Category: Sermon

An enthusiastic preacher but lacked faith! That was the description of John Wesley’s ministry before he got saved. He was an Anglican priest and was excited to go on a mission trip to bring the gospel to the newly found America in the 18th century. One day he reluctantly attended a Christian meeting where they read Martin Luther’s introduction to Romans.

While it was being read, he put his faith in Jesus and his whole life turned around. Now we know that the Lord used him mightily to being about a revival in England. Don’t you find it interesting that he was around Christian people all the time? He was an Anglican priest! He was well versed with the Bible – he studied theology in college! He even went on a mission trip to a country which was newly discovered! Yet he didn’t know what it meant to be a follower of Jesus. He loved the idea of Christianity but didn’t know what it meant to be a Christian. How do we know that we are followers of Christ? What makes us a follower of Christ? I believe today’s passage will help us identify what it means to be a true follower of Christ. Please turn with me to Mark 3:7-19.

As you a church we are going through a series in the Gospel of Mark. Last week we saw how the Pharisees got really hostile toward Jesus to the point that they conspired with the Herodians on how they can kill him!

[7] Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea [8] 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. [9] And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, [10] for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. [11] And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” [12] And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.

[13] And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. [14] And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach [15] and have authority to cast out demons. [16] He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); [17] James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); [18] Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot,[b] [19] and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

There are three things that this passage tells us about being a follower of Jesus Christ.

1. We follow Christ by making him our satisfaction

[7] Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea [8] 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. [9] And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, [10] for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. [11] And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” [12] And he strictly ordered them not to make him known. (v7-12)

These verses tell us how Jesus drew a great crowd. And the crowd was so diverse that they came from all different parts of Israel. V8 tells us that this huge crowd came to him because they heard all that he was doing. They heard about the amazing miracles and healings that he did. Now they wanted to see it themselves! Not only did this crowd come to him, but the people with diseases kept pressing themselves against Jesus so that they could touch him and get healed. It was so bad that Jesus asked his disciples to have a boat ready so that the crowd wouldn’t crush him. Not only does this indicate the humanity of Jesus but also reveals how the people had a greater concern to receive physical healing than knowing and believing in Jesus.

The demonic spirits knew who Jesus was. In fact they correctly identified Jesus as the Son of God because they were aware of his authority. But why would Jesus tell them to be quiet? Why should he stop them from telling the crowd who he truly is? Now they’ll finally recognize him correctly, right? No, let’s understand what the Jews were expecting that time. They were expecting a Messiah who would be a political ruler who would remove the Romans and become their King. And becoming a political ruler isn’t why Jesus came to the earth. Jesus came to the earth to reign over our hearts and minds so that our greatest loyalty and obedience would be toward him only. Jesus came not to satisfy some of our needs but to become our complete satisfaction forever. Jesus came not to fulfill our personal goals but to become our only goal in life!

If I went to my wife and told her “Angie, I love being married to you because you cook for me, help me with my laundry & do the dishes”, she would actually feel more insulted than loved. Why? Because I’ve reduced her to just someone who does a few things for me. Instead if I told her “Angie, I love being married to you because I see you as God’s gift for me. I appreciate everything you do for me and I’m honored to be your husband”. What does that communicate? How precious and valuable she is.

If the only reason we pray is so that we ask God to give us a job, a life partner, house, money, position then we are not making Him our satisfaction. I’m not saying we shouldn’t pray about these things but is that the only reason why we pray? If the only reason we read our Bible is so that we don’t feel guilty or condemned then we aren’t delighting in Him. If the only reason why we come to God is so that we receive healing or to deliver us from trouble then we aren’t loving him. And this is the test: if God takes everything away from you…just like Job would you love him? Would you honor him? Would you say “God, I am going through the deepest time of trial, but I will still trust in you. I will still call onto you. I will still praise You because You never change”. That can only happen if we make Christ our satisfaction. That means studying the Bible with a desire to love Jesus. Praying to grow closer to Him.  

2. We follow Christ by responding to His invitation

[13] And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him.

You see here how Jesus Christ Himself called people to himself. Christ chooses His disciples. He chooses those who would follow Him. Not just does He call them, but they come to Him. That’s the part I want to focus on. The great mystery and truth of the Christian life is that we first become believers and then after sometime we realize how God already chose us in Christ before the foundations of the world to be holy and blameless before Him (Eph 1:3)

We then realize that those whom God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Those whom He predestined, He called, those He called He justified, and those He justified, He also glorified (Rom 8:29, 30)

But we can only understand that once we have responded to His invitation. It’s like an invitation to an event that has been given to you. But you can only know what all planning and arrangements have been made once you enter the venue. Once you enter, you look around and then you realize the amount of time and effort it may have taken the organizer to set it up. So it’s not like from the outside we can judge “Oh, I’m not sure Christ has chosen me so I can’t trust Him as my Lord and Savior”. No, in fact Jesus invites everyone to the good news of the gospel.

[28] Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matt 11:28)

[37] On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. (John 7:37)

The Lord chooses, He grants us faith to believe in Him and the Spirit transforms our hearts! No doubt but these are things we only understand in retrospect. Not before we come to Christ. How can this apply to a believer? You may have been a believer in Christ but you are struggling right now with guilt and shame. You may be thinking “there’s no way God can accept a person like me. I’ve messed up the zillionth time again”.

[12] As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:12)

Our sins are removed so far from us because of what Christ did for us on the cross. He paid it in full. Hold on to this promise, come to Jesus, repent and respond to His invitation. And then spend the rest of your life remembering and retelling how amazing our God is! When we stumble in sin, repent and grieve over the sin, hold on to the precious promises of Christ and come back to Jesus. Don’t be like the person who doesn’t go for the event because he thinks he doesn’t have a personal invitation. No, Christ Himself gave you the invitation through His blood He shed on the cross and through His resurrection. Jesus Christ has removed every single barrier. Nothing stops you from coming openly and gladly running towards God. Do you believe?

3. We follow Christ by participating in His mission

[14] And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach [15] and have authority to cast out demons. [16] He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); [17] James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); [18] Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot,[b] [19] and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

It says Christ appointed 12 people so that they might be with Jesus and that they might be sent out. What an encouraging verse! All of Christian life is described in just that: being with Jesus and then being sent out as His representatives. So we spend time every day with Jesus in the morning, and then are sent out as His representatives in our families, neighborhoods, colleges and workplaces. We spend time every week in Gospel community and Sunday Gathering and then are sent out to “Gather More”. Are there stressful times while we are on mission? Yes, maybe stress at work, financial difficulty, anxiety, family pressure, relational conflict. What do we do? Go and be with Jesus Christ and His people and then again be sent out. I remember when I just became a believer, someone at my youth group called time in community as “being recharged”. Such a great way of telling it. Let’s get recharged everyday as we spend one on one time with God and then let’s get recharged when we connect with other believers during the week.

What were the two things these apostles did? They preached the gospel and they were given the authority to cast out demons. Now we know that all believers aren’t given the same gifts of miracles and casting out demons but the idea here is go out and serve people with your gifts and then find opportunities to tell the gospel to them as you are serving them.

For example, if someone has the gifting of compassion, go and serve the people in your community in such a way that it creates opportunities for you to share the good news of Jesus with them. If someone has the gifting of faith, go and pray with your colleagues for their needs in such a way that you tell them about the Lord to whom you are praying to.

One last point, I’m sure it may have crossed your mind. What about Judas Iscariot? How come Christ appointed him even though he knew that he would eventually betray him?

Now I know one of the reason was to fulfill the Scriptures and prophecy that spoke about a close partner and friend who would betray the Messiah. But I also think it was to serve as an example for us reminding us that you can be so close to Christianity and yet love something else more than Jesus. You can be attracted by the Bible, Church and mission and yet be willing to give everything up if your expectations are affected. What makes us think that we are believers? How do we truly know that we aren’t just fascinated by Church and Christianity? The only way is by seeing biblically if we are following Christ.

I once read a story about a man in a foreign country who calls up the police to report that he saw a car speeding above the speed limit.

He called and said “Right now I’ve witnessed a car speeding well over 100 mph. The license plate no. is……” The cops respond by telling this man a thank you for reporting this. At the end of the conversation, the cops ask the man for his own license plate number. He’s a little surprised.

He asks them “Why do you need my license plate number? I just called to report this speeding car”. The cops reply “You are aware that it is illegal to drive and talk on your cell phone, right?” “Click”– They hear a disconnected tone on the phone.

That’s exactly what self-righteousness does. It gives you the feeling that you’re seeing something particularly wrong in someone else but ignores your own blindness. Because self-righteousness is blinding, it disturbs our overall vision! And we’ll see in today’s passage how self-righteousness affects every aspect of our lives.

Through our study of Mark, we are now beginning to see how the Pharisees are getting uncomfortable with Jesus. He forgives people’s sins, eats with sinners and tax collectors and doesn’t observe the traditions of fasting and the Sabbath as they expect. We’ll see how things get a little more tense in today’s passage.

Let’s turn to Mark chapter 3.

[1] Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. [2] And they watched Jesus,[a] to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. [3] And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” [4] 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. [5] 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. [6] The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

Interestingly this is a story about a wonderful healing but that moves in the background. The main story is about the blindness and hard-heartedness of the Pharisees. Because self-righteousness is blinding, it disturbs our overall vision! There are three ways in which we can see our overall vision being impaired:

1. It prevents us from seeing God

[1] Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. [2] And they watched Jesus,[a] to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.

Here you have Jesus – the Son of God standing in front of them displaying the beauty, the heart and the power of God and yet all the Pharisees intended to do was find a reason to accuse him. As we learned last week [READ], the Sabbath was a commandment from God designed for our good.

By observing the Sabbath, the Israelites were to reflect God who rested on the seventh day after creating the universe and everything in it. God said that no one should work on the Sabbath but the Pharisees interpreted “work” in their own terms.

Plucking grains when the disciples were hungry – they called that as work. In this case, healing a person – “work” according to their interpretation. So just because Jesus didn’t follow their human traditions and expectations, they rejected him and wanted to find a reason to accuse him. They rejected and wanted to accuse the Son of God!

Sometimes that might be the way we approach a Sunday morning Gathering. We come here to assess the worship and the preacher’s performance rather than seeing God! What we fail to see is that God wants to meet with us. God wants to speak to us.

