Category: Mark

Responding to the call of Jesus

Post author By Guest
Post date May 15, 2019
No Comments on Responding to the call of Jesus

Good morning Gathering! It’s a joy & a privilege to be with you this morning as we open the Scriptures together. I just returned from Taiwan where I, along with Saju and about 150 other pastors and leaders, explored what church planting looks like in the Asia Pacific. It was such a good reminder for me that God is doing the same work throughout the world. He is filling the earth with His glory here in Mumbai, in all of India, in South Asia and to the ends of the earth. And the beautiful thing is that he’s doing it through you, the church. He has chosen to use His church to accomplish His purposes!

I was also reminded this week of how much of a sacred thing this is. We have the unbelievable privilege to come to God, as people who have been redeemed by Him. As people who have been brought back from the dead. We get to gather in His presence and experience the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, as His Word performs surgery on hearts. And that is certainly my prayer for us this morning. That God would transform us for His glory. That we would be changed, not just for our sake, but with the goal that the whole earth would be filled with the glory of God through us.

So, I’m going to pray for us to that end. As I begin to pray for us, I’d invite you to turn to Mark chapter 3 in your Bibles. That’s where we’ll be this morning; Mark chapter 3. Let’s pray together.

Now, you might be wondering, “Why on earth are we going to Mark chapter 3” given the fact that we just wrapped up a series in The Gospel of Mark that has spanned a year and a half. That’s a great question! And the answer is that I want for us to consider our response to The Gospel of Mark. We mentioned throughout this journey the fact that Mark was driving us to respond to the coming of God’s Kingdom. He’s driving us toward a response to the call of Jesus in our lives. That’s the consistent message of Mark; that God is doing something new, something glorious, something that He has purposed to do from before the foundation of the world. And then he calls people to respond. So, if we’re not thinking toward a response to the coming of God’s Kingdom, then we’re sort of missing the point.

So, I want us to consider that by looking at three successive interactions that Jesus has in Mark chapter 3, verses 1-15. As we read this, I want for you to ask yourself this question: “How do I respond to the call of Jesus in my life?” I want you to have that question on the forefront of your minds and your hearts as we read this together.

Because this is the primary question in your life; it’s what is most important. If you’ve been around the Gathering for any length of time, you’ve heard me say this time and time again. There is nothing more important in your life than the issue of what you do with Jesus. How you answer this question is more important than your family and your job. It’s more important than anything else because it determines your eternal destination. So, let’s be thinking of that question as we read;

“How do I respond to the call of Jesus in my life?”

“Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” And he strictly ordered them not to make him known. And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.”

We see 3 responses to Jesus in this text, and they aren’t very different from the responses that we see to Jesus in our culture today. So, for the sake of clarity, I want to break these responses down into 3 categories. I’ll give you these up front in case you are taking notes:

FOE
FAN
FOLLOWER

FOE

Let’s start with the FOES of Jesus. I don’t think we need to spend too much time on this one because it’s pretty straightforward. But, I do want to say a couple of important things. The religious leaders, who have set themselves up as foes in response to the revelation of Jesus Christ, are people who are spiritually blind. Yes, they oppose the Kingdom of God. But it’s because they cannot see the truth. Yes, they miss who Jesus is. But it’s because they lack an understanding that God is doing something new, something beautiful & something different.

I think there’s a lot that I could say about this, but I believe what’s most important for us to recognize is this: We were all, at one time, enemies of God. I don’t care what your spiritual condition is right now. I don’t care how long you’ve been walking with The Lord and how much intimacy you have with Him right now. You were at one time His enemy.

Colossians 1:21 — “We were all once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds…”

Romans 5:10 — “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

There are many other verses that point out this truth. Our natural spiritual condition (because of the fall) is one of enmity with God. Our natural posture toward God is us running as far away from Him, as fast as we can. And that’s true of every single one of us at one time in our lives.

We were defined by pride, self-righteousness and rebellion. The same things that defined the religious leaders who were continuously opposing Jesus. Those things defined us at one point in our lives.

Now listen, some of you might fit into that category right now. You are standing opposed to the things of God because you have been blinded to the truth of who He is and how He loves you. You might think you know Him. You might think you’re following Him, but you’re really worshipping some version of Jesus and following some version of Christianity that you’ve invented.

Can I tell you something beautiful this morning? You’re not here on accident. God purposed, from before the foundation of the world, that you would be here and you would hear the truth that:

You can spend a lifetime trying to figure out how to find peace, and joy, and satisfaction and fulfilment. But, all you’re really searching for is how to be reconciled to the God who created you and who loves you. And the world & your flesh would have you believe that you can find what you’re searching for in any number of other things. But it’s a lie! The only way to be reconciled to God; to be made right with Him; to have peace with Him, is to embrace the Kingdom of God by submitting your life to the One who died in your place. His name is Jesus!

He died, taking on the sin of the world (taking on your sin), and offers you His righteousness — His right standing with God — in return. That’s the truth of the gospel. It’s the truth that you don’t have to be an enemy of God anymore. You don’t have to oppose Him. You don’t have to run from Him. You don’t have to try to earn or find things that you can never earn or find apart from Jesus Christ. The good news of the gospel is that, where there was separation, now there can be reconciliation by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

So, that’s the first type of reaction we see to Jesus. It’s people who oppose Him. They are His foes. The next type of response to Jesus isn’t quite as clear, and I think we have to dig a little bit to uncover it.

FAN

This is what I would call fans of Jesus — the crowd that followed Him. I want you to think about what’s happening here.

As Jesus removes Himself from this conflict with the religious leaders, a mass of people followed after Him. And it’s not just Jews from the region that were following Jesus. This was a mixture of Jews & Gentiles, and they were coming from all over. They were coming from places like Tyre & Sidon, way in the North of the region. They were coming from Idumea, way down in the South by the Dead Sea. They were coming from the Decapolis, across the Jordan in the East. And from the Western shores of the Mediterranean. People were coming from all over the place because they had heard what Jesus could do. They had heard stories about Him.

In fact, so many people followed Jesus that He had His disciples set up an escape boat so that, if things got too crazy, they could just jump in the boat and not be pressed into the sea by the crowd.

Here’s the thing about these crowds. They didn’t really care about being with Jesus. They cared about what Jesus could do for them. They cared about what they could get from Him. We know that for several reasons, I’ll just give you one. There are many times in the gospels where Jesus would say a really hard thing and everyone in the crowd would leave except His actual followers. The best example of this is probably in John chapter 6 when people were following Jesus because they wanted food from Him. They had heard what Jesus had done to feed the multitudes and now they are looking for food from Jesus. But Jesus tells them, “if you want to follow me, you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood.” And, after He said that, everyone left Him except His true followers.

You see, these fans of Jesus wanted things from Him, just as long as it didn’t cost them too much! Do you know what the definition of that is? That’s consumerism. Getting maximum return with minimum investment is the definition of consumerism.

And that’s where much of the world who says they follow Jesus actually lives. They live in nominalism, easy beliefism, luke-warm attempts at Christianity. Like, “I’m good with Jesus, as long as He can do things for me.” “But, if things get difficult, or weird, or are going to cost me too much, I’m out!”

Much of what we see in the modern day church has produced a lot of fans of Jesus. It’s produced a lot of people who claim Jesus with their lips, but not with their lives. And, if you really want to evaluate if you fit into this category, just think about how you relate to the church. How we relate to one another in the church is a direct reflection of how we relate to Jesus. You can’t get around it because He’s the head of the church & the church is His bride. If you take a consumeristic posture with your church, I’ll guarantee you, you have a consumeristic posture toward Jesus.

I have to tell you this morning, that must change. We must repent where that’s happening, because Jesus hasn’t called us to be His fans; He’s called us to follow Him. In our text, we see Jesus retreat from the crowd. He retreats from the masses, from the people who want things from Him. He retreats from His fans to do what? To call and to charge His followers. That’s our 3rd category;

FOLLOWER

I want you to listen closely to what He says to His followers, because this is the call to His followers today. Listen closely to this, because if you are here and actually want to Follow Jesus. If you don’t want to settle for some luke-warm, comfortable, consumeristic version of Christianity (which isn’t Christianity at all). If you want what’s real. If you want Jesus, because you know that He made it all, He paid for it all, He claims it all & He rules over it all. If that’s what you want, then hear His call this morning. Let me read it again; it’s verses 13 & 14:

“And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach”
Mark 3: 13-14

He says, “Be with me and preach my gospel.” That’s the charge that Jesus gives His followers then, and it’s the call that He lays before His followers this morning. Just think about these things for a moment. “Be with me.” Isn’t that incredible? We get to be with Jesus? As in, be in His presence. As in, have a relationship with Him. We don’t deserve that! We deserve separation. We deserve death. We deserve His wrath. But, because of the substitutionary work of Christ for us, we get to be with God again.

We can finally have that thing that has been echoing in our souls since the garden when we were separated from Him. And it’s all because of His goodness & His loving-kindness toward us in Christ.

When is the last time you just sat still for a little while and pondered the fact that you get to be with God? You know what weeds out the fans? This is that John 6 passage that I referenced earlier. Is your goal really just to be with Jesus, and you don’t care about anything else?

The second thing that Jesus says is “Join me in the work.” Which is equally incredible! Listen, God does not need us to accomplish His mission. He chooses to use us because He loves us. And, because being with Him will necessarily mean that we’re on mission with Him because He is a God of mission.

We get to walk in joyful obedience and follow closely behind the One who died for us. We get to be with the One who bought us back from Satan, sin & death. We get to follow Him and be with Him as He leads us. Church, I promise you, there is no better place to be. Let’s not be a group of fans. Let’s not just be interested spectators as God works to redeem and restore a broken world. Let’s be obedient followers as He calls us into that work.

Let me close by saying this: Your inclusion in the Kingdom of God means participation in the kingdom of God. Jesus is calling you to be with Him & to be about His work, no matter the cost. The question is: “How do you respond to that call?”

If you’re here this morning and this is new for you. You don’t know Jesus like this, or you don’t know if you know Jesus like this. Every word in Scripture is meant to drive you to this one overarching truth: Jesus Christ is your righteousness! Please don’t miss that. Because, ultimately, that’s the call this morning. JESUS CHRIST IS YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS! He is the door. He is the path. He is your all-in-all. He is life itself. He is the only way for you to be reconciled to God. No amount of good behavior, or religious activity or anything else will give you right standing with God. The only one who can save you, redeem you, restore you, and make you righteous is Jesus Christ Himself. And we only experience that by grace (which is a gift) and through faith in Him.

If you’re here this morning and you are a Christian. Let this fall fresh on your heart this morning. Your primarily calling is to be with Jesus. That, before you are called to do anything for Jesus, you are called to be with Him and abide in Him.

Tags Christ, Faith, Follower, Gospel, jesus

Mark Sermon

Gracious Giving

Good morning church! We will be finishing our preaching series on the gospel of Mark today. It’s taken us a year and a half to complete the entire gospel and I know that the Spirit has enabled us to grow in our love and obedience to Christ as we’ve studied these passages.

We will end our series with a passage that we couldn’t cover earlier from Mark 12:41-44. It is a familiar passage on the story of the poor widow who gave two copper coins. We are going to learn about “Gracious Giving” as we look through this passage.

Should we talk about Finances at our church? That was the question that both Saju and I have contemplated for a while. Both Saju and I have seen a lot of abuse in our church experiences over money and finances. We’ve seen how churches have asked for money and donations so that they could spend it on beautifying their own church buildings and also seen church leaders use offerings to spend it on their own luxurious lifestyles.

We really didn’t want this to describe our church and our ministry and that’s why at this present time we both are bi-vocational and don’t take a salary from the church. That’s also probably one of the reasons why we’ve not preached a sermon on “finances or giving” in the last 4 years. However, as we thought about this and read it God’s Word & had conversations with other brothers, we were reminded again how God is deeply concerned about our hearts in relation to money.

What’s astonishing is that Jesus has spoken more number of times about money in the gospels than the subject of hell! If it is important to God, then we ought to preach and talk about this. We’ll today try to understand what “Gracious Giving” looks like and why does it need to be emphasized in the lives of believers through the story of the poor widow.

