Category: Sermon

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1 John Sermon

Gospel Repentance – 1 John 1:5-10

Today’s sermon is part of a series called ‘Gospel Renewal’. Last two Sundays we covered topics on Prayer & Humility. And today we’re going to talk about Repentance.

Through these sermon series, I believe we are discovering how to consistently live all of life under the influence of the gospel. And as we do that one of our greatest needs in gospel-centered living is to understand repentance accurately and biblically.

Firstly, I want to begin by defining the word Repentance, because it seems many of us have a different understanding of the word.

The word Repentance in Greek is the word ‘metanoia’, and ‘metanoia’ essentially means ‘change in mind’.

The full biblical definition of repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of action.

It’s like leaving your home to go to the market, instead on the way, you change your mind and decide to walk towards the mall.

It is impossible to truly change your mind without that causing a change in action.

That is why John the Baptist called people to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8).

A person who has truly repented of his sin and exercised faith in Christ will give evidence of a changed life .

The passage I want us all to look at today is 1 John 1:5-10

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

First of all, remember, John is writing this letter to the believers in Ephesus. What John is saying is that when you talk about having fellowship with God & practicing the truth, you need a ‘change of mind’. You need to Repent.

Here’s what he is saying…

If we say we have fellowship with God while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

As we hear these words of John, and think about the application in our lives, let me give you a mental image of where our Christian is with regards to this particular situation that John is talking about.

When we were born in this world, we were born sinful and wicked. And no matter how cute and pretty the new born babies look, the truth is, their heart is disconnected from God.

The reason we are born sinful is because as humans, when we were first created by God in His image to worship Him – We were given the freedom to choose the right thing, we misused our freedom and willfully chose what was against God.

Our disobedience not only disconnected us from having a healthy relationship with God, but it also invited his wrath and anger. And since we were all born out of the first humans Adam and Eve, we all inherit their sinful nature, and a broken relationship with our creator God & are worthy of his wrath and anger.

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death – which is what we deserved

John 3:16 – But God so loved the us that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 3:24 – all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:24 – but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus came to earth and lived the perfect life in our place, took the penalty of our sins and paid the price on the cross, and in return gave his righteousness to us.

He took our dirty unrighteous garments and gave us his righteous garments.

Now when God looks at us, he is looking through the filter of His son, claims us back from the world, embraces us and calls us his own.

Brother & sisters, when we are confronted with this truth, there is a transformation that happens in our heart. For the first time we truly repent of our sins, believe in the gospel & eventually make a public declaration of our faith through Baptism.

Do not be mistaken – When this happens, God forgives all our past, present & future sins. We stand justified before him forever.

He says nothing can separate us from his love – neither physical death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, [39] Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38-39

But, a lot of people think that we only repent of our sins & believe in the gospel once for all and there is no need to repent & believe again and again.

People who think that way forget that even thought our soul is set free from eternal condemnation, we still continue to live in our flesh and in this corrupt world. Our bodies are trapped here until we die or until Jesus returns.

We also forget that as we continue to grow in our faith, there are two things happens in our heart & mind. We grow in the awareness of God’s holiness and we grow in the awareness of our sinfulness.

And if we don’t walk in daily repentance, we can go into two different directions. Let me explain.

When we focus only on the Holiness of God, we easily get into a performance mode. And when we only grow in realization of our sinfulness, we get into a pretending mode. And both these places are harmful for us.

They stop us from experiencing a spirit filled Christian life.

In our passage today, John is talking to believers who are bent towards the pretending mode. People who are pretending to have fellowship with God and walking in the light but are in darkness and unwilling to admit that they are drowning in sin.

Listen carefully as I read the passage again.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 

And here’s the solutions John offers

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

To bridge the gap between God’s holiness and Our sinfulness, the only way we can do it is when we live a lifestyle of repentance by confessing our sins to God & believing in the Gospel.

Here’s what happens when we do that daily. We grow in appreciation of what Christ has done for us on the cross. Our heart grows bigger and bigger each day.

God performs chemotherapy on us, killing the bad cells of our sinful nature and producing new ones. Changing our stony heart into a heart of flesh.

Biblical repentance frees us from our own devices and makes a way for the power of the gospel to bear fruit in our lives.

We never stop needing to repent and believe.

And as we do that, there are two reasons they happen. The first is, we express the genuineness of their faith. The second reason is, we maintain a close relationship with the Father in heaven.

Amen

Finally, as I close, let me highlight three things about repentance one gain.

  1. As Christians, we don’t repent daily because we fall off and become unbeliever again as we sin. The first time when we truly repented of our sins, he fully accepted and has given the entry pass to his Kingdom.
  2. As Christians, we repent so that we daily grow in appreciation of what Christ has done for us on the cross.
  3. We repent and confess our sins because we have the confidence that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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Philippians Sermon

Gospel Humility – Philippians 2:3-11

Good morning church! We started a new series last weekend titled “Gospel Renewal” and we’ll be covering different topics over the next 2 months like prayer, humility, repentance but explaining how all of these fruits can only come about through the gospel.

