“Fig No Grow! Fig No Grow! Fig No Grow!” (Mark 11:12-14 & 20-26)

They were “off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz.”

Dorothy was following the yellow brick road so that the Wizard would send her home.  She met the Scarecrow, who wanted a brain, the Tin Woodman, who desired a heart, and the Cowardly Lion, who was in need of courage.

They were each convinced the Wizard could help them.

They made it to Emerald City where they were initially rejected by the Wizard.  They finally got in to see him, only to quickly discover that everything was a facade.

“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” he urged them; but it was too late.  He has been exposed as all show with no substance.

In our verses, Jesus encounters a fig tree that is all show and no substance.  It has put out its leaves, indicating there will be abundant fruit underneath, but, upon inspection, no figs are to be found.

In what seems to be a bizarre, out-of-character, destructive miracle, Jesus condemned the fig tree, and it withers from the roots and dies.

If that isn’t weird enough, Jesus uses the occasion to say that if you have enough faith, you can toss a mountain into the sea.

It all sounds like some kind of environmental disaster.

Obviously there is a lot going on here.  I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 Check For Fruit Under Your Leaves, and #2 Check For Faith Behind Your Labor.

#1    Check For Fruit
    Under Your Leaves
    (v12-14)

It was revenge for all battered vending machines.  In the film, The Sum of All Fears, the terrorist bomb that exploded was hidden in a cigarette vending machine at a professional sporting event in Baltimore.

Admit it – You’ve severely beaten a vending machine at one time or another.  It started out innocently enough, with you thinking that a little bump or nudge would somehow cause it to either dispense your selected item, or return your money.

When that didn’t work, the violence escalated.

Debra Johnson was caught on a surveillance camera shoving newspaper into a 7-Up vending machine outside a Piggly Wiggly in New Bern, NC.  She then lit the newspaper on fire, grabbed a soda from a different vending machine and walked away.  The fire melted the vending machine, destroying its contents and about $35 in change.

I want to assure you, that was not what Jesus was doing to the fruitless fig tree.  In fact, His actions are deeply symbolic and significant – both for the nation of Israel, and to individuals like ourselves.

Mar 11:12  Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry.

Jesus was hungry.  Any description of His physical condition always reminds me of the wonder of His uniqueness as the God-man.

Jesus was eternally God.  He never ceased to be God.

In His incarnation, born of a virgin, Jesus was fully human.  He rose from the dead in a glorified human body, in which He will remain eternally.

While He was on the earth He chose to not use the prerogatives of His deity.  Instead He depended upon the leading of God the Holy Spirit.

Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest writes,

Our Lord lived His life on earth usually as the Man Christ Jesus. He was revealing Deity to humanity, and how else could He do that except in human terms, a human body, human limitations, and a human life lived among men.  

On this occasion He was led by something as common as hunger, to see a fig tree.  The Holy Spirit would use it to teach an incredibly powerful lesson.

Be aware of even the smallest things and expect God to use them to minister to you, and to others.

Mar 11:13  And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.

I can’t believe how much is written by Bible commentators regarding the growth cycle of the Mediterranean fig tree.  None of them agree as to when the fruit forms, or for how long it can remain.

The growth cycle isn’t important; only the observable fact that the “fig tree [had] leaves.”

What about Mark’s comment, “it was not the season for figs?”  If figs were not in season, why would Jesus expect to find any?

More importantly, if figs were not in season, what had the fig tree done wrong?

The solution seems to be that the tree was prematurely in leaf, growing in some sheltered spot, and it was therefore reasonable to expect a premature crop of figs.

Mar 11:14  In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” And His disciples heard it.

The Lord condemned the tree, not just because of its fruitlessness, but because of its fruitlessness in the midst of a leafy display which promised fruit.

Let’s get right to the point.  The fig tree represents Israel.  The prophet Hosea said, quoting God, “I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season” (9:10).

The fig doesn’t simply represent Israel as a symbol.  It tells the spiritual condition of Israel.  An entire chapter of the Book of Jeremiah – chapter twenty-four – tells of two baskets of figs.  One is “very good,” and the other “very bad.”  God explained to Jeremiah that they represented the spiritual condition of the Jews:

Those who were “good” He would protect and keep.

Those who were “bad” were headed to judgment.

BTW: The fig tree isn’t the only fruit-bearing plant that represents Israel.  We also read of the vine and the olive tree representing Israel.  We are used to picking one national tree, or one state flower.  Why there can only be one, I don’t know.  Israel is represented by all three.

The fig tree Jesus encountered was leafy, with the promise of finding abundant fruit under its leaves.  Upon inspection, it was fruitless.

It is a perfect illustration of the nation of Israel as Jesus encountered her during His earthly ministry.  Israel was all leaf, with no fruit.

Outwardly, there was the magnificent Temple, built-up for the Jews by King Herod.  There was the priesthood, and the sacrificial system.  They had the Scriptures.  They had leaves.

Jesus shows us beneath the leaves, under the facade.  The men most powerful among the Jews, and the ones recognized as the most spiritual, were plotting to kill Jesus.

In the Temple, the priests were running scams on the people by selling their pre-approved animals for sacrifice, and by charging exorbitant rates to exchange their provincial coins for the required Temple currency.

Leading up to this, Jesus had been exposing first century Judaism as an outward attempt at being righteous that had no effect on the inward person.  It was a system of self-righteousness that promised salvation by outward works, but could not deliver on its promise.

At one point Jesus made the same observation by calling the religious leaders white-washed tombs.  Outwardly they looked good, but inwardly they were full of dead men’s bones.  It was all a facade, masking their spiritual failure.

We are not the fig tree; and by “we,” I mean the church, and the individual believers who comprise the church.  We are, however, disciples, and are therefore expected to bear fruit.

Jesus said, “‘My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings great glory to my Father'” (John 15:8 NLT).

Jesus also said, “‘By their fruits you will know them'” (Matthew 7:20 NKJV).

Most of us have memorized the fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

Scholars like to point out that there is really only one “fruit of the Spirit,” and that one is “love.”  The other words describe love.

Having said that, there are other things besides love that are considered spiritual fruit in our lives.  For example:

The apostle Paul regarded those he had helped lead to Christ as fruit.  He wrote to the Christians at Rome: “I purposed to come unto you… that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles” (Romans 1:13).

Paul thought of financial support as fruit.  He commended Philippi as the only church that had sent an offering to help defray his expenses on his missionary trips.  He calls such gifts “fruit” that would abound to their “account” (4:17).

Genuine traits of godly character are also called fruits: “For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesians 5:9).

I conclude that there is no complete list we can make of the fruit that can be produced in our lives.  It might be better to describe what we are looking for as fruitfulness in general.

Pastor Chuck Smith put it this way:

THE WHOLE IDEA IS THAT OF BEING FRUITFUL.  The primary desire of my life is to bear good fruit for my Lord.  No other accomplishments that I may achieve are as important as this.

One day when I stand before Him to give an account of my life, this is all that will really matter.

How do you become fruitful? Fruit is a by-product of a plant existing in healthy conditions.  Spiritual fruit a by-product of your healthy relationship with the Lord.  As you abide in Christ, it just develops naturally.

It is not something that is forced.

You do not have to struggle to produce it.

It is still possible to have a lush and leafy exterior, but no fruit underneath.  All false religions can be described that way, to a certain extent, because they present only outward requirements for pleasing God.  They are leafy with works of righteousness, but none of those works can save you.

Then there are the groups that flat-out say you must do certain things to be saved, e.g., be water baptized, or speak in tongues.

Nope.  Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, plus nothing.  Water baptism and speaking in tongues are added human works.

On an individual basis, Christians can emphasize how spiritual they are based on their outward works.  Indeed, some of the people who are most admired in churches are esteemed for the wrong reasons.  They seem successful, well-to-do, well-spoken.  They promote certain standards that you must achieve in order to be like them.  You get the impression that, somehow, they are better than you, more spiritual.  But it’s all for show.

Check to see if there is genuine and juicy spiritual fruit being produced as you abide with the Lord.

#2    Check For Faith
Behind Your Labor
(v20-26)

We are deliberately skipping verses fifteen through nineteen.  We’ll get to them next time.  Mark is giving us events in chronological order, and I want to take them in their logical order.

Mark introduces us to the fruitless fig tree, then Jesus visits the Temple. He finishes the story of the fig tree in verses twenty through twenty-six.  Those verses go together logically with what we’ve just studied.

In verses fifteen through nineteen, Mark shows us Jesus overturning the tables in the Temple.  He finishes that story in verses twenty-seven through thirty-three.  Those verses go together logically.

Mar 11:20  Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.

They could not see the roots, but from what they could see, it was evident that the fig tree was “dried up from the roots,” never to recover.

We often use the expression, “the root of the problem.”  We also speak of being “dry” in our relationship with Jesus.  If you’re feeling dry, get to the root of the problem.  It’s usually sin, or that you’ve given up abiding in the Lord in terms of having a devotional time.

Mar 11:21  And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.”

Have you ever sent a text message that was misunderstood?  One time, while we were babysitting Geno, I texted to a group, “I have the baby!” which, by the way, is a line of dialog from the film Willow.

One of the folks who received my text thought it was the kidnapper trying to make contact with me to arrange for ransom!

I’m not sure what to make of Peter’s statement.  I can’t tell what his intent was.  At the very least he was making note of the power Jesus had wielded to so completely kill the tree so quickly.

Like it or not, the withering of the fig tree was a miracle.  An odd miracle; but a display of immense power over nature nonetheless.

Mar 11:22  So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.

Wait a minute.  What does having faith in God have to do with this dead tree?

Jesus was letting them know that the nation was headed into a time of judgment.  In the mean time, the disciples would be sent into the world to preach the Gospel to all nations.  They would need power to accomplish their task.  Jesus thus launched into a talk about the power of God that would be available to them, and how to pray to receive it.

Think of it this way: If Jesus displayed such mighty power to make a tree fruitless, imagine what He could do to make His disciples fruitful.

Mar 11:23  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.

Excuse me?  Can I change the topography of the earth through prayer if I have faith in God?  I’ve often wanted to level-out Hwy 395 between Four Corners and Adelanto; except that some of the dips make you feel like you’re riding Screamin’ Over California.

If you travel to Israel, you can visit the Mount of Olives.  It’s the mountain Jesus was referring to when He said, “this mountain.”   In the many centuries since Jesus first said, “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,'” no one has ever done it.

For over two-thousand years, either no saint has had that kind of faith, OR Jesus meant something entirely different.

I know there have been great men, and women, of faith.  He must have meant something entirely different.

At this point we mostly back peddle and explain what Jesus did not mean, launching into some general thoughts about praying in the will of God.  We make excuses for why we don’t see powerful results as we pray.

I got to thinking, “What did the guys who originally heard these words think they meant?”  We can determine what they thought Jesus meant by listening to them pray.

Peter was involved in a group prayer in The Book of Acts.  In chapter three Peter and John healed the lame man who sat in the Temple.

They were taken into custody by the Jewish authorities for preaching the Gospel after the healing.  It was the time they declared, “we must obey God rather than men.”

After being threatened and released, they prayed.  Here is a snippet of their prayer, from Acts chapter four: “Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus” (v29-30).

What I found fascinating is what happened immediately after they prayed:

Act 4:31  And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

Think about it.  In our verses in Mark, Jesus coupled prayer with casting a mountain into the sea.  In Acts, Peter prayed, and an earthquake ensued.

He didn’t pray for the earth to shake.  He prayed for boldness and the earth shook as a token the prayer had been answered.

Jesus wasn’t telling us to pray for mountains to be cast into the sea.  The promise of Jesus was that they could have power to share the Gospel that was greater than the power it takes to cast a mountain into the sea.

Listen to this, from the Old Testament.  It is a confirmation of this same principle.  It may even have been on Jesus’ mind.

Zec 4:6  … “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts.
Zec 4:7  ‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!..”

Zerubbabel was tasked with rebuilding the Temple after the Babylonian captivity.  It was tough going.  God promised Him the power to accomplish the task.  It was a power greater than that which would be needed to level a high mountain.

Let’s read verse twenty-three again:

Mar 11:23  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.

Jesus wasn’t giving His followers a blank check to alter the topography of the earth.  He was telling them, as He had told Zerubbabel, that we are assured power from Heaven for our mission.

Peter and company prayed for boldness.  If we pray like they did, for boldness, then “you will have whatever [you] say.”

Boldness is produced in you by God the Holy Spirit.  Jesus promised His followers we could ask, seek, and knock, and receive more-and-more of the Holy Spirit.

Luk 11:9  “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
Luk 11:10  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
Luk 11:11  If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?
Luk 11:12  Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
Luk 11:13  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

God promises to give you the Holy Spirit.  Since you are already indwelt by Him, He must mean more of the Holy Spirit, coming upon you with boldness.  If you ask, and seek, and knock – if you pray – you can believe He will give you the Holy Spirit.

I’m strongly suggesting that the Holy Spirit is the “whatever” you can have if you pray and believe God by faith.

Instead of being apologetic about not receiving answers to our prayers, we ought to get excited that Jesus will answer our prayers for boldness by the Holy Spirit.

Mar 11:24  Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

This second “whatever” seems to be more inclusive of other “things” beyond the Holy Spirit.  What are these “whatever’s?”

I think we should look at how a real man of faith prayed.  The apostle Paul records many of the things he prayed for.  They are mostly related to furthering the Gospel, or to the growth of the Christians he encountered.

When Peter heard these words Jesus spoke, and when Paul became aware of them after he was saved, they evidently thought Jesus meant “whatever things you ask” was intended for mission critical stuff for furthering the Gospel and for building the church.

Israel was going to be disciplined.  The Kingdom of God on the earth would be postponed, awaiting the Second Coming of Jesus after the seven-year Tribulation on earth.  After Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven, and before the Tribulation, followers of Jesus are tasked with going into all the world preaching the Gospel and making disciples.

Does that sound like a daunting task?  Does that seem overwhelming?  Isn’t it a lot like a giant mountain peak in your way, that seems impossible to climb?

It does seem insurmountable  – except for the power of God, by His Holy Spirit, to level mountains or cast them into the sea.

We have two-thousand years of the history of the church obliterating mountains around the world as the Gospel was preached with Holy Spirit boldness.  Iron Curtains, Great Walls, Third Reichs – none of what evil men, inspired by Satan, attempted could halt the building of the church.

Indeed, the gates of Hell cannot prevail against it – let alone some puny mountain.

Mar 11:25  “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.
Mar 11:26  But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
You know what I get out of these two verses?  Jesus is telling us to quit playing church and be the church.

We are on a mission deep behind enemy lines.  Satan is the god of this world.  Most of the kingdoms of men are post-Christian, or anti-Christian.  People are perishing without hearing the Gospel.  Christians are being persecuted, and martyred, for their faith.

Do we really have time to argue about the color of the carpet?  Of course not.  There should be no friendly fire casualties in the church.  We should be focused on the greater mission.

Seriously, we need to dial back our personal sensitivities, and be a little more tough-skinned, for the sake of the Gospel.

What about this matter of God not forgiving our trespasses?  William MacDonald, in The Believer’s Bible Commentary, explains it well:

This does not refer to the judicial forgiveness of sins at the time of conversion; that is strictly a matter of grace through faith.  This refers to God’s parental dealings with His children.  An unforgiving spirit in a believer breaks fellowship with the Father in Heaven and hinders the flow of blessing.

You will hinder your reception of the Holy Spirit for boldness if you are harboring unforgiveness.  Rise above pettiness, and be about the mission of the Gospel.

Jesus is telling us to have faith – telling us to believe – that we will be empowered by the Holy Spirit for our labor in the Gospel.

Are you?  If not, ask, seek, and knock, and then have faith to believe that your Heavenly Father will give you the Holy Spirit.

Donkey Throng (Mark 11:1-11)

It’s a familiar scene that has been played out in hundreds of television programs and movies: The hero in foot pursuit sees the bad guy about to elude him by hopping into a taxi, bus, or some other type of vehicle.  Desperate, he flags down the next car he sees, shouts “Police business!”, pulls the driver out of his seat, and takes off after the bad guy in the commandeered automobile.

It usually doesn’t end too well for the vehicle.

Must you yield your vehicle to any law enforcement officer who requests its use?  Laws vary from state to state, but here in California, the answer is, basically, “Yes.”

Upon first reading, it appears in our text that Jesus commandeers a donkey in order to make His triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

He doesn’t demand the donkey, however.  He has His disciples announce to the owner, “the Lord has need of it,” leaving the owner free to comply or refuse.

Do you ever think of the Lord, Jesus Christ, as needy?  He said it, not me; “the Lord has need of it.”

If the Lord needed something from someone on that important day, does He still have need of us?

I’ll organize my thoughts around two questions: #1 Does The Lord Have Need Of You?, and #2 Does The Lord Have The Lead Of You?

#1    Does The Lord Have Need Of You?
    (v1-6)

The answer is, “Yes.”

God is omnipotent (all-powerful); He is omniscient (all-knowing); He is omnipresent (everywhere at once).

AND He has determined to use human beings to accomplish His eternal purposes.

It takes nothing away from the nature of God to recognize He uses us to accomplish His eternal purposes.  If anything, it adds to the divine mystery of His sovereignty.

In our passage, prophecy and providence and need all intersect within the mystery of God’s sovereignty.

Jesus is going to ride into Jerusalem, on the Sunday before Passover, the 10th of the month Nisan on the Jewish calendar.  He’s going to ride a colt of a donkey upon which no one has ever sat.  When He does, the crowds will shout, “Hosanna!”

At that unique moment in history, Jesus would be fulfilling at least three remarkable Old Testament prophecies.

The first prophecy is Zechariah 9:9, where we read,

Zec 9:9  “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.

Those words were written between 520-470BC.

The next prophecy is from Psalm 118:25-26, where we read,

Psa 118:25  Save now, I pray, O LORD; O LORD, I pray, send now prosperity.
Psa 118:26  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.

The words date to about 1000BC.  “Save now” is, in Hebrew, “Hosanna!,” the shout of the crowd as Jesus entered Jerusalem.  The people were quoting this psalm.

In addition to His entrance on the colt of a donkey to shouts of “Hosanna!”, there is a third most remarkable fulfillment of prophecy.

In the ninth chapter of the Book of Daniel, written six hundred years before Jesus, the Jews were given the exact day in history that their Messiah would enter the city.  We don’t have time to go into the calculations in detail today; a few facts will suffice.

Daniel spoke of a pagan king who would make a decree allowing the Jews to restore and rebuild Jerusalem after their captivity in Babylon.  Daniel said,

Dan 9:25  “Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.”

The decree is a matter of history.  It was given by Artaxerxes Longimanus on March 14, 445BC.

The “weeks” Daniel speaks of are sixty-nine weeks of seven years.  Using the Jewish 360 day lunar calendar, that amounts to 173,880 days.

The Jews were told that exactly 173,880 days after Araxerxes issued his decree, their Messiah would enter Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey to shouts of “Hosanna!”

And that is exactly what happened.

Along the way, God acted providentially to bring it to pass.  “Providence,” in its simplest form, means to provide for.  Having prophesied what would occur, God acted in history to provide for it.