I believe this passage tells us 3 things about Gracious Giving:

Gracious giving is Hidden

It needs to go unnoticed. Right before this passage in v38-40, Jesus condemns the actions of the scribes. They are the super-religious guys who love to show off, receive greetings from people in the marketplace, at the synagogues they have the best seats of honor and make long prayers to show that they are super-spiritual and religious. Not only was this bad enough, they also exploited widows who were one of the most weak and helpless people in the social structure of that time.

What we need to realize is that in biblical times, widows were in a very difficult position. Financially many of them would end up being in poverty in indebtedness because their husband who was the main source of economic support passed away. They had very little or no inheritance rights and after the death of their husband, the relationship between the husband’s family and the widow would be very shaky. They were so isolated and underprivileged in society that the early church actually had laid a special emphasis on helping and ministering to widows.

James 1:27 says Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

And we know from the Bible how God is a defender of the weak and the powerless. Right across the whole bible we’ll always see how widows have a special place in God’s heart.

Now where I’m I getting to. Think about this whole scenario of Jesus sitting in front of the treasury seeing people put their offerings in the collection box. The God of the whole universe is watching people “give” their offerings to Him. Rich people are putting large sums of money…others are giving their offerings but Jesus notices the poor widow who nobody noticed. She was poor, helpless and weak but she found her audience in the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! What a wonderful thing.

Now compare that with the religious folk who gave more than this lady. They were the ones who argued with Jesus, tried to trap Jesus, wanted to arrest him and even kill him. Right there we understand the truth that God is more interested in what goes on in your heart as you give. It’s not merely the “amount” or the “giving” but the motivation of your heart that matters to God.

I believe that’s the crux of the issue when Jesus says in Matt 6: 2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

And if you think about it – it’s countercultural in the world and also sometimes in churches. Some places they honor and give out mementos to people who are like the top “donors” when in fact Christ actually tells us to give in private. It’s in the secrecy and the hiddenness of giving that pleases God. It’s not for the people around you to notice or to commend you for the amount that you’ve put in. Gracious giving is in fact hidden from other people. Gracious giving goes unnoticed in public. Gracious giving won’t receive any applause or praises from people but it pleases the heart of God.

But not only is gracious giving Hidden, but

Gracious giving is also Sacrificial

You can imagine the jaws of the disciples drop when Jesus tells them that this poor widow put in more than all the other people. They were probably quite confused because if we compare the amounts, this widow had actually put in much lesser than all the others. The value of the two copper coins actually amounted to 1/64 of a denarii.

A denarii was the daily wage for a labor worker. What she put in was 1/64^th the amount of that. Then Jesus explains to them that all the others contributed out of their abundance but she had contributed out of her poverty.

For the others it was merely a contribution, for her it was a sacrifice. It was going to cost her not just something but everything. It was going to seriously affect her livelihood. Now I don’t think we should oversimplify the application to be – the poor widow put in all her money in the offering box so all of us need to put in all our money in the offering box.

But I think what it is telling us is this: God sees and views our giving not on the basis of what we don’t have but on the basis of what we have! Which means that God is not comparing the amounts of our giving against each other but God desires us to sacrificially give on the basis of what He has given to us individually at this present time.

Sometimes we hear people say things like “If God were to give me more money, then I’ll be able to give more to the church and to the poor”. Not necessarily. We know that with more money there’s in fact greater temptation to spend more on ourselves. That’s why God isn’t asking you to give on the basis of what you will have a few years later. He desires our obedience on the basis of what He has given right now.

The important key here is the word sacrifice! The word by definition implies a cost & surrender– it’s going to cost us something & we’ll need to surrender something. Now when was the last time we gave an offering where it actually costed us something? When was the last time we had to surrender something in order to give an offering?

Now I know that not all generous people in the world are believers. But shouldn’t all true followers of Christ be generous? Because we have understood God’s mercy and sacrifice firsthand! We were “impoverished” in our sin. We were helpless and wretched and broken in our sinful state. But God being “rich in mercy” sent His one and only Son Jesus Christ to “empty” Himself by taking the form of man and then dying for you and for me.

He rose again on the third Day defeating sin, Satan and death so that we can receive the richness and wealth and privilege of a close intimate relationship with God. (2 Cor 8:9) God wasn’t stingy when it came to showing you grace. Shouldn’t people who have experienced this amazing eternal grace of God be overflowing with generosity?

Brothers and sisters, my aim is not to guilt people but rather to challenge us to think differently about giving. Sometimes we view giving as comfortable contributions but gracious giving involves sacrifice and generosity. Please don’t get me wrong…I’m not saying that we should never spend a penny on ourselves.

But what I’m saying that as believers we should be defined not by our spending but our giving. What’s the world’s notion on money and salary? Spend it within the first week of receiving it and then live as a miser till the end of the month. As believers the gospel changes the way we utilize our money. We give radically so that the gospel advances in places where there’s no gospel presence. We give radically to empower the weakest and poorest in the community around us and when they ask us why we do it – we point them back to Jesus who is the source of grace!

Gracious giving is Willing

The poor widow delighted the heart of Jesus because she willingly put everything that she had to live on! Not reluctantly but willingly she gave everything. The passage doesn’t give too much of a description about this widow but her actions certainly tell a lot about her faith.

She believed that God owns everything in her life so he deserves everything as well. By her one action she displayed whole-hearted surrender.
She also trusted God to sustain her even though she gave everything that she had to live on.

I really believe these two things impact the willingness to give to the Lord.

Ownership: Do we believe that God is truly the Giver, Owner and Master of our whole lives including our money? Or do we think we are the owners of our own lives?
Security: Do we trust God enough to know that He will continue to provide for all our needs even if we give sacrificially? Or do we think that our giving will ultimately result in us being needy all the time?

I hope we don’t miss the point how our “giving” goes much deeper than just an external act of obedience. Our giving actually points to who sits on the throne seat of our hearts! Our giving actually tells a lot about who we believe is our Provider. In whom we believe keeps us secure! Is it Jesus Christ or is it us?

2 Corinthian 8 tells us of a wonderful story about gracious giving. Paul and his companions were raising funds to help the poor & suffering believers in the Jerusalem church. Paul informed all the churches in his network about this need. Now the churches in Macedonia actually had their own set of problems – it says they were going through severe test of affliction and extreme poverty. But the moment they heard this need, they begged earnestly telling that they really wanted to join in to help the saints. And they went over and above their means to help out. (v1-5)

This is how 2 Cor 8:5 puts it: 5 And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.

Their commitment to God overflowed in an expression of giving willingly! One tough question I had to ask myself is that when needs come up suddenly, do I get impatient & frustrated? Or do I eagerly and willingly desire to help in whichever way I can? Is it reluctance or eagerness?

7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Cor 9:7) I might be giving “sacrificially” but if it is done in reluctance then it doesn’t honor God. We might as well not give it than to dishonor God by giving our offerings unwillingly. It doesn’t show God to be most valuable. He is not seen as worthy of glory!

Brothers and sisters, if we are truly honest, I think we would admit that we would need to grow in these areas of gracious giving – be it hidden, sacrificial and willingness. What I hope we’ve realized that our giving is not just tied to our pockets but our hearts in a way that’s much deeper than what we think. We need renewal and we need God’s grace.

It’s a question of Ownership and Security. If God has convicted our hearts, we must turn away from all those areas where we see clear patterns of sin and greed and convenience. Let’s turn back to Jesus Christ who is our Owner and our Provider and ask him to change our hearts and our lives so that we can be “Gracious Givers” just like Him.

Tags Giving, Grace, Mercy, Tithe

Mark Sermon

Faith in Missions – Mark 16:9-20

Post author By Jinson Thomas
Post date April 28, 2019
No Comments on Faith in Missions – Mark 16:9-20

Good morning church! We have reached the last passage in the gospel of Mark. We do have one more passage which we skipped earlier that we will study next week but we are almost at the end. And I was looking at some of the timelines and I think we started studying this in late 2017, so it’s been almost 1.5 years and God’s been faithful in revealing Jesus Christ in much more deeper ways to our hearts.

So as we are looking at Mark 16:9-20 – In most of our bibles it’ll have something mentioned in brackets saying that these verses don’t appear in the earliest manuscripts of Mark. The most likely explanation for that is that it was added later on.

So how do we interpret this passage as a church? I think it’s best to see this as true events which we’ll see are mentioned in all the other gospel accounts but was added later on to Mark. However, I don’t want us this morning to focus on the controversy but rather the message (main point) which is our call to take the gospel to all the world!

Now this passage like the passage in Matt 28 is a very familiar one I’m sure. Many of us have probably heard many messages on the Great Commission but before I get to the commission I want us to ask ourselves this question: We all know what Christ has commanded us to do, but what stops us from doing what He has commanded us to do? And I’m not preaching from a place where I’ve figured this out or I’m acing this but I’m also learning and growing in this. So the question to me and all of us today is:

1. What stops us from doing what Christ has commanded us to do?

The answer is UNBELIEF.

In this passage right before the great commission we see the disciples also struggling with unbelief. They should’ve been out rejoicing and declaring the gospel but instead we see them in disbelief. We see Mary Magdelene meeting Jesus and going back and telling the 11 disciples but “they would not believe”.

Later that day two other disciples met Jesus on the road and they went back and reported this to the 11 disciples but “they didn’t believe”. And this is not simply unbelief due to ignorance, this is staunch, stubborn unbelief. That’s why when Jesus meets the disciples, it says that he rebuked them for the unbelief and hard heartedness.

Was Jesus being too hard on them for their unbelief. What did they fail to believe regarding Jesus Christ which made Jesus rebuke them?

Words: In the gospel of Mark we’ve seen how Jesus in very clear terms told his disciples about what would happen to him. He did this not once, not twice but three times at least.

And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. (Mark 8:31) So they clearly didn’t believe in Jesus’ words and prophecy about His resurrection.

Works : Jesus had performed unbelievable unimaginable miracles right in front of his disciples. He cast out demons from people. He healed those that were blind, deaf and mute instantly. He healed those that were isolated from society like lepers with skin diseases and a woman who had a severe bleeding problem. He miraculously provided a full meal for 5000 men (probably 10K + people) and 4000 people with a few loaves and fish in a desert. He made the wind and the waves obey Him. And He even raised up Jairus’ daughter from the dead! So it’s not like Jesus was an ordinary person who said these things. He did things that only God could do because He is the Son of God. And yet they didn’t believe in his power or nature.
Witnesses of the risen Christ : Finally we also see 3-4 different people saying that they personally met and encountered the risen Christ and still the disciples (the close ones of Jesus) disbelieve. In fact in Luke 24:11 it describes that when they were told about the risen Christ, it only seemed to them like an idle tale.

Okay, I know in what all they failed to believe about the risen Christ but if we have to go one step deeper, why do you think that’s the case? Why is it that the closest ones to Jesus Christ who followed Him up close didn’t believe?

Pride: They trusted their own intellect, their own rational mind and their senses – they were probably like “we saw Jesus dying on the cross and then buried in a tomb. There’s no way in which a man who died like that can come back to life”. Their pride stopped them from believing what God was able to do by raising Jesus from the dead.
Insecurity: Now this is a big reason that we tend to miss out on. If they actually believed in Jesus Christ rising from the dead, then that would change their lives forever. They weren’t prepared to face the reality of the risen Christ. So they would rather be in denial and unbelief rather than surrender their lives completely to the risen Christ.

So what I want us to recognize is that just like the disciples – in our hearts we also struggle with unbelief and hard-heartedness. And that’s what prevents us from being on mission and doing what God has called us to do.

In our pride and insecurity, we fail to believe either the words of Christ (Great Commission) or the power of Christ (that Jesus can actually save and transform people through the gospel) or we fail to believe the witnesses of Christ (testimonies in Scripture and from people that we know). Unbelief is a problem of heart which needs RENEWAL.

2. How can we be renewed?

Romans 10:17 says “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ”.

