seen as a virtue today, but it wasn’t in the 1st century. And even much “humility” today is a false façade that is still seeking the same goal as pride: recognition and affirmation of you. 

-What humility is going to look like is someone who doesn’t worry about themselves, but someone who loves God, life, and you without trying to build a brand, a following, or themselves up. 

-Second, political 52. God’s way is antithetical the world’s ways. Those who achieve power, greatness, fame and accolades on earth will be the last ones in God’s kingdom. Humiliation leads to exaltation, but can’t get exaltation without humiliation. The J curve

-Think of what a difference it would make if our political leaders followed God’s commands of serving others. 

-Third, social 53. The only way to receive from God is to come to him empty, if you come full you’ll leave with nothing. 

-Jesus tells a parable of a rich man who thought he’d made it. He built storehouses (enough to last for the rest of his life) and he said to himself that it’s time to eat, drink, and be merry! Guess what happened that night! He died. How much of his money did he take with him? Zippo! His bank account in eternity wasn’t any higher than anyone else.

-This is a large part of where the church should be such a counter-cultural community, which means at times it’s going to be very difficult. Sometimes the only thing we’ll have is the gospel message in common, but dear friends that’s enough! We may not vote the same, we may not have the same amount of money in our bank accounts, we may not have the same cultural backgrounds, but we do have something that’s better and more lasting than any of those differences: salvation in Jesus alone!

-But don’t miss that we’re not the first people Jesus has engaged in this way.

  • In God’s Promises (54-55)

-Friends, we stand on the shoulders of giants. We’re only here today because of thousands of faithful followers of Jesus who have gone before us to allow us to be here today. And sometimes it feels like we’ll never make it, but don’t forget that God NEVER forgets His promises. God’s memory is eternal, ours are tiny.

-Think of how much time had passed before Abraham’s promise was fulfilled here in Mary. Almost 2,000 years! And if the Lord should wait to return another 2,000, God still won’t forget His promises!

-What do we do with this song? I can think of 3 primary things:

-When the Lord speaks, listen and obey. Mark Twain “it’s not the things in the Bible I don’t understand that trouble me, it’s the things I do understand.” Be like Mary and just say “Yes Lord” 

-How often do you take time to praise God, giving thanks to Him for how he’s worked in your life? We, as humans, are forgetful people. We need to regularly remember/be reminded of how God has worked in all our lives.

-Lastly, don’t forget that God’s way is so often the opposite of the way we think things are/should be. No one would have ever expected God’s salvific plan to come about through these ordinary human means, which means that even you and I can be used by God to accomplish His purposes. 

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by mikethestrand on December 3, 2023  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Life, Sermon, Worship

Posted by mikethestrand on December 3, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/12/03/marys-song-sermon-manuscript/

Mark 15:21-47 – Sermon Manuscript

-The whole story Mark has been telling has been building to this passage. 

-Just like any good story, we’ve had the good guys, the bad guys, the conflict, there will be resolution. What’s crazy is this story just happens to be true!

-C.S. Lewis “I have been reading poems, romances, vision-literature, legends, myths all my life. I know what they are like. I know that not one of them is like this. Of this text there are only two possible views. Either this is reportage—though it may no doubt contain errors—pretty close up to the facts. Or else, some unknown writer in the second century, without known predecessors or successors, suddenly anticipated the whole technique of modern, novelistic, realistic narrative. If it is untrue, it must be narrative of that kind. The reader who doesn’t see this has simply not learned to read…”

-There are only 2 responses to this event: defiance or discipleship.

READ/PRAY (pg. 497)

  1. Derision Against Jesus (21-32)

-The mockery of Jesus continues. Criminals were expected to carry their cross to their crucifixion site, another form of torture and derision.

-Why was Simon forced to carry the cross? Remember what Jesus had just endured: brutal beating that had killed men before.

-Coming to Jerusalem for the Passover. Not many people are listed by name in Mark’s Gospel, most likely Alexander and Rufus were known to the 1st Cent. Church. Rom. 16:13 lists Rufus among the members of the church in Rome. (another reason to think Mark wrote this to Roman Christians)

-The names in this Gospel are not accidental or incidental. They give historic accuracy to this story and they share the people who were involved.

-Simon serves as the first disciple. Remember what Jesus said back in Mark 8.

-We don’t often think about discipleship being a death. Death to self, death to sin, death to the world, death to our old way of living. We tend to view it as adding something on, but Jesus won’t let us add him to anything. Either we get Jesus alone, or we don’t get Him at all.

–Podcast on spiritual disciplines/practices as a way of finding yourself. How’s living by worldly standards working out for you? Anxiety on the rise, deaths of despair on the rise. Life expectancy had been rising for a hundred years, started declining the past few. Jesus tells us the only way to find your life (answer all the deepest longings of your heart) you need to lose your life. Let go of trying to control everything, let go of trying to work harder, work hard at trying to achieve your salvation: you can’t. There’s nothing you can add or take away from your salvation.

-Reflecting the past month on the reality that God loves me. We all say we know that, but I don’t think we actually live like that. Every night of the week I sing with my kids “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so,” but that truth hasn’t permeated through my thick skull or into my heart. I view myself as far too independent. Sure, Jesus needed to die to save me, but once I’m saved it’s up to me! What a joke! Unless the I’m “keeping in step with the Spirit” everything I’m doing is useless. 

-Finally, notice vs. 38. What have we seen of Jesus’ followers so far in the midst of Jesus’ trial? Where are they? They all ran away! Mark ran away naked! Peter followed at a distance, but then got scared by a little girl and he became a crybaby. Do you think Jesus was talking about the 12 here? 

-Brought him outside the city (Golgotha)

-Crucifixion served as a public spectacle. Right along the main road into Jerusalem (think of it taking place by the interstate). Again, the details Mark gives are to demonstrate the historical reality of these events. Lists the exact place where the Son of God was taken to die.

-Offered a sweet wine to dull the senses, potentially make the situation easier, and elongate the act.

-Accounts of people drinking enough to get a good buzz so the pain is more tolerable, similar to us using Tylenol when we get a headache, but He’s going to face something much more painful!

-4 words that speak volumes: “and they crucified him.”

-Isn’t it amazing that this act only gets 4 words. In typical Markan brevity, he just throws it out there and continues on. This doesn’t mean this event is unimportant, but there’s much more to it than just the crucifixion.

-After Jesus was hung on His cross, the soldiers split the spoils among themselves (just as after a war) Once again, this was a typical event for the Romans.

-Took place at the third hour (9 AM)

-Charges filed were meant to be a deterrent to those who witnessed it. Remember, this was a public event. People were supposed to see the punishment doled out to those who opposed Rome.

-Jesus wasn’t alone in receiving this capital punishment, this crucifixion was likely already scheduled. Not a stretch to think these 2 men were affiliated with Barabbas, who we learned about last week. 

-Intentional wording here “one on his right and one on his left.” Back in Mark 10:37 James and John had asked Jesus to join with Him in glory sitting in those exact places. Do you think they had flashbacks after they heard what had happened?

-Often we’re in a similar position to them, we want the part after the suffering, but we’re unwilling to walk through the suffering. The J-curve – only get exaltation with humiliation. 

-As if this wasn’t humiliating enough, because it was the main road during one of the busiest times of the year, people were walking by and getting their shots in.

-People are asking for the evidence in the wrong order, and they don’t know what they’re asking. The reason Jesus is on that cross is because sin MUST be dealt with. The only way any of those people can be saved is by Jesus staying on the cross, if he doesn’t stay there there’s nothing to believe in.

-And the chief priests join in! They think they’ve finally dealt with their Jesus problem.

-Do you think any of them were in Mark 12:1-11 the parable of the tenants?

  • Declaration of Jesus (33-39)

-3 hours after He was hung on the cross (noon), a change happens in the weather as darkness descends. At 3 PM Jesus, who was silent throughout His trial suddenly cries out in agony.

-Quotes from Psalm 22, but just the first verse. We studied this Psalm this past summer! One of the most quoted Psalms in the NT. 

-Listen to some of the language from this. SLIDE 

-Do you think David may have speaking far better than he knew 1400 years before the crucifixion took place? Before crucifixion had been thought up as capital punishment by the Romans.

-Remember from last week the “divine passive.” What appears like passivity to us is God’s eternal plan being fulfilled.

-People start to question what’s happening. Many people believed Elijah would come back as a marker of the end of the world. If injustice was being done, people would cry out to Elijah to save them. The people interpret Jesus’ cry as one of these.

-Why did Jesus take the sour wine, but not the wine offered before?

-A final act of humiliation. The rod that was used to beat Him earlier was now used to quench His tongue.

-Loud cry we know from other gospels was the phrase “It is finished.”

-What is the significance of the curtain being torn “from top to bottom.”?

-Bookends to signify the end of the story, we’ve seen heaven “torn in two” once before: after Jesus’ baptism. The temple was meant to serve as a picture of heaven. Where the first time the tearing open was meant to validate Jesus, this time it’s meant to validate everyone else.

