The events that are recorded before us today are probably very familiar to many of you. If you’ve been at church at all on the major holidays during your life then you’ve probably heard a few messages on Palm Sunday, and may have been given little palm branches to take home. Well, today is not Palm Sunday, but we are going to be looking at events that start on what is called Palm Sunday and continue to Tuesday in what is known as the Passion week.

However, I would like to forego a lot of the traditional emphasis that is usually placed on these events and instead focus our attention on the spiritual aspects of what is recorded here for us. Because as you are probably aware, the Jews were looking for the Messiah to resurrect the Davidic kingdom and the overthrow of Israel’s oppressors. And as such they missed out completely on the significance of what was happening. Jesus came the first time, some 2000 years ago, to enact a spiritual kingdom. He will return again one day to usher in the physical consummation of all things at His second coming. In the meanwhile, we are concerned about entering into the spiritual kingdom of God. This is where Christ rules and reigns in the hearts of His people. So that is the focus of this message and what I would like to try to show as we study this passage. It’s a rather long passage, covering a lot of material and we could spend three or four Sundays exploring all the references and cross references that have to do with this passage. But just as I believe Mark does in his record, I want to narrow our focus on the spiritual characteristics of the kingdom of God, as Christ comes riding into Jerusalem in triumphant procession and enters into the temple of God.

As we finished up the previous chapter, the Lord Jesus was resolutely leading His followers towards Jerusalem. Mark has really focused practically all of his gospel on the last few months of Jesus’s ministry, and now we are at the last week before His crucifixion. There are just 16 chapters in Mark’s gospel, and we are already on chapter 11, and in verse one it is Sunday morning, the first day of the passion week. Mark is rushing us towards the climax of the gospel story, and in this first day of the week we see what I am calling the triumph of the gospel. A triumph refers to the Roman victory procession when the victorious general would parade into the city with his captives in his train, and his soldiers following him, and he would be celebrated and praised by his people. And that is essentially what we see here in spiritual terms as Christ enters Jerusalem.

As the chapter opens, we see Jesus instructing two of His disciples to go into the next village, Bethany or Bethpage which was practically a suburb of Jerusalem, and find there a colt of a donkey which was tied there near the entrance. Mark says it was a colt that was unbroken, no one had ever ridden it. And so the unnamed disciples go there and find the colt as Jesus had described it would be, and as they started to take it, those who were nearby said “why are you taking the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” All of that discourse was exactly as Jesus had said it would be.

Some commentators find it necessary to explain that Jesus must have prearranged this sometime in advance in order for this to work out in this way. But I believe that Jesus knew that the donkey would be there. And furthermore, Jesus knew who the donkey belonged to. And this owner was undoubtedly a follower of Christ. I believe that because Jesus tells them to say “the Lord has need of it.” If they were not a believer, then it would have been necessary to say “Jesus of Nazareth has need of it.” But since they were a believer, all that was necessary was to say “the Lord has need of it.”

And I think that this is an indication of the all encompassing nature of the kingdom of God. Here was this secret disciple, or at the least, a not so obvious follower of Christ who was unknown to the rest of the disciples. I’m reminded of the time Elijah was discouraged and said to God, “I alone am left.” And the Lord said I have 7000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. The spiritual kingdom of God would extend far beyond the immediate circle of the disciples, to the far reaches of Israel, and to include all the nations of the earth, as Mark records Jesus adds in vs 17, saying that the house of God would be a house of prayer for all the nations. The disciples had a limited view of the kingdom. They were picking out the chief seats for themselves around the throne. But the Lord had a view to reach the nations with the gospel, which they were at this point unaware of.

And I think it also speaks to the necessity of our involvement in the establishment of the kingdom. The Lord desires to work with us and through us to establish His kingdom. We are to participate. We see that in the praise and worship of the multitudes, the obedience of the two disciples who fulfilled their mission, and the sacrifice and faith of the person that gave his colt to be used by the Lord. Some served in great acts, some in lessor acts, but God uses both great and small gifts in the furtherance of His kingdom. Everyone contributes according to his ability and his stewardship. So in the words of the Lord, let us not despise the day of small things. One man gave a lowly donkey, and yet it was used to usher in the Lord of Hosts in the triumph of the gospel. It was used in fulfillment of prophecy, particularly Zechariah 9:9 which says “  Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass.”

I would urge you here today, if you are a follower of Christ, to consider how you are contributing to the furtherance of the kingdom. What resources has God given you that you might give back to God for His use? God would like to use you, to bless you, if you are willing to use your stewardship for His glory. “The Lord has need of it.” What is your response? “No, I need it more?” Or rather acknowledge that if He is Lord, then it is His to use as He sees fit.

So the disciples bring the donkey to Jesus and they laid their garments on it’s back as a saddle, and the Lord begins to ride into Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. There is a large crowd following Him now, and they lay their robes on the ground that He might ride upon them, and then they lay down palm branches in the road, all the while the enthusiasm and excitement is building and they cry out “Hosanna!” which means “save now”. “Hosanna! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David; Hosanna in the highest!” Notice that there is an element of sacrifice in their worship, as they laid down their cloaks in His path. Worship always involves sacrificial obeisance.

However, though it’s true that they call out praise to the Lord because they believe He is the Messiah, yet it’s pretty obvious as the events roll out during the week that their praise was founded on wrong expectations concerning the Messiah. That is indicated perhaps in the phrase, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.” They are looking for Christ to take the throne of David, not in a spiritual sense, but in a physical way, to sweep away the enemies of Israel and resume the throne in Jerusalem and reestablish Israels sovereignty.

But lest we think too little of these poor peasant people who are following Jesus into the city from Galilee, let’s make sure that we are not suffering under the same delusion. Do we also put undue emphasis on the gospel of the kingdom in regards to fulfilling our physical expectations? Do we expect God to fill our cupboards as He fed the multitudes? Do we expect God to heal our diseases as He healed blind Bartimaeus? Do we become disgruntled and dissatisfied with God when He doesn’t fulfill our expectations of physical deliverance from whatever difficulties we are encountering? I know I have to restrain my discouragement when God doesn’t act on my perceived difficulties as I expect Him to. And I am sure that many of you as well find yourselves at times disgruntled with God that He does not deliver you from whatever difficulty you are dealing with. Sometimes I think we would rather have a physical or political Messiah than a spiritual one.

Now notice vs11, “Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple; and after looking around at everything, He left for Bethany with the twelve, since it was already late.” The temple was of course designed to be the center of spiritual, religious life in Israel. And here we see Jesus going there late in the evening and looking around. It would be easy to skim over that and not see the importance of this incident.

Many years ago I used to work in a very large luxury hotel in Florida. And the hotel general manager was notorious for going through the hotel at night after many of the department managers had left for the day and doing an inspection. And it was a terrible thing to come in the next morning and find these write ups that he had done on your department the night before. Things that he had found lacking.

Perhaps to some extent that’s what is going on here. Jesus has come back to Jerusalem after being gone for some time. And He goes into the temple, what He has previously called “His Father’s house,” and He makes an inspection. If you read between the lines it would seem that He did this without any fanfare. Perhaps He even disguised Himself. I don’t know. But He looks around at His house, and He is not happy with what He finds there.

I don’t know about you, but I tremble to consider what kind of invisible inspections the Lord must do in our houses. We are the house of God, not this building, but you people are the temple of the Holy Spirit. 1Cor. 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?”

I wonder if Christ secretly walked through your house last night and did an inspection. I wonder what He saw that He may have been displeased about, or what He found that He was pleased with. I wonder what HIs assessment of our temple would be? Paul said, We are not our own, we are bought with a price. What are we doing with this temple to glorify God? In the next few verses we will see that Jesus comes back the next morning in judgment against the temple. He accuses them that they have made what should have been a house of prayer a house of merchandise, a place of thieves and robbers. They had made the temple into a commercial enterprise. I can’t help but wonder if we are not guilty of the same, of making what should be for holy use, to be used in profane and unholy things. Are we so busy serving mammon that we do not serve the Lord?

But before we look at that incident later the next day, we see that first thing in the morning there is a symbolic illustration of the situation Jesus found in the temple the night before. This is really like a living parable, it is an earthly illustration of a spiritual principle. And we see that unfold as they are walking back to Jerusalem, Jesus is hungry and He sees a fig tree in the distance in full bloom. I am told that fig trees produce figs as soon as they produce leaves. And so seeing the leaves, it was to be expected that it would have figs that were ripened and ready to eat. But when Jesus went to the tree, it had no figs. And so Jesus does something that seems shocking, at least on the surface. He curses the fig tree, saying, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples took note of what He said.

We will look at this again later, but suffice it for now to note that Israel is pictured in the fig tree. They are the fig tree which the land owner planted and checked for three years to see if it had produced fruit, and finding none, cursed the tree and cut it down, according to the parable of the fig tree found in Luke 13:6-9.

So leaving there, Jesus goes back into Jerusalem and enters straight away into the temple. This time He doesn’t come quietly or secretly. This time Jesus comes with a vengeance. This, by the way, is the second time that Jesus comes to the temple and cleanses it. The first time was at the beginning of His ministry and the gospels tell us that He made a whip and used it to drive out the money changers and the merchants. This time, no whip is mentioned, but I would like to think that He once again picked up a ox whip or something and began to lay it about on the tables and the backs of the brokers.

And I think that those two visits to the temple are an illustration of Christ’s first and second coming. The first time He came was in His incarnation, to initiate His kingdom by making a way for man to be reconciled to God. The second time He comes is in the consummation of His Kingdom, to take possession of His church, to gather the fruit and to bring judgment upon the tares. And even in the first coming, Jesus caused division between the gospel and religion. He said He came not to bring peace but a sword, to cause division between a man and his family.

So this incident as Christ cleans out the temple is correlated to the incident when Christ cursed the fig tree. The temple is full of activity, it is conducting a lively business, but there is no spiritual fruit there. It’s a picture of the church at large far too often today; full of activity, programs, people running here and there, but no real spiritual fruit. Fruit being the evidence of Christ in the lives of His people. Fruit being not just lip service, but a life lived in obedience to the seed which is the word of God.

Now what was going on in the temple was a commercial enterprise that was organized and approved by the priests and Sanhedrin. It was a scam really, in which the priests would examine the animal you brought in to have sacrificed, and tell you that it had some imperfection which rendered it unfit, and so you were forced to buy a pre approved animal from one of their vendors. That one would of course be priced at an exorbitant amount, but you had really no choice if you wanted to offer an acceptable sacrifice. The priests of course were getting a kick back from the vendors. And the same thing happened with the temple tax. The tax was required to be paid in Jewish coin. So again for a fee, they had people there who would exchange your Roman coins for Jewish coins so you could pay the temple tax. And so Jesus turns over the tables of the merchants and drives them out of the temple and doesn’t allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple.

Mark understates what this must have done to the proceedings of the temple that day. It was the Passover week. Thousands of pilgrims are coming to the temple to offer sacrifices. It was like turning off the power in the mall the week before Christmas. No one could do business. And so as a result of His actions the wrath of the priests and the Sanhedrin would reach a fever pitch, resulting in their plot to murder Jesus.

And unfortunately, that is one of the repercussions of preaching the truth of the gospel today. People are content in the activity of religion however corrupt it may have become – however far from the truth it may be. But if you call out that activity as hypocrisy, the kick back is that they hate you and try to destroy you. No repentance, no contrition, just a resentment that their commerce or corruption or hypocrisy has been uncovered. But nevertheless, I take my cue from Jesus Himself. He didn’t mince words. He didn’t try to coddle them. He called it what it was and He told them to get out. vs.17, “Is it not written, ‘MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL THE NATIONS’? But you have made it a ROBBERS’ DEN.” They were robbing God in His own house.

Now at the possibility of raising the ire of some, let me make this application on a subject that if you are honest you have to admit I don’t often speak of, if at all. But if you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, is there an application that you possibly rob God as well? Malachi 3:8-11 says, “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the LORD of hosts.

Now let me hasten to say that I don’t say this, but God says it. I would rather not say it. I would rather the Lord deal with those who are disobedient in this, and not even mention it. But for your sakes I mention it, because I think that to be disobedient in this is to bring upon yourself a curse, even as God said, “You are cursed with a curse.” If you want to have that curse removed, then render to God to things that are God’s, and then God said He will pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Now let’s move on before someone throws stones.

Well, vs 18 says, “The chief priests and the scribes heard this, and began seeking how to destroy Him; for they were afraid of Him, for the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching.” That’s the effect of sound biblical preaching, some get mad and some are afraid and some are astonished. But preaching should have some cleansing effect. Preaching that makes everyone feel warm and fuzzy isn’t the preaching of the gospel, I’m afraid. As Jesus said, “I came not to bring peace, but a sword.”

So in vs19, Jesus and His disciples leave the city that night again as was their custom. I think they are sleeping out on the Mount of Olives each night. That’s how Judas is able to betray Him to the high priests. He knows that is where Jesus and the disciples spend the night.

The next morning, Tuesday, as they come back to Jerusalem, Peter sees the fig tree, and it has withered from the roots up. This is a symbolic reference to the prophecy Jesus made concerning Israel in Matt. 3:10 “The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” So Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.” I think that there is surprise among the disciples that the apparently healthy tree they saw the day before had so quickly withered. And that suddenness is a picture of how quickly Israel would wither as well, as in less than 40 years later the temple would be destroyed and the Jews dispersed. In one day the tree withered, and in one generation Israel would be destroyed.

And Jesus answered Peter, “Have faith in God.” Now doesn’t that seem like a strange way to answer him? Isn’t this a strange transition to start talking about how to move mountains? A lot of people take these next verses out of context, as some sort of formula whereby we can do miracles or get whatever we want. But Jesus is not telling us how to curse fig trees or work miracles, but how not to be cursed like the fig tree. The nation of Israel was cursed because it did not seek the kingdom of God through faith but through dead works. They substituted ritual and ceremony for faith in Christ, and so they had become cursed. They had an outward form of religion, but inwardly they were dead.

“Have faith in God,” means that faith is the way to life in Christ. This is the way to have life that is fruitful. To trust that the Lord knows what is best for us, to believe what he says, to obey what he commands, to do what He asks. Faith in Him makes us a fruitful person, or a fruitful church, as the case may be.

Then Jesus went on to say something even more puzzling: “Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.” Once again, this is not a formula for miracle working. But the mountain Jesus speaks of is the Mount of Olives. The sea is the Dead Sea. They are standing there looking at this mountain and contemplating throwing it into the Dead Sea? That is impossible. The mountain is a figure of the impossible.

But Jesus is not giving us a formula here for throwing mountains into the sea. He is telling us that to have faith in God at times is difficult to do. He knows that. There are mountains which oppose our faith and make it difficult for us. There are obstacles to faith. There are impossibles in our Christian life. But in chapter 9:23 we read Jesus said, “All things are possible to him who believes.” And in chapter 10 vs 27 Jesus said, “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.”

But remember what we said at the beginning. This is the spiritual kingdom of God that Jesus is establishing. These impossible things are things which are spiritual. The mountain, though literal and physical, is but a figure of the obstacles to the spiritual. Faith is the means by which we overcome the world and we are saved spiritually. Faith is the means by which we receive eternal life, even the abundant life in Christ.

And then he goes on to tell us how in vs24, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you will receive it, and you will. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against any one; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

What Jesus is saying is, that repentance is necessary for faith. ”The great hindrance to having faith in God is sin, and that’s illustrated by the sin which refuses to forgive. Sin is like a mountain which hinders your faith. Your prayers are hindered. David prayed, “if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me.” Before we can have the proper expression of our faith which is effective prayer, we must repent of the sin in our lives.

Maybe that means we need to forgive someone who has injured us, even as Christ has forgiven us for injury against God. Maybe unforgiveness is the sin that is hindering your fruitfulness. Jesus, when He taught us to pray said pray this way, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

In conclusion then, faith is the means of gaining spiritual life. Faith is expressed in prayer. As the temple of God, we are to be a house of prayer. Faith by the way, is not a fervent belief that whatever we ask for God will give us. But faith is a fervent belief in what God has promised He is faithful to perform. Then finally, if we are to have effective prayer, it must be prayer from clean hands and a clean heart. We must not harbor sin if we would have effective prayer. May God help us, then, to forgive one another. That is the fruit of faith, that we love one another, even as Christ loved the church and gave up His life for her.

Today is the Super Bowl. It’s where one team gets to claim that it is the greatest team of that year. I have to confess, I’m not really into football. And I am especially not that interested in supporting the NFL these days. But I am interested in the subject of greatness. Not that I will ever achieve it, but nevertheless, it is a worthwhile goal, if it is sought after in keeping with Biblical principles. And the Bible has a lot to say about greatness.

So, as I said, I’m not much of a football fan. My sport of choice is surfing. And I am not a great surfer by any stretch of the imagination. But there are a few icons in the sport that have achieved greatness to some degree or another. One such guy is a man named Laird Hamilton. And even if you aren’t a surfer, you might have heard of Laird.

Surfer Magazine once labeled Laird as “the sport’s most complete surfer, displaying almost unnerving expertise in a multitude of disciplines, and flat out surfing’s biggest, boldest, bravest, and the best big wave surfer in the world today, bar none.” I guess that qualifies Laird as being one of the greatest surfers ever.

So you would think that along with such physical feats of greatness come also a lot of arrogance and pride. And perhaps Laird was guilty of some of that at a certain time in his life. I understand that a near death experience though may have tempered that to a certain degree. In fact, it would appear that he turned to the Lord in that situation. I can’t say that he is saved, but it may have humbled him to some degree.

So the other day I was watching an interview with Laird in which they talked about all sorts of things that are going in his life, and the interviewer finished the talk with a last question which was “How do you define greatness?” You would half expect an answer like, “well if you look up greatness in the dictionary you will see my picture.” But the answer that Laird gave was really almost out of character for someone in his position. He said greatness required compassion, being courageous, humility and love. There could be other aspects as well, he said, but those were in his opinion the top four. Not exactly the stereotypical answer you would expect from a great sports figure, is it?

Coincidentally, or providentially, depending on your perspective, the topic we are looking at in today’s passage is that of greatness, specifically, “the gospel’s path to greatness.” This has really been a sort of backstory theme in this chapter and even in the previous chapter. That is wha it means to be considered great in the kingdom of God. And in reference to Laird’s answer to the question of what constitutes greatness, I was quite surprised to find a correlation here in this passage of those same four points, compassion, courageousness, humility and love. I think we are going to see Jesus illustrate each of those characteristics in the following passage, though not necessarily in that order.

