They Brought the Children to Jesus

Posted by on July 17, 2005 under Sermons

VBS Intro … Why all the effort? Why all the time and expense? Why are we spending our time on children when we have adult issues to deal with?
Why? Because Our Lord taught us that there is always time to bless children … Mark 10:13-16
People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

East Kilbride – 1970’s Jack Strachan is trying to reach a culture that has been inoculated on religion and the church. They regard church as a state institution that really doesn’t care. No adult is willing to take the time to sort out state religion and ancient tradition from New Testament faith. No rational argument or impassioned plea can reach the Scots.
Then, he finds interest among the children. Adam Barr & his friends attend. They become the core of the church. Now they and Jack and his wife begin to reach the parents of the children who then reach other parents whose children are involved in something good and positive. They brought the children to Jesus!

  • Kerr is approaching his 25 years of membership in the EK church. He is not much older than I am and he considers himself nearly a founding member.
  • Adam is now a minister and he is taking the same approach in another city – They are bringing the children to Jesus.

    Fayetteville, AR – 1970’s Like many churches of the time, The Center Street church of Christ has a bus ministry. Like many churches of the time, the bus ministry isn’t perfect. The bus breaks down and it takes money to repair it. Gas prices are skyrocketing to nearly 75 cents per gallon. Some of the children will not stay in their seats and some of them even climb under the seats. One of the buses is driven by Lonnie Farrar and Blondie Edwards. Blondie has to sometimes chase the kids around and haul them into the church building in his burly arms. The teachers in class have to serve as substitute parents to some of the children. There’s an adjustment in assembly as the church has to get used to the imbalance in the child adult ratio. A large block of children from the neighborhoods sits on the front left side of the auditorium. Like most children, they sometimes create a little noise. Some of them don’t smell good. Some of them don’t know how to act in church because they have never been to church. They are bringing the children to JesusOne day, Lonnie and Blondie are driving the bus through new neighborhoods inviting children to come to church and VBS. They drive down Turner Ave and knock on the door of a small brick house. The young woman who answers is in her late 20’s. She has two children under 10. When Blondie asks her if her children want to ride the bus to church she asks, “Can parents ride the bus too?” Blondie is delighted to tell her yes. The woman who asked Blondie the question was my mother.

    Thirty years ago, my mother and father started coming to church because the people at the Center St. church were bringing the children to Jesus. After a VBS and gospel meeting one night my mother asked Randall Castleman if she could be baptized. She walked me and my younger sister up to Lonnie the bus driver and asked if he and the others on the bus could watch after us for just a while. They knew she was going to be baptized. He said, “Why sure.” My mother came on the church bus with her hair dripping wet. I can remember how shy she seemed about it but also how satisfied she seemed. I also remember how happy the people on the bus were. It was the first memory I had of baptism into Christ. The second memory I have of baptism is also “After the fact.” I was outside playing in our yard one Saturday morning when my father drove up onto the car port in his yellow Baja VW Bug. I ran up to him and he seemed quite happy. He left early that morning before I woke up and I asked him, “Where have you been Daddy?” “I went to the church building and the minister baptized me,” he said. He told me about it and I learned more about being baptized into Jesus.

    My parents were baptized into Jesus Christ, they were added to the Lord’s Church, they were given hope of eternal life because the people at Center St. were bringing the children to Jesus. Seeds were planted then that are still yielding a harvest today all because they were bringing the children to Jesus.

    I tell you these stories because I think they show us that there is an eternal significance to bringing the children to Jesus. Let’s take a look back at our text …

    1. Notice that Jesus affirms what the people are doing when they bring children to be blessed. Jesus says that the rule of God includes children. They are not second class citizens or an afterthought. Harold Shank (Children Mean the World to God) notes that when we minister to children we are ministering to the future. In the reversal of power that the kingdom of God represents, it is one as humble and powerless as a child that leads. The weak become strong. The least becomes the greatest.
    2. Notice that Jesus is rather upset by those who create barriers. Those who have no time for blessing children. Political power, the sort of power the disciples were trying to manage, is often managed by those at the middle layers not just at the top. Jesus will not stand for his disciples rebuking those who only seek God’s blessing – and for their children especially! Jesus is giving us the charge to bring the children to him …
      We can sow all the seed we want but not if it isn’t bearing fruit in our lives. We can bring people to Jesus, but not if they see the devil’s work among us.

      When the disciples were focused on their agenda and tried to keep the people from bringing their children to Jesus, Jesus himself has a sharp word of correction for his disciples. Do you think he has changed his mind?

    If we are going to bring children (and their families) to Jesus, then they need to see Jesus.
    Bringing the Children to Jesus isn’t simply about a well-oiled and high performance program or technique. [Notice that Jack Strachan had to abandon his typical “technique” to evangelize his neighborhood. I am sure that the Center St. Bus program was not flawless. I will even venture to guess that they lost registration forms, suffered bus breakdowns on the weekends. They may have even dealt with some difficult people who didn’t appreciate their efforts – both inside and outside the church.] But the perfection of the program is not the critical factor. Rather it is the perfection of the people who are involved in it. (I use the term perfect the way Paul does, to describe maturity in Christ and a character that reflects the fruit of the spirit.) In other words, what matters most is that we are a Christ-like people and what we do flows from who we are …

    When my mother attended Center St. she was encouraged by caring people who formed genuine relationships with her. One of those people was Colleen Shirley, a member of this congregation. I have told Colleen how special she was to encouraging my mother’s faith – and just as I expected, Colleen said, “Well I wasn’t doing anything special.” But she was – she was acting like Jesus. If we are going to bring people to Jesus, then they need to see Jesus.
    Paul and Colleen continue that attitude here. Last week they invited some of our newest members to their house for a welcome to the family cookout. As we were talking about it they said, we really haven’t thought about taking this on as a ministry. Is thought about that and said, “Good! I don’t want it to be a ministry in the sense of a program. I just want it to be you being yourselves and sharing the love of God with others. I want you to encourage others to do the same.”

    That’s the way it has to be. Sure we are going to need a little administration and some planning to organize the work of hundreds of people. Sure we have to have good communication and pay attention to some details. That is important. But just doing that isn’t the goal. There has been a lot of work and planning in VBS so far. Tents have been set up, marketplace has been built, workers have studied. But what sense would it make for us to do all that and say “It’s done.” At some point we just have to be who we are and share the love of God that has been shared with us. We can bring children to VBS, but will we bring them to Jesus? To do that we have to reflect the spirit of Jesus. If we want to bring their parents to Jesus we just need to be real.

    In about two weeks we will have another event that reaches into the community – Community Outreach Day. We are going to publicize this and plan for it and we have a detailed schedule of the work we are doing. We are even going to do something new – we are going to register as many people who visit as we can because we want to follow up and bring them to Jesus. It is good that we share our clothing and other household items with those who need it, but can we also share the love of God? We cannot put that on a table or rack and invite them to fill out a form and ask them to walk away with a box full of God’s love. I can speak to them and tell them the truth and that will sow seed. But let me tell you what waters that seed and makes the needy people pay attention it to it – when they can see what that seed produces! When they see the work of the seed blossoming in my life and yours and they say “I want that kind of harvest in my life too.” To do that they need to see Jesus in us. They need to see the body of Christ.

    • Fences: Faith or Control? – Part 3

    Posted by on July 10, 2005 under Sermons

    All of us have a deep yearning. We yearn for people to accept God and receive His approval. Everyone who is in a saved relationship with God wants someone who is not in a saved relationship with God to be saved.

    That presents the saved person with a genuine problem. What is a saved person to do if he or she is convinced that someone he or she cares about is not saved? Sometimes it a large group of people. Sometimes it is much of the world. Sometimes it is a family member. Sometimes it is a cherished friend. Regardless of whom it is, the genuine problem remains: what is the saved person to do about unsaved people?

    For the Christian, there is conversion. The unsaved person is taught to believe and respond to the same things the saved person believes and responds to. That is wonderful when it happens! However, there are lots of people we love who we are unable to convert. They do not want to be taught. Or they think our convictions are silly. Or they have no desire to become what we are. They love us as a person, but they reject us religiously.

    When that is the case, what are we to do? In the past, saved people have adopted numerous responses to this problem. (1) We can declare that no matter what a person believes, he or she is saved because of what God had done. (2) We can broaden our definitions of the saved to include the unsaved people we love. (3) We can convince the person to submit to a “magical act” that will make him or her a saved person even without his or her knowledge.

    Whatever our solutions are, somewhere in the foundation of the solution is the conviction that a person can enter a saved relationship with God without having faith in what God did in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

    This evening I challenge you to understand that faith in God’s actions are essential to a salvation relationship with God. We cannot “fence someone into a saved relationship with God” by finding some subtle means of exercising control over that man or woman. The protection that is a part of the forgiveness of sins is not found in control. It is found in faith.

