Waiting on the Lord

Psalm 25

-Who here likes waiting? I am terrible at it! I hate waiting so much I don’t even like surprises! Cara has tried planning surprises for me multiple times, and as soon as I get a wind that something it going on I’m on a mission to bug her until she caves and tells me. Delayed gratification vs. instant gratification (marshmallow study)

-Our culture is terrible with this! Why wait for anything when everything is immediately available? I’ve even had times where I’ve gone on Amazon to order something and because it didn’t have 2 day shipping I just skipped it. Where this is dangerous is that’s not the way God works in our lives, and in many cases waiting is a spiritual development that we need to pursue.

-Slowness from The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

-No one that I know likes waiting, but what if waiting is exactly where God wants us? How many of you by rushing ahead have come to regret your decisions? I’m not saying there’s not a time and a place for quick decisions, but what if God’s ways are to work in us to transform us through waiting, and part of the reason we’re not as far along as we thought (or hoped) we’d be by now is because we’re so bad at waiting.

-In today’s Psalm, David will show us what it looks like to actively wait on the Lord. Doesn’t mean we disengage, doesn’t mean we run away, it means we push into Him and trust Him to work while we wait for Him.

READ/PRAY (pg. 261)

-This Psalm is an acrostic (using each letter of the alphabet) Hebrew poetry is VERY different from the way we write poetry today! Not rhyming, but does have a defined pattern (which you can see as you look through the book of Psalms vs. the rest of the Bible)

-Think of how much time it would have taken for David to write this? The intentionality and effort to have each phrase begin with the next letter of the alphabet (not a bad prayer template! Use the alphabet to pray to God). One of the things this reveals to us is that art and beauty come from God. Think of the beauty we see around us. I sat outside with some guys on Friday night watching the lightning storm come in. That is IMPRESSIVE! Or watching a sunset off in the distance. God didn’t need to make things beautiful, but He did, and because humans are created in His image, we derivatively create beauty (music, painting, buildings) they’re all opportunities to bring honor and glory to God, just as David does with this Psalm.

-Chiasm 

-Regular feature of Hebrew poetry, brings everything to specific focus at the center of the poem, here’s what this Psalm looks like as a chiasm: The center point is the character and forgiveness of God.

1. Waiting for God’s Protection (1-5)

-Who else would David lift his soul to? We’re tempted to lift our souls all sorts of other places! Think of what God says in the First Commandment: no other gods before me. Aren’t we all tempted to look for our ultimate satisfaction and worth in other places? Job, parenting, house, money, recognition. 

-How often do you take stock of the idols of your heart? David’s first prayer is asking God to reveal any idols in his heart that are taking the place of God. This connects back to last week: as we approach God, we need to acknowledge and understand that He is completely holy. His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts, so we need to bring acceptable worship before Him, which we have only because of the sacrifice of Jesus.

-Shame in the Bible isn’t a feeling. Honor/shame culture means if you have shame you lose all social standing and has repercussions throughout their whole life (friends abandon, business won’t let you shop there).

-Cancel culture today is a picture of this!

-If you wait for God’s guidance this won’t happen to you, instead David’s enemies are the ones who will be put to shame, but it’s only for those who are waiting and following after the Lord.

-But waiting doesn’t mean you sit back (“let go and let God”). There’s an active waiting and a passive waiting. Back when Black Friday was in person, friends and I waited overnight for flash drives. Many people brought chairs, heaters, tents. We had sleeping bags and spent the night coming up with games we could play! Others sat by themselves trying to stay warm. Similarly, waiting on God means we continue moving and living our lives.

-Pastor once told me God can’t move a parked car! So get moving!

-How do we know we’re waiting correctly? Vs. 4-5

-We ask God! David asks to know God’s ways and paths. That’s another way of saying how God’s children should carry out their lives. How do we know what that is? By planting ourselves in God’s truth, His Word. 

-I’ve often heard the Bible described as a life map. If so, it’s a terrible map, because it only leads to 1 person: Jesus! However, if we take that idea to it’s logical conclusion, then it’s a great map, because we’re supposed to become more like Him every day.

-Don’t treat the Bible like an atlas (today’s problem is gluttony so I’m going to look up those verses), treat it like a life-long workout plan (slowly becoming more of who God created you to be)

-Not enough to just set it on the side and move on, active waiting continues as we:

• Waiting for God’s Teaching (6-11)

-Remember is more than thinking something, it’s a call to action! 2 aspects to this remembering: God needs to remember (and act) according to His character, because David’s character can’t match up to God’s! Thankfully, God is always true to who He says He will be, and acts according to who He is.

-God’s mercy and steadfast love (covenant faithfulness, which means God ALWAYS keeps His Word & promises)

-“Been from of old” there is historical precedent for David to call on God to do these things. As He prays to God, David remembers how God had moved in Israel’s history, and so should we. God isn’t disconnected from what happens here in the daily grind.

-Contrasted with God’s character is David’s character, because David needs God to forget his sinful ways. 

-As David looks back over his life, he realizes that he was a terrible sinner (similar ideas in vss. 11, 18) and asks God to not remember his previous sins or acts of rebellion.

-It’s amazing how quickly we can look back over our lives and realize how dumb we were. Bob Dettmer one time told me no one is their best self at 16 (sorry if you’re 16!) But I don’t think it stops at 16 (at least it shouldn’t!) I look back at 26 and think “if only I knew…” 

-But at the same time, the things I know I’ll never regret as I get older is the times and moments where I was obedient to God. I don’t regret the times spent reading my Bible, the times spent encouraging other Christians, the times spent with His people, the time spent reading more about who God is and how I relate to Him. The regrets come from not waiting on Him! 

-This is why we need God’s steadfast love and mercy! Think of a verse many of you have probably heard before, Lam. 3:22-23 “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Do you ever contemplate that reality? God’s steadfast love (covenant keeping faithfulness) NEVER stops! Energizer bunny: keeps going, going, going. Or there’s no limit to his mercy: you can’t out-sin it. And all this is done because God is good, David isn’t!

-Continuing on with what God is like: good and upright. God is good, everything He does is good, and because of that He can help sinners (us) following in the correct ways of living.

-But notice what’s required of those sinners: humility. “Pride stands in the way of instruction; humility makes a person open to listening to God.” (Longman) Pride puts yourself in the place of God, and fights against vs. 1.

-You don’t know what you don’t know. I can’t tell you how many arguments I get into with my kids over stuff they’re convinced is right, but they have no clue what they’re talking about! If that’s true with our 30 year age gap, how much more true is that for us and God’s eternal age gap? That’s why we need to submit ourselves (humble ourselves) to God’s guidance in our lives so that we don’t pursue the wrong paths!

-To wrap up this idea, David summarizes: ALL the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness. If we follow God’s way, we will be like Him. But there’s again a stipulation or expectation on His people: keeping God’s covenant and testimonies (the demands of His covenant)

-This is David, once again, looking back to the historical ways God has revealed Himself. Think of how God describes Himself in Ex. 34:6-7 ““The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, ⁷ keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” Do you see all those same ideas in these verses? 

-This is the center of the chiasm, the main point David wants to get across is who God is and what He’s like, exactly as God has revealed Himself. Now notice that David basically uses Ex. as a template for his prayer. All the same themes and ideas are incorporated into these verses. David uses God’s word as the inspiration for his prayer life, which is a wonderful practice!

–Praying the Bible – if you want a copy, I have about 10!

