Jesus Vs Religion (Mark 11:12-26)

Mark’s Gospel is about the Kingdom of God coming. Mark’s Gospel is all about the King of that Kingdom coming. You would maybe think that when God’s chosen King, Jesus, came to God’s chosen city, Jerusalem, He’d be welcomed and adored. And last week we saw that he was. When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Monday the city went crazy, until Jesus slipped away, and went to inspect the Temple, and then went back to Bethany. Tonight’s passage covers the events of the Tuesday before Jesus is arrested on Friday morning.

The religious leaders of the Jews had been trying to kill Jesus since 3:6, they’ve been plotting to destroy Him, and His arrival into their city, onto their patch hasn’t helped calm them down any. Here, Jesus contention with the Pharisees steps up another level, and as it does, we learn something vitally important about the Kingdom of God, and about it’s King. We learn that life in the Kingdom is about a relationship, not about religion. About love, not about works. Tonight we’ll see Jesus condemn religion, and show us two things that real faith in God is based on.

First of all, in verses 12-21, we see Jesus condemn religion. What is religion? Religion is any system, or anything we do that we think makes God approve of us. For the Jews it was animal sacrifices, which were given to Moses to show him the need for a saviour, but by Jesus’ time had been turned into something corrupt and sinful. For us it can be anything. Our church attendance can be religious, if we feel like it makes Jesus love us more. Our Bible reading can be religious if it makes us feel like Jesus approves of us. Not committing sins that ‘they’ commit can make us religious, if it makes us think we are better than whoever they are. Here, Jesus condemns religion. Here, Jesus puts religion out of business. Let’s see how.

In verse 12, He’s hungry, He’s skipped breakfast to spend more time in prayer, and He sees a fig tree with no fruit on it, and curses it. How often have we opened the fridge at home and not found the food we were looking for and wish we could curse the fridge?! Well here that’s what Jesus does! But why? And why does Mark tell us about this? Well if you look at this passage you’ll see that Mark puts Jesus visit to the temple in the middle of the story about the cursing of the fig tree. Jesus is showing us what’s wrong with religion by showing us what’s wrong with the fig tree. It had leaves but no fruit. It looked good, but there was nothing worthwhile on it’s branches. We can say exactly the same thing about religion. It looks good, but it’s dead. The Temple in Jerusalem looked good, but there was nothing good there, no life there. Our religion, whatever it may be, looks good, but there is no life there. Jesus condemns religion as He curses the fig tree. Religion does not produce life, and therefore it is worthless.

Then Jesus heads to the Temple. Remember it’s Passover, and maybe as many as two million people have come to the city to take part in the festival. These people had foreign money that needed changing, and needed to buy animals to sacrifice. All this business took place at the Temple. It started as a good service, people didn’t have to bring a lamb with them when they travelled, they could buy one when they got there. People had to offer Jewish money in the Temple, so they could buy some with their Syrian or Egyptian money when they arrived. Except by Jesus time this had turned from a religious help into a money making scheme for the priests. Animals were sold at extortionate prices, money was exchanged at a 400% mark-up, meaning that if you gave $2 you’d get 5c back. This is what Jesus confronts as He enters the Temple. This is why there were money changes, and pigeon sellers and people carrying things through the Temple. And Jesus stopped them all.

Imagine how powerful, how influential Jesus must have been to shut all this down by Himself. To let all the animals loose, to stop all the buying and selling, to stop anyone bringing anything through the Temple. I would’ve loved to have seen it. And why was Jesus doing all this? Because of what he says in verse 17: ‘is it not written by house shall be a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of robbers. Jesus quotes from Isaiah to remind His listeners of the real purpose of the Temple, which is to meet with God. It’s a place for all people to come together and pray and worship and thank God. This is how we can know whether or not what we’re doing is from religion or from faith. Does your Bible reading bring you closer to God, or just make you feel better about yourself? Does coming to church bring you closer to God, or do you just come to stop feeling guilty? Are you faithful, or religious?

Jesus shows us the religion is not only fruitless, but also corrupt. Not only does it not produce good fruit, like joy, peace and patience, but it produces bad fruit like pride and greed. So are you joyful and patient or proud and greedy? That answer goes a long way to demonstrating whether you’re faithful or religious.

On the way back out of town that evening, they pass by the fig tree once more and Peter notices that it has withered. Just like the cursed Temple is finished so is the cursed fig tree. No fruit will ever come from the tree again, just like no fruit will ever come from the Temple again. The Temple was destroyed, never to be rebuilt, about forty years later in 70AD.

Why does Jesus do this? In Amos 4:9, God says this to His people: ‘I struck you with blight and mildew, your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the Lord devoured, yet you did no return to me, declares the Lord.’ Jesus does this so that His people might return to Him, and how can we do that? Jesus shows us two things that real faith is based on in verses 22-25, read them with me.

First of all, real faith is based on dependence. Jesus doesn’t teach us here that prayer give us super powers, but that in a crisis, and in fact every day, we rely on Jesus, not on religion. We turn to Jesus and ask for help, we turn to Jesus and ask for guidance and wisdom and forgiveness. Religion doesn’t do those things, Jesus does. He promises the disciples that the Temple would be destroyed, but they have to wait 40 years for it. They have to depend on Him. He makes promises to us that we have to wait for.

Do you depend on Jesus? Or on your religious works?

The Lord sums up His attack on religion in verse 25. Simply, if we want to live in the Kingdom of forgiveness, we must forgive. If the Temple was supposed to be a house of prayer for all nations, it would first have to be a place of forgiveness. If you and I are going to be forgiven by God, we’ll have to forgive others. Are you forgiving? Do you forgive? Or do you hold grudges to make yourself feel better about life? Do you forgive? Or religiously hold up a standard that no one can maintain.

