Tag: Christ

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1 John Sermon

Gospel Repentance – 1 John 1:5-10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s what he is saying…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They stop us from experiencing a spirit filled Christian life.

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

Listen carefully as I read the passage again.

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

And here’s the solutions John offers

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

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

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

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

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

We never stop needing to repent and believe.

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

Amen

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

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

Gospel Humility – Philippians 2:3-11

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1.Looking up to Christ (v5-7)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jesus Has the same nature and image of God –

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Looking at the Cross

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3. Kneeling before Christ

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Mark Sermon

Responding to the call of Jesus

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  1. FOE
  2. FAN
  3. FOLLOWER

FOE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FAN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FOLLOWER

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


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

Mark 3: 13-14

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Mark Sermon

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

Our passage today is Mark 16:1-8.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Without the Resurrection of Jesus, our story is incomplete.

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

1. The Resurrection affirms our death to Sin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. The Resurrection gives hope for the future

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

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

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

Do not put your hope in man.

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

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

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

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

3. The Resurrection strength our witness in Christ

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s pray!

Categories
Mark Sermon

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

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

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

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

Christ invites unlikely people to follow Him

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christ produces willing sacrifice by knowing Him

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christ enables holiness when we die with Him

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Mark Sermon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Q. Do we love Jesus?

Q. Do we love Jesus more than ourself?

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

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

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

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

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

Fear of Man

The first reason I see is the Fear of Man.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love for their present life

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

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

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

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

Unexpected encounter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What is Prayer?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Categories
Mark Sermon

Understanding the Lord’s Supper – Mark 14:12-25

Good morning church! I hope you all had a blessed week in the Lord and I’m excited to share from the Word this morning. As a church we have been studying the gospel of Mark and we have arrived at the last few chapters of this gospel.

Wouldn’t you agree it’s been wonderful studying this together? We will be continuing with chapter 14 today and as you are turning to it let me set the background: the events of the last few chapters are taking place during Passion Week – which means that the crucifixion is very very close. You can imagine what might have been going through the mind of Jesus & his disciples. And our passage today revolves around the supper/meal that Jesus has with his disciples
[Read Mark 14:12-25]

I grew up in a traditional church where they used to administer the Lord’s Supper each week but I don’t think I realized the significance at the time. It seemed like a ritual similar to the rites of other religions is how I presumed it while growing up. With the wide variety of interpretations available everywhere, it’s great that today we get to study this together to get a biblical understanding of this important commandment from the Lord. I’ve got 3 points to share:

We need Jesus’ Provision and not our performance (v12-16)

Context is key to understanding any passage, wouldn’t you agree? The Lord’s Supper after all was a part of the Passover meal originally. Therefore, it’s vitally important to understand the context of this passage to understand the Lord’s Supper. v12 says this happens on the first day of Unleavened Bread and when they sacrificed the Passover Lamb.

Now what is this unleavened bread? It’s a 7-day festival observed by Israelites where they would eat bread without yeast to remember that on this day God brought out the Israelites from the land of Egypt. God rescued the Israelites from their bondage to slavery! 

And on the first day of the unleavened bread they celebrated the Passover. Now as most of you would remember, this was the event in Egypt when the Israelites killed a lamb and painted their doorposts with the blood of the lamb and no one ventured out till morning next day. At night, the Lord passed through the land to strike the Egyptians and he passed over every home that had the blood of the lamb on their door post & so the Israelites were spared but the first born among the Egyptians were killed.

On one hand it marked the event of God rescuing the Israelites from slavery and on the other hand, the Passover meant God protected them from being killed through the blood of the lamb.

Do you see the familiarity with these events and what Christ was going to ultimately do?

  • He was going to save people from their slavery to sin (Matt 1:21).
  • He Himself was the Passover Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. (John 1:29) He was going to protect people from the wrath of God.

Now think about it, the disciples ask Jesus about where would he want them to prepare the Passover. And Jesus gives them specific instructions and they found it to be exactly how it was described to them by Jesus. At the time I don’t think the disciples understood the truth about Jesus’ being the Passover lamb. I wonder if in a way Jesus was communicating this idea through this supernatural provision that “the Lord Himself will provide for the Passover”. Not through their performance & efforts but through His provision.