God wants to specifically deal with the issues you are facing. God wants to capture your heart. He wants to change you from the inside out. He wants to encourage your soul. He wants to use you as His handpicked instrument.

But our self-righteous desire to rate the preaching and the worship blinds us from seeing God. If all we notice on a Sunday morning is few people singing, one person giving a speech for 40mins…I would say that is pointless.

But if you came this morning to see our glorious Lord, that’s what will be tremendously satisfying and life-changing! Let’s be people who are zealously desiring to meet with God every day during our abiding time and corporately when we meet in GCs and Sunday Gathering. I have a meeting scheduled with Jesus – let that be our attitude!

2. It prevents us from loving people

[3] And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” [4] 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.

This man had a hand that was dried up because it didn’t get sufficient nourishment from the body. All the power in the had was gone and there was no remedy to this until he met Jesus. Should Jesus have ignored the man so that the Pharisees would be pleased? Absolutely not.

Jesus had compassion on this man and called him forward. Jesus understood the hearts of the Pharisees and asked them “what was the right thing to do on the Sabbath”? “To do good or harm? To save life or kill”. But they remained silent.

That’s such a sad thing, don’t you agree? They were so zealous for their tradition that they didn’t care at all about the man who suffered from this disease for many years. Only he and God understood the pain that he went through all these years.

Is this attitude of the Pharisees common in our lives as well? Yes. It happens whenever we are very quick to judge our brothers and sisters on the basis of their failures in their spiritual walk. Whenever we pass judgments on their struggles rather than grieve over their sin. The question is: do we take pleasure in their struggles or is it grieving our hearts?

Is it moving us toward prayer? Is it creating a longing to help and encourage the other person? Self-righteousness means only being concerned about your own faith and how you can appear to be better than the other. As long as you are morally at a better place than the struggling brother, you are happy. Self-righteousness at its core is selfish!

So that’s why it’s always healthy to ask ourselves how we’ve been loving our brothers and sisters. Often that’s a good indicator of our level of self-righteousness.

3. It prevents us from knowing our own sin

[5] 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. [6] The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

In these verses we see Jesus expressing a lot of emotions. There is anger mixed with grief when he sees the hardness of heart! They probably thought they were all in the right. They thought they had the zeal for God but no Jesus saw how cold, how stubborn and how hard their hearts had become. Jesus showing compassion toward the man and restoring his hand wasn’t wonderful and beautiful to them.

They responded by going out and meeting the Herodians –supporters of the Herodian dynasty who weren’t friends with them earlier – and plotted how to destroy Jesus. Can you believe? The most religious men of that time now are showing themselves to be killers because they didn’t know how sinful their hearts had become. Their self-righteousness blinded them to think that they were right when in reality they were totally wrong.

In my own life, I’ve had plenty of times where I’ve been convicted of self-righteousness. But I remember this one particular time a few years back when I was really blinded by my righteousness. I would go and attend church services and become really critical of the pastor. This reached its tipping point when I ended up becoming critical of the people that God gave me to minister to.

And that’s the thing about self-righteousness. It’ll make you feel like the whole world has a problem except you. A loving brother confronted me with my sin and I was really humbled that day. The correction was painful but I realized how it softened my heart and opened it up to be changed by God.

I now know that it’s all God’s grace because self-righteousness really can ruin a person’s life, make them bitter towards God and others without realizing how sour our heart has become.

I know the question that most of you are thinking right now, okay so how should we respond? What can we do to change this heart condition?

By God’s grace, these are the three things that need to be done:

1) Understand that we have sinned and admit that we are self-righteous

[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. (1 John 1:8,9)

I know this seems quite basic but the truth is that sometimes it’s not easy for us to say that we are a practicing sinner. It’s humbling to acknowledge that. It means to say no to self-pride and self-exaltation. Sometimes people say they aren’t comfortable saying that they still are sinners but the Word talks about it differently.

1 John was written to believers, not unbelievers. And the exhortation here is to admit before God that we are sinners. And if we confess…then he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

2) Renounce our dependence on ourselves and grieve over our sins

I think this is perfectly illustrated in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax collector. The Pharisee loudly prays. “God, I thank you that I’m not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterer, or even this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all that I get”. Now you might think this is an impressive resume.

However, God wasn’t impressed because the Pharisee did all these superficial things to earn his righteousness before God. He didn’t come to God with his whole heart. He just wanted to brag about what he did. The tax collector, on the other hand, standing far off wouldn’t even lift his eyes toward heaven.

He beat his chest saying “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” And Jesus said that this man went home justified and not the Pharisee. (Luke 18:9-14) A question for you: which of the two renounced his dependence on himself? Which of the two had grieved over his sin? The tax collector.

God wants us to have the same attitude as that of the tax collector, not the Pharisee. When we come before God, it’s not the time to show off our knowledge of the Bible or talk about the great things accomplished in our life. When we come before God, it needs to be humble and honest like the tax collector.

3) Rely on Christ’s performance for us

[21] For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

The wonderful truth of the gospel isn’t complete only if we understand that we are sinners and renounce our dependence on ourselves. It’s completed when we trust in the Great Exchange that took place on the cross. Jesus Christ lovingly endured the death we deserved so that by believing in Him we can have His righteousness!

God doesn’t want us to remain in guilt and shame of sin but He wants to make us right through His Son. So after we have confessed our sins and renounced the dependence on ourselves, we now look at Christ’s life and righteousness to clothe us and cover us.

What about the thoughts of blame that Satan throws at us? What about the accusations that other people around us tell us? “Therefore, now there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus”. (Romans 8:1) There is nobody that can condemn you if you are in Christ!

In what areas has God been speaking to us today? Where have we noticed self-righteousness in our own hearts? We know that because self-righteousness is blinding, it prevents us from seeing God. We know that because self-righteousness is blinding, it prevents us from loving people.

We know that because self-righteousness is blinding, it prevents us from knowing our own sin. There is a way out – by admitting that we are sinners, renouncing the dependence on ourselves and relying on Christ’s performance for us.

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/Knowing-Christ-protecting-our-hearts-from-conforming-to-human-standards-Mark-2-18-22.mp3″]

We are continuing with our passage from Mark and today we will look at chapter 2:23-28.

One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

Just like the issue with the fasting that we looked at last week, again in this passage we see how the Pharisees try to impose their way of interpreting the commandment regarding Sabbath.

Here we see … On the day of Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain (probably because they were hungry and wanted to eat) and the Pharisees asked Jesus “Why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

This nagging attitude of the Pharisee started from Mark 2 when Jesus heals the paralytic man who was brought by his friends and Jesus heals him by saying your sins are forgiven… to which the Pharisees comment by saying who is this guy who can forgive sins.

Followed by Jesus’s visit to Levi the tax collectors (a sinner) house… to which the Pharisees accuse him of eating with sinners.

Followed by their question regarding fasting which we saw last week.

Can you for a moment feel the tension in the atmosphere? Where Jesus and the Pharisees are head-butting with each other.

Firstly, it is so irritating to have these Pharisees follow Jesus and keep pointing fingers at everything that is said and done.

In the corporate world, it’s like the boss or his men sitting over our head to make sure that we don’t break the rules, the culture and the traditions laid down by the management.

Isn’t that such an irritating thing?

Secondly, Jesus is constantly trying to explain to these Pharisees and even help them see HIM as the fulfillment of the promise made by God through his prophets. And instead of responding with reverence they choose to ignore him because of their pride, ego, and position in the society.

Even this time with the issue of Sabbath Jesus points them to David saying “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?”

Jesus is pointing to an incident that was written by Samuel in 1 Samuel 21:5-6 where David was running from Saul who was the King of Israel at that time and wanted to kill him. David and his men enter the temple hungry, but because there was no bread to eat except for the bread that was offered to God which only the priests were allowed to eat, David and his men ate that bread and carried on with their journey to a place called Gath.

Jesus talks about David to remind them that even after eating the holy bread from the presence of God which was unlawful to do, God didn’t punish them, like in the case of the prophet Aarons sons Nadab & Abihu who were struck dead for bringing an unauthorized fire before the Lord.

Jesus then goes on to make a point regarding Sabbath and says “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

You see, the Sabbath was not supposed to be considered as a ritual or tradition that supersedes human needs. Sabbath is, in fact, a gift from God and sadly it has become a bondage & oppression, been manipulated from its right intentions that were meant for man’s good.

If we read the context of Sabbath, we will know that it was given to bring rest, healing & joy. But in the case of the Pharisees they created their own version and dictated people to follow them as traditions and rules, but completely missed the point. And here’s what they failed to see.

• They failed to see God’s love and care for his people in the commands and laws he gave them.
• They failed to see Jesus as the lord over Sabbath – Who himself was God in the form of a man standing right next to them.

Instead of recognizing Christ the savior who came to make everything new, they mistreated him, questioned his intentions and even called him an agent of the devil.

At this point, it is easier for us to look at the Pharisees and say how wicked and manipulative these guys were and completely ignorant to see the Pharisee in us who behaves just like them and sometimes even worse.

You may ask how are we like the Pharisees.

There are a number of ways in which we carry the attitude of a Pharisee –

Firstly, when we fail to see the commandments of God as a delight and instead look at it as a burdensome rulebook that needs to be kept to gain approval from God like the Pharisees did.

Burdening ourselves and others in a way distorting the original intent of God when he gave it to us.

Instead of confessing like David in

• Psalms 119:103: “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”,
• Psalms 119:130: “The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.”
• Psalms 139:6: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand”
• Psalms 119:9-16:
  How can a young man keep his way pure?
  By guarding it according to your word.
  10 With my whole heart I seek you;
  let me not wander from your commandments!
  11 I have stored up your word in my heart,
  that I might not sin against you.
  12 Blessed are you, O Lord;
  teach me your statutes!
  13 With my lips I declare
  all the rules[c] of your mouth.
  14 In the way of your testimonies I delight
  as much as in all riches.
  15 I will meditate on your precepts
  and fix my eyes on your ways.
  16 I will delight in your statutes;
  I will not forget your word.

Instead of looking at the beauty of God’s heart towards us in his precepts … we see it as burdensome and task oriented. To the extent where now some of us have even given up reading our bibles because we think it is hard to keep up with obedience when the Spirit of God convicts us of our sins through the scriptures.

