Author: Jinson Thomas

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John Sermon

Christmas: A Message of good news! John 1:1-17

Good morning church! We are a couple of days away from Christmas day and what a wonderful season for people all around the world. In fact sometimes I think during Christmas, unbelievers seem to be more enthusiastic about this time than believers. But it should be a special time for believers as we remember that Christmas is about Jesus.

And this morning we gather together to celebrate His birth, death and resurrection as a family! As I was pondering on what passage to preach on this week, I felt like John 1 would be perfect for all of us to study this morning. Even as you are turning to John chapter 1, I just want to setup the context.

This gospel is written by the apostle John. He was one of the three disciples in Jesus’ inner circle apart from Peter and James. His main purpose for writing this gospel was to tell people that Jesus is the Son of God, the awaited Messiah and that we can receive eternal life by believing in Him. Simple, straight forward purpose and we are excited to see what God wants to communicate to our hearts through this passage. John 1:1-17

I believe this passage has 3 things for us this morning:

  1. Christ is the true God
  2. Christ is the true Light
  3. Christ is the true Revelation

Christ is the true God

The apostle John starts this gospel with the words “In the beginning was the Word”. Do you remember any other place in Scripture that has a similar intro? Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” And right from the start John is trying to connect both passages and tell people how Jesus is the true God.

a.His Pre-existence

“In the beginning was the Word” (v1). Before anything was made or before anything existed – Jesus existed. For everything else in all the world, there is a start date…everyone and everything has a manufacturing date but not Jesus because He is God. Before the universe existed – Jesus existed. There are debates on how old the earth is – some say between 4-10 thousand years…others say a million years…either ways Jesus existed way before that! Isn’t that amazing?

b.His personal relationship within the Trinity

“the Word was with God” (v1) implying a very close relationship between God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus didn’t exist in eternity past in isolation but in a community and fellowship with the Father and Spirit.  Jesus was with them before any thing was ever made. Every decision, every plan, every action was performed out of that intimate relationship.

c.His Divinity

“and the Word was God”. (v1) And then John explicitly refers to Jesus as God! Jesus wasn’t a created being. He Himself is God! That means Jesus is the All-Powerful, All-knowing and All-Present God. He is the Sovereign God who works out every situation and circumstance for His glory. He knows and sees the hidden intentions of our hearts. There’s no place on heaven or on earth that’s out of God’s reach. He is there everywhere!

d.His active role in Creation

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (v3)

That’s a powerful thing to say. It’s one thing to say that he helped or assisted in some parts of creation. It’s another thing to say that everything was made through Jesus and without Jesus nothing was made! When we look at the beauty of the sun rising from the east, when we look at the breathtaking view from a hill, when we look at the sky above us, when we look at the deep depths of the sea, when we look at the complexity and manner in which God has made us and stitched together our DNA – All of us have a unique DNA – when we look at all of this we realize that Jesus Christ was actively involved in creating all of this. Without him not even a single thing was made!

All of this should move our hearts to worship and honor Jesus as God! We live in an age where Christ is conveniently removed from culture and conversations. Christmas has now become X-Mas. Talking about Jesus in public is looked down upon and considered offensive in this culture. How should believers live out our faith in the midst of this? We continue to place Christ as central to every thing in life. We make Christ the centre of our marriages.

We make Christ the centre of our workplaces. We make Christ the centre of our friendships. We make Christ the centre of our entertainment. We make Christ the centre of our vacations and holidays. We make Christ the centre of our birthdays. We make Christ the centre of our worship services. We even make Christ the centre of our private moments when nobody is watching. Christ being the true God changes our worship! He’s not an ordinary human being or a figment of our imagination – He is God!

Christ is the true Light

John uses an interesting way to explain why He refers to Jesus as the true light.

a.Our necessity for the Light (v4, v7, v9)

4 In him was life,[a] and the life was the light of men.

7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

From all these verses we understand that John is stressing on one thing – we are all in darkness and are in desperate need for Light. This need is not just for those rapists and murderers but for “everyone” who has been born on the face of the earth. Apart from this Light, we will be left in darkness forever – Separated from the presence of God forever! Terrible position to be in. We need help. We need Light.

b.Our love for darkness (v10-11)

10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own,[b] and his own people[c] did not receive him.

Not only do we need Light but sometimes what prevents us from coming to the Light is our love for darkness. It’s like a guy who is stuck up in a deep pit and then over a period of time gets comfortable and starts loving his environment rather than wanting to get out of it. Crazy right but that is true of our sinful hearts.

John 3:19-20 says 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

c.Our provision through Christ (v12-13)

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Because we are in desperate need of the Light & because we ourselves are saturated with sin and love darkness more, we can’t help ourselves. We need God to make a way. We need God to provide an answer to this problem. And God provides for us His own precious Son to live a perfect life and then to die as a perfect substitute for our sins. So that v12-13 would be given to us as a free gift! So that by receiving Jesus and believing that He is the Son of God and has made a way for us through His death, we can now be God’s own children!

In my last church I once heard a story mentioned by an evangelist who used to minister in the villages of Maharashtra. My previous church had a legacy of being one of the oldest churches of India believed to have its roots in the ministry of the apostle Thomas. So this evangelist once was at a mission field talking to a group of new converts talking about how our church had a 2000 year history from Thomas.

As he was talking, one of the new believers stopped him and asked honestly “Brother, I understand that you have had the gospel for 2000 years, but why did you take so long to bring it to us?” A simple yet astonishing statement to the evangelist for many years.

Brothers and sisters, this truth about Christ being our true Light is an absolute necessity for everyone to hear and know. I know sometimes we do get discouraged when people don’t respond to the Light. I get discouraged easily myself. The reason why they can’t receive the Light is because they love darkness.

They don’t even see Jesus as Light because of their blindness. But let’s not allow that to stop us from telling people about the true Light. Since Jesus is the provision, let’s trust that God is the One who causes the spiritual birth in people’s hearts.

When we tell people about the Light, it’s not as though we are selling Jesus or a religion. We are pointing them to the true Light who will save them. That’s why we need to always accompany our evangelism by being on our knees. It’s Jesus who shines among the darkness and darkness cannot overcome Him.

Christ is the true Revelation

a.He is God incarnate (v14a)

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us

All of us have similarly at some point or the other said something like this “You don’t know what I’m going through”. “It’s easier to say that from the position that you’re in”. That idea that if someone hasn’t been in your shoes, he won’t empathize with you is there in all of us. Now let’s think about what Jesus Christ did. He became flesh – he took on the form of us as a human being & endured every possible temptation and suffering that we go through yet without sin.

So we cannot say that God doesn’t understand – because Jesus lived in a fallen world among fallen people just like us. Talk about identifying and empathizing with us…Jesus takes it to the next level. The other thing that’s super encouraging is God’s pursuit to dwell with us – to stay with us. Even though he is the pre-existent, creator God – he doesn’t want to be disconnected and far from us…he desires an intimate relationship with us and He’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that He can dwell among us.

b.He fully reveals God to us (v16)

16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.[e] 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God,[f] who is at the Father’s side,[g] he has made him known.

Not only does Jesus identify with us by becoming like us and dwelling with us but He fully and completely reveals God to us. The full grace of God was poured out on us through Jesus Christ. Till then people understood God as a rule book keeper through the law, but through Christ we can now know see the length and breadth of God’s grace – and understand that there is no end! And it’s not in a sense where God’s grace is a cheap thing.

It came at the highest cost – the death of Jesus to now give us grace. And the best benefit of this grace – knowing God through the face of Jesus. No longer do we need a prophet to tell us who God is, we don’t need any signs to reveal something about God…we have God’s own Son Jesus who tells us everything about Him. How does he do that? Through the written Word.

 I really think this should open our hearts to trust Jesus more and more. The truth about Jesus being God incarnate and fully revealing the heart, mind and person of God to us should allow us to trust God in situations and decisions that we struggle with. Jesus is totally for you and not against you. You don’t have to feel insecure about situations or people or decisions in your life.

Categories
Mark Sermon

What Stops us from Understanding God? – Mark 12:18-27

Goodmorning church! As a church we have been studying through the gospel of Mark& right now we find ourselves in Mark chapter 12 verses 18.

As you are turning to it, let me remind us of the context of our passage. These are the final parts of Jesus’ journey toward the cross. Jesus met with more and more hostility as we’ve been seeing in the last few chapters.

The Jewish religious leaders almost in every chapter are planning and plotting to kill Jesus from this point. The only thing that restrains them is their fear of man.

Last week we were read of how the Pharisees and Herodians were trying to trap Jesus with a question and today we find another group called the Sadducee’s who are trying to argue with Jesus. Let’s look at the text Mark 12:18-27 Read:

Have you ever shared a similar experience where you get onto a rickshaw and even before you say word, the rickshaw driver starts a full-blown conversation in his local language? I’ve had this experience a few times where the rickshaw driver assumes I know Marathi and starts speaking.

Probably 2 minutes into the conversation I usually interject and say “I’m sorry I don’t speak Marathi. Can we switch to Hindi?” Now I’m sure the rickshaw driver is saying some great stuff but my inability to understand his language makes it difficult to understand him.

I believe sometimes in our Christian walk we can similarly have issues understanding God due to our inability.

However, in this case God has made His Word plain to us – we have the Bible available in our own local languages but we still don’t understand him because there are some things that stop us from doing that?

What stops us from understanding God?

I think it means at least two things from this passage:

  1. Failure to receive the truth of God
  2. Failure to believe in the power of God

Failure to receive the truth of God

24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?

Let’s understand a little bit more about the Sadducee’s. The Sadducee’s were a group religious Jews during Jesus’ time.

The word “Sadducee’s” literally means “the righteous”! Unlike the Pharisees they rejected the extra oral tradition and only considered the written law to be from God. They denied these doctrines as well:

  • Theresurrection of the body which we also see in v18
  • Theimmortality of the soul
  • Evidenceof spirits and angels
  • Divinepre-destination (God would pre-determine and elect people those who wouldbelieve in Him). So basically they would have a lot of issues with Calvinists! 😉

And they come to Jesus asking Jesus trying to confuse or trap him with some questions because it’s obvious that they don’t believe in the resurrection.

Now the law that Moses gave them required the deceased husband’s brother to marry the widow in a case if she didn’t have a child. This was done in order to protect the widow & provide descendants for the deceased man. 

