Category Archives: Mark

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Biblical Ignorance and Spiritual Impotence

Read: Mark 12

Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.” (Mark 12:24, NLT)

Ouch!  The teachers of the law and the Pharisees weren’t the only ones who incurred Jesus’ ire.  This time he went after the Sadducees, pointing out both their ignorance and their impotence.

The Sadducees were a smaller group than the better-known and more popular Pharisees. They were typically the upper crust of Jewish society, the aristocracy, the ruling class—and real religious snobs. Among the many things they believed—or denied—was the resurrection of the human soul after death. That is why they tried to trap Jesus with this question about marriage after the resurrection. The High Priest, along with many of the regular priests belonged to the Sadducees. They were sort of the modern equivalent of the senior pastor and the pastoral staff, or perhaps more likely, they are akin to the religious elite today—denominational leaders, seminary presidents, Bible college professors who deny the inerrancy of Scripture, the deity of Jesus and the supernatural.

In the case of this “difficult conversation” with these Sadducees, Jesus went after the very thing they were most proud of—their authority—rightly pointing out that they had neither a right understanding of the Scripture, and therefore, no right to lead:  “You do not know the Scriptures or the power of God”, or as the Message translation puts it, “You’re way off base, and here’s why: One, you don’t know your Bibles; two, you don’t know how God works.” If Jesus had been born in Fort Worth rather than Bethlehem, he might have said, “Bubba, when it comes to the Bible, you’re all hat and no cattle!”

I don’t want to be like that, and I’m sure you don’t either! As we used to say in Sunday School when I was a little kid, the Sadducees were “sad, you see”, and the reason was exactly what Jesus exposed in them: Biblical ignorance and spiritual impotence. Let’s never allow either our Biblical education or our spiritual position to create a barrier to real knowledge and true power.  The antidote for being either a Sadducee or “sad, you see”, is simple faith in God, childlike openness to his Word, and humble obedience to his will.

“There are Christians today who are very much like the Sadducees of old…Although they claim to be Christian, they do not actually believe in the resurrection, especially the resurrection of Jesus. And to them, doctrines of angels (and demons) are mythical expressions from a primitive mentality. Their form of Christianity has been submitted to modern reason… they are above the common Christian’s simplistic faith.” ~Allen Ross

What If God Took Over?

In matters of faith, belief and practice, go back to what Scripture plainly says and ordinarily means—and obey it!

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Righteous Indignation

Read: Mark 11

Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace. (Mark 11:15-16, NLT)

Jesus was no pushover, was he?

For sure, he was a man of love and peace, but he had a huge capacity for anger—righteous indignation—never for what was done to him, but for what was done to others.  He knew how to get angry and stay good—the perfect blend of “good and angry”.

In this case, he exploded with anger at people who were disgracing the temple! They had turned it from a place of prayer into a place of commerce—and even at that, they were ripping off vulnerable worshipers. But this wasn’t the only time Jesus blew a gasket: His anger flashed at the Pharisees who didn’t want him to heal a crippled man just because it was the Sabbath. He castigated his disciples for shooing the children away from him. He publicly chewed out Peter when he tried to substitute a cross-free plan for salvation.

Jesus knew how to be angry at the right time for the right reasons and never angry at the wrong time for the wrong reasons. He didn’t go around picking fights, but when he saw injustice, or man-made barriers to the abundance of God or spiritual strongholds that got between people and salvation, it really ticked him off.

So what ticks you off? David Seamands writes, “Anger is a divinely implanted emotion … If you cannot hate wrong, it’s very questionable whether you really love righteousness.” The person who is not angry at things that thwart God’s love and purposes for people is therefore incapable of experiencing or advancing God’s kingdom. As a general rule it is never right to be angry for any insult or injury done to ourselves. Christians should never be resentful or reactionary, but it is appropriate to be angry at injuries and injustices done to other people.  Selfish anger is always a sin; selfless anger can be one of the great change-dynamics in this world.

Where is God’s kingdom being deliberately prevented in the world around you—by Satan, or worldly systems or manipulative people?  Be very prayerful, and be very careful, but consider the possibility that a little righteous indignation may be in order.

“A man who cannot be angry, cannot be merciful.” ~B.B. Warfield

What If God Took Over?

If God truly rules your life, then you will learn to get angry in the right way for the right reasons at the right time.  If your anger does not meet that standard, then at best, you are expressing unproductive anger, and at worst, destructive anger—and for that you ought to repent.  But if there is no anger at the things that anger God, then you ought to repent of excessive angerlessness and ask God to give you the mind of Christ so you can begin to see things as Jesus did.