It’s telling us that faith cannot be manufactured but comes when we hear the word of Christ! What does that mean? It means filling our hearts with the truth about who Jesus is – His power, His glory, His majesty, His wisdom beyond comprehension, His personal understanding of our hearts and our circumstances.

His mercy and compassion. His humility. And all of these characteristics are brilliantly echoed in the redemptive work of Jesus. All of history has been centred around & defined by what Christ accomplished through His finished work on the cross. Everything in history is reliant on the person and work of Jesus. And whenever we hear intently and see Jesus in Scripture, it builds and grows our faith. That’s why we need to continue to encourage each other to have time in the Scripture every single day. Because we cannot manufacture faith by ourselves – it comes by hearing the word of Christ!

But sometimes we can mistakenly think that “hearing the word of Christ” means knowledge only. Someone might say “I listen to 3 sermons every single day and so my faith is being built”. Not necessarily. In fact the Scripture tells us that knowledge apart from love puffs us up and makes us prideful nullifying the effect of the knowledge we’ve acquired. So here’s what I want us to learn and understand – faith is knowing Christ firsthand through the Word.

Not knowledge about Christ. It’s experiential knowledge. Think about it in terms of a close friendship. How does a friendship mature into a close friendship? Just by being bombarded with facts and more knowledge about the other person? No! The close friendship develops by spending time with that person, understanding the other person, opening up your life to the other person, enjoying your time with the other person and sacrificing your needs for the well-being of the other person.

What would pride and insecurity do in that relationship? Mess it up. All of us would agree that these are things absolutely essential in any close friendship. This is so much more true in our relationship with Jesus Christ.

When it comes to dealing with our unbelief in God’s mission and what He calls us to do, the answer is in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ through the Bible. The more we see Jesus and beauty and His power and His grace in the Bible “firsthand” through a real intimate relationship, the more faith will be built up in our hearts to pursue God’s mission.

The more organic and natural will witnessing be to us. I still remember meeting an elderly uncle called MC John a few years back in Kerala. Someone told me about him and I went to him for some advice in ministry. I was astonished to see his knowledge of Scripture by memory and yet he had a very humble spirit in him. For every advice he gave me, he quoted a scripture from the Bible. I spent probably 30mins with this uncle and I left his home rejoicing in the Lord.

He was 77 years old when I met him but he had a passion like a 20 year old. I wish God can enable me to have his kind of joy and excitement when I’m in my older years. Did he know the Lord? Yes, quite personally. Did someone need to force him to witness for Jesus? No. It came out so naturally because he couldn’t separate the Lord Jesus from his life.

3. How does this push us forward into mission?

Now that Jesus Christ has been sacrificed, and sin and its effects have been destroyed, V15-16 talks about this idea of “Going” or “travelling” to meet and engage with all the inhabitants in this world. It’s no longer one type of people – no longer just Jews or nominal Christians – but everyone. And we are “heralds” – people sent as an official spokespersons bringing the good news of God to people. And that’s the reason why we began the neighbourhood GCs – it’s not because we didn’t have anything else to plan for this year.

Rather we see this as an application of the command to “Go” to people who you would normally not find in and around a church setting. My challenge to everyone who is either leading a neighbourhood GC or part of a local GC in your area…is pick out a day in the week to just meet for prayer regularly and ask God to stir up your hearts in such a way where your answer to God would be like Isaiah after he saw the vision of the Lord – “Here I am…Send me”.

Finally v17-18 talks about God’s power and His protection to be with His heralds or spokespersons. I know we are just a day away from voting. We should vote wisely but let’s remember that ultimately no matter who is in the government and who is ruling, our call to “Go and proclaim the gospel to everyone” does not change. Rather what we need and what God has promised is His power and His protection to go with us as we are on mission. And Jesus has promised that!

Tags Faith, Insecurity, Love, Mission, Unbelief, Works

Mark Sermon

Here’s what the Resurrection of Christ mean to us – Mark 16:1-8

Post author By Saju Joseph
Post date April 21, 2019
No Comments on Here’s what the Resurrection of Christ mean to us – Mark 16:1-8

Our passage today is Mark 16:1-8.

If you’re like me, you probably had a rough last couple of days. It could be because of frustration and stress at work, or because of a rough patch in a relationship, a sickness in the family, failure in your studies, a sadness due to unanswered prayers, or you’ve been cheated by someone, or you are struggling with sin that you’re not able to get rid of.

And you are here this morning, all dressed up for the Resurrection Sunday, with smiles on your faces, joy in your demeanour and a twinkle in your eye. But inside, you are broken, joyless, you’re in despair, in pain, feel hopeless, feel lonely, feel hurt & angry.

If you are in this state of mind this morning, then I want to talk about what does the Resurrection of Jesus mean to us in our present situation and how should we respond so we can enjoy the full benefits of what Christ has achieved for us on the Cross of Calvary.

We are in Mark 16 where Jesus is dead and buried, and there is a sadness in the air. If you’ve ever experienced a sudden death of a loved one in your family, you know what that feeling is.

Everything around us moves in slow motion, we go through a period of disbelief, we question the meaning of life, everything we do seems meaningless and less important, we lose all our energy crying, and there is no more joy left in us. We wish this world would end soon.

I assume that is the exact feeling all the disciples and followers of Jesus were going through at this moment.

And then Mark tells us that after the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, along with other women brings spices to anoint the body of Jesus.

As they are walking towards the tomb, they are worried about how to roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb, but when the women reach the tomb, they see the stone has already been rolled back.

And entering the tomb they find a man sitting on the right side, the other gospel writers mention it was an angel who met them at the tomb. The angel gives them the news that the Jesus they buried is not here; He has Risen.

The angel tells them to go and say the news to the disciples, but instead, Mark says they were afraid and did not speak a word.

When we read the account of the Resurrection of Jesus, even within the four Gospels, we see a lot is happening there, and the account of each of the Gospel writers seems to contradict each other. The sceptics often use these contradictions to the point that Jesus’s Resurrection, it never happened.

But as I read, studied & investigated these accounts I did find the answer to the contradictions and was able to rest my heart.

But my goal today is not to clear the doubt surrounding the contradictions but to highlight and speak about the main event that happened, which is “Jesus had Risen from the Dead.”

Jesus’s resurrection was an unlikely event that happened, most people in that time never experienced or heard news like that. None of them even expected such a thing to happen.

It is crucial for us to know that what was happening there was a fulfilment of a prophecy that was made many years ago which appeared in the book of Isaiah written in the 8th century BCE.

Isiah writes, God himself, left his heavenly throne, lived among us, bore our griefs, carried our sorrows, pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, offered himself to die on our behalf as a sacrifice for our sins, to reconcile us back to Him.

When God made the world, a beautiful and perfect one beyond our imagination, the 9 to 10 thousand species of birds, 1.2 million species of animals, 34,000 recognised species of fish, the trees, the mountains.

The bible says he also made man in His own image, with around 78 organs in one single body, the most dominant, complex and powerful species that live on earth.

He created us like Him to commune with Him on his level, we were just like Him and enjoyed the most beautiful relationship that ever existed. But the whole idea was to live on Gods terms, under His rule and dominion, but what did we do?

We rejected His rule by disobeying His commands and devaluing His authority.

And according to God’s law, the penalty of disobedience is death. Just like it is when we break the rules that govern a country.

The only entity that could pardon our sins and save us from death was God himself. And that is why Jesus, the beloved Son of God, who was God himself came down to earth, lived a perfect life in the sight of God on our behalf and took the penalty of our Sins and died on our behalf.

But sadly, for most of the people in this world, the story of Jesus ends right there. And why not, isn’t that the image of Christ we often portray to the world. The image of Jesus hung on the cross, helpless, dead, displayed in churches, carried by Christians…. But isn’t that just a half-told story.

What the world often fails to recognise and believe is the fact that Jesus didn’t just die but also he also defeated Sin and satan, and on the third day he rose again.

Without the Resurrection of Jesus, our story is incomplete.

In this context, here’s why Jesus’s resurrection is essential and what should mean to us.

1. The Resurrection affirms our death to Sin

When we were not in Christ we were slaves to Sin, Sin ruled in our mortal bodies. Knowingly, unknowingly we lived a life of disobedience to God. But the day we heard about our saviour Jesus, and our hearts responded with repentance and faith, we also proclaimed to the world through the waters of baptism.

Romans 6:4 says “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Romans 6:8 – “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”

Romans 6:10-11 “For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

To those who’ve been struggling with sin in the last few days, filled with guilt and shame, unable to walk in the light, holding yourself back from fellowshipping with other believers, holding yourself back from confessing your sin to God, to one another asking for forgiveness.

My encouragement to you is to remember that you are no more slave to the sin you are struggling with, in Christ you are a new creation. Do not let the devil trick you from believing that God will not accept you.

Take courage like the prodigal son and return to the Father who loves you and will embrace you if you genuinely repent and is willing to put your faith in his son Jesus.

2. The Resurrection gives hope for the future

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Brothers & sisters, you may be going through a tough circumstance, one that you think is beyond your capacity to handle. But remember, we are not a people without hope. Through the Resurrection power of Jesus, we have been born to a living hope.

We can call unto him for help, and he will answer us from His Holy Hill. His promised that he will never leave us and never forsake us. Even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he is with us. His rod and his staff, they comfort us.

Do not put your hope in man.

And even if we die on this earth, our life story will not end. We will spend eternity in heaven with Christ, in his glory.

Therefore, my encouragement to you is to always lift up your eyes unto the Lord, from whom our help comes. Set our minds on the heavenly things and not on the earthly pain.

And remind yourself of the glorious future we have in the heavenly Kingdom of God. We don’t need a passport or a visa to enter his Kingdom, the blood of Christ on us is the proof that we belong. No guard or security can stop us.

Because of the Resurrection of Christ, we are people of hope.

3. The Resurrection strength our witness in Christ

1 Cor 15:17 – 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.

The fact that Jesus indeed rose from death is the evidence of our faith. The Gospel is incomplete without Resurrection. The world needs to know that Jesus isn’t always hanging on the cross, but that he has risen from the dead and is seated on the right hand of the God the Father, interceding from you and me.

The story of Resurrection ought to be told to every man and women because if they don’t hear the complete full story, they will never respond, they will leave the earth and end up in hell without knowing that there was a way for them to save themselves from hell.

Along with redemption from sin, and eternal hope, we are also called to be ambassadors of this good news. The day we received Christ in our hearts and was adopted into the family of God, we also took up the responsibility to join the Fathers business which is to preach the good news to the ends of the earth.

Let us not be like the women who were afraid and didn’t go out to tell the news to others.

The Bible says as children of God we are co-heirs with Christ, and there is a reward waiting for us in heaven.

Remember, as we share this good news with others, don’t forget to tell the Resurrection story, because without the Resurrection of Jesus our faith is futile, our story is incomplete.

Let’s pray!

Tags Christ, Death, jesus, Resurrection, Sin

Mark Sermon

3 Lessons from the Grave – Mark 15:40-47

Post author By Jinson Thomas
Post date April 14, 2019
No Comments on 3 Lessons from the Grave – Mark 15:40-47

Good morning church! I’m humbled with every opportunity I get to share from the Word because unlike any other skill set – when we preach we also preach to ourselves as we preach to the church. I know I need these truths from God’s Word like all of you. So it’s humbling! As a church we have been studying the gospel of Mark over the last year.

We are on the last few passages of this gospel and as we arrive at the closing passages of this gospel, we see themes of abandonment – disciples abandoning Jesus, we see betrayal – Judas, we see humiliation in the manner of torture and mocking, we see injustice where Jesus is being chosen as more deserving of death than even a murderer, and finally we see the death of the Son when he is hung on the cross. And we find ourselves today in that in between time – those three days between Jesus’ crucifixion and His Resurrection. Let’s turn to Mark 15:40-47 [Read]

I know for most of us we are probably very excited about the Resurrection story. And we want to jump right to it as quickly because we might wonder “how can a passage like this encourage me?” And so even as I prepared my notes, I kept asking this question “What can the story of burial tell me about Jesus?” Because all of Scripture is talking about Jesus so what can we learn. What is the hope mentioned in this passage? The title of my sermon is 3 Lessons from the Grave.