Before we get into this passage though, let’s look back at the last verse of the previous passage which I think gives us spiritual insight into God’s perspective on greatness. Jesus said in vs.31, “But many who are first will be last, and the last, first.” That statement sets the stage by letting us know that God doesn’t look at greatness then way man looks at greatness. Let’s look now at the opening scene, in which we see the courageousness of Christ which is one of the essential characteristics of greatness.

In vs32 we see Jesus leading His disciples on the road to Jerusalem. It’s important to note that He is taking the lead. He is purposely, resolutely heading to His destiny with death. The disciples aren’t fully aware of where He is leading them, but He knows very well the pain and suffering that awaits Him. So Mark says He took the disciples aside to explain to them more fully what awaits Him. Marks says the disciples are amazed and fearful. Yet Christ is courageous. He resolutely marches toward what most people would run from. And yet Jesus knows the full implications of all that is incorporated in the cross. Far beyond what we can understand, He knew completely. And yet He faces towards Jerusalem, toward the cross and leads His disciples there with Him.

Note also what Jesus has to say about His destiny. This is the third time in Mark that we see this prophecy regarding the cross foretold by Christ. He first gave it in chapter 8 vs 3, after Peter affirmed that He was the Messiah. He gave a more detailed version of this prophecy in chapter 9 vs 31. And now in chapter 10 vs 33,34 He gives the most detailed version yet. This is a great illustration of what I have often referred to as “progressive revelation.” That as you walk in obedience to what light God gives you today, He will give you more light for the next step. It is important, not that we have full knowledge, but that we have full faith in what knowledge we have received and walk in it in obedience. And when we do that, then God will give us more knowledge that we might walk in it.

In this third prophecy of vs 33 and 34, we see seven distinct prophecies that Jesus reveals. That’s pretty definitive prophecy isn’t it? Jesus is not just giving an indistinct allusion to something, but specific things regarding His passion. Notice these seven points; 1, the Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of the chief priests and scribes, 2, they shall condemn Him to death, 3, they will hand Him over to the Gentiles, 4, they will mock Him and spit on Him, 5, they will scourge Him, 6, they will kill Him, and 7, three days later He will rise again. That is incredibly detailed prophecy concerning Himself, and as we all know, all those things were fulfilled to the letter.
You know, many times we wish we could know the future. But to know the way you will die, especially the time and the manner, which in this case was through torture, is not a knowledge that any of us would want to have. But to have this foreknowledge to this degree, and then to resolutely head towards it rather than run from it is to show courage at it’s greatest level. It is one thing to go on a dangerous adventure, perhaps to tackle the biggest waves you can find, but you do so with the expectation that you will survive. Jesus went to Calvary knowing that He would be killed and yet willingly offers Himself up for our sakes.

And that courage illustrates another characteristic of greatness, which is love. Jesus said in John 15:13, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lays down His life for His friends.” Jesus loved us with a sacrificial love. The greatest love that one can exhibit is to lay down your life for another. John 13:1 says, “having loved His own, He loved them to the uttermost.”

As I said at the beginning, greatness is a noble goal, if it is in keeping with Biblical principles of greatness. There is another essential element of greatness, which is humility. Yet first we see that the disciples illustrate the negative contrast to Biblical principle of humility, through their selfish ambition. Their selfish ambition is a sharp contrast to Christ’s humility. We see this starting in vs35.

The gospel of Matthew adds further detail to this situation – Matthew says the mother of James and John accompanies them, and in some way or another adds her request to theirs. They start by approaching Jesus and asking Him to do them a favor. Now it would seem they understood at least that Jesus was going to be established on His throne as the rule of the Kingdom of God. So they have that going for them. They have faith in the gospel of the kingdom. But that’s where the good implications to their question ends. What they were asking for, and even recruited their mother to help them get, was to be seated on the right hand and the left hand of Christ when He sat on His throne. They were asking for the chief seats of honor in the kingdom.

Now this is nothing short of naked, unbridled, selfish ambition. It is a desire to be given preference over the other disciples. Basically, it is a desire to be considered as greater than the other disciples. And as we will see, it was not a good desire, nor a great desire, but a sinful desire born of of selfishness and pride.

Notice this is in sharp contrast to Christ’s prediction of His humiliation, while they are asking for exaltation. Biblical humility is an essential characteristic of greatness. Jesus was a perfect example of humility, having left His glory in heaven to become a servant. The apostle Paul says we are to emulate this example of Christ’s humility in Phil. 2:3-8, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Notice that Paul said we are to have the same attitude as Christ did in regards to humility, putting the needs of others before yourself.

That’s the exact opposite of the attitude of the world, isn’t it? The doctrine of the world is go for it, grab all you can get, protect and proclaim your rights. I’ve often said in regards to surfing that it is one of the most selfish sports there is. There are no referees out there, no rules saying who’s turn it is. And so it’s every man for himself. And consequently it turns out to be a very selfish endeavor with everyone trying to get as many waves as they can. The better you are, the more waves you get. And that’s a good illustration of what is wrong with the world’s view of greatness. Climb over, walk over anyone in pursuit of your goals. All’s fair in love and war. But that’s not God’s view of greatness.

Notice what Jesus says in regards to this request of James and John. “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” They said to Him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you shall drink; and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized. But to sit on My right or on My left, this is not Mine to give; but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

James and John would appear to be overconfident in their answer that they would be able to drink the cup that Jesus drinks, and be baptized in His baptism. Whether or not they fully realize it, Jesus is talking about the agony that He will suffer at the cross. To “drink the cup” was a Hebrew idiom which they would have realized meant to fully undergo the same experience. And to be baptized they would have understood meant to be engulfed, or overwhelmed. Now they obviously did not understand what He had just said about being scourged and delivered up to be killed. They probably thought that was just hyperbole. Just like we think that it is hyperbole when Jesus said in the previous passage that it was impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. We have a tendency to disregard those truths which we don’t fit our template.

But Jesus out of His compassion for these two disciples does not rebuke them, in fact He acknowledges that they will in fact endure a similar baptism of fire and drink the bitter cup. Little did these aggressive, ambitious young men who were known as the Sons of Thunder know then that James would become the first martyr of the church, and John would be imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos. But it should be noted that while Jesus’s suffering and death was vicarious, their suffering could never be, but nevertheless it is closely related in the sense they would suffer for Christ’s sake.

However, it must also be noted that they were overconfident in their assertion that they could endure what Christ would endure. In fact we know that on the night of His arrest, they initially ran away as did all the disciples. But at this moment, they are full of bravado. And that is an important distinction in the pursuit of greatness. One must not mistake bravado for courageousness. There is an old adage which is not in the Bible, but nevertheless is true; fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Jesus is courageous in the truest sense of the word. The disciples are full of bravado. They have not yet had their faith put to the test. After the resurrection, they will exhibit some of that courage that Christ had. But up to this point they are full of themselves and what they think they can accomplish.

Listen, if we want to be great in the kingdom of God we must not be strong in our own might, but strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. In our weakness we are made strong, but only as we recognize our weakness. If they should have learned anything from the rich young ruler we looked at last week, it’s that your own success and strength accomplishes nothing in the kingdom of God. Learning to lean on the Lord for strength and wisdom is the secret of accomplishing anything worthwhile for the kingdom.

Well, lest we think too little of James and John and too much of the less outspoken disciples, note that in vs 41 that when they hear this they become indignant towards the two brothers. The 10 are no better than the two. They are indignant because the greed of the two is exposed, but in so doing it exposes their greed as well. This desire for greatness is a long standing issue with the disciples. Remember back in chapter 9 vs 34 they are discussing among themselves which one of them would be the greatest. So if anything, they are just jealous that James and John spoke up for those thrones before they did. All of them are guilty of the same selfish interests. And before we move on, let’s be honest about ourselves. It is human nature to think of yourself first. It’s human nature to look out for number one. But though it may be human, it is a human failing that is common to all. That is why Jesus said the second most important commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. The first commandment is to love God above everything and everyone. The second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. Note God doesn’t say love yourself, but to love your neighbor as yourself. God acknowledges that you will love yourself first, but He does not condone it.

So Jesus needs to correct this attitude among the disciples, so He stops and calls them together for a lesson. And He tells them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

First, Jesus gives them an analogy of the world’s great men as compared to those who would be great in the kingdom. In the world’s system of greatness, the rulers exercise authority over the others. To exercise authority is to lord one’s superiority over people, to oppress people, to govern people. They make laws and ordinances to restrict or control. And in so doing they make the people serve them.

But that is not the way God would have greatness expressed. In the kingdom of God, the great serve the weak. The ruler becomes the slave. As illustrated by the Lord Himself, He came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. Ransom there can be translated as to give in exchange.

Jesus is saying that in the kingdom of God in which He is Ruler, it is the exact opposite of what is practiced in the world. Greatness consists in serving, in the outpouring of self in service to others. It is to practice sacrificial love, and that not just to those who can reciprocate by advancing you, but even to those who cannot repay or to those who are undeserving. This is yet another characteristic of greatness, that of humility, of which none is more humble than the example of the slave. Remember the text we looked at earlier in Phil. 2:7,8 “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

The service which Jesus came to give was to give His life as a ransom for many. Or in exchange for the many. This ransom paid in Jesus’s blood is what is known as substitutionary atonement. Isaiah 53:11 in speaking prophetically of the Messiah says, “As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.”

This attitude of humility realized by service is an attribute of greatness which all of Christ’s followers are to emulate. This is the way we show the love of Christ to others.

Now finally, Mark gives us an example of greatness in the record of the healing of a blind man named Bartimaeus. As Jesus and the disciples are walking out of Jericho, Bartimaeus hears that Jesus is passing by. And so this poor blind man, a beggar, begins to call out in desperation for Jesus to have mercy on Him. Bartimaeus is a perfect picture of a man who is lost. He is the perfect picture of a man who would be saved. First he is blind. The image of blindness is a common metaphor presented in the gospel for those outside the kingdom of God. Paul says in 2Cor. 4:4 “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

Secondly, he is a beggar. It is necessary to see yourself as a beggar. According to Jesus’s teaching earlier in this passage, it is much better to be a beggar than a rich man. To be a beggar means you recognize that you have no means by which to be saved. To be rich is to think yourself as self sufficient, when in fact that very attitude prevents you from receiving the grace of God unto salvation. So the fact that this blind man is a beggar makes him an excellent candidate for salvation.

And thirdly, notice his desperation. His urgency. He cries out repeatedly, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” People around him told him to be quiet. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Listen, that is how you are saved. That is how you enter the kingdom, as a beggar, as one who realizes that he is blind, hopeless and helpless to affect anything on his own. A desperate appeal to God for mercy. A blind person in those days had no other recourse than to beg. There were no state resources available to such a person. There were no cures, no doctors that could offer help. There were no jobs to be had. You had to beg. It was a hopeless situation.

And so is our natural condition. God wants us to recognize the reality of our condition. He wants us to realize our hopelessness, so that our hope is in Christ, our faith is in Him alone. So Jesus says, call him to come here. So they said, “Take courage, stand up! He is calling for you.” Now there is that characteristic of courage again. But here we see the proper application of courage. It is faith in what God has promised. If the Lord calls us to it, we may be courageous because we know that it is according to HIs will.

So Jesus asks him, not because He doesn’t already know but because He wants Bartimaeus to confess what he desires of the Lord. The Lord knows what we need, but He wants us to pray for it. He wants us to confess it. And so Bartimaeus says, “Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!” It’s interesting that he said, regain my sight. That would indicate that at one time he had his eyesight, but for some reason or another had become blind.

The linguists tell us that Rabboni is equivalent to calling Jesus Lord. First he called Jesus “Son of David.” That’s a Messianic title. Now he calls Him “Lord.” That is a recognition of deity.

And in response, Jesus praises him for his faith. Vs 52 “And Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road.”

His faith has made him well. Faith in what, you might ask? Faith in the power of healing? Faith that he could be healed? Not quite. But rather faith in Christ, in who He is, in His authority and power as Lord and Christ. And immediately he received his sight. And when the procession started up again for Jerusalem, Bartimaeus followed them.

Listen, this healing of the blind man is not only an illustration of the greatness of Jesus, as illustrated by His compassion, His love and humility in serving a beggar, but also the greatness of Bartimaeus. This man went from being nothing in the eyes of the world to great in the kingdom of God. Jesus said in Matthew 11:11, that he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist, who was the greatest among men. To see Jesus in the light of His truth, to have faith in Him and to forsake all and follow Him, is to begin a journey on the path to greatness according to the gospel. There can be nothing greater than to be a citizen of the kingdom of God, and even more so, to become a child of God. To receive an inheritance with Christ and to become a royal priesthood. That is greatness that far surpasses all the world’s concept of greatness.

The question is then have you begun that journey to greatness? According to the standards of man you may think you have already accomplished much in that regard. But in the kingdom of God, it begins with a new birth, becoming like a child, realizing like Bartimaeaus that you are helpless and hopelessly blind, unable to do anything of your own, and calling upon the mercy of God to save you. And then in the light of God’s truth, to follow Him in faith. That is the path to greatness.

As I was talking about this concept to someone the other day, I said that before you can become great, you must first become good. Before you can become a great surfer or great football player, you must first become good. But in the kingdom of God that is not something we can achieve through our own efforts. We become good through faith in the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, believing in who He is and what He has accomplished on our behalf. And through faith in Him, our iniquity is transferred to Him, and His righteousness is transferred to us, so that we are made good, made righteous in Christ before God. Then, and only then, we may be able to do even greater works than these, as Jesus Himself promised.

The question before us today is without a doubt, the most important question in the world. We find it articulated by the rich, young ruler in vs 17. And it is understood to be main thought of the whole passage. The question asked by the young man is this: “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” It is a question that should be of concern to everyone here, to everyone in every age. It is the question of the ages. If you have not asked this question yourself, then you are either naive in hoping that it is immaterial, or you are hiding your head in the sand.

I was speaking to an older gentleman the other day. And he was burying his father this weekend who had just died at age 93. Though this man did not claim to be religious, or claim to be a Christian, still he seemed to get the crux of the issue. He said there has to be more life after this. There has to be a heaven and hell. And then he added, either you are going to get to heaven by virtue of becoming a born again, as he called us, or you are going to have to try to keep all the dictates of the Catholic Church and hope for the best. I think I will bet my money on being born again.

Because that is essentially what the Lord is teaching here. There are two incidents that are presented for us by Mark in his gospel. The first incident illustrates that in order to enter the kingdom of God you must become like a baby, you must be born again. The second one illustrates the way you will not enter the kingdom, and that is pictured through the self sufficient of the rich, young ruler.

Let’s start by looking at the first one, which is that of the parents bringing their babies to Jesus. And the disciples think that is an interruption, a nuisance to Jesus’s teaching. But Jesus is indignant at the disciples, and says, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” The translation says children, but Greek scholars tell us that the word indicates infants.

Now we often see people bring infants to church to be blessed and dedicated to the Lord. We don’t practice baby baptism here, but some people have used this passage as a text to justify that sort of thing. We don’t do it here, but we will have a baby dedication service if asked, where the parents bring a newborn to be blessed and consecrated to the Lord. However, neither such service is a means of salvation. Salvation is by grace through faith, as the Bible clearly teaches. So it’s impossible for the baby to be saved until such a time as they can exhibit saving faith.

However, I will say that this text, at least in my mind, offers additional assurance that babies who die before the age of accountability, will go to heaven. Jesus says without qualification that the kingdom of God belongs to such as these infants. We don’t know exactly how long this benefit is for every child, it may vary from child to child. But the Bible would seem to indicate that the age of 12 is the age of accountability. And this principle of very young children being accepted into the kingdom upon premature death is verified elsewhere in the scripture. You will remember when David’s son born to Bathsheba died, David said, “He cannot come to me, but I will go to him.” He indicated that the baby would be in heaven and he would see him there. So I think this text is further assurance of that principle.

But the principle as stated by Jesus is much broader than just limited to babies however. Note the next verse, vs15 “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” The indication in the previous verse that the kingdom of God belonged to SUCH as these, that is people who could be characterized such as these babies, is now expanded to include whoever comes like a child. So entrance into the kingdom of God is not limited to infants, but to whomever becomes like an infant.

So the question is then what characteristics do children have that are spiritually desirable and able to make someone acceptable to God? Well, you simply have to imagine an infant. I remember our children well when they were infants. For my wife Susie, that was her favorite time with the kids, when they were helpless and unable to even hold their head up. But for me that was a nerve racking time. I found their complete helplessness unnerving and practically terrifying. I had no idea why they were crying, or what might be going on.

So I would have to say that what Jesus means when He says the kingdom of God belongs to such as these, is that for one they are new born. When Nicodemus came to the Lord at night he asked some very similar questions as the rich young ruler asked. In John 3:3 Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” So Jesus is saying that it’s necessary to enter into a new birth, to become like an infant. Jesus goes on to explain to Nicodemus that there was a physical birth and a spiritual birth. Nicodemus thought that Jesus was talking about going back into the womb again, but Jesus revealed He was speaking of a spiritual rebirth which He compared to being born again.

Now the main characteristics of a new born we have already alluded to; they are helpless, they are utterly dependent upon their parents for sustenance, they are unable to fend for themselves in any way. They are unable to make a living, to own property. They are completely dependent. And as such they are a great illustration of the characteristics of a person who becomes born again spiritually. One who would enter the kingdom of God must first realize that everything that they possess, everything they could do through their own efforts, are completely ineffectual in accomplishing entrance into the kingdom of God. We must realize our helplessness, our hopelessness, and our utter dependence upon the Lord. We are unable in ourselves to provide for ourselves spiritually, to gain spiritual life. Eternal life then is something that we are born into, but not through our own efforts, but being born of God.

So having said these things, having established this principle for entering the kingdom of God, Jesus illustrates the love of God; how God lavishes His grace upon them accepts such as these by picking up the children one by one, and laying His hands on them and blessing them. Such is a picture of the experience of the Christian life. We enter into a familial relationship with God our Father and receive the blessings of being sons and daughters of God. And since God is eternal, and the source of life, then we that are born of God have eternal life as well.

The next incident that Mark records for us in the meeting of the rich, young ruler, provides a sharp contrast to that of the children. The children came to Jesus in their helplessness and dependence and they are accepted into the kingdom. The rich young ruler comes to Jesus in his wealth and self sufficiency and he goes away crestfallen that he cannot enter the kingdom.