What we mean by that is – in every other religion and moral science class – people unanimously agree that prayer, humility, repentance are good things to cultivate through self-effort.

However, the Bible stands in stark contrast to all of these – through Scripture we understand that all these things can only be truly produced by trusting on the grace of God through Jesus Christ. That’s why we call it Gospel Renewal. And after last week’s theme on Gospel centred prayer, today we will look at Gospel Humility from Philippians 2.

As we are turning to today’s passage, let me just highlight a few reasons why “Humility” is an absolute need for all of us. For that we need to consider the opposite of humility which is “Pride”.

Now usually when we think about pride – we usually imagine someone who says “I’m awesome, I’m great and I do all things well”. Although this is one-way pride expresses itself, however I just want to mention a few more subtle ways in which pride manifests itself in our hearts.

  1. Being over-critical about others: We’ve taken it upon ourselves to points out the theological errors or sin struggles in other people. As believers do we need to correct people? Yes, but if we see a pattern where we are always the ones correcting others or if we are more concerned about the sin and issues in other people rather than our own, it’s pride.
  2. Prayerlessness: Prayerlessness ultimately arises out of pride which makes us feel like we don’t need God as much. We can figure things out and fix ourselves using self-effort.
  3. Not confessing sins: Our pride often prevents us from admitting that we have messed up and sinned against God. We usually end up minimizing the sin or getting defensive or innovating new ways to fix our sin problems apart from God.
  4. Not asking others for help: Even though we might be struggling in our faith, we’ll never ask our brothers and sisters to help us. We’ll never reach out to them or even if someone offers to help us, we’ll not take it seriously because in our pride we wouldn’t want to be perceived as helpless and weak.

And I want to be the first to admit that I’m prideful and God has been working on my heart over the last so many years humbling. I hope we realize that in many ways like this we all struggle with pride and we need the gospel to help us and change us to produce true humility.

3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,[b] 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (v3-11)

We see in verses 3-4 how Paul instructs the Philippian church in humility to count others more significant than themselves and look to the interests of others and not just our own.

But he knows that all of these instructions will be empty and futile apart from the gospel…apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. In a sense he was saying – unless you immerse yourself in the gospel, you will not be able to produce humility. And he mention 3 ways does that:

1.Looking up to Christ (v5-7)

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,[b] 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men.

I remember while I was growing up – I somehow got very simplistic answers like “The best way to live your life is to be like Jesus”. Pretty quickly I realized how impossible it was to live like Jesus.

In fact I found following the model of Jesus to be very intimidating because with every passing year I realized how further away I went from becoming like Jesus. But all of that changed when I became a believer.

Reading the Bible, I realized that the secret of the Christian life is that Jesus is now united with us in a relationship so deep and intimate that now He lives His life in and through us!

Jesus isn’t just a model but the motivation for our lives! Jesus isn’t just the inspiration but the enabler for our lives!

And so when we read the word “have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” – realize that it’s not as though we are forced to follow someone else’s philosophy but rather as believer we earnestly desire to have the mind of Christ.

To look at the world in the way He does. To imitate Him. Because He is a part of us and we are a part of Him! What is the mindset of Christ? Let’s read v6-7. Its astonishing if we have to read it carefully.

Jesus Has the same nature and image of God –

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.  (Heb 1:3)

And yet He did not consider equality with God as something to be seized or something to be held to for advantage. In a world where people fight for position and status – unwilling to give up their position of power…this seems to be unbelievable!!!

Paul takes it one step further when he says 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men.

The idea of emptied himself means “willing to come down to no reputation”. Jesus didn’t lose His divinity (He didn’t stop being God). Jesus didn’t lose His purity.

But He did empty Himself of aspects of the richness of His glory and majesty to become like us. He took the form of weakness by putting on our flesh. Jesus is the Creator God becoming like a creature.

The word “servant” is Greek is the word “doulos” which means bondservant or slave. Here the Master of the entire universe took on the form of a slave – one of subservience.

The Son of Man came not be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many (Matt 20:28)

In another place in Galatians it says that Jesus was born under the law. Think about it – Jesus gave the command of circumcision to Abraham in Genesis and centuries later Jesus Himself got circumcised on the eighth day.

Jesus Himself gave the law and commands to Moses and centuries later He lived in obedience to that same law. It’s humiliating when you think about it.

He was willing to lay down and give away His reputation to be with us. He’s not disconnected from us and our issues. Here is our God who identifies with us by emptying Himself and taking our form and living in the very same broken world that we live in.