So they tell Jesus a scenario where there were 7 brothers – the first one died and his widow was left without the child. The second brother married her but he also died without a child. 

And finally all 7 died without a child and the widow herself died. So in the afterlife whose wife is she going to be? And Jesus’ answer to them is that they don’t know the Scriptures! Why did Jesus say that?

It’s because the OT has been quite clear on the topic of resurrection. Sometimes we think that only the NT talks about resurrection when in fact the OT has some very clear verses on the same.

Isa 26:19 : Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
  You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a dew of light, 
   and the earth will give birth to the dead.

Psalm 71:20 : You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
       will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
        you will bring me up again.

These passages were available and present in their written law but still you find them be more interested in using Scripture to argue with Jesus rather than know God.

Scripture is merely being used as a tool for selfish gain rather than a means to know God! And that’s what I think Jesus was referring to. Okay, then what does it actually mean to receive the truth of God? How can I know if I’m actually using Scripture to know God?

a.Accept the whole counsel of God

God’s Word is God’s clear revelation to us. We need to be prepared to accept it completely. Not in parts. Not by cherry picking the favorite verses that we like. The ones that makes us feel sweet and loved.

Which means that we don’t just read and meditate on Psalms like May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us (Psalm 67:1) but we also meditate on passages like

Luke 9:23: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

So we accept the whole counsel of God even when it hits directly at the sin of our hearts, we accept the whole counsel of God even when it makes us feel uncomfortable,we accept the whole counsel of God even when talks about suffering for the sake of Christ.

That’s why as a church we preach expository messages. It’s not because we have an issue with topical sermons but we believe that the whole counsel of God essential to us becoming the people that God has called us to be.

We would not be serving you well if we only preached about marriage or finances or worship. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16).  I’d encourage us to read the Bible from end to end…especially those that we find unfamiliar.

One of things that we are trying to incorporate in our discipleship groups is to cover an epistle like Colossians, an OT prophet like Malachi and a gospel book like John. Not because it’s cool and different but because we really believe that every verse, every passage, every book is an essential part of understanding the whole counsel of God.

b.Check our motivation for studying Scripture

Sometimes I think that’s one aspect that we tend to ignore when we think about studying Scripture. Even though this is absolutely important to the heart of God. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. (1 Sam 16:7).

And that’s true when we tithe, sing songs of praise, disciple people, obey God commands and also study Scripture. If we are doing it reluctantly or out of pride – it doesn’t bring glory to God. Let’s ask ourselves: what’s our motivation to study Scripture?

Is to know God or Is it to show off your biblical knowledge? Is it to understand God or find affirmations from the people in church? Is it to love God or check the good Christian box? Is it to obey God or is it to somehow hope that you’ll appease God and get something from Him?

These questions I’ve found to be extremely helpful for me to analyze the condition of my heart as I’ve read the Word. And because this deals with the deep-rooted sin in my heart, I’ve perpetually needed to repent of the wrong motivations in my heart and trust in what Christ has done for me.

Both of these things – accepting the whole counsel of God and checking our motivation for studying Scripture will determine if we are in posture to receive the truth of God.

But it’snot just a failure to receive the truth of God that stops us from understanding God but it also is

Failure to believe in the power of God

24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? – v26 And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”

Jesus goes back to the passage about the burning bush. Remember this is Moses’ first encounter with God and God introduces himself as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

Now for all the ones who love grammar – which tense is being used here? Present tense. It means that Abraham is still living in the presence of God and enjoying the covenant blessing and will one day be raised when Christ returns.

The Sadducee’s failed to believe that God was able to raise people from the dead. The issue wasn’t just about lack of knowledge but a lack of belief that the God of the Bible can actually do what He said he’ll do!

It’s one thing to know Romans 10:9 & it’s another thing to believe that God will save you!

They weren’t ready to believe that God is much bigger & powerful than they could ever imagine! All the issues they struggled with – immortality of souls, the resurrection of bodies, the existence of angels and spirits, God predestining His people – all of that was too much to grapple with.

Because it would mean that they would need to reckon with the reality of God. If God Is who He says He is in the Bible, then there’s no playing around. They will need to change their ways. And that’s what often stops people from knowing Him.

And it’snot just with the Sadducee’s, the truth is that if we honestly looked at Scripture with fresh eyes and open hearts, the God of the Bible will humble us.We will understand how small we are in comparison to God. We too are required to change our ways. We too are required to repent.

Brothers and sisters, that’s the goal of our time with Scripture. It’s an interaction with God where He speaks to us, humbles us and changes us.

If we aren’t experiencing that in our morning devotions, there might be some sin that we’ll need to repent of today and ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate our hearts so that we can experience the humility and the change that God wants to bring about.

As we read today, it’s the failure to receive the truth of God and the failure to believe the power of God that stops us from understanding God. But I don’t want to leave us with a “Ok, I’ll try better next time” message.

Some of these things like checking the motivations of our hearts and believing in the power of God cannot be automatically manufactured. Rather I wanted these things to help us identify our areas of repentance & then look to the Lord of the living to help us, forgive us and change us.

Let’s remember that the reason why the resurrection is possible is because our Lord Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again on the third Day. His resurrection makes ours possible! He commands dead people to come back to life and they do! He can do the very same thing in our hearts today.  

Categories
Mark Sermon

True Authority – Mark 11:27-12:12

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Good morning church! What a joy it has been for us to be studying through the gospel of Mark. As a church we’ve enjoyed the whole process of knowing Jesus through the lens of this gospel as we study it passage by passage.

Right now we are in Mark chapter 11 verses 27. As we’ve noticed over the past few weeks, these passages are placed in the context of Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem which actually begins his journey toward the cross. Last Sunday we read how the temple needed to be cleansed.

The cleansing was required because the people & the religious leaders replaced the worship of God with self-centered gain. And Jesus by driving out the sellers and the buyers, overturning the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons showed how holiness & reverence for God was so important to God’s heart.

This didn’t go down well with the chief priests and the scribes. Interestingly this passage says that this resulted in them wanting to destroy him because they feared him. They weren’t ready or prepared to receive this Jesus Christ who literally turned their religious system and traditions upside down. This forms the context for today’s passage:

27 And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, 28 and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” 29 Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

30 Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.” 31 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 32 But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. 33 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

12 And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. 2 When the season came, he sent a servant[a] to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.

3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed.

6 He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.

10 Have you not read this Scripture:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;[b]

11 this was the Lord’s doing,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

12 And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.

I believe there are 3 things we can see from this passage:

  1. Struggle for authority
  2. Sinful Authority
  3. True Authority

Struggle for authority (v27-28)

So the location is the Jerusalem temple and the Top religious leaders of the time come to meet Jesus. These are not ordinary Jews – these are the pastors, theologians, worship leaders, Sunday School teachers, authors – the most learned and scripturally qualified Jews of the day.

And they ask Jesus by what authority is he doing these things? Basically, they are asking Jesus “Who gave you the right to overturn the tables of the money changers and drive out the sellers from the temple”? Who do you think you are to do this in the temple?

And who are they asking this question to? Jesus Christ. The Son of God. He was there in the beginning with God and He is God. All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made. (John 1:1-3) In Him all things hold together (Col 1:17) He is the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15) In Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell (Col 1:19). And yet they ask him “Who gave you this right to do this”?

And this is not a new question. It is symptomatic of man’s constant struggle to submit to God’s authority. Right from the garden of Eden man has struggled to submit to God’s authority.

When we look at Genesis 3, what was the bait given to Adam and Eve? The serpent told them that when they eat of the tree – their eyes will be opened and they will become like God, knowing good and evil.

And that’s the heart of sin…the core of sin…to take the place of God in our lives, trying to make moral decisions apart from God. In other words, Adam and Eve had this insecure desire to become their only authority over their lives. They wanted to determine for themselves what was right or wrong for their lives. They didn’t want to be dependent anymore on God.

And we know what happened when they became the authority of their lives – all of humanity was thrown into a world of brokenness and sin and death. And that nature to not want to submit to God’s authority is there in all of us.

Campus Crusade had this illustration that has been really helpful for me over the years. They had this picture of a throne seat located at the centre of an individual’s heart. All of us have a throne seat in our lives. That’s the place from where we make all our decisions and choices. Everything that we chose to do is controlled from this throne seat.

Whoever sits on that throne is the authority of our life. And then they would ask this question: who is seated on the throne seat? Is it God or is it us? Is it God or is it me? Now I know that I’m preaching to people to publicly claim to be followers of Jesus so why am I still asking this question? It’s because I’m very aware of our tendencies to enthrone ourselves as the authority in areas of our lives. Christian life is all about yielding control.

Giving back the authority to God. In this life we’ll always find ourselves with plenty of reasons to repent of those areas and turn back to Christ. Just last night when I got the call from the hall owner regarding the change of timings and venue for our Gathering, I really saw how anxious my heart was & how I was planning my responses apart from trusting God.

For me that was a reminder of how real is my struggle for authority.

Sinful authority

Not only is there a struggle for authority but when we claim authority of our lives – it is a sinful authority! When Jesus is asked the question on whose authority…he responds back by asking another question to show them what’s really hindering them from submitting to God’s authority. “Was the baptism from John from heaven or from man”?

From their responses there are two things we can see are hindering them:

Unbelief

31 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ (v31)

John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. People were coming to the river Jordan confessing their sins openly and then getting baptized as a symbol of repentance expressing a 180 degree turn from sin and toward God.

In Matt 21:32 it tells us that the Pharisees and religious leaders did not believe John. In their pride they didn’t think it was necessary for them to be baptized. Tax collectors and prostitutes got baptized in front of them but still they didn’t change their mind.

In Luke 7:30, it says that the religious leaders rejected the purpose of God for themselves by not being baptized by John. Wow! That sounds like an opposite statement.

The most religious people of the day rejected the purposes of God for themselves? How is that possible? That’s because it meant that they would need to humbly accept their position as a sinner. And if they did that, they would be in the right posture to receive the provision of God – Our Savior Jesus.

We keep talking about believing in the gospel & constantly growing in belief. What does that actually mean? Is it just intellectually changing the way you think about some facts? I think what it means from this passage is constantly repenting before God about areas of your life that are against His character and will.

Unbelief at its core is a prideful position that doesn’t want to humble itself before God. And that’s why we see in Scripture…a true believer is always being aware of His sins and always repenting before God because what he desires the most is a right relationship with God.

