Who the Heck is Jesus?

Mark 3:20-35

1. when our high school students attended the Young Life camp at Wildhorse Canyon 2 weeks ago I was invited to tag along as an adult guest. Wildhorse Canyon was the former home of the Baghwan & his followers, the Rajneeshees from 1981-85.

2. one evening as we – adult guests – gathered to pray for the students I heard the story of how the night before, during cabin time, a 15 year old girl asked her counselor, who the heck is Jesus? She didn’t know anything about Jesus.

3. who the heck is Jesus? This is not a new question. It’s been asked for two thousand years. And we find some people grappling with this question in our text today – the crowd, Jesus’ own family & the teachers of the law.

the crowd (3:20) – someone to meet my needs
1. Jesus is at the peak of his popularity. People are streaming to him. He & his disciples could not even find a time or place to eat.

2. the crowds want something from Jesus. Today we would call them consumers. Jesus had a product that they were interested in – healing (3:10) & deliverance (3:11). Their motives in coming to Jesus were purely selfish – what can Jesus do for me?

3. some of the crowd eventually became followers of Christ. His person & authority began to transcend their needs.

4. and some eventually became kingdom-builders. They made Jesus the center of their lives. They set out to follow, love, serve, obey, worship & sacrifice their lives for his.

5. are you one of the crowd this morning? Seeking Jesus purely for what he will do for you? We have to start somewhere, needy people that we are.

6. some of you are moving on to becoming his followers. You’re being drawn & attracted to the beauty of his person, the power of his teaching & the challenge of his mission.

7. and some of you are in the kingdom-builder lane. You’ve laid it all down for him. He’s your all in all.

8. who the heck is Jesus to you this morning?

family (21) – someone who won’t embarrass us
1. this one must have hurt. I wonder how Jesus must have felt. He’d pulled together a group of followers. Healed people. Set people free from darkness. Taught massive groups of people.

2. and his own flesh & blood thinks he’s crazy. He is out of his mind, says his mother Mary & his brothers (3:31). Ouch!

3. his family totally misunderstood his zeal, mission & passion. His teaching, healing, deliverance, calling of followers, praying, befriending outsiders & forgiving sins went over like a lead balloon to those he grew up with.

4. I can hear them now – please Jesus, ratchet it down, don’t go overboard, don’t embarrass us, why do you have to call attention to yourself?, can’t you just come back home & resume building tables & cabinets?

5. J.C. Ryle, who lived 150 years ago, writes few things show the corruption of human nature more clearly than people’s inability to understand zeal in religion. Zeal about money, science, war or business is intelligible to the world. But zeal about religion is too often reckoned foolishness, fanaticism & the sign of a weak mind.

6. if the crowds understood Jesus as someone who could meet their needs his family wanted him to be someone who wouldn’t embarrass them.

7. let’s place ourselves in the story & stand in Jesus’ sandals. Here’s the question – if my family says I’m nuts, will I still follow Jesus? Are you willing to become an embarrassment to your family for the sake of Jesus?

8. to our junior & senior high students. Some of you went to Wildhorse Canyon. Others of you went to Youth Quake. Fresh commitments were made. And now the beginning of another school year lies just around the corner. If your classmates & friends tell you that you are crazy for following Jesus, make fun of you, put you down, are you still going to follow him?

9. I hope & pray that you will. That’s why you need each other. That’s why you need to commit yourselves to our youth ministry. That’s why you need to worship, share, study Scripture & pray together. That’s why you need to have crazy fun together. It’s not easy being standing up for your faith BUT its worth it!

teachers of the law (3:22-30) – someone who is evil
1. this must have hurt too. The religious scholars of Jesus’ day said he was in league with the prince of demons, that he had an evil spirit.

2. this was a hit below the belt. They didn’t know what to do with Jesus. And so they blamed his life on demons.

3. Jesus shuts them up in 30 seconds – read 3:23-27.

4. here’s the irony in the story. The religious scholars claim that Jesus has an unclean spirit. And the unclean spirits themselves have already made 2 public confessions about Jesus so far in Mark’s gospel:
§ 1:24 = Jesus is man & God: what do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!
§ 3:11 = Jesus is Divine: You are the Son of God

5. Jesus is not someone who has an evil spirit. He is God in the flesh, a human body. He is the Son of God! Up to this point in Mark’s story the evil spirits are the only ones who know who the heck Jesus is!

