Stray Thoughts: Praying Like a Disciple

I'm sure that, if you've been a Christian for any decent length of time,  you've heard a sermon or at least a devotional on these words of Jesus.

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. Mark 8:34–35

So, Jesus calls for self-denial. That's saying, 'No', to our desires. He also calls for cross-bearing. That's being ready to die. (Remember that those condemned to crucifixion carried their crosses to the place of execution.) And then, just to make matters abundantly clear, Jesus calls for His disciples to lose their lives.

Now, let's take all of that and apply it to your prayers. What do you pray for when life takes a turn for the worse? For example, what do you pray for when you find yourself receiving medical news that really isn't at all good? Do you pray something like this? 'Don't let this news be true. Heal me so that I can avoid this plight.' Or to be more blunt, do you find yourself regularly praying that life would remain fairly safe and comfortable?

I'm not saying that you should pray for terrible things to happen to you or even that it's necessarily wrong to ask God to keep you safe. It's all about the attitude. Which or these is the priority as reflected in your prayers: the advance of the Gospel even if it costs you or staying as comfortable as possible? Do your prayers reflect the life of a disciple as Jesus defines that? Maybe, as a first step, it would be good to pray for the ability to want to pray like that.

The Unpardonable Sin

I’m starting a new series this morning. I thought it would be good to look at some of the challenging parts of the Bible. Some of these are challenging because they are hard to understand and others because they are hard to obey. It would be good if you prayed for me as I study in preparation to preach. Pray that I would do a good job understanding and then explaining these passages.

Today, I’m going to start with what I’m guessing is a bit of Scripture that you all have found challenging. I’m going to talk to you about the unpardonable sin. This Scripture has been challenging for lots of people. After all, we’ve all been told that Jesus has come so that we can be forgiven our sins. And yet, there’s a sin that can’t be forgiven? What does that mean? And how should we respond to that? I have some answers to those questions.

Let’s start by reading what Jesus says about this sin.

And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” And [Jesus] called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. ​Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”Mark 3.22-30

Take Up Your Cross

A few weeks back I mentioned, in passing, the Scripture that we’re going to look at today. It is, I’m sure, a saying of Jesus that you are familiar with. But, as with the rest of Scripture, there are depths here that we will spend an eternity examining. We’re going to spend a little time working on that this morning. Listen as I read it with a little context.

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, [Jesus] said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Mark 8:34-35

Jesus is clear. If you want to be one of His disciples, then you’ll need to take up your cross. There are no exceptions. Take up your cross.

Gospel of Mark: Repent!

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”  Mark 1.14-15

Here, Mark tells us that Jesus begins His ministry. He also tells us how He begins it. He starts out by calling the people to repentance. How interesting. You'd think that He'd start out by calling people to love each other instead of repenting of their sins. But that's not what He said. And that, of course, leads to a question. Of all the things that Jesus could have said at the start of His ministry, why this? I think that the reason is pretty clear. It's because holy living was important to Jesus. Or to say that without church words, Jesus wanted the people to live as God had created them to live. He wanted them to live God's way. But they weren't not doing that. They were, instead, sinning, pursuing life in a way God had never contemplated for them.

Gospel of Mark: Jesus’ Temptation

The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. Mark 1.12-13

Here we find Jesus dealing with something that we face everyday: temptation. But though an everyday occurrence, it is something that is well understood by so few. 

So, what does it mean to be tempted? It’s to be presented with a choice. Which will it be, love and obedience to your God or attempting to chart a course for your own satisfaction and happiness? In some way or other, every temptation boils down to this choice.

So, Jesus is presented with the choice. Satan, the adversary of God’s people, wants to thwart the mission of God that Jesus is to pursue. If he can get Jesus to fall, to choose poorly, he will have succeeded in defeating the mission. You can see this quite clearly in Matthew and Luke’s accounts of this temptation. Jesus is recorded there as making the choice between God and self clear by His replies to Satan. In all the accounts, Jesus is presented with the choice, but He chooses wisely. (As Luke makes clear, while this is a setback for Satan he doesn’t give up.)

This is also another place where the number forty pops up. Here, Mark is making a connection with the forty years that Israel spent in another wilderness during the days of Moses where they also were on a mission, to be a kingdom of priests interceding for the sake of the world. There they were similarly presented with choices. But time and again, they chose poorly. Mark’s point is that Jesus is able to do what Israel failed to do. He will succeed in the mission given to Him by the Father.

One more thing. The Spirit of God has a role here. He is the one who drove Jesus into the wilderness so that He could be presented with this temptation. The Spirit’s work is often viewed in terms of being a comfort to the saints as well as their encourager. And He is that! But here we see another aspect of His work. Just as He did with Jesus, the Spirit brings us into situations where we are presented with that choice. He does this for our good because there are many good things that can come from facing such a choice. There are times, for example, when we can be encouraged when we see that we have chosen wisely, evidence that there has been progress in our developing a love for our God. But there are also times when our pride needs to be exposed to ourselves as we see that we are not nearly the perfect people we think we are. In His grace the Spirit brings us into these situations.

Gospel of Mark: Loved and Well Pleasing

The next section of Mark is one that I’m guessing most people are at least acquainted with: Jesus’ baptism. The part that I want to focus on is where the Father tells Jesus,

You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased. (Mark 1:11)

Here is Jesus being told that He is loved. And because of how He has lived, He is well pleasing to His Father. What a tremendous thing for anyone to hear. Loved and well pleasing.

We Christians need speak about this to those around us who aren’t Christians. So, first, we need to let them know, in as clear a manner as we are able, that they are deeply loved. The Father loves them with a love that is impossible to overstate. And His great desire is for them to flourish as people.

At the same time, we also need to tell them - and we need to do this gently - that they are not well pleasing to Him. The reason is that they are not living according to the ways that the Father has told them to live. They aren’t living like Jesus did. They look to other things to make life work instead of the God who actually does make life work. They are ignoring the Father who loves them. In this they are very unwise and rebellious. And, as a result, they are not well pleasing to God.

However, because they are so loved by the Father He has made it possible for this situation to change. They can be fully assured that they are well pleasing to the Father. And that can happen because of what Jesus has done. This will be theirs once they entrust themselves to Jesus as the Savior sent from the Father.

We really need to tell people that they are loved. But we dare not stop there. We also really need to tell them that they are not currently well pleasing to the Father. There is a problem. But that can change. Jesus has come.

The Gospel of Mark: John the Baptist

So, who is John? He’s a prophet. In fact, you might say that he’s the last of the Old Testament prophets. And that becomes quite clear when you bear in mind who his audience is.

And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

His audience are Jews. Like Isaiah and Jeremiah before him, John is calling the people of God to account. They have sinned grievously against their God and they need to repent of that sin and return to covenant faithfulness. The message of John is not a whole lot different from most of the Old Testament prophets.

That explains some things about John. First, there’s his clothing.

Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist … 

So, what is this? Now, think Old Testament. Does his clothing ring any bells? I’m hoping that you remembered Elijah. (Take a look at 2 Kings 1.8.) In fact, Jesus teaches that the coming of John is the fulfillment of the prophecy about the coming of Elijah to prepare the people for the Messiah. (Matthew 11.13-14) John is a prophet to Israel like Elijah was.

Then, there’s what John was doing. He was baptizing those who repented. Again, you need to think Old Testament. John, like Zechariah, his father, was a Levitical priest. (Luke 1 explains.) So, as a priest, John is performing Old Testament washings for sin as prescribed in places like Leviticus. One example of this is found in David’s psalm of repentance.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. (Psalm 51)

The priests performed their washings by dipping a hyssop branch into blood or water and then sprinkled the person or object they were baptizing. (Leviticus 14 has an example.) As a result, the person or object was declared clean, acceptable before God. John’s (priestly) baptism was a part of his (prophetic) call for repentance. Those who repented were made clean – acceptable - before God.

Now, one point to take away from all of this is the Old Testament framework of John’s ministry. John is ministering as an Old Testament prophet to the people of God, Israel. As he does this, he opens the way for Jesus to do the same. More on this next time.

The Gospel of Mark: New Yet Old

The Gospel of Mark is my favorite New Testament book. (Psalms wins for the Old Testament.) So, I thought that it would be good to slowly blog my way through it.