Let’s look more closely at why the rich, young ruler was not able to enter the kingdom of God. I keep referring to this man as the rich, young ruler, but Mark doesn’t call him that. Mark just calls him a man, we have to get the rest of the descriptive terms from the other gospel accounts. But all the gospel writers say that he was rich, that he owned much property. The fact that he was young may not have a lot of bearing, but the fact that he was a ruler indicates that he was a religious ruler of a synagogue.

Notice that he comes running up to Jesus. That may be an indication of his youth. He is excited to meet Jesus. He is anxious to find out the answer to a question that is obviously important to him. Those are all good qualities. We should all be anxious to know the truth concerning the kingdom of God, and recognizing that Christ is the source of truth is an important first step. Jesus Himself declared, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except by Me.” So it is a good first step for this young man to come to the Lord with a sense of urgency.

And Mark adds that this young man knelt before Jesus. As a ruler of a synagogue, this would indicate a willingness to humble himself, and a reverence for Jesus. This also is a good beginning, but Jesus is going to seize upon that reference to Him as “good” in order to get this man to see who He really is.

But although his sincerity and urgency and reverence are commendable, it still falls short of what is necessary to gain eternal life. That raises an important point that needs to be stressed. Many people are impressed to come to the Lord for a variety of reasons. And according to popular opinion, you just need to come as you are and be sincere, and have some degree of belief in God, and God will accept you. But Jesus makes it clear that sincerity alone is not enough. Only the truth can make you free. So Jesus questions him in vs18, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.”

And that is the crux of the issue. Yes, we are saved by faith in Christ. In John 3:15 we read that “Whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” But believes what about Jesus? That is the essential question. What Jesus is pointing out is not that He isn’t good, and only the Father is good. But rather if He is truly good, then He must be God. A lot of people are willing to say that Jesus is good, He is a good teacher. He was a mystic, a shaman, a spiritual guide. But Jesus never claimed to be just a teacher or a prophet. He claimed to be the Son of God. He told Philip, “if you have seen Me you have seen the Father. I and the Father are One.” He told the Pharisees, “Before Abraham was, I am.” Therefore, either Jesus is God, and is Good, or He is a megalomaniac, He is an evil imposter. But He cannot be good unless He is God, because He claimed to be God.

Before you can gain entrance into eternal life, or the kingdom of God, you must recognize that Jesus is God. He is the way to salvation. And it is only through the grace of God that we might come to know God and be accepted by God and receive eternal life. A good man, even the best of men, could not by his death atone for anyone’s sins, even his own. Only God can atone for the sins of the world.

The problem though really wasn’t whether or not Jesus was good, but that the young man thought he himself was good. He was what you might call a good person. He was religious, he had his head on straight, he was moral, he was sincere, he was all the things that we think constitute goodness. In his mind, I’m sure he didn’t think that he needed to be saved, he just needed a little something extra to insure that he was going to have eternal life. If you compared him to practically everyone else around, he was the upper crust. He had no outward failings. If anyone could go to heaven, it would be someone like him. And its’ evident that he thought of himself that way.

So Jesus turns the conversation to the standard of goodness. The standard of righteousness. God’s standard of righteousness is not by comparing you to your neighbor, or your husband, for that matter. According to our standards, we are all righteous. But Jesus turned him to the standard of God’s righteousness, which is the law, or commandments.

Jesus said in vs.19 “You know the commandments, ‘DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.’” And notice how quick the young ruler answered, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.” Now I’m sure he was sincere. But I am also certain that Jesus, knowing all things and able to know his heart, was more than aware of the ways in which this man fell short of those commandments. But the Lord would allow his answer to stand, and move him from the second table of the law to the first table. The second table deals with mans’ actions towards man. The first table of the law deals with man’s actions towards God. Had the young man been in attendance at the Sermon on the Mount, he would have known that Jesus equated hate with murder, and lust with adultery and so forth. But rather than address those internal shortcomings, Jesus brings his attention to his relationship with God.

Vs. 21 Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

Notice in bringing his attention to his relationship to God, Jesus first demonstrates God’s love for us. We would have no chance of eternal life were it not for the love of God. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should have eternal life.” God’s love comes first in our relationship with God. We love, because He first loved us. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” In any relationship we might have with God, it must be predicated by the fact that God first loved us.

Secondly, if God loved us, then we must love God. Jesus said in another place that the foremost commandment was this; (Mark 12:30) “AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.” So the question Jesus posed to the young man was this; if you think you keep the commandments, then here is the foremost commandment. And if I am good, then I am God. And if I am God and you love Me with all your heart and soul, then you will do what I command you. And this is my command, “God and sell all you possess and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow Me.”

Now no matter how you look at this statement, this is a tough thing to do. Imagine if that were it. Imagine if the only way to enter into heaven was to sell all that you have and give it to the poor, and then follow Christ. If that were truly the only way to become a Christian, then I dare say that none of us here today would really be willing to make that sacrifice. Would you be willing to sell your stocks, your cars, your houses, your jewelry, etc, etc, and give it all away to poor people? I think not. I think all of us would be like the rich young ruler and walk away from this church crestfallen, knowing that we were not willing to give it all up to God.

So then, according to this standard of righteousness, none of us can be saved. This young man’s refusal to sell everything exposed three sins against the commandments. First, He did not love the Lord with all his heart, mind and strength. Secondly, he sinned by holding onto idols in his life. You cannot serve God and wealth. His possessions were his idols. And thirdly, he sinned against the second foremost commandment, which is that you shall love your neighbor as yourself. If he truly loved his neighbor as himself he would have acquiesced to the Lord’s request. In one simple statement, Jesus exposed the young man’s hypocritical adherence to the law. And He has also exposed ours as well. There is none righteous, no not one.

Then who can be saved? That is my cry, and the cry of the disciples. And Jesus does not make it any easier for us. He turned to the disciples when the young man left crestfallen and said, “How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!” I would have half expected Jesus to stop the young man as he was walking away and saying to him, “Hey, come back! I was just kidding! It’s not really that tough. I would never ask you to sell everything and give it all away. I was just using hyperbole! I was exaggerating! Lighten up, salvation is free for the asking!”

But no, Jesus states that it is hard for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God. And the disciples are amazed, so Jesus repeats it again in vs24. But notice this time He does not add the phrase “for those who are wealthy.” In this verse, He seems to include everyone.
But then for the third time, Jesus declares this principle by analogy, saying in vs25, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” If there is any doubt, we should have none after three such statements. Jesus has just said that it is practically impossible for a rich man to be saved. Period.

So the disciples are amazed at this statement, and understandably so. I am amazed by this statement. I am terrified by this statement and you should be too. Because we are all rich in this world’s goods, and though we may wish we were richer, none of us would wish that he were poorer.

So the disciples ask the second most important question in the world, in vs.26, “Then who can be saved?” If none of us are willing to leave everything and follow Him, then who can be saved? If the disciples question makes you cry out in anguish, then the Lord’s answer should make you cry out “Hallelujah!”

The Lord’s answer is found in vs27 Looking at them, Jesus said, “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.” Notice, Jesus broadens it to all people, not just rich people. With people it is impossible to keep the commandments. With people it is impossible to enter the kingdom of God. Isaiah 53:6 says, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.” It’s impossible for anyone to enter the kingdom of God on their on merits, regardless of what they might do, because none of us can measure up to the standard of God’s righteousness.

But the good news is that Jesus Christ has measured up to the standard of righteousness. He is good, and He is righteous. And because He loves us, He has offered up Himself to be our substitute, and God has put the penalty for our iniquity on Him, and transferred His righteousness to us. 2 Cor. 5:21 says, “God made Him who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” With God it is possible to enter the kingdom, because Jesus has paid for our sins and transferred His righteousness to us, so that by His grace we who believe in Him might be saved. That is the gospel of the kingdom of God. The good news of the kingdom. God has made our citizenship in heaven possible through Jesus Christ.

Peter though is not thinking so much about what Christ has done for them, but rather what they have done for the Lord. He’s still thinking of the rich young ruler who couldn’t leave his money to follow Jesus. And so he says to Jesus, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You.” That’s a rather bold statement. They had left much. They left their nets. They left their homes. But there were times that it would seem they returned to their fishing, and to their homes. So I can’t help but wonder if there is not a hint of the same sense that the rich young ruler expressed when he said that he had kept all the commandments since his youth.

But notice that Jesus does not rebuke Peter for over stating their commitment. But rather Jesus would seem to commend whatever sacrifices they had made, even if it was only temporary. In vs29 Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. “But many who are first will be last, and the last, first.”

This statement must be understood figuratively to be understood correctly. The point Jesus is making is that there will be a reward for what we give up here on earth for the sake of the kingdom of God. Paul said, “all the things which were gain to me here on earth, I gladly count as rubbish for the surpassing value of knowing Jesus as Lord.” There is great reward in following Jesus. But here in this earth it may be spiritual blessings in exchange for physical. There will also be persecutions. Jesus said elsewhere, “In this world you will have tribulations, but take courage, I have overcome the world.” And when we overcome this world, we will grasp hold of eternal life, and all that eternal life promises; an abundant, fulfilled life in the presence of the source of all life and blessedness. So all of the blessings that this world offers will one day pale in comparison to the blessings we shall enjoy in eternity.

However, Jesus adds one caveat to that future promise of rewards, which will be looked at more thoroughly later, and that is He says “But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” This was the qualifying remark regarding the apostle’s reward. All who sacrifice for the Lord will be rewarded, but God’s way and timing of rewarding may not match up with man’s way and timing of being rewarded. When God rewards, He judges with righteous judgment. He sees the heart, the motive, and the sacrifices that were made that may have not been noticed by man. Man judges according to outward appearances. But God judges according to the heart. Thus many who have seemingly achieved great things for the kingdom according to man’s perspective, may find themselves on the end of the line in the judgement to come.

And that should be an encouragement to all of us. Because not all of us have great resources, or great talents to use for the Lord. But we will be judged by what we do have, and as we are faithful in little things, He will be faithful to reward us with better things.

Last Wednesday, Joe mentioned at Bible study prayer time that a man who he worked with had passed away suddenly. It turns out that I knew this man, and had worked for him at one time. We were just about the same age. And though I didn’t see it, one of my coworkers used to say that he thought we could be brothers because we looked so much alike. But if we did, that’s where the similarity ended. This man, that I’ll call Dave, was at the top of the company ladder, while I was at the bottom. I remember working in his beach house, and being a little envious of a lifestyle like he had, with a million dollar beach home fully furnished whenever he chose to come to the beach. He seemed to have everything, and I seemed to have very little in earthly wealth. I was literally sweeping floors and taking out trash in this company, while trying to start this church. And I will confess I sometimes felt like Peter must have felt. “Lord, I’ve given up so much to follow you. What’s my reward?”

Well, Dave passed away suddenly last week from a heart attack. And I don’t know his eternal destiny. From my perspective, there was nothing about him that led me to believe that he was a follower of Christ. But one thing I do know, the beach house, and the cars and the bank accounts and profit sharing is still here, and Dave is not here. He is in eternity. And in light of this passage we looked at today, I wonder what his reward will be? Did he receive eternal life through faith and trust in Jesus Christ, or did he enter into eternal damnation and separation from God for refusing to let go of the things of this world?

What about you? What are you worshipping today? What do you hold more dear than love for the Lord? As you examine your life today in light of the word, let us remember the question Jesus asked back in Mark 8:36, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?”

Today is my wife and I’s 29th wedding anniversary. So it’s particularly ironic that we find ourselves looking at the subject of divorce. Twenty nine years is a long time. It’s a life sentence. Seriously though, the secret to our long marriage is that divorce was never an option. We made a promise to God for life.

When I told someone the other day that I was going to be speaking on divorce at this Sunday morning service their response was that I would most likely offend most of the people in the congregation. Last week I already managed to offend most people. And now today we’re probably going to offend the rest of you. So it’s not without some trepidation that I attempt to expound on this subject today. However, in my defense, I will say at the beginning, that Jesus is the author of this message, not me. I am just the messenger.

However the same concern of offense could be said about Jesus’s address on divorce. The question, posed by the Pharisees, was designed to make Him offensive to the ears of the multitudes, if not even His own disciples. There were two possible answers, and both of them would end up offending someone. So that’s why Mark says that the Pharisees came to test Jesus. They wanted to discredit Him, to make Him offensive to people, and they figured that this question was a good way to do it. Because the subject of marriage and divorce has been a volatile issue for a long time. It’s not only a hot button issue in our culture, but it was in Jesus’s culture as well.

But as a preamble to this discussion, I would like to reiterate a point I’ve made before, that Christianity is not just a spiritual experience, nor is it a list of do’s and don’ts, but it is a way of life, a new way of living. That’s why in the early church period it was called “The Way”. It’s not only the way of salvation, but it’s the way that God has designed man to live. The way of the abundant life that Jesus spoke of. So then, as we look at this passage today, it’s important not just to see an iron clad, restrictive law, but life giving principles which precede and inform that law.

So notice the question of the Pharisees. They ask in vs.2, “whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife.” The emphasis is on whether or not it was lawful. The Pharisees were supposed to be experts in the law. But now they come to Jesus to seek His advice on the law? Not hardly. They came to catch Him. The problem was not the law. We will see what the law states in a moment. The problem came in interpreting the law. There were two famous rabbis, one named Hillel and the other Shammai. Hillel was for the more liberal interpretation, whereas Shammai favored a very conservative, or strict interpretation. Hillel basically said that the law allowed a man to divorce his wife for almost any reason whatever. If she no longer met his approval, if she burned the toast, whatever the reason he now viewed her unfavorably, he could divorce her.

Shammai on the other hand, held to a conservative interpretation, which said that divorce was only permissible in the case of immorality. The underlying problem with divorce in that society, was that it was predominately a man’s prerogative. Men had complete authority in society. Women were second class citizens. My daughter and I saw a movie the other night which was set in Afghanistan. And the movie made it clear that the attitude even today in our modern times among many in the Middle East towards women is that they are second class citizens. They are considered the property of the husband. And as such they can do what they want with the women. That view gives rise to great injustices to women in the Middle Eastern cultures today. And I think such a view was very popular in ancient Israel as well. Today in western culture we see women suing for divorce just as much if not more than men. It was just the opposite in the past. But in the time of Christ, it was defiantly the prerogative of men.

So Jesus is put on the spot by this question. He’s going to offend many people no matter what He says. So what did Jesus say? Which camp of interpretation did He ascribe to?

You know, the difficulty in these sort of questions is that everyone has an opinion. Everyone wants to express what they think is right and what they think sounds fair. And that’s where the difficulty comes, because though everyone is entitled to their opinion not everyone is in agreement. However, I love the fact that Jesus shows us the source of wisdom. He does not offer His opinion. But rather He goes to the scriptures. The scriptures can be relied upon to give us God’s truth, which is the same yesterday, today and forever. The scriptures do not change. Rabbis, teachers, preachers, come and go over the centuries, most of them long forgotten. But the word of the Lord endures forever. Fashions change, cultures change, societies rise and fall, but God’s word never changes. We have all heard people use the excuse that we live in a different culture today than they did in those times. But I must tell you, that the culture must bow down to the word of God, and not vice a versa.

Jesus answers from the scriptures. He answers from the law, which was the standard that the Pharisees were supposed to be championing. Note vs3, And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?” Moses wrote the Law. God gave it to Moses on the mountain, and then Moses gave the law to the people, both verbally and in the form of the scriptures.

The Pharisees of course know the law, and they are eager to show their knowledge, so they answer, “Moses permitted a man TO WRITE A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND her AWAY.” They were quoting from Deut. 24. But they were placing the emphasis on the wrong aspects of the law. They interpreted it as saying you could divorce your wife for whatever reason, but you must give her a written bill of divorce. However, this specific aspect of the law was really written to be a protection to the wife, that once you have given her up, you cannot afterwards take her back again if she had lost the next husband for any reason. It was a concession to divorce made for the wife’s benefit, and not an excuse for the husband to dump his wife.

But that was the sort of minute detail that the Pharisees loved to squabble over. Such dissection of the law gave them the opportunity to find a way around the principle of the law. But Jesus brings them back to the overarching principle. Vs 5 But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. “But from the beginning of creation, God MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE. “FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER, 8 AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

Notice first that Jesus tells them that Moses made this concession, not to give license to divorce, but that if they sinned in putting away their wife, they must write her a bill of divorce. The point Jesus is making is that Moses wrote this because of the hardness of their heart. Moses knew that some hard hearted men would want to send away their wives so they could find another one they liked better. So Moses wrote the law that way to protect the woman. Because he knew that the Jewish men had hardened hearts. They were not all going to keep the law of marriage as God intended it. So Jesus said, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.”

What is a hardened heart? Stubbornness, pride, desire for preeminence, an unbending desire to do what you want to do. Well, what would the opposite be? A heart that is contrite, repentant, humble, and willing to serve others. There are many occurrences in the Scriptures of the phrase, “hardness of heart.” We are warned again and again against hardening our hearts. We are reminded of when Moses was sent to Pharaoh and told to deliver the message of God: “Let my people go.” When Pharaoh heard that word, he “hardened his heart,” (Exodus 8:15, 8:32, 9:34, 10:1). What does that mean? It means he determined to handle things his own way. He determined to do what he felt like doing in the situation, to handle it his own way, and to ignore the word of God. This is hardening of the heart. When you determine that you are going to handle something yourself, and not pay any attention to what God reveals about it, you are hardening your heart. This is what was going on in the marriages in Israel and unfortunately is still occurring in the church today.

But then note that after rebuking them for the hardness of their heart, Jesus takes them back to the prevailing divine principle. Jesus said in vs.6, “But from the beginning of creation, God MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE. “FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER, 8 AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH; so they are no longer two, but one flesh.” To establish the principle, Jesus takes them back before Moses, before even Abraham, all the way back to the beginning of creation. Jesus quotes from Genesis 1:27 and 2:24. But in taking them back to the beginning, Jesus takes them back to the institution of marriage. Not just the concession of divorce, which obviously has to come after marriage, but back to marriage itself. And from these verses we learn that marriage is a divine institution, not a civil institution. That’s why governments have traditionally recognized the church as the governing body for marriage. Marriage’s legitimacy comes from God, not the government.