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Weekend Meditation: Everything Goes Back To Normal

Read: Mark 9-10

As they went back down the mountain… (Mark 9:9, NLT)

In Mark 9:2-13 we come across one of the most fascinating and mysterious stories about Jesus in the Gospels. Jesus takes Peter, James and John to the top of a mountain, and there before their very eyes, for a few moments at least, his humanity morphs into the dazzling brilliance of his divine being.  And if that weren’t enough to knock their sandals off, Moses and Elijah, Israel’s two great historical and theological figures, suddenly show up and begin to encourage Jesus about his upcoming death.

As you would expect of Peter, and as you can understand, the unpredictable disciple offers to set up shop for this impromptu triumvirate. At that, a cloud covers the Jesus and his heavenly guests, the Voice speaks a word of Divine authentication from the heavens, Jesus is suddenly left standing with Peter, James and John and everything goes back to normal.

“Everything goes back to normal!”

That’s when Jesus leads them “back down the mountain” to the real world.

Here’s the deal: God never intends for us to fixate on “spiritual highs”; we are not to build tabernacles around them.  They are simply means to an end, fuel to empower us for some spiritual assignment.  Jesus didn’t have this encounter with Moses and Elijah just so he could feel special.  The same account of the transfiguration in Luke 9:31 (NLT) tells us that these two Old Testament prophets came to encourage Jesus about his upcoming departure—literally, in the original text, his “exodus”. He was about to face the greatest assignment of all—the cross.  This mountaintop experience was meant as fuel—encouragement, strength, a reminder of his life’s purpose—for his impending death for the sins of the world.

I am not down on “spiritual highs”. They are wonderful, and necessary.  Just don’t fixate on them.  Resist the urge to erect a shelter and live in their warm afterglow.  Don’t rate the rest of your Christian experience against them.  Simply see them for what they are: Fuel for the assignment ahead.

Then get back to normal.  Climb down off your mountaintop experience and get back in the game.  Lost people are still lost down there in the real world and the proclamation of God’s kingdom from your lips and the demonstration of it through your life is still the only way they will be found.

“Serve God by doing common actions in a heavenly spirit, and then, if your daily calling only leaves you cracks and crevices of time, fill them up with holy service.” ~Charles Spurgeon

What If God Took Over

Is there a “spiritual high” from your past (an ecstatic experience, a fruitful time of ministry, a wonderful season in an amazing church family, a dramatic period of spiritual growth under a gifted spiritual leader) against which you tend to measure current experience?  Stop doing that!  Repent of worshiping that experience and instead ask God to show you how he intends for that “high” to fuel you for the kingdom assignment setting before you today.

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What God Feels

Read: Mark 8

“I feel sorry for these people. They have been here with me for three days, and they have nothing left to eat.”  (Mark 8:2, NLT)

Does God have feelings?  Does he feel sadness, compassion or hurt for the things that make people cry?  Does he ever feel happy and laugh at the funny things people do?  Does he swell with pride, brag about his kids, delight when they come for a visit?  Does he feel all these emotions over me?

I am on pretty sure Scriptural grounds, I believe, in answering “yes” to the above questions. Yes, God feels, and among the loads of Biblical evidence to the affirmative, all you have to do is look at Jesus, the visible image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15, NLT), to see that God has a wide range of emotions. God the Son cried, was angry, expressed wild joyfulness, and felt deep compassion for the hurts and needs of people. Yes, God is emotional. And we humans, who were made in the image of God, had to get our emotional capacity from somewhere; we came by it supernaturally.

In the story of Jesus feeding the 4,000, this outstanding miracle arose out of the concern and compassion the Lord had on the people who had been hanging around, listening to his teaching, waiting to be touched, hoping for a miracle, for three days.  They were so hungry to encounter God that they had neglected their physical appetites. And since Jesus was about to send them home, he was worried that they would become faint along the way. So he arranged for one of the greatest impromptu lunches of all time, and the crowds left happy and full.

Jesus felt for them—he feels for you, too. So does his Father. And though you might think that is pretty common knowledge, in truth, that is not how most of the rest of the world sees it. You see, for most of our history, man has viewed the universe as dangerous and the gods as hostile.  The gods didn’t care about humans and they certainly gave no thought to serving them—humans existed to serve and please the gods, not vice versa. G.E. Lessing, an 18th century scholar from Germany said if he had one question to ask the gods, it would be, “Is this a friendly universe?” You can be certain that this universe is indeed a friendly, perfectly safe place for you because of your Father’s closeness, care and competence. Jesus said so, and he showed so!  Both the Father and the Son teamed up to prove it. As the Apostle Paul said in Romans 8:32,

“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

If you ever wonder if Gods feels—either for you, or for the rest of the world—just take another look at that cross where the Father sacrificed his Son. You will never again doubt how much God feels for you.