Christ invites unlikely people to follow Him

V40 & 41 : Mentions the names of Mary Magdalene (Mary from Magdala), Mary the mother of James the younger (the mother of James son of Alphaeus) and Salome (who was the mother of James and John the sons of Zebedee) along with many other women who were followers of Jesus. Now we might think that’s normal but it wasn’t normal for women to have that kind of participation in ancient Jewish culture. It was a patriarchal and oppressive culture.

A woman’s place in society was to be only at home, responsible for bearing children and taking care of them. Men were not greet women in public. Women had very little access to property or inheritance. Whatever a woman earned would go the husband. Men were allowed to legally divorce a woman for any reason by just handing out a written notice of divorce, however a woman couldn’t divorce a man. Even in terms of religious practice – men were encouraged to pray certain prayers daily and study Scripture while women were not permitted to do the same.

In fact so bad was the situation that an unfortunate prayer that men would pray would be on the lines of “Praise God that he has not created me as a woman”. Women were not given the kind of dignity and freedom and opportunities as men. It was very oppressive.

It’s in that context we see Jesus totally flip things around and interact with them with dignity and love. Something that women never experienced in their time and culture. How did these women experience love?

He showed Compassion: Mary from Magdala was actually a demon possessed woman at one time. Mark 16 and Luke 8 mention that she was cured of evil spirits by Jesus. Seven demons came out of her! She was in a terrible condition when Jesus found her and yet Jesus showed her great compassion by delivering her from the demonic spirits.
He revealed His Transforming power: Mary – the mother of James son of Alphaeus and Salome mother of James and John were mothers of disciples of Jesus. I really think it was the changed lives that they saw in their children that drew them to Jesus. Parents know about their kids inside out. And if anything changes about them, they are the first to notice that too. Similarly, you can imagine what it would’ve been for them to see their sons change up close.
He gave them the Privilege to serve: Women had a very low status and place in society. If a group or organization was made, they wouldn’t necessarily approach women to join it. And here we see Jesus inviting them to follow Him, get to know Him and also “minister” to Him! Luke 8 says they provided for Jesus out of their means. They were given an opportunity to serve the Son of God. And it’s not because Jesus couldn’t help Himself. He is the Son of God! But He allowed them to participate in serving Him so that they could experience the joy of fellowship with Him and the privilege to serve Him.

We see how Jesus’ interactions with women was counter-cultural at the time. They were the unlikely ones but they were still invited to follow Him. When I think about my testimony…I grew up in a Christian home and we went to church regularly but it was mostly to satisfy the social norms and my parents. By the time I reached my teens I began questioning if church was really important to me.

I thought I knew the gospel – I thought Jesus died for us in general – I assumed for the good people especially but my life changed when I realized that He died for me! Really? Me? I’m the worst! I’m so unlike what a good Christian should be? I don’t even look like a proper Christian? And He died for me!!! Astonishing. And that’s true of every believer seated here.

How many of us knew that we were going to believe in Jesus someday? How many of expected that to happen? How many of us looked like the perfect person going to church and had the perfect life? None of us could’ve ever imagined but yet Christ invited unlikely people like us to follow Him.

This changes the way we look at the people in our neighborhoods and our colleges and our workplaces. One of the verses that brother reminded us last week on prayer was 1 Tim 2:1 – which tells us to pray for all people! Which means that even the ones that annoy us, hate us, frustrate us…the ones which we consider are “hopeless cases” are the unlikely people who Christ invites to follow Him. Why? Because it’s not their efforts but His grace and power to save them.

For some of here who don’t know Jesus yet because you think that you are an unlikely choice…you think that you don’t look like or behave like a so called Christian, let me tell you that Christ invites and he infact pursues the unlikely people and candidates. You are in the right place to follow Jesus!

Christ produces willing sacrifice by knowing Him

In verses 42-46 we are told of a man named Joseph of Arimathea. What do we know about him? He is a respected member of the Jewish council. He’s a wealthy, high standing, leading member of the council. And it also tells us that he was looking for the kingdom of God.

Which meant that he was looking forward God bringing His heavenly reign on people’s hearts and minds. He believed that God was going to do something to bring His rule and reign over all of us. In a similar account in Matt 27, it refers to him as a disciple of Jesus. And we see him do something that the other famous disciples of Jesus didn’t do…

He took courage and asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now we might think – oh, because he was an influential man he could talk to Pilate and exert some influence. But we forget that the death of Jesus was a public event that was seen and promoted by all of the Jewish leaders. Joseph was risking his reputation by asking for Jesus’ body. Not just that but he was also risking his life…because he was declaring his allegiance and friendship to the man they killed. It’s with reason that the writer mentions that “Joseph took courage”. It was a big deal.
We also see him wrapping Jesus in an expensive linen shroud and then placing Jesus in a newly cut tomb. What I also read was that rock cut tombs were quite expensive in those days – people would purchase that for themselves and their family and he uses that very same tomb to bury Jesus. Why? Because I think he knew Jesus as much more than a Teacher or Leader…he knew him as family! Jesus knew him and had close fellowship with Joseph. Jesus had invited him into a familial relationship – way deeper than just friendship or acquaintance. Because if he knew Jesus only superficially, he would never willingly sacrifice his reputation, his expensive shroud, or his expensive tomb or even his life. It was that relationship that mattered at that point.

I was reading the story of CT Studd yesterday. In the 1800’s, he came from a very wealthy family with a huge empire and at the same time he was a budding English cricketer. Some people compared him as the Andrew Flintoff of that time. He got saved when a visiting preacher came home one day and shared the gospel. Right then “peace and joy entered his soul….the Bible which he thought was very dry to him before became everything”.

A few years after he got saved, his brother George became seriously ill. And it was at that time that he was confronted with this question “What is all the fame and flattery worth…when a man comes to face eternity?” He actually admitted that the last six years of his salvation was in a backslidden state. It’s at that point where he said he knew cricket and honor would not last, and nothing in the world would last but it was worthwhile living for the world to come”.

So he gives up his cricketing career and becomes a missionary to China. After his father died, he sold off his inheritance worth 24K pounds at that time and gave it to various charities and mission organizations. Some people might see this and be like “Are you crazy? Why are you wasting your life? Why are you wasting your inheritance?” His famous quote was “If Christ be God and He died for me, then there’s no sacrifice too great for me to make for Him”.

Those are the words of a man who knew Jesus up close. Sometimes we get into this zone thinking…oh – but if I need Jesus, then I’ll need to give this up and it’s so hard. And we always think in terms of what we are going to lose instead of who we are to gain. The reason why we struggle to give up is because we don’t enjoy close fellowship with Jesus. Let this truth stir up our hearts once again…unless we know Jesus and love him and enjoy obedience, we will always struggle to give up stuff…we will always think about what we are to lose.

Christ enables holiness when we die with Him

V44-45 tells us that after enduring 6 hours on the cross, Jesus breathed his last and died. He didn’t faint on the cross neither was his body exchanged at the last moment before his crucifixion – two worldly theories out there…Jesus died and his corpse was given to Joseph on his request.

What is the significance of Jesus’ burial for us as believers? Jesus’ death on the cross meant that he bore the full wrath of God and the full payment was made for your sins and mine. But what his burial means is that the position of your sin and your old life in the sight of God is “Buried”! Who get buried? A dead person. That burial tomb is a reminder of where your sin & your old way of life lies.

That famous verse in Romans 6 asks this question “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!” How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (Our baptism is a picture of our union with Christ) 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For those people who think that grace is an excuse to continue in sin, how does Paul remind them of the gospel? He points to the fact that when they believed in Jesus, they were united to his death and burial – which means that your old life and my old life has been buried! That’s the position. That’s where it remains.

Christian, you are no longer the same person! You may be in the same body but if you’ve believed and surrendered your life, that old person has been buried and now you have a new life in Christ. And so the picture of the tomb for a believer isn’t a discouragement but rather an enablement – enabling you to live a holy life unto God. God’s grace enables us to live in holiness. We aren’t living in holiness for God’s grace rather we experience God’s grace which results in holiness.

It’s like a thief who stole a huge sum of money and got caught and landed up in jail. Due to the enormous amount he stole, he deserves lifetime imprisonment. Now there’s a really kind wealthy businessman in the city who hears about this thief and has compassion on him. He decides to pay the full penalty of the thief and release him out of jail. Now he’s no longer viewed as a thief or because he has been set free.

The wealthy businessman takes him in and gives him a new life. The man sometimes comes to the businessman and tells him how he has temptations of stealing again and other times it’s the guilt of the past. Guess what the businessman does? He pulls out the receipt of the payment that was made on his behalf with the seal that says “Penalty is fully paid. He is Free”. Will that discourage him or enables him to live honestly? It enables him to live honestly.

Brothers and sisters, our time with the Word – especially gospel passage like Romans 6 and others. Being part of a Gospel Community where other believers are telling you this is vitally important. Why because we tend to forget that we are not thieves anymore and so we need to be reminded “Penalty is fully paid. You are free”…Here is the receipt. And that will bolster our spiritual lives and our walk!

Tags Calling, Christ, Good Friday, Holiness, Sacrifice, Sin

Mark Sermon

Jesus Bore Our Shame – Mark 15:21-39

Post author By Guest
Post date April 7, 2019
No Comments on Jesus Bore Our Shame – Mark 15:21-39

Good morning Gathering! It is a joy to be with you this morning to celebrate the gospel, and it’s a privilege to open the Word of God together. Our prayer this morning is that the Lord would conform us to the image of Jesus.

If you have a Bible, I’m going to ask you to turn with me to Mark chapter 15. We’re going to read a pretty big portion of scripture this morning that details the events of Jesus’ crucifixion. We’ll look specifically at verses 21-39. If you’ve been following along with us in this series, you know what has transpired over the last 24 hours or so.

Jesus has been betrayed; He’s been abandoned; He’s been arrested and bound. He’s been denied; He’s been falsely accused; falsely tried and falsely convicted. He’s been beaten, spat upon and ridiculed. He watched as Barabbas, a known criminal, was set free as He was sentenced to die. He was derided, mocked and scourged so badly that He would have been unrecognizable at this point. And now we come to the account of His death. Let’s read this together. Mark 15:21-39

If you’re like me, you’ve probably read that text (along with the accompanying crucifixion passages in Matthew, Luke & John) many times before. I’ve probably read this text 100 times or more. But there’s something that occurred to me as I was studying it over the last couple of weeks that hadn’t occurred to me before. There’s this little phrase in verse 24 that jumped out at me. It says, “And they crucified Him…”. That’s all Mark really says about the the details of the actual crucifixion.

So then I went and read the other accounts in the other 3 gospels, and Matthew, Luke & John were equally brief. They all talk about some things that Jesus says on the cross. They talk about different interactions with people who were there and other details like that. But, when it comes to the crucifixion itself (what actually happened physically), they all pretty much just say, “He was crucified…”

Here’s why that grabbed my attention. We tend to focus our thoughts on the physical pain & torture of the crucifixion of Jesus. And with good reason. This was a horrible way to die. The Romans had mastered an exceptionally cruel way to kill someone. Where, with your feet placed together (one on top of the other), they would drive a large spike through both of your feet & into the wood.

They would then drive spikes though each one of your hands, likely near the joint, so that your weight could be supported as you hung. And they were careful in the placement of the spikes. They didn’t want to hit any major arteries that would give the victim the luxury of bleeding out. In fact, some people hung there for days before their heart would give out or their lungs would fill with fluid, to the point that they were no longer able to breathe.

Our minds tend to go there because of the brutality and the physical pain that would have been involved. We think of images from a move like, “The Passion of the Christ” and we shudder at what Jesus would have endured physically that day.

But the question I found myself asking is, “Is that really where our minds should go?” “Is that where Mark and the other gospel writers intended for us to dwell in our thoughts?” The reality is that this was a common way for people to die. There were 2 other men that suffered physically that day as well; one on Jesus’ left and one on His right. In fact, 10’s of thousands of people had suffered that same death throughout the history of the Roman Empire.