• Waiting for God’s Provision (12-22)

-Building back out from the focus on God to David’s current state, he moves to fearing the Lord. Isn’t living in a constant state of being afraid, instead it’s giving him the honor and recognition that He alone is worthy of.

-Think of Prov. 9:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” The beginning! Those are the people God will continue to train in how they should live (the way connects it back to vss. 9-10)

-This man will abide (live) in well-being, or prosperity, and his children (who are also following God) will inherit the land. Yet another look back to history Gen. 15:18 Abraham and his descendants would inherit the promised land. 

-Not only would David get these blessings from God, but he’d also receive friendship with God. Doesn’t that feel too close/intimate with the holy Creator of the universe? It would be if it wasn’t true! Paradox of the gospel message is the holy creator God can now live with His people.

-Only way this can happen is by continually focusing the gaze and focus of your life toward God, letting other things fade away in comparison to him. Feet out of the net is another way of referring to traps from enemies.

-David then contemplates his situation apart from God. If God won’t turn to him and be gracious, then he’ll be: lonely, afflicted, have big troubles, distresses, and his sins won’t be forgiven.

-Friends, don’t miss this: these verses are only true if our eyes only ever toward the Lord. If we look at the mess around us or spend too much time fixating on our sin we’ll miss the goodness of God in extending His mercy and lovingkindness to us. This is why we need to daily preach to ourselves because if we don’t we’re prone to forget, neglect, marginalize the good news of what Jesus’ coming means for all our lives.

-The final section brings attention back to David’s enemies who remain opposed to Him. While David has continued waiting for the Lord, so have his enemies. And the enemies are using this active waiting to mock and belittle David. He needs God’s provision in His life, because otherwise the enemies will win! They’ll put David to shame and leave him to rot.

-Notice what David asks to preserve him: integrity (right, pure living) and uprightness (conforming to the right standard, following the right path) These words are true of God, but they’re also supposed to be true of His people! David asks God to preserve and deliver him, but that doesn’t leave David off the hook! He’s responsible for living in such a way that it is reflective of God (or imaging Him)

-Ends by changing the focus of this from the individual to the nation. 

-The only way this can be true of the nation is by each individual waiting on the Lord, living as He has called and commanded us.

-This is also true of the church today! We individually need to be actively waiting on the Lord, which means living as He has called and commanded us. If we each don’t pursue that, we won’t be everything we as a church should be. So the question before all of us once again: how good are you at waiting? Not sitting back and doing nothing, but living as we need to, as God has commanded us in this time of waiting.

-One of the most well-known and memorized chapters in the whole Bible! The image of God as a shepherd has been beloved throughout history. Charles Spurgeon called it “The pearl of Psalms.”

-And this Psalm also takes on new meaning for us living on this side of Jesus’ life, because He then picks up the imagery from this and describes Himself in John 10 as the “Good shepherd.” So while David was thinking of his relationship with God, when we view it through the lens of Christ it takes on much fuller and deeper meaning for us today!

READ/PRAY (pg. 261)

1. Abundant Life (1-3)

-What does it mean to describe God as a shepherd? As we talk about pretty much every Christmas, being a shepherd wasn’t a lofty position. Wasn’t something people laid awake at night dreaming of pursuing! It was a coincidence that David, the youngest of all his brothers, was the shepherd. He drew the short straw because he was the youngest. No one wanted to be a shepherd! It was tedious work, monotonous work (no wonder he had so much time to write a bunch of songs!)

-But God being described as a shepherd elevates that position to a whole new level, doesn’t it? A good way of summarizing the role of a shepherd is with 2 Ps: protection and provision. First, protection. The shepherd has to look after the sheep because there’s always dangers to be aware of, and sheep aren’t great at defending themselves. In Israel David had to watch out for lions! When I was growing up and my uncle had me help him with his sheep he introduced me to his llama who protected that herd from wolves (and sometimes my uncle, much to his dismay!) Second, provision, which we’ll get to as we walk through this section! But the shepherd had to ensure the sheep had everything they needed to eat and drink, they weren’t good scavenging for food. When David describes God as a shepherd, he’s saying that God ensures we will be protected and have provision.

-A helpful way we are reminded of this idea regularly is when we use the term “pastor.” So often when we use words we don’t take enough time to understand what we actually mean, or dig into the history of that word. The word “pastor” is taken from the Latin word (pastor) which means “shepherd” and taken from the verb “pascere” meaning “to lead to pasture, set to grazing, cause to eat.” So when we talk about a pastor, we’re talking about a shepherd who provides for sheep. Therefore, “pastoring” is derivative of what God does in all our lives, and gives a slightly different perspective on a passage like 1 Pet. 5:1-2 “I exhort the elders: shepherd the flock of God that is among you” Why? Because the Chief Shepherd is coming! Because God is our shepherd, and not anyone else, it leads us to not wanting.

-Can you say you don’t have any wants? Let’s stop for a second and think about the way you pray. Do you thank God for his abundant provision in your life, or do you jump straight to the needs you think you have? I think of the way my kids pray (which I know they picked up from their parents) “Hey Lord, thanks for a good day, and I hope…”

-But the language David uses here actually points back to the time of Israel’s wilderness wanderings (basically walking in circles for 40 years before they arrived in the place God told them to go). The book of Deut. Is Moses’ last sermon to the people where he recounts what had happened to lead them out of slavery in Egypt to where they were at the precipice of entering the Promised Land. At the beginning and at the end this idea of not lacking comes up:

–Deut. 2:7 “For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”

-But then, as Moses goes on to warn the people to be obedient to God’s law, look at how he describes the consequences of not following Him:

–Deut. 28:47-48 “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.”

-The fact that David has no wants signifies that he is living according to God’s law. This is one of the aspects of Christianity that I’m trying to emphasize for my kids that I didn’t feel was emphasized enough growing up. That is that we obey God not just because He told us to, but because obedience is what leads to full and complete flourishing as a human. Even sociology supports what the Bible teaches! I was reminded this week about that fact, listened to a podcast that referred to a sociological study that said the best way for a child to succeed is to have them grow up in a home with their biological father and mother. Where have I heard that before? Oh right! These rules aren’t in place to ruin our lives, they’re here to help us succeed in the world God created! So what else does God, as a good shepherd, provide?

-He makes me lie down in green pastures.

-At the end of a day, how much does someone need to force you to lie down? I love my bed! We’ve got a great thing going on together, spend a solid 8 hours a night together! But it’s a little different for sheep.

-Sheep are social animals, need literally nothing nearby (predators, flies) for them to feel comfortable laying down. Even lying down for sheep can be an alarming task! Did you know that they if they roll over they have no way of righting themselves, and would be stuck upside down, have gasses build up in their intestines, and die! Once again, this is another way God provides for his people: even throughout the night He watches out to ensure they’re not stuck upside down! 

-Not only is this nightly provision, it also signifies provision of food. The shepherd regularly has to move the sheep so they don’t kill the place they’re living. Sheep aren’t smart. If they could, they would eat so much they’d kill themselves! But God cares enough to ensure they have everything they need, eating the best grasses available. So good is provided as is:

-He leads me beside still waters. Once again, notice who’s in charge here. God! God is going before us to ensure we have everything we need.

-Contrast still waters with white water rafting. One of these you have to sign your life away to participate in, the other you let your children play in. Definitely a time and a place for those rapids! But think of the safety that comes from still waters.

-A more literal translation: “Waters of resting places” This is, once again, David reminding himself of some of the ways God has provided for His people in the past.