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, ​the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” Mark 1:1-3

There are many things going on here. Mark tells us whom he is writing about: Jesus. But he also tells us some important things about who this Jesus is. He is the Christ. And he is the Son of God. And then, he quotes a prophet from what we would call the Old Testament, though Mark would have just called it 'Scripture'. In starting with this quote, Mark is tipping his hand. He is telling his readers that though, in one sense, he is writing about the beginning of the good news about Jesus, in another sense, this good news is old. It has deep roots in what God had already done centuries before. Mark knows that his readers will not understand well enough what it means that Jesus is the Christ and that He is the Son of God if they don't find the roots of those terms - and more - in the older Scriptures. After all, 'Christ' and 'Son of God' are Old Testament concepts.

Yes, this is the beginning of what Jesus has come to do, but it is not the beginning of what God has been up to. You will not understand Jesus well enough unless you see Him in the context of the older testament. And I write that because far too many Christians neglect the older testament. They really don't know what God did during those ages and how it is the foundation for the Jesus' ministry. And as a result, they misunderstand key aspects of who Jesus is and what He has come to accomplish. So, it's important to note that Mark begins with a quote from Isaiah. And as I work my way through this gospel I'll try to point out some of the connections between what Jesus was saying and doing, and what God had been busy doing before His advent, things that prepared the way for that advent.

The Curtain

Mark 15.33-41

The heart of our religion is the death of Jesus . Everything depends on the Cross: life and death, heaven and hell, now and forever. I was reading one of the Gospel accounts of Jesus' death recently when I stumbled onto a thought. There is no explanation of the significance of what is happening. Wouldn't you expect Mark to write something about how Jesus' death provides forgiveness of sin or the hope of heaven? Luke was a close associate of the Apostle Paul. You'd think that he would include maybe just a hint of Paul's teaching about our justification before the Father through the death of Jesus. But there is none of this in any of the four Gospels. They simply log what happened: this happened and then this happened and then this happened and then He died. There are no comments describing the salvation Jesus gained for us on that day. And that's why this tidbit in our text stood out to me. 'And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.' Believe it or not, this is commentary about the Cross, an explanation of what happened. But it is not commentary from Mark. Rather, it is commentary from the Father. And it is a profound commentary. So, this morning we're going to take a look at this curtain and what happened to it. There are some things going on here that you need to see, things that will speak to how you live. So, let's see what the Spirit has to say to us this morning.

The first thing we need to do is understand why the curtain is there. Mark tells us that it is the curtain of the temple. As such, it has quite a history. After the exodus, when God made His covenant with Israel, He told the people, in no uncertain terms, how they were to worship Him. At the heart of that worship was a tent called the tabernacle. God showed Moses what it should look like and then told him to build one just like it. I think it's helpful to view the tabernacle as a series of curtains. The first set of curtains surround the courtyard. Picture some heavy curtains hanging on wooden frames and attached to each other. They are set up to form four walls that you cannot see around or over or through. These curtains separate the courtyard and what is within it from the rest of the world. Within this courtyard is another set of curtains. This second group of curtains cover the four walls of the tabernacle as well as its roof. They separate the tabernacle itself from the rest of the courtyard. Then there is the third wall of curtains inside the tabernacle. This separates the Most Holy Place from all the rest. The Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God's special presence, was kept here, in the Most Holy Place. The center of Israel's worship that Moses built was a series of curtains that blocked the way to God's special presence. When King Solomon arrived on the scene some 500 years later, he built a worship center that was more permanent than a tent. He erected a building with solid walls instead of curtains. But there was still a curtain separating the Most Holy Place, where God's special presence resided, from the rest of the world.

While this theme of the curtains is displayed most clearly in the tabernacle and the temple, it didn't start with these. In this as with so much else, we need to return to the Garden of Eden. The Garden was heaven on earth for Adam and Eve. It was a place of deep contentment and complete and perfect happiness. And it was that because God was there. Adam and Eve enjoyed God while in the Garden. Try to imagine taking a walk with God in the cool of the day. How glorious that must have been. And the work that He gave to them wasn't frustrating or tedious or anything like that. It was a joy. It satisfied. It fulfilled. Every day was filled with sunshine. It really was heaven on earth. But all that was destroyed. Adam and Eve listened to Satan and ruined everything. Do you remember what God did next? It's tempting to misread what happened. It's possible to think of it as God having a calm chat with His two errant creatures. 'Oh Adam? Where are you? There you are. Hey, buddy, we need to sort out what's happened.' That misses the point completely. God was enraged. Enraged. Just consider what He did. First, He cursed them both. Cursed! Try to picture God cursing someone. Not a pleasant image. Next, He kicked them out of the Garden. He kicked them out of this little bit of heaven on earth. Don't imaging this as some troubled host politely telling his guests, 'I think it's time that you left.' No. Genesis says He drove them out; He thrust them out. But then He did a third thing. He posted some angels at the entrance to the Garden and gave them a flaming sword. There is no explanation given of what they were to do but I think it's pretty clear. What would you think if you saw armed angels? 'Try to enter the Garden and we will kill you. God's orders.' We miss the point of what is going on if we imagine God as calm and eminently reasonable as He gently asks Adam and Eve to leave. No. He was angry. He was enraged. And He was enraged because He really hates sin. Really hates it.

All of this explains the curtains. What are the curtains saying? I think the message of the curtains is clear. 'STAY OUT!!' The curtains are a sign with bold letters on them. 'NO TRESPASSING! VIOLATORS WILL BE SHOT ON SIGHT.'There were some who ignored this message of the curtains. And they died. Just for one example there was Nadab and Abihu. Because they did not heed this message they were burned alive by God. I think that the point of the curtains is clear. But, in case you are unsure, consider this. Do you know what images were woven into the curtains? Angels, the guardians of the Garden. The curtains are God's message to sinners. 'Do not enter – on pain of death.' And so, no heaven on earth. No joyous work. No sense of being satisfied and fulfilled. No strolls with God. 'Stay out!'

Now, we're ready for our text. 'And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.' It is the image of a torn curtain that explains the Cross. This act is God's commentary. The curtain is ripped in two. It is taken away so that an entryway is opened. And who removed the curtain. God did. He grabbed it and ripped it from top to bottom. God has taken that 'No Trespassing' sign and thrown it away. The angels have sheathed their swords. The way back into the Garden has been opened to us. Heaven on earth.

But wait. What has changed? After all these centuries of armed angels why is that warning sign removed? We need to answer this. Could it be that God has changed? Does He now have a new opinion? 'Well, we all make mistakes. I was too harsh in the past. I'm turning over a new leaf. Let's let bygones be bygones.' The only label that fits this suggestion is blasphemy. What an insult! God's intense hatred of sin is not just some passing and errant opinion. God hates sin because it is an expression of His character. He is holy. And for that reason, sin – our sin – enrages Him. It is a personal affront to His sense of what is right. And that can never change. God hates sin – intensely. So, the curtain is ripped not because God has changed.

Could it be that we have changed? Have we finally sorted things out so that we understand how this life works? We've changed and now obey God and because of that He can now allow us in, right? I hope ho one here is so blinded to himself as to give this even a moment's consideration. Reality check. We sin. A lot. And in ways that we are too ashamed to admit out loud. The curtain is gone, but that is in no way because we are a better people. To suggest this is simply foolishness.

The curtain is gone but not because there has been some change in God or us. The difference is because of the Cross. The reason for the ripped curtain is tied to what Jesus did. Jesus died. But lots of people die. Why does this death change things? How does this death open the way for us? Luther called it the Great Exchange. All of your sin was placed on Jesus. That means all of the rage of a holy God against your sin was exploded upon Jesus. All of it. So, now, there is none left. God's anger at your sin is spent. God's sense of justice is satisfied by Jesus' death for you. At the same time, you get all of Jesus' perfection. And that means that the Father deals with you in the same way that He deals with the resurrected Jesus. The very same way. So, you see, the Father didn't lower His standards. You haven't changed into some obedient person. No, Jesus has traded places with you. He has suffered justice for you so that you might enjoy the benefits of His perfect life. This is all yours by faith. The Great Exchange.