-Theme of Mark has been discipleship. The only way we can be disciples (following after Jesus) is by heaven being torn in two so we can access the perfect Father. Instead of needing to go to a place to spend time with God, we can now spend time with God anywhere in the world! We don’t need a sacrificial system, we don’t need a mediator, we don’t need curtain separating us from God’s manifest presence, He’s always with us.

-We have a marked shift of the response to Jesus from those who speak before Jesus’ death and those who speak after His death. The first person in this Gospel to finally understand who Jesus is, is a Gentile, Roman centurion. 

-This is finally good news! If even a Roman (and not just a Roman, a Roman soldier) can become a disciple, there’s hope for everyone! But it begins by recognizing that Jesus is the Son of God. That’s the first step that brings you in to a brand-new world, a brand-new way of living. It replaces all your focuses, changes all your perspectives, and brings you into a new family, marked not by worldly assumptions, but by spiritual/eternal perspectives. 

-Jesus had been trying to help His followers understand all these realities, but they kept missing it, and now they were too scared to be seen in public with Him (remember, everyone abandoned Him). But that doesn’t stop Him from continuing to save people, even one of his executioners. 

  • Depositing Jesus’ Body (40-47)

-Not all of His followers had abandoned Jesus, but this is a weird situation, especially for the 1st cent. 

-Women’s testimonies were viewed as unreliable, wouldn’t stand in a court of law. But they weren’t as scared as the men (potentially because they were women!) 

-Once again, specific names listed. People who could give eyewitness testimony to everything that happened.

-Finally, a man isn’t too scared to be identified with Jesus! Joseph of Arimathea: part of the council (Sanhedrin, ruling Jews) steps forward to help take care of the body.

-Interesting description “looking for the kingdom of God.” I think that’s a good description of what many people want, but they keep looking in the wrong places (Micah’s class) 

-I would argue that everyone you interact with is looking for the kingdom of God. I love the way Augustine said it in the 4th cent: “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God.” No one will ever be completely satisfied until they find the kingdom of God, but the only way to find that (true life) is to lose it. That’s the irony of the gospel message: the kingdom of God is accessible to everyone, but only by becoming a disciple.

-Joseph is also a “respected” member. Jesus’ message wasn’t just for the poor/marginalized, even people who were a part of Herod’s house followed Jesus!

-Sabbath was meant to be a day of rest, body couldn’t be dealt with, Joseph asked Pilate for the body. Pilate was surprised (crucifixion could take days, and death sometimes only came after becoming food for wild animals) 

-Joseph is granted his request, so he prepares the body for a quick burial with a linen cloth.

-Tombs were often more communal in the 1st cent. Room for lots of bodies. Other Gospels tell us this one hadn’t yet been used. Just as today you can buy a burial plot before you die, most likely Joseph had a tomb created for him and his family to be buried together. Looking something like THIS.

-Stone used to prevent grave robbers or wild animals

-Who was there watching where Jesus’ body was laid? Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses, that’s important for next week, so keep that in mind!

-What do we do with this embarrassment of a story? There’s a reason everyone abandoned Him – who wants to be seen losing? Jesus’ supposed insurrection was seen as a failure, little does everyone know this is just the beginning of the story.

-JRR Tolkien – Eucatastrophe: a good catastrophe. Sounds wrong, doesn’t it? How can there be a good catastrophe? That’s the way God designed the world to work. What seems wrong and broken is the only way to bring about redemption.

-This is a 2 part story, and most of us know how it ends (spoiler alert, Jesus doesn’t stay dead)

-But that’s next week (as a new song says “Friday’s Good because Sunday’s coming!) This week I want you to contemplate whether or not you’re willing to follow Jesus to death. We saw this passage earlier, but Luke and Matthew add a word to Jesus’ first command: daily.

-The only way to truly follow after Jesus is through death. But where Jesus’ death was a 1 time event, our call is a daily death. We need to wake up every single day and choose to die to our fleshly, sinful tendencies, and decide to walk in light of the empty tomb. And here’s where the “eu” (good) part comes in: we’ll suddenly find ourselves completely content! Jesus’ commands are true and life giving, the only way to truly find your life is to lose it! But by losing it you gain everything.

-Jesus says if you’re tired of trying, tired of searching, or if you’re just tired, come to Him and He will give you rest.

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by mikethestrand on November 19, 2023  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, History, Life, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on November 19, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/11/19/mark-1521-47-sermon-manuscript/

Mark 15:1-20 Sermon Manuscript

-What do we do with sin? There has to be some way of dealing with it, fixing it, addressing the problems we see in the world.

-I’ve never talked to anyone who thinks everything is going great in the world. Wars, rumors of wars, death, sickness, political polarization. Car breaking down, getting a poor evaluation at work, or abruptly losing a job.

-As Christians, we have what I would argue is the most complete understanding of why there are so many problems in the world around us: sin. Everything is broken, down to our cells producing cancer. Did you know that if you live long enough, cancer is an inevitability because even our DNA decays. But what’s crazy about that is Christians believe in what we call “good news.” Yes, the world is completely broken, but there’s a solution.

-In order to deal with the problem of sin, the Creator of the universe came to earth and lived a perfect life, then He died in our place to deal with all the penalties for sin which now means there is hope! Where there once was just wishful thinking, now our hope has a name and a purpose. But at the core of it is this idea of replacement.

-In many cases, we don’t want to be replaced! I remember a call from a boss at my first job out of college where I was going to be pulled from my role to be replaced by someone else because I wasn’t up to snuff.

-But in this case, replacement is the only way for sin to be dealt with. None of us are good enough (perfect) to bear the penalty for our sins. We require a replacement, and that was promised from God all the way back in Gen. 3. But Jesus being the replacement for the world begins with the replacement of 1 man.

READ/PRAY (pg. 497)

  1. Interrogation (1-5)

-After holding the fake trial overnight, things took a different turn today. Why wait until morning?

-Roman trials all started at sunrise so they could break in the later morning for their leisure activities. This shows us why last night was so critical for the chief priests to rush through their trial so they didn’t miss being the first in line the next morning to have their Jesus problem dealt with. 

-Theme of bounding (divine passive: 9:31, 10:33, 14:21, 41)

-Look at all the ways Jesus has talked about this up to this point. As you read it, it sounds like Jesus is the passive recipient of all these events. But don’t forget: who’s the Lord of the universe? Who created everything? Who upholds everything by His might? Do you think He is passively sitting back and questioning what’s happening to Him? Absolutely not! He’s in complete control of everything that has happened at each moment of His life. In John’s account of Jesus interaction with Him, Pilate asks Jesus “Do you not know that I have the authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus answered him “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been give you from above.”

-How frustrating do you think this situation was for Pilate? He’s got a no-win dilemma in front of him! This innocent man is being accused of a whole host of issues, but unless he deals with this Jesus guy, he’s going to have a riot on his hands, and then potentially lose his role in the government! So when he tries to reason with Jesus to get some traction with Him it goes nowhere. Jesus doesn’t play the same political game, He’s not worried about scoring point or the response of the crowds. Jesus is worried about what’s right and being obedient to what the plans of His Father. But don’t view Jesus as some passive observer throughout this! And this should give us comfort anytime we’re walking through a difficult season.

-What has God allowed to happen in your life? What kind of testing has God permitted, where you question where God is, but He’s not sitting back laughing at you, He’s allowing you to grow in reliance on Him, to grow in understanding of Him, and to better know and live the life He’s called you to. 

-Friends, this is a vital message for us to understand today. Jesus doesn’t promise us an easy life. He doesn’t promise us wealth and prosperity. He doesn’t even promise to fix all our problems. What he does promise is Himself. AND He said if you have Him you will face all sorts of difficulties, what’s different is that He’s with you in the midst of those difficulties walking you through them and ensuring that you’re never alone. But nothing ever catches God off guard or by surprise. What looks to us like passivity is held in God’s sovereign hand, so trust in Him and walk with Him.

-And keep that in mind as we continue walking through the rest of Mark’s Gospel. Everything that happens is the way God intended it to happen. All these characters in the story bear responsibility for their role in these events, but God knew what every person’s role would be, from the chief priests, to Peter, and even Pilate.

-Pilate – real person, prefect of Judea from 26-36 (historicity, helps us date Jesus’ crucifixion)

-Often impulsive and caving to crowd’s desires. There are a couple historical stories that help us understand Pilate’s MO. When he first arrived in Palestine, his army came in with armor that had the images of the Romans emperors (idols to the Jews). Protests broke out, and in response Pilate changed the armor the army wore to not have a revolt. Similarly, another time Pilate had shields brought in that had the images on them again, and he once again got rid of them because he was worried they would complain to Rome and tell him about all the other problems they had with him. Philo quote.

-Pilate was not the most upstanding guy! So when he begins in interrogate Jesus, he takes his typical approach of trying to appease the masses.

-“You have said so” Wesley from The Princess Bride “As you wish.”

-Parallels say “You say it” (Matt. 26:46, Luke 22:70) 

-Yes, but we’re talking about VERY different things (John 18:36). Initially the chief priests had accused Jesus of religious sins, but as soon as He’s brought to Pilate it changes to political sins. King of the Jews sounds like Jesus is trying to start an uprising, a revolt against the Roman occupation. What Pilate (and the chief priests) miss is it’s a true statement, but they’re not speaking the same language.