I’ll just give one example out of the thousands we could cite.  When King Herod determined to kill the prophesied Messiah by slaughtering all the young children, God provided for Jesus to be saved by warning Joseph in a dream to take his family to Egypt.

Within the scope of prophecy and providence, God determined to use human beings to accomplish His eternal purposes.  He had need of them, in a very real way.

Mar 11:1  Now when they drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples;

Thus begins the last week of Jesus’ ministry.  It was Sunday, and He would be crucified that Friday.

Looking at all four Gospels, 40% of what is recorded in them has to do with these last seven days of Jesus’ life.  It’s that important.

We know it was the tenth of Nisan because it was Passover week.  According to Exodus chapter twelve, it was annually on the 10th of Nisan, on Sunday, that the Passover lambs were chosen – four days prior to their being sacrificed.

Jesus, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world, was, in fact, the last Passover Lamb.  He needed to arrive just at that time in order to fulfill the type from Exodus.

In the midst of all these fulfillments of prophecy and typology, Jesus sent two of His guys on a very tenuous mission.

Mar 11:2  and He said to them, “Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it.

There are those who argue Jesus had made prior arrangements; but that makes no sense given His instructions.  This was a Word of Knowledge given to Jesus by His Father through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

He tells them to “loose it” before they ask permission.  In fact they never ask for permission.  I’d go along with finding the donkey, but loosing it without asking is a bit much.  It sounds like stealing.

Have you ever been prompted by God to do something a little out of the ordinary?  A little out of what we like to refer to as our ‘comfort zone?’

Maybe go up to a complete stranger and talk to them about Jesus?

That’s similar to what these two disciples were being asked to do.

Mar 11:3  And if anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it,’ and immediately he will send it here.”

Anticipating the question the two disciples were probably going to ask – “what if someone asks us what in the world are we doing” – Jesus gives them a word to share.

Why would the owner, upon hearing those words, “immediately… send” the donkey to Jesus?

We can only speculate, but one possible scenario is that God had spoken to him in a dream or a vision.  In the Book of Acts, the Roman centurion, Cornelius, has a vision in which he is told by an angel to send for Peter.  Meanwhile Peter was having a vision of his own, about Cornelius calling for him.

Maybe the donkey’s owner was a believer who knew the disciples by sight, and simply trusted their word.

Either way, God was at work, providentially; but the disciples had work to do in order to meet Jesus’ need.

Mar 11:4  So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it.

Commentators point out that it would be unusual for an animal to be tied outside – especially during the busy Passover season.  First century Israel wasn’t like the Old West, where you’d tie-up at some outdoor hitching post.

It would therefore have greatly encouraged the disciples’ faith to quickly find the donkey exactly as Jesus had predicted.

We often criticize the disciples for getting in the way of what Jesus was trying to do, but this time they were spot on.  They did not reason with themselves that maybe it would be a good idea to ask permission.  No, they went right up to the donkey, “and they loosed it.”

They were not going to get away clean – not without a challenge, anyway.

Mar 11:5  But some of those who stood there said to them, “What are you doing, loosing the colt?”

I wonder how many there were, and if they were thinking that they were going to put a stop to this by force, if necessary.

Mar 11:6  And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let them go.

I see this as somewhat tense, don’t you?  Two guys, walking right up to the colt, loosing it, and leaving.  It was a donkey-jacking in progress.  A lot could have gone wrong.

I humbly suggest to you that God recommended this weird arrangement to make the point that even though prophecy must be fulfilled, and even though He provides for it to be fulfilled, human beings with free will to obey Him or disobey Him are very much needed in His equation.

Don’t get me wrong: There was no danger Jesus would miss His one opportunity to fulfill these prophecies.  Nevertheless people – fickle people like ourselves – were still needed, and were neither coerced or forced into obedience.

What, then, does the Lord need from you?  If you say, “Nothing, He’s God,” that is not really biblical.  True, we add nothing to God; but He has determined, in the universe He created, to use us in profound ways.

There’s a whole list of things the Lord might need from you that come immediately to mind – things that would fit under the major headings of your time, or your talents, or your treasures.

One way this works is that you hear of a need – a genuine need – to minister to others.  The Lord is saying, “I need your time,” or “I need your talent,” or “I need your treasure – your money.”

Does He really need it?  Yes, He does – but not as much as you need to give it, because He can and will ask others until He finds someone whose heart is aligned with His.

It’s then up to you to “loose it,” to let it go, for the Lord’s use.

In the Old Testament, Esther is the queen of Persia just as a wicked man named Haman is about to exterminate the Jews.  Esther’s uncle, Mordecai, urges her to act on behalf of the Jews – even though it could cost Esther her life.

Mordecai says to his niece, “For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).

Did you catch that?  To paraphrase, Mordecai told Esther, “God needs you at this time,” but if she refused, God could and would deliver His people another way.

God needed someone, and it seemed to be Esther; but if she refused, He’d provide for His plan some other way.

God needs someone; it may as well be you.  Let loose of whatever it is the Lord needs from you.

#2    Does The Lord Have The Lead Of You?
    (v7-11)

The two disciples Jesus sent were being led by Him.  They went as He had commanded, did what He asked, and said the words He had given them.

The owner of the donkey, and the others on the scene in the town, were led by the Lord to comply with the loosing, and to submit to the Lord’s words.

If even one of those guys, on either side, had ignored God’s leading, the results may have been very different.
As it was, their faithful submission led to the triumphal entry of the King into Jerusalem just as prophesied centuries earlier.

Mar 11:7  Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it.

It was a donkey-whisperer moment, since no one had ever ridden this little guy before.  Their “clothes” formed a makeshift saddle.

Yes, kings often rode donkeys – especially in times of peace.  It should have been a sign to the Jews that their King was not coming to wage war against the oppressors from Rome, but to make peace between God and those who were His enemies by virtue of being sinners in need of salvation.

He would make peace by dying on the Cross, as our sacrifice and substitute for sin.  We read in Colossians 1:20, “and by Him [God reconciled] all things to Himself… whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”

Mar 11:8  And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
Mar 11:9  Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna! ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’
Mar 11:10  Blessed is the kingdom of our father David That comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

Mark doesn’t mention palm branches; the other Gospels do.  I guess Palm Sunday sounds better than Leafy Branch Sunday, or Spread Your Clothes Sunday.

“Hosanna!” means “Save now!”  In that sense, it is not really a word expressing praise, e.g., “Hallelujah!”  They were literally asking Jesus to save them by establishing the Kingdom of God that is often promised to the Jews in their Scriptures.

They were asking for “the kingdom of… David” to be restored.  The Jews fully expected their Messiah to rule from David’s throne in Jerusalem.  They expected a literal Kingdom.

There will be a Kingdom of God on the earth; but not now.  Today we are in what can be described as His spiritual kingdom, as God rules in the hearts of those submitted to Him.  We live in the midst of the kingdom of the devil, and the various kingdoms of men.  Our mission is to “Go!” With the Gospel, making disciples everywhere, as we enthusiastically await the return of Jesus to resurrect and rapture His church.

Throughout all His three-and-one-half-year ministry, Jesus avoided confrontation with the Jewish authorities as much as He could.  Not now.  Now He was forcing their hand.  He was being declared King.  He was receiving their accolades.  The authorities must either accept Him, or reject Him.  There was no middle ground.

Mar 11:11  And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.

We say that something is an anti-climax, or anticlimactic, when it is a disappointing end to an exciting or impressive series of events.

On the surface, Jesus’ quick survey of the Temple, followed by His withdrawal to Bethany, is anticlimactic.
It may be the most anticlimactic moment in all recorded history.

Hailed as King, riding the Zechariah-colt, entering on the exact day Daniel prophesied… Only to turn right around to spend the night in Bethany.

We can look back and understand the timing, the plan, because we know the events of Jesus’ last week.  But for His disciples, and the Passover travelers, it must have seemed very strange.

Why go to all that trouble for, seemingly, nothing?

You’ve undoubtedly noticed that God has His own, seemingly unusual, timing in the affairs of your life.  I think He’s late right now, in a few things that I’m praying for.  Probably you do, too.

He’s not late; He’s not early.  He’s God, and He is accomplishing more than we can know or ask for.

There is, in this episode, a lot of what I’m calling God’s leading:

Jesus was led by God, probably by a Word of Knowledge, to send two of His guys on the mission to acquire the colt.

His disciples were led to the colt, where they determined to obey the Lord by loosing it.

The owner of the colt, and the townspeople in the immediate vicinity, were led to cooperate.

You could even say the colt was being led, seeing that it had never been ridden before, but immediately submitted to Jesus.

Depending on the words you Google, if you search for God’s leading, you’ll see a variety of articles.  Let me just summarize a few of the ways God can, and does, lead you.

We see, in the Bible, God speaks to all men through creation (see Romans 1:18–20 and Psalm 19:1–2).  If you are not a believer, there is enough evidence all around you that there is a Creator.  If you seek Him, you will find Him.

The apostle Paul said it best on Mars Hill:

Act 17:26  And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
Act 17:27  so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;

God has communicated in various other ways, in the Bible, including angels, His chosen spokesmen (prophets), dreams, visions, and miracles.

He even once, when dealing with the prophet Balaam, spoke through a donkey that He enabled to speak as a man speaks.

While we certainly want to be careful with things like dreams and waking visions, we must admit that God still used these well into the New Testament era:

We mentioned the angel speaking to Cornelius, and the vision given to Peter to go to Cornelius.
The apostle Paul received the vision of the Man from Macedonia.

I have to conclude that God can, and does, still lead using these methods.

In the Book of Hebrews we read,

Heb 1:1  God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,
Heb 1:2  has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;

The life and words of Jesus communicate to us everything we need to know about God.  More to our point – Jesus said that, when He left for Heaven, He would send another Comforter of the same kind to lead us.  He was speaking of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

If you are a believer, the Holy Spirit dwells within you. As you  nurture your relationship with your Heavenly Father, you learn how to be attentive to His voice.  As you grow in faith and mature as a believer, you will learn to hear God speak.

Of course, God speaks to us through His written Word – especially as we apply and obey it.  One of our most often quoted verses is Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”  It implies God has a path for us to find and follow, which He will then illuminate so we can make progress.

God can use your circumstances to lead you.

God can lead you by speaking to you through other believers; or even through nonbelievers.

The truth is, there isn’t only one way, or four ways, or ten ways, that God can, and does, lead you.  As you walk with Jesus, He will reveal many things to you, in many ways.

Maybe the better question is, “Are you open to being led by God?”

If we didn’t have this episode in our Bible, and I were to say, “Jesus told me to go into town, and loose a colt without asking the owner’s permission,” I think most Christians would say, “Jesus would never tell you to do something like that.”

Indeed, if you read some of the stuff on God’s leading, and apply it, there’s no room for anything extraordinary.  The biblical logic these commentators apply cancels the extraordinary.

I’m not saying we do things recklessly and without confirmation, but I am saying God still asks us to venture into the weird now and again.  Be open to it.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse looked at this passage and concluded that you and I were Jesus’ donkeys.  He ‘rides’ us, as we serve Him by bringing Him into our homes, and into our jobs, and to our schools.

There are obviously a lot of insights we can draw from this triumphal entry, but none more precious than this: God wants to use you.  He wants you as His partner in spreading the Good News.

You’ve heard it said, “Let go and let God.”  It’s not a great biblical philosophy.

We should say, “Let loose and let God.”  Rather, we ought to hear the Lord saying to us, “the Lord has need of it,” then let loose of whatever “it” is.

The Day The Earthmaker Stood Still (Mark 10:46-52)

Have you heard of Omaze.com?

It’s an online auction, but for charities, and it offers once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

Omaze was founded by Matt Pohlson and Ryan Cummins, who were disheartened after attending a charity auction looking to sell off a special experience with Magic Johnson.

“We’re both lifelong Magic fans, and the idea of shooting hoops with him and going to a Lakers game with him was something we were both so excited about,” said Cummins.  “But when the bidding started, the price rapidly fell far out of our reach and eventually sold for $15,000.”

On the ride home that night, they realized that by doing celebrity experience auctions online, they could maximize profits for charities, while making the bidding and the chance to win available to everyone.

On Omaze the bid is always only $10.  You can buy as many $10 bids as you’d like, but they are considered individual bids.

Here are two of their current auctions:

You can bid to share a pizza with Robert Downey, Jr., at his favorite New York pizzeria.  Included is an exclusive screening of Captain America: Civil War; tickets to The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, where Downey guests; and a four-night stay at a luxury Big Apple hotel.

You can bid to have lunch with Chris Pratt while visiting the set of Guardians of the Galaxy II and enjoying a luxury hotel in Atlanta.

In the most recently completed auction, fans won walk on roles in the next Star Trek movie.  They will fly to the closed set of Star Trek Beyond and hang with the cast before hair, makeup, and wardrobe gets them into character for the role of a lifetime.

I got to thinking about once-in-a-lifetime meetings while studying our text.  A blind man, stationed as a beggar on the outskirts of Jericho, hears that Jesus is walking through town on His way to Jerusalem.

Jesus would not be passing that way again.  This was the Passover that He would be crucified in Jerusalem.

This was it for the blind beggar – a once-in-a-lifetime, now-or-never moment to meet Jesus.  He cried out repeatedly and the Lord stood still.

As we work through this event, I want to explore what still causes Jesus to stand still, and what will encourage us, as His followers, to not sit still.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 Jesus Stands Still When You Cry For Mercy, and #2 Jesus Still Stands Still While You Call Men.

#1    Jesus Stands Still
    When You Cry For Mercy
    (v46-49)

KCRA Sacramento ran a story in 2014 about a couple who were going through our valley panhandling.  The story was titled, Self-proclaimed professional panhandlers net $182 an hour.

The title was a little sensational, and a lot deceiving.  True, they made $364 in about two hours; but they only panhandled for two hours.  They weren’t making that much as a daily hourly wage.

Stories like that fuel the false notion that all of the people out there panhandling are really millionaires.

A research team found that the typical panhandler in San Francisco’s Union Square is a disabled middle-aged single male who is a racial minority and makes less than $25 per day despite panhandling seven days a week for more than five years.  Ninety-four percent used the meager funds they raised for food, not booze or drugs.

Let’s try to set aside our opinions on contemporary panhandling so they do not influence our thoughts about the Jericho beggar.

Mar 10:46  Now they came to Jericho. As He went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging.

If you were a beggar in the first century, there was no deception.  You were destitute, depending for your livelihood on the meager alms you’d receive from passers-by.

Passover was a profitable season for begging.  In Exodus 34:23 we read,

Exo 34:23  “Three times in the year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the LORD God of Israel.”

Passover was one of those times “all” the men came, so the roads would be full of both pilgrims on their way to the Temple and beggars soliciting alms.

We don’t know if Bartimaeus was born blind, of if he had acquired blindness later in life.  Everyday he would find his way to a spot in Jericho to beg.  Three times a year he’d station himself strategically along the road, to intercept the pilgrims.

It’s hard for us to enter in to the sad monotony and hopelessness of his suffering.  Day after dark day, he depended upon the random generosity of others.

Mar 10:47  And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

He “heard,” meaning he was paying close attention to the flow of the crowd.  After years of begging, I’m sure he could tell when a larger group, or a faster group, was approaching.  He must have had a rhythm worked out for asking for alms – timing it just right so that he’d be noticed.

Suddenly there was an unusual commotion.  It came to his ears that “Jesus of Nazareth” was leading His disciples, followed by a much larger crowd.

Have you ever seen a celebrity in a public venue?  One of my pastimes at Disneyland is to be on the lookout for celebs.  So is everyone else, and when you see one, you’ll hear whispering or talking as people tell their party, “Look, that’s so-and-so.”

Something like that alerted Bartimaeus.

This wasn’t the first Bartimaeus had heard about Jesus.  We can’t say for sure exactly what information he’d gathered from listening to travelers, but I’m guessing he knew Jesus worked miracles and was giving sight to the blind.

Bartimaeus also seemed to have developed an incomplete but accurate theology.  He believed Jesus of Nazareth was “Son of David.”  It is a title for the one who would sit on David’s throne in Jerusalem and rule over the Kingdom of God on the earth.

It’s just my speculation, but I’d say that Bartimaeus fully expected Jesus to march into Jerusalem and sit on David’s throne as King over Israel.  It’s what everyone expected.  In just a few days, on what we call Palm Sunday, as Jesus would ride into Jerusalem, the crowds would hail Him as King.

I’m setting up for a comparison:

The disciples, thinking Jesus was going to be King, all but demanded positions in the Kingdom of God, and the best seats on the thrones.

Bartimaeus, thinking Jesus was going to be King, begged for mercy.

Peter had proudly declared to Jesus, “See, we have left all and followed You” (10:28).  He asked for what he thought he deserved.

Bartimaeus asked for what he did not deserve – which is a good definition of mercy.

You know what makes you irresistible to God?  Humility.  God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).  Humble yourself by realizing you deserve nothing from God.  Don’t do it with a “Woe is me” attitude, but as an honest appraisal of the fact we are all sinners with no hope of Heaven without help from the Lord – help which He is quick to provide when we ask for mercy.

More than one commentator likes to point out that Bartimaeus was not the only blind man on the Jericho road.  Jesus’ own disciples were far more spiritually blind than the beggar.  His healing was a genuine miracle; but it also serves as a parable to those who have eyes but cannot see spiritually.

Mar 10:48  Then many warned him to be quiet; but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

How do you warn a blind man?  “If you don’t be quiet, I’ll trip you!”

Warning him reveals a fundamental flaw in their thinking – a flaw Jesus had just pointed out a few verses earlier.
It reveals the desire to be served, rather than to serve others.  The disciples, and the crowd, were riding the wave of blessing into Jerusalem.  Why concern themselves with one blind beggar?

Bartimaeus had a great set of lungs.  He’d only have a few moments to get the Lord’s attention.  He dialed it up to full volume.

Mar 10:49  So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. Then they called the blind man, saying to him, “Be of good cheer. Rise, He is calling you.”

Occupied as He was with thoughts about the suffering awaiting Him in Jerusalem, and surrounded by the din of the crowd, Jesus heard Bartimaeus’ cry for mercy.

Seriously, think of how distracted Jesus must have been.  He had told them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again” (10:33-34).

With all of that weighing heavily upon Him, Jesus heard Bartimaeus, and He would respond to him.

“So Jesus stood still.”  The procession came to an abrupt halt.  I’m sure some of those following had no idea why Jesus stopped.  They hadn’t seen Bartimaeus, nor heard him.  They were too preoccupied with their own thoughts.

What preoccupies you?  What is it that distracts you from seeing the real needs of those around you?

As believers walking along spiritually with Jesus on our way to the New Jerusalem, we need to be aware of the situation of most of the people in the rest of the world.  You might ask yourself, “Who is the blind beggar I don’t see?”

It might be an orphan… Or a child needing help in the third world… Or a concern for human trafficking… Or the support of missionaries on the field.

It could be here at home – teen girls and women pregnant and needing counsel… Or the homeless… Or recovering addicts.

The Lord wants to direct you to someone, or to some group.  Ask Him who or what is crying out to Him for mercy, then get involved.