In Mark 11:12-26 Jesus attacks the Temple, and with it attacks every form of religion that we care to mention. But let’s not feel smug and think that we have it right. That’s the heart of the religion that Jesus was attacking and condemning. Instead let’s examine ourselves, and ask God to reveal our motives. Why do we do what we do? Why do we read the Bible? Why do we go to church? Because we have faith in Jesus? Or because we are religious? And let’s ask Jesus for help. Help not to be proud, but help to be dependent on Him. We can’t get to God in any other way except through Jesus, and we come to Jesus through faith, not religion.

Lead me through the City

How do you pray before you read the Bible?

I guess it depends on what you think the Bible is. If we approach the Bible as a list of rules, as if it really were, 'basic instructions before leaving earth,' we'll pray that we understand God's instruction. If we think of it as a how-to manual, we'll pray that we learn the rules and follow them. But if we view the Bible as an invitation to meet the living Christ, we might pray a bit differently.

We might pray, Father, lead me through the city and help me find my beloved, as in Song 5:2-10, because we need the Father's help to see the Son, and we don't believe that the Bible contains 65 books about Jesus, and one about us.

We might pray, Father, open  my eyes that i might see your glory in the face of Christ, as in 2 Corinthians 4:4-6, because we need help to see Jesus as the glorious Son of God, rather than a distraction or an inconvenience.

We might pray, Father help me to love Jesus the way you love Jesus, as in John 17:26. Because sanctification is loving Jesus more than anything else, and because the Father loves the reflection of His own glory in Jesus more than anything else, and because we join in our Lord when we pray this.

We might pray, satisfy my heart with your steadfast love, as in Psalm 90:14, because our sinful hearts wander away from the beautiful fruit we can enjoy, and desire what is bad for us, just like our first parents did.

We might pray, Father, would i eat the flesh of your Son and drink His blood, as in John 6:53, because this dependence and digestion of the Word of God leads to life.

We might pray, Father, would i be astonished at your love for me today, and would i marvel at Jesus, as in 2 Thessalonians 1:10, because there is no division between the Father's love for us, and His desire for the glory of His Son, and this is good news.

We might pray, Father, make me a green olive tree in your house, as in Psalm 52:8, so that we would offer nourishment and protection to those around us.

And after we have read, we might pray, Father, would my heart overflow with the pleasing theme of your Son, the King, as in Psalm 45:1, so that our good works would shine for your glory.

We have a God who loves and relates and speaks. We have a God who is there and not silent. The Bible is proof of that. Let's read our Bibles like that.

The Disappointing Entry

What do you do when Jesus disappoints you? What will you do when something you’ve got planned, something that you want, doesn’t work out? How will you react when you feel like Jesus has let you down? These are questions that we’re left to ask ourselves at the end of Mark 11:1-11.

To understand this, we have to understand what it was the disciples, and by the sounds of tonight’s passage, a large number of the crowd, thought Jesus was going to do. They believed He was the Messiah, which He was, and they thought He was planning to set up a Kingdom, which He was, but they thought that this would be an earthly Kingdom. They thought that Jesus was going to go to Jerusalem and kick out the Roman armies and set up another Kingdom of Israel, bigger and better that the one we read about in the OT. Mark 11:1-11 is a story of messianic and nationalistic fervor, rather than real faith in Jesus.

We have entered Jerusalem, and with it the last week of Jesus life. Mark takes about a third of his Gospel telling us about the last five days of Jesus life, we’ll spend about ten weeks going through it.  Mark 11 happens on Monday, and it’s important for a couple of reasons that we understand the timeline of Jesus last week. On Saturday Jesus arrives at the house of Mary and Martha, this is when he raised Lazarus from the dead, which you can read about in John 12. Then On Sunday the crowds come to Bethany to see this man raised from the dead, which brings us to Monday, which we read about this evening. On Tuesday He cursed the fig tree and returned to the temple, of Wednesday He confronted the religious leaders and preached about His second coming, on Thursday He celebrated Passover, and on Friday He was arrested. Why does a timeline of events really matter? Well, on the Monday of Passover week, the 10^th of Nisan, the Passover lambs were selected and brought into the city, then they were killed on Friday, the 14^th of Nisan. Jesus, the ultimate Passover lamb, entered the city on the 10^th and was killed on the 14^th. One more cool thing. Daniel 9:23-24 promises that it will be 483 years from the rebuilding of Jerusalem to the appearance of the Messiah. Jesus arrives in Jerusalem in the 483^rd year after the walls were rebuilt! That’ll be important in our Sunday morning study in Revelation as well soon.

So let’s look at Jesus, and let’s look at the crowd and then let’s look at us, and how we react when Jesus disappoints us. Verses 1-6 tell us about the preparation, verses 7-10 tell us about the entry, and verse 11 tells us about the surprise.

So let’s look at verses 1-6, the preparation.  What do we learn about Jesus? What does Mark want us to think about ourselves? Jesus needs a colt, a small horse or donkey to ride into the city, so He tells two of His followers to go and get it. Jesus knows exactly what the owners of the colt will say when they see two men taking their animal away, and gives the men an answer, ‘the Lord has need of it.’ This is slightly ambiguous, but it seems to work, perhaps the men who owned the colt were believers. Mark spends so much time in his introduction to the last week of Jesus life, and goes into so much detail about it, because he wants us to understand that Jesus is totally in control of everything that’s happening. Sometimes you’ll hear people saying that the cross wasn’t the plan, but God made the best of a bad situation. Sometimes you’ll hear people say that Jesus didn’t know what was going to happen to Him in Jerusalem, or that He was a victim of fate. Mark wants us to kill these ideas dead. Jesus knew where His animal was, knew what the problem would be, and knew what His followers would have to say to get it. Jesus is in control.