You feel pain and hurt? Jesus fully understands. Do you experience temptation? Jesus knows exactly what that feels like. If this doesn’t humble us, nothing else will. The God of the universe becoming like us! Amazing! 

2. Looking at the Cross

8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

When we think about the cross nowadays – it’s placed above church buildings signifying that it’s a church building. In the early 2000s wearing a cross used to be also a style statement.

And I was a new believer in those days and I also starting wearing a cross. One uncle from church who used to take bible studies for us once asked me a question: he asked me if the cross is a faith statement or a style statement?

For the first time, I began to question why I wore the cross because deep down I knew it was a fashion statement. So even though nowadays the meaning of the cross is quite different from what it was in NT times.

When Paul wrote this letter to Philippians, they knew what the cross meant. It was capital punishment in the Roman empire.

Only the guiltiest criminals, the worst of the lot, people who would cause violent uprisings against the Roman government – only they would receive this punishment. Not only was it the cruellest way of killing criminals and but it was extremely humiliating because it was done publicly.

And we see our Saviour Jesus Christ – even though he was innocent and sinless – willingly giving up Himself on a cross. Why? Let’s remember that we deserved to be on that cross – not Jesus because of our sins.

The horror of the cross is a reminder of how serious the charge and penalty that was levelled against us. But at the same time, the cross is a declaration of God’s love and mercy toward us.

Jesus Christ was willing to be humiliated by even dying on the cross – if that is what it meant to save us from the wrath and punishment for our sins! Here is our God who protects us by laying down His life! He loves us so much that He takes our punishment upon Himself so that we can eternally live in a relationship with Him! It’s mind-blowing!

Did we earn this favour? No! Did we deserve this? Absolutely not! And that’s what humbles our hearts. When we realize that we were once condemned prisoners who have been set free by the sacrifice of our Saviour!

3. Kneeling before Christ

9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (v9-11)

Imagine you were invited to meet the President of a country. In that place where you are going to meet him, there’s a gathering of the entire army of the country, the officials and governors.

And when you attend the meeting, you won’t go and announce “I’m so and so and I’ve done all these things in my life”. Instead, you’ll be humbled at the sight of the President and everyone else gathered there.

John Piper says something like when you go to the Grand Canyon…you don’t go there and think of how great you are or how good you look…why? You’ll be blown away by the breath-taking beauty of your view! You’ll be humbled at the creation of an amazing God!

Similarly, these verses tell us that the name that has been given to Jesus is so honourable and so great – that at that name every knee will bow down in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! Wow!

I think what it means is that when Jesus Christ returns and King and Judge in His glory – every person on the earth – believers and even unbelievers will kneel and acknowledge Jesus Christ when they see Him!

What does that mean for us as believers now – is that We’ll never know what humility is unless we’ve learnt to humble ourselves before Christ!

Humility comes from an awareness of who Jesus Christ is and who we are in relation to Him. Humility involves surrendering to the will of Jesus Christ! 

In my experience, I’ve seen how God had used the gospel to humble my heart while listening to the Gospel being preached or when a brother has applied the Gospel to my life situation or when my heart melts with the Gospel during my Bible readings.

It doesn’t happen through self-effort or self-improvement. It happens when we look up to Christ, look at the cross and kneel before Christ!

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1 John Sermon

Gospel-centred Prayer – 1 John 5:14-15

After doing a year of expository preaching on the Gospel of Mark, we will now be focusing on a series of topical preaching called ‘Gospel Renewal’. What I mean by the word Gospel is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the redemption of mankind.

We’re using the word Renewal because even though we hear and use the word Gospel often times in our verbiage we still fail to understand the depth of it and for the most part we don’t know how to apply the Gospel in our daily life and live for the Gospel.

Therefore, the aim of this series is to learn how the Gospel changes and impacts everything we do, that anything and everything we do is only a response to God’s love and grace that He has shown us in Christ. The ultimate goal is to glorify God.

Today’s topic is going to be on the subject of GOSPEL PRAYER. The passage I chose to study and preach is 1 John 5:14-15.

To give you a bit of a context, John is writing this letter to the believers in the Church of Ephesus.

After giving a long list of instruction to the church on the doctrine of Christ, Obedient living & Devotion, John is almost concluding his talk, and in chapter 5:14-15 he says

14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

Last Sunday Jeff reminded us that our primary call is to be with Jesus. That, before we are called to do anything for Jesus, we are called to be with Him and abide in Him.

And it is through prayer and devotion that we get  to be with Christ and to enjoy Intimacy with Him.

Brothers & sisters, Prayer is the most important spiritual discipline for every Christian.

But, have you wondered why our Prayer life becomes the most neglected spiritual discipline of all? That’s because, our prayer life is the prime target of the enemy and he will do anything to distract us from approaching God in prayer.