–Gen. 2:15 “The Lord God took the man and caused him to rest in Eden.”

–Deut. 12:9 “you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you.”

-This is both a look back and a look forward to the ways God provides for His people.

-But God doesn’t just care about physical provision, He also provides spiritually. He restores my soul.

-Ever had a big project that you needed to finish? Last summer I replaced the flooring in my house, which involved removing hard wood to get to the subfloor. Many late nights trying to knock that thing out! But you work your hardest and then at the end you get a huge glass of water that is the best tasting water you’ve ever had. That’s what this restoration looks like. Think of how Jesus describes obedience to Him in Matt. 11 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gently and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

-Friends, stop trying to earn God’s favor, stop trying to be good enough. You can’t! That’s why a passage like this is so important for us to soak our minds in! We can’t restores ourselves, we need Jesus to do that for us! That’s why Augustine said “our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God.” And then, when are hearts are fully satisfied in God:

-Leads me in paths of righteousness (the right paths)

-Not coercive or manipulative, he leads we willingly follow

–Eph. 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

-God knew each step of your life, each breath you would take, each beat of your heart before you were born. God knew the sinful tendencies you would have, the struggles you would walk through, the ways you would insult Him, yet He still walks with you (or in front of you in this case) each step of the way.

-Did you know that you can’t out-sin God’s grace? Every sin you’ve committed came millennia afterJesus died and rose again, yet Jesus’ one-time sacrifice was enough to cover all our sins!

-All of this abundance has led to the last part of vs. 3 “for his name’s sake”

-We are blessed by God so that we can bless others. God loves all and wants everyone to come to repentance in Him. So as Pastor Bruce LOVES to remind us: we are meant to be His ambassadors. What do ambassadors do? They serve as representatives of a different nation. The reason we exist on earth right now is to represent God, to join with Him in His mission to seek and save the lost. We are here to invite others to be a part of this new kingdom that we represent

-David is thanking God that He gets to represent God to others

• Blessed Life (4)

-It’s one thing to be praising God and saying “I shall not want” when things are going well like in those first 3 verses, but what about when difficulties come?

-Carson, “The truth of the matter is that all we have to do is live long enough, and we will suffer.” 

–Job 1:21 “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed by the name of the Lord.” 

-Valleys are places where fear comes. Shadows are cast that can either by an enemy out to destroy or the branch of a tree. 

-If you’ve been in an empty church building at night you know that feeling! Every shadow causes your mind to race, every noise could be a footstep from someone you don’t know. Your nerves are on edge and you just wait for someone or something to jump out at you. But even in these situations, there’s nothing to fear.

-Doesn’t say death, it’s the shadow of death: where you’re on death’s doorstep. Even when you’re given every opportunity to doubt, to struggle, to question, what does David remind us of?

-He’s recounted God’s promises and provision up until this point, why would a series of questions or doubts throw David off? Even when it feels like life is falling apart, did you know that God is still there?

-“We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” CS Lewis The Problem of Pain

-Pain doesn’t meant God’s out to get you, pain doesn’t mean you’re paying penance for wrongs you’ve done, God allows you to walk through pain to grow closer to Him. God allows difficulties and suffering so that you can work out your faith muscles and become stronger in who He’s called you to be.

-This is the center of this whole Psalm, everything previous builds up to it and everything after points back to it: God is with us. 

-God’s presence is the reason Job can say blessed by God’s name; God’s presence is the reason the disciples believe in Jesus after the resurrection. God’s presence is always with us, even when we’re walking at the precipice of death’s door, God is with us. 

-Rod and staff: protection, correction, and guidance.

-Sheep are not smart. As I’ve shared, they can get stuck upside down and literally die! They can eat until they explode, they can wander off and get lost in a moment’s notice! So the shepherd needed some way of keeping the sheep in line. The rod was used to defend against predators, and the staff was used to correct wayward sheep!

-Do you view God’s discipline as a kindness and a blessing? How can discipline bring comfort? Because it means you know whose family you’re in

–Heb. 12:6 “The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives…If you are let without discipline…then you are illegitimate children.” 

–Rom. 2:4 “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.” 

-When you live a life of repentance, God will bring you comfort. Martin Luther, when he posted his thesis to the door in 1517 began his list of 95 reforms needed by saying “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said “Repent,” he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance.”

-God’s presence leads us to repentance, which finally lands us:

• Comforted Life (5-6)

-A table in the presence of my enemies 

-Back to physical provision. Even when enemies surround me, even after surviving the shadow of death, God continues taking care of me. Think of how helpful a meal is after you’ve weathered a difficult season.

-Just a few months ago when we were initially told that one of our babies wouldn’t survive Erin Rivenburg that night brought us a meal and gave Cara a hug. That was a moment of relief in the storm that was wrecking our hearts. And that’s just 1 example! 

-But this is also meant to contrast the provision of David vs. his enemies. Enemies won’t last, David will. Don’t miss this, friends: all suffering has an expiration date! We’ll be able to feast either on this side of eternity, or in the life to come! But the fight isn’t fair. We have God on our side! 

-Anointing

-Ceremonial or provision. Oil helped with dry skin on sheep, and served as a layer of protection from insects. But oil was also used to signify someone as God’s chosen person, so when David was anointed King, it was with oil. Either way, it’s another picture of God’s abundant provision of His people!

-As if that wasn’t enough, his cup overflows. Never reaches the bottom, that’s how deep God’s provision goes! Like if you’ve ever gone to Chili’s and gotten their “bottomless” chips and salsa, trust me, there’s a bottom! Can’t just eat forever, and they will eventually kick you out! But not so with God. God’s provision is more than we could ever ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20) 

-Because of God’s presence, goodness and mercy follow forever

-David uses a weird word here that’s better translated as pursue, as if goodness and mercy are relentlessly chasing after him! It’s most often used to refer to enemies who are doggedly pursuing someone. But what if it’s not an enemy who keeps chasing, but instead it’s goodness and mercy? David is so blessed, his enemies have been dealt with, and now his only pursuers are goodness and mercy. That’s how blessed his life is!

-And where does David end up? In the house of the Lord forever, in God’s presence.

-Remember, the hinge point of this Psalm is God’s presence! First we saw God as a Shepherd, protecting and providing for his people, then God’s presence was with His people in their darkest moments, and now the dwelling place of God’s people is in God’s house. Once again, this is a reality that points to the future of all time.

-Rev. 21:3 “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

-Because God is a good shepherd, we have a life that is: abundant, blessed, and comforted.

A Desperate Father (14-29)

-Coming off the “high” of the transfiguration, very quickly brought down “low” by a scandal brewing.

-Last week, we took some time to pray for those who will be going to serve at camp this summer, and if any of you went to a camp growing up, you understand the high of camp vs. the reality of coming back home. The high lasts for a little while, but at some point it seems that shine wears off, and people generally go back to how they were before camp.

-The other 9 disciples have gotten into a bit of a showdown with the scribes. Remember who they are? The experts of the law, think of them as lawyers! From first glance it appears to be an unfair fight: think of a high school graduate vs. a lawyer. From the outside perspective it’s an unfair fight (I would love to have a battle of the wits, but you appear to be unarmed)

-Not just scribes & disciples, a crowd is watching. But the crowd only wants Jesus, the disciples are second class (as will be explicitly demonstrated in a bit)

-What were they arguing about? Enter a desperate father.