So, the 'No Trespassing' sign lies off to the side, ripped to pieces. In its place is something new. A Welcome mat. Now, we are invited to draw near to the Father so that we might enjoy Him just as Adam and Eve once did. And that's what the Gospel is about. That's why Jesus has come: that we might enjoy God. And that makes so much sense because enjoying the Father is why we were created. When Adam and Eve looked around at the Garden, amazed at its beauty, that was enjoying the Father. When they strolled together holding hands, sharing their hearts, that was enjoying the Father. When they picked some fresh vegetables so they could enjoy a meal together, that was enjoying the Father. And when they walked with their God in the cool of the day, that was enjoying the Father. The Welcome mat is out. We have been invited back into the Garden to enjoy the Father and to be who we were meant to be. That's the Gospel. That's what Jesus came to do.

However – for one reason or another we do not enjoy Him as much as we could. And that's a problem. And it is a very large problem for some. In fact, for some the Welcome mat seems to be a cruel joke that God is playing on them. They see the Welcome but they do not feel it. And that really is a problem. But like every other problem of this life, it is one that can be dealt with. There are lots of reason why we don't enjoy the Father as much as we could. I'm only going to look at three. I do this as someone who believes the message of the Welcome mat. The curtain is gone. The way is open to draw near. That is something that I believe as well as something that I enjoy. And I want all of you to believe it and enjoy it also as much as you possibly can.

Here's one reason why we don't enjoy God as much as we might. We don't understand well enough what Jesus has done. Before we were married, Linda made a quilt. She cut some fabric into squares about four inches on a side. She put two of these squares back to back and sewed three sides. She stuffed each of these and then sewed the fourth side. Each looked like a little pillow, four inches square. She then took these little pillows and stitched them each, by hand, to the others until she ended up with a quilt. Then, she gave it to me. When she did, I said to myself something like, 'Oh, a nice blanket', put it aside and then asked her about what we should do for the rest of the day. She put in hours and hours and hours of work into that gift, and I just didn't get it. I did not appreciate her gift. And that is because I did not understand what went into making such a work of art. Jesus has given us a gift, but we do not enjoy it as much as we might because we do not understand well enough what went into creating such a gift. Since those pre-marriage days I have come to appreciate that quilt. But that's because I learned what it takes to make such a thing. We all need to learn more about what it took to create that Welcome mat. We all need need to ponder the ripped curtain. That will require understanding better things like angels with flaming swords, a God who is so holy that sin requires a violent reaction, hell and what exactly happened on Good Friday. We will not appreciate sufficiently – and thus enjoy sufficiently – Jesus' gift if we do not have a growing sense of what went into creating it.

Here's a second reason why some of you do not enjoy the Father as much as you might. You feel disqualified because of your sin. There you are and, once again, you've done something stupid. Your sin stares you in the face with that condemning look. It mocks your claim to be a disciple of Jesus, and it assures you that even God couldn't love you now. And life takes a nosedive. But here you must remember why the curtain was ripped apart. It wasn't' because you changed. It wasn't because you finally became a nice person. You're not. You sin. A lot. So, sinning some more doesn't change things. It's here that you need to remember that the curtain was removed because of Jesus. Remember the Great Exchange. You are loved by the Father not because you always get it right. You are loved because you enjoy the benefits of Jesus' perfection. Even when you sin – which is more often that you know – the Father still loves you. Because of Jesus, He still loves you. Do not believe the lies. When you've sinned, believe the Gospel instead and return to your loving Father and enjoy Him some more.

The last reason that we don't enjoy the Father as much as we might is that we don't work at it. There are some great marriages out there. But most marriages aren't great. And the reason for that is that most couples don't work at their marriages. Great marriages take effort. There are great Christians out there, people full of joy and love and an unshakable sense of peace. It seems as if the Spirit just overflows from them. And the reason for this is that they work at it. These are Christians who work at knowing God, who work at understanding the change from that 'No Trespassing' sign to the Welcome mat, who work at understanding the Cross. They battle with their own hearts and the sin that still resides there. They take pains to pray thoughtfully and honestly. They are not content with a surface understanding of their Bibles. They are not content with a surface understanding of Jesus. They work at it. This takes time and it takes effort, but it's worth it. Their enjoyment of the Father deepens with each passing year. Most Christians today do not work at following Jesus. Don't be among them.

The curtain is ripped in two. Jesus has come to open the way for you. That's something that starts now and gets better and better until it is transferred to the life to come where it continues on. Come and enjoy the Father.

The Shame of Repentance

Mark 1.14-15

Jesus begins His ministry by emphasizing repentance and faith. This call lies close to the heart of His ministry. And the reason why this is the case is clear. There can be no enjoyment of the Gospel without repentance and faith. A growing grasp of the Gospel requires a growing grasp of this dynamic of repentance and faith. So, it's no surprise that Jesus begins His ministry with this theme and continues with it throughout that ministry. And it is a theme that continues to this day as an ongoing part of His ministry among the saints by the Spirit.

I'm not going to spend today's sermon exploring repentance and faith. It's too big a topic. But even to spend a sermon on repentance alone is still too much to tackle. So, today I'm just going to look at one slice of repentance. I picked up something on the topic of repentance written by the Puritan Thomas Watson aptly titled, The Doctrine of Repentance. One of the things that Watson does in this little book is to list the different elements of repentance. He has six on his list, and he writes that each of these is a necessary element of repentance. He claims that you can't have true repentance without all of these, and I think that he is being quite biblical in this claim. Here's his list: the sight of sin, sorrow for sin, confession of sin, shame for sin, hatred for sin and turning from sin. I thought it good to pick one of these for us to look at, and the one aspect I chose was the aspect of shame. I think that you'll see that Watson was right to include it in his list. So, my goal is simple. I want to explore this one slice of repentance, shame for sin, so that you will have a clearer understanding of what it is that Jesus expects of you in this and why.

Shame is out of vogue. And that shouldn't be surprising. It cannot possibly co-exist with the attitudes of self-centeredness and disrespect that are so popular today. The young are encouraged to flaunt their evil, not to be ashamed of it. They are taught not to care about the opinions of others. In many respects, ours is a shameless society. One consequence of this is that the notion of shame is not very clear. So, the first thing for me to do is to spend a little time discussing shame to be sure that we all understand this in the same way. Shame is about a gap, a gap between expected behavior and actual behavior. It begins with an awareness of unworthy conduct, of having fallen short of some standard. Awareness of the gap is not shame. But it is a necessary lead up to shame. Shame arrives on the scene when that gap results in disapproval, the sort of disapproval that actually touches this person. Shame is about censure or disapproval in the eyes of someone who matters. Consider this example from Scripture. 'Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.' The community had expectations of Mary. One of them had to do with sexual morality. Mary would have faced great shame in the eyes of her community if they discovered that she had missed that mark, that there was a gap. And that would have mattered. So, Joseph, being a just man, had to break their engagement. But out of concern for Mary he decided to do that quietly to protect her from the shame. Consider another example. This one comes from the life of Ezra the priest. He returned to Jerusalem after the exile in order to re-establish faithful living among the saints. What he finds upon his return shocks him. Listen to his response. 'Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered around me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice. And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God, saying: "O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens."' Ezra's sense of shame is not rooted in community standards, as in Mary's situation. He isn't concerned about the censure of the people. No, rather, he was ashamed before his God. He felt the gap between the kind of behavior the Father had called the people to and how they actually acted. He felt the gap and he felt the disapproval.