    1. I want to call your attention to a number of incidents in Jesus’ ministry.
      1. I would like to begin with some affirmations.
        1. I believe that Jesus cares about people, both saved and unsaved.
        2. I believe that the compassion seen in Jesus is a reflection of God the Father’s mercy for people.
        3. I believe the death and resurrection of Jesus reflect both the genuineness and the depth of divine mercy and compassion for people.
        4. I believe what we see in Jesus’ ministry is a declaration of God’s concern for people.
      2. The first incident I call you attention to is that of the woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years (Matthew 9:20-22).
        1. With incredible courage and in violation of both religious and social rules, this woman decided secretly to turn to Jesus.
        2. She decided if she could just work herself through the crowd close enough to Jesus and touch the bottom part of his clothing (Numbers 15:38), his power could end her medical problem without Jesus knowing what she did.
        3. She did, and she was healed, but Jesus knew what she did.
        4. To me, the amazing thing is what Jesus said to her:
          Matthew 9:22 But Jesus turning and seeing her said, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.” At once the woman was made well.
      3. The second incident involves two blind men in Matthew 9:27-31.
        1. Two blind men begged Jesus for mercy when Jesus passed them.
        2. They even recognized Jesus as a descendant of King David.
        3. Jesus asked them if they believed he was able to heal them.
        4. They said yes.
        5. Listen to Jesus’ response to them.
          Matthew 9:29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, “It shall be done to you according to your faith.”
      4. The third incident had to do with a woman who is not even a Jew (Matthew 15:21-28).
        1. Remember, Jesus worked only with Jewish people in his ministry (Matthew 10:5, 6).
        2. This was one of the few occasions that he was in a gentile area.
        3. While he was traveling through the area of Tyre and Sidon a Canaanite woman tried to approach Jesus and ask for his help.
        4. Her daughter was demon possessed and she was asking for mercy on her daughter’s behalf.
        5. The woman recognized Jesus as being Lord, and she recognized him as a descendant of King David.
        6. Jesus did not even acknowledge her presence.
        7. Yet, the woman was so persistent that eventually Jesus’ disciples interceded on her behalf requesting Jesus to send her away because she would not quit following them and shouting.
        8. Jesus told the disciples that they knew he was sent only to lost Jewish people (the lost sheep of the house of Israel).
        9. The woman got in front of Jesus, bowed before him, and begged him for help.
        10. For the first time Jesus spoke directly to her and told her it was not appropriate to give her what was intended only for the Jewish people.
        11. With enormous humility and faith, she still plead and said even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.
        12. Listen to Jesus astounding response:
          Matthew 15:28 Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once.
      5. The fourth incident is found in Mark 10:46-52 concerning Bartimaeus, a blind beggar sitting on the road side of one of the roads leaving Jericho.
        1. When he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, he began to cry out to Jesus.
          1. He asked for Jesus’ mercy.
          2. He recognized Jesus as a descendant of King David.
        2. A number of people sternly tried to quiet him down, but he just continued to cry out to Jesus for mercy.
        3. Jesus stopped and told people to bring him to Jesus.
        4. When he was told that Jesus was calling for him, he threw off his cloak, jumped up, and came to Jesus.
        5. Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”
        6. He replied, “I want to regain my sight.
        7. Listen to what Jesus said to the man:
          Mark 10:52 And Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road.
      6. The fifth incident concerns the Jewish woman, possibly one of the town’s known prostitutes, spoken of in Luke 7:36-50.
        1. Jesus was invited to a meal in the home of a curious Pharisee.
        2. While Jesus ate, a woman who was known as a sinner in the community came in the home uninvited.
        3. She did a number of unacceptable things including washing Jesus’ feet with her tears, drying his feet with her hair, and anointing his feet with perfume.
        4. The Pharisee, the host, found the whole situation entertaining.
        5. He thought to himself, “If this man is a prophet as he claims, he would know what kind of woman she is and he would not allow her to touch him.”
        6. Jesus knew what the Pharisee was thinking and told him that he had something to say to him.
          1. He told the Pharisee the parable about the two debtors who were forgiven their debt.
          2. Jesus asked which debtor loved the lender the most.
          3. The Pharisee answered, “The debtor forgiven the largest amount.”
        7. Jesus then declared why this woman loved him more than the Pharisee loved him–she was forgiven the most.
          1. Jesus dismissed the woman with the statement, “Your sins have been forgiven.”
          2. The other guests began to grumble because Jesus forgave sins.
          3. Then Jesus made this statement:
            Luke 7:50 And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
      7. The sixth example concerns some men with leprosy in Luke 17:11-19.
        1. There were ten, and all but one were Jews.
        2. Jesus told them to go to the priests to show the priests their bodies (as the law required), and the men were healed on the way to the priests.
        3. Only one turned back to thank Jesus and glorify God, and it was the person who was not a Jew.
        4. Jesus asked why the others did not turn back to glorify God?
        5. Then he made this statement to the man…
          Luke 17:19 And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”

    2. There are other examples, but this is more than enough to make the point.
      1. There was an obvious, powerful correlation between believing Jesus could do something and it happening.
        1. Sometimes Jesus said, “Let what you believe can happen occur.”
        2. That is quite a statement!
        3. We (and most people in every age) rather the responsibility be on Jesus ability to perform than on our faith.
        4. We want Jesus to forgive us even if we doubt his ability to forgive us.
      2. The point I wish to make is quite simple: we cannot fool a person into forgiveness and salvation.
        1. If there is to be salvation, there must be confidence in Jesus.
          1. If a person trusts Jesus, he or she will do other things.
          2. However, he or she must trust Jesus or the other things have no meaning.
        2. Just consider Acts 16:31.
          They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
        3. This man had a lot to learn and understand!
        4. When he asked what he needed to do to be saved he knew nothing.
        5. The first thing he needed to know if he was to be saved was Jesus Christ, and he had to believe in Jesus’ power to forgive and God’s power to resurrect.
        6. Did he repent? His actions surely showed repentance!
        7. Was he baptized? Yes!
        8. Why was his repentance and baptism effective? Because he believed!
      3. For there to be salvation there must be faith!

    External controls will not provide a person salvation! Internal surrender that begins with belief enters a saved relationship with God.

    Now Just Who Is This Jesus?

    Posted by on under Sermons

    TheSea … We don’t respectthe sea the way the ancients did. With our boats, canoes, party barges, sea doo’s,and water skis we treat the seas, the lakes, and the rivers as God’s gifts forrecreation. Every so often an accident on the water reminds us to becautious. Occasionally, when a hurricane like Dennis comes rolling our way, weare confronted by the terrible power of the sea. But few of us make our livingon the sea and our lifestyle is tied into proximity to the ocean. If it was,we might regard it a little more “spiritually.”

    Thereis a good reason why sailors are a superstitious lot. They know that crossingthe sea is dangerous. This is why the ancients made sure not to offend thespirits of the deep as they went cruising over their heads. If the spirits gotmad they could swallow you up into the briny deep in a quick blast.

    WhileJesus was teaching by the sea there might have been some indication that badweather was boiling up. The seasoned fishermen of Jesus’ group didn’t knowanything about low pressure fronts, but they were tuned into the signs. Theyalso believed that the forces of the deep might be reeling and squirmingbecause Jesus is crossing over their territory. They have seen the Teachercommand evil spirits, but this was when he had the home court advantage. Darehe trespass on their turf? Why does he insist on crossing over to the otherside?

    Reading Mark4:35-41
            Thatday when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go over to the otherside.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took Jesus along, just as he was, in theboat. There were also other boats with him.
            A furious storm came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so thatit was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. Thedisciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” Hegot up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!”
            Thenthe wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to his disciples, “Why areyou so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
            Theywere terrified and asked each other, “Just who is this? Even the wind and thewaves obey him!”

    “Teacher, don’tyou care if we drown?”

    • Our questions and our fears: Does He care?
      • The disciples werenervous to begin with crossing over and into the home of the evil spirits. Goingto the other side meant going to place unsafe and risky. (“Thar be monstershere”). Perhaps they were just a bit more bold because Jesus, who had provenhis ability to go head to head with demons, was with them. If he insisted ongoing to the other side shouldn’t he at least be giving them some reassurance? Shouldn’t he be taking the spyglass from the captain to keep a look out for theenemy? Instead, he is sleeping on the job. He’s sawing logs below decks. What sort of leader snoozes during a storm? DoesHe even care?
    • We have had anawfully stormy week. Twodemons from the deep named tragedy and terror emerged from the waves. We haveburied people that we love. We are worried for the health of others. Globally, the war on terror is not over. Men and women possessed by demons ofhatred and desperation struck at a city in the midst of celebration (London). Destruction has wakened from the deep and ischarging toward the Gulf Coast. Where is Jesus? Does he care? When a loveddies, does he care? When evil strikes, does he care? When people suffer, doeshe care? When fears increase, does he care? Or is he asleep below decks on acushion?
    • Do you hear just a hintof irritation in their voices: Teacher, don’t you care that we allcould die? Or are you just going to sleep through it all?
    • Now Just Who isThis Jesus? Well, they call him TEACHER. Isthat how we think of him? Is he the one sent from heaven to straighten outthat fussy Old Testament doctrine? Is he a talented preacher whose realpurpose is to take the hit for us and deflect God’s wrath? Jesus is more thana religious teacher. Jesus is more than a well-timed substitute sacrifice. Histeaching reveals the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. He proclaimed that itwas near. God is not waiting to smite Jesus so he can save us. No, the kingdomrule of God is at work in Jesus.
    • O LORD GodAlmighty, who is like you? You are mighty, O LORD, and your faithfulnesssurrounds you. You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, youstill them. (Psalm 89:9) Who islike God almighty? Jesus, the son of God. He does not simply teachus about God. He reveals God. Jesus acts just as God acts. He has power overthe turbulent seas and he commands the storm . . .