#2    Jesus Still Stands Still
        While You Call To Men
    (v49-52)

In C.S. Lewis’ beloved classic, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the one line I remember the most is, “Aslan is on the move!”

The great lion was putting things in motion to resolve the problem that it was always winter, but never Christmas.

Our God is on the move.  His providence is directing history toward the remaining events prophesied in the Bible.

Israel is in her land, surrounded by enemies, and with almost no allies.  She is ripe for entering a treaty guaranteeing her safety.  Trouble is, she will sign on the dotted line with the Antichrist.

Technology is ready to serve the Antichrist when he is revealed.  We report to you all the time about advances in biometrics that sound eerily like the dreaded Mark of the Beast.

There are plans to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, and priests are being trained to perform its rituals.  That Temple will be the site of a pivotal event, as the Antichrist will enter it exactly half-way through the seven years, demanding to be worshipped.

We wait to be raptured prior to the Tribulation, and as we’re waiting, we are to be hard at work.  We’ve been commissioned to “Go!” through the world, making disciples.

Even with all that activity, I think we can safely say that Jesus “still stands still.”  The Son of David will never ignore the cry or refuse the faith of a sinner seeking mercy.  In fact, God depicts Himself as waiting for sinners to respond.  We call it God’s longsuffering.

The apostle Peter was fond of the word longsuffering.  In the two inspired letters he wrote, he used it three times:

1Pe 3:20  … once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.

2Pe 3:9  The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

2Pe 3:15  and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation…

God’s longsuffering means He is waiting to send His wrath upon the earth while we “Go!” making disciples.
He’s standing still, in one sense, while we call to the lost with the message of the Gospel.  Lost individuals along the roads we travel are like Bartimaeus.

Mar 10:49  So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. Then they called the blind man, saying to him, “Be of good cheer. Rise, He is calling you.”

Call the blind man.  What a great shorthand for our Great Commission.

To emphasize the lost condition of the human race, the Bible describes us as blind:

2Co 4:3  But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,
2Co 4:4  whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

Not only is mankind blinded; we are in the dark, and we prefer darkness to light:

Joh 3:19  And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Before you are saved, you are a blind man in total darkness.  When a person is saved, they receive spiritual sight, and move out of the kingdom of darkness and into light:

Act 26:18  to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’

Call the blind man.  It’s our mission and privilege.

They said to blind Bartimaeus, “be of good cheer.  Rise.  He is calling you.”

Christians have a flair for making the Good News cheerless. Recent research has revealed that a majority of unchurched Americans see Christians as judgmental homophobic bigots.

I’d like to blame hostile mischaracterizations of Christians by the media, but 50% of respondents in that research study said they base their negative views on personal contacts with Christians.

The researchers said, “Many of those outside of Christianity… reject Jesus because they feel rejected by Christians.”

I’m not saying all this to chastise us.  Similar polls show that evangelicals like ourselves are perceived as being the most Christ-like of the bunch.  The simple point I’m making is that we should be able to tell nonbelievers to be of good cheer because of the Good News we have to share with them.

A person can never be truly whole, truly satisfied, apart from a personal relationship with God.  It’s what you were made for.

In Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Ariel brings Scuttle her bag of human treasures, hoping to learn what the items are, and what they are used for.

The first one is a fork, which Scuttle identifies as a dinglehopper that he says is used to comb your hair.

The next item is a smoking pipe which he says is a musical instrument called a snarfblat.

People live their lives thinking they are dinglehoppers or snarfblats when they are meant to be the children of God.

The Gospel makes people whole; it brings them to what they were created for.  We must approach sinners with a heart, and a message, that says to them, “be of good cheer.”

Next they told Bartimaeus “rise.”  Backtrack for a moment. Bartimaeus had heard of Jesus of Nazareth, and had some understanding of Who He was.

We would say that others had ‘shared Christ’ with him.  We see him crying out for mercy, and his cry being answered, so that he can “rise” and go to Jesus.

It’s a picture of grace operating on the human heart.  In and of themselves, and apart from the grace of God, human beings can neither think, will, nor do anything good, including believe.  But the grace of God prepares and enables sinners to receive the free gift of salvation offered in Jesus Christ and His Gospel.

Only through the grace of God can sinners believe and so be regenerated by the Holy Spirit.  Thankfully, God extends His grace to all.  The grace of God “calling” frees the will of a person to be able to respond, and come to Christ.

It frees you to be able to “rise,” as it were.

Mar 10:50  And throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus.

His “garment” is probably a reference to his outer cloak.  You’d take it off to move faster – indicating Bartimaeus’ eagerness to get to Jesus.

I think the garment represents something spiritual as well.  Adam Clarke writes,

If every penitent were as ready to throw aside his self-righteousness and sinful encumbrances, as this blind man was to throw aside his garment, we should have fewer delays in conversions than we now have; and all that have been convinced of sin would have been brought to the knowledge of the truth.

Your salvation is often depicted using garments.  Our own best works of righteousness we are told are nothing more than filthy rags.  When we are saved, Jesus removes our filthy garment, and exchanges them for His own white robe of righteousness.

“He rose and came to Jesus.”  He did publicly what was happening privately.  It’s good to represent what the Lord is doing in your heart by coming forward, e.g., for prayer.

Mar 10:51  So Jesus answered and said to him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” The blind man said to Him, “Rabboni, that I may receive my sight.”

In The Lord of the Rings, one of the ways the people of Gondor recognize that Aragorn the Ranger is really their rightful king is that he has certain abilities to effect healing.  Their lore said, “The hands of the king are the hands of a healer, and so shall the rightful king be known.”

Bartimaeus’ request was a declaration that he believed Jesus to be the Son of David.  The giving of sight to the blind was a sign only the rightful King would be able to perform.

“Rabboni” is a term of endearment, equivalent to calling Jesus his “Master.”  Bartimaeus was submitting himself to Jesus as His servant, as His slave.

This blind man understood, by faith, many of the things the disciples misunderstood, even though they’d been taught them directly by the Lord.  Humility prepares the heart for insight and illumination.

I noticed a quote by A.W.Tozer as our pre-service slideshow scrolls.  He said something like, “What we need is not more information, but transformation.”

The disciples had the information, in over-abundance; but they were unaffected by it.  Let’s not be like them in that regard.

Mar 10:52  Then Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road.

Remember the genii in Aladdin – the Robin Williams one?  He’d do something amazing, then say, “Made ya look!”

I wonder if Jesus ever said, “Made ya well!”

“Made you well” can, and probably should, be translated “saved.”  Bartimaeus was saved by the operation of grace on his heart, through faith, and this was evidenced by him receiving his sight.

It’s sort of like the time Jesus told the paralytic his sins were forgiven.  When the religious leaders objected, saying only God could forgive sins, Jesus healed the man to show He was God.

Bartimaeus “followed Jesus on the road.”  Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem, which was about fifteen miles away, and Bartimaeus followed Him there.

I wonder if it was Bartimaeus’ first Passover in Jerusalem?  Sure, all male Jews were commanded to attend each year, but Jewish sources say this wasn’t strictly obeyed in the first century.

And what if you were blind, and a beggar?  It was certainly his first Passover in Jerusalem as a sighted person.

Did he later join the crowd that shouted, “Hosanna!  Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord”?

Was he there at the Cross?  Did he stay long enough to hear firsthand about the resurrection of Jesus on the third day?

We can ask him one day – that’s the beauty of it.

Your Bartimaeus probably won’t be a blind beggar sitting on some road you’re on.  It will be a family member, or a coworker, or a fellow student.  It could be a stranger you encounter.

It could be anyone, really, as you “Go!” With the Gospel.

The person’s heart may have already been prepared by others sharing Jesus with them; or you might be the first.

You might meet with resistance; or they might be ready to receive the Lord.
The Lord still stands still as His longsuffering waits for sinners to repent.

I don’t want to be over-dramatic, but I feel compelled to address any nonbelievers one final time.  This could, for you, be the last time Jesus is presented to you.  He could be “walking by” for the last time.

It is therefore somewhat urgent you cry out for mercy.  He’s here, and standing still.

Be of good cheer and rise.

12 Jeers Towards Slaves (Mark 10:32-45)

Having a heavier waiter may cause you to eat more at a restaurant.

That’s the latest finding from Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab, which over the years has produced surprising results about the unconscious factors that influence eating, like music and lighting.

In the current study, diners with heavier servers were four times likelier to order dessert, and they ordered 17% more alcoholic beverages.

Speaking of waiters, you may have seen the recent story out of the United Kingdom where a restaurant owner defended one of his waiters who suffers from autism after customers complained.  He took the discussion over to Facebook, where his defense of his waiter garnered over 19,000 ‘likes.’

One person commented, “Too many customers think they have the right to treat hospitality staff any way they want to. They are wrong!!”

A long-time waiter who writes a blog about server-diner relations likes to say, “We are servers, not servants.”

I was thinking about waiters because Jesus uses a word for “servant” that can describe those who wait tables.

His disciples can’t wait to sit on thrones, but Jesus tells them that they must wait for the Kingdom of God on earth, and in the mean time, they will be expected to wait tables.

While your waiter at a restaurant is a server and not a servant, a disciple of Jesus Christ is a server who is a servant.

In fact, we are to be more than servants.  A second word Jesus uses is “slave.”

Today’s Bible study will help us to gauge whether or not we are servers or servants, and if we are servants, whether or not we are slaves.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 You Must Wait To Sit On Your Throne, and #2 You Should Wait By Serving Tables.

#1    You Must Wait To Sit On Your Throne
    (v32-40)

Ray Charles may have had Georgia on his mind, but the twelve disciples of Jesus had the Kingdom of God on theirs.  They fully expected Jesus to establish the promised Kingdom and rule it from Jerusalem.

If you keep in mind their preoccupation with the Kingdom of God on earth, you’ll understand why they kept ignoring Jesus telling them He was going to suffer and die at the hands of both the Jews and the Romans.

Mar 10:32  Now they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed. And as they followed they were afraid. Then He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to Him:

Jerusalem is elevated, so you are always described as “going up” to it, no matter which direction you approach from.  They were on their way there to celebrate Passover.

Jesus was out in front, being followed by the twelve, and they by a larger crowd.

The twelve were “amazed,” and I’m guessing from their discussions along the way that their amazement was in thinking it was at that time Jesus would establish the Kingdom.

The rest of the followers “were afraid.”  Jesus was in conflict with the religious leaders in Jerusalem; in fact, they wanted to kill Jesus.  He had been avoiding direct confrontation with them, but now He was determined to get to Jerusalem.  It was sure to be explosive.

Jesus tells His guys, for the third time, that He is going to Jerusalem to be killed.

Mar 10:33  “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles;
Mar 10:34  and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.”

The name, “Son of Man,” comes from the seventh chapter of the Book of Daniel.  It describes the Jewish Messiah, Who would inaugurate the Kingdom of God on the earth.

In a previous study we looked at Daniel, and we talked about why the twelve were so confused.  They believed that Jesus was the Son of Man, the Messiah Who would rule, but they could not reconcile the Scriptures that described Him as the Suffering Servant Who must die.

Jesus was very specific, very detailed, about how He would be treated by both the Jewish leaders and by the Roman authorities.  He didn’t say He would be crucified, but He didn’t need to, because it was understood.  Rome didn’t crucify its own citizens, but it was how they executed foreigners.

Don’t overlook, “and the third day… rise again.”  Jesus was going to the Cross by divine appointment, to accomplish something cosmic.  You see what it was in verse forty-five, “to give His life a ransom for many.”

I’ve had folks ask for prayer because of various medical procedures they must undergo.  As they describe what is going to happen to them – the poking, the prodding, the cutting, the chemo – I cringe, and commit to praying for them.
I can’t even imagine someone saying, “In a few days, I’m going to be condemned, spit upon, mocked, scourged, and crucified.”  It seems that it would make a deep impression – especially if it were someone I was close to.

That’s why what James and John do next is so incredible.

Mar 10:35  Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.”

John Stott calls this the most selfish prayer ever prayed.  I’d have to agree, and then be ashamed, because I’ve prayed along these lines, too.  Not these exact words, of course, but definitely with this attitude.

“Do whatever we ask.”  That’s mind-blowing.  It is the height of arrogance and folly to think I ought to receive whatever I ask from God.

They hadn’t asked; they wanted a waver to ask anything.  Sometimes we talk about people approaching God as if He were a genie in a bottle obligated to grant your wishes.  This is pretty close to that.

Mar 10:36  And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

I’m thinking Jesus would have been right to just say “No,” emphatically.  Instead, He was patient with them.  I’m glad He was, because we get to see their ridiculous request.

Mar 10:37  They said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.”
Their request was not completely out of left field.  In the telling of this walk to Jerusalem in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said to the twelve, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (19:28).

They were promised thrones in the Kingdom of God.  They did not realize that the Kingdom was being postponed, and would not be established until Jesus came back a second time.  The whole crucifixion/resurrection/ascension-into-Heaven-for-an-unspecified-period-of-time was foreign to them.

They did not yet grasp that the Kingdom of God they would know in their lifetimes was the spiritual rule of God over the hearts of those whom they would reach with the Gospel – starting on the Day of Pentecost and continuing to today.  They did not yet grasp it would be an invisible spiritual Kingdom that exists in the midst of the kingdom of the devil, and the kingdoms of men.

Mar 10:38  But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

The two images, the cup and baptism, are Old Testament pictures of being fully immersed in something, inside and out.  Suffering was usually what they represented.  Jesus was talking about His impending suffering, which is made clear a little later in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He asks His Father if it is possible to take away the “cup” of suffering.

James and John weren’t thinking suffering.  I’m going to make up a word: They were thinking sovereigning – they were thinking of ruling over others from a throne.

Mar 10:39  They said to Him, “We are able.” So Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized;

Guys, guys.  Of course they were not “able.”  They were not really listening to Jesus.

They were not able, but later they would be enabled, after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven, to be immersed in, and to drink their own cups of, suffering:

James would get arrested and then beheaded by Herod Antipas.
John would miraculously survive being boiled in oil, only to be exiled to the Island of Patmos in his 90’s.

Mar 10:40  but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared.”

Jesus will sit on a throne in Jerusalem.  In the Revelation, in the midst of the Tribulation, we read, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” (11:15).

In chapter twenty of the Revelation it says, “And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them… And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years (v4).

There will be a physical Kingdom of God on the earth that will last one thousand years.  Afterwards comes eternity in either Hell or Heaven.

James and John are still waiting to see which thrones they will occupy.  Jesus is content to let His Father assign responsibilities in the future Kingdom of God on the earth.

As far as thrones go, we, too, will sit on them.  First Corinthians 6:2&3 portray us as judging the world, and as judging angels.  Revelation 3:21 predicts a time when Jesus sits on His Kingdom throne, and Christians are seated with Him.

It is in our future to rule and reign with Jesus – seated on thrones.

But not now.  Now the Kingdom is the spiritual rule of God in human hearts that receive the Gospel.  We have work to do – as servants, and as slaves.

#2    You Should Wait By Serving Tables
    (v41-45)

Am I a server, or a servant?  If I’m a servant, am I a slave?  Those are the questions suggested by Jesus’ discussion with the disciples.

Mar 10:41  And when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John.

I wonder how Peter felt?  Among the twelve, Peter, James, and John often formed an inner circle around Jesus.  They were privileged to be with Him at times the other nine were not – like the raising of a little girl from the dead, and like on the Mountain of Transfiguration.

Now the two brothers aced Peter out of the equation.

The displeasure of the ten tells us that they, too, had throne-envy.  They were upset that they’d been upstaged by James and John.

Mar 10:42  But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

What a concise summary of the world in which we live.  The world values working to get ahead, to be on top, to have authority over others, who are seen as being ‘under’ your command.

Mar 10:43  Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.

“It” – this attitude of ruling over others – “shall not be so among you.”  Our spiritual life on earth now, while we wait for Jesus to return, is to bear absolutely no resemblance to the world’s way of doing things.

BTW – A lot of what I read and hear about reaching those who are unchurched has to do with making the Gospel more mainstream so that we don’t scare people off.  Churches are going out of their way to seem less like churches.  Truth is, people ought to know that the Gospel is radical, calling for, and empowering, radical changes.

Jesus described someone as “being your servant.”  Does He mean for you to kick-back and be served?  Of course not.

He’s giving you a way to properly evaluate people.  The greatest Christians are those who serve you and others – not those who sit over you, ruling you, telling you what to do.

James and John, and the other ten, wanted to be seated on their thrones.  Instead of being seated on thrones, we are to be serving tables.

The word for “servant” means table server; it is what we would call a waiter.  You are not to be a person everyone serves; you are to be the person who serves everyone.

The word in Greek is diakonos, and you immediately recognize that from it we get our word deacon.

It is generally believed that the office of deacon originated in the selection of seven men by the apostles, among them Stephen, to assist with the charitable work of the early church as recorded in Acts chapter six.

Don’t think of deacon in the sense of a board of guys that sits around making decisions and telling other people what to do.  That is the exact opposite of what Jesus just said.

Another association with the word diakonos is ‘not letting the dust settle.’  You’re so busy serving tables that it’s kicking up dust and, before the dust can settle, you’re back to serve even more.

I mentioned Stephen.  He was the first martyr of the church age – stoned to death for his defense of the Gospel.  He drank the cup; he was baptized with the baptism.

Which leads us to our first question for introspection: “Am I a server, or a servant?”

Each of us must answer for ourselves, and be careful to not compare ourself to others.

Be practical.  Delineate what it is you do to serve the Lord.  Not just in the church – although serving the household of faith is important.

Just existing as a Christian isn’t serving the Lord.  You have to actually be doing something.  If you say, “I’m a Christian such-and-such,” then what are you doing in your activities to promote the Gospel?

If you are doing things, do you think you can quit serving anytime you choose?  Because, if you are serving as unto the Lord, you can’t quit; you need to be released by Him.

I think we’d have to admit there are those who are servers, not servants.  If that’s you – admit it, then abandon the concept once-and-for-all.

Jesus wasn’t done.  Being a servant is a good start, but you really want and need to be a slave.

Mar 10:44  And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.

If you recognize greatness by seeing believers serving, then you ought to desire to be the lowest servant in every situation.  You ought to desire to be a “slave.”

Here is a surprising fact: If you look in the Old Testament in the King James Version, you will find the English word “slave” only once.

But the Hebrew word appears 800 times in the noun form, and nearly 300 in the verb form.  There is a word in the Old Testament for “slave” that appears eleven hundred times, but in your English Bible it’s only translated “slave” once.

If you go to the New Testament, you will find the Greek word for “slave” about 150 times in all its forms.  And you will find it actually translated “slave” only a few of those 150 times.

These facts caused one scholar to comment, “the word “slave” is the most important, all-encompassing, and clarifying word to describe a Christian used in the New Testament, and yet whenever a Christian is in view, it’s not translated “slave.”

We all have our images of slavery, and they are rightfully very bad ones, I’d guess, so this idea of being a slave is a hard sell.  The translators chose words like “servant,” and “bondservant” instead of “slave.”

