Compassionistas (Mark 6:30-44)

You may be among those who have chosen your ‘word’ for 2016.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, in a twist on the classic New Year’s Resolution, it’s being suggested that you choose a single word as either a goal to achieve, or a guide for your life.

Is there is a single word that captures what you would like to manifest in your self, or in your life, in 2016?

If you can’t think of one, maybe ‘help’ should be your word.

Whether you’ve already chosen your word, or you think this is all what Chuck Smith would call “hooey,” I have a word to suggest, one that is applicable for all of us.

It is compassion.

It is a great word for a Christian because it was so characteristic of Jesus.  Charles Spurgeon said this:

“He was moved with compassion” is said of Jesus several times in the New Testament.  The original word is a very remarkable one.  It is not found in classic Greek.  It is not found in the Septuagint.  The fact is, it was a word coined by the evangelists themselves.  They did not find one in the whole Greek language that suited their purpose, and therefore they had to make one.  It is expressive of the deepest emotion; a striving of the bowels – a yearning of the innermost nature with pity.  I suppose that when our Savior looked upon certain sights, those who watched Him closely perceived that his internal agitation was very great, His emotions were very deep, and then His face betrayed it, His eyes gushed like founts with tears, and you saw that His big heart was ready to burst with pity for the sorrow upon which His eyes were gazing.  He was moved with compassion. His whole nature was agitated with commiseration for the sufferers before him.”

Now, although this word is not used many times even by the evangelists, yet it may be taken as a clue to the Savior’s whole life.  If you would sum up the whole character of Jesus in reference to ourselves, it might be gathered into this one sentence, “He was moved with compassion.”

Here is another way to stress this word.  In the game, Password, you give your partner a one-word clue to the word you’re trying to guess.  If you were playing Bible Password, the clue “compassion” should elicit the word “Jesus” on the very first try.

Since “Christian” means “Christ-like,” then compassion should characterize us too.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 When You Look At Jesus, You See Compassion, and #2 When People Look At You, They Should See Compassion.

#1    When You Look At Jesus
    You See Compassion
    (v30-34)

I initially thought the Spurgeon quote had gone too far.  There must be other words that better characterize Jesus.

But as I thought about it, I had to agree that compassion, if not the best word, is in the top three.

Jesus Christ has pitied mankind, and had compassion on us, from eternity past.  He was moved with compassion to come as a man, to resolve the issue of our sin by dying on the Cross.

In that sense, compassion includes, and is the motivation for, all of His work on our behalf.  It is a main heading under which we could put His incarnation, His perfect life, His substitutionary atonement, His resurrection, His ascension into Heaven, His Second Coming, and every other good word and work of His on our behalf.

Saving us was not some mechanical, theological assignment for Jesus.  It was motivated by, and sustained by, His compassion.

We pick up the story as the twelve disciples of Jesus return from having been sent out two-by-two preaching the Gospel, healing the sick, and delivering folks from demons.

Mar 6:30  Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught.

We would call this a debriefing.  We need to be more prone to, and more open to, analysis of our walk with the Lord, and of the ministry.  What worked; what didn’t work.  Where did we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, and where did our flesh get in the way.  What was the fruit.

We need to be less sensitive to critiquing and more serious about our commission.

I’m not talking about criticism, but critiquing.  Evaluating, with the Bible open, and hearts filled with the Holy Spirit.

This is the first use by Mark of the word “apostles.”  We sometimes say that there were apostles with a capital ‘A,’ and apostles with a lower-case ‘a.’

The first century, capital ‘A,’ Apostle met the requirements set out by Peter in the Book of Acts when he said they must be, “men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us…” (1:21-22).  Obviously, there are no men that meet that requirement outside of the early church period.

Apostle with a lower-case ‘a’ means a messenger or an ambassador.  We are all apostles, in that sense, but to avoid confusion, we should not use that as a title.

Mar 6:31  And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.

I can’t blame the people for not leaving them alone.  I mean, if there was any chance for a miraculous healing or deliverance, they had to go for it.

Jesus invited them to an apostle’s retreat.  Imagine the flier: “Come to rest and eat, with your very special guest speaker, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

Sign me up!  Except it would turn out to be a working retreat.

I know we need rest, but, as the saying goes, there will be plenty of time for resting when you’re dead.  Now is a time to work, and not get weary in your well-doing.

Let me be clear.  I’m not against R&R, but it can’t always be counted on.  Ministry happens on God’s time table, not ours.

Mar 6:32  So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves.

This was the first recorded Christian Ministry Cruise.  You see those advertised all the time – cruises with your favorite Bible teachers.

Only this one that the apostles were on was in a smelly fishing boat, with no accommodations.  And they weren’t headed to the Mexican Riviera, but to “a deserted place.”

Mar 6:33  But the multitudes saw them departing, and many knew Him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to Him.

Usually the shortest route is a straight line, but, in this case, the people were able to run along the shoreline, keeping the Good Ship Jesus in their sight, and thus beat Him to His landing.

Think about this crowd for a moment.  The people who were coming to Jesus, at least the majority of them, were ill, infirm, afflicted.  Many must have been advanced in age.

Jesus and His guys could see them from their boat.  That was the view from their stateroom, as it were, on this cruise.

It was a pathetic sight.  Lame men and women doing their best to run to Jesus, probably tripping over one another, pushing each other, and falling.  People carrying their friends and family, doing their best to run to Jesus.

Some of you, for reasons that escape me, watch the PBS hit series, Downton Abbey.  One of its main characters, John Bates, walks with a limp.  Comedian Jimmy Fallon parodies Downton Abbey, and in his version, Bates has an incredibly heavy iron prosthetic.  It takes him forever to drag himself across a room.

It’s hilarious as a parody, but not in real life.  Seeing a multitude of people dragging themselves, or being carried along, or limping, to see Jesus ought to evoke a response that is far from humor.
There’s really only one proper spiritual response, and here it comes.

Mar 6:34  And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things.

Mark’s perspective is that Jesus is the One true Shepherd of mankind, and we are all like sheep who have gone astray.  Most commentators say that Peter provided Mark with the source material for his Gospel.  You can see that here, because Peter once said of Jesus, “for you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (First Peter 2:25).

Mark emphasized that Jesus “began to teach them many things.”  The greatest need the multitude had was the message Jesus went about proclaiming – repentance from sin, and faith in Him.

The greatest need a person has is always spiritual.  Keep that central as you determine if, when, and how to meet physical needs.

All of us have, from time-to-time, been especially moved by some awareness of the tragedy of the human condition.  Maybe you’re watching TV, and suddenly one of those ads airs, that show the terrible plight of third-world children.  You’re moved by it, deeply affected, and, maybe, you even act upon that compassion by sending support.

Jesus was moved like that, only in a much deeper way, all the time, from the beginning of time.  With His insight into the human race, and His hindsight and foresight, He saw the greatest need in each heart, and wanted to meet that need.

BTW – He sees your need right now.  He’s not done being moved with compassion for you.

#2    When People Look At You,
    They Should See Compassion
    (v35-44)

Jesus was taking His guys on a retreat for a little well-deserved, and much needed, R&R.  Compassion dictated a change of plans.

Meditate on that statement: Compassion dictates a change of plans.  It could be a change of plans for a day or for a season.

It could dictate a change of plans for your entire life and it’s work.

The apostles needed to learn more about compassion.  They had some – but not the Jesus kind.  So the Lord schooled them on it.

Mar 6:35  When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, “This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late.
Mar 6:36  Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat.”

We are so used to criticizing the apostles that we overlook their efforts.  Give the guys some credit.  They were, in fact, thinking about the needs of the multitude.  The people needed to eat and, recognizing their need, they suggested a dinner break.

Unless you are some kind of high-functioning sociopath, you have compassion.  It’s part of what it means to be human.  It’s just that your compassion needs Jesus to perfect it.

Mar 6:37  But He answered and said to them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to Him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?”

Jesus suggested a much different scenario for showing compassion.  The first principle of compassion immediately emerged.  It is captured by one word – the first word Jesus spoke to them.  “You.”

Compassion is all about you getting involved, personally.  Now, that can mean a lot of things.  Take the example I used before of the needy third-world kids.  You can get involved by supporting one or more of them; or by adopting a third-world child; or by going to serve them on the mission field.

Or you might be moved, but nevertheless do nothing because you are led by the Holy Spirit to be showing compassion in other ways, to other people.

There is a lot of suffering in the human race, and we can’t all do everything, or the same thing.  Being a Christian isn’t like having a well-rounded spiritual portfolio that must include certain things, like a third-world kid.  Let God direct your compassion.

Having said that, there still needs to be “You” involved showing compassion to someone, somehow, somewhere.

Mar 6:38  But He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they found out they said, “Five, and two fish.”

The second principle Jesus taught them is that God expects you to start meeting the needs you see by marshaling whatever resources you have.

This is important, because one of the things that kills compassion is the argument that the needs are so overwhelming we might as well do nothing.  Just the opposite is true: The needs are so overwhelming, we need to do something.

Think of Jesus, and His coming to save us, motivated by His compassion.  I hate to refer to it, because it is so unbiblical, but there’s a great lyric in Jesus Christ Superstar that says,

Every time I look at you
I don’t understand
Why you let the things you did
Get so out of hand
You’d have managed better
If you’d had it planned
Now why’d you choose such a backward time
And such a strange land?
If you’d come today
You could have reached the whole nation
Israel in 4BC had no mass communication

Think of the massively overwhelming needs of billions of human beings born dead in trespasses and sins from the time of Adam forward.  Moved with compassion, Jesus came, but in the first century.  He talked, for example, with a woman at a well.  On paper, it would seem not even a drop in the bucket.

Jesus did what He could, for a short three-and-one-half years, and God multiplied it exponentially to the salvation of perhaps billions through the centuries.

What do you have?  It’s yours, by the way.  Most of the time, when discussing material things, we say that everything you have comes from, and therefore belongs to, the Lord.

However, the apostle Peter, when talking to Ananias and Sapphira about their donation to the Jerusalem church, said,

Act 5:4  While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control?

It gives us a different take on our possessions.  They are ours, to distribute as liberally, or as frugally, as we choose.

Make sure you are distributing the portion God puts on your heart, and don’t fall into the trap of thinking your portion is insignificant.

Mar 6:39  Then He commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass.
Mar 6:40  So they sat down in ranks, in hundreds and in fifties.

It seems as though they sat in semi-circles, on the grass, starting in rows of fifty, then expanding to rows of one hundred.  Think amphitheater, only without benches.

I guess the first thing I’d say about this is that Jesus fully expected God’s power to be on display, and He readied for it.

Expectation and readiness go hand-in-hand.  If you expect God to work, you will be ready, and if you’re ready, God can work.

An example of this is how we have restructured our end-of-service on Sunday morning.  We expect God to speak to us, therefore we leave time, at the end, to reflect on what He has said, or is saying.

We have men up front, ready to pray, expecting that God is going to prompt folks.

Life can become spiritually mundane – at home, at work, at school, even in church – to the point you lose a sense of expectation and, therefore, are no longer ready by preparing for God to do something.

Ask the Lord – today – what He wants you to do to be ready for Him to act.

Mar 6:41  And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all.

Jesus thanked His Father, then He kept breaking the loaves, and distributing the fish.  It just kept coming.

It was a miracle, but that doesn’t mean we need a miracle to see God do things like that by His power today.  A good example would be Operation Christmas Child.

You know, the ministry of Samaritan’s Purse, where you fill a shoebox and send it, with the Gospel, to a third-world child.

Do you know how it started?  Dave Cooke, a father of four from Wrexham, North Wales, saw the horror of abandoned children in Romanian orphanages on TV news, and was moved with compassion.  He asked friends to help fill a truck with toys and drive it to Romania.

Overwhelming response from local people raised $85,000.  On December 12, 1990, a convoy of vehicles, including trucks donated by local companies, left for Romania with seventeen local volunteers.  Among the aid on the convoy were the first gift-filled shoeboxes.  On their return the volunteers vowed to continue the work.

Fast forward:  Since then, Operation Christmas Child, has collected and delivered more than 124 million gift-filled shoeboxes to children in more than 150 countries and territories.

More than 500,000 volunteers worldwide, with more than 100,000 of those in the United States, are involved in collecting, shipping, and distributing shoebox gifts.

More than 4.7 million children have participated in The Greatest Journey, Operation Christmas Child’s follow-up program that is offered to many children who receive shoebox gifts.  The Greatest Journey is implemented through a global church network to help children learn how to know and follow Jesus.

Is that a miracle?  No; it’s the power of God operating through people of God who are moved with compassion.

Skip ahead to verse forty-four.

Mar 6:44  Now those who had eaten the loaves were about five thousand men.

Five thousand of them were men – meaning there were women and children who were not counted.  This multitude was minimum five thousand people, and maybe double or even quadruple that.

For the sake of easy math, let’s put the number at twelve thousand – one thousand for each of the twelve apostles of Jesus to personally serve.

Some of you have waited tables.  How long, and how hard, to wait on a thousand people during the dinner rush?

Compassion is hands-on.  You need to get personally involved.  It’s not just about the money, or the support.  It’s why, when someone comes with an idea, we immediately think that God might want them to implement it.

I wonder if the crowds furthest back thought the food would run-out before it got to them.  That happens today, does it not, at soup kitchens and rescue missions.

Does that mean God isn’t able to provide?  It can mean a lot of things, but never that God somehow lacks sufficiency, or can’t help.  There’s usually a lesson for us when there seems to be a lack, and we should seek the Lord to reveal it.

Sometimes the lesson is to learn to be content in want, to learn how to be abased.  Those are also mercies from God, even if they are severe mercies.

We like to say, “Where God guides, God provides.”  The lack of provision can be a tell that God is not in it – and that we should be seeking Him for what we should be pursuing.

Back to verse forty-two.

Mar 6:42  So they all ate and were filled.

They were glutted; they couldn’t eat any more.  It reminds us God desires to be generous, and that He is somewhat extravagant in His gifts.

Would you describe your compassion as generous and extravagant?  If not, why not?  Your salvation is both generous and extravagant.  Any ministry that flows from it should be, too.

Mar 6:43  And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish.

The “baskets” were packs carried by each apostle to hold provisions.  Think backpack or man-purse.

This episode started with the fact that they were so pressed upon by the people that they had no time even to eat.  They retreated for a meal, but the people followed them, and pressed upon them all the more.

Then Jesus fed five- to twenty-thousand people without the apostles getting so much as a mouthful.

It is the consummate principle, the pinnacle, of Jesus’ lesson on compassion: You are here to serve, not be served.

That’s what Jesus did – serve, not be served, and gave His life as a ransom for you.

God met their needs by giving each of them a basket of left-overs.

Are you OK with that?  Serving others first, and settling for what is left over?

I think you are, because that is what it means to be a Christian.  We just need to be reminded of it from time to time, because, unlike Jesus, our compassion can falter and fail.

In Lamentations 3:22-23, we are told, “the LORD’S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; Great is [His] faithfulness.”

The apostles had compassion – they just needed Jesus to guide and empower it.

You have compassion.  Ask Jesus to guide and empower it.

One final, but important, commentary.  We said that when Jesus was moved with compassion, He preached the Gospel to the multitude.

The most compassionate thing you can do is share the love of Jesus Christ with sinners.

You can do more, by meeting physical and material needs.

But nothing is more compassionate than a concern for the eternal souls of those you live with and among.

If you are sharing Christ, His Gospel, others ‘see’ His compassion – whether they realize it or not.

Dirty Dancing (Mark 6:14-29)

Growing up, one of my favorite shows was Get Smart.  It followed the madcap adventures of secret agent Maxwell Smart, also known as 86, who worked for the good guys, CONTROL, against the bad guys, KAOS.

In addition to introducing the world to the shoe phone, the show created quite a few catch-phrases that are still thrown around today:

After causing yet another disaster for the Chief, Max would offer this apology: “Sorry about that, Chief.”

When agents of KAOS would call his bluff, Max would offer another, more unbelievable one, by saying, “Would you believe…”

When he found himself in a dangerous situation, Max would exclaim, “And loving it.”

My favorite catchphrase was, “Missed it by that much,” used when one of his schemes miserably failed.

Reading our text today, we encounter King Herod, and the thing that strikes me the most are the squandered opportunities he had to receive salvation.  You could summarize it by saying he “Missed it by that much.”

Why did he miss it?  We will see forces from within him, and surrounding him, that exerted pressure against the Gospel, that eventually hardened Herod’s heart to God’s love and amazing grace.

Those same pressures exist today, exerting their destructive influence on the nonbelievers you know.

Those same pressures can still trip-up believers, if we are not cautious.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 Falsehoods Exert Pressure On You To Disobey God, and #2 The Flesh Exerts Pressure On You To Disobey God.

#1    Falsehoods Exert Pressure On You
    To Disobey God
    (v14-20)

How many Herods were there, anyway?!

The first of the Herods in the Bible is often known as “Herod the Great” and is the one who sought to kill Jesus by slaughtering all the infant boys.