    “Quiet! Bestill!”

    • Jesus’ word againstthe powers: SHUT UP! CALMDOWN! Remember how the crowds were amazed at his teaching – he hadauthority. That authority is not limited to teaching.
    • His word to thedisciples: What areyou afraid of? Where’s your faith? In other words, don’t youtrust Me?
    • Now just who isthis Jesus? Do you hear the anxiety in their question?(What have we gotten into?) Miracles demonstrate the power and authority ofJesus, they can prompt the right question, but by themselves they do not givethe answer. Even after Jesus stills the great storm we are still left in the greatcalm to ask questions. Who is this Jesus? What do you say? More to thepoint, do you trust him? How you answer the question of all gooddisciples (Who is this Jesus, then?) has a lot to do with how much we trusthim. How much power and honor do we give to Jesus?
      • Trusting Jesus when hecalls to us from the shore is not as risky. When his call comes from a breezy,windswept beach on a sunny day, it comes as a pleasant invitation. Almost likean invitation to join a game of volleyball, come on over to the BBQ, or sign upfor a civic club.
      • Trusting Jesus when heasks us to follow him into the eye of the storm, to cross over to the placewhere evil controls the city is much riskier. That’s when the powers rage andfume and spit all their fury. That’s when evil reaches out to swamp our boats.
      • [This churchis headed for “the other side” as part of our mission to make disciples. Justbecause we are faithful to follow Jesus and go where he wants. Just beingChristian is getting more “counter-cultural” and risky every day].
      • Do we trust Jesus enoughto risk our safety and security for the sake of the mission? Do we trust himeven when storms are blowing all around us? When the powers of tragedy,terror, destruction, and desperation storm against us will we lose courage? Willwe lose faith? Will we panic and get angry? Or will we rest easy withJesus?

    Fences: Faith or Control? – Part 2

    Posted by on July 3, 2005 under Sermons

    Last Sunday evening I began a series of three or four lessons on FENCES: FAITH OR CONTROL? First, I want to tell you that I hope to make each lesson complete in itself. However, if you wish to couple all the lessons together, there are several ways to do that even if you have to miss a lesson. You can download the lesson from the West-Ark website. Most of the time, we are able to post the Sunday night lesson the following day. If you do not have a computer, the material is available to you from the office in a hard copy form or you may acquire an audio tape of the lesson.

    Second, I want to begin with a brief review of the first lesson.

    1. First, let me begin by saying that today there are four primary expressions of Judaism (and many divisions under those collectively).
      1. There is the Orthodox expression that primarily focus on the law or Torah.
      2. There is the Reformed expression that primarily focuses on the ethical calls of the Jewish prophets.
      3. There is the Conservative expression.
      4. The is Reconstructionist Judaism.
      5. The material last week focused primarily upon the Orthodox expression and its focus on the law; in the Christian religious circles would be they would be called a fundamentalists approach.
        1. The approach of the orthodox Jew of today is basically the approach followed by the Pharisees before Christianity came into existence.
        2. This approach basically follows what is understood to be the literal and ancient meaning of the Law or the Torah.

    2. The basic focus of last week’s lesson was on the Pharisees’ approach to keeping faithful people from accidentally violating an unchangeable law from the unchangeable God.
      1. That approach was basically to build a fence around the Law.
        1. The approach was basically this:
          1. Identify the meaning of the specific law.
          2. Protect against the violation of that law through building a fence of rabbinical rulings.
          3. Further protect against the violation of that law through building a fence of accepted customs.
        2. We used the fourth commandment in the ten commands to Israel as an example: keep the Sabbath day holy by not working.
          1. We read from the Mishnah to note their 39 divisions of work.

    3. One of the recorded confrontations Jesus had with the Pharisees concerned Sabbath work violations.
      1. Consider the confrontation recorded in Matthew 12:1-8.
        1. Jesus and his disciples took a Sabbath walk along the edges of some ripened grain fields.
        2. The Pharisees were following them, observing their actions.
        3. The hungry disciples striped some raw grain heads by the path and ate the raw grain.
        4. The Pharisees immediately declared that the disciples had violated the law not to work on the Sabbath.
          1. According to the Pharisees, what the disciples did was cross one of the fences.
          2. According to the Pharisees, what they did violated one of the 39 classifications of work–they were either reaping or harvesting.
      2. Jesus rejected their accusation and declared his disciples innocent. He did this in four fascinating ways.
        1. First, he used the well known example of an act of David before he became king.
          1. David was still recognized as a man of God, as the most godly king Israel ever had, as ruling the golden kingdom of Israel.
          2. For Jesus to cite David was to cite someone the Pharisees accepted as a godly Jew.
          3. The incident Jesus cited is found in 1 Samuel 21 when David fled from King Saul because it was certain that King Saul intended to kill him.
            1. As he fled (too quickly to make preparation), he stopped at the village of Nob and asked Abimelech, the priest for some food, some bread.
            2. The priest said, “I do not have any ordinary bread to give you–all I have is the bread of presence (or the consecrated bread).”
            3. Listen to these instructions concerning the bread of presence in Leviticus 24:5-9:
              Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths ofan ephah shall be in each cake. And you shall set them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table before the Lord. You shall put pure frankincense on each row that it may be a memorial portion for the bread, even an offering by fire to the Lord. Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before the Lord continually; it is an everlasting covenant for the sons of Israel. It shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him from the Lord’s offerings by fire, his portion forever.”
              1. First, these loaves of bread were to be on that table constantly (Exodus 25:30).
              2. Second, only the priests were to eat the replaced loaves.
              3. David took and ate the bread.
              4. God never condemned David for his act.
          4. What was Jesus point? “Your fence is too small. God obviously considers matters you do not consider.”
        2. Jesus’ second illustration focused on the fact that the priests worked when they offered sacrifices on the Sabbath.
          1. There is not question that they work–killing and preparing animals for sacrifice is hard work!
          2. Yet, even though they violate the fourth of the ten commandments, they are innocent.
          3. Jesus’ point: God’s definitions and your definitions are not the same definitions. It is not as simple as deciding what physical act is done; the reason for the act is also important.
        3. Jesus’ third illustration is striking: “You condemn the innocent because you are ignorant of God’s priorities.”
          1. God gave His greatest priority through the prophet Hosea in Hosea 6:6 in the declaration, “I desire compassion (mercy), and not a sacrifice.”
          2. Showing mercy was expressing godliness more than offering a sacrifice.
          3. Or, giving kindness to people who do not deserve it is more important than worshipping God.
          4. This is not a rejection of worship, but a declaration that worship of God has meaning when mercy is extended to people.
        4. Jesus’ fourth illustration is powerful!
          1. “What God is doing the me is more important that observing the Sabbath.”
          2. “I rule the Sabbath–the Sabbath takes its meaning from me!”

    4. Now allow me to try to visually illustrate the problem.
      1. I need to begin this visual illustration with some definitions:
        1. “L” equals a “law from God.”
        2. “M” equals the “fence of meaning.”
        3. “R” equals the “fence of rabbinical rulings.”
        4. “C” equals the “fence of custom.”
      2. This approach to defining obedience to God begins with recognizing a law from God.
      3. Once God’s Law has been determined, it must be protected (if necessary) by determining its meaning.
      4. Then another layer of protection must be added by building another fence wherein the rabbis made rulings on exceptional situations.
      5. Then another layer of protection must be added by building another fence around the Law that recognizes long-standing, approved custom.
      6. Now look at the problem:
        1. Sin is a violation of are rebellion against God’s law.
        2. As fences are built, sin grows to include a fenced in area.
        3. Finally, sin is a violation of humanly determined meaning, of the rabbinical decisions, and of the customs–yet all these came from humans, not from God.

