The Way It Is

Mark 9:1-13

Jesus brings His disciples to the brink of desperation, realizing they have left all to follow Him - and He is going away. And not in a good way.

“What have we done?!” I can imagine them thinking to themselves. Peter even had the audacity, (and the love for Jesus,) to take Jesus aside and rebuke Him for His proclamation He (Jesus,) “would suffer many things, be rejected by the chief priests and scribes and be killed…”

Oh, and by the way, “…and after three days rise again.”

The rising after three days part was the bit the disciples seemed to miss, or even worse dismiss, every time Jesus said it, but particularly this first time.

How could it be that Jesus would even think of allowing Himself to be killed? The fact He said it the way He said it even made it appear as if it were part of some plan that He had, as if it were certain, as if He would make sure it was certain. Is this just the way it is? The way it is going to be? Irreversible? Surely not!

Surely yes.

To offset the news of His soon and certain suffering, Jesus had an amazing revelation to share with His closest followers. Indeed, another promise was made which would seem designed to allay the news of His suffering – and this news was that certain ones of them would see Him in His glory prior to tasting death. After six days Jesus made good on His promise.

Jesus’ transfiguration is one of the greatest, most amazing, most meaningful revelations in all of God’s Word. It must have been impossible to explain, and impossible to even begin to take in all that was being explained in Christ’s transfiguration.

Sometimes people ask if Jesus Himself knew He was God in the flesh. His transfiguration is Exhibit A that He was self-aware of being our All In All. That’s just the way it is. Take it for ALL it means.

-Pastor Bill

Living a Sacrificial Life

Mark 8:22-38

Living sacrificially is not something normal or natural to any extent.

Living sacrificially means living against the grain of human existence, and living against the grain of your own nature.

This probably had something to do with Darwin’s Theory being accepted to any degree when it was first presented. Though it has many tragic flaws and errors, Darwin did present one thought that rang clear as a bell in the human mind: Survival of the fittest.

The whole concept of ‘survival of the fittest’ is a reflection of a ‘me-first’ lifestyle all of us have been living all our days. And so we hear the concept of evolution being based on the “survival of the fittest” and our mind is immediately reminded of all we have ever seen or experienced. People are naturally selfish, only concerned for their own welfare, and certainly chiefly interested in their own survival.

Who would you die for?

This is where Jesus begins to separate us from the crowd of all human existence. Who would you die for – or, better put - is there anyone you would die for? (The list is probably very short.)

The reason is because you don’t know many people worthy of you dying for them. You either don’t know them well enough to make that degree of sacrifice even a consideration or you do know them well enough to know they are not worth it.

Along comes Jesus, and He establishes the minimum requirement for being His follower your sacrificial death. In an era when others are killing people because they refuse to believe in what they command you to believe, Jesus says, “I willingly die for all men that they may believe in Me.”

What could better exemplify Godly influence upon a life than sacrifice? Service? A sense of concern for the eternal rather than the temporal? Not me-first, but you-first – and in every arena of life. This is life in Christ. If you lose your life you will find it.

-Pastor Bill

Consistence

Mark 8:1-21

There is a consistency to the miracles of Christ. They are consistently inconsistent.

They are NOT inconsistent in their wonder, impossibility, glory, or any other way that makes them even remotely possible in the natural realm – but they are never the same – at least in how they are recorded for us.

He we are in the region of the Decapolis, and a great multitude has sought out Jesus for healing. These people have probably heard of Jesus from the demon-possessed man Jesus healed at the Gadarenes.

It is very interesting to think of how it is Jesus healed each one who came to Him. The deaf-mute had been healed (by appearance,) by Jesus sticking His fingers in His ears, and spitting and touching his tongue. Fascinating.

Now we have the feeding of the 4000. The crowd which came to Jesus for healing will now be fed. Would it be as it was in the feeding of the 5000?

Here we learn an important lesson about serving Jesus. Under similar circumstances, we are very much inclined to “do things as we did them before.” After all, what worked previously, (especially if it worked wonderfully,) is going to work again – isn’t it?

But when we read carefully, we see that is NOT how Jesus performed ministry, and so we should stop thinking the way we are most inclined to think about it.

It becomes obvious with practice ministry is meant to be performed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and that each ministry experience, no matter how similar to a previous ministry experience – is unique.

How would you respond to Jesus telling you to feed 4000? Would you have it down now, understanding it would go down exactly as it had been with the 5000? (I know that’s how I would think about it.) Where can we find 5 loaves and two fish? Strangely, wonderfully, though the circumstances were SO similar, the miracle was completely different in its carrying-out.

-Pastor Bill

Inside Out

Mark 7:1-23

Can you imagine being part of a delegation sent from Jerusalem to weigh Jesus’ ministry in the balance? Or is this really what is happening?

Previously, we read in Mark 3:6 the Pharisees and Herodians went out and plotted how they might destroy Him over the issue of healing on the Sabbath.

Now a fresh delegation is being sent down from Jerusalem to the location of Jesus’ ministry to find more reason for fault. The judgment has already been made.

What is in their heart is to kill Him. What is in their mind is to find a reason why – which can then be conveyed to the people who follow Jesus. The idea is to end His influence, and to play a political/religious game which will affect that result.