On the other extreme, there are some who to follow the law to the dot as it is written without experiencing a true heart transformation which only Christ and his sacrifice on the cross offers.

Let’s ask ourselves this morning – What is our attitude when it comes to God’s holy laws and commandments in the Scripture?

• Do we see that God’s desire for us to a live Sanctified life by living in obedience to his commandments is meant for our own good?
• Do we see them as instructions given to us, to follow wholeheartedly with joy & delight and not under pressure & fear?
• Do we see the wonderful promises associated with true heart transforming obedience?

  The one promise that comes to my mind is Psalms 1:2-3 which says “Blessed are those who delight in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by the streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers”

Remember also that, our law-keeping has nothing to do with our salvation and gaining approval from God. God approves simply because of our faith in his son Jesus.

Trying to gain approval from God by our self-righteous acts are seen as filthy rages by God.

We receive approval from God not by our law-keeping or good works but by admitting that we are sinners just as the bible describes every human being to be, and by believing in Jesus, the son of God who came down to earth for our sake, lived a righteous life on our behalf, took the punishment that was upon us, suffered a horrible death on the cross to redeem us from the wrath of a holy God.

Rising up from death after three days he proved to the world that he is God indeed and has won victory our sin and broken the chains of slavery to sin and has set us free forever.

All because he loved us and meant everything for our good from the beginning – Even the laws, the commandments, instructions from the scriptures, leading of the Holy Spirit convicting our hearts of sin that needs to be dealt with.

All of his precepts are the evidence of his loving pursuit of our hearts meant for his Glory.

So, let us not be like the Pharisees who failed to see God’s heart of love in passing on his commandments and let us stop treating his words as a rule-book that’s burdensome and heavy. But instead delight in them, know the heart of God and walk in obedience persuaded by his love.

The second way in which we behave like the Pharisees is when we judge others like the Pharisees did. Judging others for their words, actions, and attitudes just because we think we’re doing it right, and fail to see them through the merciful eyes of God.

The perfect example is the ender brother in the story of the prodigal son. He failed to understand his Father’s heart of love, even though the younger son rebelled and went away with the Father’s wealth and misused them for his own pleasures, the Father still loved him.

Romans 5:8, Paul reminds “While we were sinners

(the time when we hated him, the time when we were committing adultery or fornicating with the opposite sex and even with the same sex, while we were indulged in watching sinful pornography, while we will expressing our hate towards another human by robbing and killing them, while we were high on alcohol and drugs, while we were worshipping idols made of mud, worshipping animals & birds and defaming God)

…Paul says God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for our sins for which we deserved the punishment but Christ took it upon himself.

What right do we have to look down and judge others?

The Pharisee like attitude shows up in subtle ways in our case and we take it lightly. Here are some of the things we say that show the Pharisee-like attitude in us.

“If He Knew The Bible As Well As I Did, His Life Would Be Better.”

Judgement and self-righteousness rolled up in a neat little package

“I follow the rules and that is what makes me a true Christian”

Instead of humility, we carry an air of being a rule keeping Christian, isn’t our attitude be one of gratitude, amazement and, humility.

“You Shouldn’t Hang Around People Like That.”

This comes mostly from parents. I understand that we have to choose friends for our kids carefully. But when applied to adults, this thought process is unscriptural.

The other way of expressing the same condition is when people say “I’m Simply More Comfortable With People From My Church Than I Am With People Who Don’t Go To Church.”

But, look at the kind of people Jesus hung out with.

One of the reasons many churches aren’t growing is because Christians don’t know any non-Christians. They think they are holy and have nothing to do with the unholy people of the world.

“God listens to my prayers”

That’s boasting!

In Matthew 6:5-7 Jesus says “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others.”

The biblical portrait of prayer is as much about broken people embracing the mystery and majesty of a forgiving God as much as it is about anything.

“Sure I Have A Few Issues, But That’s Between Me And God.”

Perfect on the outside and flawed on the inside—but that’s the accusation Jesus pushed against the Pharisees.

A biblical way of dealing with internal issues is not by keeping secrets that no one knows but it is transparency, vulnerability, and honesty.

These are just a couple of examples to help you see how subtly we carry the attitude of a Pharisee and fail to see the other person from Gods perspective, through his eyes of love, grace, and mercy.

As I conclude, I think this passage is a beautiful reminder for us to keep a check on our heart from a Pharisee like mindset.

Knowing that Jesus doesn’t appreciate or approve of it. Instead, he wants us to see him as the Lord over everything and to appreciate his sacrifice on the cross with humility and reverence.

And also to see the heart behind the warnings, rebukes, instructions, commands written in the bible as one given to us with love and for our benefit and well-being and not to burden us, and therefore delighting in them, obeying them so we bear fruit in season and out of season.

We are continuing with our Expository preaching from Mark.

Today’s Passage – Mark 2:18-22

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

When we look at this passage the most obvious thing that stands out is the mention of fasting and I can probably preach a sermon on fasting using this passage. But as I’ve read & re-read this passage I realize that preaching on fasting from this particular passage would not do justice to the actual context in which it is written, here’s why I say that …

1. Firstly, the emphasis is not on fasting but on the foundational beliefs of the people which needed correction, which is what I will be focusing on.
2. Secondly, if I have to preach a sermon on fasting then I believe there are much better passages that explain the concept of fasting. And because our goal today is to explicitly focus on this passage only, it is important that we don’t divert our attention from what the author is trying to tell us.

Mark is telling that one particular day some people came to Jesus and said: “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

On the onset, it sounds quite like a genuine question to me. Did you see anything wrong with that question?

But let me give you little bit background … The three main pillars of Judaism at that time and even today are prayer, almsgiving, and fasting. And about fasting, it is said that during those days the Pharisees fasted twice in a week, on Mondays and Thursdays although there is no indication or mention in the laws about fasting twice in a week and fasting on Mondays & Thursdays.

Scriptural references to biblical fasts were on the Day of Atonement mentioned in Leviticus 16:29 and four days post-exile mentioned in Zacharias 18:19.

The Pharisees fasted twice in a week in addition to this.

Now notice Jesus had no complaint with fasting per se as it is practiced by the disciples of John and the Pharisees. If he had any complaints he would have mentioned it.

Instead what we see Jesus do is to draw their attention to himself and his ministry on earth. He describes his mission as a wedding – himself as the bridegroom and disciples as the guests of the bridegroom. And his point is that wedding is not a time to abstain but to live it up.

John’s disciples, the Pharisees, and their disciples missed to see the significance of that moment and did not see it as an occasion to celebrate.

In the Old Testament, the bridegroom is referred to as an image of God, not the Messiah (of course later in the New Testament we see Jesus clearly been referred as the bridegroom). So, at that time, Jesus, by even mentioning that he was bridegroom was indicating the fact that he was God himself. Those were actually provocative statements least expected by the Pharisees.

And then from there Jesus goes on to tell them two parables

Parable number one – “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.”

Parable number two – “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

What we see here is the Pharisees and the disciples of John had a way of doing things. Especially with respect to fasting, they fasted two days in a week even though it wasn’t required for them to do so.

What essentially was happening there was that people were trying to convince Jesus to fit in their model of doing things, in this passage, it was about fasting. They wanted to make room for Jesus in their already full agendas.

Maybe you might be able to relate with me here as I give this example … It’s like when we join a new company or an organization, we join them with full of zeal and enthusiasm to make a difference to the company and grow ourselves.

But we often find ourselves in a place where we are made to comply with the already existing traditional ways of doing things by the seniors. Even when there are better ways to do the same task with much efficiency we and made to stick to the old methods and fit into their already existing methodologies and processes. You want to make a positive difference by bringing in new ideas but you are restricted from doing so.

Have you been in a situation like that?

I believe that’s the kind of pressure the people were trying to put on Jesus when they wanted him to fit in their mold, and in response to their expectations, Jesus’s tells them these two parables.

Now let’s read those parables once again.

Parable number one – “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.”

Parable number two – “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

Did you get the point?

Wish we had the liberty to speak that way with our company bosses. But I’m sure it would put them off, so did the Pharisees. Why do you think they became even madder at Jesus.

What I want you to see is that – Jesus is in a standing debate with Pharisees and the people, primarily over the issue of tradition, in this case, it was fasting. But he addresses it even more harshly in Mark 7:1-13

Jesus wanted the people to see how blinded they had become because of all their traditions, so much so that they were unable to see the Son of God who came to make everything new.

Paul beautifully elaborates this fact in 2 Corinthians 5:17 where he says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

The old way of doing things, the old way of thinking, the old way in which we lived our lives, has passed away.

• They failed to see and accept Christ as the promised Messiah who came down to earth as a representative of God to make things new.
• They failed to see how their traditions and so-called godly lifestyles had made them even more corrupt and sinful and wretched in the eyes of God.
• They failed to see that they needed a savior to save them from their wretchedness and make them a new creation – holy and acceptable to God.

Instead, they wanted Jesus to fit in their way of thinking and doing things as per human traditions to which Jesus opposes them and explains what happens when a new cloth is stitched into an old one and when a new wine is poured into an old wineskin.

He said it will make the worst tear if a new cloth is stitched into an old one and the new wine will burst the old wineskins.

What he is saying is that if you try to fit the redemptive work of God through Christ into your old wretched traditional ways of doing things then you will do more harm than you can ever imagine.

Now, how do this passage and this understanding help us?

It helps us to see Christ’s life, death, and resurrection far more glorious and life-changing than we’ve ever thought of.

We don’t believe in the gospel because it sounds great, but we believe in the gospel because it transforms us into a new person.

Once we were sinners, we deserved God’s wrath and our destiny was eternal death and life in hell. We lived selfish lives, hated and mocked God by creating idols out of mud and worshiped them, we even worshiped animals and birds, much worse we worshiped & desired money, wealth and possessions of this world more than the living God himself.

And mind you – just like the Pharisees and the people who questioned Jesus, even we followed the traditions of the world, we manipulated one another, we robbed, we killed, we lied. We did all the evil in this world.

There is absolutely no man who can say he never did anything wrong, there is no man who can say he is sinless. Not even the sadhus and monks of this world can claim to be holy.

And because of all this, we deserved punishment, and the punishment was eternal death.

Until one day the promised Messiah, the savior of the world, the Son of the most holy God, Jesus, came down on this earth – not to improve our living conditions by fitting into our ways of doing things but to reform us and make us a new creation.