Now, we're ready for the next step. When it comes to the shame of repentance, it's not about what the community might think. It's about what God might think. But that all depends on what God is like. So, if God is seen as someone without standards, one version of what is called 'unconditional love', then there will be no shame. There is no shame because there is no gap. This kind of God has no expectations when it comes to behavior. Almost anything is acceptable to Him, or at least He's able to ignore so much. Where there are no expectations there can be no gap. And where there is no gap there can be no shame. If, on the other hand, God is seen primarily as a judge, then there will be regret at being caught or fear of punishment. But there will still be no shame. The concern here isn't disapproval. It's punishment. This is like the convicted felon who's about to be sentenced. He feels no shame at what he has done. He doesn't care what the judge, or anyone else, thinks. He just doesn't like the idea of more jail time. That's what happens when God is seen as a condemning judge. So, where does this shame of repentance come from? What needs to be in the mix so that shame results from awareness of the gap? The answer, of course, is love. It is a relationship of love with God that results in shame. Let me tell you about something that happened when I was young. We were city folk – from Brooklyn – who had just moved to the brand new suburbs of New Jersey. The house was new, the experience was new. Everything was new – including the large tent my Dad had just brought home from Sears. He was in the back yard figuring out how to get it up, and he was excited about it. Remember, we were city folk. Camping in a tent was about to become a strange new experience. So, there's my Dad all excited when my Mom says, 'What's this?' While my parents were at Sears getting the tent, my brother and I were at home. We were tossing some of the pebbles that were laying around. One that I had thrown took a weird bounce. What my mother had noticed was the hole in the glass of the sliding door. I expected my father to be angry. His brand new house now had a significant ding. But there was no anger. There were no threats of punishment. Instead, my father simply left the tent on the ground and went inside, all of his excitement drained away. That was the first time that I can remember some sense of shame at disappointing my father. I would have preferred his anger. Those who experience the shame of repentance do so because there is at least a measure of love for God. That's why Ezra prayed as he did. There can be no shame in repentance where there is no love for the Father. This is what Jesus calls for when He cries out, 'Repent and believe the Gospel.' He's not looking for regret at being caught or fear of being punished. He's looking for a sense of shame that comes from love.

Let's move on. I think my next thought will clarify what I've said a bit more and also deal with some questions you might be thinking. Let's consider the parable of the prodigal son. Consider this young man as he sits in the pig sty after wasting the inheritance his father had given him. 'But when he came to himself, he said, "How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.'"' 'I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' What is that? It's shame. He sees the gap between how he should have acted and how he did act. More than that, he feels the gap. He knows that he is not worthy of his father. So, he resolves to return to his father, with a prepared speech about merely being given a job. He returns home, ashamed of himself. That's a picture of repentance, with shame being a prominent aspect. The next verse of the parable is so very important. Listen carefully. 'And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.' Did you notice what happened? What was the father's response? He runs, hugs his son, kisses him. Could you have pictured a better welcome? But – and this is what is so important for our discussion – when did the father run to his son to welcome him home? Was it before or after the boy's speech? It was before. Before the boy was even able to express his shame, the father is running, rejoicing, 'My boy is home!' And when his son begins his speech, when he starts to express how ashamed he is, the father cuts him off. He shouts to his servants about a new robe and shoes and a ring of honor. We see the shame of repentance here. It's more evidence that Watson was right include this on his list. But please notice that the father's welcome was not tied to the quality of the son's repentance. The father didn't first see how ashamed the boy was before deciding to rejoice at his return. He saw his son from a distance and ran. God's forgiveness is not tied to the quality of your repentance. He does not wait to see if there is enough shame. As important as shame is, it is not the price of forgiveness. It is not the penance that needs to be performed. This is important because some of you beat yourselves up for your sin and then wonder if you hit hard enough. The temptation for you will be to take this sermon home and next time you need to repent ask yourself whether you feel enough shame for God to forgive you. That's looking at shame as payment for forgiveness, a variation on earning your salvation. Forgiveness is free. Jesus has paid whatever is needed so that you can be forgiven. All that needs to happen is for your heart to say, ‘This sin is foolishness. I need to repent’, and at that moment the Father welcomes you home. All you've done is decided to repent and even before you take your next breath, the Father is there to forgive. The shame of repentance is important, but not as some payment for God's forgiveness.

That, of course, leads to the question why. Why is repentance important? Why is the shame of repentance important? If such things do not persuade God to forgive, why do we need to do them? And we do need to repent! Remember Jesus' call. But why? Let's go back to the son in the parable. That night there was a celebration with good food, music, dancing. The father was throwing a party. It was a glorious time. But consider that young man. Think about him earlier in the day as we he was walking home. He was practicing his speech. He was wondering what might happen when he stood before his father. He was ashamed of himself. But that evening there was a celebration – not just in his father's house but in his father's heart. He wasn't able to finish his speech. He no longer wondered about his father's response. And the shame that he had felt was completely obliterated. What was he feeling as he heard the music, enjoyed the food, saw the smile on his father's face? The young man experienced what David prayed for in his Psalm of shame. 'Restore to me the joy of your salvation.' Moving from the shame of repentance to compete forgiveness with excited celebration produces joy. The boy went from the abyss of shame to total restoration. It was as if he had never sinned! How can there not be rejoicing? The call to be ashamed of your sin is not intended to change God's heart. It's intended to change yours. It is intended to produce joy in your heart. The true fruit of Godly shame is joy.

Jesus has come so that all of your sins might be completely forgiven and all your shame obliterated. That's why He calls even today, 'Repent and believe the Gospel.' But note that the quality of your experience of joy, the joy of forgiveness, is tied to the quality of your sense of shame. Little shame yields only a little joy. It's seeing your sin clearly, seeing the enormity of the gap, that leads to a deeper shame which in turn bears the abundant fruit of a glorious joy. The deepest shame shows as the greatest joy – that is, if you can believe it. Repent and believe the Gospel.

All that remains is the question, 'How?' How does a Christian nurture this aspect of repentance? How can shame grow so that joy can grow? If you translate those questions accurately this is what you come up with. How can you change your heart? That's what we're talking about, changing the affections of the heart. And the answer to that is obvious. You can't. Changing a heart is something that only the Spirit can do. But that doesn't mean that there is nothing for you to do. The Spirit uses the Word. Knowing your Bible better and better gives the Spirit more to work with. That starts with knowing what it says, but it moves from there to also pondering what it means. The Spirit also responds to prayer. Jesus said, 'Ask and it will be given to you.' So, ask for a heart that sees its sin more and more clearly so that it will mourn over that sin and be shamed before God because of it. And pray for a growing faith. As this kind of heart repents and believes, it experiences a deep joy. And that's one big reason why Jesus wants you to repent – that you might experience the joy of the Gospel. And this is something that we will want to do because joyous Christians make Jesus look good.

The Demanding Jesus

Mark 10.17-23

The Gospel is simple. Jesus calls to us and says, 'Follow Me. I will lead you into life at its best.' Being religious is a counterfeit alternative to following Jesus. Why it exists is no mystery. Being religious is easier than following Jesus. Being religious boils down to some mental exercises about some doctrines that you need to agree with and then involving yourself in certain religious activities. Each person chooses his own level of religious devotion. Some are more into the doctrine thing than others. And then there are those who are more into the religious activities part. But they all assume that the level that they have chosen is good enough - at least for them. Following Jesus is a whole other matter. And that's what our unnamed friend in this morning's text discovered. He was ready to get a little bit more serious when it came to being religious, but discovered, instead, something about Jesus that he had not anticipated. Our friend approached Jesus, the Good Teacher. He didn't expect to encounter Jesus, the Demanding Master.

This aspect of Jesus' character - being demanding - is not commonly known. Take a survey of your friends and neighbors and ask them, 'What was Jesus like?' [It actually should be, 'What is Jesus like?', but that will only confuse your neighbors.] The answers that you will likely get include things like being a nice guy, being compassionate and that He liked kids. The term 'demanding' will not appear on most lists. But that is what He was - and is.

People miss this aspect of who Jesus is because they skip over the hard sayings. And they skip over those sayings because so many ministers skip over them too. Listen to a few:

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

These never seem to make it into those colorful coffee table books with titles like, Family Bible Sayings, people give for Christmas. And so, people just don't realize how demanding - not to mention egotistical - Jesus really is. But that's exactly what our friend, the rich young ruler, discovered.

He comes to Jesus with the proper signs of respect. He runs up and kneels before Him and addresses Him with honor, 'Good Teacher'. He then asks the perfect question. 'What must I do to inherit eternal life?' He is a great candidate for a new disciple, no? After a brief thrust and parry, Jesus gets down to brass tacks. Listen to what he says. 'You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.' Now, that's demanding.