The son of Herod the Great was Herod Antipas (or Antipater).  He is the Herod we will be talking about.

Herod Agrippa I was the grandson of Herod the Great. It was he who persecuted the church in Jerusalem and had the apostle James, the brother of John and son of Zebedee, put to death by the sword.

Agrippa’s son, Herod Agrippa II, had dealings with the apostle Paul.  He was instrumental in saving the apostle Paul from being tried and imprisoned in Jerusalem by the Jews who hated his testimony of Jesus as the Messiah.  Agrippa, out of consideration for Paul being a Roman citizen, allowed Paul to defend himself, thereby giving Paul the opportunity to preach the gospel to all who were assembled.

After Agrippa II, the family fell out of favor with Rome.

Herod Antipas – called King Herod by Mark – wasn’t a king at all; he was a tetrarch.  The word tetrarch signifies someone who governs a fourth part of a kingdom.  His father, Herod the Great, divided his large kingdom into four parts and bequeathed them to his sons, an action confirmed by the Roman senate.

Emperor Augustus denied the title “king” to Herod Antipas.  Goaded by his ambitious wife, Herodias, Herod pressed for the title again and again until he so offended the emperor that he was dismissed as a traitor.

He was a wanna-be king.  In that respect, Herod is a good example all nonbelievers.  We are born sinners, separated from God.  We wanna-be king, at least in our own lives, but we end up slaves to the god of this world, the devil.
When we last saw Jesus, He had sent out His twelve disciples, two-by-two, to teach and to perform miracles.  Word of their activity reached King Herod.

Mar 6:14  Now King Herod heard of Him, for His name had become well known. And he said, “John the Baptist is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.”

It’s important we don’t pass over the fact that “King Herod heard of” Jesus.  There are at least two important truths in that observation:

The first is that, even though the work was being done by His disciples, Herod heard of Jesus – not them.  In other words, they were ministering to people in a way that brought glory to the Lord, and not to themselves.
Second, the fact Herod had heard of Jesus establishes something we can overlook since he was such a bad character, and that is that Herod heard the Gospel and could have been saved.

In fact we will see multiple opportunities, precious opportunities, for Herod to repent and receive the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

God is all-about saving people.  The most wicked people are no exception.  Jesus died for them, too, and you’d be surprised if you knew the extent of God’s efforts to reach them.

You might recall Manuel Noriega, the military dictator of Panama from the 1950’s to about 1990.  At some point after he was removed from power, he became a Christian.

Evangelist Luis Palau reported that the only things in his prison cell were an exercise bike, a cot and a table with a Bible resting on it.  And all this once-evil man could talk about was what God had done in his life while in solitary confinement.

Mark decided to catch-up his readers on the plight of John the Baptist.  Herod proposes that Jesus is John risen from the dead.  We haven’t read about his death, but Mark’s original audience already knew that Herod had John imprisoned and executed.

Mar 6:15  Others said, “It is Elijah.” And others said, “It is the Prophet, or like one of the prophets.”
Mar 6:16  But when Herod heard, he said, “This is John, whom I beheaded; he has been raised from the dead!”

We tend to read this as if Herod and company are superstitious morons.  Truth is, people still suggest all manner of false identities for Jesus:

Jehovah’s Witnesses say that Jesus is actually Michael, the Archangel.  They say He was the first creation of God.  He came to Earth as a man, died on a stake, and rose from the grave invisibly as a spirit.  Jesus then returned invisibly to Brooklyn, NY, in 1914 to head-up the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.

Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) teach that Jesus is the spirit brother of Satan.  He was once a human being like you and I, but through good works he evolved spiritually to become a god.

Christian Science and Mary Baker Eddy say that Jesus was only a man and that Christ is a Divine idea.   Furthermore, Jesus never did any supernatural miracles; he simply showed people their mental illusions of sin, evil, illness and disease.

All these, and many others, are doctrines of demons – falsehoods that have kept, and are keeping, billions from seriously searching the Scriptures to see that Jesus is God come in human flesh.

Falsehoods are a mighty weapon in the spiritual warfare for the souls of men and women.  You all probably know someone who dismisses the claims of the Gospel by referring to some false idea.

Herod executed John, and there’s quite a sordid backstory.

Mar 6:17  For Herod himself had sent and laid hold of John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife; for he had married her.
Mar 6:18  Because John had said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”

God’s Law prohibits adultery and incest.  By marrying “his brother Philip’s wife [Herodias],” Herod was guilty of both sins.

John preached the repentance of sins.  The message of repentance is missing in many contemporary evangelical churches.  A recent scientific research survey came to the following conclusion about those born from the 1980’s til about the year 2000, called Millennials.

Millennials… do not feel guilt and shame the same way older generations do.  As such, they do not respond to what one person referred to as ‘fire and brimstone scare tactics.”  Telling them that they are sinners and need to repent does not work.  Millennials respond to evangelism that tells them the world is [broken], and it is only through Jesus that it can be fixed.
Was that the message of John the Baptist?  Was that the message of Jesus?  How about the apostles?

I’m not saying that our methods can’t or should not change. They can and should.  But we cannot tamper with the message.

Stick to the message – repentance and faith.  The Gospel is a universal message for the problem of sin.  It’s applicable in any culture, to any status, to all levels of intellect, to every generation, to everyone, everywhere.  It’s timeless and it is the power of God unto salvation.

Mar 6:19  Therefore Herodias held it against him and wanted to kill him, but she could not;
Mar 6:20  for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man, and he protected him. And when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.

You’ve heard the phrase, “Don’t kill the messenger.”  Trouble is, people DO want to kill the messenger.

All the time, in the news, there are stories about the efforts of nonbelievers to silence the Word of God.  There’s always some City Council, or public school district, that is being sued for having “in God we trust” on its property, or some such thing.  It’s all an effort to kill the messenger, in a legal sense.

We’re blessed to still live in a place where they are not able to literally kill the messenger.  I think some would, if they could.

John was imprisoned, and his cell was right there in Herod’s house.  The indication is that Herod and John dialogued, speaking often.

Not only that, Mark says Herod “did many things, and heard [John] gladly.”  The Gospel was stirring Herod’s heart.  It was “glad” news that motivated certain behavioral changes.

It’s going to turn out that the Gospel wasn’t falling on good soil, but don’t discount its effects so quickly.  God is not willing ANY should perish, and that included Herod; it even included Herodias.

Not everyone will be saved, but we need to remind ourselves that everyone is a candidate for salvation.

Herod’s and Herodias’ are all around us; often in positions of worldly power.  We see in this story that even though he was bound within a prison cell, God’s servant never wavered from the main message.

John was the person with real power – not the wanna-be King or his wicked wife.

#2    The Flesh Exerts Pressure On You
    To Disobey God
    (v21-29)

There’s a good description of sinners in First Corinthians.

1Co 6:9  Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?…

“Unrighteousness” is a word that describes the typical nonbeliever.  He or she has no right to stand before God.  We are all born separated, spiritually, from God, dead in our trespasses and sins.

The apostle Paul next describes how sinners behave:

1Co 6:9  Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,
1Co 6:10  nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

That’s quite a list of sins.  It isn’t exhaustive; it is representative.  If I think about my life BC – Before Christ – a lot of those words characterized me.  Sadly, if we are honest, even after getting saved, we find those things lurking in our flesh, rising up when we let them, to our spiritual detriment.

Whether you are a nonbeliever given over to such things, or a believer who willingly gives yourself over to them, Herod and Herodias will show you how awful, and how evil, the flesh can be.

I guess we should pause and give a working definition of what the Bible means by “the flesh.”  Scripture uses the term in a morally evil sense to describe man’s unredeemed humanness.  It is that remnant of the old man which will remain with each believer until each receives his or her glorified body.  It is a predisposition to satisfy the cravings we find still operating within us in sinful ways.

We may struggle to properly define the flesh, but, if you are a believer, you immediately know what I’m talking about.  The apostle Paul put it this way:

Rom 7:18  For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it.
Rom 7:19  For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want!
Rom 7:20  Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.
Rom 7:21  So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me.

It’s far worse than you think, your flesh.  It looks like this sordid party that Herod threw for his birthday.

I guess what I’m saying is this: I might think I’m only giving-in a little to my flesh, but it has the potential, once unleashed, to become a full-blown destruction.

Mar 6:21  Then an opportune day came when Herod on his birthday gave a feast for his nobles, the high officers, and the chief men of Galilee.

Herod had been given many amazing opportunities to be saved.  Imagine having a personal audience with John the Baptist.  Herod let those opportunities pass, and so the flesh found opportunity to destroy him.

It started off innocently enough as a birthday party, but it quickly got out of hand.

Mar 6:22  And when Herodias’ daughter herself came in and danced, and pleased Herod and those who sat with him, the king said to the girl, “Ask me whatever you want, and I will give it to you.”

This was a men’s only event.  After they were good and drunk, Herod called for the dancing girls.  Think strip club.

To his surprise, Herodias sent out her own daughter, who commentators say was pretty young – certainly still in her teens.

Stop for just a minute.  Seriously, Herodias?  You sent your teen daughter to strip for a stag birthday party?

Don’t lose sight of the point we are making: your flesh, left unchecked, is capable of all manner of evil.

Herod could have put a stop to this before it got out of hand.  Instead, one compromise led to another, and another, until he blurted out, “Ask me whatever you want, and I will give it to you.”

That’s a stupid thing to say.  Think of it in a spiritual sense, and it makes perfect sense.  Here’s what I mean.  When we start giving-in to our flesh, we may as well be saying to our flesh, “Ask me whatever you want, and I will give it to you.”

Don’t get to that point by giving in.  You can say No to your flesh, and Yes to God.

Mar 6:23  He also swore to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”

Drunk, overcome by lusts, Herod was completely ruled by his sinful passions.

People give their testimonies and it can almost sound as if there was something to be admired about how drunk they were, or how stoned they got, or the extent of their debauched activities.

Think of your flesh with Herod in mind.  Whenever you give-in to it, no matter how slightly, it’s on a par with Herod being drunk and lusting after his wife’s teen-aged daughter.  It’s ugly and perverted.

Mar 6:24  So she went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist!”

Had Herod simply obeyed God’s Law, he would never have found himself in this terrible plight.  Don’t commit adultery with Herodias and you never get to this.

Don’t host a kegger and you won’t be compromised by getting drunk.

God gives us rules as boundaries for our own good.  We break them at our own peril.  Grace will abound, if we will turn to the Lord; but we must never sin so that grace will abound.

Herodias wanted John dead right then.  She called for his execution as the big finale to the party – so that Herod would not be able to change his mind.

The flesh always wants to be satisfied right now.

Mar 6:25  Immediately she came in with haste to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.  I don’t think Herodias was sending her daughter to Sunday school.  She was teaching her to strip, and she was ready as a young teen to do so.

Mar 6:26  And the king was exceedingly sorry; yet, because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him, he did not want to refuse her.

John preached repentance.  Herod was “exceedingly sorry,” but that was not repentance.  Repentance leads to a turn-around in behavior.

Herod gave in to peer pressure.  It’s a powerful force the devil wields against us, for us to conform to this world.

Mar 6:27  Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded his head to be brought. And he went and beheaded him in prison,
Mar 6:28  brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother.

The phrase, “I want his (or her) head on a platter” is a too-common idiom in the English language.  Let’s retire it, because it derives from this sordid episode.

I’d like to know how this ended.  Did the guests applaud?  Did they disperse quietly?  What did Herod say to Herodias after he sobered?  What did Herodias do with John’s head?

In the end, it doesn’t matter.  The aftermath could not have been positive.  Their flesh had brought a terrible destruction into their household.

However, don’t forget the opening verses of this story.  After the fact, Herod was hearing about Jesus.  After all this, he still had opportunity to be saved.

Mar 6:29  When his disciples heard of it, they came and took away his corpse and laid it in a tomb.

Bad news travels faster.  Good for these guys, risking themselves to give John a proper burial.

Who was really dead?  John was in Hades, in the Paradise compartment called Abraham’s Bosom, awaiting the death and resurrection of Jesus.  After that, he would accompany all the righteous saints to Heaven, to await the Lord’s Second Coming.

Herod was dead.  Herodias was dead.  They were dead in their trespasses and sins, separated from God.  Should they die in that condition – and we can be pretty certain they eventually did – they, too, would find themselves in Hades.

But their address in Hades was not Paradise.  It was punishment.  They are there still, awaiting the end of the Lord’s future thousand-year Kingdom of Heaven on the earth.  After it ends, they – along with the unrighteous dead from all time – will be raised to a judgment of their sin.  Having rejected the Gospel, their names will not be found in the Book of Life.  They will be cast alive to be in eternal conscious torment in the Lake of Fire.

When we started to discuss the flesh, I read a passage from First Corinthians.  Let me read it again but with it, what comes next.

1Co 6:9  Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,
1Co 6:10  nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
1Co 6:11  And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

God finds you in verses nine and ten but puts you in verse eleven when you receive His Son, Jesus Christ.

Your sins were as scarlet, but because Jesus died for them on the Cross, you are white as snow.

You are sanctified, meaning set-apart, from the world, to serve the Lord.  A big part of being sanctified is having, within you, God the Holy Spirit, so that you can always overcome the flesh.

You are “justified” means that not only are you not guilty, but you’ve been declared righteous by God, Jesus having taken upon Himself your sins, and giving you, in exchange, His righteousness.

Falsehoods abound, and, if anything, will be multiplied in the last days in which we live.

The flesh is a constant enemy – the enemy within – tempted by the world, and the devil.

Neither falsehoods, nor the flesh, can overcome you as you yield yourself to God and follow His indwelling Holy Spirit.

In God We Dust (Mark 6:1-13)

Who would you cast to play the role of Jesus?

In the 2014 movie Son of God, Jesus is played by Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado, whose appearance has been compared to Brad Pitt and a young Marlon Brando.  He inspired a twitter hashtag of “Hot Jesus.”

Jim Caviezel is the most recognizable Jesus in acting history.  He played Jesus in The Passion Of The Christ, which is the most successful Christian movie of all time, and number twenty-seven all-time among all domestic films.

Did you know that Christian Bale, of Batman fame, played Jesus in the movie Mary, Mother Of Jesus?

I hesitate to mention it, but Will Ferrell portrayed Jesus in the movie Superstar, although he was on screen only briefly.

Who would I cast to play Jesus?  In his thirties, I would have cast Dustin Hoffman.  He’s Jewish, he’s plain-looking, and he’s about the right height at 5′ 5″ tall.

(Jewish men in the first century were short by our standards; so were the Romans.  We know this from skeletal remains, and other archaeology).

The people of Nazareth, among whom Jesus grew-up, thought He was miscast in the role of their Messiah.

Despite His extensive resume of works that gave solid evidence He was the promised deliverer, they rejected Jesus.  We’re told they were “offended” by Him, and we’ll see some of the reasons why.

I want us to see something else that is brought out in the text.  I want us to see Jesus in His relationship to God the Holy Spirit.

The people of Nazareth will ask, “Where did this Man get these things?”, referring to His wisdom and His works.  He got them from being filled with, and being led by, God the Holy Spirit.

R.A. Torrey said, “Jesus Christ is the one perfect manifestation in history of the complete work of the Holy Spirit in [a] man.”

We want to see the complete work of the Holy Spirit manifested in Jesus because that same Holy Spirit is given to each of us as His followers.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two questions: #1 Do You See What The Holy Spirit Can Do Through A Man?, and #2 Do You See What The Holy Spirit Can Do Through You?

#1    Do You See What The Holy Spirit
    Can Do Through A Man?
    (v1-6)

The headline read, Americans who foiled terrorist gunman on Paris-bound train get hero’s welcome with parade in their California hometown.

It’s the least we could do to honor them for what they did to save lives.

You’d think the Nazareth News would publish a story with the headline, Local man who foils legions of demons and heals multitudes gets hero’s welcome with parade in hometown.

It didn’t happen.  Instead of claiming Jesus as their favorite Son, Nazareth made several disclaimers and distanced themselves from Jesus.

Mar 6:1  Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him.

His “own country” is His hometown of Nazareth.

Most people familiar with the few details given in the Bible about the early life of Jesus are aware of the fact that following the visit from the wise men, Joseph and Mary took Jesus and fled to Egypt to hide Him from the murder of the children ordered by Herod (Matthew 2:13-14).

Later, after Herod’s death, Jesus’ family departed Egypt for Nazareth where they made their home (Matthew 2:19-23).

It’s hard to find solid facts about first century Nazareth, but one source said, “Nazareth was a relatively isolated village in the time of Jesus with a population less than two hundred.”

Mar 6:2  And when the Sabbath had come…

Stop there for a moment.  Jesus returned to Nazareth and, whatever day He arrived, nothing noteworthy happened until the Sabbath had come.

Everywhere Jesus went, He was thronged by people upon His arrival.  Huge crowds came out to Him.  Not so in Nazareth.

It’s mind-boggling.  How could this miracle-working, demon-defeating, wisdom-wielding local boy be so ignored?