How does this speak to our hearts this morning?

All of us have been born with a default setting: self-performance. We love to do things by ourselves. We love the idea of a self-made man or woman. We don’t want to be helped by anyone and sometimes that also reflects in our attitude towards God.

We want to be self-sufficient in our relationship. That’s precisely the thing that keeps us from depending on Christ. Any person who understands his real need will run towards anyone who can offer help. How much more should that be for us who are broken, wretched, helpless and sinful without Christ? We need Jesus’ provision.

We know that we can’t create that need for Jesus automatically. That happens when we identify our crutches – those idols of self-performance, those idols of self-sufficiency – turn from those crutches – throw it away and then call out to Jesus in our helplessness.

I remember sometime back when God convicted me of spiritual pride because “I thought” I knew a lot of the Bible. I gained some knowledge because of the resources that I was exposed to. And all those things were really good stuff that I learnt. Over a period of time however, I realized how that was making me arrogant, argumentative, and most importantly it made me forget how much I needed Jesus.

My prayers sounded more like the Pharisee rather than the tax collector from that parable that Jesus shared. I had to throw away/repent of that crutch of biblical knowledge and then my heart was able to respond to Christ and understand His provision. What are those crutches brothers and sisters in your lives that God is calling you to throw away? Let’s humble ourselves in repentance as we look to participate in the Lord’s Supper. 

Proximity to Jesus doesn’t necessarily mean intimacy with Him (v17-21)

This is a sobering passage to say the least. Think about it…who was Judas? He was one of 12 close disciples of Jesus. He interacted very closely with Jesus every single day. He saw Jesus perform great miracles – heal the blind, sick and even raise the dead.

He saw Jesus show mercy, forgiveness and compassion to those whom the world didn’t even pay attention to. He heard the gospel clearly through the mouth of Jesus. He himself was sent out into the village to preach the gospel while he was appointed to perform miracles and cast out demons in Jesus’ name. Within the disciple’s group he also was a Treasurer – he used to handle to money bag.

And yet we see him betray Jesus because he loved money and himself more than Jesus. In reality he didn’t love Jesus at all. And that’s shocking because it means that Proximity to Jesus doesn’t necessarily mean intimacy with Him…Proximity doesn’t necessarily translate to close fellowship with Jesus. What does that mean for us?

We shouldn’t assume that we are believers because we:

  • Had a spiritual experience in the past: because we prayed a prayer or received healing
  • Religious activity: because we are very active in our weekend gatherings, GC
  • Biblical knowledge: because we know everything in the Bible. Even Satan knows more Scripture than all of us.

What does the Bible instead tell us repeatedly? 5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. (2 Cor 13:5)

Don’t assume…test yourself using Scripture to see if you are a believer or not. As a recommendation – 1 John is a wonderful book in the Bible that you can use to test your faith. Are you seeing the evidence of true faith in your life? This calls us to examine our hearts and test to see if we are truly in the faith before participating the Lord’s Supper.

The Lord’s Supper is about a Promise and not a transaction (v22-25)

Different churches in India and around the world have debated over the meaning of the Lord Supper over the years. Some churches say that during the worship service or “mass”, the bread and the wine actually turn into the literal body and blood of Jesus. Biblically we know that it doesn’t turn into Jesus’ flesh and blood because of the manner in which Jesus used it in this statement.

Did Jesus offer his literal flesh and blood to his disciples? No, he meant it symbolically and so we also need to take it as that. Some other churches say that when we participate in the Lord’s Supper, God actually gives us grace and blessings by our participation. Some other churches say we receive healing by taking it. If you think about it all these other interpretations to the Lord Supper makes it seem like a transaction and that cheapens the true meaning of this.