He did that by taking the penalty of our sins – the wrath that we deserved – the punishment that we should have endured – upon himself by dying on the cross. And his last words before his final breath was “It is finished”.

Finished forever – the old has gone – the new has come.

Three days later Jesus rose again from the dead, defeating the power of sin in us, giving us the freedom that once was unknown to us, restoring back our relationship with God our creator.

The old sinful man is now dead and the new man is alive.

And we receive this free gift of salvation not by any good works but by putting our faith in Christ and his finished work on the cross.

I believe Jesus wanted the Pharisees to see him for who he is.

I believe even today, Jesus wants us to see him for who he is, the one and true God who transforms our lives and makes us into new being in him. Not by fitting into our ways of doing things but by his ways.

Here are some questions we should ask ourselves this morning:

• Did we put your faith in Christ only because he does miracles in our lives?
• Did we put our faith in Christ only because he provides for our needs?
• Did we put our faith in Christ only because having associated with him makes us look cool.

Or did we put our faith in Christ because we truly believe in our hearts that it is only through him that we can be set free from sin & death, have eternal life, and be transformed into a new man that doesn’t fit into the traditions of this world?

The second application of this passage is that it warns us not to fit Christ into our ways and even our expectations from him like the people did.

Our human tendencies are always to get our work done, our way. Whether it is in business, whether in looking out for a suitable job, whether it is in our workplace, our family, our church, our surroundings.

We like it that way.

But once we become a Christian, we need to be careful that these tendencies don’t manifest in our relationship with Christ, that we don’t try to fit Jesus in into our dreams, our desires, our way of doing things, our human, earthy expectations. Even bind him to our traditions and customs.

Even in the church and more often in our ministries we can try to fit Jesus into our goals & our agendas.

And the warning is, in doing so we will cause more damage than we ever imagined.

It will suck out the life in us and paralyze us from enjoying a grace-filled, sanctified relationship with Christ.

In Romans 12:2 Paul reminds us by saying “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect”

In all things, we should always discern what the will of God is for our lives and allow him to be in the driver seat.

Go where he takes you, speak what he asks you to speak, do what he tells you to do.

It could be that God is calling you to go and settle in a new place among strangers

It could be that God is asking you to take a risk with your job and start something new so you can serve him in bigger measures.

It could be that God is asking you to give more of your time and energy into serving him and his church.

And probably it may not fit into our contemporary ways of thinking and living. Nevertheless, follow him who is faithful and knows the end from the beginning.

He’s given us the Holy Spirit as a helper to help us pursue the right things to be led by the Spirit at all times.

If I had to fit Jesus into my dreams and desires that I had before I became a Christian I wouldn’t be where I am today. I feel blessed and happy for where God has kept me at this moment.

Yes, there are moments when I sometimes try to fit Jesus into my thinking and way of doing things but I’m thankful that his Spirit always convicts my heart, reminds me of the Gospel and enables me to let it go.

Let’s evaluate our hearts this morning and identify the areas where we try to fit Jesus into our mold instead of giving him the reins of our lives.

Let’s repent of those ways as his words convicts our hearts this morning.

And finally, as I end my sermon my encouragement to you this morning is to cherish this new life you have in Christ in full measure breaking out of all human traditions that binds you and allow him to rule over you 100% percent by following the leading of the Holy Spirit in your life.

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/how-can-I-glorify-god-with-my-spiritual-gifts-audio.mp3″]

Good morning church! We had a wonderful retreat on Friday as we covered the topic of “Serving each other with spiritual gifts”. We did a small exercise at the end of the retreat where we shared what our gifts were and in fact other people confirmed what those giftings were. It was such a beautiful picture of the variety of expressions of the Spirit’s work in our church. Now as humans we are prone to take pride in anything that we think we are good at or gifted in. So I think it would be ideal and most appropriate to follow up with the question: Now that I know what spiritual gifts are and identified those gifts, in what manner am I supposed to use them? How can I glorify God using my spiritual gifts? Are there ways by which I can use my gifts and still not glorify God?

As we are turning to 1 Corinthians 13, let me provide a little bit of a context to help us understand the passage. As we read through 1 Corinthians 12, what we realize is that there was a division among the Corinthians over spiritual gifts. Some believers considered gifts like tongues to be more valuable and superior to other gifts. Members of the church who didn’t have those gifts felt left out and less honored. Moreover, people were taking pride in their individual spiritual gifts rather than seeing how it can be used to bless and benefit the others in the church. It’s a response to that when Paul writes 1 Cor 13.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

As you may have figured: Love is the way and manner by which we can use our gifts to glorify God. This morning I want to remind us of three truths about biblical love as we look to use our gifts to serve each other:

1. The necessity of Love
2. The meaning of Love
3. The permanence of Love

1. The necessity of Love

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing. (v1-3)

It doesn’t get more direct and impactful than that! Paul says that if we have the gift of tongues without love then we are merely noisy instruments. He goes on further to say that if we have great prophetic powers minus love, we are nothing. If we understand all the mysteries and have all knowledge but no love then we are nothing. Not just that, he says that if we give everything that we have away – total sacrifice and even deliver our body to be burned up but have no love, we gain nothing! Such a huge sacrifice has zero effect and rendered useless if it is done without love.

What I think he’s emphasizing on is that love is the key to using your spiritual gifts. That’s why in 1 Corinthians 14, he urges the church to only allow speaking in tongues if there’s an interpreter. Why? Because that’s how the church can be loving toward each other when everyone understands what is being spoken. Remember the goal is to not glorify yourself using your gifts, the goal is to build up each other.

I still remember when I was a young believer in my previous church. I was given the responsibility to play the keyboard during the services. By God’s grace I was a capable keyboard player and would practice a lot even during the week. When we used to have the Lord’s Supper, I would think that this is my moment to shine. All those keyboard solos I practiced during the week would be performed for the whole church to hear. So much so that once someone commented that he felt like he was at the disco during the Lord’s Supper.

At that point of time I thought it was really cool getting all the attention. However, if I have to compare it with 1 Cor 13, was I really being loving? No, because in the attempt to catch people’s attention I missed the whole point of accompanying the songs with music so that people’s attention could be on God, on the gospel and the significant symbol of the Lord’s Supper.

The other thing I want to mention here is that your gifts don’t determine our spirituality, your love does! Let me repeat that again: Your gifts don’t determine how spiritual you are, your love reveals how spiritual you truly are! And that’s a big learning for the church. So many enthusiastic and gifted leaders have messed up themselves and also affected their churches by relying on their gifts rather than loving people. Some of them were very gifted preachers and worship leaders.

Very renowned people who have spoken at conferences and written many books. But because they emphasized and relied on their spiritual gifts for their spirituality, it crumbled and they lost their way. They were so excited to display themselves before people, that they forgot how they were called to use their gifts to lovingly serve and build people. You might have multiple gifts or a single gifts…it doesn’t matter! Are you loving people through those gifts? That’s what matters.

2. The meaning of Love

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

This is probably the most famous wedding card verse. Frequently used passage for pre-marital counseling and during wedding sermons. However, when we look at the context: there was division in the church. So for them, it wasn’t just a sweet, cute message. It was something they had to do to do, they had to forgive, they had to love. And even in close relationships, be it husband-wife, parents-children, close friends, church family you’ll find that there will always be issues.

Why? Because as we live closely with each other we realize each other’s sin much more clearly and we see each other’s weird habits closely. Sometimes it’s not sin specifically that causes issues but weird habits. You like doing things one way, the other person doesn’t and things get difficult in that relationship. To deal with that, we need a healthy reminder of what biblical love looks like.

Negatives: What love is not:-

• Envy: Being jealous of what the other person has, either his lifestyle, or giftings or anything else.
• Boast: Spending time talking about what you have or what you’ve done or what you’re going to do.
• Arrogant: Being puffed up and prideful about what you know. You’re not pulling people down because you think they don’t have or don’t know as much as you. Not having the humility to accept that you could be wrong.
• Rude: Being offensively impolite or bad mannered in your conduct toward your brothers and sisters.
• Insist on its own way: Be demanding to have your way.
• Irritable: Easily annoyed and provoked.
• Resentful: Keeping count of everything that a person has done and become bitter about it.
• Rejoices in wrongdoing: Taking pleasure in unrighteousness either in your life or witnessing and enjoying the sins in others.

What love is:

• Patient and kind: Be patient while bearing the offences of others. Someone may have done something really hurtful toward you but you are going to be very slow in judging or punishing the person and mild in your response.
• Rejoices in the truth: You would rejoice in everything that is righteous, holy, pure, encouraging and points people toward God! Rejoicing in the Word of God.
• Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things: A persevering relationship that is secure from threats and one that always believes the best about the person. Free from suspicion and insecurity.

What these few verses tell me is that love is not a feeling or an emotion. But it’s the willing surrendering of your rights for the good of the other person. And that’s why apart from God’s grace we cannot and are absolutely incapable of producing this kind of love. Brothers and sisters, this was the same love that God showed to us in His Son Jesus Christ. It was a pure, humble and glorious love. Even though we deserved God’s wrath, Jesus Christ humbly took on the form of man, lived the perfect live and died as a perfect sacrifice to pay for our sins. You know if we honestly looked at v4-6, we would conclude that we are sinners who haven’t displayed true love toward God. Because we are envious, we are impatient, we are rude, we are arrogant, we are boastful, we’ve been irritated and so many other sins.

Only a perfect sacrifice had the power to remove and cleanse us completely. Jesus Christ died, was buried and rose again on third day to give us what we didn’t deserve: His righteous life. It’s like we were prisoners wearing prison clothes who were going to be executed and at the last moment a good man wearing a nice suit asked us to exchange our clothes for his. We made the exchange and walked out free but the good man paid the price wearing our prison clothes. Can we ever comprehend the extent of this love? Jesus Christ showed us what love is by willingly surrendering his rights for our good and the glory of God. We need to now imitate that Love by bending it outwards in our marriages, in our families, in our church, at work.

3. The permanence of Love

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

In this last paragraph, Paul says how prophecies, tongues, knowledge and all these other spiritual gifts will pass away but not love. All of these gifts are given to us to prepare us for the coming of the Lord. When we see Jesus face to face, we will not require spiritual gifts anymore. I love the way Paul puts it. He says “we will know fully, even as we are known fully”. In other words, God knows us totally from the inside out. Even we probably don’t understand ourselves that well but God does. Just imagine the privilege to know God fully in the same way! That is so amazing!