You could ask that very same question today.  Not only do we have the historical record, the evidence, that Jesus did these things.  We can factually say that He rose from the dead.

Men still ignore Him.  They go about their business as if it didn’t matter that the sinless Son of God took their place on the Cross so that they could receive the forgiveness of their sins and live forever in Heaven.

Mar 6:2  And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands

At the very beginning of His ministry, Jesus went in to the synagogue in Nazareth and read a passage in Isaiah that described the works that the Messiah would perform.  Stopping in mid-sentence, Jesus said, of Himself, “today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

It didn’t go over very well.  We read in the Gospel of Luke,

Luk 4:28  So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
Luk 4:29  and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.
Luk 4:30  Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.

Jesus returned to Nazareth having performed those many mighty works.  His neighbors don’t try to kill Him this time, but they reject Him just as resoundingly as they had before.

They had to acknowledge the works themselves, and that is, perhaps, why they were less inclined to try to kill Jesus.  He wasn’t claiming He’d perform them; He’d actually done it.

It sounds like they are going to receive Him, as they praise the works He’s undeniably performed.  So what was it that offended them?  Several things are listed.

Mar 6:3  Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So they were offended at Him.

They had watched Jesus grow up, from a boy, until He was around thirty years old.  During that time He did no mighty works, but instead worked as a “carpenter.”  The insinuation is that Jesus had no professional training for the things He was doing.

They were offended by the thought that their Messiah could be a lowly carpenter.  Jesus’ extraordinary works were overshadowed by His ordinary, even sub-ordinary, background.

It’s odd that they would think that, because the Old Testament is full of heroes that had no training, who came from ordinary circumstances.  King David, from whom the Messiah would come, was a shepherd boy when he was first anointed.

You know what this tells me?  No matter how many examples we have of God using ordinary people, we still look for, and prefer, formal education and training.

We’re not looking for God’s anointing as much as we are for man’s appointing.  It’s a hard habit to break, but break it we must.

Next they called Jesus “the Son of Mary.”  It was a rather mean insult.  Men were always known as sons of their father – unless the father was not known because the son was illegitimate.

The people of Nazareth did not believe in the virgin birth.  They were offended by the thought that their Messiah had a significant moral stain on His name.

We could point to the Scriptures and see folks who were morally compromised who were nevertheless used by God.
Rahab the harlot assisted the two Hebrew spies when they were being hunted in Jericho.  She found herself in the physical line of the Messiah.

It’s one thing to look back on Rahab with wonder; it’s another to be contemporary with her, and think highly of her.

Evangelists often take liberties with a Scripture from the Book of Hebrews and say that Jesus Christ saves “from the guttermost.”  No moral stain is too deep to be beyond the Lord’s forgiveness.

The citizens of Nazareth next listed Jesus’ brothers by name, and mentioned more than one sister.  (In Matthews Gospel, the word “all,” qualifying sisters, can mean three or more).

I don’t want to get off on a rabbit trail, but the plain reading of this is that after Jesus was born, Joseph and Mary had other kids – at least six or seven.  These were not children from a previous marriage of Joseph’s, because that would make them all older than Jesus, and there’s no indication anywhere in the Gospels He was the least in His earthly family.

There is no biblical basis for the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church that Mary remained a perpetual virgin.

I’m not sure exactly why the Messiah having a slew of siblings would be offensive.  Maybe one of them was like Jimmy Carter’s brother, Billy, who was known for his embarrassing public behavior; and for Billy Beer.

Mark’s readers would remember that a few verses earlier Jesus’ family had come seeking Him, to try to bring Him home, because they thought He was crazy.

They would be offended by the thought that their Messiah was crazy.  No one wants to think that their commander-in-chief is mentally incompetent… Do we???

Lots of Bible characters had families that held them in contempt.  Joseph’s brothers wanted to kill him, and instead sold him into slavery.

Mar 6:4  But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.”

Your family and friends know the real you.  That’s why, when doing background checks, law enforcement will talk to anyone and everyone they can find who has any knowledge of you.

Now in Jesus’ case, there were no negatives, no faults to find.  But that didn’t stop the people from finding fault.

Let that be an encouragement to you.  People can find fault with your walk with the Lord even when there is no fault to find.

Mar 6:5  Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.

God wanted to do a “mighty work” through Jesus in Nazareth.  The people didn’t come out for it.  God showed up but the people were a no-show.

Do you know someone who needs God to do a “mighty work?”  Maybe they are struggling with some addiction… Or their marriage is failing… Or their finances are a disaster.

You and I know that God wants to do a mighty work for them.  We know it because He’s done it for us.  You were once addicted… Your marriage was a bust… Your finances were shot… And God intervened.

More-and-more people are coming by the church office during the week, looking for help.  We do our best to help those we can, but we try to tell all of them to come not just to the office, but to our services.  It is here, gathered with the people of God, under the authority of the Word of God, that they will find the greatest help – both physically and spiritually.  Instead, they are no-shows.

“Except” He did heal some.  That’s a pretty big “except,” if you were one of them.  Mark was emphasizing how much more the Lord could have done, to help people, if they had simply come to Him.

Mar 6:6  And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.

Fresno is a city that gets a bad rap, don’t you think?  So much so that there have been campaigns to change its image.  One of them was, “Fresno – Smile when you say that.”

Nazareth got a bad rap in the first century.  The common adage was, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

The answer was a resounding, “Yes!”  Nevertheless the people preferred their reputation to repenting and receiving the Lord.

“Where did this Man get these things?”  Jesus’ wisdom, and His works, were things beyond a carpenter with a questionable birth whose own family thought Him to be insane.

Jesus got them from His relationship to God the Holy Spirit.  He’d been born of the Spirit and baptized by the Spirit.  He was filled with the Spirit.  He was constantly led by the Spirit.

No one had ever seen a man like that before.  While the Holy Spirit certainly came upon believers in the Old Testament, not until Jesus was there ever a man under His complete control.

Jesus promised you that same Holy Spirit.

#2    Do You See What The Holy Spirit
    Can Do Through You?
    (v7-13)

Jesus commissions His closest disciples to go out and perform similar works to those He had been doing.

He was showing us what was to come, after He was ascended back into Heaven.  He would go on to tell us that we – His followers – would do “greater works” after He was gone, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Mar 6:7  And He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits.

Do you suppose that the disciples liked the pairings Jesus chose?  Just wondering, because it’s human nature to complain.

You’re bound to be paired-up at times with people, and in situations, you don’t really like.  Most often (not always) it is God’s choice to grow you into greater, deeper, spiritual maturity.

Don’t always be looking for a way out, or a different pairing.

“Two by two” was practical as much as it was spiritual.  They’d be traveling, and that was always dangerous.  It’s nice to have someone whose got your back in ministry.

Mark emphasizes they were given power over demons.  As we’ve pointed out before, there was no mention of demonic possession whatsoever in the Old Testament.  Unless my math is faulty, the Old Testament spans about four thousand years of human history, starting with creation week.  Then there are four hundred years between the end of the Old Testament and the New Testament era.

No demonic possessions for almost five thousand years, then, “Bam!”  At the coming of Jesus into the world, it seemed as though demons were everywhere, possessing people.

It must have been a calculated satanic strategy to try to counter the effect of having the Son of God, filled with the Spirit of God, on the earth.

Instead of Jesus going out alone against the demons, there were now twelve more.  As I said – it’s showing us things to come.

Mar 6:8  He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bag, no bread, no copper in their money belts –
Mar 6:9  but to wear sandals, and not to put on two tunics.

The instructions Jesus gave them about their clothing communicate traveling light because of the urgency of getting from place to place.

We ought to travel to Heaven through this world as lightly as possible.  That will mean something different to everyone, but it’s worth meditating upon.

Since the coming of Jesus for His church is imminent, I’d say there is an urgency in our ministering to folks.

They didn’t need money or food, but were to depend upon local hospitality.

Mar 6:10  Also He said to them, “In whatever place you enter a house, stay there till you depart from that place.

Travelers would be taken in by locals and shown hospitality.  The disciples were to be content with the first invitation – not holding out for, or later switching to, better accommodations.  That way the focus could remain on the ministry, and they could not be accused of taking advantage of folks for their own benefit.

Mar 6:11  And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”

Devout Jews would shake the dust off after they’d been in Gentile territory to symbolize that they had not picked-up any spiritual defilements from being there.  For a Jew to do this in a Jewish setting was saying that they were acting like Gentiles – like people outside of the chosen nation.

Sodom and Gomorrah were Gentile cities that had very little of the Word of God.  What they had was enough for God to judge them – which He did.

The first century Jews had the entire Old Testament, and their Messiah was physically on the scene, with plenty of proof it was really Him.  Thus they would be held more accountable than largely ignorant Gentiles.

Mar 6:12  So they went out and preached that people should repent.

Don’t lose sight of the mission – calling people to “repent.”

As far as theologians go, you can’t go too wrong with Charles Ryrie.  Regarding what it means to repent, he wrote:

Many understand the term repentance to mean “turning from sin.” This is not the biblical definition of repentance.  In the Bible, the word repent means “to change one’s mind.”  The Bible also tells us that true repentance will result in a change of actions.  Acts 26:20 declares, “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.”  The full biblical definition of repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of action.

To repent, with regard to salvation, means to change your mind about Jesus Christ.

No one can repent unless God grants repentance.  All of salvation, including repentance and faith, is a result of God  drawing us.

By grace, He does draw us.  All of us.  Jesus said that if He be lifted up on the Cross, He would draw all men to Himself.

John 3:16 is so famous, so often quoted, that we forget about its context.  Jesus referred us back to an episode in the Old Testament Book of Numbers.

Joh 3:14  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
Joh 3:15  that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites starting complaining against God.  The Lord sent fiery serpents among them, as a judgment.  The bite of the serpents was fatal.

There was a remedy.  Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a tall pole.  Whoever got bit by a serpent, if they simply looked at the bronze serpent, they would be saved.

Who could be saved?  Anyone and everyone who looked to that pole.

By the Cross of Jesus Christ, God draws all men to Himself.  Anyone and everyone can be saved.

But they must “believe in Him.”

So, while it is true that no one can come to salvation unless God draws them, God draws all men by the Cross.
We say that His grace, although resistible, frees the will of all men to either believe or reject the offer of salvation.

Cutting through all the doctrine – We preach repentance and faith.  If you are not a Christian, you need to repent of your sin, receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior – made possible by the Cross at Calvary on which Jesus died for the sins of the world.

Mar 6:13  And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them.

This is something new.  This is the first mention of “oil” in Mark’s Gospel.  In Jesus’ day, olive oil was often used medicinally.  But it was also used symbolically to represent the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.  Prophets and priests and kings were anointed with oil to symbolize their need to depend upon the Holy Spirit.

We still sometimes anoint with oil when we pray for folks – especially the sick – since that is something the Letter of James recommends.

Whether we use oil or not, we recognize that we are dependent upon, and therefore submitted to, the work of the Spirit.  Sometimes that work is to heal, but often times that work is to have us bring glory to God out of patiently enduring our suffering.

Jesus commissioned the twelve.  After He rose from the dead, in what we call the Great Commission, He commissioned every disciple to “Go!” preaching the Word, making disciples and baptizing them.

He promised to be with us on that mission, and He fulfills that promise by the Holy Spirit living in us, and coming upon us, and filling us, for the work of the ministry.

Do you see what the Holy Spirit can do through you?

Nonbelievers are a lot like the people in Nazareth.  They think of things that discredit you, so they don’t have to think about the Gospel you’re preaching.

You’re in good company:

1Co 1:26  For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.
1Co 1:27  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28  and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,
1Co 1:29  that no flesh should glory in His presence.

We’ve got it backwards.  We still tend to think that the more we know, and the more experience we have, the better we can serve the Lord.

God has cast you in the role of little-Christ – which is what the word “Christian” means.  Don’t think someone else would be better cast.

It’s the role of a lifetime.

Don’t Lose Sleep Over Death (Mark 5:21-43)

Several years ago, Christian author and apologist, Lee Strobel, commissioned a national survey and asked people what question they’d ask if they could only ask God one thing.

The number one response was: “Why is there suffering in the world?”

This week’s tragic mass shooting in my hometown of San Bernardino immediately sparked a mini-debate over calls for prayer in its aftermath.  Atheists and other angry people lashed out against the spiritual sentiment.

GOD ISN’T FIXING THIS was Thursday’s cover headline on the New York Daily News.

Another article declared that praying in the aftermath of mass shootings “seems to have been an ineffective strategy so far.”

The criticism even has a name.  It’s being called prayer-shaming.

The problem of suffering is central to our verses in Mark chapter five.  We encounter two people with incurable diseases, one of whom dies.

I should say, Jesus encounters them and, as He does, to borrow a popular phrase from Facebook, “you won’t believe what happens next.”

One is healed; the other is raised from the dead.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 Jesus Will Do Something With Your Disease, and #2 Jesus Has Done Something About Your Death.

#1     Jesus Will Do Something
    With Your Disease
    (v21-34)

We love and universally respect first responders.  While others are running away from danger, they are heading into it, to save lives.

Have you ever realized that God was the very first, first responder?

When Adam and Eve threw the world into its current chaos by choosing to disobey God in the Garden of Eden, the Lord immediately came to them, seeking them.

More than that: He promised to eventually come as a man, through one of their offspring, to respond to the problem of sin and death they had created.

Jesus came, as promised, and responded to our greatest need by dying on the Cross to provide for all of Adam’s offspring the forgiveness of their sins and eternal life.

He rushed in and saved us all as we were perishing – especially those who believe in Him by grace through faith.

Any criticism of God’s response to disease and death are rendered moot when I see Jesus nailed to the Cross to save us.

In the remarkable passage before us, the Lord is up to His neck in disease and death.

Mar 5:21  Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to Him; and He was by the sea.
Mar 5:22  And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. And when he saw Him, he fell at His feet
Mar 5:23  and begged Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live.”

Before the year 586BC, virtually all Jews lived within one hundred miles of the Temple at Jerusalem, so they all worshipped there.  In 586BC the Temple was destroyed and many Jews were carried away into Babylon and held captive for seventy years.  No longer able to worship in the Temple, they established synagogues in every neighborhood that had ten Jewish men or more.

The synagogue became the place of assembly, where they would worship and study the Scriptures.  Each synagogue had ten leaders who were called elders.

Of those ten, one was elected to be the ruler.  He wasn’t a priest, but he was a tremendously important man, not only in their ceremonies, but in all civic matters.

Jairus had a preteen daughter who was most definitely going to die.  There was no hope outside of a miracle.

Mar 5:24  So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed Him and thronged Him.

“Thronged” is a word used only by Mark, and only here.  It’s a strong word, indicating that the crowd was close to suffocating Jesus.

We’ve pointed out before how much danger Jesus was in from mobs of people.  He sometimes employed counter-measures, like preaching to the crowds from a boat in the water.  Nothing He could do here, if He wanted to go with Jairus.  He’d have to trust His Father to protect Him.

Mar 5:25  Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years,
Mar 5:26  and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse.

She was constantly bleeding from her womb, probably as a result of what we today would diagnose as fibroid tumors of the uterus.

I’m not a doctor; but I did stay at a Holiday Inn, so let me describe the condition.  Fibroid tumors are benign.  They can bulge into the uterus, causing bleeding.  By bleeding I mean hemorrhaging and passing of clots.  The larger the tumor or tumors grow, the heavier the bleeding.  They can be painful, and cause endometriosis – a condition my stay at the Holiday Inn did not cover.

Because there is loss of blood, she would suffer from anemia and weakness.

This was a pretty severe and chronic physical suffering.  But it involved much more than just the physical:

There was financial suffering.  You’re told she visited many physicians.  While I’m sure she visited many quacks, the indication is that she received the finest medical care money could buy, but that no procedure could help her.  She was beyond any human help.

There was emotional suffering.  Anyone with chronic pain will tell you it wears upon your emotions.  It’s all you think about, day and night; and it affects everything you do.

There was social suffering.  It’s not explained for you, but her flow of blood rendered the woman a social outcast from Jewish society.  She was considered unclean and could not be touched, or touch, others without rendering them contaminated.  Her theme song was Hey There Lonely Girl.

Finally, she was suffering spiritually.  Her unclean status prohibited her from attending synagogue services.  She was cut-off from corporate worship.

You don’t have to suffer from the same condition in order to understand someone else’s suffering.
Learn to think outside the physical pain, and consider how they are affected financially… emotionally… socially… and (especially) spiritually.

She pressed through the crowd to touch Jesus.  Perhaps there are crowds in your life that hinder you from reaching the Lord: The crowd of unbelief, or of busyness, or of entertainments, or of activities.  Press through the crowds of your life, through all the things that are blocking you from Him.

Mar 5:27  When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment.
Mar 5:28  For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.”

Jesus dressed as a rabbi, and that meant there were blue tassles along the hem of His outer garment.  Why it is she thought touching Jesus in secret would help her is unknown.