The problem with the Jews, just as it is the problem of us today, is not that we don’t understand divorce, but that we don’t understand what God purposed in marriage. We have a low view of marriage, and thus we have a low view of divorce. Today many people want to say, “We live in a different culture” or “The rules are different today” or “We need a practical understanding.” Yet Jesus knew that the timeless answers were found in going back to the beginning of God’s purposes in creation.

First, notice that Jesus states the design of God in creation. “From the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.'” He made them to be distinct and different sexes. He made them to have different roles, different responsibilities. Men and women are designed to be different, yet complimentary.

I couldn’t help but notice the craziness of the Women’s March that was going on yesterday in Washington, DC and other cities around the country. I’m not sure what they were protesting against. I saw people wearing Black Lives Matter shirts, and holding Dump Trump signs. But I guess the underlying goal was equality of women. But the fact is that God didn’t make man and woman the same. He made them different by design. When God created all the creatures of the earth and sky and sea, God said it was good. But when God created Adam, He said that it was not good for man to be alone. So God created woman, to help man, to complete man. That’s the symbolism of taking a rib out of Adam’s side. She is now bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. They are designed to be different, yet one flesh. To complement one another that they may be better together. Man alone is not good, but man and woman as one is good.

And that oneness indicates the desire of God. “‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one.’ So they are no longer two but one.” Jesus says, ”For this reason” — what reason is He speaking of? He is quoting from Genesis 2:24 which comes just after Adam says, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” So the reason they are joined together is because she was taken out of Man. She comes back to complete him and he her.

That is what they were made male and female for — in order that ultimately they might be joined together and become one. That is the desire of God. This oneness is a divine attribution which God intends for us to also enjoy. Jesus prayed in John 17:22 “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one.”

The term Jesus uses in vs9 for joined together literally means yoked together. Like two horses yoked together, couples must work together and head the same way to really be joined the way God wants them to be joined. Thus Paul speaking to the church in 2Cor. 6:14 says, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?”

According to God’s principles then, the husband and wife form a team, a partnership. They have been joined together by God to fulfill God’s purposes. What God has joined together, let no man separate.

Furthermore, it’s clear that this passage does away with the notion of a same sex marriages. Marriage is designed by God to be between a man and a woman. And there are no provisions for polygamous marriages. Marriage is one man and one woman, and it always has been from the very beginning. Because of the hardness of man’s heart, men in the Bible sometimes took more than one wife. But they never did so without bringing a curse upon themselves. God never intended for there to be but one man with one woman, and as such He made them for one another. How foolish it is to go against the design of the creator.

The Lord makes clear is that this marriage relationship is the highest relationship possible in life. Note that it takes priority over all others. It’s closer even than the ties of blood; a man shall leave his mother, and a woman leave her home. They come together in a bond that is deeper than family relations. “A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife.” It is a closer relationship than that to any of their children who follow. The priority of the marriage relationship is before the relationship of mother’s and father’s to children. That’s an important principle that has to be prioritized in blended marriages. In the design of creation, people are to become husbands and wives before they become fathers and mothers. That’s a principle that is fast becoming out of fashion, but it’s not out of fashion with God. But what a mess we make out of our lives when we dismiss these divine principles.

And I would like to take this opportunity to tell you that not only is marriage the highest relationship possible in the physical realm, but it is a picture of the highest relationship possible in the spiritual realm. If you look at Genesis 2, which we were looking at just now. After God said it was not good for man to be alone, He does a strange thing. Notice that God does not straight away create woman. But instead, in vs19 of chapter 2 of Genesis God caused all the animals of the earth to pass in front of Adam. And Adam named all the animals. Notice vs.20 “The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.”

That was the point of the whole exercise. To show Adam that there was not a helper suitable to him in the whole of creation. And so then God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and He drew the rib from Adam’s side and created woman. Now I would submit to you that is a picture of the situation in heaven. Before creation, God looked around all of his universe and all of heaven, and every creature that lives in the heavens, and there was not found a helper suitable for Him. God desired a companion, who would be like Him, who would love Him. And so God formed man out of the dust of the ground. Every other creature, every other plant of the earth, every other thing that God made, He spoke into existence, and it was made, and it was good. But when God made man, He got down on His knees in the dirt and formed man out of the dust of the ground, and then when He had finished making him, God put His lips to man’s lips and blew the breath of life into him, and man became a living soul. God created mankind to be His bride, to be married to Him. Male and female He created them. And God wants to be one with His bride. God loves His bride which the Bible teaches us is the church. God made it possible for the church to be with Him forever through the death of Jesus Christ. And God wants us to love Him, to cleave to Him and Him only. God promised that He would never leave us, nor forsake us. He will be with us forever. God hates divorce and so He will never divorce us.

So marriage is a serious business to God, because it represents God’s relationship to the church. Jesus then gives the disciples a further word of warning. “What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.”

When the disciples were alone with Him later in the house they ask Him to explain about divorce again. They want clarification. Perhaps they too held to the liberal view of marriage, and were having a hard time accepting what Jesus had taught.

So Jesus says again in vs11, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery.” Notice first of all, Jesus includes our more modern society in this statement. It’s not just a man thing in Jesus’s eyes. Jesus makes it clear that women who divorce outside of Biblical grounds are in sin as well. Notice second of all, that Jesus expands the law. The Jews were looking to limit the law. They were looking for loopholes. They were looking for the concession to divorce to be liberal beyond adultery and to include burning the toast. But Jesus goes beyond the letter of the law to the principle of the law. And ironically, rather than enlarging divorce beyond adultery He makes it clear that divorce except for adultery constitutes adultery. Rather than exempting divorce, Christ equates divorce as adultery.

In Matthew’s gospel there is a more complete record of Christ’s teaching. In Matthew 19:9 Jesus said, “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.” With this answer, Jesus interpreted the meaning of the word uncleanness in Deuteronomy 24:1, showing that divorce and the freedom to remarry was only permitted in the case of sexual immorality.

Jesus makes it clear that though God permits divorce, He does not command it. In fact, Malachi 2 makes it clear that God hates divorce. And in vs.13 God associates unanswered prayer with divorce. So though God may give permission for divorce, yet His divine purpose is that there would be no divorce.

There is another scripture which we should mention which gives one other permission for divorce. In 1 Cor. 7:15, Paul added the case of abandonment by an unbelieving spouse. Paul says, “Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace.” So if you are married to an unbeliever and they leave the marriage through divorce, then you are no longer under the bondage of the marriage. You are free in regards to being married and can remarry. Paul says the same thing to those who are widowed. In 1 Timothy 5:14 he says he wants younger widows to get married. So there are some things such as death and abandonment that constitute grounds for being set free from the marriage bonds. But the overarching admonition Paul makes is that God has called us to peace.

And that ties us back to the connection of the last verse of the last chapter. Mark 9:50b, “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” To have salt, you will remember, is to have no corruption of sin, no hardness of your heart that would cause you to sin. And then to be at peace with one another. Paul reiterates that God has called us to peace. Peace is the lack of strife, envy and lust. Peace is the lack of striving against one another. Peace is unity, oneness. That is what marriage is supposed to accomplish. Marriage should be a divine symbol of peace and love, harmony and unity. As an example of the relationship we are to have with the Lord.

A Christian marriage is one in which there is peace in the home. But it takes a humble, servant’s heart to have that sort of peace. Men are to love their wives and serve their wives as Christ loved the church and gave up His life for her. So Peter tells husbands in 1Peter 3:7-9, “You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered. To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.”

Peter speaks of a woman being weaker in a physical sense. And you can debate that with the Lord if you want. But in a spiritual sense Peter is saying she is not weaker, but notice she is a fellow heir. She will receive the same measure of reward in heaven as the husband. Both husband and wife are one in Christ. Gal 3:28-29 says “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.”

In Christ the woman is not culturally inferior, but she is a fellow heir of Christ. Man and woman were created to live in harmony with one another, to become one, even as we are one with Christ. When we have that kind of attitude about marriage, then we will have no problem with divorce. Christ laid down His rights, His power, His privilege, for the sake of reconciliation with mankind. Let us walk in HIs example, humbling ourselves, serving one another in the love of God.

In the section of Mark we are studying, we have been watching Jesus through a variety of ways instruct the disciples in the true nature of the Kingdom of God. We have seen that Jesus makes it clear that the cross comes before glory, but this is a difficult thing for the disciples to comprehend. And this lesson is very applicable to us, because, if you are like me, you do not like the cross in your life. Christians often make much about the blessings and the glory of Christianity. But usually we avoid the thought of suffering and persecution, of discipline, and of sacrifice. Much of the teaching of the church today avoids talking about these thorny implications of the cross. But Jesus makes clear to his disciples, and by extension to us, that there is no glory without the cross — no cross; no crown. Romans 8:17 says that if we suffer with Him, then we shall also be glorified with Him.

The chapter began with the transfiguration, which was a prefigurement of the glory to come, both in the life of Christ and for his disciples. But then Mark says that they came down the mountain, back on the road to the cross, back down to the suffering and hardship and trials that often are a real part of the Christian experience. They came to find the rest of the disciples being scorned for their lack of power, their impotence over a demon controlled boy. They came down to find unbelief in the absence of the Savior. And now they are traveling again, headed to Capernaum, but Jesus knows that He is ultimately headed to the cross. His public ministry is virtually over at this point. His primary focus is on teaching and equipping the disciples for the time when He will no longer visibly be with them. So Mark says He goes out of His way to avoid the crowds, and as they are walking along on the hot dusty road to Capernaum, He tells the disciples of His destiny. Jesus said vs.31, “The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.”

He is speaking of His humiliation. His suffering and death, and then His exaltation, when He will rise from the dead and ascend into heaven. Once again, there is the order of first the cross, then the glory. But the disciples don’t understand what He is saying, and perhaps they are afraid to find out. So they don’t ask Him what it means, and they are fearful.

In this announcement of the cross, a new element is added which has not appeared before and may have contributed to their fearfulness. Jesus said, “The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men.” The word translated “delivered” really means “betrayed.” It is a word that is the technical word used for a criminal being handed over to judgment and punishment, and perhaps execution. It is a legal term and the use of it here even hints at the fact that the execution of Jesus will be to some degree a legal act. It’s an indication to these disciples that the Lord would be delivered over to his enemies by an act of betrayal. After Peter’s rebuke in the last chapter, where Jesus called him Satan, it is not surprising that this revelation would make them afraid that one of their own could betray Christ and He would be killed as a result.

But the principle Jesus wants to teach them is that He is going to suffer the cross before He would be exalted in the resurrection. His humiliation is an important principle that they need to understand, because humility is something that they needed to learn was an essential tenet of the gospel of the Kingdom. In the following verses we are going to see four ways in which the Lord teaches or illustrates the humility of the kingdom in action.

The first is brought about by the Lord asking the disciples in vs33, “what were you discussing along the way?” Jesus knew that they had been talking among themselves during their journey about which of them would be the greatest in the kingdom of God. They are still thinking about glory. And perhaps, though Peter, James and John had not told them about the transfiguration as Jesus had requested, yet the rest of the disciples knew that they had gone up to the mountain with Jesus, and had to have realized that something momentous had happened there which they were not privy to. So it’s not surprising that led them to start to argue with one another about who would be first in the kingdom, and who would be next and so forth. They were picking out the seats of honor already, and there was probably some jealousy going on amongst them. In fact, this concept of glory is so fixed in the disciples mind that in the next chapter John and James even had their mother ask Jesus that her sons be seated on the right and left hand when Jesus took His throne. This kind of unbridled ambition is something that is incompatible with the new life that Jesus was illustrating for them.

So Mark says they were quiet, because they didn’t want to admit that they had been talking about who was the greatest. Yet Matthew’s account says that eventually they did ask Him straight out who was the greatest among them. So in vs35, Jesus calls them to come around Him and He sits down in the posture of a rabbi teaching His disciples and He begins to teach the principle of humility. And the principle He gave them is this; “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”

You know, it is a very natural desire in the heart of man to excel, to achieve, to distinguish yourself among your peers. We teach that to our children, don’t we? We put them in sports, that are competitive. We give them grades at school. They are tested to see how they rank in regards to others in almost every endeavor. And it doesn’t stop there. We do the same thing at work. Those that excel generally are the ones that get the bonuses, the raises, the promotions. It is part of our culture to be competitive, to try to outdo one another, to rise to the top.

But the gospel is not natural; it does not operate on natural principles. It operates on spiritual principles, based on the truth of God for how we are to live. So what Jesus did was to tell them the way to true greatness. “It is not by seeking to be first,” He said, “It is by a willingness to put others first. It is not by getting people to serve you; it is by becoming a servant of all.”
What Jesus is really saying is that there are two kinds of greatness, two kinds of ambition. There is the ambition to be approved and applauded by men, and the ambition to be approved and applauded by God. One way is natural, and one way is spiritual. One way involves pride, and the other way requires humility.

Now to illustrate this principle, Jesus calls forth a child, maybe 2 to 4 years old. It could have possibly been Peter’s son, as they were probably in Peter’s house. So picking up the little boy in His arms, Jesus said, “Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.”

So Jesus reveals, in three remarkable ways, the real marks of greatness as illustrated by this child. Children are illustrative of the Christian. But especially in that culture, children were not considered important. They were property. They were workers for the family good. But they were not given the esteem that our culture gives children today. So the first mark of greatness in the kingdom of God is found in these words: “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.” The important words there are “in my name.” The motive for receiving such a person, such a little, unimportant child, is that it is done as unto the Lord — done in his name. It is not done because the child can reciprocate by doing good things for you; it is something you do regardless of whether you receive any benefit in doing it, because it is done as unto the Lord.

The first mark of greatness is that you learn to be no respecter of persons, to welcome people simply because they are people, to take no consideration of whether they can do something for you or not, and not to be concerned whether knowing them enhances your own prestige, but because, potentially at least, they are sons and daughters of God Himself. Romans 12:10 tells us to be “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor.” We do this without regard for their standing, or rank. We should put others importance and needs before our own.

This is illustrated in the next section by John. At this point, Mark says, John interrupted Jesus. “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is for us.”

Probably the mention of the phrase, “in my name” caused John to suddenly recall an incident which had taken place not long before, when he and some of the other disciples had seen a man casting out demons in the name of Jesus. John said, “Teacher, when we saw him, we told him to stop, because he wasn’t following us.” This is a typically human reaction, isn’t it? This is jealousy, and it was probably brought on by the fact that the disciples had recently been unable to cast out the demon in the boy. They were jealous of the fact that someone else was doing something, even successful at doing something, that they thought only they were entitled to do.

I think what also must have irked them was that this man actually was succeeding in what they were having trouble doing. This man was not an imposter. Jesus gives him credit for accomplishing a true miracle. Let’s be clear about something though. We aren’t encouraged here to accept shysters in ministry who claim to be faith healers and are not. The Bible makes it clear that we need to beware of false prophets who come in sheep’s clothing. But this man was legitimately casting out demons and they were jealous of him.

This is what Jesus was saying to his disciples. The mark of greatness is that you look not at a person’s credentials, nor at the outward characteristics they manifest, nor at their affilations, but that you see a life of faith that honors Christ. And if the name of Jesus is being honored by any such person, do not hinder them, but honor them and accept them. And very importantly, don’t measure yourself against other Christians. Don’t judge people according to the gifts God has or hasn’t given them. Let God be the judge of those who are His. God uses a variety of people for a variety of purposes. One person is not more valuable in God’s eyes than another. But their value is in doing what God has purposed for them to do. And if we are to be great in the eyes of God, then we will not hinder others from doing God’s work, but rather encourage and build them up in the Lord.

The next mark of greatness follows immediately in vs 40, “For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ, will by no means lose his reward. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”

Remember that Jesus is still holding the child in His arms, and now He is giving a positive and a negative charge concerning how we are to treat the children of God. The positive is obviously meant to represent doing a small thing which has a big reward; as even giving just a glass of water has a great reward in the kingdom of God. The negative thing uses a similar equation in reverse; whoever by even a small sin causes a Christian to stumble, will be guilty of a great punishment.

I think the mindset of most Christians today is far too often focused on their liberties in Christ, rather than their responsibilities. Remember Jesus said it is better to give than to receive. But a lot of times we are only focused on what we receive as Christians, rather than on what we can give. The real blessing and sign of maturity for a Christian comes not from getting, but giving. What may be a small sacrifice for you in time or effort or resources can have great eternal benefit.

On the other hand, what liberties we take with our Christianity often can become a stumbling block to others. 1Cor. 10:23 says, “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify,” that is not all things build up others. If we truly loved others, then we would gladly sacrifice our liberty for the sake of another brother. Especially in those areas where other Christians are weak.

I will speak bluntly of a couple of examples. Women you need to be careful in the way you dress for the sake of your Christian brother. Yes, men are weak. Many men are perverted in their thinking. Yet that doesn’t relinquish your responsibility. The Lord loves those who are weak. He died for those who are weak. How can we then not sacrifice our liberty for the sake of someone who is weak? And I will also speak of drinking. I’m not going to say that you have to be a tee totaller to be a Christian. But I also shouldn’t have to tell you that alcohol is a tremendous problem in our society. We need to be careful not to present a temptation to a weaker brother, nor an excuse because they see us indulging in something that would be destructive for them. And as such we need to take Jesus’s warning here seriously, “if you cause one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better to be cast into the depths of the sea with a millstone around your neck.” Sounds like Jesus takes such things seriously. So should we.

And to illustrate just how seriously Jesus considers such stumbling blocks, the next characteristic follows in vs43: “And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. For every one will be salted with fire.” What Jesus is teaching is that the path to greatness starts by judging yourself correctly, rather than judging others. The Lord is saying that the mark of greatness in the kingdom of God is one who takes seriously the importance of sanctification, which means that he begins to judge himself according to the standard of God’s righteousness, and deals drastically with himself, purifying himself.

The analogy he draws is very graphic. If you have an infected arm that develops gangrene, and it is threatening your very life, and the doctors cannot do any more for you, there is only one thing left to do: cut it off, amputate it. Your life is at stake. Jesus uses that very graphic analogy to tell us how serious it is when we are involved in wrongful and hurtful attitudes and actions, and what we must do about it. We must deal drastically with these things; otherwise they bring upon us the judgment of fire.