-Accusations continue, Jesus remains silent. Any defense He makes will be twisted and distorted anyway because they’re using a different dictionary.

-How often is this the case? And how often are Christians misunderstood because we mean different things by the words we use?

-Christians were initially accused of being atheists because they only worshipped 1 God. Accused of being cannibals (drinking blood and eating a body). Accused of having incestuous sex parties (brothers and sisters in the faith, communion was called a love feast). Why would we expect anything different from people who are deceived, and looking to the wrong sources of inspiration for how they should live in the world?

-I was listening to a podcast this past week that was talking about the need for Christians to live distinctly different lives, and unfortunately that hasn’t always been true for those claim the name of Jesus on their lives. There are 3 ideas that philosophy calls “transcendentals” things that transcend every human culture and experience. They are: truth, beauty, and goodness. Christianity is true, but it’s not just true, it’s also beautiful and good. And we as Christians are called to live lives that are all 3 of these things. Do you/are you living a life that is beautiful and good? Is your marriage (or singleness) beautiful and good? Is your work beautiful and good? Is your parenting (or encouraging other parents) beautiful and good? 

-Friends, this is the call for all of us today! Everyone saw Jesus’ life that was marked by truth, beauty, and goodness, and all of us today are meant to live those exact same lives. And what will the response to that be? Look at the end of vs. 5.

-Why was Pilate amazed? Jesus’ silence. How does the world train us to respond to accusations (even when they’re true!) With anger, bitterness, cancelling, but how does Jesus teach us to respond? With love and graciousness.

-Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX). Crypto-currency company that went completely bankrupt, losing billions (with a B) of investors dollars. What I read about the trial was he made a bold (and foolish) move of taking the stand himself, because he was convinced his testimony would exonerate him. But it did the opposite! The jurors only took 4 hours to find him guilty on all accounts! 

-Yet so many of us live like that! We’re trained that we always need to defend ourselves, we view ourselves as the hero of every story instead of seeing Jesus as the hero. I’m just as guilty as anyone else of responding poorly, that’s why we need grace and forgiveness extended to each other on a regular basis. If we live in such a way where we don’t respond with harshness or bitterness we will leave people amazed, we will be a faithful witness to others.

  • Insurrection (6-15)

-These other sections build off that first one, which is why I wanted to spend so much time on it! These next 2 sections are more detail about what was happening in those first 5 verses.

-The first thing we see is this odd tradition of a prisoner release.

-Again, opportunistic Pilate, follows the theme of Passover by “passing over” a convicted felon. But the felon Pilate chooses to contrast with Jesus is Barabbas.

-Not a lot of info about Barabbas, some early manuscripts name him “Jesus Barabbas” adding even more weight to Pilate’s question. Which Jesus do they want? 

-Notice the difference right away between these 2 Jesus’: one was convicted. He had committed murder! The other had done nothing wrong.

-Vs. 10. Pilate wasn’t dumb! He realized it was a sham, and the only thing Jesus was guilty of was influence. The chief priests were threatened by Him, so they deal with him the way they know how: hand Him over to the Romans.

-Pilate tries 3 times to change the outcome of these events.

-First is the ironic title “King of the Jews.” Had this story gotten back to Rome it would have led to major issues for Pilate! The ultimate king of the Jews was in Rome! Tiberius, ruling over the entire Roman Empire! Pilate thought (wrongly) that if these 2 men were contrasted with each other, the people would make the right decision. What he hadn’t counted on was the conviction of the chief priests. Look at vs. 11. These are the same people who had paid Judas to betray Jesus. Conjecture, but wouldn’t surprise me if they were bribing the crowd to ensure their way! Doing anything they could to continue their hold on their power.

-So Pilate tries again. The crowd has chosen the convicted felon to be released, so he asks “ok, fine, but then what should I do with this other Jesus?” The first tactic didn’t work, let’s try just outright asking for His release! But how do they respond? Capital punishment! 

-So Pilate tries a third time: What is he guilty of? At this point, the mob mentality has taken over and they will not be appeased until they get what they want. 

-Is Pilate more worried about pleasing people or doing what’s right? Just as we read the stories before, he just caves into the demands of the crowd. He’d rather stay in his position of power than live in an honorable way.

-Scourging is nearly a death penalty. Tied to a wooden post, stripped naked, whipped with a rope braided with pieces of bone and rock.

-Historical accounts of people dying merely from this. Read a story of someone who’s intestines spilled out from this beating, another whose bones were showing. I don’t share that to be grotesque, but to help us understand what Jesus went through. The Romans were MASTERS of torture and death, they had to be do continue exerting their influence over the expanding empire. And as if that penalty wasn’t enough, the abuse continues.

  • Inside the Palace (16-20)

-Most likely those who were stationed at the governor’s palace. A fairly boring, routine night was broken up by the arrival of a newly condemned prisoner who was accused of looking to start an insurrection (but that guy was just freed).

-The irony reaches its pinnacle with the soldiers crowning Jesus with royal colors and a crown.

-The crown that connects back to the original problem with the world: sin. Gen. 3:18 “thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.” Instead of being royally crowned as the sovereign king of the universe, the true king is crowned with all the effects and penalties of sin. 

-The soldiers thought they were heaping abuse on Jesus, and they were! But it wasn’t any worse than the abuse that was coming because of the problem of sin that was affecting the whole world. In Luke’s account of Jesus’ last week of life, he tells the story of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. He sees the way sin has completely broken all of humanity and it grieves Him. Instead of living in truth, beauty, and goodness, people look to lies, ugliness, and evil, and all that will be heaped upon Jesus to deal with it once and for all. The weight of that burden would be far too much for any of us to bear, yet Jesus did, in full obedience and knowing exactly what was coming, He allowed all this abuse to be heaped upon Him. 

-Once they’d finished their humiliation of Jesus, they put his bloody clothes back on Him and took Him to the outside of the city.

-Jesus taking the place of Barabbas serves as a picture for the ultimate replacement Jesus would take for the entire creation order. And that replacement means that for us today, we have a new lease on life. We can now live lives that are marked by: truth, beauty, and goodness. We can amaze others with a life fully surrendered to Jesus, being content in all circumstances. Not by putting on a front or pretending that everything is fine when it’s not, but by living the life Jesus calls us to.

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by mikethestrand on November 12, 2023  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Life, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on November 12, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/11/12/mark-151-20-sermon-manuscript/

Mark 12:13-44 Sermon Manuscript

-What does it mean that Jesus is Lord? If, as we saw last week, He has complete authority, what does that look like in our world today? If we’re His followers, how do we live that out?

READ/PRAY (pg. 495)

  1. 3 Questions (13-34)

-Increasing opposition to Jesus. He’s seen as a threat, a liability, competition to the power, prestige, and social standing of the day (as will be pointed out again as we walk through this)

-What are the issues that we’re not supposed to talk about at the dinner table? Politics, religion, money. Guess what is dealt with in today’s passage!

-Jesus didn’t come to offer an easy life, or a simple path to prosperity, He came to usher in literally a new kingdom that isn’t of this world. It affects this world, it subverts the expectations of the world, but the world cannot contain or comprehend this new kingdom that Jesus brings.

  1. Taxes (13-17)

-The first issue that is brought to the forefront is politics. (yay) There’s no debate about how we engage politics today, is there?

-The first thing Mark tells us is who is in opposition to Jesus here: Pharisees and Herodians. Pharisees have shown up before: conservative, small government people. Herodians were named after Herod, the Roman ruler of the province. They were liberal, big government people. You can literally replace those 2 terms with Republican and Democrat! What should stand out to you about this is that both parties are united under a common threat: Jesus.

-Before we’ve even gotten through the first verse, we can already see that Jesus transcends (is above) any political ideology. Both of them view Him as a threat, yet both sides (even today) will still use Jesus’ words as proof texts for their position. A podcast I really appreciated on politics today said it this way: “Jesus is political, but He is not partisan. The kingdom of God has political implications, but it is not a political kingdom.”  Cunningham

-Back to the text: they begin by flattery, but they’re really lying. Look back at the end of vs. 13. They’re trying to trap Jesus, to give him a problem that is unsolvable. And in worldly terms, it is.

-Look at what they say: true, do not care, not swayed by appearances (read that as power), teach the way of God. The irony is all those descriptions are true! Jesus is the manifestation of truth, He is the only way to God, but they don’t see that, they see Him as a threat.

-The issue they bring up was the predominant political debate of the day: should Jews pay a “head” tax (the privilege of living as a citizen of Rome). Jews were HEAVILY taxed. Paid to the temple and to Rome. This head tax was significant not because of the sum (a quarter) but because it was a reminder of their oppression. Denarius had a picture of Caesar on it, and an inscription saying “Caesar, the son of god, the great high priest.” Zealots (one of Jesus’ disciples) led a revolt centered on this godless tax. They’re asking Jesus: whose side are you on? Are you a Democrat or a Republican? If he said no, don’t pay the tax he’d be liable for insurrection, if he said yes pay the tax he’d see a mass rising against him from the people. In their minds, an impossible political situation!