6. there are people in our world who appear to have an unclean spirit. Some of them are religious leaders. Like the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Encyclopedia Britannica):

7. he was an Indian spiritual leader who preached an eclectic doctrine of Eastern mysticism, individual devotion, and sexual freedom while amassing vast personal wealth. He acquired the nickname Rajneesh and took the honorific Bhagwan (Hindi: “god”). In 1981 Rajneesh's cult purchased a dilapidated ranch in Oregon, which became the site of Rajneeshpuram, a community of several thousand orange-robed disciples. Rajneesh was widely criticized by outsiders for his private security force and his flamboyant display of wealth. By 1985 many of his most trusted aides had abandoned the movement, which was under investigation for multiple felonies including arson, attempted murder, drug smuggling, and vote fraud in the nearby town of Antelope. In 1985 Rajneesh pleaded guilty to immigration fraud and was deported from the United States. He was refused entry by 21 countries before returning to India, where his ashram soon grew to 15,000 members. In later years he took the Buddhist title Osho and altered his teaching on unrestricted sexual activity because of his growing concern over AIDS.

8. Rajneeshpuram is now Wildhorse Canyon, a Christian camp for high school students owned & operated by Young Life. A multi-millionaire by the name of Dennis Washington brought the property for $2.6 million & then turned it over to Young Life.

9. Washington gave another $2.5 million to convert an 88,000 square ft building the Rajneeshees used to gather for prayer & meditation into a sports center – climbing wall, 4 basketball courts, volleyball, fitness room, rock climbing wall & skate park.

10. recently he gave another $1.5 million to finish construction on the Club House, a state-of-the-art indoor amphitheatre where the students gather for talks, music & drama.

11. get this, Washington is not a follower of Jesus Christ. But through him & the Bhagwan God has given Young Life one of the most amazing youth camps in the world.

12. the building where the Rajneeshees used to interview new followers, issue their signature orange robes & ask people to sign over their money & assets to the Bhagwan is now a snack shop & gift store for the kids! The hotel they built for visitors is now a student dorm for high school kids. The building that housed Ma Anand Sheela, who ran the commune for the Bhagwan, and her aids is where guests stay, like me.

13. Wildhorse Canyon is one of the most amazing stories I’ve ever heard – how God has turned evil around for good, for the gospel!

last thoughts
1. all the sins & blasphemies of men will be forgiven them (3:29). This is the heart of Christ’s life & teaching – free pardon & full forgiveness in Christ.

2. blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven (3:29). Blasphemy is defiant hostility toward God. A conscious & deliberate rejection of the saving power & grace of God that is released upon us through Jesus. If you say “no” to God, God is going to say “no” to you. He will not force anyone into belief.

3. whoever does God’s will is my brother & sister & mother (3:35). Jesus turns talk about his physical family into talk about his spiritual family. Obedience transcends blood. God’s family outdistances our earthly families once we make a commitment to Christ.

4. who the heck is Jesus?
§ He’s eternal God manifested in a human being called Jesus of Nazareth
§ the Son of God
§ the teacher, healer, deliverer, pray-er, call-er, the personification of God’s present & coming kingdom

5. he’s more than just Someone to meet your needs
he’s not out of his mind
he doesn’t have an evil spirit
he calls people to obey the will of God

The Gospel of Mark: On the Road With Jesus (11)

1. getting caught in a pushing-shoving crowd of people can be scary. A few summers ago we took a family vacation to Europe. We flew into the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Our plan was to catch the Metro into Paris to our motel located a few blocks from the Louvre.

Only we discovered that the Metro was on strike. Just a few trains were running. When the next train arrived there was a mad dash for the open doors to an already full train.

Somehow the 4 of us with our backpacks just barely made it on the train in this sea of pushing, shoving, bumping & squeezing humanity. It was frightening. A rough beginning to a wonderful vacation.

crowding (7-12) – chaos & busyness
1. Jesus knew crowds – he is at the peak of his popularity. Large crowds of people followed him everywhere – Tyre & Sidon are 100 miles to the north of Jerusalem. That would be like people walking from Portland to Eugene to see Jesus.

2. this swarm of people are pushing forward to touch Jesus. He’s healing people. Evil spirits are manifesting themselves & confessing that Jesus is the Son of God. This is more like a mob scene than a friendly lake-side crowd.