So, it’s not the physical pain that was unique about what Jesus endured that day. I think that’s why the gospel writers don’t give us much detail about the physical torment. They just say, “And they crucified Him…”. But they do give a lot of other details. And I think Mark’s intention is that we would focus on another aspect of what Jesus endured that day.

Here it is; I’m just going to give it to you up front. This is our main idea for this morning, and it’s summed up in 1 word: SHAME. I don’t think that Mark is directing our attention to the PAIN of the cross, but to the SHAME of the cross. Just think about the details that we’ve been studying over the last several weeks. I’ve already said this in our recap, but let me repeat it so we can see the flow of these things.

Jesus is rejected, despised and ridiculed by almost everyone. The Ruling Council and the soldiers, mocking Him, spitting on Him and busing Him. He was in such bad shape that someone had to carry His cross for Him. Then they strip Him & crucify Him. And there He hangs, with no dignity. The ONE who created every person there (in His image), being hung (unrecognizable) by the ones He created.

We see Him harassed and ridiculed by the crowds passing by as they lob obscenities at Him, deride Him and throw His sayings back in His face. “I thought you’d destroy the Temple & rebuild it in 3 days. How about instead you get yourself off that Cross? Oh — you can’t!” The Chief Priests & Scribes got in on the ridicule of Jesus: “He can heal the sick, but can’t help Himself.” Shame, upon shame, upon shame.

This theme of abandonment & rejection, starting with Judas’ betrayal of Jesus. Through his friends falling asleep in His moment of need. Through them fleeing at His arrest & then Peter’s denial of Him. Through the false trial; the false accusations; he false imprisonment; the beatings; the flogging; the ridicule; the abuse; the rejection from nearly everyone. Shame, upon shame, upon shame. This is where I think Mark wants our minds to be drawn.

Let’s understand that this is the exact opposite of what Jesus deserved. When you look at His life & ministry, He loved perfectly; He served perfectly; He healed; He restored; He brought life; He brought value & worth to everyone He encountered. He infused hope where there was no hope. He mended things that were desperately broken. All that He was and all that He did was good & right. And yet, here He is suffering the worst SHAME imaginable. So, what can we learn from this and how can that drive us deeper into the gospel & cause our lives to look different?

Here it is church (and we all desperately need to hear this truth): Jesus didn’t just bear your sin on the cross, He also bore your SHAME. I want to say that again because it’s important. Jesus did bear our sin on the cross, to be sure. But He also bore our SHAME on the cross. I want you to think about your life right now, as it relates to shame. Shame for your past. Shame for your current failings & struggles.

Shame because of what other people think of you (maybe what your family thinks of you because you decided to follow Jesus). Shame for what you think of yourself; that you’re not good enough or you don’t measure up. Shame for any number of reasons. Shame is a crushing burden. It’s not just a feeling, or a way of thinking, it’s an experience. Where you’re experiencing yourself as defective, empty, worthless and trashed.

What I’m saying is that Jesus took all of that on Himself, on the cross, for you. To the point where I can say with confidence this morning that if you are experiencing shame in your life on a regular basis, you’re not experiencing the gospel the way that God intends for you to. Because you will know the truth, and the truth will SET YOU FREE. The gospel brings freedom from sin and all of its effects, and that includes our shame.

But the truth is that most of us do deal with shame in varying degrees. So how do we see the gospel applied to our lives in a way that drives out shame and replaces it with the truth that we are fully accepted & approved by God in Jesus Christ? That’s the question I want us to wrestle with in these next few minutes.

And, here’s how I think we can get at it. I want to walk you through this and show you how it works with the hope that, if we’re able to see clearly how the enemy works, and what Christ has done to defeat it, we can put on right belief this morning and walk in that. So, to understand this, we have to go all the way back to the garden (Genesis chapter 3) and the fall of man.

You don’t have to turn there, because you know the story. I can just recap this for us a bit. You have Adam & Eve living in perfect communion with God. They’re with Him; they’re in His presence; they’re worshipping and enjoying God the way we were all created to. And we get a picture of this spiritual freedom because of the fact that they were naked, and they were cool with that!

That’s a horrifying thought for us now, isn’t it? We have actual nightmares about that; about being naked in public places. But, it wasn’t like that for Adam & Eve in the beginning because there was no sin & there was no shame. God was enough for them, until He wasn’t. You know the story.

They’re tempted by the Serpent, they didn’t trust God, but instead they went their own way and ate fruit from the tree that was forbidden by God. And sin entered the picture. And what did they immediately do after sin enters the picture? They cover themselves & they hide from God. That’s how we know that shame entered with sin, because that’s what you do when you’re ashamed; you hide.

And, when that happened, separation from God happened. Adam & Eve were driven from the Garden and man no longer had direct access to God. That’s why we see the concept of a mediator introduced and then portrayed throughout the Old Testament. It’s why this thick curtain separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Tabernacle.

It symbolized the separation that sin brought between us & God. And this is what makes the gospel so glorious and so beautiful. Jesus is our mediator. Jesus is our substitute. Jesus is our prophet, priest & king. Jesus died in our place, with our sin upon His shoulders. And, when He did, He severed the root of shame. 1 John 3:8, “The devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” Jesus came to destroy Satan, sin and death. And that includes the shame that exists in us, as a result of sin.

So here’s the tension that we feel. We still give ourselves over to sin, don’t we? Of course we do. 1 John 1:10, “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” So, when we sin, we feel that sense of shame return. And that makes sense because sin is shameful; it’s disgraceful. But, it’s not like it was before Jesus came. The paradigm has completely changed. Jesus bore our SIN & our SHAME on that cross.

And, in doing that, He has taken them from you and given you His righteousness. This is why, as we just read, the curtain was torn in two when Jesus completed His work on the cross. No more separation! No more shame! No more needing to hide from God! Jesus has completely reoriented how we see sin & shame in our lives. Now, we don’t have to hide from God anymore. Instead of running into the bushes, we can run into His because Jesus has made a way.

In fact, let me work toward closing our time by continuing to read this passage in 1 John. This is chapter 2, verses 1 & 2. If you’d like to turn there, that would be great. I really want for us to key in on what John is saying here. “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an ADVOCATE with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the PROPITIATION for our sins.”

For the Non-Christian: Jesus is the only way for you to have sin & shame removed from you, and have righteousness (right standing) before God. People will spend their entire lives trying to earn something that can only be obtained by grace & through faith. They will spend their entire lives trying to find joy, peace, satisfaction & fulfillment in things that will never bring them. Those things are found ONLY IN CHRIST.

For the Christian: The only way to live in freedom from sin & shame is for you to continually allow the gospel to wash over your heart and believe that these things are true of you. We must learn to preach the gospel continually to our hearts and battle unbelief with the truth of the gospel. When the enemy comes to you with guilt and shame, tell him to go measure how far the east is from the west and get back to you, because that’s how far God has removed your sin and shame.

Tags Guilt, jesus, Shame, Sin

Mark Sermon

Lets Call Him King – Mark 15:1-20

Post author By Saju Joseph
Post date March 31, 2019
No Comments on Lets Call Him King – Mark 15:1-20

Good Morning Church, Our passage for today is Mark 15:1-20

After Jesus was arrested and accused with many false allegations by the Pharisees & Scribes, he was brought to the Pilate who was the Governor at that time. The first question Pilate asks Jesus is “Are you the King of the Jews?”. To which Jesus answers “You have said so”.

Since the Pharisees didn’t have any reasonable charge against Jesus they falsely accuse Him by informing the Pilate that He calls Himself the “King of the Jews” which in those days was a crime. It was a crime because the region was ruled by Emperor Tiberius and anyone calling himself as a King was a threat to the Roman Empire and deserved severe punishment.

Mark tells us that the chief priests accused Jesus of many other things, and when Pilate again asked Him, “Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you.” Jesus made no further answer which Mark says amazed the Pilate.

And the reason I believe Pilate was amazed was that He knew the allegations were false and that Jesus could have easily defended his case and proved himself innocent, but that is not what Jesus did.

Instead, Jesus gave himself up for the sinful and rebellious people of this world. He absorbed the injustice happening to Him which neither Pilate nor others could understand or comprehend.

Being on the other side of redemptive history we now know that Jesus was giving himself up for a greater purpose of redeeming mankind from the clutches of sin and death to a restored relationship with creator God, the Father in heaven who sent him to earth for this very purpose.

Philippians 2:6-8

Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

1 John 2:2

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Because of our sin & rebellion, our hearts have turned against the God who created us for His glory. We’ve become sinful, unworthy & unholy people who love sinning and rebelling against the authority of God.

Because of which God’s Holy wrath is upon us and the punishment for sin is death & destruction.

But because God so immensely loved us, he sent His son Jesus who takes our sins upon himself and absorbs the wrath of God that was upon us.

Jesus stays silent in the presence of Pilate and refuses to defend the false allegations upon him because He was willingly taking the punishment upon himself, the sins of the whole world, all the people, even till this day.

The wrath of God that was upon us He took it upon himself.

As He is doing so, he is also making his identity known to the people. When Pilate asks whether or not he is the King of the Jews, Jesus openly makes a bold affirmation that He is the King. To the High priests, he also affirmed that He is the Son of Man who will sit at the right hand of the Most High and will come back on the clouds.

What amazes me are the people group that was present at the greatest moment in history and yet failed to recognise & accept Jesus as their King.

The first group of people are the Pharisees and the Scribes who were theological scholars who went to Christian seminaries and studied the scriptures in and out. Read all the prophecies that were spoken about Jesus by Prophet Isaiah, King David and many others.

But unfortunately, they were so full of pride and narcissism that they couldn’t imagine letting go of their self-made fame and the authority they had over the people. They loved their position and wealth so much that they couldn’t stand Jesus who was challenging their authority, and even said and did things that were shaking their mini-kingdom. Accepting Jesus as the King meant losing their business and giving up on all their ungodly wealth, pleasures & pursuits.

The second group of people were the disciples and the followers of Jesus, even the Roman soldiers, who saw Jesus perform great miracles, heal the sick, heard Him speak about the Kingdom of God. Some of them even convinced that He was the Son of God who came to make all things new by offering himself as a sacrifice for their sins.

But unfortunately, these guys were so full of fear, lacked courage and was unprepared & unwilling to pay the cost of being His disciples, because of which they kept their mouth shut, and some even went hiding like the Apostle Peter.

The third group of people were the crowds and the onlookers, these were people who were so self-absorbed with their own lives, all they wanted was to be entertained. They probably knew nothing about Jesus or even what was happening, they might have considered the man Jesus as one of the criminals who has been punished for treason.

And we look at these people groups, it is easy for us to sit here and judge their actions and condemn them for their behaviour towards Jesus but we can totally forget that we too can possess the same qualities like them and behave in the same manner as they did.

Just as Jesus affirmed to Pilate that He is the King, not only of the Jews but the King of all generations, of all cultures, of all people groups, of all tribes, of all nations. Even till this day, he continues to show and affirm it to the world that He is the true King.

He is doing it through the faithful witness of His redeemed people, he is doing it by appearing in dreams and visions, he is doing it by showing His glory through the creation and in many other ways.

But still many of us fail to see and accept Him as the King of our lives and even fail to submit ourselves under His Authority.

Let me share with you three reasons from the passage why we fail to see and accept Him as our King. I will also share with you some practical applications on how we can overcome our failures.

1.The first reason we fail to see Him as our King is because of our spiritual blindness.

I’ll put the onlookers and the spectators in this category of the people group. For our context, we’re talking about the unbelievers of this world. They are people in our families, in our workplace, in our neighborhood, who’ve heard the story of Jesus, even seen the movie Passion of Christ, but are so self-absorbed with their lives that they just can’t get their head around it and are unable to put their faith in Jesus.

They are spiritually blind, and the reason these people are spiritually blind and unable to see Christ as the true King is explained by Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:4. He writes “In their case the god of this world (Devil) has blinded their minds, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

Maybe there are some of us sitting here this morning, you’ve come to church because someone invited you here, you’ve even heard the story of Jesus multiple times, but for some reason, you are unable to get your head around it and unable to believe this truth and follow Jesus.