So spiritual gifts will cease when Christ comes again but love will still continue. Love never ends. Love never fails. Love will never stop being effective. What I always found confusing was v13. Never understood why Paul mentions faith and hope as well and then says love is the greatest.

Colossians 1:4,5: since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

What we see here is faith is our reliance upon Christ for salvation, love is what we share among the believers, and hope is what we have for our eternal inheritance. Out of these faith and hope can seem to be more individual things, but love for the saints involves loving, caring and building up others. And maybe that’s why Paul says it’s the greatest out of three things because it is benefiting the other person as well. We know that within the God-head, the three members – Father, Son and Holy Spirit enjoyed a loving relationship. They love and serve and enjoy each other in community. As God’s redeemed people, we can now join and participate in that loving community.

It’s something that we are going to spend the rest of our lives in eternity doing: loving each other well! It’s almost like Paul is saying: don’t get caught up in what gift you have or don’t have. These spiritual gifts aren’t going to be there in eternity. Focus on what will remain in eternity and that is going to be “Love”. As we start using more and more of our gifts within the church, let me challenge us to talk more about how can we love each other better. Let the conversations be more about how can we willingly surrender our rights for the good of the other person.

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/making-much-of-christ-through-the-commission-in-2018-audio.mp3″]

How do we make much of God through Christ’s Commission in 2018?

Good morning church! As you’re aware we began the year by reminding each other of the church vision statement: Because we are loved, we love and serve Christ in Community through Commission for His glory. Brother Saju spoke on how can we make much of Christ in 2018. That happens by abiding in Christ and being fully devoted to Him and his purposes individually and also as a family. Last week brother Jeff shared of how we can make much of each other in 2018. We need to contend for the unity of the church and view others with the lens of the spirit and not the flesh. Today we’ll be looking at the topic of “Commission”.

Every time I think about the word “Commission”, somehow this question comes to mind “What all would I need to do or sacrifice in order to participate in God’s mission?” Am I the only one who has thought that? The mission of God is something that has been focused right throughout Scripture, so I invite you all to join me in learning what that means for us today.

The word commission from the dictionary means an instruction or command given to a group. So we all know that in Matt 28 just before Jesus ascended into heaven, he gave his disciples some instructions: 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt 28:19-20)

It is definitely an important command that Jesus has given all of us but what I hope we’ll arrive at the end of today’s sermon is that it’s something more than a command. It’s something that defines every believer in Christ. It’s something that every believer has been wired and also empowered to do.

First let’s understand what’s the purpose of the “Commission”? For that we turn to our main passage for today:

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Pet 2:9,10)

This amazing passage has so many things we can ponder upon. It says “we are chosen by God”. Think with me for a moment what that means. If we were chosen by the President to receive the Bharat Ratna, could you imagine how amazing that would be? Yet, the Bible says that the God who created the heavens and the earth, who existed before anything else existed hand picked you to be His people! Plus the word says we are a royal priesthood. In other words, in God’s royal courts he has appointed us to be his ministers to the people on earth. That’s what an OT priest would do.

He would represent God to the people and vice-versa also represent the people to God. Further it adds that we are “holy”. People set apart for God, made morally blameless…in effect “saints”. Isn’t that mind blowing? We are saints in God’s eyes! And it says that “we are a people for his own possession”. He owns us. We are his possession. We belong to Him. Precious in His eyes. He decides what He uses us for. But did we deserve any of this? Did we do anything to earn God’s choice? Did we do anything for which God could say You are my royal priest? Did we do anything to deserve to be called saints? Did we do anything to be God’s prized possession. No, absolutely not. We lived worthless lives only deserving of judgment and hell. But God being full of grace and mercy, sent His Son Jesus Christ to save us.

Jesus Christ protected you and me from being eternally separated from God. It came at a very very high cost. It costed God the death of His Son. Jesus being perfect and dying a righteous death, rose again on the third day to give us this new identity as described in v9.

So let’s first remind ourselves, that we didn’t earn this identity. We were given this identity by grace at the highest cost. And now because Christ saved us, he owns us. So no longer our ways, our desires, our goals define us but instead Christ’s ways, Christ’s desires and Christ’s goals.

So what’s Christ’s purpose for saving us? that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Because we have been saved by immeasurable and unending grace, and because he’s given us a new, fresh, glorious identity…we will spend the rest of our lives “proclaiming” at the top of our voices, and with our lives and with our attitudes how big and how great and how awesome is He who pulled me out of sin, Satan and death and brought me into his marvelous light which is brighter than the sun.

On one hand there is the indebtedness…Oh…I’m humbled and I don’t know how to thank God enough for what He’s done and on the other hand, there is this wonderful privilege to now proclaim about this amazing God!

If that’s not enough, Peter adds another line in v10. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

We were God’s enemies at one time because of our terrible lives but now by placing our faith in Jesus…we have received mercy from God and we have also become His precious people now who are being used by God. He’s telling us to remember where we came from. Remember who you were. Remember what God did to you by sending our Savior Jesus. Remember how your life and identity has now changed.

So that’s the cause and purpose for the “Commission”. Now how does that play out in our lives? How can I “proclaim the excellencies of Him who called me out of darkness into his marvelous light?”

1. Speaking

a) Verbal proclamation of the Gospel

14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

16 But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” 17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

There is a going, preaching, hearing, believing and calling on the Lord. It’s very clear from this passage that people can only be saved through the gospel. And that’s why it needs to be shared. If there was any other way to save a person, God would’ve told us. The truth is there is no other way by which a man can be saved apart from preaching Christ.

People are only going to believe if the gospel is preached to them! If you’ve been praying for your colleagues or neighbors…I’d encourage us to take the next step of now sharing the gospel with them.

b) Grace-filled Conversations with unbelievers

Now this in itself is not what saves an unbeliever but shows our intentionality in opening up opportunities to present the gospel.

5 Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (Col 4;5,6)

This is an amazing verse because it reminds us to be aware when we are around unbelievers…which is a lot of the time…at the same time trying to use every opportunity to build a connect with them. How do you do it? You are seasoning your conversations with “salt”. We know salt is meant to add taste to the food. What does that mean? I don’t think it means to make your talk very attractive using big words and many facial expressions. But I think it means being wise with your words and also speaking things that encourage people rather than discourage them. The goal of speech should be to build up and benefit the other person.

Last week at work my colleague told a story of how his friend always complained of the disappointment in marriage. He kept on saying that for many days. Finally after sometime when they all went out, someone asked him privately…is your marriage really that bad? He whispered “No, not really. It’s actually great. I have to say that because everyone else is saying it. If I say my marriage is good, people might actually think something is wrong with it.”

Now it was a humorous story, but I disagree with the whole idea of talking negative things about marriage even for a joke. Marriage is a beautiful gift from God and these conversations make people more cynical about marriage. So therefore, we need to make sure that our conversations are building people up. This will open up more opportunities to share the gospel later.

The second way by which you can proclaim the excellencies of God is by having a:

2. Sanctified Life

11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (1 Pet 2:11-12)

This is something that we won’t talk about in a sermon about missions. We like to keep the two things separate: holiness and missions. However, in God’s kingdom there is no separation. God doesn’t require people who merely know how to share the gospel verbally. Anyone even an unbeliever if he is trained can share the gospel verbally. Right from the OT, God gave the Israelites the law. Why? So that they could obey and live according to God’s character and will. His purpose was that the nations around them would look at the lives and know that they worship the One true God.

That purpose of God for the holiness in his people still remains. God wants you to be holy to indicate to the unbelievers around you that you worship the One true Holy Righteous and Great God. If you go and give an unbeliever a perfect and clear illustration of the gospel but don’t live a holy life, it will not make any sense to them. They’ll probably say “If this is the kind of faith, you are calling me into then I won’t have any part in it because this is hypocrisy”. If you want to be used by God, yearn for holiness.

If you want to see a greater commitment and involvement in God’s mission, ask God to change you heart, sanctify your life, produce holiness that would align with the message that you are sharing. Does it mean that we shouldn’t share the gospel because we aren’t perfect like Christ? We will only be perfect when Christ returns but until then we pursue repentance and ask God to still use us even in our weakness.

So let it not be an excuse to not be on mission, but rather let our prayer be this way: “Lord, help me to live in obedience and purity so that the unbelievers I meet today catch a glimpse of who you are. I know I’m imperfect but Lord, you are powerful and you can change me and use me”.

The third way we can proclaim the excellencies of God is by:

3. Service

22 Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. (Col 3:22-24)

It doesn’t matter if we are working at home or in the office or studying in school…the principle remains the same. Everything that we do should be consecrated to the Lord. And so it’s not the pay-check or the environment or the people or the personal satisfaction or the position that determines how you work. It doesn’t matter if you are the CEO or an employee.

Since you are serving the Lord, work with excellence, work with sincerity and reverence! And the end-reward is going to be much more valuable than your gratuity or anything else you can buy on earth – it’s an eternal inheritance in heaven. As I read this verse especially…I’m convicted in my heart. I feel that at times I allow these other factors affect the way I work.

Other times I struggle with having the right motivation: either to be a people-pleaser or attain some selfish goal. None of that honors Christ. None of that makes Him look bigger and wonderful. And so I realize this is a place where I need to repent and ask God to give me the true fear and right motivations to work. As we do that, people will notice something different about us. They’ll think “this person doesn’t work hard for any earthly benefit, I wonder what is motivating that person”. And that provides you with another opportunity to talk about Jesus who brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

I also want to add one aspect about serving the local community as an expression of the gospel. When we care for the needs of the orphans, underprivileged and oppressed people around us we echo the heartbeat of our Savior who wants to bring relief, rescue and justice to our lives. Christ’s redeemed church needs to be open, aware and active in bringing God’s love to places where few people go.

Nothing speaks louder than sacrificial good deeds that meets the needs of those who don’t have enough to return back in kind.

It’s not just the verbal sharing of the gospel that proclaims the excellencies of God. Your sanctified life, your service, your grace filled conversations will pave the way for the gospel. This is the harmony of the missions.