But what does the Bible actually say? It actually says the Lord’s Supper is more about a promise toward believers and not a transaction. The Lord Supper is a:

  • Promise of Christ’s commitment toward us (v22-24)

Christ literally died. He was physically dead for those 3 days. He paid the punishment for our sins. What we deserved – He bore in our place.  He was willing to go to any extent – even die for you and me. That is symbolized by the bread. The cup on the other hand symbolized the blood of the covenant. What does that mean? In the OT, blood that was on the altar was sprinkled on the Israelites to show God’s commitment toward them. But they rebelled and didn’t remain faithful to that covenant…so God replaced that covenant with a new one through Jesus:

33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jer 31:33,34) Nothing will break our relationship. It will be secure forever because of what Christ has done. So that’s the commitment is reminded to us over and over again as we participate in the Lord’s Supper.

  • Promise of our union with Christ (v22-23):

Not only does Christ die and pour out his blood for us but also, we are united to Him which is symbolized in Him sharing the elements with His disciples. We are members of Christ’s body. We share in His death. We share in His resurrection. And the life we now live we live by faith in the Son of God. Christ is living in and through us.

That’s why we take the Lord’s Supper together because we acknowledge that it’s the same grace that unites us to our Lord. Believers declare their union with Christ first through baptism and then the recurring reminder after that is through the Lord’s Supper. That’s why we say that if you aren’t a believer in Christ you shouldn’t partake of it because it has to do with our union with Him.  

  • Promise of a future hope with Christ (v25):

Jesus promises to have to have the fruit of the vine once again in the kingdom of God. Probably referring to the Marriage Supper of the lamb where He will have it once more with His bride – the church. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that something to look forward to?

Angie and I go back sometimes to watch our wedding video to remind ourselves of the vows we made to each other. There were a lot of really good things that happened that day but the most special thing that happened that day was our vow to each other because in that lies our commitment to each other which we make in the presence of God & His church.

What if Jesus Christ used the symbol of the bread and cup to remind our hearts every week of His commitment, our union with Him and a future hope with Him forever. How can we respond to that? By thanking Him, loving Him and surrendering our lives to Him.

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Sermon

Give Thanks

Ending 2018 with Thanksgiving to God

We usually preach through the book of the Bible, and we are currently preaching through the Gospel of Mark. But because of Christmas and the beginning of the new year, we decided to take a break from Mark and speak on some relevant topics that will prepare our hearts and minds for the coming year.

Last Sunday, since it was a Christmas week, Jinson preached a message of the good news of Jesus. This Sunday I want to encourage all of us to end this year with a token of thanksgiving for all that God has done in our lives, especially in the year 2018.

But let me first begin by sharing why is it important to give thanks to the Lord.

1. We thank God primarily because it is a command – 1 Thessalonians 5:18 – Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Our general human tendency is to feel happy and thankful when everything around us is going on well. But if we are indeed a child of God then what sets us apart for others is when we show thankfulness even when we go through hard times. And the reason is that we know that God is working for our good even when he allows bad circumstances to come in our lives.

And that is why Paul is saying ‘give thanks in all circumstances.’ – not just for the good times but even for the bad times.

The reason I want to highlight this point is that you may not be pleased how the last year went by in your life. Maybe you didn’t get what you expected from God, but instead, the previous year was the worst year ever.

No matter how good or bad the year has been in your life, as a believer, we are commanded to give thanks at all times, and I want to encourage you to offer the sacrifice of thanks to our God all times.

2. We thank God because we cannot adequately praise and worship God without also being thankful.

In Psalm 100:1-3 the psalmist is exalting us and saying.

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! Serve the LORD with gladness!  Come into his presence with singing!  Know that the LORD, he is God!   It is he who made us, and we are his;   we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,   and his courts with praise!   Give thanks to him; bless his name!  For the LORD is good;   his steadfast love endures forever,   and his faithfulness to all generations.

Worship is the will of God for the whole earth and Thanksgiving is the essential ingredient to True Worship.

We worship him because we are thankful for all that he has done and will do in our lives.

3. We thank God because by doing so we acknowledge that everything comes from God and that we are entirely depended on him for everything.