It's important that you understand - that you feel - what Jesus just said. Put yourself into the picture. [That, by the way, is a good thing to do with many of the Gospel stories.] You are this rich young man. You come with the perfect question. In response Jesus tells you to sell all that you own and to give it away to the poor. Now, what would that mean in your life. First, there's the house. Sell it. And all the contents too: furniture, decorative items, fun stuff, 'necessities'. Everything. Then there are your cars, however many you own. Next, you take a trip to the bank. Checking account: zero it out. Savings account also. Do you have any CDs at the bank? They go too. Then there are any investments that you might have. And don't forget your pension. Whatever you own goes. Jesus says, 'Get rid of it all'. And now you have nothing. It's at this point that we tell ourselves, 'Well, He wouldn't do that. How would we care for our families and provide for their needs? We still have to live.' And yet, that is exactly what He did with our friend. 'You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor...'

Kind of demanding, no? And when our friend turned away, when he decided to stay on the road to hell, Jesus didn't say, 'Wait a minute. I might have been a little hard on you.' No. He let him go. Jesus is not just some Good Teacher. He is a Demanding Master. And it needn't be money that He demands. He could demand anything. He could demand your health, your good reputation, your child, your spouse, your career. He could demand any other these - and more. And He has. This is where reading old Christian biographies, especially missionary biographies, comes in handy. Jesus has been very demanding through the centuries.

Does this mean that we should no longer think of Jesus as compassionate and caring? Absolutely not! Actually - and this is where it gets really interesting - Jesus is demanding precisely because He is compassionate and caring. To understand that all you need do is ask why. Why would Jesus demand something from us, something that is good? Well, why did He demand the possessions of our friend in the text? Stop and think about it. What were those possessions to him? They were an idol to him. I think that's clear when you understand what it was that the man did. In one hand he had the eternal life that he said he was seeking for. In the other hand were his possessions. Jesus said, 'Pick one.' His possessions were his idol. Jesus wanted to rescue him from his idolatry.

Definitions are important here, as elsewhere. What's an idol? It's a phony god that tries to fill a role that it cannot. An idol is what gives someone a good reason to get up each morning and gets him through a hard day. It's something that a person is willing to sacrifice for, that gives him a sense of being safe, that is loved first. These, and more, are roles that only Jesus can fill. Anything else that tries to fill these roles is an idol. Our friend looked to his stuff, and what it could get for him, to provide what only Jesus can provide. And so, Jesus says to him, 'You cannot inherit eternal life if you keep that idol. It's Me or it. Choose.' And he did.

Now there are some things that we need to remember. First, we all have idols. We may know about a few of them, but the fact of the matter is that we are unaware of just about all of them. There are things that we look to when we should be looking to Jesus instead. Second, idols never satisfy. How could they? Even when they seem to work, they don't. It's just not immediately obvious. Idols always fail. And so, because He is compassionate and caring, Jesus makes demands. He wants us freed from our worthless idols. Sometimes Jesus' demands come in the form of a gentle request. But there are times when it's an ultimatum, like with our friend.

Jesus is demanding in our text, very demanding. And yet, He shows that He really wants this man to flourish. Though demanding, Jesus is so very 'for' this guy. And He shows this in what He said. Listen again. 'You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.' Did you hear the promise that Jesus offers? This is what makes it all work. '... and you will have treasure in heaven...'

Heaven has fallen on hard times. We've been told that we need to be practical and deal with this life. And heaven is boring anyway, right? But the Bible is clear. It presents the hope of enjoying the rewards of heaven as a major motivation for following Jesus faithfully. If our hearts are not striving for heaven we become easy pickings for Satan. Our hopes will either be rooted there or they will be rooted here. To the extent that they are rooted here, Satan will have us. Hopes rooted here can be kidnapped by Satan. And we will pay the ransom to get them back. Hopes rooted in heaven are beyond his grasp. Jesus calls this man to give away all his earthly treasures so that he can enjoy heavenly ones. What He takes away here He promises to replace there and that with interest. But that means nothing if heaven is some vague spirit place with clouds and harps. So, listen to this from Psalm 16. 'You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.' What do you suppose these 'pleasures' are? I remember reading this once and thinking that it sounds so earthy, so robust, so real. What are the pleasures of your life here? Can the pleasures of your life there be less? Remember it's pictured as a wedding banquet where everyone is having a great time.

Now, if Jesus had demanded something else of the man, His promise would have been different. So, if Jesus' demand had been about the loss of a relationship, He would have said something like, 'Give to Me the joy of this relationship, and, in heaven, I will return it to you but in a way that is deeper and more satisfying than you can imagine.' If His demand were about that sense of accomplishment that a career can give, then Jesus would have said, 'Quit your job and follow Me, and in heaven I will satisfy that desire many times over.' Whatever He takes away, He promises to replace, but in a way that will amaze.

Let me step back and explain something here. There are several reasons why I've told you all of this. Let me tell you one of them. I want to help you understand what Jesus is doing with your life. He has been demanding, and you have felt it. I know that I have. He has just taken some things from you. He didn't ask, as He did in the case of our friend. He just took it. It hurt. And you wondered about that. Or instead of taking something away, He just refused to give it to you. You never had it to enjoy. And you wonder why. I want you to understand why. It's because He is compassionate and caring. That's why He is so demanding. He is dealing with things like idols. He wants you to flourish and that will only happen if He is your treasure. It will only happen if He is the one who fills all those roles in your life. It is because He is compassionate and caring that He is sometimes very demanding.

Understand what Jesus is doing, and accept it as an expression of His compassion and caring. If you do, you will be able to rejoice in the Lord and fulfill your calling as His disciple. But if you don't understand what Jesus is doing, or, worse, if you refuse to accept it as a gift from Him, then you will become disappointed, discouraged and even bitter. And I would spare you that. So, understand who Jesus is. He is demanding! But He is that way because He loves you.

Who Am I? A Disciple's Answer

Mark 1.16-20

When I last spoke to you we were looking at Paul and how he made plans. In that sermon I used two questions: 'Who am I?' and 'Where am I?' Those two questions led to the answer of a third, 'What does Jesus want me to do now?' Today, we're going to look again at that first question but this time from the perspective of Jesus' call, 'Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.' Let's take that apart and see what will happen.

'Follow Me.' That's an invitation. But to what? There are many ways to answer that, but the heart of the matter is missed if we don't see that it's an invitation to intimacy. This is what the evangelists of my youth were getting at when they talked about a personal relationship with Jesus. Intimacy. Jesus' call to discipleship is a call to be by His side so that you can enjoy a close relationship with Him. This isn't new with Jesus. The Old Testament is filled with this same dynamic. Intimacy. Sadly, the Pharisees never got this. For them religion was a matter of rules to obey and doctrines to argue about. But that's not what Jesus is about. When He calls someone He calls that person to a life of intimacy. And once a person heeds the call to follow Him, that intimacy with Jesus defines who he is.

'Follow Me.' Did you notice what happens when Jesus calls Simon and Andrew. 'And immediately they left their nets and followed him.' Just like that, these two brothers left their job. They quit on the spot. James and John did something similar. 'And immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed Him.' They left their father and the family business. They followed Jesus instead of staying with Dad. You'll notice that Jesus didn't say, 'Oh no, men. Don't do that. I would never expect such sacrifice.' No, Jesus called them to do exactly what they did. This is also a part of following Him. The first label I used was intimacy. This second label is loyalty. It may show differently in different lives, but being a disciple means loyalty to Jesus first, loyalty to Him above anything else. And this makes sense. What else could intimacy with Jesus lead to but this kind of loyalty?

Third label: change. 'I will make you fishers of men.' Jesus tells these early disciples of His that He is going to change them. Now, if this was just a matter of a change in how they spend their time, catching men instead of catching fish, that would be no big deal. But this change is more significant than that. It's not about changing an occupation. This is about a changing a person. Consider these disciples at the beginning of their time with Jesus and how often they just didn't get it. And then take a look at them in the book of Acts. They have been deeply changed. They have been changed on the inside and this change shows so clearly on the outside. They are different men. All of this fits, of course, with Jesus invitation to intimacy and His expectation of loyalty. Simon and Andrew and James and John did not understand these elements of following Jesus very well at the beginning. Change was necessary. And change happened. And because of that change they stopped building their own kingdoms and began building Jesus' kingdom. Intimacy, loyalty, change, three elements of following Jesus, three elements that describe you.