There is a possibility that the enemy of Christ, the god of this world, the devil has blinded our mind from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.

If you are that person and you desire to know this Jesus the way others in this room sees him, you want to know Him as the true King of this world and of your life. I suggest that you talk to Jesus as if you are talking to a real person and ask Him to open your eyes and reveal himself to you.

And if you do that with an honest and a seeking heart, I can confidently say that he will take away that veil of blindness from your eyes and will surely reveal himself to you as He has revealed himself to us.

One of our family friend who was a young Muslim girl by the name of Saira Banu, now known as Sarah. When she was in college, someone shared the story of Jesus with her and one day as she was doing her regular Namaz (Muslim Prayer) she spoke to Jesus and told him if you are the true God then reveal yourself to me, and I will follow you all the days of my life. The same night Jesus appeared to her in a dream and spoke. And since then she’s been a believer and a follower of Jesus.

The story of Saira Banu is one of the many stories in which Jesus has revealed himself as King.

There are also many here who’ve been sharing the Gospel and telling the story of Jesus to your family member, a co-worker, a neighbor, a stranger on the street. But no matter how diligently you try, they fail to understand and fail to respond in faith, as if there is a veil that’s blocking their minds from seeing and accepting Christ as the King.

My encouragement to you is that you share the Gospel please also pray for that person, even more diligently. It is not enough for us to just share the story of Jesus and hope that he or she will respond in faith. The problem is their spiritual blindness. It is not our eloquent words and persuasive gospel-sharing methods that will open their minds. Only God can open their minds and help them see Jesus as the true King.

Pray before the Gospel, pray after sharing the Gospel. We are a believer because someone prayed for us. The person I could is my Mom who diligently prayed for me and asked God to open my eyes to the truth and to use me as His servant.

2.The second reason why people fail to see Jesus as the true King and follow Him is because of lack of courage and unpreparedness & unwillingness to pay the cost of becoming His follower.

I’ll put the disciples & the followers of Jesus in this category of people who knew Jesus was the true King but failed to acknowledge or stand with him when he was being crucified.

There are many us even today when we heard the Gospel, our eyes opened, and our hearts responded in faith. We dropped our idols, our past ways, and decided to follow Jesus.

But as soon as we started experiencing the reality of living for Jesus, paying the cost and carrying our cross daily, face threat & persecution from family and friends because of our faith any even other kinds of sufferings we undergo. We either end up abandoning him, or we’ve stopped acknowledge Jesus as our King of lives and follow him wholeheartedly.

Coming to a safe environment like church or GC and declaring ourselves as Christian is easy but when we’re out in the world we feel scared, we lack courage, we feel unprepared & unwilling to pay the cost of being His disciple.

In Luke 14:26-27 Jesus said

26 You cannot be my disciple, unless you love me more than you love your father and mother, your wife and children, and your brothers and sisters. You cannot come with me unless you love me more than you love your own life.

27 You cannot be my disciple unless you carry your own cross and come with me.

You may ask How do we buckle up such courage?

The answer to that question is to be men who are filled and led by the Holy Spirit. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he told His disciples that the Holy Spirit will come upon them, whom the Father will send in his name, to teach us all things and bring to our remembrance all that I have said to you.

The same Spirit, when it is upon us also gives us the courage to follow Jesus and obey His commands no matter what circumstances we’re facing.

Remember, when the disciples were the upper room and praying, the Holy Spirit came upon them and, the same Peter who denied Jesus, stood with the other eleven, lifted up his voice, addressed the crowd, preached the Gospel with boldness and three thousand souls were added to the Kingdom of God. Theologians say that Peter was crucified for his faith in Christ.

Do you lack the courage to stand up for Jesus and declare Him as the King of your life? Are you not prepared to pay the cost of being of Jesus?

My encouragement to you is ask the Lord to fill you with His Holy Spirit and He will give you the strength and courage needed to face challenging situations.

3.And finally, the third reason why we fail to accept Him as our King is because we tend to love darkness more than light.

I’ll put the Pharisees and the Scribes in this category of people who were okay to release and tolerate a criminal & a murderer like Barabas instead of Jesus. Just because Barabas wasn’t going to disrupt their fame, wealth & ungodly pursuits but Jesus would.

We’ve heard the Gospel, accepted the fact that Jesus is the true King, pretend to be a Christian, even go to Church but have not yet given full reign of our lives to King Jesus.

I’m sorry to say, but a Half-hearted surrendering is no surrendering at all.

And the reason some of us haven’t given full reign of our lives to King Jesus is because we love the darkness more than light, we love the pleasure of sin than the joy of being with Jesus, we love slothfulness & comforts more than diligence to Christ, we love money, wealth & possessions more than God.

In Matthew 6:24 Jesus said “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus said

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Brothers & sisters, it may seem like there is joy is pursuing the world and its pleasures, but remember the end is not going to be pleasurable as you think. Without complete surrender to Jesus and his Kingship over our lives we are never going to make it to heaven and sadly end up in the wrong place.

Fully surrendering to Jesus & accepting His as our King doesn’t mean that we will become perfect human beings. For as long as we are in this flesh, we will be imperfect.

But a man and a woman who is truly for Jesus will live a life of continual repentance and belief in the Gospel. And they will produce Fruit as they keep up with Repentance.

Jesus said a good tree will be known by its fruit and so is a truly surrendered Christian.

If you are in that place this morning, I want to urge you to repent of your sins, give up on your pride, let loose of your grip on money and possessions and see and accept Jesus as your true King and the greatest treasure of your Life.

1 John 1:9 says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Tags Cost, jesus, King, Lord

Mark Sermon

What do we do when our commitment to Christ fails? – Mark 14:66-72

Post author By Jinson Thomas
Post date March 24, 2019
No Comments on What do we do when our commitment to Christ fails? – Mark 14:66-72

Good morning church! It’s a pleasure to be sharing the Word with you. As a church we have been reading through the gospel of Mark. Right now we are in Mark 14 and as we are turning to today’s text let me share a small context.

The setting is right at the home of the high priest. Jesus has been arrested and is on trial. All of his disciples have abandoned him. Jesus is all alone as He is being insulted, accused, beaten and humiliated as He reveals His identity as the Son of God. And in the midst of that we have a passage on Peter that totally transforms his life! Let’s look at v 66-72.

I still remember how amazing the first week was after I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. Everything was so great! I enjoyed fellowship with God – reading the Word and prayer. I had brand new desires to grow in holiness. I wanted to grow with other believers. But I quickly realized that I became more and more aware of the sin in my life and some sin patterns were repeated and frequent. I started going back to God asking for forgiveness.

First time, second time, tenth time…by the time it reached the hundredth I began questioning if it was possible for me to lose my salvation. Surely God has lost patience by now. And that left me really insecure for some time because I thought it was up to me to keep my commitment to Jesus. It was around that time – alongside other believers and a weekly bible study that I where my whole understanding of the gospel changed drastically. What is it that holds our relationship with Christ together? What happens when our best efforts and intentions fail in our relationship with Christ? Today’s passage helps us answer this:

We are prone to be unfaithful to God

This incident of Peter denying Jesus is mentioned in all 4 gospels. We know that the gospel writer Mark was mentored by Peter, so the account in the gospel Mark is through the lens of Peter. Why would Peter mention such an embarrassing story? If we were to write an autobiography, we would probably exclude the bad and embarrassing stories about ourselves. Why mention this? I think the first reason is to show how we all are prone to be unfaithful to God. Peter, even though he was a key leader among the disciples of Jesus was unfaithful to God. We see that displayed in:

False promises (v29-31):

29 Peter said to him, “Even though they all fall away, I will not.” 30 And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” 31 But he said emphatically, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And they all said the same.

Peter seemed quite confident that he will never deny Christ even to the point of death. Now we know that Peter is known for being impulsive. During the transfiguration, he sees Jesus standing in glory with Moses and Elijah and he tells Jesus that he’ll make three tents for each of them.

We know he is impulsive but before we quickly make our judgments, let’s realize that he isn’t too different from us. He is a reflection of what goes on in our hearts. I’m sure he had the best intentions when Peter made the promise but his promise ultimately turned out to be false and empty.

How many of us have ever promised after a Sunday sermon – “I will do better next time. I will pray more from tomorrow onwards. I will spend more time in the Bible from tomorrow morning. I will cut off a particular sin pattern from my life”? I’ve done this myself.

Even though we say we know the gospel, isn’t it true that our responses sometimes to a sermon on a Sunday morning is self-help? And what we don’t admit a lot of the times is that we make a lot of false promises to God. Even as we are singing some of the songs we do, do we make false promises? “I’m coming back to the heart of worship…it’s all about you…it’s all about you Jesus”. Is it really about Him? Even our best intended promises turn out to be false.

Fearful Heart

54 And Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he was sitting with the guards and warming himself at the fire. (v54)

In some verses earlier we see that guards were right next to Peter as he was being confronted by the servant girl. And Peter saw what happened to Jesus. He was beaten, spat at, humiliated and pronounced guilty of death.

Associating himself with Jesus would mean inviting the very same consequences. Even though he gave Jesus a very bold assurance a few verses earlier, when it came down to the actual moment he was overcome by fear. He wasn’t ready to be beaten, humiliated and to die for Jesus.

In our current situations in life – be it at work or home or personal life – do we see ourselves more often than not operate out of fear or faith? Big question I know. But let’s ask ourselves – are we more likely to make choices and decisions in our lives based on fear of consequences and people or do we make choices out of faith in Christ?

Failing loyalty

67 and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” 68 But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you mean.”

69 And the servant girl saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.” 70 But again he denied it. And after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, “Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.” 71 But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.”

In these three denials, we can see a failing loyalty to Christ. Peter was one of the closest people to Jesus. He was one of the three in the inner circle. He spent 3 ½ years with Jesus seeing Jesus do marvelous things for people & teach with authority & live an impeccable life. But at this very moment, when he was asked about being with Jesus – he disowned Jesus. He rejected knowing him.

He refused to accept any association with Jesus. That’s because it revealed what he truly valued and treasured in his heart. He had to chose between the idols in his heart and Jesus and he chose the idols. He chose himself over Jesus.

Have we ever seen this failing loyalty in our hearts? Calvin said that our heart is a factory of idols. We are regularly churning out more and more idols that are competing for the affections of our heart. And when do we see our idols? On a stressful day, what or whom do we turn to for relief? When we are sad and upset, what do we turn to comfort us? When we are bored and idle, what or whom do we turn to automatically? And if we are being absolutely honest, we’ll admit that we will see a failing loyalty. We don’t always say that Jesus is better.

The famous hymn “Come thy fount” has an interesting line in one of its verses which says “Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love”. What I’m trying to say is that we can’t rely on our promises, or our heart, or our loyalty to sustain and keep this relationship. Why? Because our promises are false, our hearts are fearful and our loyalty is failing.

Whenever we come before the throne of God, we need to admit that we are prone to be unfaithful. Even our best intentions and our best efforts to keep up our commitment will end up in being unfaithful. Our position after listening to God’s Word cannot be “I will do better” but rather a humble position “I don’t know what’s going on in my heart. I know I’m prone to be unfaithful. Lord, help me!”

But if we are only left with this truth that we are prone to be unfaithful, we will be left in despair. But the best truth is that:

Christ still remains faithful towards us

27 And Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ 28 But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.”

Already in verses 27,28 along with Jesus’ prophecy on the denial and abandonment, He already spoke about meeting with them after He is raised up!! Even though we are prone to be unfaithful, Christ will still be faithful to us.

Christ’s faithfulness is not based on our faithfulness. He will remain faithful irrespective because He cannot go against His character. And He upholds this relationship and commitment. But what does that look like tangibly in a relationship where I am prone to be unfaithful?

Christ desires repentance by revealing our sin

72 And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept. [j]

The purpose in Jesus telling Peter that he would deny him 3 times before the rooster crows twice was not to insult him or tell him “Aha…I told you so” or to condemn him. But the purpose was to draw Peter to repentance by revealing his sin.