I’m sure when we thought through these points we were all convicted on how we aren’t living or doing what we should. But let that not take us away from Christ, let us come back to him in repentance and in humble dependence so that we can be used mightily by Him.

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/jeff-sermon-14-01-2018.mp3″]

Please turn to:

2 Corinthians chapter 5
Ephesians chapter 2.

Alright — so last week Saju talked about how we can “Make much of Christ in the year 2018” (Read) Isn’t that a great topic? Just think about this:

Can you imagine if our primary devotion this year was to Jesus? Where we wouldn’t settle for just a little bit of Him. But — He’s all we want, He’s all we need, and we don’t care how following Him affects our lifestyle. We just want to live our lives ABANDONED TO HIM.

Wouldn’t that be beautiful making much of Jesus in 2018? My task this morning is to talk about COMMUNITY, and my point is very simple: Just as we are called to make much of Jesus, we are also called to make much of one another.

That’s how God designed this to work: That our lives would be sustained by a growing intimacy with Jesus Christ as we ABIDE in Him. And, that would naturally flow through us to the people around us.

In fact, I want to begin by showing you how those 2 things are inseparably linked. That’s why I want to begin by looking at this passage in Ephesians chapter 2. Let’s read this together. (Ephesians chapter 2:12-22)

Understand what Paul is saying. We were, at one time, separated from Christ and, because of that, we were alienated from the commonwealth of the people of God. In other words, our relationship with God was fractured which meant that our relationships with one another were fractured. Those 2 always go together.

But all of that changed with the reconciling work of Jesus Christ. He has reconciled us to God by His blood. What that means is when you are in Christ, there is no longer alienation from God. There is fellowship with Him!

And, because of that, it has changed our relationship to one another. It has made us fellow citizens — members of the same household. Paul says in this text that God is literally building us up together into a spiritual dwelling place with Christ at the center.

When you add all of that up, you arrive at this: Because we have been reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus Christ, reconciliation can now happen with one another.

In other words, as we make much of Christ in 2018, it will allow us to make much of one another in 2018. And, as we are making much of one another, it furthers are ability to make much of Jesus Christ (it’s symbiotic in that way).

Doesn’t that sound beautiful? Here’s the problem: when you look around, a lot of churches don’t operate that way. I can’t speak fully to the context here in Mumbai, although I would guess there are similarities to the American Church.

But in my context in America this is a stinging indictment against the church. There’s often more disunity within the walls of the church than there is outside of the church.

Where sadly, in some contexts, the church is becoming known more for it’s disunity than for its togetherness. And, if we’re going to understand why that is and how that can change, then we have to understand what’s causing disunity in the church.

Now, here’s what I want to do: I want to take a few minutes and talk a little bit about the problem that exists. And then, we’ll get to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 to discover how we can see this eradicated in the church.

Alright — let me start my making 2 statements that frame the discussion for us: 1) Unity is something that must be fought for in the church 2) Pride is the catalyst for disunity in the church.

Let me speak to each of these for a few moments.

Unity is something that must be fought for in the church.

The best way to illustrate this is by thinking of a marriage.

One of the things that I get to do as a pastor is marry young couples & handle their pre-marital counseling — (and sometimes their post-marital counseling). And one of the themes that I try to drive home with young couples who are about to enter into a marriage covenant is that a healthy, unified, Christ-exalting marriage takes A LOT of work.

And, if you’ve been married for a long time, you just “amened” that in your head because you know it’s true! And, if you haven’t been married for a long time, and you don’t yet know that, trust me: unity in a marriage doesn’t just happen, it’s something that you have to contend for.

The best marriages are the ones where the husband & wife are actively caring for & pursuing each other’s hearts as they pursue Jesus Christ. It’s just a fact.

And the exact same pattern is true as it relates to relationships within the church. If we want deeper community within our church, if we want to be defined by our unity & our oneness, then we must pursue Christ and, flowing from that, we must actively pursue unity with one another. We have to fight for it! We have to contend for it! WE HAVE TO SACRIFICE FOR IT!

“What are we supposed to sacrifice,” you ask. EVERYTHING!!! Just consider this again in terms of marriage. Think about what a marriage would like if the husband & wife interacted with each other the same way most Christians interact with their local church.

Because, a lot of Christians interact with their local church by asking these kinds of questions in their heart: “How do I benefit from this?” “How can my needs be met?” “Will this relationship cost me too much?” Questions like, “How can I be served?”

But, here’s my question: What would a marriage look like if both the husband & the wife related to each other that way? Just concerned with having their needs met. Just concerned with what they can get. I think we can agree that a marriage like that would look terrible and would be terribly disunified.

The question is, why would that be any different in the church? If we aren’t willing to sacrifice for each other, and fight for each other, and prefer one another as better than ourselves, why would we expect any sort of unity?

Church, WE MUST see unity as something to be fought for; as something to be contended for. That’s the first thing.

I don’t think I have to spend much time convincing you of the 2nd statement.

Pride is the catalyst for disunity in the church.

It’s PRIDE that drove a wedge between us and God when we tried to usurp His authority. It’s PRIDE that keeps people from God who believe that they know better and can fashion God in their own image. And it’s PRIDE that keeps us from loving one another because we tend to minimize our sin and focus on the sin of others.

Pride is a cancer that eats away at communion & fellowship. It erodes communion with God & it keeps us from experiencing true fellowship with one another.

I’ll put it simply: there is no place for PRIDE in the body of Christ! We must be reminded in our hearts that God OPPOSES THE PROUD, but GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE (Prov. 3:34 — — as quoted in James 4:6).

Pride impacts and infects everything, and it must be eradicated by the gospel over time. Where our pride gets replaced by new affections, and new delights, and new longings for God and for each other.

If that’s really going to happen, then we must begin to regard each other according to the spirit and not according to the flesh. So, what does it mean that “we must regard each other according to the spirit & not the flesh?”

Let me put it another way. We have a choice when we interact with each other: Are we going to see & respond to each other through the lens of each other’s flesh? Or, are we going to see & respond to each other through the lens of the gospel and God’s redemptive work in each other’s lives?

I’m telling you, this has everything to do with whether the church will be defined by it’s unity or it’s disunity. Whether or not it’s members are regarding each other according to the spirit or according to the flesh.

Just think about the effects of these 2 positions. When we are regarding each other according to the spirit, we are defining everything by grace and the covering that we all have in Christ. We are quick to remember who we are in Christ — (SAINTS) — and we are quick to remember that we’re all being sanctified right now progressively. That means we’re all in process, WHICH ALLOWS US TO ACTUALLY EXTEND GRACE TO EACH OTHER.

On the other hand, when we are regarding each other according to the flesh, we define everything in each other’s lives based on how we measure up to standards. We are quick to believe the lie that we are defined by how well we perform for each other. It makes us quick to judge and slow to forgive.

Regarding one another according to the spirit causes us to consider how we can walk with one another & bless one another. Regarding one another according to the flesh causes us to evaluate relationships based on how they benefit us.

Regarding one another according to the spirit causes us to seek to understand someone & extend grace to them. Regarding one another according to the flesh causes us to pre-determine that we’re right & then write the other person off in our heart. Church, I am convinced that this is what breeds disunity in the church.

I want you to turn 2 Corinthians chapter 5, where I had you mark your place. I want our hearts to hear what Paul has written to the Corinthian church on this point. Now, remember the context of the church in Corinth. It was a mess! All kinds of things were mis-firing in the church. And Paul is writing to them with a very corrective tone, but with a heart to build unity in the church & restore what had been fractured. Look at what he says starting in verse 14.

Read 2 Corinthians 5:14-19

So, what does Paul mean when he says that we no longer regard Christ according to the flesh? We all understand what he means by not regarding each other according to the flesh. But, how does this relate Jesus?

Well, let me just boil it down to this. We no longer regard Jesus according to the flesh because He has overcome Satan, sin and death. He has won! He is victorious!!!

That’s how we regard Christ: as the Lamb who was slain, BUT IS NOW STANDING, VICTORIOUS. And, through that victory Christ has made a way for us to be reconciled to God.

And, where we are reconciled to God, the old us goes away and the new us has come. And, the new us doesn’t see things according to the flesh anymore. The new us is controlled by the love of Christ. The new us seeks reconciliation at all times. The new us realizes that we don’t own anything; not even our own lives.

Church, the level of PRIDE that’s involved when we view ourselves according to the spirit but then view others according to the flesh, IS STAGGERING. That is not what Christ purchased for us. That is not what relationship with Him looks like. That will erode unity in the body of Christ.

Can I tell you what transformed my thinking on this? THE TRUTH that we have been bought by Jesus Christ, THEREFORE, we are no longer are own, THEREFORE, sacrificing for one another is nothing because we don’t own anything anymore.

Romans 14:7-8 — “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”

Galatians 5:13-15 — “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.”

When we live like we’re owners, and not stewards, of God’s stuff pride & idolatry will dictate our lives. If my position is ever that fighting for unity & regarding one another according to the spirit is going to cost too much of:

My time, and my money, and my emotional energy, and my comfort, and my desires… Then I’m moving from the wrong position. There’s too much of the word, “MY” in all of that.

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/make-much-of-christ-in-the-year-2018-audio.mp3″]

The reality of life is its slipping away from our hands, every passing day is a day less in our lives, our lives are limited on this earth, we don’t even know how many days are left for us to live on this earth.

When I look at my own days from the time I was born, until today. I don’t even know how the first 20 years of my life just went by, the next 10 years I spent figuring out what life is all about, fighting to get a college degree, trying to figure out what I want to do in life and getting married.

The next 9 years were spent looking after the family, providing for my children, serving in the church in whatever measure I could invest my time & energy.

This month I’ll turn 39, almost touching 40.

When I look back at my life, I’m definitely thankful to God that he led me, provided for me, and still takes care of me. I feel good that I found my purpose, my passion, the right place and the right people in my life that I feel good about.

But one thing that makes me feel sad is when I think why it took such a long time for me to arrive at this stage in my spiritual life, where I feel I’m now steady and stable. I know what I need from life and where I need to focus.

But I wish I was here when I was 25, I wish I had the energy and youthfulness I had when I was 25 to do more and achieve more for the Kingdom. Because I feel I wasted a lot of time chasing after the world and deprived myself of God and Seeking His Kingdom first in my life.