    5. I hope the application of the problem to us is obvious.
      1. Substitute “commandment” for “Law.”
        1. Then build the fence of meaning or application around the commandment.
        2. Then build the fence of approved positions on issues in the brotherhood, or by a group of elders, or by a group of preachers.
        3. Then build the fence of approved ways of doing things (or custom).
        4. Then expand the meaning of sin to include our meanings, our approved positions, and our way of doing things, and we reproduce the same problem.
      2. Most of us understand the problem–and even agree that this problem should not exist among Christians.
        1. Agreeing on the concept is not the difficulty.
        2. The difficulty occurs then the application of the concept is directed toward something we feel strongly and emotionally about.
        3. I tried hard to think of a current illustration that would not stir up emotions or pigeon hole me.
          1. Usually, when we stir up emotions we stop thinking.
          2. When we stop thinking, we declare, “I know what you are trying to do–and I know where this is going!”
          3. When that happens, we start reacting and confronting.
      3. Since this illustration is about something I do, maybe you can think instead of reacting.
        1. The illustration is about our use of an invitation song.
        2. I have been preaching for over 50 years, and I do not remember closing a sermon in a church building one time without singing an invitation song.
        3. Did the first century church sing invitation songs? No.
        4. Did the invitation songs we sing exist in the first century church? No.
        5. Does the New Testament command us to use an invitation song? No.
        6. Is it wrong to sing an invitation song? No.
        7. Is it wrong not to sing an invitation song? No.
        8. Then why do we sing invitation songs? We want to be evangelistic.
        9. So invitation songs have become one of our fences built around Jesus Christ’s desire to be Savior of the world.
        10. Would you have something to say if you worshipped with a congregation while on a trip that did not sing an invitation song?
        11. Would their singing an invitation song influence your conclusion about them being faithful or unfaithful to God?

    This is not a campaign to stop singing invitation songs. It is a cry to all of us, me included. Brothers and sisters, we need to respect each other’s conscience and stop condemning the innocent.

    The Teachings of Jesus: Secrets, Mysteries, and Seedy Characters

    Posted by on under Sermons

    Jesus came preaching and teaching: “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (1:15) The crowds were amazed at Jesus’ teaching because he taught them as one with authority – not like the teachers of the law. We tend to think that this amazement was centered on the displays of miraculous power. But it wasn’t limited to that.

    Jesus’ was devoted to the message he had to proclaim. "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else-to the nearby villages-so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”

    What is the message that Jesus preached? Why did it have such authority? Up to this point in Mark all we know is that it was a message about the Kingdom of God and it was a call to be changed – to repent and believe. It is good news, ad we would do well to ask, why is it good and why is it news? Keep all of this in mind as we hear the parables of Jesus. …

    Mark 4:1-34 – Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: "Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. "Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. But other seeds fell into the good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold."And he said, "Whoever has ears to hear, hear this!"
    Then when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, "To you the mystery of the kingdom of God has been given, but for those outside everything is in parables; that is to say …
    ?seeing they see but do not perceive,
    and hearing they hear but do not understand;
    For if they did, they would repent and be forgiven.’
    And he said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. They have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
    He said to them, "Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, then hear this."
    And he said to them, "Watch what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away."
    And he said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he sends for reapers, for the harvest has come.”
    And he said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."

    1 – The Sower, the Seed, the Soil

    The parable of the sower and the seeds is maybe one of the most familiar. Have you heard this parable and been asked: Which soil are you? Have you heard the parable and been asked: "Are you sowing the seed of the kingdom, brother?" Are we soils or are we the sower? We are not the seed – are we? Well maybe we are if you consider that the good soil yields a harvest. The emphasis seems to be on the crop rather than the soil.

    But the seed is the word of God. True. And Jesus is teaching that we are the combination of seed and soil. We become what the seed sown in us is able to become. "Repent and Believe the Good News!" Repentance, or change, is stifled by the powers of this age we live in. If Satan doesn’t snatch the word out at soon it hits our hearts, then it is possible that we will never grow because the word never took root, and even if it does take root and we do grow and mature, it is always possible that thorn will strangle the word growing within us. We participate in the divine nature as we continually repent and believe the good news. When we accept the good news of God’s word we bear fruit, our life counts for something – an increase of hundredfold …

    2 – Hidden Lights/Watch what you hear!

    Like the Twelve, we need to watch what we hear. The seed by itself is dormant. The soil by itself is just dirt. But combined, the mystery of God is unleashed. So it is with us. Jesus sows the word in parables because they are raw and unprocessed in spiritual power. They lodge in the heart of a person or a people and if the people will accept it, they germinate with wild force. But it is possible to reject the teaching of Jesus. The Scribes had done this. They claimed that Jesus had an evil spirit. Satan had snatched the word out of their heart. Jesus’ family had done this. They didn’t let the word take root. Their worries choked out what might have grown. We need to watch what we hear, we need to listen up because the capacity to close our minds and hearts to the truth is strong – ridiculous, sort of like lighting a lantern and covering it with a ice cooler – but we do it.

    The teaching of Jesus sorts us out. It is watershed. Everyone can hear it and see it in action, but the way the respond is something else. ?seeing they see but do not perceive,and hearing they hear but do not understand; For if they did, they would repent and be forgiven.’

    3 – Waiting for the Harvest & the Wild Weed of the Kingdom

    We get concerned about how to sort people out. We talk about membership and family. Who is in and who is out. To borrow from another parable or two: We are trying to corral the sheep and cut out the goats. We want to pluck the weeds and keep the wheat. But that’s not always good farming, nor is it good discipleship. There’s a lot of work to farming, but also a lot that you just cannot control. A farmer scatters seed and then the mystery of gardening just takes over. Whether he eats, sleeps, or stays awake watching the spouts that garden is going to grow automatically – or it may not. He cannot say it. He has to wait until harvest. [Arkansas is a big poultry state because most of the apple orchards were diseased one year – it just happens] But when it is harvest time – get to work! Send for the workers with their scythes and sickles because the plants are mature. But you cannot rush the process.

    So it is with kingdom work. Think about that, we want to baptize say 100 people this year and then have them completely indoctrinated into the mysteries of God in a month. How long has it taken you to mature as a Christian? Are you still maturing? The growth of the kingdom is something we can hinder but when it grows it is automatic. And we are likely to get frustrated because we cannot see how little things matter. Like a mustard seed.

    The mustard plant is a weed, not a majestic cedar tree. Though a little seed, when it grows it dominates and it takes over. Mustard would have been well known in Jesus’ day. Perhaps a better plant in the experience of some in the U.S. is kudzu. Kudzu is a plant brought to the southeastern U.S. from Japan in 1876. It was called the miracle vine because it prevented soil erosion and could feed animals. It was a very useful plant. But Kudzu grows and in that climate of the SE USA it grows very well, in some cases it grows a foot in one day. It now covers 7 million acres in the southeast and the people there say "love it or hate it, it grows on you." It has grown so rapidly and so heartily without any real effort from anyone that kudzu is now more than just a plant it is part of environment, part of the culture and way of life.

    The Kingdom of God may not be visible or evident, but it grows and it grows wild. Some will welcome it and find it very beneficial, but others will despise it and try to eliminate it. But it grows. And it grows. And it grows. Producing a harvest thrityfold, sixtyfold, and hundred fold.

    Listen! A sower went out to sow the seed …
    Listen! The light has been lifted up on the lampstand …
    Listen! The harvest is near …

    Do you have ears to hear? Then hear this!

    Fences: Faith or Control? – Part 1

    Posted by on June 26, 2005 under Sermons

    Are fences good things or bad things? Do they exist to keep things in or to keep things out?

    As most of you know, I grew up on a mountain top farm. In that area when I was a boy, most farms were 20 to 100 acres in size. Our farm was about 40 acres in size.

    Compared to the Fort Smith area, farmers had a short growing season. It got warm enough to plant at a later time of the year, and harvest came much earlier in the year.

    My mother still lives in the same house and on the same farm where I grew up. When I was a boy, I knew every inch of that place. Every inch of that place was in some direct way connected to my personal history and my personal development. I either plowed it with a mule, or chopped it with a hoe, or picked up sand stone off of it, or helped clear a overgrown area, or camped on it, or hunted on it.

    When I was a boy, you could hunt and roam on any neighbor’s land. So I knew the hills, hollows, and creeks in the area.

    I usually go home twice a year. I sleep in the same house I slept in as a boy. The farmland is still there. I can see most of it from the back yard. Yet, it has been about a decade since I have walked the farm and taken a stroll down memory lane.

    Why? Fences! There are no longer gates where there used to be gates. Now if you want to climb a line fence, it is built like three fences with two of them barbed wire. And I do not know the neighbors. And I do not know what is on their land. Thus the truth is the fences keep me from going anywhere.

    Is that good or bad?

    This evening I will begin an emphasis with you that I truly hope to make as interesting to you as it is to me. I hope also to stimulate your insights with the result that your faith will grow.