-Looking for healing for his son: a demon that manifests symptoms like epilepsy. We’ve seen people coming to Jesus for healing throughout this whole book, and this man is no exception. People have seen and heard the good news about the healing Jesus brings and are flocking to Him for help. Unfortunately for the father, Jesus was a little busy hanging out with Moses & Elijah! 

-So he asked Jesus’ remaining disciples to perform an exorcism, but they were unable

-Disciples represent their teacher. Jesus had sent out His disciples before in Mark 6. And listen to the way this was described back then: “So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.” This should have been old hat for the disciples! They’d done it before, and apparently very successfully because Mark says “MANY demons.”

-Because the disciples represent their teacher, the scribes would have jumped at an opportunity to throw doubt on Jesus’ rising fame! Suddenly the fight between the scribes and the disciples is crystal clear: the scribes are doubting the validity of Jesus’ ability to heal, meaning He’s not worth following. If the disciples heard that, the natural response would be to fight back, wouldn’t it?

-But Jesus isn’t worried about the same things as the people nearby. We’ve seen that repeatedly! Jesus keeps trying to teach His disciples, but they continually miss it (as do the crowds, and the scribes) I think we do too! I’ve been really struck by our study so far how quickly Jesus brings things back to teaching (either the 12, the crowds, or individuals). Jesus based everything on His teaching, His words (which weren’t just His words, but His Father’s words). Why do we think Jesus’ words aren’t effective today?

-We see an interesting response from Jesus. A faithless generation. There’s the real problem! They don’t believe who Jesus is (including the disciples). I love the way the CSB translated the second question: “How long must I put up with you?” I think we’ve seen examples of this before, but in those cases Mark just said “Jesus sighed.” Healing the blind/mute man and being asked to give a sign. Instead of just saying that Jesus sighed, in this case Mark lists what He sighed. Who is Jesus thinking of with these questions? Disciples? Scribes? Crowds? Father?

-All of the above! William Lane: “The rhetorical questions … express the loneliness and the anguish of the one authentic believer in a world which expresses only unbelief” They’re expressing belief, but it’s aimed in the wrong direction: toward themselves!

-Because of that, just like the prophets of the OT, Jesus implores them: how long will you not get it? God to Moses in Num. 14:27 “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me.”

-Take heart here, church! Disbelief has been a marker of God’s people from the beginning! Even when God answered prayer after prayer, need after need, dealt with problem after problem they continued to not believe. Walking across a dry seabed, manna and quail coming every day (just enough!). And how often do we do the same today? In the bad/difficult seasons we blame God, ask Him what’s going on, only to be brought through every difficulty and go right back to living as if we don’t need Him anymore. We can manage things in our own strength. 

-This has been hard for me the past month! I feel like the past month of sermons has been me preaching to myself: do you believe that God will provide what you need? Do you trust Me? Do you believe that God will provide for you for the next day, just like He provided for you yesterday? Tuesday, I was praying for our ultrasound and asked God for some good news, when it hit me: I’ve already gotten it. George Herbert: “Death used to be an executioner, but the gospel has made him just a gardener.” Dear church, we can rejoice in the midst of suffering, even death, because we know everything will be made right again, even if it’s not on this side of heaven! Keller: “All death can now do to Christians is to make their lives infinitely better.”

-But in this case, Jesus decides to show what that healing will look like here and now: and He reaches out to the boy

-spirit tries to distract and destroy the child again, and what’s the trigger? Seeing Jesus. There’s no wonder that some people get very angry when confronted with the realities of Jesus, because following Him means you’ve got 2 options: either die to yourself, or die to Him, but there’s no alternative. We’re in a cosmic battle that is fought not with swords or drones, but with prayer and holiness.

-Jesus addresses the father again, invites the man to share some of his story. Once again, we see Jesus treating people as people! He’s never too busy, never too distracted, never too good. Everything He does is geared towards glorifying His Father and helping other take 1 step closer to Himself. 

-But notice where the father lands with his story: in desperation. IF you can do anything, have compassion and help! Multiple times Jesus has been moved with compassion (both feedings of thousands) why would this time be any different? But this father doesn’t know that! It’s the job of others to tell him! The disciples, instead of fighting to defend Jesus’ honor, should have been looking for opportunities to proclaim the realties of who Jesus is, they just realized it in the last chapter, but unfortunately, they remain blind

-Jesus responds: IF!? What’s this “if”? You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means! God can do anything for someone who believes in Him! In God’s economy, there’s no “if.” There’s a “when,” but there’s no room for doubt when someone believes in Jesus! And the father sees this and learns far quicker than the disciples have! 

-He responds with what should be our prayer everyday: I believe! Help my unbelief! How much belief does it take for Jesus to work? Matt. 17:20 faith as small as a mustard seed. 

-The point isn’t the strength of the faith, it’s the object of the faith. You can have the biggest faith imaginable in pixie dust (like Peter Pan) you’re not going to be able to fly! But you can have faith as small as a mustard seed in Jesus, and it’s enough to transform your entire life, and not just your life, every life around you and all the rest of creation.

-Jesus, looking at the crowd, heals the boy, but not before one last attack, and the boy looks dead.

-Lit. “Jesus raised him, and he was resurrected.” Jesus has just been teaching the disciples about His upcoming death, and then modeled it on this boy!

-Finally withdrew with the disciples to “the house” (potentially Peter’s house again, homebase of operations) Didn’t want to be embarrassed in front of the whole crowd, so then they ask what happened!

-Did Jesus pray before He healed the boy? No! 

-What does prayer signify? Complete dependence on God. Keller: “Pray is both conversation andencounter with God.” We answered that question today: “Prayer is pouring out our hearts to God in praise, petition, confession of sin, and thanksgiving.” AKA communing with God. Not some mystical “mmmmm” where we sing kumbaya, but being in a relationship with the Creator of the universe.

-An outworking of 1 Thess. 5:17 “Pray without ceasing.” Were the disciples not living this way? To answer that we need the next section

• Desperate Disciples (30-41)

-Most of Jesus’ ministry has been centered in Galilee, but now they’re moving on. Trying to stay hidden because He needs to focus on training His disciples before His death. What’s the teaching centered on? His upcoming death, burial and resurrection.

-Why do you think they were afraid?

-Didn’t want to be embarrassed, had just been accused of being faithless, Jesus had questioned their hard heartedness before, yet they continue on in their misunderstanding. As we’ve seen before, this is a theme of God’s people throughout the whole Bible! And remains a theme for us today!

-What the disciples are forgetting or unaware of is: questions aren’t an issue or problem, we’ve seen that with the Father, I do believe, but help my unbelief! The problem is staying stuck in your unbelief! I’ve had conversations with people (the Bible is anti-science, we don’t know what the Bible actuallyshould say) There’s answers to the questions, but not if you don’t ask them!

-When they arrive, the underlying issue comes out: they used the time to fight about which one was the best.

-Would have been a normal conversation in the 1^st cent. Remember, I’ve shared the humility was a vice and pride was a virtue! Even Jewish writers frequently discussed what the seating order would be in Paradise! There was a prescribed order for sitting around the dinner table (where Jesus eating with “sinners” was so shocking)

-Another teaching moment for the disciples. Greatness isn’t measured the same in God’s kingdom! Jesus’ ordering flips everything upside down.

-First must be last, servant of ALL. I was told when I finally gave in to a call to ministry: that means you need to be ready to clean toilets! Friends: no gifting in Christ’s church is better than the other. In fact, those who deserve the most recognition probably won’t get it until heaven, but that’s what we should be looking for in the church! It takes all of us working together, using our gifts, not comparing ourselves to others, not worrying about who gets the recognition, but day after day striving to glorify God and encourage each other.

