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Mark Sermon

Faith in Missions – Mark 16:9-20

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

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

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

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

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

The answer is UNBELIEF.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. How can we be renewed?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3. How does this push us forward into mission?

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

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

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

Categories
Mark Sermon

True Authority – Mark 11:27-12:12

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10 Have you not read this Scripture:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;[b]

11 this was the Lord’s doing,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

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

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

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

Struggle for authority (v27-28)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sinful authority

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

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

Unbelief

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fear Of Man

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

True Authority

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10 Have you not read this Scripture:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;[b]

11 this was the Lord’s doing,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

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

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

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