“We sometimes fear to bring our troubles to God, because they must seem so small to Him who sits on the circle of the earth. But if they are large enough to vex and endanger our welfare, they are large enough to touch His heart of love.” ~R.A. Torrey

What If God Took Over?

Memorize Isaiah 49:15-16, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.”

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The Greatest Virtue

Read: Mark 7

Jesus led him away from the crowd so they could be alone. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then, spitting on his own fingers, he touched the man’s tongue. Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said … “Be opened!” Instantly the man could hear perfectly, and his tongue was freed so he could speak plainly! (Mark 7:33-35, NLT)

It would be normal for us to focus on the unusual healing methods Jesus employed to heal this man with deaf ears and tied tongue.  What a strange thing—Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears, then apparently, removed them, spit on them and then touched his tongue.

Yikes!  I’m glad Jesus wasn’t setting a pattern for praying for the sick today.  What Jesus did for this man—or more accurately, how Jesus prayed for this man—has nothing over some of the strange antics and overt showiness of some of today’s so called faith healers.

But don’t miss the first thing Jesus did when this poor man’s friends brought him to Jesus for prayer: He pulled the man aside so he could minister to him in private.  Obviously, Jesus didn’t want his methodology to be the thing the crowd focused on.  Nor did he want to turn this man into a sideshow or use him as a trophy that could build a greater following for Jesus.  The Lord never used people in that way, so he simply, quietly healed the man in the most respectful way possible.

So why the weird methods?  I’m not really sure, since Jesus could have simply spoke a word and the man would have been healed.  But he had his reasons, and the bottom line was a man who had been victimized by this horrible physical bondage was miraculously, fully and gratefully set free.

Nor should we miss the greater message behind this event.  It is a message, in fact, that runs throughout the entirety of Mark 7.  What is that message? It is that God values “humility”.  It is the lack of humility that frames the opening encounter between the religious elite and Jesus. When the scribes and Pharisees criticize Jesus and his disciples for not observing the man-made minutiae of the Jewish Law, Jesus rebukes them for their arrogant, manipulative and abusive misapplication of God’s true law.

On the other hand, it is the presence of humility that moves Jesus to respond to the woman who comes to him to get her daughter delivered from a demon.  Jesus initially puts this Syro-Phoenician lady through her paces in order to bring out her faith—actually telling her she doesn’t deserve to be healed (really—check out Mark 7:27, NLT). But the woman, who is from a much wealthier, more prestigious culture than this simple, uncouth Galilean, won’t take “no” for an answer, so she humbly makes her request of Jesus, who grants gladly grants it.

Then, as we’ve seen with the healing of the deaf man with a speech impediment, Jesus rejects any form of showiness by doing in private what God does—restoring not only hearing to deaf ears but dignity to the human soul.

Nothing turns God off like arrogance.  And nothing turns God on like humility.  That’s because nothing is closer to the core of God’s character than humility, which the Apostle Paul reminds us of in Philippians 2:1-11 through the example of Jesus. That is why humility is arguably the greatest virtue.

The next time you see an arrogant religious leader in action, turn off the TV or turn around and walk away if you are in their presence.  Next time you see a person humbly appeal for help, turn toward and humbly serve them as the Servant would.  And the next time you’re tempted to think, feel, act or speak in any manner other that true humility, go back and read Mark 7.

“In humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” ~Paul (Philippians 2:3-4)

What If God Took Over?

Ask God to reveal any form of pride that may reside in your life and remove it from you.  Then humble yourself before him and ask for his help in exhibiting the attitude of humility exemplified by Jesus.

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What Jesus Can Teach You

Read: Mark 6

Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. (Mark 6:34, NLT)

Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist, had just been beheaded, and most likely, Jesus was grieving John’s loss when he suggested to his disciples, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” (Mark 6:31, NLT)  Of course, both Jesus and his disciples were in an incredibly busy season of ministry and the needs of the crowds were emotionally draining, but add the sorrow of this personal loss to an already demanding situation and you have the perfect storm of spiritual and emotional exhaustion.

Yet when the needy crowds found Jesus in his place of retreat, he responded in a way most of us would find impossible under such an exhausted state: He has compassion on them. He saw their need.  He saw their vulnerability—they were like shepherd-less sheep, unprotected, unfed, unguided. So Jesus tapped into a source of inner reserve of grace and “began teaching them many things.” (Mark 6:34, NLT) Then he performed one of the outstanding miracles of the Bible by feeding “five thousand men and their families” from five loaves of bread and two fish. (Mark 6:41-44, NLT) And, as if he needed to do anything else to prove his deity, Jesus topped it all off by walking on the water. (Mark 6:47-52, NLT)

So what are we to make of all this, other than Jesus was not only a great guy, but without a doubt, God come in the flesh?  Let me offer three things for you to consider:

First, Jesus’ compassion for people reveals the heart of God for you.  If Jesus could set aside his own emotional grief and physical tiredness to minister to hurting, hungry and helpless people, you can be certain that nothing will get in the way of him coming to your aid, too.