Last week while Jeff and I were in Taiwan going through the City to city Church planter intensive training, one of the topic that really blessed me was the topic on prayer by a pastor called Jon Hori.

One of his statement that stood out for me was when he said “I’m not worried when I hear that the church isn’t growing even though the people are genuinely praying, I’m worried when I hear that the church is rapidly growing but people aren’t praying”

This is what it implies – Any growth in our lives, whether in church, at work, in college, in finances that isn’t grounded in prayer is a dangerous endeavour.

It’s a dangerous endeavour because it will damage our faith and (leads us into misery / leave us feeling hopeless and miserable). Without prayer, we will drift away from God’s plan and purpose and end up in a place where we were never intended to be.

It will damage our faith because when we apply worldly wisdom to achieve things on our own strength, we will end up disregarding God and take pride in our own achievements and abilities instead of giving glory to God. We will stop believing in the Gospel and lose faith in Christ.

If you are convinced that prayer is most important to us, let us now look at how we need to prayer. As we look into today’s passage, I want to talk about the essentials (Saar) of prayer and the methods of praying.

In the passage as John is encouraging the people to pray he is saying two things that I believe is most essential when we think about prayer.

14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

1. Our prayer needs to be rooted in Christ, with confidence in Him and His finished work on the cross.

What I mean by that is when we go to God in prayer we don’t go with a self-righteous and prideful heart like the Pharisee in Luke 18 who goes to the temple and prays ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

Have you noticed, often times we fail to go to God in prayer because we think we’ve failed to live a perfect and obedient life, one that is pleasing to God, and that God is not interested in me or in my prayer unless I do it right.

Brothers & sisters, God knows our heart, he knows our struggles, he knows our failures, he knows our short comings, he knows the repetitive sinful tendencies we struggle with. And yet he does not expect us to fix all that and then approach Him in prayer.

Rather, he desires that we go to Him as we are, sinful & broken like the Tax collector who stood at a distance, with His eyes on the ground, beating his breast and praying, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

What Jesus accomplished for us on the cross is far greater than what we can ever imagine.

In 1 John chapter 1, John writes

8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we go to God in prayer with the attitude of ‘I am right & have no sin, therefore God hears me’ then we deceive ourselves. No matter how hard we try, we can never match up to the standard of God’s holiness.

Rather when we go to God in prayer and confess our sins, then he is faithful to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Let’s not forget brothers and sisters that once we were alienated from God, we were his enemies because of our evil behaviour. But Christ came to this world, lived among us, lived the righteous life we were supposed to live, and through his death on the cross he absorbed the wrath of God that was upon us and presented us holy in God’s sight, without blemish and free from accusation.

This is our identity in Christ, and this is the confidence in which we approach God in prayer.

2. The second thing we learn about prayer from this passage is that we ask according to his will and not ours.

Often times, this aspect of prayer messes up with our pride, our self-gratifying nature & our dreams & desires, Isn’t it?

The reason it messes up is because often times we think we know what is better for us. But in doing so we fail to realise the ultimate goal of God in this universe He created us for himself and for His pleasure. We forget that ultimately He is in control  of everything and calls the shots on us.

No matter how many dreams and desires you have for yourself. If they are not as per God’s will for your life and it they don’t serve his ultimate goal, then what you are chasing after will never satisfy you.

And therefore, to be in the perfect will of God should be the ultimate goal of our life. Nothing else in life can satisfy our inmost cravings and longings – not wealth, pleasure, comfort or people.

Even Jesus, while teaching about prayer in Matthew 6 teaches us to primarily pray for God’s kingdom and Gods will to be done in our lives.

What John is saying is that whatever you ask, if it is the will of God for your life, He will provide.

So, how do we pray in a way that we seek His will.

James 4:13-15:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

Seeking for God’s will as we pray is the right thing to do.

I hope I’ve initiated a spark in to your heart to revive your prayer life. Please don’t let it go off, rather flame it to fire and live for God.

The other thing I wanted to share is our prayer postures. Often times we think of only one or two ways in which to approach God in prayer. But let me conclude by suggesting a couple of more prayer postures or methods that has personally benefited me.

Prayer Postures:

  • Quite time behind the doors
  • Prayer Journalizing Eg. King David
  • Prayer Cards
  • Walk & Talk
  • Family devotions
  • Community prayer

“Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.” – Max Lucado

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Mark Sermon

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:

  1. FOE
  2. FAN
  3. 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.

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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 1/64th 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.

  1. She believed that God owns everything in her life so he deserves everything as well. By her one action she displayed whole-hearted surrender.
  2. 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.

  1. 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?
  2. 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. 

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Mark Sermon

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!

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Mark Sermon

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!

Categories
Mark Sermon

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?

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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!

Categories
Mark Sermon

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.

Categories
Mark Sermon

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.”