Commentators speculate she was superstitious.  I say, it’s really all she could do – given that she was not supposed to be in the crowd.  And it was the least thing she could do, but it still required faith to do it – her belief that Jesus could heal her.  And He did.

Mar 5:29  Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.

Since this healing wasn’t witnessed, Mark let’s us know it happened by telling us she immediately knew she was made whole.  He words it in such a way that we can identify with her, feeling her joy.

Mar 5:30  And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?”
Mar 5:31  But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ”

Everyone was touching the Lord, but they all denied it when He asked them.  They must have been afraid He was somehow upset.  How sad that we often jump to the wrong conclusion about Jesus’ attitude when He speaks.  We read things into His words and into God’s Word that are not there: anger, disgust, frustration, irritation, etc.

The disciples’ question is appropriate.  They wanted Jesus to explain Himself.  What kind of touch did He mean?
It seems that God the Father gave Jesus a Word of Knowledge that a healing had just taken place as someone in the crowd touched the Lord.  Remember, Jesus was fully God, but when He was on the earth, He voluntarily set aside the prerogatives of His deity and lived as a Spirit-filled man.

Mar 5:32  And He looked around to see her who had done this thing.

People with the Word of Knowledge are scary.  I never wanted to be around Chuck Smith.  He told lots of stories about the Lord giving him Words of Knowledge about people.  It was always about sin in their lives.  I always thought he knew something about me.

Mar 5:33  But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.

To touch her, or be touched by her, would render Jesus ceremonially unclean.  Or would it?  When she touched Jesus, she was immediately healed… So Jesus was not violating any law.

However, any person in the crowd she had brushed against before her healing would have been rendered unclean.  Bummer!

Mar 5:34  And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”
“Be healed” is in the tense of having been healed.  It was important for Jesus to expose her, and declare her healed, for at least two reasons:

It would allow her to immediately rejoin society.  While it seems she may not have been local, since no one recognized her pressing through the crowd, she needed some validation her condition was healed.
It established that it was faith in Him that healed her – not superstition, or technique, or tassles, or anything else.

Jesus will do something with disease in general, and with your disease in particular.

He can heal you.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  We learn from the prayers in our Bible’s that it is good to seek the Lord for healing.

The apostle Paul had a serious infirmity.  More than one, actually; but this one he called “the messenger of Satan.”  He said that he sought the Lord three times to remove it from him.

The fact Paul prayed three times establishes that prayer should be persistent.  He prayed more than once, and kept praying until he received an answer.

It also establishes that God doesn’t always answer prayer immediately.

But most importantly, the fact Paul prayed three times is reminiscent of Jesus praying three times in the Garden of Gethsemane, asking His Father if the cup of His impending suffering on the Cross might be avoided.

To which the Father must say “No.”

And He also must say “No” to Paul, because, as Paul explained it, he needed the suffering to both keep him humble for the great revelations given to him, and to reveal God’s strength through his weakness as he depended upon grace.

Jesus will do something about your disease.  He can heal it, but more often than not, in the church age in which we live, He wants to bring His strength from your weakness.

A few weeks ago I quoted C.S. Lewis, who said that pain was God’s megaphone.  He meant it was God’s way of getting our attention.

You know what?  If someone isn’t paying attention to God, and is headed to eternal conscious suffering in Hell, I’m OK with God doing just about anything to get their attention.

I remember a time, I was maybe 11 years old, racing on bikes with my older brother, Richard.  I didn’t see that I was about to pull in front of an oncoming car.  Richard purposely crashed his bike into mine.  We both got hurt; our bikes were unrideable.  It was a serious crash.  But not as serious as being struck by the car.

Having said that, I think that pain is mostly meant as a megaphone God hands to us, to amplify His strength in our weakness, to give us a powerful testimony of Who He is, and what He can do.  We can all cite some believer we know, or knew, who was filled with grace during a terrible illness – who amplified the grace and greatness of God in their weakest moments.

Jesus will eradicate disease, soon enough, just after the seven-year Tribulation, when He comes again to establish His kingdom.  Then, in eternity, no more disease; not even tears.

Are you suffering today?  Jesus will do something about it.  Pray for healing, and if Jesus says nothing, go on praying.  Press forward; follow hard after Him; don’t be deterred by any crowd.

If He says “No,” you’re in great company.  And you’re set up with a mega megaphone to proclaim His amazing grace.

#2    Jesus Has Done Something
    About Your Death
    (v35-43)

I’ve sort of touched upon how God deals with your suffering, working it together for the good; but I haven’t answered Why? suffering exists in the first place.

The answer, in a word or two, is free-will.  God created mankind with free-will because love cannot be forced and remain love.

God could have created a universe in which disobedience was impossible.  But then love would be impossible, and we could not be made in the image of God.

Adam and Eve are responsible for the mess we’re in.  Satan is culpable as well.

God, for His part, responded immediately.  He announced His plan and has worked through history, providentially, to see that His plan was and is being accomplished.

Let me say this as well.  If you blame God for suffering, and thereby turn your back on Him, where does that leave you?  What hope do you have to alleviate suffering?

More importantly, what hope do you have beyond the grave?

Jesus takes us beyond the grave as He continues on to Jairus’ house.

Mar 5:35  While He was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?”

I don’t want to get off on a tangent, but this was a textbook death notification.  “Your daughter is dead.”  No room for misunderstanding.

Mar 5:36  As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not be afraid; only believe.”

Jesus offered immediate hope.  He does that, every time, if we will only listen for Him.

Mar 5:37  And He permitted no one to follow Him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James.

In this mission against death, the Lord handpicked an elite force to accompany Him.  Seriously, this was spiritual warfare, and this was, for whatever reason, a strategy.

We must remain sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  We must commit to doing God’s work, God’s way.

Mar 5:38  Then He came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and saw a tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly.

Funeral customs are weird.  In Israel, when someone died, you hired as many professional mourners as you could afford.  They came with instruments and were adept at wailing.

Being so important to the Jewish community, Jairus would have had a ton of mourners who were in full wailing-mode as Jesus approached.

Mar 5:39  When He came in, He said to them, “Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.”

Critics try to say that “sleeping” meant she was not really dead, but in a coma.

While there are cases of people being thought dead who were yet alive, for the most part it’s not that hard to determine death.

She was dead.  Although dead, she was only “sleeping,” as far as Jesus was concerned.

The writers of the New Testament would elaborate on this, showing us that by using the word “sleeping” for death, you are reminded that death has been conquered.  If you are a believer, you might die, but you are immediately absent from your body and present with the Lord.

Mar 5:40  And they ridiculed Him. But when He had put them all outside, He took the father and the mother of the child, and those who were with Him, and entered where the child was lying.

Nonbelievers still love to ridicule Jesus.  Whenever some tragedy strikes, they blame God, rather than seek Him.

I’ll tell you this: If any of the victims of the shooting in San Bernardino were believers, their families have hope, and the peace of God that passes all human understanding.

What can the ridiculers offer?

Jesus brought in the three disciples, probably because Jews required three witnesses to an event in order to believe it had happened.  Of course, mom and dad were there.

Mar 5:41  Then He took the child by the hand, and said to her, “Talitha, cumi,” which is translated, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.”

His words were like those her parents might use to wake her up in the morning.  He didn’t need to shout, or to act excited.  Jesus didn’t get all worked-up, and get the others worked-up.

I think the Holy Spirit is more a whisperer than a shouter.  I’m not saying we can’t be excited or exuberant; we probably need more of that.

But wild, loud shouting, and ecstatic movements, are not the Jesus-style of doing things.

Mar 5:42  Immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age. And they were overcome with great amazement.

Mark tells us she was twelve, and that gets us thinking, because we have encountered twelve years already in this story.

Jairus’ daughter was twelve years of age.  The woman with the issue of blood had been suffering exactly that same amount of time.

Jesus addressed the woman with the word daughter.  It’s the only time He ever called anyone daughter, and it’s the same word used to describe Jairus’ little girl.

Jairus, as a ruler of a synagogue, was personally involved in declaring women like her unclean and unfit for attendance and in putting them out of the synagogue.

Jairus was now risking his own place in the synagogue by coming to Jesus for help – against the wishes of the Pharisees and scribes who were against the Lord.  Now he might be put out.

It’s a metaphor within a miracle.  Jairus could not help but see the parallels, and meditate upon them.

He would realize that the whole time he was enjoying his little girl, hugging her and kissing her, God’s dear adult daughter was being shunned and denied all human contact.

Sure, it was all according to the Law.  But maybe, just maybe, it wouldn’t have been all that bad to try to minister to her.  So what it made you ceremonially unclean?  Wasn’t it a greater exercise of the love of God to touch her?

There’s a lot here to reflect upon in terms of our own response to those in need.

Mar 5:43  But He commanded them strictly that no one should know it, and said that something should be given her to eat.

We might call this aftercare, or follow-up.  We can’t always follow-up with folks we minister to, but we ought to at least try, in order to see that they get the spiritual nourishment they need.

People who criticize God for allowing suffering for some reason nevertheless understand that we are all going to die.  They criticize God for some deaths, e.g., when children die.  But they accept that death is the way of all men.

Why?  Why accept death?

I’m serious.  If suffering bothers you, death ought to really set you off.

Jesus has done something about death, and about your death.  He’s conquered it.  You might still die, if the rapture of the church doesn’t happen first.

But death has no sting, because the grave cannot hold you.  You are immediately in Heaven (if you are a believer), and you will receive a brand spanking new resurrection body when the Lord’s trumpet is blown ending the church age.

When Jesus used the word “sleep,” He captured all of this victory over sin and death.

While we await either the rapture or our death, we are to think of ourselves as first responders in a world filled with suffering and death.

While critics ridicule Jesus, they have nothing to offer – no hope whatsoever.

We, on the other hand, have everything to offer in the Person and work of Jesus.

Let’s rush in and share His love.

Deviled Ham (Mark 5:1-20)

I dare you to Google “animals in warfare.”  It will blow your mind.

Disregard the search if you’re an animal lover.

We immediately think of horses and dogs; maybe carrier pigeons.  But a lot of other, more obscure, examples exist of animals used for war.

In the Bible we read about Samson employing animals in a unique way against the Philistines:

Jdg 15:4  … Samson went and caught three hundred foxes; and he took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails.
Jdg 15:5  When he had set the torches on fire, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.

Outside of the Bible, maybe you already knew that monkeys were set on fire, then released to ravage enemy encampments.

As recently as 2003, Morocco offered monkeys to the United States Military in Iraq.  Two-thousand monkeys gathered from the Atlas Mountains were specially trained to be used for detonating mines.

I’m not sure what kind of specialized training you need to step on a mine.  We turned them down, probably so that the American public didn’t have to see Curious George get blown to smithereens.

Don’t get me started on weaponized dolphins.  The Soviets were training them to carry explosives towards enemy warships and frogmen, to be remotely detonated.

The program reportedly ran out of funding and in 2000 the dolphins were sold to Iran.  You don’t want to swim with the dolphins in the Mediterranean Sea.  If you do, you might end up sleeping with the fishes.

By far, elephants were the most feared beasts of the ancient world’s battlegrounds.  They were huge, powerful and very imposing.  They were used as tanks, plowing down the enemy, while their riders were firing off arrows.

Elephants were used successfully against the Roman legions – that is, until the Romans developed a counter-measure.  Their ingenious anti-elephant weapon was incendiary pigs.

You heard me right.  Covered in pitch or tar, then set on fire, pigs would be released onto the battlefield.  Their high-pitched loud squeals, erratic movements, and the fire, would scatter the elephants.

Pigs figure prominently in our text in Mark chapter five.  They are likely the property of the Roman legion stationed in the ten-city area known as Decapolis.  It is unlikely they were dedicated war-pigs, although they certainly could be used in that way, as no special combat training was necessary to be set on fire.

They were most likely a food source for the soldiers stationed there.  Bacon, hard-tack biscuits, and sour wine were the staple foods of the Roman legions.

The main incident in the Bible story is the deliverance of a notoriously demon-possessed man.  But the fact that the demons are allowed to enter into the herd of swine – two thousand strong – and cause them to stampede, hurtling themselves to their death (the pigs, that is; not the demons) is pretty weird.

We’ll do our best to make some sense of what was going on.  I’ll organize my thoughts around two questions suggested by the verses: #1 When Have You Told Jesus To Go?, and #2 Where Has Jesus Told You To Go?

#1    When Have You Told Jesus To Go?
    (v1-17)

When last we saw the Lord, He was in a small boat, in a flotilla of other small boats, crossing the sea.

I want us to think in terms of an invasion – to see Jesus and His boats as an invasion force, landing on the beach, conquering enemy territory.

Mar 5:1  Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes.

In Matthew’s Gospel, we’re told Jesus came “to the country of the Gergesenes.”  These were both ways of referring to the same geography.  This was a predominately Gentile territory known as Decapolis, so called because of the ten prominent cities in the vicinity.  It’s like us saying twin-cities, or tri-cities, to designate an area.

Mar 5:2  And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,

Matthew mentions two men.  Not a problem.  Pam might ask me later today if I saw a particular person at church.  If I say “Yes,” it doesn’t mean that I didn’t see a lot of others, too.

One man in particular was prominent.  We’ve said before that the phrase “unclean spirit” was another way of describing a demon.

He comes “out of the tombs.”  This was a region of hills and cliffs, so most likely the tombs were natural caves used for burial.

“There met Him” is too polite.  Don’t be fooled into thinking this man wasn’t all that dangerous.

Think of this as a potential assault.  In another Gospel we’re told he prevented people from passing that way.  He was violent.  This man, possessed by demons, came out to do mischief, to do harm.

Mar 5:3  who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains,

If you weren’t already creeped-out that he came out of the tombs, you’re told he lived there.  They had tried binding him, even with chains, but to no avail.

Mar 5:4  because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him.

The more they tried to subdue him, the stronger he got.  It was unnatural; it was supernatural.

They couldn’t “tame” him, so it appears they tried to contain him in the tombs – giving him a certain freedom to roam about in the surrounding wilderness area.

Mar 5:5  And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.

He never slept.  He wandered his territory, vigilant against trespassers.  To add to his terror, he would shriek, and cut himself.

I wonder if local kids dared each other to go out there and see the demoniac?  You know they did.

Mar 5:6  When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him.

He had undoubtedly witnessed the boats landing, and started out to overpower the intruders.  At some point he recognized Jesus.

I say “he,” meaning the multiple demons possessing him.  This guy had never seen the Lord before, but they knew who He was.

“Worship” here means he recognized Jesus’ authority.  He did not offer Jesus worship in the normal sense of that word, singing How Great Thou Art, or some such chorus.  It was an every-knee-shall-bow sort of thing.  The demons knew they were in the presence of God.

Mar 5:7  And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.”
Mar 5:8  For He said to him, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!”

Demons have a very orthodox Christology.  They know Jesus to be the unique Son of God, the Second Person of the trinity.

I would add that they know Bible prophecy, and that they take it to be literal, not figurative or allegorical.  Let me explain what I mean.

The “torment” the demons were referring to is explained in the other Gospels as sending them to be incarcerated in the abyss “before the time.”  It is referring to future, prophetic events.

When Jesus returns, in His Second Coming, He will have Satan bound and cast into the abyss for one thousand years.  His demons will likewise be incarcerated.

At the end of the thousand year kingdom of Heaven on the earth, just before the creation of the new earth, the devil and his demons will once-for-all and forever be thrown alive into the Lake of Fire that was created for their eternal punishment.

Demons are aware of these prophecies, and they believe them, to the letter.  They don’t see them as figures, or allegories.  Neither should we.

Jesus had authority over the demons.  You and I, as believers in Jesus and His ambassadors on the earth, have His delegated authority.  His authority, not our ability, overcomes demons.

By ability, I mean that we don’t need a crucifix or holy water or special prayers and incantations.

There are some demons who are more difficult than others.  In those cases Jesus said we must be fasting and praying – not learning ancient Latin spells, or collecting relics.

Don’t be drawn to ritual exorcisms or special prayers or the identifying of territorial spirits or demanding their names.  It’s not biblical.

Mar 5:9  Then He asked him, “What is your name?” And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are many.”

“Aha!,” you say; “Jesus did ask him for a name.”

Yes, He did; but it wasn’t a regular thing Jesus did with demons, and it’s clear from the rest of the story that He asked about it for our sake – not as an essential part of defeating them.

“Legion” would immediately cause you to think about the Roman legion stationed in Decapolis.  A Roman legion was at the least six thousand troops, both mounted and infantry.

Were six-thousand demons in this one man?  Maybe.  If not that many, there were a lot, because, in a moment, they are going to possess two-thousand pigs.

Jesus had defeated Satan in one-on-one, champion combat, in the wilderness temptations.  He had effectively bound the strong man and had been going around casting demons out of folks, recovering from Satan his stolen property.

Here on the beach Jesus confronted thousands of demons at once and resoundingly defeated them, suffering no casualties.

It was a powerful testimony to His disciples that Satan was a defeated foe.  Sure, he continued to battle; but the war was won.