Fear Of Man

32 But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet.

The other motivation that hindered them from submitting to God was the fear of man. Why were these religious men afraid of the people?

  1. They feared losing their reputation. They didn’t want to be discredited for telling that John got his authority to baptize from man. It’s the question that comes to mind when we think “What will people think of me if I do that?”
  2. They feared losing control. Would they end up losing control over people if they said something controversial? Would people leave them and go somewhere else if they said something controversial? It’s the question that comes to mind when we think “Would I still be able to influence people if I did that?”

I remember back in the youth ministry days during a Youth Camp. We had something called a 4 corners talk which was a weird name because sometimes we had just 2 or 3 people. During one of my 4 corners session with a youth, I could see how he knew that he had to submit to the authority of Christ but he didn’t want to do so due to the fear of man.

He was fearful of what his friends would say. He was fearful of being called as “uncool”. And it just saddened me to see someone so close yet so far.

And the fear of man isn’t just a struggle for my young friend but it’s something that we face daily when we think of sharing the gospel with the people around us.

The fear of man is a real when we have to make decisions on whom to marry – in my lifetime I’ve seen so many professing believers who said that they wanted to marry a believer but when it actually came down to marriage – they married an unbeliever.

The fear of man is also real at our jobs when either there are conversations or decisions made which are unethical and immoral. Would you take a stand because of your faith?

True Authority

You might think that Jesus denies to answer their question on authority but Jesus infact does answer their question using a parable. He talks about a man who plants a vineyard. The man is God and the vineyard is Israel – God’s people.

Using the illustration of the wine-press, the tower and the fence – showing God’s protection and God’s provision for everything needed for them to flourish. And this vineyard was leased to tenants. Another version says he rented out the vineyard to farmers.

The farmers are the religious leaders who were supposed to steward and care for the field. And then God would send servants to get the fruit of the wine – these were the prophets. But what did the farmers do to them? They beat them, hit them, treated them shamefully and killed them.

Finally the Owner sends his beloved Son. What do the farmers do to him? They kill him thinking that the inheritance will be theirs. Again the same theme – it’s always a struggle for authority. It’s always a struggle for ownership.

Like the farmers we are stewards of the life that God has given us. What should’ve been our ideal response to God? We should submit to God and give what is His – our whole lives. What is instead our natural response? Take what is not ours and make it ours.

God reaches out to us and reminds us through various means – through our daily time with God in Scripture and prayers, through sermons or our brothers and sisters. However, it’s not enough to just do all these things – what matters is our response. So how do we respond?

In our sinful self, we are all like these murderous farmers. We are all responsible for the death of Jesus on the cross. Which is why God’s wrath and judgment is directed toward us. (v9) But the story doesn’t end in judgment. In v10 we hear the good news of Jesus:

10 Have you not read this Scripture:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;[b]

11 this was the Lord’s doing,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

God used the very same death of His Son Jesus Christ to protect you and I from being judged & destroyed forever. In doing so, he poured out all His love, all His mercy, all His compassion and His righteousness upon us! And that’s the greatest news brothers and sisters. Christ came not to condemn but to save! And that’s message that the religious leaders didn’t hear.

They perceived that the parable was about them but they failed to see the answer that Jesus Himself was going to provide. And I want us to once again think about that throne seat of ours – consider how our lives have actually been messed up by us sitting on the throne.

And now think about this Jesus – the rightful owner of our lives because He created us, the one who can enact judgment but instead gave up His life to remove judgment and set us free forever. Isn’t He the best one to sit on that throne? Let’s willingly submit to His authority.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Mark Sermon

Gaining by Losing – Mark 10:17-31

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Good morning church! How’s everyone doing? For the last few months as a church we’ve been studying the gospel of Mark. We’ve completed a little over half of this book and are now in Mark 10:17-31.

Much of this gospel seeks to answer two questions: “Who is Jesus” and “if Jesus is God, then what does it mean for both you and me”. After all we probably know what it means to follow human leaders but what does it mean to follow God? There is this strong focus on being a follower of Jesus Christ that can’t be ignored in this gospel.

Does my entire life need to change? Or do I need to change a few habits here and there? These are the kind of questions we’ll attempt to answer as we look at today’s passage in Mark 10 starting in verse 17.

17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’”

20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is[b] to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him,[c] “Then who can be saved?”

27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” 28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel,

30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

“You must sacrifice short term pleasure for long term success.”  Those are the words I told myself when I returned back to the gym after a long gap. The short-term pleasure being my love for eating fried food. I think every person at least superficially understands this concept: “You’ll need to give up something for the achieving something better”.

But Jesus totally turns this concept on its head when he says “You receive eternal life by abandoning everything”. “You follow me by leaving everything” “You will gain life by losing everything”. In the kingdom of God, we gain by losing everything! And it’s radically different from the way the world thinks. The world says “You gain by accumulating everything”.

After all it’s not the first time Jesus mentioned something like this. A few chapters earlier he said that if you want to be the greatest, you need to be least and a servant of all. Last week we read the passage where Jesus says unless you receive the kingdom of God like a child, you can’t enter it.

It’s truly an upside-down kingdom! The principles of this kingdom of God is the opposite of what we are used to experiencing every single day. That’s why there’s even more reason for us to pay close attention to hear the seriousness in the call to follow Jesus. It’s a weighty call but a yet a very fulfilling one.

So how can we gain life by losing everything?

We gain by losing our self-reliance (v17-20)

One of the biggest barriers that often prevents us from following Jesus completely is our dependence on our own self – our abilities, our ideas, our accomplishments, our good works.

We love the idea of a “self-made man” even though we might not declare it publicly.  We see the same trait in the rich young man. His self-reliance prevented him from:

Confronting the reality of God (v17,18)

He approaches Jesus and calls Him “Good Teacher”. Interesting way of addressing Jesus. And Jesus asks him “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone”.In other words, Jesus was asking him “Are you approaching me just as a teacher or as God?”

“Are you here just for good advice or do you want to really know me?” He had Jesus Christ – the Son of God, Maker of the heavens and the earth, the Messiah who saves the world, the sustainer of all creation right in front of him and he was blind to it.

Even his question was “What can I do to receive eternal life?” instead of “Jesus, can you give me eternal life?”.

Also his self-reliance prevented him from Conceiving the Holy Standards of God (v19)

Jesus starts listing out the Ten Commandments. “Do not murder…Do not commit adultery” And we know that God didn’t give His people the commandments so that they could perform, He gave them the commandments so that they would understand the holiness and righteousness of God.
I heard it once mentioned like this – God told us to not murder because He is life. God told us to not commit adultery because He is pure. God told us not to lie because He is truth! The rich young man failed to conceive the great divide between him and God. In Romans 3, Paul says the same thing. He says by the law no one becomes right with God…but the law was given so that you know that you have sinned.

His self-reliance prevented him from Confessing his need for a Savior (v20)

Because he thought he was doing exceptionally well in his performance, he basically was saying “Jesus, I know all this. What next?” He didn’t see how bad was his condition and how he needed to be rescued by God.Imagine a guy.

Let’s call him Jimmy who newly joins a company. A few days later he meets another colleague called Rohit. Since Jimmy is new to the company, Rohit takes time out to help him understand what he’s supposed to do. Instead Jimmy responds by saying “Rohit, you don’t have to do this. I already know all of this. I’ve been doing this forever.

” Shortly after this incident someone else comes and refers to Rohit as “Sir”. Jimmy is quite surprised and inquires and finds out that Rohit is the CEO of the company.  Trouble!!! The CEO sits down with Jimmy and tells him how he wasn’t actually doing his job correctly as he imagined. Not only did Jimmy insult the CEO by claiming to know more than the CEO but his attitude didn’t allow him to receive the necessary help to grow.

I think that’s what happens to us in our self-reliance and pride. Sometimes we are blinded to think how our efforts to have a consistent time with God everyday, being able to share the gospel with multiple people during the week or being a regular church attender or having restrained ourselves from falling into a particular sin in the week or our knowledge of the Bible is what makes us right before God.

These are all good things but your performance on these things doesn’t determine if you are right with God or not. In fact, if you are self-reliant you won’t be confronted with the reality of God as you read the Word, you won’t conceive the Holy Standard of God and neither will you confess your need for the Savior Jesus. You can see how self-reliance is a big barrier.

But not only do we need to lose our self-reliance, but we also need to

Lose our treasure (v21-25)

When Jesus told the rich young man to forsake his possessions, Jesus wanted to uncover what this man valued deeply – what he considered to be his treasure.

Jesus is essentially saying is that our heart matters more than our external acts of obedience! More than often our external acts of obedience is a mask to hide what’s really going on in our heart. Two things about heart treasures:

We treasure what we love (v21-22)

Till this point it seemed like the rich young man was willing to do whatever was needed to inherit eternal life but when Jesus told him to give up his treasure and possessions, he became extremely sad and went away because he loved money.

Right before him were two choices – Jesus Christ – Son of God – the one who could give him eternal life & money and he chose money. He gave up the eternal for what was temporary. You see the principle there – What he loved determined his choice.

You want to know what’s your heart treasure? Ask yourself this…what is the one thing or person in my life whose presence or absence changes my behavior? Think about a scenario when this thing or person is taken away from you forever, how is that going to make you feel? Would you lose all meaning to life? Would life seem worthless after that?

If the same meeting was done over and over again with the rich young man, do you think his response would’ve been different? No, because we treasure what we love.

We treasure what we trust

In v23-25, Jesus multiple times talks about how difficult and impossible it is for wealthy people to enter the kingdom of God.

Just to clarify Jesus is not saying that people above a certain income level are not going to enter the kingdom of God. Abraham, Isaac, David, Solomon are examples of godly men who were wealthy but I think Jesus meant those who trust in riches will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

But why such a strong judgment against those who trust in riches? I think it’s because wealth like any other heart treasure gives us an illusion of providing us with safety, security and joy.

It replaces itself in the place of God. That’s what makes us completely dependent on it. We say things like “We cannot live without it”. It in reality becomes our god.

I’m reminded of my friend whom I spoke to a few weeks back who went through a difficult break up. As we were speaking we were able to identify that this relationship was indeed his treasure. He didn’t know how to deal with the relationship breaking off.

To the extent where he was contemplating leaving the city and also hurting himself. I felt like it was a visual picture for me on how disastrous can it be to have heart treasures apart from God.