4. We think God because it keeps our hearts in right relationship with the giver of all good gifts.

What does it mean when we don’t thank God?

Without gratefulness, we become arrogant and self-centred. We begin to believe that we have achieved everything on our own.

Out of the many things we ought to thank God for, I want to highlight and speak about two things that’s most important of all.

1.    The first one is the Gospel.

Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

Once upon a time, we were in darkness and the Gospel set us free.

We were created by God, to love Him, to worship Him, to adore Him, to glorify Him.

God wanted us to live under his authority and his dominion because he made us he had all the right to demand that from us. But instead of living in a loving relationship with God, the first man and women, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God’s Holy laws and failed to live under His authority. They Sinned, and their relationship with God was broken.

Since then everyone born on this earth is born sinful, no one teaches us to cheat, bite, lie and rebel, we are born with those qualities. Why? Because we are born sinful.

The reason our world is corrupt is because we are corrupt. We live in brokenness because our relationship with our creator God is broken and no matter how hard man tries to please God, he never succeeds.

But the Bible tells us that God so loved us that he sent his Son Jesus to live an obedient life and SINLESS life on our behalf, take all the penalty of our Sin on himself and die a terrible death on our behalf so that we can be forgiven, and our relationship with God can be restored back by doing two things – Repenting and Believing in his son Jesus.

Jesus died and was buried for three days, after which he rose again from the dead, defeated sin and death and giving us an abundant life. A life full of joy, peace and satisfaction.

For those who believed – Since then the Gospel is at work in our lives – Daily setting us free from bondage and sin patterns that capture our minds.

The Gospel is at the centre of our church ministry, and that is why we make sure to preach the gospel through every sermon we preach.

As we end this year, let us be thankful for the Gospel in our lives. The constant reminders of God love and grace.

2. Church

When I say church, I’m not talking about a building or a place but the people. The Church is the people of God.

Here are a couple of reasons why we have to be thankful for the church and especially one another.

1. God uses the Church to bring the Hope of Christ in our lives – Through the preaching of God word, through the counsel of Godly leaders.
2. God uses the church to break every wall of separation that mankind has created, and unites our hearts as one people.
3. God uses the church to sanctify us – As we rub against each other, through sufferings, through conflicts, through the pain.
4. God uses the church to uplift our spirits in hard and difficult times.

Let us be thankful and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving that will glorify the name of our Lord.

Let us enter the year 2019 with thanksgiving in our hearts. With hope in our hearts, expecting God to do great and mighty things in our lives.

Categories
Mark Sermon

What does it mean to walk alongside Jesus – Mark 10:32-52

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]What does it mean to walk alongside Jesus? – Mark 10:32-52

Our passage for today is from Mark 10:32-45. [READ]

As we read this passage, the first thing we notice is James and John approaching Jesus and trying to reserve a prominent place next to Him, one on his right and one on his left, in his glory.

If we are honest, the request that James & John makes shouldn’t be a surprising one for us. Because, if given a chance we all like and desire to have a special place next to the person we love and admire. Won’t you agree?

We like to be the special child to our parents and have a special place in their heart, we like to be the special employee at work – have a close rapport with our managers and bosses, we like to have a special place at church – a close rapport with the leaders, we also love the idea of been associated with famous people, etc

I see my sons Jairus & Amaze often battle with each other to sit or sleep right next to mom & dad.

Likewise, even John & James desired for a special place next to their Lord whom they loved dearly. In the last 3 years, they walked with him, talked with them, also fully convinced that He is the promised Messiah, the son of God.

When Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”. They were so compelled by His love they immediately answered with a ‘Yes’, saying ‘we can’, they loved him so much that they were willing to do anything to be close to Him, however, I don’t think they fully understood what that meant.

What we see here is that their desire to be and walk alongside Jesus was a good desire, but the motive and the approach wasn’t right.

Among all the people that were following Jesus, he had 12 who were close to him, but even among the 12, there were 3 that were closest to him.

Peter, James & John.