As I had these thoughts running through my mind while preparing today’s sermon I was also encouraged in my spirit that it is not too late. God will use the remaining years of my life for his glory and I want to be obedient and crazy from him then I’ve ever been before.

Similarly, I now want you all to think about your lives. And I want you to do it by answering the following questions in your mind.

Q1. How old are you?
Q2. How many years do you think you have in hand?
Q3. What is the immediate need in your life that you think will bring instant joy in your life?
Q4. To what extend are you willing to go to achieve that immediate need in your life?

A1. Obviously, You know your age.
A2. You don’t have any clue on how many days you have in hand. Only God does. Today can be the last day of your life.
A3. The thing that you are seeking for right now (it could be a job, a life-partner, a particular sum of money, an educational qualification, an inheritance from your parents, a business contract, promotion etc). Trust me, I say this out of my experience, these things will never bring lasting joy, the joy your soul is longing for. Once you have it, your heart will desire for more… it is a never-ending saga.

Think about the different kinds of people in our world.
– People who have money, yearn for relationships.
– People who have relationships, yearn for money.
– People who have jobs, yearn for promotion.
– People who have huge business contracts and good paying jobs, yearn for peace of mind.
– People who have a good educational qualification, yearn for a good job.

A4. If your answer to Q4 is “I’m willing to give and do anything to have my immediate desire been fulfilled”, then I want to ask you why is it that you want to give your all to achieve something that is not a source of real joy and satisfaction for life, maybe it can give momentary joy.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t give your best to achieve things in life, my question is why would you give all of yourself to something that, at the end of your life will be of zero value.

Wouldn’t you like to give your time, money, strength to something that is of true value, and a source of everlasting & eternal joy?

So, my job today as we begin this New Year is to point our hearts to the only true source of joy and fulfillment, an eternal one.

Brother & sisters, it is CHRIST and only Christ who is, and will ever be our true source of joy, happiness, and fulfillment.

It is not just about been happy on earth. The new testament indicates, that there’s another reason we need Jesus. There is a God who is altogether holy, who is perfectly just, and who declares that he is going to judge the world and hold every human being accountable for their life.

As a perfectly holy and just God, he requires for each one of us a life of perfect obedience and of perfect justness.

And it is only through Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross that we can receive acceptance from our creator God, which we can never achieve ourselves.

Jesus lived the perfect life of obedience and justness on our behalf and took our sins on himself and died in our place. When we believe this truth and put our faith in him, our sins are forgiven and the righteousness of Christ comes upon us, and we become holy and acceptable to God.

And therefore, I want to begin this new year by encouraging you to Make much of Christ in the year 2018. The passage that I want to point our hearts to is John 15:1-11 where Jesus saying…

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

Here are a couple of things I want our hearts to remember and we make much of Christ in this coming year.

1. Always remember that Jesus is the true vine (v.1), the only source that connects us with the vinedresser, God, the creator who made, knows us, loves us, cares for us and sent us to this earth for a purpose.
2. As we continue to make much of Christ, we will be pruned every day (v.2). Through sufferings, struggles, pain, loss, discouragements, so we can bear much fruit. Romans 5:3-5 Pauls reminds us to rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
3. We will fail to see & produce fruit if we fail to abide in Christ (v.4-5)
4. There is a consequence if we fail to Abide in Christ (v.6)
5. As you make much of Christ and abide in him, you can ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. Obviously, it has to be God’s will for your life as well. (v.7)
6. When you make much of Christ by abiding in him and bear fruit for him and prove to be the disciples of Jesus, God is glorified.
7. Obedience is the main thing, if you are unwilling to change and obey his commandments then nobody can help you in anyways. (v.10)

Here are some practical ways in which we can make much about Christ in this coming year.

As an individual…

– By seeking him daily through prayer and devotion
– By loving him more than anything or anybody in life
– By doing our best to present ourselves to him as one approved, unashamed and able to rightly handle the word of truth.

As a family…

– By trusting him for your needs, whether financial, health or whatever your need in life
– By seeking him as a family in devotion and prayer
– By serving him as a family in whatever capacity each one of you can contribute. Just like Joshua who said me and my household will serve the Lord.

At our workplace…

– By acknowledging him and his presence and having fellowship with him while at work
– By joyfully submitting to our earthly master as unto the Lord, giving your best at all times
– By trusting him as your provider and guide.

As you make much of Christ in the year 2018, my desire and prayer is that you are blessed abundantly and bountifully, that God would enlarge your territories and make your face shine, and even use you in unspeakable and unimaginable ways for his glory.

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/The-Hope-for-the-Lost-Unlikely-and-Unloved-in-Gods-Kingdom-Mark-2-13-17-audio.mp3″]

Good morning church! And a happy new year in advance. What a year 2017 has been! We praise God for his mercy and faithfulness toward us on the last day of this year. As Saju and I were discussing what to preach on this week, I was wondering if I had to take another passage on account of the new year. However, as I read this passage I realized how apt this message was for us as we move into the new year. So before we jump into the passage, I wanted to ask all of you some questions. How many of us would like to really experience the joy of following Jesus? How many of us would like to understand God’s economy in terms of who is accepted and who is rejected? How many of us really want to see God use us this year for His glory? I believe this passage answers all of those questions.

13 He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. 14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

15 And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 And the scribes of[a] the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat[b] with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

There are three things we understand about the heart and character of Jesus from this passage. The first thing is:

1. Christ pursues the lost

14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. (v14)

Especially in our church circles we’ve heard the word “lost” so many times that now we’ve lost the meaning of lost. The word “lost” doesn’t have too much of an impact on us anymore. When the Bible uses the word “lost”, it’s always in a sense where God is searching for his “lost sheep, lost Son, lost coin”. So how do we understand “lost” when we think about Levi/Matthew. This verse tells us that Levi was a tax collector. Now tax collectors in the Roman empire were hated by the Jews in Jesus’ day.

They were seen as people who were greedy and partnered with the Roman government which the people never liked anyway. These tax collectors would amass a lot of wealth by cheating people and charging high interests much more than what the Roman government would ask for. They were also known to be very harsh with the people.

Therefore, tax collectors had a very bad reputation among the Jews in those days. Nobody liked them. They were unloved and plus I’m sure they carried around the guilt of cheating several people. It’s interesting and humbling to see that Levi was even noticed by Jesus! The movie “Son of God” had a wonderful scene picturing this story.

They showed it as when Jesus passes by, he notices Levi at the tax booth. Jesus looks intently into his eyes, and calls him to follow him. You can see tears flow down Levi’s face because he can’t believe that Jesus – being so Holy and Powerful instead of judging him actually invites him to be his disciple!

If you’re probably thinking today, “I don’t think God can love me after all that I’ve done. Nobody could possibly forgive me for all the wrongs I’ve committed”. Or probably you’re thinking “I’ve not really seen true commitment and devotion to God in my life so far.” Or you’re thinking “I’m the last person for God to approach me because I am an unlikely and unfit candidate”. Let me tell you on the basis of the Word, that in God’s economy the worst, most unlikely, most unloved in world can actually be accepted and transformed!

Why would God show mercy and not judgement? It’s because Christ himself took the punishment for sins and open the doors of God’s mercy and love to flow toward us. It’s not on the basis of what any human has done or will ever do. Our acceptance before God is totally on the basis of Christ’s perfect life and perfect sacrifice and perfect triumph over death on our behalf.

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph 2:8,9)

Another application could also be in terms of evangelism. When was the last time we shared the gospel with someone who was hated, an unloved and unlikely person to respond to the gospel? Let’s not write off certain people because they don’t fit our expectations. This understanding of Christ pursuing the lost, the unlikely, the unloved should remove any barriers or thoughts to reach out to certain groups of people that we may be uncomfortable with.

2. Christ desires followers and not crowds

13 He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. 14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

15 And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. (v13-15)

One thing we notice as we are reading through the book of Mark is that crowds – people in large numbers come to Jesus. Right from the moment Jesus cast out that demon from the man in the synagogue you find multitudes of people coming to Jesus to witness these miracles. But you never find them being described as followers except for Simon, Andrew, James and John. The majority of the people are always referred to as “the crowd” or as many people gathered together or as people coming to him. Here with Levi and the tax collectors and sinners in v15: we see them “following Jesus”. My immediate question is what’s the difference between followers of Jesus and just being in the crowd?

Two things we can see in this passage:

1) Willing and total surrender of everything that his life was built upon

Or as Saju put it a few weeks back…it’s an exchange of dreams and pursuits. Think about this…Levi till that point probably made a lot of money by cheating people. His life was probably built on wealth and his identity as a tax collector. As soon as Jesus invited him to follow him, he didn’t think twice, he didn’t take days to discuss with his family and decide if he wanted to follow Jesus.

The Bible says that he rose and followed him. It meant that Levi had to give up his identity, his wealth, his purpose in life, his pleasures in life and most importantly the control of his life. He gave it up to follow Jesus and become like Him. And that’s a radical decision not just for him personally but it would’ve impacted even his family.

2) Close fellowship with the Savior

15 And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.

Being welcomed into a person’s house and reclining at the table meant close friendship in those days. It was a big deal for Jesus to go to his home and eat with him. That’s what made the Pharisees unhappy…they couldn’t figure why Jesus would want to become friends with men of bad reputation. When Jesus invited Levi to follow him, he didn’t just invite him to be his companion while he went and preached in different cities – that would’ve been just a work relationship. This was far more deeper. Jesus intended to have a close relationship with Levi and change him through that.

These two things: willing surrender and close fellowship with Jesus is what makes you a follower of Jesus. And that was something that the crowd didn’t have. They would’ve been satisfied just seeing Jesus as a chamatkari baba but Jesus wanted to reveal Himself as the everlasting God, Mighty King, Creator of heaven and earth, sustainer of everything and Savior of the world. And you can only know that through willing surrender of your life and close fellowship with Him.

If you’re not wanting to do that, you can’t be a follower and you’re merely a person in the crowd. It’s like going to a Hillsong concert totally singing all the songs and having a great time but you’re just the crowd and not a follower of Jesus. And the same thing can happen on a Sunday morning where we can be part of the crowd and still not followers. What are we to do? Willing surrender and come to Jesus for fellowship with Him and not the benefits that Jesus offers.