3. what does Jesus do in response the crowds? He begins to multiply himself through other people. He flies into a leadership development mode. He calls the 12 disciples & gives them a job to do.

praying (13 & Luke 6:12) – God
1. Luke gives us the complete picture – Jesus spent the night praying before he called the 12 disciples. Of all the gospels, Luke gives us the most complete picture of Jesus’ prayer life:
§ 3:21 – baptism
§ 5:16 – pattern of seeking lonely places to pray
§ 6:12 – before choosing disciples
§ 9:18 – in private
§ 9:28 – Peter James John
§ 11:1 – praying
§ 22:32 – for Peter
§ 22:41 – Gethsemane
§ 23:34 – forgiveness on cross
§ 23:46 – as he died

2. praying has to do with God. Jesus lived his life in prayer. There is no more human picture of Jesus than Jesus at prayer. To be like Jesus is to pray to live!

3. little personal confession time – for the past several months I have felt called of God to increase the amount of time & effort I spend praying for our church – for you. This has turned out to be harder than I ever dreamed it would.

4. sometimes the hardest thing to do is to shut down my computer, turn off my cell phone, put away my weekly appointment schedule, shove aside my to-do list & pray. The chaos & busyness of the crowds in my life call with a LOUD voice. They often drown out the still small voice of the Spirit.

5. are you praying? Am I praying? Perhaps that should be one of the 1st questions we ask each other in this community of faith!

12-ing (14, 16-19) – community
1. a night of prayer led Jesus to appoint 12 men to be his disciples/apostles. The number 12 is no accident. These 12 will form the new people of God who will take the place of the 12 tribes of Israel.

2. 12-ing speaks of community. The DNA of our universe is shot through with community, starting with God himself:
§ God is a community of 3 persons – Father Son Spirit – who have lived together in perfect unity & harmony of all eternity in a mysterious relationship
§ God formed the people of Israel to be the Old Testament community though which he would reveal himself & send the Messiah
§ Now we see the new community of the Kingdom that is being formed via these 12 disciples – leads to the church of which we are a part today

3. who are these 12? Who did Jesus choose as the 1st community of Christ-followers?
§ Simon Peter – fisherman, big talker-small doer in the gospels, tried to talk Jesus out of going to the cross & was rebuked as Satan, denied him 3xs – lied 3xs, went back to fishing, restored in John 21, rebuked by Paul in Galatians for his racism

Jesus gives Simon a new name – Cephas/Peter – which means ‘rock.’ Peter is about as ‘un-rocky’ of a guy as you can find in the gospels. It takes him a long time to develop & mature. I guess there’s hope for the rest of us!

§ James & John – fishermen, brothers, secretly asked Jesus to give them the best seats in the kingdom, wanted to call down fire on the Samaritans, rebuked an unknown healer
§ Andrew – fisherman, Simon Peter’s brother
§ Philip –
§ Bartholomew – the Nathanial of John 1
§ Matthew – this is Levi the tax collector we met last week, trader to his own people
§ Thomas – doubting
§ James - ??
§ Thaddaeus - ??
§ Simon the zealot - member of conservative Jewish political party, defeat Roman domination, patriotic = opposite to Matthew the tax collector
§ Judas – stole money from the disciples bank account & betrayed Jesus with a kiss

4. are these the kind of people you would choose to start a church with? Or a new company? Or put on the school board? Invite to join your small group? These are not men of education, wealth, rank or refinement. They are very young, most likely in their 20s, a decade or so short of full adulthood.

5. the beauty & wonder & frustration & craziness of the church is found in these 12 men. What brings us all together is Christ. For some of us the only thing we have in common is Christ.

6. and he calls us to love serve follow obey him together – in community. As we learn to love accept & forgive each other something called sanctification happens – the Spirit of God sands off our rough edges & conforms us into the image & likeness of Christ.

7. I kid you not. There are days where I look at all of us with all of our differences – personalities, background, education, profession, economic status, political convictions, tastes, values & personal agendas for what the church should be about – and I say it’s a miracle the church hasn’t imploded. The fact we continue to exist year after year is one of the greatest proofs I know for the existence of the living Christ!

8. we need each other, we really, really do….

with-ing (14) – intimacy
1. prayer led to 12-ing which leads to with-ing. He appointed twelve that they might be with him. Being with always precedes doing for.