It’s not just with wealth and money. Some of us have made our jobs and careers our treasure. Others have made our relationships and family to be our treasure. Some of us have made self-pleasure our treasure. Maybe habits can be changed, but how do you change your love? How do you change what your trust?

That’s exactly the question that Peter asked…“Well then who can be saved?” And Jesus says “What is impossible for man is possible for God”. In other words, God needs to make a provision for you and I to lose our self-reliance & also lose our treasure.

God sent His one and only Son to the earth. Jesus Christ Himself lived the life you and I was required to live but couldn’t live. Ultimately, He died the death we all deserved to die.

He rose again on the third Day crushing not just the penalty of sin but also freeing us from the power of Sin. Do you want to change your love? Realize you’ll need God to perform a heart surgery to do that. He can certainly do it!

So what do we do in response to this great and amazing love? V28-30 says that…we lose everything that keeps us from following God and turn to Christ. We repent and trust Christ.

We repent and trust Christ. And this will invite persecution and rejection from family members as we see happening in reality with one of our brothers right now.

But we gladly follow Christ in spite of that because we love Him, we treasure Him, we trust Him and are deeply thankful for doing everything that was done for us.

Sometimes we forget how the story of God is the story of our God and Savior losing everything – he literally died so that He could rescue us in order to gain an everlasting relationship with us. Why should we be self-reliant? Why shouldn’t He be our only treasure? Lose everything to gain Him through His perfect work.

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Categories
Mark Sermon

How must we respond to Sin and Temptation

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Good morning church! If you’ve been tracking with us over the last few months, as a church we’ve been preaching through the gospel of Mark. Right now we are in Chapter 9.

We are back in our study of the gospel of Mark this week.

As you all know we took a short break from our study to do a series on Living out our Identity in Christ. And that was a wonderful reminder for our heart to know the identity that Christ has given us. Even though that series is over, we’ll often be coming back to those themes as we deal with various scriptures. We are right now in Mark 9 v42-50.

As you are turning to the passage, I’ll share the background of today’s text. Jesus announced for the second time that he’s going to suffer and die on the cross and be raised on the third Day. The disciples don’t understand what Jesus is saying and they seem to be more concerned about finding out who’s the greatest among them.

Jesus uses this opportunity to teach them on servant-hood. He says “if you want to be first, you should be last and a servant of all. You should care for the least and insignificant. You should welcome and accept those who follow me even though they might not be in our tribe”. God is concerned about all his disciples…especially the ones that are weak and different.

42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,[g] it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell,[h] to the unquenchable fire.[i] 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ 49 For everyone will be salted with fire.[j] 50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

As you’ve noticed in the gospels, Jesus used different figures of speech while he taught his disciples. Sometimes he used parables, other times he used metaphors and now in today’s text he uses “hyperbole”. Hyperbole means exaggerating a thought in order to drive home a point.

Most of us growing up would have heard either our teacher or parent say something on these lines “If your friend jumps into the well, would you do that also?”

Now they don’t literally mean that we jumped into the well or needed to that in the future…it was a way for them to drive home a point to not be easily influenced by our friends. At the same time this passage has got a very direct, convicting tone. Three things that this passage tell us of:

  1. Caution – Cautioning us from being a stumbling block
  2. Cut-off – Cutting off the patterns of sin from within
  3. Confirm – Confirming that our faith is Real

Caution – Cautioning us from being a stumbling block

42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,[g] it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

It’s important for us to first understand who are these “little ones”? Those are believers who the world may see as weak and insignificant. I think this could also refer to new young believers who join the church at a very tender stage in their spiritual life.

But these believers are not insignificant to God…in fact they are very precious! God loves them and deeply cares for His people especially those who are lowly and powerless.

But why such a severe judgment upon them? Jesus is saying in comparison to the judgment that will come upon those who cause these young believers to sin, it’ll be better for them to tie a heavy millstone on their neck and be hurled into the sea!

It’s because believing in Jesus is more than intellectually agreeing to facts. Believing in Jesus means that you are united to Him. It means that you belong to Him.

Just a few verses earlier, Jesus tells them 37 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” It’s a very close intimate relationship that God has with His children.

Jesus takes it upon Himself to guard & protect you. Anything that causes a young believer to distrust and disobey Christ does not only mean harm to the person but Christ as well.

That’s why Paul when he’s answering the question if it’s right or wrong to eat food offered to idols, he tells the Corinthians to always think about the weaker brother and not be a stumbling block for him. He says when “sinning against your brothers[e] and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.” (1 Cor 8:12)

I may have shared this story with you all…As a brand-new believer in Mumbai, I started following all these prosperity televangelists. What I didn’t realize at the time was how they were abusing the weak and the naive.

Even I remember “sowing a seed” in one of these ministries because the pastor promised that it’ll come back to me double-fold or ten times more.

And with their lavish lifestyle, their luxurious home, cars and expensive suits – what they were doing by twisting Bible verses and through their lavish lifestyle was feed into my idolatry.

The truth is ultimately I wanted those things more than Jesus and more and more stumbling blocks were put in my way that was causing me to distrust and disobey my Savior. I praise God that He freed me from that but we know how they continue to prey on young, weak believers in the same way even today.

And it’s not just the prosperity preachers. Prosperity preachers are more like in your face & actively placing stumbling blocks but there are other ways how we do that passively. It happens when we are persistently unrepentant of our sins. When young believers see us have a very casual approach to sin and sometimes even worse when they see us enjoy and brag about our sin, it can really cause a lot of damage.

It’s different when you come to your brothers or sisters and grieve over a sin pattern and look for hope and healing in the gospel. But what I’m talking about is persistent unrepentance. A feeling where you think “I’m okay with my sin…It’s not as bad as some others”. Sin is serious and it is a serious offence to God! That brings me to point number 2

Cut-off – Cutting off the patterns of sin from within

43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell,[h] to the unquenchable fire.[i] 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

It’s not referring to literally cutting yourself. It’s a hyperbole! But it does tell us 3 things:

  1. Identify the sin – “If your hand causes you to sin” You’re not being generic but very specific of those sins that you know are affecting your relationship with God.
  2. Take Radical Steps to cut off the sin – You’re not just sitting and saying “what to do? I guess I’ll be living in this sin forever or God is so gracious so He’ll forgive”. That’s not how it is for a believer. A believer does whatever it takes to fight the sin.
  3. Immediate response – It’s not telling you to deal with the sin tomorrow and sometime in the future. Right now cut off the sin! Today cut off the sin!

And this passage makes it very clear – what’s at stake is eternity! Now we know that it’s not our efforts or works that can save us from hell. Today if you have eternal life, if you’ve been given a passport to the kingdom of God, if you’ve been protected from being eternally separated from God – it’s only and only because Christ died for your sin.

But let’s realize Our attitude to cutting off sin shows that Christ’s blood has washed us. Our attitude to cutting off sin shows that we are truly His.

Imagine a guy who has a problem with diabetes. He’s got very high blood sugar. The doctor tells him that he cannot have any sugar or sweets or it’ll be fatal. The guy agrees to the doctor when he’s at the clinic and goes back and tells his family the diagnosis. However, when he’s browsing on the internet he keeps looking at the newest editions of Dairy Milk.

He goes to work and tells his colleagues how much he loves chocolate and how amazing the taste is. He looks through the magazine and gazes at the image of the newly imported Swiss chocolate that’s now available in India.

What do you think is going to happen the next time he’s at the grocery store? He is going to buy chocolates! Because even though he identified his diabetes problem, he didn’t take any radical steps and immediate steps to tackle it.

Similarly, what sin is God calling you to cut-off today? It maybe the circle of friends that you’re in close relationship with. You know that they constantly influence you to sin but you keep hanging around.

What would it mean for you to cut it off? It might be a dating relationship that you are currently involved in and you know it doesn’t honor God. Or it’s images on your computer screen or mobile phone that’s enslaved you. Or it may be social media and entertainment that’s filling your mind. Or it might be unforgiveness that has held your heart captive for so long.

God’s Word tells us to Cut it Off!  Take very strong steps to cut it off. Even if means inconvenience or discomfort but cut it off! People around you might think you are crazy to take these steps. But you do whatever it takes to honor God and preserve your best affections for Christ!

Rom 13:14: make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Confirm – Confirming that our faith is Real

49 For everyone will be salted with fire. [j] 50  Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

This suddenly is a puzzling statement. We were talking about Caution and Cut-off but what is this whole conversation about “Salt”. Again…it’s a figure of speech. In those times, the people’s main source for salt would come from the Dead Sea. It had to be processed properly to be in a usable condition. If it wasn’t processed properly, it would taste really bad and couldn’t be used in the food.

What does this have to do in this context?

I believe what these verses say is that fire or hardships and trials will truly reveal those who are real disciples of Christ! And just as unprocessed salt is useless for the food, a life that isn’t actively cutting off sin is useless and dead.

James 2:17 says “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Real faith will express itself in good works. It’s like two sides of the same coin.

Let me ask you, how do you know that you are a believer in Christ? You might say “I prayed the sinner’s prayer”. I’m not saying God doesn’t use it but there’s no mention of a sinner’s prayer in the Bible. It’s not a mantra prayer that guarantees salvation.

But you may say “Every Sunday when I worship I’m really moved in my heart”. But that in itself is just an emotional experience. Well I know a lot of Scripture from the Bible and I know the churchy language. Be we know from Scripture that even the demons know a lot of Scripture. James says “Even the demons believe that God is One and shudder”.

What’s the solution then?

Don’t look at yourself and your actions but look to the cross. Look and see the Son of God who died on your behalf and rose again on the third Day to completely destroy and free you from the power of sin!

Look at his perfect provision for you. (Rom 5:8) and if you call upon him today and believe not in your works but His perfect work on the cross for you…you will be saved (Rom 10:9). Would you want to experience real faith today by trusting Jesus?

For others, you know you have real faith. You truly grieve over your sin and have tried every single way to cut-off that sin-pattern and have seen a lot of failure. I just want to remind you of the power and the tools that are at your disposal to wage war against sin. You have the Holy Spirit within you. And the Holy Spirit will strengthen you to kill and cut-off sin as you humble yourself, turn away from your sin and yield to what the Spirit asks you to do today.  

Romans 8:13 – For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

In 1 John it says that He who is in you is greater than He who is in the world.