What we see James and John doing is that they were pushing themselves to get pre-eminence over others, even pushing Peter out of the circle. In Matthew 20:20 Matthew writes that they got their mother to come to Jesus

and request him to allow her boys to sit next to him.

Looking at what John and James did, in verse 41 Mark writes “When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.” In other words, they saw it as a cheap stunt to get ahead of others in the group.

If I have to put that in the church context, it’s like us wanting to follow Jesus, wanting to come to church, have fellowship with brothers and sisters, wanting to participate in worship, listen to the word – all because we genuinely love Jesus and his people.

But the approach in which we do it could be by performance before God and others & even trying to push ourselves ahead of others

We often do that without even really understanding the truth of what it really means to be called a believer and to walk alongside Jesus.

I believe what this passage teaches us today is ‘What does it really means to walk alongside Jesus’, what does it mean to know Jesus as our Lord and saviour and walk in his paths. Three important lessons to remind ourselves.

To walk alongside Christ, we need to have the mind of Christ.

The number one lesson this passage teaches us is that “To walk alongside Christ, we need to have the mind of Christ.”
Let’s read through (v32 to v37)

32 They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. 33 “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”

35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”

36 “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.

37 They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”

Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem, the place where he will be delivered over to the chief priest, condemned to death, handed over to the Gentiles, mocked, spat on, and hanged on the cross.

He is literally walking towards his painful death, and he is, in fact, leading the way. The verse says the disciples were afraid and at the same time astonished to see Jesus walking towards Jerusalem where the Pharisees and the teachers of the law hated him and was waiting to kill and torture him.

Can you imagine what’s going on in Jesus’s mind as he is taking that route?

I believe, all he was thinking was about was us – the disciples, you, me and the numerous lost souls for whom he left his heavenly glory, emptying himself, taking the form of a servant, humbled himself to become God’s perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.

His mind was set on the purpose for which he came down to earth, sent by his Father in heaven.  To set us free from Sin and death.

He seems so full of it that he ends up reminding them once again that the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”

Now, What’s on the disciple’s mind?

Just as Jesus finished his statement, James & John immediately go to Him and says “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”

Reminds me of a scenario in the office where the Manager just gave a presentation on the new marketing strategy and asks his team members to give feedback, and one guy raises his hand and says “Are we going to have Chinese for lunch today?”

It tells us two things about the guy, first, he wasn’t really paying attention to what his manager was talking, second, his agenda for the day was to have Chinese for lunch.

Is it possible for us to have a totally different agenda in our mind and be distracted when we come to church, when we approach Jesus in prayer, when we have fellowship with other believers? Yes, it is possible.

Is it right? NO
To walk alongside Christ, we need to have the mind of Christ.
Paul writes in his letter to Philippians 2:5-8

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Paul is urging the Philippian believers to set their mind on the eternal things, just as Jesus did.

If we truly desire to be with Jesus and walk with him daily, we have to change the way we think, we can’t fix our eyes on the earthly things. Money, possessions, positions, pride – we have to lose sight of all these distractions and fix our eyes on the eternal purpose of God in our lives.

We can’t desire to walk with Jesus and worry about tomorrow, what we will eat, drink, where we will live and what we will wear.

It’s easy to say I want to be with Jesus but let us also be willing to have the mind of Christ – our hearts, minds and soul fixed on the eternal purpose for which we were created. – TO BRING GLORY TO GOD.

To walk alongside Jesus, we have to embrace the Cross (v38 – v40)

38 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”

39 “We can,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40 but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”

When Jesus said, “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” Jesus meant to ask them, whether they are willing to carry their cross and follow his footsteps.

Just like in Matthew 16:24 where Jesus asks – “Are you willing to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me?

“Take up your cross and follow Me” means being willing to die in order to follow Jesus. This is called “dying to self.” It’s a call to absolute surrender.

Which means dying to our fleshly desires, letting go of our carnal dreams, letting loose the things of the world, the emotions attached with the world, the needs of this world. Where we are fully trusting in God’s provision and providence for us on this life on earth.