You’ve heard about the Jewish bondservant.  It comes from Exodus 21:1-6.  According to the Law, a man who couldn’t pay a debt he owed had to become the servant of his creditor in order to work off the debt, or until the next sabbath year, whichever was shorter.  If, during the time of his temporary service, he concluded that his master was a good man to work for, he could voluntarily convert his term of service into a life long commitment.  In doing so he was agreeing to permanently subordinate his own interests in favor of his master’s, to do whatever the master required.  It was the servant’s choice to enter into a bondservant relationship with his master, but once the agreement was made he could not choose to undo it later.  It was a lifelong commitment.

If his master agreed, they would go before the judges to make the arrangement official, and then the master would drive an awl through his servant’s earlobe and into the door post of the house.  This was to signify that the servant had become permanently “attached” to the master’s household.  According to some traditions a golden ring was inserted through the hole in the bond servant’s ear to memorialize the event.

You’d go from indentured servant to voluntary slave.  I think that is the progression Jesus intends us to consider – going from servants to slaves.

Thus the next question: “Are you a servant, or are you a slave?”

Again, each of us must consider that for ourself.  But consider it we must, because the church age in which we live is the time when Jesus needs slaves who understand that their lives are totally in His hands.

Jesus isn’t asking you to do anything He hasn’t already done:

Mar 10:45  For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

“Ransom” refers to a payment to effect the release of slaves or captives from bondage.  The human race is held captive under the power of Satan and sin and death from which they cannot free themselves.  Jesus’ death paid the price that sets people free.

The preposition “for,” used in Mark only here, reinforces the idea of substitution.  It means instead of, in the place of.

Jesus gave His life a ransom, instead of you and I having to die.  He took our place – the place of “many.”

We are to understand “many” in the inclusive sense of “all.”  It emphasizes how a large number derive the benefit from the single sacrifice of the one ransomer.

I’m not just making that up because I want it to be true.  In First Timothy 2:5-6 we read,

1Ti 2:5  For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
1Ti 2:6  who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,

I mentioned that Jesus and the twelve were on their way to Jerusalem, to celebrate Passover.  There, in the Upper Room, as they sat on cushions around a low, oval table, there were no servants, no slaves, to help them; just the thirteen of them.

At one point Jesus would get up, take off His outer garment, and gird Himself up as a slave would, to go around and wash the disciples feet.

It represented His decision in eternity past to voluntarily set aside the prerogatives of His deity, and take on the body of a man, in order to serve the human race as a slave – washing us clean by the power of His blood shed on the Cross at Calvary.

We know that Jesus was God’s final sacrifice for sin.  He was therefore called the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.

At Passover, just as the lambs were being slain in the Temple, Jesus died on the Cross.

It all comes together in Revelation 5:8-10(ESV), where we read,

Rev 5:8  And when [Jesus] had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
Rev 5:9  And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,
Rev 5:10  and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

Jesus was the Lamb that was slain to ransom everyone who would believe in Him, and He will, in the future, set us on thrones to reign on the earth.

We often use the word “volunteer” when discussing areas of service in the life of our church family.  It would be more biblical to use the word “slave.”

Server… Servant… Slave.  Rate yourself and make the necessary changes.

Children Of The Blesser God (Mark 10:13-31)

The article was titled, No Kidding: Children Not Welcome to Dine Here.

It listed a few restaurants around the country that have restrictions regarding children.  At La Fisheria in Houston, the following statement is posted on the restaurant’s door: “After 7:00pm, people over eight years old only.  We are a family friendly restaurant, and we also respect all of our customers so we introduce this new policy to the restaurant.  Thanks for your understanding.”

Houston seems to be ground-zero for these new policies.  Another restaurant there, Cuchara, issues cards with rules on them, explaining how they expect children to behave.

“Children at Cuchara don’t run or wander around the restaurant,” the cards say.  “They stay seated and ask their parents to take them to the restroom.  They don’t scream, throw tantrums or touch the walls, murals, windows or anything of the other patrons.”

The cards end with this final statement about children: “They are respectful!”

On Facebook, I find it alarming that over half a million people like the page “You Need to Discipline Your Kid Before I Punch them in the Face.”

In another article about what some have dubbed “The Brat Ban,” the author writes,

Malaysia Airlines banned babies from many of their first class cabins, prompting other major airlines to consider similar policies. Lately, complaints about screaming kids are being taken seriously, not only by airlines, but by hotels, movie theaters, restaurants, and even grocery stores.

You most likely have a strong opinion on these policies, one way or the other.  If you are on the side of kids being welcome everywhere, any time, you eventually play a card of your own – the Jesus card – and quote the Lord saying, “Let the little children come to Me, and don’t forbid them…”

Of course, Jesus wasn’t talking about whether or not all restaurants should be kid-friendly.  The entire quote is, “Let the little children come to Me, and don’t forbid them, for of such is the Kingdom of God.”

What do children have to do with the Kingdom of God?  Plenty.  I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 You Receive The Kingdom of God By Exercising Childlike Faith, and #2 You Refuse The Kingdom of God By Emphasizing Superficial Works.

#1    You Receive The Kingdom of God
    By Exercising Childlike Faith
    (v13-16)

If I say, “Magic Kingdom,” it might mean something different to you, depending upon your age.  “Magic Kingdom” was originally an unofficial nickname for Disneyland in Anaheim.  Then Walt Disney World in Orlando was built.  In 1994, to differentiate it from Disneyland, the newer park in Florida was officially renamed “Magic Kingdom Park,” and is popularly known as “Magic Kingdom.”

There is a lot of talk about the Kingdom of God among Christians lately, but I’m not always sure what they mean by the phrase.

When we read “the Kingdom of God” in the Bible, it can have one of at least three very different possible meanings:

The Kingdom of God is the eternal rule of Almighty God over the entire universe.  At all times, Psalm 103:19 is true, saying, “The LORD has established His throne in heaven, And His kingdom rules over all.”

The Kingdom of God is also the spiritual rule over the hearts and lives of those who willingly submit to God’s authority.  It is entered by being born-again.  Jesus said in John 3:5, “… Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”

There is another sense in which the Kingdom of God is used in Scripture: It is the future, literal rule of Jesus on the earth, also called the Millennium.  In Revelation 20:4 we read, “And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.”

Which of these three kingdoms did Jesus have in mind?  There are clues in verses twenty-nine through thirty-one.

Mar 10:29  So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s,
Mar 10:30  who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time – houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions – and in the age to come, eternal life.
Mar 10:31  But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Jesus always assumed the eternal rule of God over the entire universe.  He could not promise you that you would be rewarded in “the age to come” unless He was certain that God was the ruler of the universe, and that by His providence He would accomplish His eternal purposes.

God’s eternal rule is not, however, the Kingdom of God Jesus was specifically referring to in these verses.

It’s clear that He wasn’t referring to the Millennium, either, because you and I will not suffer any losses, nor be subject to “persecutions,” during His thousand-year reign.

The Kingdom of God, in these verses, must therefore refer to God’s spiritual rule over hearts and lives.

Jesus’ words are a simple but heartfelt and emotional explanation of how we receive, or refuse, the Gospel.

There are other kingdoms we should mention. One is Satan’s kingdom.  He is called the God of this age, and the ruler of the authorities of the air.

Jesus once said of Satan, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand?” (Matthew 12:25,26).

There are (obviously) kingdoms of men in the Bible, e.g., Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome.  Within His eternal reign over the universe, God is allowing these kingdoms of the devil and of men to exist as He accomplishes His purposes.

Those of us who have willingly submitted to God’s rule are in a  conflict with the devil and his kingdom, for the souls of men.  As we preach the Gospel, men are invited to receive the rule of God in their hearts, to come out of darkness into the light, into the Kingdom of God, and to do so requires childlike faith.

Mar 10:13  Then they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them.

I think that the disciples meant well.  They were undoubtedly trying to keep Jesus from being distracted, or over-burdened.

The disciples, however, were not in charge of the order of service that day.   God the Holy Spirit was, and He intended these children be there, and that they be blessed.

Jesus was approachable, and children loved Him.  He wasn’t some kind of church curmudgeon, scaring off children.

We have a policy of discouraging kids from being in this main part of the Sanctuary.  Is it wrong, in light of this passage?  Is it curmudgeonly??

No.  When it says that they “brought little children to” Jesus, it means that they brought them specifically to be prayed for.  It was customary for Jewish parents to bring their kids to be prayed for by their rabbi, and to be blessed by him.  We see the procedure for it in verse sixteen:

Mar 10:16  And He took them up in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them.

Today we call this a baby dedication, which we perform as part of our regular services here.

Jesus wasn’t establishing that, any time, in any place, kids ought to be in attendance.  It’s up to us, therefore, to determine how to best minister to everyone – adults and children.  We can be inclusive, or we can be exclusive – as long as we do it in love in order to best minister the Gospel.

Mar 10:14  But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God.
Mar 10:15  Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.”

God the Holy Spirit was constantly orchestrating the events in the life of Jesus.  There were no random encounters, certainly not during the three-and-one-half years of Jesus’ public ministry.

The Holy Spirit meant for these children to be brought forth, partly so that Jesus could use them an an example.  The timing was perfect, because Jesus is next going to encounter the rich young ruler, and Jesus will be able to use him as the counter example to the childlike faith of the kids.  In other words, the two episodes are linked, spiritually, by the Holy Spirit.

If these children don’t come for dedication, an important teaching is going to lose a powerful illustration.

What is it, exactly, about children that Jesus was commending?  It cannot be the innocence of children for they have a sinful nature and are definitely not innocent.

The key is the word “receive.”  I think Jesus was commending their willingness to be dependent upon others for what they need.

Under average circumstances, children simply believe that their parents will take care of them.  They don’t worry about where their clothing or food will come from.

We are to be like that, are we not, as we grow in the Lord?  Jesus once pointed to the birds, and the flowers, as illustrations of how much we ought to trust our Heavenly Father to feed us, and to clothe us.

The word “receive” stresses that the Kingdom of God must be accepted as a gift.  It is not a human achievement, and it is never gained on the basis of human merit.

Just as a young child receives everything from his or her parents, so the Kingdom of God must be received as God’s gift in simple, trusting faith.

You might think this is too simple a lesson for Jesus to be teaching His disciples at this late date in their training, but it is not.  It was essential, especially for them, since they so expected the literal Kingdom of God on earth to be established.  It would be, and it will be – but not until Jesus comes a second time.

Meanwhile they were to go into the world with the Gospel, inviting men to receive salvation – inviting them to submit to the rule of God over their hearts and lives.

Salvation is God’s gift to receive.  It is made possible by Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection from the dead.  Lifted-up as He was on the Cross, Jesus draws all men to Himself.  He is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance, and be saved.  He is the Savior of all men – especially those who believe.

When the Gospel is presented, God’s grace operates on your heart to free your will to believe in Him, to receive Him.  Salvation by grace, through faith, is how you receive the Kingdom of God.

#2    You Refuse The Kingdom of God
    By Emphasizing Superficial Works
    (v17-31)

The Gospel of Matthew tells us that this was a young man; the Gospel of Luke mentions that he was a ruler; and, together with Mark, we see he is rich.  He is the rich young ruler.

Jesus was able to use him an example of someone who would not receive the Kingdom of God in childlike faith.
Instead, he was all about works, which we are calling superficial since they are outward, not affecting the heart.

Mar 10:17  Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”

This seems so exciting!  He came “running,” and “knelt,” and asked about getting saved.  This is every ministers dream.

“Good teacher” was an unusual way to address a rabbi.  It was so unusual that Jesus started there in His interview of this zealous young man.

Mar 10:18  So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.

Jesus’ question can only mean that either (1)He is God, or that (2)He is not good.   Jesus was not denying He was “good.”  To the contrary – He was owning-up to it.

Since God alone can be called “good,” Jesus wanted to know if the rich young ruler believed that He was God.

Jesus evidently knew that the rich young ruler was trusting in works to make him good, so He went straight to the Ten Commandments.

Mar 10:19  You know the commandments: ‘DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY,’ ‘DO NOT MURDER,’ ‘DO NOT STEAL,’ ‘DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER.'”

Jesus summarized the six commandments found on one of the tablets given to Moses.  It was the tablet that dealt with our relationships with people.  The other tablet had on it the four commandments that deal with our relationship with God.

Mar 10:20  And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.”

Notice he dropped the word “good” this time.  I don’t want to read too much into an omission, but it is interesting.

Did he really keep the commandments his whole life?  In one sense, maybe.  It’s possible that he had kept them superficially.

But therein is the problem.  Like all religious Jews, he thought he could be “good” by keeping certain external rules.  In more theological terms, we’d say he believed he could be declared righteous by his works.

Notice, however, that he had some sense that he was lacking.  He was unsatisfied, empty within.  He knew he had missed the mark.

Mar 10:21  Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”

The look of love was in His eyes.  What must that have been like?

If you’re saved, you’ll know one day – when you see Jesus face-to-face.

I suppose you’ll see it, too, if you remain lost.  The lost will all appear at the Great White Throne, prior to being consigned to Hell for eternity.  Although a Judge, I can’t help but think each lost person will see in Jesus’ look that He was not willing they perish.

Was Jesus teaching that philanthropy and voluntary poverty could earn you salvation?  Of course not.  That would contradict everything Jesus just taught about receiving the Kingdom of God in childlike faith.  It would contradict the Bible’s entire teaching on salvation.

So why this counsel?  For two reasons.  Firstly, when Jesus was asked to sum-up all God’s Law, He said it was to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength; and to love your neighbor as yourself.

The rich young ruler had nothing to show for loving his neighbor.  He’d done nothing to help others with his wealth.

Secondly, he didn’t love God.  How can I say that?  Because of his response to Jesus.

Mar 10:22  But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

He was given a simple choice: Treasure in Heaven after a sacrificial life on earth submitted to God, or abundant treasure on earth but without a relationship with God, now or in eternity.  He chose badly – choosing money over God – because the love of money was his god.

He had run to Jesus, claiming to have kept all the commandments, when in truth he was guilty of breaking all of them – at least breaking the spirit of all of them.

Mar 10:23  Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!”
Mar 10:24  And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!

It’s pretty easy to demonstrate from Scripture that Jews equated material prosperity with spiritual blessing.  We still do it today, much as we hate to admit it.

Jesus isn’t against wealth, but He always warned about trusting in riches.  Because he trusted in his riches, the rich young ruler was, in fact, the poorest person on that road.

The story of Scrooge works because we all recognize the grip that wealth can exert.  Our problem is that we never think it pertains to us, because we refuse to see ourselves as wealthy.  Yet, according to Forbes, “the typical person in the bottom 5% of the American income distribution is still richer than 68% of the world’s inhabitants.”

I don’t say that to make any of us feel bad.  It’s just that we sometimes need to hear exhortations from the Bible rather than immediately determining that they don’t apply to us.

Mar 10:25  It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

The word for “needle” describes one that you can hold in your hand.  It would be a humorous illustration if it weren’t for the seriousness of the discussion.

Contrary to what the Jews thought, the rich man is at a disadvantage in spiritual things because the love of money is so powerful.

Mar 10:26  And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?”

After nearly three-and-one-half years with Jesus, these guys still had no idea of how someone got saved.

They grew up thinking salvation was by works of righteousness, performed externally, and that, if God were pleased with you, He’d bless you materially.  It was a hard habit to break; and it is a hard habit for us to break, too, since we all think there is some “good” in us by which we can please God by our works.

Mar 10:27  But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”

Jesus had just given them the illustration of the child – of childlike faith.  They should put away thoughts of self-righteous works, and come to Jesus as little children, to receive eternal life as a gift.

BTW: Salvation is “impossible” for men to achieve.  Jesus is therefore not a way to God; He is the exclusive way to God.

Mar 10:28  Then Peter began to say to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You.”

On the surface, Peter’s statement seems accurate.  They had done what Jesus recommended that the rich young ruler do.

Or had they?

For a time after Jesus’ death, Peter went back to fishing.  He hadn’t really “left all” if he could still return to it at any moment.  He had it to fall back on, and he did.

Something else to think about.  Like the other disciples, Peter was expecting the brick-and-mortar Kingdom of God to be established soon, with Jesus ruling and he and the boys co-ruling.  They had recently been disputing with one another over who would be the greatest in the earthly Kingdom of God.  You haven’t really “left all” if you think you’re trading fishing for a high-ranking political position.

In the Old Testament, Elisha “left all” to follow Elijah.  He burned his plow, and his oxen, and threw a farewell party, so that there’d be no possibility of turning back.

Peter’s thinking was flawed in another way.  He had missed the point.  The rich young ruler wasn’t being asked to give-up anything of value.  He was being offered the gain of everything of value.

Peter did not see how much he and the others had gained, so Jesus explained it to him.

Mar 10:29  So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s,
Mar 10:30  who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time -houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions – and in the age to come, eternal life.

Before you get saved, what good does it do you if you gain the whole world, only to lose your soul, and perish in eternal conscious torment forever and ever?  None.

When you get saved, you are rich in faith, and are promised treasure in Heaven, stored for you where nothing can corrupt it, and where no one can steal it.

You are rich in spiritual blessings right now as well.  Here’s an example: Maybe your family disowned you on account of your professing faith in Jesus.  Every other believer on planet earth is a  surrogate brother, or sister, or father, or mother.

What about “wife or children?”  Yes, you have surrogates in those, too, only (obviously) it is intended spiritually, not physically.

“Houses” and “lands” are yours in abundance to share and enjoy as Christians practice hospitality.

The point is – You gain far more than you think you lose, both now and forever.

There’s one other thing you gain – “persecutions.”  How is that a gain?  Your sufferings work for you, to refine you as gold in the furnace is refined.

After Jesus rose from the dead, and after He ascended into Heaven, the disciples would count it a great blessing and privilege to suffer persecution.  Identifying with Him in suffering is great riches now, and great reward later.

If I think that I’ve lost something by following Jesus, I’m following Him from too far a distance.

Mar 10:31  But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

One commentator said of this verse, “it is a wise warning against the self-seeking spirit which lurked behind Peter’s comment.  The twelve were warned that their priority in being called did not guarantee their preeminence in the future if they lacked the necessary spirit.”

They had been acting childishly:

Just recently they had been arguing about who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of God.

They took it upon themselves to rebuke parents who were bringing their children to Jesus to be blessed.

Peter had claimed, for all of them, that they’d sacrificed everything to follow Jesus.

They definitely needed a more childlike attitude.

Jesus is a blesser.  Not just little children, but big children, too.

It’s just that, sometimes, we have things in our lives that rebuke us from coming to Him to be blessed:

It could be condemnation that is rebuking us.  There is no condemnation for us, if we’re saved.  Run to Him.

If it’s conviction rebuking us – because we are in sin – repent, and run to Him.

Maybe, just maybe, you’re not saved.  Run to Him.

Breakin’ Up Is Hard-Hearted To Do (Mark 10:1-12)

All I really need to know… I learned in Kindergarten.

It’s the premise, and the title, of a book written by Robert Fulghum in 1988.  It was immensely popular, staying on the NY Times bestseller list for two years.

Here are just five of the main life-lessons we learn in Kindergarten:

Share everything.
Play fair.
Don’t hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
(My favorite) Flush.

I’m not 100% sure that all I really need to know about life I learned in Kindergarten… But I am certain that all I really need to know about marriage I learn from the Garden.