    1. This week I went to the Goggle search engine on the Internet and typed in the words, “Fences and the Jewish Law.”
      1. The reason I typed those words was this: the basic objective of the Pharisees in the first century was to build a fence around the law.
        1. Determine the commands from God in the first five books of what we know as the Old Testament (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), which is what the Jewish people call the Law or Torah in both the Old and New Testaments.
        2. Once those commands are determined, build a fence around each one of them so a person does not accidentally disobey an unchangeable commandment from the unchangeable God.
      2. The web site that appeared is called Judaism 101.
        1. That web site told me there are approximately 733,000 references to Fences and Jewish Law (or Torah).
        2. I called up a specific site called Halakhah: Jewish Law.
          1. This is what the article said:
          2. Judaism is more than a set of beliefs about God, man, and the universe.
          3. It is a comprehensive way of life based on rules and practices.
          4. It is intended to affect every aspect of a person’s life: what you do when you wake up; what you eat; what you wear; how you groom yourself; how you conduct business; who you can marry; how to observe important days; and how to treat God, people, and animals.
          5. “Halakhah” is commonly translated Jewish law, but it literally means “the path one walks.”
          6. This approach declares it increases spirituality in life because it declares every act of life has religious significance–everything you do reminds you of your faith.
      3. The Law or Torah contains 613 commandments that cannot be changed, that came from God.
        1. Though there is (and always has been) disagreement on what should be included in those 613 commands, there is complete agreement among orthodox Jews that there are 613 commands.
          1. 248 of those commands are positive, one for each bone and organ in the male body.
          2. 365 are negative commands, one for each day of the solar year.
        2. Many of these commandments can no longer be observed.
          1. Example # 1: commands that target sacrifices and offerings cannot be observed because they were to take place in the temple, and the temple was destroyed in 70 AD.
            1. If there is no temple, there can be no sacrifices and offerings.
            2. I call two statements to your attention from Deuteronomy.
              Deuteronomy 12:5 But you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God will choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and there you shall come.
              Deuteronomy 12:11 Then it shall come about that the place in which the Lord your God will choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice votive offerings which you will vow to the Lord.
            3. From the time of Solomon, that “place” was the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.
            4. If there is no temple, by God’s command, there can be no offerings and no sacrifices.
          2. Example # 2: laws that concerned the theocratic state of Israel, its king, and its system of justice can no longer be observed.
            1. The theocratic state of Israel no longer exists.
            2. Thus the laws that focused on the theocracy cannot be observed.
          3. Example # 3: laws that applied to the Levites can no longer be observed.
        3. A modern rabbi scholar has identified 77 positive and 194 negative commands that can be observed in and out of Israel today.

    2. The first fence to protect people from violating God’s command:
      1. First, one must identify the Laws that came from God.
      2. Second, once these laws from God are identified, they need a fence built around them to prevent people from accidentally disobeying the unchangeable instructions from the unchangeable God.
        1. The first fence was/is produced by the laws instituted by rabbis to prevent people from accidentally violating God’s laws.
        2. Let me give you an example:
          1. The fourth commandment in the ten commandments that God gave Israel was this:
            Exodus 20:8-10 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.
          2. Israel must keep Saturday holy.
          3. They keep it holy by not doing any work.
          4. Not even their servants, or livestock, or visitors can do any work.
          5. That day they declare their dependence on God and show they trust God to care for them.
        3. To obey that command, work must be defined.
          1. That was/is done in two ways.
          2. Centuries ago 39 categories of work were defined [these categories can be found in the Mishnah, in the section Shabbath, chapter 7, verse 2].
            “The main classes of work are forty save one: sowing, plowing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, cleansing crops, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking, shearing wool, washing or beating or dying it, spinning, weaving, making two loops, weaving two threads, separating two threads, tying [a knot], loosing [a knot], sewing two stitches, tearing in order to sew two stitches, hunting a gazelle, slaughtering or flaying or salting it or curing its skin, scraping it or cutting it up, writing two letters, erasing in order to write two letters, building, pulling down, putting out a fire, lighting a fire, striking with a hammer and taking out aught from one domain into another. These are the main classes of work: forty save one.”
          3. Then from centuries ago, an orthodox Jew is not to handle a implement of work on the Sabbath (like a pencil, or money, or a hammer) lest the person forget it is the Sabbath and perform an act of work.

    3. The second fence was composed by rabbinical rulings.
      1. These rulings dealt with a specific situation and had the force of law.
      2. However, these rulings were not necessarily the same in every context.
      3. An example:
        1. Many of the Old Testament men of faith were polygamists.
        2. However, not all orthodox Jews were to be polygamists.
        3. If an orthodox Jew lived in a country that followed Christian values and made polygamy against the law, polygamy was condemned among orthodox Jews and not to be practiced.
        4. If an orthodox Jew lived in a country that followed Muslim values and allowed men to have up to four wives, polygamy was not to be condemned.

    4. A third fence was constructed by custom that is recognized as law for religious reasons and has been recognized for so long that it is binding.
      1. Things should be done in an area as they have customarily been practiced.
      2. However, if you change areas and thereby changed customs, you should follow the custom you have always practiced.
      3. For example:
        1. In some areas it was customary to stand while reciting a certain prayer.
        2. In other areas it was customary to sit while reciting the same prayer.

    5. I want you to see the point of building a fence around the law: it was to control everyone’s actions and protect them from violating an unchangeable law from an unchangeable God–its objective was to protect a person from accidentally doing something wrong.
      1. Your first reaction may be, “That is really weird!”
        1. First, you identify the laws from God.
        2. Second, you prevent people from violating God’s laws by building a fence around it.
        3. The first fence is built by identifying what the law means.
        4. The second fence is built by the rabbis’ rulings.
        5. The third fence is built by custom.
        6. “What a strange way to approach God’s teachings!”
      2. May I suggest to those of you who are members of the Church of Christ that you may have much more in common with that approach than you realize.
        1. When I was a boy we had a gospel meeting virtually every summer.
          1. In the back of the building we had a question box that allowed anyone to ask any question he or she wanted to ask.
          2. There was always one question that would be asked–even if there was only one question in the box.
          3. The question: “must a woman have long hair and must she wear a hat when she comes to worship?”
            The question would frequently cite 1 Corinthians 11:5,6
            But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head, for she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head.
          4. If we paraphrased the question, to me it would be, “What is the actual meaning of that statement?”
        2. Often an issue was settled by citing the position of preachers: “Brother so-and-so says,” and if enough prominent preachers agreed, that settled the matter.
          1. What is the basic difference in doing that and the rabbi’s making a ruling?
        3. It is our custom at West-Ark to stand before someone is baptized into Christ and to applaud after the baptism.
          1. Why do we stand? In order to see better!
          2. The applause astounds people who come from congregations who never applaud.
          3. Is that applause right or wrong or in violation of scripture? No, applause has nothing to do with scripture.
          4. It is our custom, and as our custom it is appropriate here–but not intended to be binding on others elsewhere.

    Quite often our approach has been to identify commands, then build fences around those commands to control people and prevent violations. That is not an ancient Christian approach. That is an ancient Jewish approach.

    Robbing the House of the Strong Man

    Posted by on under Sermons

    Jesus wanted posterWhen we hear the story of Jesus calling the Twelve we may be tempted to hear it as though we are hearing a sacred chant or see it through the gilded lens of holy history. But we are not hearing it as Mark want s us to hear it. What may be lost on us is assortment and diversity of this crew. They are not Rabbis or Priests. They are not even prophets, and some of the prophets were a bit unconventional. The Twelve are rather average as individuals. They represent all types in Israel, with the exception of the elites. They are fishermen from the north. Tax-collectors from the big city. Rebel resistance fighters, like Simon the Zealot, and those who have invested in the Roman invasion, like Matthew the tax-collector. Some of them are even half-breeds from states that are not commonly accepted as part of Israel. The list sounds like a rap sheet in that many of the Twelve go by assumed names . . . Simon, aka Rocky. James and John Bar-Zebedee, aka the Sons of Thunder. Levi aka Matthew. Some of their names may not be their given names. Thomas means "the Twin." Bartholomew mean Son of Thalamai.

    I urge us to listen again to the calling of the Twelve and the following teaching of Jesus in all of it earthiness. Listen for the details that Mark wants us to hear. Listen for the way he paints the raw reality of the situation. Listen to Jesus’ teaching to those who accept him and those who do not.

    Read Mark 3:13-35
    Afterward Jesus went up on a mountain and called the ones he wanted to go with him. And they came to him. Then he selected twelve of them to be his regular companions, calling them apostles. He sent them out to preach, and he gave them authority to cast out demons. These are the names of the twelve he chose: Simon (he renamed him Peter), James and John (the sons of Zebedee, but Jesus named them “Sons of Thunder”), Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him).
    When Jesus returned home, the crowds began to gather again, and soon he and his disciples couldn’t even find time to eat. When his family heard what was happening, they tried to take him home with them. “He’s out of his mind,” they said. But the teachers of religious law who had arrived from Jerusalem said, “He’s possessed by Beelzeboul, the prince of demons. That’s where he gets the power to cast out demons.” Jesus called them over and said to them by way of illustration, “How can Satan cast out Satan? A kingdom at war with itself will collapse. A home divided against itself is doomed. And if Satan is fighting against himself, how can he stand? He would never survive. Let me illustrate this: You can’t enter a strong man’s house and rob him without first tying him up. Only then can his house be plundered! “I assure you that any sin can be forgiven, including blasphemy; but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. It is an eternal sin.” He told them this because they were saying he had an evil spirit.
    Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived at the house where he was teaching. They stood outside and sent word for him to come out and talk with them. There was a crowd around Jesus, and someone said, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” Jesus replied, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then he looked at those around him and said, “These are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

    Jesus Went Home

    What does Jesus’ family say about him? They are anxious and concerned for his well-being. He is out of his mind – they say. He is associating with an odd assortment of people. Some of them are known instigators. He must be out of his mind because he is going up against a system that will surely destroy him. He isn’t making sense.