I remember when I was a young believer my Pastor, every time we went to a cemetery or a funeral, he would look at me and say “Saju, do you know that dead men don’t feel any pinprick”, He will point me to the graveyards and tell me no matter what you tell these dead men they will never react to you, because they are dead.

And then he would go on to explain what it means to die to ourselves in the Kingdom of God. He would tell me, nothing of this world should move you or distract you from trusting in God and fulfilling His purposes. Consider yourself dead to the world.

(Luke 9:24-25) – “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?”

On the other hand, we should be aware that Christian life is a radical life, we’re going the systems of this world, the human cultures and traditions and beliefs. You are going against the very foundations on which this sinful world is established.

In Matthew 5 Jesus said you will be insulted, persecuted, falsely accused, for my name’s sake. Our family will hate us, our close friends will reject us, our society will mock at us. But rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.

How can we endure these pain, persecution and hate? We can only do that when we are prepared to carry our cross and follow Jesus, dying to our self, denying the world & trust in God alone.

We can’t say that we enjoy the rains but don’t like the idea of getting wet.

In the say way, we can’t desire to walk alongside Jesus and don’t like the idea of embracing the cross & going through suffering for the sake of Christ. It is part and parcel of our Faith.

Sadly, every time Jesus would talk about carrying the cross his followers would keep reducing. Because even though they liked the idea of following Jesus they did not like the idea of letting go of the world.

Let’s check our hearts and see where do we stand?

To walk alongside Jesus, we have to be servants (v42- v45)

42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

When the other 10 disciples look down on James and John, Jesus turns to them and tells them about what it really means to become great in the kingdom of God, which is what probably everyone in the room desired for.

He says unlike the Gentiles “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be a slave of all.45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

No believer is called to sit on the pedestal and watch. We don’t follow Jesus or come to church just to be an audience, we are called to be participants in the Kingdom of God.

Nobody who claims to be a follower of Jesus should say that they love Jesus and love coming to church but are unwilling to serve in any manner. If our Lord whom we love and admire did not come to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. We also ought to have a heart of a servant.

We don’t wait from someone to come to us and assign us a role to serve. Instead, we ought to look for opportunities to serve in small and big measures as per our giftings.

We shouldn’t come to church with a consumerist mentality, where it’s all about us wanting what pleases us. Music of our taste, preacher of our style, church building of our status, a people group of our mindset etc.

We ought to be servants in the Kingdom of God if we desire to walk alongside Jesus.

Yes, it is great that you love Jesus but how are you serving one another with the love of Christ, when was the last time we sacrificed our time, money & pleasure to bring joy and encouragement to another brother or sister in the Lord.

Conclusion:

As I conclude, I want to encourage you to desire more to be and walk alongside Jesus but let’s do it with the motive and approach. Fully understanding that to walk alongside Jesus, we need to have the mind of Christ, we have to embrace the Cross & we have become servants.

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Mark Sermon

How should Christians view Divorce – Mark 10:1-12

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I’m excited to return back to the Gospel of Mark, but what we covered in our short series “Living out our Identity in Christ” was indeed refreshing and a beautiful reminder.

The passage we will be looking at today is from Mark 10:1-12 and the subject we will be dealing with is “How should Christians view Divorce“?

I want you to know that as I am preaching on the topic of Divorce this morning, both Jane and I have been dealing with a divorce situation with a very close Christian family.

The husband, who is also a father of two children, came home one day and told his wife that he is no more in love with her, he doesn’t find her attractive and that he has no feelings for her. And therefore, he wants a divorce from her.

As we walk with the family, we’re experiencing how devastating and painful it is for the wife and for the children. And while preparing for this sermon, I couldn’t stop thinking of how immature and foolish we can behave without having the right understanding of the Gospel truth concerning marriage.

We think we know these truths but when hardships, trails & temptations come our way they reveal the true state of our heart.

Today as we walk through Mark 10:1-12 and talk about Divorce I am happy for the opportunity God has given me to give you a godly perspective on this topic. As most of you sitting here are young men and women who are yet to get married, I want you to listen carefully and allow the Holy Spirit to convict your heart of sin patterns that if not dealt with can destroy your future relationships.