Remember that when you’re disappointed, when plans don’t go your way. Remember that Jesus is totally in control. He hasn’t dropped the ball, and He hasn’t forgotten you. He knew about the colt…His eye is on the sparrow, and His eye is on you.

That’s the preparation, lets look at the entry itself in verses 7-10. There’s so much detail and fulfilled prophecy in these verses! First of all, Jesus rides a colt into the city to fulfill Zechariah 9:9. In that verse the coming King is described as righteous and bringing salvation, humble and riding on a donkey. Another prophecy about Jesus, Genesis 49:11 talks about the King who all nations would obey riding a donkey. That’s Jesus! Cloaks are thrown on the road as a symbol of obedience to the King, and wave palms as a symbol of rejoicing in the King. You see what I mean? This would have been a noisy, joyful parade full of singing and dancing. People who were coming to Jerusalem for Passover would have been carried away in this joy, the Messiah was coming. And look at what they shouted in verse 9 and 10 READ. Hosanna literally means ‘save’ or ‘save me now.’ It’s a shout of joy and praise to God. The crowd call Jesus the one who comes in the name of the Lord, the one who will take David’s throne.

Why does this happen? Because Jesus is in control. He knows that by Friday He needs to be on the cross, so He needs to stir up the Jewish leaders to do something. They had been slow to act their plan against Jesus so far, but now, Jesus knows it’s time. The crowd welcome Jesus to Jerusalem as the Messiah, as God’s warrior King who would set them free and rule for them. They were delighted in Jesus and expectant of the great works He was about to do.
You’d expect verse 11 to be the start of a war wouldn’t you, a gathering of troops, people getting ready for war. But what happens? Jesus goes to the Temple, apparently alone, looks around, and then goes back to Bethany. What an anti climax. Parades are supposed to go somewhere aren’t they? There’s supposed to be a finish to them. It seems like Jesus just slips away, wanders into the temple and then goes home. There would have been about two million people in the city at this point, so he would have been able to disappear quite easily, but why?
Because He has a different plan from the crowd. They wanted victory, He’s going to die, they wanted an Earthly Kingdom, He’s going to establish a Heavenly one, they wanted praise, He offers them shame. Mark shows us Jesus going to the temple, alone, at the end of this huge parade, because He’s preparing us for what’s next, he’s preparing us for the cross. He’s preparing us to be disappointed.

In just a few days, from Monday to Friday, the crowd that rejoiced and shouted hosanna would revile and shout crucify. Jesus would disappoint the crowd so they would turn on Him. What will you do when Jesus disappoints you? When His plans aren’t your plans, what will you do? Will you turn your back on Him and cry ‘crucify’? or will you trust Him? If you don’t get the college, or the grade, or the job, or the girl that you want, what will you do? When life seems full of nothing but problems, when it seems like Jesus plan is not working, what will you do?

We must trust that Jesus is always doing something better. The crowd and the disciples wanted an earthly Kingdom, but Jesus was doing something better. You want things from your life right now, Jesus wants better things for you. Probably harder things, definitely better things. When life isn’t turning out the way you planned, will you trust Jesus? These are the two options everyone has. You either give your whole life to Christ, asking Him to be the King of your life and decisions, of your plans and your dreams, or you crucify Him.

Reading Esther Like Christians

We've been looking at Esther together in Children's Church over the last couple of weeks, and, as we've done so, i've done my best to teach the 5 through 11 year olds in the class how to read Esther as if it were a book of the Bible.

There are a lot of problems with this, not least that no one ever seems to pray and wait on the LORD in Esther, people just do things (unless, of course, that is the Christian way of doing things, but more of that another time perhaps). The biggest issue with Esther i've tried to teach though, is chapter one, specifically, encouraging us to read Esther 1 as Christians, not as feminists.

A popular understanding of Esther 1 goes like this. The King has a party, get's drunk and wants his wife to entertain his friends. Poor Vashti, we think,  and we applaud her bold and brave stand against this appalling misogynist.

but what if we were to read the book like Christians? What if we were to read this slightly odd book as if it were part of the Bible? What if we were to look for the same themes in Esther that we see in the rest of the Bible?

Let's move from the least important to the most. First of all, imagine if i held a dinner party for my closest friends, but Rachel is nowhere to be seen. We've obviously eating take out. Wouldn't i be weird if at some point i didn't want my friends to see my wife? To enjoy her company with me? It would be very strange if every time we had people over to our house i hid Rachel away. No! She is, literally, my better half, go get Rachel, and let's enjoy our marriage and our friends. There's no hint of misogyny there is there?

Second, Jeremiah Burroughs, by way of Dave Bish says, 'the lives of those who are married, ought to resemble the blessedness, as far as possible, the condition of a people reconciled to God...Married people should live so that all who behold the sweetness, the happiness of their lives, may be reminded by this of the sweetness and happiness which is in the church's communion with Jesus Christ.'

Which leads us to point number three. Look at the language and images used in Esther 1. Ahasuerus is the King of the known world, and he loves to share his abundance with his people. There is a 180 day feast, followed by a 7 day feast in the garden. What else do we find in the garden? White cotton curtains, violet hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rods. The feast, the great communion with the great king takes place in the citadel, in the inner sanctuary, which looks like a garden-temple.