-The irony continues as Jesus asks for a denarius. He didn’t need to ask for one, but they demonstrate their heart issue by giving in to the worldly systems because they’re the ones that have the coin, not Jesus! They’re demonstrating their beliefs before Jesus even gets to the real issue.

-After they find the coin, Jesus asks them whose image (better translation than “likeness”) is on the coin. Obviously, Caesar. This is a profound statement! Jesus is legitimatizing the role of government in our lives. The government has a sphere of authority! By saying this, Jesus is running contrary to the Zealots who wanted to overthrow the Romans, but He’s also running contrary to the worldly expectations of the Messiah, which were limited to purely political control. But Jesus doesn’t play by worldly games, and He doesn’t stop by saying “give Caesar his coin,” let’s finish the statement:

-What belongs to God? EVERYTHING! What’s left out? NOTHING!

-podcast: “Give Caesar his little coin, give Rome to God.” As great as the Roman Empire was, with effects even down to us today (how often do you guys think about the Roman Empire?), it’s nothing to God. Jesus isn’t threatened by Rome, He doesn’t play by Rome’s rules, nor does Rome have any eternal significance (apart from serving as the time for God’s Son to come to Earth!) 

-This gives us a whole new vision and purpose for politics for those of us who claim the name of Jesus. Just as that little coin has an image of a so-called god on it, who bears the image of the one true God? You and me. What that means is we need to give ourselves wholly and completely to God. We can’t treat politics as non-thing, we can’t be indifferent. We instead need to bring God’s image to bear in every culture we find ourselves in. Partisan politics will not usher in God’s kingdom, God’s kingdom advances by people who aren’t bound by any partisan ideal. Our kingdom can’t be contained by a donkey or an elephant, our kingdom advances through love, through demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit, through living out the Beatitudes.

-We saw this in Psalm 2: the nations rage, the kings of earth set themselves against God, and what does God do? He laughs! These silly little political games don’t matter to Him, because He is the Lord! Yes, politics matter! Yes, engage in the political sphere (I want more of Jesus in the south metro!), but don’t look to politics to do what only Jesus can and save you. Lots more could be said, but we’ve got a theological debate to look at!

  • Resurrection (18-27)

-After the Pharisees and Herodians are left marveling, the Sadducees decide to get into a theological debate with Jesus. Notice how Mark describes them: they don’t believe in the resurrection.

-Pharisees and Sadducees are the 2 competing religious groups of the day. The Sad. only believed that the first 5 books of the Bible were the Bible. Prophets weren’t authoritative, but they viewed themselves as the people of the book! 

-They pose a question that, once again, seemed to have no answer! Most likely a debate they had been having. Levirate law commanded that if a man dies, his husband is to take her as his wife and produce a child with her so that the genealogy will continue. But in this case, it happens to all 7 of the men in the family! The question is who will the woman be married to in the resurrection? Their question is meant to points out the absurdity of believing in a resurrection. It’s nonsensical! To them. But not to Jesus.

-The issue is they don’t know how to understand the Bible, nor do they know what the God of the Bible is like. This is the biggest diss Jesus could have given to them! For claiming to know the Bible, Jesus is saying they don’t actually know it, nor do they know the God the Bible points to!

-What they fail to see is the logic of God, and the reality that life after the resurrection isn’t just a glorified version of the life we live today. Marriage is something for this side of eternity, not that side. Marriage is only meant to serve as a picture of what we’ll experience when we’re finally united to Christ.

-Then he goes straight to their primary theological issue: the resurrection of the dead, and demonstrates how we need both Scripture AND the power of God.

“Notice that Jesus does not hang the hope of life after death (like the Greeks did) on the idea of an immortal part of us. Rather, He rests in the commitment of God to us (“I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”). This is a very powerful argument for life after death. We have a God who cannot, at our death, scrap that which is precious to Him!” (Keller, “Mark,” 161) Danny Akin, CCE

-Since God is the God of the living, that’s our hope for life after death: God always keeps his promises to us, even after death! (if you have questions, ask anyone that is in my class!)

-It’s also important to note where Jesus quotes from. Sadducees only viewed the first 5 books as authoritative, so He goes straight to Exodus to point out what they should have understood.

-We all have a tendency to elevate or fixate on specific verses at the expense of others. We need to understand the whole Bible together, not just pick and choose the passages we like. We need both the Scripture and the power of God!

  • Greatest Commandment (28-34)

-The third issue is something we’ve looked at before, so we’ll go through this section quickly, because we’ve got 3 other sections to look at! Scribe comes up to ask a question about the most important commandment, Jesus replies with the most well known verse of the time (shema), and adds to it the command to also love neighbors. These 2 commands can’t be separated!

-One thing that came out from my study this week, the Greek word translated “with” is better translated as “from”. Love God FROM our heart, not just with. This requires a completely transplant! It requires a complete change of being, which is only possible through the Spirit within us.

-The scribe found a companion in Jesus – he agrees with the assessment Jesus has offered. So Jesus commends Him: how can he be “not far” from God’s kingdom? If he got the answer right, isn’t that a demonstration that he’s in?

-The only way we can love God from our heart is to put our faith in Jesus. This scribe is so close, yet so far! He hasn’t taken that 1 life transforming step that he needs to take to be in the kingdom of God.

-Mark leaves us hanging – did this guy take that step or not? I think it was intentional to motivate us as the readers to decide if we’re going to take that step! What’s stopping you from putting your faith in Jesus? Both believer and unbeliever need the Bible and the power of God to transform us, the make us new, to make us more like Jesus. What’s stopping any of us from taking that next step? That’s what Jesus invites all of us to do!

  • Jesus’ Teaching (35-44)

-After all this interrogation, Jesus goes on the offensive.

-One of the characteristics of debating in the first century was the winner was determined by whomever was silenced. So Jesus has been batting 1.000 in his debates! 

  1. Question (35-37)

-Jesus asks a common question regarding the coming Messiah (remember, Christ is just another term for Messiah, not Jesus’ last name)

-This connects back to the political question at the beginning of this chapter. Scribes (experts in the Word) argued that the Messiah would sit on the throne as a royal heir of David. And while that’s true, it also misses the bigger picture (just as the Sadducees did before). 

-Jesus quotes from the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament: Psalm 110, which by this time was viewed as a Messianic Psalm. Many people believe David wrote it when His Son, Solomon was being crowned king, but it also has Messianic undertones that gave future readers glimpses of what the future Messiah would look like.

-Notice that Jesus talks about the inspiration of Scripture here. How was the Bible given to us? Through the Holy Spirit!

-How can David refer to his son as the Lord? Because He’s great David’s even greater Son! In the lineage of David, yes, but so much more than just that lineage. God has an even bigger plan than what a human genealogical line can contain. Once again, those who have been tasked with reading and understanding God’s plan don’t have a solution to the question. But the crowd listening loves it!

-We all love a David & Goliath story! Even our post Christian culture knows what we’re talking about! When the little guy beats the big guy (every sports movie ever). The crowd loves Jesus winning in a battle of the wits with the “experts.” It’s a reminder that worldly wisdom has limits (just as worldly politics have their limits)

  • Appearances (38-40)

-Not only does Jesus ask them questions they can’t answer, He also will call publicly condemn them for their hypocrisy. Look at the description Jesus gives:

-Long robes: dressing for public recognition. “greetings” similarly, they want everyone to know who they are so they can be known as important.

-“Best seats and places of honor.” They’re served everywhere they go. Everyone defers to them and they are given certain social status everywhere they go.

-“Devour and pretense” they give no regard to the poor or marginalized. Instead of loving and caring for their neighbor (remember, we saw that a few verses ago) they prey on those who have the greatest need, and then pray the longest prayers as if the length of the prayer makes them superior. Nothing in this list is coming from a heart that loves God supremely and others sacrificially. Instead, all they’re doing is demonstrating the condemnation that is coming.

-Watch out for religiosity. Not from the heart of God, not from a heart of someone who has been transformed by God! Instead, it’s a demonstration of someone who’s trying to achieve what only Christ can: a way of approaching God.

  • The Heart (41-44)

-Jesus then gives us a picture of what God is looking for instead of what the scribes are offering. 

-Still in the temple, watching the pomp and circumstance brought by the wealthy, who are demonstrating their wealthy by the abundance given to the temple. In contrast to all these wealthy people, in comes a poor widow (almost goes without saying. Like calling someone a “poor homeless person”) 

-This becomes a teaching opportunity – this woman gave out of her poverty, and that’s what God cares about, not the sum given, the heart of the person who gives.

-God doesn’t care about the external obedience, He cares about the heart. This goes back to the great commandment, and the question Jesus had about taxes.

-Remember what we saw before: what is God’s? Everything! Even our money is a gift from God that we’ve been given to steward. The question for us is what kind of stewards are we? How are we using our money? The idea of tithing wasn’t anywhere near what the church practiced in the 1st Cent. What we see throughout the NT is regular, cheerful, and sacrificial. The tithe (10%) is a good starting point, but a bad ending point. 