2. in an old book James Stewart, who taught New Testament at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, writes this about with-ing –

It was his purpose to train these men by
fellowship with himself. Living with him every day,
watching him in all kinds of situations, listening to his private talk, being admitted to his dreams & aspirations & hopes, they would end by sharing his very spirit, would gradually come to see things with his eyes & understand with his wonderfully understanding heart & be fired with his own authentic fire. Intimacy with Jesus is the best of all teachers.

3. sounds nice, only we can’t be with him like the disciples could. They lived in his physical, literal presence. Ours is to live with his spiritual, actual presence. What they experienced in a body we experience in the realm of the Spirit, Prayer, Word & Community.

Spirit
1. Jesus lived on this earth. Then he died for our sins. He arose from the dead. He returned to his Father’s side in heaven. And he poured out his Spirit to take his place on earth (Acts 2).

2. everything we experience of Jesus comes by his Spirit. His Spirit takes us beyond the realm of our 5 senses to the dimension of the unseen world. The Holy Spirit brokers Jesus to us today.

3. we are, must be, people of the Spirit if we are going to follow Jesus.

Prayer
1. the 12 listened to Jesus talk & they talked to Jesus. The took time to think about his words & deeds. This is prayer.

2. prayer is communion. Spending time with Jesus, enjoying his presence, thinking about him, delighting in him, straining to connect to him, spirit to Spirit.

3. prayer is thanksgiving. Expressing our thanks to Jesus for ….. you name it. Saturdays are a prayer day for me where all I do is thank Jesus. Its my thanksgiving. No asking, no pleading, no knocking on heaven’s door. Simply thank-you Jesus for….

4. prayer is intercession. Praying for others. This week my prayers have been filled with Tim Hartle (burn), Ginny Hartle (China), Ed Grautski (surgery), Emily Brooks (baby), church staff, new building….

5. prayer is petition. I’ve been talking to Jesus about my own needs. The power of God’s Spirit to lead, guide, strengthen me. Wisdom, always always wisdom. Guarding my own heart from an unforgiving spirit, hardness, pride, lust.

6. in the realm of the Spirit we can spend time with Jesus in prayer – communion, thanksgiving, intercession, petition.

Word
1. the bible is the written Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit. There is no other book like this one on the face of the earth.

2. the same Spirit who inspired it to be written is the same Spirit who enlightens our minds to understand it & moves our wills to obey it.

3. we meet Jesus in this book. He’s the central character. The plot revolves around him. He speaks to us in this book. He reveals himself to us in this book. He shows us our true selves in this book. He shows us the world in this book. He reveals to us a new way of living in this book.

4. Jesus, the Living Word of God, reveals himself to us in the written Word of God.

Community
1. another way to spend time with Jesus is to spend time with his church. For the church is the body of Christ. The church is the visible manifestation of Christ to the world today. Jesus is found in community. We find Jesus in each other as we love follow obey & serve him.

2. all of the sin, ugliness, weakness, failure of the church is our doing or Satan’s. But the beauty, glory, strength, love, transformation, healing, deliverance is of Jesus.

3. I saw Jesus in some of you this week. When 1 of you took aside someone who was discouraged & spoke encouragement & hope into their life – I saw Jesus.

When 1 of you spoke a word of encouragement into my life in a moment of pressured, strategic leadership – I saw Jesus.

When one of you wrote me an email telling me how God has enabled you to give generously & sacrificially to Rising from the Ashes. Even while you have 2 large financial demands upon your income – I saw the giving Spirit of Jesus.

When one of you forgave someone who had deeply hurt & angered you – I saw Jesus.

When I stood at Tim Hartle’s bedside in the Emanuel Hospital burn unit, his face blistered with burns, his arms hands stomach & chest wrapped in gauze like a mummy. When I heard him say that his faith in God has grown stronger since he caught on fire – I saw Jesus.

4. when end up spending time with Jesus as we spend time with each other in the community/church he birthed through the Spirit.

sending (14) – ministry
1. I’m saving this for later…..

The Gospel of Mark: On the Road With Jesus (10)

"It's a New Day in an Old World"
Mark 2:1-3:6

1. every year I go home to Boise to see my family & relatives. Most of the time I drive; occasionally I fly.