And what happens on the seventh day in the garden temple? The queen rejects her king! The king wants to walk with his bride in the cool of the day, but she's hiding in the bushes and won't come out.  She, like Adam and Eve before her, and you and I after her, rebels against the king, and is exiled from the garden.

If we really believe the Bible is one coherent book, telling one coherent story, then we shouldn't let whispers of that story in any individual book escape our notice. We should look at Esther 1 as a retelling of Genesis 1. We should look at Vashti and see our refusal to delight in the Lord's goodness. We should see the abundance of our King, our Maker, our Redeemer and our Husband, and not let anything stop us placing our delight in Him.

We should read Esther 1 like Christians.

The Preacher Says 'come with us...'

Warren Wiersbe said that ministry is the overflow of our relationship with God. Simply, that if 'ministers' in particular, and Christians on the whole, are in the business of offering Christ to others, they can not offer what they do not have. Someone else, i forget who, said that the problem with so much preaching is that preachers are like starving chefs who barely lick their own fingers. No heart warming ministry will flow out of a heart that has not been warmed.

On Thursday morning i read Numbers 9 and 10, Psalm 45 and Acts 17, and i saw some of this in action. The opening verse of Psalm 45 is 'my heart overflows with a pleasing theme...' What is that pleasing theme? The Handsome, God-blessed victorious King, who reigns forever and whose bride enters his presence with joy and gladness. This instructional love song was written and sung for the new son of David sitting on the throne of Judah, and is fulfilled the final Son of David, sitting on the throne of the universe.

This is a 'pleasing theme.' It's good to think about Jesus! It's good to stop and look at the sunrise on a cold, clear winter morning, good to stop and watch a cardinal pick about in your garden, good to slowly wallow in the truth of the Gospel. And this theme overflows. The Psalmist can't keep it in any more, praise is cascading from his lips for the king, and for The King. He invites others to sing with him, as they consider the beauty of this great King.

Moses does much the same in Numbers 10. It's nearly time for the camp to set out, and he wants his brother-in-law to go with them. Partly because he knows the lay of the land, he's a wilderness expert, and can help them on the way. But Moses is far more concerned about Hobab, at least at first. He says 'come with us, and we will do good for you...' Come to Israel, come to the LORD, come to Canaan. Abandon your false gods. Yes, for objective reasons of truth and helpful reasons of guidance, but more, come with us because we will do good to you. It will be good for you to be in relationship with the LORD and His people. It will be good for you to enjoy the promised blessings of Canaan, it will be good for you to rejoice in the atoning blood of the lamb as we celebrate Passover.

The LORD's goodness is a pleasing theme that overflows from Moses lips. He's tasted and seen, and now he says come and see. Is our preaching, our evangelism, the same? Do we offer a 'get out of Hell free' card, or do we offer a love stronger than death? Do we offer a new set of rules, or a king that will ruin our hearts for other lovers? Do you offer the Gospel to law-breakers, or to adulterers?

Paul's Mars Hill address in Acts 17 is the cornerstone for people who think that unless we offer a Gospel wearing a nose stud and laden with expletives we're doing it wrong. Look, Paul goes to Athens and meets them on their own terms. He doesn't really though does he? Hey, Athenians! God doesn't live in these temples you've built, God doesn't need your service, God is not unknown. If he was trying to be culturally sensitive at the cost of Biblical faithfulness he didn't do a very good job!

What does Paul actually say? Consider the God who loves you enough to give you the rain in it's season, who loves you enough to reveal Himself to you, who loves you enough to go to the grave and defeat death on your behalf. Not like the Greek gods, who were just bigger and more powerful people, with their jealousies and sins writ large, but a God who is fundamentally not like us. Paul says 'come to Jesus, and He will do you good.'

The Psalmist's heart, and Moses's heart and Paul's Gospel warmed heart overflowed with a pleasing theme, do our hearts do the same? As our hearts overflow, do our voices say, 'come with me, taste what i've tasted, see what i've seen, and it will do you good.'

The Magic Gospel Bullet

Which famous Christian celebrity would you like the be discipled by? Paul? Augsutine? Calvin? Piper? Or how about Jesus Himself.

Of course, that's a bit of a false dichotomy, but in Mark 8:22-10:52 we find Jesus' private discipleship lessons, remembered by Peter, recorded by Mark, and given to us. Think of it! In these chapters we get to wander around Galilee with Jesus, listening in to some of His most intimate and important teaching, before striking off south, face set to Jerusalem.

Mark bookends these lessons with two stories of Jesus healing the blind. First of all in chapter 8 there's the man who sees trees walking. This was a real event that really happened, but it's also a parable. When the disciples looked at Jesus, they saw a tree walking. They saw Him feed five thousand men with a boys lunch, and then worried about where they were going to get bread. They looked at Jesus and didn't get it. If He's the Messiah, where His sword? More importantly, if He's the Messiah, where is our sword?

In this section Jesus predicts His death and resurrection three times, and three times the disciples misunderstand. Peter is often at the forefront of the misunderstanding, at least initially. It seems Jesus closest friend was not one to retweet compliments. Jesus says i'm going to be handed over to men, who'll treat me shamefully. The disciples argue over who is the greatest. Jesus says He'll be mocked, spat on and flogged. James and John wonder if they can sit either side of Him when He turns the Temple Mount into the centre of His earthly Kingdom. They don't get it. Even after Peter's great confession, even after the transfiguration, they still look at a man, and see a tree.