-Regular: 1 Cor. 16:2

-Cheerful: 2. Cor. 9:7

-Sacrificially: 2 Cor. 9:6, 8:3

-Politics, death, theology, and money. God cares about all of them, and so should we!

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by mikethestrand on October 8, 2023  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Sermon, Theology

Posted by mikethestrand on October 8, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/10/08/mark-1213-44-sermon-manuscript/

Mark 11:27-12:12 Sermon Manuscript

-Jumping back in to Mark, been a few months since we were in this book, so some refreshers:

-Jesus is the focus of this book, unlike the other Gospels, Mark is straight to the point. Jesus’ focus is on teaching, other ministries flow out of that.

-Theme of “immediately”

-Ended with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem: Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, people shouting praises to Him who is seen entering as a king! 

-Today’s text can be viewed through the lens of a high school – at least a high school like I grew up in! There were various clicks/groups in high school who all had a certain standing in the school and didn’t have a lot of overlap with each other.

-Jocks played sports, theater kids put on shows, nerds played chess (Bob asked me to change this to scholars, your future boss). There was a social hierarchy that was meant to be followed! Sometimes those social standings would be messed up, or someone new would move to town who would attempt to join one of the groups, and it was always viewed with suspicion. The school was already operating well, didn’t need someone new to come in!

-It also tended to threaten the social standing of someone in the group! In basketball, only 5 guys are starters. In football, only 11 guys are on the field at a time. If someone was going to be replaced, they weren’t going to be happy! 

-Unfortunately, that sentimentality doesn’t just stop in high school, does it? If a new hire is brought into work and starts succeeding it’s viewed as a threat. In churches, if a new pastor is hired at the church down the road and they start growing it’s hurtful. We all have places and spaces where we have some kind of social standing and position that if we were being pushed on would struggle.

-That’s what’s been happening to the Jewish leaders throughout this book. Pharisees, Sadducees have been seen as Jesus’ opposition. Questioning, doubting, looking for ways to trip Jesus up, sow seeds of doubt in others, and eventually stir up enough people to kill Jesus. Why? Because Jesus was threatening the social order of the day.

-If we go back to the high school illustration, Jesus was mixing all the various groups together and changing the way people were meant to spend their time. He was upsetting the apple cart, and in the beginning of Mark 11, he upsets the entire temple by kicking out those looking to make a profit off God’s people. How do you think people would respond to their source of power and influence being questioned?

READ/PRAY (pg. 495, or 72)

  1. Doubting God’s Work (11:27-33)
    1. Questioning (27-28)

-After Jesus had run out the money changers, he and his disciples left the city to stay outside, but then returned back to Jerusalem the next day. Not only did they come back, notice that they went back to the temple.

-How do you think He was received? The market, the place where offerings were sold so people could worship God correctly, had been a place of chaos the day before. Jesus was upsetting the social order! 

-Look who approaches him: chief priests, scribes, elders. These 3 groups comprised the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. They help all the power and influence for the rest of the Jewish people. 

-They were the “cool kids” of the high school, or the 3 bodies of the government if you’re thinking in adult terms! They held all the power and all the societal influence in their day. 

-Their next attempt to discredit Jesus gets to the source of his authority.

-This question isn’t a flippant one! Jesus has been going around telling people “truly, truly I tell you!” Where does he get the right to tell people what’s true? God’s people have, since the beginning of human history, been people of the word. God’s Word has been the highest authority since Adam was formed from the dust of the ground. Sanhedrin were people of the word. Trusted it, studied it, worked their hardest to apply it to every area of their lives and everyone around them. They were considered the authority, and they sure hadn’t authorized Jesus to tell people how to interpret and live out God’s Word!

-Think of it like a teacher in a school. If one of the kids were to begin telling the class how they should study the material, how they should apply it to their lives, the teacher would rightly be upset! Here we have Jesus who is viewed to be the student telling all the other students how to live and study. Would be wildly inappropriate if he was stepping out of line! 

-From a worldly perspective, they’re asking the right question. All of us are accountable to someone and refusing to acknowledge that reality demonstrates a hardness of heart, and need to be corrected. But Jesus is a major exception to the normal rules, and he produces some evidence that points to that truth:

  • The Evidence (29-32)

-Just as they asked Jesus a question, Jesus answers their question with another question. You can imagine this being a frustrating proposition for the Sanhedrin. They’re used to being respected and responded to quickly.

-But what is the evidence Jesus produces? It’s not His teachings, not His healings, not His exemplary life, it’s the work and ministry of someone else – His cousin John.

-Remember, John was a divisive person too! He preached in the wilderness, baptized people for repentance, and called out the sinful leaders. It all culminated with John condemning Herod for marrying His husband’s ex-wife. As you can guess, Herod (and his new wife) didn’t appreciate that, so John was eventually beheaded for betrayal, but not before creating quite a following and a stir throughout Israel. Just as Jesus had a following, John had a following, and the leaders had gone out to visit John. So Jesus asks them – who gave John authority? Was he a madman? Leading people astray, forcing people to disobey the one true God, or was he right? 

-Why does Jesus jump to John?

-There was a special even that Mark records all the way back in the first chapter that answers the question being asked. Remember, John had created quite the following, but he wasn’t he main event, he was just the hype man! He came in to stir up the crowd, get them ready and excited for someone else to come. Someone who had more power and authority than John could ever dream of! Enter Jesus.

-Jesus first act in ministry (at least from what we see in Mark’s Gospel) is being baptized by John. This was the initiatory right for Jesus’ ministry, so if the leaders wouldn’t believe that John was speaking on behalf of God, they wouldn’t view Jesus’ call to ministry as legitimate.

-But another reason Jesus asked this question was because something unique happened at Jesus’ baptism. Many people were being baptized by John, John’s call to all them was to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Meant to signify a radical change of their lives. But something different happened when Jesus came – no repentance needed, no change in life required from Him, instead look at what the text says:

-heavens being torn (just as the heavens will open when Jesus returns), they were getting a glimpse into the normally unseen realm. At a conference this week walking through Exodus, one of the speakers was assigned Ex. 24. Could you imagine seeing God like this? But look at the description of Him: look at His feet. Anytime throughout Scripture that people are given a peek into the greater reality, suddenly they all become tongue tied, as if there are no words that could adequately describe the reality their eyes are beholding. But what’s even crazier about this is when heaven came down to earth as a man, suddenly people refused to believe Him, as we’re seeing in this story! 

-It’s really easy for us who know the story, who know what’s going to happen to act as if we’d have gotten it right, that we always know and respond to Jesus as we should. But we’re only lying to ourselves! The temptation for everyone who encountered Jesus at His first coming wasn’t to fall at His feet and worship Him, it was to mock and belittle Him because He looked just like everyone else. Remember, we’ve seen His family try to take Him back home, we’ve read about others who dismissed Him because they knew the rest of His family. The incredible truth about God’s redemption plan is how seemingly ordinary it was. Except for a few rare moments where the greater reality breaks through, which was seen at Jesus’ baptism.

-Spirit descends on Jesus with the appearance of a dove. Finally, God the Father Himself also speaks from heaven and commissions Jesus to begin His ministry. If anyone wanted to question who authorized Jesus, do you think they would take this as authorization enough? All 3 persons of the Trinity demonstrated in power at Jesus’ baptism.

-Think of it like if someone were to walk up to the White House and walk in like it was their home, how successful would their approach be? They wouldn’t get very far before facing some VERY unpleasant circumstances! But what if it’s a child of the president? Not only would they be welcomed in, anyone who stood in their way would face some pretty negative repercussions! Similarly here – who gave Jesus permission to minister? God the Father, as evidenced by His baptism.

-But the Sanhedrin didn’t want to admit that – and notice their thought process: 

-John was viewed as a threat too, and they didn’t believe him which means they didn’t view his baptism from heaven. But if they say it was only from man (earthly with no spiritual reality) they would face an uprising from the people because the people knew he was a prophet.

-And notice the irony of vs. 32: who are they afraid of? The people! Who should they be afraid of? God!

-The run ins with the high priests doesn’t stop here either. We read of a run in Peter (and the rest of the apostles) have with them, and as if condemning them for their questioning of Jesus here, Peter responds “We must obey God rather than men.” Yet another example of the Jewish leaders having their priorities misplaced, leading to misunderstanding God’s message and messenger in Jesus. So what’s the outcome to this debate?

  • The Solution (33)

-Instead of being honest, they respond with “No clue!”

-These were supposed to be the leaders of the day, the people with all the answer! The ones to whom everyone else looked for how to faithfully interpret, understand, and apply God’s Word, yet they couldn’t give answer to a simple question from Jesus. 

-So Jesus won’t answer them, because the answer was right in front of them, but they refused to acknowledge it. Their pride and drive for power and prestige blinded them to the realities of what God was doing among them, and they refused to admit where even their authority came from.