In an attempt to polarize Him in the eyes of the people, the Pharisees asked Jesus, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

Jesus answered by going back before the Law was given.  He went all the way back, to the sixth day of creation, to the Garden of Eden, and to how God defined marriage.

Jesus did more than answer them.  He took the topic out of the theoretical and made it personal – talking about the condition of their hearts.

I’ll organize my thoughts on these verses around two points: #1 If You Are Casual About Divorce, Check Yourself For A Diseased Heart, and #2 If You Are Casual About Divorce, Check Yourself For A Derelict Heart.

#1    If You Are Casual About Divorce,
    Check Yourself For A Diseased Heart
    (v1-9)

Marriage, divorce, and remarriage are volatile subjects – both in the world, and among believers in Jesus Christ.  They are emotionally charged.  All of us are affected in some way by marriages gone wrong.

Whatever state you find yourself in today, please hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to you, in the Word of God, and receive it as God’s grace to your hurting heart.

Many of my comments will be generic.  They will be true, but they may not address the subtleties and nuances of your particular situation with regards to marriage, divorce, and remarriage.  Bear that in mind.  We are not here to heap burdens upon you.

If you’re in sin, or contemplating it – you’ll want to repent.

If you’ve failed in the past, then receive God’s grace and mercy, and understand you are restored at the Cross.

Mar 10:1  Then He arose from there and came to the region of Judea by the other side of the Jordan. And multitudes gathered to Him again, and as He was accustomed, He taught them again.

We are understandably fascinated by the miracles, the signs, and the wonders that Jesus went about performing.  Jesus was first and foremost a teacher.  It was His custom to teach.

We believe in miracles, and in signs, and in wonders, even into our present day.  But we leave them to God to perform, in His will and timing, while we go on teaching, and sharing the Gospel.

The Gospel is not a lesser message if no miracles attend it.  It is not something greater if miracles do attend it.  All by itself, when preached, it is the power of God unto salvation.

Mar 10:2  The Pharisees came and asked Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” testing Him.

The intent of the Pharisees was to “test” Jesus.  It’s the same word used of the devil “tempting” Jesus in the wilderness.

Jesus is going to answer their question by first asking a question.  I like that, because it helps you to focus on what is really going on.  Try it the next time you’re asked a Bible question.

Mar 10:3  And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?”
Mar 10:4  They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her.”

Jesus started with Moses because this wasn’t a random question.  Among the Jews, especially the rabbis, there was a controversy over divorce, and the grounds for divorce.  The controversy was over the interpretation of a particular phrase in the Book of Deuteronomy.

Please listen while I read to you Deuteronomy 24:1-4.

Deu 24:1  “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house,
Deu 24:2  when she has departed from his house, and goes and becomes another man’s wife,
Deu 24:3  if the latter husband detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife,
Deu 24:4  then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

The rabbi’s argued over the interpretation of the phrase,“because he has found some uncleanness in her.”  It divided the two schools of Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Shammai, popular first-century Jewish scholars.

The Hillel school took a very lax view and said that “uncleanness” meant that the husband could divorce his wife for almost any reason.

The Shammai school took a stricter view and said that “uncleanness” referred to sexual sins.

It’s not our purpose today to teach the passage from Deuteronomy, but I will say a few quick things.  Among the Jews, it was common for a wife to be “put away” by her husband.  It was an arbitrary action by the husband, not subject to the wife’s consent.  She need not be guilty of anything, and she certainly had not broken God’s Law.

The dismissed wife was in a kind of legal and spiritual limbo.  She was technically still a married woman.  As a wife who had been abandoned she would have a very difficult time even surviving if she did not have her original family to go back to.  Remarriage to another man was unlikely since the circumstances of her dismissal by her husband put a stigma upon her.

Moses addressed this terrible practice of putting away wives.  He demanded that the husband give the dismissed wife a certificate of divorce.  It was her evidence that she had done nothing unlawful, except that she was detested by her husband.  This would remove any stigma from her and enable her to legally remarry.

Moses wasn’t giving permission to divorce, or establishing grounds for divorce.  He was trying to regulate a practice that was foul and unfair.  It was a great mercy to the wives who were treated so unfairly.

OK, back to the Pharisees and Jesus.

Mar 10:5  And Jesus answered and said to them, “Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.

Zing!  No one saw that coming.  They spent hours and hours arguing over what Moses might have meant by a certain phrase, when the greater reality was that Moses should never have had to regulate their despicable practice in the first place.

The real issue was sklerocardia.  It’s the Greek translation of the word for “hardness of… heart.”  Their hearts had grown hard toward God.  They were dishonoring Him by disrespecting marriage, and by looking for the loopholes by which to disregard God’s clear intention for, and description of, marriage.

Just to be absolutely clear about marriage, Jesus referred them to the Garden:

Mar 10:6  But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE.’
Mar 10:7  ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE,
Mar 10:8  AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.
Mar 10:9  Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Yes, we take the Genesis account as history – not allegory or mythology.  One primary reason we must take it as history is that Jesus took the account as history.  He spoke of special creation, of the Garden, of Adam and Eve, all as if it were literal.   Jesus believed in special creation, over a period of six twenty-four hour days.

Unless you are suggesting that Jesus didn’t know any better, because Darwin had not yet come along, please remember this about Jesus: “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16).

Jesus is the Creator.  He was there, in the Garden, with Adam and Eve.  I trust His testimony.

We can summarize God’s description of marriage by saying it is the monogamous, heterosexual union of one man, and one woman, to be maintained as long as they live, serving as the firm foundation for humans living in society.

This simple definition is the foil for all the imaginations of men and women and governments seeking to substitute their own definitions of marriage.

“Can I have multiple spouses?”  No.  “Ah,” you say, “but there were lots of polygamous relationships among God’s people in the Bible.”

As we look at Scripture, none of these arrangements matches the structure of marriage given by God from the beginning.

Just because the Bible records them, it doesn’t indicate God was pleased with them.  To the contrary, a direct command against polygamy is given to the kings that were to rule Israel, as they are told not to “multiply wives” to themselves (Deuteronomy 17:17).

“Can I marry someone of the same sex?”  No.  We certainly recognize that some people have same-sex attraction.  I don’t agree with those who claim they are wired that way from birth, but, even if it turns out that you are, it still doesn’t make it godly.

Nick Roen is a pastor at Sojourners Church in Albert Lea, Minnesota.  He has a burden to help the church think through issues regarding sexuality, singleness, and celibacy.  He’s burdened because he is a Christian who admits same sex attraction.  He wrote the following:

Same sex attraction is the result of a broken creation, and in that sense it is “sinful” or “dishonorable” [as we are told in Romans 1:26].  It is an effect of the fall.

However, experiencing same sex attraction is not the same as sinning.  Rather, same sex attractions should be treated like any temptation to sin.

They should be fought with blood-earnestness in a way that recognizes the deceitfulness of the heart and the finitude of the mind.

When I do this – when I fight temptation, turn to Jesus, trust his promises, and rely on His Spirit – God is pleased.  He is not mainly displeased because I need to fight, but pleased because I am fighting.

This is good news for all of us who experience all manner of temptations!  May this fact lead us, no matter our particular groaning, to rest in Jesus more deeply, fight temptation more fiercely, and look forward to the day when our fight of faith will result in “praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1Peter 1:7).
Roen suggests that sanctified singleness is the solution we must proclaim:

If we are going to ask those who struggle with same sex attraction to reject their longings for as long as the Lord wills, then we must have a strong theology of singleness that does not present it as simply a transitional stage on the way to marriage.  It seems that in many churches, marriage is assumed for everyone, and when it doesn’t happen for certain people, they are left wondering if the church is a place where they can truly belong.

“Can I engage in sexual activities with someone other than my spouse?”  Nope; and neither can I engage in sex before I’m married, or if I find myself unmarried.  It is within marriage that God says you are to enjoy sexual relations, and nowhere else.

Of course, people ‘can’ do all these, and more.  If, however, you are claimed by Jesus, then No, you can’t do them – not without it being sin.

When a person has any of these questions, a good question to ask them is, “Are you submitted to God?”  If they are, then these questions are already answered for them.

People proclaim, “God wants me to be happy,” as though that settles the matter.  God wants you to be holy – for your sake.  True happiness can only result from holiness, and holiness derives from pleasing God, not from pleasing your own sinful lusts.

Let me stop to explain that there are biblical grounds for a divorce and subsequent remarriage.  There are at least two.

In the telling of this incident in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus was recorded as saying,

Mat 19:9  And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”

Sexual immorality is the more modern translation of the word fornication.  The word fornication includes premarital sex, incest, sodomy, harlotry, perversion, and bestiality.  It is really a catch-all term for all sexual sin, both before and after marriage.

“Adultery” is fornication committed by a married man or woman.

“Sexual immorality,” by a spouse, according to Jesus, is biblical grounds for a divorce.

He wasn’t commanding a divorce when there is sexual immorality; only permitting it.  Many marriages have survived the sexual immorality of one or both spouses who have repented and been granted forgiveness.  Nevertheless, the offended spouse may choose divorce, and is then free to remarry – as long as they marry a believer.

There is one other situation where the Bible establishes grounds for a divorce and subsequent remarriage.  It is the abandonment by your nonbelieving spouse.  The apostle Paul said,

1Co 7:15  But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us to peace.

In Corinth, the believers had come to a false conclusion that, if you were married to a nonbeliever, you should get a divorce.  Paul corrected them, saying that if the nonbeliever was content to remain married to the believer, stay married.

If, however, the nonbeliever abandoned the believing spouse, they should not try to stop them from getting a divorce.  The believer is not “bound” to that marriage.  Afterwards the believer is free to remarry – as long as they married a believer.

It’s not always so simple as that.  For example,  let’s say your spouse is involved in pornography.  The word fornication is a translation of porneia, from where we get our word pornography.  Is it grounds for divorce?  If you say it is, how deeply must the offending spouse be involved in it?

It’s a serious question.  We are exposed to pornography almost constantly in our modern world.  If I don’t pluck-out my eyes when the Victoria’s Secret ad comes on, is that grounds for divorce?

What, exactly, constitutes abandonment?  What about physical abuse?  Or mental, or verbal abuse?  Are those abandonments?

And, again we must ask, How severe must they become?

Are you really going to tell a woman being abused to endure it because her dirtbag husband, who professes to know Jesus, won’t abandon her and isn’t committing adultery?

We can take a page out of Moses’ book.  God wants to protect the innocent – never to add to their misery.  He was concerned about the plight of the wife being unjustly put away, and He stepped in to regulate the hardness of men’s hearts so she was set free to remarry.  He is no less gracious today, under the new covenant.

One conservative but insightful commentator put it this way:

In summary, what are the biblical grounds for divorce?  The answer is sexual immorality and abandonment.  Are there additional grounds for divorce beyond these two?  Possibly.  Is divorce ever to be treated lightly or employed as the first recourse?  Absolutely not.

Within the framework of the biblical grounds revealed for divorce, we need to struggle with each situation and its unique details, holding to the sanctity of marriage as it was originally modeled, but extending grace to innocents who are the victims of the hard-heartedness of others.

No one ever comes in and says, “I’m going to divorce my spouse without any biblical grounds because I have a heart that is totally hardened against God.  I know that it’s wrong, but I either don’t care, or I’m so selfish that I don’t think God’s Word applies to me.”

When you’re casual about divorce, it’s a heart problem between you and God – not between you and your spouse.  Admit it; confess it; repent of it.

#2    If You Are Casual About Divorce,
    Check Yourself For A Derelict Heart
    (v10-12)

His disciples are going to ask Jesus to clarify His answer.  He does, and as He does, we get a further insight into the kind of heart that is casual about divorce.  It is a heart derelict of its duties and responsibilities to the spouse.

Most of the professing Christians I’ve had to confront over the years about their nonbiblical divorce have been extremely selfish.  It’s all about them:

They claim that their spouse doesn’t quite live up to their expectations.

They announce that they are in love with some other person, and since that makes them feel better, then it doesn’t really matter how their spouse feels.

Using hindsight, they think they should not have married their spouse, that it somehow wasn’t God’s will, so they argue that a divorce gets them back on track to doing God’s will.

No one seems to care that they exchanged vows, before God, that were based on willful decisions, and not on selfish desires.  “For better… Or for worse… In sickness… Or in health… For richer… Or for poorer…. As long as we both shall live.”

In fact, it turns out what they meant was, “For better until it’s worse… in health Because sickness is too demanding… for richer and richer… as long as I feel love for you.”

Jesus is not so much interested in feelings as He is fealty – which is a little-used word that means faithfulness to your Lord.

Marriage is a promise made to God.  Even if you did not make vows to God, marriage is not a human institution; it is His creation ordinance for the protection, the provision, and the preserving of the human race.  You have a responsibility to God to live within His definition of marriage.

Mar 10:10  In the house His disciples also asked Him again about the same matter.

No matter how long you’ve been a Christian, there are always questions, or things that need clarifying, in terms of exactly what we believe.

Mar 10:11  So He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.
Mar 10:12  And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

You might be wondering why, since Jewish women had no right to divorce under the Law of Moses, Jesus would mention them divorcing their husbands.

Israel was occupied by Rome, and under Roman law, women had more rights than under the Law of Moses.  Mark’s Gospel was written with a Roman audience in mind, so his mention of women divorcing their husbands makes sense.

Also, as the Gospel went forward, and out to the Gentiles, this issue would come up again and again among the non-Jews.

“Divorces” here must mean “divorces without biblical grounds.”  It must mean that, because, as we’ve seen, elsewhere Jesus and Paul establish that there are biblical grounds – namely sexual immorality and abandonment.

What Mark’s omission is telling us is that the Holy Spirit wants to emphasize a different aspect of divorce.  Namely, He wants to emphasize what it does to your spouse.

Jesus says you commit adultery “against” your spouse.  It indicates the adulterer injures his or her spouse.

Adultery causes injury; it harms your spouse.  I was going to talk about some of the pain, but I don’t want to cause any of you to relive the pain you’ve gone through, or are going through, on account of the infidelity of a spouse.  I think it’s obvious it hurts.

Is that the kind of person you want to be?  One who knowingly, unashamedly, injures the person you once promised to care for in any conditions, “til death do you part?”

I would hope you’d say, “No, I don’t want to be that person.”

Sexual sin, overall, causes severe injury.  While you are focusing on the temporary physical and emotional pleasure it seems to bring you, you’re ignoring the lifelong pain it inflicts savagely on others.

In a passage about maintaining sexual purity, the apostle Paul warns “that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified” (First Thessalonians 4:6).  The idea of “defraud” seems to be that you injure their walk with the Lord by taking advantage of them simply to satisfy your own lusts.

Not sure how the Lord will avenge the defrauded person but you shouldn’t want to find out.

In the midst of a long passage warning against adultery, the writer of the Proverbs says,

Pro 6:27  Can a man take fire to his bosom, And his clothes not be burned?
Pro 6:28  Can one walk on hot coals, And his feet not be seared?

Then he summarizes, saying, “Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding; He who does so destroys his own soul” (6:32).

If you think this sounds old fashioned, it might surprise you that adultery is still a crime in twenty-one of our United States.  Cases are still prosecuted.

Let me briefly address one concern some of you might have.  Let’s say you realize that you had no biblical grounds for your divorce and are now remarried.  Are you therefore guilty on habitual adultery?

No; you are not.  The apostle Paul, addressing some of these complicated issues, advises, “Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called” (First Corinthians 7:20).  Today, if you are married, you are to stay in that marriage.  If you got there by committing sin, confess it to God, and repent, and thank Him for grace that is sufficient for all of our many sins and failings.

If you are casual about divorce, you are derelict in your marital duties, towards God and towards your spouse.  You’re likely thinking too highly of yourself, and not as a servant.

Don’t be a derelict.  Be a disciple.

It comes down to this: “Are you living to please the Lord, or not?”

Answer that question in the affirmative and your marriage will be transformed into a beautiful garden.

No Questions Asked (Mark 9:30-32)

Carl Sagan once said, “There are naive questions, tedious questions, [and] ill-phrased questions.  But… There is no such thing as a dumb question.”

He must not have seen the most recent list of the Thirty Dumbest Questions Ever Asked Online, as reported by yahoo.com.

Here is a sampling of five:

“Should I tell my parents I’m adopted?”
“How big is the specific ocean?”
“If the NFL is only for the United Sates, how does New England have a team?”
“Are chickens considered animals or birds?”
“Does it take 18 months for twins to be born?”

Lawyers have been known to ask dumb questions of witnesses.  Here are three of them from actual court transcripts:

“How far apart were the vehicles at the time of the collision?”
“Now, doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, in most cases he just passes quietly away and doesn’t know anything about it until the next morning?”

Then there is this one: An accused man, acting as his own lawyer, asked, “Did you get a good look at my face when I took your purse?”

One way to not ask dumb questions is to not ask questions at all.  It’s a strategy we see in our text.

The twelve disciples of Jesus Christ were walking with Him on the outskirts of Galilee.  He said to them, “The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him.  And after He is killed, He will rise the third day.”

The disciples did not understand what Jesus meant about His death, burial, and resurrection from the dead.  Instead of asking Him to clarify, they are described in our text as being “afraid to ask” Jesus any questions.

What might they have asked?  Two things come to mind:

“Jesus, why do You have to die?”
And, “Jesus, when You’re gone, how are we supposed to live?”

Those are great questions to ask and to have answered on Easter 2016.  I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 Don’t Be Afraid To Ask Jesus Why He Died For You, and #2 Don’t Be Afraid To Ask Jesus How To Live For Him.

#1    Don’t Be Afraid To Ask Jesus
    Why He Died For You
    (v30-31)

See if you can recognize the book or film being described in these one-sentence summaries:

A boy wizard begins training and must battle for his life with the Dark Lord who murdered his parents (Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone).

A young English woman from a peculiar family is pursued by an arrogant and wealthy young nobleman (Pride & Prejudice).

A Russian sub captain leads the Soviet navy on a merry chase while he tries to hand over the latest Soviet submarine to the Americans (The Hunt for Red October).

Jesus’ comment to His disciples is a one-sentence summary of the Gospel:

He spoke of His death.

His burial is alluded to in that He would be in the tomb three days.

Then He would rise from the dead.

Death… Burial… Resurrection.  The apostle Paul makes certain that we know that this trio of truths is the Gospel in his letter to the church at Corinth:

1Co 15:1  Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the Gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,
1Co 15:3  For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
1Co 15:4  and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,

You can say more – a lot more – but you can’t say anything less, or leave part of it out, and call it the Gospel.

Let’s see when and why Jesus gave His guys the Gospel.

Mar 9:30  Then they departed from there and passed through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know it.
Mar 9:31  For He taught His disciples and said to them, “The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And after He is killed, He will rise the third day.”

Jesus wanted to keep a low-profile in order to spend quality time with His disciples.

Do we still use the expression, “Blow your mind?”  Does it blow your mind that Jesus Christ, Who the Bible says is the Creator of all things, and God in human flesh, wants to spend quality time with His disciples?  It should.

Class was in session as they walked, and Jesus had a very concise lesson.  But before we get to His death, burial, and resurrection from the dead, however, we can’t overlook this title, “the Son of Man.”