I wonder if Jesus was frustrated with them. He was certainly indignant when the twelve tried to turn away a child. Here's the great encouragement for me from these verses. Jesus was in charge of these guys discipleship, and they still grew slowly. They still misunderstood, they still didn't get in. Very shortly the leader of their group would cut a guy's ear off! Next time, when i feel like i'm failing in the same area for the hundredth time, or helping someone else who has, i need to remember that.

Everyone's Christian growth is normally incremental. Sure, there are times when growth occurs like a bolt of lightening across the night's sky, but it's more often like the sunrise. I was thinking yesterday how much i wished there was a magic bullet for Christian growth, but how, at the same time, i'm glad there isn't. As Jesus keeps teaching slowly their eyes opened as they learnt to depend on Him. The final increment didn't fall into place until the ascension, but their eyes opened in the end.

And so will everyone's eyes, yours and mine included. One day, we won't look at Jesus and see a tree, one day we'll be like Bartimaeus, the living example of what Mark 10 is about. Committed enough to stand out from the crowd, humble enough to ask for help, his only ambition to follow Jesus into the last week of His life. Slowly but surely, as Christ Himself disciples us, God's Word will do God's work, our eyes will be opened. We'll see, and we'll follow.

Both Sides of the Line

Hear Paul David Tripp from his excellent book, 'Dangerous Calling.'

The private nurture of your own heart as a pastor is not only a humble confession of your need and a confession of your love for the Saviour; it is also a statement of your love for the people that God has placed in your care. It is in this way that preparation and personal devotion intersect. No, you're not reading that passage in the morning to develop content for a moment of teaching; you're reading it to feed your own heart. But in doing so, you are preparing your heart to face all the responsibilities, opportunities and temptations of local church ministry. What you're doing morning after morning raises the potential that in crucial moments of pastoral ministry you will be part of what God's doing rather than in the way of it.

Dangerous Calling, P189

At the moment in my morning Bible reading i'm in Numbers, Psalms and Acts. I'm currently preaching though Revelation in teen Sunday school, and Mark in teen church on Wednesday nights. So does that mean my devotional reading and my prep reading are totally separate? Well yes and no.

Yes, they are separate in that i read Numbers, Psalms and Acts in the morning in the side room off my kitchen, and Mark and Revelation in my office at church. Yes, they are separate in that i'm reading in the morning with my eyes solely on me. How can i apply this text to my situation, my marriage, my ministry and my temptations. When i'm prepping in Mark and Revelation i'm looking for more general application. How is this relevant to a 14 year old? How would this challenge someone who has grown up in church? But in another sense they're not separate. What i read sitting at my desk feeds my soul in the same way that what i read in the morning does. Unless i develop a calloused, 'professional,' heart, when the Bible is open, God is speaking to me, leading me though the city to find my beloved. If i am to serve my church well, i must apply my own preaching first of all to myself, so when i'm reading Mark or Revelation, when i have a commentary open, i'm asking the Lord to keep applying to me, as well as to my teen group. If there is a line between personal and preperational reading, it's one we must stand on both sides of at all times.

Sometimes this works out differently. Last Wednesday i was scheduled to preach high school and middle school chapel at our Christian school. The prep time i had went on a message from Ephesians 2:1-10. But that morning i read Leviticus 16. My heart was so gripped by Christ's expiatory and propitiatory work that i couldn't not preach on it that same morning. Instead of about 1600 typed words i had about fifty scribbled ones. Less bookwork preparation, but plenty of heartwork preparation. Again, standing on both sides of the line at the same time.

Later on this morning i'm meeting with a student. I've no idea what is on his heart, and so in that sense i can't 'prepare' for the meeting. Except i can. What that young man needs from me is not stock answers from a Bible study on whatever his problem is, but my own relationship with God overflowing into our time together. As McCheyne said, what a minister's people need more than anything is his own personal holiness. This young man needs to meet his youth pastor as a beggar who has found a feast and invites him along, not a professional with all the answers.

So all devotion is preparation. Preparation of my own heart and mind. A feeding on the life, death and resurrection of Christ. A feast in the wilderness. An opportunity to taste and see with the purpose of inviting others to do the same. If my heart isn't warmed, ho can i offer that warmth to others? And all preparation is devotional. When the Bible is opened God speaks, and He speaks into my life. He speaks to me about the Kingdom of God in Mark and the soon coming end of all things in Revelation. As i pray, read and reread my passage, make notes and look and commentaries, i must have my heart open. I must be, so to speak, 'on my knees over my books.' Then, with my heart warmed and my head informed, i can offer Christ to me teenagers, and we can feast together. 

Saved For A Purpose (Ephesians 2:8-10)

God has saved you for a purpose. The final verses of this passage give us a glimpse into the future. Why doesn’t God just take to Heaven those He saves right away? Because there are good works to do. Good works do not earn God’s favour, but they are a necessary response to God’s favour. Good works do not save us, but they do give great evidence that we are saved. Paul says as a result of our salvation, as a result of the ‘but God,’ moment that moved us from death and the devil and hell to life and Christ and Heaven, there are things we have to do.

But what things are they? We’d love to know wouldn’t we? What is God’s will? 1 Thess 4:3 tells us, ‘for this is God’s will, your sanctification.’ God’s plan for Christians is to make us more like Jesus. He wants us to love Jesus more and the world less, he wants us to show people around us that we are saved by good works. So which college should I go to? The one that helps me love Jesus more. Which girl should I date? The one that helps me love Jesus more? Who should I be close friends with? The ones that help me loive Jesus more. What job should I work? One that helps me love Jesus more.

We get so bent out of shape looking for God’s secret will for our lives. God has told us His will for our lives. Do good works, which show that you love Jesus, and help you love Jesus more.