-This seems to be a timely message as authority has gotten a really bad rap recently. We’ve all read the stories of pastors who have abused their authority, or elder boards who have enabled unqualified leadership to perpetuate instead of calling out sinful behaviors, or maybe you’ve experienced one of those issues yourself! Life east of Eden is full of difficulties, abuse, and sin. But that doesn’t mean we just dismiss all leadership as wrong or inherently sinful. Instead, the only way to combat abuse of authority is to double down on good authority, and go back to what the Bible commands.

-Read a book this past week titled ‘Authority: How Godly Rule Protects the Vulnerable, Strengthens Communities, and Promotes Human Flourishing’ The author uses David’s last words recorded for us in 2 Samuel 23 to demonstrate what godly authority looks like: begins with fearing God, then uses that authority to provide a context of flourishing for those under his care. Could summarize this as using authority like Jesus did: not to demean others, not to be served by others, but to serve others. 

-Which means Christian authority is supposed to be equipping authority. Doesn’t meant that everyone gets to do whatever they want (read the book of Judges to see what happens when that’s the reality), but it means that everyone is using their gifts to serve each other, recognizing godly leadership as those who will have to give an account to the Lord for how they lead, but also recognizing that I will give an account for how I submit to godly leadership. Notice what I said there: godly leadership. Leadership the way God has designed, and in the contexts that He commands. There’s more that could be said about this, but that’s not where Jesus goes next:

  • Response to God’s Work (12:1-12)

-The last parable Jesus tells also happens to be probably the easiest to interpret! Using a well-recognized practice in the first century to tell His story.

-Wealthy landowners would entrust their fields to various tenants to take care of it while they were gone. The stipulation was the tenants had to pay some of the fruit back to the owner each year as their rent for the use of the land. It wasn’t their land to keep, they were merely tasked with caring for it.

-As they should have expected, the owner sent a servant to collect his dues. And how do they treat him? Shamefully! And this continues through numerous servants, with the owner never getting what he’s owed.

-Your first reaction should be “this was a really dumb owner!” Don’t you think he should have just kicked these crazy guys out? That’s when we are reminded that God’s authority is never vindictive. Remember God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness to those who fear Him. God wants no one to perish, but wants all to love Him, so He will continue being faithful even when His servants are punished.

-The last person He sends is His one beloved son. Instead of honoring Him as the Son, they kill him too in an attempt to steal His inheritance. Guess what, that doesn’t work at all! Finally the owner comes and kills the tenants and gives it to others.

-This story serves to demonstrate that Jesus fulfills a prophecy from Psalm 118 (connects back to Jesus’ entry where the people quoted Psalm 118 to Him)

-The leaders reject Jesus as the true heir of God, but then God uses His Son to be the primary stone of His unfolding plan of redemption. 

-Think of the song we sing: “Who would imagine so great a mercy? What heart could fathom such boundless grace? The God of ages stepped down from glory to wear my sin and bear my shame.” What person in their right mind would be so gracious to people who continually refuse to submit to His rule?

-Even the Sanhedrin could understand this parable, and it made them upset! Instead of fearing God, they continued fearing the people and remained in their sin.

-As we come to the end of this text, the question in front of us today is whose authority do you submit to? Do you trust godly leadership in your life, or do you refuse to acknowledge God’s good design for our good and His glory in our life?

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by mikethestrand on October 1, 2023  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Life, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on October 1, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/10/01/mark-1127-1212-sermon-manuscript/

Equipping Classes – Sermon Manuscript

Equipping Classes

-We’ve seen the importance of discipleship, the nonnegotiables for us to grow (Scripture, Sunday, Serve)

-Those are essential, vital elements for every Christian to grow more like Jesus! But then what’s the role of the church in discipleship? How can we be a part of helping people take 1 step closer to Jesus? 

-Different series than normal, VERY different sermon than normal! 

-Trying to cram lots of learning into 1 message, today’s message is more philosophical and educational (the way we learn)

-As I’ve shared before, I’ve read LOTS of books over my life that try to answer this question! They’ll say things like: the best way to do discipleship is small groups. We need that accountability. Or the best way to do discipleship is Sunday Schools where we’re able to instruct people the truths of the Bible. Or the best way to do discipleship is ABF where we’re in community together with similar aged people.

-The hard part is this is going beyond what Scripture commands. There are some things that are explicit: meeting together, learning from the Bible, leadership in a body, teaching, using your gifts, but the Bible says very little about the practical and specific ways we should do that, and it gets even more tricky when we start taking steps outside of the corporate gathering (what Heb. 10 was talking about last week).

-In order to accomplish what God has commanded there are probably an infinite amount of ways we could do that! But we have to choose something. Paralysis by analysis is a real thing. And every option we choose is at least somewhat culturally conditioned.

-We place a high value on education in our culture. Such a high value that we demand every child growing up get an education. We pay taxes towards it, track children as they grow up to ensure they’re being educated in the ways we want. Don’t you think that’s going to have an influence on the way we view training in the church too? And one of the biggest drivers for education in our Western world was the church.

-Did you know that the reason Sunday school was started was to teach children how to read so they could read and understand the Bible? Many children were forced to work to provide for their families, but Sunday off, so churches started schools as a way to provide education for them. 

-I had an overseer at the previous church I served buy me a book titled ‘The Search for God and Guinness’ which was the story of Arthur Guinness who founded Guinness Brewing in 1759. Arthur was a strong believer, who used his gifts and talents to combat alcoholism (his beer had much lower alcohol content and was more filling than alternatives) and used the proceeds from his beer sales to bring Sunday School to Ireland. Some of you may have even read books by his great-great-great grandson, well known apologist Os Guinness. The Guinness family has carried on the legacy of Arthur in both ministry and business

-With all that background, I have wrestled with what is the best way for us to provide a framework (trellis) to help as many of us grow 1 step closer to Christ as we can, and as I’ve read and studied I came across a passage in 1 Tim. That I think summarizes what we all need: life & doctrine. Both need to be growing together to become a mature Christian. Because of that, what we offer to help people grow should correlate to Life and Doctrine.

-This is what led to the name change from small groups to life groups, and the change to classes to being more focused on teaching specific doctrines than correlating to life stage.

-As many of you know (and are very grateful for!) we also have various ministries and community groups that do work to provide opportunities for relational connections or focus on a specific group of people, but the focus is toward the Life Groups and Equipping Classes. If you only have time to spend in 1 area, let it be one of those.

-In an ideal world, we would all be involved in as many areas as we could! And if you have the time and the bandwidth, please do look for more areas to get involved in and grow! But don’t forget, we’re also called to go into the whole world. The church doesn’t exist for herself nor should we be living our whole lives removed from the world around us. At the same time, some of these discipleship classes are great places to invite your friends and neighbors to so they can hear the truths that we believe.

-Today we’re going to be focusing on the right side of the trellis: the equipping classes.

READ/PRAY (Matt. 22 – pg. 483)

  1. Love God With Your Mind (Matt. 22:37)

-What do you think it means to love the Lord your God with all your mind?

-Do we just work our hardest to keep any thought not about God at bay? How do I provide for my family if I’m just supposed to think about God all the time?

-Remember that a way of summarizing what Jesus is saying here is everything we have and are is meant to be used to love God. Another way you could think about this is in connection to worship – we are supposed to worship God 24/7. Worship isn’t just music (although music can be used to worship), worship is living a life that is fully surrender to God and doing our best to honor Him with everything we do.

-Piper: Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Me: discipleship exists because worship doesn’t. If we are going to worship God correctly, we need to know and understand who He is.

–Rom. 12:1-2: connection between worship and living, goal is transformation but how? By the renewal of your mind, thinking God’s thoughts after Him.

-If I told you that I love my wife (which I do!) and went on to tell you that she’s a 6’ blonde woman who loves swimming and McDonalds you should have some questions.

-Similarly, if we claim to love God (I hope you do!) then you need to know some things about Him. What is He like? What does He enjoy? What does a relationship with Him look like? 

-God has revealed Himself to everyone in the world in more ways than we’ll ever fully understand. There’s a beautiful picture of this in The Lion King where Timon and Pumba are star gazing: “Timon, ever wonder what those sparkling dots are up there?” “Puh. I don’t wonder, I know” “Oh, what are they?” “They’re fireflies. Fireflies that uh, got stuck up in the big blueish black thing.” “Oh, gee, I always thought they were balls of gas burning billions of miles away.” “Pumba, with you everything’s gas.” 

-When you look up at the stars it creates a sense of wonder and insignificance. In the big scheme of things, we’re tiny! And God made it that way! The seemingly infinity of space is a constant reminder at how little we actually know.

-But that doesn’t mean that God keeps things hidden from us. My college had a motto that said “All truth is God’s truth.” (which as I got older I found out they stole from some guy name Augustine who lived in the 300s)

-What this means is Christians should be all about the truth (or a helpful way to say it in today’s age is “true truth.”) What that means is: worshipping God with our minds means looking for everything that is true, celebrating that it is true, and then making those connections back to God (worship)

-The reality is there are going to be people that aren’t Christians that we can learn from! Celebrate God’s gift in that person (common grace), and look for opportunities to share with them how that points them to God!