-The gospel message that Jesus brings completely frees us! We’re far worse than we could ever imagine, but we’re far more loved than we ever dreamed. Because of that, who cares what others think about us, we have a Father who loves us unconditionally!

-To demonstrate this reality, Jesus uses on object lesson. Children weren’t viewed like we view them today (little innocent cherubs whose cheeks we want to squeeze) Children were to be neither seen nor heard! The lowest rung of the totem pole in society.

-Doesn’t say to be like a child, says to receive (don’t like that word, prefer welcome) This is the same as saying “whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.” Jesus calls us to be really weird in our relationships. Instead of viewing people as a means to an end, or a way to climb a social ladder, or a way to improve our own status in life, we’re supposed to go out of our way to serve others, to look for those who can’t return the favor and invest in them!

-But poor John this time doesn’t get it. Look the pronouns he uses: YOUR name, WE tried, not following US. 

-Where John expects commendation, Jesus condemns. Don’t stop him! If people know about Jesus and what He brings, why does it matter what team they’re on? Another example of serving the least of these is like serving Christ.

-Now we see why the disciples couldn’t heal: they thought they could do it on their own. We have the secret key/code, we can do the same things Jesus does. Nope! Without Jesus they’re nothing! They need to continue relying and trusting in Him (which is demonstrated by prayer!) Prayer forces us to admit we’re needy, prayer forces us to face our sins, prayer forces us to acknowledge who we reallyare, it opens blind eyes, and deaf ears and allows us to rightly understand who God is.

-How often are you the same as the disciples? You know the right words to use, you share issues but only the superficial ones with others, you tithe regularly, you serve regularly, but it doesn’t impact or influence the way you’re living the rest of your life? Jesus isn’t looking for more recognition, Jesus doesn’t need you, but He wants you completely because anything less than that isn’t worth your time! He wants to radically reorder your life! He wants you to live the best life possible: but there’s a catch: it only comes about through service, through dying, through weakness. Keller: true humility is not thinking less about yourself, it’s thinking about yourself less. “If you met a truly humble person, you wouldn’t think him/her humble, but only that they were happy and incredibly interested in you.” Are you interested in other people, or are you only interested in yourself?

• A Desperate Messiah (42-50)

-Who are “these little ones”? The poor & marginalized who are following Jesus. Uses graphic language to communicate how they should be treated! Robert Murry Mc’Cheyne “The greatest need of my people is my own holiness.” For decades we’ve only been looking to gifted people to push into leadership of our churches, to our detriment. We’ve seen the falling out of that with the #ChurchToo movement, the abuses of pastors, the covering up of horribly graphic sin in Christ’s church! 

-This is why it matters so much how you live. This is why one of the most important ministries in the church is kid’s and student ministry. This is why it’s a blight on the church when abuse is revealed: because Jesus Himself says it’s not to happen! Now: this doesn’t mean that just because someone claims abuse means that’s true, but this is why it’s so important to ensure that people’s giftings don’t outpace their spiritual development. 

-But it’s not just causing someone else to sin, what about the sin you have in you?

-John Owen “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” What do you do to pursue holiness in your life? Easy to run to hyperbole (Jesus didn’t mean this literally, obviously) but it’s graphic language to make a point.

-If social media causes you to lust after people or things, disable your socials. If your TV causes you to become lazy, move it to a different place in the house or get rid of it all together! If food is a temptation for you, find ways to limit food in the house. If you use your phone too much or have become addicted to it, get a flip phone or a nothing phone. This is hard and at times inconvenient! But dear saints: it’s worth it! It’s FAR better to limit yourself here and come to Jesus unburdened in heaven than to have what you want here but lack in heaven. I’ve heard a pastor say that this is either the closest to hell or the closest to heaven you’ll live. Which way are you aiming and pursuing?

-Then Jesus starts talking about the need to be salty (not angry)

-What is salt used for? Seasoning, fertilizer, preservative. Everyone salted with fire: preserved, put through fire as either test or eternally.

-Salt is one of the most stable compounds we know! VERY hard to get it to break apart, how would it lose its’ saltiness? True, genuine salt can’t lose it’s saltiness, just like true faith can’t be lost if it’s in Jesus.

-We, as Christians, are called to serve a preserving function in our society, meaning that the communities around us flourish because we’re here. But Jesus doesn’t just leave it up to us to try to figure out what that means, He says it: “be at peace with one another.” Don’t be argumentative, keep short accounts, and live as peaceful people. Remember, Jesus also said that the way we get along is meant to demonstrate whether or not we’re believers. The world should see a difference in us! Do they?

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

-Slacklining, walking across a flat webbing tied between two anchors (usually trees) Micah informed me it started as a way to help rock climbers with their balance and core strength! But now people have taken it to a whole new level!

-The only way slacklining works is if you have tension in the webbing. If it’s too loose it won’t work, if it’s too tight you don’t have any fun! 

-We as Christians are called to live a life of tension. We’re living between Jesus’ 2 comings, we’re in the world but not of the world. We’re going to see today some of what that looks like in the life of a believer.

READ/PRAY (489)

-We’re smack dab in the middle of 5 showdowns between Jesus and the religious leaders of his day.

-Last week we saw that Jesus forgave sins and hung out with “scum” (NLT)

-Scum according to whom? Pharisees were seeking holiness isn’t that a good aim? That’s literally what the Lord commands of us (“Be holy as I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:16, Lev. 11:44)

-The tension is when the pursuit of holiness focuses on the small issues, but ignores the bigger issues.

-The law was meant to lead to flourishing. It wasn’t in place to force people to be miserable rule followers, it was in place to help people act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly (Micah 6:8). But the prophets looked forward to a time when the law of God would be written on our hearts instead of stone tablets. God’s desire is our hearts, not mere external obedience or mentally thinking correctly. God wants to redeem all those things, even our desires. Have you ever thought about that? Through the Holy Spirit, God can change even our deepest longings! Which is exactly what He’s trying to do. That’s what the Pharisees (and let’s be honest, many of us) keep missing today. 

-So many people today are driven by their desires, or what they claim are their desires, but the difficulty is those desire keep changing, don’t they? If you become addicted to food it slowly takes more and morI e food to feel full. If you become addicted to power it slowly requires more power to feel adequate. If you become addicted to stuff you’re constantly looking for the next thing to buy to ensure you’re feeling satisfied. If you become addicted to recognition you’ll do anything to ensure people still like you.

-The reality is nothing this world offers us will satisfy. There’s no relationship that will fix you, but Jesus provides a new way. The difficulty is that the Bible doesn’t always provide us clear cut answers, instead in many cases we’re forced to live in a tension between 2 seemingly contradictory poles. Think of men/women relationships and what the Bible says: do not lust, treat each other as family. Yet that’s a theme of Scripture: life in tension, isn’t it? 

-If you want to find your life you must lose it. 

-Whoever wants to be first must be last. 

-True leadership is service. 

-It doesn’t make any sense from a purely human perspective, which is part of the reason I find Christianity so compelling!

-As we work through today’s text, be thinking about what ideas Jesus has challenged or needs to challenge in your own life! Because I can guarantee if He hasn’t challenged or pushed you in some area, you haven’t paid close enough attention to His demands!

1. Over Fasting (18-22)

-What is fasting and what is it’s purpose?