I hope this spiritual x-ray has revealed some things to you. If you’re not saved, I hope you’ve seen yourself as dead. Not as having a great time away from Jesus, but as the hopeless slave of the devil. And I hope it’s made you want to come to Jesus. If you are saved let me close with another illustration for you. Hetty Green was known as America's greatest miser. She managed an inherited fortune so shrewdly that she was also considered the greatest woman financier in the world. In 1916 she died leaving an estate that was worth nearly 100 million dollars. Yet she would eat cold oatmeal because she didn't want to spend the money to heat the water. Her son eventually lost his leg from a relatively minor injury because she took him to a number of free medical clinics instead of calling for a doctor. She had tremendous resources but didn't make use of them.

Christians, Jesus has given you tremendous resources. Use this x-ray to see yourself as you really are, and give your life to good works for the glory of Jesus, as He showers you with His kindness and love.

But God! (Ephesians 2:4-7)

Verses 4-7 show us what a wonderful life Christ promises us. But God might be the sweetest phrase in the whole Bible. We were dead, ‘but God’ made us alive. We were hopeless, ‘but God,’ gave us hope. We were helpless, ‘but God,’ gave us help. We were devil worshippers, ‘but God,’ has saved us. God has stepped in to deliver us from death, to deliver us from hell. He has done this by joining us to Jesus, He has saved us by giving us what belongs to Him. In these wonderful verses we see three things. God’s motivation for saving us, God’s action to save us, and God’s purpose for saving us.

Four things motivated God to save us. Verse four mentions His great love for us. God’s great love. Not His grudging love, or His miserable love, or His dutiful love…His great love. Jesus loves us so much that He was motivated to come and die in the ugliest way possible to save us. God is rich in mercy. Rich! His mercy overflows to us. We didn’t deserve saving, and we don’t deserve keeping, but God’s rich mercy overflows to rescue us from sin. Three times Paul mentions God’s grace. Our salvation wasn’t prompted by us, it was total, undeserved favour. In verse 7 we read of God’s kindness. He was kind to do for us exactly what we needed. What motivated God to save us? His love, His mercy, His grace and His kindness. What a wonderful God!

Secondly, in these verses, we see God’s action, what He has actually done because of His love and grace. God has made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up and seated us with Him in the Heavenly places. Wow! Doesn’t that sound better than a life dominated by the devil? Wouldn’t you rather be alive with Christ, under the influence of Heaven, that dead with the devil under the influence of hell? Paul shows us what the devil offers us, and then he shows us how Jesus totally outbids what he offers. Jesus is better, Paul says, come to Him. We benefit from the position and power of Jesus, if we are saved.

Finally we see God’s purpose for saving us in verse 7. This is so good we need to stop and read it together. I love that verse. The immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Amazing! God has saved us for Himself, that He might show His grace and kindness. When we are saved, we are, forever, the subject of God’s grace and kindness. The devil is neither gracious, nor kind, why would you choose him over Jesus? Jesus has saved you not to ruin your fun, not to make you miserable or boring, but to be kind to you.

A Depressing X-Ray (Ephesians 2:1-3)

Let me tell you about one of the most painful experiences of my life. I was probably 7 or 8 years old, and walking across our living room one day I suddenly got the most ridiculous pain in my right foot. It was so bad I couldn’t even stand on it. I was a bit of a hypochondriac in those days, so my parents weren’t altogether sure there was something wrong with me. But there really was. Two days later, when I was still in agony, and still couldn’t put any weight on my foot, they took me to the doctor for an x-ray. The x-ray showed the problem, I had a three inch long needle inside my foot. It had gone in so deep that you couldn’t see it, I needed an x-ray to be shown the cause of the problem. That same day I had an operation, and I still just about have the scar on my foot to prove it.

It took an x-ray to show what was wrong, and here, in Ephesians 2:1-10, Paul shows us an x-ray of our hearts and lives. He shows us what we were like before we are saved, what some of us are still like today, then he shows us what we are like now we’re saved, and finally, he shows us what our lives should be like now. A spiritual x-ray is what we need, whether or not we are saved. If you’re not saved here this morning, Paul is about to show you what you look like, he’s about to show you the problem. Just like I couldn’t see the needle in my foot, neither can you see the problems in your heart without an x-ray. And if you are saved, you need to be shown what is true about you. Just like I needed to realize what was wrong with my foot, so I could get back to my normal life, so we need to realize what Jesus has done for us, so we can live our lives for His glory.

Our first x-ray, from verses 1-3, tells us that we are dead without Jesus. These verses are depressing to read aren’t they? Paul tells us that even if we look nice, or normal, on the outside, we are dead inside. Sin and death are connected throughout the Bible, because it is sin that cuts us off from God, the source of all life. These verses show us what we were like before we were saved, or what we are like now if we’re not saved. We were dead in transgressions and sins according to verse one, verse 3 tells us that God saw us as children of wrath. That God was angry with us, whether we felt it or not. Verse 2 tells us how we behaved in those days. We followed the course of this world, we lived in the ways of the devil, and we were ruled by the desires of the flesh.

Before we were saved, three awful enemies, death, sin and the devil had complete power over us. The devil ruled our desires, our plans, our dreams and our actions. The devil is described as ‘the prince of the power of the air,’ not meaning that he has power over the oxygen we breathe, but that he sets the atmosphere on Earth. It’s the devil that influences a political agenda for the apparent harm of God’s Kingdom, it’s the devil’s influence that means we use hell to describe good things (it was a hell of a game) and Jesus Christ as a cuss word. And what’s even worse is that before we are saved, we love this world. Before we are saved not only does the devil rule the atmosphere, he rules our desires, and we can’t help but follow them. Verse three tells us that we carry out the desires of the body. We are under the control of the devil, and we love to do his work.