Mar 5:10  Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country.

They did not want to be sent prematurely to the abyss; neither did they want to be sent out of their immediate territory.

Pretty bossy for conquered demons, don’t you think?  It is reminiscent of Satan’s parley with God in the opening two chapters of the Book of Job, where God hears-out the devil, then grants him limited permission to mess with Job.

I can hear the objections.  Why would a God of love give the devil and his demons permission to do harm?  Why not simply crush the devil once-and-for-all?

The reason the devil goes on, temporarily, will become clear at the incredible reaction of the citizens.  After Jesus defeated Satan by delivering a man from thousands of demons, who had been viciously tormenting people in the region – they refused to believe in Him for salvation and instead asked Him to leave.

It isn’t that God is unable, or unwilling, to reign-in the devil.  Jesus had the devil bound, and He would have remained so, except that the majority of people were unwilling to submit to Jesus Christ.

Mar 5:11  Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains.
Mar 5:12  So all the demons begged Him, saying, “Send us to the swine, that we may enter them.”

Yes, this is weird, and it’s OK to say so.  No one can answer the “Why’s?” of this:

No one can answer why Jesus give His permission.

No one can answer why Legion wanted to go into the herd of swine.

The text doesn’t tell us, so we can’t know.  Beware the wild speculation here – like the teaching that demons must seek out hosts in order to carry-out their nefarious plans.

We don’t see rampant demonic possession today.  I don’t think it’s because we are too skeptical; I think it’s because Satan has changed his strategy.

Demonic possession was not a big thing in the Old Testament.  One of the commentators goes so far as to claim that there are no recorded cases of demonic possession at all.

(King Saul doesn’t qualify.  An evil spirit was sent to torment him, but he was not possessed, and he was never exorcized for it).

When Jesus was on the earth, and shortly thereafter, there was a tremendous spike in demonic possession.  Apparently the presence of the unique God-man was met by a virtual invasion of demons into Israel.

While demon possession may be down, there is an absolute explosion all over the globe of occult and supernatural activities that are sourced by Satan.  He’s adapted, and his strategies are more sinister and dangerous than ever.

Mar 5:13  And at once Jesus gave them permission. Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea.

Many commentators assume that it was Jews who were herding the swine in contradiction to the Law of Moses, and that their destruction was therefore a deserved judgment.

While that conveniently solves the moral dilemma of Jesus allowing demons to destroy someone’s property, it’s highly unlikely.  This was Gentile territory; Jews would not be swineherding in Decapolis.

BTW – When Jesus told the famous parable of the Prodigal Son, it’s likely that Decapolis was the far country His audience would think of as the place he was reduced to feeding the swine.

The size of the herd argues for it being provision for the Roman legion stationed in Decapolis.

The demons called themselves Legion; and there was a Roman legion there.  Is there a connection?

Maybe.  Here is one thought I had.  On the night He was crucified, Jesus commented that, if He asked, His Father in Heaven would supply Him with more than twelve legions of angels, to fight for Him against His enemies.

If we stay with the military, spiritual warfare, aspects of this story, then, at the very least, Jesus was establishing that no “legion” could affect Him – not a demonic one, not a human one.

Satan may have legions of demons, but Jesus has more in terms of angels.

Men may have their legions, but what are they against legions of angels?  In the Old Testament, a single angel killed 185,000 fierce Assyrian warriors.

Mar 5:14  So those who fed the swine fled, and they told it in the city and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that had happened.
Mar 5:15  Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.

Mark must have been modest, because only now do you understand that, in addition to shrieking and cutting himself, this guy went around naked.  He was “clothed,” meaning he was not clothed before.

Mar 5:16  And those who saw it told them how it happened to him who had been demon-possessed, and about the swine.

You might think that an amazing work of God was ready to break-out.  Certainly masses of people would seek out the Lord.

Mar 5:17  Then they began to plead with Him to depart from their region.

What?  We ought to be stunned.  There must have been among them many who were suffering from diseases and infirmities.

Then, too, as far as they knew, two- to six-thousand demons were still in the area, on the loose, presumably looking for new human hosts.

Have you heard the expression, “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t?”  It means that it is often better to deal with someone you are familiar with and know, even if they are evil, rather than take a risk with an unknown person.

In this case, the people were saying, “Better the devil we know than the Lord we don’t want to know.”

Despite the legion of demons, and the legion of soldiers, the citizens of Decapolis were doing OK.  It seemed a reasonable trade-off, the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few – or, in this case, the two demoniacs.

Look around.  I think we each could give an example of how our society has learned to live with the devil to maintain physical prosperity.

They told Jesus to “Go.”  When have you told Jesus to “Go?”

If you are not a believer, you’re telling Him to “Go” right now. Sadly, if you keep telling Him to “Go,” one day it will be too late to receive Him.  He will have to tell you to depart from Him into outer darkness, to eternal conscious suffering.

Saying “Go” means – and brace yourself – you’d rather the world continue in its current messed-up state than have God really, truly intervene.  You might be the last person who gets saved in this church age.  After that person gets saved, the resurrection and rapture of the church happens; then, soon after, the seven-year Tribulation.

We’ve already said that, at the end of the Tribulation, at His Second Coming, Jesus will bind and incarcerate Satan, and his demons.  So, in that sense, it is people who are refusing salvation that are responsible for the devil’s continued freedom to do harm.

God has a plan to crush Satan once-and-for-all, and He has revealed it.  Men would rather continue in their sin than be saved, and by default, they would therefore rather that Satan remain the ruler of this earth.

No nonbeliever has the right to blame anything on God.  He is offering salvation, wholeness, forgiveness, healing, all freely by grace.  They prefer the status quo rather than to receive Him into their hearts.

I would suggest that we believers can also tell Jesus to “Go.”  There are probably a million ways we can do it; you’ll have to search your heart.

Anytime we choose sin, or to be selfish, we’re telling the Lord to “Go,” to leave us alone to live our lives our way, rather than His.

#2    Where Has Jesus Told You To Go?
    (v18-20)

Evangelists say it all the time: Jesus is a gentleman, and won’t force Himself on anyone.  He must be invited in.

Asked to leave Decapolis without preaching or teaching or performing any miracles besides this one – He departs.

One person wants to go with him.  I bet you can guess who.

Mar 5:18  And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him.

He “begged” Jesus.  He had experienced the demons within him begging Jesus to not send them into the abyss; to not force them to leave the area; to let them enter the herd of swine.

Surprisingly, Jesus answered their request affirmatively.

Clothed and in his right mind, he had listened and watched as the citizens implored Jesus to depart.  Jesus answered them, too, in the affirmative.

How could Jesus refuse him?

Mar 5:19  However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.”

This is crazy.  The two entities you’d think Jesus would deny, He grants their requests.  The one guy whose request you’d think Jesus would grant, He denied.

It makes perfect sense.  Jesus commissioned the former demoniac as a missionary to Decapolis.

It makes perfect sense; that is, when we see it in someone else’s life.  When God says, “No” to me, I’m not always immediately on board.

Mar 5:20  And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled.

Imagine his testimony.  He could point out people he’d terrified, he’d chased, he’d scared half to death, maybe even he had assaulted.  Could this really be the same man?

It was, and it wasn’t, the same man.  It was him alright, but him transformed by his encounter with Jesus Christ.

If I, or someone else, were to ask you, “Where has Jesus told you to Go?”, would your answer be, “Right where I am today”?
If so, great.  I’m guessing most of you – most of us – are exactly where the Lord wants us.  We’re there to make a difference with the Gospel.

We are witnesses.  We are not the judge, or the jury, or the attorneys.  We give testimony to what Jesus has done for us.

If you can’t honestly say you are right where you need to be, spiritually, well, that’s something you need to address, with the Lord.

You might need to be stirred-up to have greater impact right where you are.

You might need to move-on from where you are.

You probably weren’t exorcized of thousands of demons when you got saved.  No, but in just as profound a way, you were delivered from your captivity to the devil, and set free from sin and death and Hell.

You may not have been demon possessed, but you were the devil’s possession.

Now you belong to Jesus Christ.  “Go” forward with His name on your lips, His love in your heart, His grace in your words, His compassion in your serving.

Others need deliverance, and you have the words of eternal life.

The Wind And The Pillow

There are a couple of things you should never do:

One, of course, is to never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

The other is to never take a bonka-boat ride out to Apu Island in the Philippines.

A bonka-boat is a hollowed-out log, fixed with an outrigger to stabilize it.  It’s powered by a lawnmower motor that turns a length of pipe attached to a rusty propeller.

Bear in mind there are no life vests, and no rescue squad of any kind should you get into distress.

It’s great if the ocean is like glass – like it was when we cruised over to the island early in the morning.
Later that afternoon, coming back, the water was choppy.  Both of the bonka-boats our mission team were in were getting severely beaten.  We got separated, and I honestly thought I’d never see the guys in the other boat again.  Later I heard how their boat almost capsized, and would have if one of our guys hadn’t literally jumped out of the boat to grab the outrigger and use his own body weight to stabilize it.

We barely made it back; I’m not exaggerating.  I thought I was gonna die.

I can’t help but think of that harrowing boat ride when I read about the disciples of Jesus afraid in the storm.

Their experience in the storm was the second session of a lesson that the Lord was teaching them:

First, He encouraged them to take full advantage of opportunities to sow the seed of the Word of God.
But then, with the storm, He revealed the opposition they could expect as sowers.

Opportunities still abound.  So does opposition.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 Get Ready For Opportunities To Be Sowing, and #2 Be Ready For Opposition To Your Sowing.

#1    Get Ready
    For Opportunities To Be Sowing
    (v21-34)

Jesus was revealing to His closest disciples what He called “the mystery of the kingdom of God.”  The kingdom that was promised the nation of Israel was not a mystery.  It permeates their Scriptures.  It was an ever-present hope, always on the minds of the Jews.

The mystery being revealed for the first time by Jesus was that there would be a delay in the establishing of the kingdom on the earth.  Because the Jewish authorities would reject Jesus as their king, He would return to Heaven without inaugurating the kingdom.

He would, however, return to the earth, in His Second Coming, to fulfill all the promises of a kingdom on the earth, ruled from Jerusalem.

Jesus was thus explaining to the disciples – and, by extension, to us – what would be happening between His two comings.

He told the Parable of the Sower, and we said it was foundational.  It established that the main spiritual characteristic of this age in which we live, waiting for Jesus to return, is the preaching of the Gospel to lost men, women, and children.

Listening to the Parable of the Sower, you realize that a lot of people – represented by certain soil-types – were not going to get saved.  From one point of view, in fact, it would seem that most people will remain lost.

That’s somewhat discouraging on the surface.  A sower might have a tendency to get discouraged, to grow weary, in light of the refusals of many to trust Jesus Christ and be saved.

The Lord realizes how prone we are to discouragement.  I’ve found that, even when successful ministry occurs, I can find ways to be discouraged if I’m not careful.

What Jesus does in these next few verses is pause to encourage us to go on sowing.

Mar 4:21  Also He said to them, “Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lampstand?

The household “lamp” in first century Israel was a small clay container filled with oil with a wick in it.  You wouldn’t bother to light it if your intent was to keep its light hidden.  No, you’d put it somewhere, like a lampstand, where it could give-off the most light.

Disciples of Jesus are the lamp, and we are called upon to shine in the kingdom of darkness throughout this age.

Mar 4:22  For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light.

This saying of the Lord’s has been taken out of context to strike fear into the hearts of believers.  I remember a Gospel tract in the Chic series in which our meeting with Jesus face-to-face in Heaven was portrayed as featuring our lives being played back as a movie for everyone to see and hear.  It included every secret, dark, shameful thought we had ever thunk.

Stuff like that might motivate us, for a time, but it attacks the nature and the character of Jesus.  It makes us think of our sweet Lord as Someone who wants to embarrass us in front of others.

He doesn’t.

In context, which is where we should keep these words, Jesus was encouraging His followers to share the secrets He was revealing to them.  After His resurrection, they should bring them into the light as lamps in the spiritual darkness of the world.

The teaching and preaching of God’s Word should be simple and straightforward.  It should be understandable – on the bottom shelf, as it were, where everyone can access it.

Captain Barbossa’s complaint, in Pirates of the Caribbean, could be amended to, “There are a lot of long words in there; we’re naught but humble Christians.”

We want to reveal truth, not conceal it; and we want to do it simply, for everyone to understand.

Mar 4:23  If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Your children have ears, and their hearing is better than yours.  Often, however, they act in ways that astonish you, as if they didn’t hear your warning or your restriction.

Believers are to “hear” what Jesus is saying, in the inspired Word of God, by making a spiritual effort at listening.

That might mean, for you, taking notes; or repetitive reading; or listening to a study more than once.
It might mean reading along with the transcript; or, the opposite, turning all your devices off in order to focus your mind on listening.

Whatever you need to do to have “ears to hear,” do it.

Mar 4:24  Then He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given.
Mar 4:25  For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”

There’s a famous anecdote that pastors use about a minister who keeps teaching the same passage every Sunday for several weeks in a row.  Finally one of the members of the church comes to him, to inquire about it, and he says something like, “I’m going to keep teaching it until you start to live it out!”

I doubt that ever really happened, but it illustrates what Jesus was implying in these verses.

It makes sense that God would not give you more-and-more insight into His Word if you’re not going to apply it, or share it.

It’s a stewardship issue.  Jesus wants you to take what He gives you and invest it, not hide it.

Christians sometimes feel dry.  They think it’s their church – that their pastor isn’t doing a particularly good job of teaching.

That can be true.  But it is true more often that a person isn’t acting upon the truth they’ve already received.

It’s when we feel dry that we experience what we have being taken away.  Even the things that used to excite us about God seem dull.

Again – it might be your church, but it’s probably you, and me, being hoarders of the truth rather than distributors of it.

Having encouraged us to go on sowing, Jesus tells two quick parables to describe additional characteristics of this age.

Mar 4:26  And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground,
Mar 4:27  and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.
Mar 4:28  For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.
Mar 4:29  But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

The single, simple teaching here is that the life is in the seed – not with the sower.  After it’s sown, the farmer can go about his business, live his day-to-day life, and know that the seed will “sprout and grow.”

Jesus was reminding His disciples, and us, that the power is in the Word of God.  Sow it and let it do its work.  Don’t lose confidence in it just because you cannot see it in the hearts of those to whom it’s been sown.

We need this reminder because we are always being told the church is failing.  Everyday, it seems, I see an article on how the church is failing to reach the next generation.
Some people believe it, and begin to recast the seed of the Word in some new manner that they think is more attractive.

While our methods can certainly change, our message never can.  Yes, the apostle Paul became “all things to all men,” in order to win them to Jesus.  But I see that as an attitude adjustment on his part – accepting people where they were at.

I don’t think Paul adopted their lifestyles.  If he were here today, I doubt he’d dress like a hipster, in girls bluejeans, and start a micro-brewery.  But I bet he’d minister to those who did.

Mar 4:30  Then He said, “To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it?
Mar 4:31  It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth;
Mar 4:32  but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.”

The mustard seed was the smallest seed in first century Israel; but the mustard plant (not the weed we might think of) could grow to a height of many feet.

This one grew to be huge, and we can see in Jesus’ description that it featured both supernatural and unnatural growth.

The Parable of the Mustard Seed ensures us that the mystery phase of the kingdom of God in-between the two comings of Jesus is going to feature phenomenal growth.

Jesus hadn’t revealed it yet, but in-between His comings He would be building His church, comprised of all born-again believers from the Day of Pentecost until His Second Coming.  It’s growth will be nothing short of supernatural.  Nothing and no one – not devils or men – can stop it.

With the benefit of hindsight and history, we see the continued supernatural growth of the church.

But we also see something unnatural.  There are many groups, and many individuals, who lay claim to being Christians, but are not.  A person in the East might think of all Westerners as Christians.  They think of all denominations, and sects, as Christian – when we know many are non-Christian cults.

These are the birds in the branches.  We know the birds must be bad, they must be evil, because they were agents of Satan in the Parable of the Sower.  They can’t be whatever we want them to be.

Thus while this parable describes the unstoppable supernatural growth of the church, it does not teach that the church will somehow prepare the world for the return of Jesus, or that we are in the kingdom now.

Mar 4:33  And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it.
Mar 4:34  But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.

Parables to the multitudes, with explanation to the disciples.  Bear in mind a person could go from being just a member of the multitudes to being a disciple.

No one was being denied the forgiveness of their sins.  But they must seek after the Lord Himself, and not just His miracles.

Remember the old Dr. Pepper jingle,

I’m a pepper
He’s a pepper
She’s a pepper
We’re a pepper
Wouldn’t you like to be a pepper too?

Well, we could substitute “sower” for “pepper,” and have that rattling around in our brains, reminding us to look for, and take advantage of, any and every opportunity to share the Gospel.

#2    Be Ready
    For Opposition To Your Sowing
    (v35-41)

We don’t need to understand and read Greek or Aramaic, or Hebrew, for that matter, in order to understand God’s Word.
But every now and then, the proper translation of a word can help us immensely.