The word used here for “hell” is gehenna. Gehenna was the name of a valley outside Jerusalem. It was the place where some of the past kings of Israel had offered their children to the god Moloch, to be burned with fire. Consequently it was a defiled place, and it became the garbage dump of Jerusalem. Fires smoldered there continuously; repulsive worms ate at the garbage. And that garbage dump becomes the symbol of the eternal waste of life. When we read these words of Jesus about hell we must understand that when they are applied to an unbeliever, i.e., one who resists and rejects the good news of Jesus and dies an unbeliever, it means his whole life, spiritual and physical, is like that — wasted, a total loss. There is nothing salvageable about it. He may have won the approval of men, may have lived very comfortably, but at the end his life is a worthless, a total loss, good only to be thrown on the garbage heap for eternity. When these words apply to believers, as they do here, he is speaking of physical loss. Our physical life is wasted, squandered, lost; it is misused. And such wantonness brings about the fire of judgment that we might suffer the loss of such things.

The way we avoid that loss and wasting of life is, as Jesus said, to salt ourselves with fire, i.e., to judge ourselves. The fire represents judgment in our life. He tells us to deal drastically with ourselves in this way, and, in this very helpful analogy he gives, he starts with the hand. To “cut off the hand,” of course refers to eliminating the actual act that is wrong, the evil deed. If you have a dirty mind, a filthy mouth, stop thinking evil thoughts, stop using obscene language. Deal with the sin, cut it off. If you are engaged in sexual wrongdoing, stop it. If your attitude toward another is bitter and resentful, stop thinking that way. Stop saying the things you say about them. Deal with the act, cut it off. Otherwise you waste your life.

And God will bring a refiner’s fire into the life of a Christian who lives in sin. 1Co 3:13 “each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.” God brings this fire not to consume us, but to refine us, so that we might be useful to the kingdom. As it says in 1Peter 1:7 “so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

So then, if we judged ourselves correctly, then we not only cut off the hand that does evil, but the foot that runs to it. The foot is the symbol of the path that leads to evil, the approach to temptation, the circumstances that lead you there. You may have to change where you go and what you spend your time doing, lest you are confronted with temptation too strong for you to handle. Cut it off. It may be that you will have to limit the time you spend watching television, or stop watching certain programs, or not attend certain movies, or not read certain books, because these expose you to temptations which are too much for you to handle. Cut them off; otherwise you will waste your life.

Or it may be that the eye — the things we look at, the pictures we see in our imaginations, the fantasies, the memories and dreams of the past which light the flame of temptation — must he plucked out. Jesus is saying that you must deal drastically with these things. They not only waste you, but they affect others. They must be dealt with.

He concludes with these words in vs.50 “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” Salt in those days was a thing of great value. It was used as currency in some cases. That’s the origin of the phrase being “worth your salt”. And the primary thing salt was used for was a preservative. They had no refrigeration in those days. So they salted fish or meat in order to preserve it against corruption. So Jesus is saying have salt in yourselves. Don’t allow the corruption of jealousy and selfish ambition to creep into your lives. Be salt in the church. Be salt in your community. Guard against the corruption of sin.

Salt was often used in primitive cultures to clean a wound, to guard against infection. And when the salt is applied it burns like fire. It may burn now, but it cleanses and purifies. So the Lord says, judge yourself, look at yourself and evaluate what you are doing and learn to control yourself. But it must be the salt of truth. Salt which has lost its saltiness has no worth. It must be real, genuine salt. And so, have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another. Judge yourselves correctly, and let God judge others.

Jesus says that the receipt for greatness in the kingdom of God is to have salt in yourselves, to begin with yourself, to deal with your own weakness and not another’s, to cleanse your own life and not another’s. Start dealing drastically with the things which are wrong in your own life. For the marks of greatness in the kingdom of God are these: to learn to treat everyone the way you would treat the Lord, without respect of persons; and be concerned to put others ahead of yourself, to build into their lives and strengthen them, and not harm them or injure them; and to begin to judge with yourself and to deal drastically with the things in your own heart which are wrong. Such a person rises in stature and greatness in the eyes of God, and will be honored before Him.

As most of you know, our family went to Santa Barbara, CA to spend the holidays with our kids. And it truly was a great time that we had there together. The weather was fantastic, we had all our children under one roof, the house we stayed in was cool, overlooking the ocean. You just couldn’t ask for a nicer time together. And I have to admit, that just the thought of getting on the plane to come back to Delaware during the middle of the winter here was kind of tough. Little did we realize just how tough it was going to be. The weather alone here has been almost unbearable.

The questions we always get after going away like that to California is usually very similar. “Why don’t you guys move out there? You would be close to your kids. It’s such a beautiful place, the weather, the waves are great, why don’t you move out there?” And the truth is, such thoughts are tempting, especially when the temperature is in the single digits like it was last night. But the reality is that we believe this is where God has called us to live and work and minister. And it is far better to live here and be in the Lord’s will, having the blessings of God upon us, than it would be to live in what we think might be paradise and not have the Lord with us.

So in that regard, I was struck by the opening phrase in today’s text; “As they were coming down from the mountain….” As a Christian, there will be more time spent in the valley than on the mountaintop. God has not called us to live on the mountain top but to toil in the valley. We need those mountaintop experiences from time to time, but they are not intended for us to live there, but to equip us to live in the valley.

You may remember what Peter said when they were on the mountain during the transfiguration, “Lord, it is good for us to be here.” “Let’s stay here and build tabernacles.” Peter was thinking, this is Paradise. Let’s stay right here. Let’s keep this going. There is no need to go back down the mountain. And I think most of us could identify with that. We would love to stay on the mountaintop. We yearn for the mountaintop experiences. Troubles and trials and heartaches are not something we want to experience. We want to avoid trials. Though God may occasionally take us to the mountaintop, yet He then leads us through the valley of death.

The Lord could not stay on the mountaintop. He had to come down the mountain and suffer and die on the cross in order to effect the salvation of mankind. Christ was in heaven with the Father before He came to earth. He left heaven to suffer and die on the cross. Peter and the disciples needed to see Christ transfigured on the mountain, and to hear the divine decree from the Father, and see the shekinah glory come down from God, but all of that was intended to equip them to be able to walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

So as they came down from the mountain, the Lord gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen. Why? Because they had a flawed understanding of the gospel. They had gotten a glimpse of the glory, they knew the theology of the glorious kingdom of the Messiah, but they did not understand the suffering of the cross that had to come first. So many Christians only want to see the glory. They are all in for getting stirred up by a rousing concert, or being whipped into a ecstatic frenzy in a camp meeting, or healed at a miracle service. But not many want to walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

Thus Jesus said, wait until the Son of Man has risen from the dead. Dying must have seemed so incongruous with what the disciples had just witnessed. It must have taken all Peter’s resolve not to blurt out, “Not so Lord. May it never be. We will not let you die.” They did not realize that though Jesus had come as the Messiah, yet He came to die. Salvation could not happen without the cross. The glory of the Kingdom of God could only prevail on earth if it was preceded first by the suffering of the King.

Mark said they seized upon that statement, wondering what rising from the dead meant. They might have thought it referred to the general resurrection. They wanted to focus on the glory. He wanted them to focus on the cross. Hence they ask about the glory of the Messiah, and how the prophecy stated that Elijah must come first. He, on the other hand, responds by asking a question of HIs own about the prophecy concerning the suffering of the Messiah. Vs.12 “And He said to them, ‘Elijah does first come and restore all things. And yet how is it written of the Son of Man that He will suffer many things and be treated with contempt?’”

That illustrates a good point. The gospel must be taken fully and completely to be the truth. We dare not capitalize on certain texts which we find appealing, and leave others dangling which are not quite to our liking. The disciples were undoubtedly referring to Malachi’s prophecy concerning Elijah who would prepare the way for the kingdom to be inaugurated by the Messiah. The language of Malachi evokes a picture of the glorious kingdom of the Messiah.

Malachi 3:1 “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of hosts.”

And then in Malachi 4:1-3, 5-6 it says “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.” 2 “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. 3 “You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the LORD of hosts. … 5 “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. 6 “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”

All of that prophecy indicates the Lord establishing His glorious kingdom by judgment and power, and that Israel will participate in that glory. But Jesus understands that there is another aspect of the gospel, that is that the Messiah will suffer and die so that He might bring about salvation for all men.

Jesus was probably referring to the prophecy in Isaiah 53 where it says in chapter 3 vs 3 “He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.” There were other such prophecies in the Old Testament, such as in the Psalms which talked of the suffering of the Messiah, but the theology of the Israelites had conveniently overlooked them.

So Jesus said Elijah did come already. He was speaking of John the Baptist. Jesus had already said in Matthew 11:14, “If you’re willing to accept it, or willing to accept the truth, John himself is Elijah who was to come.” And the angel had testified concerning John’s birth that John was coming in the spirit of Elijah as recorded in Luke 1:17 “It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

So Jesus said in vs 13 “But I say to you that Elijah has indeed come, and they did to him whatever they wished, just as it is written of him.” They put John the Baptist to death. They rejected the forerunner and herald of the Kingdom of God. They would also reject the King when He came and do unto Him as they pleased. They would put Him to death.

There is a sense in which Jesus is teaching them through John the Baptist’s example, that if you would follow Him, you also can expect persecution, even death. This was certainly not something that the disciples were thinking about or looking forward to. In fact, later on in this chapter, Jesus asks them what they were thinking about, and Mark says they had been discussing who would be the greatest among them. They were in effect, fighting over the chief seats in the rule of the Kingdom when it came in with glory. They had no concept of the suffering that must come first.

But the fact is, that Jesus had been teaching them that if you wanted to be His disciple, you had to take up your cross and follow Him. In the previous chapter, Jesus said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” Not only had Christ come to take up His cross, but all who will be His disciples must take up there cross as well. We must die to self. We must die to this world. And very often, that means that we will suffer the loss of much of what this world counts as dear, for the sake of knowing Christ Jesus and being counted as one of His own.

According to the gospel, glory follows suffering. Paul says in Romans 8:17 and if [we are] children, [then we are] heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

The cross represents suffering, which is equivalent to a life of faith; believing in what is not seen. The cross and resurrection would mean that Jesus would be absent. He would not be physically with the disciples continually, whenever they found themselves dealing with the trials of this world. So it would be necessary to learn to live by faith, which is a type of suffering, putting to death the physical and learning to live in the spiritual. When the cross is borne now, then glory will come later.

And yet the irony is that we fully expect glory now. When the cross comes, we find it unbearable, untenable with our tightly held expectations of what glories we believe are guaranteed to be the day to day experiences of the Christian life. We misunderstand the reality of our calling. We misunderstand the gospel.

So they came down the mountain, and they find there a vivid illustration of what is often the reality of the Christian life as we walk through the valley. They found scoffing, sarcastic scribes. They found disciples that are impotent of any power to heal a demonized boy. They found a person that is held captive by the devil, that is incapacitated in regards to life. They found a demon that wanted to destroy this young boy and ruin his father’s life. And they found a crowd that is watching. What a picture of the world that is waiting at the bottom of the mountain, as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. There are the scoffers, ridiculing us for our weaknesses. We find that we are often impotent to effect real change in the world around us. We find loved ones that are caught up in sin and held captive to the devil to do his will. We see a devil that is bent on destroying lives and seemingly be successful at it. And we see a world that is watching, wondering why these so called followers of Christ are so powerless to do anything to help.

So Jesus is going to use this situation to teach His disciples how to operate in such a fallen, hopeless world. He is going to teach them how to live by faith. So He asked his disciples, “What are you discussing with them?” I think it was the equivalent of “What’s going on here?” And a man from the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth and stiffens out. I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it.”

Some commentators have said that this was a case of simple epilepsy. But I don’t think so because his father says he was possessed with a spirit, he was mute, and Jesus adds later that he couldn’t hear either. And Mark adds that it was a spirit which threw him to the ground.

Vs. 20 They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. 21 And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 “It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!”

I want to point out that Jesus doesn’t ask these questions such as we see here in this text because He doesn’t know the answer, but because He wants to illustrate to the disciples the dire nature of the infirmity. He wants them to understand the complete hopelessness of the situation.

And that is important for us to realize as well. Before we can be successful in our walk of faith, we need to recognize the hopelessness of our condition. This young man and his father are a picture, albeit almost a caricature, of the sinful condition of the entire human race. I have often thought of this example in regards to the condition of an addict. They are so helpless many times to help themselves. The drugs or alcohol have completely taken over and the devil seems intent on destroying them. I think the hopelessness of the father is similar to the hopelessness of parents who see their child suffering the devastating effects of addiction.

But in reality, addiction is not so different than the effects of the sinful condition of us all. Though to us some sins don’t seem as destructive or damning as others, yet the fact is that Satan has duped us all to sin, and all sin is damning and ends in destruction.

So to the question, “If you can…” Jesus responds, “ ‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.”

The first problem that Jesus identifies is that of unbelief. This is the real nature of sin; it is unbelief. Sin is not believing what God has said, and instead believing in your own interpretation, in your belief in yourself that you know what is best, that you can handle it, that you have it under control. Belief is simply surrendering control to God, who has the power to deliver us from sin on the basis of our belief in Christ.

That’s why Jesus starts out the conversation by saying, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you?” It’s not just the lack of faith of the disciples who could not heal, it’s not just the small faith of the father, or the unbelief of the crowd, but He is speaking of the unbelief of a generation, of the human race. The greatest unbelief is holding onto the lie of the devil that we can make our own decisions. That we can determine for ourselves good from evil. That we can know how to live life according to our terms. That’s the sin that Eve was tempted with. She was tempted to determine for herself what was good and evil. To be wise like God. We think we know better than God what is good and evil. And so we decide for ourselves, and the result is that we fall for the devil’s lies and eat of the forbidden fruit and as a result we are damned. And then the devil takes liberty through our sin and destroys us.

Belief then is not just believing that God exists, or even that Jesus exists. The people there that day could see Jesus. They believed He was real. But belief is believing that Christ is the Son of God, and that only through Him was their deliverance from sin, when one submits completely to His Lordship of their life.

And by extension that doctrine of faith speaks to the time when Christ would die and be resurrected and no longer be with them on earth. What the Lord was trying to teach the disciples, is that belief, or faith, is believing in what you cannot see. Heb. 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” After His resurrection, when He would no longer be there with them, there would be a need for an increased faith on their part, to believe that He was with them, when they no longer could see Him. Faith is living not on the basis of what we can experience on a physical level, but living according to the word of God, believing what He has promised, when there is no physical evidence to support it.

So the answer of Jesus to their unbelief was that all things are possible to him that believes. Such a broad, all encompassing statement. We have to be careful not to make it a doctrine that stands alone, isolated from other scripture. But we need to recognize that it is meant as an explanation of the doctrine of faith. In other words, what is possible to him who has faith? All things. The Bible says that whatever is not from faith is sin. So faith is the means of righteousness. Romans 1:17 says, The righteous man shall live by faith.” And then in Romans 4:5 it says, “faith is credited as righteousness.” Romans 9:30 says “righteousness is by faith.” So it is clear then that all things, all good things, the life which is from God, is available by faith.

Now the answer of the father is a great answer and one that speaks for all of us; “I do believe; help my unbelief.” A little faith is all that is required for receiving more faith, when that faith is centered on Jesus Christ. In other words, to him who has, more shall be given. We see that expressed in Romans 1:16-17 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” Our faith in Christ’s righteousness, results in our righteousness, which increases our faith, as we go from faith to faith, that we may do even greater works.

Now Mark goes on to record how the Lord delivered this boy from the power of the unclean spirit. And it’s worth noting that the demon screamed and threw him into such terrible convulsions that the boy seemed to have died. You know, as we saw in our study of Daniel a few weeks ago, there are some demonic angels that are more powerful than other angels. Jesus Himself seems to infer to the disciples when they ask why they could not cast him out, that there are varying degrees of strength in demonic forces, by use of the phrase, “this kind.” As if to infer that there are various kinds. Ephesians 6 gives us the same sense of hierarchies of demonic forces.

But the point of this miracle is not to teach about demons, because Jesus has authority over all demons, stronger or weaker as they may be. But the point is to teach the disciples the necessity of living by faith, especially in light of the fact that He would soon be leaving them. So when they ask Him why they could not cast out this demon, He says, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”

What Jesus is teaching is not a prayer formula for casting out demons. Notice that Jesus Himself doesn’t pray to cast out the demon. So there is no formula. What He is teaching is the necessity for a dependent relationship with Jesus Christ. The King James Version adds, “prayer and fasting.” More modern translations don’t include the phrase “and fasting.” But the important thing is not whether you eat or don’t eat, but that you have an intimate, continual relationship with the Lord that is exemplary of the principle of “faith to faith.” Where you are in a continual, constant communication with the Lord, dependent upon His leading and guiding in all situations. And that relationship for us is only achievable through faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And faith is expressed through prayer, as we talk to the Lord and commune with Him.

If you will remember, at the transfiguration God gives the disciples the first key to being able to walk through the valley when they would come down from the mountain. God said, “This is My Beloved Son, listen to Him!” The first key to our walk when we come down off the mountain is that we rely totally upon the written word of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to listen continually to the Word.

The second key that we see illustrated here is that we must understand the doctrine of the cross must be central in our lives. Not just the atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins, but the cross that we must bear as well, as we die to the world and walk by faith in the power of Christ.

The third key is that of faith. Believing and trusting in His power and His promises that will not fail, in spite of what the world seems to tell us.

And finally, the last key is to stay in communion with the Lord through prayer. Prayer is the connection back to God, it completes the circuit of our faith through which we have power in the darkness. This world is a dark place. But we are called to be lights in a dark world, to be lights on a hill. The world is watching. We are to be working for the kingdom. We are to carry on the business of the kingdom until the King returns. And if we are to be successful we must stay in the word, listening to the Lord through His word. We must take up our cross, realizing that glory follows suffering for His sake, and dying to the lusts of the world. We walk by faith and not by sight, and we must maintain prayer without ceasing as we rely constantly on the leading of the Holy Spirit.

I suppose that in many ways, the transfiguration is the greatest miracle given in the Bible. To see Jesus in His human form, and then unveiled to reveal His true nature and glory, glory as of the Only Begotten Son of God, and to have the appearance of both of the greatest prophets from history appear to give credence to His majesty, and then to cap it all off with nothing less than the shekinah glory of God envelop them all and to hear God speak from the cloud, all of that combined must equal the greatest miracle recorded in scripture.

Now as I have said repeatedly, every miracle recorded in the gospels is presented as a parable to teach us spiritual principles. So the question remains for us then, what should we expect to learn from this miracle? If it’s truly the greatest miracle, then it would stand to reason that we should learn some great doctrines of our faith in studying it. So the question is why is the transfiguration important, and how is it important to me?