How To Be Happy (Psalm 32)

How can we be happy? God has designed all of us to long for happiness, to want to be happy. God has made us to be happy, which is why people spend billions of dollar every year on entertainment, whether it’s sport, or movies or vacations of whatever else. We all long to be happy.

Psalm 32 gives us the key to happiness, it tells us how we can be happy forever. That word blessed that we saw in verses 1 and 2 just means ‘happy.’ We want to be happy, and this Psalm, a ‘maskil,’ a psalm of instruction, tells us how to be happy. In verses 1-5, we see how to be happy, and in verses 6-12, we see the difference that real happiness makes in our lives.

So who is the happy man? Verses one and two tell us ‘blessed is the man whose transgressin is forgiven, whose sin is covered.’ How can you be happy? By having your sins forgiven. Later on in this psalm we will learn that sin is a great weight that we carry around with us, but we probably feel like that about sin already. Sin stops us from being happy, and the forgiveness of that sin leads to happiness, leads to real, deep, rich, Biblical happiness. And we’ll see why at the end of the psalm. Verse two puts the same truth in a different way. Blessed we are, happy we are, when the Lord does not count our sins, when He does not remember them, when our sins are covered.

We meet these verses in the NT, when Paul quotes them in Romans 4:7-8. How are our sins forgiven? Not by works, but by faith in what Jesus has done. We see right away that this OT Psalm teaches us that a relationship with Jesus is the way to happiness. This knowledge that our sins are forgiven, and that we can be free from the penalty of them, and free to have a relationship with God, is the only way to real happiness. We see in verse 10 of this Psalm that it is the one who trusts in the Lord who is surrounded by steadfast love. David tells us, and Paul tells us, as Jesus told us in Matt 5:8, that the way to happiness forever is only found in a relationship with Jesus. Only then are our sins forgiven, only then is our sin covered, only then will the Lord not count our iniquity against us, and only then will we be happy.

But this is a lesson that David had to learn the hard way, and maybe some of us do as well. Read verses 3-5 with me. This reads like David’s personal experience. He tried to find happiness by hiding his sin, but it didn’t work. We’ve all been here haven’t we? We try to pretend everything is going great. We’re happy, we’ve got great friends, good grades and things in our relationship with Jesus are great. But all the time we’re dry inside. All the time our hearts are ‘dried up as by the heat of summer.’ We’ve got no life in us, no joy in the Lord, nothing but hidden sin that eats us from the inside. All this will continue until we confess our sins, until we come back to Jesus in faith once again. Verse 5 ends with David finding forgiveness from the Lord, and with forgiveness, happiness.

So that’s the first part of this Psalm, that’s how to be happy. The next question is what difference does this happiness make to us? Read verses 6-11 with me.

The first word in verse 6, therefore, shows that what follows applies the truths that we just learned. The truth is that the godly still sin. Godliness is not marked out by perfection but by repentance. So those who repent should do so now, while God may be found. They should repent as soon as their sin is made known to them. Like David when Nathan came to him after his sin with Bathsheba, we need to repent as soon as possible. Repentance is a sign of godliness. The godly shouldn’t be like a wild animal who need a bit and a bridle, but should be wise in turning to God for forgiveness. And what a wonderful God they find in verse 7 when they do repent. Look at that with me:. God becomes the hiding place of the repentant, He preserves from trouble and surrounds with deliverance. When we repent we find happiness, because we know that God is no longer angry with us. When we repent we see the smile of God on the face of Christ. When we repent from our sin, when we stop hiding and agree with God in confession, we are protected by Jesus blood. This is the greatest joy there can be, to know God as a place of refuge, not to have to hide from Him. This is real happiness. Not sinful happiness that leaves us dried up like grass in the summer, but a happiness like a tree in bloom. This is the happiness, the blessings promised in verses 1 and 2. When we confess our sins, remember 1 John 1:9 tells us, God is faithful and just o forgive our sins. He becomes our protection, and we are blessed.

Verses 10 and 11 sum up why a relationship with God though Jesus is the only way to happiness. Remember what we saw last week, that sin wears a mask of beauty, but underneath the mask is the evil and destructive truth. Verse 10 gives us a further look into that truth. The wicked look happy most of the time don’t they, and by worldly standards they are. The standards of the world are deceptive. The American dream is deceptive, not because godless living doesn’t make people happy, but because it will not make them happy forever. David gives us the real truth. Underneath the sorrows of the wicked are many, they have no hope, they have no real, lasting joy. They might be happy for the 80 years they live on earth, but what are those years compared to an eternity without God?

To be happy, we need to be surrounded by the steadfast love of the Lord. And this happiness won’t vanish after 80 years, or 80 million years, but will last forever. Christians are the only people who will live happily ever after, their sins confessed and forgiven, protected by Jesus, and surrounded by His love. No wonder in verse 11 David breaks forth in praise. He can’t hold back any longer but rejoices in the great work that God has done.

Are your sins forgiven this morning? Then be glad, rejoice, there’s nothing standing between you and God. If your sins are not forgiven, what are you waiting for? Why are you pretending everything is ok when it’s not? Why are you letting God’s hand rest heavily upon you, when instead you could be surrounded with His steadfast love? Why are you exchanging an ocean of everlasting joy for a drop of happiness?
If you want to be happy, and you do, then you must come to Jesus. He’s the only way.