–Evangelism in a Skeptical World is a great way to learn about that! It’s a different way of approaching evangelism than many of us had been taught before.

-But another implication in this is that we need more “Christian” thinking – we need more Christians involved in every area of life

-Politics, businesses, trades, health care, teaching, science all of these areas help humans to be obedient to God’s command to “fill the earth and subdue it” which involves creating and sustaining culture. 

-So loving God with your mind means using your gifts to the best of your ability and using them as a tool to worship God, recognizing that He is the one who has gifted you and sharing with others how God your gifting points to God. But how do we make those connections?

  • Loving God Requires Teaching (Matt. 28:20, Acts 18:24-28)

-If you can remember back to the Spring, one of the things that came out in our study of Mark is that Jesus came to teach. We have so many accounts of the different things He addressed during His time on earth! Heaven and hell, marriage, divorce, death, money, love, neighboring. Nothing was off limits!

-Additionally, one of the things Jesus commanded in the great commission was teaching. What kind of teaching? Teaching that helps obey what Jesus commanded. What did Jesus command? A whole bunch of things! How do we know what those things are? It requires teaching.

-Micah: we don’t know what we don’t know. If we ever arrive at the place of thinking we’ve learned all there possibly is to know we’re either deluded or liars.

-Prince Caspian: “Aslan, you’re bigger!” “No, but each time you come back you’ll find me a little bigger.” 

-That is ESPECIALLY true of God! Think if you’ve ever had a conversation with a child and they ask things like “Why is the sky blue?” or “Is God big enough to pick up our house?” You become a much better theologian very quickly in those conversations!

-Think of the way God describes this in Isaiah 55: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” We’ll never completely understand God, but that doesn’t mean we can’t understand Him truly. 

-Teaching didn’t stop with Jesus. The Apostles throughout Acts are shown to be teaching the crowds, in homes, and one on one.

-My favorite picture of this is in Acts 18. A guy named Apollos is a sharp dude, and knew the Bible really well! He had been taught really well, so he continues that tradition of teaching others. He had natural gifts and supernatural gifts. Yet what happens? He needs to be taught! He had all this understanding, but it wasn’t complete (missing the baptism of HS)

-Look at the way this teaching is described here: “explained to him the way of God more accurately.” That’s a great summary of what we’re aiming to do in our classes! Every person in this room, whether we realize it or not, believe some erroneous things about God.

-“He used to believe this, but now that he’s in heaven he knows better” We’ll all know better!

-Kelly’s story

-This trend has continued throughout history. Remember that the reason we’re here is because of a line of teachers over the past 2,000 years who have poured into us and culminated in where we are today. Now what is one of the best ways for us to communicate something to a large group of people? Offer a class that many people can attend! Which gets us to the final point:

  • Loving God Requires Maturity (Heb. 5:11-14, 1 Cor. 3:1-9)

-Put our thinking caps on: if we’re supposed to pursue maturity, what does that look like? What things would we need to know about in order to be “mature”?

-Money, marriage, parenting, grandparenting, prayer, Bible study, work, politics, sickness, health

-In order for us to address issues like that, there must be teaching so we can know how to faithfully engage the world we live in. There’s a few examples of this in the Bible:

–Hebrews

-The writer here is assuming that people will continue growing.

-Think of how children grow (I’m reminded of this every day!) It’s good for babies to drink milk! If you give them anything else you’ll make them very sick. But there’s something weird about a 3 year old nursing, right? Or even a worse a 30-year-old! Yet how many times are people content to spiritually be a 30-year-old infant who can’t eat milk? Not a call for everyone to go to seminary, but a call to never stop learning and growing.

-Look how he defines mature: constant practice to distinguish good from evil, being given training in how to engage our world.

-Recovering youth pastor, one of the most disheartening things was the sheltering that would take place. Don’t dump things on kids, but don’t shelter them forever! Help them work on their “powers of discernment.” Provide avenues for them to be exposed to the way the world works.

1 Corinthians 3:

-Paul picks up the same idea as before. 

-Notice this time the connection to maturity: jealousy and strife. Competition. Teachers aren’t meant to be in the place of God. In the day of “celebrity” preachers don’t forget that they’re only servants.

End on Eph. 4

-Maturity involves growing in knowledge and understanding of who God is. 

-In order to help us we will offer classes on a wide assortment of topics to get to the aim of presenting everyone mature

-One of the things we need to realize is that we’ll never stop learning, even in heaven

-I remember trying to contemplate eternity as I was growing up. I would lay awake in bed and try to wrap my head around it (I realize I was a weird kid). What was hard for me is I confess it sounds almost boring. At some point I get tired of doing whatever hobbies or activities I enjoy, so how would heaven be better? Here’s the thing: in heaven everything will be as it should be, and we’ll have the opportunity to continue learning everything we could ever want. I attended conference onetime where one of the speakers said he was so excited for heaven because he wanted to learn Mandarin, and in heaven, even if it takes him 10,000 years to learn it, that’s fine, because he’s got eternity to go!

-Gregory the Great: “Scripture is like a river again, broad and deep, shallow enough here for the lamb to go wading, but deep enough there for the elephant to swim.”

-While we’ll never master the God, or the Bible, we should never stop digging in.

-What Jesus invites us into when we are saved is a journey of growth. Day by day learning and growing more like Him.

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by mikethestrand on September 17, 2023  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Life, Relationships, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on September 17, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/09/17/equipping-classes-sermon-manuscript/

What is a Disciple? – Sermon Manuscript

-Bob did such a good job last week! Thanks to him for being willing to try something new! I did find it funny that I’ve been here for 3 years and never once mentioned where I went to college, like a typical Wheaton alum, he only needed 1 Sunday to make sure everyone knew exactly where he went to college! I do need to offer 1 corrective too – there’s only like 3 podcasts that I listen to at 3x speed, the rest are only 2x.

-Thanks to Bob, I got next year’s sermon series planned! Mark your calendars, we’ll be spending most of the year walking through Revelation.

-One of the things my parents are absolutely terrible at is house repair, which means that if I wanted to learn how to do it, I needed to look somewhere else. Thankfully, my Senior year of high school I met a youth leader who had started his own remodeling company and needed summer help to keep up with all the work he had. 

-I learned how to paint, install toilets, drywall, use a saw, AND he made me start listening to sermons all morning and then talk about them in the afternoon. Alistair Begg, John Piper, Dave Ramsey

-For the summer, I essentially became his apprentice in the trades. He took what he had learned from his career in the trades and taught me. Since then, I’ve gotten to use those skills to do some light remodeling on all 3 of the houses I’ve owned! But I’ve also been given the tools I need to have the confidence tackle new projects that I have no previous experience with. 

-Contrast to the way I was certified in CPR. 1 afternoon class (where I rushed “Stayin Alive”) and I had a certificate that labeled me CPR certified. 

-Why do we need to keep talking about being a disciple, discipleship?

-I did a whole series on this idea last year, but I think it’s important enough for us to be regularly and repeatedly reminded of this idea because it’s the one thing that is supposed to set the church apart from every other earthly organization.

-Think about that: what other earthly organization has been tasked by God to make disciples? None! That’s must be the primary focus of the church! Out of that disciple-making purpose flows other things (care for the widow and orphan, concern for the poor and marginalized, and other societal concerns) but those cannot replace the primary focus of making disciples, those need to flow out of the disciple-making.

-Another reason we’ll keep talking about it is because of Jesus’ last words to us before He ascended to heaven. This disciple making idea is the last thing He left with His first disciples, and the reason you’re all here today is because those disciples continued making more disciples, meaning if you trace your spiritual lineage far enough back, we could all find ourselves gathered on a hill outside Jerusalem watching Jesus ascend to the clouds.

-READ/PRAY

  1. The Great Commandment (Matt. 22:34-40)

-If you were asked what the most important command or rule in all the Bible was, how would you do it? 

-“One rabbi quoted Proverbs 3:6 as the heart of the Law: “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Another rabbi quoted Habakkuk 2:4: “The righteous shall live by his faith.””

-Today it may be John 3:16 or Matt. 7:1 “Judge not, that you be not judged”

-Jesus went a slightly different direction.

-If you remember back to before we studied the Psalms we were walking through Mark’s Gospel. The 2 primary Jewish leaders were the Pharisees and the Sadducees, Pharisees were the conservatives, Sadducees were the liberals, but where they were united was in their opposition to Jesus. Throughout all the Gospels we see each group posing various theological or philosophical questions to Jesus to test Him or trap Him with some question they viewed as unanswerable. They were out to prove that Jesus wasn’t the great teacher many people thought. Sadducees (who didn’t believe in the resurrection) had just asked Jesus their philosophical conundrum: if someone is married, spouse dies, and this happens 7 times, who will they be married to in the resurrection? There isn’t marriage in the resurrection! This stuns them, so the Pharisees think its’ their turn: they ask a common debate of the day: which commandments were light, and which were weighty? The law was described as held up by hundreds of nails (613), and various religious experts had proposed various solutions to the best way of summarizing.