-1^st of the spiritual disciplines listed in this section, and something that I think we need more understanding and awareness of today. Had the privilege of studying some of these things in more detail at college and seminary, but it’s a whole lot harder to implement these ideas than it is to study them! Fasting (at least in the 1^st century) was abstaining from food and drink for a set period of time. One fast was demanded of all Jews once a year, but in order to prove their piety and obedience, the Pharisees fasted 2 a week (Monday and Thursday). 

-It seems that John’s disciples followed a similar pattern, but remember John’s role: he came to prepare the way for someone far greater than Him! So fasting is part of the preparation for Jesus’ coming! 

-Why do other disciples fast, but Jesus’ don’t? Are they less obedient? Are they more hungry than other disciples? 

-Jesus compares the current state of affairs to a wedding! Think of the joyful celebration that a wedding entails! 2 families become one, good food, good conversation, mediocre dancing. 

-Weddings today can’t hold a candle to weddings in the 1^st cent. They were a week-long affair where people descended upon the house with the expectation that a great party would be taking place! And the family getting married had to provide the food for the feast. This is where Jesus’ first miracle recording in John is so significant! Does anyone remember what it is? Water into wine during a wedding. It would have been unthinkable and completely embarrassing to have run out of wine for the guests at the wedding, so Jesus’ first miracle shows that He brings joy instead of mourning, plenty instead of lacking.

-This doesn’t mean there’s no place for fasting, look at vs. 20:

-Once again we find ourselves in a point of tension. The fact that we are no longer dead in our sin should lead us to feasting and rejoicing! But the fact that Jesus hasn’t yet returned should lead us to fasting and pleading for His return. It’s not either/or, it’s both/and. We should take time to feast and praise God for His provision for us, but we should also take time to fast and plead with God for the realignment of our desires and the ability to continue fighting against our sin.

-Jesus talks about this tension with 2 examples: clothing and wine

-As clothing is worn, it changes, doesn’t it? Stretches in new ways, I continue finding snot rubbed on my clothes from my kids! Maybe like me, you’ve had clothes shrink in the wash that would only fit a child! Imagine that shirt has a hole in it that you’ve patched. What would happen if you had patched that hole with a different kind of cloth? Not a pretty site! Pretty much only useful as a rag, it’s completely nonsensical!  

-In a similar way, think of someone making a wonderful wine. In the 1^st cent. Brewers would use the skin from animals (usually a goat) to store the wine in, because as alcohol is made, the fermentation process gives off gas that needs some place to go! If the unfermented wine was placed in a brittle, old skin it would continue expanding until the skin breaks, ruining the wine AND the wineskin. Once again, it’s a nonsensical idea! 

-Jesus is making a point here: His arrival means things are completely different. You can’t continue operating under and old mindset or way of living. Think of it like a software update! God’s rules are the same, the goal is still the same, but there’s a completely new way of going about that goal.  

-Jesus ushers in something new, how do we ensure we’re not trying to force God’s plan into our own rules? How do we ensure that we’re not trying to force God’s work into old wineskins that can’t contain what He’s doing?

-Churches are notorious for this! I grew up during the bloody battles now known as the “worship wars” 

-It’s so easy for us to assume our way is the best, or act as if everyone else must be just like us in order to be a Christian, but we forget where we used to be. The older I get, the more grateful I become for people who put up with my dumb tendencies when I was younger. But that also means that in 15 years, I’ll probably look back at myself today and think of how dumb I am now!

-It’s also easy to look back with rose colored glasses and ignore the difficulties and realities of growing up in the church. I’ve been reading a new book about the life of Timothy Keller (pastor in NYC) who attended college/Seminary in the late 60s/early 70s and the culture wasn’t exactly conducive to Christian virtue AT ALL! Free love movement, hippy ideals, protesting of the Vietnam war, Watergate scandal. Today really doesn’t look so bad when you read about some of what was going on back then!

-Just as people needed Jesus to redirect and refocus their aim, so each culture we live in, we need to allow Jesus to redirect and refocus our aim. 

-Maybe you’ve been hearing/seeing videos of what’s been going on in Asbury over the past week and wondered about it. When you look at the Pharisees in the 1^st cent. and us today not much has changed! It’s far easier to sit in judgment than it is to allow the Spirit to blow where He wishes and follow where He leads!

-But this isn’t the only religious practice Jesus challenges!

• Over the Sabbath (23-3:6)

-Sabbath was ritualistically observed by the Jews, Friday sundown to Saturday sundown (saw this in chpt. 1 when everyone waited until sundown to bring their sick to Jesus)

-Sabbath has a long history with God’s people, literally one of the ten commandments! Lots of debate throughout history as to whether it’s still binding on Christians today. I’ve even argued with people about the extent of Sabbath observance (which came about because a friend did a sermon series he titled “The Forgotten Commandment” which assumes it’s still binding). How do we interpret the Sabbath observance on this side of the cross when Jesus tells us the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, when Paul tells us in Rom. 14:5 “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” Or the author of Hebrews tells us “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.” Through all this we see that even Sabbath is meant to point us to Jesus! We now can rest because of His work finishing the work we could never have completed on our own anyway.

-I’ve wrestled over the years through this idea, and will continue to wrestle into the future I’m sure! But one quote I found that I think is helpful says:

-“If we violate his normative structure, there will be consequences that spiral through all dimensions of life.” (Dan Allender Sabbath) 

-It’s normative, not mandated. This means it’s foolish to act as if we’re God and need no breaks. Have you ever read about the French Republican calendar? Late 1700s France tried to change the week to a 10 day week instead of 7 attempting to de-christianize even time! Do you know what happened? Injuries, exhaustion, illness saw a sharp increase, and even work animals died at a much higher rate than before. After 12 years of failure, they went back to the 7-day week. It’s almost as if that’s baked into the created order! 

-Let’s work through this text to see what Jesus says about this practice, and then think about what that means for us today.

1. Provision (23-28)

-Allowed to eat on the Sabbath, even plucking grain, the disciples are only disobeying the manmade additions to the rules.

-They were so concerned with holiness they had determined exactly what counted as “work.” That’s why if you’re in a largely Jewish area today if you try to use an elevator on Saturdays you’ll be waiting for a while! They stop at each floor because it’s considered work to push the elevator button. In Jesus’ day you couldn’t pluck heads of grain because they counted as harvesting. You also were allowed to take up to 1,999 steps, but that 2,000^th step put you over the limit into work! Can you imagine how much work it would have taken to keep track of all these rules on your day of “rest”?

-Jesus goes on to point out that even David, the greatest king in all of Israel’s history, didn’t obey the laws! The bread was saved especially for the Priests and the Levites! Jesus here is pointing out the reality that there’s a difference between the letter and the spirit of the law.

-Think of Jesus’ answers the question: what is the greatest commandment? This would have been a common debate at the time! When we’re faced with a choice between obedience to 1 law or another, which do we pick? Do you remember Jesus’ answer? Love God supremely, and others sacrificially. That’s the sum of the law! And I’ve heard some people argue that by obeying the first, you’ll naturally live out the second! If that’s the summary of the law, how are the Pharisees acting here? They’re 0 for 2: not loving God supremely OR others sacrificially! So in their appeal to the OT, Jesus’ ups them with another OT story:

-If David can eat sacred bread, can’t David’s greater Son eat on the Sabbath? Isn’t a 1 for 1 correlation, David wasn’t eating on the Sabbath, but he was disobeying a rule! 