    What do the scribes say about Jesus? They acknowledge his power, but they reinterpret it. They say that the source of his power is the devil. He has power over evil because he is one of them.

    Jesus’ response to the scribes: Why? Why would evil work against itself? Why would Satan oppose himself? The powers of evil are malicious, but they are not stupid. If you work against yourself then you will lose your power. Evil wouldn’t make the mistake of being divided. It makes more sense to say that there is a power greater than evil. It makes more sense to say that Jesus is involved in an assault on the stronghold of the strongman. It makes more sense that the days of the strong man are over and Jesus has come to rip him out of his little spider hole. It makes more sense that Jesus wants what the strong man has taken and he is here to establish God’s authority and take back the people and the spiritual territory that the strong man has captured.

    Jesus is preparing for an assault. He intends to invade the house of the strongman and plunder it. The strong man is the evil one and it will take one strong enough to tie him up. Jesus is that one – the one that John the Baptist spoke about – one more powerful than me who is coming after me. The treasures that Jesus intends to take out of the strong man’s house are the strong man’s captives. Those who have been enslaved by the power of evil, darkness, and sickness. Jesus is setting them free by God’s authority. This is what it means to be "fishers of men" – to rescue people from the depth of darkness.

    A house divided against itself cannot stand

    Jesus’ family is divided against Jesus. Jesus is actually making more sense than they are. He’s not the one out of his mind. They are out of their minds with worry and fear.

    We get that way when we let our anxieties rule us rather than let God rule us. We go out of our minds with fear and worry. We become divided against our own spiritual household. And we will not stand.

    The scribes are divided against Jesus. Jesus understands the truth much better than they do. Despite their learning and their experience they refuse to believe what is clear. They actually go so far as to redefine the work of God and the work of the devil because believing the truth means more than they are willing to accept. Rather than accept this new reality (which actually does fit with their traditions but doesn’t fit with their agenda) they will cut themselves off from the power of the Holy Spirit and thus condemn themselves

    We get that way when we let our desire for control rule us rather than let God rule us. We cut ourselves off from the power of God’s Holy Spirit to work newness in our lives because we don’t want to let go of our own spiritual agenda. We would rather hold on to our own explanations than open ourselves up to the explanations God gives. We become divided against our own spiritual household. And we will not stand. Worse than that, we go so far as to cut ourselves off from God. We will deny ourselves forgiveness and claim that we have it all figured out.

    The Twelve, like us, need to take all of this in and answer this question – Who is Jesus? The 12 have been enlisted by Jesus in the war against the power of evil and darkness, but they may just become casualties in the war if they misunderstand Jesus the way his family did and the way the scribes did.

    Likewise, we will become casualties in the effort to plunder the strong man’s house if we are divided. Satan isn’t divided in his efforts. He is unified and singled-minded in his purpose. We had better ally ourselves totally with the one who has the power to defeat evil and we dare not turn on ourselves.

    Who Is Jesus?

    • He is the one who calls us to follow him. We get more concerned with what others think or with our own safety. When Jesus calls us to follow we may have to leave behind a lot of things that just aren’t as important anymore.
    • He is the one who is stronger than the strong man. The power of Jesus to conquer evil puts it all in perspective. The kingdom rule of God has broken into the world and if we waver in our allegiance to it or try to redefine God’s power into something that makes us more comfortable or something that denies any responsibility to change on our part then we just may cut ourselves off from the only power that can save us.

    Who is My Family?

    • "Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother."
    • Jesus’ family and the scribes failed to see him as the one who can unite people as diverse as his apostles or the crowds. They failed to see his power as that which can subdue the strong man and end his captivity of God’s creation.
    • What about us? Do we see Jesus for who he really is? If so, then we will not hesitate to do God’s will.
    • And those who do God’s will our Jesus’ family. The importance of doing what God wills.

    What If That Had Been Me?

    Posted by on June 19, 2005 under Sermons

    Have you ever heard the expression, “Don’t rock the boat!” I am sure most of us have. If one passenger in a small boat unnecessarily causes the boat to “take on water,” the whole boat sinks. It is not just the person who did the rocking who finds himself or herself in the water–it is every passenger in the boat. Instantly everyone moves from a situation of safety to a situation of danger. So, keep the situation stable and smooth–“don’t rock the boat.”

    Years ago two or three of us needed to ask a town leader for permission to preach in the town. The person we needed to talk to lived on an island in the middle of a lake. The only way to get to his home was to go to the island in the middle of the lake by a dugout canoe. Dugout canoe is a fancy way to say a hollowed out log with no seats. The passengers had to be balanced on each side of the log to keep it from sinking or rolling over. When all the passengers were aboard, the sides of the canoe were about 3 inches above the water line.

    The prospect of that ride was so unnerving that Joyce chose to stay on the shore with a very vocal drunk man instead of taking the canoe ride!

    I guarantee you, it would not have taken much rocking for that canoe to sink!

    Religious people tend to cherish the stable, the secure, the certain. We do not like other religious people who “rock the boat.”

    Therein lies a significant problem. Our God is the God Who works in history by “rocking the boat.”

    This evening I want to ask you to consider a question seriously. I want you to think about this question for a much longer period than just the hour you are in this assembly this evening. The question: “What would have happened if God told you to rock the boat?”

    1. A name that is extremely familiar to most of us is the name Abraham.
      1. Most of us are familiar with God’s call to Abraham.
        Genesis 12:1-3 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
        1. This is actually the second time God asked Abraham to follow his directions.
        2. The call we just read came after his father, Terah, died.
        3. I doubt most of us have ever considered what an enormous request God made of Abraham.
          1. The fact that Abraham would even listen to God is incredible.
            Joshua 24:2 Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the River, namely, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods.
            1. Abraham grew up in a family that worshipped many gods–he grew up under the full influence of idolatry.
            2. There were no Jewish people who knew and worshipped the living God–the Jewish people eventually descended from him.
            3. There were no Christian people who knew the living God who sent Jesus Christ–Abraham was the beginning of God’s efforts to send Jesus Christ.
            4. God communicated directly with a man raised to believe in many gods, and he listened to this new, strange living God who gave him strange instructions!
          2. The instruction to leave his extended family was unheard of.
            1. While it is commonplace right now for people to strike out on their own and leave their extended families, that was not even commonplace in this society two generations ago.
            2. It happened here, but it was the exception rather than the rule.
            3. In Abraham’s world it did not happen–it meant leaving security for insecurity.
          3. The instruction could be compared to the request that a person leave civilization and go to an unknown frontier.
            1. Not even we like to leave the known for the unknown!
        4. God’s requests to Abraham were real “rock the boat” requests!
      2. At first Abraham could not leave his father, the head of the family.
        1. Terah compromised.
          1. He took the family to Haran and “settled” there–he had no plans to go further.
          2. Haran was similar to Ur, but it was much closer to Canaan.
        2. Evidently Terah was a strong, controlling head of the family.
          1. God did not call Abraham again until Terah died.
          2. Only when his father was dead did Abraham leave his extended family.
        3. Thus began God’s journey to the blessing of all people through Jesus Christ.
      3. What if it had been you instead of Abraham?
        1. What if the living God Whom you did not know made “rocking the boat” requests of you?
        2. What if He instructed you to do the unthinkable, something not done by anyone?
        3. Would you do it?

    2. Let me call some things to your attention.
      1. Do you have any idea of how hard it is to stop thinking like a slave if all your family has been for generations is slaves? That was the challenge the Israelites faced when they left Egypt.
      2. Do you have any idea of how hard it is to live in a tent in a dessert and trust God to provide your food and water every day? That was the challenge facing the Israelites in the wilderness.
      3. Do you have any idea of how hard it is to settle in a country and totally reject the religions of that country? That is the challenge that faced Israel in Canaan.
      4. Do you have any idea of the difficulty involved when God gives a message to give to your own people, and no one wants to hear or believe the message? That often was the situation God’s prophets faced.