2. If I fly on a clear day I enjoy a breath-taking view of Mt Hood, the Columbia River Gorge & the vast desert plain of central & eastern Oregon. Towns I drive through & stop for gas are specks on the ground. I see the patchwork quilt of farms in the Treasure Valley. I gain a birds-eye view of the Caldwell-Nampa-Meridian-Boise sprawl as these 4 communities grow closer & closer together.

3. if I drive I see the height, width & terrain of the Columbia River Gorge, the fast rushing blue-green water of that monster of a river, the stunning beauty of Multnomah Falls, colorful wind surfers, I feel the heat of a hot summer day & the wind blowing across the desert plain, I see mounds of rock storing nerve gas at the Umatilla Army Depot, road kill, circling hawks…

4. driving is the ‘deep’ view; flying is the ‘wide’ view. As I preach through Mark we will both drive & fly, go deep & wide. Up to this point I’ve mostly been driving, going deep.

5. today we’re going to fly & go wide over a ‘chunk’ of scripture. Mark 2:1-3:6 contains 5 stories of controversy between Jesus & the Pharisees, the religious police of his day:
… 2:1-12: Jesus’ authority to forgive sins (6/25)
… 13-17: his relationship with sinners
… 18-22: his disciple’s lack of fasting
… 2:23-28: issues of Sabbath observance
… 3:1-6: Sabbath observance

6. in these 5 stories Jesus butts heads with the Pharisees – good people, well-intentioned crusaders for holiness, the guardians of the faith. In their zeal to please God they added their own interpretations of the Law to the Law & made them Law.

7. Jesus appears on the scene. He doesn’t fit into their system. He cuts across the grain of their self-imposed, but what they believed was God-imposed, law-keeping. And all hell breaks loose.

2:13-17: Jesus’ relationship to sinners
1. we meet up with Levi the tax collector. Tax collectors were bad guys. Under the guise of the Roman government they gouged their own Jewish people to line their pockets with money.

2. Jesus calls Levi to follow him. And Levi follows. When Jesus called, he dropped everything – instant, unquestioning obedience. (This is the Levi who is also called Matthew who later writes the gospel of Matthew.)

3. Levi the tax collector sinner was closer to God in following Jesus than the Pharisees were in their righteous religious zeal.

4. what do you do when Jesus calls? When he asks for your life? When he asks you to follow him?

5. Levi throws a dinner party for Jesus. He invites his friends. He wants them to meet Jesus. More tax collectors & “sinners.” People who, in the eyes of the Pharisees, were the outcasts of society.

6. they ask Jesus’ disciples why he is eating with the wrong crowd? He overhears them & answers – it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

7. the Pharisees are the so-called healthy & righteous – they don’t view themselves as needy. Jesus is right where he needs to be, with the needy, the sick, the sinners.

8. it’s a startling story.

2:18-22: the issue of fasting
1. fasting was/is part of Jewish piety. Problem – Jesus isn’t teaching his disciples to follow the Law & fast. Why not? Jesus answers with 3 little parables.

2. wedding parable – the wedding guests don’t fast while the bridegroom is still present. This is a time for joyful celebration. Fasting will come later, after the wedding. Jesus is the bridegroom. His presence means joy.

3. cloth – if you have a hole in the knee of your jeans you don’t patch it with a piece of unwashed, un-shrunk cloth. If you do, the new cloth will shrink & create a bigger problem.

4. wine – if you have new wine you don’t pour it into an old wineskin that has already been stretched out. The new wine will expand & ferment & burst the wine skin.

5. what’s the point? We have to go back to 1:15 – the time has come, the kingdom of God is near. Repent & believe the good news. Jesus is the bridegroom bringing in a new season of joy. The un-shrunk cloth is the in-breaking kingdom of God – the old garment is the old covenant. The new wine is the in-breaking kingdom of God – the old wineskin is the old covenant.

6. the “new” that Jesus brings is not compatible with the “old.” Jesus is not going to reform the old way of law-keeping – he’s going to transform it with grace.

2:23-3:5: Sabbath observance
1. 2 stories about Jesus violating the Pharisees’ legalistic understanding of what it meant to keep the Sabbath.

2. in the 1st, his disciples pick grain to eat on the Sabbath. This was not breaking the Mosaic Law BUT it was breaking the law as the Pharisees interpreted it = harvesting on the Sabbath.

3. Jesus sets them straight – 1st, the Sabbath is for man’s well-being. Sabbath is to serve man – man is not to serve the Sabbath. 2nd, he is Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus transcends the Sabbath, is greater than the Sabbath.