-Then Jesus makes quite a statement about the Sabbath and Himself: Sabbath isn’t meant to be an onerous chore, it was created to help people orient their lives around God, serving, worshipping, and loving Him. And even that is meant to bring Him glory, so Sabbath is meant to be used in worship of Him. And Jesus doubles down on this in the next story:

• Doing good (3:1-6)

-Synagogue (his home base for ministry, Saturday meeting)

-“they watched” They is referring to the Pharisees again. Some translations have “watched closely” to signify that they were actively looking for ways to judge Him and hold Him in contempt. But notice that they don’t doubt whether or not Jesus is able to heal this man. They’ve seen or heard enough miracles at this point to know exactly how Jesus operates, his MO has become pretty clear! So Jesus goes right for the heart of the issue:

-“Come here” literally “Stand up into the middle” Everyone would see! Nothing hiding, no tricks, no questions, and no doubts. 

 -Then He turns his attention to the Pharisees and asks them a question: Which is the more important law: doing good, or hurting someone?

The Mishhah (written down oral tradition) says that “whenever there is doubt whether life is in danger this overrides the Sabbath” We’re back to Jesus’ summary once again: love God and love others! Loving ALWAYS takes precedent over ritualistic obedience (defining love correctly)

-What’s their response? They know the right thing to say! They don’t think of a response this time, they know Jesus will know their thoughts. They don’t try to answer back because they know he’ll spin it right back around to them. They remain silent. 

-Why was Jesus angry? We saw him angry in the healing of the leper too. Jesus’ anger isn’t directed toward sinners, but toward those who think they’re in the right standing. He wants people to see what He sees and wants them to live life to the fullest extent possible, but they refuse. 

-How did Jesus heal the man? Did Jesus do any work? All he did was talk, which was supposed to take place on the Sabbath! There’s no work done! But that’s not how the Pharisees see it. This is the 5^th instance they’ve seen blasphemy taking place, this is their last straw, it’s time to get down to business!

-Pharisees choose strange bedfellows. The Herodians were pro-Roman occupation. Yet in their anger, they’ll look for anyone to partner with! 

-The irony of Jesus’ question in vs. 4 toward them: they start working on Sabbath to kill Jesus.

-Jesus wants us to live life to the fullest extent we can, which means we must submit every area of our lives to His oversight. 

-The rules are put in place to help us understand how we can love God and love others. It’s once again a tension because God has designed the entire world, and individually, each one of us! So if we want to live this full life, it means we must die to ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow after Him. It means we’re going to live lives that look RADICALLY different from the people around us, but in the end it’s the only way to find true life.

-We must live in this tension point between seeing and believing, between Jesus’ first and second comings, between the flesh and the Spirit. It’s hard, it takes practice, it takes other’s helping you to see, but it leads to life to the full!

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

-After 2.5 years together, it’s time to walk through one of the Gospel accounts! Mark, more than any other Gospel emphasizes the implications of Jesus’ call to follow Him.

-Also turns people’s expectation of the role of the Messiah (Christ) on their head. They expected a warrior king and got a suffering servant, which also has some strong implications for us today. As I look at our cultural landscape, we as Christians have become overly accustomed to recognition and prestige, but how do we respond when we’re marginalized and ostracized from those who have power today? Mark will encourage us to remain faithful.

-One of the unique characteristics of Mark’s Gospel is how quickly things move. Where John elaborates and expands on robust theology and implications of Jesus’ message, Mark keeps things brief and succinct quickly moving from one scene to the next. 

-One thing to note about writing in the 1^st century is they had very different approaches than we do today, which if you think about it makes sense, right? Who here had to read Romeo & Juliet in school?

-“But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief, That thou her maid art far more fair than she. It is my lady, O, it is my love! O, that she knew she were! She speaks, yet she says nothing: what of that?” Today: she’s lit. 

-Don’t impose our 21^st century ideas onto a 1^st century book! We think linearly and subsequently, but that’s not how the Gospel writers are to be interpreted. Instead of writing chronologically they wrote thematically and theologically. They’re trying to communicate truths about who God is as they write. Additionally, Mark uses a lot of repetition as this book was meant to be read aloud so he’s trying to help people be able to easily remember the story.

-With that in mind, who wrote this Gospel? Why do we call it “Mark”? 

-As these 4 Gospels started being spread to the early church, they very early on were labeled “The Gospel according to ____” The earliest manuscripts we have of Mark are labeled with that name on them. So who was Mark?

-The earliest church tradition points to the person named John Mark who traveled with Peter and Paul during the spread of the church. 

-He’s first mentioned in Acts 12:12, (Peter getting out of prison from an angel) which may mean he was someone who was financially well off. The early church met in homes that could accommodate large groups, it seems that John Mark’s mother’s home was one of those homes! 

-One of the most well-known aspects of John Mark is the relational split he had with Paul, causing Paul and Barnabas to go their separate ways. Thankfully, at some point in the future Paul and John Mark were reconciled and Paul eventually asks Timothy to bring John Mark with him to visit because he’s “very useful to me.” 

-One other line of evidence pointing to Mark’s authorship comes from an early Church Father Eusebius, who quotes from another Church Father names Papias who was discipled by the Apostle John (who wrote the Gospel according to John, 1-3 John, and Revelation) Papias lived from 60-130 AD and wrote books that have been lost, but are quoted from in other Church Fathers. So Eusebius quotes one of these books from Papias who said:

-While it’s not chronological, there is a broad overview to Mark’s letter (and like any biblical idea, there’s debate and discussion about how best to outline this book!)

-It seems that Mark thought of this book like a good screenwriter as a story in 3 parts categorized by location: beginning in Galilee, turning to Jerusalem (which hinges on Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ), and finally Jesus’ ministry in Jerusalem which culminates in His death and resurrection.

-Part of the reason I think this is a good outline is because it follows Peter’s summary of Jesus’ life in Acts 10. 

-Since Mark was Peter’s disciple, it would make sense that Mark would catalogue the story of Jesus in a similar order.

-3 keys to understanding the book/emphasis:

-Lots of debate about how to categorize the Gospels. Biography? Theology? Best summary: extended passion narrative. Mark flies through the preliminary stuff and then the last week of Jesus’ life takes up half the book!

-First: Who is Jesus?

-The most important question for anyone who has ever lived. Mark is bookended with this theme. Look at the first verse, and then at the very end a Roman guard utters the same phrase.

-A subset of this question is: because Jesus is the Christ, why did he suffer? Most likely written during an intense persecution from Nero, therefore it serves as a reminder that Jesus suffered too. This leads us to:

-Second: What does it mean to follow Him?

-AKA what does it mean to be a disciple? Just as Jesus was the suffering servant, in order to follow Him means we too will face suffering and persecution.

-But we also see a wide variety of responses to Jesus, and surprisingly the ones who get it aren’t his disciples. The book ends by describing the disciples as afraid and trembling. An appropriate response to a resurrected Savior! But it intentionally leaves the story unresolved, forcing the hearer to ask how will I respond to this good news?

-Third: Immediately. Count how many times Mark says it! I counted 4 in just today’s text! Like someone who tells a rambling story that you’re just waiting for them to pause so you can interject, but they won’t! “and then…”

READ/PRAY (488)

1. The Preparation (1-8)

-This first verse is loaded with massive implications, and also requires our careful attention to understand what Mark is drawing our attention to, as well as how it sets up the theme of the rest of the book. Let’s start at the beginning, which appropriately enough is the same place Mark begins!