It’s a very interesting title, chosen by Jesus very carefully.  When we see what it means, we will have a much greater understanding of the mindset, and the subsequent confusion, of the disciples.

It might help to recall that the Jewish Scriptures – what we routinely call the Old Testament – were not divided-up into chapters and verses.  That came much later in history.

Jews recognized sections of Scripture by key words and phrases.  A teacher, like Jesus, would start with a word or a phrase, alerting the students (in this case the twelve) where He was referring them to in Scripture.

If I got up and said, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” you’d recognize that as the very first verse of the Bible.

If I said, “My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?”, you’d probably recognize that as the opening words of Psalm Twenty-two.

“The Son of Man” doesn’t have quite the effect on us as it did the Jews in the first century.  You might not know where it’s from.

When the twelve heard the phrase, “the Son of Man,” they would have thought of what we call Daniel 7:13-14.

Dan 7:13  “I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him.
Dan 7:14  Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.

“The Son of Man” was a name for the coming Messiah Who would reign as the King over the Kingdom of God on the earth.  It would have captivated and excited the disciples to hear Jesus use the title of Himself.

In fact, they would have heard little else.

If you are a parent or grandparent, and especially if you have boys, you’ve seen the Pixar movie, Cars, over 100 times.

By the way – If you don’t cry every time at the end when Lightning McQueen is pushing the King over the finish line, there’s something wrong with you.

There’s a scene at the beginning when the King is trying to give Lightning some sage advice.  As soon as the King mentions the word Dynaco, Lightning checks-out mentally, and can think of nothing besides being the next Dynaco spokes car.

That’s similar to what happened with the disciples. Once they heard “the Son of Man,” they checked-out mentally.  Their thoughts were all about the Kingdom.  It must be about to begin.

It is accurate to speak of the spiritual kingdom, in which God overrules history by His divine providence.  But there is also the promise of a real, brick-and-mortar Kingdom of God on the earth.

It will be ruled by a king who will be seated on David’s throne in Jerusalem, Israel.

The current earth will be restored, so that streams break out in the desert.

Weapons of war will be turned into farming implements.

Lions and lambs will frolic together.

Righteousness will be the rule of the entire world.

This coming kingdom was so ingrained in their national psyche that the Jews ignored other, more difficult, portions of their Scriptures – like the ones that spoke of their Messiah as a Suffering Servant.

Cut these guys some slack.  The idea that their Messiah would suffer and die was completely new to them.

Regarding Jesus’ comments on betrayal, the disciples would have wondered, “Who on earth could betray the Son of Man – and why would he?”

Regarding Jesus’ comments on being killed, the disciples would have wondered, “Who could kill someone Who was so glorious, and Whose dominion and kingdom are everlasting?”

They asked no questions.  Let me suggest the first question they ought to have asked: “Jesus, why must You die?”

How many answers do you think there are to that question?  It might surprise you, but one contemporary theologian has identified at least 50 reasons Jesus must die.

(It would be more accurate to say that Jesus’ death on the Cross accomplished at least fifty things according to the Bible).

C.S. Lewis narrows the main reasons in this quote:

We are told that Christ was killed for us, that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself.  That is the formula.  That is Christianity.  That is what has to be believed.  Any theories we build up as to how Christ’s death did all this are, in my view, quite secondary: [they are] mere plans or diagrams to be left alone if they do not help us, and, even if they do help us, not to be confused with the thing itself.

In other words, Jesus had to die because that’s the way God’s universe is structured, and works itself out, to the glory of God, and to the redeeming of creation.

The physical universe has certain laws that govern it – like gravity.  We could say that there are also laws that govern the spiritual universe.  A few of those laws are, “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23), and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and, “without shedding of blood there is no remission [of sins]” (Hebrews 9:22).

Man is a sinner.  The punishment for sin is death, followed by eternal conscious torment in Hell.

God’s solution for sin and death – and the only possible solution to remit sin – is for God Himself to become a man in order to take our sins upon Himself, and to take our place in death.  Because He was both God and man, His death could do both the things C.S. Lewis said – “wash out our sins” and “disable death itself.”

I want to talk, for a moment, to anyone here who is not a believer in Jesus Christ.

(If you are a believer, don’t check out; pray).

We’ve said that Jesus’ words are the Gospel.  In another place in the Bible, we read that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16).  One of the things that means is that when you are told about the death, burial, and resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ, God empowers it to reveal to you that you are a sinner in need of salvation.

When the Gospel is presented, something spiritual occurs; something supernatural.  Your blind eyes are opened, and your bound will is freed in order that you might respond to the grace of God in offering you the forgiveness of your sins, and eternal life.

That’s why you are prompted, even commanded, to obey the Gospel.  It is a genuine offer, for you to receive, or to reject.

For me, it happened in early 1979 as I was watching a Christian film.  God used it to penetrate my heart, and to reveal to me that He was real, and alive, and involved in human history.

A day or so later, I experienced a terrifying moment in which I knew, for the first time, that I was indeed a sinner by nature, to my very core; and that nothing I could ever do would be sufficient to cover or overcome my sins.  I knew that if I were to die in that state, not only was Hell my final destination, but that I deserved Hell.

I knew I was a sinner in need of salvation, and when I was told that Jesus died for me, I readily accepted His offer to save me.

Don’t be afraid to ask Jesus why He died for you.  He died to save you from sin and death, and give you eternal life.
What must you do to receive the Lord?  Repent of your sin; believe in Him as your Savior.  He is drawing you, by grace; you can respond in faith.

#2    Don’t Be Afraid To Ask Jesus
    How To Live For Him
    (v32)

Did the Son of Man establish the Kingdom of God on earth in His first coming?  He did not.  Something happened to delay it.

In the first eight chapters of Mark, Jesus had been going about preaching repentance, saying that the Kingdom of God was at hand.  He had been performing miracles that were consistent with His claims to be the promised Messiah of the Jews.  He had been routinely defeating the devil, casting out demons – sometimes thousands at a time.

Unfortunately, the rulers of Israel rejected Jesus as their Messiah.   They sought ways to discredit Him in the eyes of the people, and, ultimately, they sought a way to kill Him.

Their response meant a change in plans.  The Lord would die; He’d rise from the dead after three days.  Then, after forty days, He’d ascend into Heaven, to await a Second Coming to the earth.

The Kingdom of God on earth that was promised to the nation of Israel would be postponed until Jesus’ Second Coming.

In the time between His two comings, Jesus would commission His followers to “go into the whole world, making disciples of all men.”

They would do it, and we do it still, by preaching the simple Gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection from the dead of Jesus.

We’re getting ahead of ourselves; or, rather, we’re getting ahead of the twelve disciples.  Their grasp of these things was still some days in the future.  For now, they were confused, and troubled.

Mar 9:32  But they did not understand this saying, and were afraid to ask Him.

This episode is found in both Matthew and Luke.  Luke is especially insightful.  He writes,

Luk 9:45  But they did not understand this saying, and it was hidden from them so that they did not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this saying.

“It was hidden from them,” but not by God.  That makes no sense.  Why say “they did not understand” if, in fact, they could not understand?

“It was hidden from them” on account of their own expectations and preconceptions.  Remember what we said about their understanding of “the Son of Man,” and the Kingdom of God.  They expected the Son of Man to do what they read in Daniel 7:13-14.

There was no room in their expectations for the Man of Sorrows that Isaiah described:

Isa 53:3. He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Isa 53:4  Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
Isa 53:5  But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

Isa 53:10  Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.

Isaiah and Daniel were describing the same Person.  The Son of Man was the Man of Sorrows.

It was not in the thinking of the twelve – or any of the Jews – to see their Messiah as “the Son of Man of Sorrows.”

After Jesus rose from the dead, and especially after He ascended into Heaven, the disciples would “get it.”  The Kingdom of God is postponed while the Gospel goes out to the whole earth.

I addressed nonbelievers a moment ago; now it’s time to talk to believers.

Is the Gospel for us?  To put it another way, Is the Gospel merely the message we preach to see folks converted, or is it also a  message in our daily lives?

I’ll let the Bible answer that question.  The apostle Paul addressed believers and told us how the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus impacts our daily lives.

Rom 6:4  Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

The death, burial, and resurrection from the dead of Jesus doesn’t just convert sinners.  It empowers and enables saints.  We can, right now, “walk in newness of life.”

“Newness of life” – What does it mean?  It means this.  When we are born again, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we receive a life which we never before possessed.  We begin to feel, to think, and to act as we never did before.

We are born-again – born spiritually.  God the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us.  We are given a new nature.

Our old, sin nature, is not eradicated; it lingers on in what we call “the flesh.”  But we find within us the power to reckon ourselves to be dead to sin, and alive to God, and to therefore say “No” to sin and disobedience.

Charles Spurgeon has a powerful sermon on “newness of life.”  In it he describes our newness of life by cataloging our new hopes, our new motives, and our new possessions.

We have new hopes.  We wait for the glorious appearing of our Lord.  We look for new heavens and a new earth.  We have a  hope which defies death.

What difference does that make?  Well, if we are serious about our hope of the Lord’s imminent return, it affects every thought, and every decision, every day.

We have new motives.  You live now to please God.  Once you lived for what you could get for yourself; you lived for the passing pleasures of a fleeting life; but now you have launched upon eternal pursuits.  Eternity holds your treasures; eternity excites your efforts; eternity elevates your desires.

We have new possessions.  All spiritual blessings are ours in abundance, so much so that if all our material possessions were to fail us, we nevertheless praise Him.  Nothing can separate us from the love of God, so much so that we can endure with joy and victory even the greatest suffering.  We can draw from abundant grace, rich mercy, and peace that passes all human undestanding.

Christian, are you daily hearing the Gospel?  You are if you are walking in newness of life, rather than settling for the things of this world.

DirecTV launched a series of hilarious commercials in which a family of frontier settlers is living in a contemporary neighborhood but in a rustic one-room cabin without any modern conveniences.  The father is refusing to switch from cable tv.

The father says, “Now mother, we are settlers.  The boy has his stick and hoop, the girl has her faceless doll, you have your cabbages, and I have my foot stomping.”

Christians can be settlers.  The very fact there are, in the Bible, exhortations to not forsake our gathering together, and to not leave our first love, and to walk soberly, show that we can settle for a life in this world that is less spiritual than the one Jesus has mapped out for us.

I think especially in our great nation, with its opportunity for wealth and our precious, blood-bought freedoms, we can end up living our lives almost as we would have lived them without Jesus, other than acknowledging that He has saved us, and occasionally attending church.

We can become convinced that the phrase “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is a verse from the Sermon on the Mount, and settle into the American dream.

I’m not criticizing; I’m making a comparison.

Do you remember those pizza commercials that asked, “What do you want on your Tombstone?”  It was funny because we routinely put summaries of our loved ones lives on their tombstone, or headstone.  They’re called epitaphs.  You can usually choose from a list of the more common sayings, like “loving husband and father.”

Which of the following two sayings would you rather be your epitaph:

“He dedicated himself to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” or, “He desired to come after Jesus by denying himself, and taking up his cross, and following the Lord” (Mark 8:34).

Maybe you are exactly where God wants you to be.  Maybe your plans for your life are in absolute harmony with His plans for your life.

Even so, you certainly need to make minor course corrections from time to time.  Take this opportunity to adjust your course.

For some of you… Maybe just one of you… Today is the day you realize you’ve left God out of your plans.

How open are you, really, to Jesus giving you new direction?

Don’t be afraid to ask Jesus how to live for Him.  Instead, remember this: “But as it is written: “EYE HAS NOT SEEN, NOR EAR HEARD, NOR HAVE ENTERED INTO THE HEART OF MAN THE THINGS WHICH GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM” (First Corinthians 2:9).

Deaf And Dumber (Mark 9:14-29)

The Rocky movie franchise is, to borrow lyrics from the theme song, “getting strong now, flying high now.”

Do you realize that the first film was released all the way back in 1976?  Fast forward to 2015, and you’ve got Creed, the story of Apollo Creed’s illegitimate son convincing Rocky Balboa to train him.

Worldwide, the film has grossed $175mil.  A sequel is already being planned.

In the first film of the franchise, Apollo Creed knew for sure that he’d win his fight against Rocky Balboa.  What’s more, Rocky knew that Apollo would win.  He tells his girlfriend, Adrian, that he knows he can’t win.  Then he says, “all I wanna do is go the distance.  Nobody’s ever gone the distance with Creed.”

You know the story.  Rocky is outmatched, but manages to knock-down the over-confident champ.  A grueling, punishing fight ensues.  Rocky goes the distance, but as predicted, Apollo Creed gets the victory.

As Christians, one of the first words we learn to love is victory.  We are taught, correctly, that, on the Cross,  Jesus was and is victorious over sin, death, and the devil.  His victory means that we, too, are victorious.

Since that’s true, why do we get knocked-down so much, and hit the mat so hard when we do?

Victory is hard-won, that’s why.  It is ours, but it doesn’t come without a fight.

We know from reading the New Testament that the devil, although defeated, will go the distance:

He’ll be throwing punches right up until Jesus returns at His Second Coming, when the Lord orders him bound and incarcerated for one thousand years.

He’ll fight-on once released from his prison, only to be finally and utterly defeated when he and his followers are cast alive into the Lake of Fire that has been prepared for their everlasting conscious torment.

In our text, the nine disciples whom Jesus had not taken with Him up the Mount of Transfiguration have a bout with the devil.  Victorious over him in the past, this time they hit the mat hard when they are unable to cast out a particularly nasty demon from a young boy.

It gave Jesus an opportunity to teach a lesson about victory – that it is both hard-fought, and hard-sought.

I’ll organize my thoughts around those two points: #1 Your Spiritual Victory Is Hard-Fought As We Await The Return Of Jesus, and #2 Your Spiritual Victory Is Hard-Sought As We Await The Return Of Jesus.

#1    Your Spiritual Victory Is Hard-Fought
    As We Await The Return Of Jesus
    (v14-27)

Listen to this quote regarding the end of World War II in the Pacific:

Naval superiority for the Allies was assured by victory over the Japanese fleet at Leyte Gulf, while giant B-29 bombers started pounding targets in Japan itself.  [Nevertheless there was] bitter fighting from island to island and through the jungles of Burma… against an enemy that refused to surrender – until the horror of the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

We were victorious over a defeated foe, but the enemy fought on until the final blow was delivered.

Likewise, as Christians, we are victorious over a defeated foe, the devil; but our enemy will fight on until the final blow is delivered.

The events in our text give us a rare opportunity to explore and explain the fight we find ourselves in, against defeated enemies who refuse to yield until they must.

Mar 9:14  And when He came to the disciples, He saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them.
Mar 9:15  Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him.

Jesus was returning, with Peter, James, and John, from the mountain upon which He had appeared to them transfigured, along with Elijah and Moses.  The nine disciples He had left in charge of the ministry were being harassed by a group of Scribes.

As soon as the “great multitude” saw Jesus, they “were greatly amazed.”  An alternate translation is that they “were surprised” to see Him.  They weren’t expecting Him to show up.  Now that He was back, they welcomed Him gladly.

I don’t want to drift into mysticism, but I think, sometimes, when we gather together, we’re not really expecting Jesus to show up.  We’re almost surprised if He does.

He promised He’d be among His gathered church.  He is here.

He is here… He is here
And He wants to work a wonder;
He is here… He is here
As we’ve gathered in His Name.

Mar 9:16  And He asked the scribes, “What are you discussing with them?”

I sense a hint of protection.  Whatever they might be discussing, Jesus knew that the Scribes were nonbelievers and insincere.  He knew that their only purpose in discussing anything with the disciples was to befuddle or belittle them.
We’ve all been there.  Someone, or maybe even several someone’s at once, are peppering you with questions, or complaints, about Jesus and the Gospel.  They’re not sincere questions; it’s just an effort to make you look dumb.

Jesus is just as jealous over you, and I suggest that, if you refuse to get stumbled by their criticism, and remain humble, He will use you in their lives.  Your example while being berated can be as powerful as your explanations.

It’s not always about how much we know.  The apostle Paul was a brilliant scholar with unassailable logic, as well as enjoying the anointing of God; but even he was ridiculed by the philosophers on Mars Hill.

Mar 9:17  Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit.
Mar 9:18  And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.”

So that was what they were disputing.  The disciples were unable to deal with this demon.  The Scribes seized upon their failure to undermine the Person and work of Jesus.

Even without the Scribes’ criticism, I’m sure it troubled the disciples.  Jesus had given them power to cast out demons.  What happened?

Look away from the disciples, for a moment, to the boy.  This is severe suffering.  In a moment, the father will further describe his son’s condition, and we’ll gasp at how awful it was.

In Jesus’ temporary absence, His disciples seemed helpless against the evil manifested in the world.

It’s the same today.  God seems absent, and His followers seem helpless in the face of mounting evil.

God is not absent; we are not helpless.  Still, the problem of evil stumbles nonbelievers.  It’s a great obstacle for them – especially when the evil, or the pain, strikes close to home.

Mar 9:19  He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.”

Who was Jesus calling “faithless?”  The Greek word is used elsewhere in the New Testament only of nonbelievers.  It doesn’t make sense, to me, that this would be the single use of the word to describe believers.

I think Jesus had the Scribes in mind.  He wouldn’t be with them much longer; He wouldn’t need to bear with them.  He was going to His death, then to Heaven.

On the other hand, He would be with His disciples always; and He bears with us through all of our many failures.

I’m not trying to ignore an important exhortation, but this one probably isn’t for us.

It might be for you – if you are not a believer.  How long do you have before it’s too late to make a decision to repent, and to turn to God from your sin?  You don’t know.

What you do know is that you have an appointment with death, and after that there is no further opportunity to be saved.

Mar 9:20  Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.

Put on your parent-hat for a moment.  What if this were your boy?  This is not a sterile, classroom discussion about evil in the world, or about why God allows suffering.  This is a pain that you live with, every minute of every day.

The boy seems to get worse and worse before he is healed, and has the demon cast out.  It becomes a picture, for us, of the age in which we live.  This demon is typical of the will of the devil and his highly organized forces to fight-on even though defeated.

I mean, the demon knew his time of possessing this boy was up.  He knew that Jesus would command him to come out of the boy.  But he gave it his all, in defeat.

That is what we can expect, until we are with Jesus.  The disciples were getting a glimpse of the church age, in which the devil would be going about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Mar 9:21  So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood.

Jesus wasn’t questioning the dad for the purposes of making a diagnosis, or for suggesting a course of treatment.  No, His question, I think, is full of compassion.

It acknowledges the absolute horror of this boy’s condition, and the pain his father must have endured watching his son.

God is no idle by-stander to our pain and suffering.  He is touched by it, in all points as we are.

God the Father looked on as His only begotten Son was killed.  If you think that knowing He was going to raise Jesus from the dead made the Cross an easy thing, you are wrong.

“From childhood,” this young boy had been afflicted.  The suffering of children really gets to us.  It evokes more raw emotion than just about anything.  What parent hasn’t wanted to trade places with their child in their pain?