Sometimes it helps to say what you're not saying so that what you are saying will be clear. I'm not saying that here are three element that ought to describe you. This is not a to-do list for faithful Christians. These are not goals to struggle toward. What I am saying is that these three describe you. This is who you are. You enjoy intimacy with Jesus. You are loyal to Him. You are experiencing His change in your life. This is who you are. It's important that you understand this as a present fact and not a distant goal. These three are yours because of the Gospel. If these things - intimacy, loyalty and change - are, instead, goals for you to achieve, then your hope of doing a good job of following Jesus will depend on you. It will depend on how well you do at cultivating those three elements. That will become a crushing load that you will never be able to bear. Where's the grace in that? No, this is who you are. By the power of Jesus' Spirit, this is you. Following Jesus really is a matter of grace.

And yet, we need to admit that we are these things only partially. The level of our intimacy with Jesus is partial. The strength of our loyalty is partial. The degree of our change is partial. Just a moment's reflection makes all too clear that there is much that is incomplete in our following Jesus. So, do I sneak in works at this point? Do I try to urge you on to do a better job when it comes to following Jesus? Do I lay out some detailed plan for you to pursue so that you can create greater intimacy, loyalty and change? No. Listen again to Jesus' words. 'Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.' We do not complete what is partial in our following Jesus. We do not improve our level of intimacy. We do not strengthen our loyalty. We do not create the change we need. Jesus does all of that. You see, it really is a matter of grace. By His Spirit, Jesus takes care of all of that. As I've told you before, all you need do is put yourself in the place where His Spirit does His work: read your Bible, commune with your God, talk of Spiritual things. Put yourself in the place where the Spirit of Jesus does His work, and then watch Him change you.

I've gone over these three elements, trying to be clear about what they are and what they aren't. But my goal has not been just to describe them. What I want is for you to enjoy them. This is the Gospel. There is great comfort in the Gospel. There is great comfort in these things. So, consider: Your intimacy with Jesus presupposes something. It presupposes His intimacy with you. A great verse to ponder comes from the life of Paul. '... the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.' Jesus didn't come to save a bunch of people and you happened to make it into the group. He came for you, for each of you, individually. The Good Shepherd knows His sheep by name. Jesus knows you by name. If you were the only sinner, the only person needing to be saved, just you, He still would have gone to the cross. Just for you. The only reason that you can enjoy an intimate relationship with Jesus is because He enjoys an intimate relationship with you. Do you see what that means? You are never alone. Proverbs says, 'The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy.' That may be true when it comes to those who are merely human but Jesus knows all about your sorrows and understands them. And He rejoices with you in your joys because He knows what they mean to you. You - each of you, one by one - are precious to Him. Intimacy.

Loyalty is also a two-way street. You are loyal to Jesus as disciple to Master. But that means that He is loyal to you as Master to disciple. His loyalty to you will look different from yours to Him, but at the heart of both is the simple commitment: I am for you. Jesus is so for you, you have no idea. He is so committed to seeing you flourish. By the time He completes His work in you, you will be amazing. The beauty of who you will be will shine so brilliantly - because of Him. He is a loyal Master to His disciples.

These two aspects of following Jesus - intimacy and loyalty - help us deal with our difficulties with the third, change. When I talk about Jesus' call to follow Him and how it cuts across loyalties to family or career or anything else, it feels uncomfortable. It feels a little scary. We begin to fear what that change might mean. It's okay if we choose to change this or that aspect of our lives. But it's entirely different when we aren't making the choices, when change just comes at us, out of the blue, disrupting our lives. We fear that kind of change. But we fear because we forget who we are. We forget that we are disciples who are following Jesus. When you remember who you are, you also remember that change is not some random event that comes crashing into your life like some raging bull smashing all the fine china, and leaving this great mess that you have to clean up. Whatever change comes into your life, comes from Jesus. 'I will make you fishers of men.' He is the one doing the changing. There is no out of control bull. It's all under control - His control. And this Jesus who is bringing all this disconcerting change into your life knows you. Intimacy. There is no cookie cutter, one size fits all change from Him. Whatever change comes into your life is tailor made for you. It fits perfectly. It's exactly what you need. Jesus makes sure of that. This is change that comes from intimacy. And that leads to loyalty. The point of the change is for your good. Jesus wants you to flourish. The change He brings your way will accomplish that task. It may hurt, but it's still good. It will achieve His goal of making you beautiful. He is a good Master to His disciples. So, what is there to fear? Just remember who you are.

By the time we get together again next week, each of you will have dealt with a lot of life. You will have interacted with people (some pleasant, others not), made some plans, carried out some plans, chosen this instead of that. As you do all of those things, remember who you are. Don't slip into the old ways of thinking about yourself. Don't let other people define you according to their ideas and agendas. You are a disciple of Jesus. You are following Him. That means intimacy, loyalty and glorious change. Each of those makes a difference in how you deal with this life. Enjoy them.

Loving God From the Heart

Mark 12.28-34

When God created man, He had expectations. You can consider these expectations in some detail and generate quite a list of things to do. Or you can summarize it all in two simple commands. Our text is the summary of all that God calls you to do. Loving God and neighbor cover it all. We could spend lots of time looking at this summary from lots of different perspectives. Instead, we're just going to pick one of those perspectives. God calls us to love Him with all the heart, and that means to love Him from the heart. My goal is to explore what that means, what it means to love God from the heart. I think that grappling with this is important because it affects how you follow Jesus. And that is always of first importance. I look forward to seeing the fruit that the Spirit will produce in us because of what will happen in the next while.

Let's start by being clear on this term 'heart'. What is it? It's helpful if you understand that the Bible sees us in terms of two aspects. We have an inner nature and an outer nature. And so, God says to Samuel, 'Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For Jehovah sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but Jehovah looks on the heart.' And the Apostle Paul writes, 'So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.' The outer you is the body. The inner you is the heart, the soul, the mind. The Scriptures use different words to say the same thing. So, to love God with all the heart, soul, mind and strength is to love God not just in terms of the outer you, but from deep within, from the heart. Bear in mind that the heart includes all the different aspects of the inner you: the mind that thinks, the will that decides, the affections that express emotion. All of this affects what you like and don't like, your attitudes toward certain people and ideas, what you think is funny, what makes you mad, what gets you down. All of this and more is included in that term 'heart'. God wants you to love Him with all of that.

This helps to explain the hypocrite. The outside of the hypocrite broadcasts one thing about who that person is, but on the inside he is completely different. And so, Jesus said to some Pharisees, 'Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me...”' The lips, the outer nature, were performing the religious rituals of the worship Jehovah but the heart, the inner nature, refused to do so. Being a hypocrite is being a liar.

God created man able to love Him with all the heart, from deep within and without any hypocrisy. That was Adam and Eve before the incident of the tree. Our problems started, however, before they took that first bite. The sin of Adam and Eve existed in their hearts first. The attitudes of our first parents, their sense of loyalty to God, their trust in Him even when they didn't understand what He was doing, all the stuff of the heart, all of that turned away from God when Satan tempted them and they foolishly listened. Only then did they take and eat. The sin of the heart preceded the sin of the body. In response, God pronounced the curse of death. This affected the body, the outer nature. But it also affected the inner nature, the heart. From that moment we all, by nature, have had hearts that are twisted, corrupted and perverted. And so, right before the Flood, what does Moses write? 'Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.' Hearts were twisted and it showed in actions. But the Flood didn't solve the problem. God said this right after the Flood. 'I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.' The Flood didn't change the situation.

All of this helps to explain what God has been up to. The story of the Bible is the story of God working to change hearts, to cure hearts, to restore hearts to how they were before Adam and Eve's hearts doubted God. So, we have this in Ezekiel. 'And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.' God's goal is to remove twisted hearts of stone and replace them with restored, living and pure hearts of flesh, hearts that will obey God's statutes and rules and love Him fully. That's what the Gospel is about. However, as God moved through this story of restoration He found some who were content if the outer nature seemed to perform well. These folk didn't consider the state of their hearts. As long as the outer nature looked like it was doing what was right, they figured everything was fine. The focus was on the behavior of the body. This was a big part of Jesus' problem with the Pharisees. No wonder He called them whitewashed tombs. The outside looked nice, very religious and all the rest, but the inside was filled with the stench of death.