And as God reveals those sin patterns repent and believe in the Gospel and let these gospel truths transform your life.

I also believe this sermon will present to you the Church’s position on the subject of divorce so that you know what to expect from the leaders when such a situation arises.

If you have your bibles, let’s turn to Mark 10:1-12

To give you the context of this passage, as Jesus continues his ministry, the Pharisees envied him for his fan following and would look for opportunities to trap him. Their main intention was to turn the people against him.

Today’s passage is one such incident where the Pharisees pose a controversial question to Jesus. And the question was “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?“.

There may have been a couple of reasons why the Pharisees asked that question, and I don’t think I want to spend time exploring that aspect. But whatever the motives of the Pharisees were I’m glad that it opened an opportunity for us to get a godly perspective on the matter of divorce, and that too from the author of life himself.

When the Pharisees posed the question on divorce, Jesus replies with another question saying “What did Moses command you?” and they answered saying “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”

And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.”

In other words, what Jesus was saying to them was that “it was not meant to be that way, but because of your hardness of heart & unwillingness to change Moses had to write that. If Moses hadn’t permitted divorce in that situation, you men would have done something even worse.”

And then Jesus goes on to tell them how in the beginning when God created male and female, the idea of joining them together was God’s design and that no man has the right to separate what God joined, and if a divorced man or women re-marries while the other partner is still alive or single, it is sinful in the eyes of God.

Obviously, there are a lot of practical questions in your mind relating to each one of the statements mentioned above, perhaps I will answer some of them. But what I want to do today is to turn our hearts to God because the goal of this message is not to give tips on how to protect your marriage from divorce.

The purpose of the message is to help us love Jesus and seek his Kingdom more than our spouse. It’s also to show you how in doing so, God protects and preserves our marriage, ultimately Glorifying His name on the Earth.

I want to put across three words that will help you unpack this passage for us and help us meet our goal.

Covenant

There are two basic kinds of relationships – Consumer relationship and Covenant relationship.

Consumer relationship is the kind of relationship we have with our local vegetable vendor. As long as he supplies fresh vegetables for a reasonable price, we will buy vegetables from him. But the day he stops giving us fresh, good quality vegetables, we will quit going to him and instead approach another vegetable vendor.

In a consumer relationship, our needs are more important than the relationship itself.

This is how the ungodly view Marriage, as long as they get what they want they will stick with that relationship. The day they stop getting what they want they want to get out of that relationship.

On the other hand, a Covenant relationship is a kind of relationship between a parent and the child. No matter how much mischief our children get into and the tantrums they throw, we don’t abandon them and go pick up another child.

Concerning marriage when Jesus said “At the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

From the words of Jesus we clearly understand that marriage was meant to be a Covenant relationship and not a Consumer type relationship.

The term “one flesh” comes from the Genesis account of the creation of Eve. Genesis 2:21-24 describes the process by which God created Eve from a rib taken from Adam’s side as he slept.

Adam recognized that Eve was part of him—they were in fact “one flesh.” The term “one flesh” means that just as our bodies are one whole entity and cannot be divided into pieces and still be a whole, so God intended it to be with the marriage relationship. There are no longer two entities (two individuals), but now there is one entity (a married couple).

And therefore, in a covenant relationship, the relationship between the two is more important than the interest of each individual before they were united.

An even better example of the covenant relationship is the relationship between God the Father, the creator of this universe, with his chosen children, us.

When we read the Bible, we see a plan that was established in eternity past when God, Son and the Holy Spirit covenanted together to redeem us. We understand how God keeps his covenant that even while we were sinners, he sent his son Jesus to die for our sake.

For God, relationship with us was more important.

Therefore, a marriage relationship can be protected from divorce only when we understand and Covenant relationship. And in a covenant relationship separation is not an option.

Violation

The second word I want us to remember is Violation.

Violation, in legal terms, means ‘the action of breaking a contract or an agreement.”