-Mark doesn’t begin in the same place as John’s Gospel, Mark would rather dispense with the pleasantries and get directly into the important stuff! But this also is a reminder that God is doing something new in human history here. Just as in the beginning of the world God was working, here in the beginning of the salvation of the world, God is starting a new beginning.

-This beginning is about the gospel, literally the good news. Because this was written to a Roman audience that would have perked up their ears.

-Think of hearing someone walk by you shouting “Extra, extra, read all about it!” You’d think there was some major world event that was taking place. In many cases, the good news was related to a victory in battle. The Roman Christians would have then been waiting to see how this victory took place, but Mark would go on to subvert their expectations and reveal that the victory only comes about through suffering

-Jesus is his first name, Christ isn’t his last name. Christ is the title “Anointed One” or “Messiah” the one who God has promised all the way back in Gen. 3. The serpent crusher who would redeem the world and provide a way to be brought back to God.

-Not only is He the Messiah, He’s also the Son of God.

-No one would have expected God Himself to come to earth and redeem a wicked humanity, but that’s exactly how God accomplished redemption. In order to have us brought back to God, we need a redeemer who is both God and man. Therefore God sent His one and only Son into the world.

-This phrasing became somewhat of a motto for the early church, and one of the ways they determined who was a believer and who was not was using a little symbol that looked like this. Now, there’s LOTS in the Gospels about fish (the primary meat of the day), Jesus’ first disciples were fishermen, Jesus divides the loaves and fishes, but do you know what this symbol is called? Icthus: Jesus (iyasou), Christ (Christou), God’s (theou) Son (uios), Savior (sotar)

-Unlike the other Gospels, Mark spends no time on the miraculous conception or Jesus’ genealogy. Instead this story begins with a prophecy.

-His Roman audience wouldn’t have cared who His Jewish ancestry was. For the Jews, ancestry mattered GREATLY (just read Galatians!), the Romans wouldn’t have cared. Just like we in America today is largely comprised of “mutts,” the Romans were comprised of people from all over the known world who were Roman first and foremost.

-But having a prophet speak an oracle would have mattered greatly to the Romans, especially if that oracle turned out to be true.

-This prophecy quotes from a few different OT passages. Malachi 3:1, Isaiah 40:3

-Malachi is a prophecy of judgment coming. God will judge the world, but not the way the Jews thought! And first was the coming of grace to provide salvation from the coming judgment. 

-Then in Isaiah the prophecy addresses the coming of a shepherd-like God who will care for His sheep. There is overlap between these 2 texts that both show the precursor to the Messiah, the one who will prepare the way for Him. Who is that?

-John appeared (once again, no build up, no explanation of the family connection going on here) just skip all the preliminary information about him and jump to this prophet. John came doing 2 things: baptizing and proclaiming. 

-Wilderness often serves as a place where people met God. Think of Moses and the burning bush, Elijah fleeing from Ahab, David fleeing from Saul, even in the NT after Paul is converted he goes to the wilderness for 2 years! Hold on to that thought

-He also proclaims that this baptism is connected to repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Repentance refers to a change of direction/orientation. Like when you turn down a dead-end street assuming it connected through.

-This ministry model (wilderness, baptism, proclaiming) was effective! “All the country” was coming, even those in the capital city of Jerusalem were being drawn to him! 

-This is meant to be in contrast to the positions of power at the time. Living in opulence in the city. Remember what I talked about during Christmas where in Luke’s account, we read of Zechariah who came from the right lineage, was in the right profession, married to a woman who was in the right lineage, and was serving in Jerusalem. But he’s not the Messiah, and neither is John! 

– The description of John’s and his lifestyle is intentional! The 1^st century Jewish audience would have picked up on this reference to camel’s hear and a leather belt.

-In 2 Kings 1:7-8 it describes a man who “wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist.” Then the text says “It is Elijah.”

-This was such a well-known image in the day, it would be like me showing this picture and asking you to guess who it represents.

-Notice that Elijah 2.0 recognizes what his role is. He’s (as Isaiah prophesied) preparing the way for someone even mightier than him! Which is where Jesus intersects with this new prophet.

• The Commission (9-13)

-Remember, all this is referring to real events that happened in a real place within real human history. John’s ministry was meant to get people ready to hear Jesus’ message.

-Apart from vs. 1 (title), this is the first instance of Jesus being mentioned. Once again, scarce on the details of this event, almost in passing mentions that Jesus was one of the people baptized by John. But even that isn’t the point, the point is vs. 10-11.

-In the midst of Jesus’ baptism, heaven is torn open and the Spirit descends on Him. A couple things to note:

-This is a fulfillment of Isa. 64:1 “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down.” Well guess what? He did! The request Isaiah asks has been granted in God made flesh. 

-But let’s also think about the way the Spirit works through the OT. He comes down on people for a specific time and for a specific purpose, and then leaves. Not so with Jesus. Instead of leaving Jesus, after Jesus dies the Spirit is sent to live in the lives of Jesus’ followers, and once again He will never leave them.

-Finally, the Father speaks out about His one and only Son and quotes from 2 other prophecies from the OT: Psalm 2:7 and Isa. 42:1

–Psalm 2:7 “The Lord said to me ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you.”

–Isa. 42:1 “Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.”

-All 3 person of the Trinity, eternally existing in perfect union with each other are present in Jesus’ ministry. Church, don’t miss this reality, our faith is inherently Trinitarian! The Father plans salvation, the Son accomplishes salvation, the Spirit fulfills that salvation.

-Now notice who Jesus submits Himself to in His incarnation. He submits Himself to the Father by being sent, but now He submits Himself to the Spirit in vs. 12

-Season of prayer and preparation before He begins His ministry. How many times do we miss things because we don’t take enough time to pray and prepare, much less to submit ourselves to the Spirit?

-Wilderness – place of the wild animals, not a safe place, dangerous, where God must sustain, otherwise death is immanent. 

-This time in the wilderness also serves to signify that Jesus is a new Israel. Just as Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, so Jesus wanders in the wilderness for 40 days. Micah has preached an entire message on the temptation of Christ, go listen to that for more detail! But where Israel was found unworthy, Jesus is found worthy and moves to begin his ministry (after being ministered to by the angels)

-Jesus has been affirmed by His Father, tested in the wilderness (and unlike every person to go before, Adam & Eve, Israel) He remained faithful and refused to give in to the temptation, He has submitted Himself to the guidance of the Spirit, and only after that is it time to begin His ministry.

• The Initiation (14-20) 

-Waiting for John’s ministry to finish before starting His own. The time of preparation is done, the “kingdom of God is at hand.” 

-Look at the difference between Jesus’ proclamation and John’s proclamation. One is just pointing to someone else, the other is saying I’m here!

-Kingdom of God is inaugurated by a person. Contrary to the way many people would assume it should be, instead of a place it’s a person. 

-“Believe in the gospel” Believe in the good news? That’s different! Just as the kingdom of God is inaugurate by a person, so the gospel is the message of a person. Who are the first people to believe in this good news?

-2 sets of brothers, both fishermen

-Invitation to follow unlike most Rabbis at the time. Generally, the pupil would look at the available Rabbis and choose one, asking to become an apprentice. Jesus doesn’t leave it up to them, instead He pursues them.

-Following (Discipleship) is a call to follow, which demands/expects immediate obedience.

-As we close today, have you taken that step of obedience? Have you decided to follow Jesus and become a fisher of others? And if you have, are you submissive to the Spirit’s role in your life?