Jesus is going to calm a storm at sea by saying, “Peace, be still.”

The Greek word translated “be still” literally means be muzzled. This is the same command Jesus issued when He addressed demons, which implies that this storm was actually stirred by Satan.

Knowing this was the devil’s doing, we can see this episode as a reminder to us that ministry will always be met by demonic opposition of some kind.

Mar 4:35  On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.”

Did you ever, in elementary school, take that test that was really a trick to see if you read the instructions?

The teacher is supposed to really hype how important it is for you to finish all twenty-five questions.  But you don’t really have enough time to do so.

Nervous you won’t finish, you turn over the test and dive right into it – without reading the one-sentence directions on the top.

The directions say, “Answer only questions one and twenty-five, then turn your test in to your teacher.”

Most fifth graders miserably fail.

Jesus’ direction to His disciples is a kind of test; or at least commentators see it that way.  He said to His disciples, “Let us cross over to the other side.”

He didn’t say, “Let us cross under to the bottom of the sea.”  In other words, they could have had faith to know they would arrive at the opposite shore, as promised, despite the storm.

Mar 4:36  Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him.

“Other little boats” were involved – boats on which Jesus was not a passenger.  If the guys on His boat were terrified, how do you think these other boats were doing?

Make a mental note of the fact “other little boats were also with Him,” too, for our next study.  As chapter five opens, Jesus lands and immediately faces-off against the man living in tombs possessed by a legion of demons.

Thus this whole scene reads like a D-Day invasion, as Jesus’ little flotilla hits the beach and is met by considerable force – only to completely eliminate the opposition.

Mar 4:37  And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling.

Before we criticize the boys in the boat, we see that they waited until they were taking on water.  It seemed they would definitely sink.

I don’t want to ruin anyone’s promise to you that Jesus won’t let you sink, but He just might.

The apostle Paul was in multiple shipwrecks, left floating on the planks of the ships that had broken-up under him.  In the Book of Acts he says, during a particularly wicked storm at sea,

Act 27:22  And now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.
Act 27:26  However, we must run aground on a certain island.”

Jesus was just as much with him in the water as He was on the deck.
I want us to be ready in case our ship sinks.  It can, but that in no way minimizes the love of Jesus.

Jesus is always, always, always, with you in the storm; and that means sometimes in the sea after your boat has disintegrated.

Mar 4:38  But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”

Ouch!  Jesus, full of compassion, is accused of not caring, because He wasn’t doing what they thought He should.

Jesus, Who would die on the Cross for them, and everyone else, is accused of being callous to their needs.
We do this anytime we question the Lord’s love on account of our circumstances.

We talk a lot about suffering because the age in which we live, between the two comings of Jesus, is to be marked by our suffering with patience and perseverance, as a testimony to the grace of God at work in our lives.

I remembered a quote from C.S. Lewis’ book on suffering, The Problem of Pain.  It goes like this: “… pain insists upon being attended to.  God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

I think that Lewis meant God uses pain and suffering to shout at us, as His megaphone, to get our undivided attention.

While that may be true, and with apologies to Lewis, I think that pain and suffering are a megaphone the Lord hands us, for us to shout about His grace while we are afflicted.  Paul, in fact, said he boasted in his sufferings.

Has God handed you the megaphone?  What are you shouting through it?

Mar 4:39  Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.

The wind might suddenly subside naturally, but for the sea to become instantly like glass – well, that’s a miracle, and especially noticeable to seasoned fishermen.

As we pointed-out, Jesus spoke to this storm in a way that indicated it was satanic in origin.

The devil cannot be blamed for every bad thing; we live in a fallen world, after all.

But we must be aware that he will do everything and anything to hinder us from sowing the seed of the Word of God.

Our part is to simply press on, to move forward, knowing that the Lord is with us, and will never leave us or forsake us; not on the deck, not in the deep.

Mar 4:40  But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”

This is understandable when coupled with His words, “Let us cross over to the other side.”  By faith in His words, they could have known they would – one way or another – reach their destination.

I was thinking how we go out of our way to simulate crazy motion by going to places like Magic Mountain.  We have faith that the rides are safe and well-maintained.

Until we see some YouTube video of people hanging upside-down for several hours on some loop roller coaster.

We go on those because we enjoy the ride.  Jesus wants us to rejoice in the ‘ride’ we are on with Him – even through the storm, even in the sea.

Mar 4:41  And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”

They were afraid in the storm, but more afraid of Jesus.  Was this a proper, submissive, reverential fear of God?  Or were they afraid of what they’d signed-up for?

Both are possibilities for disciples, especially as we face opposition for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Christian life isn’t war games.  It’s live-fire, with injuries and casualties.  There’s friendly-fire, too – but that’s for another text to describe.

Besides expecting it, how can we be ready for opposition?

By remembering Who Jesus is; and that, ultimately, He is in charge.

“Even the wind and the sea obey Him.”  He can keep us from the storm; He can keep us through the storm – even if our boat splinters underfoot.

Take up the megaphone when it is your lot in life to suffer, letting everyone know that God’s grace is sufficient.

1Co 15:55  “O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING? O HADES, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY?”
1Co 15:56  The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
1Co 15:57  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Co 15:58  Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

On With The Sow This Is It!

The news media gave her the nickname “The Black Dahlia.”  Her given name was Elizabeth Short.  She was the victim of a much-publicized murder in 1947.  It is one of the oldest unsolved murder cases in Los Angeles history.

It may finally be on the verge of being solved… thanks to a soil-sample.  A cadaver dog reacted to a site at a suspects former residence, and soil samples have been sent away for lab testing to determine if there are traces of Short’s remains.

Soil-samples are the prominent feature in Mark chapter four.

Jesus tells a parable that we call the Parable of the Sower.
There is nothing wrong with that title; but it could justly be called the Parable of the Soils, because that is where the major emphasis lies.
We’ll see that there are four types of soil, and that there are tests to determine the types.

The soils represent the spiritual conditions and characteristics that can be found in the human heart.

With that in mind, I’ll organize my thoughts around two questions: #1 Are You Willing To Admit To Your Soil Type?, and #2 Are You Willing To Submit To A Soil Test?

#1    Are You Willing To
Admit To Your Soil Type?
(v1-12)

The religious authorities from Jerusalem had declared Jesus the agent of Beelzebub, which was their name for the devil.
The multitudes that pressed upon Him did so for healing and deliverance, and not so much to repent and receive the forgiveness of sin.

Jesus reacted by adopting a new way of teaching.

Mar 4:1  And again He began to teach by the sea. And a great multitude was gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea.
Mar 4:2  Then He taught them many things by parables, and said to them in His teaching:

Jesus had used parables previously; but now He would use them primarily.  We’ll see why in a moment.

“Parable” is from a word that means to cast alongside.  Spiritual truths can be somewhat difficult to communicate.  Or they can be dry, in their presentation.

A parable is a reference to everyday things that can be cast alongside spiritual truth in order to communicate it simply and effectively.

Jesus told the Parable of the Sower.

Mar 4:3  “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.
Mar 4:4  And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it.
Mar 4:5  Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth.
Mar 4:6  But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away.
Mar 4:7  And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.
Mar 4:8  But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

To plant your field, you’d go out with a bag of seed slung over your shoulder, and you’d broadcast it by hand in your field.
After the entire field was covered with seed, you’d return with a hand-plow, or oxen pulling a plow, turning over the soil so the seed was just covered.

Some of the broadcast seed would “fall on the wayside.”

If our Sanctuary was the field, where you are sitting would be the main field, and the walkways down the center and along the sides, and here in front, would be the wayside.  It was unprepared soil that functioned as walkways and was, therefore, somewhat hard.  The broadcast seed sat on top, unprotected.

Flocks of birds would follow the sower and eat the seed that fell on the wayside.  It’s like Nigel said, in Finding Nemo, “Birds gotta eat.”

Sometime after the plowing, you’d discover that “some fell on stony ground.”  When we bought a tract home a few years after moving to Hanford, there was no yard.  I started to prepare the front yard for grass seed by roto-tilling.  I hit something hard.  I thought it was a rock.

It was rock, alright; it was a huge slab of concrete buried about four inches under the soil.  Apparently one of the cement trucks had dumped its excess load there and rather than clearing it out, the builder buried it.

I had to ask a friend who owned a tractor and a dump truck to come help me remove it.

There are rocks everywhere in Israel, as well as limestone deposits just under the surface.  Even if the soil was prepared, some of the seed you broadcast will fall on ground that has rock a few inches beneath the surface.

Conditions there are great for quick germination, but not for sustained growth.  The shallow roots cannot compete with the scorching sun, and those plants wither.
Weeds.  My dad used to remind me, “You’ve got to pull out the roots.”  Even then, weeds find a way into your field.  Left unchecked, they choke-out your plants.

Just when it seems hopeless to be a farmer, you’re reminded of the bounty that the remaining plants can produce – thirtyfold, sixty, or a hundred.

Nothing new here.  Everyone living in Israel knew these things.  If Wikipedia had been a thing in first century Capernaum, this would be the entry under “Soil Types.”

After what was probably a long, pregnant pause for emphasis, Jesus made this stunning personal application:

Mar 4:9  And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

Whoa!  That’s different.  “Go figure it out.”  They were going to have to work at understanding what Jesus taught.  No more freebies.

It was time to separate the disciples from the disinterested – to see who was following Jesus for Who He was, and not simply for what He could do.

Why this radical change?  His disciples were wondering too, so they asked Jesus to clarify.

Mar 4:10  But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable.

The twelve guys Jesus had specially chosen, and other close followers, were understandably confused, and curious.

Commentators sometimes criticize them, pointing out that they waited until they were alone to ask about the parable, so as not to seem ignorant in front of the crowds.

I’d counter that by pointing out that, even with Jesus’ subsequent explanation, there are Bible teachers who still remain confused about the parables.

At any rate, I, for one, am glad they asked, and that the Holy Spirit inspired Mark to record Jesus’ explanation.

Mar 4:11  And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables,
Mar 4:12  so that ‘SEEING THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND HEARING THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND; LEST THEY SHOULD TURN, AND THEIR SINS BE FORGIVEN THEM.’ ”

“The mystery of the kingdom of God.”  That phrase is, as Donald Trump might say, “Huge.”

The kingdom of God, promised to Israel in their Scriptures – what we call the Old Testament – was no mystery.  Many of its features were recorded.  Beating swords into plough shares and such.

A “mystery” in the Bible is always something previously unknown that is being revealed.

The nation of Israel rejected Jesus as their King and, with Him, they rejected the immediate establishing of the kingdom of God on the earth.  Jesus would instead return to Heaven to await His Second Coming when all Israel would be saved, receive Him as King, and enjoy the kingdom on the earth.

The question that naturally arises is, “What is going to happen in- between these two comings?”  The answer is the mystery revealed through the Parable of the Sower, and the other parables Jesus will tell that describe the progress of this age during the wait for His return.

He will tell us that the predominant feature of the age between His two comings is that the Gospel will be seed spread by sowers into the soil of men’s hearts until the final harvest at the Second Coming of Jesus.

Jesus quoted from the sixth chapter of Isaiah.  It related a time in Israel’s past when the Jews had refused to receive God’s Word. Jesus said it was also a prophecy that was being fulfilled in His day as the Jews were rejecting Him.

This is not a general teaching about certain people being unable to hear the Gospel and receive Jesus.  It is a specific prophecy about the people of Jesus’ day who saw His miracles and heard His teachings but made a personal choice to reject Him.  They hardened their hearts to the Word, and to the works, of God.

They had rejected the light, so they would be given no more light, but rather would be left in the dark.

Even what they had would be taken away – meaning in part that their King would ascend into Heaven.
Mar 4:13  And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?

This reads like another minor rebuke, and maybe it was.  At the very least, Jesus was letting them know that listening to the Word of God was going to take personal effort.

Salvation is not by works; not at all.  It is the free gift of God, received by faith, where faith is not a work, but simply a response.

Once you are saved, there is work to do, and part of that work is to seek after God with all of your heart and mind and soul and strength.

As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after Thee.

Is that true of me?  Of you?  Or are we less like panting deer and more like hibernating bears?

A hibernating bear can go months without drinking water.  It’s water comes from the breakdown of its fat.

It’s possible for us to become fat, then live off of our reserves, rather than daily seeking the Lord for a fresh supply.

Let me give you an illustration, not to burden you, but simply as a measure of your thirst.

When I was a young Christian, I would always get the Sunday teaching, so I could listen to it again.  I believed the Lord was speaking to me through those messages, since He had led me to that church.

In those days the studies were recorded on cassette tapes.  Those are in museums now.  They’ve been replaced by mp3’s you can download directly to your tablet or smart phone from our website.  Or you can easily burn your own CD.  Or you can subscribe to our free podcast.

If you’re totally old school, you can have the weekly study transcript delivered to you via email, so you can at least read it.

Let me ask you this.  If you miss a Sunday, do you feel at all compelled to listen to, or read, the study you’ve missed?

You don’t have to.  I’m not saying it makes you more, or less, spiritual.

But, if you simply ignore the message, you might be living off of your fat, rather than panting after the fresh water.

In His interpretation, Jesus will compare the four soil types to conditions and characteristics that can be present in the human heart.  As we move into the application, the question to ask is, “Am I willing to admit my soil type?”

It’s an important question, because we tend to think that, if we are saved, we are only, always, the good soil, in which the Word flourishes.

It’s a little more involved than that.  We can think in terms of the four soils as four different people who “hear”; but we can also think of them as one person who “hears” the Word at different times in his or her life.

We all know people who maybe seemed completely hard to the Gospel, as if the devil snatched it away, but who later came to Christ.

That same person, although saved, can be stumbled by trials and persecutions.
That same person, although saved, can become distracted by the cares of this life, and, for a time at least, live a marginal Christian life, producing no fruit.

No one person, it seems, is limited to one type of heart throughout their lifetime.

Thus the door is opened to honestly assess my current soil type, as we submit to the Lord’s soil test in the remaining verses.

#2    Are You Willing To
Submit To A Soil Test?
(v13-20)

Before we trusted the anonymous voice that commands our every turn via GPS, we had glove boxes full of maps.  You’d need dozens of them just to go from here to Fresno.  They were way too big – the size of a picture window – and impossible to re-fold.

If you could pull-over and spread-out the correct map on the hood of your car, it was a challenge to read them.  Maps used symbols or colors to represent things.

Lucky for you, there was, on the map, a legend.  Also called a key, legends are boxes in the corner of the map, and the information they give you is essential to understanding the map.
The Parable of the Sower is a legend, or a key, parable in that it is first, foundational, and unlocks the mystery of the parables that follow it to describe the things we can expect between the two comings of Jesus to establish the kingdom of God on the earth.

Mar 4:13  And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?

Sure, once again this reads like a mild rebuke.  Maybe, but what comes through is the understanding that this is the parable that sets the stage for the mystery phase of the kingdom that was being revealed.

Mar 4:14  The sower sows the word.

Anyone teaching or preaching the Gospel is a “sower.”  The first sower was Jesus, then His immediate disciples, followed by all the disciples made after them – whosoever believes in Him.  You and I are sowers.

The Word – God’s Word, the Bible – is the seed.  It’s a great illustration because, just as a seed has the capacity for life within it, so the Word of God is alive and powerful, able to save to the uttermost those in whom it takes root.

Peter, who was present at this explanation, would later write, “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God” (First Peter 1:23).

Sower, seed, then soil; and, for our purposes today, we are concentrating, as Jesus did, on the four soil types as a test of our own hearts and our readiness to receive and to go on receiving this incorruptible seed and produce lasting spiritual fruit.

Mar 4:15  And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.

Seed that is tilled over will take root, because there is life in it.  The reason everyone does not respond positively to the Gospel is that Satan is also at work in this age, and has strategies to “take away the word that [is] sown in [human] hearts.”

Have you ever brought a friend or family member to church, or to an evangelistic event, and thought, “This message is just for them!”  But if an invitation is given, they just sit there – as if they haven’t heard a word, let alone the Word.

Many of us were like that.  After I got saved, I could recall times that the Gospel was presented, but that the Word was quickly stolen.

It may seem silly, but once on the campus of UC Riverside, two guys handed me a tract.  I was starting to look at it, but I had an urge to throw it away.  There just happened to be a garbage can near me.  I threw it in and forgot about it.

If you’re passing out tracts, make sure there are no garbage cans around.  And that there is a stiff fine for littering.

Mar 4:16  These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness;
Mar 4:17  and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble.

The Gospel is so powerful that it can produce effects in a person’s heart before they make a decision for Jesus Christ.  This person, maybe, came forward to receive the Lord.  Or you would say that their eyes were opened to the truth, and they began to seek the Lord.

In either case, when it became difficult to walk with the Lord, they stumbled – meaning they were offended that it wasn’t going to be easy.