Would you call out to God and ask Him to help you hate your sin and develop great and intense affections for the Savior today? And would you commit yourself to close group of believers who will hold you accountable and help you cut off the sin that is within![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Sermon

Living out our lives as Citizens of God’s Kingdom

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Good morning church! As a church we’ve been doing a series called “Living out our identity in Christ”.

Why is this important? Because everything we do, every decision we make flows out from our identity. What makes us who we are. Who we are at the core of our being.

Over the last two weeks we learnt how we build our identities on many things – it can be our jobs, our role in the family, how much money we make or even in the relationship that we have. And all these identities leave us empty and unsatisfied. God has given us a new wonderful identity in Christ which is eternally significant.

So we learnt how we are Chosen and Adopted in Christ. And last week we learnt how we are Accepted, Loved and Forgiven in Christ. Today we’ll be look at 1 Peter 1 to understand our identity as “citizens of God’s kingdom”. I love 1 Peter because I believe this entire letter talks about this identity. Let’s look at 1 Peter 1:13-21.

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action,[b] and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,

15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,

16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,

18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,

19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you

21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

I’ve always found the life of a foreign diplomat interesting. Imagine an Indian ambassador that’s posted in another country. Even though the Indian diplomat is in a new culture and tries to engage with the culture as much as he can, he still preserves his national identity.

Maybe he might use a fork and spoon instead of hands when he’s in a foreign country but his allegiance to India will not change.

Even though he’s in a foreign country, he will responsibly manage his speech and his actions because he is a representative of India.He represents India to the world.

Similarly, you and I who have trusted in Jesus as Lord are citizens of God’s kingdom. We might have a passport saying that we belong to a certain country but much more than that we are citizens of God’s kingdom. Representatives of God to the world.

As citizens what do we do and difference does that make to you and me?

We live with an eternal focus
(v13) We need to set our hope fully on the grace that will be revealed to us in Christ Jesus. What is this grace that will be revealed when Christ comes back? The passage right before this one talks about that.

We will receive an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading. The reward for those who trust in Christ’s work for them is an eternal inheritance. We will also receive a new physical body that will be like Christ’s – one without corruption and sin and that will last for eternity! So if that’s the grace that will be revealed to us when Christ comes, then how can we live with an eternal focus:

Prepare our minds for action
preparing your minds for action,[b] and being sober-minded (v13)

The Greek word for “prepare your minds” in the Greek is actually a visual term used to depict how people in ancient times with their long robes would tie a leather belt around their waist to get ready to go on a journey or to do some physical work. Basically they didn’t want their long robes to impede their journey.

And that’s the term that’s used in the command – prepare your minds for action! In the light of receiving a wonderful gift of an eternal inheritance, you have to prepare your minds for action.

Have you heard of the term “spiritual vacation”? Well spiritual vacation is when people decide to take a break from their spiritual lives. Relax from all the spiritual disciplines or from living in holiness or serving people.

In my life there is a strong temptation to take a spiritual vacation on weeks when I’m not preaching. It constantly needs to be fought! And I believe we fall into this temptation because at some level we don’t believe that Christ’s coming is imminent. Or we don’t believe in the eternal value and worth of that future reward.

This kind of spiritual vacation needs to be fought. We need to remind each other that because God has assured and confirmed our eternal destiny through the work of Christ, we need to prepare our minds for action.

So even when we are on vacation with family or friends, there’s no concept of spiritual vacation for a believer. We are always pursuing the things of God. Okay, you might ask – how do I prepare my mind for action?

b.Pursue our calling for holiness

14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

The verse starts of by reminding us of our identity – obedient children. Relationally we are God’s children – chosen and adopted before the foundation of the world.

In our attitude to our Father, we are obedient. The verse goes on to say “do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct”. There is an active participation in this pursuit of holiness. Christian life isn’t about relaxing and allowing sin to take its course but it’s a constant war with sin.

The reason for Holiness – is because our Father is Holy! As believers sometimes, we forget or minimize this attribute of God. Because we are on this side of the cross – having experienced God’s grace and mercy, knowing that we’re relationally his children and His Friend we end up emphasizing less on the Holiness of God. God is still the same, yesterday today and forever.

When Moses meets God for the first time through the burning bush – God tells him to take off his sandals because he was standing on holy ground because God is Holy.

In Exodus 19, right before God gives them the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai, God commands Moses to consecrate the people for 2 days, on the third Day He said put limits around the mountain because whoever touches the mountain will be put death because God is Holy.

Isaiah 6 when he sees a vision of heaven and the 2 seraphim covering their faces and feet with the wings, they call out to each other: “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty” because God is Holy.

Isaiah seeing this says “Woe to me! I am ruined for I am a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King the Lord Almighty” because God is Holy.

Hab 1:13 “it says You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong” because God is Holy.

Revelations we see the 4 living creatures who Day and Night never stop saying “Holy is the Lord almighty, who was and is to come” because God is Holy!

And if this is our Father – who we worship and who Has adopted us, how should we live? We live in a culture today where what’s unholy is glorified and praised and what’s holy is looked down upon.

Taking a stand for holiness would mean being severely pressurized by the sin within us and the people around us. One of my believer friends recently wrote a Facebook post in response to the Supreme Court verdict section 377. With so much gentleness he wrote his thoughts and provided a biblical view for marriage and how homosexuality is a perversion of that design.

It’s a sin that needs to be repented of. The flak he got for writing that post was quite bad. He received such terrible abuses that I can’t even mention that in public. Another mutual friend of ours saw the post and said “if this is what your God says, then I would rather be in hell rather than support this view”.

That’s how extremely difficult it can be today for believers to live out their faith in holiness. That’s why I think it’s so very important to be in Gospel Communities where we get to encourage each other to pursue our calling for holiness and also speak into situations when we struggle to pursue that.

Both preparing our minds for action and pursuing our calling for holiness helps us to live with an eternal focus. Not only that but

2.We operate out of a gospel focus

Tying to the previous point. Holiness needs to be pursued with the right motivations. What is the right motivation for living in reverence and godly fear?

(v17-21) And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,

18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,

19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you

21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Christ is the irreplaceable sacrifice ->  Peter gives an amazing picture to what actually happened on the cross.

We inherited sin, Satan and death from our forefathers. We were bound to sin and its passions. Sin saturated our minds and hearts and bodies.

We were literally on the highway to hell trying to get there as quickly as we could. But God wanted to rescue us out of His abundant love and mercy.

He needed to pay a ransom amount and that was the precious blood of His Son – Jesus Christ that He shed on the cross. It wasn’t gold. It wasn’t silver.

It was something way more precious than that – the perfect lamb who was chosen before the foundations for you, who willingly gave up His life for you & was raised on the third Day so that you could believe and hope in God! Do you see why it’s irreplaceable? Do you see the worth and value of Jesus Christ?

I want us to take a moment and think honestly: what motivates you to pursue a holy life? What drives you to observe spiritual disciplines? What drives you to fight sexual sin? What motivates you to speak the truth? What compels you to not cheat? Is it because you want to be seen as morally good before others? Is it because you don’t want to be judged by the others in the church? Or Is it because you don’t want to feel guilty for not being holy?

Or is it because you fear that you’ll lose out on God’s favor? If your answer is yes to these questions, then in some way or the other you are still operating out of a performance-based focus or identity.

The truth is none of this pleases God. There is a better way.  Allowing the gospel to motivate you to live in holiness. Let it coming out of a heart that wants to please our Savior and Lord because of Jesus’ irreplaceable sacrifice.

For all of us who have believed in Jesus Christ we know that it was seeing and understanding the love of Christ on the cross that melted our hearts and brought us to His feet for surrender.

Even as we grow in our relationship with Christ obedience continues to be a response to His love. Whatever helps you remember the gospel each day – do that so that it can fuel the right motivation for holiness. Maybe its passages like these. Or a song that is gospel centred or even thinking about your testimony of what God has done for you and is continuing to do in you are ways by which you can remember the gospel daily.

We are citizens and representatives of God’s kingdom! What a privilege for people who never deserved to be part of that kingdom. What do citizens of God’s kingdom do? We live with an eternal focus unlike the rest of the world that lives only for this earthly life & We operate out of a gospel focus wanting to please the Holy Judge in every way because of the irreplaceable sacrifice of His Son that has ransomed us. This is also contrary to the world that operates out of a performance-based focus.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Sermon

Living out our Chosen and Adopted Identity in Christ

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Good morning church! Most of us who have been tracking with us at the Gathering, you’ll know that we’ve been studying the Gospel of Mark. We’ll be taking a break from that series for the month of September and then will pick up from where we left off in October.

As elders, we prayed and thought over what would be an important topic to cover and we decided to have a series on “Living out our Identity in Christ”. Now, why would this be an important topic? Because every decision or choice we make in this life is connected to what we believe about God and what we believe about ourselves!

From the time we are born, we are figuring out and trying to build our identity. So even when we were kids like 3 or 4 years old we were trying to somehow outdo and gain some kind of superiority over our friends.

Like for example, I used to do this thing where whenever people would ask me my age, I would add a “half” to it to make me look bigger. I would say “Three and a half, four and a half” etc. And even as we go through school, college and work we are naturally trying to create big lists of what we have done and what we have achieved! Our own sinful self and the world tells us “More achievements, more respect…More achievements, more money…more achievements, more happiness”.

The more achievements you have, the better you feel about yourself. Basically, it’s all promoting this motto “What you do is who you are”. And the truth is that it leaves our life extremely unsatisfied and unfulfilled at the end. Because that’s not how God created us!
But God has given us a better identify – a completely satisfying and fulfilling one and that’s what we are going to study& embrace over the next 5 weeks.

Today we’ll be looking at our first identity: We are chosen and adopted in Christ! We’ll be turning to Ephesians 1:3-6 for our time today. As you’re turning to Ephesians, let me set up our time by giving a brief context. Paul wrote this letter while he was imprisoned in Rome.

In spite of his difficult circumstance, he is actually exploding in praise as he’s writing about the glory of the gospel in Chapter 1. With the many things that he has to tell the Ephesian church, he starts by talking about “Who God Is” and “Who we are in Christ”.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us[b] for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

1. We are chosen in Christ

4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
Do you remember the first time you were picked in a team or to do something for the church or given a responsibility? Remember how proud and privileged you felt at that point in time. Unfortunately, even though we say “we are saved by grace”, sometimes when we think about God choosing us in Christ, at the back of our mind we still think it’s either because I’m a good person or God’s seen some potential in me. I believe v4 gives us two reasons to know that God’s choice is made apart from us:

i) God chose us before the foundations of the world

It says before the foundation of the world, God chose us in Christ. The term “In Christ” means “a person’s current position before God due to what Christ has done”. Think about it…this is happening in eternity past. Before creating the heavens and the earth, before God said “Let there be light”…even before that God already made His choice in Christ.