Well, let me start by saying that in some respects, Jesus had already been transfigured before this event. This transfiguration was just a reversal of what had already taken place at His birth. John chapter 1 makes that argument very well. In vs 14 of chapter one, John says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That’s transfiguration number one. Jesus, who John says existed from eternity with the Father, who was God, and was with God, became flesh, became a man, born to a virgin. That’s transfiguration number one. And then John continues in vs14, “and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Most commentators believe that reference to His glory is speaking of the transfiguration, which I am saying is the second transfiguration.

Peter speaks of this second transfiguration in 2Peter 1:16-18 saying, “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”– and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.” 

I think it’s important to notice that Peter uses the phrase, “we were eyewitnesses of His majesty…” The apostles were eyewitnesses of the works of Christ. They were eyewitnesses of His miracles. In Deuteronomy the law states that truth must be confirmed on the basis of two or three witnesses. So that explains why Jesus took three disciples with Him on the mountain, so that they could be eyewitnesses to what happened. So we might be assured of the truth of what happened.

And it’s important because we need to know the truth. Jesus said that God is spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. There is no spiritual benefit in following cleverly devised tales of men. But these three men were willing to die or go to prison for the sake of the truth of what they witnessed. And we can be assured that what they saw and reported is the truth.

Now in vs1, Jesus Himself affirms the truth of what they will see. “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” Jesus Himself is affirming the transfiguration as an important truth. He’s saying that some of the disciples present as He was speaking with them, would not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power. Jesus Himself is the manifestation of the kingdom of God on earth. He came to institute the kingdom of God.

Now what is the context of Jesus’s words? What caused the Lord to make this statement? Well, it was the previous statement at the end of chapter 8, which was the declaration by Peter that Jesus was the Christ. Mark puts the emphasis on the fact that He was the Messiah, and I believe in that sense then Jesus declares this statement. Because the whole issue with the disciples, and the reason that Jesus did not want them broadcasting the fact that He was the Messiah, was because they had an erroneous understanding of what the ministry of the Messiah was to be. They believed, as did the majority of the Jews, that the Messiah would resurrect the throne of David and the glories of Israel and it’s dominance in the world.

And that view was faulty. There are two comings of Christ. The first coming and the second coming. The first coming was to be a servant, a substitute and a Savior. In the first coming He inaugurated His kingdom. At the second coming He will come in glory, to consummate His kingdom. The disciples don’t realize all of that. They see only one coming of the Messiah. And so they have expectations of His kingdom which are not in keeping with God’s purposes.

So I believe that what Jesus was trying to teach by this statement and the miracle following six days later, is the reality of the kingdom of God that He was inaugurating in His first coming. In a sense, He is acting out the miracle we looked at last time of healing the blind man, in which at first the man did not see clearly, and then at a second touch from the Lord he was able to see clearly. That’s what is going on here. Jesus told Peter at his confession that Jesus was the Messiah that God had given him insight into that truth. But then a little bit later Jesus has to rebuke Peter and say “Get behind Me Satan, for you are not fixing your mind on God’s interests but on man’s.” Peter’s theology needed a second divine touch. And so that is what is happening here. God is providing a second touch, that the disciples might more clearly see the nature and purpose of the Messiah.

Now there are two ways in which the first verse is fulfilled. When Jesus says “some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power,” we can interpret that in two ways. Again, we see perhaps a first and then second touch. The first fulfillment is going to be through the transfiguration in six days. The second is going to be within about 7 months time, on the day of Pentecost, when the disciples will receive power after the Holy Spirit is come upon them. That is when the gospel is going to go forward with power throughout the whole world. And that is the ultimate fulfillment of the kingdom of God. Jesus said when He began preaching, that the kingdom of God is near you. The kingdom is in your midst. But then at Pentecost, the kingdom of God will come with power, not just to the Jews, but to all the nations of the world. That is when the kingdom of God reaches it’s full potential throughout the world, not only to the Jews, but also to the world.

So Mark says six days later after making this statement, Jesus took Peter, James and John up on a high mountain. Jesus often went up to a mountain to pray and be alone with God. This time, He brings His three closest companions to be with Him. They probably thought they were just going to pray. Luke 9:32 tells us that they fell asleep. I wonder if Jesus had to wake them up to see the transfiguration. That would be a real shame wouldn’t it? To sleep through the greatest miracle of all. I sometimes wonder what great things God intends for us to see, that we are too tired or disinterested in to notice. But nevertheless, great things of God often come through great times of prayer. If you would see Christ more clearly, then spend more time alone with Him in prayer. James says, draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. So this event teaches us about the nature of our faith; that intimacy with God produces greater illumination. David says in Psalm 36:9 “In thy light we see light.”

I will also say that this shows the necessity for a place of prayer, and the need to go to a place of prayer. We can pray anywhere, that is true, at any time. But Jesus shows us that there is benefit in going to a specific place. Jesus called the temple a house of prayer. I would suggest that church is a place of prayer. There is a special benefit in going to church to offer prayers to God.

Then when they were on the mountain, Mark says that Jesus was transfigured. Transfigured comes from the Greek word “metamorphoō,” which means to change into another form, to transform, to transfigure. As I said earlier, this happened at His birth, when the Word became flesh. Now in this second metamorphosis, the flesh becomes glorified. To be glorified is to become a spiritual body, a heavenly body.

Paul speaks of that difference between the physical and spiritual body in some detail in 1Cor. 15:40 saying, “There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another.” We are not sure how Jesus’s body changed, but Mark indicates that the light inside of Christ shone through His flesh and His garments in a blindingly white light. Luke says the appearance of His face became different. Mark also tells us that Moses and Elijah appeared with Him, talking to Him. And I believe in Luke’s account, he says that they both appeared in splendor as well, or appeared in glory.

Now as I said, we cannot fully comprehend the way the body of the Lord was transfigured or transformed. But I would say that the spiritual essence of Christ, that which was invisible, became visible, and that which was visible, became less visible. The body, rather than being a permanent fixture, was revealed as just a cloak over the spiritual being that was the essence of Christ. And I cannot help but remember that John tells us at Christ’s second coming that we will be transfigured as well, when we will be made like Christ. 1John 3:2 “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”

There are many interesting things that can be gleaned from this transformation. However, we don’t want to speculate beyond what the text indicates. But remember Jesus’s own statement regarding the dead in the Lord who have gone on before. In Matthew 22:32 He says, “I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” So here then we see that Moses and Elijah are living. They are not dead in a tomb, but living and communing with the Lord.

What a blessing that is for us that know the Lord! As Jesus said in John 11:26 “everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” We don’t die, we are just translated from the physical domain to the spiritual domain. We go on living, but in a different form, and in a more complete communion with the Lord.

And notice that Peter, James and John recognize Moses and Elijah. They in turn recognize Jesus. No one needs to be introduced. It’s nice to know that somehow, someway, our physical character is knowable and recognizable in that spiritual dimension. We will know our relatives and our loved ones. 1Cor. 13:12 “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.”

And one other mention, Matthew tells us that they were talking to Him about the events to come. They were talking about His ministry, about the cross, and the resurrection. I don’t know all that they were talking about, but I do know that they were talking about things to come and things that had happened. They were aware of current events. They were aware of the future. And I find that comforting, as well as challenging. I think my dad is watching to some extent what I am doing here on earth. I think he is interested. The Bible tells us that the angels long to look into what we are doing and what God has planned here on earth.

In fact, speaking of all the saints who had died and gone on before, the author of Hebrews writes in Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” We are surrounded by an invisible cloud of witnesses. Those who have gone on before us are witnessing what we are doing now. The angels are witnessing what we are doing. And I think that they are greatly interested. I think they are cheering when we overcome. I hope that they are not weeping when we fall. But the Bible says that they are witnesses to what we are doing here, so let us run the race with patience and lay aside every sin and the weights which encumber us.

In that regard, I want to point out that the word metamorphosis shows up only four times in the New Testament. Twice it is used in the gospels in speaking of this event; here in Mark and in Matthew 17. But the other two times it is used in not in keeping with Christ’s transfiguration at all, but it’s in reference to our transformation when we are saved. The first is found in Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

The second is in 2Cor. 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” I think it’s noteworthy that in both cases it isn’t talking about our justification, but our sanctification. It’s talking about the process of transformation, as we are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, from glory to glory. When we are justified, we receive that first touch, but then we need to be sanctified, transfigured by the Spirit of God within us, our righteousness shining forth like the sun for the world to see.

We should also ask ourselves why particularly Moses and Elijah appeared at the transfiguration. First of all, Moses and Elijah represent the fulfillment of all scripture. Moses wrote the Pentateuch, the Law. Elijah represents the prophets. When the Jews spoke of the entire scriptures, they referred to them as the Law and the Prophets. So in appearing with Christ, they attest to His fulfillment of all the Old Testament scriptures, both in the law and the prophets. Jesus said in Matt. 5:17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”

Secondly, the appearance of Moses and Elijah speak to the fact that someone greater than a prophet was here. The disciples answered Jesus question of who do men say that I am by saying that the Jews thought Jesus was a prophet. Moses was considered the great prophet of God. And Elijah was of course a mighty prophet as well in his miracles. And yet God indicates that Jesus was not just a prophet, but His only beloved Son.

And we see more illustrated by these two men. Moses also died and was buried. Elijah was taken up into heaven without dying. Thus they represent the means by which we will see the future glory of the kingdom revealed. Either by dying and being transported to the presence of God in our spirit, or by being taken up into heaven when He shall appear with His holy angels when He comes the second time for His church.

Mark says that Peter and the disciples were very afraid at what they were witnessing. They don’t understand what was going on. And Peter, wanting to say something, says the wrong thing. He had good intentions, but he was still focusing on man’s interests and not Gods. So Peter said, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

Now there is some debate about what is meant by tabernacles. Some think that it has something to do with the feast of booths, or tabernacles, which was a feast celebrated by the Jews around that time. But I happen to think that it has to do with the tabernacle of meeting that was the fore runner of the temple. The tabernacle that Moses constructed according to God’s plan, where God’s glory would settle over it in the form of a cloud and great light, and which denoted the presence of the Lord in the midst of His people. I think there is a sense in which the disciples are so awestruck with Moses and Elijah being present, that they think that they each should have a tabernacle similar to the one in the Exodus. Kind of like building three churches for the three great preachers.

Sounds like a bad idea in hindsight to us, but it undoubtedly seemed like a good idea to Peter. Kind of like these multi campus churches that are springing up around the country today. They seem more like tabernacles erected to honor men rather than to honor Jesus. We need to be careful that out of a sincere desire to worship the Lord we do not end up building edifices to glorify men. Sincerity is no measure of truth. We are not to worship God simply in sincerity, but in truth.

Well, here’s what God had to say about Peter’s idea. vs 7 Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!” I believe this was the cloud that stood over the tabernacle during the time of Israel’s wanderings in the wilderness. This was the cloud called the shekinah glory in which the presence of God was, which would come down upon the tabernacle and Moses would go into it and talk with God.

So God is giving His witness to the Messiah, that Jesus is His beloved Son. Moses and Elijah were prophets who pointed to the One who was to come. Now He is here, and God has appointed Him to rule over His kingdom. The Lord Christ has been appointed by God to rule over His Kingdom.

Heb 1:1-5, 8 “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. 5 For to which of the angels did He ever say, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU”? And again, “I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM AND HE SHALL BE A SON TO ME”? … 8 But of the Son He says, “YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS SCEPTER IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM.”

And in God’s declaration of the preeminence of Jesus Christ, He reminds us to listen to Him. It teaches us the need for dependence upon the word. Even supernatural events will not guarantee a person’s perseverance of faith. The disciples, in spite of being witnesses to this tremendous miracle, still fell away from the Lord at the first hint of tribulation. Not by resting on the laurels of past experiences, but only through continual hearing of the word of the Lord does our transfiguration produce sanctification . Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

So in the final summary of things, the transfiguration is not simply something that happened two thousand years ago, which has very little application to our lives, but transfiguration is something that God is doing now in the hearts of those who love Him, as we are being conformed to His image through the application of the word of God. And one day, that transfiguration in us will be completed as we behold Him, and seeing Him will become like Him. And we will change this body of corruption for a body incorruptible.

But in the meantime, let us not be conformed to this world, but be transformed, transfigured, by the renewing of your mind, through the word of God, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect, for the building up and establishing of the kingdom of God.

I don’t normally go out of my way to preach a topical holiday message. And I don’t plan on doing that today either. But I did want to tie the Christmas story which Nick read for us a few minutes ago in Luke 2 to our text for today, because I feel it helps us to better understand the text as well as the true meaning of Christmas.

And the main thing I want to point out about the account in Luke is that it is simply a proclamation of the gospel. It’s not just a story about baby Jesus in a manger. And we see an indication of that in Luke 2vs4 where it says Joseph went up to the city of David, which is Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David. Christ’s birthplace and lineage are very important, because the prophecies of the Old Testament indicated that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, and that He would be of the royal lineage of David and He would sit on his throne forever. Now all of that may or may not have been known to the disciples when the Lord said, “who do you say that I am?” in Mark chapter 8, but it is likely that they knew about Jesus’s lineage, and that would have given rise to their insight that He could be the Messiah.

Secondly, I want you to notice that the angels tell the shepherds, “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy.” The gospel means literally good news. And the Greek word the angels use is often translated the gospel. Mark declared in his opening verse that he was writing the gospel of Jesus Christ. So the angels appeared to proclaim the gospel concerning the Messiah, the Son of God who came into the world.

And that brings us to another important doctrine of the gospel in the angel’s message – “for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” The good news was not just that a baby had been born, but that the Messiah had come to reconcile men to God. First note that Jesus is given the title Savior. Savior was often associated with a military conqueror. Some of the caesars used the title of savior to indicate the delivering nature of their military conquests. Jesus came to deliver men from the captivity of the evil ruler of this world, that is Satan. Towards the end of Mark 8 Jesus starts to disclose to the disciples the nature of His ministry, and what it means to be the Savior.

And notice there is one other title of Jesus in the angel’s gospel; Christ the Lord. Christ means the Anointed One, the Messiah. Christ is the Greek translation of the title Messiah. Some people mistakenly assume that Christ is Jesus’s last name. No, it’s a title. And His title was Messiah. We see Peter announce that Jesus is the Messiah in vs 29 of Mark 8. The Messiah was the Promised One, the One Anointed of God to be the Savior of the world, who would inaugurate the kingdom of God. And that statement serves as a summary of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now in our text in Mark 8, Mark has sort of reached a turning point in his gospel. The disciples have reached a turning point as well. And I believe that Jesus has reached a point where He is changing His approach to His ministry. Up to now, Jesus has been shining a certain measure of light which was given to the Jews of Galilee and Judea. But now He begins to illuminate the disciples in a very particular, intimate way, regarding the full nature of His ministry. Up to this point, the disciples had received much more spiritual insight than the rest of the people who are attracted to Jesus but they still did not have complete understanding of His ministry. Remember last week in vs18 we saw that Jesus rebuked them because they had eyes but they could not see. They had ears but they could not hear, so they don’t understand spiritual truth.

So in this passage, we see Jesus taking them aside to show them more intimate details concerning His ministry. And to illustrate this new phase of their discipleship where they begin to see more clearly, Mark gives us record of a miracle that is only recorded here in his gospel. And furthermore, it is the only miracle that we see Jesus perform which is done in a progressive nature. I’ve said repeatedly, that every miracle recorded in the gospels is presented as a parable to teach a spiritual principle. And such is the case with this miracle of healing the blind man.

In this miracle we see this blind man healed in two stages as an illustration of how the disciples are receiving spiritual insight. First, Jesus spits on the man’s eyes, and laying His hands on him the man reports that he sees men as trees walking. Then again Jesus laid His hands upon his eyes and the man looked intently, and was able to see clearly.

Now lots of reasons have been floated around why Jesus had this supposed difficulty in healing this man. But I have to say that it was not due to any difficulty on Jesus’s part. He who made the world and all things in it is not unable to heal blindness. It was in fact a deliberate two part healing to illustrate that the disciples needed a two part spiritual touch in order to see the gospel clearly. As the blind man initially saw men as trees walking, the disciples had seen Jesus walking around up to this point in a natural way, as a natural man, albeit one who had supernatural abilities, who spoke like no one had ever spoken, but they failed to see Him in the fullness and clarity of His ministry.

And they had the same difficulty with spiritual principles that Jesus was teaching. They were so focused on their physical expectations of the Messiah, they could not see the spiritual kingdom which He was establishing. Back in vs15, for instance, when Jesus started warning them about the sin of the Pharisees which He called leaven because of it’s corrupting influence, they thought He was talking about the fact that they hadn’t eaten dinner. And so Jesus rebuked them for having dull hearts, spiritual ears that could not hear, and spiritual eyes that could not see.

So Mark records this account of Jesus healing the blind man in two stages to illustrate that the disciples needed to receive a second touch from the Lord, so to speak, that they might have spiritual insight into the purpose of the gospel. So often I find that the church is guilty of the same spiritual blindness today. We are so focused on the physical, on the natural, on our physical needs and wants, that we miss the spiritual blessings that God intends for us as citizens of the Kingdom of God. We measure God’s blessings in our lives by how well our business is doing, or whether or not we have perfect health, or whether or not we have a good relationship with our spouse. We are focused on the physical, the natural, so much so that we are blind to the spiritual.

Well, Jesus leaves Bethsaida and He and the disciples travel to Caesarea Philippi, and Jesus wants to help them gain this spiritual insight, so He asks them, “Who do people say that I am?” And the disciples answer Him, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.” We could try to explain all the reasons that people would think of one of those men, but I think the real point of their answers was that everyone had limited Jesus to that of a prophet. That’s the most that they could see.

Then Jesus said, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter *answered and *said to Him, “You are the Christ.” You are the Messiah. And Jesus warned them to tell no one about Him. In Matthews gospel account of this incident, Jesus said, “Who do you say that I am?” And Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. (Matt.16:6)

So we see that God touched Peter, and presumably the other disciples as well with a divine second touch, that they might see that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. And there is in that act a foretaste of a second touch needed in our lives as well, as once we believe, the Holy Spirit is given to us that we might have understanding of the word of God. That is the purpose of the Spirit, to give us power and understanding.