Prior to this incident, Peter probably thought he was the most committed guy to Jesus. But this whole incident revealed the opposite because of the idols in his heart. Because Jesus treasures the relationship He has with us, He will always bring to light areas in our life which will need to be repented of.

And we see the repentance being reflected in the sorrow Peter showed over his sin. Imagine this… think about a close relationship that you have. Married people – think about the relationship with your spouse. Unmarried people – think about the relationship with someone in your family. If you’ve done something to offend them and deeply hurt them, wouldn’t you feel sorrowful over what you’ve done? You couldn’t just sit and be normal.

When you know that you’ve hurt someone you love, it will grieve you. So even in our relationship with Christ, when the Holy Spirit brings to light areas of sin in our hearts, if we are truly genuinely repentant we will mourn over our sin. I’m not saying you need to manipulate your tears but respond as you would to any close relationship.

2 Cor 7: 9 says For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

Christ produces faithfulness by redeeming our lives

Few weeks after this very same incident, we see Peter boldly preaching on the Day of Pentecost before a large crowd. The Word says that they were cut to the heart. And they asked him “What must we do to be saved?” And Peter said to them “Repent and be baptized everyone of you in name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins”.

Sometime after that – Peter and John are called in by the Sanhedrin in Acts 4. These are powerful religious authorities. They charge them to stop teaching in the name of Jesus. What do Peter and John say? “You judge for yourselves if it is right in the sight of God to listen to you or obey God for, we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard!”

What brought about such a drastic change? I think it was Peter realizing that His loving Savior died & rose again on the third Day for him even though he rejected and refused to associate with Him. Peter realized how Christ was faithful to Him despite His unfaithfulness. And that stirred up his heart in repentance. I hope you see the two sides of repentance: one is the mourning over sin the other is the turning away from sin – both being motivated by the unlimited kindness and faithfulness shown toward you.

Brothers and sisters, what is hope for all of us who see ourselves failing in our commitment? It’s not based on our intentions, our promises, our heart and emotions, our loyalty but it’s based on Christ’s faithfulness toward us.

Do you want to truly repent today? Ask God to reveal your sin so that you can mourn over what offends God. And then ask God to fill your heart with so much love in what Christ has done so that you can turn away from unfaithfulness.

Tags Commitment, Fear, Heart, Loyalty, Promise, repentance, Sin, Unfaithful

Mark Sermon

I Am – Mark 14:53-65

Good morning Gathering. It’s great to be with you this morning and privilege to open the Word of God together. I hated to be out the last couple of weeks, but I had the opportunity to preach at two other churches in the city. And that’s something that we definitely value, because we’re for the gospel in our city! We want to see a whole host of Bible-believing, gospel-centered, God-glorifying churches throughout Mumbai. So, while I certainly don’t like to miss out on our time here at the Gathering, it was great to serve a couple of other churches in our area.

But, it’s good to be back and I’m excited to jump back into The Gospel of Mark with you. If you have a Bible with you this morning, I’d invite you to turn there with me to Mark chapter 14. It’s hard to believe that, after so many months in Mark, we have nearly arrived at the crucifixion.

Jesus and His disciples have just observed the Passover meal. It’s this beautiful time where Jesus reorients the Passover around Himself. He essentially put Himself as the object of the Passover and, in doing so, He instituted the Lord’s Supper (which we’ll observe at the end of our time together this morning).

And the instruction that Jesus gives during that meal (and as He washes the disciples feet) is incredible. You need to look at the other gospels to get the fuller context of what Jesus taught during that time (John’s gospel is particularly helpful on this)…

It’s really during the last supper that we see this shift toward the abandonment of Jesus by His followers. He reveals that one of the disciples will betray Him and that’s exactly what happens. Judas goes and gets the soldiers and brings them to Jesus. He reveals that Peter will deny Him. And, as you know, that’s exactly what happens. === === We’ll see next weekend Peter deny Jesus 3 times when he’s faced with questions about their relationship. And all of the other disciples fled & abandoned Jesus after His arrest in the Garden. You could say that the theme of chapter 14 in Mark, particularly the last 1/2 of the chapter, is abandonment. And this is where we come to our text for this morning; verses 53-65. This is after Jesus is arrested in the middle of the night. Mark gives us a picture of Jesus standing before the Jewish ruling council. I’ll read this for us and then we’ll go to the Lord in prayer and ask for His help in understanding what we’ve read.

“And they led Jesus to the high priest. And all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together. And Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he was sitting with the guards and warming himself at the fire. Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none. For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree. And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.'” Yet even about this their testimony did not agree. And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?” But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” And the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further witnesses do we need? You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?” And they all condemned him as deserving death. And some began to spit on him and to cover his face and to strike him, saying to him, “Prophesy!” And the guards received him with blows.” (Mark 14:53-65)

Here’s how I’d like to handle this. I’m going to take some time and break down what’s actually happening here. We’ll talk about some of the details of the trial and what’s underlying those details with the goal of arriving at God’s purpose for all of this. But, before we get to those details, I want to frame the conversation for us in light of how Mark has been leading us through the entire book. You might remember, back in chapter 8, we identified the turning point in the Gospel of Mark.

Do you remember when all of the people were trying to figure out who Jesus is. Some of them are thinking He’s John the Baptist. Some think that He’s Elijah or one of the other prophets. And then Jesus looks at His disciples and asks a question. And, it’s not just “a question,” it’s really “THE QUESTION” because it’s the question that is posed to every one of us as well. In fact, you might write this question down because we’re going to come back to it at the end of our time. Anyone remember the question? “WHO DO YOU SAY I AM?”

What we said when we preached that text is that this is where things begin to change in Mark’s gospel. Things begin to pick up speed. They begin moving toward one climactic point, sort of like you’ve just begun accelerating toward the peak of a mountain.

This interaction with the High Priest and the Jewish Council is that climactic point. Where Ciaphas asks Jesus directly, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” We need to remember that, up until this point Jesus has been silent. He’s concealed who He really is because His time had not yet come (we hear that phrase repeated throughout the 4 gospels: “My time has not yet come.”).

And so, Jesus mostly kept His identity veiled. It was only to His disciples that He revealed who He truly was, and they didn’t really even understand what He was talking about. Yes, Peter gave the right answer when Jesus asked, “Who do you say I am?” Peter said, “You are the Christ!” But, even then, Jesus said, “That answer didn’t come from you Peter, but from the Father in Heaven.” And we know that Peter didn’t get it because, immediately after that, Peter tried to rebuke Jesus and Jesus called Him Satan (which is less than awesome if you’re Peter). And then, of course, we have Peter’s denial of Jesus which (as I said) we’ll look at next weekend.

All of that to say that the disciples didn’t really even understand it. Jesus was hidden. He was concealed. His glory was veiled up to this point. Even in the way He taught people, with parables, Jesus said that was so the people didn’t really understand what He was talking about. And so, Jesus has remained silent.

Even through His betrayal, through His arrest, through all of these false accusations, Jesus has said nothing up until this point. That shouldn’t surprise us because of Isaiah 53:7: “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”

He was arrested & oppressed; He spoke not. He was afflicted & accused; He gave no defense. But all of that changes in verse 62. Jesus is asked if He is the Christ (meaning the Messiah) & the Son of the Blessed (which is how they would have referred to God, out of respect).

So, “Are you the Messiah? Are you the Son of God?” And here we have it! This is it! This is the moment that God pre-determined before the foundation of the world where He would reveal who Jesus really is. And, Jesus doesn’t just give AN answer to the High Priest’s question, He gives THE ANSWER. Just like, “Who do you say that I am” isn’t A question, it’s THE question. Jesus gives THE ANSWER in this text. He says, “I AM!”

Now, I wanted to highlight that before we even start breaking down what’s happening in the text because we have such a strong tendency to miss the main thing. Just like the religious leaders missed it. Just like the disciples didn’t see it clearly. We have a tendency to miss things, especially in a text that we’re so familiar with like this one. But, this is too important for us to miss. This isn’t just the key moment in the Gospel of Mark. This represents the key moment in each one of our lives as well. Here it is: “WHO DO YOU SAY JESUS IS?” That’s our main idea this morning: “WHO DO YOU SAY JESUS IS?”

Everything in your life is driving you toward that question, and nothing even comes close to how important that question is for you. Not your family. Not your job. Not a relationship. Not money. Not circumstantial happiness. Not all of those things combined. Everything else pales in comparison! When you consider the scope of eternity and the reality of eternal union with God in heaven, or eternal separation from God in hell.

And, when you consider the fact that your eternal destination is determined by this question in your heart: “WHO DO YOU SAY JESUS IS?” Everything else pales in comparison to the importance of that question. So, as we go through this text, I want for that question to be right on the forefront of your heart. As we look at Jesus here, as we think about what’s happening, I want you to be asking yourself, “Who Do I Say Jesus Is?”

Now, let’s back up and work our way through this with hearts that are expectant to see Jesus for who He reveals Himself to be. And, maybe we could just start by breaking down the details of what’s actually happening. First, there are some things that we need to understand about this trial itself; starting with the fact that this wasn’t even a trial. It was illegal, based on Jewish law in a whole bunch of ways.

— It took place at the High Priest’s home, not in a public space.
— Judas was bribed in his betrayal of Jesus.
— Witnesses were paid to give their testimony.
— Those witness lied.
— It was illegal to have a trial at night.
— It was illegal to pass a verdict at night.
— It was illegal to hold a trial on a holiday (including the day before and day after).
— It was illegal to pursue a death sentence before a crime was established.

Let’s be clear, This wasn’t a trial! In fact, we know exactly what this was because Mark tells us exactly what this in chapter 14, verse 2. “The Chief Priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him…” The purpose of the Jewish council wasn’t to determine guilt or innocence here.

The purpose was to get rid of Him by having the Romans put Him to death. That’s what they wanted. They wanted to kill Him, And, because they had already determined the end, they justified whatever means they thought were necessary to arrive at that end. Bribery, lying, illegal procedure, breaking all kinds of other laws. None of it mattered to them because they had determined that they were right, and so they justified their actions. That’s what’s actually happening here.

Now, let me pause for just a moment and make a couple of observations (points of application) that I think we have to consider for our own lives. I want to be clear; these aren’t the main point that I’m driving at. The main point is Jesus looking at you and asking, “Who do you say I am?” But, there are definitely some things that we can learn here that are really important for our lives. Let me give you 3 things that I think we need to understand.

1st — The end never justifies the means, if the means violate God’s written or moral law. Let’s be honest, we are sinful & full of pride. We have a lot of blind spots, especially when it comes to our idolatry. And, if you think you don’t have blind spots, then you probably have more than the person sitting next to you. We are blind to our blindness.

And, because of that, it is not uncommon for us to believe that we’re right and begin justifying decisions & behaviors that are clearly outside of what God has communicated in Scripture. That’s what these religious leaders did. They were convinced they were right about Jesus and so they justified all kinds of things that were clearly wrong.

But, here’s the problem: THEY WERE WRONG ABOUT JESUS. And, the fact that they were doing all kinds of wrongs things in order to condemn Him should have been a clue that they were wrong.

We need to be very careful with this same kind of pride in our lives. Where we’ve convinced ourselves that we’re right about something, and so we’re doing things that are compromising what God has called us to in Scripture. And it’s all just an effort to accomplish the end that we’ve determined needs to be accomplished. We have to be very careful with that because: A) You could be wrong. And B) If you’re doing things outside of what God has clearly communicated in Scripture, you’re definitely wrong. That’s the first thing.

The 2nd — Righteousness always operates in the light. Wickedness always operates in the darkness. The reason the the Council was doing all of this shrouded in darkness; in the middle of the night; when everyone was asleep; trying to get this thing wrapped up before daybreak, is because it was wicked. If this was the right thing, why not have a public trial? Why not bring charges and allow for other witnesses to be brought? Why do everything so quickly and under the cover of darkness? Because it was evil!