If marriage is a covenant, divorce is a violation of the covenant we make with our spouse. A marriage between two believers in God’s presence, witnessed by God’s people is a Sacred and Holy union – It is what God has joined together.

In verse 9 & 11, 12 Jesus said, “what God has joined together, let no one separate. Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Jesus is not just talking about outsiders who create divisions in a marriage, but the husband and wife themselves have no right to separate what God has joined  – No matter what excuse you have it doesn’t matter.

Separation through Divorce is a direct violation of Gods original design for marriage – even in case, the other partner is caught in adultery.

If you dig deep into the root of divorce, it is selfishness, pride, unwillingness to change, unwillingness to forgive, reluctance to bear with each other, unwillingness to humble one’s self; it is deeply rooted in sin.

In God’s loving kindness through his covenant relationship when He created us in his image, he gave us a free will, so that willfully we would obey him, honor him and Glorify him. But in the garden of Eden, we violated all his commands.

And because of Adam and Eve’s violation of God’s commands, we too are born sinful.

Since the time we were born all we do, day in and day out is violate God’s Holy commands and refuse to bind ourselves in God’s loving covenant relationship. We try to attain freedom and power and dominion without God, not realizing that the devil’s lies and deception.

The devil told Eve that by disobeying God “You will certainly not die”, “That when you eat from the tree (God commanded not to eat) your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Instead, we had to face the consequences of our disobedience, our spirit died and became eternally condemned to death. God cast mankind out of the circle of trust, bond and fellowship they shared and more devastating was that it broke our relationship with our loving creator God who meant it all for good.

The evil we see around today in our generation is the repercussions of our broken relationship with our Creator. The tendency to violate God’s Holy command is what is also seen in a divorce situation.

Restoration

But this is the beauty of Gods covenantal relationship with us. Even though we violated all his commands, we sinned, we rebelled, we disobeyed.

In Psalm 103:10 the psalmist writes “But God did not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved us, that he gave his only Son, to die for us, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

In Romans 5:8 Paul writes “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.

Isn’t that a beautiful expression of a covenant relationship?

In Jeremiah 2:13 the prophet says by worshiping idols under every green tree we committed adultery against the Lord, like a faithless wife who leaves her husband we too were drowning in our sin.

But Jesus, who is also called as our bridegroom came back for his bride, to take all our guilt and shame, clean us from all our iniquities and  restore our souls. He died for our sake and later rose again victoriously, sitting at the right hand of God the Father, interceding for us.

And all that is required from us it to repent of our sins and fall in love with Jesus and put our trust in him.

And when we find ourselves in a relational issue, especially marriage, here’s how our response should look like.

Just, as our heart and flesh tend to violate God’s commands day in and day out. We need to change this pattern by going to God day in and day out, repenting of our sins and putting our faith in his son Jesus – Remembering the Gospel, adorning Christ, mending back our relationship with our creator God.

And as we do that, the Spirit of God deals with the root Sin, deals with our selfishness, deals with our pride, with our unwillingness to change, our unwillingness to forgive, unwillingness to bear with one another. Eventually restoring our hearts back to God.

I believe if our friend who just decided to divorce his wife had a genuine love relationship with God, he would have never even thought of separation. Christ’s love would have compelled him to love his wife as Christ loved him. Not based on feelings or outward appearance but because of the covenant relationship, he was into.

Finally, based on what we’ve learnt so far, I want to share three practical advice that you should apply to your situation.

  1. If you are unmarried and looking out for a partner, don’t marry someone who merely calls himself/herself a believer, but marry the person who’ve truly understood the Gospel, knows what a covenant relationship means and is genuinely in love with Jesus.
  2. If you are already married, my advice to you is to live a Gospel-centered life, know that your marriage is covenant relationship united by God, love Jesus more than your spouse, and whether in good times or bad times, whether your partner is believer or an unbeliever – Let your life display the fruit of the Spirit. Love, Serve and Submit to one another in all humility.
  3. If you are divorced, my advice to you is repent before God, and believe in the Gospel. If your spouse is still alive, single, believer of Jesus and willing to reunite, make every effort to restore that relationship back.

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