A similar theme is mentioned in Romans 9 where it says that even before Jacob and Esau were born or they even did anything good or bad, God made His choice. He chose Jacob over Esau. (v11,12) Therefore it’s not based on a person’s talents or his good works or his social status or popularity but completely based on God’s mercy. Very different from the way the world works.

In God’s economy, it’s the worst, the sinner, the poor, the unworthy, the insignificant who are rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom (Jam 2:5). In fact when we look at Israel’s history – God says in Deut 7:6 – it wasn’t because they were a large, powerful nation that He chose them.

Instead, they were few and weak, but God chose them as His treasured possession to show them His love and to show how committed He was to the promise He made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The second reason why we know that God’s choice is apart from us is:

ii) God chose us to be Holy and blameless in His sight

The criteria for Holy God is perfect holiness and perfect obedience. Blamelessness literally means faultless – no one can say that you’ve committed a fault! And we fail really bad! If we had any doubts on the first point, I think this should make it clear because we are naturally so far away from holiness. Here’s what Scripture says about us:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one. (Rom 3:11,12)

Holiness and purity according to these verses is impossible for sinners and yet it is a requirement from us in order to be presented before God. Only through Jesus Christ can we become Holy and blameless in His sight.

I believe this truth should rid us of any kind of spiritual pride that’s there in us. Sometimes we may think it’s because I pray so well, I help serve the Gathering each week or I observe all the disciplines and that’s why God chose me. No, the truth is that God chose you not because of anything you did or could ever do. God chose you out of His love and mercy!

Another place where this truth of being Chosen in Christ can help us is in times when we are tempted to sin in order to gain people’s approval. Maybe it’s in your family where you are pressurized to disobey God in order to gain their approval. Or maybe it’s in your workplace where you are pressurized to compromise and use unethical means to help your colleagues or boss.

Or maybe it’s among your friends where a white lie here and there in order to gain their approval. In all these places when we are tempted, we can be reminded of the identity that God has chosen us in Christ to be His treasured possession before the foundation of the world. The highest authority in the whole universe has already given His approval over you because of Jesus.

Not just that the truth that we’ve been chosen to be Holy and blameless before Him. For a believer who has been washed clean by the blood of Jesus, longing for purity and holiness is placed in his DNA.

2. We are adopted in Christ

In love 5 he predestined us[b] for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Wow! Check out the language that’s being used to show the love of God. It says in love God ordained and pre-planned before the foundation of the world for us to be adopted as His children through Christ. It’s a kind of a delightful longing that’s being visualized here even as God knows exactly how and when it’s going to pan out.

Initially, I read this think about modern-day adoption but I did a little reading and adoption in the Roman culture of that day was very different from what we know today. And it adds an amazing emphasis to the love and grace of God.

In Ancient Roman culture:

a) The child was freely chosen by the parents. The child was desired by the parents.
b) The child would be a permanent part of the family. Parents couldn’t disown a child after they are adopted.
c) An adopted child receives a new identity. Any prior responsibilities and debts were erased. New rights and responsibilities were taken on.
d) The concept of inheritance was part of life, not something that began at death. Being adopted made someone an heir to their father, joint sharer in all his possessions and fully united to him.

Now think about how beautiful is this picture when we think about the God the Father giving us all these great and glorious blessings through Christ. In eternity past, God pre-planned and ordained us to be adopted as His sons and daughters. But there is a problem here. The ones who were supposed to be adopted are by nature God’s enemies. Remember what we read in Romans.

We don’t seek God. We don’t recognize God. We don’t want God. So, God, the Father sends His Beloved Son – whom He dearly loves, He shares such an intimate relationship with Jesus…sends Him to rescue us and erase our debts of sin and our old sinful identity. Jesus Christ is the perfect and pure lamb who goes up on the cross to die for you and me.

He rises from the dead on the Third Day so that whoever repents of their sins and turns to Jesus Christ will be adopted fully into the family of God! The Bible says that we are co-heirs with Jesus Christ. And this is the amazing truth –We are fully united to God never to be separated again! He is our Father and loves us dearly!

When we are tempted or when we fall into sin, this truth can bring hope and repentance to our hearts. Rom 8 says that we don’t have a spirit that makes us slaves and makes us live in fear from God. We have a Spirit of adoption that cries out “Abba, Father”. In Hebrew, that’s what you’d intimately refer to your father something like “Papa or Daddy”.

When you are being tempted or when you fall, understand that you can run back to your heavenly father and repent because there is safety there. Jesus Christ paid a huge price so that we don’t have to fear the presence of God when we fall but rather have the ability to turn back to Him in repentance and faith.

Some of us are just going through a really hard phase in life right now. How does this truth of being adopted as a child of God bring hope into your life? You’re probably thinking that God is so far from you. Sometimes you might think – does God care about what I’m going through?

The answer is that God is a Father who doesn’t disown His children. In Hebrews 13:5 he promises to “Never leave us nor forsake us”. He is right with us and we have access to Him as our “Papa”. Does God have the power to immediately change our situation? Yes, he does. Why does God wait then? That’s because God’s a loving father who is more interested in making us more like Jesus Christ.

There are some things we probably will understand only a few years down the line or maybe at the end of a lifetime but God’s plan in choosing and adopting us was to save us, change us into the image of His Son and bring Him glory through all of that. That’s why I don’t want us to lose track on the phrase “to the praise of His glorious grace”.

It’s easy for us sometimes to just love the idea of God choosing us and adopting us for our good but the truth is it’s not about us. In 2 Cor 12, it’s an interesting passage where Paul thrice asks God to remove a thorn from his flesh. I’m guessing it’s an illness of some kind.

This is the same Paul who performed amazing miracles like his handkerchief was enough to heal people but yet he didn’t find healing despite praying about it several times. What the Lord told him is that His grace is sufficient for Him for His power is made perfect in weakness”.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Mark Sermon

God’s Remedy for Our Unbelief – Mark 9:14-29

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Good morning church! If you’ve been tracking with us over the last few months, as a church we’ve been preaching through the gospel of Mark. Right now we are in Chapter 9.

As you are turning to the passage, let me remind us a little bit of where we were. Last weekend we read how Jesus takes Peter, James and John with him to the top of the mountain where he gets transfigured in front of them!

Also while this is happening, Jesus is talking to Moses and Elijah who are standing with him. This great event left a strong impact on the hearts and minds of the disciples!

In the letters that these disciples wrote many years later to the churches, they often mentioned this event because Jesus revealed His glory as the Son of God, He showed that He was the fulfillment of the Law and the prophecies and that He was the True King – defined by the words of the Father when He says “This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him”. And this great event sets up the next story which we will read today:

Read Mark 9:14-29

I am an unbeliever!!! Woah! Did the elder of the church just say that? There have been many times in my Christian where I’ve either thought that or said that to myself.

I believe that what Christ has done is full and sufficient to save me. But there are times when I evaluate my fight with sin, the times when I think about the future and don’t trust in God’s promises and then think “would a believer really be like that, would a believer really respond like this?”

And so even after trusting in Jesus I know there are various pockets in my life where I am an unbeliever. I’m an unbeliever needing Jesus to rescue me from that.So today’s message is for all unbelievers.

Maybe you’re an unbeliever who’s never known Jesus or like me you’ve known the Lord but struggle to believe in other areas of your life. Let me invite you to look at this passage for encouragement. Because we are prone to unbelief, because our hearts naturally turns to unbelief:

1. We need God’s patience when we don’t believe (v16-19)

“What are you arguing about with them?” 17 And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. 18 And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” 19 And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.”

Right after Jesus comes down the mountain, he sees the scribes and the crowd arguing with the remaining disciples. And Jesus asks them why they were arguing and a man from the crowd told him about the terrible affliction that came upon his son due to an evil spirit.

He brought his son to the disciples for healing but because they couldn’t heal him and that resulted in an argument. Jesus responds by telling them that they are a faithless generation!

How long was he to bear with them? Was Jesus losing his patience? Was Jesus getting frustrated with the people? Why did Jesus say something seemingly harsh?

In order to answer this, I think we need to consider two things:

  • Language: Where else did Jesus use similar language? Towards the end of chapter 8, Jesus refers to the current generation as an adulterous and sinful generation. In the OT the prophets would often term the rebellious nation of Israel as “Crooked and twisted generation, unfaithful people”. And it’s not because the prophets developed a disliking or hatred towards people. It was their own people. Their own nation. But they were merely describing the hearts of people that repeatedly and relentlessly turned away from God.
  • Insult of unbelief: Sometimes we downplay the expressions of unbelief in our lives because we don’t even think of it as sin. We think “Rape, murder, Stealing”….these are all the big sins…what is unbelief in comparison to that? It seems like a thought or a feeling. But we should understand that unbelief is an insult to the goodness of God. Unbelief tells us that God isn’t good enough or isn’t loving enough or isn’t caring enough towards us. Unbelief tells us that God can’t be trusted. Unbelief tells us that God isn’t faithful so we need to find some other way apart from God. Are you seeing a theme run through all of this? Unbelief lies at the root of every sin. Unbelief is a perversion to God’s design of man and woman. Unbelief is everything that God doesn’t want in His children!

Let’s evaluate our hearts for a moment: When you don’t get what you want, does it cause you to become bitter toward God and His people? When God doesn’t answer your prayer according to your timings, does it cause you to abandon your trust in Him?

I know as we are hearing these truths, we are feeling the weight of the reality of our own unbelief. If unbelief is the root of every sin, then we end up displaying unbelief in so many areas.

God in His Holiness and Justice has every right to wipe us out due to our unbelief but instead He displays great patience through His Son Jesus.

I think as Jesus was mentioning v19 – he wasn’t losing his patience but rather like a loving parent was expressing the great deal of patience and tolerance He has towards rebellious people like you and me.

Not only do we need God’s patience, but

2) We also need God’s provision when we struggle to believe (v21-24)

You know it’s not the first time Jesus started a conversation with people before performing a miracle. Also, here Jesus starts talking to the man asking him about the condition of his son.