Second, Jesus’ willingness to find a place of retreat to refresh the tired spirits of both he and his disciples is a reminder that you, too, ought to honor the rhythm of renewal the Creator has hardwired into your DNA.  If even the Son of God got tired, if even the Creator of the Universe rested from his work on the seventh day, perhaps you’re not so important and indispensable to interrupt your busyness to renew yourself once in a while.  Rest is an act of worship that honors your Designer.

Third, Jesus’ willingness to interrupt his grief and take a time out from his time out to minister to hurting people shows that the best therapy for what ails you is to find someone worse off than you and serve them. God never calls you to deny your pain or ignore your woundedness, but at some point, serving others is God’s prescription for our own recovery.

Mark 6:34 ends by saying, “Jesus began teaching them many things.” He can teach you a few things, too!

What a person should do if he felt a “nervous breakdown” coming on? “Lock up your house, go across the railroad tracks, find someone in need, and do something for them.” ~Karl Menninger

What If God Took Over?

No matter what you are facing today, God’s therapy is the cure for what ails you.  So which of these three things that Jesus teaches you do you most need to lean into today?  Do you simply need to marinate in God’s compassionate love for you? Do you need to honor the Creator’s rhythm of renewal?  Or do you need to find someone worse off than you and do something for them?  Whatever God shows you to do, just do it!

 

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When Jesus Speaks

Read: Mark 5

As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon possessed begged to go with him. But Jesus said, “No, go home to your family, and tell them everything the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been.” (Mark 5:18-19, NLT)

What an amazing story this is!  A man is in such complete bondage to so many demons that they call themselves “Legion”—which literally meant thousands. This demonized man roams the hills, barking mad, terrorizing the locals, and is so supernaturally strong by the power of Satan that no one can subdue him.  Yet with just a word from Jesus, the stunned demonic powers flee and their pitiful victim is free.

You just gotta love when Jesus speaks, because things happen!

In the most dramatic fashion, this story paints a picture of the awful reality of Satanic dominion, and, more importantly, of the matchless, irresistible power of One greater than Satan, Jesus! What an encouraging reminder that there is One who speaks and demons flee, who speaks and minds are healed, who speaks and hope is restored, who speaks and a future is birthed.

You just gotta love when Jesus speaks, because life gets set straight!

But that’s not the end of this incredible tale. Jesus actually carries on a conversation with the demons—which was not a pattern he was setting for future deliverance ministries, mind you—and the suddenly evicted hoard of demons request new residence in a herd of pigs.  And Jesus obliges them!

You just gotta love when Jesus speaks, because devils submit!

But wait—there’s more. A man has just been set free from the most awful prison of insanity and hopelessness, so now he wants to give the rest of his life to following and serving this Great Emancipator. However, in a stroke of Divine kindness, Jesus sends him back to his family, which no doubt has long ago given up on their son. Jesus doesn’t parade him a around as a trophy of his healing ministry like some so-called “faith healers” would most likely do today, he just quietly sends him back to the ones whose years of tears and hours of prayers will now be rewarded with unbridled joy.

You just gotta love when Jesus speaks, because relationships are restored!

But best of all, Jesus reminds this man—and you and me, by extension—that the real story here is not the sensational encounter with the legion of demons, nor the extraordinary deliverance of the Gadarene demoniac, and not even the dramatic swan dive of the swine off the Galilean cliffs. No, the real story here is how merciful God is: “Go tell how merciful he has been.” Whether you are a Gadarene demonic or just a garden-variety sinner disguised as a church-going saint, this story is a powerful reminder that the only and best hope you have is the mercy of God.

Truly, you just just gotta love when Jesus speaks and mercy flows.

“There is mercy with the Lord; this should encourage the miserable to approach Him; this informs the fearful that they need bring nothing to induce Him to bless them; this calls upon backsliders to return to Him; and this is calculated to cheer the tried Christian, under all his troubles and distresses. Remember, mercy is like God, it is infinite and eternal. Mercy is always on the throne. Mercy may be obtained by any sinner.” ~Charles Spurgeon

What If God Took Over?

Jesus told the man delivered from demons to go home to his family and tell them all that God had done and how merciful he had been.  Since God has been both kind and merciful to you, should you do that, too?  Tell that to someone today.