    3. I want to call your attention to two Christian situations in the New Testament.
      1. The first situation is found in Acts 9.
        1. There was a man named Saul [whom we know as the Christian Paul] who hated Christianity and Christians.
          1. He thought Christianity opposed the living God’s will and was a grave threat to the nation of Israel.
          2. His solution: destroy the Christian movement, at that time a Jewish movement, by killing any Jewish man or woman who believed Jesus was the Christ sent by God.
          3. Years later after he had been a Christian for a long time, he declared these words as he defended himself in a trial.
            Acts 26:9-11 So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.
        2. He was on his way to a Jewish synagogue in Damascus, Syria to arrest Jewish men and women who believed Jesus was the Christ, bind them, and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial.
          1. He was almost to Damascus when he personally saw the resurrected Jesus, knew he was the Christ, and knew he was totally wrong
          2. Instantly he realized that his error was responsible for the death of God’s people.
        3. What I want to call your attention to is found in Acts 9:10-16.
          Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
          1. Let me paraphrase the situation.
          2. The Lord said, “Ananias, I want you to go to Judas’ house where you will find Saul and restore his sight.”
          3. Ananias said to the Lord, “Wait a minute! I know something about this man you obviously do not know. I know what he did to Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. I know why he came here. I know who gave him authority to do these horrible things. If You knew what I know, you would not send me to him.”
          4. The Lord knew what Ananias knew and he told Ananias to go on.
          5. The Lord knew what He was doing.
        4. If the Lord told you to do something similar, would you do it?
      2. The second situation is found in Acts 10.
        1. The situation:
          1. As far as we know, until this moment all Christians were Jews or proselytes–no people who did not follow Jewish traditions had been converted to Christ.
          2. God’s intent from the call of Abraham (Genesis 12:3) was to bring a blessing to everyone through Abraham’s descendants.
          3. At some point Christianity had to become a world movement to all people, not just a Jewish movement in the nation of Israel.
          4. Acts 10 is the time and the point.
          5. A non-Jew, though a God-fearing person, was instructed to send for the Jewish Christian Peter to receive the message of the gospel from him.
          6. In the meantime, the Lord prepared Peter to receive this request from a man who is neither a Jew nor a proselyte.
            1. Peter had a very confusing vision three times, and at the end of each time was told not to consider what God had cleansed as unholy.
            2. The Holy Spirit instructed him to go with the gentile men and not ask questions–for God had sent the men.
          7. When Peter arrived, he said (10:28, 29), “You know I am doing something a Jew is forbidden to do. But I came because God told me not to consider you unholy (common) or unclean. Why did you send for me?”
            1. Peter was there, but he did not understand why he was there! He did not “get it.”
            2. Cornelius explained why he sent for Peter.
            3. Then Peter had one of those eureka moments in which he literally understood something no other Christian understood at that time. Listen:
              Acts 10:34,35 “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.”
            4. For the first time he understood that a person does not have to be a Jew or a proselyte to be a Christian.
            5. God does not care who your father and mother are.
            6. God does not care what your nationality is.
            7. If a person reverences God by understanding God at work in Jesus Christ, God will welcome that person.
          8. Acts 11:1-3 makes it quite clear that other Christians did not like Peter having even social contact with people who were not Jews–that was completely inappropriate.
            1. Devout Jews did not have gentiles into their homes, and they did not go into gentiles’ homes.
            2. Devout Jews did not eat food prepared by gentiles.
            3. All of this had to do with their religious definition of purity.
          9. Peter did what God wanted him to do, and it cost him dearly–people who were Christians were much opposed to what he did.
          10. If God had told you to do something that was very unpopular among Christians, would you do it?

    This is not a hypothetical principle. If you follow God Who gave us Jesus Christ, there will be moments when you “rock the boat.” There always will be those who do not like it. You will never “rock the boat” to drown people. You will never allow your arrogance to “rock the boat.” You will only allow God’s plans and purposes to “rock the boat.”

    Sometimes you will find that having faith in God means trusting God enough to “rock the boat.” May God’s purposes never be neglected or abandoned because we lacked the faith in God to “rock the boat.”

    Mark: What Does That Mean?

    Posted by on under Sermons

    We are consumed with the meaning of things. It is highly unlikely that any of us have gone through this entire week without thinking about what something meant.

    This week the casualty toll in Iraq passed the 1700 count. What does that mean?

    For several weeks, the U.S. Army has not met its goals in recruiting. What does that mean?

    This week there were unsanctioned demonstrations in Iran? What does that mean?

    This week in Afghanistan there are farmers who think they made a serious mistake changing from poppy crops to wheat crops. What does that mean?

    This week some African nations were informed that they have billions of dollars of indebtedness forgiven. What does that mean?

    Representatives of this congregation are having some difficulty in locating property to use in the development of the inner city work and the Hispanic work. What does that mean?

    If you took a commercial air flight this week, you may have been asked to take your shoes off before you boarded the plane. What does that mean?

    This week a young lady changed her tone of voice when she spoke to a young man. What does that mean?

    This week a young man deliberately did things to get a young lady’s attention. What does that mean?

    No matter what your age, not matter what your country, you are always concerned about the meaning of happenings.

    1. Two thousand years ago the gospel of Mark was written some 25 to 40 years after Jesus’ resurrection.
      1. Very quickly this writing declares this statement made in chapter 1 and verse l5.
        Mark 1:15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
        1. Jesus made this statement.
        2. The gospel of Mark uses the statement as an explanation of the fact that Jesus was in Galilee preaching the gospel of God–whatever is that?
          1. We toss the two words gospel and God around so freely that we just assume both we and everyone else knows what those two words mean.
          2. Yet, when someone asks us to explain the meaning of the phrase “the gospel of God” we likely find ourselves struggling to explain our assumption.
        3. While Mark’s quote of Jesus’ statement may have made sense to the original readers of this document, it does not make a whole lot of sense to us.
          1. It contains some very curious instructions.
            1. Repent–from what?
            2. Believe or “put your trust in.”
          2. It also includes a very curious motivation: “the kingdom of God is at hand, and that is good news!” (The meaning of the word gospel is good news.)
      2. The context makes it obvious that Jesus is speaking to his own people, the Jews.
        1. He was speaking both to people you and I would call “good people” and to people you and I would call “bad people.”
        2. He was speaking both to people in a religious situation and to people in horrible circumstances.
        3. We might understand why he would instruct the “bad people” and the people in “horrible circumstances” to repent and believe.
          1. But why would he tell “good people” to repent and believe in the good news?
          2. Why would he tell people in a religious gathering dedicated to studying scripture and praying to God that they needed to repent and believe?

    2. I want to call your attention to a fact by calling your attention to the sequence of things Jesus did from Mark 1:15 to the middle of Mark 3 when Jesus selects the twelve.
      1. The sequence begins with Jesus inviting Peter, Andrew, James, and John to follow him.
        1. He asked these men who lived in an area of poverty and few jobs to give up their established occupation and follow him.
        2. If they accepted his invitation, they had no promise of income!
      2. He entered the Capernaum synagogue.
        1. Those in attendance were astounded at the way he taught.
        2. A demon felt completely comfortable being in a synagogue, but completely uncomfortable with Jesus’ presence.
        3. The attendees were dumbfounded when Jesus cast the demon out of the possessed man!
      3. Then we are told of Peter’s mother-in-law who was sick with a fever.
        1. Jesus instantly healed her.
        2. He also completely healed her–she was immediately able to assume her work.
      4. Then we are told about all the sick in Capernaum who came to him to be healed.
      5. Then we are told Jesus made this statement recorded in 1:38–
        Mark 1:38 He said to them, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.”
        1. He went all over Galilee spreading the news.
        2. People came from everywhere to him.
        3. He became so popular he was recognized in most places.
      6. Then he returned to Capernaum and healed the paralyzed man.
        1. He granted the man the largest of all gifts, the gift of forgiveness of sins.
        2. Some of the educated people say, “He cannot do that–only God can forgive sins!”
        3. To prove that he could forgive sins, he healed the paralyzed man.
      7. He then called Levi to leave his occupation of tax collector and follow him.
        1. Levi did.
        2. Jesus then ate with a group of outcasts–tax collectors and sinners.
        3. The religious elite complained, “He cannot do that! He is associating with the wrong people!”
        4. Jesus answered, “These people need the good news!”
        5. More of the religious elite came to Jesus to ask why he was not following “accepted religious practices.”
          1. He said something that must have genuinely confused them.
          2. He said, “It would be inappropriate for me to fast.”
          3. Then he said, “I did not come to fix things–I came to bring something new into existence. And old ways of doing things cannot contain this new thing I bring.”
      8. That was just the beginning of some serious confrontations with the religious elite.

    3. Do you see any connection between all those things? Let me share a connection I see that declares the importance of the kingdom of God and declares the need to repent and believe.
      1. The call of Peter, Andrew, James and John declared the kingdom of God is bigger than the normal pursuits of physical survival.
      2. Casting the demon out of the possessed man declared the kingdom of God is bigger than evil.
      3. Healing the sick, including leprosy declared the kingdom of God is bigger than disease, even impossible disease.
      4. Forgiving the paralyzed man’s sins declared God is bigger than Satan.
      5. Eating with tax collectors and sinners declared the kingdom of God is bigger than being an outcast.
      6. Not fasting declared the kingdom of God is bigger than traditional religious practices or religious forms.