As the son is convulsing on the ground, the father explains how this evil spirit has caused his son to fall into fire, into water and severely wound him. Then for the for the first time you see the man ask Jesus to help him. He says “If you can do anything, please have compassion on us and help us”.

He still doesn’t fully believe. Jesus says “If you can?” “All things are possible for one who believes”. In tears this man says “I believe; help my unbelief”. In the Greek it reads it as “Lord I believe; help my unbelief”.

Do you notice the difference between the manner in which the man addressed Jesus in the starting? He called him “Teacher” but now he calls Him “Lord”. It’s wonderful to see how Jesus drew out the faith in this man.

He was part of the crowd initially that displayed unbelief and bitterness, but now he’s acknowledging his need for Jesus. Initially he just wanted a miracle, but now he’s displaying trust in Jesus. But yet he struggles to believe! In other words he’s saying “Lord, I want to believe. Help me overcome my unbelief”.

If you’re a believer in Christ, pretty soon you will come to this place where you’ll look at the struggle with sin in your life, or a difficult situation that you’re facing in your family or work or in friendships where you’ll cry out “Help me overcome my unbelief”.

You’ll feel the tension like this man where you want to believe but struggling to do the same. What is one of the means of grace that God has provided for us?

Ephesians 2:8 says “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”Faith is in itself a gift from God!Therefore, let’s realize that it cannot be automatically generated, it needs to be provided by God.

Hearing the words of Christ: So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.(Rom 10:17) If your heart is unbelieving, it doesn’t mean you need to read less of God’s Word or wait until a later time when you grow in maturity to read the Word.

No…you need the Word right now. You need to listen to Christ’s voice right now. It’s infact through your time with Scripture that God will convict your heart of sin and unbelief and give you the faith and the promises to trust Christ.

If you’re confused on which passage to read or if you’re struggling to understand make sure you call a brother or sister who can help you and speak those words of truth into your hearts.

Not only do we need God’s patience and God’s provision but

3. We also need God’s power to sustain our belief (v28-29)

After this whole episode is done, in private Jesus’ disciples ask him why they couldn’t cast out the demon out of this man. Jesus says that this kind can only be driven out by prayer!

These disciples just a few chapters back were given the authority to cast out all demons and heal all kinds of diseases. They experienced first hand what it meant to be used by God! I’m sure by this point they saw several lives being transformed through their ministry.

But I think they reached this point where they trusted more on themselves than God. They forgot that they needed their power source which came about by communing with God. They forgot that they needed to depend on God in prayer. It’s interesting how in John 15, Jesus reminds us that “apart from Him we can do nothing”.

Think about that for a minute everyone. Apart from Jesus we can do NOTHING. Sometimes we tend to rely on all the sermons that we’ve heard, all the Christian theology that we know, all the past experiences we’ve had, all the Christian conversations we’ve had more than dependence on God through prayer.

Again all these things are good but all our bible studies and theology should fuel our hearts to cry out to Jesus.Prayer is how we depend on God’s strength and power to make things happen in and through our lives.

My intention is not to bring this up to say “If you are praying for 15 minutes now, pray for 20 minutes from tomorrow”. Or to beat us all down on how we aren’t praying enough. But I do want us to question ourselves on how central prayer is to our lives.

Do we pray about everything in our lives? Are we honest before God – transparent as we talk to Him? We know that the only reason why we can have our prayers and petitions delivered to God is because of the Saving work of our Savior. Therefore we aren’t praying to earn brownie points but we pray to grow in our trust and love for Christ![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories
Mark Sermon

The Hope for the unbelieving heart – Mark 8:11-26

Good morning church! If you’ve been tracking with us over the past few months, as a church we’ve been studying the Gospel of Mark. We work through each passage expositionally. We are right in the middle of our Mark study right now in chapter 8.

The first half of the gospel focused on “who this Jesus Is” and the next half of the gospel will focus on “what Jesus Is going to do” by dying and laying down his life for us. As you’re turning to Mark 8 verse 11-26, let me set it up for you by recapping what we read last week. Jesus performs another astonishing miracle…this time in a Gentile territory displaying His power and compassion by feeding 4000 people in the midst of a desolate area.

What a wonderful thing to see God’s heart for not only the Jews but for the Gentiles! Jesus moves on from that place and has an encounter with Pharisees in v11.

[11] The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. [12] And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” [13] And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side.

[14] Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. [15] And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”[b] [16] And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. [17] And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? [18] Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? [19] When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” [20] “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” [21] And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

[22] And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. [23] And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” [24] And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” [25] Then Jesus[c] laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. [26] And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”

Unbelief is a topic that I never heard a lot of preachers preach about in my earlier years as a believer. The assumption was that if you are a believer in Christ, then there shouldn’t be any unbelief. But we all know through that we don’t perfectly believe all the time.

At least not until Christ comes back again. In fact there may be times in a Christian’s life when he or she experiences moments of deep despair and hopelessness where God’s promises may seem blurry and unclear to us. The encouragement for believers is that Jesus understands and He has the might to power through and work in your moments of unbelief. We see two examples of unbelief mentioned in today’s passage:

1. Unbelief of the Pharisees

[11] The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. [12] And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” (v11-12)

I find it interesting that this event comes right after the encounter with the Gentiles. We saw the Gentiles have a great desire to be with Jesus. So much so that they didn’t think about carrying extra food while they went to spend time with Jesus. Unlike the Gentiles, these Pharisees who were the most religious people of the time came to Jesus and argued with him. A very different approach. A different heart.

Were they unbelieving? Yes. I want us to consider two words that we’ll be using to analyze this text : FRUIT AND ROOT. Fruit is the outward action being displayed and Root is the inward attitude that causes it. So let’s look at the Fruit and Root of this type of unbelief:

FRUIT: Demand Barrier.

They argued with Jesus because they wanted him to show a sign from heaven that proved Him to be the Messiah who was sent by God! The first time I read this I was like “really”? They need more signs to authenticate Jesus? Healing lepers, paralytics, deaf, blind, raising the dead, casting out demons, feeding thousands….are these not enough? What more are they looking for? Sometimes it’s easier for us to judge the Pharisees but it gets a little touchy when we have to ask ourselves the same question.

When it comes to obeying Christ and surrendering ourselves to Him, do we put up demands like “Jesus, if you do this for me then I’ll fully commit myself to you”? Or like “Jesus, if you perform this one miracle in my workplace or marriage or heal me from this disease, then I’ll give up my sinful life”. One of the main problems of this approach is that it seems to make us think that God exists for us. And that’s not the teaching of the Bible. We exist for God!

Isaiah 43:7 says “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made”. He places the demands, not us. And that brings us to the root

ROOT: Sin barrier.

For the Pharisees it says they did this to “test him”. They were trying to find a way to maliciously trap him by making this demand. If we have to ask ourselves this question today, what’s our motive behind placing demands before God? Do we really think that we’ll be fully committed to God once God performs a miracle? Or is it just an excuse so that we don’t have to surrender? So that we don’t have to give up our way of life? And more often than not, it’s not the lack of evidence that keeps us from believing but it’s the unwillingness to change.

So we’ll keep arguing and debating on issues that are not central to the message of salvation. We’ll talk about spiritually intellectual topics and linger there but not allow it to penetrate through your heart.

Some years back I remember connecting with this one friend who knew a lot about the Bible. He used to listen to the best preachers and I’ve enjoyed some good moments of fellowship with him. One day when we met he openly shared and told me that he didn’t think he was a believer.

He shared about his repeated pattern of sin that he was struggling with. He spent months without reading the Word or prayer and then he commented saying that he was at that point of unbelief that only if he saw Jesus perform a big miracle for him, would he believe. I was quite shocked because we led youth groups together. We had theological discussions but still he was still in place where he was looking for a big miracle to believe.

I know some of us are in this position right so I don’t want you to feel that I’m downplaying this. Jesus Christ has performed the greatest ever miracle by coming down to the earth in the form of man. The Word says that He took the nature of a servant and then humbled Himself by dying on a cross – the worst punishment of that day to rescue you and I from the eternal wrath of God due to our sins.

He rose again and gave us new life – living His life through us unto God. We have the most amazing privilege to know the Almighty Creator God and live for Him every single day. Could there be a bigger miracle than this? Absolutely not.

Please don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong in praying for a miracle in your life. But what we want to resist and repent of the need for a miracle to give us a reason to believe. Christ has given us ample number of reasons right from Creation – heavens declare the glory of God, the Bible that speaks plainly of who God Is and Jesus Christ who suffered and died for you and me to give us Himself. Not only is there unbelief among Pharisees but there is a kind of unbelief of the disciples.

2. Unbelief of the disciples

[14] Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. [15] And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”[b] [16] And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. [17] And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? [18] Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? [19] When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” [20] “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” [21] And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

Just after the encounter with the Pharisees, Jesus cautions his disciples to be careful of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herodians. Leaven is the yeast that was used in the bread. In this context, yeast or the leaven would mean the legalistic teachings & corrupt attitudes of the Pharisees could easily influence the disciples.

Remember the Pharisees were the legalistic, super religious and knowledgeable people of the time. It could be that the disciples looked up to them or were fascinated by them. Jesus warned them to be alert and not allow their teachings and attitudes to affect them.

The disciples on the other hand thought that Jesus was referring to the fact that they didn’t have bread. Now on the exterior it might seem like a simple misunderstanding out of ignorance but Jesus points to their hardened hearts.

FRUIT: Discernment Barrier.

Jesus says that they couldn’t perceive or understand because their hearts were hardened. Then he said they have eyes but can’t see. Ears but can’t hear. What is Jesus talking about? Jesus was referring to the spiritual eyes and spiritual ears which were blocked due to their hardened hearts

You and I could listen to best preacher of all time who’s speaking in the clearest possible manner with the right illustrations and applications but still have difficulty understanding. Not because of the language or vocabulary but because our spiritual capacities aren’t receptive to receive what we need to receive.

Guess what? The disciples were listening to the best preacher ever – Jesus Christ and yet didn’t understand. We need to recognize that our hearts get hardened with sin and that makes it difficult for us to hear and see the glory of Scripture. What could be the root here?

ROOT: Worry Barrier.

The disciples were so concerned about the lack of bread & that was their main discussion among themselves. Their concern for their lack of bread prevented them from understanding and applying spiritual truths. Again, let’s compare them with the 4000 gentiles who were fed and satisfied. They were more concerned about being in the presence of God and didn’t even carry extra bread.