Mar 9:22  And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

Among those who portray themselves as experts on demons and demonic possession, there is a belief that demons, in general, have a strong desire to inhabit human bodies.  To put it in contemporary terms, they say that demons are Jonesin’ to take on flesh.

That’s just silly.  This demon kept trying to kill the boy he possessed.  He wanted to destroy him.

We’ve taken the position, the biblical position I might add, that the presence of Jesus on the earth was countered by the devil by a demonic invasion upon first century Israel, in a way we don’t see today, now that Jesus has ascended into Heaven.

Don’t get me wrong: Demonic possession is real; it’s just not rampant.

Something else demon-hunters say; I’ve told you about this before.  They believe that you must learn a demon’s name before you could cast it out.  In this case, since the demon made the boy mute, you could never learn his name.

We don’t deal with demons based on formulas or superstitions.  If we encounter them, we deal with them based on the delegated authority we have from Jesus.

The father of this boy sounds like he’d lost faith in Jesus’ ability to cast out demons.  It makes sense because His disciples had failed.  After all, Jesus had previously conferred upon the twelve the power to cast out demons, and everywhere they went, the demons obeyed them.

Since they failed, and their power was from Jesus, maybe it was because Jesus had lost His mojo.

Mar 9:23  Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

Need to be very, very careful here.  Some read this as if Jesus was saying, “If you have enough faith, you can receive any miracle you ask for.”

Faith is certainly required at all times, but Jesus didn’t say “anything is possible.”  He said “all things are possible.”

That’s a lot of things, for sure; but most of them are spiritual, not physical.  “All things,” I think, refers to all the things that God has promised you, or provided for you.  In Ephesians they are called “all spiritual blessings in Christ” (1:3).

So, in your suffering, you can (and should!) ask God to heal you.  But He may tell you that “all” you really need from Him is sufficient grace to go on enduring your suffering.

“All things” are better than anything we might ask for.  We would almost always settle for things that are merely physical, that are merely temporary, and miss those that are spiritual, and prepare us for eternity.

Mar 9:24  Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

I humbly suggest that this is always true of each of us.  We certainly believe, and on that basis, are justified by God’s grace.  But the very fact that we must grow seems to indicate we have a certain amount of unbelief that needs to be overcome as we walk with Jesus through our lives.

This father believed the Lord could heal his boy; that’s why he had come in the first place.  But his belief had been shaken by the failure of the disciples, and he admitted it.

If I’m being honest, throughout my entire Christian walk of some 37 years, I’ve had something that I was having a hard time believing God for.  I have some things right now.

Whatever you are going through, unbelief can creep in.  When it does, don’t hesitate to admit it, and to pray this prayer, in your own words.  The hard part is waiting for the Lord to work.

Mar 9:25  When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!”

Mark writes this as though the crowd interrupted Jesus.  Because they were approaching, He quickly cast out the demon.  But Jesus might not have been done talking to the father.

Be sensitive to the Lord wanting to minister to people, especially when we are gathered together.  It’s one reason why we try to minimize distractions.  A precious spiritual moment can be stolen away from someone by interruptions.

We learn that the boy was deaf as well as dumb.  This just keeps getting worse and worse.  It’s an extreme case, for sure.

Not for Jesus.  There is no extremity of suffering beyond His ability to deal with.

Mar 9:26  Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, “He is dead.”

This was quite a defiant demon.  He fought hard, to the end.

I’m belaboring it, but that’s one of the major points this episode is hammering home.  We live in-between the first and second comings of Jesus.  Our defeated foe is defiant, and fighting hard until the end.

Mar 9:27  But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.

Mark doesn’t need to tell you that the boy was completely healed, inside and out.  Do you doubt any of the following?

He could hear, perfectly.

He could talk, articulately.

His burns, from having been thrown into fires, were healed, and his skin was like that of a baby.

What about psychologically?  Do you think that he suffered from PTSD?  Do you think that he was afraid of water, on account of the many attempts the demon had made to drown him?

I’d say, “No,” to those and other questions like it.  Jesus heals to the uttermost.

I’m not saying that, for you, everything is miraculously healed when you come to the Lord.  I’m not here to heap burdens on you in your struggles.

I am saying that every healing you need comes from the Lord.  He is your Great Physician.

I hate to say it, for fear of being misunderstood, but Jesus is your Great Psychologist, too.  In Him is everything you need for life and for godliness.

There is evil in the world.  What’s more, it is organized, and powerful.  It exists because Adam and Eve, representing us, sinned in the Garden of Eden.

Why does it endure?  Because God’s plan to overcome it takes time – because He is dealing with cosmic issues of atonement and redemption, along with the human heart, and the free will of men.

Before you object to the “it takes time” argument, consider this.  God’s plan is essentially a rescue mission.  Some rescues take more time than others.

In 2010 the world was gripped by the Chilean mining accident, in which thirty-three men were trapped 2300 feet below the surface.  With all the best efforts and equipment, it took sixty-nine days to rescue them.

God’s rescue of the human race is like that.  Only there is a further twist.  Of the thirty-three Chilean miners, not one refused to be rescued.  Not one determined to stay trapped and in the dark.

Yet that is exactly the decision of multiplied millions of people everyday.  God has saved them, by the Cross of Jesus Christ.  But rather than be rescued, they prefer to stay in the darkness, trapped by sin.

God is longsuffering with them – not willing that any should perish, but that they would come to know Him.

Yes, it’s true, the devil and his demons refuse to surrender.  But the bigger problem is that nonbelievers refuse to surrender – to Jesus.

Our part is to draw from “all things” that are promised us, and provided for us, to further the Gospel message.

#2    Your Spiritual Victory Is Hard-Sought
    As We Await The Return Of Jesus
    (v28-29)

We have the same burning question that the disciples had.  It is asked, and answered, in the remaining two verses.

Mar 9:28  And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?”
Mar 9:29  So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”

I think that what Jesus establishes here is so simple that we miss its impact.

First let’s talk about what He was not saying.  He was not saying that, if you encounter an especially bad demon, go off for a time of prayer and fasting, then return to the fight.

No, the example Jesus left us was that He was always ready to fight.

The Lord was talking about a lifestyle that included prayer and fasting regardless any specific trials or tragedies.

I’m not saying that it’s wrong to call for a fast, with prayer, for certain things.  We see this, occasionally, in the Scriptures.

But by far the most important thing to take-away from Jesus’ comments are that we be spiritually disciplined – with prayer and fasting on that list.

Let’s be brutally honest.  If we were to take a survey and ask, “Do you pray and fast often?,” most of us would answer “No.”

The conclusion we draw from our lack of prayer and fasting is that we are not as ready as we need to be to fight.  It’s at least one of the reasons we get knocked down, and hit the mat so hard.

It’s the Apollo Creed syndrome of knowing we’re going to win, so we don’t train as hard anymore.

It would seem, from Jesus’ comments, that, even though He had conferred upon the twelve the ability to cast out demons, they needed to remain disciplined.

Think of it this way.  The ability to cast out demons wasn’t theirs; it was Jesus’.  Anything, and everything, they did, they did through Him.  It wasn’t theirs to do with as they wished.

Prayer and fasting communicates that we understand our dependance upon Jesus.  Whatever He has given us, or tasked us with, we remain totally dependent upon Him to empower us.

We can go through the motions of a Christian walk – especially here in the relative safety of our great nation – without having any anointing from the Lord.

We love grace so much that we think it is incompatible with spiritual disciplines.  It is not.

We need to get back to the basic disciplines of the Christian life: Prayer, reading the Word, especially devotionally; gathering together; sharing our faith; giving; and fasting.

Consider that a check-list, of six activities, and accept the challenge of exercising yourself spiritually in any and all in which you are deficient.

In baseball, they talk about a 5-tool player.  The ideal position player excels at hitting for average, hitting for power, baserunning skills and speed, throwing ability, and fielding abilities.

Think Willie Mays.

We’re to work on being 6-tool Christians, not settling for one or two or even four or five disciplines.

“This kind can come out,” Jesus said.  That’s a big statement and I think we can apply it beyond the casting out of demons.

What Jesus was saying, in general, is that “You can prevail, spiritually, against whatever you encounter.”

All you need to do is follow hard after Jesus.  Victory is assured, but it is to be hard-sought.

In the end, your closeness with Jesus – well, that is your victory at all times.

They’ll Be Questioning Down the Mountain When They Come (Mark 9:1-13)

There are any number of apps, or websites, where you can upload a photo of yourself and see how you will look as you age.

It’s mostly for fun, but it’s also being used by health professionals to inspire lifestyle behavioral changes.

One company advertises that they can add the effects of obesity, smoking, drinking excessively, drug use, and even sun exposure.  Their research suggests that if you see how wasted you’re going to look because of them, you’ll give up your bad habits.

It’s not all vanity to focus on what you are going to look like in the future.  If you are a Christian, it should be a daily practice.

We’re told, by the apostle John in his first letter, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (3:2).

John encourages us to think about what we will eventually look like.  We will look like Jesus.

Seeing ourselves as we will be in the future encourages us to a more spiritually healthy lifestyle in the present.  John puts it this way: “everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (3:3).

The answer to aging isn’t Botox, but being born-again, and being raised, or raptured, with a glorious new body that is outfitted for life in eternity with Jesus.

In our text, three of Jesus’ disciples accompany Him up a mountain, and they witness Him being transfigured before them.  They see Jesus as He will look in the future, and for eternity.

It gave them a glimpse at their own futures.

We, too, can see our future in the transfiguration of Jesus.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 Seeing Jesus Transfigured You Realize You Are Becoming More Like Him, and #2 Seeing Jesus Transfigured You Realize You Will Be Coming Back With Him.

#1    Seeing Jesus Transfigured
    You Realize You Are Becoming More Like Him
    (v1-8)

The apostle Paul tells us we “will appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:3), and that awaiting us is “an eternal weight of glory” (Second Corinthians 4:16).

Jesus prayed to the Father about us, saying, “the glory that you have given me I have given to them” (John 17:22).

Theologians call this the Doctrine of Glorification.  Glorification is the future and final work of God upon Christians where He transforms our mortal physical bodies to the eternal physical bodies in which we will dwell forever.

We are guaranteed glorified bodies because Jesus rose from the dead in His glorified body.  He is called the “first fruits” of the resurrection.  First Corinthians 15:20 states it: “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.”

He is the first fruits, and we will follow.  His resurrection is the promise and guarantee of our future resurrection, in glorified bodies.

It’s one thing to say it, and quite another to see it.  Some of Jesus’ guys saw it, and we’re going to see what they saw.

Mar 9:1  And He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.”

Chapter eight of Mark’s Gospel marked a turning point in the Lord’s ministry.  Knowing that the national leaders of Israel would reject Him and His offer of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, Jesus began predicting that He would suffer at their hands, be crucified, but rise from the dead.

The earthly kingdom promised the Jews in their Scriptures would be delayed.  It would come, but not in the lifetimes of Jesus’ first followers.

His words in verse one are a promise that a few of His first followers would get a sneak-peak, a preview, of the coming Kingdom.

We can liken it to movie trailers.  To me, the trailers are often the best part of going to the theater.  If there aren’t at least four, I’m disappointed.  I’ve mentioned this before, that some people buy a ticket to a movie they don’t necessarily want to watch simply because a particular trailer is going to precede it.

(The most recent example would be the latest Star Wars film.  Fans went to the theater in huge numbers to see the trailers).

Jesus may as well have said, “Coming to a mountain near you: A scene from the future, coming Kingdom.”

Mar 9:2  Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them.

There seem to have been groupings of threes within the twelve disciples of Jesus.  Peter, James, and John seem to have been privileged to be with Jesus on special occasions.

They were the three who witnessed the Lord raise a little girl from the dead.  Now here they were, with Him as He was transfigured.

Jesus did not play favorites; and it’s clear these three were not necessarily the most devout, or spiritual.  At least one commentator suggested that these three were the most likely to cause trouble, so Jesus had to keep close watch on them.

So what do we make of this grouping?  Only that we ought to focus on our own submission to, and service to, the Lord, and not concern ourselves with how He is using others.

The “high mountain” is believed to be Mount Hermon.  It’s over nine-thousand feet above sea level, and eleven-thousand feet above the valley floor, which is below sea level.

As an aside, it seems Jesus was quite the avid climber.  Several times, at key spiritual moments, He is up a mountain.  The devil, you might recall, took Jesus to a high mountain during the wilderness temptations.  We talk of the Sermon on the Mount; and the Olivet Discourse is so-called because it was delivered on the Mount of Olives.

The word “transfigured” is where we get our word metamorphosis.    I can’t help but think bullfrogs and butterflies.

Let me say something as clearly as I know how before we discuss the transfiguration.  Jesus was fully God, from eternity.  When He came to earth, He added to His deity His humanity, and was fully God and fully human.

When He rose from the dead, He did so in a glorified human body.  He will remain the God-man, in that body, for eternity.
What, then, did the disciples see when Jesus was transfigured?  They saw Jesus as He will appear in the future, after His resurrection, for eternity.  They saw Him as the first fruits of those who would be raised from the dead.

They saw what John would later see on the Island of Patmos – the risen Jesus Christ, described in great detail in chapter one of the Revelation.

Remember, too, that what they saw was the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise that “some standing here… will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.”  Jesus said they’d see something of the Kingdom revealed; a preview of what was coming.

They saw Jesus as He will appear when He returns to earth in power and glory to establish and rule the Kingdom, as the forever glorified God-man.

Mar 9:3  His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them.

The idea here is that, though clothed and in a real human body, the glory came from within.

In the Marvel film, AntMan, the hero has a suit that allows him to shrink in size, possess superhuman strength, and control an army of ants.

Jesus wasn’t an ordinary human with a super-human costume.  No, He was, and is, God in human flesh, and, in the future, we’ll see Him just as He is.

Mar 9:4  And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.

This just gets better-and-better.  This is like being at a concert with surprise special guests that blow your socks off.

The disciples had never seen Elijah, or Moses; no pictures existed.  They knew, however, who these guys were.  It’s one of the reasons we can say, with confidence, that you will know your loved ones in Heaven, along with everyone else – even if you’ve never met them.

We could spend weeks talking about Elijah and Moses.  I’m going to give you a couple of details that make sense in the context of the episode at hand.

First, we know, from the Revelation of Jesus Christ, that two very powerful witnesses will be on the earth during the first three-and-one-half years of the Tribulation.  We think they are Elijah and Moses, partly because of the powers that they exhibit during that time.  The two witnesses are said to “have power [for three-and-one-half years] to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire” (11:6).

Who, in the Old Testament, stopped the rain for three-and-one-half years?  That would be Elijah.

Who, in the Old Testament, turned water into blood, and struck the earth with plagues?  That would be Moses.

It makes sense that Elijah and Moses would appear with Jesus, in light of what we know about the future.

Elijah is famous for being taken to Heaven in a chariot of fire, without dying.  Moses, on the other hand, died, but then something curious occurred.  Satan wanted his dead body, but God dispatched the archangel, Michael, to dispute with the devil, and to preserve Moses’ body.

Putting that together, you’ve got a person whose body was preserved, but is now raised to be with Jesus in this Kingdom preview; and you’ve got another person who was raptured to be with Jesus in this Kingdom preview.

That’s what is going to happen to us, to the church:

Some among us will die, but like Moses, our bodies will be preserved, in the sense that God will raise us from the dead.
Some will not die, but will be alive when Jesus returns to resurrect the church.  We will be raptured – like Elijah.

This resurrection and rapture precede the Tribulation.  At the Tribulation’s end, we will return with Jesus – He in His glorified body, we in ours – just like the disciples saw, represented by Jesus, Elijah, and Moses.

Mar 9:5  Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” –
Mar 9:6  because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid.

What should you say when you don’t know what to say?  Nothing!

Why “three tabernacles?”  It was around the time of the Feast of Tabernacles – the time of year when Jews made structures to spend time outdoors commemorating the temporary structures the children of Israel had during their time in the wilderness.

There was a common belief that the Messiah would return to establish the Kingdom during the Feast of Tabernacles.  So it’s not so far-fetched to suggest the building of three tabernacles.

Peter must have thought this was it – the time Jesus revealed Himself, and set things up, with the help of these two heroes of old.  He wasn’t thinking preview, or coming attraction.  On with the show, this is it!

Mar 9:7  And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!”

O, man!  Now God the Father was in the house!!  Talk about special guest stars, or cameo appearances – this tops them all.

You could call it the Father of all cameos.

Surely the Kingdom had come.

Mar 9:8  Suddenly, when they had looked around, they saw no one anymore, but only Jesus with themselves.

Instead of Back to the Future, they were back in the present.  The Kingdom was on hold – like a movie whose release date was far in the future.

The day was April 7, 2000 and New Line Cinema released a 100 second trailer teasing The Lord of the Rings.  The first film would not be released until December 19 of 2001 – more than a year later.

The disciples must wait for the Kingdom; they are still waiting.

But they had seen the future glory of the Lord and, as John would point out – we quoted it already – “when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”  It changed them.

You can’t see Jesus as He is, in His glory, and not be changed.

Speaking of being changed… this word for transfiguration, used of Jesus, is only used two other times in the New Testament, and when it is, it is used of us.

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

2Co 3:18  But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The “mirror” in which we behold Jesus is the Bible.  As we behold Him as He is revealed on its pages, we are being changed, moment-by-moment and day-by-day, into His image.  He Who began this work in us will continue it until we are resurrected or raptured, and we are where He is, and like He is.

Your outward man is perishing.  All the healthy habits in the world won’t keep you from gray hair and wrinkles.

But your inward man – he is being renewed every day as you spend time with the Lord.

Instead of seeing your face in the future using some app, concentrate of seeing Jesus, in the Word.  Put your spiritual health and habits first.

#2    Seeing Jesus Transfigured
    You Realize You Will Be Coming Back With Him
    (v9-13)

I’m sure that the boys couldn’t wait to get down the mountain, to tell the nine what they had just experienced.  Alas, it was not to be – not yet, anyway.

Mar 9:9  Now as they came down from the mountain, He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Another gag order!?  Come on; really?

These guys – and the nine left behind – would not fully comprehend the significance of the transfiguration until after Jesus rose from the dead.

(Judas, of course, would by then have committed suicide, and the eleven would choose Mathias to bring their number back to twelve).

Any talk of the transfiguration would only further confuse them about Jesus first going to the Cross, and about the Kingdom being delayed.

The Kingdom of Heaven on earth was heavily ingrained in them.  Not just a spiritual kingdom that describes the overall rule of God.  No, they were looking for a brick-and-mortar kingdom, ruled from Jerusalem, from the throne of King David.

Mar 9:10  So they kept this word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.

They obeyed.  Good for them.  This would have been a tough secret to keep.

Jews believed in an afterlife, and in a resurrection from the dead.  Most Jews, anyway, including the Pharisees.

At the death of Lazarus, when Jesus came to his tomb, He said to Martha, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

She was describing her hope – the Jewish hope – in a general resurrection of all the elect at the end of time.

We know a whole lot more about resurrection than the Jews did.

We know that there will not be one general resurrection, but there will be two resurrections – one for believers; and one for all nonbelievers throughout human history.