What is NOT in their heart is to make an honest evaluation of His ministry based upon what they actually experience of it for themselves.

And this is always the way it is with religion and Christ. Religion must kill Christ over the issue of what is in the heart. Christ knows what is in the heart of man, and religion knows Christ knows.

Let’s kill Christ by dealing with what’s on the outside. That kills Christ every time. Concern over what can be seen by the eye diminishes and destroys any thought over what is unseen. Since Christ primarily deals with the unseen, this emphasis on the outward puts Him away, and deals His ministry a death blow. It prevents the consideration of the heart by focusing on the outward.

Jesus teaches us against pretense. These men are hypocrites to God, while saying they are of God.

It is not what goes into man that defiles a man. (Speaking of the defiling religion is always on the lookout for.) Man is only defiled by what comes out of man – because what comes out of a man reveals the condition of his heart.

-Pastor Bill

Against the Grain

Mark 6:45-56

Until you’ve been out on a lake in the dark of night, heading into the wind and against the current, you cannot truly understand all the disciples are facing.

Why would Jesus send them in this direction? Did He not know they would face this kind of opposition?

Here we find the same men who had just participated in such a great miracle it is the ONLY miracle contained in all four Gospels being sent away and tested up to and perhaps even beyond their limits.

They were certainly being tested beyond the limits of their understanding.

Why had Jesus sent them away? Why had He sent them in this direction? Is this any way to run a ministry?

We are blessed that we see all sides of what takes place here, and yet some of this is beyond our understanding as well. We can truly say in this case the text provides few real answers. Does this frustrate you? (It does me.)

As much as I desire the answers to all the questions I have about this life-ministry event, I realize I must accept much of what takes place here is a complete mystery.

But isn’t that the way life in ministry is? Doesn’t serving Jesus simply require obedience in mystery? Where am I going – why am I going - and what will happen when I get there – are all the kinds of questions we have?

And we find most often, as in this case, the answer is found in simple obedience. We can rest in the fact Jesus has a plan, and we are a part of it. Is that enough?

The truth is to be part of Jesus’ plan is the greatest life there is. It may not be the easiest life, and it may make us uncomfortable, and it may keep us up all night on occasion, but when we see the outpouring of the power of Christ it is worth it all.

-Pastor Bill

God’s Resources

Mark 6:30-44

Hopefully, the one of the main things the disciples had learned from their direct experience of being sent out two-by-two apart from Jesus was the lesson of God’s Divine arrangement.

Jesus had sent them out with nothing, that this lesson would become paramount to their own existence and welfare. Hopefully, they would notice no matter where they went they were never hungry, they always had a place to stay, and their ministry had a power greater than themselves.

In three words: It wasn’t them. (I mean, it WAS them, but then it really wasn’t. It was ALL God, and no one would know that more than the guys.) The people they ministered to or received from may have thought it had something to do with the disciples, but they knew it wasn’t. It REALLY wasn’t. It was God distributing His resources through His men. (In the greatest sense, it is quite possible the disciples were the first to begin to understand they themselves WERE God’s resources.)

Here’s the same lesson, part 2. (This MUST be a hard lesson for us to learn – and in my experience – it is.) It is very difficult for us to conceive of a sort of supernaturally natural ministry. It is far easier to conceive of mystical things than practical ones.

The feeding of the 5,000 is a marvelous event in history designed to capture more than our imaginations about how it may have happened. It is the only miracle contained in all four Gospels, but in a sense it is the most humble of miracles.

We see the disciples humbled again, (this must also be a key lesson in ministry,) and we see the humble dissemination of a piece of bread and a piece of fish to this huge crowd – and that provision supposedly originating from a young lad’s lunch. Does God use His Almighty power to do such humble things?

Yes, and more than that, He uses His Almighty power to humble us – but without disabling us. It would be impossible, (I think,) to conceive of a greater way to humble man and enable him at the same time.

-Pastor Bill

Godly Character

Mark 6:14-29

I believe the highest aspiration of man should be to have a Godly character, and to live a life pleasing to God.

John the Baptist is one of the finest examples of this kind of life. You don’t have to take my word for it, you can listen to what Jesus said about him: “Assuredly I say to you, among those born of women, there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist…” (Matt 11:11)

That is high praise coming from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

It makes me wonder what Jesus may have to say about my life?

I know most, if not all of us concern ourselves greatly with what others think about us. We go to great lengths to impress people, and do what we can, (in most instances,) to make people like us.

We listen closely when we have the opportunity to overhear what others may be saying about us. Is it good? Is it bad? (If it’s good – we feel great about ourselves. If bad – we just had our day ruined.)

Many times, and probably most, we change our speech patterns around certain individuals because we know their likes and dislikes, and we do not want to cause offense so we tailor what we say to match what we imagine to be their pattern of thinking.

What made John the Baptist great was that he was not like this. Not at all. He was a man who spoke the needful truth regardless of the circumstances. Yes, John was a prophet, but he was also a very loving man. How do we know he was loving?

Because he ALWAYS spoke the truth in love. Even to powerful politicians who possessed the power to put him to death. But, lean in closer and see that Herod heard him “gladly.” Herod was learning greatly from the conviction John brought his life. He was one of MANY who did. Well done, good and faithful servant.

-Pastor Bill