    4. So, how is all that relevant to me in my life right now?
      1. The kingdom of God is not about fixing you, about patching you up–it is about making you new.
        1. The two illustrations Jesus used were commonly understood and made his point powerfully.
          1. Those illustrations do not speak as powerfully to us because we are accustomed to sanforized or to preshrunk cloth and we have bottles and cans for our juices.
          2. They did not have sanforized cloth or bottles, and cans and vacuum sealing to store juices in.
          3. Their cloth shrunk, and they stored grape juice in the hides of freshly killed animals made into containers.
            1. So old cloth was patched with old cloth.
            2. You put fresh grape juice in a freshly killed, new animal skin.
            3. Why?
            4. If you used new cloth to patch old cloth, the patch would shrink and make the tear worse.
            5. When fresh grape juice begins to ferment, it produces a gas (carbon dioxide), and fresh skins expand instead of exploding.
        2. Jesus said those people who are willing to see what God is doing in revealing His kingdom will rethink life.
          1. If they understand what God is doing, they will repent–redirect life.
          2. If they understand what God is doing, they will trust God.
          3. They will not be content to be patched up.
          4. They will let God make them new.
          5. Please note: God’s unveiling of His kingdom is good news only to those who will repent and believe.

    5. What God did in allowing Jesus the Christ reveal the kingdom of God is bigger than us and bigger than our problems.
      1. God is not about fixing our lives like putting patches on an old inner tube.
        1. God is about making us a steel belted radial tubeless tire!
        2. The purpose of Christ is not to dig out our bad spots–there are no good spots!
        3. The purpose of Christ is to make us a new person who looks at life and self completely differently!
      2. Why should I allow God through Jesus to teach me how to look at my life?
        1. Because Jesus is bigger than death.
        2. Do you have trouble with an addiction–whether pornography, drugs, alcohol, materialism, pleasure, etc.? Anything that controls and possesses your life?
        3. Jesus is not about merely fixing our addiction–he is about teaching us a new way of seeing life, therefore he is about teaching us a new way to look at ourselves.

    Paul wrote in Galatians 5:1:
    It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

    In context Paul declared that God through Jesus Christ gave gentile Christians a whole new way to look at themselves and at life.

    We are reminded frequently these days that freedom is not free–that it costs. We are equally reminded on a continuing basis that freedom does not mean irresponsibility, but responsibly yielding to an authority higher than selfish desires.

    Mark says that the highest of all authorities is God. God through Jesus is bigger than physical survival, bigger than the most potent expressions of evil, bigger than disease, bigger than being an outcast in society, bigger than religious forms and traditions. That is why the revealing of God’s kingdom is good news. The revealing of God’s kingdom through Jesus Christ declares God is even bigger than our death.

    Have you let God rule you and teach you how to look at life and at self differently?

    Solving the Problem of Faith

    Posted by on June 12, 2005 under Sermons

    What do you do when you have a problem?

    “I ask someone who has the right kind of knowledge to help me. If it is a money problem, I ask someone who is good with finances. If it is a car problem, I ask someone who knows about cars. If it is a electrical problem, I ask someone who knows about electricity.”

    Well, I have a problem. In some form or fashion I have been confronting this problem for about 50 years. So I want to put the problem before you. I do not know if any of us will have the answer, but the problem is much more likely to be addressed in our individual lives if we are aware that it exists.

    “So, what is this problem we need to be aware of?”

    It is a faith problem. The problem is very old. It is so old that it predates the existence of Christianity by over a thousand years. It is a problem that existed in Israel in both the Old and New Testaments. But this problem definitely exists in Christianity today.”

    “What is this faith problem that has existed for such a long time?”

    The problem: how do you encourage Christians to place faith in God instead of placing their faith in something they substitute for God and calling it faith in God?

    Perhaps the problem is best understood by using illustrations.

    Illustrations #1: let’s begin by asking a Christian we have never met a simple question: “Religiously, what are you?” The person answers, “I am Church of Christ. My family has been Church of Christ for at least three generations. My father was an elder in the Church of Christ of my teen years. My grandfather was a preacher in the Church of Christ. We are just a Church of Christ family.”

    Question: is your faith in a religious organization called “The Church of Christ,” or is your faith in the living God who always has been active in His creation?

    Perhaps you ask, “What is the difference?” You see the difference far too often. When a congregation of the Church of Christ behaves poorly, it is amazing to note how many people just quit. They do not worship. They make no effort to serve God. They are very ambivalent about what they believe. Often they become religiously bitter and religiously negative. They did not belong to God.

    They belonged to the Church of Christ. Their confidence was in the Church of Christ, not in God. They substituted faith in the Church of Christ as a physical religious organization for faith in God.

    Illustration #2: we ask a Christian we do not know a series of questions. “Do you go to church here?” Yes I do. I have been coming here for a couple of years. In fact I rarely miss.

    “What do you think of worship?” Oh, I rarely miss, but I hardly ever am in the auditorium. I am always here, but I am rarely part of the worship assembly.

    “What do you think of classes?” Oh, I am always here, even on Wednesday nights, but I do not go to a class. There is always someone else to talk to or somewhere to go.

    “If you do not worship and you do not go to class, why are you here?” I believe it is essential to come. I would not dream of not coming. Being here is very important to salvation. I just do not think it is necessary to worship or go to class.

    This person’s confidence is in being at a geographical place at the right time, not in God to be praised and trusted to direct our lifestyle.

    1. As I said, misplaced confidence is a very old yet very real problem.
      1. It was a frequent problem in Old Testament Israel.
        1. Listen to the words of Amos in Amos 5:21-24.
          “I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
          1. God, did You not command the festival assemblies? Yes!
          2. God, did You not command the sacrifices? Yes!
          3. God, did You not command the songs and the instruments? Yes!
          4. If You commanded all these things, why do You hate them?
          5. “Because you go through the motions of technically doing what I command, but you do not act and live like people who place their faith in Me!”
          6. “You are not a just people; you are not a righteous people!”
        2. An Israelite could not substitute going through the motions for being a person who trusted God.
      2. It was a problem among the Christians in the first century.
        1. The Christians at Corinth had a bad case of determining their faith by the preacher they championed. Consider 1 Corinthians 1:10-17.
          Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one would say you were baptized in my name. Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.
          1. The first thing I call to your attention is the problem Paul addressed is internal in the congregation, not external among those outside the congregation.
          2. The second thing I call to your attention is the fact they based their faith on the preacher they championed.
          3. The third thing I call to your attention is this: to make a preacher the focus of your faith is to nullify what God did in Jesus Christ.
        2. Our faith must be founded on God’s accomplishments in Jesus Christ, not on a human being we exalt.
      3. It continues to be a problem among us.
        1. There are too many who place their faith in the church instead of the God and Christ who allow us to be the church.
        2. There are too many who base their faith on people they agree with rather than the God of mercy who gave us Jesus.
        3. There are too many who base their faith on procedures rather than the God of compassion who resurrected Jesus from the dead.
        4. We urgently need to understand the concern of Paul when he said in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5:
          And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

    2. The author of Hebrews wrote these words in Hebrews 11:1-6:
      Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
      1. Hebrews 11 is called by many the roll call of faith.
        1. Because of its stress on faith, it is easy to take it out of the context of Hebrews.
        2. The Jewish Christians to whom the book was written (or sermon given) had sacrificed a lot for their faith in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:32-39).
        3. Their years of placing faith in Jesus Christ had finally taken their toll.
        4. These Christians were seriously thinking of renouncing Jesus Christ (not God) and returning to Israel.
        5. The writer said that was impossible: if they renounced Jesus as the Christ, they renounced God because Jesus was the work and purpose of God.
        6. Jesus, by God’s design, was superior to everything that declared faith in the nation of Israel.
      2. Faith in what? What kind of faith are we talking about?
        1. Faith in a nation? No!
        2. Faith in an animal sacrificial system? No!
        3. Faith in a structure that featured a temple, a high priest, and a system of worship? No!
        4. Faith in God who permanently solved our problems through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
        5. Faith in God who made the dead Jesus the resurrected Christ.
      3. I am afraid we can say, “Amen!” to those things and miss the point.
        1. It is not faith in what we have done or do, but faith in what God did in Jesus’ death and resurrection and continues to do in Jesus.
        2. As essential as obedience is, it is not faith in our obedience, but faith in our God.

    3. The basic point of Hebrews 11 is this: people who place their faith in God and His achievements in Jesus Christ typically pay a price for having faith in God.
      1. Hebrews 11 is a long list of faithful people who paid heavy prices for being a people of faith.
      2. The point: you should understand that nothing unusual is happening when your faith in what God did in Jesus Christ costs you.
      3. May I say this to us: without what God did and does in the crucified, resurrected Jesus,
        1. There is no redemption, no buying back from sin, no freedom from sin.
        2. There is no atonement–we still owe for every evil thing we did.
        3. There is no sanctification–God looks at us and sees evil instead of seeing people who have been clothed in Jesus Christ.
        4. There is no righteousness–we exist as unredeemed, filthy people.
        5. There is no forgiveness–we are still accountable for our sins; we are indebted to God for every mistake we have made.

    Perhaps the greatest insult we can give God is to place our faith in anything other than the accomplishments of God. May the most obvious thing in our lives be our faith in God.

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