But why does Jesus tell the disciples not to tell anyone? Isn’t that counter productive to the ministry of the gospel? Well, Jesus instructs them not to tell anyone because their knowledge is still incomplete. Their conception of the mission of the Messiah is incomplete still. They need still another touch to see the method by which Jesus will fulfill His Messiah-ship. They are still expecting what most people expected of the Messiah; a earthly reign from the throne of David in Jerusalem, after the Messiah had vanquished all their enemies and established the Israelites once again to their former glory they had once under David. So Jesus does not want them to broadcast that kind of message. He has further insight for them first.

So in vs 31 “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. And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.”

What we see there is that Jesus began to teach them the true nature and purpose of the Messiah. And the purpose of His coming to earth. It was not to reestablish Israel as a world power, but to die on the cross for the sins of the world, to pay the penalty for sin through His death, and to rise again from the grave victorious over the enemy of mankind. That was the mission of Christ; to suffer rejection from Israel, and die on the cross as substitute for sin, and rise victorious from the grave, having triumphed over sin and death, so that He might give life to all who believe in Him.

Well, Peter and the rest of the disciples can’t comprehend such a thing. That doesn’t fit their template for what they thought Messiah was to accomplish. So Peter, perhaps emboldened by the Lord’s comments after he had said Jesus was the Messiah, says to the Lord, “may it never be!” “We will never let that happen!” In his mind, nothing could be further from their expectations than Jesus dying. The Messiah was supposed to sit on the throne of David forever. And of course the disciples were looking forward to being on the front row of that new regime. They were looking at things naturally. They were expecting physical exaltation from following the Lord. Suffering and rejection did not factor into their expectations of their life with Christ. They did not understand still that the kingdom of God which Jesus was inaugurating was a spiritual kingdom where He ruled in the hearts of His people.

That’s why the prosperity doctrine which is widely preached today is such a damning doctrine. It is a doctrine focused on the well being of the physical. It claims that the kingdom of God is measured by your bank account, or by your job, or heath, your prosperity. And in so doing, they miss altogether the spiritual kingdom where the Lord rules and reigns in one’s heart. And even more to the point, they reject the fact that often suffering in this world is a divinely appointed part of the Christian experience.

So Jesus rebukes Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” I don’t think Jesus is necessarily calling Peter Satan, but He is saying that Peter is pushing Satan’s agenda. The world agenda is the devil’s agenda. Ephesians 2:2 tells us that Satan has engineered the course of this world, the systems and passions and desires in such a way as to entrap men by their passions and desires of the flesh. So those that push the agenda and interests of the world are in fact acting on behalf of Satan, whether unwittingly or not.

Here at Christmas, supposedly a time when we honor Christ’s birth, we end up finding ourselves entrapped by the course of this world, don’t we? Our passions and desires of the flesh are ratcheted up to another level this time of year. We think we are honoring Christ and in fact we are serving our flesh, the natural man. Bottom line, Jesus said, you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s.

I was telling someone yesterday that truth in regards to attending church. Some where along the line we have forgotten that our main purpose in going to church on Sunday is to simply worship God. To bow our will to His will. To bow our knees in the midst of the congregation and to refocus your mind of God’s interests for a couple of hours. To relinquish your focus on man’s agenda, on man’s interests and focus your heart on the Lord’s interests. Church is not just about whether or not you like the preacher. Or whether or not you got your needs served. But just to come to the assembly of believers and bow your heart to the Lord and meditate on Him, and pray to Him, and worship Him. To present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service of worship. (Romans 12:2)

Well, thankfully Jesus is patient towards the disciples, as He is patient towards us. We are often slow to see, and slow to hear. We don’t care to be refocused away from our desires. But the Lord provides another chance for the disciples to learn and to see the truth of the gospel and so He tells them clearly what it means to be a disciple. And I think that this teaching is the clearest presentation of the gospel that Jesus has ever given up to this point. So I want to read it to you in it’s entirety before making any comments on it.

Vs.34 And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? 37 “For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

What Jesus is saying is a continuation of what we have just seen in regards to the gospel. The world, the natural man, the agenda of man, is at odds with the interests of the Lord. If you want to be a follower of Christ, then you must abandon your agenda and the agenda of the world, for the sake of the Lord’s agenda. That’s the truth of the gospel of salvation. It isn’t believe in Me and I will give you all that you want. That is the way most people think Christianity offers. God is like sprinkling fairy dust over your life. It makes everything better. All your dreams will come true.

But nothing is further from the truth. The natural things, the passions and desires of the flesh, must be forsaken in exchange for the Lord. “Come after Me,” He says. Come away from the lusts of the flesh and follow the desire of the Spirit. And the way that is done practically is you must be willing to die to the world. You must be willing to lose your life for the sake of gaining new life from God. You must put to death the desires of the flesh, and desire to live according to the Lord’s desires.

Now that is nothing short of a radical change. But nothing less is the gospel. Nothing short of full surrender to the Lord is salvation. God will not strive with man. Either you surrender everything, or you have no part in Him. And furthermore, Jesus said, if you gain the whole world and as consequence you lose your soul, then what benefit is that? What is worth your soul? The soul of man lives forever, either with the Lord or in eternal damnation. What is the benefit of gaining a million dollars and losing your soul? What is the benefit of gaining worldwide acclaim for something you have accomplished on this temporal earth, but you have accomplished nothing for the Kingdom of Heaven? What does it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your own soul?

The gospel is about a choice of focusing on the natural things which you can see, taste, feel and touch, things which offer some physical benefit, or things which offer an eternal benefit. Do you have ears that cannot hear? Do you have eyes that cannot see? Is your heart too dull to comprehend the spiritual things of God? Is your appetite too honed on the things of this world to hunger for the things of God? I urge you, focus your attention on the things of God. Look intently at the word of God that you might see clearly the spiritual truths of God.

And finally, Jesus gives a warning to those who are ashamed to proclaim Jesus as Christ the Lord. He says, if you are ashamed of Him and His words, and chose instead the acclaim of this adulterous and sinful world, then He will be ashamed of you when He comes in His glory with the angels in power. If you lived your life in pursuit of this corrupt and dying world, then when Jesus appears to consummate His kingdom, you will have no part in it. Jesus is coming again in the full sovereignty and power of His kingdom, as the Israelites had looked for. The first coming He came in humility, to serve, to be our substitute and our Savior. The second coming is still in the future. And that coming will be in power and judgment.

The true meaning of the Christmas story is that God so loved mankind, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes on Him shall be saved from the wrath to come. To those who accept that gift of God, and believe on Him who He has sent, that is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, then to that person will be given life everlasting. But to him who rejects that gift, and spurns the love of God for the love of this world, they will face the judgment for having chosen this world rather than choosing the Lord. I pray no one leaves this place today without making that choice to die to the world and live for God through Christ Jesus. What shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? And what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

I think it was the last time I visited my mother before she passed away, she recited to me the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2. I think Nick did a great job of presenting that the other night at the Luau. I think it’s a great tradition to have with your family, to read the familiar story of the birth of Jesus on Christmas morning. If nothing else, it gives pause to the mad rush to open presents, and gives us a moment to reflect upon the real reason for all of the traditions that we have during this season.

But I was thinking later after Nick’s reading that the Christmas back story actually starts with John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The Christmas story is the story of salvation. “Unto you is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” And the reason for the Savior coming to earth is because of the love of God for the world. The world that lay in darkness, lost and condemned to death saw a great light. God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son to be the light of the world. The love of God, and the compassion of God towards us is what we really should be celebrating, not only at Christmas, but throughout the year.

Today in this passage we are looking at, we get a glimpse of the compassion of Christ, the Son of God, for the world. In vs.2, Jesus says, “I feel compassion for the multitude…” Compassion is from a Greek word I can’t pronounce, maybe Nick can, but I’ll try to sound it out, splagchnizomai, (splänkh-nē’-zo-mī). In those days, your bowels, not your heart, was considered to be the source of your emotions. So love and pity were expressed as felt in your “gut”. That’s maybe where we get the phrase, “gut-wrenching.” Something that really moves you so deeply, practically making your stomach turn over.

I think what they are trying to say is that the compassion that Jesus felt for the multitude came out of a deep seated love for them, which moved Him into action. The other night after the party, Joe Bartell stayed around and talked with Susie and I for a bit, and we were talking about David being a man after God’s own heart, and Joe was talking about how much David loved the Lord, how passionate he was towards God and the things of God. And I said, that is true, but the Bible says that David was a man after God’s own heart. That indicates not just the love of David for God, but the love of God towards David. God passionately loved David, so that He restored him and sought him even when David sinned so egregiously against the Lord.

God’s love for us is an amazing love, a passionate, pursuing love, that doesn’t take into account a wrong suffered, but suffers all things for our sakes. And so we see in this passage today the love of Christ for the world. The compassion of Christ for the multitude who were hungry, who were faint, and who if left to themselves would faint on the way. The love of Christ compels Him to help them, to give them what was necessary for life. It’s interesting too that these people were from the region of Decapolis, 10 Greek cities. And therefore it is likely that they were a mixed race at best, and probably there were many Gentiles there. And proper Jews would never eat with a Gentile. Yet Jesus not only wants to eat with them, but to provide a banquet. Jesus loves sinners, He has compassion on the lost sheep of the world. And this miracle is an illustration of God’s love for the world, who as the Bread of Life which came down from heaven is able to give life to those who are in fear of death.

But note also that Jesus wants to share this love and compassion with the disciples. If you are going to follow Christ, then you must share in His love for the lost, share in His compassion for the lost. So Jesus turns to the disciples. And His disciples answered Him, “Where will anyone be able to find enough bread here in this desolate place to satisfy these people?” In the previous feeding of the multitudes the disciples begged the question how could they afford to feed the multitude. Now in this situation, they say that the place is so desolate there is no where to buy food, even if they could. And Jesus temporarily overlooks their ignorance. The lesson they should have learned from the last feeding was that He is the source of life, therefore, He is able to provide all that is necessary for life.

That is the real lesson to be learned in this text, by the way. As I said the other night at the luau, Christianity is not a religion, but a way of life, in fact, it’s new life which is given to us by God on the basis of our faith in Christ. And just as there is a beginning and a maturation process and an end to physical life, there is a beginning, and a maturation process and an end to the spiritual life. And nothing less than Jesus Christ is the author and the sustainer and the finisher of our faith. That is the lesson to be learned. It is a completely new way of living, of thinking, of acting, that is wrought about in our lives by an act of God’s grace. It is the light of God which shines in our hearts and in that light we live and have a fruitful life. As Peter said in 2Peter 1:19 “So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.”

Now notice the phrase in the disciples question in vs4, where can you get enough bread “to satisfy these people?” The disciples have hit upon the key and they don’t even realize it. Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well, “if you drink of this water, you will thirst again. But if you drink of the living water which I have, then you will never thirst again.” The same equation must be enacted here as well; Jesus said after the first miraculous feeding in John 6:35 “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” The point being that the way of life through Christ satisfies. The way of the world never satisfies. The things of this world promises satisfaction, but they can never produce satisfaction. The only thing that satisfies is the bread from heaven, which is Jesus Christ. Nothing in this world can satisfy.

If that is ever seen at any time, it is seen most clearly at Christmas, isn’t it? People rushing around and buying and buying and getting and getting, in this insane materialistic, commercial endeavor we have substituted for the true Christmas, and yet nothing satisfies. The busiest times in the department stores are after Christmas, when they go and exchange what they were just given in hopes of finding something else that will satisfy. But nothing satisfies life the way life in Christ satisfies. The source of true satisfaction was standing right in front of them, and yet the disciples ask what can satisfy these people?

Well, Jesus is moved by compassion for the multitudes, and He wants to get the disciples involved in that same compassion for the lost, and so He asks, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said “Seven.” They have more than they had last time. Last time they had 5 loaves for 5000 people and they had 12 baskets left over. This time they should have realized that they had 7 loaves for 4000. More than enough for Jesus to work with. More than last time. But they had not learned that simple lesson yet. Mark doesn’t say that Jesus rolled His eyes, but I wouldn’t be surprised if He did.

But Jesus is compassionate to the multitudes and the disciples, and so He gets them to be seated on the ground, and then blesses the bread and breaks it and starts handing it to the disciples to hand out to the crowd. And as He breaks the bread, more bread appears in His hands. And I suspect that when they saw this miraculous multiplication, someone who had been hoarding a few little fish was moved to share them as well, realizing that He could multiply the fish. Vs 7 “They also had a few small fish; and after He had blessed them, He ordered these to be served as well. And they ate and were satisfied; and they picked up seven large baskets full of what was left over of the broken pieces.”

So take note, Jesus does virtually the same miracle, with a few minor variations, twice. The feeding of the 5000 a few months before, and now the feeding of the 4000. And by the way, Matthew indicates in both accounts that those numbers were only the men, not including the women and children. Possibly you could triple those numbers in each case. But the point is Jesus is giving the same lesson twice to the disciples. Because the Lord is compassionate, and realizes that sometimes we need to repeat a lesson before we really learn it. Some of us seem to be learning the same lessons over and over again as we go through life. But thank God He is merciful and patient towards us and willing to teach us again and again.

But notice that there are some people who cannot learn, because they don’t want to learn. They have hardened their hearts. Such were the Pharisees. After Jesus sent away the multiudes, He and the disciples got back into the boat and came to the district of Dalmanutha. And the Pharisees, who had undoubtedly been hearing of all that Jesus was doing in Galilee, came out to argue with Jesus, and demand a sign from Him. He’s healed hundreds, if not thousands of people by this time, He has raised the dead, He has feed tens of thousands from just a handful of loaves and fishes, He has done so many miracles and yet the Pharisees seek for a sign. What they were demanding was that He produce a sign from heaven on demand, such as fire from heaven, or the sun standing still, or some celestial event, but purely so that they might see it as some sort of proof that He was the Son of God. They want Him to perform for their benefit, not out of compassion for the sick, or in-firmed, or for those that were needing to be fed, but out of a selfish desire for Him to prove Himself to them, according to their standards and timing. Verse 11 says that it was to test Him. It’s the same idea that Satan tried on Jesus during His 40 days of testing in the wilderness. To get Him to act out of pride, out of a sense of self validation. And that would have been a sin. It would have been an act of pride on Jesus’s part. But He did not come to serve Himself, but to serve us. He was humble.

And so Jesus denied their request. It says He sighed deeply in His Spirit. Jesus could have sighed out of exasperation, but I tend to think it was a sigh of grief. I think His Spirit was grieved at the hardness of their heart. It is the response of love and compassion deep within Him, that His love is rejected and repulsed. Jesus knew their hearts, that they hated Him without a cause and wanted to find a way to put Him to death.

So sighing deeply in His spirit, He *said, “Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” I want to comment about this phrase “this generation” for a moment. I’m reminded of the similarity to the song by the Who, called “My Generation.” You remember the lyrics; “People try to put us d-down (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Just because we g-g-get around (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Yeah, I hope I die before I get old (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
This is my generation
This is my generation, baby
My my my generation.

That was a very popular song of my generation. And probably most of us here today are a part of that generation. I think it goes without saying that our generation was one of the most ego centric, self absorbed generations that ever walked the planet. And a lot of the problems of this present culture can be laid at the feet of my generation. My generation claimed to be seeking enlightenment, and yet they settled for an illusion. And I will tell you something that I was thinking about a lot this week. The church changed drastically in my generation. The local church is patterned after the synagogue of the Jews. There was one on every street corner, less than a Sabbath Day’s journey from it’s congregation. And in Jewish culture it was the cultural, religious and educational hub of the community. All religious, educational and social life was centered in the synagogue.

The same could be said about the local church in the generation of my father. It was the hub of Christian life. We went to church 4 or 5 times a week. We couldn’t live at the church, as they did right after Pentecost, but we pretty much were there all the time for one reason or another. Sunday’s we were there by 10 for Sunday School, and didn’t get out of church till 12:30. Then back that night at 6:30 until 8:30. Back again on Wednesday night. The men had visitation on Tuesday nights. Youth group was on Saturday nights. And every other month it seemed we had some sort of revival or mission’s conference or something that had us in church every night of the week. If you were a Christian, then church was at the center of your life.

But when my generation came up, we began to f-f-f-fade away. Sunday school fell away, Sunday night services fell away, Wednesday nights faded away. Church now is an hour long presentation on Sunday morning, which you attend occasionally only if it doesn’t conflict with family get togethers or sports or something, and then the rest of the week we live fully engaged in the world and the church is put on the back burner until we get into some sort of crisis. And even at our best, our attitude concerning the Lord is not far from those demanding, hard hearted Pharisees, who want to see something exciting, we want to see God answer our demands, when we want and how we want Him to respond. And yet, like the Pharisees, we make such demands without committing to follow Him completely and daily as His disciples. We show up when we want to show up, and make demands that He performs for our benefit.

Well, Jesus doesn’t work that way. He won’t dance to their tune. He says you’re not going to be given a sign, and He left them and got in the boat again and went to the other side of the lake. God has given you enough light to believe by faith. But if you reject that light, then He is under no compulsion to give you more. In fact, in Mark 4:25 Jesus says what you have will be taken away. But to him who has faith, then he will be given more light, culminating one day in the glory of Christ being revealed face to face.

As they were going away on the boat, the disciples begin to realize that they had forgotten to eat again, and they had only one loaf between all twelve of them. And Jesus begins to say, “Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” So they are trying to figure out what He is talking about, and they come to the conclusion that it must be that He is saying this because He is aware that they don’t have bread, and He doesn’t want them to get bread from the Pharisees or from the Herodians.

Vs17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? “HAVING EYES, DO YOU NOT SEE? AND HAVING EARS, DO YOU NOT HEAR? And do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?” They said to Him, “Twelve.” “When I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?” And they said to Him, “Seven.” And He was saying to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

The point Jesus makes with them is two fold, but one depends upon the other. The first point that Jesus makes is that they say they have no bread, but the Bread of Life is their Master who is with them in the boat. He took 5 loaves and made bread for 5000, leaving 12 baskets left over. He took 7 loaves and made bread for 4000 and had 7 baskets left over. How could they not see that He could take one loaf and make enough to feed just 12 of them, and still have plenty left over? Jesus want’s them to see that He is not only the source of life, but the supply of life. The Lord has promised to supply our needs according to His riches in glory. Phil. 4:19 “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” And yet how often do we worry about whether or not God will supply our needs?