I would argue that this can describe believers, too.  We are warned, are we not, to never consider it strange or unusual when we fall into various trials.  We wouldn’t need the warning unless we did think it strange.

Truth is, we are stumbled when trial or trouble hits enters our lives.  It’s the shallow response to get mad at God, or remain in a spiritual fog.

Among other things, it’s a soil test.  If I stumble in my trial, then it is indicating I have shallow soil.

But, guess what?  I can recognize that I’m shallow, and I can break-up the rock layer, so that the roots of God’s Word can go deeper, and so I can grow.

Mar 4:18  Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word,
Mar 4:19  and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

This is the soil that probably best characterizes life in these United States.  We’ve been blessed, and are prospering (for the most part).  Nothing wrong with prosperity.  God Himself promised Israel they would prosper, for obeying Him.

We are not Israel, but Israel’s example is instructive.  The more they prospered, the more they forgot God.

Their prosperity caused them to think more about physical things than spiritual things, leading to an emphasis on caring for their wealth.
Their prosperity deceived them into thinking it was something they deserved, rather than a gift from God.
The more they had, the more they wanted, in a refusal to be satisfied with what God had provided.

If you have any familiarity with the Old Testament, you know that they became “unfruitful” in their relationship with God, causing Him to discipline them.

Look at it this way.  If you are in love with someone, you will forgo just about anything and everything to be with that person.  The things you forgo are not bad; it’s just that they become insignificant to you.

It’s another soil test.  Only you can ask yourself, “What would I rather be doing than spending time with Jesus?”
Whatever it is might (and I am careful to emphasize “might”) be some worldly care, or some deceitfulness of your prosperity, or some desire for other things.

There is also good soil:

Mar 4:20  But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

You sow the seed and some of it will fall into hearts whose soil has been prepared to receive it.  Those folks get saved and begin a life of producing spiritual fruit.

Want to go on being good soil, that produces fruit?  Of course you do; and here is how you do it.

You “(1)hear the Word, (2)accept it, and (3)bear fruit.”

Hearing the Word isn’t merely listening to it, or being aware of it.  It is active listening – the kind of listening Jesus indicated when He said “he who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Because of the strategies of Satan to steal the Word, and our own natural propensities to be stumbled or selfish, we need to really work at hearing.

Our time of waiting, and reflecting, upon God’s Word each week after the study is a good example.  We force ourselves – in a good way – to really hear the Word.  Before it can be stolen; or we can stumble; or act selfishly; we wait upon the Lord so His Word can take root to bear fruit.

Jesus said good soil “accept[s]” the Word.  It comes down to this: Will you do what God says, in His Word, despite it being contrary to your will, or uncomfortable, or inconvenient?

More-and-more, Christians are saying, “No, I won’t submit to God.”  You see it a lot in marriages, because, after all, that’s where we live.  Too many couples are divorcing with no biblical grounds, contrary to God’s very definite will for them.  They count on the grace of God to later forgive them – after they’ve totally disobeyed Him.

We need to approach the Word as pre-submitted to it.  Whatever God says to do, or to not do, I am ready to submit – to His glory and for my ultimate good.

Only when we hear and accept can we bear lasting spiritual “fruit.”

Do some bear more fruit than others?  It seems that way.  But I think Jesus was indicating that, in my field – in my heart – I have potential to go on bearing more-and-more fruit.

In New Testament times, it wasn’t really feasible to go through the field on your hands and knees to identify these soil problems.  But if you knew there were rocks, or the roots of weeds, in the field, you’d be wrong to ignore those patches of ground.

If you are saved, you’ve been born-again by the incorruptible seed of God’s Word.  You can go through your field – your heart – and test the soil.  In fact, you must perform a soil test, because we are prone to stumbling and selfishness, when we desire instead to remain spiritual.

It’s A Plunderful Life (Mark 3:22-35)

Sing with me, if you know the words:

Yo, ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me.  
We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, and loot,
drink up me hearties yo ho!  
We kidnap and ravage and don’t give a hoot,
drink up me hearties yo ho!

To which we all say, “Arrr!”

No, it isn’t National Pirate Day.  The word “plunder,” however, is prominent in the verses we will discuss today.  Jesus uses the word to describe His confrontations with the devil.

Is Jesus a pirate?  Of course not.  But since we almost can’t help but associate the word “plunder” with pirates,  I thought it best to get it out of our system right at the beginning.

In a very descriptive illustration, Jesus says, “No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house” (v27).

Satan is the “strong man” Jesus was describing.  His “house” is the world.  His “goods” are, primarily, human beings whom he holds captive and beats mercilessly as slaves.

Jesus claimed He had “bound” Satan in order to free those he held captive.

He more than claimed it.  He demonstrated it, by casting out demons and making people whole.

Mark then adds a passage about Jesus’ mother and brothers.  It seems a little out of place, but it isn’t.  It’s right where it belongs, because in those verses Jesus talks about those who constitute His spiritual family who live in what the Bible elsewhere calls “the household of faith.”

We’ll look at both the devil’s house and at the household of faith.  I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 Houses To Plunder Await You In The World, and #2 A Household Of Wonder Equips You In The Lord.

#1    Houses To Plunder
    Await You In The World
    (v22-30)

Jesus had been putting on a mighty display of power and authority over demons by casting them out of any and all who were possessed.

Jesus also encountered folks whose afflictions were attributed directly to the devil.  He healed them.

No one could deny the results.  People were set free and made whole.

You’d think the universal reaction to ending so much human suffering would be rejoicing.  It wasn’t.

Mar 3:22  And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebub,” and, “By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons.”

Notice these “scribes” were from Jerusalem.  The local scribes had not had any success refuting Jesus, so they radioed headquarters for help.

The religious leaders were no help to the people.  In fact, in one place Jesus says they made things worse by heaping burdens upon already burdened people, then offering them no help in bearing them.

It’s one thing to not have the ability to cast out demons and heal those afflicted by them.  But it’s just wrong to oppose the Person Who was going about doing those things.

Faced with the facts, they came up with the idea that Jesus “has Beelzebub.”  The phrasing means they thought He must Himself be working for “Beelzebub,” whom they understood to be “the ruler of the demons.”

There are a ton of interpretations regarding just who Beelzebub really was, and what the name really means.  All we need to know is that the Jews used the name as a description of “the ruler of the demons.”

By “ruler” they didn’t  necessarily mean that Beelzebub controlled the demons.  The word can mean that he was the most powerful of them.

The scribes were suggesting that there was a conflict among demons, with Beelzebub on the offensive against lesser demons.  He was, they argued, using Jesus to vanquish the lesser demons.

Truth is, the Jews had a very limited knowledge of things demonic.  In their Scriptures – what we know as the Old Testament – references to Satan and to demons do not appear together in a single passage.  It is not at all clear that Satan is their leader.

The New Testament takes it for granted there is a close relationship between Satan and demons.  They are frequently represented as a hierarchy over which Satan rules.

But a first century scribe might have thought Beelzebub was making a move on the other demons – casting them out, so he could take over their realm.

Thus the scribes were ignorant, not stupid.  Their accusation made sense to them.

It’s a far more sinister false accusation, therefore, than we normally might think.  In the mind of the average Jew in that period, with their limited knowledge of demons, what the scribes were accusing Jesus of could make sense.

Mar 3:23  So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan?

Packed into this opening question is a totally new demonology for the Jews.  Jesus said that the demon they were calling the prince of the demons is none other than Satan, and that the demons Jesus had been casting out are under Satan’s direct authority.

We take that for granted, because we have the complete Bible.  But this was revolutionary to Judaism.

Jesus, of course, had inside information about all this.  He had seen Satan fall from Heaven, and take one-third of the angels with him in his rebellion.  He spoke with authority about the supernatural realm.

Mar 3:24  If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
Mar 3:25  And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
Mar 3:26  And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end.

There was no hostile demonic take-over in progress.  There was, instead, a Satanic kingdom, ruled over by the devil and administrated by his loyal, subordinate demons.

Not only was there no kingdom-wide civil war, there was no insubordination at the “house” level, meaning that individual demons who possessed and afflicted people were totally loyal to Satan.

Jesus’ power and authority was not from Satan rising up against himself.  It was from Jesus having power and authority over the devil and his kingdom.

Mar 3:27  No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.

It helps our appreciation of this illustration to know that one of the possible definitions of Beelzebub is master of the house.  The Jews were right; there was a master of the house.  But it wasn’t Jesus; it was Satan.

Jesus portrayed Himself as the One who could, and did, bind Beelzebub, the master of the house.

Just exactly when did Jesus bind Satan?  I’d trace it back to the temptation in the wilderness where, in one-on-one, champion vs. champion spiritual combat, Jesus defeated Satan.  He emerged victorious from there and every time He encountered a demon, or a legion of them, He cast them out – proving the strong man was bound.

Having bound Satan, i.e., having defeated him, Jesus could “plunder his house.”  Every person freed from possession or demonic affliction was a plunder – was a recovered spoil of spiritual warfare – that Jesus removed from Satan’s influence and control.

Is Satan bound today?  Sadly, no.  He is presented in the New Testament as the god of this age (Second Corinthians 4:4) and the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2).

We are clearly told that he goes about as a roaring lion, seeking people to devour (First Peter 5:8).

We are told that people are taken captive by him to do his will (Second Timothy 2:26).

What happened?  How did he escape his binding by Jesus?

He was let loose because the Jewish leaders ultimately rejected Jesus as their savior and messiah.  Jesus called it the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

Mar 3:28  “Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter;
Mar 3:29  but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”—
Mar 3:30  because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

These words strike fear into the hearts of sincere believers.  Christians wonder if they have committed this terrible sin.

Have they?  Can they?  Let’s look at what Jesus meant in context.

Remember that Jesus was offering to inaugurate the kingdom of God on the earth that had been promised to Israel.

God the Father sent John the Baptist to prepare the nation for the coming of their Messiah.  Multitudes of the common people responded to John’s call and repented, but the religious leaders permitted John to be arrested and eventually killed.
God the Son came as promised and called the nation to trust Him, but those same religious leaders asked for Jesus to be killed.

The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, empowering Jesus’ disciples. How did those same religious leaders respond?  By arresting the Apostles, ordering them to keep silent, and then killing Stephen themselves.

Stephen told them what their sin was: “You do always resist the Holy Spirit” (Act 7:51).  They had sinned against the Father and the Son, but had been graciously forgiven.  When they sinned against the Holy Spirit, they had hardened their hearts to a point of no repentance and there could be no more forgiveness.

The apostle Paul would thus say to them about this point of no return, at the end of the Book of Acts,

Act 28:25  …”The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers,
Act 28:26  saying, ‘GO TO THIS PEOPLE AND SAY: “HEARING YOU WILL HEAR, AND SHALL NOT UNDERSTAND; AND SEEING YOU WILL SEE, AND NOT PERCEIVE;
Act 28:27  FOR THE HEARTS OF THIS PEOPLE HAVE GROWN DULL. THEIR EARS ARE HARD OF HEARING, AND THEIR EYES THEY HAVE CLOSED, LEST THEY SHOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, LEST THEY SHOULD UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEARTS AND TURN, SO THAT I SHOULD HEAL THEM.” ‘
Act 28:28  “Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!”

Israel’s leaders had thereby blasphemed the work of the Holy Spirit, hardening their hearts to a place they would not repent.  The offer of the kingdom was now off the table.

Satan was thereby released and we entered the church age where we await a Second Coming of Jesus.  That Second Coming is preceded by the resurrection and rapture of the church, and the seven-year Tribulation on the earth.

At the Second Coming, Satan will be taken into custody and be bound and imprisoned for the thousand-year duration of the kingdom of heaven on the earth.

In context, it was Israel’s leadership who committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit by ultimately and utterly rejecting Jesus, attributing to the Holy Spirit the works of the devil as their excuse.

Scholars debate whether or not the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is a sin that can be committed today.  Many good Bible teachers say that it cannot be committed today because it involved Israel as a nation rejecting the Messiah, and that’s something that isn’t repeatable.

Evangelicals who say the sin still can be committed typically explain that, since the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is a total, final rejection of Jesus, it is committed when a person dies without receiving Jesus as their Savior.  Since it is the work of the Holy Spirit to bear witness to every human heart of their need for salvation, and the provision of the Savior, when a person dies without Jesus, they have effectively blasphemed the Holy Spirit.

It’s therefore a sin that can’t be committed while you are alive.  It kicks-in if you die in your sins, without the righteousness of Jesus.

Pastor and author Warren Wiersbe wrote,

The only sin today that God cannot forgive is rejection of His Son (Joh 3:16-21, Joh 3:31).  When the Spirit of God convicts the sinner and reveals the Savior, the sinner may resist the Spirit and reject the witness of the Word of God, but that does not mean he has forfeited all his opportunities to be saved.  If he will repent and believe, God can still forgive him.  Even if the sinner so hardens his heart that he seems to be insensitive to the pleadings of God, so long as there is life, there is hope.  Only God knows if and when any “deadline” has been crossed.  You and I must never despair of any sinner (1Ti 2:4; 2Pe 3:9).

That brings us to the application of these verses to us, today. The world is the devil’s kingdom, and everywhere we look there are houses in which he holds people captive.  Their lives are full of misery for lack of the knowledge and the presence of God; and they are on a slippery path leading to an eternity separated from God suffering eternal conscious torment.

Satan is not bound, but we are told that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. We therefore can still plunder.

In fact, it’s our mission to plunder the strong man’s house and set free those he holds captive.

The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

First it is the power by which a person is saved.  God’s grace works on their hearts to free their will in order that they might make a decision for Jesus.

Second it is the power of being indwelt by God the Holy Spirit to live a life pleasing to God – life as it was meant to be lived.
You plunder houses by living for Jesus – by being Christ-like – and by encouraging others to have their sins forgiven and be saved while they still have the opportunity.

#2    A Household Of Wonder
    Equips You In The Lord
    (v31-35)

The remaining five verses of chapter three seem tacked on, almost out of place, a footnote at best.  But I think we will see otherwise.

Earlier in the chapter, Mark had said that “when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind” (v21).  He left off from that to describe the Beelzebub controversy, and now returns to it to let us know that “His own people” were members of His own birth family.

I suggest to you there is more here than a clarification. Jesus said something radical that resonates through the entire church age.

Mar 3:31  Then His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him.

Who are these “brothers?”  I told you last week that there is a disagreement between Protestants and Roman Catholics over their identity:

The Roman Catholic Church teaches the perpetual virginity of Mary.  They say she never had sex with her husband, Joseph, and never had any other children.  They argue that this word for brothers can mean other relatives, like cousins.
We say it is extra-biblical and absurd to say that Mary remained a virgin.  These are Jesus’ brothers – the children born to Joseph and Mary after the Lord was born.

BTW The Catholic Church also teaches the Immaculate Conception of Mary.  They mean that Mary, even though born of human parents, was nevertheless conceived without original sin or its stain.  That is what “immaculate” means – without stain.

The Gospel of Mark 6:3 and the Gospel of Matthew 13:55-56 state that James, Joseph, Jude, and Simon were the brothers of Jesus.  The same verses also mention unnamed sisters of Jesus.

Another verse in the letter to the Galatians (1:19) mentions seeing James, “the Lord’s brother.”

The “brothers of the Lord” are also mentioned, alongside (but separate from) Peter and the apostles in First Corinthians 9:5.

Regarding Mary, this is the only place in the Gospel of Mark where she is seen.  She comes with Jesus’ brothers because they believe He has gone insane. This is an attempted mental health intervention.

Mary didn’t understand, not fully, who Jesus was, and what was His mission.  Obviously, she was not yet a believer; she was not, at that point, saved.

Even if you want to concede (which you don’t) that these may have been cousins, Mary comes off badly – as a nonbeliever who was seeking to undermine the Gospel.

Jesus’ family members could not press through the crowd.  Even though they were family, no preferential treatment was shown to them.

They got a message to Jesus.

Mar 3:32  And a multitude was sitting around Him; and they said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You.”

Mom and the boys had come. It would seem natural for Jesus to take a break, to take five, and see His family.

Everything surrounding Jesus was strategic.  In this case, to yield to His family, even momentarily, could be construed by Jesus’ enemies as showing they were right, and that He was, indeed, one brick shy of a full load.

Two rungs short of a ladder.  Not playing with a full deck.  You get the idea.

Mar 3:33  But He answered them, saying, “Who is My mother, or My brothers?”

That’s unexpected.  It put the crowd on alert that following Jesus meant a change in one’s attitude toward natural family ties.

It was one thing for a disciple to leave everything to follow Jesus. But He had only called upon twelve guys to do that.  I’m sure everyone else thought life was business as usual, with family always coming first.

Mar 3:34  And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers!
Mar 3:35  For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.”

These are radical words in any culture, but certainly in the Jewish culture.  Jesus wasn’t advocating abandoning family, but He was making it clear that the will and the work of God takes priority even over family.

Let me take a moment to qualify that.  Too often people use this as an excuse to ignore their responsibilities to their family. Pastors and Christian workers especially get so into their ministry to others that they neglect their families.