4. in the 2nd, the Pharisees wanted to trap Jesus. If he healed on the Sabbath that would break the Sabbath to their mind.

5. he heals the man – compassion triumphs over legalism. While the man’s hand was shriveled, the Pharisees’ hearts & understanding were shriveled. They missed the point entirely!

6. the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus (3:6). 5 stories – 5 incidents of controversy:
… can Jesus forgive sin?
… is Jesus befriending the wrong people?
… is Jesus wrong on fasting?
… is Jesus breaking the Sabbath?

7. we see here hints of Jesus’ future. The bridegroom IS going to be taken away. He IS going to be killed. The shadow of the cross is already falling across the beginning chapters of Mark’s gospel story.

I want to close with 3 comments
1st to be a follower of Jesus Christ is to follow him as Lord
1. following Jesus – discipleship – is about what Jesus wants to do in our lives NOT what we want Jesus to do for our lives. His agenda trumps ours. He invites us to follow him – he does not ask to follow us. He calls us to live in step with him in his cross & resurrection.

2. I’m struck & laid low by Levi’s immediate & unreserved commitment to Christ.

3. it all comes down to Lordship – who is Lord – Master – Sovereign of your life? You or Jesus?

2nd to be a follower of Jesus is to befriend sinners (those who have not confessed faith in Christ)
1. 1981 Joe Aldrich wrote a book called Lifestyle Evangelism. Haddon Robinson wrote these words in the Foreword:

...if Jesus appeared on earth today as He did 2000 years ago, many churches would not elect Him to their official boards. He would have disqualified Himself because He ran with the wrong crowd. The historian Luke comments that tax collectors and sinners – folks shunned by religious types because they had made a mess of life – kept seeking Him out to hear what He had to say. When they came to Him, Jesus gave them a hearty welcome and often enjoyed dinner with them. Socializing with people like that ruined His testimony. The Pharisees and Bible teachers who observed Him wrote off His association with that element of society as a secret sympathy with sin. Yet the fact remains Jesus went out of His way to cultivate those relationships, and if we are serious about following Him, we must do the same thing...

2. in 1974 a world conference on mission & evangelism was convened in Lausanne, Switzerland. Participants made a personal commitment to the 15 article Lausanne Covenant. Article 6 on The Church and Evangelism reads like this –
we affirm that Christ sends his redeemed people into the world as the Father sent him, and that this calls for a similar deep and costly penetration of the world. We need to break out of our ecclesiastical ghettos and permeate non-Christian society. In the church’s mission of sacrificial service evangelism is primary. The church is at the very center of God’s cosmic purpose and is his appointed means of spreading the Gospel.

3. spending time with the Levi-types of our world is a huge part of what it means to be like Jesus. When’s the last time you befriended a Levi on his/her turf, entered their world, listened to their concerns, and loved them just as they are?

4. I believe with all my heart that if Christ showed up in Canby a large part of the church would be scandalized by where he would go, who he would spend time with & the individuals he would choose to pour his life into.

3rd to be a follower of Jesus is to be on the lookout for new wineskins.
1. the new wine of the in-breaking kingdom of God is always being poured out upon the church. Martin Luther’s phrase during the Reformation was ecclesia simper reformanda – the church always being reformed. Luther called the church to constantly reform itself in order to remain faithful to the mission of Jesus in changing cultures.
2. to reach people outside the church in his day Luther took popular bar tunes & put the words of hymns to them.

3. the functions of the church never change – worship, prayer, teaching, community, mission/outreach. The forms those functions take change over & over again.

4. what new wine might God be wanting to pour into our church (1st church of Canby) to reach our changing culture?
… Postmodern & pluralistic
… Church marginalized in culture
… Does not appear to be any noticeable difference in the lifestyles of those in the church from those outside – equal divorce rates, sex outside of marriage, addictive behaviors
… Church attendance in the US is at an all-time low & continues to slip

Last Words
1. is Jesus Lord of your life? Are you truly & whole-heartedly following him?

2. does your lifestyle speak of isolating yourself from the world OR penetrating it for the cause of Christ & those he loves? Do you have a Levi or 2 or 3 in your life?

3. do you desire the new wine of the kingdom of God to be poured out upon our church & community?