Kingdom Life (Mark 9:30-50)

Mark’s Gospel is about the Kingdom of God. Mark’s desire in writing is to show us how the Kingdom of God breaks in, how all Heaven loose around Jesus. But the Kingdom of God doesn’t just involve Jesus, although He is the King. The Kingdom also involves everyone who Jesus saves, the Kingdom of God involves us. There is a way to live that shows that we are part of the Kingdom, a way of living that shows our hearts have been changed by what God has done through Jesus Christ. Tonight’s question is what is Kingdom living about? What should the lives of people who live in the Kingdom of God look like? How should your life as a Christian be different because of what Jesus has done for you?
Remember we’re in the middle of a sequence of three predictions by Jesus of His death and resurrection, followed by misunderstandings by the disciples, followed by Jesus teaching about Kingdom life. So what discipleship lessons do we learn tonight? What three things does Jesus teach His disciples, and us, about Kingdom living tonight? First of all we see that Kingdom living is about the cross, we see that kingdom living is about others, and we see that Kingdom living is about sacrifice.

So first of all, in verses 30-32, we see that Kingdom living is about the cross. This is Jesus final sweep through Galilee, before He heads south to Jerusalem where He will be crucified in about six months time. This is no longer a public ministry, large crowds are no longer gathering to listen to Him, they’ve rejected Him. These are private lessons from Jesus to His disciples, and you and I get to listen in. One again Jesus is teaching them about His death and resurrection. The ‘son of man,’ that’s Jesus favourite title for Himself from the book of Daniel, ‘will be delivered,’ will be given up or handed over to men who will kill Him. Just think for a moment. Jesus uses the most glorious tiutle in the Bible, the Son of Man, and says He will be given to men, to kill Him. Given by who? Given by God? The Bible is clear that throughout Jesus arrest, trial and crucifixion, He was in control. Peter tells the crowd in Acts that Jesus was delivered up according to God’s plan. The disciples can neither understand a Messiah who get killed, nor a rising from the dead. And they were afraid to ask Him, possibly because they didn’t want to know what Jesus dying meant for their own plans.

We have to see that Jesus death and resurrection is at the centre of Kingdom living, at the centre of Christian life. Without the cross and empty tomb, there is no Kingdom, and without Christians being changed by these things, there can be no Christian living. It’s because of what Jesus has done that our lives can be different. So how different are your lives because of the cross? How does Jesus death impact the way you live? The things you do? The decisions you make? Mark will show us two ways that the cross should affect us, but we have to remember that our lives should be different because of what Jesus has done for us. Kingdom living is about the cross.

In verses 33-42, we see that Kingdom living is about others. It’s amazing isn’t it that shortly after Jesus told them He was going to be arrested and killed, they were arguing about which one fo them was the greatest. The debate would probably have turned into a heated discussion before too long. No wonder they were ashamed to admit to Jesus what they were talking about. Their minds were still stuck with a worldly mindset, still focused on what they could get out of Jesus for themselves, they weren’t thinking about others. In these nine verses, mark shows us three ways that life in the Kingdom is about others. First, Jesus takes a child in His arms, and tells them that when they receive a child, they receive Him. Children were considered the least important members of a society that was obsessed by importance. But Jesus says Kingdom life is about treating unimportant people well, about not getting caught up in who is more important, but treating all people equally. And when the disciples welcome a child, Jesus tells them they welcome God Himself. Secondly, Jesus teaches them that the smallest act of service done for others is worthy of the Kingdom. There’s not much that sounds less important that getting someone a drink, but if we do this Jesus tells us that we ‘will by no means lose our reward.’ That’s an amazing statement! We’re not to get caught up in who belongs to which group, but we are called, in the life of the Kingdom, to serve people in any way that we can. And thirdly we see in verse 42 that we are to live for others by helping younger Christians, not hindering them. We are to serve and love new converts, and not treat them like second class citizens.

Jesus teaches us that in friendship, in service, and in love, the Kingdom life is about others. And finally, Kingdom life is about purity. Read verses 43-50 with me.

What Jesus is and is not saying is pretty clear here. Jesus is not saying that Kingdom living is about literally cutting off your hands and feet. People have done that over the centuries, but they have discovered that, as the Bible teaches, their hands or their feet are not the problem. But Jesus is saying that we must be radical in our battle with sin. We must fight sin with all our might. Why? Because look at the alternative. Jesus says that if we are not fighting sin with this sort of intensity, if we are not getting radical in our pursuit of purity, then Hell is our eternal destination. So get radical. If the tv in your room causes you to sin, get rid of it, if unmonitored internet access causes you to sin, get rid of it, if a friendship causes you to sin, it’s got to go, music, tv shows cut them off. Get radical for purity. What are you afraid of? Hebrews 11:6 tells us that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

And as we make these sacrifices, Jesus promises us that He will be with us. That’s what verse 49 means. Our sacrifice for the sake of purity is the fire, and the salt is Jesus preserving help which promises that cutting off what causes us to sin will not hurt us, but help us. Salt and fire are pleasing sacrifices to God. So get radical about your Kingdom living, get radical about your choices, and make a pleasing sacrifice to God.

So how do we live in the Kingdom? By remembering the cross, and by living differently because of it. By putting others first because on the cross, Jesus put Himself last. By cutting off our hands and feet if they cause us to sin, because on the cross Jesus was pierced in His hands and feet, and gives us a new heart when we get saved. The death and resurrection of Christ give us all the power we need to love others and to fight sin. How do we get the power to love others? by thinking about what Jesus has done on the cross for them. How do we get the power to fight sin? By thinking about what Jesus has done on the cross for us. This is Kingdom living. Lives and relationships changed and shaped by the cross.