-It’s important to note who is thrust forward to ask the question. Lit. “expert in the law” which at the time had both religious and social aspects to it. This expert had been mulling over this question, scheming about the best time to spring it on Jesus. Only 2 options: either he would argue for 1 that would be viewed as crazy, or he would have refused to answer demonstrating that Jesus didn’t have enough understanding of the law.

-Remember what I said a few minutes ago about what people viewed as the most important aspect? Acknowledge God, or live by faith. Jesus doesn’t go there, though.

-Instead, Jesus used the most used known and used verse of the day. Written on the foreheads and hands, spoken by every faithful Jew each morning and evening. Deut. 6 the Shema (hear) Heart, soul, “muchness” 

-Command to teach them diligently (indoctrinate them in your children), they should come up throughout our lives.

-Bind them on hands and frontlets between eyes: even your hands should be used to love God, and the way you view the world (like glasses) should be loving God. Not just individually: doorposts (when you leave the house), gates (marketplace should be a place of loving God)

-Look at the command we’re given, it starts with love. Why love, why not obedience?

-We are all far more driven by our emotions/desires than we will ever admit. Think of Paul in Rom. 7who is complaining that he can’t stop sinning! He knows the right thing to do, but his can’t stop pursuing the wrong thing! It’s because deep down our loves aren’t right. We love ourselves, we love our stuff, we don’t love God first. 

-Additionally, Jesus invites us into a relationship. We’re not robots or automatons built to carry out a specific function to make God’s life better (as many other religions argue). We’re designed to be in a relationship with God: we love because He first loved us.

-Notice as well the repeated “all” What’s left out? Nothing!

-Heart, soul, mind this time. Slightly different wording, same meaning behind it. We’re supposed to love God with everything we have and are! But Jesus doesn’t stop there. Almost as if He’s playing a trick on this lawyer, He goes on to show the way God’s love is demonstrated in our lives. 

-These 2 commands had never before been connected to each other. The first quote was from Deut. This second one is from Lev. 19:18 in a section that talks about the ways God’s people are to care for their neighbors. Things like: leave some of your field unharvested for the poor, pay your employees well, pursue justice in legal matters. Or you could summarize it by saying love your neighbors like your love yourself. The way we demonstrate our love of God is by loving our neighbors.

-“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love…If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfect in us.” 1 John 4:8, 11-12)

-Anti-mysticism because God actually cares how we treat other people.

-anti-selfish because we need to care about others just as much as we care about ourselves.

-anti-worldly because it requires giving up something of yourself for the sake of those around you. Instead of continually trying to get more and better things, it demands that you give away.

-This also summarizes the 10 commandments: Ex. 20: No other gods, carven images, name of the Lord in vain, Sabbath, honor parents, no murder, no adultery, no stealing, no false witness against a neighbor, no coveting what others have

-God’s law is summarized as loving God, and loving others. If you want to live a full life, be satisfied in what you have and are, it means love God first and foremost, and then demonstrate that love by loving others. How do we do that? I’m glad you asked! Jesus talks about that:

  • The Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20)

-Begin with “all authority”

-Jesus is sitting on His throne whether or not we want to admit it. That means that everyone is a part of His kingdom and everyone will someday have to acknowledge that reality. Some will join with Him in furthering and working that Kingdom in heaven, and others will be forever separated from Him and will bear the just penalty for their treason against the King. This is why it’s important to understand and live according to God’s law! If you want to find success in the world He made, it means ordering your life as He says we should.

-Salvation isn’t the end goal, that’s just the starting point. That’s why He commands us to make disciples, not converts. If conversion were the end goal that would be far too easy (as Muhammad did, surround a city, threaten death if they don’t convert, and then move on).

-How do we make disciples? 

-Whose job is it, ours or Gods? Yes! Ultimately, we can’t save anyone, it’s only when the HS brings someone from death to live that the journey as a disciple begins. Not only that, but it’s us working in conjunction with the HS to continue growing as a disciple. We’re commanded to work out our own salvation, but at the same time remember that it is God who works in us.

-That doesn’t mean we’re completely passive in this whole endeavor. Even in this commission, we baptize (Trinitarian God), we teach, and we live as citizens of heaven. We don’t have the eyes to see the way God’s kingdom advances. It’s not on power or might or persuasion or intellect, it’s through the Word & our lives.

-What is a disciple? Literally: a pupil, learner, to be intentionally taught.

-As the OSB has been chatting, 3 words came to my mind: love, learn, and live. Love God and others, learn the things that Jesus taught, and live out the loving and learning that you’re doing. This is a daily occurrence, in Luke 9:23, Jesus said if anyone wants to follow after Him, they must take up their cross daily. This means bringing intentionality to your every decision. Unlike signing up for an 8 week class and getting a certificate that says now you’re a disciple, it’s instead an entire lifetime pursuit. We’ll take a look next week at the foundation of that growth. 

-But that gets us to the next step in this, which is discipleship: a few key things to point out: 

-Intentionally: You need to own this. Being a disciple doesn’t just happen, it takes a daily decision to follow Christ today. And tomorrow, it takes intentional effort to decide to get up and follow Jesus then. And you can’t do it by yourself! You need to look for ways to disciple others as you grow, otherwise you’re not obeying Jesus’ commission!

-Formally and informally: think of what we saw in the Shema, training happens when you go about your regular life. Yes, there will be and should be times where you’re intentionally growing in a certain area, or you’re training someone else in a specific area, but it should also take place as you’re shopping for groceries, or going on a walk, or playing video games. Everything you do can be used as a tool to encourage others in their walk with Jesus, even if the Holy Spirit hasn’t yet saved them.

-Cheri’s story

-1 step closer: this has become the refrain that many of the OSB and staff have latched onto as a way of summarizing this whole idea. Our aim in life is to daily take 1 step closer to Jesus (or loving God better with all our heart, soul, mind, strength), and not just ourselves, but to be looking at the interactions we have with others as an opportunity to have them take 1 step closer to Jesus. One easy way of doing this is just take time to pray with someone after a meeting! Or if someone’s sharing a need stop right there and pray for them!

-As he often does, C.S. Lewis summarizes this idea really well in The Weight of Glory

  • The Great Need (1 Tim. 4:11-16, Gal. 5:22-26)

-How do we intentionally disciple others, how do we help them, and ourselves, take 1 step closer to Jesus through our interactions? 

-Paul’s letter to the younger Timothy, and one of the verses people spoke regularly into my life when I first started here. Notice the 5-fold command Paul gives to Timothy (we focus on the first half of that verse and tend to stop there.)

-Speech, conduct, love, faith, purity. I don’t think any of those words are accidental or incidental. Speech: who tends to be slightly flippant in their speech, or speak authoritatively without experience and humility to temper it. The young! Conduct: who tends to be up too late, eat too much junk food, spend too much money? The young! Love: who tends to focus on themselves instead of others? Young! Faith: who often struggles in their faith? The young! Purity: who struggles remaining chaste and completely pure in their interactions with each other? Paul is telling Timothy to put childish ways behind, set an example that looks like Jesus to those around Him.

-Devote yourself to: public reading of Scripture (which is preaching and teaching), and use your gift!

-Be diligent (intentionally practice, don’t give up! Remain faithful in them!)

-So others will see. 2 extremes to avoid: pride and hiding. 

-Pride: insisting on your own way, judging others for your perceived lack of their gifts. Looking to be served because of your giftings. None of us is better than the other, we ALL need each other to function as God intends this body to function.

-The other extreme is hiding your gifts and growth. We feel like we’re bragging when we share about how God is using us. It’s not you, it’s Christ IN you that these things happen! We need to get better at sharing the ways we’re seeing God working.

-There’s something specific that Timothy needs to watch closely: Life and doctrine.

-Where do people fall away from God’s grace? Life or doctrine.

-We’ve all read the stories of pastors who didn’t watch their life closely and disqualified themselves from ministry (money, affairs, bullying)

-But what about failing to watch their doctrine? There’s a lot of churches who should stop using the title of “church” because they’re not preaching the faith that has can be traced back to the first 12 disciples. 

-We need to be taking steps in both our life and our doctrine on a regular basis.

-What measurement do I use to see if I’m taking 1 step closer to Jesus? Gal. 5, or use love as the metric (which is in the fruit list!)

-As you think through the life piece, think of these 9 evidences of the Spirit at work in your life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

-Keep in step with the spirit:

 -Ever taken dancing lessons? It’s SUPER painful if your dance partner doesn’t know the steps, or if you’re out of sync. Our job is to be following the HS’s lead.

“One of the most striking evidences of sinful human nature lies in the universal propensity for downward drift. In other words, it takes thought, resolve, energy, and effort to bring about reform. In the grace of God, sometimes human beings display such virtues. But where such virtues are absent, the drift is invariably toward compromise, comfort, indiscipline, sliding disobedience and decay that advances, sometimes at a crawl and sometimes at a gallop, across generations.

People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, and obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.” Carson

-What do you want in your life? Grace-driven effort, that leads toward holiness (1 step closer), or drifting away from what God has commanded you to do and be?

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by mikethestrand on September 3, 2023  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Life, Relationships, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on September 3, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/09/03/what-is-a-disciple-sermon-manuscript/

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