The Gospel of Mark: On the Road With Jesus (9)

Mark’s Story: Streaker
(Mark 14:51-52)

1. today I want to continue in our series in Mark by stepping back from the text & telling you Mark’s story. He’s a little known figure in the New Testament. But his life & experience can be an encouragement to us all.

2. I start Mark’s story with one of my own. I arrived here as the lead pastor in July of 1985, fresh out of Fuller Seminary, 29 years old & younger than all of the church leadership.

3. I arrived to a church in conflict. People had left. Many of those who stayed were deeply hurt. And I was thrown into the midst of them.

4. before long I started making changes. This created more conflict. The conflict was crystallized in 3 older church leaders, 2 of whom were elders & 1 who had been on the pastoral staff at the church. All 3 had served here for years.

5. we couldn’t work things out. Harsh words were spoken. I went into a meeting with 1 of these elders to do some conflict resolution with about 25 people, thinking this elder was coming to be my support. In the middle of this meeting he turned against me & told everyone that the Holy Spirit had left our church because of the changes I was making. Both of the elders left the church.

6. at this same time I remember a Sunday morning where the 3rd man yelled at me at the top of his lungs in the old foyer, 5 inches from my face, before 10-15 people & stormed out of the church. He wouldn’t talk to me for months & months & months.
7. welcome to church. They didn’t prepare me for this in seminary.

8. I was hurt & my youthful idealism was quickly being flushed down the toilet. In alone moments of prayer, journaling & reflection this is what I always came back to & this is what kept me from becoming bitter & quitting – I loved God, I loved the church, I loved these people (even the ones I was conflicted with) & I loved the Scriptures. I felt like that was all I needed. I still feel this way today.

9. this is where Mark’s story comes in.

Mark’s story
streaker (Mark 14:51-52)
1. many biblical scholars believe that Mark wrote himself into his gospel at 14:51-52 – the 1st known streaker of the New Testament! This is an odd piece of reporting, found only here, which has led scholars to believe Mark is speaking of himself.

his mother was a prominent member of the early church (Acts 12:12)
1. Peter has been arrested & is in jail. The church was earnestly praying to God for him (12:5). Where does this prayer meeting take place? At the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark (12:12).

2. Mary’s house seems to have been a well-known meeting place in Jerusalem for the 1st Christians. When God’s angels released Peter from praying, Mary’s house is the 1st place Peter went to find the church

he was a cousin of Barnabas (Colossians 4:10)
1. Barnabas was one of the top 5 leaders of the early church. His name means Son of Encouragement & that he was:
§ he sold property & gave the money to the church to help support the needy
§ he was the top leader in what is undoubtedly one of the strongest & healthiest churches in the New Testament – the church in Antioch
§ he discipled, defended & sponsored the Apostle Paul in his emerging years as a church leader

he was taken in by Barnabas & Saul/Paul (Acts 12:25)
1. the church at Antioch took up an offering to help the famine-stricken church in Jerusalem. Barnabas & Saul were sent to deliver the money.

2. after completing their mission they returned to Antioch & took Mark along with them.

he joined Barnabas & Saul on their 1st missionary journey (Acts 13:5) but soon returned to Jerusalem (13:13)
1. the Holy Spirit called Barnabas & Saul to go preach the gospel in Asia Minor. The church had Antioch released & commissioned them.

2. Mark joined them as their helper but soon into the journey he left & went back to Jerusalem.

he was the cause of Barnabas & Paul having a falling out (Acts 15:37-39)
1. time for missionary journey #2. Barnabas wants to take Mark again. Paul says “no, he deserted us before.” They argue. They have a sharp disagreement. They part company. Barnabas took Mark & sailed for Cyprus. That’s the last we hear of them in the book of Acts.
2. 2 of the greatest leaders in the New Testament church argued & separated. Leadership unity was broken. Both loved God, both loved his church, both were committed to serving his church. But Mark gets in the way & this dynamic duo is broken up.

3. but thank God for Barnabas. He saw something in his cousin that Paul didn’t. Barnabas put his Son of Encouragement stuff to work in the life of Mark.