The Gospel is much more than getting your sins forgiven so that you can get to heaven. It's about dealing with the inner person, dealing with the heart, so that a beautiful relationship with God can be restored. Jesus has come to restore hearts. So, when a person becomes a disciple of Jesus, one of the more important things that happens is that he gets a new heart, a 'heart of flesh' to use Ezekiel's phrase. This is a heart that is alive to God instead of one that is twisted and perverted. This person now loves God from the heart with a true love – but not a perfect love. The Psalmist wrote, 'Unite my heart to fear Your name.' He pleads with God because he knows that his heart is divided. Yes, there is a true love there, but there are other things also. The fact that he cries out is evidence that his heart is changed. But he is not satisfied with a partial change. It bothers him that sin that still resides in his heart. And so, the Apostle Paul writes: 'I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate' – a divided heart. There is still work to be done for the complete restoration of the heart. The work has begun. The saint has been born again. He has received a new heart. He is alive to God. But there is more that needs to happen before it is fully restored.

To that end, we have been given principles, instructions and commands in the Scriptures. These are given so that we might make progress in this. But we have also been given a model to look at so that we can see this biblical guidance in action. Jesus is our model. He loved the Father from a perfect, undivided heart. Consider the different aspects of His heart. First, there is His wisdom. Do you remember the comment that I made at the beginning of last week's sermon? Jesus always said the right thing, at the right time and in the right way. So, He was blunt with Nicodemus, gentle with the Samaritan woman, and downright caustic with those Pharisees. This wisdom is an expression of His heart. Then consider the time when Jesus took the Twelve to a desolate spot for a little break. And what did He find? Lots of people wanting something more from Him. His response? It wasn't anger at them or pity for himself. It was compassion for the people, another expression of what was in His heart. Then there are these two related events when He was in Jerusalem. What did He do when He entered the Temple? He made a whip and used it, tossed tables, spilling whatever had been placed on them, shouted and made quite a scene. I think most of us would have been embarrassed if we had been with Him. Jesus was angry. 'Zeal for Your house has consumed Me.' That zeal was an expression of His heart. But then, during the same trip to Jerusalem, Jesus sheds tears of great sadness for a city filled with rebellious people whom He had just condemned. These are the emotions of Jesus, His passions, things rooted in His heart, showing themselves at the right time and in the right way because His was a perfect heart. Your heart has been changed by the new birth. The Spirit has done important work in you. But He is not done changing you. There is still more work to be done.

I want to answer an important question. What do we do to make progress in changing our hearts? I want to answer that, and I will. But before I do, I want to answer a different question: why bother? It is hard to change a heart – very hard. Why should anyone pursue that goal? How a person answers that question makes a huge difference in how he lives. There are some who don't bother working at change. They figure that their sins are forgiven, and that's good enough. So, off they go pretty much ignoring this whole area. As a result, there is no change. It's appropriate to ask if such a person actually has received a new heart. Could a heart that is alive to God respond in this way? Then there are those who do bother. They pursue the goal of change, but they pursue it because they are supposed to. It is a matter of Christian duty. These are beleaguered by 'shoulds and oughts'. Following Jesus then becomes this very arduous task, a great burden to satisfy those 'shoulds and oughts'. Being joyous is hard. There is lots of effort and little to show for it. Then there are those who want to pursue this goal simply because they want to love God. There is no crushing burden. They aren't doing this to satisfy some rule somewhere. Instead, they know that they have experienced God's great kindness when their old, stoney and perverted heart was removed and a living heart was put in its place. So, these just want to love God back. These 'bother' with this just for the sake of love. And that’s why you bother.

Now, what to do. First, from Proverbs: 'Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.' If you are going to be able to keep your heart, you first need to be aware of it. You need to be aware of the inner you. We all take care of our bodies, the outer us. We take showers and brush our teeth and see a doctor when we need to. We are aware of and care for our outer nature. We need to do the same thing for the inner nature. So, look at yourself, the inner you. What's going on in there? Ask yourself questions about what you see. What attitudes, desires, emotions do you find? Look at the evidence of your outer nature. How are you acting? That is reflecting something that is going on in your heart. So, first thing: be aware of your heart. Next, awareness leads to evaluation. Is what you see good or bad? If you are going to be able to accurately evaluate what's going on in your heart you need to give serious attention to the Word. That means thoughtful reading of the Scriptures and serious interaction with the preaching of the Word. The point of the Bible is not for us to know doctrine. The point of the Bible is for us to love God. It shows us what that means and what it doesn't mean. You need the Word if you are going to be able to accurately evaluate your heart. As a result, there will be those times when you will be able to look at something in the inner you and say, 'That's really good. I remember when that was a real problem. There has been some real change.' And that is something worth rejoicing over. You've taken another step in the right direction. Praise God for that! And seeing progress will encourage you to continue to work at these things. There will also be times when you will see something that isn't right, some issue that needs your attention. Here is something that you need to repent of. Be careful here. There are two extremes that people fall into here. Some beat themselves up, thinking that such penance is a necessary aspect of repentance. That's just another form of salvation by works. But then there's the opposite problem of people who say a rote prayer without any real feeling, quote some verse about forgiveness and think that everything is fine because they went through the hoops. Real repentance toward God is not all that different from seeking reconciliation with a very good friend after you've seriously offended him. Simply going through the motions won't do. Neither beating yourself up nor glossing it over works. Repentance works. Now, for my last thought about what to do. You need to pray. I’m talking about serious, honest, from the heart prayer. You need to pray. Please understand why I say that. None of what I've suggested – examining your heart, attending to the Word, and biblical repentance – none of these things will change your heart. You can't change your heart. Only Jesus can do that. The things I listed are tools for Him to use and He will use them, but by themselves they are impotent. And so, along with putting those suggestions into practice, you need to pray. You need to ask Jesus to change you. You need to pray that He would make you more like Himself. As you do that, the Spirit will take those tools and use them. He will point out some specific area that needs work. When He does, respond with repentance and faith and deal with it. And then when change results, give thanks and rejoice.

We live in a rather superficial time. The idea of examining and then dealing with your own heart is almost completely alien to most folk we know. Yet, there are tremendous blessings for those who pursue this aspect of being a faithful disciple of Jesus. For one thing, such a person gets to know Jesus well. And that is a blessing that is not only for this life, but also for the life to come.

Let me close with a question. It’s a bit pointed but necessary. What will you do with this sermon? What will you do with you’ve just finished reading? You need to do something with it. The goal of preaching is never knowing something. The goal of preaching is always doing something. I would encourage you to take one aspect of what you’ve read, one thing that the Spirit brought to your attention, and decide to do something with it. And make that decision today. I’ve already done that for myself and I hope that you will too.

The Widow

Mark 12.41-44

So, here’s Jesus. He’s sitting and watching people, a fascinating pastime. As He watches He sees this woman put in a couple of coins into the equivalent of the offering plate. And as Mark goes to some pains to let us know, these were two of the smallest coins in circulation. Jesus then calls His disciples over and points out what this woman did and praises her. Then Mark moves on to other things. It’s just a little incident. But there are important things going on here, and they really aren’t about money. The life of this woman has some valuable things to teach us. So, let me encourage you to listen and then spend a little time considering the lessons of her life.

Let’s first get a hold of the details. Mark identifies this nameless woman as a poor widow. Here is someone without resources. There is no husband to provide for her. And it’s not like she can find a minimum wage job somewhere. Economically speaking, she was below the bottom rung of the ladder. Life for her was especially hard. So, what does this woman do? She takes the last of her wealth, two tiny coins, and gives them to God as her offering. That was all of her money, all that she had to live on. And now, she has absolutely nothing. Those are the details.

Now, it’s time for some questions. And the first that presents itself is, ‘Why?’ Why would someone do such a thing? To answer this, you need to look at more than just the behavior. You also have to look at the heart. There are many ways you can take some behavior that is good and make it into something very evil by pursuing it with twisted motives of the heart. Think of that Pharisee praying, ‘I thank You, God, that I am not like other men…’; right behavior perverted by an evil heart. But Jesus praises this woman. So, it’s not just her behavior that is impressive. Her motives must also be commendable. With that in mind, we can answer our question, ‘Why?’ The only reason that makes sense is love. We see the love that this woman had for her God. It’s easy for someone to say that he loves God. This woman showed it. She gave her last as an offering, and she did it because of love.