They forget that treating your wife like Jesus treats the church, and raising your kids in the Lord, IS your ministry.

Jesus’ comments are not an excuse to disobey the clear teaching of the Bible about the home.

A better application of this is to consider your own nonbelieving family.  Are you willing to take a stand for Jesus in your nonbelieving family?

Will you do the will and the work of God?  Or are you prone to spiritual compromise because, after all, it’s family?

Everyone must answer those questions for themselves.  Just be honest in asking and answering them.  Don’t under-estimate the pressure of your family, and the fact they can be used by the devil to undermine your witness for the Lord.

On the plus side, as a believer in Jesus, you gain a whole new family.  When you are saved, you are born-again.  With that spiritual birth comes membership in the family of God, and brothers and sisters and mothers galore.

Have you ever been accused, by your natural family, of loving believers more than them?  I hope you have.

Notice Jesus doesn’t mention fathers.  Although it’s OK to see certain believers as spiritual fathers to you, especially if they were used to bring you to Jesus, the Lord was emphasizing that we all have one Father, His Father, God the Father.

Our new spiritual family is the church.  Not the building, but the believers.

Isn’t that wonderful?  Maybe you’re a single mom.  You’re not alone!  You’ve got believers to come alongside and be sisters and brothers and mothers. You can have as much, or as little, of their help as you want or need, simply by living in community with others in the church.

I’m calling the church a household of wonder.  The more you think about it, the more you, too, will see the wonder of our relationship with Jesus Christ, and then with one another in a spiritual community.

I know, I know; you’ve been burned or spurned somewhere along the line by some church.  Or you know someone who has.

Of course you have; that’s bound to happen, because the church is comprised of flawed people – including, and sometimes especially, me and you.

Work through it.  God has provided the necessary tools; and what a wonder they are.  Repentance, forgiveness, grace and mercy in abundance.  Prayer.  The Word of God.  The gifts of the Holy Spirit.

We are told to not forsake assembling together as the church.  It’s where we come together to get equipped to go out and be able to more effectively plunder the strong man’s goods.

So, yes, it is a plunder-ful life, as we get equipped to go out and evangelize, setting free those held captive by the devil.

The Maker’s Dozen (Mark 3:7-21)

The Fast And The Curious (Mark 2:12-22)

I have a suggestion for an annual event that would put Lemoore on the map.

It would be called, La Tomatina en Lemoore.

It would be modeled after La Tomatina en Buñol, held annually in the eastern part of Spain since 1945.

It’s a food-fight using only tomatoes. The fight lasts for an hour, after which the whole town square is covered with tomato paste. Fire trucks hose down the streets and participants use hoses that locals provide to remove the tomato paste from their bodies.

It’s one of a growing number of annual tomato food-fights in the world.
Since 1982, the town of Twin Lakes, Colorado has held a tomato fight called the “Colorado Texas Tomato War,” in which Texans and Coloradans square off with tomatoes.

Since 2004 the Colombian town of Sutamarchán holds a similar event on June 15th when a surplus of tomatoes is harvested.

In Costa Rica the town of San José de Trojas celebrates a tomatine during the local Tomato Fair.

In the town of Dongguan in southern Guangdong province in China, a tomato fight is held on October 10, during which they use up to 15 tons of tomatoes.

Closer to home, La Tomatina en Reno, as it’s called, matches five thousand participants with one hundred thousand pounds of tomatoes.

The event takes place the last weekend of August and only overripe, inedible Roma tomatoes are tossed – which is better than simply throwing them in the trash. La Tomatina organizer Club Cal Neva charges a $10 per participant fee, and if you’d like to chuck produce at the mayors of Reno and/or nearby Sparks, you’ll have to fork over $50. All profits from the event go to the American Cancer Society.

With Del Monte and the Olam plant in Lemoore, what are we waiting for? We could be part of an international circuit for tomato fighters.

A food-fight of a different kind dominates our text. People are upset that Jesus feasts, and that He doesn’t seem to fast.

Their accusations and questions provide a teachable moment as Jesus explains some things about both feasting and fasting.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 Jesus Explains Why Feasting Is Something You Should Exemplify, and #2 Jesus Explains Why Fasting Is Something You Should Enjoy.

#1 Jesus Explains Why Feasting
Is Something You Should Exemplify
(v12-17)

One of the local income tax services is advertising for help using yard signs that read, “Help Wanted: No Experience Necessary. Will Train.”

How excited are you about having your taxes done by someone who saw a sign, and has no experience, and will receive only about two months training before tax season?

The Roman government, as I understand it, taxed regions, like Israel, by offering a contract to the highest bidder. This contract called for Rome to receive a certain amount of revenue. The person who won the bid made his profit by collecting more than the contract called for.

These contracts mostly went to wealthy Romans who then employed Jews to do the actual collection of the taxes.

Since these tax collectors came in regular contact with Gentiles, and since they were involved in what amounted to legal extortion of their own people, they were not just despised; they were cut-off from all the regular Jewish rites and rituals. Considered traitors, they had no hope of salvation under the Jewish system.

Mar 2:13 Then He went out again by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them.

Jesus has been described over-and-over again by Mark as having teaching as His priority. This certainly carried over to His first disciples, in the Book of Acts. It ought, therefore, to be our priority today.

Mar 2:14 As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him.

We know Levi as Matthew, and after this initial story, that is how Mark will refer to him. Matthew is the Greek name, and Levi was the Hebrew name. As a tax collector, Matthew worked for Greek-speaking Romans, but he gathered taxes from Hebrew-speaking Jews

“Sitting at the tax office” meant that he was at what we would call a customs booth, along the road, charging tax on goods both coming in to Capernaum, and going out from it.

He was undoubtedly familiar with Jesus, if for no other reason, on account of the mighty works the Lord had been performing.

This is a profound and moving, very emotional, “follow Me” command. Tax collectors were considered ritually unclean, and outside of Judaism altogether. Yet Jesus called him to follow, requiring seemingly nothing of Matthew in terms of cleansing or preparation.

This “follow Me” is a “come-just-as-you-are” invitation. It’s the only way you can come to the Lord. No amount of good works, or religious rituals, can affect the heart of the matter, which is that we are all sinners separated from God.

It is only by believing in Jesus that we can be saved. God declares the believing sinner righteous based on the Cross of Jesus Christ, where He took our place.

We can’t emphasize this enough, because the devil has been pretty successful in spreading the lie that we can clean-up our own lives before coming to God.

While it is possible for a person to reform, we cannot be transformed unless we receive the Lord as our Savior.

Matthew had, in a moment of time, gone from being a guy who could not even attend synagogue, to being one of the key disciples of the Person John the Baptist had pointed-out as the Messiah of Israel Who would inaugurate the kingdom of God on the earth.

That’s grace in action.

Mar 2:15 Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him.

Matthew threw a feast, partly in order to introduce his colleagues to Jesus. It’s typical of a person who is called by the Lord to want to tell his closest friends and his family about the Lord. It would be odd not to.

“They followed Him,” probably means they, too, got saved. If so, I wonder if many of them had a Zacchaeus-like response to their new life?

Zacchaeus was the short of stature tax collector who had to climb a tree to see Jesus passing by. The Lord noted His effort and invited Himself to dine with Zacchaeus. The tax collector got saved and said, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold” (Luke 19:8).

Jesus’ other “disciples,” namely the two sets of fishing brothers – Peter and Andrew, James and John – were at the feast at Matthew’s house. This is pretty big. We can be certain that these boys had never eaten with a tax collector. In fact, Matthew undoubtedly collected, and extorted, taxes from their fishing business.

For at least that night, they were enjoying the freedom we have in Jesus Christ to share fellowship with all who are called by Him, to follow Him.

Not everyone was happy about the grace of God in Matthew’s life.

Mar 2:16 And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?”

This literally reads, “the scribes of the Pharisees.” These were the scholars who spent their time studying the Scriptures, who were of the strict sect of the Pharisees.

In the original language, this is not a question. It is a stunned exclamation. “With tax collectors and sinners He eats!” They could not comprehend how it was possible to share a meal with such people, let alone enjoy it.

Mar 2:17 When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

No word of knowledge was needed; Jesus “heard” their exclamation.

No one who is sick thinks, “I’d better get myself well, then I’ll make an appointment to go and see my doctor.” No, you recognize something is very wrong, and you go to your doctor so he or she can make you well.

Because of the nature of the problem, Dr. Jesus doesn’t wait for the sinner to realize he or she needs help. He goes out and finds them, calling upon them to repent.

The scribes of the Pharisees didn’t see themselves as sinners, but as “righteous,” because they were attempting to keep God’s Law, as they interpreted it. They were, for example, keeping themselves separate from those considered sinners.

But how sad that those with the cure kept it to themselves.

You cannot achieve righteousness by keeping the Law; you can only receive righteousness, as a gift, by believing in Jesus Christ.

At the very least, the scribes ought to have been embarrassed, because they never once thought about how to help tax collectors and sinners come to know the God of Israel. They were content to judge them, and to turn them over to judgment.

I mean, how could you not want to rejoice, that one minute Levi was a tax collector, and from this point forward in Mark’s Gospel he would be known as Matthew, an apostle of the Messiah?

Could the teaching of the scribes affect a heart in so radical a manner?

I think it goes without arguing that Jesus, His disciples, Matthew, and the tax collecting sinners, were all enjoying the feast, celebrating.

Come-just-as-you-are salvation by grace through faith in Jesus is something to celebrate. Olive Garden may have the never-ending pasta bowl, and Red Lobster its endless shrimp, but Christians have eternal life, and that should be celebrated like a feast at all times.

Words like “joy” and “joyful” occur hundreds of times in the Bible. We are commanded to rejoice always (First Thessalonians 5:16).

To exemplify means to illustrate or to show as an example. Our lives should illustrate, and be the example to the world, that salvation in Jesus is a spiritual feast – a spiritual smorgasbord of resources needed to live for God.

If you are saved, you should see yourself as a Matthew, called by Jesus and wanting to call others to Him, to a feast that will last forever.

Grumpy Christians ought to be the exception, rather than the rule.

#2 Jesus Explains Why Fasting
Is Something You Should Enjoy
(v18-22)

When Jesus was on the earth, the Jews who considered themselves righteous fasted twice a week, on the second and the fifth days of the week.

It wasn’t commanded by God, and you won’t find it anywhere in the Scriptures. It was something added that was assumed to make one more spiritual. I mean, doesn’t fasting automatically sound more spiritual than feasting?

That’s the background for the particular question about fasting asked Jesus in these verses.

Mar 2:18 The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”

We learned earlier (1:14) that John the Baptist had been imprisoned. His disciples are an interesting bunch, because they don’t really do what he told them to do.

John had pointed-out Jesus as “the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.” He had said of himself that he must decrease while Jesus increases.

In effect, he told his disciples to follow Jesus. But they remained followers of John.

Going into the Book of Acts, quite a ways after Jesus was taken to Heaven and the church was born, Paul encounters some disciples of John the Baptist.

He can tell that there’s something not quite right about them. He asks them if they’ve received the Holy Spirit since they believed. They claim they’ve never even heard of the Holy Spirit.

That’s weird, because John the Baptist spoke of the Messiah baptizing with the Holy Spirit.

Finding common ground with the Pharisees is another odd thing about John’s guys. In Matthew’s Gospel, John had called the Pharisees who came out to him in the wilderness a “brood of vipers.” But here his disciples were, teaming up with them to question the Lord.

It seems all too possible for a disciple to not really hear what is being said. We should take note of this, and ask the Lord to show us the things we are not really hearing, and the reasons why.

Back to our text. All the spiritual guys were fasting; and fasting certainly seems spiritual. So why was Jesus still holding that turkey leg, probably on a fast day?

Mar 2:19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.

You don’t fast at a wedding feast. It is inappropriate. It is, in fact, disrespectful, because you are excluding yourself from the joy of the occasion. I think the term is buzz-kill.

It’s like that stupid custom, at weddings, of asking, “Does anyone here present know of any reason that this couple should not be joined in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace.”

For one brief moment the couple is at the mercy of anyone behind them who feels like ruining their day.

Jesus goes so far as to say “they cannot fast.” He means that the joy they are experiencing is so overwhelming, fasting should never even enter their minds.

By the way, John the Baptist is quoted in John’s Gospel as saying, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled” (3:29).

For disciples, these fellows weren’t listening very hard. He had already answered this question for them, by himself using the bridegroom illustration.

Mar 2:20 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.

The word used for “taken away” describes a form of violence.

He wasn’t, therefore, talking about His ascension into Heaven, but rather His being crucified, and being in the grave three-days and three-nights.

Jesus knew He was headed to the Cross, and that is the “taken away from them” moment He was referring to.

Jesus’ specific answer as to why He and His disciples did not practice the twice-weekly fasting was that it was inappropriate to do so while He was on the earth offering to inaugurate the kingdom.

He will now go on to make a distinction between the kind of fasting practiced by the disciples of John and the Pharisees, and that which is appropriate.

Mar 2:21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse.

No one should attempt to patch an old, worn garment by sewing a piece of unshrunk cloth over a hole in it. The result would be that the unshrunk patch, when it became wet, would shrink and tear away from the old garment at the sewn edges, leaving a greater tear than before. To seek to preserve the old by patching it up with what is new is destructive.

Mar 2:22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”

The skins of goats, stripped off as nearly whole as possible and partly tanned, were commonly used in the as containers for liquids. With age, the skins became hard and lost their elasticity. To put new wine (fresh from the wine vat) into them would mean that inevitably the fermenting wine would burst the old skins.

A double loss would result: the wine would be lost, and the skins would be ruined.
The traditions of the day – like twice-weekly fasting – were like a torn garment, and an old wineskin.

The Lord was offering a brand-new garment, not a repair or alteration. And He was promising a filling that their old wineskins could not contain.

A relationship with Him would involve receiving a brand-new garment – a robe of righteousness, fit for Heaven.
And it would involve being filled with something new – the Holy Spirit of God.

We often speak of our salvation using the illustration of the robe of righteousness, so let me summarize it quickly. Born a sinner, you stand before God in filthy rags, inappropriate for the holiness of Heaven. Jesus alone has a robe of righteousness. He offers to take off of you the filthy rags, and give you the robe of righteousness that will gain you Heaven and eternal life.

But His righteousness, as we have already said, can never be earned; it must be given to you. And it is, when you repent and believe in Jesus.

Beyond that, Jesus promises you will be indwelt by God the Holy Spirit. Your body becomes His temple as He resides within you.

The whole character of having a relationship with God thus changed with the coming of Jesus. We don’t add Him to the old ways. He fulfills the old ways, rendering them obsolete.

So does that mean we need not ever fast?

Pardon the pun, but “Not so fast.”
This isn’t the only thing Jesus said about fasting. A quick look at His teaching on the subject is in order.

In Matthew 6:16 Jesus assumes that His followers will fast periodically. He says, “When you fast, “ not “if you fast.”

The apostle Paul took this to heart. In Acts chapter thirteen, he and the other leaders at the church in Antioch fasted before he and Barnabas were sent out to do mission work.

In Acts chapter fourteen, those same two men, Paul and Barnabas, are described as fasting before appointing leaders in the newly born churches.

Jesus also mentioned how to fast:

Mat 6:16 “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
Mat 6:17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
Mat 6:18 so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

I’ve seen sessions where actors are given an emotion, or a situation, and must try to convey it through their facial expressions alone.

I can understand someone looking sad, but how do you disfigure your face in such a way that it communicates fasting?

It seems, then, that we should fast; and, when we do it, we should do it as unto the Lord, in secret. But we’re not done surveying fasting yet.

I want to share one more insight – one that I think puts at least some fasting into its new, church age, perspective.

Do you realize that, right now, in Heaven, Jesus is fasting? At His last supper with the disciples, Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God” (Mark 14:25).

The day He was referring to is His Second Coming back to earth, with the church as His bride, to celebrate the marriage supper on the earth as the thousand year kingdom of God is finally inaugurated.

Jesus has elevated fasting to something we’d have to call romantic. He won’t drink of the vine again until He can do it with us. His fasting keeps us on His heart, 24/7.

Let me put it another way. We normally only think of fasting as a discipline to draw us closer to God; to humble ourselves; to storm the gates of Heaven.

While I think those are all very real reasons to fast, you certainly cannot say that is why Jesus is fasting. He is fasting strictly for joy – the anticipated joy of drinking again with us.

Here’s what I get from this quick survey. Fasting is OK as a practice, because the bridegroom is gone.
But, since He is coming back, we ought to enjoy any fasting we do as an anticipation of our reunion with Him, and with all the saints of the church age.

I came across this summary of fasting: Don’t eat and allow God to speak to you in the space you create.

Your Christian life is to look like a feast even if you fast in private. Jesus is, after all, your heavenly Bridegroom, and you are his bride.

Whatever other reasons you fast, and whatever other results it achieves – it keeps His coming for us, to take us home, on our hearts, as we, too, long to drink with Him at our feast.