We know that the resurrection of nonbelievers is a single event in time.  It will occur at the end of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, when the dead from all human history are raised to stand before the judgment of the Great White Throne of God, to be found dead in their trespasses and sins, having rejected the Gospel.  They will be cast into eternal conscious torment in the Lake of Fire.

We know that the resurrection of believers has already started, and continues over a period of time.  It is not a single event, and this sometimes confuses us.

The resurrection of believers started when Jesus rose from the dead, as first fruits.  According to the Gospel of Matthew, a few saints were raised with Him.

The resurrection of believers will continue with the raising of church age believers, then the rapture of living believers.

Eventually the Old Testament saints will be raised, and Tribulation martyrs, and those who live through the Kingdom of Heaven on the earth – until all believers are safe in their glorified bodies, in Heaven.

But, again we note – the resurrection of believers takes place over time, in several stages.

Let’s cut Peter, James, and John a lot of slack.  They had an extremely limited understanding of the resurrection.

They did have one burning question:

Mar 9:11  And they asked Him, saying, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”
The Scribes said this, accurately, by the way, because of the last two verses of the Old Testament:

Mal 4:5  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.
Mal 4:6  And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.

Think, first, about what their question implied.  They were confused as to why Elijah had not already come, which implies that they absolutely believed Jesus was their Messiah.

Since Messiah was here, where was Elijah?  His brief appearance on Mount Hermon didn’t seem enough to fulfill the prophecy.

Mar 9:12  Then He answered and told them, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and restores all things. And how is it written concerning the Son of Man, that He must suffer many things and be treated with contempt?

Let’s take this one phrase at a time.  “Elijah is coming first and restores all things.”  Jesus read, and understood, Bible prophecy literally.  Elijah – the same Elijah we read about in the Bible, and who was recently on the Mount of Transfiguration – is going to return to the earth, as a forerunner of the Messiah.

We know exactly what this means, because we read about the two witnesses in the Revelation.  One of them must be Elijah, who precedes the return of Jesus in His Second Coming.

The reason the disciples were confused was because they did not  expect the death and resurrection of Jesus, nor His ascension into Heaven, nor the church age – all preceding a Second Coming.

Next Jesus says, “How is it written concerning the Son of Man,” and that is a question.  In other words, He was asking them, “Have you read anything about the Messiah suffering?”

He was pointing out that there were prophecies they were overlooking.

They had the kingdom prophecies memorized.  But there were a whole category of prophecies they were ignoring.  The idea of a suffering Servant was not on their radar.  That which makes perfect sense to us, because we have the whole counsel of God, made no sense to them.

Mar 9:13  But I say to you that Elijah has also come, and they did to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him.”

The other Gospels spell out plainly that Jesus was referring to John the Baptist.  John had come in the spirit and the power of Elijah.  He was the forerunner of the Messiah – Jesus.  His ministry of preaching repentance had as its goal to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.

John even dressed like Elijah, wearing a camel’s skin mantle.

If the national leaders of Israel had received Jesus, they would have received John, and he would have been the fulfillment of the prophecy in Malachi.

They did not.  They killed John.  They would likewise kill Jesus.

The transfiguration is packed with truth that the disciples would have to wait to discover, and to understand.

It would all come together for them after the Day of Pentecost, with the coming upon them of the Holy Spirit.

When we look at the transfiguration, we understand it was a preview of the Second Coming, and that when Jesus returns to the earth, we’re coming with Him.

We are becoming like Jesus; we will be coming back with Him.

If that’s not the most exciting preview you’ve ever heard, I don’t know what is!

Applaudable Deniability (Mark 8:34-9:1)

Do you have a song?  One that, if it comes on the radio, you say, “That’s our song!”

Entertainers often have a song that was written just for them.  Frank Sinatra, for example, had My Way.  Originally a French pop tune, Paul Anka took the melody and wrote English words especially for Sinatra.

The lyrics celebrate the independent spirit of the man nicknamed “The Chairman of the Board.”  The song builds to this conclusion:

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who   kneels
The record shows I took the blows and did it my way
In another stanza, the lyrics anticipate Sinatra’s defiant thoughts about his death:

And now, the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I’ll say it clear
I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain
I’ve lived a life that’s full
I traveled each and every highway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way

Think about that, in the clear light of what you know about eternity.  Is that the song you want to sing to Jesus on the other side of the “final curtain?”

No, you’ll want to be able to sing something like this:

I have decided to follow Jesus;
Though none go with me, I still will follow;
My cross I’ll carry, till I see Jesus;
The world behind me, the cross before me;
No turning back, no turning back

Those lyrics are based on the last words of a man in north-east India, who along with his family was converted to Christianity in the middle of the 19th century through the efforts of a Welsh missionary.  Called to renounce his faith by the village chief, the convert declared, “I have decided to follow Jesus.”  In response to threats to his family, he continued, “Though no one joins me, still I will follow.”

His wife was killed, and he was executed while singing, “The cross before me, the world behind me.”

His display of faith is reported to have led to the conversion of the chief and others in the village.

I’m not sure if the anonymous martyr was thinking about the words of Jesus in our text, but both his words, and his witness, give perfect expression to everything the Lord intended when He said, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

Don’t think about martyrdom, and be put off from following the Lord.  Start by considering the invitation, “Whoever desires to come after Me.”

I do; so do you, if you are a believer.  Since we desire to come after Jesus, we’ll want to pay close attention as He discusses the price, but also the profit, of discipleship.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 Jesus Discloses The Price Of Following Him As His Disciple, and #2 Jesus Defends The Profits Of Following Him As His Disciple.

#1    Jesus Discloses The Price
    Of Following Him As His Disciple
    (v34)

We can liken Jesus’ words to the Terms and Conditions dialog box that pops-up on your computer or mobile device when you first load a program or an app.

You want to start enjoying the app, but you can’t do anything until you click “Agree.”

Have you ever actually read the Terms and Conditions?  Probably not; they’re fifty pages long, and, in one sense, it doesn’t matter what they say, because if you want to use the app, you must click Agree.

That discipleship pop-up dialog box  is verse thirty-four:

Mar 8:34  When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

This is the bedrock principle for discipleship as laid down by Jesus.  The remaining verses of chapter eight, and verse one of chapter nine, justify the high cost of discipleship.

A couple of preliminary observations:

Jesus’ “disciples” were the twelve.  They had been with Him quite some time, as His disciples, yet here Jesus was calling them – His disciples – to discipleship.

The call to discipleship was also made to other “people,” to “whoever” was in that crowd.  Most of them must have been nonbelievers whom Jesus was calling to salvation and, simultaneously, to discipleship.

What this tells me is that we should urge folks to count the cost when they first get saved.  It is also normal to urge those who are long-term believers to further discipleship.

Maybe, when you got saved, the preacher cautioned you to count the cost and you understood that you had to go all in for Jesus, and you’ve never wavered, not for a moment, from His lordship over your life.
More likely is that you committed your life to the Lord, but have had times in your walk where you recommitted.

I think the most common experience we have is summed up by the phrase, “Every disciple is a Christian, but not every Christian is a disciple.”

I think, in fact, that a lot of Christians are not growing with the Lord because, at some point, Terms and Conditions pop-up on the screen of their life, and they don’t click “Agree.”  It leaves them stuck, unable to move further, unable to move forward.

Do you feel stuck?  Today could be a turning point in your relationship with the Lord.

Bear in mind that Jesus had just told His guys, in verse thirty-one, that He “must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.”

That is where He was going – to the Cross, then to the tomb, then out from the tomb.

When He said, “Whoever desires to come after Me,” it wasn’t a generic invitation to walk with Him.  It was a specific invitation to walk a similar path – to the Cross, to the tomb, then out from the tomb.

The disciples, and the people, were expecting Jesus to walk into Jerusalem and proclaim Himself King, and establish the kingdom of Heaven on the earth.  The disciples, and the people, were excited to “come after” Jesus along that path.

But His destination had changed on account of the rejection of the national leaders of Israel.  There was a new path – the one that led to death and beyond.

To “follow” Jesus along that path meant they would need to “deny [themselves],” and that they would need to “take up [their crosses].”

We happen to be in the Lent season of the Roman Catholic Church.  Their doctrine encourages you to give-up something for the time period, denying yourself its pleasures, as a token of your devotion to Jesus Christ.

That is not what “deny yourself” means; not at all.  And it isn’t something that has a time limit; it’s continuous.

To “deny yourself” means you deny self.  You no longer consider yourself independent of God’s rule over your life, but as belonging to Him, to do with you as He pleases, not as you please.

It means you give total control of your life to Jesus.  Remember those bumper stickers that read, Jesus is my co-pilot?  Tear that off.  He’s not your co-pilot; He’s your pilot.  Get in the backseat, and don’t be a backseat driver.

Speaking of being in the back seat… What do you think of driverless cars?  Google’s self-driving car is piloted by software called Google Chauffeur.  Lettering on the side of each car identifies it as a “self-driving car.”

Google plans to make these cars available to the public in 2020.

The car isn’t driverless; it’s driven by something more intelligent than you, with far better reaction time.

Jesus is like that – only to infinity, with no possibility for failure or malfunction.  It’s just so hard for some of us to sing, Jesus, Take the Wheel.

Who is at the wheel in your life?  If it’s Jesus, is He only there to steer you successfully through some danger, or crisis – after which you plan on driving again?

Self is our default pilot.  Self-driven life could be tattooed on every human being.  We need a cover-up tattoo after we get saved.  Jesus-driven is what we’re going for.

We have the example of the twelve, so let’s use it.  They thought they were on their way to positions in the kingdom.  Instead, if they chose it, they would be on their way to persecutions, and martyrdom.

One of them said “No” to discipleship.  Judas betrayed the Lord, selling Him out for thirty pieces of silver.

The rest of the boys said “Yes,” and they denied themselves.  They were reviled, beaten, imprisoned, and eventually martyred – all but John, who was exiled to hard labor on Patmos in his old age.

Do we pity them?  Do any of us think they somehow wasted their lives?  Or are we grateful for their decision to deny self for Jesus, and for the Gospel?

“Take up [your] cross,” Jesus said next.  We have cheapened what He meant by talking about certain sufferings, or burdens, as “our cross to bear.”

I’ve known wives who say that their husband is their cross to bear.

That isn’t what these words mean.  In first century Israel, execution of heinous non-Roman criminals was by crucifixion.  The condemned man would be compelled to carry part of the cross upon which he was to be crucified.

Jesus was going to be crucified, after bearing part of His cross outside the city to the Place of the Skull.

The immediate meaning, to the disciples and to the people, was that they, too, were probably going to be killed, should they choose to follow Jesus.

For multiplied millions of believers throughout the church age, it has meant just that – martyrdom for the sake of Jesus and the Gospel.  There are many accounts, in Foxes Book of Martyrs, of people being converted as a saint was being martyred, who immediately joined that saint and were themselves martyred.

Short of actual martyrdom, bearing your cross means not just that you are willing to die for Jesus if if comes to it, but that you already consider yourself a dead man, or a dead woman.

There are some advantages to approaching life as a dead person.  Nothing can hurt you if you’re dead.  You don’t have any worries or anxieties about life if you’re dead.  You won’t be controlled by your fleshly appetites either.

Is this depressing you?  It shouldn’t.  Again, I appeal to the believers who have gone before us.  The apostle Paul, right after he was saved on the road to Damascus, was told how many things he must suffer for Jesus Christ, and for the Gospel.  There are lists of his sufferings that make you cringe.

Yet he said of all his sufferings, both physical and emotional, that they were light afflictions that lasted for a moment.  We are  grateful for Paul’s choosing to deny self, and to bear the cross.

You might be thinking, “If those are the terms and conditions, there’s no way I’m clicking on Agree.”

If that’s my choice, and your choice, then it’s why we will never grow any farther.  A suffering Savior requires suffering saints.

If you’re leaning towards disagreeing, don’t decide yet.  Jesus wants to explain a few things to you about why His terms and conditions are really quite extraordinary.

#2    Jesus Defends The Profits
    Of Following Him As His Disciple
    (v 35-9:1)

If you are at all inclined to maintain your status quo as a Christian who is not a disciple; or to remain a nonbeliever; please first give careful consideration to the five things Jesus points out in our remaining verses.
Here’s the first thing to ponder:

Mar 8:35  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.

Jesus was addressing both believers and nonbelievers.  His words must therefore have impact to all who hear them.

Let’s say you are not a believer; you are by no means a Christian.  After counting the cost of following Jesus, you don’t want to lose your life for Him, but would rather live the life you have to the fullest.  You’d rather pilot your own car, so to speak.

You can do that, but it is at the peril of losing eternal life, and perishing in a place of eternal conscious torment.

Save your self-life and you lose eternal life.  It’s a terrible decision.  Yes, the Lord is making certain serious demands upon your life; but, in the long run, it’s your best choice to follow Him.

How would this same verse apply to a believer?  Well, if you live for self, you’ll certainly be forfeiting rewards when you see the Lord.  You will, in fact, suffer loss at the Reward Seat of Jesus.

Don’t shrug that off lightly.  You’re talking about looking into the beautiful but probing eyes of the Lord Who bought you at the cost of His own death on the cross.  He’s the One who has a plan for your life, to complete the good work He has begun in you.

Do you really want to be flippant about discipleship, and disappoint the Lord?  Is that the account you want to give Him?

Jesus presents a second argument:

Mar 8:36  For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

The nonbeliever who rejects Jesus, or the believer who wants to refuse discipleship, is choosing earthly things over eternal things.  The Lord puts that choice into perspective.  He exaggerates for the sake of argument, and assumes you could “gain the whole world.”

Think about it: The “world” is temporary, and is one day going to be destroyed, and there will be a new earth, and new heavens. Thus the world you gain cannot be compared to the soul you lose in the process.

What does “loses his own soul” mean?  Does it mean forfeiting salvation?

Yes – to a nonbeliever.  Your pursuit of satisfaction with the earthly will overshadow the eternal, and you will be lost forever.

If you are a believer – can you “lose your soul?”  Yes, but in a different sense.  You lose it in that you will never be satisfied with the world.  It will eventually hit you that you are falling short of the high calling God has for your life.

We can confidently say that the world cannot satisfy the believer because we have the testimony of a guy who, in effect, gained the whole world.  His name was Solomon.  He was the son of David, and Israel’s third king.

He had it all, in every earthly pursuit you can imagine.  He drinks, becomes wealthy, acquires power, buys property, experiences sexual gratification, and views artistic entertainment.  None of these experiences satisfies him.

In the end he declared it all to be vanity and realized the only true satisfaction in life comes from your submission to God.

Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “… He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.”

In today’s language, we would say that people are born hardwired to sense that there is eternal life.  You can never be satisfied with earthly living, because you were made for eternity.

C.S. Lewis put it like this: “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

The third argument for following Jesus is in verse thirty-seven:

Mar 8:37  Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

MasterCard hit gold with their ad campaign about things that are priceless.  It resonates with us, because deep inside, we know that  intangible spiritual things always take priority over mere material things.

The saving and the satisfying of your soul are two profitable results of your decision to follow Jesus.  It may seem as though His demands upon your life are extreme; but, in the long run, you cannot put a price on submitting to Jesus.

The fourth thing Jesus wants us to consider is in verse thirty-eight:

Mar 8:38  For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Before we talk about the profit of discipleship from this verse, stop and realize Jesus just said something amazing.  He referenced His Second Coming, His return to the earth, to judge the world, and to establish the promised kingdom.

We know exactly what Jesus was describing.  He’d be crucified, but rise from the dead.  He’d ascend into Heaven, only to return, in His Second Coming.

That coming would be preceded by a time of great trouble on the earth.  It’s prophesied in the Old Testament, called the time of Jacob’s trouble, among other things.  We know it as the seven year Great Tribulation.

Then there is the delay between the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven and His Second Coming.  We live in that delay – in the church age.

As to discipleship, and the choice to deny self and bear the cross, when Jesus returns, there will be a reckoning.  Everyone will give an account to Him.

For church age saints, this account will be given at the Reward Seat of Jesus, after our death or rapture.
For the people who must endure the future Tribulation, this account will be on the earth, at the Second Coming.

The argument here is simple.  If you refuse discipleship, you will avoid any possibility of reviling or ridicule for being a follower of Jesus.  You’ll fit in with the rest of the world, and avoid any trouble or suffering for the sake of the Gospel.

But that means you are ashamed to be identified with Jesus, or with His saints.  Thus, when Jesus comes, He will be ashamed of you.

It’s one, or the other; we can’t have it both ways.

The fifth, and final, argument Jesus puts forth for choosing discipleship is the first verse of chapter nine:

Mar 9:1  And He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.”

The literal fulfillment of this prediction is explained in the verses that follow in chapter nine.  Jesus takes three of the guys with Him up a mountain, where He is transfigured before their eyes.  The veil that hid His deity from them was temporarily lifted, and He shone like the sun.

Jesus said this, however, before He was transfigured, as part of His arguments that discipleship is the only profitable choice.

BTW – I’m sure you know that when the books of the Bible were originally written, they did not contain chapter or verse references. The Bible was divided into chapters and verses to help us find Scriptures more quickly and easily.

The chapter divisions commonly used today were developed by Stephen Langton, an Archbishop of Canterbury.  Langton put the modern chapter divisions into place in around 1227AD. The Wycliffe English Bible of 1382 was the first Bible to use this chapter pattern.  Since the Wycliffe Bible, nearly all Bible translations have followed Langton’s chapter divisions.

The Hebrew Scriptures we call the Old Testament was divided into verses by a Jewish rabbi by the name of Nathan in 1448AD. Robert Estienne, who was also known as Stephanus, was the first to divide the New Testament into standard numbered verses, in 1555.  Stephanus used Nathan’s verse divisions for the Old Testament.  Since that time, beginning with the Geneva Bible, the chapter and verse divisions employed by Stephanus have been accepted into nearly all the Bible versions.

Back to Jesus’ prediction.  What does it say about discipleship?  Walking with Jesus doesn’t just mean a life of death and crosses.  It means a life of power and victory.

He would bear His cross and be crucified; but He would rise from the dead, ascend into Heaven, and be seated at the right hand of God.  He would return, as He indicated.

It’s not revealed here, but we know from the other Gospels, and from the Book of Acts, that Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit upon His followers.

The power of His resurrection is available to any and to all of His followers.  We are described as seated, spiritually speaking, in Heaven, with Jesus.

In other words, we should look at the present in light of the certainties of these future events.

It’s a common plot-point in many sci-fi stories that the person from the future bets on sporting events that he already knows the outcome.  We wish we could know the future – not simply to become wealthy betting on it, but to change it for the better.

Well, we do know the future – at least in outline form.  We can change it for the better:

We can change it for the better of individuals with whom we share the Gospel, in that they will not perish, but have everlasting life.

We can change it for the better of nations, as we call upon their citizens to “Repent!,” and seek the righteousness that exalts nations.

We can change the future in that, in a way we don’t fully understand, our living as disciples can hasten, or speed up, the coming of the Lord (according to Peter in his second letter).

I’ll close with this.  Imagine every morning, as you wake up, your first order of business (after making coffee!) is to get into God’s Word.

As you open your Bible to read, every time, this dialog box  pops-up: “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

It’s up to you to click “Cancel,” or “Agree.”