That, of course, leads to the next question. Was that a wise thing to do? How would she eat? How would she care for herself? Was this really a good idea? I think that you will agree that there are some things that love will do that those without such love cannot understand. Jesus suffered hell on the cross. Why would He do such a thing? Was that wise? To be sure the woman did something very risky, but what she did was an expression of her love. The questions about her future are appropriate. But I think that it is fair to say that her love for her God was matched by her faith in her God. ‘I am convinced that You will care for me. I trust You to keep your promises.’ Without this, her act was suicidal. Jesus would not commend something like that. Her love was matched by her faith. Does that mean that she returned home to find a banquet laid out on her kitchen table? Probably not. And I don’t think that she expected that, either. Instead, she expected that her God would provide enough to live until her reason for being here was fulfilled. And I’m quite sure that’s exactly what He did.

So, we have this woman who steps out of the mists of history, and, for a very brief moment, her faith and love are noticed by Jesus. And then she returns to the mists once again. But before she returns, she is commended by Jesus. We need to consider His commendation. It’s here that things get interesting. The commendation turns on the comparison that Jesus makes. He tells His disciples that she put in more than all the others. Bear in mind what Mark tells us. ‘Many rich people put in large sums.’ But Jesus makes the comparison and the woman come out on top. Clearly, it can’t be a matter of how much money. After all, any one of those rich folk gave a far greater amount. So, what’s going on here? Why did Jesus commend this woman in contrast to the rest of the people? What’s the lesson for those disciples and for us? Jesus points to the woman because she is a living example of His teaching. Over the previous three years, Jesus taught, time and again, about being a disciple. Here, He’s stumbled upon one. It’s as if He were saying, ‘See that woman? That’s what I’ve been talking about when I’ve been telling you about following Me. You can’t follow Me by offering the leftovers of your life. You can’t follow Me if you only give Me a portion of who you are. You can only follow Me if you give Me everything. It’s complete devotion or it’s nothing.’ The woman was a great example of Jesus’ teaching on faithful discipleship. Listen to some of what He taught about this in those three years. ‘Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.’ ‘So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be My disciple.’ ‘Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.’ Do you see what Jesus was pointing out to His disciples when He commended this woman? It’s not about money. It’s about something that is more profound than money. This poor widow was – and is – a living illustration of real discipleship. Out of love and because of faith she gave everything to her God. She gave her affections, her desires, her plans and dreams. Everything. That’s what was going on when she dropped those two little coins into the offering. And Jesus says, ‘That’s what I’ve been talking about. It’s complete devotion or it’s nothing.’

In this, Jesus defines so clearly the difference between a faithful disciple and someone who’s just being religious. The religious person gives Jesus a part of his life, the religious part. That might be just a small portion of his life or it might even be most of it. But however much he gives, it’s still limited. It’s only a part. The rest of his life belongs to him to do with as he wishes. And, if you really think about it, even the religious part of his life is still his. He’s just decided to be religious with that part. The religious person is still in control of his life. But the disciple says, ‘Take my life and let it be … ever, only all for Thee.’ Quite a difference. We live in a culture that rejects such devotion. The priorities of this world are all about me. ‘This is my life, and I will decide how I will live it. I may even decide to be religious. But it’s my life, and I’m going to enjoy it however I think best.’

Let me add a special word to those of you who are entering adulthood. You are and will be making important decisions about your future. Are you aware of this message of the world? You hear it every day: in school, from friends and in lots of other places. What does it mean for you to follow Jesus? What does complete devotion – devotion like this woman’s – look like in your life? You need to be very serious about these things as you plan for the rest of your life.

Being a faithful disciple of Jesus today is very difficult. Maybe it’s always been difficult. I don’t know. But for sure, it’s difficult today. The message of our world is clear and strong and so contrary to true discipleship. And we all have listened to it and, to some extent, allowed it to affect us. I think that it’s safe to say that we all have a long way to go before we approach the devotion of that poor widow.

Now, why am I preaching on this woman? It’s not because I want to discourage you or depress you. Rather, I want to clarify some things for you and in this way encourage you. First, some clarification. I hope that it is abundantly clear that Jesus has expectations of you. ‘It’s complete devotion or it’s nothing.’ Again, because of the state of our world, this is something that you need to hear again and again. Jesus has expectations. And let’s be frank. These expectations are huge. Or to put it another way, Jesus is very demanding. That’s a side to Him that isn’t talked about much these days. But it’s true. However, you need to see that in this Jesus isn’t being any harder on you than He was on Himself. Consider the prayers at Gethsemane; the wrestling and the bloody sweat; Jesus facing the huge expectations of His Father. And at the end of it all, He went to the cross, suffering your hell, submitting to those expectations. So, when you hear Jesus making His demands of you, put them into the right context. ‘Come, follow Me.’ We do not follow rules. We follow a Person. The goal is to live as He did.

Now, I can understand someone at this point saying, ‘I can’t do that. I understand what you’re saying but I can’t do it. The example of the woman is beyond me.’ It’s important to make a distinction here. ‘Can’t’ isn’t the same as ‘Won’t’. Someone who refuses to follow Jesus in this way is excluded. He has no part in the kingdom of God. We cannot define discipleship on our own terms. Jesus defines it. ‘Won’t’ excludes. That person may be religious, but he certainly isn’t a disciple. But ‘Can’t’ is actually good. That’s simply an admission that you are not able to meet Jesus’ expectations. And the fact is, left to yourself, that’s exactly right. But you’re not left to yourself. Jesus doesn’t toss you a Book and then say, ‘See me when you’ve gotten this right.’ He’s left His Spirit here to give us what we need, all of what we need. It will be hard. There will be a battle, but we will win. He guarantees it.

But let’s fight this battle wisely. The battle is not fought on the level of behavior. Remember that there were lots of people who gave more than the widow. But that’s just looking at behavior. The real battle is fought in the heart. It boils down to a matter of love and trust. So, how is your heart doing when it comes to these things? Is there a growing love for Jesus? Deepening affections? A growing willingness to endure for His sake? A passion for the Gospel that you can feel? And how have you been doing when it comes to learning how to trust Him with those things that are most precious to you? Are you seeing a developing confidence in His promises and more of an appeal to them as you deal with life? Let me be clear. I am not saying, ‘Have you arrived?’ I am saying, ‘Can you see movement in the right direction?’ Big difference.

A changed heart, one in which love and trust are developing, comes as you interact with the Spirit. Here, I’m talking about responding to Him as He speaks to you and as He acts in your life. The Spirit speaks by the preaching of the Word. In what specific ways will you respond to what He has said this morning? Maybe the sermon has provided a thought or two that needs to become part of your prayer conversation with Him this week. Listening to a sermon and then doing nothing with it will not produce a changed heart. What will you do with what the Spirit has said this morning? The Spirit also acts. I’ve wondered whether the trauma of this woman becoming a widow, the pain of losing her husband, was part of what got her to the point of loving her God and trusting her God in the way that she did. The Spirit uses the distresses and shocks of this life to change hearts. Remember that when you are next confronted by some adversity. The Spirit even uses evil to bring about good, if you trust Him. The Spirit speaks and He acts. There will be a battle, but it is a battle that you and the Spirit fight together. And it is a battle that you will win.

And it is a battle that is worth the effort. What is at stake here? Of first importance is making Jesus look good. That’s always the most important thing. The widow accomplished that. She made her God look good. And maybe no one but Jesus and His disciples noticed it at the time, but there have been billions who have seen it since. You’ve noticed what she did this morning. You exist to make Jesus look good as you enjoy His goodness. You won’t be able to do that unless you strive to follow Him with the devotion that this woman had. But while making Him look good is hard, it really is worth it. This is the greatest joy of every disciple. And that leads to another reason that the battle is worth the effort. Devotion to Jesus is the path to real life. When you total it up, whose life will be better: the religious person or the disciple? Who will flourish? The battle is worth it.