Let your cry each morning be: Lord, I want to know you more! Lord, I want to love you more. Lord, I want close fellowship with you as I read the Bible today. I want to willingly surrender everything that my life is built on for the sake of your glory.

3. Christ responds to those who truly need Him

16 And the scribes of[a] the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat[b] with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus’ response to the Pharisees/teachers question was that he has come for the spiritually sick and sinners and not the righteous. What?

When Jesus said he has not come to call the righteous he was referring to those who were self-righteous. They thought they would be made right with God on the basis of their external religion and their own efforts. They thought “if I try to follow all these commands and the law by my own strength, then I can be accepted by God”. And what is God response? “Your righteous acts are like filthy rags”. (Isa 64:6)

On the basis of Rom 3:23, we know that both the Pharisees and the tax collectors needed Jesus to save them. But what was the problem? The Pharisees didn’t recognize that they had a disease – a destructive spiritual disease that separated them from God and they couldn’t do anything to remove that from them. They didn’t understand their need for Jesus – the Savior because they thought they were already right and accepted before God. They couldn’t have been more wrong about their position and condition before God.

We end up reflecting this self-righteous nature whenever we end up being critical of someone else’s walk with Jesus and ignore our own need for Jesus or the issues that take place in our own heart which needs to be confessed. In other words, you spend more time talking about the other person’s sins than confessing your own. You will do all the Christian stuff and attend all Christian events but there’s no desperate cry for repentance and change in your individual life. Why? We’ve concealed all those sins with our self-righteous deeds (filthy rags).

If we’re in that position today, we need to repent of our self-reliance and desperately seek and ask for Christ’s help and perfect sacrifice to make us acceptable before God. I find it a good exercise to ask myself when was the last time I repented openly and humbly before God. The more frequent and authentic your repentance is, the more precious Jesus seems to you.

The tax collectors and sinners on the other hand already knew how condemned and sinful they were. They were more open to receiving salvation because they understood their helplessness. Only a miracle could save them. And Jesus Christ performed that miracle when he died on the cross for our sins! If you relate more to the “tax collector” than the Pharisee, let me still remind you that that even though you know you are a condemned sinner – it still requires humility to repent before God.

You could still be arrogant and not change your ways – continue sinning as you always have. The humility part is in acknowledging that you have been living a life against the will and character of God. Furthermore, the humility is in helplessly running toward Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross to rescue you from your life of rebellion. What would you do if you were caught in a building that has caught fire? You will shout and scream for “help”. If a fireman comes to save you, will you run away from him? Absolutely not! You would run to him, hold onto him until he brings you to safety.

Would you dare to come up with their own plans or defy the instructions of the fireman? No, it would cost you your life. It requires your humility in those moments to trust in the fireman and not yourself to bring you to safety. How much more humility should we show to our Creator who made us and then who saved us with His own precious blood?

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Everyone around the world is celebrating Christmas and so are we. Christmas brings a special feeling to all of us. It’s the decorations, the lights, the energy, the celebration, the ambiance, Santa Claus, the jingle bell song, good food, friends & families getting together etc.

But it is also about the hype created by the media & the politicians to get attention, offers created by the business world to sell their products and services, people getting drunk and creating ruckus, loud noise disturbing the old and sick people, rich people lavishly spending money in self-indulgence flaunting their wealth, poor people suffering and struggling to find their identity in this loud and noisy celebration.

In all this hype and drama most people either don’t know what exactly Christmas is, but like to go with the flow and have a good time. Or there are people who sit on the other side criticizing and complaining.

And therefore my job today is to share the True Purpose of Christmas.

Mind you, it is not my perspective on Christmas, it is the ultimate truth about Christmas that is recorded in history & experienced by millions whose life has been changed and transformed.

I don’t have to hype it up like the media and the politicians because there is nothing that I am trying to achieve from it. I don’t have to make it sound attractive with my well-crafted words because I’m not trying to sell anything to you.

I’m doing it because I have personally seen and experienced the transforming power of this Christmas message in mine and in my family’s life.

Even though I was born in a Christian family, till the age of 17 I never understood this truth. It was at the age of 17 when an old uncle took me to a park and shared this amazing story of God’s love with me, that I so treasure till this day and am even willing to die for it.

Since then, I’ve been thoroughly blessed, not just with the material things of this world but blessed with this amazing peace in my heart, a joy beyond measure, a fulfilling life that every man on this earth desires.

And unless I’m selfish, why would I want to keep this transformative truth to just myself and my family.

It is truly my joy and pleasure to be able to share this truth with all of you this evening.

So, here we go…

The True Purpose of Christmas is to remind ourselves the reason behind the birth of a man called Jesus about whom a great French general, politician and emperor Napoleon Bonaparte once said

“I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires; but what foundation did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded an empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.”

The famous scientist Albert Einstein said

“I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of Jesus. Jesus is too colossal for the pen of phrase-mongers, however artful¨. “No man can read the story of Jesus without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life. Theseus and other heroes of his type lack the authentic vitality of Jesus.”

Have you ever wondered what makes Jesus and his birth so special?
Why is he such a hero to the world?

Compared to the standards and norms of our system…

– He wasn’t rich – In fact he was born as the son of a carpenter called Joseph
– He wasn’t a businessman – As he never founded any organization
– He wasn’t a politician – As he never formed a party or rallied around
– He wasn’t a thug – As he never stole or cheated anyone

Here are some facts about Jesus while he was on this earth…

Fact#1

Jesus was born of a virgin birth: He was not born because of the sexual relationship between Joseph and Mary. Mary conceived Jesus before she got married to Joseph. The bible says she was conceived by the Holy Spirit. An angel came to her and gave her the good news.

Fact #2

Jesus lived a 100% righteous life – There was no one who could put any kind of blame on him while he walked on the earth. And it is a known fact that you will hear even from the intellectuals of this generation speak about. Jesus was not hanged on the cross for any criminal activity.

Fact #3

Jesus, while he walked on this earth healed people of their sickness, he made the deaf hear, a blind see, a leper walk free, raised the dead and many more miracles no man has ever experienced, because of which multitude of people would follow and gather around him.

Fact #4

Jesus was crucified on the cross because of the false allegation put on him and was buried in a tomb. And three days after his burial he rose again from the dead and was taken up in heaven in the presence of multitudes of people. His empty tomb in Jerusalem still stands as a witness to that incident.

Fact#5

Even today, in his name people receive healing and freedom from their oppression.

So… Who is this Jesus? What does all this mean? and What is the purpose of Jesus’s Life?

3000 years before Jesus was born his birth was predicted in the Vedas (The Vedic Literature), specifically the Bhavishya Purana which states about the appearance of Isha Putra (the son of God), born of an unmarried woman.

700 years before Jesus was born on this earth a man called Isaiah prophesied about him and said

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” (Immanuel means God with us)

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

A couple of years later a man called Daniel predicted the coming of Jesus and said

“There before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven . . . He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”

There is no man who can exhibit the qualities and abilities like Jesus did simply because Jesus is God himself. The bible talks about a triune God – God the Father, God the Son & God the Spirit.

Jesus is the son who came down to this earth.

Jesus himself claimed he was God..

In John 10:30 Jesus said “I and the Father are one”
In John 14:9 Jesus said “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”

Jesus is the son who came down to this earth to rescue us from our own foolishness, sin, lack of purpose and eternal death.

Look at the world today, I don’t know if you are looking carefully. But look at it. It’s a chaos.
The earth is dying, everything in it is perishing. Our selfish desires to gain money, power and freedom have made us animals.

– We don’t think twice before killing someone just like us.
– We don’t care about the people just like us suffering because of poverty and lack of basic necessities.
– We are destroying our natural resources, the trees that give us oxygen, the minerals that sustain our ecosystem.
– All of this leading us to Global warming and end of everything. Just because we are selfish and our hearts hardened.

The scientists and researchers say that if this continues then it is not too late that we will be extinct. Everything we value in our lifetime, everything we treasure for our children, they will be gone.

But how did all this happen?

When God created the first man and women, he wanted them to flourish and multiply. He wanted them to inhabit this earth and enjoy the beautiful, resourceful earth that he created.

But instead of living righteously and living in God’s terms, the man became disobedient, unrighteous and ungodly. And we continue to be so even to this day.

Because of our sinfulness, the bible says

“For the wrath (anger) of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!”

The bible says that every single man is sinful. We all are born sinful and the only way to relate with God is through a sacrifice.

The Vedas reveal this truth…

“Yagne Sarvam Pratishthitam” – “It is sacrifice that bestows all things”.
“Yagnovai Sutarmanowh”- “Sacrifice is the bark (boat) that enables one to live well”.
“Yagnena Va Deva Divangatah” – “Only by means of sacrifice, the gods attained heaven”
“Rutasyanah Pathanaya Ati Viswani Durita”- “Deliverance through sacrifice”

For years men continued to offer sacrifices to God for the forgiveness of their sins, even today in some cultures they still offer sacrifices in various forms. The only norm is that the sacrifice needs to be perfect and blameless.

Jesus, who is God himself, even though he was a man he was not born of man, came to this earth, lived a perfect and blameless life, to deliver us from the wrath of the Father and from eternal death by offering himself as the perfect sacrifice that will suffice every requirement for us to enjoy a perfect relationship back with our Creator God and live eternally with him in the heavenly places.

Jesus did not come to establish a religion; in fact, he spoke against and criticized the religious people of his time. He is above and beyond all our man-made cultural and traditional myths that only leads us to deep bondage and frustration.

John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that he sent his only son Jesus to die for us as a perfect sacrifice, and whoever believes in him will not perish but will have eternal life”

After suffering a terrible death for our sake, Jesus, because he was God, rose again from the dead and was taken up in the heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father. And the Bible tells us that one day he will return back and judge the world. Those who are his will be taken up with him and rest will be thrown into hell and eternal death.

You may ask after God sent his son Jesus to die for us and for sinfulness what does he expect from us to receive him and become part of his great big family?

All God requires from us is to believe and put our faith in Jesus’s finished work on the cross. And how do we do that?

We simply turning away from our sinful ways and put our faith in Christ. Trust me, you too will experience this transformative power that most of us have already experienced in this room.

This is the message of Christmas and if you want to experience the joy of knowing your creator God then you need to put your faith in Christ and his work on the cross. Or else this Christmas would mean nothing to you.

I hope and pray that you receive your savior today and see your life transformed forever.