The Lord supplies all our needs, not just financial needs. Not just physical needs. But He will supply our spiritual needs. He is the author and the finisher of our faith. He is the One who saves, who sanctifies, and who will glorify us.

And that leads us to the next point the Lord was making, that though the disciples had physical eyes, they could not see spiritual truths. Though they had physical ears, they could not hear spiritual truths. Their hearts were dull. Their spiritual senses were dulled because they were attuned to the physical, rather than the spiritual. They were so concerned about the physical, they could not understand the spiritual significance of what He was teaching them.

So what was He trying to teach them when He spoke about the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of the Herodians? Well, yeast in the Bible is always a picture of sin. In this case it might be the sin of false teaching. And Jesus was telling them to beware of it, because it is a deceptive doctrine and a damning one as well.

Yeast was taught in the unleavened bread of the Passover meal, that it represented sin. And to explain how that works, I was reminded of Donna’s sourdough bread. She shared her recipe for sourdough bread with Susie, but Susie couldn’t make it unless Donna first gave her some of her yeast left from the last batch of bread she had made. Then Susie took that starter yeast and added it to her dough and let the yeast activate her dough. And when Susie made her bread, she saves some of the dough to be the starter for the next time she makes it. Now yeast makes for some tasty bread, but it is a picture of sin in that it is a holdover from the past. It’s a picture of holding over or carrying over something from the past that corrupts the next batch.

And in this instance, Jesus is saying, I’m teaching you the doctrines of everlasting life, the abundant life that God has sent Me to declare to you and to provide for you. But beware of trying to carry over the traditions of the Pharisees which are not founded upon the word of God. And beware of trying to carry over the secularism from the Herodians in which they wanted to compartmentalize the sacred from the secular. They believed that they could have the benefits of being a child of God, and still enjoy the benefits as a citizen of the world, i.e., Herod.

And finally to the disciples, Jesus is saying, beware of the leaven of materialism. It’s the danger of wanting to hang on to the culture and attitudes of the world, and yet claim the benefits of Christianity. The nature of man to look at things physically and not see the unseen spiritual truth of life which is behind it. As Paul said in 2Cor. 5:7, “for we walk by faith and not by sight.” And again in 2Cor. 4:18 “we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” The admonition is to take care not to hold onto the things of this world, the cultural things, the material things, the physical things and try to add Christianity to it. True Christianity must be a new way, a new life. 2Cor. 5:17 “Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Jesus is the source of life, and the supply of life, He is the bread of life which has come down from heaven, that we who eat of it might live. But to live this life in Christ, we must have eyes to see that which is spiritual, and ears to hear that which is spiritual, that we might have new life more abundantly, even the life which satisfies our hearts. This is the life that Jesus came to earth to provide for us. I pray that you accept that gift of God, and that you may know the love of God which satisfies every restless heart.

This last week we put up our Christmas tree. We have a tradition around our house that we go to this farm where we get a living tree, have it cut down, and bring it home. I usually have the job of trimming it, and mounting it on it’s stand, and then we would light some candles, have some egg nog and play some Nat King Cole Christmas carols on the cd player. Susie would make cookies, and all the kids would help hang the decorations. That was our tradition. This year it didn’t seem to go that way. The tree we ended up getting had already been cut down some time ago. My older kids are not coming home this Christmas, so we ended up decorating the tree in stages, without a lot of the rituals that we used to have. I kind of found myself missing a lot of the ceremony surrounding putting up the tree, until I realized what I really missed was having our kids around.

The point that I want to make though is that sometimes we find certain rituals and ceremonies very comforting. Especially during the holidays. And the same is true in the church. People like familiarity. They like traditions. “This is the way it’s always been done.” They might not know why it has always been done that way, but that doesn’t seem to matter as much as the fact that they like it done that way.

There is nothing necessarily wrong with traditions or rituals or ceremonies, per se, but we have to be careful in the church, and in our Christian lives, that we are not attributing some measure of sacredness to something that was intended to be merely symbolic. Symbolism cannot save you. Rituals can never save you. Ceremonies, no matter how sincere, how soothing, or how holy they may seem, can never impute righteousness.

Now in this rather long text today, we are looking at the distinction between the external and the internal. We are looking at the distinction between traditions and the truth. Between the spiritual and the physical. I could break it up into two or three sermons, and I probably should for the sake of time and the volume of material. But I believe that it is all connected in such a way as to teach this important distinction, and so I am going to try to deliver it in the way it was intended to be received. All in one sitting. That means we will have to move rather quickly and not spend too much time on non essential details such as geography, and things like that.

The text starts with Jesus establishing the distinction between truth and tradition. Note vs3, the Pharisees have questioned Jesus, really they are accusing Him, of not keeping the traditions of the elders. Now that tradition was the ceremonial washing of hands before eating. This was not just a matter of hygiene. This was a ceremonial hand washing that had been established by the rabbis to purify the person involved. There had been a ceremonial washing in the law that was prescribed for the priests, but this was not that. This was in addition to that, which every good Jew was supposed to do, which acted as a sort of purification rite for the person involved. Vs3 “(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders; 4 and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.)” Note; there are many other things… which they observe. The point is that they attributed a certain degree of righteousness or holiness that they believed was obtained by observing these elaborate rituals.

But Jesus calls out them out on this, because He says, these are the traditions of men, and not of God. Vs 6 And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. 7 ‘BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’ 8 “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

So the litmus test, according to Jesus, is whether such a thing is of God or is it of men. It doesn’t matter if it is sincere, it doesn’t matter if it is well intended, it doesn’t matter if it makes you feel better about yourself, if it is not something dictated in scripture, then it is not of God, it is of men. And as such, it may or may not have any value in the spiritual realm. No amount of washing will make you clean spiritually. No baptism can save you, because baptism was never given to save. It was given as a symbol of being saved. Symbols cannot save, any more than the blood of bulls and goats could save.

Jesus calls the Pharisees hypocrites. Hypocrite means literally an actor on a stage. That’s the problem with such public rituals which are man made. They give an appearance of religion, of holiness, but actually they are a fake persona that is put up for the sake of men. And while men may applaud you, God sees the heart and knows that it is only an external affectation.

That leads us to the second point which I see here in the text, and that is the distinctives of true worship. Notice Jesus says in quoting from Isaiah 29, “But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.”

God is saying through Isaiah that such traditions do not constitute true worship if they are merely ceremonies and traditions made by men and not by God. Jesus said in John 4:24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The Psalmist David said God desires truth in the innermost being, in the heart. So it is not what is on the outside that counts towards God, but what is on the inside.

The heart, by the way, is one of those Christian words that some of you may not understand. The heart is the soul of man, or the seat of the will, intellect and emotions. And the way that operates is like the muscle or mechanism between the spirit and the body. Man was made spirit, soul or heart, and body. Either the spirit or the body is going to be dominant. The heart responds to the leading of either the body or the spirit. As Christians, we are to be living according to the spirit, not according to the flesh. The heart puts into action the desire of either the spirit or the desire of the flesh. So to worship God, our heart must be yielded completely to the spirit, to do the will of God.

One of the great travesties subjected upon the evangelical church today is this modern concept of worship, or praise and worship. I hate to rain on anyone’s parade, but most of what constitutes worship today in the church is not founded upon the whole truth, but is a distortion of worship. I’ve heard pastors and especially so called worship pastors, berate congregations for not “getting into it” enough in the “worship service” because some people didn’t want to raise their hands or clap their hands. If that’s not an example of external, ceremonial traditions then I don’t know what is. Now granted, there may have been older traditions just as intrenched in the church which had no basis in scripture either. But the fact remains, that you cannot achieve holiness by singing the word holy seventy times seven in a worship service. You cannot achieve righteousness by raising your hands, or closing your eyes, or having some sort of ecstatic experience. Holiness is not an outward expression, but a matter of the heart.

In vs6, Jesus says that you cannot honor Him with your lips, if you don’t honor Him first in your heart. Out of the heart comes the actions that show the condition of your heart. Now Jesus is a preacher, and as a preacher He knows the value of a good illustration. So He illustrates this point by referring to a commandment of Moses, which of course was given to Moses by God.

Vs.9-13 He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. “For Moses said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER’; and, ‘HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER, IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH’; but you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given to God),’ you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”

Now notice first of all that Jesus accuses them for setting aside the commandment of God in favor of keeping the tradition of men. I once had someone leave this church over the fact that I rebuked them for exactly that thing. I wasn’t trying to be mean, I simply tried to show this person that their attempt to keep lent was in violation of Jesus’s commands concerning fasting in Matthew 5 in His Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said to not broadcast it when you fast, and the Lord who sees the secrets of men’s hearts will reward you. But if you fast to be seen of men, then you have your reward in full. This person wanted to participate in a local church’s Lent program, where they then walked around town for three days with a cross marked on their forehead so everyone could see they were fasting. And for some reason, when I countered that with scripture, he got very incensed, and left the church in a huff. That’s an example of setting aside the commandment of God for the tradition of men.

And Jesus gives another example, one that was being implemented by the Pharisees. They conveniently set aside the commandment to honor your father and mother, by some tradition that if you said that your money was dedicated to God, then you could ignore the needs of your parents. They said it was dedicated to God, “Corban,” but the fact is it was only something that was said and not acted upon. They denied the command to honor their parents who were in need. And Jesus said that you do many such things as that. It’s interesting that Jesus obviously thinks that it is the responsibility of the child to honor their parent when they are old and have financial needs or physical needs.

And I have to say something about this commandment. Jesus said I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. We were studying Ephesians a number of years ago when we came upon Ephesians 6:1 which says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (which is the first commandment with a promise), SO THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH YOU, AND THAT YOU MAY LIVE LONG ON THE EARTH.” And I commented that as new covenant Christians, we are still to keep the moral law of God. And once again we had someone leave the church over that. They wanted to say that grace eliminated the requirement of the law. But Paul makes it clear that our children are to still honor their father and mother. And here in this passage, Jesus makes it clear as well. We are still to keep the moral law of God. The ceremonial laws of God have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ and there is therefore no longer any need to keep them. They were symbols, ceremonies, rituals for their instruction before the cross. And Hebrews 10 makes it clear that once the perfect sacrifice had come, the need for the pictures and the symbols was done away with. Hence, we do not keep the Sabbath, or sacrifice bulls and goats, or keep any number of feast days and ceremonies which the Jews were required to keep. But we still are not to murder, or bear false witness, or covet our neighbors goods, and we still are to honor our mother and father. Jesus identifies such things in vs21,22 as defilements or sins. The difference in the new covenant is that though we are still to keep the law, we are no longer under the penalty of the law. Jesus has paid the penalty, so that we might keep His commandments out of our love for Him, and not out of fear of punishment which is death.

Jesus said in Luke 6:46 “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” It’s not enough to give him worship of your lips, but also in deeds. Jesus said in John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And so John says that’s how we may know that we are Christ’s, by our keeping the commandments. 1John 2:3-5 “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him.” So true worship then is loving God, which is keeping His commandments.

Well, Jesus distinguished true worship, and then He distinguishes what is true defilement. Vs14 After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.” Now it is important to understand the context in which Jesus is making these remarks. He has been talking about ceremonial cleanness. The Jews were concerned about uncleanness, such as unclean hands, unclean foods, and unclean people. The Gentiles were considered unclean. Certain diseases could make you unclean.

But Jesus is talking about spiritual uncleanness. There were ceremonial laws given by Moses which declared certain things as unclean. But they were given as pictures, or symbols of spiritual uncleanness. And that is what Jesus is explaining. From the Jews perspective, defilement worked it’s way from the outside to the inside. Jesus is saying that the opposite is true; not what goes into a man defiles him, but what comes out of him. Defilement comes from the heart.

An example of that may be seen in Adam and Eve. Before the fall, they were naked and unashamed, because they were pure in heart. But when sin entered into their heart, suddenly they see their nakedness with impure eyes, and they were ashamed. Sin, or defilement, is a matter of the heart. Thus, the scriptures say that whatever is not of faith is a sin.

Well, the disciples, like some of us perhaps, don’t fully understand what He is saying. So they ask Him privately what it meant. Vs18 And He said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?” (Thus He declared all foods clean.)” So first, Jesus is saying what does not defile a man. Mark says that He was declaring all foods clean by this statement.

There are a few church denominations today which seek to put Christians back under the Jewish dietary laws of the Old Testament. And once again, they are resorting to the invalid principle that what goes into the body defiles the heart. But Jesus is saying that a basic understanding of the physiology of the human body illustrates that isn’t true. We have total freedom today to eat whatever we want. Now you can still sin through the sin of gluttony, but the food itself, is not a sin.

Mark as you know was tutored by Peter. And you will remember that Peter had a vision on the roof recorded in Acts 10 of a giant sheet coming down out of heaven filled with all kinds of unclean animals, and God said, “Arise Peter, kill and eat.” But Peter said, “No Lord, I have never eaten anything unholy or unclean.” And God said, ““What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” And that happened three times, that Peter might not only know that all food was permissible to eat, but also that Gentiles who were considered unclean were no longer to be treated as outside of God’s grace, but were to be given the gospel that they might be saved as well. So it is likely that Peter’s retelling of that event to Mark gave further impetus to his clarifying remarks about Jesus’s statement, that He declared all foods clean.

So if unclean hands or unclean food does not defile, then what does defile a man? Well Jesus answers that question in vs20 by saying it is an unclean heart. And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

Jesus gives us 12 things which are evil. I don’t believe the intent to define sin, but to give examples of it. In many other places writers of scripture give a different list, maybe longer or shorter, including some but not all. Paul gives a long list of 15 sins in Galatians 5:19. Solomon gives seven abominations in Proverbs 6:16. But they are examples, not a definitive list. Now I could spend an entire sermon discussing the characteristics of these 12 defilements. But I don’t think that is necessary. I think most of us understand what they are. I just don’t think most of us recognize them when they are apparent in us.

It’s noteworthy to point out that Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount sharpened the edge of every commandment. He doesn’t do as the Pharisees did, which was to find loopholes in the law, such as honoring your parents, so that you could get around the law. But instead, Jesus said if you lust after a woman in your heart, you were guilty of adultery. If you hated someone, you were guilty of murder. The problems is that our hearts are wicked. We were born in sin, David said. Jeremiah the prophet says in Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately wicked; Who can know it?” And a heart given over to rebellion produces the fruit of that rebellion which is sin. Sin defiles the heart, which gives rise to sinful actions. Sin starts in the heart and works it’s way outside. So the origin of defilement is the heart which is desperately wicked.

Well, I want to turn quickly to the last two paragraphs in this chapter, and we will look briefly at two miracles that serve as illustrations or parables of these principles. The first is that of a Gentile woman who comes to Jesus on behalf of her child who Mark says has an unclean spirit. I think that description is appropriate, because Jesus has been talking about uncleanness. The girl has an unclean spirit, and in addition she was a Gentile. Gentiles were considered unclean. Much of the washing of hands that the Pharisees did after going into the market place was because they were afraid that they might have bumped into a Gentile. They called Gentiles, dogs. It was a term of disdain. And surprisingly, Jesus uses this epithet when responding to this woman.

Jesus says in vs 27 “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Jesus’s ministry was to the Jews first. But there were some instances of Gentiles being healed. Even in the OT you see Naaman healed, and you see the harlot of Jericho saved. And this instance is another one of them. It’s important to note that the Gentiles are saved by faith just as the Jews are. There is not one means of salvation for the Jews and another for the Gentiles. But the “just shall live by faith.” “For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”

But she answered and *said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.” Jesus hearing the answer of this woman, falling at His feet, calling Him Lord, calling on Him as the One who has authority over the realm of the devil, the One who has come to set the captives free, Jesus says to her, “Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.” And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.

The point of this parable then is that the uncleanness of this woman and her child was able to be washed away by Christ. Ceremony and ritual were unable to save her. She was outside of the covenant of Israel, and her daughter doubly so as she was unclean not only through birth, but by the devil’s design. And yet the mercy of Christ was sufficient to cleanse her and make her whole and holy. Not by her righteousness, but through His righteousness applied to her.

And what a picture for us all, who are born entirely in our sins, our hearts are naturally deceitfully wicked, and doubly so we are unclean due to our repeated sins of rebellion, having all of us broken all twelve of Christ’s list of defilements. And yet the Lord is able to create in us a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within us, by transferring our sins upon Himself, and placing His righteousness upon us.

One more picture and then we are through. Vs32, “They brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they implored Him to lay His hand on him.” This person is most unusual. Of all the invalids and demon possessed and impaired people that Jesus healed, this one seems the least encumbered. He was deaf and did not speak very well. It can be assumed that this man was a Greek, which means he was a Gentile as well. He was from Decapolis, a group of 10 Greek cities. And so perhaps that uncleanness is the reason that this person was highlighted in Mark’s gospel, because though his infirmity was not the worst, his condition as a Gentile made him exceedingly hopeless to be healed by the Jewish Messiah.

But what’s even more interesting is the last person healed was done so without even being present. This person whose infirmity seems not that difficult, Jesus does more physical things in healing him than in any other person. Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva.”

Now all of that is hard for me to understand. Why would Jesus, who could heal with a word, do all these physical things with spittle and so forth? Why put HIs fingers in his ears, and touch His tongue? I cannot say for sure. But I have to think that Jesus is illustrating how our ears must be opened, and our tongue must be loosened by the Spirit of God, if we are to have a new life in Christ. It illustrates that righteousness is not a work of man, but a work of God. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saves us.

I think that there is a passage in Ezekiel which speaks to this principle. Ezekiel 11:19-20 says, ”And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.”

The point being illustrated in the healing of this man who was deaf and mute, was that when the Lord gave him a new heart, when he was made new on the inside, he became new on the outside. What he was unable to do in his old flesh, he is now able to do clearly and completely in his new spirit. That is the picture of salvation that I think we are to understand from this passage. That without a new heart all the outward cleansing and ceremonies and rituals can never get inside to the source of our sin. But with a new heart, comes a new life in the spirit by which we can please God.

Jesus Christ the Son of God came to earth in the form of a man, to die on the cross for our sins, that all who believe in Him and come to Him in repentance of their sins might be given a new heart and a reborn spirit, so that we might have new life in His name. That is the invitation that we extend to you today. Jesus has paid the price, if you are willing you can be made clean. Simply come to Him today and call on Him to remake you and transform you. To give you a new heart.

I will close with a portion of David’s prayer in Psalm 51 which is a good template for those seeking this clean heart, O Lord, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. … Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. … Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. … O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise. For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. Amen.