I think this falls in line with what’s described in Matthew 6.

[31] Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ [32] For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. [33] But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

For some of us, it’s anxiety regarding our physical & emotional needs that often prevent us from being concerned about understanding and applying spiritual truths. Ask yourself this question – how many times do I allow my anxieties to reign over my time in the Word and prayer? Like we are sitting in front of the Bible or listening to a sermon but our mind is just all over the place getting worked up about work or home or relationship or finances.

It’s interesting how Jesus responds to this. He makes the disciples introspect and think about the condition of their hearts? He talks about the need to have their spiritual ears and eyes opened. And then he reminds them about what He’s done and what they’ve witnessed in person. There were 12 baskets of left overs left after he fed 5000! There were 7 baskets full of left overs after he fed 4000! Jesus showed who He was through those miracles. He is the Creator God who feeds and satisfies His people. He compassionately cares and looks after their needs. Therefore, he can command his disciples “to not be anxious”.

Strange right? Why didn’t Jesus just make a suggestion? Something like “I think it’ll be good idea if you could not worry for a while”. No, Jesus can command because He knows He will provide. It’s for our hearts to find rest in those promises so that we can focus on understanding and applying Scriptural truths.

Let’s take that as an encouragement personally and even corporately…when we are perplexed, we know we can lean on his promises because He is faithful and we can pursue in prayer because He cares for us!

Finally I believe the healing miracle is a real event but Mark uses it to illustrate the heart condition of the disciples. The same manner in which the blind man was brought to Jesus for healing can be paralleled with the disciples great need for Jesus.

The blind man’s partial sight was similar to the unbelief of the disciples. Inspite of witnessing Jesus’ character, words and works they still weren’t able to acknowledge Him as Lord. But the amazing part is just as Jesus didn’t allow the blind man’s unbelief to prevent him from seeing, Jesus is able to power through the unbelief of the disciples to help them understand, believe and come to know Him as their Savior and Sovereign Lord!

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Mark Sermon

Seeing the fruit of authentic faith – Mark 7:1-23

[1] Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, [2] they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. [3] (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly,[a] holding to the tradition of the elders, [4] and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.[b] And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.[c]) [5] And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” [6] And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; [7] in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ [8] You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

[9] And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! [10] For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ [11] But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)[d]— [12] then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, [13] thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
[14] And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: [15] There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”[e] [16], [17] And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable.

[18] And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, [19] since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?”[f] (Thus he declared all foods clean.) [20] And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. [21] For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, [22] coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. [23] All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Growing up I used to dread the second last day of VBS. On the penultimate day, we would have an altar call where the speaker would invite all the students to come up in front of everyone and say “I rededicate my life to Jesus and accept Him as my personal Savior.” Now there are a lot of things that are theologically wrong about that statement but I didn’t know all that when I was young. Because I was a very shy kid, coming and standing in front of a thousand children was scary for me! There were others who were confident and eloquent and they would speak for 5-10 minutes.

There were some others who were super confident, who would brag about the number of gang wars they’ve been part of and it wasn’t a testimony at all but just an opportunity to talk about how “cool” their life was. But not me! I totally found myself at a very uncomfortable place but I didn’t want to be the only person who didn’t go up and say the magic words so I did it year after year.

Once I remember asking my oldest sister, “Why do we need to go up and say that statement every year when we know that our life is going to remain the same? We are going to return back to our same life and do the same things once we are back home”.

Even though I was a kid and an unbeliever, somehow I still knew that this didn’t make sense. If we know that we are faking it, wouldn’t an all-knowing God see through this? Would God find superficial religion acceptable? Surely not. We keep hearing about sincere, real faith. What does authentic faith look like? I think there are 3 things we can learn from this passage.

1. We must Renounce superficial religion (v1-5)

[1] Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, [2] they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. [3 ](For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly,[a] holding to the tradition of the elders, [4] and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.[b] And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.[c]) [5] And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”

Jesus at this point has been performing ground breaking and stunning miracles! He miraculously fed over 10,000 people. He walks on water and all the people who even touch the fringe of his garment are healed. This by itself should be something that people should take note of. He’s not an ordinary man. He’s sent by God. Instead you find the Pharisees and scribes who come from Jerusalem trying to find out some fault in Jesus and his disciples. They accuse them of eating with hands that are defiled.

Now let me clear it out at the start. Their issue wasn’t regarding hygiene or cleanliness. Their issue was regarding the ceremonial washing traditions that the Pharisees added over the years. It wasn’t in the OT law. These were man made traditions. They took offense at the fact that Jesus’ disciples weren’t observing the tradition of their elders. And the word “defiled” means unholy and unclean.

In other words, they alleged that Jesus’ disciples were sinning and making themselves unholy by not following these traditions. Suddenly their understanding of judging someone as holy or unholy was on the basis of their own traditions. That was the main problem.

Now I know most of us as we are hearing this would think that the Pharisees and scribes were probably fools to go and tell Jesus this. No man in their right mind would have the guts to go and do that. Let me remind you that the Pharisees and scribes were the most zealous, pious and learned men of their time. They knew the Scriptures inside out. They weren’t crazy. If the most religious people of that time could stumble in this way, I think we have good reason to be wary of the attitude of superficial religion in our lives. How can we identify this in our lives? I think this passage gives us two hints:

1) You’ll find yourself imposing thoughts and rules over people that aren’t prescribed in Scripture.

You’ll find people say things like you need to pray at 3AM in the night. That’s when you can have the most powerful prayers. Truly mature Christians will pray during those hours. Does the bible command us to pray? Yes, but it doesn’t tell us that we need to pray during a specific time to see God answer prayer.

Once I had a brother who was telling me that we need to have 3 different types of bible study times during the day. One is our daily devotion, the other is a deep, in depth study of a passage and the third is where we just read a bunch of chapters or books of the Bible together to understand the overall context of the Bible.

Now all these things are great. We are commanded to read and study Scripture but if you’re using these 3 specific times as a mandate to judge another person’s faith, then you might be imposing your own thoughts and rules over what’s prescribed in Scripture.

2) You’ll find yourself constantly being critical of other people’s spiritual lives and judging them on the basis of your man-made rules

If you are constantly thinking about what this person is doing right or wrong, if you are constantly being critical of what’s right or wrong in a church, it’s quite possible that you may be struggling with this sin. As a believer we need to be discerning and there is a place for correcting our brothers and sisters in Christ but it’s all done in a context where we are spiritually involved and invested in the person’s life.

I want us to really think about this seriously. Do we see these two symptoms in our life? We might think that we are more spiritual than the others because we are better at observing these man-made traditions. It might make us feel more righteous but let’s recognize that this is plainly superficial religion. And this is something that needs to be renounced if you want to see authentic faith.

2. We must allow God’s word to Reveal our hypocrisy (v6-13)

[6] And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; [7] in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ [8] You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” [9] And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! [10] For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ [11] But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)[d]— [12] then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, [13] thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

We see Jesus using Scripture twice in this passage in order to reveal their hypocrisy.

Jesus quotes the Scripture from Isaiah to tell them that they think they are worshiping God but it’s all fruitless. Why is it fruitless? Because they reject the commandment of God and hold on to the tradition of men. And then Jesus gives another example from Scripture. In the OT in many places God commanded the people of Israel to “Honor their father and mother”. You see that in the 10 commandments and also later where God says if anyone reviles or curses their father or mother they are to be put to death. Honoring parents is very serious in the eyes of God!

But the Pharisees created a tradition where people could avoid and neglect giving financial support to their parents. All they had to do is say that this money is “Corban” – it is going to the temple treasury and they were exempted from taking care of their parents. They blatantly defied the actual commandment of God in order to establish their tradition. That’s the issue of superficial religion, it places our rules and our traditions above God. In essence we are more concerned about obeying our traditions rather than obeying God.

So how do we come out of it? We allow God’s Word to reveal our hypocrisy. The word hypocrisy actually means “pretender” like a stage actor. Superficial religion means that we are constantly pretending to be better than what we truly are. When we spend time with God’s Word, what it does is it cuts through our pretending and our acting and reveals what’s really in our hearts.

Hebrews 4:12 says For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Let’s ask ourselves this question, are we allowing God’s Word to reveal the hypocrisy in our hearts each day? Are we being open to the areas in which God shows us that we are pretending?

For example that prophecy from Isaiah: Jesus first quotes Isaiah when he says “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;” Doesn’t this convict our hearts of the times on a Sunday morning where we are singing these wonderful songs of love and praise to God but our hearts are far from him? We are singing “It’s all about You, Jesus” and yet our hearts say “It’s all about everything else”.

Once we allow God’s Word to reveal our hypocrisy, it should lead us to the next point.

3. We must repent of the real heart issue (v18-23)

[18] And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, [19] since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?”[f] (Thus he declared all foods clean.) [20] And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. [21] For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, [22] coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. [23] All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Why do people cover themselves with superficial religion? So that they can conceal what’s truly there in their hearts. What’s really in our hearts? Evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness!!

Man isn’t inherently good but bad according to these verses. You and I by nature are capable of the worst of atrocities in the world and the most horrific expressions of sin. What do we do to cover it up? We create our own rules and traditions so that by observing them we don’t have to feel bad about our true state.

We criticize and pull people down so that we can look at them and think we are better off. Let’s remind ourselves that before a Holy God these efforts are merely filthy rags (Isa 64:6).

Isn’t that the same thing that happened in the Garden of Eden? Once Adam and Eve sinned, they realized they were naked and tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. They knew they were condemned the moment they ate of the fruit. Guilt entered their hearts for the first time and they tried to cover up their sin.

When God confronted them, His intention was to bring them to confess so that he could give them a better clothing. An animal was sacrificed/killed in order to provide Adam and Eve with a better clothing to cover their shame.

And when we think about our own sin, deep rooted sin from our hearts….God doesn’t want us to cover ourselves with superficial religion. Those are filthy rags & fig leaves. Instead God is drawing us to confession so that He can give us a better clothing – the pure robe of His Son. This was purchased by Jesus Christ dying on the cross for our sins and rising again on the third Day.

I really hope that’s what you find encouraging today. My intention wasn’t to just talk about this sin and leave it there. I hope it’s driving us all to repentance. Authentic faith is one where all of the outer layers are peeled off and where we come to God not concealing ourselves with superficial religion but rather repenting of the real issues of our hearts.