4. in those early days of conflict when I was trying to keep my head above water God sent some Barnabas’ into my life. I wouldn’t be here without them.
§ Clyde Walker who began to teach me about conflict resolution
§ Ralph Shellrude, DS at the time, who believed in me, prayed for me & spoke truth into my life in his gentle but straightforward way
§ Norm Beck, elder, fierce lover of this church, who simply loved me & tended to some of my wounds

eventually Paul & Mark reconcile & serve together (Colossians 4:10; Philemon 24; 2 Timothy 4:11)
1. now we fast forward 10 to 15 years & here’s what we find. Col 4:10 – when Paul writes to the Colossians Mark is with him. He puts in a good word for Mark. Philemon 24 – when Paul writes to Philemon Mark is with him.

2. Mark not Barnabas. Mark who Paul felt deserted him. Mark who Paul refused to work with again. Mark who caused a huge rift to develop between Paul & the man who sponsored him into leadership in the early church. It’s Mark that we find at Paul’s side 10 to 15 years later.

3. the clincher comes in 2 Timothy 4:11. Paul is at the end of his life. He is an old man who carries many battle scars from ministry. He’s in prison in Rome. Many of his associates have deserted him. Some have done him great harm. At his first defense in Rome for his Christian faith he stood alone – no one came to stand with him. He forgave them all. And he found his strength in the Lord alone.

4. and now he writes Timothy – only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. This is the essence of the Christian gospel we believe & proclaim – at the heart of it we discover love, acceptance & forgiveness “at play” in the lives of 2 people who had deeply hurt each other.

5. as far as the New Testament this closes the chapter on both Paul & Mark. And what a beautiful picture it is. One of the most endearing in all of the New Testament to my battle-worn hands & heart.

Wrap-up
1. back to my story. Years went by. I carried a rip in my heart for these 3 men & our failed relationship. By God’s grace all 3 relationships were restored. I took the lead in one, the lead came to me in another & the 3rd came by the clear lead & orchestration of the Holy Spirit.

2. 2 of these men are now dead. I helped bury them with no unfinished business between us. The 3rd has moved away but we carry a deep & abiding love for one another.

3. everyone in leadership faces conflict. It goes with the territory. The larger your responsibility, the greater number of people you lead, the more visible your leadership is, the higher the probability that you will face conflict & the more complex that conflict will often become.

4. 1 of my favorite books of the past year is by Chris Seay – Faith of My Fathers: conversations with 3 generations of pastors about church, ministry & culture. The book is an extended conversation between 3 generations of southern Baptist pastors – grandfather, son, grandsons, all in pastoral ministry. Part of the book is on conflict.

5. chris seay, grandson, started University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas 10 years ago with a musician by the name of David Crowder of the David Crowder Band. He’s now pastor of Ecclesia in Houston. An emerging church of the younger generation that has joined a downtown dying congregation of senior citizens in hopes of uniting the generations, serving the inner city & birthing new life in the heart of darkness.

6. chris seay writes of his 10 year experience at University Baptist Church – I look back on many experiences & realize I failed at being a peacemaker, at building bridges, at making friends, and at being a blessing to others. I deeply regret it. I recently returned to UBC in Waco to celebrate the church’s 10th anniversary. Looking back at those who came to faith in that place and struggled through the challenging questions of what it means to walk in the way of Christ gave me a sense of rare satisfaction. If I was smart, I would save all the emails & notes that remind me that hours of sermon preparation, hospital visits, counseling, writing, and oversight is worth all the trouble that accompanies those things. For every good memory, there were some bad ones at their heels – stalkers, haters, death, broken relationships, firing employees, being betrayed by people you love. The truth is those challenges sometimes jaded me and other times they refined my character. But I never succeeded in escaping them – they changed me.

7. I don’t ever want you to pick up & read the book of Mark without being reminded of the following – how his broken relationship with Paul was restored.

8. pray for me & the broken relationships in my life that I’m trusting God to heal – as I will pray for you & your broken relationships to heal --- marriage, family, church, friends, work associates, community members

9. get Mark & bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.

Temporarily Out of Order

Or rather...out of state.

The Greenleafs are on vacation (Will is the culprit behind these sermon posts... TB sends them to him, he posts them here, and has been keeping a not-so-low profile about the whole thing until now).

The usual sermon notes WILL be posted when WILL returns to the north end of the WILLamette Valley.

At this moment Wild Will is sitting on a bunk in a KOA Kamper Kabin in
Cody, Wyoming, and as proof of our journey here are some pics:

Greenleaf, Idaho

(Click to Enlarge)

Old Faithful

So, enough with the shameless self-promotion on a church blog. I figure this might be a good test to see if folks are reading this blog...