We must understand that this is how the enemy operates. And, by the enemy, I primarily mean our flesh. The enemy always wants to operate in darkness & isolation. When we think about our lives (our attitudes; our actions; our words; our interactions with other people), we should always be aware of whether we’re operating in the light or in the dark.

Are we open with people or are we trying to conceal things? Are we subjecting that issue or pattern of behavior to a biblical community, or are we isolating from community? Those are great evaluative questions that will help you diagnose if you’re operating in a way that honors God and most glorifies Him.

3rd — (and this is probably the most important) — God is sovereign over everything, including our sin, and will accomplish His purposes. I want to be abundantly clear on this: God purposed all of this before the foundation of the world.

This is happening completely under the umbrella of providence & His sovereign control. There are no accidents in God’s economy because He is all sovereign, all knowing and all powerful. That’s the pattern that see over & over again throughout Scripture. Where God is sovereignly orchestrating circumstances in a way that accomplishes His purposes, brings Him glory and also in a way that work for our ultimate good.

So, here we are. At a trial, that really isn’t a trial. In the dark. Jesus has been abandoned by those closest to Him. This council has already pronounced judgement on Him. They’re just waiting for that one “gotcha” moment that will seal the deal and allow them to hand Him over to the Romans. And, because He purposed to do it from before the beginning of the Universe, Jesus gives them that “gotcha” moment.

“You’re saying that you’re the Christ? You’re saying you’re the Messiah, the Son of God? Is that who you are?” Jesus looks at them and says, “I AM! And you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

And there it was. That’s what they were looking for. It’s funny because all of this other stuff about tearing down the Temple, and building it back up, and all of the false witnesses that couldn’t agree with each other. They should have just led with this question because Jesus’ time had come.

Let’s break down this answer quickly, and then we’ll get back around to our main idea. First, there’s so much in that phrase, “I AM.” Jesus says, “I am:

— the one your fathers have been waiting for
— the one to bring about God’s Kingdom
— the one that God promised to Abraham
— the one He promised to Moses
— the son of David promised to your ancestors
— the one who was promised to Malachi and the rest of the prophets
— the one who was promised in the garden to crush the serpent
— the fulfillment of all the law & the prophets
— the one who has come to take the sins of the whole world upon my body— the way, the truth & the life… and the only way to be reconciled to God
— YES!!! I AM!”

We could actually spend another couple of hours talking about everything that is wrapped up in that phrase “I AM.” Needless to say, Jesus’ answer carries a lot of weight. But notice that that’s not all He says. He says, “And you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” He’s referring to a couple of messianic prophecies in the Old Testament; one in Psalm 110 and one in Daniel 7.

Psalm 110:1 — “The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”

Psalm 110:5 — “The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.”

Jesus isn’t just saying, “this is who I am”, He’s pointing specifically to Himself as the fulfillment of prophecies about the coming Messiah.

Daniel 7:13-14 — “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”

Jesus is cementing His answer of “I AM” by linking it to the Old Testament prophesies about the Messiah. He is declaring that He will be vindicated in His resurrection and ascension, as the Son of Man. And that’s why, in verse 64, they charge Jesus with blasphemy. It’s because He’s claiming to be God. These religious leaders knew exactly what it meant when Jesus said, “I AM” and then quoted those two texts.

And so, they condemn Him because they didn’t see Him for who He truly is. And, this is where we come back full circle. This is the question for us this morning: Do you see Jesus for who He is, and have you submitted your whole life to Him?

This is not a matter of intellectualism. I’m not asking you to agree with who Jesus says He is. Satan and the demons are far better theologians than we will ever be. They know exactly who Jesus is. I am talking about whole life submission to Jesus as your Lord.

If you are here this morning and you are not a Christian, please understand this. We will all see the Son of Man, seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of Heaven. The manner in which we see this will be determined by the question, “Who do you say I am?” This determines whether we see Him under the wrath of God, or under the righteousness of Christ.

If you are here this morning and you are a Christian, please consider this. Are there areas of your life that you’re holding back and not submitting them to His rule & reign? Are there areas where you’ve determined you’re right about and so, you’re blind to the fact that you’ve put that thing above God in your heart?

Tags God, Identify, Identity, jesus, Righteousness, Sovereign

Mark Sermon

Staying Loyal to Christ & His Mission – Mark 14:26-52

Post author By Saju Joseph
Post date March 10, 2019
No Comments on Staying Loyal to Christ & His Mission – Mark 14:26-52

Our passage for this morning is Mark 14:26-52 (Read)

This week as I was reading this passage & preparing the sermon, I had to dig deep into my own heart and ask some tough questions about my loyalty to Christ.

And as I meditated on them, I believe the Holy Spirit convicted me of my Sins. But what’s amazing is that it opened my eyes to see my folly, and at the same time helped me understand God’s providence for me to help me remain loyal to Him.

As I preach from the same passage this morning, I’m hoping & praying that God would do the same work in your hearts.

In this passage, Mark is telling us the story of how Jesus was betrayed by Judas, one of his twelve disciples. And he also exposes the heart of other disciples who claimed to be loyal to Christ, but when the time came, they all ran away for their lives.

In verse 27 when Jesus tells them that “You will all fall away” as written in the scripture, we see Peter very boldly claims that even if others fall away, I will never fall away. To which Jesus says to him “This very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times”. And again to which Peter makes an, even more, bolder declaration saying “If I must die with you, I will not deny you”, and all the others joined with him and made the same claims.

But as the story progresses, we see that on the very same night when a crowd of people with swords and clubs come to arrest Jesus, the same disciples who made big claims ran for their lives.

And among them was also a young boy who ran naked leaving his cloth behind when he was caught.

As I pondered upon what the disciples did, I realised in no way we are different from them. We too make big claims of being a follower of Jesus and show a willingness to do anything from him. Don’t we?

Like, right now if I have to ask you the following questions, think about your answers.

Q. Do we love Jesus?

Q. Do we love Jesus more than ourself?

Q. Do we think under whatever circumstances we may find ourselves in, we will hold fast to Jesus and never leave him?

Q. Are we willing to lay our lives for the sake of Jesus?

I’m sure most of us would easily answer YES to those questions.

If we’re honest, you will all agree with me that there could be moments in our lives where we can end up acting exactly the opposite to what we claim, just like the disciples.

As I was evaluating the reasons why the disciples may have behaved in that way, I thought of three of them.

Fear of Man

The first reason I see is the Fear of Man.

I’m sure they were terrified when they saw crowds of men standing with swords and clubs. If we try and put ourselves in their shoe, I am sure we would be terrified too.

Think about his, what if right now a 100 people turn up in this room with swords. What do you think will be our response? Obviously Fear.

Forget people with swords, we get terrified when people ask questions about our faith and ask why we’re sharing the Gospel. Often times our natural response is to get away from those places.

I remember an occasion when we hosted a business seminar in Mumbai along with a team who came from the US. The goal was to make friends and connect with people. But when one of the speakers, out of the blue decided to speak about his faith, a group of attendees stood up and interrupted the seminar and went and complained to the owner of the facility that we are trying to convert them to Christianity. I remember how terrified I was and all I wanted to do was hide my face somewhere.

Imagine a situation where your unbelieving family members threaten you because of your faith in Jesus, your community people threaten to kill you or your family members because you are a follower of Jesus. When they threaten to throw you out of the community.

I bet it’s not going to be hard. And there is a possibility a lot of us who claim to love Jesus and follow him wholeheartedly will fumble and react just like the disciples.

Love for their present life

The second reason they ran away could be because they loved their present lives so much that they were unwilling to let it go. We all love the life we have, and I’m sure none of us imagines ending it right now or even in the next couple of years.

A situation like that where you are encountered with people who can kill you means losing the precious life we’ve been treasuring all the while. It could mean the end of all our dreams and desires. Dreams of getting married, having children, living in a big life, travelling to places. Why would someone want to lose them?

Think about people who are trapped in the world of fame and fortune that if they claim to be a follower of Jesus, they can lose everything in a moment.

Yes, there is a possibility that our love for our sweet little life would make us react just like the disciples.

Unexpected encounter

The third reason they ran could be because they never expected such a situation to arise. It was an unexpected encounter. The disciples were hoping that Jesus would raise an army and defeat the Roman empire and become their King.

But that is not what they encountered. Instead, the disciples saw Jesus helpless, weak and defeated. Maybe they ran away because they expected something else from Jesus.

We too can encounter unexpected events to happen in our lives. Loss of a family member, loss in business, losing jobs, financial crises, unexpected health issues either with one of our family members or us.

There is a possibility that we can also turn away from Jesus just like the disciples because of the unexpected and sudden events that shake our life of its foundations.

The more I thought about the disciples response against my response in similar situations I was sure that it is possible for me also to turn away from Jesus. Either because of the Fear of Man, love for my own life or because of an unexpected encounter.

And as I was groaning in my heart thinking about my natural responses to such circumstances. I asked God, Lord “How can I love you deeply enough and stay loyal to you until death?”

And, Thankfully I found the answer right there in verse 38 where Jesus finds Peter, James & John sleeping and he says “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

I realized immediately that the greatest providence of God for us in difficult times is God himself.

Jesus takes his disciples to Gethsamane and Mark writes Jesus was greatly distressed and troubled, his soul was sorrowful, even to death because of what was going to happen.

But instead of sitting and worrying about it, Jesus fell to the ground and cried out to the Father, and he even tells the disciples to do the same.

Jesus cries out in prayer saying “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

His natural response in pain was to ask the Father to remove the cup of suffering from him, but immediately after that, he submits himself to God’s sovereignty, knowing that God knows what is best for Him.

He knew that God the Father was seeking to glorify himself. He knew that through his death on the cross God was redeeming back his called ones to himself. He knew that only through his death mankind can find hope of a restored relationship with their creator God.

But three times when Jesus comes to check on the disciples he finds them sleeping and not alert.

I realized as I was reading this passage that our greatest folly which makes us give in to the schemes of the enemy is our failure to stay alert & our inability to pray at all times.

I’m sure that if the disciples had stayed awake and alert and had fervently prayed to God the Father for courage and strength in difficult times, they would have reacted differently.

What is Prayer?

I like to read a quote by John Piper which I believe beautifully summarizes the meaning of prayer.

“Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that He will provide the help we need. Prayer humbles us as needy and exalts God as wealthy”

Yes, there will be situations in our lives that will look dangerous, we will be hated by men because of your faith in Christ. There will be times when our love for ourselves will be so strong that our bodies will refuse to let go of the things of the world. And yes, there come uncertain and unexpected events that will take us by surprise.

The only way we can stay loyal to Christ and continue in our faith is when our dependence is on God. When we pray and ask God for courage when you are fearful, ask God for strength when you are weak, ask God for patience when you are restless, ask God for joy when you feel sorrowful & ask for wisdom when you are confused.

Jesus said “Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith”

Brother & sisters let us not make the mistake of relying on our strength and abilities but let us turn to God in all circumstances and rely on His providence, which is God himself.

Let us get rid of all the distractions that keep us from prayer and watching over our lives. Lately, I had to get rid of all my social media accounts. I had to put off all my in-app notifications that bothered me and diverted my attention to things that were less important in life.

I’m trying to be more alert and to be in the moment when I’m at home, in the office and while travelling. Always praying to God in my moments of weakness and struggle.

Ask yourself, what is it that you need to switch off in your life that hinders your prayer life and your inability to depend on God at all times.

Let me list down a couple of things that you may want to think about

–    Is it Money, wealth & possession that’s distracting you from praying
–    It is Entertainment? On your Phone, On your TV, On your Computer
–    Is it unhealthy & ungodly relationships
–    Unhealthy/ unplanned s time schedule
–    Work responsibilities
–    Hobbies
–    Lustful thoughts and pursuits

If you know what it is, I urge you to repent before God and run towards Him, desiring for Him.

I believe if you do so, everything will go well with you and He will be give you the strength, courage & wisdom to stay loyal to Him till the end of our lives.

Tags allegiance, Christ, Fear, Kingdom of God, Life, Loyalty, Man, Mission, Prayer, Worldly Pleasures

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